Cryptotrappers!

Cryptotrappers- The Stolen Cryptids

"What?" I asked, panicked, setting Seth's cage down on a piece of random tech.
"Everything that they could have taken, they did." Eva explained. "Only things too big to move are left. Jinmenju, Wyvern, Gambo... everything else is gone."
The place was a mess; things were thrown all over the place and our supplies had been completely disorganised, though I couldn't say for certain what was done by the Amber-Clad and what was done by the team in the ensuing panic. I had to see for myself. Running through the once bustling containment chambers and finding them devoid of life made my heart catch in my throat. It all felt so wrong.
"Did you find anything?" I asked Randy, meeting him at a corner.
"Nothing, they're just... gone."
"But to where?" I asked. We had been in their facility after all, they couldn't have taken them back there. We'd hit another brick wall; that was until Lucy shouted us all over from across the facility.
"Guys, I think I've found something."

There was scratch marks and mud on the floor; most likely dragged over from the Kappa's enclosure. Randy and I were the last of the team to reach the scene, and everyone else was already puzzled. Something looked off about it all, and I couldn't quite explain what. Maybe it was the scene, maybe something else. It must have clicked with all of us at once what it was, as all of our focus became directed on the wall itself. Something about it was wrong. Sid was the first of us to reach out and push, as the wall swung open into a familiar grey industrial environment. Though we were all in shock, we also knew that we couldn't just stay behind now the rabbit hole had been dug. So, carefully, we entered the hidden area of the lab as a unit.

"I... can't believe it." Eva spoke, wide eyed and looking at the surroundings. "The whole time..."
"Remind me again, how did you end up owning this place?" Sid asked, not suspiciously but merely curiously, in his own gruff way.
"I'm not certain if I've ever told you, to be honest," Eva quietly replied, " but this place used to be a microcryptobiology laboratory- a place for studying cryptozoological bacteria, fungi, protozoa, the sort. The company that worked in this place was associated with The Gallows, before the lab closed down due to lack of funding. The cryptids that used to be housed here were moved to The Gallows; I moved into the space after they left."
"Seems that maybe they didn't leave so quickly." Lucy added, shining her flashlight on the walls. "This place is exactly like that catacombs we just came from."
The paths diverted off, there was no map in sight and we didn't even know what we were looking for down here. We'd seen no trace of any of the cryptids that we could follow, neither a discarded feather, fang nor scale. We didn't even know why whoever took them, well, took them. Someone had to make an elective decision, and nobody else was stepping up.
"Randy, Lucy, you're coming to the right with me. Sid, you take the left. Eva, straight on. Meet back here in ten minutes."
As the team split, I felt some pang of fear course through me again. After what we'd found beneath the Gallows, whatever was here had to be worse. I just knew it would be. But even with my fear, we pressed on.

The first room we encountered had some sort of machine; dusty, out of use, with a broken conveyor carrying dark liquid. Randy lifted one of the vials and held it up to his torch's light.
"Blood." he confirmed. I felt sick.
"Not quite." Lucy added, flipping through a logbook she'd found resting besides the machine. "Quote from this book. 'Our aquatics division has had a rough encounter, but managed to contain the aforementioned Migas specimen. Whilst we have enough space to contain the creature at the primary facility, food is an issue. Human blood is difficult to come by, and what supplies we can secure all end up going towards feeding the Mamlambo. I am currently working on producing lab-grown hemocytoblasts, which will allow us to secure a steady enough supply of artificial human blood to continue feeding our bloodsucking cryptids.' Unquote."
"So it's a blood substitute." I sighed in relief. "Not the real thing. Randy, collect a sample, just in case we need it later."
Little else was of interest in the room; and it would be pointless to continue further with such little time left before we'd need to return with the rest of the team. So after some more fruitless investigation, we began to make our way back to the meeting point.