I'm afraid you all know where this is going. The now Dr. Viper is attempting his conquer of the city. First, he does create mutated giant bugs just like in the Origin episode. The only differences, the kats he tries to mutate into being his allies are Dr. Zyme, Mayor Manx and Rosella Pearl.
The deputy mayor Calico "Callie" Briggs doesn't exist in this fanfic just like the SWAT Kats don't. That means the ones fighting him will be the Enforcers. I am happy to say Lieutenant Felina Feral is in this fanfic and she is gonna play an important role in this story. Unfortunately, she won't appear until the next chapter or two.
I apologize if you're disappointed the SWAT Kats and Callie won't be here, but this is how I'd like to write my Dr. Viper x OC fanfic. I still want to inform you all again that there won't be scary stuff in the next chapters. The insect pets of this Dr. Viper are the same ones from the episode and they also end up destroyed without harming anyone.
Anywho, I'm rambling. Hope you enjoy. God Jehovah bless.
Mutation Madness
Elrod took his unconscious fiancée to an empty place that had a wheeled table with a sheet on it to make it warm before he carefully made her lie down on it.
He stared at her solemnly as he thought more about what he intended to do in a few minutes. He reminded himself again that everything would change.
"They need to change. Change isss good," he whispered, convincing himself again this was the best thing. Still… as he rubbed his green hands on her face and neck, he couldn't help but discuss in his mind the pros and cons of this revolution of his…
Yesterday afternoon, Elrod was working with Dr. Zyme on testing the results of their Viper Mutagen 368. He had doubts about the key ingredient of using viper extract in the formula to regenerate plant life at first. After all, animal essence for plant growth?
Still, Dr. Zyme thought it would be worth a try. Elrod wanted to discuss this with him some more, but he stopped debating with his colleague long ago. The latter had many ideas in the past but the former always disagreed with them because of their own particular consequences, so he said.
Sometimes, Dr. Purvis wished he would try to listen to him, but all the protests wore him out, so he gave in. He thought Rosella would have understood if he had explained to her all about them. She always did.
He was very joyous to see that the mutagen however did work! It was like a miracle, the severed rose growing back in an instant like that. How Rosella would have loved to see it.
Seeing the regenerated rose test subject in its vase with the regrowth formula beside it made him think more about his flower who was currently at work with more harmless reptiles right now.
With this formula, Elrod could use the profit to give her everything and anything she wanted. Nothing was too good for his flower. He knew she had said once before she didn't want much, but he wanted to be a capable, prosperous husband for his future wife.
He was lucky he had even saved enough money to buy an engagement ring. With profits made on the viper mutagen, he could give her a bigger home for them both and secluded land to make their own garden, a greenhouse maybe.
He was quietly enraged when Dr. Zyme thought it was better to just donate it to the city and be rewarded with fame. Elrod bitterly thought the fame would only be given to Zyme since he always got all the attention.
Besides, Elrod had given up on fame long ago. The only person's respect and love he wanted was Rosella's. Not only that, what was the point of giving it to the city? As if the citizens would care.
The people didn't deserve it. People were too ungrateful, just like his parents were, but Dr. Zyme couldn't see that. He was too faithful and optimistic in kat-kind, too naïve to see how they take nature for granted, but there was no point in trying to tell him that since he never listened.
Dr. Purvis had been assisting with the research and experimenting with this for years and unlike Zyme, he was going to have a spouse to take care of soon.
If Zyme thought his overlooked, overworked, underpaid assistant was going to go along with this idealistic nonsense any longer, he was sadly mistaken.
He went over with himself what he was going to do was extremely risky, but seeing the rose made him imagine Rosella's loving smile. Wanting to give her and himself a dream home meant too much to him.
He would have to disappear for a while, though. That meant, saying goodbye to Rosella for the time being. That wasn't going to be easy. He was accustomed to seeing her every day.
Not only that, but he would also have to deceive her. That made a lump in his throat at the thought. He had never lied to her before nor vice versa, but he couldn't tell her what he was really doing.
He made that call to her when he predicted perfectly when she would be home, wanting to at least hear the sound of her voice before making the caper.
