The rooms were nice and quiet. Hunk rubbed his back in the bathroom. The fight with Nikolai and his lackey have him aching all over. Taking the time to dance was a dumb idea. Watching all those training videos and reading books kind of paid off. Hunk liked how he could dance from all the practice.
"Hey, Mister Human Unit Never Killed." Έchec knocked on the door. "The ladies wanted to know if you wanted anything, they're going to the convenience store for a couple of snacks."
"No, I don't want anything." Hunk looked in the mirror, a broken image of his former self.
"Alrighty." The steps walked away from the door. Hunk looked down. I'm not the man I used to be, I'm sorry. Hunk put his shirt back on. He left the bathroom and then lay down as Έchec stared at him.
"What do you want Not Wesker?" Hunk made it clear it was an insult.
"You're my current superior, just awaiting orders." Έchec grinned, purely innocent.
"I have the order of going to sleep, you got that?" Hunk turned his back to Έchec and closed his eyes. This time, the dream will be on his terms. The cars outside streaked, the lights flickered, and Hunk drifted off into sleep.
Hunk blinked as the Tyrant version of William Birkin roaring in the crumbling lab. The metal blasting apart, fragile equipment have shattered. Hunk looked on ahead, the gasmask now deformed, the front side was fine as one eyepiece was cracked. Hunk looked around as Birkin stumbled about. Hunk kept running, and then Hunk slid down beneath the beast to slice the tendons of Birkin. Birkin fell to one knee, almost crushing Hunk. The body can regenerate at the cost of kicking the metabolism into overdrive. The body's expansion grows as all of the energy insides mutates the body. It adds up to a deadly but harsh to control weapon. Birkin was brought in to work with the data given and he thought was perfect.
Hunk was now of behind the wound Birkin, he ejected a spare knife from his uniform he jumped onto Birkin's back with his right arm, Hunk plunged the blade into the eye. Birkin roared in pain, but with the knife, Hunk lifted himself on top of Birkin and kept his balance. Pulling on his weapons strap, Hunk's left arm unloaded a full clip of his TMP. When the hole was big enough, Hunk tugged an incendiary grenade off his vest and dropped it into the hole as the gap was healed over. Hunk lowered his legs and leaned forward as he was two thirds to the ground Hunk extended his legs entirely sending him forward into a roll. Behind him, Birkin erupted into blistering fire.
Hunk wanted to sigh as, like all bio-weapons, each has their own party trick. Birkin's third eye swallowed the knife. The cut was sealed, and Birkin spat the knife out. Great, all that did was piss him off. Hunk braced for more by unhooking a flash grenade. Time for round two.
"Hey Hunk, time to wake up." A speaker interrupted. Hunk opened his waist pack and reloaded his TMP.
"Hey, HUNK!" The two were torn the world to utter blackness.
Ah screw it, I'm waking up.
Hunk opened his eyes to a wall and looked up as he sensed the presence of the others. "What is it?" Hunk got up from the bed.
"Jessica wants to debrief us on our next job." Ashley pointed her thumb backward to their room. Hunk rubbed his eyes from the crust of sleep.
"I'm well aware why we're here." Hunk spoke calmly, he looked at the digital clock, and it was only an hour later when they left.
"I figured that out as well, but let's just humor her alright." Ashley doesn't like to be reminded of facts she already knows about, never the less no one does. The two left the room then walked to the girls' room. Έchec was sitting patiently on the bed and eager to listen.
"So what's on the agenda Jess?" Ashley walked to her bed. Hunk remained standing.
"I'm sorry about this Ash, but we're going to investigate the base of Los Illuminados." Jessica blinked as she said that.
"I don't hate the place." Ashley's lip winced before she spoke. That could be an issue.
"Glad to hear it." Jessica turned to Hunk. "Do you remember much about the place?"
"I do for the village and later on into the night I was on standby outside the castle." I kept my distance. While the ex-cop played hero, I went on ahead to lay out ammo and killed some of the opposition. How else did he get the thermal scope for the regenerating zombies?
"Hey wait for a second, if you knew I was in the village why didn't you rescue me?" Ashley frowned.
"I was ordered to watch, not interact." Honestly, I didn't want to deal with your company.
"Hmm." Ashley squinted. Έchec caught on and did the same.
"Hey kids, over here," Jessica called. "The job is the same, go in and see what we can find and get out."
"Is there additional information we need knowledge of?" Έchec wanted to be part of the conversation.
"Thanks for asking. There aren't any BSAA there for us to run into. But I can't say for sure if Nikolai and his lackey aren't going to." Jessica finished the last of the sentence quickly. Hunk noted that in his mind. She's avoided talking about them.
