​     Rory Jarrett​ could never leave his parent's house except to go to work, so, every Saturday night during the summer, he held a party there while his mom and dad stayed at their weekend beach home. On this one particular Saturday, he decided it was a good night to get double drunk, crazy drunk. He sat right next to the beer keg so that he wouldn't have to get up to refill his glass. This was one packed party. There were, maybe, fifty people in the room where the keg was. Only half the people at the party, if that, were over twenty-one. Cocaine and pot were everywhere. Lots of laughter. The music was turned up as high as it would go. There was dancing, but very little conversation. The music was loud, and everyone was just too drunk. 

​     And then he came in. 

     Although he didn't come through the front door so much as he crashed through it. Chunks of splintered door went everywhere, and several people, women and men shrieked.

​     He stood seven feet tall, and he looked like he was made entirely of glittering silver, and he had a long metal tail with pincers at the end that he swung around his body like a wild west lariat. He spoke, and his voice thundered like a deep, bass drum. 

     "I AM ALACRAN!" he roared. "I AM THE SILVER SCORPION! I DESTROY ALL WHO OPPOSE ME! I ANNIHILATE ALL WHO I DESPISE!"

     And that's when he focused his attention on Rory Jarrett. The room had all but emptied by that time. The party was over. 

     But Rory was still there. 

​     He was, in fact, so out of it that he barely noticed what had happened right in front of him. He leaned against a wall and kind of sat on a potted plant at the same time. He had a beer in his hand, and he stared out at the world with an expression on his face that said nothing made sense. 

​     Alacran, the Silver Scorpion, walked over to him on heavy metal feet that made the floor shake with each of his steps. 

​     And then he stood right in front of Rory Jarrett. 

     And Rory still didn't look up. He was that drunk. 

​     The final insult. Here he was, Axel Clemons, the young man Rory had crippled and nearly killed, standing before Rory as a seven-foot silver warrior, and Rory was too drunk to even notice? 

​     Alacran lifted Rory completely off his feet to dangle him in the air. 

​     Now Jarrett noticed him. "Ha wa...Ha wa…"

​     "I SAID I AM ALACRAN THE SILVER SCORPION! I AM HUMANITY PLUS! I AM CIVILIZATION SQUARED! IF I PLEASED, I COULD CRUSH YOU LIKE THE BUG YOU TRULY ARE!"

     "Ha wa…Ha wa…"

​     Okay Fine. The Silver Scorpion wailed on Rory Jarrett until he saw blood, until he heard bones snap, then continued to beat on him even harder. He made certain to jam his huge metallic fist into Rory's spine, smashing it to jelly and turning Rory into a paraplegic just like him.

     And then the Silver Scorpion left the party.

     He went into the front yard, then flew away into the sky.

CONTINUE