//------------------------------//
// 8) The Blue Snake of Justice 
// Story: The Death of Lab 14 
// by SapphireRose87 
//------------------------------//

{The Tracker Experiments}

The Tracker Experiments that Cora had sent out after God Henry and God Derek stared at the ground in frustration. 

The Girl Experiment One sighed, "At this rate, we'll never find them!"

The Boy Experiment Two nodded. "I know, Head Cora will not be pleased and I don't know how much more patience she has left. It looks like Experiment Henry and Experiment Derek are moving pretty fast, leaving nothing but dust and rubble as they go destroying locations of Lab 14."

All of the Tracker Experiments pointed their fingers from the dead experiment they found and to the ground where God Henry and God Derek's magic strings were.

"Their magic strings connect from this dead experiment to here," The Girl Experiment One said.

"But then they connect over here," The Boy Experiment Two said, pointing in the other direction where God Henry and God Derek's magic strings connected again.

To add to the frustration, the Tracker Experiments couldn't touch God Henry or God Derek's magic string because they were hot to the touch. Their magic strings would burn the Tracker Experiments fingers.

"Darn," said The Girl Experiment One, "too bad we can't touch their magic strings or we would've already found them by now!"

The other Tracker Experiments nodded in agreement.

"I would hate to report this to Head Cora," The Boy Experiment One said.

Right on cue, there was a loud beeping noise that was coming from the Tracker Experiments foreheads. After the beeping noise a holographic screen with Cora's face on it appeared in front of them and she did not look happy. 

"Boy Experiments One through Three and Girl Experiments One through Three," said Cora, "have you made any progress in finding Experiment Henry and Experiment Derek?"

The Girl Experiment One shook her head. "We're sorry Head Cora, but we're having trouble finding them. Their magic strings are too hot to the touch which is why we're having trouble finding them."

Cora looked puzzled at first but then she smiled. "Hmmm, interesting. If they have that much power, then Lab 14 will be able to find the cure for death in no time at all! Just tell me whatever information you find and report back to me. I'm signing out now."

After Cora signed off all of the Tracker Experiments exchanged a look.

"Okay," the Girl Experiment One said, "is it just me or did Head Cora respond favorably to our news?"

"She did," the Boy Experiment One said, "I wonder, is she feeling okay?"

The Boy Experiment Two shrugged. "I'd rather have that reaction than yelling."

"In any case," the Girl Experiment One said, "we'd better keep moving. The sooner we find them the better."

The Tracker Experiments nodded and went to pick up where they left off in tracking down God Henry and God Derek.


*	*	*


{Henry}

I smiled as I was sitting on top of the red moon looking down at the In Between. I was tired of sleeping in a tent especially when it was raining. I heard Derek come through a portal that leads to the red moon. "You just don't want to sleep in a tent don't you?" 

I shook my head. "Nope. Sleeping in a tent drives me nuts and not in a good way."

"Have you gotten any sleep at all today?" Derek asked.

I looked away. "Not yet, I'll probably do it after I contact-"

"No Henry," said Derek, cutting me off, "we agreed that was my job. I don't want you to be any more stressed out than what you are now."

"Don't you think you're going a little bit overboard with protecting me?" I said, giving Derek an annoyed look.

Derek chuckled, "Nah, I don't think so. But you should get some sleep. Are you still having bad memories of growing up in Lab 14?"

"Not lately," I responded, "it seems that I've gotten all of my memories back now. I just have a bad dream or two other than that it's a dreamless sleep."

"You don't have any good dreams?" Derek questioned.

I sighed. "No, I guess my brain doesn't want me to have those."

"Wow, you poor thing," said Derek, "you've been through Hell so much that you don't even know what Heaven looks like."

"I guess you could say that."

Derek pulled me onto his lap and held me in his arms. "Henry, you need to sleep."

He put his right hand over my eyes and I felt a small surge of power go through me. After that, I fell asleep.


*	*	*


{Leader Felix}

I was sitting in my office filling out paperwork on the children the Resistance had recently freed from Lab 14. I was thankful that the Resistance was able to reverse engineer Lab 14's technology so we can take away a child's powers that Lab 14 gave them but only with their consent. As I filled out the paperwork Discord or as God Henry and God Derek like to call him, Pestcord popped up. 

