Chapter 2

The Snake and the Alien Queen: Chapter 2

Mina didn't respond back to Venn until she'd already gotten home and showered. Now, in a black tank top and red sleep shorts, she actually took some time to process what happened. I ran into my favorite band's lead singer and guitarist, straddled him for 2 minutes, then guided him around Musutafu for a couple hours, got some smoothies with him, and then walked him home. And he's entering the same school as I am, and I could end up in the same class. And he's even hotter than the band promos made him look. She didn't get U.S. news, not that she really looked, so she didn't know that Venn's "quirk" manifesting the first time was why the band split. Now that she'd seen him in person, she had some questions. All the band images and videos I'd seen, he wasn't scaly like that. He wasn't… snakey. She picked up her phone and navigated to their text log.

-When did you get all snakey?

~What do you mean?

-All of your band's promo stuff, you weren't scaly.

~Oh. Ah, that's a long story.

-I mean, I've got all night.

~It's a story too long for a text. Just go online, there should be some stuff there to give you a basic understanding.

-Oh. Ok. By the way, if I'd recognized you earlier, you're right, the whole day would've been different.

Laying on his bed, he laughed.

~Oh trust me, I know.

He set his phone to the side and turned onto his side to sleep.

Meanwhile, Mina did just what he suggested, and went online. What she found threw her for a bit of a loop.

""2 People Critically Injured at System Sapphire Concert""

"After a month-long vacation, the band came back to do a few shows as thanks for aiding when lead vocalist Venn Slater was bitten by a local snake. The first show, a week ago, ended when sound equipment failed catastrophically, and Slater (16) suffered an electrocution. During the next show, eyewitnesses say Slater's skin tore off of him, and in his place was a monstrous snake-like monster. Two men in the crowd were hospitalized, one with a missing arm, and the other paralyzed from the shoulders down. A woman at the venue we interviewed had this to say: "Those men… those pigs, were touching me. I was just about to do something about it when Venn just kind of… morphed, and almost killed them. He deliberately put himself between me and the men. He passed out right after, and the next thing I knew, the whole band had left, and police and ambulances came." No one has seen Slater since, and the band's website has stated that they won't be working together again for the foreseeable future. It is unclear where the members will go, but updates will be posted here. Worth noting, Slater was regarded as being Quirkless prior to this incident."

The article went on to say some other things, but nothing as concrete as what it had already said. The rest of that night, Mina spent in thought, trying to come up with questions for the next time she might see Venn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As it turns out, she didn't see him until the entrance exams. There were texts here and there, asking about signs and words and such, but she was busy preparing for the entrance exam. A day or two before the exams, Venn did his own evening jog, but the route he picked, while crossing hers, didn't put them in the same places at the same times. They just barely missed each other. Venn found his way to a gym and worked, getting back in shape (as much as he could, considering his shedding did most of that for him), and got the same drink he'd gotten when he and Mina had gotten smoothies.

Entrance exam day came around, and he and Izuku left roughly at the same time. Venn left Izuku to do his own thing though. "You do you, Izu. I don't wanna distract you too much." He ended up stepping into the school just moments before Izuku tripped on nothing and got caught by a brunette girl.

Venn stepped into the auditorium and flicked his tongue lightly. He was greeted by several scents of hundreds of students. He cringed a little, but navigated his way to an empty seat. From his spot, he could see Mina, but from like 20 feet away. He squinted a little. Ok she's on her pho-

Mid-thought, his phone went off. He checked it for a split second, seeing a text from Mina.

-Hey, you here yet? I tried saving you a seat, but it didn't work ;-;

~ Lol, yeah I'm here. Look behind you and to your left.

She did so and Venn waved when she saw him. They exchanged quick smiles before the room erupted in an ear-bleeding scream from a weird guy on the stage. Every human being in the room went silent, and Venn pocketed his phone.

They were quick to go over the exam's details. There would be robots within the exam's grounds. Robots worth:

1 Point - Easy Villains

2 Points - Medium Villains

3 Points - Hard Villains

0 Points - Arena Traps

The 0-pointers were labeled as such because you weren't actually supposed to fight them. He shrugged, and then cringed on Izuku's behalf when he got called out for pretty much nothing.

There were two different staging grounds for the exams, and Venn got "city" B. He noticed Izuku left for A. There was a small locker room for men and women, primarily for storing personal belongings during the exams. He chose to stash all of his shit, but also his black t-shirt and his shoes. Loose black sweats was all he wore. His shirt would've ended up shredded when he used his quirk, so it would be better to just go shirtless. He was the first person to show up at the B city, leaning against the wall near the gates, his tanned and shredded upper body's scales glinting in the sunlight. Peaking just a little out of his sweats was a tattoo. Currently, you could only see the blue tail end of something and a dark yellow head of a snake trying to eat the blue tail end. Venn shut his eyes, effectively sunbathing for a few minutes while he waited for people to show up for the test. Most people didn't bug him, because he didn't look like he wanted to be. Not Mina though.

