The saltwater pool was soaked with black rotting sludge, man-made mutagen. The acrid smell of copper-based cephalopod beast-blood.
Arthur Vance knelt waist-deep in the cold, salty water at the edge of the holding basin. His Mark IV suit’s sleeves were rolled tightly above his elbows, his bare forearms exposed to the freezing salt water. Beside him, Vesper perched upon a dry steel support post, her glowing amber eyes fixed on the massive squid with wary feline vigilance. She wrinkled her black nose in distinct distaste at the pervasive odor of slime and decaying organic matter, carefully tucking her clean white paws beneath her chest to keep them clean.
Inside Arthur’s chest flask, Echo floated upward, pressing his pink snout against the curved quartz glass.
The axolotl vented a soft ring of glowing cyan bubbles, his tiny body wriggling in eager greeting.
The little salamander’s feathery outer gills flared into amazing, pulsating ripples of deep violet and cerulean light. The auroral soft glow washed through the water. Then, a soothing bio-sympathetic deep ring rippled across the surface of the pool. The wild, irregular trembling of the squid’s ten massive tentacles began to slow, her ragged breathing finding a calmer, more regular rhythm.
