Cindy Moon (silk) wrote in salemscenes, @ 2017-02-13 16:13:00 |
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Entry tags: | cindy moon (moon_cindy), melissa glaser (melissaglaser) |
Who: Cindy and Melissa
What: Fighting a giant snake
When: Back during the Book Plot
Where: Out and around Salem
Warnings: Hurting the snake
Going out to lunch on her break always carried the risk that Cindy wouldn’t get to finish her meal or even put in the order and today was one of those days. The hostess had finally called out her name and not two seconds later her Silk sense pinged. There was no ignoring it for Cindy no matter how delicious the restaurant smelled or how loud her stomach growled as if knowing she was ditching lunch. “Actually, my boss just texted me and I have to go. Sorry,” she called out at the hostess and gave her an apologetic look over her shoulder while making a beeline for the exit. Lunch was gonna have to wait.
Cindy ducked into the nearest empty alley and quickly spun herself into her Silk suit before tracking down whatever danger awaited her. It wasn’t all that hard to do when the screaming started, there was a lot of it, and car alarms and horns suddenly started blaring. That was never a good sign and Cindy double timed it to the source, swinging as fast as she could over the heads of people running away. She swung around the corner and nearly let go of her webbing at the sight that greeted her. Her eyes were as big as saucers as a freakishly enormous snake slithered down the street, crushing everything that fell under its huge body.
Cindy could have stared at that damn thing all day long but its swaying head suddenly struck hard and fast at one of the cars stuck in the middle of the street, trapped by the abandoned cars all around it, set her into motion. The snake’s long fangs pierced the roof and the terrified screams of the couple still inside the car reached Cindy’s ears. If they were screaming that meant they were still alive and had a chance to get the hell out of there on their feet instead of inside matching body bags.
She doubted webbing any part of its body would get the snake’s attention so she glanced around and spotted a knocked over street lamp not too far away. Baseball hadn’t been her sport but she could make an exception this once. Cindy hefted the lamp post into her hands and once she found the right grip, she charged at the snake from behind, she was a superhero, not crazy. She swung the lamp post right at the snake’s huge body and immediately had its attention. The snake coiled up and lost all interest it had in the car in favor of Cindy.
“That’s right, look over here you oversized freak!” Cindy took another swing but the snake was fast and learned its lesson the first time around. The tail wrapped around the top half of the lamp post, yanked it out of Cindy’s grip, and crushed it within its coils like a twig. Its creepy eyes focused on Cindy and she quickly spun a web and got up in the air just in time to avoid the same fate as the lamp post.
Melissa was also out to lunch from work. Though she had the misfortune of having already eaten when she ran into the King Kong of snakes on her way back. She dropped the paper cup that had been in her hand as her dark eyes widened in surprised. Diet Pepsi and half melted ice cubes spilled across her shoes but she didn’t feel how damp her foot was when she realized that was Cindy up there fighting that thing! Melissa had no idea who else knew that Cindy and Silk were one and the same but Melissa hadn’t breathed a word of it to anyone, not even Faye. She really only ever hung out with other circle members so it was nice to have one secret superhero friend. But Melissa was afraid she was going to lose her secret superhero friend to a giant snake that looked about ready to eat her. Cindy looked so small in comparison with the ancient reptile.
“This is really no place to raise a kid,” Melissa muttered to herself. It wouldn’t stop her from helping her but she really had to wonder at Faye and how irresponsible she could be sometimes. She knew that they were going to have to constantly be protecting that kid from everything and everyone whether they stayed in Salem or they went back to Chance Harbor.
"Hey, King Kobra!" Melissa yelled because those fangs were getting dangerously close to Cindy who had to keep swinging away from them. "Hey!" She picked up a rock and threw it at the snake. That finally drew it's attention towards Melissa, giving Cindy a moment to recover. Of course, now Melissa was staring into the beady eyes of a giant snake. Seriously, this snake could have swallowed Godzilla. It was like a bad Syfy movie. Mega Python vs Gatorshark or something starring washed up pop stars of the 80s.
"Get off my plane."
She reached her hand into her pocket and located the stone she had been carrying with her. She squeezed her hand around the agate remembering to focus her energy through it. She had been doing a lot of gemstone work lately. Business was slow at The House of Seven Gables.
