The Serpent League

by Brendan Walsh

“How haven’t you bled yet?” Jacob asked, smirking. “I was told this was an easy job.”

  “I don’t have an interest in becoming a freak like you.” he swatted away Jacob’s giant feline claw with a police baton. “And I taught myself how to fight more than a decade ago.”

  He caught a glance over his shoulder to see how the rest of his squad fared. Johnny was recovering from a blow by a leaguer that nearly impaled him by growing a bull horn. He was quick to avoid death by smacking him in the head with a chair. Thankfully there wasn’t any blood spilled from the assault.

  The quartet became wise to the effects of the league’s blood after the fight began and a police officer clocked one of Jacob Brent’s pals with a crowbar across the jaw. The effects were instantaneous. The officer began bleeding out from all pores and died in a matter of moments. Jacob had just laughed, saying that the man didn’t transform because he wasn’t “worthy”.

  “Our quarrel isn’t with you, Ravens.” Jacob replied. “But we are so glad you came. This little party of ours, invading a bunch of police stations, it was to draw you out.”

  Jane and BJ were maintaining their ground behind him. BJ had the easiest time maneuvering the room by shifting into whatever animal suited each moment while Jane trailed behind her and tried knocking out anyone BJ missed. But she was having little luck. Any training in combat she knew was laughable compared to what their quarries could do.

  Gary retuned his focus to Jacob. He leaped onto a desk behind him and dodged two more jabs from the man’s claws. “I figured that out. Somehow you made sure the first news we saw would be of Detective Hunter’s station.”

  “Nice to know you’re not just a pretty face.” the non-human sneered.

  The hand Jacob had that was still human quickly morphed into a tiger’s claw, and the bottom half of his body busted out of his clothing, revealing a more fully feline appearance. His shoes tore open to reveal big, clawed-paws.

  “I’ve been going easy on all of you. Sadly, I have plans to fulfill that don’t involve you.”

  Jacob lowered himself to all-fours and leaped into the air, claws splayed in attack. Gary couldn’t leap out of the way in time, so he threw himself off the desk and crashed his shoulder onto the floor.

  He groaned and clutched his shoulder in pain. It didn’t feel dislocated or fractured. Above him Jacob had used all his claw digits to clutch onto the wall like a spider. Gary swerved out of the way just in time as the man’s clawed-toes snapped down on the tiled floor where his head had just been.

  “On your tail, BJ!” Gary shouted.

  Zoo Girl, now in her lioness form, looked over her tail at an oncoming leaguer. She had the wings of a hawk sprouting from both below and above her arms, with talons to match. The lioness kicked out her back legs like an angry horse and squared the hawk-woman right in the stomach, sending her back over a cluttered desk.

  A smile nearly grew on her feral face. “Did you know that the claws of a female lion’s back feet are crucial in hunting?”

  “Less talk, Zoogirl, and more kicking ass!” Jane said punched one of the other male leaguer’s in the jaw, knocking him out. “Goddammit! That hurt like hell.”

  “I’m growing bored of this.” Jacob sneered.

  “Because we’re starting to win?” Johnny said, picking up one of their firearms and aiming it at two leaguers that looked like they were itching to slice him up. “But what’s the point of this? You give your blood to either kill or turn people into whatever the hell you are. It seems like you’re wasting your talents here.”

  “As if your small mind could begin to fathom our purpose.” he replied.

  “Or how about an even better one,” Johnny motioned forward, eyeing the two adversaries on his left. “What’s with you being in multiple places at once?”

  “Why go to the trouble of constructing separate human identities? It’s much simpler to be as plain looking as possible. Easier on the transformations.”

  The man looked over her shoulder. Behind one of the desks Jane had just finished digging around and had a taser in her hand. Jacob lashed his frog-tongue out like a lasso and swatted it out of her hand. It crashed against the side of the wall, far out of reach.

  “Clever device to find, but you’re wasting time. You’d never have gotten close to any of us anyway. Why try?”

  “I wasn’t trying.” Jane replied with a hint of a smile. “All I did was be the distraction.”

