WWYD by SpyCrab64: http://monstergirlencyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:697350
I don’t say anything, I instead take her by the hand and drag her to the bathroom as quickly but quietly as I can. I noticed at first glance that her skin looked dry, and it was confirmed with that touch. Not to mention, her gills seemed greyish, like they were covered in the dust and sot this city calls air. I contemplated storing her into the crawlspace, but that would do far more harm than good. The crawlspace was dusty and filthy, and given her state, might end up killing her.
Once in the bathroom, I turn on the bath water as I strip down. Her face turns beet red, which greatly contrasts her pale white body. I dunk my head under the facet and splash some of the lukewarm water across my body. All while this is happening the door continues to bang, growing louder and fiercer to the point that I worry it’ll break off its hinges.
Wrapping a towel around my waist, I turn of the water, now submerging most of her tail fin. Though obviously not enough to completely hydrate her, I pray it would be enough for now while I dealt with the Lawbringers. I step out of the bathroom while facing her and putting a finger over my lips, telling her to keep quiet. I close the bathroom door, hoping I look like I just stepped out of the shower, and walk to the door.
Lawbringers tend to make up of mostly dumb muscle, like the man banging on my door, and tend to have simple black suits with smaller badges, but higher ups are dressed in a crisp white attire, large badges, and exude an air of intelligence and authority. A normal Lawbringer was to be expected, but a higher up meant you were in deep shit.
The higher up looks at me with disdain, “Thomas, I presume?”
“Y-yes sir,” I manage to stutter out.
Despite his disgusted expression, his voice is calm, one that chills me to the bone, “There are reports of a Mershark in this complex. Do you mind if we have a look?”
They don’t even wait for me to respond, the dumb muscles just pushes me out of the way and begins flipping my room upside down looking for the Mershark. I used to live with my parents and brother, but they got moved to a new block while I stayed here. If there’s a silver lining to this shithole of a society, it’s that the state provides you with the bare minimum to live on your own, it’s not like you can have much else anyway.
The dumb muscle knocks over shelfs looking for secret doors, opens my pantry and scatters my rations everywhere, pocketing some of course, and once he’s in my room I hear him rip my mattress apart. By some miracle he hasn’t checked the bathroom, I guess I convinced them I had just stepped out of the shower.
I suddenly feel the higher up’s gloved hand on my shoulder. “You know the consequences of hiding a mamono, do you not?”
I become even colder and shiver, and I can feel his delight as I do, “Gredenarcen.”
The man simply pats my shoulder.
My stomach drops as the dumb muscle knocks over my shelf with all my books, revealing the crawlspace. “Oi, what’s this?!” he barks at me before turning and pulling the door so hard it almost came off its hinges. He higher up’s grip tightens on my shoulder, and I turn to see he’s looking at me with a victorious grin.
The dumb muscle shines his flashlight inside, fortunately it’s too small for him to fit, and I doubt the higher up wants his precious suit to get dirty. “Nothing.”
The higher up’s expression becomes a scowl as I hear him curse under his breath. “Fine, let’s go. That Mer-”
We all pause as we hear a sudden thud, it came from the bathroom. The higher up quickly walks to the bathroom and swings open the door. The Mershark let out a gasp while holding her head tat’s covered in blood. The front rim of the bathtub also has some blood on it. She must’ve slipped.
Before I can say anything, something large and heavy hits me in the back of my head and I loose consciousness.
I awake, strapped to a table, and judging by its cold its cold surface I’m still naked. I’m suddenly aware of a throbbing pain in the back of my head, but that doesn’t scare me as much as the two men in lab coats in front me, looking down at me like I’m some sort of research specimen.
“Good, you’re awake,” one them says.
“Where am I?” I ask
The other scientist cocks his head, “Where else do scum like you who house mamonos go? You are at a facility to begin Gredenarcen.”
Tears begin to well up and fall down my face as a fear overtook, knowing the horrible fate that awaited me. “You’re going to torture me?” I say in sobs, beginning to feel sick.
