Re: Anansi-The-Spider

[diginto]

Part Three
If he delayed any longer, the whole hallway would soon be full of Red Ants and their chance of escape would be slimmer than ever. His talkie vibrated but considering the circumstances, Jo ignored it. He then remembered that he hadn’t reported any of his progress since he came in.
At that moment, Jo thought of one trick that he could get his illusions to perform for him. He had succeeded earlier on in creating a doppelganger but that required a lot of concentration and a significant amount of physical exertion. Now, he needed more of them. From self-examination, Jo could tell that he had only about enough strength to take him and the escapers out; meanwhile, Jo still felt his body demanding battle. He still wanted to fight although he wasn’t strong enough; “That’s probably the spirit of the fighters in the totem, like Dr. Anoki said”.
While he planned, more Red Ants began to fill the hallway with Dr. Andoh and among them; Jo recognized the one that the evil doctor had called, “Delali” among them. “Stop! STOP!” Dr. Andoh commanded. He seemed to have received a phone call. “Your Highness, I’m a little busy … You’re here!? Who? Joel Ankrah? Excellent. It seems he brought some sort of sorcerer with him. We have him surrounded; I’ll be down in no time. Hail the Queen Ant”
At the sound of Joel’s name, Jo knew exactly where he had heard Delali’s name from. He’s the one that Joel came to get; and it seems Joel had been captured. Worse, the Queen Ant, “No more time to lose”, Jo said to himself as he prepared to launch his one man assault. “At my signal, I want you to dash as fast as your pathetic legs would carry you to the elevator. When you get in, don’t wait for me; Understand?” Jo said to Mr. Appiah. The latter was about to be offensive about the insult but simply nodded.
Following his fighting urge, Jo surged toward the Red Ants with no verge.
When he reached the first Red Ant, he somersaulted over its head and held on to its shoulder before he landed on the other side. When he landed, he threw that Red Ant over his head to go and hit other ones that were standing in the way. Jo then became visible and all the Red Ants and Dr. Andoh turned to him. “Joel is by far the most annoying guy that I’ve met in my entire life.” Jo said as he reached for the fist of the Red Ant on his left. He caught it before it hit could hit him, then went under that Red Ant’s armpit and threw it over his head to smash the ground on its back.
“Still”, Jo continued to say as he dodged an arm-swing from one of the Red Ants, “I cannot leave him to become what he doesn’t want to.” He added as he dodged more and more attacks from the Red Ants.
Jo didn’t allow himself to be stopped as he continued to make his way toward Dr. Andoh.
When he finally reached the evil doctor, the Red Ants stopped attacking him for fear they might hurt their master in the process. Dr. Andoh tried to aim his gun at Jo but the young man quickly slapped it out of his hand. “You see,” Jo said, “It is my responsibility to him and to the whole of Ghana, Africa and beyond”.
Dr. Andoh drew another gun but before he could aim it, Jo slapped it out of his hand too. “I’ve been granted great power so that whenever threats like you and your squirmy queen begin to act against the freedom and security of the public”, Jo said, then slapped away a syringe that the evil doctor was about to use against him. “Then I’ll counteract you”. The evil doctor yet again tried another attack which Jo allowed to succeed; a punch. The punch hit Jo’s chin hard but he didn’t as much as twitch his head. The evil doctor rather shook his hand in pain.
“What? How is that possible? But you’re only a human playing hero.” Dr. Andoh asked as he stared at Jo in shock. “Wrong!” Jo replied in a bold voice. “I’m a superhuman; a SUPER… hero”.
“Who are you?” Dr. Andoh asked, as he tried to distract Jo from a back attack. The Red Ant that was trying to sneak on Jo jumped at him from the back but his spider reflexes alerted him and he jumped over his assailant and landed back in place. The attacker however fell onto Dr. Andoh instead and that knocked him out.
“Now!” Jo shouted as all the Red Ants turned their attention to him. He had sped down the hallway towards where Dr. Andoh’s lab was. While doing this, he removed the invisibility illusion from Mr. Appiah and his students and at Jo’s signal, they also took to their heels towards the elevator.
When the elevator opened, Jo knew that it was time for him to start heading that way.
Breaking the run with one leg, Jo turned around, gathering a lot of strength to his upper body in the process and directed the strength to both of his hands. The Red Ants that were directly behind him were almost in a single file so when Jo turned around he was confident that all would go as planned.
