A second alligator’s head appears next to the first, and then seconds later a third head also emerges from the muck. At first, I think we’re being stalked by a pack of gators, if such a thing is even possible. But then the three heads rise out of the water as one, a thick scale-covered neck connecting them all to a single body. The scales disappear beneath a soaked coat of oily black fur on the beast’s torso, droplets of water violently shaking loose as it stretches a pair of leathery bat wings. It ends up standing almost fifteen feet tall on a pair of almost humanoid legs. It hunches forward, six pairs of jaundiced eyes staring at us hungrily.

“Look out!” shouts Six, just as the creature flaps its wings and takes to the air.

The creature looms in the air over me. It’s funny the things you notice in a moment like that. The monster’s feet are huge, curled talons extending from each foot’s three toes as well as from the heels. But the pads of the monster’s feet look almost soft, a pair of S-shaped scars carved into the tissue there, like some Mogadorian scientist signed his work.

I see all that in the moment before it tries to stomp down on me.

“Watch out!” Eight grabs me around the waist and we teleport backwards. The mutant gator’s clawed toes shear a chunk out of the root I was standing on.

“How the hell did they find us?” Nine snarls, extending his pipe staff.

“I don’t see any Mogs,” I shout, spinning around, trying to take in the entire swamp. “Could it be alone?”

“I’ll go ask it.”

Nine charges in. The beast snaps at him with one of its three mouths. Nine brings his pipe-staff up and jams it right into the closest mouth, knocking out a couple of yellowed fangs. With one head roaring in pain, the monster lashes out with a wing, forcing Nine backwards.

Five drops his Chest on the ground and unlocks it. Six grabs his shoulder. “What the hell?” she yells. “You didn’t see this thing when you scouted?”

“It came from underwater. How could I see it?” Five’s voice is calm, he doesn’t seem rattled at all, unlike how John described him in their last battle. “Don’t worry,” he continues. “I’ve got just the thing in here.”

“A little help?!” Nine shouts as he jumps away from one of the monster’s snapping mouths.

Eight teleports right above the creature’s three heads. He kicks it hard in one of its snouts, then teleports away so he’s side by side with Nine. The thing lets loose a frustrated roar, flapping its wings and trying to take to the air. Nine and Eight separate, trying to flank the beast.