Original Author : (Grimgor Ironhide)
Location Found in : forum (dot) fanfiction (dot) net

Q. Do I have permission to repost the story here? ,
A. Refer chapter 1 of this collection

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Post #253 ,

Second chapter to Snakes In Flight. Do not read until you have read the first, which is posted above.

Snakes In Flight Ch 2: Black Mamba

The sword in my hand made a clean *Snick * as it cut through the air taking out three snakes in one fell blow, their elongated body's falling in half onto the floor. Turing with lightning speed I threw my leg out and crushed the skull of a viper that had been coming up from behind me.

Looking to my left I watched as Agent Neville tore a huge King Cobra in half with his bear hands, griping it by the head and tail and simply rending it apart as it tried futility to bite him. Throwing the two pieces of snake away he looked over at me. "You got it alright back there?" He shouted as I cut the head off of yet another snake that had tried to latch itself onto my ankle.

"Yeah, but if they keep coming like this then one of us is sure to get bitten eventually." I said grunting as a brown striped snake suddenly came out from behind one of the seats trying to bite my other foot.

"Well there cant be to many of these things. There is only so many Snakes that could be snuck onto a plane." Lashing out with terrible force Samuel L Jackson/ Agent Neville Flynn punched a snake in the head even as it jumped through the air at him, driving it against the wall and shattering its head so violently that it burst in a spray of blood and brains, the two eyes flying out in different directions, one of them incidentally hitting me square in the face making me stumble for a moment.

"Don't fall apart on me now kid." Neville blared out, as I recovered myself and wiped what could only be described as snake eye juice off my cheek. Absently finishing of the last snake on by side of the compartment I let my arms drop to my sides as I surveyed our progress. It was the second of the overrun compartments that we had cleared and already between the two of us we must have killed 4 dozen snakes. It was unbelievable, and worse yet their were no survivors so far.

"We got to get into the back sections of the plane." Neville said wiping the snake blood off of his face. "Some people could have survived by going back there and laying low, I don't think any one would be stupid enough to stay in the passenger sections ."

I shook my head slowly looking down at the dead snakes all around us. "These were probably released from somewhere in the back of the plane, that would be the least likely place to find survivors. We cant skip the rest of the passenger compartments just on that slim chance."

Neville nodded vaguely. "Well, I guess either way you better keep that sword handy."

Moving forward into the next compartment, I set to work, winding my way carefully around the serpents that lined the seats I started chopping, slicing them apart before they could come within biting distance. Next to me Agent Neville went to town, A fire extinguisher cradled in one hand he swung it around liberally smashing anything that slithered and came to close to him with dreadful conviction. In a few minutes we had cleared out the next compartment, and then the next. And then the next.

"Damn it!" I said as we surveyed the last passenger compartment. It was completely dead, with no survivors at all and the fragmented remains of their reptilian killers laying all around, adding to the sense of desolation in the compartment.

"Now we got to go check the cargo bay." Neville said wearily. "I need something besides this fire extinguisher." He growled, casting his eye around for another weapon.

I looked at him carefully. "Agent Neville... " I started softly. "If the snakes overrun the plane then we are certainly going to crash right?"

"You ain't the brightest are you?" He intoned sharply, giving me another one of his severe looks. "Kid if the snakes overrun the plane and kill the pilot then both our &%$# are going in the water. And quite frankly I don't want that to happen. To tell you the truth I could survive the impact just fine, but the Sharks? Not so much."

I raised my eyebrow at the rather odd statement. "So... your not afraid of crashing... but you are afraid of sharks..." I said trying to make sure I had heard right.

Neville gave me an unfathomable look that would have curdled the blood of all but the bravest fools.

"I... don't like Sharks." he said slowly, a far away look in his eye. "You could say that they are one of my only weaknesses."

I nodded. As a person who had met and worked with Lancer during the war, a man who had a weakness to dog meat, I could understand. Sometimes their were just little things that didn't sit right with a person. Sharks was an understandable vulnerability.

Aside from that I know knew what I wanted. If we did not succeed then everyone on board would die. That meant one thing. We absolutely had to succeed no matter what. Even if it meant revealing my powers so that I could give Agent Neville a more suitable weapon.

Trace on.

"Tell me Samu- I mean Agent Neville. What did you have in mind?"

"A crowbar or.. like a fire axe or something. Hell even a snow shovel would be okay just as long as I dont have to use this clumsy thing!" He said like it was obvious what he would want. "Problem is that most anything that I could use as a weapon would be in the cargo bay in the first place see?"

