Upon landing and being led into the airport terminal, Vicky had an idea where she was. The most obvious detail to Vicky was the fact the signage stating where they were was still intact.
"Welcome to Pensacola International Airport." Vicky read. This was of course, a misnomer, as the Pensacola International Airport, as they called themselves, outside of charter flights, only handled domestic flights even before being conquered being the aquatic myths. Vicky can't recall how she learned that factoid, but it always stuck out to her.
She also recognized this terminal for the most part given, she had been here once before, when David, the brother of hers that went missing and presumed dead in the Florida area, had graduated from his naval officer's training around here at the nearby Pensacola Naval Air Base.
They were being led along by a pair of armed guards from the plane through a food court, one of which was wholly dedicated to leading and restraining the man who saw in handcaffs earlier. As Vicky walked with the crowd, she was noticing about twelve or so other American soldiers there, along with several of "the enemy," as Vicky still saw them, though she noticed it seemed like almost all of the mytholocial beings here were female, and nearly all of them aquatic, amphibious, or demonic - of the maybe 100 of them Vicky could count, she only saw two males, some sort of anthro-ish lizardman in medieval looking armor and, based on his paleness and red eyes, a vampire in a charcoal business suit.
Vicky wanted to scowl at the troops at the obvious "colluding with the enemy," but one man beat her to it, screaming about everything they were seeing, before trying to run. He juked past one of the guards, but then suddenly the liquid from a nearby slushie maker in the food court shot out of the machine and ensnared him.
"Ugh, I hate doing that. It gives the wrong impression about us." Everyone's attention was drawn to the voice of a woman in the direction of where they had been heading originally. There they saw a mermaid with very long indigo hair and golden scales holding up the index and middle fingers of her left hand as her eyes glowed a sharp aquamarine. Many in the group of people being escorted through the airport were surprised seeing real live magic in person for the first time, especially that family of "volunteers" Vicky saw back in Chicago. What Vicky saw that both surprised and in a way infuriated her more, was how she was dressed and what she was carrying. The mermaid was dressed in what resembled a bright blue version of the US navy digital camo uniform but bearing the insignias and patches native to her nation, with the caveat of having a camo pencil skirt in place of pants. She also was wearing a belt that had handcuffs, a baton, taser, a bottle of water, and sheathed short sword, and had an M-16 in her right hand, these things, outside of the sword & the bottle of water, all clearly spoils they seized when they took Florida.
"We wanted to explain this as we approached the security checkpoint, but you proved to be more unruly than we had hoped, so we had to postpone this." said the guard handling the restrained man.
"Some of you are confused by all of this. First off, as some of you have figured out by now, as a result of your drawing, you have been expatriated to the Kingdom of Atlantis as part of the Aetherian Repopulation Program..."
"Right, 'Aetherian.' That what these damn myths want us to call them collectively..." Vicky grumbled in her noggin.
"Where we stand now is recognized as international soil from the terminal to the checkpoint, thus why you see our troops alongside Aetherians. Given we're trying to establish peaceful relations, the Kingdom of Atlantis allows us to maintain a small detachment here to help with the maintenance of our aircraft and ensure peaceful transfers of citizens through the international zone."
"Allow you?!" the man trapped in magically controlled slushie juice scowls. "This is FLORIDA!! America, dammit, not some foreign country!! Y'all are too damn soft to kick these damn fish bitches out, and those libs in Washington would kowtow to these damn myths than fight to the end!! If y'all give me that gun I'd show you how to get the job done!!"
The mermaid soldier pops open the bottle of water, hops forward a couple of times on her tail, then on her third hop uses the same power she used to control the juice earlier to manipulate the water from the bottle placing it underneath her, using to support her weight in order to surf in the air to the guard she has secured, placing his hands and legs in shackles.
"Ugh, always seems like there's at least one in every bunch, amirite, Corporal?" the mermaid remarks.
"If you say so, ma'am."
The mermaid coughs and shakes her right shoulder as to gesture at the patch on her shoulder. "That's Chief Petty Officer Riona Wena to you. I don't wear this uniform just for the fun of it!!"
Even though she was "one of them," even Vicky had to respect the petty officer's acumen when it came to military decorum, given she had three brothers who were all in the military, which, when she released she felt this way for a moment, made her flustered.
"Well, um, sorry..." the American corporal apologized.
"I swear, today's military is a bunch of soft pussy ass..."
Suddenly, the mother of the sole child in the group, walked up and slapped the restrained loudmouth. "Enough!! Can't you see there are children present?!"
"Right, you're the family of 'traitors' that came along. Well, fuck you bitch!!"
