The Serpent League

by Brendan Walsh

  “Of all the things I know,” Delta continued. “I don’t even know why the League calls them the ‘Serpent’ League. I think it’s a reference to the Book of Genesis. The serpent tempted Eve, and thus cast out all of humanity from paradise. But all the animals remained in paradise. I think…I think this is a sort of return to paradise. And now…I am the serpent, tempting humanity to overcome their pride and return to Eden. Tell me, Gary, are you tempted?”

  The bat could feel the changes going through his friend again. Thick clumps of white fur had sprouted from every inch of his bare skin. Gary, noticing the fur, slipped off the rest of his tattered shirt.

  He tossed it up into the air and it flew away with the wind, going off the roof of the building somewhere. None of his bare chest was visible from all the polar bear fur on his body.

  Delta sensed the adrenaline rising in his system. His body was adapting. Getting ready to attack. In response, sharp claws exploded on the tips of his fingers.

  “I wouldn’t be too sure, now.” Gary said, eyeing his new hands. “You may be the most powerful animal on earth, but I can adapt to new threats. Perhaps that means you can’t hurt me?”

  “Is that a risk you’re willing to take?” the bat said slowly, planting his wings on the ground, on the defensive. “For both of our sakes?”

  The former human didn’t reply. They both knew what the answer was.

  Delta knew when and where Gary was going to attack before he moved a muscle.

  Gary charged at him, eyes wide and claws shining against the moon.

  No one who wasn’t involved in the fight had any idea what was happening, which didn’t give them much advantage over those who did.

  And then Patrick had spoken to them.

  Patrick could only guess how many had heard his entire message, and how many were willing to fight alongside him and his friends. In Atlanta, a single mother of one child had woken up to his message, and, inspired by his words, used her new cat-like abilities to fight off every Serpent Leaguer who tried to recruit her. A middle-school teacher did the same, and then utilized his enhanced strength and agility to go out into the streets of Philadelphia, slowly trying to purge the city of the League.

  “You all weren’t supposed to wake up until the event was over,” one League shapeshifter had said to him. “you’re all lost and confused, with only the voice of a kid to give you inspiration. Can’t you see how short-sighted you sound? You need rest, and sleep.”

  But the teacher didn’t need to hear anymore. He fought and fought with them, both unsuccessfully and successfully, but he felt his power guiding him, most of all, to be true to himself.

  Chaos in the animal kingdom had flipped the natural order upside down. For just a moment, and that was all that was necessary through the power of Delta’s mind, land creatures had to fight not to end up in the sea, and those in the sea resisted the urge to advance to the shore. Millions of animals, both angered and comforted by the bat’s voice in their head, fought their mates, siblings, fathers, and all of their own species to see the future their king promised.

  The African plains and the world’s rainforests were their own ground zeros, and any human caught in the crossfire had little chance of survival. Animals attacking out of fright or self-defense were temporarily obsolete.

  And among the most disastrous of fights, the League’s blood worked through the animals. Many died, deemed unworthy just like any human victim. But where there was one death, there was a metamorphosis.

  Somewhere a zebra grew gills and jumped into the Indian ocean to serve Delta.

  A shark grew arms and legs and ran through the beaches of Monterrey, looking for servants of the bat ruler to gnaw.

  Delta didn’t do as well as Master had expected. Master didn’t account for so many animals going against him of their own volition. But it was a minor issue. Master knew that he and Delta would see to the rogues once the invasion was over. It was to be the way of things.

  And Delta was distracted. With every slash from Gary he had to dodge, another thousand animals turned against him.

  The bat knew it. It was going to end up a bloodied earth.

  21

  Dead Blood

  She opened her eyes, cringing from the stinging pain in her muscles.

  BJ tried turning around to figure out where she was. A room. Someone’s living room. And she was lying prone on the couch.

  She tried swinging her legs around so she could stand. They didn’t move.

  “I’m glad you’re awake.” Her father said in a muffled voice, somewhere out of sight. “I was getting worried that I had given you too strong a dose.”

  Craning her neck the other way gave her too much pain, so she didn’t fight it. “What’s going on? What did you do to me?”

  She heard her father approach her slowly from behind the sofa. A strange, burnt smell hit her nose as he fell into her line of sight. His lab coat was covered in streaks of black lines like tire marks, and he had a gas mask on.

  “Tell me what you’re doing!”

  Samuel turned around, picking up a syringe from behind him. She recognized it as the one he had pricked her with before knocking her out cold.

  “This,” He raised it into view. “is something I discovered in my studies of the League’s abilities. Forgive me for not telling you and the other kids about it. I’d rather not compromise all of my work.”

  He pressed his thumb against the knob of the syringe, showing the thick black liquid inside. “This is what happens to their blood if it doesn’t find a host. It dies and becomes this burned-meat-smelling black sludge. And, not unlike living blood, this stuff can attack an organism’s system. You should see what it can do to living League blood, but I guess you know first-hand what a small dose feels like.”

  “That’s what you gave to me?” She tried to move her legs, again with no success.

  Her father nodded. “If I had given you any more, you would be dead. That’s how everyone else ended up.”

