Chapter Twenty Three: Vipers Den
"Any new updates with the engineers?" A low voice asked. It came from a man sitting in a darkened room, facing several large computer monitors. The computers were full of rotating blueprint breakdowns of various bots. The man himself wore a dark suit with no tie, and had short hair with a thin goatee.
"No," Ryker Grimborn said. "They're having some issues with the features on the new one and that one we took from the teenagers,"
"Ahh brother," Viggo Grimborn drawled, spinning around in his chair to face his older sibling. "I'd hope you'd have more faith in our staff,"
"I trust the employees," Ryker muttered. "I don't trust random botfighters who get recommended to us by gang leaders,"
Viggo grinned and tapped a button, which replaced the bot blueprints with videos of Merida fighting with Wisp. They were from all different angles and fights, some from her first fights, but many of her recent sleuthing trips. They showed takedowns and special attacks, and were clipped to show the best portions of the fights. The main video was the one Mor'du had taken.
"Without Mor'du, we wouldn't have gotten… this lovely gem,"
"She's a lot less pretty when she's trying to knock your teeth out," Ryker muttered sourly while his brother laughed. "Who's that guy?"
"Who?"
"That one. Always in the background," Ryker pointed. While the videos may have been centered on Merida, Hiccup appeared in the background of all of them, always keeping an eye on his partner and the fight.
"He has a bot fighting bag…" Viggo whispered. "Another fighter?"
"Probably," Ryker said. "I'm going home,"
"Wait…" Viggo whispered. "What's on his neck?"
He zoomed in, past Merida and Wisp, focusing on a clear shot of Hiccup. He circled the green computer chip that was hanging around his neck. Ryker shook his head.
"A necklace?"
"No… looks functional," Viggo replied. "I'd heard of personality chips, but…"
"Personality chips?" Ryker interrupted. "That weird snowman bot we nabbed had one of those wired in,"
"Personality chips are illegal even in the highest of gang rings," Viggo said. "It means the bot can do things on its own, without being controlled by the fighter. They make attacks more lucrative and surprising, because the thought behind the invention was to work with the robot to fight,"
"And this kid's got one?" Ryker asked. Viggo nodded and began typing, running another program that started facial ids on both Merida and Hiccup. Stills from videos and photos began cycling through, shuffling until the computer settled on the best shots of Hiccup sitting at a ring with his robot. Viggo and Rykers breath caught in their throats as the brothers stared at pictures of Toothless. Mid jump, wings extended, mechanical green eyes glowing as attacks charged, the computer became a collage of one of the most advanced bots any solo bot fighter had built in the last ten years.
"This." Viggo nodded. "This is next,"
"That bot has one of those people chips?"
"No…" Viggo muttered, then stopped on a grainy photo taken outside the Spinning Wheel bar. It showed Hiccup and Merida standing against the wall chatting. Hiccup had Toothless in his arms, powered down with an open panel on his back. He was fiddling with a screwdriver, and the personality chip that was usually hanging around his neck was gone. "It's removable,"
"That would be quite a lot of money if we could replicate that," Ryker commented. His brother agreed.
"Call Councilman Black," Viggo ordered. "And put the word out. I want that robot, and I don't care how they get it,"
With a final click, the screens once again filled up with pictures, but these weren't of fighting robots or blueprints. Every single screen was a closeup of Hiccup Haddock, surrounding a video of Toothless leaping onto his prey.