Viper's Bite

Chapter 4: A Fear-less Formula

After struggling for a while, The Viper soon gave up. "Would you care to explain why you've trapped me?!" she asked, annoyed. The doctor chuckled. "Of course, of course! But before I do, I just need a tiny bit of your blood," he replied.

The Viper did a double take at this revelation. "Okay, that sounds goo—wait, what?!"

Before she could protest, the doctor forced a special spiked bracelet to her wrist, and affixed it to a machine, which he then activated. The Viper could feel herself growing more tired and sleepy by the moment as Drevis almost completely drained her dry. "I thought you said.....you only needed a little...." she muttered, struggling to keep her head up and her eyes open.

Drevis disengaged the spiked bracelet. "What are you planning on doing with that.....? Drinking it?" The Viper teased. As weary as she was, she always found the time to make snarky remarks to her enemies. The doctor paused for a long moment, trying to comprehend what she just implied. "What.....? No!" Drevis replied as he walked to one end of the room and began wheeling out a small contraption that was initially covered by a tarp. "I needed to get your blood so I could take a portion of your superpowers and put it in this!"

He removed the tarp to reveal a glass container that contained a deep red substance, which The Viper recognized as being the same color as the chemical that Jonathan had been shot with earlier that day before the former began assaulting Mitchell. "What is that? A lava lamp?" The Viper asked, managing a weak smile. ".....No! It's a special, man-made, biological weapon I like to call the 'Herculean Serum'," Drevis explained. "Its effects are near-immediate and very potent; it's some pretty nasty stuff."

"So.....what does it do?" The Viper inquired.

"I initially believed that humanity was an ideal species. That it was already able to work as best it could. Until....an incident taught me that being 'afraid' to do things is the ultimate enemy to our prosperity and propagation. From then on, I promised myself that I would one day help us reach enlightenment, by removing these weaknesses that plague us," Drevis explained. "You see, when a human begins to be afraid of something, a portion of the brain known as the 'amygdala' immediately gets to work, emitting hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. The Herculean Serum contains a molecule that, when ingested or inhaled, binds to the secretion sites and will severely inhibit, or even eliminate the production of such substances entirely," Drevis continued. "Once I refine it, it's going to infect every adult, every child, and every animal on Earth. Not only will humanity become exponentially braver as a result, but they will also have your super reflexes, agility, and marksmanship skills. I'm going to remove humanity's ability to feel fear. Forever."

"....What 'incident'?" The Viper asked curiously. This gave Drevis pause for several seconds. "That's for me to know and for you to keep quiet. My past is none of your business."

She rolled her eyes. "Not cool, dude. You're lucky this trap is holding me well; otherwise, I would have already leapt out of it and punched a million holes in your face by now."

Drevis laughed. "You can try. But good luck with even trying to land a hit on me after I do this."

The doctor forcefully jabbed a syringe full of tranquilizer into The Viper's neck before disengaging the trap entirely. He took the vials of The Viper's blood and loaded it onto the same cart that the Herculean Serum container was on, before wheeling the entire thing out of the room. "This will be the beginning of a new age.....an age of 'bravery'," Drevis said before departing.

The Viper could barely muster the strength to stand up, but she felt the room spinning around her and just knew she was going to collapse again within seconds. Thinking quickly, she rushed over to one of the boxes that the masked men left behind, took out a sample of the Herculean Serum, and placed it in the back pocket of her shorts before blacking out.

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Shortly after The Viper had fainted, The Crawler gradually began to recover from her poison, and started to stand back up. At the same time, Drevis re-entered the room and helped him off the floor. "You know, one good thing about me mutating you is that you have such an efficient internal healing factor," the doctor stated.

The Crawler sighed. "I mean....I can't argue with you on that." The scaled man then gestures to the electricity-bound masked figures who were still lying on the ground. "What do we do about them?" he asked.

"Load them into the van, quickly," Drevis commanded. "If The Viper came here, then the police won't be far behind. We need everyone out of here before we're found out."

"Right away, sir," The Crawler replied before he started hauling the unconscious minions out of the main room.

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When The Viper woke up, she was lying in a cot in the medical ward of the Mercury Heights Police Station. Shortly after she sat up straight, an officer entered her room. "Greetings, Viper," he greeted. "My men and I found you at the abandoned warehouse on the city outskirts during our patrol rounds. You've assisted us for such a long time, so we figured we'd return the favor. Are you okay?"

"Yes....I think I'm fine. I'm still a little light-headed, though," The Viper responded. The officer approached the heroine and sat in the bed adjacent to hers. "Do you remember anything about what happened to you?" he asked calmly. "Might it have something to do with that?" The officer pointed to the vial of Herculean Serum on the table next to The Viper's cot. "That was some quick thinking on your part, being able to make sure you secured a sample before fainting." he remarked. Suddenly, The Viper's memories of what had occurred earlier came flooding back all at once. "Yeah....I remember.....I met this guy in a burgundy suit who was going on and on about....this thing," she explained, holding up the vial. "He called it the 'Herculean Serum' and said it could remove humans' capability to feel fear."

The officer took the vial briefly. "Interesting. As weird as this entire thing sounds, you have never steered us wrong before, so I see little reason to doubt you. Did you catch this mysterious person's name?" the officer asked. "Dr. Duncan Drevis," The Viper stated clearly. "Hmmm....okay, tell you what. I'll get with my colleagues and tell them to scan their databases for this character. In the meantime, I'd assume you want to keep this, to perform further analysis on?" the officer suggested, handing the vial back to The Viper.

"Indeed. Thank you so much for your assistance, sir," The Viper said. "Are you okay to head out by yourself? You can always stay and recover for a little while longer if you need to," the policeman recommended. But the heroine shook her head. "I've gotta get back to work. I already have a good idea of what I should do first."

The officer nodded. "Then I wish you luck."

With that, he escorted The Viper out of the station, and she quickly swung away on her grappling hook. As she perched on a rooftop to examine the sample closer, she realized that she didn't have the foggiest idea on how to thoroughly analyze the chemical. If she was going to get a lead on this case, she would need some assistance.

But no one would believe her story if it came from a normal, everyday Mercury Heights citizen. In order to get help, she would have to make a difficult choice.

There was one particular person she was close to who knew everything about everything regarding science.

She couldn't believe that she was about to do this. Taking a deep breath, she took out her phone and left a voicemail to a certain friend of hers.

"Herman? It's me. I need your help with something."