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Description
A turning point for all the characters of the APKALLU Mythos involved in the recent events of the INFERNO multi-arc event.
Before jumping into conclusions, the APKALLU-verse has been blooming with non-human anthropoids, collectively referred as demons yet existing previously to human species by millennia of culture, traditions, civilizations and galactic warfare. Of course, that's seen as something from the past, without to mention that, as always, you wouldn't find such worthy information on school history books. It's seen as a conspiracy. Or was, 'til two years ago.
Beside the shock of finding out these beings didn't only share the world, but have been fighting over it, from two years ago to now, what caught up the eye was the rise of two specific cold-blooded individuals, before the domino effect which spreaded international concern over the non-human issues. States to corporations employed them on the behind-the-scenes since ages ago, yet now they had to back up some PR and ease the tensions. In truth, concerns of demonic genes and populations were often seen as leaks, "separate incidents", however with greater mass migrations, the issue took proportions we already find in our own species' problems. Those who did know how things operate knew that there were more behind the looks: demons disguising as humans, humans becoming demons... thus, at a first glance, getting what's in the fight here is not easy as it seems!

MUST READ: Inferno I | II | III | Lambda vs Kappa

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the ACT

What came to be known as the "Madagascar Incident" was actually the end of a plot perpetrated by a demon* which played global powers through leaking certain informations to certain key individuals, whose by their decisions were prone to act. Absent on this scene, Auster has been around one time to many in this type of world-shifting event. Or is it that the happenning here is for something else? No register from the scene has and likely won't be ever made public. The changes within the acceptance, inclusion (a bland, general term for "employment", with all set tones of exploitation and contract as workforce) and weaponization of the highly overlooked "demon" caste has not been unnatural to the status quo these years - under the shadows, belligerents such as the Akheron League, Haijian and AXIS for example had been in mutual help (or in war) with such a "threat", measuring the genes that were of some use and those which didn't, depending on the behalf of evaluators. Turns out humans as we are now is a byproduct of that "cold war". So, this event brings no new light upon the fact that "demons" and "humans" not only share the same abode realm, but are even hiding in each other's skin, and shape-shifting is a privilege to chosing few in the private surveillance system - possessing such skill without a contract, is the worst one could do.
And that's what's being settled. Believe it or not, the protagonist here is such a case.

ARREST TEAM                                                                                                                                                                        TRITON'S "DEFENDERS"
Capitain Graham the man smoking and shooting;                                                                Goustavos Sgouros the hooded boy with staff;
Anna G. Whitaker the blonde girl with blue suit;                                                                Melissa Walker the brunette girl with rusted red armor;
Marco Friedenreich the bat-like armored fiend;                                                                Tykuki-Teret "Doghead" the flaming marsupial with huge hammer;
some numerous officers some replaceable scum                                                                Coelacanth the fish-like warrior carrying two huge deadly blades;
                                                                                                                                       Perseus the elephant-fish-like Triton, with King Helm's conch on the back

the SENTENCE

What becomes crystal clear, and here as a first, is that not all the highly polemical figure the Triton has done, has been operated by his single intent...
For it seems after all of this, it was yet another anonymous happenning which was kept away from the public. This time, Auster (who has many aliases - Raziel, Notus, Mephistopheles, to name a few). What was mostly certain here was the capture of the Triton after almost two years of his activities, which includes direct ones as key assassinations, and due being related to his weather-changing abilities, he was also framed as one could to justify the crescent rains, droughts, floods and mudslides. Things once deemed as Forces of Nature began to be addressed to such a creature, who all of a sudden became a juridical person, despite the inhumanity. One could not believe as he's able even to lift submarines out from the sea through the sheer power of the waves. No maritime economy found safety in the last years, all but daring bounty hunters and scoundrels employed in whatever nation's ranks set sail. Tourism backfired. But this proves a point to the power-heads that there are more Tritons than one. They knew that but were fine, given the last they knew worked for them. As well as this Triton's "collective of rogues" are equally suspicious of the late waves of destruction. No water could destroy a building, they say... but ships thrown into them do, as a young man would reply...

GOUSTAVOS SGOUROS (The Triton Boy)
The Triton is a fearsome opponent, yet the truth there were other three or four beside him made his aggressivity dwindle to the views of the few who knew such a fact. He was tracked by the intelligence in distinct missions and made no survivors on those who raised hand against him - until now. Endless recollection of memories and sights brought forth different sides - grouped as the Arrest Unit Team; and perhaps playing unsuspicious toward Auster, for example, proved a final ambush. The Triton plans some actions, often some just hours ahead, as was in a case to track slave ships from the West Coast into the open Atlantic. The Commonwealth which uses slavery as a coin exchange with capitalism and tutotred "rights" on a bill, used that vessel as a bait, and a vessel after another, until the Triton should return to walk on surface, tired of endless campaigns in sea north to south.
Days straight in open sea, he'd become a human only to be captured by those who followed him. Disguised UN personnel, the invisible bat, and Auster himself, a demon disguised as human, the last survivor of the late Ys expedition, only that he didn't go there to achieve anything but leave a message, prompting the deal between him and Achelous, promising something he was looking for, in exchange of the Triton's power. As he'd learn, he was short-talked, for despite the catalyst relic ( Moon Eye of Horus) was null in power, it could be recharged; the Triton, despite locked as a human, thus prevented to use the Orichalcum exo-skeleton, had the Scissor Staff as a Caduceus, thus could use mild powers of weather changing freely.
His ways of the game was cheating the senses of the vessel, kept undetected by PI, thus virtually inexistent on their plan. With that, Gous just played the conditions of the Northern Sea, only to arrive in southern Madagascar. Scurvy, isn't it? Now, he's hell-bent on healing his bruises and cover enough daimobia to become Triton once again, sparing not a single one from the Arrest Team, as pay-back for some beating he had.
Spare no one. Maybe just Anna, at least. He was looked after by someone else and at the moment it was all he needed. Words failed him. He was better in inhuman might, in alien magic, than down to earth as a human.

MELISSA WALKER (Former Agent KAPPA)
From Triton's enemy in 2009 (having failed to capture him on French Riviera the same year) to temporary ally in Mission: SCIROCCO, as a double-agent for a common cause, who've known Triton's secret by playing in the field research and catching him in the act of transformation. Despite having the temperament, who could've killed him in the moment (reminded constantly by Ann that she'd have spared all Triton's victims afterwards), she knew even if briefly the human behind the Triton, and noted a positive insight in having allied to him. She's convinced his role is an unwanted one, yet he's been pivotal into mapping and destroying slavery. Unaware of the latter part, it doesn't matter how it is to be handled the dissolution of such perverse scenario, she's introduced to the fact that all new life accounted into the earth has a debt and issues a new fuel to this system of exploitation. Before giving in to paranoia, she has to keep it cool by targeting key-personnel, which seems just to crash the party today. She's not surprised Ann would rather be allied with the openly racist, eugenist Marco than with a young boy, just because public relations barely know the first's wrongdoing other than poor management, all the while the Triton is demonized 24 hours on TV. Be that as it may, she have had many sermons for the Triton who could easily choose not to listen, yet she realizes that deep down he has a thing for her, and evaluates that before going to action when she's around. Hard to deal, given all who knows the young man is the triton automatically ties him to a psycho personality. She's not only not fond of such misjudgement, but she also didn't see her trying to preserve her for other that much. She has some sisterly way to look after him.
She knew he was a human with a complex mind.

She perceived it all as she actually have changed the Triton in occasion. He had a human side.
Prone to do what he must, he was motivated by experience, and that was something both of them had. He had self-trust as the Triton, but to her eyes, he lacked it as a human. If his actions concerned more something which involved less killing, he'd conciliate his deep mentality and inner subjectivity. Creating new pools for the thirsty animals to drink, offering the fresh corpses of humans for predators instead of common prey...
It would take time, and should mistakes be done, more countless lives would be taken. He made sure if there was a balance, if "live and let die" was true, he'd change the tides. Favoring non-human animals and those with regard to the sentients in first place. He was a fast thinker.
Soon enough he had targeted key-personnel. Mining magnates, businessmen, The Queen.
Attacking royal family, he triggered and set the stage for a Kingdom to start to crumble, or else review it's role as a conscripted "world police".
This attack called upon all the "so-called independent states" which actually followed and perpetrated a conscripted role of globalization of misery.
The Triton, by doing that, previewed spots of action on which they'd pressure the usage of those they've freed:
demons from Africa, in colonies as far as in Egypt and Sudan, pointing out to strategic unions with countries of repressive status;
such as Anatolia, whose major politician is ally to Jahannam in every intent, and is both pawn and lap-dog for Auster.

the JUDGEMENT

Cracking AXIS' former encrypted intelligence, they know Cuetzpalin stalked with government figures as bounty hunters in not much distant time from around when Triton's predecessor and concurrent ally Paynal broke out. But that's not the main concern. There was an Island which was filled with them cold-blooded demons, though not all did have human counterparts. The place was strategically isolated in the Sargasso Sea, cartographers ignored it, but it was there since at least the turn of the millennium as a stage for a political event which shaped the future of Tahuantinsuyu, and just recently was "rebutted" by it's own dark forces, resetting a dictator back into power, even if for a while. As one can see, each nation had sided with a culture, caste, species or simply institute of demons. No matter the Minotaur ranted about the upcoming "witchhunt" his late father previewed in the bloody african civil war where he was last seen, the humans and demons became much more blurred than one could tell. Those which made a stand were labeled "leaks" by such an elite, and then the hunt was on. Each evasion Triton and Paynal did in the last two years further let the world to feel it's deep wounds.

