( 2nd to last chapter )
Cheryl was going to get her serpent jacket on Sunday, the day before they came back to school after spring break. She had gone through most of the initiation already and just had to get the tattoo and jacket; after that it was official. Their little group was at the banks of Sweetwater river where Cheryl was going to be given her jacket, the rest of the serpents were going to be there in a few hours, but for now it was just them hanging out together.
Sweetpea was sitting on one of the blankets with his serpent jacket on, he was drinking a milkshake from Pop's. He and Fangs had brought them stuff from Pop's. Fangs and Kevin were sitting together, holding eachothers hands while they gave each other lovey dovey eyes. Jughead and Betty were talking about some mystery that they were working on while Jughead stuffed his face with burgers.
"Running late lovebirds!" Sweetpea called out as he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Toni and Cheryl arrive. Cheryl was riding on the back of Toni's motorcycle, her arms wrapped around her girlfriend's waist. Her red hair, which if he was still not completely used to (it looked great, just was a change he was still adjusting too), was flying in the wind. It looked like fire, which made sense considering what her power was. Sure, he hadn't really seen her power in action, but according to Toni she could make fire come from her hands and that was pretty cool.
Toni got off of the bike, giving Cheryl her hand to help her off of it as well. The pink haired girl smiled as she did so, "Nope, still early," To In said as she checked her phone for the time.
Sweetpea laughed as he reached down and grabbed a bag and threw it at the couple. Cheryl caught it easily, "Nice catch," he added as the two sat down and got out the two burgers that were inside of the bag.
"So you ready for this?" Toni asked, taking a bite.
Cheryl nodded, "Ready as I'll ever be, I honestly can't wait,"
"You are going to do great," Toni said, giving her girlfriend a quick kiss on the cheek.
The group fell into normal conversation, talking about what was going on, movies, and school the next day. Jughead was in the middle of a story about a short story he had written when an icicle flew right by Cheryl's head, nearly embedding itself into the skull. However, it was clearly just a warning shot because it was off by a foot.
Instantly everyone was on their feet, Toni planting herself right in front of Cheryl and putting a shield in front of all of them to protect against whatever might have done that, "This had got to be Jason," Cheryl said, grabbing onto Toni's arm and looking into her eyes.
Toni nodded in understanding while Fangs was a lot more vocal about it, "Clearly," he said, "The question is, who else is with him,"
Sweet Pea nodded, "Right, he isn't so dumb that he would come here on his own,"
"Your right," A voice said from behind them, causing them all to turn around in a rush. They all instantly recognised that it was Jason's voice.
"How did he do that?" Jughead asked under his breath as he turned around, he had his hand interlocked with Betty's and had no intention of letting go.
Jason seemed taken aback by Cheryl's new appearance, looking very surprised when he saw that it was her who now had red hair, "Got so desperate for acceptance you dyed your hair?" Jason asked mockingly, he looked to the people behind him.
Archie laughed as he looked at Jason. Reggie however did not react as much, just shrugging his shoulders and looking at them with hate. Behind those two was the rest of the bulldogs as well as some other people from school. Cheryl couldn't see any parents or adults, but she was pretty sure that they were there.
The red haired girl felt fear fill up inside of her, she wanted to help them when they got attacked, but she wasn't sure that she could use her powers and she knew that if they got attacked they would need all the help that they could get. While she would hate to admit it, the Bulldogs were strong and had powers that could take them out quickly.
"No, not really," Cheryl said, not really sure what she was supposed to say, then again what do you tell your villainous brother when your hair turns red because you got your superpowers that you still can't use.
"Well, I don't care," Jason said, crossing his arms, "Reggie if you would,"
Reggie smirked and shoot a whole bunch of sharp rocks at the group along with any other stuff that he could pick up while doing it, "Really," Sweet Pea said as he used his earth manipulation powers and shot the rocks right back at the Bulldogs. They seemed to completely forget that Sweet Pea had that power and didn't have enough time to react so they took. Most of them had enough time to cover their face so not much damage was done.
They recovered quickly, both groups standing their ground. Jason look back at them, his eyes starting to glow their bright white. He had a thin cut on his cheek, but he did not seem to be bleeding a lot or hurt very much. His hands were smoking and he had a look of anger in his eyes, "You'll pay for that,"
There was a roar right behind them and Toni looked around and saw the rest of the serpents pulling into the area with their motorcycles. They had backup now, but the fear was still there, "What do you think your doing?!" Fp yelled as he got off of the motorcycle, taking out his switchblade and matching towards the group. The serpent's followed right behind them, taking their place and ready to fight back.
