Viper Team

“... And when the world needed a hero the most, a lone figure came from the sky, answering the call! Armed with his signature mecha, Polaris, Viper fought back against the Severoid menace! Putting an end to the threat once and for all!”

I watched as the video hologram played out with outro music and displayed the Viper Team logo. The triumphant drum beat and horn section kept everyone else glued to watching it, myself included. The entire display was dedicated to the recently opened Viper Team memorial exhibit started by Valka Industries.

Viper Team, an organization of fighters that banded together to stop an army of destructive androids, created by a sinister figure named Dr. Corvus. I remember growing up when all of that happened, how so many cities locked down, and how we needed to all stay together in little groups while the lights were off. Suffice to say, it was a scary time.

Plenty of terrible things happened, but it ended when Viper and his small crew of ten people, flew into the base of Dr. Corvus headfirst, battling his endless army of machines before finally putting a stop to his reign of terror.

Ever since then, Viper Team continued to grow, and created their own organization. Yet despite such massive publicity, no one really knows where they operate. Whenever danger calls, though, Viper Team is on the scene.

“Aiden! Come on!” Jerod yelled at me. “We’re gonna lag behind the rest of the class if you keep staring at that display!”

“What? Oh, sorry,” I apologized, running behind Jerod to continue further into the exhibit. The rest of the class was already further ahead than we had realized. We had no idea where they went.

“Exhibit only goes one way, doesn’t it?” I said to Jerod, who was looking a little anxious now.

Jerod was a bit of a pudgy kid with glasses, short buzzed hair, and dark skin. A real smart guy, but always such a worrywart.

“Aww, man,” he said, sounding disappointed “we didn’t even get to see the tech exhibit!”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s what you’re upset about?”

“Dude, have you seen Shockraven’s blaster? It took out ten criminals at once!”

“Yeah, I’m aware of Shockraven’s blaster,” I dismissed, “but it’s not like we can’t just hang around here now and check it out for ourselves.”

Jerod looked around, and took a look at the weapons exhibit in front of us.

“Holy-” he exclaimed, and ran off towards it. If there was ever two things that could excite Jerod, it was either food, or technology. And considering that we lived in Servocity, better known as the Global Tech Utopia, he was like a kid in a candy store. Except the candy store was the entire city. So I guess it was a candy factory.

The point was, Jerod loved technology, but he loved fiddling with it, too. So if you needed someone to fix something in a pinch, he was the guy to do it.

“Man,” Jerod got close to the shielded display, “that’s Viper’s E-71Slug Rifle. That was his prototype before he moved to using the E-75!”

“What about the E-”

Jerod cut me off.

“The ‘E’ in ‘E-71’ stands for ‘energy output.’ The upgrade he moved from made it four times more effective at taking out larger variants of Severoids.”

I just listened to him go on about it. Not because I wasn’t paying attention; I was. It’s just that Jerod was pretty easy to listen to. He could probably have his own show one day talking about technology and I was pretty sure people would tune in to listen to him.

I was pretty interested in some of the displays myself. Weapons from a few years ago now sat inside of these shielded cases, left to be watched and never used again. I wondered if they were replicas, or if they were the real things. They couldn’t be, right? No way. They were just toys made to look like the real thing.

As I was lost in thought, a woman screamed, and everyone turned to look out over at the noise. Multiple people dispersed from the window, and before I knew it, something massive shattered through the museum’s window. Two giant figures had rammed in from it, and sent glass and debris- and myself- flying everywhere.

The displays were all damaged. People ran from all directions, and security advisory’s blared.

“All citizens! Evacuate immediately! The area is not safe! Repeat! All citizens, evacuate immediately!”

Jerod ran over to me, attempting to pick me up.

“Oh man, oh man! This isn’t good!”

I stirred, my vision was blurry, and I felt like something just punched me in the gut.

The two figures that had begun clashing inside of the museum were two giant mechas. One adorned in a familiar white and red color, while the other was a jet black. They were battling it out with their massive fists, pulling no punches. They were out to kill one another.

The jet black mecha was more insect-like, carrying a giant scorpion tail on its rear, and would often change orientation at a moment. It would crawl on all fours, revert back to two hands, then crawl on all fours again, and change up to using its legs as arms. It was versatile.

Jerod, who was still dragging me, moved me behind a display case while the ground shook. Once he dropped me, he started hyperventilating, holding his head in agony.

“This ain’t good, dude! We’re so dead, we’re so dead!”

I was panicking too. It felt like we had nowhere to go, but if we didn’t move, we’d be dead.

“Give it up, Viper!” The giant figure said as it whipped its tail at him.

“Not a chance!” Viper shot back, engaging his thrusters on his mecha. He pushed forward right into the insect monster. “Viper ain’t givin’ up.”

It was definitely him: Viper, the leader of the entire team. And he was fighting a new threat. One I sure hadn’t seen before.

“How unfortunate,” the voice shot back. “Seems you still haven’t made the wisest choices, I’m noticing.”

“Worked for me so far,” Viper quipped. “Quit talkin’! Put them up!”

Viper threw another punch, but the razor tail sliced off Polaris’ hand, and the mecha reeled back.

“Poor choice of words,” the mystery figure said, and wrapped the tail around Polaris’ other hand. Without any hesitation, Polaris’ arm was twisted, and ripped off forcefully.

“No…” I said, despair in my voice.

“What’s going?” Jerod asked, too scared to look.

I just shook my head, tears welling up in my eyes. “Viper can’t lose.”