She got city B too, so she showed up and went tunnel vision when she saw Venn's bare chested self, though his arms were crossed. Oh my god, why is he shirtless? I mean, I'm not complaining, but why? "Hey, Venn!"

Venn's visible left eye shot open. Oh sweet Jesus. She was in black athletic shorts, ankle-tape, and a white tank top. The white tank top was what was sending him loopy for a sec. "Oh, hey, Mina. Ready for this?"

Mina nodded vigorously. "Heck yeah! I'm gonna nail these robots!"

Venn laughed, with an undercurrent of a hiss as he himself was preparing. "That's good. I'll have to try hard if I wanna beat you."

Mina rolled her eyes. "As if. You can just claw everything to death."

He shrugged. "That's one method, yeah."

She felt a chill down her spine. He can do more?

Before they could continue their conversation, there were a few words from the loudmouth dude from the presentation, Present Mic, over an intercom. Venn moved in front of the gate, patting Mina's shoulder lightly. "See ya." No sooner had he said that, than the gates to the city slammed open.

Mina's eyes transfixed on Venn for a moment, as she witnessed something truly… powerful. The glorious skin of Venn's chest and arms seemed to almost float off of him. He gripped the peeling skin and ripped it the rest of the way off of his body, as he rose to an astonishing 8'4" in height. A small hole appeared in the back of his sweatpants, and a tail as long as he was tall grew, wrapping around his bulking body's left leg. His scales were out now, black and cerulean blue, in a koi-esque pattern, as his face morphed. It all took only a few seconds, but when all was said and done, in Venn's place, stood a massive snake-like humanoid, hands and fingers crooked into claws. His face was a snake-like snout, and his eyes were a sapphire blue, slitted and peering into her soul. That wasn't the part that made people immediately start to back away in fear. The part that did that was the yellow Tesla Coil of electricity raging and screaming from the top and back of his head.

"START!" Present Mic's voice screamed from the intercom, and before anyone could say a word or react, Venn shot off into the Practical Exam testing grounds. The rest of the examinees realized: there was no countdown. Venn was a whopping 50 feet into the city, and 6 points, when the other examinees began pouring in.

Venn's holy tear through the practical exams was ferocious. His tail lashed behind him, taking out a few pairs of one-pointers by itself. Venn ran, on all fours, and opened his mouth in a hiss, his long, 9-inch fangs popping out of his mouth. He leaped, the scales on his right hand closing the gap between his fingers and sharpening the sides, as he cut a 3-pointer's head in half. He returned his hand to normal and picked up the metal body, spinning and throwing it to slam into a 2-pointer. 2 birds with one stone. He charged ahead from there, leaping onto the side of a building, his nails lengthening into claws to keep him attached. He ran on all fours along the side of a tall building, before leaping off in a somersault. His tail came up and around with the momentum, bisecting a 2-pointer before he punched a fist in front of himself in the air. A flurry of scales peeled off of his arm and shot forward, turning the faces of 2 one-pointers into mincemeat. He ran off again, leaping from fake car to fake car. He could see streaks in the street, seemingly melted. Must be Mina's acid.

He shoved his hand into the electricity on his head, the energy pooling into his hand before he launched it, the electricity blasting a hole through a 3-pointer's chest. Lowering his body to the ground, he swept a leg low to the ground behind him, and rose with a sharpened uppercut, stabbing through the back of a falling 2-pointer. After a little spell of running, trying to find shit to fight, he found Mina in the process of dealing with a few 2-pointers. She dealt with them alright, but a 3-pointer started to come up behind her, which she didn't see.

His legs bent at the knees, and his body shot through the air, one hand crunching into the top of the 3-pointer's shoulder to anchor himself. His other hand ripped the head off of it, rocketing it off to the side to crush a 2-pointer's head. From his handstand, he swung his body down, cracking the asphalt lightly, before he began to spin the 3-pointer. He let go right at the sweet spot, launching it up through the air. It slammed into a pair of 1-pointers. He leaped onto the building next to Mina, jumping up the wall and then leaping off directly behind, clotheslining a 3-pointer above her. He flipped through the clothesline, his clawed hand crunching around the neck of the robot before he brought it down heavily onto a 2-pointer. He took off again, leaving Mina motionless and speechless. 'I… I need to step it up.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Observing Staff Wing

The teachers at U.A., All-Might, Erasurehead, Present Mic, Midnight, and a few others stood in the Staff wing, observing the practical exams through overhead monitors and discussing the promise of this generation of heroes. All-Might, naturally, was watching City A, where his successor was. That was, until he heard Nezu, of all people, make an undignified sound of realization. The blonde Symbol of Peace turned around. "Nezu? What is it?"