One of the cars parked on a nearby street suddenly flipped up from the pavement where it had been resting and smacked the snake hard and right in the face. It went flying across the street and crashed into a street lamp.
Cindy was fast but so was the snake and there was no way she could keep outrunning the thing on foot and was forced to continually swing from building to building to avoid the gaping mouth just waiting for her to make one wrong move. She could have easily landed on any roof and taken off but having the snake wrap itself around a building and crush it just to get at her was out of the question. It was likely that people were still in there because as much as she hoped for common sense to prevail, she’d been in the superhero business long enough to know that there was some people genuinely stupid enough to stay put when running away was what they should have been doing instead.
She teased the giant snake as she swung right over its scaly head, mere inches away, and shuddered when she felt a damp tongue brush her calf. Okay that was way too close for comfort and Cindy was starting to rethink her plan when she heard Melissa’s voice. It’d been awhile since they’d last hung out but Cindy couldn’t deny that she was glad to see her friend again even in these circumstances or maybe especially because of them.
Cindy paused her web slinging and hung off the side of a building to take advantage of the time Melissa bought her to regroup. The most obvious thing to do was to keep the gigantic snake in this part of Salem instead letting it slither away and wreak havoc all over the city and possibly eat a good chunk of the population. As much as Cindy hated the thought, she needed to kill that thing as soon as possible and if there were any members of PETA in town that would object to her plan, they could kiss her butt. The only problem was that she wasn’t entirely sure how to go about killing a snake that could bulldoze over her without even trying. Watching the snake get slapped across the street was a good start.
Cindy flipped off the storefront and ran to Melissa’s side, her brown eyes bright with amusement. “That’s one way to get the snake’s attention.” Unfortunately the giant twitched and its body steadily coiled up, getting ready to strike. The amusement faded from her face just as quick and she looked around to make sure no one accidentally stumbled their way onto the street. “So I’m thinking we need to kill it,”’ Cindy spoke fast as she braced herself to play the part of bait again. “You wouldn’t happen to be able to conjure up a huge blade to cut off its head, would you?” Cindy was strong, strong enough to lift and throw a car but punching the snake wasn’t going to do it, not if she didn’t want to leave with her bones intact.
“I’m also open to suggestions,” she said then gave Melissa a nod and ran right at the snake once it spotted them. Its body straightened out and started to slither down the street, effortlessly brushing abandoned cars aside with bulging muscles. It moved so fast it looked like it was gliding down the street and Cindy was pretty sure the increased speed was probably because it was pissed off. Cindy ran up on top of a hummer and let out a loud whistle, getting the snake to focus on her. Quick as lightning, the snake’s head came down and struck the roof of the hummer. Cindy was a hair faster and leapt up into the air, landing on top of the snake’s head. Her spider grip kept her firmly secure on the head even as the snake thrashed back and forth, trying to throw her off.
Melissa had to race out of the way as she considered Cindy’s proposal. She wasn’t exactly going to be able to jump on the snake’s head or actually throw a punch at all. Melissa wasn’t built to be a fighter but she had been a gift, passed down from one generation after the next. It wasn’t dark, it was run of the mill witchcraft except there was nothing run of the mill about being a witch at all. Melissa was no special witch but being a witch was special. Now hopefully none of the locals would see her and start up another witch panic. Though, she thought everyone in Salem had bigger things to be afraid of at the moment.
She wasn’t actually sure that she could just conjure up a blade like that. It wasn’t like anything she had done before and it was hard to make something out of nothing. Now if there were a giant blade laying around, she might be able to manipulate it but she wasn’t sure she could create a thing out of thin air, at least not by herself. That would have been a job for the whole circle and none of them were there at the moment.
Cindy was open to ideas and Melissa had one, she just wasn’t sure it would work on a snake that big.
While Melissa was busy considering her options, Cindy was getting bucked around on top of the snake’s head before she finally was thrashed off of the monstrous thing. God, what book did that come out of anyway?
“Light as a feather floating her down,” Melissa said. It was often easier to just turn her words into will when she was under duress like this. And a sudden sweep of wind seemed to grab hold of Cindy and gently rock her to the ground. Melissa ran over to her.
“There’s an electric fence near the plant nearby. Do you think electricity would work on it? I can probably even amplify the power with my magic.” Now there was something she could manipulate without having to make it appear. Melissa was confident in her ability to do that.
