Special Thanks to my Beta Reader: Special Agent FUNK
And a humble thank you my readers who stuck it through the long hiatus and my stupidity. :)
Wesker's New Life
Episode Five: Wesker's New Virus!
The police cruiser slowed to a stop, white smoke poured from the engine which made a sputtering noise before finally dying.
Wesker and D arrived at the Mojave Desert quickly, entered it quickly, and watched the car quickly die shortly thereafter. They were no where near the Umbrella facility.
"Damn it!" Wesker smashed his fists on the steering wheel.
D's eyes widened as he looked around and saw only desert in all directions. "Wesker, are we going to die ): ?"
Wesker waved D out of the car. The giant man opened the car door and stepped out. The dead vehicle whined with the shifting weight, before returning to normal once D was outside.
"Of course not!" Wesker called over to D, who was already walking toward the heart of the desert. The evil mastermind reached for the dashboard and retrieved the aviators he stole from Officer Johnson.
He placed them on his face and adjusted the rear-view mirror, checking his reflection with a wink.
"Nothing can kill me."
The car then exploded in a giant ball of fire.
Wesker woke up to a strange buzzing in his ears. He tried to open his eyes slightly, but the light was too bright. The evil mastermind groaned and placed a hand over his eyes before slowly rising to a sitting position.
"Where am I?"
He rubbed his eyes as they slowly adjusted to the light. He could not believe where he was.
Las Vegas. The strip to be exact. The neon signs of the casinos were bright, even in the daylight. He had been sitting beneath the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign.
Wesker looked down at himself and snorted in disbelief. "What is this? Spandex?"
Wesker was wearing a super hero costume. It was black with gold trim, a large gold W emblazoned on his chest. He even had a cape that fluttered beneath him in the wind.
Suddenly there was a scream and Wesker leapt to his feet. He placed his hands on his hips instinctively. "Who requires help from Captain W?"
The ground shook. Suddenly Wesker realized it wasn't the neon that was making the strip so bright. Everything was on fire. People were running in every direction, screaming. Wesker's eyes widened. The ground shook again. Footsteps. Giant footsteps.
A large shadow loomed over Wesker and the strip. A massive, dark shadow so immense it made everything dark. Something was making that shadow.
Wesker looked up and his jaw fell open.
"D IS HUNGRY." It was D, and he was easily 100 stories tall. D looked down at Wesker and opened his mouth wide. "YOU LOOK TASTY."
Wesker screamed as D reached down and pinched at Wesker's cape. The giant held the cape between his index and thumb, and lifted Wesker higher and higher until he was well above D's head and gaping mouth.
"D, don't do this! I thought we were frrriiieeenndddsssss…!" Wesker shouted over the roar of the wind this high up.
D looked up at him.
"I ATE A MAN."
D let go of Wesker's cape and Wesker plummeted. The evil mastermind fell straight into D's massive mouth.
"NNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Wesker sat up, screaming at the top of his lungs. "DON'T EAT ME!"
D, who had fallen asleep with a copy of children's Highlights over his face fell out of his chair and jumped to his feet. "Who's eating Wesker?"
"Stay away from me!" Wesker kicked the white sheets off of the bed he was laying in and rolled to his feet, initiating a kung fu pose.
"): Wesker you don't like D anymore?"
Wesker breathed when he saw D was his regular giant size, and not his 100 story giant size. He relaxed and ran a hand over his face. He looked around and realized he had no idea where they were.
"D, where the hell are we?" He looked down. "And where are my clothes?"
"Well, well uh." D started fumbling for words. "The car you were in 'sploded. D thought you were dead! D picked you up out of the fire and started running. D ran real fast. Saw a fence. Yelled for help."
Wesker looked around the room as D continued to babble. It looked like some sort of operating room. Doctor's tools sat on the counter, the bed Wesker had been laying in appeared to be a hospital bed. Wesker looked over at the large mirror against the wall. Two way mirror?
Wesker looked closer, approached the mirror and then jumped back. A bald man was starring at him! A bald, eyebrow-less, shirtless man. Who was this creep?
