The city’s heart pounded with fear as word spread of a young boy vanishing near the docks. Shadows stretched long beneath the sodium lamps, their edges trembling in the drizzle. Amidst the chaos, a solitary figure moved unnoticed—Raj, an unassuming man with piercing green eyes, his senses attuned to the faintest chemical trace.
Raj paused, inhaling deeply. The air tinged with acrid chemicals and something older, colder—a scent only a serpent could recognize. He knelt by a puddle, fingertips grazing a strange viscous trail. The silence was absolute, broken only by the distant hum of generators below ground.
Raj shed his disguise, becoming Nagraj, the Serpent King, his emerald scales glimmering beneath torn sleeves. Suddenly, serpent-hybrid soldiers emerged, their skin mottled with scales, eyes unblinking and cold. "You won't keep them from their fate, Serpent King!"[/@ch_2]Dr S's voice echoed from hidden speakers, tinged with triumph and madness.
The hybrids lunged. Nagraj unleashed his Million Snakes, a writhing rope of microscopic serpents that spiraled up the columns and ensnared the attackers. When the hybrids surrounded him, Nagraj exhaled his Vish-funkar, shrouding the chamber in a silvery mist that paralyzed foes but spared the innocent. As lasers sliced the gloom, he became intangible, slipping through the beams like vapor.
Dr S stood before his altar of science, syringe poised over his arm. "With this, I will rule the natural world! Evolution is mine to command!" Nagraj summoned Sheetnag, the mystical ice-snake, who spiraled upward, freezing the equipment and halting the serum mid-injection. Locking eyes, Nagraj unleashed his hypnotic power, forcing Dr S to relive every atrocity, each lost soul. Overwhelmed by guilt and psychic pressure, Dr S crumpled, the syringe clattering to the floor.
Nagraj[/@ch_1] stands in shadow, watching.]
Nagraj released the captives, his gaze solemn as he handed Dr S to the authorities, encased in a containment pod reinforced against serpentine abilities. As dawn broke over Mahanagar, the city’s skyline shimmered gold, the threat dispelled—at least for now. "No one shall prey on my city while I draw breath," Nagraj whispered, vanishing as silently as he had come.