The small mouse principle shook his head. "Unbelievable." He moved away from the monitor to let All-Might look.

He looked on as Venn executed his handstand combo. He gasped lightly. "A new Sapphirian Wyrm? When was the last-"

Nezu cut in, his hands interlocked under his chin. "200 years, Toshinori. 200 years."

All-Might went silent, his hand on his chin. 'Promising indeed'.

~~~~~~~~

Venn quickly dealt with a pair of 1-pointers with one big lash of his tail before he charged through the streets. Before long, he came upon a few more 3-pointers. He leaped, his maw opening and his fangs lengthening. Two 9-inch fangs pierced directly through the head of one robot, and he shook his head to tear it off. A hand came up, tore it off of his fangs, and threw it like a frisbee, decapitating a second 3-pointer. He took a hold of the 3-pointer he bit the head off of and tore it's body in half vertically, catching another pair of robots as they were trying to go around it to get at him. His hands sharpened again, and he quickly stabbed both of them through their chests. He was breathing a bit hard, but he turned his head quickly as he heard a scream. Quickly becoming aware of the source of the fear, a massive, skyscraper-tall robot, he shot off, leaving another crack in the asphalt. The 0-pointer.

He saw Mina skating around on her acid, prying other examinees out from under rubble, and generally saving everyone she could. He shot forward, picking her up in his arms and wrapping his tail around the last two examinees, before he peeled out of there back to the entrance of the Practical Exam.

He got out and quickly put Mina and the other two kids down. Mina was a light red, as his body shrunk back down to its normal size and dimensions. His hair had returned, but his skin was regrowing in patches. Now his muscled and chiseled chest was awash in blue and black scales, with 1 or 2 patches of skin regrowing. Her breath hitched. That's really weird, and probably shouldn't be hot… but it is somehow.

He took heavy breaths before looking at Mina. "You alright?" His voice came out in a hoarse hissing sound. "I just kinda bolted once I got you, hope I didn't give you whiplash."

Mina laughed, her face a light enough red that it blended in with her pink skin. "No no, I'm fine, thanks."

Venn nodded and itched a bit at his still regrowing skin. "Man, this is never not uncomfortable, no matter how many times I do it."

She hummed and absent-mindedly poked at the bare scales on his arm. "So pretty…" She mumbled under her breath.

"Hm? What was that?" He leaned down to his shoulder level, his head tilted a bit so she could speak into his ear.

Instead, she just squeaked and backed off a bit at the closed gap. She only came up to his shoulder. "Uh, n-nothing." She laughed nervously.

He shrugged. "Okay. If you say so, I guess." He had to tear his gaze away from her sweaty self. Briefly, he considered the future. It was around February now. The 26th.He needed to prepare to keep himself occupied and busy during March. His mating season would be coming up at some point during then. Every month, he had a mating season for 2 weeks. His eyes slid over briefly to the panting pinkette beauty. This is not going to be easy to control myself. Damn.

"-enn! Venn!" Mina was poking his now skin-covered side.

He jumped. "Wh- huh? What?" She must've said something, and he just wasn't paying attention.

"I said, are you doing anything this month while you wait for your results?" She forgot to move her hand away from his side, so she was currently blissfully unaware that her hand was casually running across his oblique muscles.

Venn subtly moved to the side, causing her to notice her hand and blush a light magenta color. She was a bold girl, but only when she meant to be. Unconsciously groping a dude was embarrassing. "Not particularly. I'll be busy for about 2 weeks though."

Mina pouted. "Man, I need my running buddy back."

He laughed. "Don't worry. Once I'm free, I'll text you and let you know."

She smiled. "Great! I'll look forward to it!" After she spoke, they went their separate ways. Venn didn't let it pass his notice though, that she walked away with a sway to her hips and glancing over her shoulder at him. He wasn't dumb enough to get caught though, passing it smoothly off as taking another look at the practical exam grounds.

Once he got to Izuku's house, he found Inko, but not Izuku. He raised an eyebrow. About 10 minutes later, after Venn had taken a quick shower and changed and Inko had made dinner, Izuku walked into the house, his right arm littered with serious scars now. Venn's eyebrows furrowed as Inko began to, only slightly, panic.

Venn yawned. "Oh, good, you're back. I don't have to worry anymore." He gave a small salute and retreated back to his room. He sat on his bed and folded his hands. "What can I do…?" He murmured under his breath. He glanced at his guitar. 'Should I…' He sighed. 'Why the fuck not. Not like I'll release any of it.' He picked up a large pad of paper, clicked a mechanical pencil, and laid down on his bed with his knees bent to prop up the tablet. It took him a second to try to find a place to send his brain for what he wanted to write. There was a fleeting compulsion to do a love song, but the only place that led him was to Mina, and he swore up and down that that wasn't accurate, nor was it appropriate. Sighing, he settled on a more depressing tone, his brain taking him back to the day his mom disowned him.