The scientist to my right cocks his head again, “That’s what you civvies think Gredenarcen is?” He lets out a chuckle, “Of course not, in fact, you are going to your country a great service.”
The two scientist suddenly stepped out of the room, which I noticed was abnormally large for seemingly only making up of a single operating table. The scientist’s voice suddenly echoed throughout the room, I saw him looking through a large window, while the other was working on a monitor. Above the window was an intercom.
“As you know, while FEU has concord all nations and have continued to successfully rid this world of the abominable mamonos, resistance still exists. These resistant squads, made up of man and mamonos, have been giving our military trouble, seeing as how they use stolen military weaponry. We need to develop resistance measure to our stolen tech, and that’s where you come in.”
A loud clicking sound, followed was sounded like a fan, echoed throughout the room. My chest began to feel hot.
“What you are experiencing is a sample of the gas weapons used by the resistance, we will be documenting how you react and what it does to you. Afterwards, we will begin using various drugs to determine which makes you more resilient to the gas.”
What followed was an agony I can’t fully describe. Each breath felt more and more painful, and soon my coughs became dry heaves. My body shacked and racked on the table, my restraints the only things keeping me from falling off. My skin felt like it was on fire, and looking down at my arms I noticed red welts forming on my skin. All the while, the scientists watched in sadistic glee.
After what felt like an eternity, the fans stopped and they stepped in, wearing gas masks. While one took notes and poked at the welts of my skin, even popping some leading to excruciating pain, the other injected a blue substance into my arm.
Without a word, they stepped out, and the fans turn on again. Whatever substance they gave me only made things worse, as the pain continued, only this time I felt like I was vomiting out my insides. They said nothing, only observed, and once the fans were turned off, the stepped out of the room through a different exit, leaving me alone. The lights suddenly shut off, and I was left in a pain and vomit soaked darkness, the stench of blood and half-digested rations permeated the room.
This was worse than what we believed was Gredenarcen, as I knew, given that I was alive, and more test would follow later. I wished I was tortured to death instead. Sleep never came, I was simply in a void, waves of pain being my measurement of time.
A banging noise echoed nearby, followed by what sounded like muffled shouts. Suddenly red lights blanketed my once dark room and a piercing alarm filled my ears. I could hear gun fire, and more shouts.
The door into the room where the scientists observed me opened, and I saw two inhumane shapes dash in. The blinking red lights did not provide enough illumination to properly identify them, but I assumed they were monster girls. One was fiddling with the monitor while the other had their hands and face pressed against the glass.
I suddenly heard the all too familiar sounds of vents opening and fans whirling, and I was enwrapped in agony once again. The monster girl against the glass began banging at it, even with the alarms blaring I could hear her muffled screams, while the other typed at the monitor faster.
The door suddenly opened and the one against the glass dragged herself in, she didn’t slither like a Lamia so much as she seemed to crawl along the floor, though she lacked any hind limbs. No sooner did she enter the room did she begin to cough, and by the time she positioned herself over my table she was chocking.
She typed something at the keyboard connected to my table despite her chocked breaths, and in moments I felt myself released form my restraints. The other monster girl dashed in, and they both carried me out of the room. Only once safely outside were we able to breathe again and in the light I was able to clearly see my rescuers. One was a Centaur, but what shocked me even more was the other.
It was the Mershark, she looked down at me with tears down her face, “Thank God you’re okay.” She says.
I give out the best chuckle my raw, torn throat could muster. Was I really okay?
The Mershark turned to the Centaur, “Mariah, do you think you could-”
Mariah wasted no time placing me on her back.
“Thank you.” was all the Mershark said. Even in my pain raddled haze I knew being able to ride on a Centaur’s back was quite a privilege.
“Don’t thank me for this. What needs to be done here goes beyond my pride as a warrior.” With that, Mariah turned herself and we trotted throughout the facility, and I passed out.
When I awoke, I was in some a hospital. I initially feared I had been captured again by the FEU and began to struggle, but the sight of Lamia slithering in assuaged my fears.
She tried to calm me by gently placing a hand on my bandaged shoulder, “It’s okay. You’re safe here.”
