The Villain

Kraken loved her job. She was well aware of how bad it was for others of her 'special nature'. In truth, how bad it

could be

for her.

If her unusual abilities consisted entirely of her prehensile hair, and maybe even her ability to jet through the water at superhuman speeds, she probably would have gotten an alias like 'Medusa' and would have been land-locked. Instead, she was fortunate to have the ability to breath underwater as well. As such, she was lucky enough to have been assigned to the maritime branch of the Paranormal Registration Association.

Like so many of the administrative overseers, Kraken's handler despised and feared the very people he was set to watch. In truth, he didn't even see her as a person. She was little more than a beast that could be trained to do some useful tricks. More importantly, she was a beast that needed to be leashed in case she lashed out at the real people of the world that he protected.

That was part of why it was such a blessing to have been assigned to the maritime branch. While he could control every aspect of her life, when at base, she also got to spend large amounts of time basking in the solitude of the ocean. There were so few paras suited to the sea that those they had were constantly needed for patrol. Unlike her land-locked piers, she wouldn't be stuck at base while they waited for something to happen.

That was the beauty of her job. She felt the freedom and power that others of her kind couldn't even imagine. Even those who could fly were rarely let loose to really exploit their capabilities. Sure, they could fly here and there, but could they ever open up and find out how fast or high they could fly with handlers constantly worrying that they would go rogue?

The downside of her freedoms was that she, like all in her branch of the PRA, were tagged with a GPS chip. The same chip acted as a satellite communications link. Wherever she went in the world ~or more likely the world's oceans~ they could find her and listen in.

"Kraken, report!"

Kraken tried to keep the sigh of resentment internal but wasn't sure if Braxton had heard it anyway. After all, the comm./GPS chip was subcutaneous. Otherwise, the passage of the water over it, as she zipped through the surf, would drown out any attempt at listening or reporting.

"Nothing to report yet, sir." She admitted. She failed to remind him that she had been given a very large area of ocean to comb through and her target was a very small boat on an uncertain schedule. That assumed that their information was correct to begin with and there really was a cutter running drugs out here.

"The thing has masts, for Christ's sake! How hard could it be to see with nothing but flat water around?"

Kraken forced herself to remain calm. She had to remind herself that it wasn't his fault, really. He might be an ass, but such misconceptions were pretty common among people who'd never really been out to sea.

"Sorry, sir." She calmly explained. "Unfortunately, the ocean isn't exactly a flat surface. The waves that dip and swell can be hundreds of feet high from top to bottom, which is more than enough to hide the single mast of a ship like a cutter. Further, distances out here are deceptive. A fifty-foot mast that's only a foot wide practically vanishes not too far away, if they don't have sails up."

Braxton grumbled but didn't press the issue further. That was about as close to understanding as she was likely to get out of him. She hadn't expected any more but it would have been nice for him to at least acknowledge she knew how to do her job. She'd been sent out often enough to track boats and ships that the coast guard couldn't afford to send someone after.

That was another advantage she had over the Earthers; the restrictions on what she was allowed to do were lighter. On land, paras were only authorized to take on assignments that involved other paras. Oh, in extreme cases the local government could authorize them to handle more mundane threats, but it rarely happened. After all, governors and above were usually too afraid the paras would get out of control and try to take over.

The lack of manpower on the high seas meant that the maritime branch was often called in by the coast guard, or even the navy itself, to help patrol waters against any threat; para or norm. Granted, she usually was only sent to pursue and report back, but that was fine by her. She wasn't a bad fighter, but her powers didn't really lend to taking on a boat. Anything more than half a dozen people and she needed backup.

"Just keep...out...water......sails...charm..."

Kraken slowed to a stop in confusion. In the seven years since she had become a full agent, she'd never had any problems with her comm. Orbit around the planet was littered with satellites to bounce signals to ~and keep track of~ agents anywhere in the world. She slowed and drifted slowly towards the surface in case that might help clear things up.