  A new pain came down her body from her head. Her teeth began to jitter, both in fury and pain. “How could you do this to everyone? To me? You just got me back!”

  “I know. I know. And I’m so damn happy to have you back. There are just some things I need to do first.”

  “Such as what?”

  With all her anger, she was able to thrust herself up against the back of the sofa to face her father, and her fingers gripped the cushions.

  “The world is changing tonight, for better or for worse, for good or for bad.” The doctor reached into his coat pocket with his gloved hand, pulling out a long, sharp object with a wooden handle. “Regardless of the outcome,” He pointed the object at her. It was a bowie knife. “I’m going to make sure you and I can be comfortable in the new world.”

  “What are you planning to do with that?”

  “The syringe can only hold so much dead blood. Besides, its sludgy sticky nature makes the instrument unreliable for a killing-strike. A knife like this complemented by the blood will be sure to penetrate his skin.”

  “Who’s skin?”

  “Our new leader’s. Edgar’s.”

  Her fingers tightened on the cushions. Feeling slowly began to come back to them. “Why do you need to kill him?”

  “You know why.” Her father shook his head, “Without him, the League is exponentially weaker. No more mental links with the creatures of the earth. No more birds in the sky dripping blood like piss around the world. They’d need a lot of time to recover from that.”

  “You don’t know that!”

  “What else are we supposed to do?”

  “The Raven Gang! Patrick was in his head. Gary was going to go confront him. You can try having faith in them. You can try to believe that them all together can get Edgar to back down!”

  “I really don’t think that’s going to happen.” He turned his back to her, facing his counter of instruments. “In some ways I know that creature better than any of them. I helped make it what it
is.” He smiled, looking around and his tools. “It really pays to have my business headquarters right near the park. Thankfully the government’s investigation into me hasn’t ceased, and it’s still abandoned. It’s like I knew this would one day happen.” He laughed.

  Her legs, previously blue and unfeeling, grew warm. She could feel her toes move in her shoes, but she wasn’t going to show it. “So everything you told them was a lie? But it worked out. Patrick and Gary now have the power too. You helped them with everything!”

  “To be honest, I had no idea any of that stuff would work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they’re all okay. In the end, it just wouldn’t have been for much, since Edgar won’t be around tomorrow.”

  The next moment she was in the air, fingers splayed out in like a pouncing tiger. Her father watched her without blinking or compromising anything in his face. BJ couldn’t move her legs like her hands, and they flopped like a bag of dirt onto the floor, making her attack fall short.

  She grunted as her body hit the ground. Her hands and fingers looked just as human as the rest of her. She couldn’t shift into any form. She winced as she tried to do anything to her skin. Nothing was working.

  “Yeah, your powers won’t be working for a while.” Samuel said. “Sorry, that looked like it hurt. Please, BJ, just stay here. It might not look like it, but I know what I’m doing.”

  “Just like you knew what you were doing a few weeks ago when The Raven Gang beat you?” Moaning, she tried to stand up. Still nothing. “You haven’t changed here. You’re still just the disgruntled scientist that doesn’t want to be a loser.”

  “If that’s true,” he frowned. “my intentions still remain for the best. Besides, I’m with the bat to a fair extent. I need to let the world change. How do you think your life is going to be? You’ll be just as feared and hated as Edgar.”

  Her father took the bowie knife from the counter, sliding the blade into a glass bottle filled with the black sludge. Sliding the lid closed, Samuel flipped off his gas mask.

  “The mask is just a precaution,” he said. “sorry if it felt impersonal. I just don’t want anything to go wrong for the final act.”

  The doctor shoved his coat off, leaving it on the floor in the corner of the room, in case any excess dead blood got in BJ’s vicinity. The plastic gloves he threw away in the trash, making one final stride towards the front door.

  “The pain should only last a little longer.” He tried a smile. “I’m sorry I had to do this. But you’ll be happy that I did.”

  He walked out the door. His winter coat made a last swish as the door closed behind him.

  Now she was alone. She looked at the counter.

  The knife and the jar of dead blood were gone.

  “Come on…” she urged herself. She shook her arms up and down furiously, attempting to get her normal blood back. “Come on. Come on.”

  The blood unites us all, she thought to herself over again. I believe the blood unites us all. Even the new Edgar.

  Johnny’s cap had fallen off his head somewhere in the last two miles of flight. But he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to complain about a gryphon flying too fast for him. He wanted to impress his ride.

  “I can see their street.” he said. “Just a few more blocks to the left and the apartment building should be in sight.”

  Johnny didn’t know if the gryphon knew what an apartment building was, but he figured it would be resolved the closer they got to it.

  The damage below was worse than he thought. Massive dogs, if they were even real dogs, stalked the streets and shuffled behind empty cars to hide just before leaping into an attack. From the looks of it, and Johnny was a bit too high to know for sure, Patrick had been successful. There were people, mutated bipedal creatures, forming to fight back against the League’s creatures. They must have started in the streets. The birds in the sky were their deadly secondary assurance.

  The gryphon took a deep dive, heeding his instruction. Johnny was thrust back from the sudden force and he had to increase his grip on his steed’s neck. He worried that he was choking her, but her neck was as sturdy as a tree trunk.