Once he was alone in the lab, satisfied when he thought he had seen the last of the insufferable Dr. Zyme for good, he stepped in, believing there was no going back now. His fiancée had believed him gone on personal business for a week.
"Well, it's not an exact lie," he told himself, "It is personal business. Personal, classified."
He recalled the hint of disappointment when he pronounced his mysterious plans. He cringed at the thought of her ever finding out about this.
"She'll never know. I'm going to find us a place very safe and very far away and I'll come back to take her away from this city forever."
Making up his mind, he grabbed the formula jar and the notes for making it. What he didn't count on was Dr. Zyme coming back up to catch him with the things in his hands.
Knowing there was no denying what he was doing and refusing to lose the opportunity to gain the future for himself and Rosella, he revealed his intentions and attempted to escape.
He hid behind the exit door before surprise attacking him with a punch in the face, something he relished since it was payback for always behind held back by him and living in his shadow.
How good that felt! He didn't care that his left fingers were aching, he had gotten his wish to knock Zyme off his feet, now he would get everything else.
What he also didn't count on was his former colleague to kick his briefcase down that made Elrod slip and fall, the jar of the mutagen spilling all over him.
He moaned in pain before looking in fury at the broken container, but he wouldn't let it stop him. Not now. He had the notes. The future was still literally in his hands.
"Just you wait, sweetness," he said in his demented mind, "all our wishes will come true. Nothing will stop me from making everything ours…"
Suddenly, his blood turned cold, his heart stopped as he breathed sharply. Something felt very wrong. The next thing he knew, his bones felt like they were melting as a horrible pain washed over him.
He tried to breathe again, but his body felt like it was being re-arranged on the inside. It was excruciating. He thought he was dying.
"No! No, I can't die! Rosella needs me. Our future…" He couldn't keep his head up any longer, his strength completely gone as his face fell back in the formula. "Rosella…"
Minutes later, his, supposedly, dead body was covered and picked up in a stretcher by paramedics after a dismayed Dr. Zyme made a call to the Enforcers and for an ambulance.
In his dormancy, Elrod could hear voices as he felt himself carried away. He almost thought his soul was leaving this world before he could make out voices, one that sounded like it belonged to Commander Ulyssesus Feral who assured the live doctor that it wasn't his fault Purvis was deceased because it was his own greed that betrayed him.
That word "greed" echoed in Elrod's mind incessantly. That's what those fools thought? He was doing it for himself? Only himself? To buy rich materials and travel the world to famous resorts? That's what they thought?!
No, it was all to make a sanctuary for himself and his lady… All kinds of emotions swirled rapidly in his mind, rage, jealousy, fear, anguish, love…
No, he couldn't leave Rosella alone in this horrendous world and he couldn't let her believe he died making himself wealthy. Even worse, what if after getting over his "deceit and treachery", she would meet someone else to settle down with? No, his spirit would never rest in peace.
"No! Rosella is mine! Mine! Mine!"
Then, he felt his consciousness fully rising. Wait, was he really not dead at all? Hold on, something else was happening to him. First, his tail twitched before its fur fell off, the skin becoming green and longer.
The rest of his flesh also became bare and green, his claws becoming sharper. His hair shrank before three long fronds stretched upwards along with his muzzle. His whole body changed drastically, especially his lower torso whose shape warped into an uncomfortable position at first.
What was even more nightmarish were his thoughts. First, he laughed in ghastly giddiness as Zyme and Feral's wrong assumptions and how completely delighted he was to be alive. Then he thought of all the ideas he had had over the years, the unimaginative citizens of MegaKat city, and his love.
He pulled the covers off him before he looked at his new appearance. He was shocked before he realized he had been mutated. He grinned in gleeful pride when he knew he was right that animal essence wasn't a good ingredient for a growth formula.
He kept thinking to himself that not only was he right about this… he was right about everything else. His ideas were good, Zyme was wrong.
The Biochemical Labs were stuck in his mind as he ripped the tag off his foot before he removed himself from the morgue bed, ignoring the slippery substance his transformation turned his dead fur into. He looked at himself, not liking going anywhere without something to wear even if there wasn't much to hide anymore.
