VALORANT: Stories

Workplace Mishap (Viper x Killjoy)

Workplace Mishap

The scent of antiseptic and generic disinfectant lingered within the laboratory, mixing along with the faint acidic smell of the sensitive substances found around the aforementioned space. Nearly every counter was occupied with unused beakers, burners, flasks and test tubes. Some contained clear chemicals, while most were tinted with either a greyish white hue or a sickly green color.

Viper was, ironically, like a snake and her lab was like her very own personal playground, where she weaved from one point to another with swiftness akin to the mentioned reptile.

Hands were clad with the same equipment she wore out on the field rather than ordinary medical gloves, the modified wear keeping the nerves of her twitching fingers as stable as it could handle. Other than that, Viper donned an outfit perfectly resembling her signature white coat and black pants when she was still working under Kingdom. The only thing that was different was the lack of the special 'K' logo printed on the front.

The doctor was usually deployed out on the field whenever there's a confidential assignment, or a high-priority operation only a select few in the Protocol had clearance to know. Viper staying in headquarters most of the time wasn't too new, especially since practically everyone was aware that if she wasn't out on a mission, then she'd either be found in the mission center with Brimstone or could be seen concocting various types of poisonous chemicals.

For today's agenda, Viper wasn't exactly working on something harmful. In fact, it was the opposite. Due to the recent injuries both Raze and Chamber suffered in their last endeavour, the idea of giving them a form of safety net to fall back to came into Viper's mind. A thorough human experimentation was obviously not on the list, mainly procedures that required an actual person to be punctured and prodded by needles and synthesized liquids.

This pushed Viper to make a choice of her own volition. At first, it started on the lab rats she had in her collection. One after another, the mice died. Yet shockingly, in the midst of all those failed tests, one proved to be promising. One particular mouse showed an increase of physical activity after being injected with the most recent serum Viper created.

The mouse still died in the end, but after performing an autopsy on its corpse, Viper discovered that the tiny animal merely died because of overdose and that its poor, little heart ended up giving out. If her calculations, which were usually accurate, were correct, then that would mean that administering such to a human had a massively higher chance of succeeding.

Therefore, the entire process began with the chemist standing right before Brimstone with a small wooden case, where three vials of the special synthesized serum were stored and nestled in a black velvet interior.

Brimstone, who was seated on the chair behind the desk of his personal office, lowered the tablet he had in hand, closing the digital files he was auditing as he looked at the case his longtime colleague placed before him. He adjusted his position on his chair, eyebrows furrowing as he briefly stared at the polished container.

"What's this?"

"A solution."

"To what?" Brimstone lightly huffed a breath as he inched closer to his desk, opening the case with a simple lift of the top cover.

"To a human's fragility."

Brimstoneʼs eyebrows furrowed as he plucked one of the vials and surveyed its appearance with a narrowed gaze. He could see the flecks of grey floating along the otherwise clear liquid, making it quite obvious that the scientist infused the serum with Radianite.

"Is this even safe?"

"Theoretically." Viper replied without missing a beat. "I intend on running another form of testing before I advise other agents, specifically the entirely human ones, to be inoculated with this."