  “Just tell me to stop right after I’ve flown over it.” The gryphon replied.

  “One more sec and…stop!”

  The gryphon circled the building several times, not wanting to come to a sudden stop and throw her passenger off her back.

  “They’re on the fourth floor. I’ll let you know which window to stop by.”

  The gryphon flapped her wings carefully, so she could fit through the alleyway the apartment overlooked.

  “Johnny!”

  The voice came from three windows down. His name was shouted in the same pitch always given to him when he had done something wrong as a child and teenager.

  Johnny patted her on her side, urging her to scoot back so he could see his mother.

  “Mom!” He leaped off the gryphon’s back, landing on the balcony.

  “Johnny!” His mother, a woman two inches shorter than him but with enough hair to make herself seem taller, embraced him and buried her face in his shirt. “Oh, Johnny! What’s happening?”

  “I can explain everything. Well…almost everything. But first, is everyone okay? Dad, Cody, Tom, Lisa-”

  “Yes. Yes. Everyone’s fine. We were all huddled in her sister’s room, hoping that nothing comes in here, then I heard this flapping…and now you’re here!”

  Johnny turned back to the window. The gryphon was flapping her wings about, watching the reunion, seemingly not sensing an awkwardness to her action.

  “This is a friend of mine.” Johnny said.

  “Very nice to meet you,” his mother said, as if meeting any other of his friends, smiling.

  “Your son is a pleasant human and is competent in physical combat.”

  His mother clapped her hands, laughing. “Yes, little Johnny has always been a bit of a trouble maker.”

  “Mom. Mom.” He couldn’t help but blush. “Look, I know we’ve been through a lot. I know you’ve seen me on the news, and I promise that I’ll give you every answer I can, but me and my friends need to go out there and stop what’s happening. I’m afraid you’ll have to say bye to me for just another while longer.”

  “Okay.” His mother turned away, seeing if any of her kids had exited the room. “We’ll stay where we are.”

  Two more thunderous wings sounded from above. He saw his gryphon friend look up and watch to see who was approaching. There was no more room by the alley with the gryphon hovering by the balcony, so the other two had to settle for the top of the next-door roof.

  “Are you there, Johnny?” came a female voice.

  He recognized it right away. “Yes, Jane. It’s alright. My family is here.”

  “Good.” His gryphon turned around, picking up Jane with her claws and settling her down on the ledge. “Considering what these birds are doing in the sky, being locked inside is probably the safer bet.”

  His gryphon intercepted another human, letting him down onto the ledge carefully with her claws.

  “Hey.” Slate said, catching his breath. “What a ride, huh?”

  They both nodded. “Did you see what was happening below?” Johnny asked.

  “No.” Jane and Slate replied.

  “It’s complete madness.” He told them. “People are being attacked left and right. I think Patrick’s waking of everyone has done a lot of good, but we need to do more. If we’re going to really feel like we were successful in the end, we can’t forget about all the people still vulnerable.”

  They both nodded. With bated breath, Johnny turned back to his mother. “I’m going to have to leave for just another little bit. Me and my friends have to go.”

  Outside the window, his gryphon was still flapping her wings. He rushed out to the balcony, where she turned her head up to him.

  “I want you to stay here.”

  He could see the understanding in her eyes. “You want me to watch your family.”
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  “Yes. I need to go with my friends, and I’d be useless here by myself. I’m really trusting you here.”

  “You have nothing to worry about.” The gryphon had a twinkle in her eyes. “They will be perfectly safe.

  Johnny and his mother moved out of the way. Thankfully the entrance through the window balcony was large enough for the giant flying animal to squeeze through. He and his mother helped her by pulling on her forelegs, and then she had to keep her tail still to not knock anything over. The living room made her look like a mouse in an ant farm, but it would have to do.

  “No one is getting in here.” She said, giving them a nod. “If I just put my rump against the door that’ll do finely.”

  “I’ll trust any animal with a sense of humor.” Johnny laughed.

  His mother grabbed him by the arm as he started for the window. Her eyes were darker, more wet than they had been a moment ago.

  “And when you get back here, Johnny Mars,” she said. “your father and I are going to give you a serious scolding about missing so much school.”

  He couldn’t help but smile. “It’ll be well deserved, mom.” He kissed her on the cheek. “With what my grades must be, I almost don’t want this night to end.”

  Jane and Slate were still on the back of their gryphons. The one Jane was riding extended her paw off the roof and let Johnny onto it. He threw himself over the beast’s neck as Jane pushed him back to ride behind her.

  “Grab onto me.” Jane said. “It’ll be hard, but what can you do?”

  Johnny wrapped his arms around her stomach. “How is this?”

  “Uncomfortable for me,” she laughed. “Come on. Let’s go kick some ass on the streets.”

  Slate’s gryphon leaped from the roof, taking a dive down through the alleyway, preparing to fly low for some attacks. Jane and Johnny followed suit seconds later, trusting that their ride knew what he was doing.

  Don’t worry Patrick…BJ…Gary…we’re going to do our hardest here.

  22