August 1, 1998
Coralis was lying on one of the living room couches, her legs hanging over the armrest and her hands covering her face, in the flat she shared with Erik, Henry and Gus. She was exhausted.
"Tell me again why we have to go out for drinks?" said Coralis.
"Do we really need to remind you about what day is today?" replied Henry.
When she had to be in London for training with the EBEE or to help on a mission, she stayed with Erik, Henry and Gus. When she had to be in Montreal for flyball practices and home games, she would mostly stay in hotels or small inns located in a pixie area near the flyball field. Once in a while, she would sleep on Victoria's couch, but she didn't like to go there because there were too many people living in her building.
After graduating, Victoria went to study in a human college: she wanted to get into human medicine and there was a 2-year program that she had to follow as a requirement. She lived in an on-campus dorm.
"I know what day it is; I just don't want to go out. I'm too tired and I have to go to Chicago tomorrow morning."
"Ahhh come on! Let's go! Think we got some wakie beans left. GUS! Can you make a wakie elixir for sis before we go?" said Henry.
"Was on it before you even asked!" said Gus.
The four of them enjoyed going to shifter pubs when they wanted to go out for drinks: they didn't like to be regularly interrupted by fans and journalists in elemental establishments, and they couldn't really talk when surrounded by humans. There was a small werewolf town not far from them and they usually went there for drinks.
"Chicago again? Let me guess, another vampire war?" said Erik.
"A better question would be why in gods world the EBEE would get involved in the affairs of American vampires… and weren't you supposed to be just an apprentice in training with them?" asked Gus, stirring the mini-umbrella in his margarita.
"I don't know about all of that, but I'm definitively pulling more hours with them than I anticipated when I signed their contract. This is turning into two full-time jobs."
In the following months, she spent all of her time between Montreal, London, Chicago and everywhere else in the world that had a national flyball team.
March 13, 1999
"This is getting ridiculous," said Coralis, sitting with Erik and Henry at their usual shifter pub. "I don't want to hear one more time about why I shouldn't be helping the authorities to protect the humans. Why am I supposed to hate them? I honestly understand why they need to be protected from us and why they can't know about us."
"Wait, so this isn't just a vampire war in Chicago?" asked Erik as Gus joined them.
"No, it's really not. Matthew's brother went rogue and started his clan a few months ago. He owns several bars and in their basement cellars, his vampires keep humans in chains to be used as live blood banks. The American Elemental Enforcement Agency doesn't want to get involved, arguing it is vampire business. I think we all know what would happen if no one interferes and humans find out that fiction isn't fiction after all."
"So the Chicago royal family asked EBEE for help? Wouldn't the CMMA be closer? I thought the CMMA worked with all kinds of supernatural," said Henry.
"I think the CMMA is also involved, but I haven't met their agents yet. I have mostly been placed to help the royal family locate the rogue vampires. This is just weird. I've seen elves and fays working with the rogue vampires, and they kept asking me to join them instead."
"Like your last two years at school?" said Erik.
"Yes. It's weirder, I'd say. I fail to see why I should hate humans enough to want us to enslave them. I mean, I do have a bad history with them, but not all of them are slimy. There are bad apples on both sides of the fence."
"Elves and fays wanting to take over humans again? I remember the stories Dad told us when we were kids. Before Lord Meozo rose to power, some elf and fay families were working together, trying to stir up a movement that would bring elementals out of hiding and running human governments. Stuff like that," said Henry.
"Yeah, well, a lot of vampire clans are also involved this time, and just about every elemental faction. I don't know if Lord Meozo was involved with all of these groups, but it seemed some of them knew my parents. Even if people know me as Blue Thunder, if they sensed the same energy signature on me as they did on my dad, then they would know who I am," said Coralis.
"They'd recognize who you are, but they don't know how your parents named you," said Henry.
"Fun fact, if we are comparing mass murders that happened by the hands of elementals and humans, the elementals have had more of them than the humans will ever have in all of their history. If they ever find out about us, they will hunt us down. Most of us can hide, but if we hunt them down, they will go extinct. Doesn't matter how I look at it: it would be bad, very bad," said Gus.
"If we consider our Fart in the Sea project, wouldn't that make the humans just as deadly as us?" said Henry.
"Not if we succeed with it," said Gus, choking on his drink and trying to suppress a giggle. "These nuclear weapons would annihilate and destroy everyone. Mostly them, but including us, so Fart in the Sea is also self-preservation."
"Speaking of Fart in the Sea, while I was inspecting a Chicago warehouse with Princess Veronica, I found a newspaper article talking about alleged nuclear weapons somewhere in the Pacific. Think we should look into it?" said Coralis.
"On it!" said Gus.
"Sis, think you'll be able to come with us at the next Fart in the Sea operation? We missed you last time and we almost got caught just before we were done deactivating that bomb," said Erik.
"Let me know when you go, I'll figure something out."