~Investigation~

3 months later...

Mason sat in the back of a helicopter with Claire Redfield, wearing his usual black leather jacket and red shirt with jeans. He should really have been wearing a uniform because right now he was actually doing a job directly for TerraSave. Claire had contacted after school and had told him that she had received information regarding a new virus production.

A rival company to Umbrella had recently abandoned a facility, leaving behind enough evidence to shut the company down. The task should be simple enough: enter the facility and take as much evidence as possible. This company was going down.

The pilot landed the helicopter just outside the building, allowing the pair to hop out and make their way inside. Once the sound of the helicopter's engine was no longer audible they finally began to speak to each other.

"Why was the facility abandoned?" Mason asked, heaving open the large door. "Something terrible could've happened here, y'know."

"Nobody was killed or infected with anything, from what I was told," Claire replied. "I heard that the people behind the production of this new virus were afraid of being discovered after one of the employees leaked some information out to the public."

"And they didn't take the virus with them?" Mason questioned, not sounding comfortable.

"They most likely took a few samples with them," Claire clarified. "Once we take what we need from this facility we'll go after those criminals and stop them from mass-producing the virus."

"Hopefully," Mason muttered as he switched on his flashlight. The building was dark and quiet. Too quiet, really.

In the first few rooms the pair entered nothing seemed out of the ordinary. No containers were smashed and no furniture was left lying on the ground. It really was just an abandoned facility.

But as the duo moved further inside they were both immediately hit with a sense of fear.

Glass was everywhere. Claw marks were everywhere. Loose documents and files were everywhere. Broken furniture was everywhere.

"Looks like we might have company," Claire announced, taking out her handgun, much to Mason's surprise. While still in a state of confusion he was passed his own handgun.

"Here," Claire continued. "Just in case something runs at you instead of me."

"You brought guns?" Mason asked, finally shaking off his feeling of surprise.

"Of course I did," Claire told him. "It's always best to bring a gun even if you don't expect to run into a foe."

"Huh," was all Mason had to say in response as he admired the gun in his hand. Claire continued to cautiously investigate the area, trying to salvage any documents which hadn't been torn up.

"Nothing useful," she sighed, looking back at the younger individual. "Find anything interesting?"

Mason hadn't actually been looking so immediately started to look around. "Nope, not at all," he replied, pretending that he had been searching while she was looking through some of the documents. "There must be something though, right?"

"There'll be some virus samples and reports somewhere in this building," Claire stated. "Let's split up. This place isn't extactly infested with B. and zombies, so we should be okay."

"And what if I run into something?" Mason questioned.

"I'm sure I'll either hear you shooting or screaming," Claire answered almost coldly but with a small laughter. Mason looked nervous but simply scratched the back of his head.

"Right," he said awkwardly. "We'll meet up by the entrance when we're done, yeah?"

"Sure," Claire nodded.

"Alright then," Mason responded. "I'll check the rooms we passed by earlier. You can look through this mess."

"Yeah, it's probably better for me to search in these areas," Claire agreed. "I've done things like this before. It's your first official mission for TerraSave so you should be taking it easy."

"Heh," Mason smiled. "Well, I'll meet you at the entrance to this facility as soon as I can, Claire. Good luck!"

With that, Mason turned on his heel and sprinted away. Claire watched him leave before returning to her search; surely there was something here.

...

Investigating the undamaged areas was easy. All Mason had to do was open drawers, cabinets and boxes in search of either useful documents, tapes or samples of the virus which was supposedly being worked on, according to certain reports.

There was barely anything useful. With there being pretty much no power to the building he had to solely depend on his flashlight, which in all honesty was somewhat terrifying considering the fact that some beast was possibly loose in this building.

For a while there was nothing, even when Mason checked other rooms. Perhaps the people who abandoned this place were smarter than Claire had originally thought; they may have taken everything important on purpose.

Eventually Mason wandered into a computer room with black screens. Obviously they weren't working due to the lack of power, but for some reason...

One was on.

The screen was just static. White noise. Mason's non-symmetrical eyes locked onto the small screen for a moment as he slowly tilted his head. Why was it on?

Mason wasn't the best when it came to using technology so he didn't focus on the screen for too long, but the boy soon found a tape on a shelf. Conveniently it was by itself with nothing else accompanying it. Mason picked it up and examined it, seeing that it was still intact with a very clear label: "Lab Room #4: Camera 3".

Mason glanced back at the active screen, seeing a slot just beneath it - perfect for sliding in a video tape. He pushed the tape inside and stepped back, waiting for something to happen as he stared at the screen. Nothing happened at first so Mason planned to move on, but then the screen displayed a clear view of a laboratory.

"What are you doing?!" cried out a familiar voice from the video. "Don't you dare! Keep away from me!"

Mason squinted his eyes to see what was going on. Men in white coats seemed to be gathered around something. A table. Bare legs were attempting to kick these men away - somebody was on the table, and they clearly hadn't consented to whatever was going on.

The men injected something into the person on the table, but nothing happened. Mason could barely understand their jargon but was able to understand that the virus was supposed to make the specimen transform. That didn't happen.

"Never!" that same voice yelled again after the scientists talked with each other about future tests to put the boy through. "I'm never going to be used as a weapon! Not again!" The scientists ignored him.

The clip became distorted and awkwardly transitioned to a new video taken from the same angle but obviously on a different day. The next video was not as clear, but Mason was able to witness some kind of fight. One person eventually picked up an axe and hacked the other individual to death - a sight which made Mason jump despite the footage being incredibly fuzzy.

Again an awkward transition occurred before another video played. The survivor of the fight was feasting on the body of the loser.