  Jacob blinked, looking up at a small insect crawling inverted on the ceiling. The dark insect grew into a golden cat as it fell from the scratched tiles, her maw open wide and claws bared for a final assault.

  “BJ!” Johnny cried out as she stumbled back to meet Jane and Gary.

  The two of them slammed into the floor, causing a tremble around the entire stations. Jacob’s chest was leaking blood from the angry piercing of BJ’s eight claws. She used any free area of her body to suppress its flow out of him, and dragged him to the front door of the building by the collar with her teeth. Jacob Brent had been killed instantly. The lion left his body right outside the door, where media swarmed by the tens trying to get a clean photo.

  “It was as I suspected.” BJ said solemnly, morphing back into her human self. “Whatever this virus or disease or whatever it is that causes these…superpowers…doesn’t affect me. Maybe that’s what I have too.”

  Gary paused. As BJ was shifting around Jacob’s clothes to cover the bleeding wounds from unwanted exposure, he saw that no one was moving. He, Jane and Johnny were starring stiffly at the other leaguers, whose eyes were stuck wide open the sight of their fallen leader.

  Jane and Johnny made defensive moves when the leaguers shifted. But something was wrong. They all fell to the ground as if in drunken stupor, and their clothes began to shift into an array of colors, like their skin did when they shifted forms.

  The four of them gathered around one of the nameless females. They weren’t watching each other. Whatever science was forcing their biological shifts was wearing out, and the bodies were starting to decompose into some dense, unnatural form. When the colors dissipated and their lifeless bodies returned to a solid form, the gang’s jaws dropped. The inert biomaterial had made its final shift.

  “Oh dear God.” BJ said, barely above a whisper. “We need to alert the others. Now.”

  Somewhere else in the city, something else that looked like Jacob Brent still breathed, and he dodged a snap of Edgar’s teeth.

  “This wasn’t the mission.” Jacob told the bat coolly. “But I’m going to hurt you if you insist on fighting.”

  “Can you tell us why we’re pulling our punches?” Slate asked, turning to Patrick as a couple leaguers eased up to him.

  “Jacob’s damn tongue swatted the phone out of my hand before I could get most of it.” Patrick replied. He tossed his gun off to the side and began looking for something blunt. “Gary didn’t want us shedding their blood. Apparently, it’s deadly.”

  Over on his side, Lindsey had grabbed a baton from a fallen officer. She was sheltered by one of the desks, pointing it at Jacob. “Well that’s perfect! How are we supposed to fight someone trying to kill us if defending ourselves kills us just as easily?”

  “There seems to be a communication error.” Jacob straightened his collar and fixed his sleeves. “We’re not here to kill you. Just the opposite, Ravens! We’re here to confirm our suspicions about you.”

  “What suspicions?” Slate asked, eyeing the surrounding two leaguers.

  “That you are worthy.”

  Patrick blinked. “Worthy of what? Joining your team? Becoming shapeshifters?”

  He felt his heart beat up to his throat. Edgar had backed into a private, dark corner of the room, seemingly waiting for a moment to strike. Why is Jacob the only one talking? he asked himself. How did Gary know who Jacob Brent was if the other team is miles away? If there was enough intel to come up with a hypothesis, Patrick didn’t have the time perception to gather it before the Leaguers’ next
move.

  “You’ve become an unexpected anomaly.” Jacob said. “So much so that we amped up our production. We’re acting now, even if it means more people won’t be saved.”

  Lindsey lunged forward and feigned an attack, making one of the other Leaguers take a step back. “While the four of us are here, you’re not going to do anything. We will see to it that you only leave this building in cuffs.”

  Jacob winced. “That was not the response I was looking for.”

  “What do you mean?” Patrick asked. “You think we were going to suddenly bow to you?”

  “You thought we would be less threatening?” Slate asked with a smirk.

  “No. Actually, I was looking for the exact opposite of all that. But I grow tired. We’re not giving you four a choice.”

  Parts of the three Leaguers’ clothes instantly tore. Their feet, hands, and any other part they could use for defense or attack glowed a milky rainbow until there was no human anatomy left on them. Two leaguers to Jacob’s sides grew giant fangs and feline claws along their hands, and one of them grew giant spikes out of his back.

