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Maximilian Nero does not want to tell the students of H.I.V.E. that there is a venomous snake loose from the zoology reptile room due to an unfortunate door-propping situation because he thinks that maybe such a thing would unintentionally dig up old memories of Violet, the arm-thick invasive vines spreading like a cancer through the school due to another whoopsie moment. But H.I.V.E. is a bigger place than it seems, edging on labyrinthine once one gets down into the depths past the brig, closer to the amniotic fluid of lava, spaces with higher security, identical upon identical hallways.
Maximilian does not tell the students of H.I.V.E. that there is a venomous snake loose because when Dr. Gorgon buzzes into his office and delivers the news, business casual and upfront, he isn’t quite sure what level of danger this even is. At H.I.V.E., time has proven that things can get out of hand ridiculously quickly, but a single snake? He pulls the file on her from the database, has a look.
“Well,” he says, “I’ll issue an order to security to be careful on patrol and keep an eye on the cameras.”
Dr. Gorgon says: “Oh nothing to worry yourself with. Just a snake with venom that can take out thirty-so men with one bite in a school of rising villains. No chance for exploitation.”
And that’s how Raven finds herself skulking through H.I.V.E.’s underbelly, lifting sheets from tables with her sheathed katana to peer under for a coiled up reptile that “may or may not pounce upon discovery.”
“She’s not very naughty,” Dr. Gorgon had said when debriefing Raven, “just… extremely deadly.”
Not naughty, extremely deadly. Genetically mussed-with so she glows in the dark, a helpful tidbit for Raven’s search. She shouldn’t complain, no, she isn’t complaining. She’s on an extended (one week) break in between actual missions, so Max has her looking for a snake down in the gut of the school, her favorite freetime haunt.
“She’s seeking heat, probably. Your best bet is closer to the core.”
“And what’s her name?” Raven had asked, semi-sarcastically, already queueing up an audiobook.
“Jenny.”
So, on chapter twenty-four of War and Peace , Raven has found herself, half-jokingly-half-seriously muttering “here Jenny-Jenny-Jenny…” while making her way through the hidey-holes and spots the cameras would miss. Peering over boxes into corners, looking around in nooks and crannies, etc., for a snake that got out because someone forgot to close the door to her enclosure.
It’s such a minor task it’s almost laughable—like one of the fetch quests Max would give her when she first arrived, to keep her busy and try to make her feel important. She hit the button on the wall by the door to make it slide open and walked the few feet straight across the humid hallway to the next.
Max had said something about H.I.V.E. always being unfinished, and Raven had roamed these halls for years, but she still always felt like she’d open a door and the molten liquid fire would descend upon her, GAME OVER.
She mashed her access number into the keypad, and the door opened to a dark room with a very neon purple coil in the center. Raven squatted and felt the floor of the room, a much warmer metal than H.I.V.E. proper’s marble. Jenny looked like she was resting, definitely breathing, but Raven had no want or need to interact. She dialed up Max and security in that order, directing them to the room. Max arrived, a bit disheveled from sleep in a way only Raven could tell, with a very awake and gloved Dr. Gorgon, who approached Jenny with soft soothing noises that made Raven want to roll her eyes. But instead she behaved and just watched on as the snake was coaxed into a smaller carrier.
“Any toads or turtles I should be watching out for now?” Raven asked.
“No,” Dr. Gorgon said, “but thanks.”
Raven nodded to Nero and the three security guards who had shown up. She backed up thirty seconds on her audiobook and slid back through the door into H.I.V.E.’s maze of subterranean hallways.