It was 3 A.M. when I received the call. I remember rolling over in a half-conscious stupor, muttering curses to myself before smashing my hand on the nightstand and searching for the phone. When I finally felt it through the dark, I immediately snatched it up and growled into the receiver. In hindsight, with my hair all matted and my expression so bewildered and aggravated, I probably resembled one of Umbrella's zombified bio-experiments gone wrong more than I did myself. But that quickly changed once I heard who was on the other line.

"Redfield, we have an emergency." The voice of my mission coordinator at the BSAA brought me back down to Earth. His choice of wording also helped wipe the fog from my mind.

"An emergency?" I repeated after a few seconds. I threw my legs over the edge of the bed and massaged my face with my free hand to try and rub away what remained of the morning fog. The BSAA wouldn't give me a personal call if this wasn't urgent, so I quickly stood up and made my way towards the shower. Before I could even get halfway there I was briefed on the situation.

A large, green monster was loose in New York City and destroying everything in it's path. Nobody had a clue where it came from or what it was, and HQ was in a frenzy. All they knew was that an incredibly powerful beast was rampaging through one of the most densely populated areas in the United States, and they needed me to come in and stop it.

I sighed. There was a time, not so long ago but it almost felt like an entirely different life, where I would gladly throw myself at any mission no matter the time or circumstances. After Jill disappeared, I was... lost, and the only purpose I could find in my life was the BSAA. Nowadays though, it seemed like I was reaching my limit. I was feeling my age more and more with every day, old and forgotten wounds were starting to flare up again, and right now all I could think about was crawling back into bed and letting someone else deal with this.

But a stronger part of me knew that wasn't an option. I quickly threw on my outfit - no time for a shower either - and left the dark apartment behind me. I knew it was my duty to root out bioterrorism no matter what, and I'd be damned if I let some extra sleep come in between me and saving a city full of civilians.


Less than an hour had passed when I found myself all geared up and leading a squad of soldiers down a fast-rope descent onto an NYC rooftop. The chopper couldn't make it down to street level, so rather than land in the outskirts of the city and make us hike, HQ decided to just drop us at some newspaper office called The Daily Bugle.

It was still night, and the rooftop was only scarcely lit by whatever ambient light from the streets below managed to reach us. It took us a few minutes of searching to find the entrance to the building, but once we did I told the men to secure a route through and into the streets while I performed recon from the roof. It was a big city, and according to reports, the monster was only seven or eight feet tall. Dangerous enough in close quarters, but at the moment, my biggest fear was not being able to track it down at all. The boys were carrying a new weapon just to deal with this thing; some kind of electrified net that would coil around the BOW and disable it's motor functions. It was still experimental, and I didn't know all the details, but apparently it took a whole team to properly man, although supposedly the results should make its lack of efficiency worth it. The 'Shocknet', is what they called it.

I waved my men off and leaned against the waist-high stone wall that bordered the rooftop. Despite the chaos this monster was supposedly causing, for whatever reason HQ was unable to give me an exact location on it's whereabouts. My usual tactics in situations like this would be to follow the trail of destruction, but as I looked over the edge of the rooftop and into the streets below, I realized there was no destruction. Relieved, but confused, I pulled out my binoculars and gave the area a more thorough look, only to find absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. I widened my search, first a few blocks, and gradually throughout the whole city, but I spotted nothing that would indicate any BOWs were in the area. There were no wrecked buildings, no overturned cars, no bodies - everything seemed completely safe.

I was just about to radio HQ when out of nowhere, a gigantic crash sounded nearby, and the ground below me began to shake like an earthquake. From the sudden surprise and tremors, I nearly lost my balance, but I managed to recover and quickly drew my handgun from it's holster, aiming it in the direction of whatever the hell that was. I almost wished I hadn't.