He allowed the first Red Ant to reach up to less than an arm’s length, and then he pressed both hands to its chest. With all the strength that he had gathered, Jo pushed back dropping the hanging leg in the process; and as the creature blasted back, he felt a surge of ecstasy flow through his body. The push brought with it an unseen blast of energy which blasted everything on that whole hallway away. Even Mr. Appiah and his students who were in the elevator across the hallway felt the push a little.
Within his body, Jo felt a whole lot of strength building up inside. “The totem is truly powerful”, Jo thought to himself as he got up to his feet and began to walk confidently over all the fallen Red Ants. When he reached Delali, he picked him up and carried him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes then continued walking toward the elevator.
When he entered, Mr. Appiah and his students pushed themselves to one corner in fear of the unconscious Red Ant. “When the doors open, there’ll be more like this one here but they’ll be alive and ready to kill”.
Shocked and afraid of what their hooded savior said, Mr. Appiah asked, “What…so like what … what do you suggest we do?” Jo replied, “I suggest you keep your big head out of the way” then to the students, Jo asked, “Guys, don’t you see that this dude has got an awfully big head?” Mr. Appiah’s students murmered their agreements among themselves and one of them added, “Worse of all, he always keeps it fully bald and shiny” Jo asked, “Really?” Everyone in the elevator began to laugh at Mr. Appiah while he folded his hands in anger.

Meanwhile…
Joel woke up to find that he was on the ground floor in Emma Hanson’s mansion; where a large number of fully transformed Red Ants stood with one pretty young lady who wore a very fancy robe made to look like a golden ant. She was full of grace and she had the air of someone who never stops thinking. He recognized her at once. It was Emma Hanson; the Queen Ant. He was still in the ant form and was locked head and hands with a thick chain.
She was staring straight into his face when came back to. “Welcome back Joel”, she said in a very smooth and high accented voice. “We missed you”.
“Let me tell you something Joel.” She said as she sat on the floor beside Joel. “Insects have very interesting uses. Dr. Andoh proved that to me when he discovered the mutation formula that he created to put humans in a state and form between human and red ant using a gland that he drew from the red ants. He needed funding and test subjects but no one; not even my dreadful folks wanted to help.
So, when Uncle K.A. told me that I would be the Queen of his Inventions, I knew that I was old enough to take over from my raggedy rich pathetic parents; may their souls rot in pain. I tied and gagged them in their sleep and left them on an unpiloted speedboat on the sea for them to go for another honeymoon on the sea.” She paused and laughed at this part before continuing, “The best test subjects are those who train a lot so we started by buying up one of the biggest sports organizations. Uncle K.A. wanted the toughest, I wanted the handsomest. So it was set. We got our men and told them that we were running tests on them but rather began to run our experiments.”
At this point, Emma stood to her feet and walked back a little bit before continuing.
“Ghana, Africa, the whole world must undergo this mutation. All must eventually rise and Hail the Queen Ant”, she finally added. “The serum shall be fed to the water lines in the city and it’ll spread like a waterborne disease that’ll slowly mould the whole world into a colony of Red Ants that serve me; the Queen Ant”.
“Your Highness?” Emma Hanson heard a voice from behind her say. She turned around and to her surprise saw Jo and Joel (in his human form) standing together at the doorway. Jo said, “Thanks for telling us your biography; we’ll make sure you get a place to write it all down in details; behind bars!” When Emma Hanson looked at the place where Joel was previously imprisoned, the Joel there faded into empty chains. She shrieked back in surprise.
“Surprised?” Joel asked. “My friend here can show you tons of stuff that you really don’t want to see. Your confessions just gave him enough time to come down your elevators and steal the keys from you then unlock me.”
“Impertinent Ant,” Emma shouted at Joel, “Who gave you the right to be human in my presence?”
Ignoring her question, Jo added “Now, we are going to bring you and your uncle to justice, and then we’ll find a way to cure these Red Ants.”
“I’m sorry gentlemen, or whatever you are, I can’t go to prison. I’m the Queen Ant; Queen of the Underground Village of Red Ants. Red Ants! Rip them to pieces and litter the whole floor with debris of their brains.”
“Are you fit enough?” Joel asked Jo with a challenging grin on his face. “Are you asking?” Jo replied with a similar grin on his face.
Just then, they heard a groan behind them and turned to see the Red Ant called Delali. Jo asked immediately, “Hey, have you still got that serum that the doctor, the other doctor gave you?” “Yea! why? Who’s that?” Joel asked arching his head toward the Red Ant while he dug his pocket for it.
“That’s a little parting present I brought from Uncle K.A for you”, Jo replied with a smile. “I’ll hold them off while you bring him back.” Jo added.