That clip was quick to end as it transitioned to another clip. The transition was longer than the others and for a moment it looked as if the television screen had returned to just showing static, but Mason was caught off guard as the final clip played.

This time the footage was clear. The laboratory was now a mess and was covered in blood and bones. A snarling sound could be heard as numerous men seemed to surround something in a corner.

"Sedate him," commanded a man wearing shades. One man nodded and leaned into the corner, presumably to inject the thing with a sedative. The snarling sound came to a gradual halt before the humanoid being was lifted up and carried out of the room.

"Sir, are you wounds severe?" asked one scientist who hadn't helped out with removing the vicious individual.

"No," the man in shades answered. "I will heal in time. There is nothing the boy could do to fatally wound me, as much as he desires to."

"His lack of loyalty to you is a problem," the scientist pointed out. "How are we supposed to use him as a weapon if he is disobedient to us?"

"We keep ourselves out of his sight," the man in sunglasses replied simply. "When we put him to use we will simply let him loose in an area and shoot him with a tranquilizer when we are done using him."

"Very well," responded the scientist. "I'll help the others secure him so that we don't have any incidents while travelling to South America."

The screen went fuzzy and returned to displaying nothing but static. The tape was over. Mason was only confused, having no understanding of anything going on in the clips. Perhaps it was best for him to tell Claire; she'd probably have a better understanding of the footage.

...

While searching the torn rooms, Claire had been able to pick up a small number of vials containing samples of viruses. None of them were labelled so she had no idea what the viruses actually were, but as soon as she took the evidence back to TerraSave she would have them scanned.

She heard footsteps running towards her and immediately turned around, pointing her gun. The young Redfield was ready to fire, her eyes narrowed, but as she prepared to pull the trigger she saw that the source of the sound was Mason.

"Oh, it's you," she sighed, lowering her handgun after Mason jumped at the sight of it.

"Careful where you point that thing, you could've put a bullet through my head if you fired!" the boy reacted, quickly calming himself down to inform the young woman of his discovery. "Listen. I had to come and find you because I found some weird footage."

"Footage?" Claire queried. "Footage of what?"

"Some kind of experiment that went on here," Mason answered, pacing slightly. "I couldn't see the subject but he was pretty much just a regular human, but from what I could understand something bad happened to him and he... well, he changed a little."

Claire frowned a little. "Show me," was all she said in response to Mason. Mason nodded his head, understanding the girl.

"Alright, this way!" he replied, turning and sprinting back towards the room he had just come from.

Upon arriving in the room, Mason replayed the footage he witnessed. The look in her eyes made it clear that she understood what was happening, and she also recognized the man in shades.

"Wesker..." she muttered when the man was first seen.

"Who?" Mason asked, only to fall silent when Claire raised a hand to him while keeping her focus on the video. The teen decided to let her finish watching it before engaging in a conversation.

The video came to an end. Claire turned on her heel and started marching out of the room, expecting Mason to follow closely. "I need to check our records to see if there have been any recent bioterrorist attacks in South America," she stated.

"Huh?" Mason reacted in a clueless tone.

"The man in the video was Albert Wesker," Claire explained. "He's an old enemy of my brother's and he's been causing trouble for some time. I wanna find out what he's up to; he's probably going to unleash that creature somewhere and cause another virus outbreak."

"...I see," Mason nodded, somehow managing to understand the new information he had been given. "So, are we gonna go after him or something?"

"You probably shouldn't, you're still new to all this," Claire responded as she marched towards the facility's exit. "But I'm definitely going to see what Wesker is up to; it can't be anything good."

"I wanna help," Mason told her, catching her by surprise.

"I'm pretty sure you've got an education to finish," Claire joked once she had recovered from her shock at Mason's determination. Mason let out a small chuckle at her comment, shaking his head.

"I'm being serious," he admitted. "I'm not gonna live a normal life, y'know. I think working a full-time job at TerraSave is perfect for me; I wanna help people. I don't want anyone to suffer because of bioterrorism."

"Yet three months ago you didn't even know anything about TerraSave," Claire countered playfully.

Mason did laugh but he was quick to try returning to his serious tone. "Look, I know I didn't care that much back then but now that I know about what's going on I can't just act like I don't know. I really don't want anyone else to end up like Steve; he was my buddy. Nobody else should lose their buddy like I did."

Claire looked saddened by the comment as she stepped out of the facility. "I can agree with you on that," she murmured as she approached the helicopter which was waiting for them. The pair climbed back into the vehicle, silent when they took their seats aside from Claire having a brief conversation with the pilot.

Once everyone was ready they began heading back to TerraSave headquarters, but Claire realised that she had received a message on her phone (which had been kept on silent while she explored the facility). Claire played the message and listened to it closely, struggling to hear it over the noise of the helicopter's engine. Fortunately she was able to just hear it, but unfortunately the message itself was terrible.

"There's been an attack on a small village in Chile. According to the distress signal a B.O.W. is terrorizing the place and carries some kind of virus. It needs to be dealt with now before the virus spreads."

"Duke, we need to get this helicopter to Chile right now," Claire immediately commanded to the pilot.

"Huh?" Mason reacted. "What's happening?"

"An attack," Claire revealed. "An attack in South America. That's where Wesker was supposedly heading; this must be an attack led by him!"

Mason's eyes widened with worry but he nodded his head in understanding. This was an emergency. No doubt other units were being sent out to help as well so there was no need to return to TerraSave first for supplies; there was already a few emergency kits in the helicopter, anyway.

Whatever this threat was, Claire and Mason would deal with it.

~End of Chapter~