ANNA G WHITAKER (Former Agent LAMBDA)
Has it been long ago (some months) since Archibald's daughter survived Mission: ATLANTIS and learned humans and demons could change one another? That as well as finding out her nightmarish experience was just the preview that life would change, but still getting it together per retaining her cherished Lambda armor of diving. It brought her immediately to her estranged father's side once more. The canadian acted in search of conspiracies solo, yet her public self had to go by the book, employed at the guise of a private agency, her father's, which to sums it up, served but the armed force of international law. She had outcomes to this, as she was tailing the Triton ever since a great terrorist act in London, in his regicide campaign. Remourseful, she failed to apprehend him years ago, dazzled by his knowledge towards things she had as "too much human" while surviving the crushing pressure of some trench. She was brought into the Ys haven of the Triton and tailed him from there, to no avail. Her most shockingly surprise was to learn former teammates were in favor of the safekeeping of the demon, just further proving her he had not a human side, but an identity. Now, she believes to have an upper hand, assuring the young man he'd be incarcerated for the crimes he commited, yet reformed, by the inescapbility of holding such accursed power being not a personal matter, thus not validating enough for a life-for-a-life sentence. The youngling is not convinced by her words, yet he is attracted by her angry stance, and her tone. During the arrest, she was the only one gave free passage to reach the vessel, which as soon as the human triton was captured, was set into external isolation, out of reach, out of signal, directed but by old-school marauders. Perseus perceived her persecution and sprung the trap. Once Archibald's daughter was involved in a fight for life, he couldn't hold a minute more, and he released his grasp on the Eye of Horus, thus revealing to the others the existance of the vessel, and letting it slip into the shoreline, arriving in Madagascar. Once again family spoke louder for the officer.

CAPTAIN GRAHAM (Archibald the Detective)
With years of service behind his back, different possessions and a penchant to explore ancient tombs and findings, he's been granted a passage in many divisions of intelligence under directions from NATO and Interpol, he's became known through the UK, Canada and elsewhere in the commonwealth, avoiding political vacant positions. His latest runs have been in missions for the safety of the royal family. Aware their persecution has been just the outcry the Triton used to engage enraged masses as the toil was too heavy for everyone, he's not blind enough to take it as a personal attack, seeing through the effect of such regicide campaign - seeding chaos. He's more concerned with property damage and with the maintenance of his own institution, and at the very moment, it is at the brink. He is hinted to have known the secret of the Triton for a while, getting the facts right in a night somewhere in Bologna, when the Triton found safe haven to morph back into human. At the occasion he assured his and Minotaur's safety in front of a hidden enemy. He possess something the Triton is unaware of - the Sun Eye of Horus, Moon's counterpart. He used to null each other when they "fished" the Triton off West African Coast. Before they landed, he had to lift the mist the Triton covered them in for days only when their pursuer (Perseus) revealed himself. The long days it got to keep the secret they were following blind, arriving anywhere else, from the rest of the crew was heart-wrenching, but he didn't think twice when Perseus engaged an agent of his in combat - his own daughter. The crew crash-landed in Madagascar, despite a second, most militarized fleet has been at high-speed in the sea from around Australia at time. How long will they last before the fleet arrives is a question... As implied, he has some powers, fire ones... if the 'eyes' were catalysts, from where did he draw his powers from?

the TRIAL

Slavery was not only on-going, it is the modus operandi of our economy, since the dawn of time. Such "slave circles", shameless human-trading pits (how different's that for any sentient being, huh...) were more exposed than ever. Their secret intent, under the alias of "research" and "classification", actually an eugenic crusade, was so naturalized in the surface world, that "demon" (once again, who's who proved to be quite a difficult question) sovereigns became merely bureaucrats, their livestock became less evaluated by incredible rates. "Leaks" were common and just sipped some drops more of bloodbath into regions the surveillance system gave a blind eye - intended no-man's lands in the Caucasus, Central Africa, Amazon Rainforest, to name a few. This, in truth, is among such a place - under the guise of some preservation field near Mantadia, Madagascar, there's a containment of many prisoners. This is but a satellite - activated when needed, such is the case; however, it responds to direct orders from somewhere else. INFERNO, deep in Victoria Lake, has been such a facility, spawning it's portals from nearby islands and countryside, historically we can cite Ukerewe islands as a hotspot. It became the region of the ambush after the vessel which captured the Triton failed to deliver him to Capetown. In truth it was just re-activated, unknown to the employers of MI-6 and INTERPOL for example, save for a few of one or two which used such "demonic aid" as a safe measure after things went out of hand. And such an act caught attention of a former collaborator, a co-worker to the returning voyager, appriser. To hire his unfathomable knowledge or database required not much. But pardon of debts and cleansing of any evidence of his crimes. Immediate end for the warranty of his capture, for he, despite a vampire was not the worst half demon around.

MARCO FRIEDENREICH (with the PI Suit of Stealth)
Marco was employed by AXIS, thus in truth he was already used to demon-hunting. On almost the top of the hierarchy, he employs an Alpha-Omega, that of stealth. He answered to just a few, among them the industrialist Jorgen who met his demise months ago by Triton and allies. That said, he went into hiding, mostly dodging expensive debts, a bankrupt military enterprise (one banned at some countries, found out to lead human testing, mong other things) and trials on the funds raised by slavery and illegal trades. Vocal against him was FBI Lana Bridges, her father (an industrialist as well, coveting Ulhaden, according to him), and he was accounted among the perpetrators of the AXIS' closure fiasco, indirectly associated with death of agents by neglect of aid. If his cabin in the German Dark Forest or political exile in Bavaria weren't enough, his armor kept him almost undetected. Without anyone to answer for, he recollected his data. Among the first to know the Triton was a human behind such blue sclay skin and hard exo-skeleton of a shell, the main difference was he kept silent at it, knowing the secret would evaluate much more if preserved. He knew the demon was a boy, one regular and random all the same, but one he was prone to find in his way. His re-appearance in the last few months was perceived by former students Kai and Melissa. They got Triton's back. What wasn't expected was that he'd be sought after to compose the "Arrest Unit". He was at large undetected, and he'd perceive it when the young man turned the vessel with sheer water manipulation. Now he's on a bad day, as he meets an old foe, one he faced covered in armor years ago, and once again at Scirocco. He has painful memories, but as aforementioned, the slash of the blade seemed to cure, for in truth, the sinister scientist has been through modifications, fitting him into a vampire type.

COELACANTH (the Glaucean)
Among Triton's earliest mentors (and bodyguard, when he protected the young man from Marco once at their early career), he was a Triton once, and found out he had more powers as one rather than a human. Before thinking twice, he simulated that powers which weren't meant to be, and with the cost of a mortal lifetime, he became a Glaucean, constantly on tarinning and body-building to still retain weather-changing abilities from his past life. His story is a long one, spanning from the late Middle-Ages, he adds some lines the Minotaur gave to the youngling, and he's prone to find the secret conspiracy which threats people as genetic pools, and genetic pools as easy bribery. In the long term, preserving what's worse in humanity and betraying the species itself. He's an immortal who found perhaps too late most of them are hungry scavengers, parasites clinging for a resurrection they're not worthy of. An anarchist once, he reminisces of Libertalia now, only that the major enemy he's grown particularily close in the last years was misery, so he changed tactics a bit. Ever since the departure of other teammates such as Hunapu and Asclepius, he left for his own as well, afraid the young Triton found an early death by an enemy blade. Aware his former pupil wouldn't simply turn back from powers or a life of struggle, he sees no reason for his own to do so, so for a final hand-picking, he's able to confront an entire British Armada if that's what it takes. Taking in consideration the world boils by revolutions once again, he sees some hope after some century, through the NECOCYAOTL, as well as news the Black Knights are regrouping. After all, despite the differences, other than the scaly skin both european amphibian humanoids had a thing for anarchism. In the island of the lemurs, he reminisces his intents.

[The] pirates were anti-capitalist, opposed to the dispossession that necessarily accompanied the historic ascent of wage labor and capitalism.
They insisted that "every Man was born free, and had as much Right to what would support him, as to the Air he respired."
They resented the "encroachments" by which "Villains" and "unmerciful Creditors" grew "immensely rich" as others became "wretchedly miserable." They spoke of the "Natural right" to "a Share of the Earth as is necessary for our Support." They saw piracy as a war of self-preservation.
[They redefined the] fundamental relations of property and power. They had no need for money "where every Thing was in common, and no Hedge bounded any particular Man's Property," and they decreed that "the Treasure and Cattle they were Masters of should be equally divided."
The pirates have been reported to have freed enslaved people because the idea of slavery went against their own ideals of freedom.

the COURT

You might realize the conflict of interest here is much larger than the global scope, and yet sounds so specific, the capture of a single specimen.