It looked human enough, but with a sickly shade of dark green skin that almost seemed to glow underneath the moonlight. The only clothing it wore was a pair of bright purple jeans, almost comical in their miraculous expansion to accommodate its tree-trunk sized legs, but as I stared this thing down from across the rooftop, laughter was the last thing on my mind. Its freakishly muscled abdomen slowly expanded and contracted with each deep, heavy breath it took, and as I stared back into this thing's shining green eyes, so bright that they almost acted like homing beacons for me to focus on in the near pitch black that surrounded us, I couldn't help but become overwhelmed by a sense of unbelievable power this thing seemed to radiate off.

"Freeze!" I shouted out of pure reflex, centering my gun between its eyes. It lifted its head, almost like it hadn't even noticed me until now, and did nothing. I was a little surprised that it actually listened when I yelled freeze, but something told me this thing wasn't actually about to surrender, only doing what it felt like at that moment. Then it did something that truly shocked me.

"Hulk doesn't take orders from puny humans with guns."

Never in my life had I encountered a B.O.W. capable of speech. None that were fully mutated at least. Could this thing have once been a normal human? And more importantly, could its consciousness still be in control? Maybe there was a way to end this nonviolently after all.

"I don't want to fight. But I'm gonna need you to surrender before I can put down my gun." If I didn't know any better I'd say the thing started laughing when I said that.

"Hulk surrenders to no one." It replied with a wave of a green fist that was bigger than my entire head. Suddenly, I found myself very grateful for the considerable space between us. I needed a way to diffuse the situation before things got out of hand. It seemed to have a name, so I decided to start with that.

"Hulk," I paused to see if he gave any negative reaction. "I'm a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance. My job is to stop criminals from harming people." I made sure to speak slowly and calmly, just in case I was overestimating its intelligence. "So tell me, are you a criminal?" I asked as politely as I had ever been. It's reply was a gruff and simple 'No.' As intimidating as this guy was, I was beginning to think he wasn't hostile.

"If that's the case Hulk," I began while lowering my handgun. "Then I'd like you to come with me." How I planned on getting this thing onboard a helicopter wasn't exactly clear to me, but I was just eager to end the standoff. When he turned to face me fully, I wasn't sure if what I had said had been effective or not. When he raised his fists and began approaching at a speed I wasn't entirely comfortable with, I knew it had been, but not in the way I hoped.

"Puny soldiers with their puny guns, always the same, always coming after Hulk when all Hulk wants is to be left alone, always thinking they can hurt Hulk. But Hulk is too strong! Hulk smash!" He suddenly bolted towards me at speeds almost too quick for me to register. One second there was at least 20 feet of space between us, and the next, his shoulder was only a meter away from shattering every bone in my body. Years of muscle memory kicked in as I quickly dove to the side, just fast enough to feel the rush of air from his tackle nearly send me off my feet. So strength wasn't the only thing he had going for him.

"Hulk wait!" I shouted. I still hadn't given up on a peaceful solution. "I'm not your enemy! My name is Chris." Names were always a good place to start in gaining trust. He turned back around to face me fully, and the next thing I heard was more terrifying than any zombified moan, any shrill shriek of a leaping Hunter or bellowing roar of a Tyrant that I had ever heard before.

"Chris?" He began, turning slowly. "Hulk turn you into Chris sandwich for coming after Hulk!"

And he charged again, but this time I was prepared. I took one quick step to the left, and before I knew it, he was right on top of me, crumpling a giant billboard that hung from the side of the building in my place like it was made of tissue paper. I instantly raised my gun to his face and fired off a burst of point-blank shots into his head. The bullets crushed on impact and fell harmlessly to the ground, leaving not so much as a scratch on his temple.

Before I could react, Hulk twisted around and grabbed hold of me with his left hand, gripping my skull and raising me into the air with utter ease. I wasn't very used to facing people who were even bigger than me, and even less accustomed to being manhandled so easily. The pressure was immense, but I could tell he wasn't even trying, so before he had the chance to put some more effort into his grip, I quickly raised my gun and fired wildly at where I assumed his face to be. I was almost surprised when he actually dropped me and recoiled in what seemed like pain, but I was too focused on determining whether my skull had actually been fractured or not by his grip to take much pride. When he turned back around and I caught a glimpse of his face, bleeding from the eye and blistering with rage, it reminded me of the last time I saw Wesker, drowning in a pit of lava as he desperately, furiously tried to bring me down with him.

