Blessed by Night

Enough of it to recognize when something smelled fishy.

And this story about a being by the lake was just that.

"Trap… Shut the door now." he ordered.

At his behest, the three strongest looking abominations closed the doors and left the rest of the army outside.

Shuffling could be heard within the darkness as the abomination king started to look for something among the piles of garbage.

His thick, mottled green hands finally landed on something that didn\'t fit in with the surroundings.

A futuristic looking silver rectangle, with a keypad and a blue reflective lens.

The abomination king punched in a set of numbers and waited for what felt like a long time.

Eventually, a trill sound rang out and a hologram popped up.

Standing nonchalantly with his hands clasped behind his back was a man who already seemed tired of this conversation that hasn\'t even started yet.

He was a man in about his mid-forties, with blonde hair slicked back with gel, and cold blue eyes that sat behind silver glasses.

He wore a brilliant white lab coat over a black turtleneck and slacks with a plastic badge hanging from his left lapel.

It was a government issued I.D. with the name Dr. Michaels printed underneath his identification photo.

"What do you want, subject 443?"

A deep growl escaped the darkness.

"Yes, yes, what was it? Vlar? What do you want? Advancements wait for no man or monster."

Ignoring the doctor\'s usual unfriendly attitude, the abomination passed along the report that had just been dropped in his own lap.

For the first time, Dr. Michaels lost his constant condescending demeanor as he listened to every report intently.

At the end, a vein bulged in his head and he pushed up his glasses aggressively.

"I knew I should have had you mongrels chipped... how could you not tell me your numbers were getting picked off over the last few weeks?!"

"Did not know... did not care... all that mattered is pursuit of my own food."

"Useless!!"

The doctor ran his hands through his slicked back hair and put on the usual expression he made whenever he was thinking.

"The subject who gave you the report... bring him to me, right now."

In the darkness, the one known as Vlar made a gesture with his hand and had the scout from earlier brought back inside.

When he saw a holographic man in the palm of the king himself, he was confused for a moment, but ultimately did not ask any questions.

He knew better than that.

"This whelp has questions for you... answer them."

"Whelp?!"

The scout ignored the roaring of the Doctor and brought himself forward for questioning.

"What does the meatbag want?"

A vein bulged in the forehead of the Doctor as he began to regret the fact that it was not possible to stick suppressant devices within the necks of all of his test subjects.

It simply wasn\'t possible from afar like this, especially when they bred like rabbits.

"This... meatbag, wants to know what kind of creature you witnessed near the lake. What did it look like? Describe the woman and child with it as well."

The green skinned scout scratched his head to jog his memory.

ђө!∫т@εժ--σп--

"Weird... frightening, like a ghost. His body was made of stars and darkness, and he had four tails that looked like snake-"

"Stop right there."

The doctor held up a single hand as he felt a migraine beginning to form.

He had read the incident reports from the destruction of Internment Camp Gamma. Seen the footage before the whole place became a crater.

The body full of stars and nebulas was new, but who knew what kind of odd new abilities the damned high and mighty children of the gods could develop.

However, the four snakeheaded tails was unmistakable.

And if he had to make an educated guess, he would be willing to bet all the credits in his wallet that the woman standing with him was either one of the two that had been freed, or one of the four who had been making prior assaults on the facility.

\'But the baby... that\'s a new one... Irrelevant for now.\' The doctor thought.

"Vlar, I\'m giving you an order to stay put for now. You aren\'t going to move even a single step until I have a suppression force at your doorstep."

Another growl could be heard within the darkness.

"My people-"

"Will no doubt ask questions and act up, but you will keep them in check. You are their \'alpha\' after all. Act like it."

"...What is in it for me? I see the way that you changed your behavior about this food... You will not let me eat it."

The Doctor scoffed as he pulled off his glasses to clean them.

"Curse my ingenuity... seems I made you too smart for your own good." he chuckled.

"I am waiting for an answer..."

"Yes, yes, I know. Tell you what..."

The doctor placed his glasses back on his face, with a noticeably colder and more calculating look than before.

A big smile formed on his face that seemed not to mesh well with his stern personality.

"I\'ve just finished a new round of upgrades a few days ago. Initial testings are quite positive. So much so that the difference between you now and after will be like night and day."

Within the darkness, a pair of burning yellow eyes burned brighter than solar flares.

"Interested, huh? I knew you would be. Anything else that I can get for you?"

"...Food is scarce... we requite more."

*Sigh* "If your people were fulfilling their purpose and expanding, you probably could have found more!"

"...In time. They aren\'t ready for blessed yet... not enough generations have passed, and we have a lack of breeding partners."

Dr. Michaels rubbed his chin thoughtfully before pulling out a communication device from his lab coat.

"You\'ll be sent some of the prisoners from the internment camps, around a hundred or so after this unpleasantness is out of the way.

Do not eat them..! They are for reproduction purposes only, and if you break them I won\'t gift you more!"

"...Understood."

The doctor ran his hands along his jawline and waived away the abomination dismissively.

"You\'ll be contacted again within the hour for an update on our schedule. What are your numbers after the exterminations?"

Not knowing the answer, Vlar turned his gaze to the three lieutenants standing by the door quietly.

"Ah... two thousand or so... roughly?"

"Two thousand..." Vlar answered.

"I\'ve seen the kind of damage the target can do, that\'s nowhere near enough... I\'ll prepare eight thousand more units."

The doctor disconnected the line a moment later, and Vlar was once again wrapped in the darkness with only his glowing eyes visible.

"Eight thousand... So noisy..."