What could he wear, though? A white cloth caught his right eye. He fingered it as he examined it. It wasn't his lab coat, but it would have to do. At least it was white and with pockets, and it was his size.
Satisfied with his new coat, he smoothed out the creases before he turned to see a morgue attendant who was on break step inside to see and scream in horror the dead body coming back to life and turning into a monster!
He passed out before Elrod looked around to see if the tom's volume had alerted anyone. Relieved it hadn't, he carefully sneaked out of the morgue before finding an exit.
He spotted a sewer manhole. He would have to take that route to avoid being seen before morning. Even underground, he could find his way to the labs. He even sneaked past the guard.
Not wanting the elevator's noise to bring unwanted attention, he took the stairs. He needed the time to be more accustomed to his new body, anyway. He even flexed his new tail on the way up.
"Very handy. I could use thisss as a third appendage and for self-defenssse even. Luckily, my Rosssella loves reptiles."
Elrod finally made it to the top floor and hid in the shadows for a moment to see the rose they had grown back had mutated, too!
"That explains why the flower didn't mutate sooner. Plant life takes a longer time to change than a flesh-and-blooded being would. Still, I'm rather embarrassed we, professional biochemists, have made the amateur mistake of not waiting to test for side effects, even though I see so much potential for this."
He quickly restrained Dr. Zyme before he could call Mayor Manx back about the failed formula. Then he got to work, first mutating the insects in the jars and increasing their size.
This was one of his ideas for a long time, to make strong, capable soldiers to render enemies helpless and make short work of them if necessary. Of course, back then, Dr. Zyme had warned him of turning creatures into such atrocities would cause people to fear the creators regardless of using them to defend a civilization from marauders.
Elrod didn't listen. He had listened to someone else's besides his own for far too long. He was taking control of everything now, starting with the lab.
After making the insect recruits to his standards and ordering them to hide in the right spots, he thought of Rosella. He knew she had no idea about anything going on tonight, but he couldn't siege the city without getting her safely here. He reminded himself he couldn't call her and trust his new voice not to give him away.
He forced Dr. Zyme to make the call, the reluctant, bounded doctor yielded, making the call short. The mutated mad scientist grinned frighteningly before hiding Zyme somewhere.
He hid a tranquilizer syringe in his new coat before hearing the elevator down the hall opening. There was no turning back now. He knew she would be terrified at first, but she would still know her love was inside this green feline serpent whose last name was now Dr. Viper.
Present
"I knew you would realize I'm still the tom you know to you," he murmured, never taking his eyes off his tranquilized girlfriend, his right hand on the left side of her face, smiling gratefully at her understanding.
His right eye twitched in disgust when Zyme's pleas from earlier echoed in his head.
"You can't mean to harm her, too!"
He gritted his fangs at another ignorant assumption of Zyme's. "Fool. I'd never harm her, not her. The only one I wanted to hurt was you and I did last night. He's lucky I'm in a tremendously good mood to even share this divine gift of transformation with him along with Manx."
Although, Dr. Viper didn't forget the torturous feeling of mutating into a reptilian hybrid.
"Everything has a price, but the value isss too sublime to pass up," he smirked confidently. "I'm no longer hot without fur; a snake's tail makes a perfect third hand and weapon, and fortunately I'm still warm-blooded thanks to my kat half. And even being part viper, I don't have venom. It would be good for protective purposes, but I suppose we'd be all right without it."
Most importantly, it opened his mind to a new perspective. He was going through the things he had always wanted to do with his theories, the projects he had always wanted to make realize to change and enlighten the world he and Rosella had always wanted.
"The mutagen is wasted on plants when instead it should be used on kat-kind to free their minds from selfish abussse towards our precious planet which we can evolve and its creatures who they themselves cannot see through a sssentient's point of view. We can change the world."
With his eyes closed, he leaned to slip his arms behind her shoulders as he gave his fiancée a kiss before whispering in her right ear, "Together."
Still, he would miss the feel of her soft fur and texture of her red hair… She wouldn't be the same color except with red on her head, though it would be replaced with fronds…
"Of course, change isss a very big thing to happen, but changes are inevitable. I will miss your former appearance," he confessed silently, stroking his left hand in her hair. He was still concerned about her enduring the mutation's pain.