Despite one Triton is seen in the struggle, the one they hunt and captured was the young man standing on front of all, dragged by the brunette girl.
This young man is the Triton, and he has as many demon allies as his enemies do, fiends which came as far as to rally demon hunting campaigns themselves. No solidarity as "species" mean few to their ethical backbone. Auster played them all, and he saw as Triton managed to shrink and effectively dissolve his former ally's domain - Minotaur Myrddin's - only for militias to take former slavery activities into rank-raising for proposed revolutions. Revolutions which paved the way to tyrants such as Tamrat to rise (something the Triton never meant to) and to break free demon contingency in Inferno and Jahannam (located around the Black Sea, specially at the hotspots of Bosphorus and Alania - even the use of gold has been taught by demons, you know), thus severing his own bureaucracy, which stood the same for over eight centuries. But he was eager to freedom, one his master Abaddon didn't foresee for him. People which returned from the disastrous mission at the Sargasso-related island were sought after by international intelligence, now aware humans and demons could shape-shift, then Auster, perhaps at a human guise, was just the middleman in the process to gather them. Finding it made them able to locate the Triton and one of his havens, in the ruins of what they consider to be the legendary Ys. Be that as it may, it was still early to realize the Triton was a shape shifter. It was an item, the Eye of Horus, that made them sure Triton's weather powers were great, yet co-opted. Favored by an elemental god, the tide would turn should they acquire upper hands in negotiations. Through an unlikely re-apparition, they did, with exchange of the appriser's life. A returning Doctor Gilles (former professor to Anna, "sidekick" to Archibald) used to telepathy, was an wild card they didn't count, for he was thought to be dead after Mission Atlantis. It happens that somewhere in "Ys", he's been brought back from his "escape pod", somewhere stranded in Helladeas. However, Archibald's spy wasn't the only one who went back from it...

PERSEUS (the Legendary Triton)
Other than Gilles, even the human Triton passed a brief time at Helladeas, homeworld to the Triton kind. While the world was both too similar (in nature) and so different (in... pretty much everything else), power-heads still kept contacts and traded sentient life as if it was a piece of food. The passage was a brief one, the bigger odyssey was to awake to larger enemies hidden in the veils of every intent, yet it made him ostracized, anticipated as an enemy to such society. The Tritons were so powerful that a society of them was mostly unthinkable. That's why they developed castes within the years. Those with conches and weather powers became more scarce, as even that became a replicable privilege. Herakles and Perseus, for example, are resurrected from time to time to fill the roles. When Akhs invaded (they were always there, in the bowels of underworld, or as traders and traded in the shores of Asphodel - passing such limits meant a worthynote "upscale invasion"), they were employed to hunt them from their point of origin - our world's Tenere desert - thus, beginning their oown modern odyssey, Perseus and Herakles, reborn and unused to the world, fought bravely and withstood the most different armed personnel, in an uneasy alliance marked with constant in-fighting and relative plots between one another. Eager to make their enemy retreat to their base, all we know is they've found a deadlock somewhere in Rwanda. Perseus returned recently, eager to inform the ostracized Triton that he was right all along on the impending future of the Akhs and Tritons... and that Horus' Eye, by the way, was more a catalyst than a power source. That they both learned in the field, as Perseus' true interests lies in the hands of his kind's, evaluated by THE Triton, one who gave the youngling a beating. In other words, he made some use of reason and realized Auster and the Triton were together somehow, but Triton had ways to cease the business - Perseus was this way - tired of being some king or prince's henchman, he's ready to take Charon's boat next. Before that happens, he fights side-by-side with an Akh. Unthinkable, for in 37 centuries before he was known as Akh-butcher.

TYKUKI-TERET (The Marsupial Akh-Gawan)
Behind the scenes in Perseus' campaign from desert to savanna, savanna to swamp and then savanna to jungle, some packs of Akhs broke free from within enemy ranks, and among them, Tykuki-Teret has been following as close as he could, catching a sight in the trio of Tritons (which includes the Triton boy and Herakles), realizing in no time only one of them was trustworthy to his and his companion (absent in the scene), the female Akh Tiyeshajah, arguably even more warrior-like than his own. They've spent years with a bland promise of release, but following Set and his demonic aids to mine coal and Xnobius in Tibet under Jinci was no better future. Not that they had sense of time as we do, but years in the underground made them learn a few tricks. Using powers of fire into whole new levels, limited projections and manipulation of lava to intended seismic impacts made him get close enough to the Triton, and they've been in good terms ever since he was the closest one to realize what happenned to Herakles in Rwanda. Defeated by the masters of Aaru, the veteran Triton was after what Tykuki "Doghead" now possess - the Seismic Iron Hammer of Xnobius, Minotaur's safekeep which had some hurting memories for the young Triton. Now it's payback time, as Tykuki fights for the maintenance of Triton and his role against slavery, despite the speciesist rivalry between Tritons and Akhs. He used some sort of "echo-location" to find the activated satellite branch of Inferno. Aware of who's behind it, he means not to hold back as the belligerents realize all communication systems are cracked. If the young boy becomes the Triton, only their eyes will witness it. He will make sure the enemy has no eyes after the battle.

the OUTCOME

Handled to local authorities, the human identified as Goustavos Mauros Sgouros wasn't included in current reports. Time was running out to identify whether or not he was actually a human or just a shapeshifter playing with the identity of a Minoican Citizen. Anna was sure of it, she knew these demons could become humans, she saw even Paynal doing that. But she didn't mean to kill or torture him - interrogating first, clarifying his deeds and purposes, and finally introduce him in some kind of rehabilitation, to free him from such "cursed power", and back to a life, albeit never normal again, something that could actually help people -- according to her word alone, that is. Confiding in her was the most safe exit of that situation, it was done before, both her and her father did protect the Triton once or twice, for reasons unknown to him, purposes left behind. But ever since becoming the Triton, admitted in his crusade to promote and make feasible the liberation and care of sentient beings, violence has always been the answer. There was no double-paths, his message has always been clear. Written in blood, ethical sharpness has been present as ever. People just ignored it, in their shallow hipocrisy. He knew Anna did, too, albeit surprised to learn she went vegan (needless to say at this point he's vegan, right? When I use the term "sentient being" it should be clear of whom I speak), he couldn't do more steps at the moment. Melissa would request he do some - as the Triton, with the violence others (even her own) rebutted in the past. The moment was not just Triton's future, it was also to the human behind it.
.
Not a matter of guilt, the Triton did cruel things, yes, that didn't solve anything he proposed to, not by a long shot, but it was invariably accepted and seen by Melissa that he had other use for his powers, he made a valuable place among a never ending intent. His power wasn't a curse. It was a chance to make something better, but Ann's proposals would just throw it away, her capture and charges of his would be more brutal than the osracization he had in Helladeas. No one would ever look after him again. He'd be a prisoner of intelligence forever. With that, there would be a cover in oblivion to plots of slavery which were so deep in the functioning of world economy that would never be touched if the Triton was removed from board. The Triton was believed to be an untamed force of nature. His demeanor, however, couldn't be out of the scope of other sentient beings, regardless if he was human or not. He had habits, and searching his weakness or a time he relented, rested, was usually the right time to attack. Matter is, he "relaxed" whilst living as a human, but those times were becoming more and more scarce with the needs he brought forth ever after the implications he involved in the last two years and reached a climax some months ago. The last one, fighting pirate crews and slave-trading vessels, was used as a bait, as if his altruism "failed" him.

Anna argues more on his deeds as a inhuman creature. And Melissa too, as she points out things which he done not shown by media - protecting the autonomy of native peoples, saving animals from drought and famine, floods, and from human exploitation - things she was witness to, which really mattered, most than the sensationalism Anna fell into believing. He couldn't have done all that alone (he was a teenager boy, regardless of having the power of changing weather, dammit) - so she started off from where she could - after all, they didn't inherited their Alpha Omega armors for nothing, or just for playing the police of someone else. So did Gous' powers of Triton. They weren't for good or evil, they just were. He was finding his path, regardless of his intent in killing people involved with exploitation, Melissa argued that these people would never be exposed. If she expressed these were just "separate cases", she actually started digging into Triton and is allies kept saying, that which the travels across the fringe made her realize. It was the modus operandi. If Triton did bad things, it didn't outdo his good ones it didn't avoid others doing even worse things in anonymous ways. It was clear law was sensational and the entire "arrest" operation has been a gullible way for Ann to seek a promotion, or either her father. If it was issued to avenge the murdered members of the royal family, the intent on itself was just a way to cleanse the guilt-trip they've sank into. Triton had better things to do.

A LOOKING IN VIEW

It was clear that "safety" and "security" the troops sought with such arrest concerned but only maintaing the public facade of the commonwealth intact as well as paving the way for a new king to issue direct orders into a disintegrating parliament, which as of now were of little consequence to the true ruling magnates. Once again it was a matter of showing service, only that as has been before, they were given reason to weight how valuable was it to apprehend just a specimen and sacrifice the entire fleet for the operation. When it all became not only unfeasible but betrayed some of it's institution's veterans, it was quite clear for Anna the failure of the intent came from all sides - despite projecting such frustration in having Melissa aiding the enemy, she cared little for her supposed troops, and once again was bent on search and rescue, this time to her father. He lost troops, people with families who fought by his side by a lifetime, and even had 'sold' his own trustworthy sidekick (Ann's former teamleader in AXIS) to an unknown 'alien' magnate, just for some king. Marco, as always, had been witness to a game-changing evente and would retreat to his cave, until he was sought after. In this war for information and intelligence, she saw it best no one bothered the young Triton, as long as he lived as a human. He couldn't - he wouldn't - keep that promise. He owed no one of anything, no one but those which manipulated his powers in the past, the fiends of hell who gave such power away. Not that he felt like "paying the debt", anyway. Words failed him.

