A/N: I am putting the gender-bend version of Ada's story in with the regular story, because I feel that making it separate would make it a little confusing. I hope you enjoy! : )
Aden Wong was enjoying a day off, catching up on a months' worth of newspapers, taped television, and paperwork with his cat Mint, when his computer beeped at him. He pressed the space bar to bring the monitor out of sleep mode, and was momentarily disappointed to see Anne Wesker's face, instead of his three episodes of Storage Wars. Never the less, he pasted a smile on his face, and greeted his boss.
"Ah, Wesker. How are you today? Is this about the paperwork, because I almost have that done…"
Wesker's face didn't change from her perpetual scowl, and she didn't try to continue with the small talk. "The paperwork can wait. I have a new mission for you. I'm sending you the perimeters for it now. Be ready for extraction in 30 minutes."
With that the screen went black, before popping up with his list of recorded shows and a download link for the mission files.
"But it's my day off?" Aden weakly protested, as the mission files downloaded to his desktop. "Ah well...It's always work with Anne, isn't it Mint? I wonder if it'd kill her to exchange some chatter with me…"
He sighed and opened the encrypted document. "Hmm… Looks like Karuser's have issues completing the mission by herself. Perhaps Saddler isn't as trusting of her as she's reported." That made Aden chuckle, because Krauser had been boasting that Saddler trusted her with everything, and the operation was almost over with.
"Oh, now that's interesting…When did they kidnap the president's son? You'd think we'd be hearing about that…Now I assume they've sent someone to retrieve him…Ah, here. 'Agent Kennedy had been sent to retrieve Graham. Do not let them know you're there. If needed, take them both out, as Kennedy is a survivor of Raccoon and could be detrimental to our plans.'…"
Aden sat there a moment, not expecting that name to jump out of the file at him. After the…embarrassment that was his mission in Raccoon, He had done what he could to forget the rookie cop, but it seemed that fate, and Wesker, had other plans.
"This is going to be much more interesting, and difficult, than I previously thought." He copied the mission directives to his hand-held communicator, and slinked out of the room to prepare.
When Aden stepped into Wesker's office after a short flight, she turned to him, perhaps to admonish how long it had taken for him to get there, but decided to just shake her head.
"You are aware that this mission you are going on is of the utmost importance, not some state dinner party. But if that is what you're wearing, then I won't stop you. You're transport is on the roof, don't disappoint me." She then turned back to her work, and Aden got the hint to get moving.
Right before he entered the lift to the roof, he turned back. "I'll contact you once I'm in the village then?" Wesker just grunted, and Aden left, unsure if that was a yes or a no.
Reaching the roof, he climbed into the helicopter, and smiled at the confused pilot.
"Wake me up when we get there."
Aden had managed to get a decent sleep, and woke easily when the pilot called out, to tell him that they were almost above the village.
"Do you have everything you'll be needing, sir?" The pilot sounded unsure of his question, and Aden realized that the man was confused about his attire.
"Oh no, I'm completely outfitted. I just think it would be better to go in this. Much more comfortable than the military grade uniforms you all wear. It doesn't mesh well with my personal style." Aden just smiled, knowing that his 'explanation' did nothing to dispel the pilot's confusion.
"…Right. Anyways, we're here. Once you're in, the only person you'll be able to contact will be the boss. Good luck." The pilot turned back to the controls, steadying the machine so Aden could jump out. He opened the door and dived, using his grapple hook to slow his decent. He ended up on the top of a house, and after jumping down was immediately set upon by two villagers.
Aden merely smirked, pulling his grapple gun back out and running past the two whilst firing. The pair of villagers looked momentarily confused, before Aden pulled the trigger, tripping them up and sending them into the wall. He was about to move into the main square, when his communicator went off.
"I trust you've reached the village then?" Wesker said as she shuffled around some papers. Even though technology was becoming more and more prevalent, Wesker still used paper copies for most things.
"Oh yes. But nobody has bothered to come and meet me. What a disappointment. I suppose this meant you were planning on calling me then, instead of visa versa." He chuckled.
Wesker just shook her head, and continued speaking. "These… 'Ganados' attack anyone from outside the village on sight. I have it on good authority that ringing the church bell will shut them up though. Anyway, you have your mission. Find the scientist, obtain the Plaga sample. That's it. Once you have that we will be done in this wretched part of the world for now."
This caused Aden to raise an eyebrow. "What about Krauser? Shouldn't I be assisting her?"