Jason snicked, not seeming to realize the situation that he was in, "I'm teaching my sister a lesson," He said as he turned to look directly as Cheryl with his white glowing eyes. Toni tightened her grip on Cheryl's hand.
"Cheryl," Toni said through gritted teeth, "run," She ordered, clearly she did not want for her girlfriend to get hurt which was responsible.
Cheryl looked at Toni. Toni saw a small orange color in the taller girls eyes though it was very small, "No," Cheryl said firmly. She sounded brave and confident and it was amazing to see even if the situation was not what they wanted, "I'm not going anywhere,"
"Then your going to need this," Fp said as he threw her a black jacket. Cheryl caught it and turned it around to see that it was her serpent jacket ath she was supposed to being getting in a much less hostile environment. Cheryl smiled at the man, giving him a grateful look as she put it on.
The material felt right and the jacket made her feel even stronger then she already felt. It made her feel like she was finally part of the family and she knew that she was, "And this," Toni said as she pulled something out of her back pocket and handed it to the taller girl.
Cheryl saw that it was a switchblade, similar to the ones that all of the other serpents had. Cheryl saw that 'Bombshell' was engraved into the switchblade handle. Cheryl smiled.
"Well then, let's get to it," Jason said as he charged at Toni and Cheryl. The other bulldogs behind him followed without a second thought. They attacked the serpents and the serpents attacked back.
Jason went straight for Cheryl and Toni while the others attacked their other friends. Jason moved to punch Cheryl, but the taller girl was able to move out of the way in time and Toni, at the same time, moved to punch him in the gut. Cheryl, after having moved out of the way of the punch tried to use her new switchblade and cut his leg. Jason was able to kick her hand and knock the blade out of her hand, but took the punch from Toni. Each managed to get a few punches in on the other so they all looked a little beat up.
He grunted and fell to the ground a little bit, but picked himself up again. Toni, not wanting to give him a chance to recover tried to kick him, but he was ready for it. He grabbed her and was able to get her into a strong grasp, holding onto her as the pink haired girl tried to fight back. Toni tried to make shields, but the constant movement and pain made it a little difficult to create one.
"Take this, serpent slut," Jason said as he unleashed all of his power onto Toni. Toni instantly lost consciousness.
"Not today!" Cheryl yelled as she charged at Jason, managing to knock Toni out of his grasp and stop him. Cheryl got Toni into her arms, holding onto the uncoisnes girl with fear that Jason had killed her, "Toni, Toni, wake up,"
Cheryl felt her hands heat up, maybe from sheer fear that the girl she loved was going to die or from anger that it was her own brother that had done it, "That will teach you," Jason said, standing over Cheryl with a look of disgust and hate.
Cheryl felt some tears start to fall as she refused to let go of Toni as she tried to warm her girlfriend up. After a few seconds she felt Toni move, just a little bit, but she moved nonetheless. Cheryl felt relief like she had never felt before wash over her, but an anger was starting to grow. The red haired girl layed Toni down on the ground as she looked up at Jason.
Cheryl's eyes started to glow orange, the color of fire. It was brighter then it had ever been before and it was growing stronger and stronger by the moment. Jason was startled and moved back in shock, "You motherfucker!" she screamed as she tackled him to the ground.
As she launched herself at her brother flames started to come from her hands and arms. She pinned her brother to the ground with ease, punching him with all of the straight she had. Jason grabbed on of her arms and tried to freeze her. When his smoking ahdn come in contact with her flaming arm, there was a sizzle. His powers couldn't hurt her and that shock scared him.
"What!?" He yelled in anger, "How?!"
"I'm not as powerless as you thought," Cheryl said boldly as she gave him one final punch across him face. He was knocked out instantly and there was a burn on the side of his face right where she punch him.
After she knocked Jason out, Cheryl made her way back to Toni with her eyes still glowing and flames still around her arms. People started to realize that Jason was down and the fighting was starting to stop, thank god. Cheryl didn't look at the state of her friends.
"Toni?" Cheryl asked, hoping to get a response, "Please wake up, look at me,"
There was silence.
Then Toni moved, "I knew you were a bombshell," She said with a small smiled as she looked at Cheryl.
"Oh thank god," Cheryl said as she grabbed Toni, forcing the flames to die down. She kissed the girl passionately.
"I love you," Toni said, causing Cheryl to stop as she took in what the girl had just said to her.
Cheryl smiled, "I love you,"
. . .
When Cheryl walked back into school, slightly beat up, wearing a serpent jacket, hair red, and holding hands with Toni Topaz, the halls were silent. Everyone had heard about the fight at the banks of Sweetwater river, but no one was sure if they could actually believe it. But they did when they saw Cheryl marched down the halls her eyes glowing just a little a few spare flames coming from her hands.