From that day, few would live to claim that yes, a young Minoican is the Triton. Probably just those which already knew the world is too big, and in the end, there are people worse than him. More pressing concerns. Slavers becoming new leaders, rebellions being misled under populist tendencies...
Tending to her wounded father, it was rather Melissa, not Triton, the subject of Ann's enmity right afterwards... She failed him, he failed his troops, the troops failed the new declared king some under the title John III of York, yesterday a military overseas (from Zealandia), today the head of the crumbling Commonwealth. Ann would retire a while, re-building her strength in her country. Unknown to most, she'd keep track of events by a double-agent.

Coelacanth once again handles down his knowledges through even more scrolls he kept, gifting the young Triton with unfathomable knowledge. His only guarantee on it's veracity was on itself, only more knowledge can challenge knowledge. In the way, he faces the future, returning back to the fight...
Marco fled, the coward he was... planning something else after the secret once again expires into shadows... previewing an event where he has a role.
Tykuki has to return to his companion, at the moment in dire danger. His allegiance to the Triton proved to have it's sacrifices as well, but they're used to it
Perseus has to think over his recent existential crisis... His set of values no longer corresponds with his own state of affairs, and at last he begins to doubt
Gous needs a rest... as if... he realizes he's damned either as human or as a Triton, the fact of having no charges after the incident still gives no relief
Melissa has to find a way not to give up, now that she's clearly on a side... and once again she puts on the fire for someone she's actually doubtful towards

end of the day, it's quite clear detention is never the answer. all sentients should be free and respected.

THE MIDDLEMAN DEVIL

That "end of the act", the wiping out of a fleet, then the escape of the demons and the lack of register of the happenning, however was of little concern to it's architect, the demon lord Auster. He's one who comes to serve and ultimately arrange the meeting of those who are already damned in their intent. Guided by the whispers wishing a role in the world, by where the secrets flow, those untold stories unable of remaining enclosured into a mind. Information compelled to flow through anonymous tides, between fame and treachery. He appears because he senses in Triton's murderous acts that Gous is already corrupt, that indeed he is already 'damned', devoid of any service to the powerful ones, yet with power of his own. Power he sees better employed among the demons, on their lot, that would be: harvesting people and managing abundant work-force, in scarce scenarios he seemed to be used to.
“All those eyes intent on me. Devouring me. So this is hell. I’d never have believed it.
You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the “burning marl.”
Old wives’ tales! There’s no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is other people!”
The Triton has been a juridical figure to the arrest team, yet he's just a character compared to the sole mind which direct it's deeds. Triton and Gous are no different people and Auster sought to make others realize that, regardless of who the anonymous high-schooler was in the details. Consciousness is not alone in the world, it "must" (or rather can) accommodate itself with other minds, which are also 'fighting' to exist. Solipsism is merely a gentle dream.
Shame is the original feeling brought on by the realization of the existence of others. "As if looking through a keyhole, an act that induces a thrill because of the thought that someone might realize that I – the peeper – am looking through the keyhole. In that moment, one sees oneself as other people would see the me: as an object". Shame, in other words, is the shame of recognizing oneself in the gaze of the other. Resentment.
It is the crushing realization that I am little more to others than the physical manifestation of my body in their sight. The Triton was a different body, yet realizing he was human was of little consequence to the present in the moment after the initial shock. That day the "god-like" Triton became a "genetical aberration" in the same moment. Auster meant Gous to embrace his role as a demon, but not as he intended to. Having these two identities for a sole being was a privilege that hell sought to abolish. In multitude, all these "tags" from the others seemed to enlist on deeds before they were done, in the actor before the deed, made them devoid of any role in defending oneself from judgement. The real judgement was out of the courts. Anna was the one who slipped it through the bureaucracies of the law, Auster made sure Gous had no way out from it regardless of her disbanding of the team. He was sought to fulfill a contract with Inferno.
He was frozen into a being (simple judgements, such as proud, shy, …) that he was not. The Triton didn't really had to care for what he had done, but the mind behind it, his true self (Goustavos) couldn't help but follow to the break-down as time weighted in his head: two years taking daily moments to hunt down people working with animal (human and non-human) exploitation didn't hinder these acts from still perpetrating in increasing rates at the world. He made concessions. Where he couldn't abolish, he'd reduce. But soon reduction became a dim effect, he felt like he was the only one ceding his power, holding back. All those in damned intents related to Inferno, for example, were living their "normal lives" as if they weren't doing a thing, egotistical elements under the allias of collectivity, staunch figures managing the masses and appealing to populism under "individual freedom" speech, all was out-of-place. This "particle" of his (as the "murderous one") was a fragment which defined him through the others when looked upon: while in the Triton they were clouded with fear and awe, it was through his unknown, anonymous human self that he (the actor) would mediate the reach of Triton's deeds.
He made all he could to inform others what he was doing and why. It mattered little if the words were written in blood of the victims ("victims" who caused much more victims and didn't stop after the imminent warnings, no matter what), they were abundant in books and through scholars - to no avail! Realizing his secret was torn to some hundred troops, to the gaze of others exposing him, he was turning into a subject, while there was no one before, he remained the same under this spotlight - no one but a murderer:

“If there is an Other, whatever or whoever it may be, whatever may be it's relations with me, and without it acting upon me in any way except by the pure upsurge of it's being – then I have an outside, I have a nature. “[ ]

This "nature" was a pre-set of habits he was tricked into replicating over and over. "The only defence left at one’s disposal is to transform others, to turn them into an object for the management of one's own consciousness and characterization. We must rid ourselves of others (i.e. public perception), to escape and to reclaim oneself and the freedom that the 'Other's' gaze is depriving me of." This was but a subterfuge to continue to exist as a subject, in what constitutes yet another effort to resist the attempted subordination of the self by the gaze of the "public". This opens a moral dilemma: the fact that others – and their gaze – is what alienates and locks me in a particular kind of being, which in turn deprives me of my freedom. It replicated within him as he grown into seeing his daily crusade as the Triton like a duty. He then felt Ann's sight pierce into his, he knew she was building into it, into enacting his arrest, everafter their last meet. Attempts were done by different means but none of them were frutiful. But after the brutal release, the surprise attack through Perseus' tides, Tykuki's earthquakes, and Coelacanth's slashes, Anna realized (maybe by the sacrifice of her father's career), the 'error' of her ways.
Something, someone made a certain peace of mind to prevail in the moment, realizing what was brought together. Perhaps just the two of them realized Auster had done it. Ann would realize it too late, while Gus wouldn't have shared the insight with his fellows. He walked straight into the steep path for hell. Hers, was into her own "purgatory". Auster has been in his own contract, his own hell by serving Abaddon ever after the foundation of Inferno. He warns Gous of the choice he is making by "going Triton" at full as the demons would never let go of him and made sure of his place among them. While Triton-Gous wanted to annihilate the concept of "us" between the demons, whose he saw as apprehended victims of misery, united in hunger, he knew he had no upper hand. But he did mean to give them a final solution should this Abaddon's reach be as implied - to live through the Commonwealth and beyond, making this chapter look just like a phrase amidst his book. He was quite clear as a human he'd get rid of his former pre-set goals (college, career, whatever). But he'd not go by Auster's way. Old known to other allies between the demons, he would learn Auster meant his entrance to the realm as Abaddon was hell-bent on reviving his powers - Triton's conch could do the trick - so the 'subject' here has strong material meaning.
Defeating the Demon Sovereign, his only doubt was if Auster did foresee his victory, thus in the end liberating the demons to face wilderness and hazards, and to make he inherit all which was awaiting for him - the Realm of Jahannam. Should it fall, Auster would be free to do what he want, rejoice in it as a final gift Gous would've given him. Advised by Charon to don't leave this breach open, his next move would be to destroy Jahannam - and it's many millennia-worth untold history - so no one would earn anything from it. He was as enemy to misery as he's been to the wealth, and even history and knowledge could be sacrificed to it.

Give away a love and then remove another too
Painted words adorn the walls, echoing untrue, I feel cold...
Promises abound, you rarely find it to begin
Maybe I'm afraid to let you all the way in; I guess so...
I excuse myself, I'm used to my little cell
I amuse myself In my very own private hell

Lately I'm beside myself, pretending unconcerned
Standing at a corner where I threw you on a turn, I'll move on...
Flowers on a cross remain, marking an ending scene
Damn it all if blood you spill, turn the grass more green, Life is short...
I excuse myself, I'm used to my little cell
I amuse myself In my very own private hell

It was clear both he and Auster were in an ever-present private hell, it didn't matter Gus lived through this by two years and Auster by thousands of years. A contract has such a power to reduce life-times. He was more sure than ever that no one is free until all are free.