I looked down at my body, and realized most of it was bandaged. I tried to speak, but could only croak. The Lamia nurse quickly gave me glass of water, the cool liquid felt like mana from the heavens.
“Where am I?”
“You are at a treatment camp of FMH, Freedom for Mamonos and Humans, the resistance against FEU. Ms. Mariah brought you here from your human experiment lab 45 miles away.”
“45 miles?!” I
“T’was not very difficult,” Mariah said stepping into the curtained off room, “Such a length is no problem for a Centaur. FEU’s pitiful machines will take hours to reach here from their nearest camp, and that’s if they break through our checkpoints.”
“Thank you so much Mariah, you saved my life.”
“T’was not me who saved you, but rather Leviathan, she was the one who led the charge on the facility.”
“Leviathan?”
Mariah smiled, “The Mershark, who took a liking to you it seems. She escaped her captures fine and reported back to us, leading to a raid on your location after one of our Mindflayers managed to snoop out its location.”
“Where is she now?”
“Knowing her, still fighting. Her name is reference to a legend after all, a fierce beast referenced in a book of a once common religion. She is someone to be feared on the battlefield.”
“I want to give her my thanks, not just to her, but to you. Can you-” I tried to sit up, but pain racked my body, the Lamia nurse quickly set me down.
“You’re in no condition to leave this bed, it’ll take a few days for you to get better.”
“You should count yourself lucky, many are in much worse shape than you.”
The Lamia glared at Mariah.
“W-what do you mean?” I ask.
The nurse shook her head, “Don’t worry about it, just focus on getting better.” She turned and gave Mariah another glare, “and you don’t go saying that to the other patients you recused last night.”
Mariah gave a solemn look and bowed herself, “My apologies; a slip of the tongue. Being a Centaur bred for war, such inhumane sights are-” Another glare from the nurse shut Mariah up, and she quickly turned to leave.
“Wait,” She stops and looks over her shoulder, “I-I want to help you guys out, please, train me so I can contribute.”
Mariah gives a sad smile, “Young man, if I had a Shrinshel for every time someone at a treatment camp said that to me, I’d be richer than heads of the FEU. You would not survive the training-”
I willed myself up, doing my best to ignore the pain in my body, “Bullshit,” I say through clenched teeth, “If you knew the hell I had been through in that prison you’d know I’m plenty tough.” Despite the shaking in my arms, I made myself stay up, facing her at eye level.
She looked into my eyes, before turning back to the nurse, “Once he’s better, bring him to me for training.” before walking off.
As soon as she was gone I collapsed into the bed, exhausted and in pain once again, but in way, feeling better.
The nurse did not share my expression, only glaring at me before her expression became solemn as she checked the wires and IV stand next to me, “That’s just what we need, another human freed from clutches of death just to go running back in.”
“I don’t intend on dying, I will contribute to the cause.”
She gave me a sad smile, “If I had Shrinshel for every time I heard that…”
My recovering lasted a week, but each day Mariah would come in and check up on me, and each day I’d ask her about Leviathan.
“Her squad is making progress, in a way, I’m jealous of her combat abilities with how fast she conquers FEU checkpoints. You know, despite being a Mershark, many people call her the Land Shark, for she is just as swift and deadly on land as she is on the sea. The way she scampers on her arms and almost slithers across the ground,” Mariah shivered, “I’m just glad she’s on our side.”
By weeks end, I was finally able, with the Lamia nurse’s permission, whose name was Rachel, to go with Mariah to train. Before I could leave, I felt her gently coil herself around me and put a hand on my shoulder. I turned to face her and saw tears running down her face.
“I know I can’t stop you, but please, please, please promise me you come back alive. I’m sick of seeing so many people leave my care only to come back dead.” She was barely holding back her sobs.
I hugged her, “I promise. Thank you for everything, Rachel.”
She gave me a nod and released me from her coils. Stepping out of the curtained room, Mariah was waiting for me. Rachel would tell me a few days after I woke up that the treatment facility I was in was essentially al large warehouse converted to a sort of hospital. So I wasn’t really surprised seeing numerous other curtained off beds.