Petty Officer Wena began to chant rapidly in an incomprehensible language as she waves her fingers in front of the irate man, her eyes shining yellow. As he squirms before her, she places her fingers in front of his face, and a magical array forms over his mouth before flashing away. He goes to scream at her, but no sound comes out. He starts to freak out at the loss of his voice when she says, "Oh, stop fretting!! The spell I used was designed for temporarily silencing mages, but it works well enough on pottymouths like you as well. It only lasts 30 minutes anyhow, so in a half-hour you'll be back to spewing your speciesist right-wing toxic masculine bravado in no time, just that by then it won't be my problem." She takes ahold of his arm. "Now, if you had just behaved and not been rude in front of the little girl I wouldn't have to resort to things like this."
Petty Officer Wena clears her throat again before speaking in a slightly louder but not forceful tone, "Alright, now that we got that unpleasantness over with we can return to the matter at hand. From here on out, I will be escorting you to the bus that will lead you to the Naval Air Base, where you will be processed and then assigned your new Aetherian species... and don't believe what you hear on certain parts of the web. Mind Alteration magic was prohibited as part of the Treaty of Gary."
"Sure..." Vicky gristled, following the petty officer with the others through the rest of the airport to the front, where a bus was waiting for them. As the door opened, Vicky and the others were greeted by the driver, a silver-haired woman wearing a blue hat in a tank top, her lower half a mass of octopus tentacles.
"All aboard, y'all!!" the driver seemed to have an obvious southern drawl.
"Amazing!! A real life cecaelia in the flesh!!" The father of the "volunteer" family was quite fascinated by the driver.
"Well, this is sure diff'rent!! Most folks a' like the rest of your group, all cryin' or pouty or cursin'. Anyhoo, who knows? You might be sportin' some of these here tentacles yourself by the end of the day."
Everyone was led onto the bus, and to Vicky's surprise, she was sat next to the mother from earlier. As the bus doors closed and the bus lurched forward, the petty officer sitting in the back with the two more unruly members of the group, Vicky turned to the woman beside her and bluntly asked, "How?"
"How what?"
"The fact you're with your husband and daughter says it all. How could you betray your country and species?"
"Frankly, I don't see it as a betrayal. My husband is doing this partly for scholastic reasons; he's an anthropologist who has been curious about the Aetherians. However, our main reason for doing this is for our daughter, Rose.
You see, she started getting sick about a little less than half a year ago, and then we found out about a month ago she had terminal Stage IV lymphoma. In order to save our child, we did our research, and found out from the dark web that while typical magic is only about as equal or maybe slightly more effective than modern science in treating terminal ailments, transmutation magic like the kind the Aetherians are implementing is a form of high magic, high magic that purges all physical ailments. So... even if we had to become a whole new species, we were willing to do it to save our girl."
Vicky wasn't quite sure what to say. Sure, they were technically turning their backs on America and humanity, but they were primarily doing it for their daughter to try to save her life. She'd almost be tempted to do the same for her brother if it was the only way to save his life. Still, these "things" started a war trying to wipe us out!! They killed two of her brothers and took the arm of the third!! They...
"I'm Paris Grant, and my husband is Andy Grant, by the way."
Vicky blinked, still a bit off-guard at how cordial this woman was being towards her after yelling at her.
"Something tells me you have your reasons for not liking the Aetherians, miss..."
"Vicky Arvis... and yeah, all three of my brothers served in the military during the war, and during it two of my brothers went missing and are presumed KIA, while my other brother who survived lost his arm in the failed defense of Mexico City."
"I see. I sorry about that..."
Before the conversation could go on, th bus arrived and its doors opened once more.
Petty Officer Wena spoke up to the passengers, "If you follow the guards they will process you and..."
"Change of plans, folks!!" the voice of a woman outside interjected. "If you could gather outside, we have a special announcement."
Everyone slowly walked out to see five women outside:
· One was what they had expected since being brought here - a tall 6' 2" busty woman with waist-length green hair with 3" blue horns poking out behind her bangs, giant blue scales on the sides of her neck, blue scaled forearms and scales on the backs of her hands, webbed fingers, sharp fingernails, thick plate armor-like blue scales capping her knees, lower legs, and dragonic feet with deadly talons on the tips of her toes, modestly sized leathery scaled blue wings on her back, scaley membranes in place of earlobes, and most notably a massive thick 6' tail coated mostly in blue scales with long white scales on the underside and a webby dorsal fringe lining the top of most of the tail.
