Viper's voice, a cold hiss that carried through the cavern, was the only warning. "You've done well to make it this far, but I'm afraid this is where your reign ends!"
Me and Felicity spun around, The Hand's form shifting into a defensive posture. There, on a ruined purple palace balcony, stood a figure cloaked in black. "I and the other Beast Lords have decided you're bad for business!" he declared, and with a flourish, he threw off his cloak.
The air grew heavy and cold, thick with an incredibly oppressive aura that radiated from his body. Three long serpents, their scales shimmering with a faint, malevolent light, were attached to his body, their heads weaving and hissing. He was a snake man, a chillingly powerful figure whose presence alone made the very air crackle with power.
Me and Felicity tensed, our gazes fixed on Viper, a shimmer in the air near the balcony caught my eye. A figure shifted unoticed in the background, its form blurred by fiber-optic camo-invisible gear. It was Marla, her face a mask of cold, professional focus as her suit's relay optics blinked rapidly, sending a constant stream of data back to CENO. They weren't alone. They were being watched, their battle a show for a far more powerful enemy.
The air was still. The chibis had disappeared, sensing a threat far beyond their comprehension. This was no mere bio-weapon; this was a personal vendetta.
Viper didn't just walk. He launched himself from the balcony, flipping vertically as he soared through the air. The three serpents attached to his body came alive, their heads rearing back before launching jagged, crackling beams of green plasma.
"Hard-Cover!" I yelled, diving into the ruins as the volley of energy beams screamed towards me. Amethyst crystal exploded behind me as I launched into a series of acrobatic somersaults, dodging the incoming barrage.
Felicity took to the air, her raven wings beating against the heavy air. From above, she launched a volley of energized chakrams. They ricocheted off the crystal buildings, a shimmering whirlwind of violet light as they tracked Viper down.
Below, The Hand took aim, its form a hulking fortress of bio-steel. Its middle digit began to glow, the light shifting from a fiery orange to a deep, pulsating blue as it powered up a charged shot. The air around it crackled with anticipation, a silent promise of destruction.
As Viper weaved through the air, I took aim with my Plasma tail canon, firing off several shots. The blue bursts of energy screamed past his form, forcing him to alter his course. Meanwhile, Felicity's eyes glowed with Crypt Sense, her unique ability to detect the residual essence of fallen bio-weapons. She pointed to a spot behind the Zohar Lord, her voice sharp with command. "Ash! Right there! Use it!"
I slapped my Brood mother's Palm to the ground, summoning a new wave of distractions. Dozens of spectral Feral Scouts erupted from the amethyst floor, their claws extended. From another point, a swarm of glowing Will-O-wisps materialized, their tiny forms darting towards Viper's hurling form.
Felicity, with a fresh batch of chibis, commanded them to harass the enemy. Sad Felicity floated through the air, weeping sparkling tears of despair that momentarily disoriented Viper. Angry Felicity zipped around his head, throwing tiny punches that carried no force but directly attacked his energy pool. It was incredibly annoying. Feral Felicity howled and flipped him off, a gesture of pure mockery. As the chibis swarmed, Felicity launched more of her energized chakrams!
Viper dodged and weaved, an expression of annoyance crossing his face. He was fast, but he couldn't keep up with the attackers, he was beginning to regret his decision to attack. Snake-Man was mid-flip when he realized he had waited too long. He had allowed the duo to grow too powerful and now he had bitten off more than he could chew.
It was in that moment of distraction that The Hand released its charged shot!
The glow from its X-Buster's tip was blinding, and the resulting blast was a devastating scatter shot burst. Dozens of bolts of blue energy shot out, blanketing the area and giving Viper nowhere to go. The Zohar Lord was thrown off balance, and his body took the brunt of the scatter shot, crashing through the ruined buildings below. He was wounded but not yet defeated.
As Viper crashed through the ruins, he didn't stay down. Taking stance his eyes darted back and forth, he was trying to decide whether he wanted to run.
He hissed in frustration! "Damnit all to hell, I should've killed you two when I had the chance."
He launched himself back into the fight with renewed tenacity, his eyes blazing with fury. But as he soared, one of the chibis, a giggling, tiny copy of Felicity, landed on his head, covering his ears and eyes. The three serpents attached to his body struck at Feral Felicity, popping her like a cartoon balloon, but that brief window was all I needed.
With Herja's coiled muscles, I leapt, a blur of motion. I slammed my Orgone palm suckers into Viper's chest, and a palpable gasp of surprise escaped the Beast Lord's lips. The oppressive aura around him faltered as his life force was rapidly being depleted.
