Chapter 15-Scales and Fangs

Third Person:

Beni groaned as she woke up with the mother of all headaches. It had been about two days since she had thrown up, and she gradually started to feel better. She wasn't coughing as much, and the sneezing was completely gone, so now it was headaches so bad she had a tough time seeing straight.

She yawned and grabbed her crutches, feeling too cold for her own comfort. But she could screw around with the thermostat after she went to the bathroom. When she got there she looked into the mirror tiredly. It took her a second to process that she looked not human, and when it clicked, she let out a panicked scream.

Nearly a second later Beni heard footsteps stomping down the stairs and a string of curses followed by a giant thump. And then there were more footsteps and Bucky slammed into her room, knife in one hand and gun in the other. But before Beni could slam her bathroom door shut he walked over stealthily and dropped his weapons.

"What the hell..." he said, raising is weapons back up.

"It's me, Beni! And if you want me to prove it I can."

"Shoot before I do."

"The way we met was my friend hitting you with his car when he was bringing me here from the airport and your favorite Disney movie is Toy Story and-"

"-Stop! It's really you."

"You really believe that? Thank God, I was totally just guessing on the favorite Disney movie part."

"Yes. Your leg is still missing, and yes, that is my favorite Disney movie."

I sighed with relief as I looked in the mirror again. My eyes had turned red, and my skin was scaly and green. My hair had been replaced with a sort of lizard Mohawk that went passed my neck and half way down my back, slowly leading into the strong, spiked tail I had. I looked at my hands to see long, black claws, and I opened my mouth to see some pretty sharp fangs.

"Must have been the serum. Instead of giving me the ability to grow a limb it gave me every other fucking thing any other reptile has. Fucking deranged dumbass," Beni said, touching her face. "At least I feel fine. I think the sickness was just my body's natural way of adjusting to the new stuff."

"So you're part lizard now?" Bucky asked, following Beni out of her room.

"Part reptile, yes. It's not just lizards, I also have a poison gland from some snake DNA and how the fuck do I know that?"

"You're asking me?"

"It was a rhetorical question, Princess."

She stopped for a moment an readjusted the thermostat before heading off to the kitchen where her microscope still was. She sat down and took a sample of her new blood with one of the clean needles. That made Bucky uncomfortable as he started seeing images of him in the chair, injecting stuff into his system. He shivered and looked back at Beni, who was carefully putting a few drops of her blood on a slide and under the microscope.

"Huh," she said, taking off the new slide and putting an old one with her normal blood on it in the microscope.

"What's 'huh' for?" Bucky asked with a raised eyebrow, rubbing his arms nervously.

"This blood," she gestured to what was her normal blood, "Is normal blood, red blood cells and all. But this," she held up the slide with her new blood, "Is mostly normal. I mean, the cells seem to be doing the right thing, multiplying and what not, but some of them are green. Most of them are red, which is why it's red in the syringe instead of green. That must be why I'm not an actual out of control lizard right now. It looks to be staying that way. Other than the lizard part my blood is functioning completely normal-like, which is also why I don't have a new leg," Beni explained, leaning back in her chair. She sniffed the air and crinkled her nose.

"What?" Bucky asked, taking a seat next to her. Beni shrugged.

"Nothing, just something burning and the fact that you fell down the stairs trying to get to me," she said, a small smile coming across her face. "But seriously, are you cooking something because the smell is awful."

Bucky shook his head and looked over to the neighbor's house.

"I heard them trying to cook earlier, so that might be it."

"Heightened senses. Must be another side affect. All the noise and smells is so annoying...Gah!" Beni threw her arms up in frustration and sighed with an exasperated tone.

"Well, hey, at least you're taking this well."

"And the only reason I am is because you ran into my room with a knife and your SIG. Otherwise I would probably be saying 'pinch me it's a bad dream.'"

"You're welcome."

"I never said thanks."

"It was implied."

Beni grinned, showing off her pearly whites and laughed.

"Yeah, yeah it was. But still...You fell down the stairs."

"Oh, shut up," Bucky shoved Beni, who was laughing hysterically now. She shoved him back, but pushed a little to hard apparently, and Bucky ended up falling out of his seat. He groaned slightly, and Beni instantly felt guilty as she clutched her hand to her chest.

"I'm sorry, I didn't...I must have enhanced strength, too."

Bucky waved her off and stood up, a smirk on his face.

"It's fine, I've had way worse." Biggest understatement ever. "Just don't go taking off any doors, okay?"

She smiled, relieved, and nodded.

Bucky smiled back and left the room. He was nervous around all of those needles, and he was worried about Beni. What id he couldn't go back to her other form? What if someone found out and used her as a lab rat like they used him? What if HYDRA tracked him down and caught both of them? So many scenarios were running through his head, and none of them were any good. But he didn't feel sorry for her. Not only had that part of him died a long time ago, but he knew she wouldn't want the pity. Especially if this could be a good thing.

All she had to do was learn to control it.