"No. At this point she's become a liability. What she does now is not our concern." With that, Wesker cut the connection, leaving Aden standing alone beside a bunch of bodies.
"A liability, huh? I've been saying that from the start, you know…"
He started to move, shoving the bodies out of view, when he heard gunshots. Peering out from around the side of the house, his breath hitched, recognizing the shooter.
"Leona…" He watched her fight off the mob of villagers, only moving once she'd entered a house. He darted out into the center of town, trying to find his bearings. Hearing the sound of a chainsaw, Aden grappled on top of a different house to get away.
'I'm sure she can handle…whatever that noise is going to be.' He told himself, before noticing something glittering across the roof from him.
"A key. And lucky me, it looks like it goes with that door over there. And if these papers are correct, that's the house over the secret path to the church." Aden jumped down, and quickly entered the building.
He'd tried to lock the door from the inside, knowing that Leona would check the building when she was finished out in the main square but wasn't able to, and almost shot the girl standing in the room with him when he turned around.
The girl seemed to brush off the gun aimed at her and instead swept open he long coat, showing off an impressive array of weapons and ammunition.
"Ello Stranga. Care ta buy anythin'?"
"…What?" Aden wasn't feeling very eloquent at that moment, and instead chose to stare at a young woman who was trying to sell him things.
"Buy somethin' Stranga? I've a good selection…" She gave him a bemused look. "Real cheap."
"Ahh…But you see, I have no money," he shrugged, still holding the key.
"Ah, but the villagers have money…Just use theirs."
"Oh? And will I have to return here then? Because you see, I'm on a rather tight schedule." He opened the other door and looked around the corner, trying to appear disinterested.
The look she gave him was of pure ire. "Stranga, if you want to buy somethin' I'll be near." She shook her head then, before focusing on the key.
"What are ya goin' to do with that key? You need ta leave it for the other Stranga?"
Aden turned to the girl. "Actually yes…How did you know?"
"It's a secret." The girl giggled, before holding out her hand. "If you give that to me, I can make sure it goes somewhere where she'll find it, long after you're gone."
Aden considered his other options, which weren't all that great, before handing over the key.
"Don't worry Stranga, I'll make sure she finds this." The girl pocketed the key as Aden nodded and went into the short hallway.
He lifted up the trap door, and decided to forgo the ladder jumping down instead. He began to walk down the stairs, but picked up his pace when he heard shouting from above, realizing that there were some villagers coming after him. Right before he reached the bottom though, he stepped on an uneven stair and went flying, crashing into the inch of water that filled the tunnel floor.
"Uhg…Ow…" He sat up, hand to his head, and cursed. There was no way now that he could out run his pursuers. He wiped the water off his face and slowly stood up. He could see the feet of the first man coming down the stairs and took aim. He shot, and the man fell, three more taking his place.
After his pursuers were dead, Aden took time to riffle through their pockets, grimacing every time he touched a particularly nasty spot on or in their clothing. His effort paid off though, as he ended up with two flash bangs and 1500 Pesetas.
"Hm, I though Spain had changed to the Euro already. Maybe this place is so backwards they don't want the change."
He continued to walk, grimacing as the water leaked into his shoes. 'Perhaps I should have worn boots for this job… Oh well, no turning back now, unless I steal some boots from the villagers…'
As he walked towards the end of the tunnel, he noticed several boxes sitting in cubbies carved into the wall.
"Hmm…" He moved over to them, pulling out his knife and breaking the box open. He just stared at what was inside, before slowly shaking his head.
'I should have known…These people are insane, leaving money and ammo lying around like this. Well, whatever, it helps me out.' He picked up a small box of handgun bullets and 50 Pesetas before entering the next part of the tunnel, and almost had a heart attack.
"Gah! ...Gah?" He stood in the doorway and pointed at the girl…The very one he just saw in the room with the trap door. Who shouldn't be here because she should have been there!
The girl just giggled, and swept open her coat again. "Ello Stranga, whatcha buyin'?"
"What the fuck, how did you get down here? I just saw you up there!" Aden had seen so much odd things in the little time he'd been in the village, but this had taken the cake and eaten it too.
"Haha, that's a trade secret, Stranga."
"Hng…" Aden just closed his eyes, and accepted that the merchant girl was some sort of magician. "What could I get for this?" He pulled out the money he'd collected, around 1550 Pesetas.
She shook her head though. "Not enough cash, Stranga.
Aden just stood there, staring at the girl, before shaking his head and leaving the absurdity behind. He climbed a ladder, and came out right next to the church graveyard. Two women with pitchforks appeared as Aden started to walk towards the church, and he smiled as he shot them both in the head.