Viper's eyes widened in panic. Convinced he couldn't win this fight by himself, he performed a desperate escape tactic: he shed his own snake skin. His body turned to a translucent shimmer, leaving behind a husk of his former self as he reformed into a liquid-like form and began to flee. "I'll be back with reinforcements," his voice hissed back at them. "You haven't seen the last of us!"
As Viper shed his skin, he entered a rarified state, flowing through the cracks in the amethyst ruins. He was confident he had escaped, a smug, triumphant look on his face.
He didn't see the silent shadow detach from the palace balcony. He didn't hear the hum of her stealth gear. He was too focused on his escape to notice Marla.
Suddenly, two small spheres of solidified energy materialized in the air around him, a chilling contrast to the Vein's oppressive heat. Marla appeared as the first freezing ice bomb detonated. The bomb exploded with a flash of light and a wave of pure, debilitating cold that slammed into Viper's liquid form. The second bomb followed instantly, a brutal one-two punch.
Viper's escape form, hissing with triumph a moment before, instantly crystallized. The cold was his weakness, his reptilian biology shutting down in the face of the brutal, freezing assault. His body, which had been a flowing liquid, was now a solid, immobile statue of ice. He was completely trapped, his powerful aura snuffed out by the sheer cold.
"W-who the hell are you?" Viper gasped, his voice cracking from the shock as he looked at Marla with wide, horrified eyes.
Marla didn't answer. She simply walked up to his frozen form and reached inside, her hand passing through the ice as if it were air.
"I want that Zohar Crystal," Marla said, her voice a cold whisper that shattered the silence. She unhooked a pack of medical tools from her belt, the sterile gleam of metal contrasting with the raw, brutal violence of the Vein. Among them was an ultra sonic obsidian scalpel, a dark, wicked-looking blade that hummed with a low, chilling frequency.
She strutted over to Viper's frozen form. The Zohar Lord's eyes, still wide with panic, followed her every move. The ice held him captive, but his mind was still racing.
"Wait, let's make a deal," Viper pleaded, his voice a frantic rasp. "I can give you any other crysta—"
Marla didn't let him finish. She pressed the humming obsidian scalpel to his forehead, its vibrations silencing his plea both literally and figuratively. A thin, perfectly clean incision appeared in his flesh. With the cold precision of a surgeon, she began to extract his Zohar Crystal.
She took the Medusa Core from him. It was a cold, but surgical.
Viper Survived it, transforming back to a gaunt stretched looking old man. Unconscious.
Marla returned to the sterile, gleaming white halls of CENO, the stolen Zohar held tightly in her hand. She strode past the silent drones and automated labs until she reached the private domain of Doctor Syn. She was waiting for her, a cold, curious glint in her eyes.
"You've been successful in acquiring a core." Syn said, her voice a flat monotone as she gestured to a high-tech surgical table. "A perfect specimen. The bonding will be immediate. This will only sting for a moment."
Marla lay on the table, her fiber-optic gear whirring down. Syn took the pulsing Medusa Core and, with a few precise, unsettling movements, grafted it into her CENO-Rig Spinal Port.
The transformation was immediate and agonizing. A cold fire erupted from the base of her spine, surging through her veins. Her skin began to shift, a cross between sickly green and bruised blue. Thick dark prismatic purple scales broke out along her arms and torso. They rippled up her long legs like armored high boots. A particular thick scale materialized covering her vulva. Her lips turned ruby red.
The change was so complete it was a grotesque kind of art. Her eyes began to glow, two brilliant pinpricks of crimson light that burned with new power. But the most striking change was her hair. Each strand writhed and twisted, elongating and hardening until they became individual, venomous Vipers.
She stood there naked, but she didn't feel naked, she also felt like she was standing outside. Even though she knew she was inside of CENOs Headquarters. It was the damn'dist sensation. She let her hands slide over her body, feeling a world of new features that were totally foreign to her mind. But not altogether unwanted.
She wasn't terrified at all of the snakes. They hissed and snapped, their forked tongues flicking in a new, unholy language. As if that weren't enough, two membranous, leathery bat wings tore from her back, stretching out into the sterile air of the lab.
Doctor Syn held up a silver mirror, her face a mask of scientific fascination. "Your transformation is remarkable," she said, his voice void of emotion. "Here, try not to panic."
Marla's newly formed hand with black talons, snatched the mirror from her. She gazed into her own reflection, at the sickly skin, the glowing red eyes, and the crown of living vipers. She saw a monster, but she felt nothing but exultation. A tear of pure joy rolled down her cheek, and she began to sob.
"I'm... I'm beautiful," she cried, a chilling, triumphant sound that echoed through the lab. She was no longer just a spy. She was Medusa Marla.