Anguish
Dr. Viper fled out of the sewers to the outskirts of the city and deep into a dark, bleak spot in the woods where he knew no one ever trekked to. It was an environment that suited his new half reptilian form, its marshy, dim and quiet surroundings. This would have to do as his hidden lair which he would have to make by hand, but right now he was in no condition to think of construction and home improvement…
Panting, he looked over his right shoulder in the direction where he had no choice but to leave Rosella behind at the Biochemical Labs, already conscious and told an exaggerated story that would give her a most nightmarish painting of him.
He squeezed his eyes shut as heavy tears fell on the already damp ground beneath him as he slowly laid his hands on the swampy earth.
"She was in my grasp. She was resting close to me," he wept, his heart feeling crushed in someone's strong, unkind fist. He imagined her in his arms, her right hand around his shoulders to hold onto him, Elrod embracing her before reality made him look at his empty arms.
He growled in woe, his hands on his breaking heart at the possibility of her fearing his new intents, thinking he was a monster.
"…No," he refused, looking at the sky with a tear-stained face but with burning determination in his glowing eyes, "my transformation isss a fearsome sight for sure, but I am not a monster."
He looked back with contempt back to MegaKat City when he thought about Zyme and the Enforcers, clenching his right fist.
"No doubt, however, after breaking the laws of theft, abduction, breaking and entering, and attempted siege, thossse fools have already marked me a criminalistic monster."
He sighed deeply, his hands on his face when he had to face one truth, "As much as I depissse it, they're half right, I am a criminal…" He slipped his hands off his head as they shook before he turned them into tight fists. "… but their point of views won't stop me."
000
A week had passed, Dr. Zyme daring to remain working in the Biochemical labs. The Enforcers provided tighter security since he and they knew very well Dr. Viper meant what he said as he slithered into the sewers.
The good Dr. Zyme stayed to work on a cure for the viper mutagen to use on Dr. Viper whom he hoped with all his being the Enforcers would apprehend so he could be turned back into Dr. Purvis. If the formula's effects could reverse, then without his animal half, he would come back to his senses and pay his debt for Rosella's sake if not his.
Speaking of the she-kat, Dr. Zyme remembered Miss Pearl whom that day after coming around, he told everything. Her reaction was even worse than he had anticipated. She went mad with grief when she shook his shoulders that it was all a misunderstanding or a lie, that her Elrod would never steal or especially try to turn others into snake hybrids and take over a city.
Dr. Zyme tried to solace her and help her face the truth, but she wouldn't listen. She kept saying it was all a mistake, that her Elrod would never do any of those monstrous things. She knelt, lowering her face to the floor as she wallowed and told herself those words over and over.
The normal doctor felt completely helpless, not daring to touch her. Unable to hear any more, she dashed straight out of the labs, Dr. Zyme watching her leave from the window. He had found out from the Enforcers they checked her house where she had returned to but was in no condition to open the door to let them in or speak to her.
No one had seen or heard from her in days, and he began to wonder if she wasn't even eating. A new Enforcer, Commander Ferla's niece Lieutenant Felina Feral, had learned all about the fugitive mutated mad doctor and his fiancée who had locked herself up.
The lieutenant took it upon herself to check on Miss Pearl. At first, the white-furred woman was in delusional denial, not wanting to hear lies from anyone. The Enforcer wouldn't give up, and reluctantly used her authority to make her open the door.
Though dead on her feet, she unlocked the door, so Felina let herself into a dark house, the red-haired feline stumbling to her sofa, looking like skin and bones, her face drenched in tears, life gone from her eyes as she stared at the unlit fireplace. She was staring at a long piece of fabric in her hands with something small and shiny that was around the middle. Maybe a piece of jewelry?
Lieutenant Feral paid more attention to how the heartbreak had kept her from thinking of her health. She felt a little helpless at first since she was no doctor, but now that she was here, she couldn't leave her alone like this.
She had offered to bring her something to eat from town, but she received no response from her. As a matter of fact, she didn't think she could even hear her breathe.
"Miss Pearl…?"
Concerned, she shook her right shoulder and flinched when the she-kat coughed so raggedly and roughly, she knew the lack of food was making her very ill. So ill, she fell from the sofa, landing on the floor unconscious.
Felina hastily knelt to touch her right shoulder again as she immediately called for an ambulance.
000
Dr. Viper was busy all day long, making his hideout the best he could with his own hands since he had no tools. He was a rough looking living space, but at least there was a roof over his head and a place to take shelter from rain and the cold air.
He was lucky he wasn't actually cold-blooded, having been a warm-blooded person first and being a hybrid allowed him to keep being so.
He looked around the place that was spacious enough for a lab and a garden and such… but it was missing a companion. He had wanted to have a safe, distant place for Rosella and himself…
"What would she think of thisss…? It's not at all the dream home we envisioned." He sighed, his left hand subconsciously touching his neck which made him think of that scarf she had given him as a present. It was his prized possession, and he didn't even have that tangible piece.
Only exhaustion helped him sleep that night, though it wasn't peacefully from the nightmare he was having. He was standing in front of a wide rectangular window which he looked through to see what was inside.
He saw someone lying down in a bed with the floor flooding from her tears. When he recognized Rosella's hair draped over the mattress which started to float from the pool of tears reaching her.
Terrified she was going to drown in her own tears, he broke the window and fought through the small waves to swim to her, lifting her wet head up.
He gasped when she looked so very bony and was breathing shallowly. Was she dying?
"No!"
He held her against his chest before he woke up back in his lair. Looking at his shaking hands, he tightened them into fists before fierce determination made him get up.
"I have to find Rosella and soon… but I don't dare return to MegaKat City without help…"
Contemplating very hard, he would need an alley who was strong, swift, resilient, but intelligent and loyal… but where and how?
He wrote in the dirt of his spacious floor of the space that would be his lab once he had the supplies he needed. He made plans for the ultimate soldier.
Unfortunately, it would take a while, but it was the only way to find Rosella if it wasn't too late.