Chapter 1: Unlikely Duo
Seven years ago, Michelle was called by Umbrella out of her vacation to lead her team, WOLFPACK, into the lab of William Birkin, an Umbrella Corporation scientist, to retrieve a sample of his "precious" G-virus. They succeeded in their mission, but it didn't come without its share of losses. For one, William Birkin injected himself with the G-virus after being shot near to death and became a monster that slaughtered Alpha Team. And that is not the end of that saga of Michelle's career: during the fight, the vials containing the Tyrant Virus were broken in the botched escape and the leaked virus was consumed by sewer rats. By the time they reached the surface, the rodents had become fully infected and began spreading the virus faster than the bubonic plague, causing the federal government to quarantine the city and begin to investigate to discover the cause of it. Fearing possible exposure of their top-secret experiments, Umbrella sent WOLFPACK back in to destroy all links to Umbrella's involvement in the outbreak, including any people they deemed a liability. However, it was the inability to kill the rookie cop, yet still clever Leon S. Kennedy drove a wedge in between Umbrella and WOLFPACK, with the team being dropped and blamed for all of Umbrella's misfortune. When the team finally cornered the survivors, they decided not to follow Umbrella's orders, but rather get amnesty in exchange for testifying against them in court.
On April 24, 2004, Umbrella Corporation was found guilty and slapped with the indefinite suspension of its marketing license, thanks to an anonymous, but credible tip from an unknown source and the very damning testimonies from WOLFPACK. After the trial, the team was approached about joining a new division in the United States Strategic Command called "The Anti-Umbrella Pursuit and Investigation Team," developed for the sole purpose of stopping the spread of B.O.W.'s on the black market and end bioterrorism. All of the team declined, citing different reasons, except for Michelle.
However, because an anonymous leak, calling her as one of Umbrella's "secret weapons" (no doubt done by the higher-ups of Umbrella in attempt to slander her identity), hitting the news a year into her becoming, she needed to start anew, mostly with her identity. Her last name was changed from "Wesker" back to her birth name "Parks" and she grew out her afro before perming it down and dying it strawberry blonde, similar to her mother's hair.
However, unbeknownst to her, that did not end of Michelle's problems.
Leon, the cause of most of her Raccoon City misfortune, was also handpicked to be on the Anti-Umbrella Pursuit and Investigation Team. It always was variably uncomfortable for both Leon and Michelle to be in the same room together for long periods of time and it didn't help she bore some form of relation to one of the most wanted criminals in the world, Albert Wesker, that Leon was ever so curious to know the answer to, but Michelle spoke of it to no one, not even their commanders.
Later into the year of 2004, President Franklin Graham's daughter, Ashley Graham, was kidnapped from her dorm at the University of Massachusetts and her Secret Service agent had no idea what had happened. However, the CIA received intel from agents in Spain that Ashley was being held by a group in a remote Spanish village. Needing to be thorough, he decided to send agents he felt could both handle the mission and keep his daughter safe: Leon and Michelle.
"What!?" Leon questioned with a hint of anger. "You're sending me with her?" He asked, pointing at the woman who was sitting calmly in the chair next to Leon, slightly smirking while quietly drinking coffee.
"Yes, you both were handpicked by the President to oversee this mission." Norman Lopez, current head of USSTRATCOM, responded.
"Have any of you forgotten that six years ago, she and her psychotic, super assassin team tried to kill me?" Leon shot back.
"We had our orders, what were we supposed to do?" Michelle responded, looking over at her fellow agent with an amused smirk.
"Maybe not shoot me in the gut?"
"Eh, you're still breathing. Would you've preferred a permanent stay in the grave instead?"
"Buzz off, I refuse to work with anyone who I can not trust to not try to kill me halfway through the mission." Leon shot back, making the smirking woman take off her sunshades and look at him with her faux light brown eyes.
"Listen, I don't like it any more than you," Michelle said, her smirk disappearing, "but if the President believes that we are the best this country has to offer, I'm not going to doubt him."
"Good way to put it, Michelle." General Lopez said, trying to hide the smirk on his face from the bickering agents. "Now, the girl is being held somewhere in some remote village located somewhere in Southwest Spain. A private plane will fly you out to Spain, in which you will be just about 8 hours." The politician said, standing up to look down at the agents. "Meet us at the airfield in an hour."
Both the agents looked at each other, Leon's look mostly filled with disgust, before looking to their superior and nodding.