Suddenly, a voice that echoed through the museum’s halls spoke up. A man appeared, dressed in armor with the same color scheme as his mech, but had a silver mask.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” He said, walking up to the insect-like robot. “The Scorpoid is a lethal thing. I built it myself, you know!”

Viper tried to move Polaris, but the machine refused to walk.

“Right, right,” he said, continuing his monologue. “Can’t talk. The Scorpoid’s ‘venom’ shut down all internal functions. You can hear me, sure, but you’re stuck in that metal coffin of yours.”

Suddenly, small orbs appeared, about the size of basketballs, and all orbited around the figure.

“Citizens of Servocity,” he announced as the lights started blinking. “I believe today is a day of celebration. You may not know me, but today, you will. My name is Revas, and I am here to show all of you the truth. For far, far too long have the citizens of Servocity lived in comfort, isolated from the rest of the world! Unaware, uneducated. Many are still suffering, and your ignorance has sheltered you all from that struggle! But I intend to show you all the way. And it starts with your so-called ‘hero.’”

The Scorpoid ripped open Polaris’ chassis, and pulled Viper out from it.

“This is your hero,” Revas said, pointing it to the struggling Viper. “And your ignorance begins with him. He is the filth that beckons such false idols to arise.”

I realized what he was going to do: Kill Viper. If he was broadcasting this, someone had to have been watching, but with how fast things were happening, no one would get in here in time to stop it.

No one except us. We had to do something. I looked around the rubble near the displays we were hiding behind. I scanned around, frantically, and took notice of two weapons sitting in front of us.

Viper’s E-71 and Shockraven’s blaster. I grabbed them up as quickly as possible, and checked if they worked. It was a slim possibility for a museum to actually use the real weapons, but I was willing to try anything. I flicked the switch on the side of the Viper’s rifle, and heard a low hum as the weapon began vibrating in my hand.

“No way…” I said. “We might be able to do something with this.”

Jerod looked at me, his eyebrows raised, sweating profusely, and nervously grabbing my shoulder.

“Dude, this is a bad idea.”

“It’s better than nothing,” I said. “I’m going to distract him before he kills Viper.”

“But he’ll kill us!”

“He’ll kill us anyways,” I said. “Now find a good place to hide. That gun can take out ten guys, right? Then try to shut down that Scorpoid with it.”

“And then what if this doesn’t work?”

“Run.”

Jerod gulped, and took off for the other side of the exhibit.

Revas had continued his monologue. It seemed like the climax was about to hit, and I had to take a shot.

The rifle was loaded with a single slug. I literally only had one shot at this.

“So,” Revas said, “it’s the curtain call for the Viper. It ends here, in the very place that worships him!”

“Not quite!” I said, popping out of cover, and aimed for Revas’ mask. The gun helped compensate for me, and helped me aim. I took a shot, and a loud ringing sound echoed throughout the museum. Revas, looked over at me right as the bullet ripped through the air, colliding with his mask. The slug rammed into it, causing it to rip to shreds, and sent Revas flying back.

Revas seemed to have survived the blow, though, because he was still moving, and recovered quickly. He looked at me, with his face underneath the hood.

“You…” he said, hatred in his voice. “You would dare-”

And before he could say anything else, his Scorpoid buckled as a thunderous boom rocked the room. The machine paused, and its hand opened, giving Viper an opening to break from the robotic grip. Viper took off, engaged his jumpboots, and ran over the Scorpoid before pulling out his stun pistol to shot Revas with three rounds, dropping him to the ground. Viper’s mecha, Polaris, managed to regain control, and rushed at the Scorpoid with a free arm, ripping its power core out. The Scorpoid fell to the ground.

Viper took out the robotic drone cameras with his pistol, and picked up the downed Revas.

“This- this isn’t over!”

“It is. Viper’s got you locked now.”

Viper pinned Revas, and locked his arms.

“This is Viper-1. Revas is out. Backup requested.”

As the authorities finally arrived, we were moved away from the crime scene, and were given a good scolding by our teacher, Ms. Handel. But despite her words, she was just glad we were okay.

Jerod and I saw as the museum was being cordoned off, we were being treated by a medical team. We both felt exhausted after all of this, and just wanted to go home. But Jerod surprised me when he looked at me after the medical teams left for a little bit.

“That was awesome, dude! We saved Viper. Can you believe it?! The Viper!”

I smiled, laughed, and looked out as the Servocity Security Forces walked around the rubble.

“Yeah, yeah we did.”

“And it was good work you two did,” a gruff voice said from above. We looked up to see the familiar blue glowing helmet with a “V” sitting on top of it.

“No way!” Jerod said.

Viper grunted as he hopped off and landed in front of us.

“What you two did was impressive. You especially, kid,” Viper said, pointing at me. “Taking someone like that head-on without even a little bit of protection. Takes guts. Takes courage. Teamwork is another important thing. But that’s what makes you a hero, kid.”

“I just wanted to do something right,” I said.

“And ya did,” Viper said. “Just remember that when you’re out there. Courage makes you strong. And you got what it takes. Both of you. If more people were like you, it’d be a lot safer.”

I chuckled, and looked at the man I and so many others idolized.

Viper held his hand out. “If you ever think you want more, I’ve got something for you.”

I shook Viper’s hand, and felt something cold against it. I looked at it and saw the Viper Team logo, a huge V with a crest around it, and looked back up, but saw Viper had already taken off.

“We’re heroes, man!” Jerod said.

“Yeah,” I said, looking up as the sky grew darker with each passing minute. “We are.”