"Who are you?" Wesker yelled at the man in the mirror. "Why are you spying on me?"
"Wesker who are you talking to?" D looked over at Wesker.
Wesker pointed at the bald man. "This ugly cretin looking at me through this two way mirror!" He continued to berate the bald guy. "Hey stop pointing at me you jerk! I- wait a minute."
Wesker's eyes widened and he screamed again.
The bald, eyebrow-less, ugly cretin… was Wesker. His reflection, in fact.
"No." Wesker said, sorrow filling his voice as he approached the mirror. He ran his hands over his smooth, shiny dome. "No."
Wesker pulled back and shouted at the top of his lungs, deeply. "NOOOOoooooooooo!"
"What is all this commotion?" The door to the room they were in was thrown open and a doctor in his late fifties barged in, his brows furrowed. "What's with all the shouts?"
Wesker whipped around and pointed a finger at the doctor accusingly. "You. I'll kill you!"
He advanced on the doctor and wrapped his hands around the old man's collar, Wesker then began to shake him violently.
"Why!" Shake. "Am I!" Shake. "SO BALD!"
"Wesker stop!" D put aside his copy of Highlights and put his hands on Wesker's shoulders. "He helped you! Doctor saved your life!"
Wesker looked at D and stopped shaking the doctor, but he kept his hands on his collar. His face twitched.
"H-h-he's right." The doctor stammered. "You were in an explosion. Your friend brought you here. The fire burned off most of your hair and eyebrows. I patched you up and my nurse shaved your head so your hair could grow back even. Please let go of me!"
Wesker growled, but let the doctor go.
"Where are we?"
"The medical wing of the secret facility." The doctor rubbed at his neck. "There's a lab outfit over there for you, your outfit was badly burned. I'm sorry."
"Hm," Wesker looked over at the pile of clothes and nodded. "Very well, you may leave."
The doctor turned and bolted out of the room.
"The facility huh." Wesker moved over towards the clothes and started to change. "I didn't know it was in such good shape."
He put on a pair of slacks, a cheap pair of loafers, a gray shirt and a white lab coat. He checked the coat for any insignia but found none. He put his hands in the coat's pocket and, to his joy, found Johnson's aviators inside and miraculously intact. He put the sunglasses on and Wesker looked at his reflection. He sighed mournfully at his bald head.
"I am going to need a wig." He scratched his chin. "Or a nice hat."
"D likes it." D walked towards Wesker and stood next to him and patted his own bald head. "We're brothers! :D"
Wesker said nothing, but quietly closed his eyes for a long while and focused on his breathing.
"Are you all right Wesker?"
He opened his eyes after ten seconds. "I'm fine. Come, lets go explore this facility. We need to find my medicine and get out of here. I doubt they patched me up gratis. I have no interest in helping a broken shell of a company."
However, from the looks of the facility itself the company looked far from broken. In fact it had looked like it was thriving. Which was ridiculous considering it was Umbrella.
The halls were clean, the computers all seemed to be working. There wasn't any deranged dog handlers or BOW feeders. In fact there didn't seem to be any BOWs anywhere. And where was the blood? In Wesker's experience there was usually at least one or two rooms with cracked windows streaked with blood. But not here, everything was clean, sterile and safe, which Wesker was fairly certain wasn't in Umbrella's mission statement.
What's more, Wesker and D had been walking around for about ten minutes, and they didn't run across any Tiger Eye jewels, oddly shaped crests or eerie paintings with riddles underneath. This led Wesker to a quick conclusion:This wasn't Umbrella anymore. Another company had taken over the secret Mojave base. But who?
They turned a corner and saw a woman standing behind a desk that had various brochures laid out. She nodded at them and waved them over.
Wesker looked at D, shrugged, and approached the woman.
"Hello and welcome to our secret base!" The woman smiled so broadly that her eyes almost shut completely.
"Uh, hi." Wesker adjusted the aviators on his face. "What, er, exactly is this place?"