  Edgar didn’t waste a moment jumping out of the shadows. He collided with Jacob in a tackle that only accelerated after the collision. Jacob twisted in the air until he slashed a claw down on the tiled floor. His inhuman strength stopped his crash, and with his feet planted hard on the floor, the attack appeared to have done little damage.

  Jacob looked up. Edgar was circling the room overhead. He growled at the gang. “Now we’re talking!”

  The two henchmen and Jacob’s side darted forward without the need of command. The one with the porcupine spikes charged at Patrick and Slate on all fours. As he reared for an attack, the pair leaped out of the way on opposite sides. The animal man hit the wall with his feet and flipped backwards to face the rest of the room. He charged again, this time at Lindsey who was busy warding off the third man.

  In the back corner of the room, detectives Hunter and Guajardo no longer had their hands on their heads. There was no one holding a gun to their heads.

  “I need to help them.” Hunter said to her in a whisper. “My daughter and her friends, they’re not made for this.”

  “I agree, but they’ve lasted this long as the Raven Gang.” she replied. “Did they take all your weapons?”

  “Yeah, you?”

  “Likewise. This is so strange. Think about it. Absolutely nothing that the Serpent League is trying to do is making any sens-”

  Slate painfully collided against one of the desks on the detective’s sides. He dropped off the desk, hitting the floor behind the pair after a few more feet. John made sure to keep eyes on the group of assailants as Rita turned from the scene to check on their fallen friend.

  “Are you alright?” the detective asked as she started to help him up.

  “Gah… I’ve had worse.” Slate grunted. “The brawl with the wolves and gryphons had me real sore.”

  Hunter kept his baton tight to his waist. The rest of the officers and the Raven Gang still fighting were managing well with their blunt weapons. The Serpent League and their seemingly supernatural abilities continued to out-maneuver them with blows that counted.

  Everybody knew that their time was running out. Without communications with Gary and BJ’s team at the other police station, they had no way of telling how their comrades were handling themselves. If they weren’t any better than Patrick and the detective’s group, things weren’t looking too well.

  Off to Detective Guajardo’s side, Edgar sprang against the wall and landed a high-speed blow to the back of the female Serpent Leaguer’s head with his feet, pushing her off to the side as she was going up against Patrick.

  “Good shot, Edgar!” Patrick beamed.

  He picked up a dropped shot gun from the floor and rammed the butt of it to the back of her head. It didn’t look as if it caused a bleeding wound, but to be safe a covered the knocked-out animal woman’s head with a sweater.

  Lindsey allowed herself a second to breath. Jacob Brent did not look pleased at their modest success. It wasn’t victory, yet. But it was enough to make her smile.

  Jacob took notice of it, frowning. He put aside his focus on the detectives, Patrick, and the bat and began charging at the girl.

  “Lindsey, watch your back!” Slate yelled. “Behind you! It’s Brent!”

  She was quick, but by the time her reflexes allowed her to be any quicker Jacob Brent had his hand in the form of a tiger’s claw wrapped around her upper shoulder. Lindsey winced from the pain. Jacob’s claws were digging into her skin. The animal man raised her up, smirking at his prey.

  Patrick and Edgar instantly stopped to watch the new spectacle. The detectives and Slate were stuck. Slate’s eyes caught the corner of the room, where one of a fallen officer’s pistols lay on the floor. He dove for it, amidst hearing the pained cries of Lindsey. He couldn’t keep it steady in his hands once he retrieved it.

  “Put it down, Slate!” Lindsey screamed.

  “Or don’t, Slate. Let’s see what happens if you listen to your girlfriend.” Jacob sneered. His claws were knuckle-deep into his grip. Three thin lines of blood were beginning to drip from her shoulder from the Serpent Leaguer’s claws.

  Slate’s finger jiggled around the trigger. His breaths were getting shorter. He could hardly tell if his eyes were becoming blurry from sweat or nervous tears.

  “I… can’t. You’re bleeding!” he fired back.

  “Slate, we don’t even know what’ll happen if their blood gets out!” Lindsey said. Her legs were kicking Brent in the stomach, but to no avail.