"Say again, sir? I'm having problems hearing you."

"Krak...eep...op...ork...ah...ah...zul..."

"Sir? Braxton! Can you hear me?"

Silence greeted her as Kraken's head broke the surface of the Atlantic. She felt a moment of panic as a chill of fear washed over her. She'd never particularly liked the fact that PRA monitoring was a constant probability in her life, but she had become accustomed to it. It never occurred to her that it had become something of a security blanket. No matter what happened, she knew that the PRA computers, at least, would monitor her signal and send an alarm for certain red flags.

A flicker of motion caught Kraken's attention. Even stunned by the unbelievable situation, she knew to keep her attention focused on her surroundings. There were plenty of predators in the water that could threaten someone stationary even if they could never catch her while moving.

"Perfect. Just perfect. The moment I lose contact I finally find the boat."

It occurred to Kraken that the two could very well be connected. If it was unheard of for a PRA comm. to lose contact, then something had to be the cause. If there were drug-runners, or worse, out here that wished to remain hidden, it wasn't unthinkable that they would find some way to block signals for anything near them.

"Crap!" Kraken muttered. The boat zipped along at the very edge of her ability to see it. It wouldn't take long for her to lose it if she didn't follow and there was no guarantee she would be able to find it again if she allowed it to slip past. She couldn't afford to back out to a range where she could get a clear signal from her handler.

Kraken ducked back under the water. With her arms practically glued to her side, and her legs together, she zipped full speed in the direction of the boat. Her body undulated and passed through the water like a torpedo. The water parted before her and pressed in on all sides like the warm embrace of a lover, but she couldn't afford to revel in the sensations.

Under water, she remained almost undetectable, even by sonar. Unfortunately, it also limited her own ability to see the ship. She'd begun in the general direction of the boat, but she needed to catch her bearings and make sure it hadn't made any sudden turns that might put her off its trail.

Keeping her speed, Kraken angled for an ascent. Within moments she burst above the waves. She only remained airborn for a couple of seconds but it was more than enough for her to verify the boat's location. She had trained in the tactic even before she joined the PRA. Even if someone happened to be looking in her direction, she would look like little more than a dolphin breaching the water. Which, not so incidentally, was where she'd gotten the idea from.

Kraken had covered more than half the distance to the boat in the scant minute she'd been swimming. She forced herself to slow down and remain relatively close to the surface. There was more risk of being seen, but she couldn't keep close track of the boat without it. Besides, the risk was minimal. She'd been on boats, both during training and since, and tried to spot an agent she

knew

was there. From a hundred yards away, the chances of being spotted were very slim.

Just a glimpse told Kraken that there were the people she was looking for. It would have been foolish to think they would walk around their own ship carrying guns, or something, when they had every reason to believe they were safe and unseen. It wasn't even the clothes or appearance that tipped her off. She just had a hunch.

There were four of them. One lounged against the railing with a fishing line trailing along in the water. Two more lay out, sunbathing, on the deck. The fourth sat in a folding chair by a console that could only be the ship's controls.

Kraken easily kept pace with the boat as it hurried its course northward. Not for the first time, she wished she had some sort of ability that would permit her to confirm that these seemingly laid-back vacationers were, in reality, running drugs. She felt a bit more acutely the loss of her comm. At least with that she had the benefit of passing on the responsibility of decision to someone else.

Now, all she could do was follow and report as soon as she could. Eventually the interference would have to vanish. If nothing else, they would need their own radio when they got close to their destination. Unless, of course, they plan on a clandestine meeting to pass along the drugs. She decided to set that worrisome thought aside for later and just trail the ship.

Every few minutes, Kraken tried her com again. The farther north they got, the more convinced she became that the boat was, indeed, the source of her communications difficulties. If something were to affect a wide enough area that they remained inside of it, it would surely have been noted before then. The only feasible answer was that it was moving along with them.

