Appetite for Destruction

Biting The Silver Bullet

Derek lost what little patience he had when we walked through the front door. "Look," he snapped at Peter, "I told you we searched the house top to bottom and didn't find anything!"

"That's because I'm smarter than you," Was Peter's reply as he knelt at the stairs. He ripped the board off of the third step and pulled out a box.

"What is that, a book?" Scott asked, and Peter shot him a condescending look.

"No, it's a laptop. What century are you living in?" He opened the box to reveal the laptop with in, and held it in his hands like it was something precious as he crossed the room. "After I got out of the coma I digitalized all of our family's assorted lore, records, and reference books - transferred everything we had before burning the lot so no one got their hands on them. The Argents aren't the only ones who keep records, and ours are far superior."

Scott's phone rang but I was too focused on following Peter into the lounge to care. "You mean you had free time during your killing spree?"

"Oh hush," Peter waved a hand in my direction, unable to give a sarcastic retort as he focused on setting up his computer.

"Uh, my mom says something weird is going on with Jackson's body." Scott said when he joined us in the lounge. He looked uneasy.

Derek rounded on Peter. "What's happening to him?"

"I don't know yet," He said, gesturing to the laptop that was booting up. "But I'm willing to bet it's not good." Well I could have told him that.

"Go check it out," Derek ordered Scott after a second of deliberation. "Isaac, go with him, he might need backup." The two of them took off without hesitation while I moved to stand beside Derek so we could look over Peter's shoulder. He was scrolling through word document after word document, frowning at the screen, and I was so focused on trying to read the words as he scrolled that the sound of Derek's phone ringing made me jump.

Derek went over to his discarded jacket and rifled through the pockets until he found his phone. "Scott says he's in some kind of transparent casing made from the venom coming out of his claws." He announced after a moment of listening.

"Google 'Kanima jelly cocoon." I suggested. The look Peter gave me was beyond scathing.

"He's also starting to move," Derek added. So not dead then, but I'd already figured as much. But what had happened? What was currently happening?

"Okay," Peter said after a moment. "I think I found something. Looks like what we've seen from Jackson is just his Beta shape."

Derek moved back into place at Peter's shoulder. "What, you mean he can turn into something bigger?"

"Bigger and badder." Peter confirmed. The picture on the screen was far more terrifying than the Kanima we'd seen so far; it was larger, scales so dark they were almost black, claws that were more talons than actual claws... and two leathery, bat-like wings sprouting from its back.

"Great!" I said a little hysterically. "Just what we need, a flying lizard of death!"

"You've got to bring him to us." Derek told Scott urgently, and I stared at him in horror. He wanted to being that here?

"Look!" Peter said, drawing out attention back to the laptop. "Someone actually made an animation of it, maybe it's less frightening if we -" We all jumped back when the image on the laptop came to life with a horrifying shriek, wings spreading wide and mouth open to reveal long, shark-like teeth. Peter slammed the laptop closed. "Nope, not at all." He decided. He looked up at Derek. "Maybe we should meet them halfway."