VALORANT: Stories

Recombinant 021 (Various)

Recombinant 021

"When Brimstone told you to rest, he meant properly and in your quarters."

Out of everyone in the Protocol, most would assume that Viper followed all of the rules laid out for operatives like them, especially if it came from someone who had a higher rank. She may have the tendency of always wanting to go by the book, but there were also times that she would bend said rules for her benefit.

In this case, though the idea of sleeping right beside Luthor or at least take him back to her quarters, she didn't want to disturb the boy's rest. Not to mention how she was still troubled by the inevitable chance that he would soon ask the whereabouts of his other mother.

And so, like a thief caught in the night, Viper was seen tidying up the blanket she had laid out on the couch at the back area of the laboratory. Sage, who brought the boy from Berlin with her upon her day's visit at the chemist's personal workplace, was the one who found Viper still in a pair of loose sweatpants and plain shirt, withholding a sigh at the other woman's state of attire.

When Sage found Luthor still sleeping in his bed and later confirmed that Viper's quarters were vacant, she easily managed to narrow down the chemist's location.

"What matters is that I rested." Viper said dismissively, placing the folded blanket on the sofa before turning to Sage and regarding her and the boy for a moment. "While I change into something else, why don't you give me a rundown on the little one. Time isn't exactly on our side right now."

Sage briefly watched Viper head towards the medical partition set up behind her desk, where the healer spied a change of clothes hanging on two cloth hangers. A quiet sniffle came from the child in her arms, stealing her attention away from her fellow agent.

"Well?" Viper prompted from behind the cover, waiting with slight impatience for Sage to start telling her what she knew about their newest rescue.

The first thing that immediately came into the sentinel's mind was how the boy was just staring at a random direction when she woke him up from his slumber earlier. The bleak and cloudy look in his normal, human-looking blue eyes being the indication of the young one's lack of vision.

"He is partially blind."

"How partial?"

"Where..." The child mumbled, gazing into space while his fingers nervously twiddled with each other. "Where we?"

"Don't worry, háizi. We are nowhere near any danger." Sage assured the boy's concerns, giving an affirming brush of her thumb against his cheek. The feeling of the dark charcoal-like skin against the pad of her finger was cool and smooth, almost as if there was no blood underneath the surface. "You are safe here with us."

The child was thankfully pacified by the sentinel's promise, choosing to just coop himself closer against Sage and as deep as he could get in her hold.

Giving the boy a little pat on the head, Sage turned back to Viper and finally answered her initial query. "He is unable to see in the light."

Half-dressed, Viper momentarily peered around the partition and raised an eyebrow. "In the light?"

Sage nodded. "But from what I witnessed, he has his sense of vision whenever he is in the dark."

"Anything else?"

"I have the results of the blood tests." While one arm was holding the boy, her other hand was in possession of said results, which Sage placed on top of the desk once she approached it. "Half of his genetics is a match with Sova's."

"And the other half?"

"I am unsure. The name is not familiar with me."

"What about his Radiance?" Viper finally stepped out, now changed into a white button-down tucked into the partnered black pants. The chemist grabbed her lab coat from the backrest of her chair, slipping it on before picking up and skimming through the folder Sage left on her desk. "Any details worth mentioning?"