Badgerman

I used to be a farmer. I loved to plant things and watch them grow. I raised chickens, pigs, and cows. I was content with my quiet farm life. I loved to work with my hands doing hard labor from sun up to sun down. I was born big as my mom used to say. There was not a mean bone in my body and I could not hurt a fly. I was a big farm boy who just wanted to be left alone. The world could pass me by and that was just fine. I lived in the middle of no where on my parents farm. It was mine now they had both passed on the year before. A drunk driver had hit them head on and there were no survivors.

That was my life until I turned twenty two one spring night and I saw a green light in the sky. It was a meteor that gave off a green glow as it streaked across the sky. Oh I had seen them before, every once in awhile one would hit the dirt around here. This one did just that and with a roaring boom hit the dirt high up on the hill. Was it just me or did I see green sparks fly out of it as it hit the dirt. I must have been seeing things. It was dark and I would check it out in the morning and see what kind of damage it had done.

I had just settled in for the night when I heard a commotion in the chicken coop. The chickens were going crazy and you could hear bones crunching and the sounds of death. I ran out the door turned on the pole light and grabbed my pitch fork that lay against the house. It was a five tine with a heavy handle the best I had. I reached the chicken coop door and flung it open.

I saw a flash. It was big, hairy, and fast. It stopped and looked at me. It's beady red eyes glowed in the pale light from the pole light coming through the door. It snarled and charged me. I could feel it's razor sharp teeth sink in to my leg and heard the bone snap. I stabbed straight down into the head of the beast and heard the tines slice through it's skull. It snarled and fought but I put my immense weight into it and after a few minutes it stopped and finally fell silent. The beast was dead.

I fell on the floor with a thud. I could see my broken leg in the moonlight the bone was sticking out. The huge massive beast lay beside me. It looked like a badger but was as big as a wolf, at least five times as big as a normal badger and it's teeth and claws were huge. I was lucky to be alive. I never saw a beast quite like it.

I looked around and saw the blood soaked scene around me. There were parts of chicken everywhere and feathers still floating in air from the carnage that had happened only minutes before. It had killed everything and torn it apart in seconds including the wall which had a huge gaping hole in it. Then I felt it. I felt strange as the world slowly went black. I remember thinking that I didn't feel right, it wasn't pain, but what was it, I just didn't feel like myself. Then darkness and all faded out.

Little did I know that earlier that night when that green meteor had hit the earth that very badger had been there. When the meteor hit the ground it exploded and the badger got drenched with a green slime that spewed forth from the meteor as it disintegrated. The green sparks I had seen earlier. Immediately the badger changed into that thing that lay next to me.

When I awoke my world had changed. I was no longer the laid back farm boy any more. I looked down at my broken leg and not only had it healed but my leg had grown twice it's size and had muscle where muscle should not have been. So did the rest of me and my body was covered with a hard bristle hair but the part that scared me the most was the giant claws where my hands used to be. My mouth felt odd and when I reached up it was full of small razor sharp teeth. I had also gained that hard hair on my head, a little longer with a triangle white shape down the middle just like the badger. I had power like I had never known before. I could feel the muscle and every inch of my body felt strong and powerful. I tried it out and hit the wall. The two by four broke like a twig as my claw went right through it. Then I felt it the uncontrollable anger, the fear, the pain and I needed to lash out. I destroyed the shed with a few mighty slashes from those giant paws and then as fast as the anger mounted it ebbed.

I felt the monster in me now. I could not control it yet. It was too powerful and after what I had seen myself do to the chicken coop I knew I could not stay here anymore. I needed somewhere more private even than this. Maybe a forest somewhere where I could learn to control this awesome power inside me. This I knew in my heart. This monster in me was in control now and I needed to figure out how to control it before I hurt someone. Maybe I could use it for good if only I could control this anger that had a hold of me.

I grabbed a few things and headed out in my old pickup truck. As I pulled out of the drive I saw a big black SUV drive by into my drive way. They would be after me when they found the beast laying there. I needed to put some miles between me and them. I needed to understand what had happened to me before they found me. I needed to control the beast. Could I use this pulsing anger inside me for good? Yes, yes I believed I could. I was not this blood thirsty monster. I was still me, somewhere in there I was still me. I would control it somehow.

Little did I know that this would be a gift and a curse. It would help me save the world and destroy myself. But that is a story for another time. I am no longer the quiet farm boy, I had become Badgerman and my code had become Bite or be Bitten.