Still, Mariah wanted to show me something, “Remember when I said you were lucky with what they did to you? I want you to see this.” She motioned me to a curtained off bed, before gently opening it.
She did so with numerous other beds, opening each curtains only slightly, but the sight within was more than enough for me. I was lucky, very lucky. According to Mariah, I was a human test subject for a gas based weapon used by some members of the FMH, but others- others were objects of indiscriminate experimentation.
The people in these beds had missing limbs, or none at all, organs were said to have been missing, skin was burnt, frostbitten or infected with something that rendered it beyond recognition, and this happened to both humans and mamonos. Even in their sleep they looked to be in agony.
I felt a rage boiling inside me, something I never felt before. I’m usually very passive when it comes to conflicts that don’t directly affect me, even the FEU’s feud with mamonos. I realize now how stupid my inaction was, and with my rage I felt guilt.
Mariah seemed to read my expression, and put a hand on my shoulder, “It’s okay to feel guilty you know, most people don’t act on something until it directly affects them. But that anger your feeling, I want you to harness that, remember that the FEU won’t stop until all mamonos are dead, and I know you don’t want that. Now, come on.”
Mariah ushered me out of the treatment facility and into a nearby warehouse. There I saw numerous mamonos and humans training with each other. Mariah motioned me to a Living Armor walking towards us.
“That’s General Iris, be on your best behavior.”
General Iris looked at me, then to Mariah, “This is the new recruit Mariah? This boy won’t last a day training with you.”
Mariah bowed, “General Iris, I believe this young man will be of great use to us. He might look frail, but he has fire in his eyes.”
General Iris scoffed, “A fire that will quickly extinguish when he meets real combat, if his hands so much as tremor when pointing a gun at an FEU soldier he’ll be a lost cause.” She turned to me, despite being armor, I could feel eyes peering into my soul through her helmet, “If you’re not desensitized enough to gun down an FEU pleading for mercy, you’ll be dead in a week. I want a trained killer, whatever god you might believe in will surely be fine with you killing such hellspawn.” General Iris then turned and walked away.
Training with Mariah began shortly after, though I wasn’t the only one training with her, with me were two other humans and a Sahuagin. The two humans were Michael and Joseph, while the Sahuagin was named Pearl. Despite being notoriously emotionless, even the Pearl began to break under Mariah’s training, we all did. It was part of the desensitization, she acted like a drill instructor, and we were barley given any food, water, or sleep. We either trekked till we collapsed, sparred with each other until we felt like our bones would break, or simply resisted torture.
“Think about the ones suffering in the treatment center!” She’d yell at us when we looked like we were about to give up, “The ones who are still in prisons being tortured and experimented on! If you give up I’ll make sure you join them!”
This grueling training went on for two weeks, during which Mariah was a completely different person from the one I knew her as in the treatment center. It was only on the fourteenth day did she give us a final test, a 21 mile trek with all our mock equipment (we weren’t trusted with real weapons yet) through heat, sheer cold, rain, mud and ice, all provided by the magic of our Dark Mage.
It was only after our passing could we be considered soldiers for FMH. Mariah congratulated us all with the first smile she gave me in two weeks. We then began education on survival techniques, reading maps and terrain, military vehicle trainer, first aid, and military maneuvers
Finally, we were able to wield actual weapons. It was nothing special mind you. Most weapons from the FMH were stolen from the FEU, weapons that did not advance far beyond the early 2010s beyond the ability to kill mamonos. Basically the gun had more of a kick to it and there were a shit-ton more bullet types to remember.
Firing practice was normally done personally with Mariah, and we wasted no time shooting at cardboard cutouts. Instead, a Slime Girl took the form of an FEU soldier and took fire at me, the bullets were rubber of course, but they still hurt like hell.
I was using regular ‘human killing’ ammunition, as it wouldn’t really harm the Slime Girl. Still, I found myself hesitating to shoot back, even if I could convince myself that it was an FEU soldier in front of me.