Cindy was suddenly very glad for the fact that she’d skipped lunch for this because she was fairly certain that she’d be seeing it for the second time as the snake wildly threw its head back and forth in an effort to throw her off. As it was, her suit remained clean but she’d never felt this dizzy before. Her vision spun on top of the snake jerking its head all around and as much as she tried to hold on, she finally slipped off the scaly surface. She threw out her hands as she fell, webs spinning from her fingertips but they attached to nothing as the world continue to spin.
She had no idea how high she even was but Cindy winced as she braced for impact that never came. A burst of wind caught her mid-air and gently floated her down to the ground. Seconds later Melissa was at her side and Cindy took the chance to lean on her for a brief moment as the dizziness faded away. “Thanks for that.” She gave her friend’s shoulder an appreciative squeeze and listened to her idea.
“I think that might work,” Cindy said as she watched the gigantic snake look for her. Its perturbingly long tongue flicked in and out of its mouth, tasting the air and getting a better lock on them. “It knocked down another lamp post, If I can jam it into its body, we can get a lot of electricity flowing directly into its guts.” They didn’t have a lot of time as the snake finally turned to look at them and once more prepared to slither their way.
“You go to the electric fence, work on amplifying it and I’ll play bait. Go!”
She couldn’t spare a second to make sure Melissa ran but she trusted her friend to do what she had to while Cindy took care of her part. It was gonna be a bitch to get around the snake but she had to make it work, they had no other options if they didn’t want the snake to escape into the rest of the town. She spun a web and immediately took to the air. Swinging around to stall for time seemed like a good way to go since it worked last time but the colossus of a snake seemed to have a good memory since this time it didn’t chace Cindy. Instead it used its body to block her path, swinging its enormous tail through her web. She sailed through the air but managed to tuck and land on a roll. The snake was on her like white on rice but her Silk sense warned her in time and Cindy dove out the way as it coiled around an abandoned car and crushed it.
The knocked over lamp post was only a few feet away and she made a grab for it just as the crumpled car was thrown her way.
“Be careful!” Melissa called after Cindy but she wasn’t sure if her superhero friend heard her or not. She was already swinging her way back into danger. Melissa should have been used to that by now but she wasn’t. Her life had been a horror show for awhile, maybe one day it would finally sink in that things like giant snakes were an inevitability.
She turned and saw that there was a whole street full of cars and people who were gaping at the giant snake that Cindy was trying to do battle with and distract.
“What the hell?!” Melissa yelled at them. People really were stupid as a general rule. Melissa tried to see the good but most of the time all that looked back at her were a bunch of sheep. That was why she really only hung out with other members of The Circle. Cindy was a rare thing for Melissa. She didn’t usually socialize outside of her group. Even back in Chance Harbor she never did, unless it was a cute boy or something. None of those were ever serious, not until Nick who had been part of her Circle.
“Move! Run! Do you want to be partially digested by sunset?!” Melissa shook her head angrily and held her hands up. She had to love having her solo magic back because when she yelled at them to run, they ran. Some of them ran of their own volition when they noticed others running but Melissa had to jumpstart it. Because people would rather stand around and gawk than save themselves. Melissa would never understand it.
“Run! Get out of here!”
And now Melissa was running too. She was running towards the plant where there was a fence. Melissa thought it was electrified because of the signs around it but she supposed she didn’t know for sure and the only way to test it was to electrify herself. That wasn’t something she was willing to do. It didn’t really matter. She could probably electrify any fence that she wanted to if there was a power source close enough.
When she reached the fence, she was sure it was electric. She could practically smell the power coming off of it. Now she was regretting solo magic a little bit since before they had it, they tended to travel in packs when they could. If Melissa had even just one more member of the Circle with her, she would be in good shape.This was possibly too big of a job for her.
No. This wasn’t a time to doubt herself. She could hear Cindy and the snake racing down the street towards her like a thunderous T-Rex bent on destroying the city. Melissa closed her eyes and let herself feel the crackle of electricity until it snapped off of the fence and let loose a few little lightning bolts. It was definitely electric. Now Melissa just had to super charge it.