She was dress in a formal military uniform seemingly for officers - a blue tie and gold-brimmed blue blazer with a name tag written in a language foreign to Vicky and the other humans atop a white blouse, and a blue pencil skirt secured by a black belt, the skirt slitted in the back for her tail to thread through. A pistol is holstered on her right hip. Based on Mr. Grant's outburst, she was apparently a female sea dragon.
· While it wasn't unexpected to see a mermaid here given they were in Atlantis territory, what seemed out of place was the fact this small-chested red-scaled mermaid with blonde hair almost down to her fins was dressed in a white sundress printed all over with some sort of anime character Vicky didn't recognize, a pink purse over her left shoulder, a plush frog backpack, and an ornate pearl armlet on her right arm.
Everything about her made her out to be some sort of nouveau-rich otaku mermaid princess.
· The third Aetherian stood out from the primarily aquatic themed races, a figure about 5' 4" tall, a shy looking figure with waist-length hot pink hair and long pointed ears, striking jade eyes she has hidden behind a pair of glasses, her chest on par with the sea dragon at an impressive natural K-cup, possessing small cute demonic horns on the sides of her head, a golden flame floating above her head centered between her horns, black feathery angelic-looking wings, and an impish red 4' tail ending in a massive bulbous spade, it was clear to anyone this was a succubus. She was dressed in a black suit & pants and jade tie, looking every bit like she was some sort of government official or agent. Still, her shy expression, as though she was embarrassed at people looking at her just made her look so cute... "No!! She's the enemy!!" Vicky had to remind herself.
· What really surprised everyone was the other two women, as they were humans. In fact, this brunette bobbed woman of athletic build and small bust was wearing the uniform of a United States Marine Corp Warrant Officer.
· The last one was the other human woman, an older woman in her mid-60's with silvery hair in a bun dressed in a golden pantsuit atop a black blouse, wearing an American flag pin on her lapel.
The sea dragon piped up, saying to the group, "Normally, you would be processed, documented, officially registered as a citizen, and then transformed into an Aetherian, then educated on your new species and then you would be given assistance in finding enployment and housing. Well, the first half of that is still happening, however, after you are transformed, the twelve of you will be part of a pilot program to act as ambassadors of a sort, returning to the US as representatives of the Kingdom of Atlantis and Aetherians in general."
"Why should we listen to you and do this?! You drug us away from our homes!!" one of the people, a woman exclaimed.
The elder woman responds to the group, "Because by agreeing to the program per the agreement made with Queen Azura VI of Atlantis, your US citizenships and social security numbers will be reinstated, and you be legally have dual citizenship between the two countries. It means once you complete the goodwill tour across the US, if you so wish, you may return to your homes in the United States if you so wish."
"Will we turned back into humans?"
"Sadly, no. The spell they use to transform can only ever be used on a person once. Attempting to transform someone a second time basically reduces them to a Lovecraftian horror of flesh and agony becauses it causes too much genetic unraveling."
Vicky finally pipes up. "So, you're saying we still got to give up our humanity, but we can go home? However, we got to go around doing publicity for these things in exchange? That's some ol' bull-"
The sea dragon suddenly stops her, grabbing her by the chin, sticking her own face right next to her hers, examining her. She then lifts Vicky's left arm up and rolls her sleeve up, looking just under her armpit close to her back at a mole that kinda looked like a turtle.
"Aw, you got to be shitting me!! Vicky!!" the sea dragon lady hugs Vicky, thrusting Vicky's head into her bosom.
"Bitch, you better get your scaly hands offs and back u-"
Vicky's somewhat salty prejudicial rant was cut short by the dragon soldier thumping her on the nose. "Hey dingus, do I got to spell it out for you? It's me, your brother, David... though these days I've been going by Reina..."
"Prove it."
"Peter, Adam, and me would use to do a week of pranks every year around April Fools' Day, but originally we didn't let you join in, thinking you wouldn't be good at it since you were so young, a girl, and if you got pranked, couldn't take it as well as you could dish it. Well, each year you pestered us to participate but we refused, but then when you were 10 you acted unilaterally and got everyone good by putting chocolate laxative in EVERYTHING. Needless to say, after mom missed three days of work and we all missed several days of school, that was the last prank war ever."
Vicky's face crinkled up and turned beet red from embarrassment. "What the fuck sharing that in front of all these peo... ple..." Vicky's demeanor quickly changed as tears filled her eyes. "...Your alive, David." But then her tone acquired a hint of indignation. "But I only find out today, and it turns out you're one of 'them' and... not only, but you're... a CAPTAIN in their navy, and you got tits bigger than my head!! Geez!!"