"I understand. Listen, this may shock you... but I need you to not panic." I said slowly. Their was no real point in pulling punches, sooner or later he was going to ask how I got the first sword anyways, and something told me Agent Neville Flinn was not the type of person to be taken in by simple deception, nor would a vague explanation of my powers work, I fact unless I had misjudged his character Agent Nevill Flinn would probably beat the snot out of me if I even said anything remotely along the lines of "Legacy of a misspent youth." I would have to explain in full or not at all. And I would have to do it now, on a plane infested with snakes. This really was quickly becoming a very awkward day.

Pouring my od out a gleaming singe edged sword appeared I my hand.

Agent Neville looked at it for a little before suddenly slapping me hard in the side of the head. "What is that &^%? I asked for a Crowbar or a fire axe! Not a medieval pig sticker! I gave you 4 choices and you missed all of them! Remind me why I brought you along!"

Blinking in surprise I released the blade and quickly traced a common crowbar, which he promptly grabbed from me before I could hand it over.

"I... suppose you will want an explanation as to how this is all possible." I said carefully testing the waters. Jackson was looking at me with his usual intense hard boiled expression boring into my face, not saying a word.
"The truth is that... well... Magic is real." I blurted out. My audience did not move or even make a sine that I had said anything strange, just staring at me, his eyes wide not in wonder or astonishment, but in pure unadulterated hard boildness. If there was such a thing. "I... am really a Magus, a practitioner of magic you could say, I can create swords out of thin air.. among other things." "Do I look like I give a #&*$?" Neville said still glaring at me without changing his expression at all. "What?" I said, taken aback at his lack of reaction, maybe it was shock, or maybe he thought he was dreaming, Yes that could be it... "I said, DO. I. LOOK. LIKE I GIVE A #&*$?" He shouted, making my ears hurt. "I don't think so." He went on. "Now kindly use your mystic powers to make something I can use." He finished, rolling his eyes at me as I stood there. "W-What?" I stuttered, completely thrown off by Neville's disinterest.

"What country are you from?" Neville said cutting off my train of thought.

"W-What?"

"What ain't no country I ever heard of!" He shouted. "Do they speak English in What?"

Had I been two or three years younger I would have probably flinched, backed up and kept stuttering 'What?' over and over again before he shot me or something. As it was the the primary method of correction in the Clock Tower was shouting, from Rin and the instructors as well. Needles to say whit my frequent mistakes and slow uptake of most Magical theory's I was a hardened veteran of being shouted at, and though no one this intense had ever shouted at me, the sensation was similar enough for me to keep my guts.

"No, I'm from Japan actually." I made out with only minimal difficulty. "And no, they don't usually speak English there."

He stopped shouting and backed of a little, regarding me with a wide eyed glare that had just the barest hint of grudging approval. "Well." He said slowly. "That's a better answer then the last guy gave."

"Um... thanks?" I said, not sure what to make of his reply.

"Just get me something I can use!" He shouted, glaring at me again.

Nodding quickly I traced a simple crowbar which he promptly snatched from me.

"About time! Come on now, we have got some Snakes to clean out!" Making our way to the cargo bay, he opened the door and hoped inside carefully looking around as he did so. I followed him cautiously, enhancing my eyes and ears to pick up the faintest nose of a slithering body. My diligence was rewarded when I heard the now familiar sound of a serpent jumping put at me from the shadows. Two years of training with Saber and the absorbed memory's of my future self all flashed through my mind as I turned, but at that moment one memory in particular stood out above all the others.

Despite her acceptance that the world had moved on since her own time Saber was determined to drill into me what seemed like an endless stream of combat knowledge into my head, in preparation for facing whatever monsters were still left on this earth. This particular move she had taught me she had been expecting me to use against Dragon's.

I had been studying the serpents that had invaded the plane from the moment that they had emerged and I had come to a conclusion. It looked like as far as Snakes and Dragons went there was little difference in the basic anatomy.

Twisting mid step I snatched the oncoming Serpent out of the air griping it near the head. Then, in a move that I had spent a whole week and a half practicing with Saber in the forest I calculated the length of the serpent to the inch and then drove my fist into where I predicted its serpentine reproductive organ's would be located.

It worked, and with a high pitched hissing, it went limp in my hand, it' eyes becoming wide, its need to express its primal agony superseding the biological impossibility of such an act due to lack of it to the floor I watched, unable to express a small feeling of sympathy as it curled up started twisting from side to side in a truly pitiful manner.

"Damn son." Neville said watching me with a look of something almost like respect on his face. "You are gona have to teach me that one some time for sure."

"Well." I said still looking down at it. "At least we wont have to kill it now, I think I took all the bite out of that one. He'll be docile for a couple of says now at least."

Neville looked down at it with me nodding solemnly. "If we could do that to criminals I think that we could really become more effective in keeping scum of the streets... Damn..."