Serpent Society

PHASE 1

Serpent Society
Portrayed by see below
Known Aliases:	Asp, Black Mamba, Diamondback, Death Adder, Fer-de-Lance
Affiliations:	Independent
Socked By:	various
Introduction:	Halflight

More than just another criminal gang, the Serpent Society has its sights set on higher aims, such as the Hellfire Club. Following the disaster of Halflight, they were taken under the wing of Belladonna Boudreaux-LeBeau and trained as high-end assassins, dealing largely in poisons and toxins.

First Appearance

May 18, 2009

Roster

Asp	Intelligent yet soft-spoken, Asp was born in Tanta, Egypt. It was there that she earned her reputation as an exotic dancer, being able to charm snakes with her sensual movements. She grew weary of being the flesh so moved on to controlling it. She wants security and finds it with the power she has as a Serpent Society member. She is always in search of more, which is one of the reasons she wants to get into the good graces of the Hellfire Club. She normally negotiates contracts and avoids contact with the 'merchandise' as it reminds her too much of her own precarious past. She possesses toxic blasts which are being used to keep 'merchandise' docile, the poison rendering it nearly impossible to use a consciously controlled power through the illness it causes. PB: Yara Naoum. Socked by Shai.
Diamondback	Rachel Leighton has no super powers. She grew up in gangs in Houston, TX, a family business with her three brothers involved before her. One brother attempted to "go straight" by joining the military. When he came back crippled, Rachel knew covering her own butt was the only way to survive. She worked her way up and found herself in a posh position with the Serpent Society. She is fine when dealing with merchandise', her attitude is use or be used. Captured and arrested by the Vancouver police. Currently in jail for kidnapping. PB: Gwen Stefani
Black Mamba	Former Chicago call girl, Janis Sealy just wants a more stable income that reflects the life to which she'd like to become accustomed. Black Mamba has limited telepathic abilities that allow her to scan the minds of others nearby. The extent of her telepathy is unrevealed; it is unknown if she possesses other abilities possessed by most telepaths, such as mental communication. She uses this power to extract and project illusions of loved ones into her victims' minds. She also uses her telepathy to lull her target into a sedated trance-like state in which they are fixated upon the mental image she has created. PB: Cerys Matthews. Socked by Rossi
Death Adder	Originally from Rochester, New York, Roland Burroughs was a small time crook and conman, unremarkable except for one thing - his mutation. Burroughs himself considered his ability only handy as a way of making money in bars - taking bets to drink a glass of rat poison or drain cleaner. That changed when he met Belladonna Bordreaux-LeBeau in 2009. Roland was in his mid-twenties and starting to realise that he wanted more than his life of small-time crime. His bar stunts had drawn Belladonna's attention, and she decided he was worth cultivating as part of her ongoing war with Gambit. While she was no longer head of the Assassin's Guild, she wasn't without resources and those were utilised into training Burroughs, both in the use of his powers and in assassination and emotional manipulation. It was only when Belladonna became the Black Queen of the New York Hellfire Club that she was able to bring together a new incarnation of the Serpent Society and include Burroughs as part of it, under the code name Death Adder. He has immunity to all toxins and poisons, whether ingested or inhaled. Instead, his body stores the poisons in his body, much the same way Cammie does, only they stay in his bloodstream - he has no release mechanism like she does. As a result, his blood is highly toxic and even the slightest touch of it will kill. PB: Shia LaBeouf. Socked by Twiller
Fer-de-Lance	Teresa Vasquez is a professional assassin hailing from Latin America. As Fer-de-lance, she has a pair of retractable "fangs" which exude toxin. She has no qualms about killing when it comes to completing an assignment. PB: Salma Hayek. Socked by Frito

Details

An elite gang in the criminal world, the Serpent Society specialises largely in the supply of young people - mutant and otherwise - to various clients. They were based in Vancouver, prior to their near-capture and the arrest of one of their team. Their aim was to provide potential mutant weapons to Sebastian Shaw of the Black Court, enabling him to remain in a position to disavow himself of the operation, and to that end they used small-time criminals such as Telford Porter as suppliers. Since the failure in Vancouver, the locations of Asp and Black Mamba were unknown.

In December 2012, the Society surfaced again, this time with a larger, better trained, gang. Having come under the patronage of former New Orleans Guilds|Assassin's Guild leader, Belladonna Boudreaux-LeBeau, they had received extensive training and were far better equipped. Using Death Adder as the bait, they executed a honey pot ambush which was only unsuccessful due to the warning given by Bucky Barnes who came across the group infiltrating the brownstone. As it was, they injured several members of X-Force, as well as visitor Artie Maddicks, before fleeing.

Plots

Halflight

Operation: Poisoned Honey

Meta

Socked by: Jo, Nichole, Rossi, Twiller, Frito