B20C11 - Cobra

The snake stared at me with glittering, evil eyes.

The shoes came closer.

What was I supposed to do? I could morph to something small. Like a bug. Like a roach or an ant or a flea. But there was a slight problem with that: I was being eyeballed by a cobra not two feet away! Who knew what snakes might eat?

Then it hit me. The obvious, if slightly insane solution. I reached my hand for the snake.

Fwapp!

The snake struck! Fangs in my hand, right in the fleshy part between the thumb and forefinger.

"Urgh!" I groaned.

"All right, come out from under there!" David's father said.

I grabbed for the snake and held him tight this time. He began to thrash, slither, wriggle, and just generally be annoying.

"On the count of three, and bring your hands out first!"

Thump!

A muffled noise. I saw the black shoes swivel to face the closet. It was Ax, providing a distraction. Good old Ax!

I held onto that stupid snake and I focused. When animals are acquired, which is when we absorb their DNA, they become calm, relaxed, peaceful. Most of the time, anyway.

But not the snake. No, as I absorbed the DNA and as David's father went to the closet, that lunatic snake kept thrashing like an idiot. The closet door opened.

"All right, step out here and . . . jeez Louise!"

I heard the sound of a gun being holstered. And then the big black shoes started doing a dance. A little dance called "stomp the bug!"

<Marco! I am in spider morph and this human is attempting to crush me with his artificial hooves!>

I couldn't answer, of course, since I wasn't in morph. All I could do was try to distract David's dad for Ax, like he'd done for me.

So I yanked the cobra back and flung him, across the floor. He went flopping and hissing out into plain view. At which point David's father said, "Ah, Spawn! Get the spider, Spawn!"

Things were going from bad to worse. The cobra locked its nasty gaze right on poor Ax, who I could now see zipping around insanely between the man's big, black "artificial hooves."