She turned to see how close Cindy and the snake were. It was right on her heels, sending cars flying in every which direction. But instead of following Cindy right up towards the fence, it seemed intent on taking a detour into a parking garage. It’s enormous body destroyed the tunnel designed for cars as it slithered inside to the sound of more screams.
Melissa looked up, wide eyed at Silk.
“What’s plan B?” Melissa shouted. The fence was still a good idea but the snake was thinking ahead, if snakes could even think.
Once Cindy had the lamp post in hand, she ran full tilt towards the electric fence. It wasn’t far and she could hear the snake behind her as it carved a path of destruction as it gave chace. Only a few more feet and that would be the end of it but the noise stopped and the look on Melissa’s face said it all. Cindy turned around in time to watch the tail of the snake disappear down the tunnel. Son of a bitch.
“Uh,” was Cindy’s response as she racked her mind for another plan. She was still a fan of frying the snake with electricity and maybe it was still possible. “First we need to get the people out of there and then we flood the tunnel. At work, I had to go over a few blueprints and I remember seeing that there’s a water main down there. So we fill the place with water and then we use the currents powering the lights to kill the snake.” It wasn’t ideal but Cindy was okay with some property damage if it meant that the snake wouldn’t be making a meal out of people.
“Come on, we gotta empty out the tunnel.” She had no idea what kind of chaos was waiting for them in the tunnel but they had no choice but to go there. Cindy led the way down and braced herself for what they might find. Car alarms grew louder with their every step, so did the screaming and it made Cindy move faster. When they finally reached the entrance proper, cars were scattered every which way with people either hiding in or behind them. The giant snake slithered around, far too big to sit up in the parking garage.
It set its sights for a family hovering around the back and Cindy’s grip on the lamp post tightened. Wordlessly she ran for the giant and stabbed it clean through the the tail.
While Cindy focused on keeping the snake away from innocent people, Melissa set her sights on said innocent people in the parking garage.
“Get out!” she started yelling as she ran towards confused looking people. “Stop staring and GET. OUT.!” Melissa words carried her will and people began to move, against their own will. Melissa didn’t care about taking peoples’ free will away if it meant protecting them from the giant snake that could have easily swallowed them whole. Mainly, she was concerned that Cindy was going to get eaten trying to protect everyone.
Melissa ran around the parking garage yelling at people and trying not to completely deplete her magic getting people to flee when she needed some reserves in order to fry this huge snake. She was still doing her best to make sure everyone was getting out safely when a car went flipping up into the air and Melissa didn’t see it in enough time to try and stop it. Instead, she rolled out of the way and came to a painful stop sandwiched between the fallen car and a wall. It was lucky that she was tiny. If she were any bigger she wouldn’t have been able to wriggle herself free.
“I think everyone’s out!” Melissa yelled to Cindy, trying to get her attention. “But I’m not lighting this place up until you’re out too!”
Melissa knew that Cindy was going to have the unfortunate task of filling the parking garage up with water which was going to be dangerous. It was clear that Silk was used to danger and could handle it but Melissa couldn’t handle watching another friend die and feeling complicit in it. Melissa wanted to kill the snake but not at the expense of Cindy’s life. This city needed her too much.
Melissa knew she was going to have to get back up to the surface and assess the situation there. She really needed to get out of the parking garage too. The people were all gone as far as she could tell but there were plenty of abandoned cars for the giant serpent to fling at her and Cindy.
“I’m going back up,” Melissa said when Silk had a moment to join her. “But I’m not sending the electricity through until you come back up too.”
Melissa didn’t give Cindy a chance to argue, just turned around and began to run out of the parking garage as fast as her little legs would carry her. She was going to need to get to the surface and figure out how she was going to do this.
Blood spurted on Cindy’s suit as the lamp post cut through the tail and the snake let out a loud echoing hiss in the parking garage as the tail thrashed about in pain, trying its damnedest to dislodge the pole. It caused enough of a distraction for her to wave away the family and luckily, the huge fangs on display were enough to get them to move. The rest of the people were in Melissa’s hands as Cindy turned her attention on the behemoth again.