Flashback

The night after his father had been arrested, Venn came home from trashing his dad's office and sending tips to the police about his corrupt business partners. The house was relatively quiet, save for distant sniffles he could hear from the floor above him. Sighing, he made his way to his mom's room. He liked to think he was close with his mother, considering neither of them truly saw his father very often. If anybody could comfort her, he figured it was him. He loved his mom. He had no clue what her mental state could've been.

He knocked lightly on her door, receiving a choked consent to enter. The next half an hour was a very, very sudden whirlwind of events. His face cleared the door only to duck out of the way to dodge a lamp that had been chucked at him with force added from his mother's quirk, a kinetic energy booster. His quirkless self had been careful to figure out how to take care of himself though. "Wh- mom? What are you do-?" He couldn't finish the question before a pen lodged itself deep in his shoulder.

His mother's face was a mask of horror and hatred, and maybe even a bit of shame? Her words threw him for a loop. "Why is that your face… YOU'RE NOT MY SON! YOU'RE AN IMPOSTER! MY SON IS NOT HIS FATHER!" It was as if she was arguing with her own brain, even as she mentally layered Venn's father over Venn's figure and saw no difference in her traumatically-scarred psyche. She proceeded to throw things at him until he was out the front door, whereupon she screamed for him to "rot in hell" and "bring back her son".

He felt… caught. Caught somewhere between feeling worthless, feeling sad, and feeling angry. But more than any of those three, he was just confused. 'Why would she behave like this? What did I do? Mom… do you only see him when you look at me?' He was promptly enrolled in the foster program upon his mother being admitted to a mental hospital. She never left said hospital. Eventually, his feelings settled into one consensus: 'I don't need to be here. I… I don't need to be.' This train of thought followed and haunted him for several years.

Flashback end

Venn latched onto that thought he'd had. "I don't need to be…" He rolled it around his head, swishing like mouthwash. "If I don't need to be… then nobody would need to bother…" His hand flew across the page like lightning.

Wish I was too dead to cry

My self-affliction fades

Stones to throw at my creator

Masochists to which I cater

You don't need to bother

I don't need to be

I'll keep slipping farther

But once I hold on

I won't let go 'til it bleeds

Wish I was too dead to care

If indeed I cared at all

Never had a voice to protest

So you fed me shit to digest

I wish I had a reason

My flaws are open season

For this, I gave up trying

One good turn deserves my dying

You don't need to bother

I don't need to be

I'll keep slipping farther

But once I hold on

I won't let go 'til it bleeds

Wish I'd died instead of lived

A zombie hides my face

Shell forgotten with its memories

Diaries left with cryptic entries

And you don't need to bother

I don't need to be (I don't need to be)

I'll keep slipping farther

But once I hold on

I won't let go 'til it bleeds

You don't need to bother

I don't need to be (I don't need to be)

I'll keep slipping farther

But once I hold on (once I hold on)

I'll never live down my deceit

Venn would spend the next few weeks toying with the guitar work, picking his acoustic up for the first time in a few years to bang off the rust, and the vocal patterns, discovering what he actually sounded like now via recording his voice.

Between these sessions of musical experimentation, Venn did morning runs, but he was very careful to run when Mina wasn't. Why?

His 2-week-per-month mating season. Really, he would biologically have a mating season in all of the Winter and Spring seasons, roughly 26 weeks. But, biologically, 2 whole seasons like that of raging hormones would probably cause the entire world's axis to tilt, so his mating season was distributed across the year. 2 weeks, every month.

If Venn's mind wandered to Mina even one time during his self-imposed isolation, his mind traveled down some very… porny... scenarios. He ultimately reasoned that writing a depressing, sad song was an okay way to curb his hormones.

That said, he'd had to find somewhere else to mess with his music, because what he was working on was just a little too sad for Izuku and Inko to hear all the time. He had been expecting it anyway, so with a shrug, he began taking his work up to the roof of Izuku's apartment building.

In the middle of his second week of mating season, and he was nearly finished writing the song, two envelopes appeared in the mailbox from U.A. Venn retreated into his room and crossed his legs, sitting on the edge of his bed as a projection appeared from the small disc.