The woman kept smiling, and spoke through pearly white teeth. "Well isn't it obvious, sir? This used to be an Umbrella Base, but we re-purposed it for our needs. The landlord was eager to sell the base, apparently not many people have interests in secret desert bases these days."
"Yes, but who are you?"
"Sir?" Her smiled only faltered somewhat. "You haven't heard of us?"
"I've been... busy."
"We're Phenotrans, sir. We specialize in Zombrex, the zombification prevention drug?"
"Oh," Wesker shrugged his shoulders and collected a brochure on the counter and flipped through it casually. "Well, that doesn't sound ominous at all."
The lady wasn't fooling anyone. Wesker's resume was almost exclusively filled with insane pharmaceutical companies. He simply knew how they operated. Even if they were clean and had impressive looking brochures.
Wesker imagined for a moment the piles of cash that would have been made had Umbrella considered making a zombie prevention drug before the Arklay tests. Unfortunately Umbrella liked spending most of its budget on elaborate falling ceilings and boulder traps. Not exactly a winning business strategy.
"Of course." The woman made the OK symbol and winked. "We aren't like Umbrella. We would never accidentally unleash a zombie outbreak. That being said, we have plans for Las Vegas. Big plans for Las Vegas. Hahaha!"
Wesker furrowed his brow-less brows. "Why are you laughing?"
"No reason. We just hope you're pleased with the facilities, Mr. Wesker."
Wesker froze, how did she know his name? "Excuse me?"
"Your face and name was all over the old computers here." She adopted a less creepy, more subdued smile. "You have a very impressive background Mr. Wesker. We are fortunate to have you among us."
"Oh I'm not working…"
She cut him off. "We have no problem hiring a former rival." She winked. "And don't worry, we wont tell the police you're here, either."
Wesker placed a hand over his forehead. "Can I see your boss?"
"Sure, this way!" Her smile broadened and she beckoned them to follow.
"And as you can see," A burly man in a suit pressed a button on his computer, and the power point presentation moved to the next page. The image was an over head shot of Las Vegas followed by the equals sign, and the words BIG PLANS in bold font. "We have BIG PLANS in store for Las Vegas. Hahaha!"
The other board members sitting around the large oak desk in the Phenotrans meeting room all began laughing in unison.
There was a knock at the door and the laughing quieted down. The burly man looked over at the door, nodded and waved his hand.
The door opened somewhat and the smiling woman poked her head in. "Mr. Albert Wesker is here, Mr. Hurley."
Mr. Hurley nodded again. "Thank you Carol, you can resume your post."
Wesker stepped into the room somewhat awkwardly. He wasn't expecting to meet with the entire Phenotrans board of directors.
The apparent boss, Mr. Hurley waved him in. "Ah Wesker come in, come in. We are fortunate you showed up on our doorstop!"
He laughed, and the other board members laughed too. Until Hurley hushed them.
D began to slowly inch his way in behind Wesker.
"Ah!" Mr. Hurley shook his head and held up a hand. "Not you. Just Wesker."
D cleared his throat. "Excuse me. I am Wesker's attorney."
An odd look came over Wesker's face as he slowly turned to face D. "What?" He whispered.
D held a finger up to his mouth and winked.
"Very well." Mr. Hurley conceded and motioned for someone to bring him two chairs.
An aide stood up and quickly got chairs for Wesker and D.
"Welcome, welcome!" Hurley shook Wesker and D's hands and motioned to the chairs.
Wesker sat. D went around the table shaking every board member's hand individually.
"Mr. D, attorney at law." He said, every single time he shook someone's hand. Every single time.
Finally, D circled around the room and offered his hand to Wesker. "Mr. D, attorney at-"
Wesker slapped D's hand away. "Sit down already!"
"D:" D rubbed his hand and sat down next to Wesker.
"Very well." Hurley said, somewhat impatiently. "Are you here to negotiate your contract."
"My client requests D handle all paperwork on his behalf."
Wesker hushed D and cleared his throat. "What contract are you talking about?"
"Well you've come to work for us, have you not?"
"Not really no."
Mr. Hurley furrowed his brow. "Then can you explain why you came all this way into the desert, sought out our secret base personally, and then came to see me?"