When the commotion started on the boat, it drew her attention instantly. Any break in the monotony was worth the effort. Kraken watched as someone knew climbed up from below and pointed at two of the three at the front of the boat. She was too far away to hear what was said, but the fisherman and the two sunbathing briefly argued back and forth before one of the sunbathers won and the other two followed the newcomer back into the bowels of the boat.

It wasn't hard to resist the urge to sneak closer and investigate. The closer she got, the higher the chances of detection became. This far out on her own, the mere thought frightened her. She might be a bit stronger than the average norm, even men, these guys looked rough enough to give her a run for her money. Without backup, she wasn't going to try her luck.

Kraken continued to pace the boat at her safe distance. While she waited for some change on the boat, she tried her comm. again with the same, predictable, outcome. There was little doubt in her mind that Braxton was fuming at the loss of contact and was filling the airwaves with withering tirades demanding she talk to him. There was nothing she could do about it now, so she hoped her diligence to the mission would at least mitigate his anger later.

When movement once again drew her full attention to the ship, Kraken missed a stroke in her swimming. Her breath caught and her mind refused to process what she was seeing for the first few moments. The two had returned from below deck carrying a large bundle. It appeared to be wrapped in black plastic and was heavy enough that they struggled with it, despite working together on their task.

"A body bag!" Kraken gasped when her mind finally registered the object they carried.

The newcomer followed close behind them and waved airily over the side of the boat. Dutifully, the thugs lifted their burden and wrestled it onto the rail. Kraken couldn't be positive, with the amount that they struggled, but she thought the bag itself accounted for at least some of the movement and difficulty.

Kraken watched, horrified, as the lump fell unceremoniously over the side of the boat. The black bag showed horrifically clearly against the pristine white backdrop of the boat's hull. It splashed into the water and immediately began to fall into the wake. Whoever was in it was lucky that the v-shaped wave pushed it clear of the boat rather than dragging it underneath. She had no idea with the sailboat had a motor or not but there was a reason for the term "keelhaul".

While the laws regarding what actions she could take against non-para criminals were tricky and dangerous, those that related to saving lives were more clear-cut. So long as she did not use her special abilities to cause damage to people or property, she was free to do all she could to protect lives.

With a life at stake, Kraken no longer needed to worry about being seen by those on the ship. With her speed, she would be in and out before anyone on the boat could react. Once she had whoever was in the bag, she would need to get them to a rescue vessel as quickly as possible. That meant she would lose the boat but her priorities were clear. If the person in the bag was already dead, they now had evidence of a crime that could be pursued. If they were still alive, whoever it was could give testimony against the crew on the boat.

Kraken sliced through the water at full speed. It took only seconds before she pulled up alongside the dark lump sinking beneath the waves. A close inspection, as she wrapped her arms around it, confirmed that it was, indeed, a body bag. She tightened her grip and hoped she wouldn't hurt whoever was inside. At the same time she hoped they were still alive to

be

hurt.

Something about the shape of the bulk within the plastic felt wrong to Kraken. Her mind hadn't fully processed the thought before her body began to pull her away from the boat and to a safe distance. She didn't get a chance to finish the thought before pain seared through every fiber of her being.

Kraken cried out. Her muscles refused to respond. Through the brief jolt of excruciating pain, she felt as if every cell in her body attempted to flee in a different direction. The pain itself only lasted for a few seconds ~though they seemed like an eternity to her~ but the effects lingered within her body.

Her muscles wouldn't work. That much she knew clearly. She could feel the unnatural way they twitched and jerked, still, beneath her skin. That was just about all her muddled senses would tell her, however. Her nerves were still overwhelmed by the memory of the pain. Her ears rang from some phantom of the shock. Her nose and mouth were useless; filled with water. And the muscles that controlled even her eyelids were too weak to move.

Or maybe it was her mind that didn't work properly. She was stuck in a loop, trying to figure out what had happened. The only other thought that managed to leak its way through her confusion was to wonder if she was dead. Fortunately, she managed to convince herself otherwise. Because if she was dead she shouldn't feel so miserable.