The projection was a weird, small mouse thing. And oddly, behind him was who Venn immediately recognized as All-Might.

The mouse spoke first. "Greetings, Slater. Your road has likely been long and hard to get here, and nobody can ever take your effort and work away from you. I will, in this projection, cover your history," Venn bristled, "or, more accurately, the history of your powers, within the context of U.A. But first, we'll get your results out of the way. All-Might?"

All-Might stepped forward in the projection. "Hello! Your performance in the U.A. Entrance Exam results are here!" A small video clip popped up, showing his handstand sequence. Your practical exam performance was truly incredible! Your villain points came to 52 points! And, with the hidden rescue points, of which you had 36, your total score on the U.A. Entrance Exam is 88! It may please you to know that of this batch of Entrance Exams, you have the best Practical score." All-Might's smile dimmed just a tad. "However, your written exam just barely passed. Considering your status as a foreign transfer student though, that is impressive." All-Might stepped out of frame and probably left, leaving the mouse.

The small mouse stepped forwards. "You know his name, but you may not know mine. I am Mr. Nezu, or, as U.A. calls me, Principal Nezu. Now, your powers come with an interesting history within our school and within Japan in general. I am unaware what you know of your powers' origin, but know that there have been ones before you with nearly-identical abilities." His gaze lowered. "None of your predecessors ever applied to a hero academy, primarily on the account that their brains were no longer human. You will be a new, but significant piece in the puzzle of U.A. University." Nezu took another breath. "However, considering you have applied, it is safe to assume your brain is still human. And as with all animal-based quirks, I assume you have a mating season of sorts. I ask that you keep it in-check on campus, but if that becomes difficult, speak with me, and we will try to make rooms available for you to retreat to in order to calm yourself. Additionally, before you find your class on the first day, pass a note to your teacher about the schedule of your season. It will make it easier to plan around it when we know when it happens." He took a breath. "Congratulations on making it to the Hero Course at U.A. University, Venn Valentine Slater. We look forward to seeing you grow under our tutelage."

Venn sat in silence for a few minutes, mulling over the information Nezu gave him. Ultimately, though, Venn just shrugged. He wasn't the nerdy type, like Izuku. He wouldn't sit here for 3 hours trying to put pieces together. He set aside the information for a rainy day where it might be relevant, choosing instead to pick up his phone from his nightstand. He pulled up Mina's number.

~ Hey. You pass?

- Idk. I just got my envelope. I'll tell you tho

Following her message was a selfie of her holding the envelope in front of her. Venn very nearly hurled his phone across the room, but his mating season-influenced closet perv mentality instead absorbed every pixel of his screen while his nose bled.

She'd evidently just woken up from a nap or something. Her hair was a mess, and appeared even curlier and unrulier than ever. Her teal tank top was over to one side and the hem rode up a bit on her midriff to show it and allowed one of the straps to fall off of her shoulder, though her beaming smile didn't appear to notice. However, none of those were why Venn was in a perved-out state; Her short shorts-length pajama bottoms were riding low, and Venn saw nearly half of her asscheek, and half of a v-line at her front thanks to the hike tank top. When did she get so fit? He banished the less sensible and coherent thoughts, pertaining to questions about how her belly felt, what noise she'd make if he touched her butt, etc. He cursed and swore at his mating season hormones. He had a deep, deep, deep loathing for when he was made into this depraved mess. It took him almost two minutes to calm himself down enough to reply.

~ K.

He mulled it over in his brain if he felt like teasing, and he relented to himself.

~ Were those shorts a present for me, or…? Cus I'm saving this picture.

He proceeded to do just that. He watched typing ellipses pop on and off the screen for the next 10 or 20 minutes, making him chuckle. Eventually, though, she fired back. She was clearly flustered, so it wasn't as good of a tease as she could've mustered, but it was still better than nothing.

- No, but they can be now

His grin turned maliciously competitive.

~ You know you'd have to take them off in order for them to be a present, right?

- …

~ I'm not complaining.

Her response sent him hissing in laughter on his bed.

- Shut up!

~ Ok, ok. Don't get your thong in a knot. Now go watch your U.A. thing, I've distracted you enough lol

With that, he turned off his phone and set his alarm for his morning run and then set aside his writing pad. This is gonna be great, I think. Proper hero training. Not me-training. He thought of Mina again, as one of his arms curled into his chest, as if wishing there was somebody there to wrap it around.