I blinked sleepily, feeling the cool embrace of water all around me. I glanced down and saw my tail, silvery-blue in the water, and swam smoothly forwards. I stopped short with a thump and hissed a curse. I was in a tank. Peering out with my palms against the glass, I saw my friends in various cages around the room, all looking bored. Ali was curled in a ball, sulking in the back corner of her cage. Cass was sitting up-side down on the roof of her tank, eyes closed. Prim was circling restlessly. Natalie appeared asleep, though I could tell she was waiting for a chance to pounce by the tension in her body. I directed my thoughts towards her.
“Nat!” She flinched.
“What?” she thought back.
“Look at Ali’s cage. If she transforms, it’ll smash, and then she can let us out,” Natalie’s interests spiked.
“How can we do that?” she wondered.
“We need to make her angry,” I thumped my tail irritably on the glass, just as Taho came in. I swam upwards, to find that my tank simply had a net over the top. I floated on the surface, glaring down at Taho as he surveyed us all. Natalie stayed still, faking sleep. Taho went into a long, gloating speech, which none of us listened to.
Natalie pounced. A blaze of fire wrapped around Taho, and he panicked.
“Let us out,” she growled, the fire still streaming from her palms. Taho stumbled over to her cage and fumbled in his pockets. Then he whipped out that darn spray bottle and blasted her with it. Natalie keeled over, the fire vanishing as she fell into a real sleep. I cursed to myself as Taho smirked and left us alone again.