But this thing was even stronger than Wesker was, and at least as fast. It's bleeding eye gave me some semblance of hope that maybe I would be able to live long enough to see the sunrise, but as I watched the organ literally stitch itself back up in a matter of seconds and Hulk continue his angry strut in my direction like nothing had ever happened, I found it hard to hang onto that hope.

There was less than a yard of space between us now, and I wasn't about to take this thing on in close quarters. I quickly backpedaled as fast as I could without ever taking my eyes off it, and raised my left hand to my ear.

"HQ, I've located the BOW. I need backup and I need it right now!" A garble of static was my reply. I cursed inwardly and repeated.

"HQ?"

"Captain Redfield where is your current location? What happened to your team?" It took every ounce of concentration I had to avoid the heavy blows thrown by the monster who was suddenly right in front of me. Instinctively, I ducked under his right fist, then darted my body to the side to dodge his next blow. I thought I'd be able to take a couple more shots at his eyes and make a quick escape, but that plan was busted when he suddenly raised both fists in the air simultaneously, and then brought them down with the force of a million sledge hammers.

I skidded back, narrowly avoiding the blow that nearly toppled the entire building. But as I continued to backpedal my way to the other side of the roof, I was surprised to see that the monster didn't instantly stand up and follow me. For a moment, I felt relief flood through me, but it didn't last long.

"Captain Redfield, your team has been notified and is heading back to your position. The chopper has also made a 360 and will arrive shortly to provide-"

From his position with both fists on the ground, the Hulk slid his fingertips underneath the cement rooftop, and in a flash the entire area erupted into a wave of concrete and metal debris as the Hulk violently ripped it up right from under my feet. I was sent tumbling through the air like a ragdoll, my arm straining to fight the momentum and keep it's hold on the intercom button of my earpiece.

"IT'S NOT ENOUGH DAMMIT!"

I just barely managed a midair recovery to avoid landing straight on my head, instead landing on my hands and knees and sliding the rest of the way across the rooftop while desperately trying to halt my momentum and gain a foothold. I eventually found myself lying flat on my stomach, with my gun pointed forward as the monster made another mad dash for me, it's foot only milliseconds away from crushing my skull.

"The eyes, go for the eyes!"

I fired three more rounds centered on what seemed to be it's only weak point. Every bullet connected exactly where I wanted them to, except this time, there was no blood or stutter in it's movement. This time, I watched as the bullets connected straight with this thing's pupils one after the other, and bounced away just as harmlessly as the rounds I had fired into it's temple moments ago. It was getting stronger with every passing moment.

With no time left to waste, I put every ounce of energy I had into a quick roll to the side, and right on cue its foot stomped down right where I had been, sending out a spider web of cracks in every direction. There was no distance between us now, I jumped to my feet and continued evading it while running through options in my head. It seemed to be getting more and more aggressive by the minute, but I knew I at least had a chance. It was fast that's for sure, but it lacked any kind of precision with its attacks. As much as I hate to admit it, half the reason Wesker was so dangerous was because the man really did know how to fight. Every move was coordinated, a well-thought out strategy, and his super human agility on top of that gave him a level of finesse that was almost impossible to match. This thing on the other hand was just wild, easy to predict, and that made it a lot easier to keep up with.

"Captain Redfield," The voice in my ear came on once again, drilling into my head when I was focused on fighting for my life, and I felt like grabbing the damn headset and smashing it into the ground. But I restrained myself, I knew that this line back to HQ might be the only thing that gets me out of this. "What is your current situation with the monster?"

"The monster is invulnerable. I can't find a weakness and it's getting stronger by the minute." I replied, my voice even but urgent. I heard some muffled whispers on the other end, my mission support and another voice, male, aged but commanding. I couldn't help but feel an anger rising at how much they were taking their time, how casual they were as I was fighting for my life and asking them for help. Before my emotions could reach a boiling point, I decided to speak up myself.