Description
A turning point for all the characters of the APKALLU Mythos involved in the recent events of the INFERNO multi-arc event.
Before jumping into conclusions, the APKALLU-verse has been blooming with non-human anthropoids, collectively referred as demons yet existing previously to human species by millennia of culture, traditions, civilizations and galactic warfare. Of course, that's seen as something from the past, without to mention that, as always, you wouldn't find such worthy information on school history books. It's seen as a conspiracy. Or was, 'til two years ago.
Beside the shock of finding out these beings didn't only share the world, but have been fighting over it, from two years ago to now, what caught up the eye was the rise of two specific cold-blooded individuals, before the domino effect which spreaded international concern over the non-human issues. States to corporations employed them on the behind-the-scenes since ages ago, yet now they had to back up some PR and ease the tensions. In truth, concerns of demonic genes and populations were often seen as leaks, "separate incidents", however with greater mass migrations, the issue took proportions we already find in our own species' problems. Those who did know how things operate knew that there were more behind the looks: demons disguising as humans, humans becoming demons... thus, at a first glance, getting what's in the fight here is not easy as it seems!

MUST READ: Inferno I | II | III | Lambda vs Kappa

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the ACT

What came to be known as the "Madagascar Incident" was actually the end of a plot perpetrated by a demon* which played global powers through leaking certain informations to certain key individuals, whose by their decisions were prone to act. Absent on this scene, Auster has been around one time to many in this type of world-shifting event. Or is it that the happenning here is for something else? No register from the scene has and likely won't be ever made public. The changes within the acceptance, inclusion (a bland, general term for "employment", with all set tones of exploitation and contract as workforce) and weaponization of the highly overlooked "demon" caste has not been unnatural to the status quo these years - under the shadows, belligerents such as the Akheron League, Haijian and AXIS for example had been in mutual help (or in war) with such a "threat", measuring the genes that were of some use and those which didn't, depending on the behalf of evaluators. Turns out humans as we are now is a byproduct of that "cold war". So, this event brings no new light upon the fact that "demons" and "humans" not only share the same abode realm, but are even hiding in each other's skin, and shape-shifting is a privilege to chosing few in the private surveillance system - possessing such skill without a contract, is the worst one could do.
And that's what's being settled. Believe it or not, the protagonist here is such a case.

ARREST TEAM                                                                                                                                                                        TRITON'S "DEFENDERS"
Capitain Graham the man smoking and shooting;                                                                Goustavos Sgouros the hooded boy with staff;
Anna G. Whitaker the blonde girl with blue suit;                                                                Melissa Walker the brunette girl with rusted red armor;
Marco Friedenreich the bat-like armored fiend;                                                                Tykuki-Teret "Doghead" the flaming marsupial with huge hammer;
some numerous officers some replaceable scum                                                                Coelacanth the fish-like warrior carrying two huge deadly blades;
                                                                                                                                       Perseus the elephant-fish-like Triton, with King Helm's conch on the back

the SENTENCE

What becomes crystal clear, and here as a first, is that not all the highly polemical figure the Triton has done, has been operated by his single intent...
For it seems after all of this, it was yet another anonymous happenning which was kept away from the public. This time, Auster (who has many aliases - Raziel, Notus, Mephistopheles, to name a few). What was mostly certain here was the capture of the Triton after almost two years of his activities, which includes direct ones as key assassinations, and due being related to his weather-changing abilities, he was also framed as one could to justify the crescent rains, droughts, floods and mudslides. Things once deemed as Forces of Nature began to be addressed to such a creature, who all of a sudden became a juridical person, despite the inhumanity. One could not believe as he's able even to lift submarines out from the sea through the sheer power of the waves. No maritime economy found safety in the last years, all but daring bounty hunters and scoundrels employed in whatever nation's ranks set sail. Tourism backfired. But this proves a point to the power-heads that there are more Tritons than one. They knew that but were fine, given the last they knew worked for them. As well as this Triton's "collective of rogues" are equally suspicious of the late waves of destruction. No water could destroy a building, they say... but ships thrown into them do, as a young man would reply...

GOUSTAVOS SGOUROS (The Triton Boy)
The Triton is a fearsome opponent, yet the truth there were other three or four beside him made his aggressivity dwindle to the views of the few who knew such a fact. He was tracked by the intelligence in distinct missions and made no survivors on those who raised hand against him - until now. Endless recollection of memories and sights brought forth different sides - grouped as the Arrest Unit Team; and perhaps playing unsuspicious toward Auster, for example, proved a final ambush. The Triton plans some actions, often some just hours ahead, as was in a case to track slave ships from the West Coast into the open Atlantic. The Commonwealth which uses slavery as a coin exchange with capitalism and tutotred "rights" on a bill, used that vessel as a bait, and a vessel after another, until the Triton should return to walk on surface, tired of endless campaigns in sea north to south.
Days straight in open sea, he'd become a human only to be captured by those who followed him. Disguised UN personnel, the invisible bat, and Auster himself, a demon disguised as human, the last survivor of the late Ys expedition, only that he didn't go there to achieve anything but leave a message, prompting the deal between him and Achelous, promising something he was looking for, in exchange of the Triton's power. As he'd learn, he was short-talked, for despite the catalyst relic ( Moon Eye of Horus) was null in power, it could be recharged; the Triton, despite locked as a human, thus prevented to use the Orichalcum exo-skeleton, had the Scissor Staff as a Caduceus, thus could use mild powers of weather changing freely.
His ways of the game was cheating the senses of the vessel, kept undetected by PI, thus virtually inexistent on their plan. With that, Gous just played the conditions of the Northern Sea, only to arrive in southern Madagascar. Scurvy, isn't it? Now, he's hell-bent on healing his bruises and cover enough daimobia to become Triton once again, sparing not a single one from the Arrest Team, as pay-back for some beating he had.
Spare no one. Maybe just Anna, at least. He was looked after by someone else and at the moment it was all he needed. Words failed him. He was better in inhuman might, in alien magic, than down to earth as a human.

MELISSA WALKER (Former Agent KAPPA)
From Triton's enemy in 2009 (having failed to capture him on French Riviera the same year) to temporary ally in Mission: SCIROCCO, as a double-agent for a common cause, who've known Triton's secret by playing in the field research and catching him in the act of transformation. Despite having the temperament, who could've killed him in the moment (reminded constantly by Ann that she'd have spared all Triton's victims afterwards), she knew even if briefly the human behind the Triton, and noted a positive insight in having allied to him. She's convinced his role is an unwanted one, yet he's been pivotal into mapping and destroying slavery. Unaware of the latter part, it doesn't matter how it is to be handled the dissolution of such perverse scenario, she's introduced to the fact that all new life accounted into the earth has a debt and issues a new fuel to this system of exploitation. Before giving in to paranoia, she has to keep it cool by targeting key-personnel, which seems just to crash the party today. She's not surprised Ann would rather be allied with the openly racist, eugenist Marco than with a young boy, just because public relations barely know the first's wrongdoing other than poor management, all the while the Triton is demonized 24 hours on TV. Be that as it may, she have had many sermons for the Triton who could easily choose not to listen, yet she realizes that deep down he has a thing for her, and evaluates that before going to action when she's around. Hard to deal, given all who knows the young man is the triton automatically ties him to a psycho personality. She's not only not fond of such misjudgement, but she also didn't see her trying to preserve her for other that much. She has some sisterly way to look after him.
She knew he was a human with a complex mind.

She perceived it all as she actually have changed the Triton in occasion. He had a human side.
Prone to do what he must, he was motivated by experience, and that was something both of them had. He had self-trust as the Triton, but to her eyes, he lacked it as a human. If his actions concerned more something which involved less killing, he'd conciliate his deep mentality and inner subjectivity. Creating new pools for the thirsty animals to drink, offering the fresh corpses of humans for predators instead of common prey...
It would take time, and should mistakes be done, more countless lives would be taken. He made sure if there was a balance, if "live and let die" was true, he'd change the tides. Favoring non-human animals and those with regard to the sentients in first place. He was a fast thinker.
Soon enough he had targeted key-personnel. Mining magnates, businessmen, The Queen.
Attacking royal family, he triggered and set the stage for a Kingdom to start to crumble, or else review it's role as a conscripted "world police".
This attack called upon all the "so-called independent states" which actually followed and perpetrated a conscripted role of globalization of misery.
The Triton, by doing that, previewed spots of action on which they'd pressure the usage of those they've freed:
demons from Africa, in colonies as far as in Egypt and Sudan, pointing out to strategic unions with countries of repressive status;
such as Anatolia, whose major politician is ally to Jahannam in every intent, and is both pawn and lap-dog for Auster.

the JUDGEMENT

Cracking AXIS' former encrypted intelligence, they know Cuetzpalin stalked with government figures as bounty hunters in not much distant time from around when Triton's predecessor and concurrent ally Paynal broke out. But that's not the main concern. There was an Island which was filled with them cold-blooded demons, though not all did have human counterparts. The place was strategically isolated in the Sargasso Sea, cartographers ignored it, but it was there since at least the turn of the millennium as a stage for a political event which shaped the future of Tahuantinsuyu, and just recently was "rebutted" by it's own dark forces, resetting a dictator back into power, even if for a while. As one can see, each nation had sided with a culture, caste, species or simply institute of demons. No matter the Minotaur ranted about the upcoming "witchhunt" his late father previewed in the bloody african civil war where he was last seen, the humans and demons became much more blurred than one could tell. Those which made a stand were labeled "leaks" by such an elite, and then the hunt was on. Each evasion Triton and Paynal did in the last two years further let the world to feel it's deep wounds.

