Benji scoffed at the words best Vodka, thinking it had to be some kind of oxymoron. He had to agree with a line he’d once heard on television, “clear liquors are for rich women on diets.” He would concede that offering drinks to these buses of misfits seemed like a nice gesture. He preferred almost anything in the whiskey family, a robust bourbon being his first choice. He suspected for a few seconds that this offer of alcohol could be a trick, getting all these supernaturals piss drunk and then they’d all be ripe for the picking, but that was highly unlikely. Scientists wouldn’t spend a bunch of money on alcohol for a bunch of people they didn’t even see as human and it would be simpler and cheaper to subdue them with some sort of gas to knock them out either in the buses or at whatever compound they were headed towards. Scientist were smarter than that, it really couldn’t be a trick unless he was seriously overestimating them or missing something completely. Benji decided that he had ninety percent accepted that this was legitimately not a part of the scientists, but not wholly convinced this group was didn’t have some sort of nefarious agenda of its own, or at least an agenda that conflicted with his own beliefs. His suspicions parted for a moment of actual joy as he saw the buses approaching a forest. He could smell natural scents; trees, prey, fresh air, and that was just to name the basics. He had a ridiculously strong urge to stick his head out the window and howl at the half moon shining in the sky. He controlled that urge by telling the wolf within that he’d go for a run soon, and then he’d have chance to howl and to be truly free. He noticed a firework shot off into the sky that said ‘ROAD’ and he wondered what it was for. --------------------------- Charlie sat nervously at desk looking over the reports on his research that he was supposed to present to his supervisor, Dr. Harris, in less than fifteen minutes. He felt sick, he hadn’t eaten all day, he couldn’t eat and all he could think as he read through his report [i]was how many more people will die if turn in these results?[/i] It had only been a couple days since he’d found out the fairy child had died during an extraction. It had completely shattered the fragile illusion he’d built for himself, he couldn’t look at his work objectively, and he couldn’t read the subjects ID numbers and not see real faces of real people. That child, 72521, who he’d nicknamed Daisy as she’d been there so long she couldn’t remember her name. Her age had been listed as ten and she had reminded him of a kid he used to babysit for as a teenager. His eyes kept blurring as he tried to read over his research. He hadn’t slept last night. [i] Results Summery Military grade leather body armor made from the hides of supernaturals and treated with a diluted mixture of vampire blood, pulverized troll and unicorn horn, and ghoul secretions will make a light weight armor able to withstand explosives and most armor piercing rounds. Hides of dragons and golems produce the highest quality armor while troll, minotaur, and werewolf produce a close, but slightly inferior armor. Results are conclusive that this armor is of superior protection to all others tested. Testing on more hides is requested when they are made available. Sleep replacement, a mixture of vampire blood, fairy dust and cells from imp wing. Subjects deprived of sleep for 24 hours were able, on average, to stay both awake and alert for 48hours after ingestion, significantly longer than those in the control group. Night Vision, the aqueous humor of a vampire as an added active ingredient to eye drops allows most subjects high visibility in complete darkness for up to 12 hours. Some side effects have been redness, dry eyes and temporary blindness. More experimentation needed for safety. Perhaps a small amount of mermaid plasma would improve results. Underwater breathing, kelpie excretions, stem cells of a mermaid and blood and lung tissue of a Nereid has allowed all rodent and chimpanzee test subjects to survive submerged in both fresh and salt water for approximately 4 hours. Human tests are requested for more accurate data.[/i] Charlie threw the report onto his desk and wiped his clammy palms onto his jeans. He’d finished most of the work before he’d really understood what he was doing. He thought these were mostly monsters, not people but a part of him had always known this was wrong. He’d spent the rest of his deadline typing and editing the report wondering if it would make him a monster if he turned it in. He took a deep breath and checked his watch, three minutes to make his decision. “How many times have I told you, no hat’s in the office?” Dr. Harris, his supervisor, asked as he pulled the beanie off Charlie’s head exposing the disheveled hair that lay beneath it. “You got a report for me kid?” He asked tossing the beanie into Charlie’s lap. “I…uh, no sir I didn’t finish it yet. I had a lot of school work and, I guess I’ve been slacking here a bit, sorry.” He said nervously. “Very funny Kid, is that the report there on your desk?” Dr. Harris asked as he scooped up the papers and looked them over. “Very funny Kid, you’re the last one here I’d call a slacker.” He mused looking over the reports and nodding in approval of the work. “Yeah, you got me.” Charlie said quietly, he’d gone very pale and a part of him wanted to rip that report out of the hands of his supervisor. As much as he hated the thought of causing such harm the thought of losing this job terrified him. This was what he had worked towards for so long, and a wrong move here could get him blacklisted from other labs; this place had influence all over the country. “Great work, Charlie, I’ll take this up my bosses. You keep this up and you’re gonna have a bright future here.” [i]Great[/i], he thought. “Thanks, sir.” “You look like shit though, maybe you should take the rest of the day off, maybe get some actual sleep instead of drinking all that damn Red Bull. You have a heart attack and I’m out one of best employees.” Dr. Harris said with a friendly smile. Charlie perked up at the suggestion of taking the rest of the day off. “Thanks sir, that’d be great.” He said, his boss nodded and Charlie grabbed his hat and began heading out. “And don't let me see that hat on your head until you’ve left my building.” Dr. Harris shouted, mostly joking. The guy really was a good boss and Charlie liked the guy but he hated the thought of coming back in tomorrow.