"The monster isn't a hostile, the city hasn't even been touched." I began. "It just wants to be left alone, and I probably can't stop it even if I tried. Requesting immediate extract-" There was a scuffle on the other end, and before I could even finish my sentence, the older voice from before came on and was barking in my ear.

"LISTEN HERE SOLDIER," The rage in this man's voice caught me completely off guard and almost caused me to miss my next dodge. He spit with as much venom as any B.O.W. I had ever encountered in the past. "YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU COMPLETE YOUR MISSION! THE HULK IS A MENACE, WE CAN'T JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE! IS THIS HOW YOU REPAY THE COUNTRY THAT-" Another scuffle, my mind was racing. What the hell was going on? Before I could connect the dots, the voice of my mission support came back.

"Captain Redfield, you are to hold your position and wait for backup. Until your team makes it back to your position, you are not to take your eyes off the target."

Well that was that, I was on my own for the time being. I re-focused my efforts, the entire exchange had only lasted a few seconds, and I still had a firm lead on monster. It only took me a second to formulate a basic plan; this thing's eyes might have hardened to beyond the strength of tempered steel, but that doesn't mean they weren't still a weak spot.

Without ever taking my vision off the fast approaching monster, I flipped open the pouch strapped to my right thigh and pulled out the only weapon I had that could possibly bypass this thing's inhuman durability; a flash grenade. By the time I had it in my hands the distance between us had already been halved, so without wasting another second, I popped the pin and hurled it straight at the monster's face.

The grenade detonated on impact, sending out a burst of light and sound faster than it could react. I shielded my eyes but only for half a second, that was more than enough time for the brief flare to dissipate, but when I looked back I found myself wishing it was less. At first I thought the tactic didn't work, the monster's hand was still stretching towards me, and by now it was too late to dodge. All I could do was brace myself for the incoming head trauma and hope I wouldn't be knocked straight off the edge of the building, but just before the blow connected, its arm stopped.

I looked over and noticed that its other hand was grasping at his face, the arm that was aimed for me having stretched to it's limit. He was just thrashing now, totally senseless; the grenade had worked! I caught a brief glimpse of his face between the fingers, now he seemed more dazed than angry, almost confused. His eyes went from wide and directionless to squeezed tightly shut as he tried to adjust his vision. I wanted to take a minute to smile and appreciate the results afforded by such a versatile weapon, but it wasn't over yet. I had no idea how long this thing would be distracted; if it could completely regenerate its eye in just a matter of seconds, than surely it wouldn't take long just to remove the stars. Without a second thought I began to enact the second part of my plan; if gunfire to the pupil wasn't enough to hurt this monster, then my only other option was a 50 story drop straight from this rooftop down to the pavement below.

So far my plan was working almost perfectly. In its daze the monster had stumbled straight over to the edge of the building; all it needed now was a push. I thought for a moment; I was pretty confident in my strength, but even I wasn't about to run up and try to throw this thing off the roof myself. Instead, I reached back into my grenade pouch and took stock; three explosives. Thinking back on everything that had transpired during my brief battle with the Hulk, I decided I wasn't taking any chances and just grabbed the whole pouch. I could see the monster was bringing his hand down now and rapidly blinking, I knew I had only seconds left before my opportunity was gone, so I quickly pulled all three pins and tossed the whole pouch in its direction. I hit the dirt as soon as the handheld fireballs were out of my hands, and looked back just in time to see the Hulk get consumed in a wave of pure explosive power. Even through the combustion I could see it wasn't at all affected by the blast, but the explosive force coupled with the beast's still-fading disorientation achieved the desired effect; the Hulk stumbled one foot backwards and crashed straight through the stone boundary of the rooftop, plummeting back down to Earth, and I suddenly found myself praying that it couldn't fly too.

Five seconds later and a distant crashing sound gave me my answer. I took a look over the shattered ledge and down into the street below, and was just able to make out the form of the Hulk, lying still in a massive crater as debris piled on top of him. I breathed for what felt like the first time all night, and pressed my finger back up against my ear.

"HQ, this is Chris. The BOW is down, for now at least. I sent it over the edge of the Bugle, it's lying in a crater in the street."