With a flick of its body, the snake sent the lamp post went flying but Cindy was quick and she spun a web big enough to catch it before it hit the people finally fleeing the garage. Her Silk sense pinged just then and she immediately sprang into the air and clung onto one the smaller pipes criss crossing the ceiling just in time to watch the snake snap its jaws over the spot she’d been standing in. Its tongue stuck out, scenting the air, and then its body curled enough so it set its beady eyes on Cindy. The snake hissed, opened its mouth, and swung its heavy tail at the pipes. The skinny pipes snapped like toothpicks under the blow and Cindy started to fall. Her eyes widened at the sight of the dark hole that was the snake’s mouth.
She webbed herself a net between the jaws and fell on top on the newly made springy surface then rolled off in a blur. The lack of Cindy sized snack confused the snake for like a second before it realized something was covering its mouth. “Not today, snake, not today!” While the snake dealt with that, Cindy ran towards Melissa’s voice.
She opened her mouth to argue Melissa’s plan but she was already running away. Freaking hell, she didn’t want Melissa to wait for her but it was too late to tell her as much. The people were gone and the snake was distracted for the time being, it was time to flood the parking garage while she could. She took a moment to remember what was on the blueprints then went running in the direction of the water main. There was a maintenance closet nearby where the large pipe ran through and gave her the best access without having to punch through cement.
A car fell a few feet away from her and Cindy turned around and saw the giant snake thrashing around with the webbing still covering its mouth. She smirked under her mask and continued to run. The door to the closet was locked but Cindy didn’t hesitate to pull the knob clean off and stepped inside. There were a whole mess of pipes and valves in the small room but it didn’t take a genius to figure out the biggest one was the water main. It didn’t have a valve like the others but Cindy didn’t need one. She pulled back her hand and punched clear through the pipe. Water spilled out in a strong stream but that wouldn’t be enough and she widened the hole to really get the water going. It was going to be a bitch to repair but she had no other choice.
The water in the closet already rose to her ankles and she ran outside to keep a watch on the snake until the parking garage was flooded. A movement from the corner of her eyes and her Silk sense warned her the snake was nearby. She ran and hopped up on the hood of a truck and watched as the snake slithered through the water. The webbing was gone from its mouth and it looked like the water was helping it move faster. Son of a bitch. She hadn’t thought about that. What was done was done, however, and she had to make sure the snake stayed in the garage until the water level moved up high enough so Melissa could fry it.
Cindy whistled and jumped off the hood, making a loud splash in the quickly rising water. The noise got the snake's attention and barreled towards her. From there it became a game of cat and mouse and Cindy was left to play the role of mouse. She moved back on top of cars and started running and hopping from car roof to car roof. She heard cars flying and crashing into other cars behind her as the snake followed her, apparently set on eating her. The water continued to rise until finally even the tops of cars were under water.
This was the part Cindy had dreaded and with a deep breath, Cindy dived off a car and into the newly formed pool. The water was cold but Cindy swam for all she was worth. Gravity had kept the snake from being the faster one of the two of them but in water, she knew the advantage was to the snake. She kicked her legs as hard and quick as she could but it wasn’t fast enough, the snake was on her and only by the grace of her senses she managed to dive down low enough to avoid getting swallowed. She stuck herself to the snake and held on. They quickly cut through the water, the snake agile and fast.
She pressed close to the scaly body and kept her eyes open, looking for the tunnel opening. As soon as she spotted it, Cindy let go and swam up. She broke through the surface and took a much needed breath then dived back down and swam through the tunnel. The water had an eerie glow thanks to the florescent lights but she was grateful they hadn’t gone out and left in her darkness. After a couple minutes she saw a much brighter light and pumped her arms and legs even faster until she touched dry ground. “Now! Do it now,” she yelled the moment she could.
Cindy pulled herself out of the water just as the snake’s head burst through the surface.
“Melissa, do it!”
Melissa was starting to get nervous. Water had begun to leak out of the parking garage so she knew that Cindy had managed to get the water turned on. But where was Cindy? Melissa didn’t see her anywhere. While there was a decent chance that Cindy had ended up being snake food, Melissa didn’t want to risk electrifying Cindy too. She knew that Cindy was a superhero but Melissa was working up enough electricity to fry a giant snake. She was pretty sure that this much power would fry Cindy too if she was immersed.
Standing next to the fence, Melissa began to bounce a little bit with anxiety, rocking back on her heels in anticipation. Where was Cindy? Where was she? Because Melissa wasn’t sure what she would do if Cindy died. Melissa didn’t usually pray. Not because she was a witch but because she wasn’t sure she believed in God when He was always messing up her life and never giving her a break. But this time, He seemed to come through as Cindy popped up to the surface.
