Viper leafed through the notes, decided they were good enough, and stuffed them into the cylinder they had brought with them.
The Mist eyed the lab.
The easy part's over.
... Well, easy in comparison.
They had found the labs easy enough, then Viper discovered that the very island itself was held up by Flame interfering technology.
Viper could've dealt with that. Their Flames were dense enough that even if it acted a bit lethargic and unpredictable, they could still do something with it, pilot it like a rampaging bull. Not as precise as they'd want, but still useful for something, even if it just meant wrecking havoc.
But no.
There was also Flame absorbing technology.
And having a Flame Scientist of questionable ethics getting their hands on a sample of Viper's Flame, was the last thing they wanted.
So they had to do it the old fashioned way.
Physically sneaking through the halls, avoiding the traps and detection.
They're not the most nimble, quick to become short of breathe, quick to hurt, and the very walls and floor and ceiling of literally everything was positively stocked with traps and detection.
They had to dip into the Akashic records more times than they had had to do so in the previous year in just a day, pushed with the concern of stumbling on an alarm and losing their way in the veritable maze.
And considering that they had yet to completely recover from assimilating the past/present memories from a week ago...
This was turning out more perilous than they had expected.
They actually hesitated to proceed deeper into the issue, but they were already inside.
Taking out a spinel, Viper brought it up level to their eyes before letting go as it glowed the colour of their Flames.
Channelling their Flames through it, they glided off the ground and let it pull them through the halls with their loot.
Inappropriately, they thought of a sims.
Out of all the Flames, Mist was perhaps the easiest to control and direct. When one used Flames, once chanelled outside of their body, it was incredibly difficult to maintain a connection to it, something Mist users were exempt from due to the very nature of their Flames. But neither could Mist users -or any user for that matter- regain it back the moment they let go of their hold over it, it just dissipates.
But in this place, letting go of it meant that the walls would gulp it down. So Viper had to keep using the very Flames they had entered here with, keeping close to their person, tight and controlled beyond what they were capable of unassisted by using the spinel as an anchor and a medium, attentively keeping the cloud of Mist semi-intact. They couldn't afford even a strand of their Flames to get into Delta's hands.
It was akin to holding their breath for minutes on straight while standing on their hands.
Something they could not actually do.
Brows furrowed, they had to keep their attention split between their Flames and the facility itself.
They were under a cloak of invisibility, topped with various misdirection illusions to fool first-rate computer detection, which made the weight perception on the floor and walls moot, as well as heat and sound sensitivity among other things. It had taken them three whole dips into the ether to retrieve the relevant information.
Viper just knew they would have quiet the headache to nurse after this.
The Flames they were using was negligible compared to the vastness of their reservoir, but exactly that mental strain of limiting themselves almost left them panting even as they navigated through the passageways and trick doors.
Everything about this mission was just exhausting.
... Viper wondered if they were overreaching themselves.
Then the spinel broke.
Having anticipated it, they cupped the powdered bits and reeled in their Flames close to their skin.
They only had three mediums left on them. They had gotten far enough inside that the security had lowered somewhat so they alighted on the floor.
Compared to the minimalist showcasing in the outer sections, this part looked more like... a garage, honestly.
A garage of fascinating, confusing, most likely volatile gadgets with open wires and messy scriptures lying around in what they're going to guess was an organized mess. From what they'd 'learned', this was the personal labs, completely removed from the other labs they'd gathered were for the more 'open' and publicly available products in progress. The earlier corridors had the occasional floor to ceiling windows and an impersonality to it hinted by the lack of spare pens lying around, numbered stiff cushions not often used, and everything having been arranged in an exacting manner that belied the absence of human touch.
Viper figured that the outer halls were probably entirely automatic, so the owner didn't have to play guide themself.
Now, how exactly should they find out the Hitler agenda? If possible, they'd really rather not dive into the Akashic Records again.
They'd always preferred to compile the data themselves on the physical plane first, and filling in the really impossible bits of details after if the need arouse.
Relying on the Dreams too much ran the risk of biting off more than they could chew and Viper could rely on no one to pull them back if it came to it.
Peering at a paper, it was written mostly in Russian peppered with at least four other languages. Viper picked up the canister of glowing yellow liquid beside it with a gloved hand -for cells and fingerprint issues.
Through the thick special glass, they could feel a distant warmth, and... almost... energy... a giddy feel on the tips of their finger...
Viper abruptly realized that it was liquefied Sun Flames.
Eyebrows shot up, a bit unnerved. Who knew you could liquify life force?
Setting it back down, Viper moved on after finding nothing especially noteworthy to their objective.
There was pounding in their head.
Viper arrived inside the heart of the island. It was like a lost and found room multiplied by a million.
It was loud too, engine revving, whirring sounds, liquid rushing down pipes, and a monotone voice droning out reports from the audio somewhere.
Viper wanted to go home.
There were a lot of lights too, that seemed to be the main themes, a lot of the canister they'd seen earlier, of varying sizes and containing every colour of the rainbow.
A suspicious amount of Sky and Mist Flames, though.
And while Viper had been vaguely aware that they were heading underground, it still startled them how high the ceiling was, with unplastered walls, some kind of a giant motherboard inlaid on it, just much more complex, bare for anyone to see and tamper with if they so wished.
Viper should've just gone straight to Hitler, how the hell were they supposed to find anything here.
Even disregarding the fact that it didn't seem like a place anyone would leave their master's masterplan just for any nosy Mists to peek at, how could anyone find anything here.
It's a mess. A total mess.
There was pounding in their head.
Viper sighed in their hand.
This was a vain effort.
They'll just leave.
And of course that was when they missteped.
Viper did not usually have horrible luck. In fact, all things considered, they think of themself as relatively lucky.
So they immediately identify the fault as Delta, possibly Verde.
With what happened to them in that Arcobaleno debacle, it's only natural to conclude that it was the other Arcobaleno who were unlucky and they must just be a very prone to being infected. That made sense, since Viper also catch colds very easily.
Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any Flame absorbent in this section, as the alarms were only tripped when their grip on their Flames momentarily loosened and it spiked when they jerked it back with them.
A terrifyingly dexterous mechanical arm emerged from the wall and Viper flew up to dodge.
"Initiate S-level Intruder protocols."
XxXxXx
Viper sighed into their strawberry milkshake, brushing their damp hair over their shoulder, lounging cross legged in a two piece sleeveless shirt and short swimsuit combo in the resort bar.
They had successfully escaped Delta's base. Though, regrettably, it hadn't been undetected.
In the end, they had to break down a wall in a panic as the entire nightmare island moved to kill them.
They popped a raisin in their mouth.
A ball from a group of older teens playing volleyball made a beeline to a pair of siblings building a sand castle. Viper redirected it with a glance and an invisible wall of Mist Flames slanted just so to reorient the ball straight in the face of a man oogling some seven year old.
Unlike conventional Mists, though they did make use of illusions, they preferred to utilize their Flames in a more straightforward -if a bit uninspired- but versatile manner when in combat. It's a neat one-trick-pony sort of thing that required a reservoir and control that wasn't to sneeze at.
By making use of their ridiculously dense Flames and its inherent malleability, Viper played a teleknetic by using it as an extended appendage (well, not play, since if they could do it, then they are).
They were currently... er, recovering. In Mafia land. In a beach.
Yeah. Recovering. Definitely. That gave them quite a fright, you know.
They were almost bedridden for a whole week with a high fever, they deserved this.
... They told Gabriel they'd take his money when they returned.
They'll just finish the milkshake and then they'll proceed.