"Good work Captain Redfield. Make your way down to street level and confirm the BOW's status. Your team should be ready with the Shocknet by the time you get there."

The Shocknet? I had almost forgotten about that. It didn't seem like we needed it now, but if I've learned anything in this line of work, its that you're better safe than sorry.

I was about to turn heel and head for the staircase, when a sudden movement in the now-debris ridden crater caught my eye. Instantly I knew what was coming, but that didn't ease my worry.

The Hulk was digging its way out from underneath all the rubble, and as the first glimpse of its unblemished green skin came into view, I began to feel real, true apprehension for the first time in years. I cursed and was about to take off for the staircase, when suddenly, right in front of Hulk at the base of the building, a door was smashed open and out came my men, marching straight up to Hulk right in the nick of time. I could see they had the Shocknet ready, with each of them taking one corner and spreading the net over Hulk's body like a blanket, then without warning, the net constricted and coiled around the Hulk like a snake. It all happened before the monster could even get to it's feet, they were coordinated... almost too coordinated... practiced.

Just as I was on the verge of solving this mystery, my focus was torn back to the scene unfolding 50 stories below as the Hulk was lit up like an unfortunate mosquito who just had a chance encounter with a bug zapper. A military grade, one-hundred million volt bug zapper. The electricity was powerful; the lights didn't reach very far, but they were focused. I could only imagine its pain, being wrapped up like a mummy in those wires with every inch of its flesh being exposed. But I never let pity get in the way of my mission; regardless of how shady things seemed to be on HQ's side, stopping this monster was still my priority, and if the Shocknet was the only way to accomplish that, so be it.

It actually seemed to be working too. The Hulk was on his feet now, but wavering, struggling to keep balance as it shuffled around. I remembered how this net was designed to interfere with the target's motor functions, I hadn't studied the technical aspects of it for long, but apparently the electricity somehow effected the nervous system, and it certainly showed in the way Hulk was fumbling around with his whole body gone stiff. For a moment, I actually started thinking that the mission might have been over.

But those hopes were shattered, along with my ear drums, in the next instant. After having only been incapacitated for the span of a few seconds, the Hulk let out his most powerful roar yet, and began fighting. I watched in a mixture of panic and awe from the rooftop as the Shocknet's wiring stretched to its limits, then shattered. The most dangerous, most complex and highly funded weapon the BSAA had ever developed, was only an annoyance to him.

Instantly I feared for my men's lives. Even if they were withholding some secrets from me, I was still their leader, and I was responsible for them. Without waiting another second I spun on my heel and darted towards the staircase, ignoring everything around me as I raced down to street level. I heard what sounded like an explosion coming from below where my men were alone with the Hulk, and immediately holstered my pistol so I could pump my arms for more speed. The Daily Bugle staff would be surprised to find more than a few overturned tables and smashed doorways around their building the next business day, but I didn't care, the damage I could do to this office building was insignificant compared to the damage the Hulk could do to a human body in half the time. I knew that firsthand, although I was able to avoid the bulk of it. Then again, not many BSAA agents were as good as me.

That thought that should have incited pride, only strengthened my terror.

A few minutes of deafening silence passed and I had halved the distance between myself and the pavement. Another minute, and I only had 10 more floors to go. The thought of my men lying in pools of their own blood pushed me to pump my legs faster, and somehow I cleared the rest of the floors in just as many seconds. But when I finally found myself breaching into the city streets, all sense of urgency completely vanished. I was too late.

The Hulk was nowhere in sight, but what he left behind, stirred a sorrow and rage in my heart that I hadn't felt in over a decade. Since the day Captain Albert Wesker betrayed his own unit and led most of our teammates straight to their death. That was the only other time where I felt something comparable to what I felt now, as I saw each and every one of my men lying face down on the pavement. Obviously this hadn't been the first time the BSAA suffered casualties, but... my whole team wiped out at once, leaving me as the sole survivor... there was definitely a reason this reminded me of Spencer's mansion.