"Sorry ladies, but I have a job to do."
Picking up another grenade from one of the women, he continued his walk up to the church. Reaching the door, he noticed that there was an indentation where a circular emblem went.
"Ah, locked and not a single pickable lock in sight. I suppose I need to find the key."
He continued to walk around the church, trying to find a window to grapple too or a door to kick in, but instead found the emblem locked in a tiny courtyard.
"Ah, a puzzle. Let's see if I can get this…"
He fiddled with the buttons on the front of the pedestal, and after a few moments heard a click.
Aden picked up the disc, recognizing it as the key to the church, when two villagers entered the courtyard. Startled by their sudden and quiet appearance, he dropped the disc and barely had time to ready his gun.
As the two people, a man with a hatchet and a woman with a pitchfork, started walking towards Aden, a small but sturdy looking gate sprung up from the ground, effectively blocking any chance, not that he had one to begin with, of escaping the small, walled, outdoor garden. With his back pressed to the pedestal, Aden had no room to back up, and with the pair closing in, opened fire on them. The woman fell first, screeching at first, but eventually her screaming turned into background noise, before falling quiet. The man, however, proved to be more difficult to kill, with him chucking the hatchet at Aden every time he had a chance. He fell too, and Aden stood in the courtyard, slightly winded and very annoyed.
Wiping off a splatter of blood that had managed to hit his face, Aden picked up the disc he had dropped when the unwanted villagers had paid him a visit. He moved to the gate, and gave it a shake, but it would not budge.
"Hm, so it probably has something to do with this disc. I wonder if I put something in its place if it will open."
He tried several items trying to get the gate open, a rock, some bullets, and his shoe, but to no avail. Putting the disc back did open the gate, but that was no good. He finally gave up trying to weigh it down with what was in his pack, and placed the disc back, but not before noticing a smaller indentation.
"I must have to put something specific in there to take the disc." He put it back, and went hunting for something that would fit. A quick survey of the graveyard and church yard revealed nothing, and Aden was left with nowhere to check but the path leading to the lake.
At the end of the dirt path was a rickety, unsafe looking bridge, spanning the side of a cliff. Peering ahead, Aden could see gaps in the bridge, where planks had obviously fallen or rotted away. He could also see several pairs of feet, and began to weight his options.
'I could attack them head on, but then the chances of me falling are greater than if I just tried to get them to fall off…' Ducking down, he began to move slowly towards the walkway. When he got close enough to see one pair of feet, Aden steadied his gun and fired. As he'd predicted, the owner of the feet plunged down into the water, and as he sprang up, another person, a woman in a soiled blue work dress, began to advance. As she slowed to attempt crossing the large gap in the walkway, Aden took careful aim and his shot sent her over the edge.
Now that his way was clear (for now, at least) Aden stepped out onto the bridge. Jumping over the large gap in the boards, he spotted a small shack, and peered in. Spying no immediate enemies, he walked fully into the one roomed hut. Spotting more boxes, he immediately pulled out his knife and smashed the one sitting on the dilapidated table, and immediately recoiled as the curled up snake that was hiding inside leapt at his face.
"Ahrg! Fuck! What the hell?!" Aden stumbled out of the hut, distractedly walked several feet down the walkway, almost fell through another hole in the bridge, and when the sounds of a chainsaw reached his ears he blanched.
"Oh no…" He looked up, and started to back away. A woman, with dirty bandages wrapped around her face, wearing an equally dirty outfit, was advancing, holding an old, running chainsaw, flanked by two other women, both wielding knives.
"Uhh…Ladies! Looking lovely today, who does your make-up?" He tried to catch their attention, tried to distract them, but they were having none of his foolery. They instead sped up, the woman with the chainsaw moving twice as fast as the pair with the knives.
Aden began stepping back, trying to lure them closer to the gap, hoping to shoot them down. The woman with the chainsaw paused at the gap, looking at it, as if trying to figure out if she could make the jump. The knife twins, as Aden began to call them, however, didn't stop to look, and as they attempted to leap over the hole, he shot them down, sending them into the water below.
"So…Only you and me, huh? That's ok, I don't mind it. Your friends were sorta third and fourth wheels anyway." Aden nervously chattered, trying to distract the chainsaw wielding woman, as much as he was trying to calm himself. As he backed up some more, the woman finally decided that there was enough room for her to cross, and she took a running start, jumping over the gap with ease, and Aden gulped.
