Back to you || A Redcrackle Story

8--Off to Egypt

Dr.Bellum POV

Out of all of VILE's faculty members, Dr.Bellum was the most removed from her student body. While each instructor had their own quirks that were a popular topic among their disciples, there simply wasn't much about Saira they could gossip about.

The woman was rather one-note, no details of her likes or dislikes evident. All her pupils knew about her really, was that she was enraptured by science, married to countess Cleo, and fond of cats.

While the mad scientist aesthetic was kind of her schtick at this point, that didn't stop gossip. Rumors that she went out after hurricanes or storms and collected dead animal carcasses, only to take them back to her lab to experiment on were quite a popular subject of conversation between operatives when they were supposed to be sleeping at curfew.

Word was that she was trying to create a Frankenstein of sorts, that all the hours she had logged in her laboratory were used only on the most unnatural and unholy things.

The talk never bothered Saira. Why, having a reputation of challenging the modern notions of science rather flattered her, in fact.

Yet after VILE began to suffer defeat after defeat due to the likes of Carmen Sandiego and her ragtag team of robin hoods, Bellum began to take the gossip as something more: A Source of Inspiration.

VILE operatives always managed to slip up on the job despite receiving top notch training at the Academy. Why, even her best student Crackle had suffered from a misstep. A fatal one that led to him being....deactivated.

For a moment, a darkness brewed in Saira's heart. For her logical, practical mind, feelings were a hard thing to factor in. So she did the most reasonable thing. She eliminated them. Saira stopped feeling anything and had remained that way for years. There were only two exceptions to that rule. The first was obviously her wife Cleo. The second? A certain scrappy recruit from Sydney, Australia with a talent for all things electric.

Crackle had been like a son to Dr.Bellum, and she had seen her own passion for science and curiosity  to learn reflected in his hazel brown eyes. Deactivating him hurt....far more than it should've.

Never mind that. Saira blinked, shaking her head and bringing herself back to the present-day. Her students rumors inspired her latest project. She planned to treat her pupils like she did her inventions: when they didn't come out perfect aftet they were manufactured, little tweaks could be afforded here and there. Bellum had the feeling a little modification was just what her students required to reach their maximum potential.

She poured a bubbling green elixir into a steaming beaker, ever so carefully dropping in just an ounce of Henaecyroid. After years of work, she had finally begun to perfect her formula. A little bit of crocodilian DNA here, combined the phosphate of a Tiger here.....you get the picture. The scientist had begun playing her own version of Frankenstein. One she intended to put to very good use.

She slipped a syringe into the liquid, watching with a gleeful awe as it filled it's container. There. One shot. One shot potent enough to overturn VILE's losing streak by a near 180.

.....

Carmen POV:

There was something chaotically beautiful about Cairo, Egypt. It was an urban hotspot, with thousands of people packed into it's wayward streets. Cars were honking haphazardly and people were shouting in strings of Arabic at one another. Glittering skyscrapers reached out to touch the sky side by side with ornate mosques decked in an ancient extravagance. From the distance, the Pyramids could be made out, serving as guardians for the beautiful city.