I raced over to the nearest body, a muted 'no' escaping my throat. I dropped to one knee and watched him, and when the realization of what had happened actually hit me, I stopped breathing... Only then did I notice, that he was.

It took me a moment to register the subtle rising and falling of his chest, but once I did, I immediately checked for a pulse. He was alive. I did the same to all the other bodies only to find each and every one of them merely unconscious. No visible wounds, it didn't even look like any of them had suffered any broken bones from the looks of it. Relief flooded through me, but almost rivaling that emotion, I wondered, how? What the hell happened down here?


"It was awful, I-I... I felt like my body was getting ripped apart. It just... clapped, and..." Those were the words of Jonathan Hunt on his hospital bed, one of my men who fought the Hulk the night before. The rest of the troops had similar stories; that explosion I heard on the rooftop was the result of Hulk literally clapping his hands together, with the resulting impact sending out a massive shockwave that knocked everybody unconscious instantly. After that, I can only assume the Hulk just left. He was nowhere in sight when I reached the street, and for the rest of the night the BSAA received no further emergency calls. I guess he got tired of throwing us around and remembered that he could just leave. Although this does confirm my earlier thoughts; the Hulk was no danger to anyone unless provoked. And even then, he made sure not to kill me or my men. He didn't even seriously harm any of us, just some scrapes and a few headaches. For whatever reason, the BSAA had an ulterior motive for sending us after him-it-whatever, and I wanted to know what it was.

It took all night for each of my men to wake up on their own time and give me their full stories, but once I knew they were all fine I left the hospital wing of HQ behind me and headed for the command center. I entered the wide room adorned with more scientists, military personnel, radars, and military equipment than I could wrap my head around, just in time to catch the last bits of General Thunderbolt Ross's rant.

"Your piece of crap net didn't work! I should have known the BSAA couldn't handle the Hulk! If even the army can't-!" The aging military general stopped there, seemingly headed on a train of thought that he didn't care to continue. Then he spotted me.

"And you!" He came storming towards me, and I didn't know whether to meet him halfway or run back to the medical ward.

"YOU were supposed to be the specialist! The guy who LIVES for fighting monsters like the Hulk, the best agent in the business! And what do you do? YOU LET HIM GET AWAY!"

Alright, enough was enough.

"I fought the Hulk with every ounce of strength in my body, General." I spit out the word like it disgusted me to address him by it. "While you were here keeping yourself safe surrounded by an army of the highest trained soldiers in the world, I was out there doing your dirty work without a single complaint. But now I know that was a mistake." I straightened my body and began towering over him, he was suddenly too stunned to retort. "You don't deserve the title of general, Ross. I've led rookies into battle who had twice the courage, and 10 times the honor you possess. The Hulk might have been a B.O.W., but you were wrong to send in an ill-equipped squad to try and capture him alone when he wasn't a threat to anybody. I don't know what kind of obsession you have over this whole thing, but you'll have to continue it on your own time. The BSAA is no longer interested in cooperating with the U.S. Army, not the section you command at least." The room went silent. The white-collars and politicians who had just moments ago been begging for Ross's forgiveness, were suddenly firmly disapproving of his presence. I might have only been a soldier and not dealt much with the corporate or political stuff, but as a founding member I still commanded a lot of respect in the BSAA. Before Ross could say another word, a couple men grabbed him by the shoulders and escorted him out. I could hear his struggling against their holds as it grew more and more distant down the hall, until eventually, General Ross was no longer in the building.


I took a few hours filing reports on the mission, discussing things with the higher-ups and telling them not to pull a stunt like this on me again. I dedicated my life to the cause of eradicating bio-terrorism and saving lives, and I didn't appreciate being tricked into using my skills for a false cause. They were apologetic, of course, and I didn't think they would go behind my back again. General Ross had a lot of influence, but in the BSAA, I was more respected than anybody else.

The day passed by and we received no further news on the Hulk. I wasn't too worried, the BSAA had more pressing dangers to respond to. Which is why I made sure to get a good night's sleep and make up for the rest stolen from me by Ross's crazy scheme; I needed to be prepared for my next mission.