He hugged her against his left shoulder, his right hand behind her head. "I'll help you face it." He kissed her forehead deeply, stroking the back of his right hand on the left side of her head before he gently putting her back down. "It'll be perfectly all right."
Hours later, Dr. Viper left his two currently normal hostages tied up in the lab after he made the new batch of viper mutagen. First, he wanted to tend to his lover who was still under the tranquilizer's effects.
"It's time, Rosssella, and once ZZZyme and Manx are one of us, the city will be ours," he declared, carefully taking off the cork before holding up the beaker in his right hand as he stepped in.
He slipped his left hand under her head, lifting her upper torso up before he took another look at her current self. Her… beautiful, pure white self.
Her lower half would take much adapting to, and her skin would be green and furless. And her hair, her eyes, and her voice… Oh, that voice he would listen to whenever they would listen to music, and she would give a free concert just for him.
"We'll still have music… and your new voice might be lovely…" Might be…
His left hand shook to even his own surprise. Was he hesitating? No, he couldn't hold back now. She was going to regain consciousness any minute…
"This is our dessstiny. We're meant to change the world, not hide…"
However, he couldn't stop thinking about the harm it was going to cause. She was still in a temporary coma, and she would be in a terrible shock feeling the excruciating change in her body.
"I'll be here to help her endure it."
He slowly started to tilt the beaker but only slightly before he stopped and made the top face the ceiling again. He panted a little the more he stared at her. He shook his head a little as he scrunched his face in determination as he began tilting again, but the beaker faced back up.
He breathed harder and more raggedly, his right hand shaking. He thought how even a drop would be all it would take to mutate her, so he immediately slipped the cork back on and put the container on a table.
He looked at his empty right hand, wondering why in blazes he just did that. A voice in the back of his head was what was asking that. It said it was the only way.
He gripped his hand in a fist, as he reminded himself of the promise he had made to Rosella years ago that he would never let any harm come to her. He remembered the night he had protected her from womanizers on their way home.
Flashback
Elrod and Rosella were coming back from a date until they were ambushed by three thugs who pulled him away and threw him to a wall to knock him out as they pinned the she-kat to another wall, one of them rubbing his hands from her shoulders to her hips, making her shiver in terror of their disgusting treatment.
Her gentleman quickly came around and made short work of the lecherous toms, knocking them out one by one. He and she went up to each other, asking if they were all right. They laughed at asking the same question at the same time before she started to cry from that revolting experience.
Elrod pulled her in for a tight hug, hushing and rubbing her back for a minute before they made a call for the Enforcers to arrest these men.
They made straight for her house, Elrod staying with her for an hour to soothe her on the sofa, hugging her and rubbing his right hand on her hair.
"It's all right, Rosella, we're safe." He tilted her chin up to lean down to give her a reassuring kiss before they looked at each other with half-open eyes. "I promise, I'll never let anyone, or anything harm you."
The tear-stained face woman smiled in appreciation of his vow, her hands on his shoulders before they kissed again.
Present
Dr. Viper looked at her with remorse. He was and almost broke that vow, just like he broke the law of theft and was going to break more…
"But I'm… we're going to create a new world of a new law and order. We're making a revolution, and my metamorphosisss has helped me finally realize that. It's nature's salvation…"
And if he didn't go through with this, she wouldn't be able to help her in his worldwide mission, and he needed her and her support and her companionship.
The voice in his head added if he didn't do it, she may even dare to fight him and if that happened, he would have no choice but to dispose of her.
No!
He held her in both of his arms. He couldn't do that. He wouldn't, but what was he to do? He couldn't mutate her or put her down… Both of those things tortured him too much, but he couldn't allow her to resist him.
"…Unlessss I keep her as she isss now and keep her tranquilized for the time-being until I've accomplished our world order. Yesss, I could allow her to choose and when the planet has been shaped into our image, she would approve of it: a place of every living thing joining together, evolving and aiding one another."
Besides…he loved her normal form as well. It wasn't the first thing he loved because he had learned not to foolishly fall for a girl for her looks, but hers were without compare as well as her nature.
