Viper's Bite

Chapter 14: Viper Recon

She silently crept along the vents, peeking through the slits to see if she could find anything of value. Dr. Drevis and The Crawler were nowhere to be seen, and in their absence, the open space below her was filled with Crimson Skull agents patrolling the halls and walkways. 

Phew,  she thought. Thank goodness I'm up here. 

Soon, she reached the large room where Dr. Drevis had initially introduced The Crawler to the Bertolli Device. She used her grappling hook to lower herself into the outer hall and quickly incapacitated the guard outside, swiftly disappearing before his body even hit the ground. 

The Viper looked back and forth across the length of the room, taking mental notes on everything present. She saw a set of tabletop controls; the very same ones Drevis and the Crawler were sitting at when they monitored the attack on the carnival. A quick scan at the screens revealed that they were still hacked into the cameras of the church's main gym. 

So they did organize the assault after all,  the heroine thought. What are they up to now? 

She headed to the back of the room to examine the concealed Bertolli Device. 

What is this thing? It looks like it could hold a lot of that.....Herculean Serum.... she noted to herself. Just then, a label on the side of the tank caught her eye. 

'Bertolli Device'? Interesting.... 

She took several pictures of the machine's important parts, such as its label, serial number, vial compartments, and interior storage unit. While she was at it, she located the device's instruction manual and stole it for herself. "Too bad I can't haul this whole thing out of here myself," she muttered. "Oh, well. Hopefully Herman can help me with this, too. He's been so understanding...." 

With that, she exited the room, leapt back up into the vent, and continued down the hall.

While spying on a conversation between two Crimson Skull agents, The Viper saw one of them heading into a room labeled "Archives". "Hmmm....that could be interesting...." she commented before dropping into the area. 

The Crimson Skull grunt had just finished placing a box on the shelf before turning around and being immediately greeted with The Viper's face. He quickly took his phone out, but ended up juggling it in a panic, allowing the heroine to place a bullet hole in it with one of her pistols. She then stung him in the neck with her blade before stepping over him to reach the shelf. 

Not a lot of items on it looked notable. All that were present were a few of Drevis's childhood toys, a set of newspapers with some clippings torn out, some board games for when nothing was going on at the base, and a few manila folders with documents inside them. Finally, on the far right hand side, she saw a box with several audio tapes inside.

I probably should have brought a bag or something..... The Viper thought. She photographed the sections of the files that she deemed the most important, then took the audio tape box right off its spot on the shelf. With the hallway guard incapacitated and the agent inside the room rendered helpless, the heroine was able to listen to these tapes freely. She took the first one, aptly labeled "Tape 1", and inserted it into the player near the entrance. 

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-Tape 1-

Drevis's Log, Entry 1. 

It's been about two years since that tragic shooting at Mercury Heights Middle School that claimed the lives of everyone else in my class. Unfortunately.....I was not so lucky. A man has to be particularly evil to get his hands on several guns and attempt to lay waste to an establishment filled with innocent kids, but he has to be even more evil to watch it unfold and to do absolutely nothing about it.