The Paragons

Chapter 29: Reminiscing Reptiles

Later that night, Carlisle's assistant had given the six heroes a thorough tour of their new offsite headquarters, showed them all to each of their rooms, then bid farewell to them before departing the lot and driving back to the main building, ensuring them that Carlisle would contact them the moment they found anything out regarding Malcorchus or Caspian. Powerhouse insisted on helping Carlisle and his aide with deciphering the interdimensional signals, so he parted ways with the team for the time being and returned to the GDC base with Carlisle's number two. 

The Viper sat on the side of her bed in her new room, using a rag from the nearby dresser to polish her Toxin Blade. Besides the glowing, bright-green poison at its tip, the rest of the blade was meant to be a clean, glossy, metallic shade, with not a hint of rust or dirt to speak of. Unfortunately, her fight with the three would-be car robbers back in Mercury Heights had gotten it significantly dinged up. 

After a few minutes, though, she managed to restore it back to working condition, then opened one of the cabinets on her bedside dresser and put the cleaning rag back in. She then closed it and opened the one above it, and smiled amusedly at the seemingly-endless amount of pistol ammo boxes that lined the full length of the drawer. Carlisle really did remember to provide for all of them. 

She tried to reload her two guns, but when she popped the cartridges out, they were both still full. 

Oh, yeah.....I've barely needed to use them yet, she thought to herself. Grappling hook, Toxin Blade, and my amazing agility have been doing the job just fine. 

She shut the drawer and re-inserted the cartridges back into her handguns before sheathing them once more. Then, she sprawled herself back-first onto her bed, deep in thought. On one hand, she felt immensely proud; she now knew that she, Duncan, and The Crawler weren't the only heroes in the country, and she was now part of a superhero organization that---it sounded like---was about to face quite the major threat. 

On the other hand, though, part of her felt quite despondent. There was a small voice at the back of her head that still doubted Carlisle's intentions, and on top of that, she greatly missed the people back in Mercury Heights. Commissioner Marvin, Didi, Jaden, Adriana, Diamond, her parents Dean and Amy.....all of them had, either intentionally or unintentionally, supported her and gave her nothing but love and support, even after some of them became aware of her secret identity. 

After letting out a long sigh, she took out her phone and made an attempt to text her family, but at that moment, she heard three soft knocks at her door. 

"Come in," she called. She didn't really care who it was at this point; she would gladly welcome anyone's company if it meant she wouldn't be alone. 

In a rather unprecedented move, The Crawler slowly opened the door and entered The Viper's room, greeting her politely. "Good evening." 

"Oh.....hey, Crawler," she said. "Where's Duncan?" 

"He's out and about exploring the place, and I can't seem to find him. I thought you might have seen him, but you also just asked where he was, so.....guess I'm out of luck there. I initially tried going to Nightclaw's room, but she's also not there. I also passed by Coldsnap's room and literally felt the temperature drop; there's no question she's in hers. However, no matter how much I knocked, she wouldn't wake up.....guess she's a heavy sleeper. Wonder where Duncan and Nightclaw went off to, though," The Crawler wondered aloud. 

The Viper hopped off the bed, whipped one of her pistols out, and cocked it. "Want me to help you look for them?" 

The lizard waved his hand in disregard as he took a seat at a small desk near the wall. "It's fine. I'm sure they'll turn up eventually; both of them are more than capable of defending themselves, after all."