Writetober 2019

October 14-Overgrown

Val, if you are reading this, skip this chapter. Here be snakes.

The one downside of being a superhero? The villains. Now, some of them are fine and reasonable. Then there's the crazies. Only a total nutjob would make a giant reptile and set it loose in a national forest. And the worst part...

"Here, snakey, snakey..." Guinness said while stalking closer to the tail poking from beneath a bush. He mentally scoffed at the overblown reports they'd gotten of a reptile the size of a car. Was this what they were scared of? That thin tail couldn't belong to anything bigger than a boa constrictor.

Guinness pounced with superhuman speed, grabbing the wriggling appendage and pulling. "Ha! Gotcha, you overgrown earth...worm." The bushes parted before a tongue nearly as big as Guiness's arm.

...The worst part was mad scientists' creations tended to have a taste for human.

"Ah! Nice basilisk! Down! Stay!" Guinness screamed, dropping the tail to dive out of the way of a lightning-quick strike. Fangs as long as windshield wipers bit into a fallen log. The creature's head was the size of a Volkswagen Beetle and was a vibrant patterning of glossy black and radioactive green. Unblinking silver-green eyes with slit pupils tracked the hero's retreat as it released the log and coiled to strike again.

"Guys! I found our pest!" He yelled into his communicator. "And he's not friendly! Ah!" His speed saved him from another strike, and he started running just fast enough to keep ahead of the surprisingly quick reptile. It enthusiastically gave chase, a long, sinuous body slightly thinner than its spade-shaped head winding through the trees behind it.

Since when did snakes chase people?! He needed to lure this thing somewhere the others could help him fight it. "Team, I could use some help here! One trip, and you'll have to cut me out of a snake's belly. This thing's fast!"

Guinness caught up to two of his teammates at the head of one of the hiking trails. "Incoming!" He yelled when he rounded the corner and saw them. As soon as the snake rounded the corner behind him Guardian and Tempest screamed and went airborne—Tempest with her wind powers and Guardian by shapeshifting herself a pair of wings.

"I can't turn into anything big enough to stop that!" Guardian protested.

"Not sure my wind'll have much effect on it either," Tempest said, clearly shaken.

"Oh, come on!" Guinness swore. "I'm getting tired here! I need options!"

"Why not lead it off a cliff?" Slingshot asked over the comm.

"Thank you. Now, which way is the nearest cliff?"

After a hasty set of directions, the heroes—and their reptilian tail—made for the cliff. Guinness skidded to a stop a few feet from the precipice and turned to face the wall of muscle tunneling through the trees toward him.

The snake paused to coil and flick its tongue at the hero one last time before striking. Guinness dodged to the left as the snake's head flung out over empty space. The rest of its body anchored it securely until Tempest hit it with a gale. This far from civilization she didn't have to hold back, and whole trees ripped up by the root and tumbled off the cliff to join the plummeting snake.

Guinness, Guardian, and Tempest gathered at the clifftop to watch it fall. They gaped in horror as the snake righted itself midair and flattened its body to catch the air. It started gliding/slithering through the air on its way down, moving farther away from the cliff.

"Huh," Tempest said, scratching her head. "Must be based off one of those Asain snakes. Some species in the Far East can do that."

"Why did a giant snake just fly over me?!" A panicked Slingshot shouted over the comm. "Ah, fuck! It's after me!"

"Run it back towards the cliff," Aftershock commanded. "I have an idea."

"We'll meet you down there," Guardian said before grabbing Guinness's wrists and flying them down. Tempest carefully floated herself down.

Slingshot flew into view a minute later. "Where's Aftershock?" He panted. The snake crashed through the trees behind him.

"Up here," Aftershock called from above them. "Stay against the cliff and don't move!"

"I don't like the sound of this," Tempest whispered as they backed against the cliff.

The snake coiled tall before us, uncertain for a moment which person to bite first. Then the ground shook. Spikes of rock jutted out from the cliff and ground to encase the cluster of heroes. The seams between those rocks bled together to create a tight seal as the rest of the cliff face broke apart and roared down on top of them and the snake.

When the dust and rocks settled, a rough sphere of stone hovered above the rock slide. The sphere set down gently and cracked open like an egg to reveal the unharmed, if shaken, heroes.

Turning to his smiling friend where he stood atop a floating boulder, Guinness said, "Never do that again without telling us. I thought that was it."

"Is it..." Tempest started, eyeing the area.

"Yeah, it's gone."

"Thank goodness," Guardian said, shuddering. "Think I'll have nightmares about that one."

"You and me both," Guinness said.

The heroes flew away from the rock pile, relieved. Behind them, a soft hiss wound through the rocks.