Chapter Twenty-Two

Join Us…

Meanwhile on the opposite rooftop, Angela watched as Diablo flew across to the burning building and her heart thumped hard in her chest as she saw the building burn.

"Oh God…Solomon!" she wept as she watched "Please! Save him Raven!"

She wasn't sure how long she had been standing there watching when she heard the flapping of wings behind her, and she turned around.

No sooner did she do so than her eyes widened in shock, and she cried out in fear!

Before her, she saw a humanoid female white dove, a female eel clothed in long robes and her head covered, and a young female white bat with tumbling golden curls.

"What the hell?!" she cried as she stepped back.

At the same time, the Dove, Eel and Bat looked confused.

"Who the heck is she?" Chastity asked.

"I have no idea…" Lamia replied.

Regan didn't speak but started to step towards Angela curiously.

Angela stared at the three female mutants before her, and she kept walking backwards and before she knew it, she had stepped back too far, and her ankles caught the edge and she fell backwards!

Angela screamed as she fell off the roof and started to plummet to the ground far below!

Yet as she screamed, Angela felt someone grab her and fly upwards, it was then she looked up and came face to face with Ravage who chuckled showing his razor-sharp teeth.

"Watch your step little lady!" he said as he placed her back on the roof.

Angela screamed in shock and tried to crawl away, but Diablo landed behind her carrying Solomon, and Angela soon saw the Raven lay him down on the rooftop.

Solomon lay there, his eyes closed and breathing unevenly due to the smoke inhalation.

"Solomon!" she cried as she ran over to him "Oh my God! What happened? What happened to him!" she demanded.

"Solomon!" she started to shake him "Speak to me! Please! Speak to me!"

"Let me see him!" Angela looked up to see the Dove Chastity run over to examine him.

"What are you doing!?" Angela shouted as the Dove dropped to her knees and looked at Solomon and opened his mouth to try and clear his airway.

"Let her look at him!" Diablo said as he pulled a reluctant Angela away, "Chastity has medical skills."

Angela gasped at Diablo then looked at Chastity as she examined Solomon as well as pumped his chest.

As the dove was doing that, Angela looked at the other humanoid animals around her who also looked back at her with curiosity.

"My God…who are you people?" she asked, her heart beating so fast in her chest it hurt.

"Our curiosity is the same about you!" Regan said as she got close to Angela and sniffed her.

Diablo looked at Regan and frowned warning the vampire bat to step back and she did.

Angela stared at Regan who stared back, then she looked to Solomon who seemed unresponsive to Chastity's attempts to revive him.

Angela pumped the young man's chest a few more times and then she lowered her head to his mouth to listen to his breathing.

After a few seconds she looked up and shook her head.

"No…" she said softly "He has inhaled a lot of smoke, he will not last." She said, "CPR will not save him!"

"NO!" Angela cried "oh God no!" tears erupted from her eyes, and she wrenched herself out of Diablo's grip and ran to Solomon.

"No! No! No! No! No!" she wailed "First Nigel now Solomon! No! It's just not fair!" she sobbed.

Chastity felt a few tears form in her eyes as she looked at Angela.

"I'm so sorry." She said reaching out to touch Angela's shoulder, but Angela pulled away from her.

"No!" She said "Don't touch me! Don't fucking touch me!"

Chastity was appalled but she pulled her hand away from the distraught young woman.

She looked up at Diablo with a worried questioning look on her face, and Diablo looked at Angela who sobbed over Solomon.

As he watched her, he felt the same grief from losing his sister return to him, and he thought about what Angela said about Nigel, and how he had meant so much to her, and now this other young man who was her dear friend was now dying, it was breaking her heart.

A few tears welled in his eyes as he watched, and he then remembered the water and looked to Chastity.

"The water!" he mouthed "Where is it?"

Chastity looked worried.

"Back at the hideout!" she said.

Diablo frowned.

"Then we must get back there, if we are to save him!" he looked at Solomon.

"What about the girl?" Rex asked looking at Angela, he like the other Disciples were curious about Angela and why she was in Diablo's company.

"She comes with us." Diablo replied, he then walked over to Angela and knelt next to her as she continued to weep over Solomon whose breathing was getting slower.

"Angela." He said getting the young woman's attention and she looked up at the Raven.

"Why?" she sobbed "Why did this happen?"

"Angela." Diablo said quietly "I want you to listen to me, and trust me, okay?"

Angela stared at the Raven through her tears, and she took a breath.

"There's only one way to save him." Diablo blurted out.

"What?" Angela hiccupped not sure if she heard him right.

"There's one way to save him." Diablo said, "But you must trust me, your friend doesn't have much time!"

"What are you saying?" Angela whimpered.

