Chapter 3

Joining the Group

Coral was given a room of her own in the den of the Venomous Five, even if they weren't accepting of her. Like the others' rooms, her contained the basics, such as a bed, a chair, a heater, a mirror, and a footlocker for whatever tools and personal belongings she might have, of which she had none of the latter.

She knew that it would take time before the others would trust her enough to act as normal around her, but if Arden was right, and the five were not loyal to him any longer, then her presence would keep them on their toes for quite some time. Even if they actually were still loyal, they would only benefit from having someone that made them shape up, and Coral would be patient, she had her instructions and would follow them.

Sitting down in front of the mirror, she took a moment to observe herself, something that she hadn't had time to do before. Looking at her features, especially the more colourful ones, she felt as alien as she looked, there was no sense of recognition at all. That wasn't surprising, as she was less than a few hours old, but for some reason she expected to feel something.

Turning away from the mirror, she walked over to the footlocker and checked what it contained. It hadn't been long since a ninja had arrived with it, so she had yet to see what tools she had at her disposal.

Inside the locker were two tanto blades, a black belt with the Foot's symbol on the belt buckle, a black bodysuit for when the cold was too much for their reptilian bodies, several batches of shuriken and a personal cellphone.

Looking back at the mirror, and her reflection in it, she grabbed one tanto and walked back to the mirror. With the tanto firmly in hand, she brought it to the back of her neck, grabbing most of her long hair with her other hand and cutting it off. Spending a few more moments to even out the length of her now shorter hair, she was finally satisfied. Hair that had once reached past her shoulders, was now short and almost spiky in appearance.

Taking a final look in the mirror, Coral smiled a little at her new hairstyle, but as her eyes locked with those of her mirror image, something flashed in her mind, if only for an instant, but it was enough to give her pause.

But try as she might, she couldn't remember what it was, and it didn't happen again as she kept staring at her own eyes, so she decided to write it off as nothing important, she had other things to do anyway.

Meanwhile, out in the common area of the den, the Venomous Five were talking in hushed voices.

"I don't like this one bit, Komodo." said Gila. "That Coral is going to be nothing but trouble."

"Yeah!" Cobra agreed. "I don't know why master Arden would even make such a whore!"

"At least he's keeping it reptilian." said Nile. "If you ask me, he's still pissed that those ding-bats failed so miserably."

"Heh, that brings back some memories." Mamba smirked, remembering how the five had sabotaged the late Vampire Bats' efforts.

"Shut up, all of you!" Komodo snapped. "I don't trust this either, something is clearly going on, but for now, we will play along and see where it goes."

"You can't be serious! Are we going to have to babysit this rookie?! She's barely out of the pod!" Cobra objected.

"I have to agree with the spitter!" said Mamba. "She's gonna be nothing but dead weight!"

"Maybe, but if that's the case then it won't be our fault if we fail our missions, and maybe we can get rid of her that way. Whatever the case, we need to play our cards carefully for now, and with time, maybe we can bring her over to our side."

"And if not?" Gila asked.

"We could always use another scapegoat." Komodo said with a smirk, and the others shared it. "But for now, she'll have to be our unwanted reinforcement, and she might even be useful. Especially since you two seems to dislike her more than each other." Komodo finished, looking at Cobra and Mamba, both of which looking at each other with disgusted looks on their faces.

The two snakes were about to say something, but they both stopped when they heard the door to Coral's room open, and the newest mutant stepped out into the area, now sporting her shorter hair.

"Someone's rocking a new style." Nile commented.

"Got a problem with that?!" Coral snapped back.

"No, the other way in fact, it looks good on you."

"If you're looking for a mate, keep dreaming. I'm not that easy."

"Both of you, calm down. We got more important things to do." Komodo said, turning his attention to Coral. "Firstly, let's be clear about this, we don't trust you. The previous mutants that Arden created to bolster our forces with, turned out to be incompetent, and got themselves killed because of it, so we have yet to be impressed by any of them, you included. But we're gonna give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Fair enough." Coral responded, eyeing the others. "Though, from what master Arden said, the five of you weren't pulling your own weight."

"Bad luck, nothing else." Gila said, though he wasn't able to fully hide his discomfort regarding the subject.

"Our foes are cunning and, as Gila say, they have had luck on their side." Komodo continued. "Not to mention plenty of allies, giving them an advantage in numbers as well."

"Then tell me about them, and maybe we can tip the scales." Coral said with a smirk.

A bit too short for my taste, but try as I might, I just couldn't find anything that wouldn't just be filler, even after four days of thinking, and this was a pretty good place to stop anyway. Anyway, sorry about that.

As it stands, Coral and the others are starting to get to know each other, but just like their alliance, it is tenuous at best.

More references to the Vampire Bats that Arden created in 'All Hallows Threat!', still by Bloodrayne666.