Silver Skulls Chapter 1: A New World
The golden sunlight filtered down through the trees revealing a lone unconscious figure lying in the centre of the clearing. He was dressed very strangely indeed given the area that he was in and he wasn't the only one in that clearing. There was a man who was dressed in black from head to toe, watching to see if the laying figure would get up or move. As it seemed he wasn't going to move the man in black decided to take the figure to Sutafu, knowing that whoever it was would be a vital research subject and that Silus would want them for the plans he had. The man carefully placed the figure on to a horse that the man in black had with him. It was then that the man, Rimuto realised that he had a youngish man on the horse, but he decided that Silus wouldn't mind. After all it was worth the effort of getting him there.
The arrival was well timed; the scientists were ready for what was to be a first generation of half yoma warriors. The figure didn't stir; Rimuto left him in the care of the scientists to gather more test subjects. He knew that he would have to find many more to please Silus, although Rimuto wasn't quite sure that he wanted to take on that role, yet he did what he could. There was more work that needed to be done and Rimuto had to get as much of it done as he could.
The scientists slowly got to work on the young unconscious man. He was cut open and yoma flesh put into him. They burned the wound closed and it created a stigma that would last forever, no matter what happened it would remain. The young man was never going to be the same again. The work was completed within roughly an hour or so and then two young assistants transferred the young man into the recovery cells. The scientists had no idea that this young man was very special. They had no idea that this man carried a virus that would one day change the way half-yoma worked from the one way monsters that they made. Even so, the scientists were soon made busy again as Rimuto bought yet more strange young men to work on.
He moaned weakly in the cell as he came to. He was in strange clothing (to him at least) and he had no idea who he was or even where he was, the latter more important to him than his name since he was sure that would come to him later. He wasn't alone. There were two others with him; each on their own straw pile with a bucket in the corner that he was sure was there for their toilet. To his left was the bars of the cell, it was easy enough to reach out of but there was no easy opening. He went back to his pile of straw and decided to think of other things than worrying about where he was for the time being. He soon lay in the straw pile, nausea and pain washing over him. He heard footsteps and voices from a corridor, but he couldn't be sure,
"So we have enough to start?" A distinctively male voice said calmly,
"Yes sir, I have four young men in the recovery cells as we speak,"
"Good, I hope they will be complete in time," the apparent leader said.
It was then that he remembered his name. The more he thought about himself the more he remembered. He was Albert Wesker, a former operative and scientist of the Umbrella Corporation, power hungry and furious at Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine for foiling his plans. Now it seemed to Albert that he was in hell, burning with pain and reeling with more of it. He could feel a foreign force in his body, a force that was darker than the T-Virus he'd injected himself with to become stronger and realised that he had to at the very least be alive to feel such pain, the best he could figure was that the T-Virus was reacting with something. It was reacting quite powerfully with whatever it was that was in his body, changing him into something else altogether. Now he was beginning to wonder if that was such a great idea, and he slept uneasily. It wouldn't do for him to lose his humanity, he knew it; somehow he had to be human even though his humanity was slipping away from him and everything he ever knew was changing.
It was a new day, although devoid of sunlight Albert couldn't tell the time but the pain continued much like when he last woke up. A man came in with some food for them and he was taken to a new cell, this one was a bit better equipped, but Albert knew it wasn't very comfortable. However the straw filled mattress was better than the pile by a long shot and Albert Wesker soon fell asleep, the pain forcing his body to rest. The room was still locked by Albert's guess but at least he could see the sun and roughly gauge time. He spent about five days in that room and he was fed every day, the pain reducing his appetite. He then was taken to yet another cell; this one had three others in it and bunk beds. The cell was more like a room, and the men settled down to talking with one another. As each man found himself having to face both friend and foe alike each had to set aside his differences as they were all going through the same painful ordeal together and it was enough to bond them somewhat. It was Albert that seemed more in control of the group, Hunk and Nikolai both seeming to recognise that they were not in any way capable of matching Albert's strength. William Birkin was Albert's friend and had to get over his hatred for Hunk and for the time being they decided to find out what they were doing there. However it was going to be several more weeks yet.
After four weeks the men all noticed changes, particularly Albert. He found that he was not only much stronger than before, he was also more sensitive to what was going on around him. He could feel Hunk's movements (though not as well as Hunk could feel the others) he could also hear people talking about something called yoma and could hear without fail the clanking of amour and voices sounded worried and pleading. It wasn't until they had been able to do it for a week that the they were let out of the room for the first time in what was (by Albert's best guess) months. In reality it was only a few weeks. Albert was surprised by the human contact, although he felt that it was what was needed. The man spoke to them all as if they were new recruits, he introduced himself to them and Albert realised that they were to be for a noble purpose, to protect the humans. Albert decided that he would accept that and knew that any plans of dominating the world were never his to have any more as he was never again going to be able to do so (at least not yet anyway) and he decided to at least try, since the men had been reasonably polite towards them. He would have to simply go with the more annoying task of protecting the humans for the time being and see how that suited him.
