A blue van pulls up to the pharmacy and a bunch of thugs jump out and go through the back door, carrying empty crates.
Prominent among them, athletic, in a sporty shirt and baggy jeans, walks in through the front doors.
"Hey Slav!"
Bella hugs him as the guys in the back load up the meds.
"Whatcha got for me today, baby!"
"Lot's of seudooooo!" 
"Niiiice. No methalomine?"
"Not this week babe."
"Aright, seudo's good. We can make some good cash with seudo."

Slav kisses her and they share a drink.
It was a saturday night, which meant after getting moderately high, they were going out on a date.
Tuesdays were parties in the club, wednesday through friday was for doing good work, friday nights for getting high, and saturdays, sundays, and mondays were all for Bella. 
"And where we going today?"
"Oh man you won't believe what I found. It's really fuckin cool, you're gonna dig it."
Bella pulls a library book from her weed-smelling backpack and opens it. It's a kid book, for middle schoolers, with big colorful pictures.
"Ugh, the librarian was such a bitch, gave me an eye roll, like, uh bitch you're too old for this, go read a real book. She didn't say anything though. But I could hear her think it."
"Oh ignore em all, they don't get it. We can always kill em if we want to. Now whatcha got."
She opens the book to a colorful splash of red and blue. 

"Fuck is this?" - Slabod asks taking a swig from the beer bottle. "A jellyfish?"
"Can you read that?"
"Fuck no. Chiieee... rooo.. Chironex?"
"Yep. Chironex Fleckeri. Trippy huh? They call it a sea wasp."
"So that's our date?"
"Yup."
"And where are we doing?"
"Australia."
"Woah, crazy. Got us packed?"

She opens the backpack, there's a pair of shorts, some sun screen, shades, a track suit.
"Aright, gimme a sec."

"Yo, Egor. We're gonna go, lock up when you're done okay?"
"Sure thing, Slav. Yo bring something fucking useful this time."
"Why bother you dumb shit can't shift on your own anyway."
"Fucking keep telling you, start me out with insects. Like spiders, scorpions and shit."
"Aright, see what I can do."

They pack up some beers, some drugs, and Bella opens a portal in the janitor's closet.
Through the door is a beautiful visage of a sun lit beach in the early evening. Not a soul. Bella never picked touristy spots. She didn't need them. All she needed was a picture, a post card, and some time. And eventually, they'd get there.

"This is a long way south."
"Not for us it's not."

Getting high in the sand, clouds dancing above them, their feet in the water, caressed by the tide.

"Up for a swim?"
"God I'm so high right now. You gotta rescue me if I start drowning."
"Fuck you, I'm gonna let you drown this time."

They laugh and kiss.

* * *

"There, there, you almost got it."

In the water, Slabod carefully brings his palm under the floating jelly fish.
Both of them are many feet underwater, both breathe under it effortlessly, powered by Slabod's spell.

"What are you called again?"
"Chironex Fleckeri"
"Sea Wasp, eh?"

The human's hand gently, ever so gently, imitates the rocking flow of the jelly fish, barely, shily, approaching the lightest touch.

"Don't, she'll sting your dumb ass."
"Naaa, naaa, she won't. Shhh."

"A she, huh?"
"It's a she."

A light touch, and the creature almost instinctively sense an Atlantean specimen. It hesitates, then accepts it, hovers there, frozen a little, still. In wait. An apex predator approached it, and it tries to process its course of action. But the touch of a Thyrsus is calming it. Slabod lets it have its senses back. And sure enough, a sting.

"Ow, haha!"
"Told you, dumbass."

Bella was in his mind. He loved the underwater adventures. It was very "little mermaid".

"Alright, mean girl. Let's see how you did that."

Slabod's own skin starts changing, cells running a wave of transparency over them. His arms become soft and jelly fish like, fingers morphing into jelly tenticles coated with lethal poison.

"Did you get it? Do you know what it is?"
"Not by name. Some kinda cnidarian toxin. Porin maybe? I dunno. Feels weird. Like my knuckles have saliva. Check it out, I'll squirt it out of my dick."

* * *

-"I love you, Slav."
-"I love you too, you little slag."
-"Here, I want you to have this. This necklace here, will protect you from all harm. A friend of mine, an old jamaican voodoo dude, he put a charm on it, so that no one can take it from you. He said, only a strong man with a healthy body can earn its protection. Put it on, and never take it off."
-"Aw, biiiitch. Okay. I will wear it for as long as I live, Isabella."

* * *

"So," - pried the nosy girlfriend - "You think it's serious this time."
"I think so. I hope so." - Bella replied, "I mean, he really knows how to hang."
"I dunno, he always struck me as not much more than a dumb as a doornail kinda dude." 
"It's just the surface. I mean, yeah, like, he doesn't have one sciency bone in his body, but he really has hidden talents. He's an alpha, the dudes love him, he knows how to lead, and he just gets animals. Anything he touches, he adapts to. A real uncanny gift, I think it's sweet, and hot."
"You do you girl."

* * *

Wednesday night. Boxing ring in a rented storage house.

"Ha!" "Ho!" "Hyah!"

The sand bags swing back and worth.

Slabod, Ivan, Egor, and a few younger initiates of their street club practice their combinations and setting their strikes. High kick, low kick, jab, uppercut, straight punch, curved punch.

Ivan is more experienced. A straight up boxer. Egor's not much more than a common street fighter. He does this to fit in with his friends, he was always more reliant on changing shapes and healing. But even Egor could make that bag swing, strength pulsed in his fists when he was on the Juice.

The Life Juice, Slabod called them. He didn't tell Ivan and Egor and the others about any of that Atlantean stuff. They've all had awakenings and had seen the towers, but when they wrote their names, the towers did not speak much. The experiences were cryptic and confusing, and they pulled through with sheer will. Left confused by their experiences, they trusted the first person who found them afterwards. Slabod Skorlitsa. This street mentor, he knew how to party, how to combine drinking, drugs, and sports, he told them they've got the gift of the Life Juice! The force! We get the force at the club, we get strong. We party. We go to work. We learn together. It was a street tribe type of learning. An unwritten tradition passed on by word of mouth. Slabod was the best of them, the smartest.

Slabod wipes sweat and takes a break from the punching bag, walking to the center of the ring and spinning a bit of a breakdance windmill. 

"Now check this out."

His feet sprout talons as his back becomes a turtle shell, and by the time he's on his feet, his fingers become jelly fish tenticles.

"Woah coooool!"
"Fuck yeah, Slav!"
"Teach me to do that!"

Slabod approaches Egor. 

"For you. Meet your new friend."

He opens a little box, and a white scorpion chitters inside.

"Fuck man, finally! You're the best."
"I think you're ready. But if he bites your ass, you better have your shit together."
"Oh bruv, what a solid. You hook up good!"
"You gonna try it or what?"
"I'll try him tomorrow. No, tonight. Later."
"Yeah, nervous now you little bitch, eh?"

They laugh.