Wesker looked up at the Las Vegas = BIG PLANS projection. "Do you have any of the old hold-over samples from Umbrella?"
Hurley crossed his hands over his large chest. "There were a number of samples of various viruses and the like left over from Umbrella, which, yes, is currently in our possession. Very dangerous, very unsafe containment methods too. You needed some kind of eagle crest to begin filtering the t-virus into the facility on purpose then you needed some kind of fish crest to stop the process, but the fish crest was at the bottom of a shark tank. A shark tank. I know you used to work for Umbrella, but what the hell man?"
Wesker simply shrugged his shoulders.
"Anyway, what is your interest in those samples?"
"Professional curiosity. I was wondering if you were holding on to them. Unless Zombrex is engineered to prevent the T-Virus outbreaks as well, I assumed you would want to develop a T-Zombrex or something."
Hurley grinned. "Indeed. We don't know what kind of terrorist organizations have their hands on the T-Virus these days. It would be very unfortunate if an outbreak were to occur and Phenotrans was useless to stop it."
"That's why we're so fortunate you showed up when you did. You must be some kind of expert on that virus."
"You could say that."
"Very good." Hurley smiled broadly, like that woman. Very creepy. "So then will you come work for Phenotrans? I know the police are after you. Don't worry, we have you covered."
D leaned forward. "You're going to keep Wesker and D away from the police? That doesn't seem, strictly speaking, legal." D looked over at the board member directly to his right and smiled. "Mr. D, attorney at law."
"Indeed it's not." Mr. Hurley scratched his chin. "But what the police don't know wont hurt them. Besides, your work Wesker will be a great help to humanity. I think that alone will erase whatever the police are after you for."
Wesker pondered this for a long time, he looked over at Hurley. "So I'll have full access to Umbrella's old samples?"
Hurley nodded. "And Phenotrans'. Whatever you need to develop that T-Zombrex."
Wesker cocked his brow. "Money?"
"Lots of money." Hurley looked over at D. "For both of you."
D stood up immediately, leaned over and shook Hurley's hand. "We're in."
"Wait hold on-" Wesker tried to protest but was cut off.
"It's settled!" Hurley stood and motioned them towards the door. "The lab is down the hall. We have your own office set up for you already. You can begin working on those Umbrella samples immediately. Now if you excuse us we have big plans to discuss. BIG PLANS."
"BIG PLANS." All the board members said in unison.
"BIG PLANS! :D!" D echoed, raising his hands above his head.
Hurley basically pushed Wesker and D out the room and closed the door behind them.
"They have big plans, Wesker." D said thoughtfully when they were in the hallway.
"I can see that." Wesker seemed distracted. "That doesn't concern me any, though. I've got work to do."
"Are you going to get your medicine now?" D asked, as he hurriedly followed Wesker down the hall.
"Of course." Wesker grinned. "But now that we have access to Phenotran's new facilities I can start improving on the "medicine." I can improve it so that I wont need to take any more medicine, ever."
":O! Wesker's gonna cure himself?"
In a moment they arrived at the lab. It took only a few minutes to locate Wesker's office. Inside were the Umbrella samples. Most importantly, however, was the sample of Wesker's virus.
Wesker grinned broadly. "Wesker's gonna cure himself."
Next time on Wesker's New Life:
Wesker Cures His Itch!
"We thought you could use an assistant, Mr. Wesker." Carol smiled, holding the door open to Wesker's office.
"I'm quite busy Carol," Wesker peered into the microscope, then pointed off into the corner of the room. "Besides, D is assisting me."
Carol looked over to where Wesker was pointing. D was standing like a statue, his arms at his sides and his eyes impossibly wide.
"Uhm what are you-?"
"Shh!" D said loudly, and continued to stare with wide, blank eyes.
"He's observing the amount of oxygen in the room." Wesker said flatly. "If he blinks he might lose track."
Carol looked over at D again. His face twitched.
"Very important work, you mustn't bother him." Wesker smirked in spite of himself, and went back to peering into the microscope.
TO BE CONTINUED
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