"It's a complicated situation, sis. I mean, what the news didn't report was that Atlantis broke in half after Azura's ascension since she was the head of the popular dove faction, while the only aquatic Aetherians still fighting humanity afterwards were either part of the rebel hawk faction or citizens of the City of R'yleth in the Pacific. It was the hawk faction that sunk my ship years ago, but mermaid patrols from the dove faction found us..."
David/Reina then started to ramble for the next ten minutes about complex backdoor geopolitical poilitics, how the general populace of Atlantis had never wanted to go to war with humanity, the succubi of the Republic of Lillith also not only not wanting to battle humans, but actually secretly allying WITH humanity to help bring the war to an end, and then somehow transitioned to what she found most awkward about becoming a female sea dragon, namely talking about how odd it was having a tail, though noting her tail and wings seems to counterbalance her chest, and that to her surprise, despite the scales on parts of her, female dragons are actually considered mamallian, as such producing breast milk, and having live births, contrary to popular beliefs.
Finally, Vicky seemed to start losing her patience while her sibling was going on about how given how since most of the populace of Atlantis is almost entirely female and either legless or multi-legged, pants pretty much don't exist here. "...and it took me a bit to get used to wearing skirts, but they're pretty much the only thing you can find in Atlantis. After a while though, I found they're not all that bad. Besides, I couldn't go commando, and if you see my legs, there's NO WAY I'm fitting any pants or shorts or those giant thick leg and kneecap scales..."
"David!!" Vicky shouted. "You're rambling, like you always do when you don't want to tell me something."
"I wanted so badly to tell everyone back home, especially you, that I was alright, but legally I was prohibited from doing so until the framework of this program was finalized... Of course, I didn't intend for our first communication to be like this. This... this was actually pure dumb luck. I actually had no idea you had gotten drafted in the Aetherian Repopulation Draft, or that you'd be sent here of all places. I was not aware of the names of the candidates until they arrived. This meeting and you ending up in the program was pure coincidence."
"But.. you're a part of THEIR military!!"
"When I was transformed, wartime policy at the time was to strip me of my commission and citizenship. However, mechinations behind the scenes insisted to allow my military expertise to still be put to use for both nations acting as a liaison officer, part of my duties being to improve US-Atlantian relations. My other primary duty is to serve as the bodyguard of Princess Lorelei, sixth in line to the throne, and head figure overseeing the modernization of Atlantis and the Human-Atlantian Peace Project."
The mermaid in the sundress hops over to Vicky. "Oh wow, I heard Reina say we still had family in America, but I never... yeah, this is awkward, I didn't expect to actually meet you, not like this."
"You did something to my brother, didn't you?!" Vicky blurted.
The succubus finally piped up, albeit stammering, "N... n... no... We already said the Atlan... lantians didn't alter your sibling's mind because t... they don't believe in it, and i... it would be a v... v... vi... violation of the Treaty of Gary."
One woman in the dozen, a Karen-looking lady, shouts, "Go back to Hell, you devil wench!!"
The succubus goes to reply, but the senator stands up for her, retorting, "I won't have you talking about Agent Blackstone like that!!"
The crowd murmurs for a moment, before the senator nods, and the succubus pulls out of her jacket a wallet containing ID and a badge showing she was technically not only a US citizen but also an FBI agent. It also showed her full name was Edith Blackstone.
"They gave HER citizenship?!"
"She's FBI?!"
"Who all did she sleep with to pull that off?"
Upon hearing that last outburst, the outrageously shy succubus began to break out in tears.
The senator scowled and chided the crowd. "How dare you?! That is a cruel stereotype foisted upon their kind by a couple of bad apples in the middle ages. Most succubi are in reality more like what we associate with Cupid. In fact, Agent Blackstone is Aro-Ace!!"
The same Karen lady exclaimed, "Aro-Ace? The fuck is that?"
Vicky answers, "It's short for 'aromantic and asexual.' It means she has no attraction for anyone in a romantic or sexual sense whatsoever. She's literally the exact opposite of what you're imagining a succubus to be." Vicky was surprised at herself, defending Agent Blackstone. While she hated Aetherians, as a lesbian, Vicky felt a sense of respect for helping another member of the LGBT community.
"But as everyone said, no one did anything to my head. I'm still me." David/Reina said to Vicky.
"All this family drama is charming, but what incentive do we have to be a part of this program, I mean besides getting our US citizenship back? I mean, you said you're still transforming us no matter what, and I'm sure that means subjecting us to who knows what kind of prejudice?"
The senator responds, "In addition to having your citizenship restored, the names of all your family members will be removed from the draft, meaning they will not be sent to an Aetherian nation and transformed unless they want to be."
The crowd murmurs.
§ WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? §