“Thomas! You need to remember the victims you saw! Your experience in that prison! This man is a monster!” Mariah would bark at me the moment I hesitated.
Eventually I got used to it, much to sickening feeling in my stomach protested, but I eventually shut that down too. I was convinced, FEU soldiers were faceless monsters, they liked to torture human and mamonos alike, they lived a life of luxury while everyone else suffered.
Then the Slime Girl threw me a curve ball.
I shot her down like I normally did, but this time instead of ‘dying,’ she fell back and raised up her hand, “Please, please don’t kill me!” Her voice as an FEU soldier was always very convincing, “I have a family too, please!”
She then took off her ‘helmet,’ and revealed a human face stained with tears. “Please.”
I hesitated.
“Thomas.” Mariah began, but I interrupted her.
“You said they were monsters.” I said, my hands were shaking. “Are they all, really?”
Mariah gave me a sigh, “No, this isn’t as black and white as it might appear to be. For all we know, there could be some good people part of the FEU, just in a bad place.” She put a hand on my shoulder, “But we can’t show any mercy. We just can’t take that risk. I think of it like this: it’s a matter of training. If I kill you, you should’ve trained harder. It’s makes it impersonal, and easier pill to swallow. It’s hard, but it’s what we must do.”
I could look as I pulled the trigger. I heard the Slime Girl reform, “You aren’t supposed to take pleasure in this, and no one does.” She said, “I struggled with this too, but don’t worry, it’ll get easier.”
“It just doesn’t feel right, like I’m a murderer.” I say.
“You’re not,” Mariah said, “Your killing FEU soldiers, not innocent civilians. If you need someone to talk to, then come to me okay? I’ve been in your shoes, and I’ve been part of the FMH for years.”
I eventually got better at that, though I could never suppress the feeling in my stomach afterwards. Mariah was always there to help me, as were many other fellow soldiers who went through the same thing.
I got my first taste of combat a few weeks later, sent with Mariah as part of a squad to take part in an assault on the city of Lezegrand, an FEU strong point. I won’t describe what happened beyond the simple came in, killed FEU soldiers, and pushed onward towards the capitol. I was surprised with how well my training worked, though I was grateful I never ran into a begging FEU soldier.
As we approached the capitol, we got ambushed, badly. We were surrounded on all sides as bullets like hellfire rained around us. Worse yet, according to intercepted communications, the Feu was plaining an airstrike on the city. They were willing to kill their own soldiers if it meant killing us as well.
In a way, that sort of desperation gave me hope. Before I became a soldier there was always news about how the FMH was a joke, that their skirmishes were small and swatted away like flies. I now see that isn’t the case. For they were monsters, but they prided their military more than anything, and would never sacrifice them unless they were truly desperate.
Unfortunatley, only Mariah, me, and few other members of our squad made it out before the city was completely leveled in a carpet bombing, FEU radio stations blaming it on a terrorist bombing done by FMH. We had little time to grieve for our fallen comrades, for another squad meet up with us and we had to push through the burning rubble.
It was then that I saw her, a Mershark, crushed under a collapsed building, but somehow still alive.
“Mariah,” she weakly called out. My heart sank, this was Leviathan?
Mariah and I rushed over to free her, and as we were bullets flew near us.
“FEU! Take cover!”
“Shit!” Mariah swore under her breath. We moved quickly to remove the debris while other FMH soldiers gave us covering fire. What took a minute felt like hours, but we finally freed Leviathan. She looked far worse than when I first saw her. Her lower have seemed depressed in a few spots, as was covered in blood.
“Thomas? Is that you?” She weakly asked.
“Yeah, returning the favor for last time.”
“No. I’ll take her back, Thomas, you stay and-” A bullet hit Mariah’s right back leg causing her to cry out in pain.
“Mariah!” I was worried she’d be dead form that.
“Calm down soldier, Centaur anatomy isn’t like normal horses, this won’t put me down.” She pulled out a pistol before firing a few shots at the FEU. She gave me a grim smile, “Looks like you’ll be returning the favor after all. There an FMH vehicle a few miles down, use it to drive back to the treatment center in Jonestown, go!”