"Hehe…Ohshitohshitohshit!" He bolted, trying to put more distance between her and him, and leapt over the first flaw in the walkway. Rolling, he turned and opened fire, his handgun jolting every time he fired. But still she was getting closer. She flinched with every shot, but anything less than a shot to her head didn't seem like it did much damage. He kept running backwards, keeping an eye on her as he re-loaded his gun.
"Shit…What's it going to take to take you down!?" She charged at him, jumping the gap and causing Aden to squeak like a girl as she rushed him. Just as she was about to reach the minimum distance for head chopping, he pulled up his gun and shot. It was a shot of faith, one he didn't expect to work, but it did. The body of the deranged woman thudded on the ground, and after some time, Aden crept over and shut the chainsaw off before throwing it down into the lake. Still shaking from his close encounter, Aden looked back to where the dead woman was laying.
"She must have been guarding something…It has to be important…" He began to creep along the boardwalk, cautiously watching for anymore surprises that might jump out at him. Reaching the end, he breathed a small sigh of relief, glad to be off the rickety structure. Noticing something glittering on the ground, he crouched so he could get a better look at it. Not satisfied, he picked it up, and, straightening, held it up to the sky so he could see it better.
"Looks like a Cats eye? Now what is this doing here?" Pursing his lips, he pocketed it, along with the small amount of money he'd pilfered from the chainsaw lady's body. Trying the door, he was annoyed to find it locked.
"Then what was she guarding, if not the door? Did I miss something?" He frowned, before reaching into his pocket.
"No…It can't be." He pulled the Cats eye out of his pocket, and gave it a second look. "Is this what she was trying to kill me to protect? Why?" Then, a thought hit him. The small indent in the church's courtyard.
"…But will it work?" He muttered to himself as he turned and began to walk back to the small area. Reaching the end of the path, Aden climbed the slope to where the church was, only to be attacked by several villagers, who seemed to appear out of no where.
"Oh, for Gods sake! I…Am…Not…Up…To…THIS!" He slammed his fist into the one villagers face, and swept another off his feet with a kick. Two taken care of, he shot the last two, and began to go through their pockets. Finished with that, he turned down the path to the pedestal with the disc.
"I swear…If this doesn't work…" Aden growled under his breath as he removed the disc, and placed the Cats eye inside the indentation. For a moment, the gate stayed up, but slowly, sunk back into the ground.
"Thank God. Now to get in there…If I ring the bell, that will calm and distract the villagers, leaving Leona safe…"
Tromping back to the church door, Aden fit the disc into the hole in the door with little difficulty. Pushing open the door, he found it to be deserted.
"Hmmm…I guess they all rushed out of here to get to me…But you'd think there would be at least one person left inside…" Walking towards the alter, he spied a man walking on the second floor. "Guess I wasn't wrong. Better be quiet so he doesn't notice me…"
Reaching the front, he surveyed the area. "Nothing of too much importance here…I'd better check the cabinets…" Opening them, he groaned to himself. "Of course. If the villagers are going to carry around loads of outdated currency, and are going to save their grenades for me, then why wouldn't they store all their hand gun ammunition in their church?" Shaking his head, he pocketed the ammo, and turned to find the ladder to reach the second floor. What he found though, was a man with a hatchet.
"…" Aden un-holstered his gun and calmly shot the man. "So much for my element of surprise…" Deciding to not go through the man's pockets in case more enemies appeared, Aden instead climbed the ladder and started looking for the mechanism that operated the church bells. Realizing that the man he'd shot had been the same one he'd saw upstairs, he calmed down and began to explore freely. Walking past the only door, he could hear tense, quiet breathing, and realized that the president's son must be in the room.
'Oh well, it's not MY job to rescue him…I'll leave that to Leona.' Creeping past, so the young man inside wouldn't hear him and call out, Aden reached the other side of the room. Eyes falling on a control panel, he smiled.
"Now this must control the bells. Now, how does this work?" Pushing the main button, the largest one on the panel, caused three coloured lights to shine, and Aden groaned. The puzzle outside wasn't particularly hard, but this one looked complicated. He hadn't had to do one like this since that time in Raccoon…
Eventually, he wrestled the lights into their proper location, and activated the bells. Listening to them ring, he slumped down against the wall, tired again.
"Finally…I wonder if there's a place around here I can take a rest?" He mused as he listened to the bells and villagers combined.
A/N: Please don't hesitate to let me know if you notice any spelling or grammar problems, or other issues : )