I did a facepalm, groaned and pinched the top of my nose to show my irritation with him. "Pestcord! What do you want this time?"

"I was wondering when God Derek was going to call again?" Discord said. "I also wonder why hasn't God Henry contacted us instead? I would love to hear from him. I just want to see if he's okay, especially with the screaming in his sleep he did the last time God Derek called."

I shrugged. "I don't know. You'll have to ask God Derek about that."

The alert on my desk sounded and a holographic screen popped up with God Derek's face on it. I always smiled when God Derek called because it made me happy to see him. "Ah, God Derek! It's so nice to hear from you again." 

God Derek smiled. "It's nice to see you, Leader Felix."

"Where are you guys at now?" I asked out of curiosity because it didn't look like God Derek was inside the In Between on the screen. 

"We're on top of the red moon," answered God Derek, "Henry's finally asleep right now."

"Where's God Henry, God Derek?" Discord asked. "I just wanna see if he's okay."

"He's right over here," God Derek said. He turned the camera around to show us where God Henry was sleeping. 

God Henry was curled up in the fetal position and God Derek had put a pillow under God Henry's head and had covered God Henry with a blanket. 

I raised an eyebrow. "You guys are outside of the In Between?" 

God Derek nodded. "Uh-huh we're gods now, so we can breathe the air outside of the In Between."

Discord smiled. "And God Henry looks absolutely adorable when he's asleep."

"So what was wrong with God Henry the last time you talked to us?" I asked.

"It was just a bad dream that's all," said God Derek, "I've had to make him go to sleep a couple of times this week. I think he's dreading the day when he faces Cora again."

Discord frowned and looked down at the floor. "Poor thing…"

"Yeah I know," God Derek paused. "Wait a minute... Is Pestcord sad about something?"

"Just because I'm a Demigod doesn't mean I don't have feelings!" Discord snapped. "I also wonder why doesn't God Henry contact us instead?"

"Because me and Henry decided contacting you guys would be my job." God Derek replied. "Henry already has enough on his mind as it is. I don't think he wants to contact you especially if Pestcord is there. And nine times out of ten you, Pestcord are there."

"Hey!" Discord said.

"No you're not Henry's godfather! I swear if you say that one more time Pestcord," scolded God Derek, "I'll let Henry deep fry you for lunch!"

"But I thought you wanted to eat Moria and not me!" Discord said defensively.

"You know I don't mean Henry wants to literally eat you." God Derek snapped. "It's a term to show how much someone gets on Henry's nerves! And you're the number one Demigod that's the definition of annoying! Henry doesn't want to eat Moria because she lives in Equestria now and chases chickens instead of bothering Henry and popping up in the In Between all the time like you do! Which is why you earned the pet name Pestcord!"

I chuckled. "Speaking of Moria, did you hear she put on quite a show for Princess Celestia a couple of weeks ago?"

God Derek smiled. "Yup! Princess Twilight gave us the video footage from it. It must've been really hard for Moria to act like a normal dog. I still can't believe that Princess Celestia would go so far as to assault Royal Family members! She should've shown respect to them, even if Milton, Martin and Jane used to be experiments from Lab 14."

"I agree," I said, "that disrespect should not be tolerated!"

"Yeah," said God Derek, "here are the next three locations we're going after."

God Derek gave me the information I needed to know and I plugged the information in on my portable computer I like to use. 

"Until I see you next time, Leader Felix. Goodbye for now," God Derek said.

I nodded. "Yes God Derek." 

After the holographic screen disappeared, I looked to see that Discord was upset about something. "What's wrong, Discord?"

"God Derek didn't say goodbye to me!" Discord cried.

I went into a fit of laughter after Discord said that. I regained my composure enough to speak, "Wow Discord! You're upset because someone didn't say goodbye to you? Seriously? Real mature Discord, real mature."

"Hmph!" Discord scoffed. He then snapped his claw and disappeared. Once Discord disappeared I couldn't stop laughing.