Taking the syringe out of his pocket, Joel immediately stood up and said, “No. You do it. I have news for the queen. Now, imagine what the queen would say if I told her that some spider was delaying my progress”.
Collecting the syringe from Joel, Jo said with a funny bow, “Oh my, she would be really displeased. Let me stall you no further. Ant Along Already”. The two laughed and turned to their various sides. “Don’t be long”, Joel said before he pounced on one of the closest Red Ants.
Jo knelt down beside Delali and saw that the Red Ant was coming back to quickly. Without wasting a second, Jo slipped the syringe from its container and injected the full content into the creature’s neck.
Before the creature would struggle, Jo began a body-locking move where he was under the creature and was using his hands and legs to lock the creatures’.
While the creature was struggling in his grip, Jo realized that it was taking a human form slowly. Jo whispered encouraging words into the creature’s ears, telling it “It’ll be alright. There are friends here too. We have come to help you. Don’t be afraid. Joel is here”. When Delali heard Joel’s name, it calmed down and asked in a husky voice, “Where’s Joel?”
“Protecting you”, Jo whispered into its ears. “I am going to release you now but you have to know that things are no more the same. You have changed; physically. But we are going to help you so please; when I release you, please don’t freak out”.
Delali agreed.
When Jo released Joel’s friend, the latter looked at Jo like he had seen him somewhere before. Delali was in a state between half ant, half human, “You… you are Joseph Asare”, he said. “I think you are mistaken”, Jo replied, trying to hide his face deeper under the hood he was wearing over his head.
“Don’t worry; if you want secrets, I don’t mind. The fact is, Joel is your brother.” Delali said to Jo. At first, Jo looked surprised but quickly recovered and asked, “Bah, how is that possible? His surname is Ankrah and he speaks with a different accent.” Delali said, “His real name is Joel Asare; he adopted the ‘Ankrah’ name from my family because he lived most of his life with us. He… we were coming back home after we heard the news of your parents’ accident. He received a call to come back home to watch over you but he wanted to secure his membership in GBSC.”
Jo was shocked with what he heard. His brother is Joel after all. He had a brother and it was that annoying insect. He turned around and saw that Joel had been surrounded by a lot of Red Ants.
“Stay here and recover”, Jo said to Delali while he stood to his feet.
“HEY!!!” Jo shouted out while he was walking toward the Red Ants. Joel was standing between the Red Ants and their queen but he was surrounded and would be overrun in no time.
All the Red Ants and their Queen turned to look to Jo. “Enough of the Squirmy Anthood of psycho Ants crap. I can see that taking down one ant aint a problem for y’all. Come and try some spiders”.
Jo realized that he had started to burn with the same power and energy as he had before he escaped the laboratory. He felt like he could take them all down and he began to charge at them with superhuman speed. The first Red Ant took a fist in the chest; the next one tasted Jo’s foot in its mouth; the next one which had thrown its hand, received a jab in its armpit; the next two were simply dodged and avoided; the next ones were many and were covering the place where Joel was trapped.
That was when the unexpected occurred; a trigger was pulled; a bullet was shot; shot from the gun in the hands of Emma Hanson, the Queen Ant. Another, and then another followed before everyone realized where it was coming from.
Down went Joel in one heavy drop onto the tiled floor. The Queen Ant had killed Joel. “NO!!!” Jo cried out as he saw his brother drop dead. The cry was very strong; filling the whole building and beyond with its echo.
Jo knew he had to end the battle at once. The energy in him greatly amplified and great power flowed through him like never before; he felt godly. The spider totem; which he always hangs on a necklace under his clothing began to glow in gold.
Great power and majesty exceeding that of Queen Ants’ filled the whole area. Everyone in the room felt the presence of a very great and powerful being in the whole room. His presence was compelling and everyone, even the Red Ants could only think of worshipping him. All the Red Ants that previously wanted to rip Jo to shreds were now bowing down to his new; much godly form. In one wave of his hand, all the Red Ants in the room dropped into an unconscious state at once.
He walked past all the Red Ants to their Queen and only she was proving untouched by the power in the room. “Queen Ant is what thy calleth thyself”, Jo said with a local dialect in a voice that sounded like thousands of people chorusing. “Yea”, Emma responded in a fearing voice; acting like she wasn’t afraid.
“Thou hast killed brethren of mine and thou hast harmed the lives of these young men. Thou shalt be punished by ANANSI, the Spider God”, Jo said in that same voice; then began to form his hand into a fist slowly. While he did so, Emma Hanson began to choke and scream in agony.
Jo was somehow magically killing her with an invisible strangle.

Watch out for part 4