"It's decided." Feeling more at peace, he kissed her one more time before putting her back down. "Though it's up to you, green isssn't your color, anyway."
She shifted to his scared surprise, but she didn't open her eyes or even speak. All she did was tiredly move as she moved her head under his long chin, smiling blissfully as she rested her left hand on his right shoulder before falling back into unconsciousness. He sighed in relief before he smiled the same way before he lightly kissed her hand.
He kept in mind he needed to comatose her again soon, but he wanted to hurry up and mutate the mayor and Zyme. His ears perked when he heard a crashing noise from the lab.
"Huh?" Were his hostages escaping?! Without thinking about it, he took Rosella with him in his arms and the viper formula in his tail before he ran straight back to the lab where the giant bees had made a hive in which his bounded prisoners were sitting in.
He wondered in bewilderment if they had not made that noise, then who? Movement caught his right eye as he discovered a small group of Enforcers had overpowered his forces and broken into the lab.
His eyes were wide in fear when they pointed net-guns at him.
"Stop him! Get her away from him!" Dr. Zyme shouted when he saw the vile mutagen in his ex-partner's coils.
Dr. Viper stopped giving an infuriated look at the tom before he dodged the flying nets, keeping himself free and his love in his firm grasp.
The beaker, however, was taken out of his tail's grip shattered all over the wall behind him, dripping to the floor. His plans to make Zyme and Manx join him in his cause were ruined!
He snarled and hissed at his enemies. "This changes nothing! You only delay the inevitable!"
One of the Enforcers went to untie the toms, Zyme first before he dared to try to reason with the green mutated hybrid one last time.
"Put her down, the mutagen is no good to you."
"I wasn't going to ussse it on her, anyway. I've changed my mind."
"Then you haven't completely lost your senses. If you still love her, then set her free."
Elrod terrified Zyme with pure anger and detestation as he held Rosella close to him. "She isss free, to be with me. I won't be leaving her behind."
"You won't be leaving at all, freak!" one of the young Enforcers declared, shooting again, the mad mutant doctor eluded the second net.
Dr. Zyme took the opportunity of him being distracted as he leaped in to take Rosella out of his reach. Dr. Viper was shocked and enraged at his impudent actions as he tried to reclaim her, but another net made both scientists lower their heads as they leaped away from each other.
Rosella's head rolled in the normal biochemist's hold, almost waking her, but the tranquilizer's effects still lingered, so her head hung, and her arms dangled.
"ZZZyme, I warn you," he growled through gritted fangs, his fists clenching as his eyes glowed in the shadows, "you are making thisss worse for yourself than need be."
"I'm not afraid for myself, but you should be. Surrender and I'll turn you back to normal. Face your punishment and make it easier for everyone, especially Miss Pearl."
"I have lissstened to your insufferable judgment for far too long! Now make it easier on yourself and give her to me!" he demanded, running straight towards Zyme who tried to keep her away from him, but his new serpent tail circled around her waist, starting to pull her out of the sane doctor's arms and towards Elrod whose coiled hold slipped off her when a third net sent him flying away and straight to a window where he fell down the street.
Dr. Zyme panted as he sat, Rosella still safe with him as one of the Enforcers freed Manx while the others saw what Dr. Viper was doing.
The good Zyme's blood turned cold when he heard the mutant's last words, "You haven't seen the lassst of Dr. Viper, and Rosssella will be back in my arms again!"
"He's gone, Dr. Zyme. He fled in the sewers, the same way we followed him here from the morgue."
Dr. Zyme sighed in despair, blaming himself for that blasted failed formula. A criminal was a monster and free to be back to cause more horrifying problems… He shuddered as he thought, "What have I brought on us all?"
He looked down at the girl who was beginning to stir again. He closed his eyes, wishing she never had to be conscious to hear of this. This was going to break her heart beyond comprehension, but she had to be warned.
Even if Viper didn't want to mutate her anymore, she was still in danger. He just wished he didn't have to be the one to tell her, but despite what Commander Feral said last night, he still felt responsible for all of this.
"Purvis was my assistant; someone I gave my trust to and now he's a threat to everyone. I must tell her the most terrible truth… and if it takes everything in my power and even if I die doing it, I will help to stop him."