The Neo-American Pantheon

The Sun Goes Out

Jerry woke up with a start, and his head pounded. The familiar weight of Duke, his Burmese Python was uncomfortable. Looking around the room that he now called his, he saw that the sun had barely risen and wondered why he was up at all. Then the answer not so gracefully smacked his ears. Loud bangs and screams emanated from the floor bellow him.

He quickly shot out of bed and started to glow dimly white. Duke, who seemed relatively unperturbed by the racket slithered slowly down from the bed and onto the floor. As Jerry moved over to the door he heard two sets of footsteps quickly go by. Slowly he creaked the door open, still hearing the bangs and screams from bellow.

Duke slithered quickly through the small opening and went into the hall. Snakes have more than the usual five senses that humans rely on; Duke was cognizant of anyone who was touching the floor through the vibrations they sent through the wooden medium, as well as the thermal readings of anyone within about 15 ft.

In summary when Duke messaged, "Safe," Jerry was inclined to believe him. So when he walked into the hall and was promptly hit square in the chest with a heavily armored man, he was surprised. The man who landed on top of him triggered a sort of defense response from Jerry and promptly caught on fire. Jerry was not glowing, but shining white and releasing copious waves of intense heat. The floor below him also began to smoke, and as Jerry pushed the flaming man off of him, he heard more screams before he felt a prick in the back of his neck.

Jerry quickly brought his hand up to meet where the stinging sensation was coming from and was met with a dart. Jerry quickly turned his head to look behind him,  to have another dart nestle itself into his chest. Then he felt a shock of pain, as Duke, who had apparently sensed the armored men running up the stairs and took action to defend his master. Duke had one of the men in a constrictor hold and was crushing the life out of him. That was of course until his head was chopped off by what had to have been the man who darted him the second time.

Jerry screamed in pain and looked over at the smoking body of the man who had fallen atop of him. Then, he wasn't just emanating an intense white light; Jerry was on fire. Jerry quickly got up and began to float, the hardwood bellow him just soot. The ceiling above him, then also caught fire, the parts of the stone roof that were wood began to become little more than tinder. The two men on either side of Jerry were either to in shock, or more likely to in awe to run.

Jerry pointed an open palm at both of the men, and promptly released a torrent of flame at them. One of the armored men ducked in time; the other was not so lucky. He fell to the floor; he wasn't even able to scream. The flames were so hot that he died instantly. Even the man who had ducked looked a little worse for where with the rising heat in the hallway.

Then from above, there were loud creaks, a large part of the ceiling seemed to have been supported by the now ablaze wooden beams. The walls also joined in, catching fire and dancing to the same grim toon as the beams above them. Jerry fell to the ground, no longer floating. He was also no longer even so much as glowing, and he was sweating. Something he had not done in weeks. Whatever the men had shot him up with was taking effect, and restricting his powers.

Jerry got up, and barely seeing through the smoke stumbled forward coughing. The ceiling above him groaned ominously. Leaning against the wall, he kept walking, the man left alive had already fled down the stairs, Jerry forgotten. Each step was more and more laborious, and he decided that it wasn't just the smoke that was slowing him down, the darts doubled as a sedative.

Normally, a little sedative would have been no problem for his new found "godly" body, but now, he wasn't so sure. He could barely move; his extremities were completely numb. About to the stairs that led to the main level of the house, he collapsed onto the floor, completely unable to move but still conscious, though a little fuzzy. He heard some footsteps and more screaming from around him, and as he fell into the darkness, he felt himself being lifted up.