Opposites Attract

Venom

"Where's Scott gone now?" Virgil asked, realising that his oldest brother had done one of his vanishing acts. They had been becoming more and more frequent over the past few weeks as his stress levels soared. He could usually be found in one of two places, his office where he attempted to bury himself in paperwork, or "observing" Brains and The Mechanic as they worked to build the new T- Drive engine. Scott was driving The Mechanic insane by breathing down his neck every five seconds and making rather rude comments about his trustworthiness. Even Brains, who was the most placid person Selene had ever met, was getting sick of mediating between the two.

"He was here like ten minutes ago, who let him go?" Kayo groaned.

"Don't look at me, I was keeping an eye on him last night, I actually sat on him to stop him leaving the couch in the middle of the movie," Selene wasn't proud of the fact that Gordon had walked in on her laying forcefully across his brothers back while she flicked the back of his head and yelled at him to sit still, but she'd do it again if she had to. She was a team player like that.

"I took him out running last night, I've done my-" Virgil paused as John's holographic form popped up.

"We have a situation."

"You found Scott? What's he up to now?"

"What? No," John frowned, confused by the sudden turn in conversation. "I mean I just received a distress call, an arachnologist stationed in the Amazon has been bitten by one of the spiders he was capturing for study and an antivenom breeding program. They are notoriously hard to catch, let alone milk as they are decidedly fast and will bite without any provocation, so supplies are very limited."

"Sounds delightful, how do you even milk a spider?" Selene had to ask.

"Mild electric shock that not only paralyses them for a brief time but stimulates their venom glands, which is collected when it drips from their fangs," John answered as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"So is there any antivenom available for...which spider is it?" Virgil asked.

"The Creeping Banana Spider, and yes, there is. Only it's a very limited supply. "

Selene made a face, she wasn't scared of spiders but didn't feel the need to get up close and personal with the poisonous ones. Give her a big, fluffy tarantula any day of the week over the smaller, evil little shits.

"So do we have to collect it, or pick up the scientist?" Virgil asked.

"A little of both, Dr Furnier managed to get out a call to the hospital where he works in their research lab and they sent some out by drone, but the drone has vanished and they have no way of tracking it. I've tried and it's giving off a weak signal but you're still going to have to go out there, find it and administer it before taking Dr Furnier to the hospital."

"On it," Virgil was on his feet in an instant, heading to his launch tube, but he stopped before he stepped on the foot plate. "Let's take Scott with us, he could do with an outing. Kayo, Selene, want to come with?"

"Sure, I could do with some action," Kayo was already heading for the hangers.

"What good am I going to be?"

"You're great at calming people down, plus Gordon said you helped him with a little healing before, I'm sure you could help me keep Furnier comfortable."

She thought about it for a second then nodded. "Sure, I'll come."

"Be careful," John warned her.

"You never say that to anyone else," she bitched as she followed after Kayo.

"You're different," he insisted, ignoring the middle finger she flipped at him.