The first town that Albert came to was a poor town, primitive by his standards, and he sighed, 'so I am reduced to being in the stone age,' he thought as he looked about him, 'no, the middle ages,' he thought as he walked through the town, alone as the humans kept well clear of him, staring like no to tomorrow. He sighed. The men in black had told him to expect the humans to stare at him, that he was something foreign to them. Albert sighed and stood in the town centre, eyes looking this way and that. He was told by Rimuto that there might be a yoma in this town, but so far there was nothing. Albert wondered why he felt a dark presence among the humans. He decided to find a quiet place to rest while he was waiting to engage the yoma that he was ordered to. The dark presence was getting stronger, like he was getting closer to it. Albert felt the yoma half of his body react and he struck what had to be the source of it. Surely this man was the source of the yoma. Purple blood spilled out of the body as Albert's blade hit home. The humans screamed at first, Albert couldn't tell what they were yelling until the body started to change. He'd killed the yoma that was all he needed. Once he dismissed the humans with a simple gesture, he was offered a room for the night. Albert decided that it had to be better than sleeping in the open and accepted it.
A few weeks of killing yoma and he was soon considered to be a high ranking warrior. He'd not seen William for some time and Rimuto had told him that he needed to head to headquarters. Albert was confused by the command but he did as he was told for now.
Arriving was easily done and as Albert walked in there was a pretty young woman sitting in a pose that he considered a little provocative but he ignored her, until she spoke, "So you're the one that has taken my rank, my, my, you are quite handsome indeed," she was shapely and wore her hair in pigtails that curled down her shoulders and she had a mole under her right eye and wore red lipstick. Albert gave her a cursory glance and wished he hadn't. The position was certainly aimed at making him focus on her, but he heard a familiar voice, "Number 2 you say? Well ok I'll do my best." It was William, it had to be. Albert walked in and grinned as he saw his friend and the man in the chair smiled,
"Wesker, good, you're here. Now just to inform you, your efforts have been noticed and we would like to reward you with the Number 1 rank, I know that you will be more than able to cope with the rank duties."
"Thank you," Albert said quietly, and he waited to hear what was next. Silus smiled sadly and said calmly,
"It is a shame that I won't be staying on for much longer, but I am sure that you will work just fine, your new handler will be Orsay, I trust that you will do the best that you can.". Silus coughed and Albert and William looked at one another, worried. Silus didn't sound well at all but Albert and William were not able to do anything for him. With a wave the pair was sent to their regions and it was a few weeks until they were bought together again.
Albert had been resting with his back against his sword. He was for the most part relaxed, yet to see Orsay. He was thinking of the female he'd seen weeks ago. Footsteps alerted him to the fact that he would soon be working. It was Orsay just like Albert suspected. He wasn't alone with him was Nikolai and William. He spoke to Albert steadily, "You have a new task Albert, you are needed to hunt a voracious eater you'll be working with Roxanne, she is a skilled hunter and she should be able to guide you, but you will have to be careful of her," the man warned him. Albert nodded and he walked with William and Nikolai, all three talking about what a voracious eater was.
When they arrived it was the woman that he saw before, hair in two curly pigtails, side-swept fringe, red lipstick and shapely figure. She looked them over and said rather formally, "I am the Number 3, Roxanne, I am the captain of this hunt, I hope that you boys can keep up and keep your wits about you, although given your ranks you should all be just fine. Just so that you know, voracious eater is a covert term for awakened beings. Awakened beings are warriors who have exceeded their yoki limit," Roxanne looked at them impassively and there was more clanking as Hunk arrived, she continued, "it's our job to put this former comrade out of her misery, she's not the most powerful, but she is strong. Let's move out"
Following Roxanne was enough for Albert, the woman seemed a lot like him, a power hungry person, and he felt a form of attraction, but not overly much. Albert was more concerned with how he was going to get the job done. Hunk was a good team member. The monster reared up into her awakened form and took a swipe at Roxanne, the warrior leaping cleanly and calmly out of the way. She knew what to do clearly and Albert admired the skill that the warrior had. Clearly Roxanne was an older warrior. He would have to learn as much as he could from her. With that in mind Albert noticed that Roxanne was fully regarding the awakened being. He learned to watch what she was thinking and he learned not to underestimate his opponents a skill that was to serve him well soon enough.
The being was disgusting for lack of better words, more like a twisted BOW than anything else, 'at least it's just damage that it causes,' Albert thought. He looked at Roxanne and saw that they were within touching distance. He pushed the thought out of his head and tried to pull his own weight.
The battle was over after half an hour and soon it was time for them to return to their regions. Albert thought that Roxanne was more than relieved to be clear of them, like she hated all of them for whatever reasons that she had. Albert rolled his eyes and kept working. For him it was enough to do what he had to in order to gain more skill. He decided the next time that she met him he wouldn't be so unskilled that she had reason to hate him.