Serpent | The Avengers [1]

Chapter 1

"Sir!" a man in a white lab coat ran towards an older man with a young girl at his side. "Subject 372 has escaped!" The assistant's eyes were wide with fear, the other scientists watching apprehensively.

The man's eyes narrowed, lines in his face deepening as he regarded the young man. "And when did this happen?"

"Mi-minutes ago," one of the scientists volunteered. "Jack was just checking the cages and 372 was missing."

The young girl glanced around at everyone, then at the man beside her. "What's Subject 372?" she asked quietly.

"That's not for you to know," her father snapped. "Go down to the lobby, tell them to lock down the building."

"But Dad--" she started.

"This isn't up for discussion," he said sternly and she sighed, shoving out of the lab with more force than necessary. Her footsteps were loud and heavy as they echoed through the stairway, the time between them getting shorter with each passing second.

The door to the lobby swung open, the lanky girl shoving in. "Code red!" she said breathlessly. "We're on lockdown! Something's escaped!"

"What?" the receptionist asked, standing up sharply. "Are you sure?"

"As the sky is blue," she responded. The receptionist hit a button on the phone pad, metal sheets slamming down, covering the doors and windows as the young girl ran back toward the lab. The sheet slammed down just as she arrived, locking her out.

A hissing made her turn around, seeing a massive Cobra slithering toward her, head raised and hood flared. "The snake! It's in here! I found the snake!" she shouted, but no one could hear her. The cobra lunged, teeth sinking into her leg and pumping venom into her bloodstream.

The girl cried out in pain, falling back and scrambling away from the cobra. She pulled herself up, banging on the metal before the door suddenly slid open into a supply closet.

Grabbing the first thing she could--a wrench--she slammed it into the side of the snake's head in terror. The cobra's hood flared even more, the snake lunging again when the wrench slammed down on its skull.

Blinded by fear and panic, she hit the cobra over and over again until she could be certain it stopped moving.

The wrench clattered to the ground as her grip loosened in shock and guilt. Her knee buckled underneath her, sending her sprawling down the stairs as the building shook around her.

Pulling herself into a section under the stairs, the young girl curled in on herself as rubble rained down around her, the dust settling as everything went dark.

---

The judge sighed, shuffling her papers as she looked at the two officers in front of her. "What happened at Scotch Labs was a tragic accident," she commented. "But I have no idea why I must be involved in this."

"As you know, Sean Scotch passed away during the collapse, alongside four other employees, including two scientists. However, his wife, Peyton Scotch, died four years prior, which means their only child, Eleanor, is now orphaned and the sole heir to her father's inheritance," one of the officers explained.

"And that is a problem because...?"

"The girl's eleven. She's got no family to take her in. The police department is at a loss for what to do with her. She can't stay where she is, and funeral arrangements need to be made."

"Where is she staying?" the judge inquired, feeling concerned.

"Currently, she's in a medically-induced coma at Metro General. Shortly before the collapse, she seems to have been attacked by a genetically-altered snake with extremely slow-acting venom. The doctors were forced to amputate her leg, where she was bit, to prevent the venom from spreading to the rest of her body and eventually, to her heart. However, they've reported some strange occurrences in her genetics--altered genes that have led to her growing fangs and glands near her sinuses that appear to produce venom."

"Well, I think the solution, gentlepeople, is simple," the judge said, setting down a stack of files that needed to be reviewed. "We put her in the system, send her to a home specialized in taking care of recently-disabled children, then let the system do what it was designed to do."

"Are you certain this is the right course of action?" the second officer spoke, face betraying her uncertainty. "Surely the girl will be under extreme emotional duress, with the loss of her leg and father. Wouldn't sending her into the system only increase that?"

"We cannot worry about every emotional child, Officer Richards. The government doesn't have time for that," the judge said. "Send her to Ms. Reed, she'll know what to do."

"Very well," the first officer, Officer Marx, nodded. "C'mon," he grabbed Officer Richards by the arm, gently pulling her out of the courtroom.

"This isn't fair," Richards sighed.

"Well, there's not much we can do for her," Marx said seriously. "You heard Judge Reyes, the best place for her is the system. And Reed is a good woman, she'll take care of the girl."

"I hope you're right about this," Richards muttered.

"And if I'm not?"

"Then that girl's gonna have a very rough time."