A bit of perception managed to filter through her various maladies. The world had darkened a bit. Once more she wondered if she was slipping away from life, only to remind herself she could still feel everything just as acutely. Something must have passed in front of the sun.

Adrenalin jolted through Kraken's body with sudden realization.

A trap! The bag was a trap!

She managed to peel her eyelids open just in time to see a rope lower from the very cutter she had been following. Somehow, they had known she was there and set a trap for her. She cursed herself mentally for her carelessness and stupidity, even thought she could think of nothing she could have done differently.

One of the men slid deftly down the rope until he hovered right above her. She didn't like the look in his eyes as his appraising gaze swept over her. Finally, after drinking in his fill of her body, he looked back up and shouted to his companions.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we caught ourselves a mermaid!"

"So long as she doesn't have a tail, I'll be happy!" One of the men still on the ship shouted back down."

"Nope!" The first man confirmed. "Which means we got ourselves some tail of an entirely different kind!"

Kraken's heart froze within her chest. She had been able to delude herself about the look in his eyes when he checked her out. There was no way to deny the implications of their banter. She wanted to thrash in the water. She wanted to jet away to safety. She wanted to wrap her hair around the man's neck and drag him under until his breath escaped in a torrent of bubbles.

Unfortunately, all she managed was to get her limbs, hair included, to sway lazily on the surface of the water. She couldn't imagine how powerful a jolt they must have used against her to get the effects to linger this long.

The man kept a careful eye on her as he was lowered fully into the water. With a few swift swipes of his dexterous hands, the rope was tied unceremoniously around her waist. The rope jerked her into the air with no subtlety. She lost track of the man in the water the moment she could no longer see him above her. Her world narrowed to the hull of the boat and the taut rope that pulled her ever upward towards the fate these men had in mind for her.

The advantage of the uncoordinated ascent was that it took more time than a smooth trip would. She guessed the men pulled her up manually rather than with a winch. She had begun to get some feeling back into her limbs, finally. She didn't think she would be very stable when she got to the top, but her weakened state might give her a bit of an advantage if they underestimated her at the beginning.

Before she reached the railing, two pairs of hands reached over the side of the boat and pulled her over. Instinct drove her to struggle when they switched to hold her arms while a third untied her ropes. The only control she could manage over her own, panicked, reaction was to hold back the majority of her rapidly recovering strength. Although still confident in the odds, now that she could move again, anything she could do to improve them was better.

"Stop!" The command itself was innately compelling, but the gun aimed directly at her head proved even more so. Poly-titanium fabric armor covered most of her body ~though you wouldn't know to look at the seemingly skimpy bathing suit the letch Braxton had put her in~ but her head lacked the near-invulnerable protection.

"That's right, I know about you freaks and your armored,

invisible

, costumes." The man with the heavy pistol was the same one who had ordered the two to dump the trap into the ocean. "I've done my homework, just in case a situation like this arose."

He reached up to lightly cup her face. In reaction, she tossed her head aside, violently breaking the contact. He let loose a deep chuckle that was far too masculine and far too confident for her tastes. Rather than follow her, his hand hooked into the neckline of her costume. He couldn't shift it even far enough to sneak his fingers all the way under, but he didn't seem concerned.

"Oh yeah. I know all about you freaks. I know a lot about a lot of things. For example, I know that no bodysuit ever made can be as completely seamless as your agency likes to make them out to be. It clearly doesn't stretch much, so there was to be some way to get you into it."

The tips of his fingers let go of the edge of her costume and began to glide downward. The shiver that ran through her muscles was mostly in revulsion, though she tried to deny the little bit that was her treacherous body's enjoyment of the gentle caress. The special material of the costume was designed to allow enough sensation through that it felt like nothing was there, provided a light enough touch that it didn't register as an attack.