Michelle and Leon began the walk up to the plane, which was a large private jet. Leon wore his casual clothes, a blue jacket with a black t-shirt under, blue jeans, and black boots. Michelle donned a black leather jacket with a red shirt under it, black jeans, and black stiletto boots. After about an hour, the plane was cleared for taking off and the eight-hour trip began. Leon got his iPod and started listening to music while Michelle watched a movie on her laptop. At certain points, Leon couldn't help but stare at the woman next to him. He was still terrified of her, but who wouldn't be? The woman had freaking super strength, she could break someone's spine just by plucking the back of their neck. Leon paused the music and turned off his iPod. He checked his watch and saw that only one hour had passed. Much to his mind's constant nagging him not to, he decided he would have to make small talk with Michelle.
"So, whatcha watching?"
"Arkon, one of my favorite actors, Simon Williams, is the star." She said, not even looking up. There was another long pause as Leon tried to think of something else, but only one thing popped up in his mind.
"How are you related to Albert Wesker?" He finally asked, his curiosity overtaking his nervousness.
"Well…" Michelle said as she closed her laptop and gestured to herself, "obviously not biologically or else his mother has a lot of explaining to do. But, to answer your question, both of us were placed in a special program founded by Oswell Spencer."
"The founder of Umbrella?" Leon asked shock before Michelle nodded.
"After my parents were killed in a car accident, I was placed in an orphanage run by Umbrella. Ever since I was five, I trained by the best of the best and educated by college professors until I could work out an equation in my head while snapping someone's neck. Same as Albert, but he excelled more at virology than anything else. I knew him a great deal, but he was a dick to me and I hated him, simple as that."
"So, how did it happen?" Leon asked. "How did you get the virus, I mean."
"When I was 18, we were given our annual flu shot and the next month, I was sent off on a mission. On that mission, I was shot in the chest with a shotgun point-blank range and I was killed. Then, I woke up like this: with my senses dialed up to 20 and my life never the same. Come to find out that 'flu shot' was actually the enhanced Progenitor virus and many others in the program were dead, except for Albert and Alex."
"Why would they do that?"
"Honestly?" Michelle said as she sat down. "Either Spencer read far too many Captain America stories or he really believed we would make him out to be a God. The old fool, but all of that to say this is how I became the female Steve Rogers. Michelle finished, pushing a few strands of hair from her eyes. "So, how did you end up in a zombie-infested town being chased by Umbrella's secret task force?" She asked, making Leon chuckle.
"Well, all of my life, I've wanted to a police officer and since I lived near Raccoon City, I decided it would a good place to start my career out. On my first fucking day, I arrive late into the city and find a dead body on the ground, looked like he'd been chewed to death."
"And it wasn't dead?" Michelle asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Scared the hell out of me and it didn't help that more started coming from everywhere. I tried shooting them, but of course, I didn't know anything about having to hit the brain, but Claire came and we stuck together through the entire outbreak. Did you ever see a giant gray guy in a trench coat?" Leon inquired, curious.
"A T-103? Yeah, three of them." Michelle stated, rolling her eyes at Leon's shocked expression.
"What about a giant man carrying a pipe, had a giant eye in his shoulder?"
"Yep, that was Birkin, we fought him and nearly killed us," Michelle answered with a small chuckle. "My first real exposure to
"You know, you're not how I thought you would be." Leon stated, derailing Michelle's training of thought.
"What did you exactly were you expecting?" Michelle inquired, curious.
"Well, I thought you were cold and distant," Leon explained. "I mean, you led a team of killers who don't think twice about who they kill, so I expected you to be evil."
"Well, I'm not a robot. I may be deadly and maybe still bit unused to the doing good thing, as opposed to going in, breaking necks, and calling it a day."
"Well, sometimes that's just what's needed." Leon said as Michelle chuckled.
When they finally reached Spain (the landing rousing them from their sleep), it was already night. They departed the plane with their luggage and were greeted by the Prime Minister of Spain, Vasco Venceslás.
"Welcome." He greeted the agents. "We have prepared two hotel rooms for both of you before you leave out tomorrow to the village."
Although being trained in different languages, it took Leon a few seconds to translate it.
"Thank you." Michelle said back in Spanish. The Prime Minister smiled, nodded and he led them to their state car. Upon reaching the hotel and checking in, they got their keys and rode up to their room. At last and ready to sleep, they exchanged their departures and went into their separate rooms to sleep.