*	*	*


{Henry}

The next time I found myself dreaming, I was in some sort of weird place. Or at least I thought it was a place, but everywhere I looked there was nothing but darkness. "Where the heck am I?

I looked around and tried to figure out where I was. When I couldn't figure out where I was, I panicked. 

"Hello!" I called out. "Is anyone there?"

When I called for someone, my voice echoed back at me. So I sat down feeling nothing but confusion about this. Finally, after a while, I heard a voice call out to me. "God Henry… Hello God Henry."

I tried to figure out where the voice came from but this made me even more confused. Then I heard what sounded like a mix between a laugh and a snake hiss. 

"Okay," I said, "wherever I am, I want out and I want to go home!"

I heard that strange laugh again. 

"Okay then..." I said.

"Sorry for such a slow introduction," the voice said, "but just look down in front of you so I don't have to raise my head up any further. So it will be easy for you to see me."

I looked down to see that there was a blue snake with black tiger stripes going up and down its body. I looked at its head to see beady little black eyes staring at me and the snake also had flaps on the sides of its head. The snake bobbed its head up and down and I can only assume that was the way it acted normally. 

I blinked. "Who are you? What are you?"

The Snake laughed. "I am the Blue Snake of Justice."

"Uh, Blue Snake of Justice?" I asked.

The Snaked laughed again, "I'll repeat myself since you are my owner and all. I am the Blue Snake of Justice, or you can call me Tiger Stripes for short. It works because I have tiger stripes going up and down my body."

I tilted my head. "Okay, am I dreaming?"

"In a sense you are," said Tiger Stripes, "in another sense you aren't."

"Come again?" I asked.

"You're inside your own subconscious," explained Tiger Stripes, "that's why in a sense you're dreaming. But this also isn't a dream for the same reason God Henry." 

"I'm not following you Tiger Stripes," I said.

Tiger Stripes laughed, "The reason why this isn't a dream is because we are inside your subconscious. This is where I live inside of you. This is because you created me!"

"Why did I create a snake?" I asked. "I thought if I was going to create something it would be a bunny rabbit or something other than a snake."

Tiger Stripes found that statement funny because he snorted. "Do you think that a bunny or some sort of other creature would have been effective for carrying out justice? In case you're wondering, I am a he. I don't think you have the capability to create a female creature considering the hell you've been through because of females. But you should know, not all females are bad." 

"Yeah I know," I said, "but sane females are few and far in between. So exactly why did I create you?"

Tiger Stripes stuck out his black tongue that matched the color of his eyes. "You created me to serve justice to those that deserve it. The way I do it is by killing the person that needs to be killed. I eat their soul and body and send them to the Downward where they belong."

I gave Tiger Stripes a puzzled look. "Okay, so how do you know that a person deserves to be brought to justice?"

"Remember the powers you have that can detect problems that pop up in the In Between?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"I enhance that power and can see through a person's eyes and inside their soul. With that, I can tell if someone needs to be eaten. I will inform you of this and then I will sit back and let you decide." 

"So if I created you then why haven't I seen you outside of my dreams?" I asked.

"Oh that," replied Tiger Stripes, "I haven't fully connected with you yet. Before, you were just developing me. So to make it official, all you have to do is point your index finger to touch my tongue. Then I will travel up your arm and into your head. Of course you will be able to talk to me in your sleep, that is, only if you wish to."

 "Okay."  

Tiger Stripes bobbed his head up and down. "Well? Do you want to make me official? Or do you want to turn me into something else?"

I thought about it. Though I did think Tiger Stripes was strange looking, at the same time I thought it was cool that I created a snake to help serve justice to people. 

I nodded. "Sure Tiger Stripes, I'll connect with you."

I did exactly what Tiger Stripes told me to. I touched my index finger to his tongue and Tiger Stripes did what he said he was going to do. 

He traveled up my arm and it felt like my skin was boiling. I looked at my arm to see boils on it. I didn't know which was worse, the time I got my voice box put back in or this. When Tiger Stripes finally reached my head, I felt a pressure behind my eyes. That was when I woke up.