I picked up Leviathan, noticing she was lighter than I thought she’d be, much to my worry, and ran to the FMH vehicle. Once there, I applied first aid to Leviathan.
“Thomas, listen to me. That FEU unit showing up was only a small part of a much bigger unit. They killed my unit and I was caught in the carpet bomb retreating. They used it to soften us up so their bigger unit can push through us.” She grabbed me by the collar, “If they get through they’ll have a clear line to Jonestown, we can’t afford to lose that strong point.”
“Shit.” I swore under my breath, “Retreating isn’t an option for us then, at least not all of us.”
“What do you mean?” Leviathan asked.
“You!” I motioned to a nearby soldier, “Take this Mershark back to Jonestown for treatment. Once there, came back with back up.”
He quickly hopped in the car, “Holy shit, are you Leviathan?”
“Just drive!” Leviathan shouted at him.
As they drove off I ran back to Mariah, I knew I was going to get an earful for giving orders, as it wasn’t my place, but I wasn’t leaving her and the others to fend against the FEU reinforcements. Mariah had moved behind cover when I got to her, she looked at me with a combination of confusion and anger.
“What are you doing here?! Is Leviathan okay?”
I relayed the situation to her.
“Fuck.” She swore as she fired over cover. “Listen up!” She called out to everyone, “We need to hold our ground, really fucking hold our ground! You got it?!”
‘Yes ma’ams’ rang out in between gun fire, and so we dug in and fired. It was here that I felt I was really tested. It was one thing to push through a city, firing at FEUs. But now there was the smell of things burning, sound of bullets and shouting never ending, and it seemed like the FEU wouldn’t stop coming. In between firing and applying first aid, I checked our supplies, we were running low.
“Where are our reinforcements?” Mariah muttered from under her breath.
The FEU was slowly gaining ground, more and more of our soldiers were becoming too wounded to fight. More and more soldiers had to switch from their assault rifles to hand guns as they ran out of ammo. It wouldn’t be long before the FEU would be on top of us.
“Reinforcements!” Someone shouted, thankfully, they were for us.
FMH soldiers came charging up to our position, much to my surprise, Leviathan was among them. Mariah smiled, “You’re about to see something legendary soldier.”
“How is she already healed?”
Mariah motioned to her injured leg, “Mamonos not only are much more durable than humans, but heal a lot faster. Still, they took their sweet time getting here.”
As we provided cover fire, Leviathan showed me as to why she was called the Land Shark. She scampered across the ground at break neck speed, and any FEU soldier stupid enough to fire at her would be shot by use. So they retreated into nearby building and sealed them, not like that would stop her.
Mermaids excrete a slimy like solution form their skin to help keep them hydrated when on land, Leviathan used to stick to the walls and climb into a third story window. Mariah, me, and a part of our squad stormed that building while others swarmed the other occupied buildings. Inside we heard the screams of FEU soldiers accompanied by gunfire, we quickly fought through other soldiers and made our way up, or rather she worked her way down. She was drenched in blood.
“Don’t worry Thomas, I won’t bite.” She chuckled as she noticed my shocked expression.
Exiting the now empty buildings, we pressed onwards to the next citing Cinderville, and with Leviathan at our side, we managed to have an easy time capturing them. Granted, it wasn’t like those old action movies were the actions of one guy completely outshines everyone else. Leviathan couldn’t do those types of assaults all the time, as they were pretty taxing on her.
Instead, she’d stick to close to our squad, me specifically, and provide ‘normal’ support. Outside of combat, a few of the other soldiers would say I was pretty lucky Leviathan took a liking to me. When I would turn to Leviathan, she just blushed.
We came to bond outside of combat, and grew to really trust each other in during it. Of course, having a relationship with a fellow soldier was heavily frowned upon in FMH, it could even be grounds for discharge, so we kept our relationship professional, at least when people were watching.
I could tell we would be together for many years to come, provided this war didn’t kill one of us first.