7: Viper

"N A T A S H A, D O N'T !" L U C A S cried out when she finally let go and lashed out at the figure, her fingers folded into a fist that was arced with sparks of lightning.

Natasha's fist never connected as she ended up hitting nothing just as a wave of bright green light burst out and blinded her along with Lucas, Cassie, Carmen, Marcus and Henry. . .

The bright light intensified, warping her mind into disarray, the last sound she heard being that of Lucas warning her.

The light then began to die down until Natasha could finally see.

But not what she had been expecting to see.

The mysterious cloaked figure that descended from the sky and cast out that wave of green energy had disappeared.

Natasha spun around. She was by herself . Her so friends, her mother and everyone else were nowhere in sight.

"Lucas!" she called out.

"Cassie!"

The entire place was deserted just as she realized that she was no longer standing on North Atlanta High grounds where she and her friends had just graduated.

A large shadow had befallen her, making her look up to see the thirty-foot tall sculpture of the Blue Streak.

She was at The Blue Streak Memorial.

The hooded figure must have done something to her and to her friends, she thought.

Natasha was still in her graduation attire minus the hat which she had thrown into the air as was custom of a graduation.

She checked the wrist of her right hand where she found the thin bracelet that Carter had designed for her two years ago.

She was about to tap on it so that it would unleash the nano-compressed super suit from inside but stopped when she remembered what happened to it.

It was still in an oily mess after she had tried to take down the bank robber with the super car.

Well, she would soon find out that there would be no need for the suit to conceal her identity when the sky suddenly turned green just like it had been before at her graduation.

Inhaling, Natasha tapped into her power, unleashing her speed before breaking into a run with green-blue lightning crackling all over her, transforming into the Viper.

She sped away from the memorial, hurtling through the city until she halted at the entrance of North Atlanta High.

It was empty. Deserted.

No graduation was taking place.

Where is everybody?

Natasha stepped out of the school and started scanning the roads, streets and buildings.

Nothing.

It was so quiet that she could hear her own fast beating heart pounding inside of her as it normally did thanks to her hyper metabolized body system.

She then gasped before tapping into her speed again and bolted away from the school.

Mom!

She raced all the way to her house.

"Mom!" she called, opening bathroom doors, the kitchen and the bedroom. Empty.

There was only one other place she could think of at that moment as she sped out of the house.

Seconds later, Natasha was hurtling into Carter•Labs, hoping to maybe at least find the two most brilliant scientists on the planet but the facility was also deserted. Even Sally, the interactive consciousness was unresponsive.

What the hell is this?

Natasha had just run out of ideas when the ground beneath her began to shake. She took a step back.

The shaking intensified, turning into a loud rumble, with the ground then trembling like an earthquake manifesting.

Natasha watched large cracks start to materialize, deforming the facility's immaculate floor.

That would have been the end of her had she not acted quickly by using her speed to dash back and out of the building just as the ground beneath gave away, rupturing violently and something broke through to the surface.

The speedster stopped several feet outside the facility and watched in shock as it all crumbled in on itself.

For a moment, everything returned to its abnormal silence right before there was a loud crash followed by debris flailing into the air from the fallen building.

Dodging the falling debris, Natasha looked up to see something shoot up from the wreckage and rise high up into the sky.

She gasped when she finally realized what it was.

It was almost as tall as the Blue Streak sculpture as it lowered its flat large head towards the speedster, with its thick skin covered with sleek layers of dark green scales that glinted under the sky of the same color.

It was a snake and a very big one at that.

Natasha was not only shocked by its size but by the fact that she identified exactly the type of serpent it was-a viper! Just like her own pet viper except this one was a hundred times bigger. 

A thirty-foot long viper snake with a diameter so wide that it would shadow the entire facility.

Its eyes were large and glossy, with two dark slits glaring down at Natasha.

From the looks of it, Natasha knew it had only one intention and she was not going to just stand there and watch it happen.

Just like any other dangerous snake, Natasha had learned that if provoked, it would most definitely attack and was thus backing away ever so slightly, careful not to cause any disturbance.

This, however, was not any normal snake as it went on to open its mouth, revealing two large pointed pillars for fangs and a forked tongue rolled out.

The serpent let out a high-pitched screeching noise like a nail scraping metal only this time amplified over thousands of frequencies.

Natasha had to cover her ears and fell on her back while doing so, staining her purple graduation gown.

Without warning, the serpent brought its huge head down on her, lashing out like any other snake but Natasha was fast enough, barely rolling out of the way. The viper's fangs dug into the ground.

There was only one other thing she could do, which of course was what she did best — run!

Natasha was up on her feet and bolting away with the gown billowing through the streaks of lightning.

The snake tore the ground apart as it retrieved its fangs and began to charge after the speedster, slithering so fast and viciously, sending buildings crashing to the ground as it did so.

It was a deathly chase of a viper and a viper, with one of them intent on laying waste to the other.

Despite Natasha's hyper speed, she was proving to be no match for the serpent that was fast gaining on her and she began to get the sensation of a kind of force pulling her back, making her slower.

The huge jade serpent was then upon her, its jaws parting, ready to swallow the girl whole when a sudden bright light flashed right in front of her.

Natasha had to squint before she could make out what it was.

It was an array of red-red lightning that had materialized out of nowhere.

Natasha was in the middle of deciding whether to pull back but then she would end up in the belly of the serpent or just run on blindly.

Neither of the situations seemed to be giving her a chance as the large reptile brought its jaws together and the flashes of red lightning trailed over towards Natasha.

The flashes made it to Natasha first after she felt the lightning circle around her body like a fastening rope, wrapping around her and yanking her out of the way just as the viper's jaws snapped shut.

Natasha felt her body grow light as she was whisked away before everything went dark. . .