“Get away from the water!” Melissa shouted at her. She really hoped that everyone was away from the water or they were going to be fried too. She knew she had to move quickly. The giant snake was still slithering quickly towards the surface.
She closed her eyes and held one hand out towards the fence.
“Let me be the conduit,” she said. Melissa’s entire body came alive with electricity and it was scary and painful but also completely satisfying with the kind of power she knew she was using and doing it on her own. She extended her other hand towards the parking garage and the electricity made the jump from Melissa’s body to the water where it immediately began to quickly course. There was a terrible thrashing from below that shook her like an earthquake before it came to a stop.
Melissa dropped her arms, letting the spell drop which was necessary because Melissa had friend herself with the power in that spell. She walked over to Cindy and looked her over.
“Are you alright?” Melissa asked.
Cindy scrambled back as soon as she was out of the water and watched with wide eyes as Melissa channeled the electricity from the electric fence into the water flooding the parking garage. Sparks went flying and the snake dropped back into the water, spilling more of it everywhere as it thrashed in its last death throes. It was quite a sight to see, both a little terrifying and amazing in turn. Once the water stopped moving so violently, Cindy allowed herself to flop onto her back in relief. The stupid thing was finally dead and she had all of her limbs. Yay.
She let out a quiet breath and looked up to see Melissa hovering over her. Cindy’s mouth twitched up into a smile and she gave her friend a nod. “Totally fine. I’m gonna have to burn this suit because of the snake blood but I’m good.” She waited a beat then pushed herself up on her feet so Melissa didn’t think she was lying or hiding an injury.
“Really, I’m good and you did great.” Cindy beamed at Melissa. Just like when they’d teamed up during the tornado fiasco, they worked well together. She honestly wasn’t sure what she would have done without her help because the snake hadn’t given her the chance to phone the avengers for backup.
“Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.” She glanced back at the water and didn’t envy whoever got cleanup duty. There was a huge snake corpse in there somewhere and the water needed to be shut off. It wasn’t ideal but no one was dead and that was what they’d been going for.
“Thank you. You did all the hard work,” Melissa said. Her hair was disheveled and her jeans were torn but Melissa was in one piece. She also wasn’t covered from head to toe in watery snake blood like Cindy was. Yeah, that outfit was dead between the blood and the water. Cindy looked like she needed a hot bath and a long nap and Melissa knew the feeling. She was exhausted after using that much power by herself. She knew it was better if she got back to the house and found the rest of The Circle. Even if she only found one or two of them, they were much stronger together than they were apart.
“I should go and find my friends. I don’t know where they are and whatever’s happening here is probably only the beginning. Even if it’s not, I should find out if they’re okay.”
Melissa gave Cindy a half smile. She had missed her. Cindy really was her only friend outside of The Circle. It was so rare that she ever made them. It was so rare in fact that Melissa hadn’t been a very good friend to Cindy. She wasn’t good at staying in touch or anything like that. She was used to living with her friends now. Except for Cassie, she was still on the outside for reasons that Melissa didn’t fully understand. Maybe she should make an effort to go and see her. She had no idea if anyone else was talking to her. She hoped DIana was at least but Melissa didn’t want to open that can of worms.
“Check in later so I know you’re still alive?” Melissa asked. She knew that Cindy’s line of work was violent and dangerous. Melissa’s life was violent and dangerous but she didn’t run head first into it the way that Cindy did.
Cindy gave Melissa a nod when she mentioned checking in on her friends. It reminded her to check in with Sharon later and it was easy enough since she lived in the apartment next to hers. “I’ll give the cops a call and give them a head’s up. They’ll know who to contact to clean all this up.” She’d stick around long enough to see them come then leave and make up with some excuse to tell her boss over why her lunch break went well over thirty minutes. She had gotten pretty good at lying to him and he bought her excuses each time. She didn’t know if she was that good or he didn’t care.
“Of course, I’ll shoot you a text.” She clapped Melissa’s shoulder and waved her off. She’d be okay and didn’t want to keep her from her friends in case they needed her. She saw Melissa off with a small smile, glad to see her again even if it had been to team up to take down a giant serpent.