ANNA G WHITAKER (Former Agent LAMBDA)
Has it been long ago (some months) since Archibald's daughter survived Mission: ATLANTIS and learned humans and demons could change one another? That as well as finding out her nightmarish experience was just the preview that life would change, but still getting it together per retaining her cherished Lambda armor of diving. It brought her immediately to her estranged father's side once more. The canadian acted in search of conspiracies solo, yet her public self had to go by the book, employed at the guise of a private agency, her father's, which to sums it up, served but the armed force of international law. She had outcomes to this, as she was tailing the Triton ever since a great terrorist act in London, in his regicide campaign. Remourseful, she failed to apprehend him years ago, dazzled by his knowledge towards things she had as "too much human" while surviving the crushing pressure of some trench. She was brought into the Ys haven of the Triton and tailed him from there, to no avail. Her most shockingly surprise was to learn former teammates were in favor of the safekeeping of the demon, just further proving her he had not a human side, but an identity. Now, she believes to have an upper hand, assuring the young man he'd be incarcerated for the crimes he commited, yet reformed, by the inescapbility of holding such accursed power being not a personal matter, thus not validating enough for a life-for-a-life sentence. The youngling is not convinced by her words, yet he is attracted by her angry stance, and her tone. During the arrest, she was the only one gave free passage to reach the vessel, which as soon as the human triton was captured, was set into external isolation, out of reach, out of signal, directed but by old-school marauders. Perseus perceived her persecution and sprung the trap. Once Archibald's daughter was involved in a fight for life, he couldn't hold a minute more, and he released his grasp on the Eye of Horus, thus revealing to the others the existance of the vessel, and letting it slip into the shoreline, arriving in Madagascar. Once again family spoke louder for the officer.

CAPTAIN GRAHAM (Archibald the Detective)
With years of service behind his back, different possessions and a penchant to explore ancient tombs and findings, he's been granted a passage in many divisions of intelligence under directions from NATO and Interpol, he's became known through the UK, Canada and elsewhere in the commonwealth, avoiding political vacant positions. His latest runs have been in missions for the safety of the royal family. Aware their persecution has been just the outcry the Triton used to engage enraged masses as the toil was too heavy for everyone, he's not blind enough to take it as a personal attack, seeing through the effect of such regicide campaign - seeding chaos. He's more concerned with property damage and with the maintenance of his own institution, and at the very moment, it is at the brink. He is hinted to have known the secret of the Triton for a while, getting the facts right in a night somewhere in Bologna, when the Triton found safe haven to morph back into human. At the occasion he assured his and Minotaur's safety in front of a hidden enemy. He possess something the Triton is unaware of - the Sun Eye of Horus, Moon's counterpart. He used to null each other when they "fished" the Triton off West African Coast. Before they landed, he had to lift the mist the Triton covered them in for days only when their pursuer (Perseus) revealed himself. The long days it got to keep the secret they were following blind, arriving anywhere else, from the rest of the crew was heart-wrenching, but he didn't think twice when Perseus engaged an agent of his in combat - his own daughter. The crew crash-landed in Madagascar, despite a second, most militarized fleet has been at high-speed in the sea from around Australia at time. How long will they last before the fleet arrives is a question... As implied, he has some powers, fire ones... if the 'eyes' were catalysts, from where did he draw his powers from?

the TRIAL

Slavery was not only on-going, it is the modus operandi of our economy, since the dawn of time. Such "slave circles", shameless human-trading pits (how different's that for any sentient being, huh...) were more exposed than ever. Their secret intent, under the alias of "research" and "classification", actually an eugenic crusade, was so naturalized in the surface world, that "demon" (once again, who's who proved to be quite a difficult question) sovereigns became merely bureaucrats, their livestock became less evaluated by incredible rates. "Leaks" were common and just sipped some drops more of bloodbath into regions the surveillance system gave a blind eye - intended no-man's lands in the Caucasus, Central Africa, Amazon Rainforest, to name a few. This, in truth, is among such a place - under the guise of some preservation field near Mantadia, Madagascar, there's a containment of many prisoners. This is but a satellite - activated when needed, such is the case; however, it responds to direct orders from somewhere else. INFERNO, deep in Victoria Lake, has been such a facility, spawning it's portals from nearby islands and countryside, historically we can cite Ukerewe islands as a hotspot. It became the region of the ambush after the vessel which captured the Triton failed to deliver him to Capetown. In truth it was just re-activated, unknown to the employers of MI-6 and INTERPOL for example, save for a few of one or two which used such "demonic aid" as a safe measure after things went out of hand. And such an act caught attention of a former collaborator, a co-worker to the returning voyager, appriser. To hire his unfathomable knowledge or database required not much. But pardon of debts and cleansing of any evidence of his crimes. Immediate end for the warranty of his capture, for he, despite a vampire was not the worst half demon around.

MARCO FRIEDENREICH (with the PI Suit of Stealth)
Marco was employed by AXIS, thus in truth he was already used to demon-hunting. On almost the top of the hierarchy, he employs an Alpha-Omega, that of stealth. He answered to just a few, among them the industrialist Jorgen who met his demise months ago by Triton and allies. That said, he went into hiding, mostly dodging expensive debts, a bankrupt military enterprise (one banned at some countries, found out to lead human testing, mong other things) and trials on the funds raised by slavery and illegal trades. Vocal against him was FBI Lana Bridges, her father (an industrialist as well, coveting Ulhaden, according to him), and he was accounted among the perpetrators of the AXIS' closure fiasco, indirectly associated with death of agents by neglect of aid. If his cabin in the German Dark Forest or political exile in Bavaria weren't enough, his armor kept him almost undetected. Without anyone to answer for, he recollected his data. Among the first to know the Triton was a human behind such blue sclay skin and hard exo-skeleton of a shell, the main difference was he kept silent at it, knowing the secret would evaluate much more if preserved. He knew the demon was a boy, one regular and random all the same, but one he was prone to find in his way. His re-appearance in the last few months was perceived by former students Kai and Melissa. They got Triton's back. What wasn't expected was that he'd be sought after to compose the "Arrest Unit". He was at large undetected, and he'd perceive it when the young man turned the vessel with sheer water manipulation. Now he's on a bad day, as he meets an old foe, one he faced covered in armor years ago, and once again at Scirocco. He has painful memories, but as aforementioned, the slash of the blade seemed to cure, for in truth, the sinister scientist has been through modifications, fitting him into a vampire type.

COELACANTH (the Glaucean)
Among Triton's earliest mentors (and bodyguard, when he protected the young man from Marco once at their early career), he was a Triton once, and found out he had more powers as one rather than a human. Before thinking twice, he simulated that powers which weren't meant to be, and with the cost of a mortal lifetime, he became a Glaucean, constantly on tarinning and body-building to still retain weather-changing abilities from his past life. His story is a long one, spanning from the late Middle-Ages, he adds some lines the Minotaur gave to the youngling, and he's prone to find the secret conspiracy which threats people as genetic pools, and genetic pools as easy bribery. In the long term, preserving what's worse in humanity and betraying the species itself. He's an immortal who found perhaps too late most of them are hungry scavengers, parasites clinging for a resurrection they're not worthy of. An anarchist once, he reminisces of Libertalia now, only that the major enemy he's grown particularily close in the last years was misery, so he changed tactics a bit. Ever since the departure of other teammates such as Hunapu and Asclepius, he left for his own as well, afraid the young Triton found an early death by an enemy blade. Aware his former pupil wouldn't simply turn back from powers or a life of struggle, he sees no reason for his own to do so, so for a final hand-picking, he's able to confront an entire British Armada if that's what it takes. Taking in consideration the world boils by revolutions once again, he sees some hope after some century, through the NECOCYAOTL, as well as news the Black Knights are regrouping. After all, despite the differences, other than the scaly skin both european amphibian humanoids had a thing for anarchism. In the island of the lemurs, he reminisces his intents.

[The] pirates were anti-capitalist, opposed to the dispossession that necessarily accompanied the historic ascent of wage labor and capitalism.
They insisted that "every Man was born free, and had as much Right to what would support him, as to the Air he respired."
They resented the "encroachments" by which "Villains" and "unmerciful Creditors" grew "immensely rich" as others became "wretchedly miserable." They spoke of the "Natural right" to "a Share of the Earth as is necessary for our Support." They saw piracy as a war of self-preservation.
[They redefined the] fundamental relations of property and power. They had no need for money "where every Thing was in common, and no Hedge bounded any particular Man's Property," and they decreed that "the Treasure and Cattle they were Masters of should be equally divided."
The pirates have been reported to have freed enslaved people because the idea of slavery went against their own ideals of freedom.

the COURT

You might realize the conflict of interest here is much larger than the global scope, and yet sounds so specific, the capture of a single specimen.