"We will help your friend!" Diablo said fervently "But you must trust us! Trust me! Come with us and we will show you!"

Angela was silent for a moment, she wasn't sure whether to believe Diablo when he said Solomon could be saved, but she was desperate for Solomon to be okay.

"The longer you wait, the less chance he has, kid!" Ravage said impatiently to which Diablo glared at him.

Angela looked at Solomon then at Diablo.

"Please save him!" she said, "Please show me how you will save him!"

Diablo nodded then held out his hand to which Angela took it and he took her in his arms, meanwhile Ravage took Solomon.

"Back to the hideout!" Diablo ordered the other Disciples agreed and the flyers took off into the air whilst Rex, Lamia and Samson took off on foot jumping off the roof and sticking to the shadows as they ran following the flyers.

Angela held onto Diablo tightly as they flew.

"How will you save him?" she asked.

"I will show you Angela." Diablo replied, "But not here!" he then flew faster over the town and Angela wrapped her arms tighter around him.

Before long they made it to the abandoned house where the Disciples were living and he landed letting Angela onto the ground then he led her into the house and down to the basement, the other Disciples following close behind.

Angela didn't have the chance to properly check out the basement of the house as Solomon was laid on a sleeping bag and Chastity went over to one of the bags and pulled out the water bottle.

Angela saw the dove run over and her eyes widened.

"What is that!?" she cried.

Diablo turned to Angela.

"That is what will save Solomon." He said, "Remember I spoke about the Water from the Well from that mutant sanctuary I escaped from after they mutated me?"

Angela nodded.

"It can save your friend, but it will mean he will become a mutant like us." Diablo explained.

Angela's eyes widened.

"What!?" she cried "No! No!"

"Then you let him die then?" Diablo asked.

Angela opened her mouth and closed it again.

She didn't want Solomon to die, but at the same time she was horrified that he would be turned into a mutant like Diablo and the others that followed him.

"You have a choice, Angela." Diablo said, "Either he dies in his human body, or he is reborn into a mutant, and he lives."

"And we will find those responsible for the fire." Rex snarled "The fire was no accident!"

Ravage, Chastity, Lamia, Diablo, Regan, and Angela looked at Rex and Samson nodded confirming the Doberman's claims.

"A hate attack more like!" Diablo hissed "And we shall find them! But now, we need to focus on our victim and his friend." He looked back at Angela who still looked appalled.

"Make your choice Angela." He said, "Time is precious."

Angela swallowed hard.

She looked at Solomon and Chastity who was still kneeling by his body with the water as well as holding his wrist.

"He has not got long." She said in a hurried voice.

Angela felt tears well in her eyes.

"Alright!" she cried "Alright! Do it!" she wailed before she could think twice.

Chastity nodded then frowned and opened the bottle before pouring a few drops of the water into Solomon's mouth.

Angela watched as the dove did that, then she stepped back, and Diablo pulled Angela away.

"What now?" Angela asked, yet as she asked that, she saw Solomon's body start to jerk as if he was having a fit then his mouth opened as a scream erupted.

All the Disciples stepped back, and Rex held Regan close to him.

Angela at the same time stared in horror as Solomon shook and fitted and screamed then she saw his body start to change as fur began to emerge from his skin, then his jaw and nose began to grow.

"What's happening?" Angela cried as tears of fear fell "What's happening to him!?"

"He's mutating." Samson said, "We all went through this!"

Solomon screamed and clawed his hands as his body changed, fur grew from his skin, his nose and jaw got long, and a pair of long straight horns began to grow out of his head!

Angela covered her ears and closed her eyes as she was unable to watch anymore, and she wept hard.

After what seemed like a long time, when it was only under a minute, Solomon stopped screaming and lay still and it was then Angela opened her eyes to look upon her friend.

As she did, she gasped as she saw what lay on the sleeping bag.

The other Disciples and Diablo also observed what Solomon had become and they blinked.

"What is he?" Regan asked.

"He's an antelope of some sort!" Ravage said.

"An East African Oryx to be exact." Lamia said as she looked at the markings of the new mutant and saw how his face was white with dark fawn markings on his face as well as his lower body and the long straight horns that stuck out from his head.

Angela said nothing as she looked upon her friend, she was too shocked to speak.

Diablo walked over to Solomon and knelt by him.

"Solomon?" he asked "Solomon? Can you hear me?"

Solomon was silent for a moment then he groaned and started to move.

Hearing that, Angela quickly crawled over to his side and studied him.

"Oh my God…" she whispered then she looked at Diablo "What have you done?"

So Rex and Samson got Solomon out of the burning house, but he was on the brink of death and thus have given him the magical water much to Angela's reluctance.

How will Solomon react to this change? Well check in the next chapter to find out!