  “Poor girl,” Jacob said, getting his nose up to her face like a hungry lion. “what kind of place would you have on our team if you can’t come in when the moment needs you to protect yourself?”

  “I…I can’t do it…” Slate skipped a breath as his finger jittered away from the trigger.

  In a blink, Lindsey fell right to the floor and squirmed on her side. Patrick had been there before even Edgar could position himself for another jumping assault. The back of Jacob’s knee collapsed as Patrick had delivered his savage blow.

  The spare time didn’t give Lindsey enough time to retreat. It didn’t give the bat enough time to fly or give Slate an opportunity to regain his composure. All it did was allow Detective Hunter to make a choice.

  “Lindsey, run!” Patrick shouted.

  With all his strength, Patrick couldn’t keep the animal man down. With a quick swat from the back side of his tiger claw, Jacob had flung Patrick behind him, to be at the mercy of the other two Serpent Leaguers. But even they were paused as they watched one of the detectives draw his gun from his belt.

  “Remember this, Ravens.” Jacob said, raising his feline claws and preparing to strike Lindsey. “There will be no place for spineless males and females in the new world.”

  Jacob’s claw came slashing down. But it never got down.

  John Hunter let loose two shots into Jacob Brent’s chest.

  The three animal men were stunned as if all three of them had been shot. When Jacob fell on the floor, they all did. The trio lay on their backs, all clutching at the same wound. Their hands, backs, and feet, which had just bore qualities of multiple animals, were fading back into their bodies and were replaced with harmless human skin.

  And Jacob Brent’s blood was pouring out of his chest. As it oxygenated and poured out from his wound, the liquid kept its strange water-like color.

  Patrick dashed over, helping Lindsey onto her feet. They retreated to the side of the room as far away from the spilled blood as possible.

  “What have I done?” The detective’s hands rose to his face.

  Hunter sprang out from behind the desk, to Slate and Rita’s astonishment. They called out for him, but he just ignored them.

  “Dad!” Lindsey cried. “Get away from him!”

  “Mr. Hunter, you’ll get infected!” Patrick shouted. “It’s not worth it! We need to get out of here!”

>   “I did this.” Hunter didn’t make eye contact. He was still in his own world. “I need to cover the blood up. Someone has to!”

  The detective yanked his jacket off and covered Jacob’s chest with it with one hand. His other hand was sealed over his mouth and nose, avoiding infection from the blood. He tucked the jacket over under the fallen man’s back, where blood was already saturating through.

  Jacob’s arm moved. He let the blood run down his side and in between his fingers. He cupped his palm to let a small pool of the colorless liquid.

  “Detective John Hunter,” he was choking on his own blood as he spoke.

  “It’s over, Brent.” the officer replied, still covering his mouth. “Your pals fell down when you went down. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the officers across the country follow suit with you freaks.”

  A few drops of blood flew out of his mouth and settled on John’s sleeves. An unpleasant guttural sound escaped his throat. It sounded like a boiling pot of liquid metal, but John knew it was laughter.

  “We don’t care about targeting your kind.” he said. “The police, who are supposed to defend the people, are not our targets. We knew we were all going to die here. This was a suicide mission. You’ll see. Oh, you’ll see. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been impressed by you.”

  The animal man raised his hand from under the jacket. Thick, blackening blood splattered against Hunter’s forehead and cheeks like a watercolor accident.

  As far as anyone could tell, the detective wasn’t in pain. His jaw was stuck open in shock. Where his clean, slightly wrinkled skin previously were, dark crusts of loose skin began to hang.

  His daughter moved away from the wall. “Get away from him!”

  Jacob grunted from his labored breathing, and the only sounds from the detective were ill coughs from the substance. It was as if it were tunneling through his skin into his lungs.

  “Detective John Hunter,” Jacob said in between wheezing. “You were willing to kill when it was necessary. You were willing to commit to the greater good even if it endangered someone you loved.”

  “My daughter… I was just trying to save my daughter. You were going to kill her.” More of the man’s skin began to turn soft and dark like an old fruit.