Despite one Triton is seen in the struggle, the one they hunt and captured was the young man standing on front of all, dragged by the brunette girl.
This young man is the Triton, and he has as many demon allies as his enemies do, fiends which came as far as to rally demon hunting campaigns themselves. No solidarity as "species" mean few to their ethical backbone. Auster played them all, and he saw as Triton managed to shrink and effectively dissolve his former ally's domain - Minotaur Myrddin's - only for militias to take former slavery activities into rank-raising for proposed revolutions. Revolutions which paved the way to tyrants such as Tamrat to rise (something the Triton never meant to) and to break free demon contingency in Inferno and Jahannam (located around the Black Sea, specially at the hotspots of Bosphorus and Alania - even the use of gold has been taught by demons, you know), thus severing his own bureaucracy, which stood the same for over eight centuries. But he was eager to freedom, one his master Abaddon didn't foresee for him. People which returned from the disastrous mission at the Sargasso-related island were sought after by international intelligence, now aware humans and demons could shape-shift, then Auster, perhaps at a human guise, was just the middleman in the process to gather them. Finding it made them able to locate the Triton and one of his havens, in the ruins of what they consider to be the legendary Ys. Be that as it may, it was still early to realize the Triton was a shape shifter. It was an item, the Eye of Horus, that made them sure Triton's weather powers were great, yet co-opted. Favored by an elemental god, the tide would turn should they acquire upper hands in negotiations. Through an unlikely re-apparition, they did, with exchange of the appriser's life. A returning Doctor Gilles (former professor to Anna, "sidekick" to Archibald) used to telepathy, was an wild card they didn't count, for he was thought to be dead after Mission Atlantis. It happens that somewhere in "Ys", he's been brought back from his "escape pod", somewhere stranded in Helladeas. However, Archibald's spy wasn't the only one who went back from it...

PERSEUS (the Legendary Triton)
Other than Gilles, even the human Triton passed a brief time at Helladeas, homeworld to the Triton kind. While the world was both too similar (in nature) and so different (in... pretty much everything else), power-heads still kept contacts and traded sentient life as if it was a piece of food. The passage was a brief one, the bigger odyssey was to awake to larger enemies hidden in the veils of every intent, yet it made him ostracized, anticipated as an enemy to such society. The Tritons were so powerful that a society of them was mostly unthinkable. That's why they developed castes within the years. Those with conches and weather powers became more scarce, as even that became a replicable privilege. Herakles and Perseus, for example, are resurrected from time to time to fill the roles. When Akhs invaded (they were always there, in the bowels of underworld, or as traders and traded in the shores of Asphodel - passing such limits meant a worthynote "upscale invasion"), they were employed to hunt them from their point of origin - our world's Tenere desert - thus, beginning their oown modern odyssey, Perseus and Herakles, reborn and unused to the world, fought bravely and withstood the most different armed personnel, in an uneasy alliance marked with constant in-fighting and relative plots between one another. Eager to make their enemy retreat to their base, all we know is they've found a deadlock somewhere in Rwanda. Perseus returned recently, eager to inform the ostracized Triton that he was right all along on the impending future of the Akhs and Tritons... and that Horus' Eye, by the way, was more a catalyst than a power source. That they both learned in the field, as Perseus' true interests lies in the hands of his kind's, evaluated by THE Triton, one who gave the youngling a beating. In other words, he made some use of reason and realized Auster and the Triton were together somehow, but Triton had ways to cease the business - Perseus was this way - tired of being some king or prince's henchman, he's ready to take Charon's boat next. Before that happens, he fights side-by-side with an Akh. Unthinkable, for in 37 centuries before he was known as Akh-butcher.

TYKUKI-TERET (The Marsupial Akh-Gawan)
Behind the scenes in Perseus' campaign from desert to savanna, savanna to swamp and then savanna to jungle, some packs of Akhs broke free from within enemy ranks, and among them, Tykuki-Teret has been following as close as he could, catching a sight in the trio of Tritons (which includes the Triton boy and Herakles), realizing in no time only one of them was trustworthy to his and his companion (absent in the scene), the female Akh Tiyeshajah, arguably even more warrior-like than his own. They've spent years with a bland promise of release, but following Set and his demonic aids to mine coal and Xnobius in Tibet under Jinci was no better future. Not that they had sense of time as we do, but years in the underground made them learn a few tricks. Using powers of fire into whole new levels, limited projections and manipulation of lava to intended seismic impacts made him get close enough to the Triton, and they've been in good terms ever since he was the closest one to realize what happenned to Herakles in Rwanda. Defeated by the masters of Aaru, the veteran Triton was after what Tykuki "Doghead" now possess - the Seismic Iron Hammer of Xnobius, Minotaur's safekeep which had some hurting memories for the young Triton. Now it's payback time, as Tykuki fights for the maintenance of Triton and his role against slavery, despite the speciesist rivalry between Tritons and Akhs. He used some sort of "echo-location" to find the activated satellite branch of Inferno. Aware of who's behind it, he means not to hold back as the belligerents realize all communication systems are cracked. If the young boy becomes the Triton, only their eyes will witness it. He will make sure the enemy has no eyes after the battle.

the OUTCOME

Handled to local authorities, the human identified as Goustavos Mauros Sgouros wasn't included in current reports. Time was running out to identify whether or not he was actually a human or just a shapeshifter playing with the identity of a Minoican Citizen. Anna was sure of it, she knew these demons could become humans, she saw even Paynal doing that. But she didn't mean to kill or torture him - interrogating first, clarifying his deeds and purposes, and finally introduce him in some kind of rehabilitation, to free him from such "cursed power", and back to a life, albeit never normal again, something that could actually help people -- according to her word alone, that is. Confiding in her was the most safe exit of that situation, it was done before, both her and her father did protect the Triton once or twice, for reasons unknown to him, purposes left behind. But ever since becoming the Triton, admitted in his crusade to promote and make feasible the liberation and care of sentient beings, violence has always been the answer. There was no double-paths, his message has always been clear. Written in blood, ethical sharpness has been present as ever. People just ignored it, in their shallow hipocrisy. He knew Anna did, too, albeit surprised to learn she went vegan (needless to say at this point he's vegan, right? When I use the term "sentient being" it should be clear of whom I speak), he couldn't do more steps at the moment. Melissa would request he do some - as the Triton, with the violence others (even her own) rebutted in the past. The moment was not just Triton's future, it was also to the human behind it.
.
Not a matter of guilt, the Triton did cruel things, yes, that didn't solve anything he proposed to, not by a long shot, but it was invariably accepted and seen by Melissa that he had other use for his powers, he made a valuable place among a never ending intent. His power wasn't a curse. It was a chance to make something better, but Ann's proposals would just throw it away, her capture and charges of his would be more brutal than the osracization he had in Helladeas. No one would ever look after him again. He'd be a prisoner of intelligence forever. With that, there would be a cover in oblivion to plots of slavery which were so deep in the functioning of world economy that would never be touched if the Triton was removed from board. The Triton was believed to be an untamed force of nature. His demeanor, however, couldn't be out of the scope of other sentient beings, regardless if he was human or not. He had habits, and searching his weakness or a time he relented, rested, was usually the right time to attack. Matter is, he "relaxed" whilst living as a human, but those times were becoming more and more scarce with the needs he brought forth ever after the implications he involved in the last two years and reached a climax some months ago. The last one, fighting pirate crews and slave-trading vessels, was used as a bait, as if his altruism "failed" him.

Anna argues more on his deeds as a inhuman creature. And Melissa too, as she points out things which he done not shown by media - protecting the autonomy of native peoples, saving animals from drought and famine, floods, and from human exploitation - things she was witness to, which really mattered, most than the sensationalism Anna fell into believing. He couldn't have done all that alone (he was a teenager boy, regardless of having the power of changing weather, dammit) - so she started off from where she could - after all, they didn't inherited their Alpha Omega armors for nothing, or just for playing the police of someone else. So did Gous' powers of Triton. They weren't for good or evil, they just were. He was finding his path, regardless of his intent in killing people involved with exploitation, Melissa argued that these people would never be exposed. If she expressed these were just "separate cases", she actually started digging into Triton and is allies kept saying, that which the travels across the fringe made her realize. It was the modus operandi. If Triton did bad things, it didn't outdo his good ones it didn't avoid others doing even worse things in anonymous ways. It was clear law was sensational and the entire "arrest" operation has been a gullible way for Ann to seek a promotion, or either her father. If it was issued to avenge the murdered members of the royal family, the intent on itself was just a way to cleanse the guilt-trip they've sank into. Triton had better things to do.

A LOOKING IN VIEW

It was clear that "safety" and "security" the troops sought with such arrest concerned but only maintaing the public facade of the commonwealth intact as well as paving the way for a new king to issue direct orders into a disintegrating parliament, which as of now were of little consequence to the true ruling magnates. Once again it was a matter of showing service, only that as has been before, they were given reason to weight how valuable was it to apprehend just a specimen and sacrifice the entire fleet for the operation. When it all became not only unfeasible but betrayed some of it's institution's veterans, it was quite clear for Anna the failure of the intent came from all sides - despite projecting such frustration in having Melissa aiding the enemy, she cared little for her supposed troops, and once again was bent on search and rescue, this time to her father. He lost troops, people with families who fought by his side by a lifetime, and even had 'sold' his own trustworthy sidekick (Ann's former teamleader in AXIS) to an unknown 'alien' magnate, just for some king. Marco, as always, had been witness to a game-changing evente and would retreat to his cave, until he was sought after. In this war for information and intelligence, she saw it best no one bothered the young Triton, as long as he lived as a human. He couldn't - he wouldn't - keep that promise. He owed no one of anything, no one but those which manipulated his powers in the past, the fiends of hell who gave such power away. Not that he felt like "paying the debt", anyway. Words failed him.