"The pilot can't help us, he's on another job, but there is a speedboat waiting for us at the coast." Jessica made sure to drop her tone when she said the word "coast."
"Is this there a reason why you woke me up?" Hunk yawned.
"It was either Ashley or a cup of water." Jessica turned away and started to type away. Hunk nodded to Ashley and Έchec before he left the room.
He returned to his bed but dreamt of nothing. The next morning as with the ocean blue light of the morning seeped from through the window. These missions are starting to become complicated, there is something that's not adding up. There is a door between the two rooms and Ashley was peeking through.
"Is there something you need?" Hunk looked from the window.
"No, do you hate working with us?" Ashley rubbed her forehead with her messy hair. Ashley wasn't the same person from 2004.
"You're part of the job, what I think doesn't matter." Hunk said calmly.
"Aw come on, give me something to work with."
"The mission is what matters." Hunk blinked.
"How many times are you going to repeat that?"
"As many times as needed." Hunk gave a light smile.
"Did you tell that to Sheva Alomar?" Ashley spoke clearly.
Hunk didn't move. "Is that her name?"
"Oh, you're good. I got a good look at that woman in the monitors from the previous mission. She's a rising star of the African Branch of the BSAA. She was reported to be there with a squad at the Wesker's ruined lab. Isn't that a consequence?" Ashley oversaw Hunk's behavior.
"What's your point?"
"I don't have one, just giving you food for thought." Ashley relaxed her shoulders. "You saved her life, and that is why it took you so long to regroup with us."
"That's your theory, and it is time for you to stop trying to understand me." Hunk tensed his back.
"Fine." Ashley walked into the room and looked at Έchec. He was still sleeping. "I wanted to be a machine; there were times that I pretended to think the world was a void of nothingness. You may understand that, but here with us, you can be more than what you think. I think you're capable of what you bury under that veil. I may be trying to understand you but what I really want is for you to think of being more than a machine."
"Is this the part when you leave for the last word?" Hunk crossed his arms.
"It usually is, but Έchec here has dreams of the experiments, I'm just checking up on him. He isn't scared by a dream, and he is the same as he always was after we found him. He knows little about the world, but he has a better understanding of me better than my family. Give me a moment, and I'll leave. I'm sorry for prodding information from you."
Hunk looked back outside of to the street, everything is still. Sure the night there is other forms of life out and about but in the mornings almost everything calms down. Hunk grew to like the mornings, the time of true neutrality.
After an hour the rest of the team woke up for the mission, they weren't in a hurry, but each of them prepared themselves for the task ahead. After an hour the group left the room, hotel, and drove for another two hours as they approached their docked speedboat. It was narrow and spacious one for passengers. Jessica sat down as Ashley and Έchec did as well. The trio stared at Hunk.
"So I have to drive again?" Hunk rolled his eyes.
"Yep, we're avoiding the road to the village and cutting straight to the castle and base." Jessica placed a heavy duffle bag on the floor, each of them carried one. The bags held their gear, ammo, and weapons. Hunk started the boat, and the team began to get ready. The mission was uncertain as all of the usually are.
What will the next mission bring? Hunk started the boat.
BSAA Headquarters, North American Branch
"Stop right there evildoer! For I, the Falcon am here to stop you." A TV flickered with the shaky cam of a fight. Quint watched the movie like a kid on Saturday mornings. Kicking the habit of chips, he munched on sliced carrots he brought from home. The lounge was vacant as the day was coming to a close. Quint usually stayed at the office and didn't leave until the janitors do.
"You get him, Falcon." Quint giggled, and unknown to him an entity was approaching. Then with two claws, the entity placed them on his shoulders. Freaking out Quint dropped his bag and squirmed in his chair and fell backward. He looked up to see Rachael with a satisfied grin.
"Hey super nerd, I need your help."
"Aw come on, it was getting good." Quint rolled to his stomach then did a push-up.
"You saw that movie how many times now?"
"Like thirty, it's a classic." Quint plucked a carrot to crunch. His new boss wasn't correctly a work you to death boss but one who bugged you for seemingly no reason.
"There are reports of growing unrest in China; I need your help to figure out the paperwork." Racheal walked on ahead.
"Be there…" Quint pressed the 'info' label on the DVD remote, and it displayed the time left in the film. "…in twenty-two minutes."
"Now Quint."
"Fine." Quint flicked the TV off. The missing report was filed for Chris Redfield as Piers Nivans volunteered to lead the investigation. From the paperwork, he was a good man.