From that day, few would live to claim that yes, a young Minoican is the Triton. Probably just those which already knew the world is too big, and in the end, there are people worse than him. More pressing concerns. Slavers becoming new leaders, rebellions being misled under populist tendencies...
Tending to her wounded father, it was rather Melissa, not Triton, the subject of Ann's enmity right afterwards... She failed him, he failed his troops, the troops failed the new declared king some under the title John III of York, yesterday a military overseas (from Zealandia), today the head of the crumbling Commonwealth. Ann would retire a while, re-building her strength in her country. Unknown to most, she'd keep track of events by a double-agent.

Coelacanth once again handles down his knowledges through even more scrolls he kept, gifting the young Triton with unfathomable knowledge. His only guarantee on it's veracity was on itself, only more knowledge can challenge knowledge. In the way, he faces the future, returning back to the fight...
Marco fled, the coward he was... planning something else after the secret once again expires into shadows... previewing an event where he has a role.
Tykuki has to return to his companion, at the moment in dire danger. His allegiance to the Triton proved to have it's sacrifices as well, but they're used to it
Perseus has to think over his recent existential crisis... His set of values no longer corresponds with his own state of affairs, and at last he begins to doubt
Gous needs a rest... as if... he realizes he's damned either as human or as a Triton, the fact of having no charges after the incident still gives no relief
Melissa has to find a way not to give up, now that she's clearly on a side... and once again she puts on the fire for someone she's actually doubtful towards

end of the day, it's quite clear detention is never the answer. all sentients should be free and respected.

THE MIDDLEMAN DEVIL

That "end of the act", the wiping out of a fleet, then the escape of the demons and the lack of register of the happenning, however was of little concern to it's architect, the demon lord Auster. He's one who comes to serve and ultimately arrange the meeting of those who are already damned in their intent. Guided by the whispers wishing a role in the world, by where the secrets flow, those untold stories unable of remaining enclosured into a mind. Information compelled to flow through anonymous tides, between fame and treachery. He appears because he senses in Triton's murderous acts that Gous is already corrupt, that indeed he is already 'damned', devoid of any service to the powerful ones, yet with power of his own. Power he sees better employed among the demons, on their lot, that would be: harvesting people and managing abundant work-force, in scarce scenarios he seemed to be used to.
“All those eyes intent on me. Devouring me. So this is hell. I’d never have believed it.
You remember all we were told about the torture-chambers, the fire and brimstone, the “burning marl.”
Old wives’ tales! There’s no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is other people!”
The Triton has been a juridical figure to the arrest team, yet he's just a character compared to the sole mind which direct it's deeds. Triton and Gous are no different people and Auster sought to make others realize that, regardless of who the anonymous high-schooler was in the details. Consciousness is not alone in the world, it "must" (or rather can) accommodate itself with other minds, which are also 'fighting' to exist. Solipsism is merely a gentle dream.
Shame is the original feeling brought on by the realization of the existence of others. "As if looking through a keyhole, an act that induces a thrill because of the thought that someone might realize that I – the peeper – am looking through the keyhole. In that moment, one sees oneself as other people would see the me: as an object". Shame, in other words, is the shame of recognizing oneself in the gaze of the other. Resentment.
It is the crushing realization that I am little more to others than the physical manifestation of my body in their sight. The Triton was a different body, yet realizing he was human was of little consequence to the present in the moment after the initial shock. That day the "god-like" Triton became a "genetical aberration" in the same moment. Auster meant Gous to embrace his role as a demon, but not as he intended to. Having these two identities for a sole being was a privilege that hell sought to abolish. In multitude, all these "tags" from the others seemed to enlist on deeds before they were done, in the actor before the deed, made them devoid of any role in defending oneself from judgement. The real judgement was out of the courts. Anna was the one who slipped it through the bureaucracies of the law, Auster made sure Gous had no way out from it regardless of her disbanding of the team. He was sought to fulfill a contract with Inferno.
He was frozen into a being (simple judgements, such as proud, shy, …) that he was not. The Triton didn't really had to care for what he had done, but the mind behind it, his true self (Goustavos) couldn't help but follow to the break-down as time weighted in his head: two years taking daily moments to hunt down people working with animal (human and non-human) exploitation didn't hinder these acts from still perpetrating in increasing rates at the world. He made concessions. Where he couldn't abolish, he'd reduce. But soon reduction became a dim effect, he felt like he was the only one ceding his power, holding back. All those in damned intents related to Inferno, for example, were living their "normal lives" as if they weren't doing a thing, egotistical elements under the allias of collectivity, staunch figures managing the masses and appealing to populism under "individual freedom" speech, all was out-of-place. This "particle" of his (as the "murderous one") was a fragment which defined him through the others when looked upon: while in the Triton they were clouded with fear and awe, it was through his unknown, anonymous human self that he (the actor) would mediate the reach of Triton's deeds.
He made all he could to inform others what he was doing and why. It mattered little if the words were written in blood of the victims ("victims" who caused much more victims and didn't stop after the imminent warnings, no matter what), they were abundant in books and through scholars - to no avail! Realizing his secret was torn to some hundred troops, to the gaze of others exposing him, he was turning into a subject, while there was no one before, he remained the same under this spotlight - no one but a murderer:

“If there is an Other, whatever or whoever it may be, whatever may be it's relations with me, and without it acting upon me in any way except by the pure upsurge of it's being – then I have an outside, I have a nature. “[ ]

This "nature" was a pre-set of habits he was tricked into replicating over and over. "The only defence left at one’s disposal is to transform others, to turn them into an object for the management of one's own consciousness and characterization. We must rid ourselves of others (i.e. public perception), to escape and to reclaim oneself and the freedom that the 'Other's' gaze is depriving me of." This was but a subterfuge to continue to exist as a subject, in what constitutes yet another effort to resist the attempted subordination of the self by the gaze of the "public". This opens a moral dilemma: the fact that others – and their gaze – is what alienates and locks me in a particular kind of being, which in turn deprives me of my freedom. It replicated within him as he grown into seeing his daily crusade as the Triton like a duty. He then felt Ann's sight pierce into his, he knew she was building into it, into enacting his arrest, everafter their last meet. Attempts were done by different means but none of them were frutiful. But after the brutal release, the surprise attack through Perseus' tides, Tykuki's earthquakes, and Coelacanth's slashes, Anna realized (maybe by the sacrifice of her father's career), the 'error' of her ways.
Something, someone made a certain peace of mind to prevail in the moment, realizing what was brought together. Perhaps just the two of them realized Auster had done it. Ann would realize it too late, while Gus wouldn't have shared the insight with his fellows. He walked straight into the steep path for hell. Hers, was into her own "purgatory". Auster has been in his own contract, his own hell by serving Abaddon ever after the foundation of Inferno. He warns Gous of the choice he is making by "going Triton" at full as the demons would never let go of him and made sure of his place among them. While Triton-Gous wanted to annihilate the concept of "us" between the demons, whose he saw as apprehended victims of misery, united in hunger, he knew he had no upper hand. But he did mean to give them a final solution should this Abaddon's reach be as implied - to live through the Commonwealth and beyond, making this chapter look just like a phrase amidst his book. He was quite clear as a human he'd get rid of his former pre-set goals (college, career, whatever). But he'd not go by Auster's way. Old known to other allies between the demons, he would learn Auster meant his entrance to the realm as Abaddon was hell-bent on reviving his powers - Triton's conch could do the trick - so the 'subject' here has strong material meaning.
Defeating the Demon Sovereign, his only doubt was if Auster did foresee his victory, thus in the end liberating the demons to face wilderness and hazards, and to make he inherit all which was awaiting for him - the Realm of Jahannam. Should it fall, Auster would be free to do what he want, rejoice in it as a final gift Gous would've given him. Advised by Charon to don't leave this breach open, his next move would be to destroy Jahannam - and it's many millennia-worth untold history - so no one would earn anything from it. He was as enemy to misery as he's been to the wealth, and even history and knowledge could be sacrificed to it.

Give away a love and then remove another too
Painted words adorn the walls, echoing untrue, I feel cold...
Promises abound, you rarely find it to begin
Maybe I'm afraid to let you all the way in; I guess so...
I excuse myself, I'm used to my little cell
I amuse myself In my very own private hell

Lately I'm beside myself, pretending unconcerned
Standing at a corner where I threw you on a turn, I'll move on...
Flowers on a cross remain, marking an ending scene
Damn it all if blood you spill, turn the grass more green, Life is short...
I excuse myself, I'm used to my little cell
I amuse myself In my very own private hell

It was clear both he and Auster were in an ever-present private hell, it didn't matter Gus lived through this by two years and Auster by thousands of years. A contract has such a power to reduce life-times. He was more sure than ever that no one is free until all are free.