Uroboros: Resident Evil V

Chapter Twenty Three: King of the Plagas

Even though the mutated Irving's speaking voice still sounded human, the growl that came from the monster was much deeper and louder, seeming to fit the creature's newfound size as it came to sideswipe the patrol boat once again. However, this time it missed its mark, with Irving's human voice letting out a frustrated growl of its own as the monster actually started to lag behind, now starting to move its tail faster in order to catch back up.

Picking up enough speed to overtake the patrol boat completely, the three agents onboard braced for impact, but the creature only managed to graze the rear deck as it went too far toward the other side, as if Irving was having trouble controlling his new body. Of course, after undergoing such a rapid transformation with no time to get used to it, it was understandable for him to be a bit uncoordinated… but the command plaga inside him was smart, and it was only a matter of time before he figured it all out.

"You two, see if you can get control of the boat!" Chris yelled as the monster tried to circle around. "I'll try to hold it off with the deck gun!"

Once the mutated Irving figured out how to use his new body correctly, the three agents were going to be in a lot of trouble, but the monster was bigger than the patrol boat, so maybe the Captain's strategy of going places it couldn't, was their only hope. Maybe they could get the mutated Irving to run aground or at least escape from it long enough to contact Headquarters for an airstrike or something… but until then the deck cannon that almost killed Chris and Josh a little while earlier was their only hope.

Fwoosh-BOOM! Aiming the cannon and pressing the trigger, a trail of white smoke was formed as the small projectile flew toward its target, creating a small explosion when it hit one of the monster's armor plates. The good news was that it was easy to hit such a large target as it moved around the patrol boat, but the mutated Irving's armor was so strong that all it did was put a small crack in the surface. So the Agent hit the reload button, and fired again, this time hitting one of the plates on the monster's face, but did little more than slow the monster down for a second.

"What was that, a mosquito bite?" Irving's human voice asked as it corrected its course. "Here, maybe it'll help if we can both hold still a minute."

Laughing hysterically as it struggled to get behind the patrol boat, instead of coming forward to try and ram them again, the monster's tentacles shot forward, making the boat shake when they landed on the edge of the rear deck, and then wrapping themselves around the corners of the guard rail on each side. At that moment Josh and Sheva came back out, saying that the boat was locked on course electronically, and that they couldn't force it off without risking being left dead in the water.

Now the engines were bogging down as the monster's tentacles started to retract, slowly pulling them back toward the mutated Irving while Chris reloaded the deck gun. Fwoosh-BOOM! Firing right at the thing's face, there was another small explosion as a second small crack was formed in its armor plate, but the monster just kept coming. Each shot that he fired slowed it down a bit and damaged its armor a bit more, but it just wasn't enough, and now there was only a single shot left in the weapon.

"Chris, aim for its tentacle!" Sheva exclaimed, pointing at one of the fleshy tethers that were anchoring it to the ship. "Maybe we can shake it off and escape!"

"No, do not fire!" Josh ordered, grabbing his wrist when he started to aim at the tentacle. "If Irving wants to get us so badly… then let the greedy mwanaharamu come and get us."

At first the Agent thought that the Captain had gone crazy, asking him as much while trying to aim the cannon again, but Josh stopped him a second time, asking Chris to simply trust him as the mutated Irving got closer and closer to the rear deck. Now the human voice was laughing again as the alligator-like jaws began to open, preparing to rip the entire back end of the patrol boat off as the laughing remains of Irving himself were revealed and… holy shit, Irving was exposed.

Fwoosh-BOOM! Grabbing the cannon and aiming quickly, the Agent pressed the trigger, missing the target itself, but still causing the projectile to explode in the monster's mouth right behind Irving. His hope had been to kill the little bastard, but what happened next was just about as good, with the startled monster's jaws instinctively clamping shut… while Irving's remains were sticking out just a little farther than he probably wanted. Snap! The tongue-like tether holding him to his new body was severed, causing the tentacles to kind of fall away from the patrol boat while the monster stopped moving completely… and the target himself was thrown onto the rear deck with a wet sounding splat.

Without usable arms or legs, what remained of Irving was forced to just lay there on the deck while his monstrous body slowly sank down into the marshlands, and now that it was no longer being restrained, the patrol boat picked up speed as it resumed its programmed course. The self-declared King of the Plagas was now nothing but a useless lump of discolored flesh that groaned in agony as it flopped around on the deck as if that would do it any good. To top it all off, his body was exposed to direct sunlight once the boat passed through the latest group of mangroves, causing his mutated flesh to begin bubbling up.

"Fucking Excella." Irving groaned with pain in his voice. "This Plaga was supposed ta be top-a-the-line… guess I'm not worth the good stuff."

It seemed that the mission to capture this man was finally over, even though it didn't look like he was gonna last very long with the way his body was bubbling up from the sunlight like he was being boiled alive from the inside. This was supposed to be a time to catch their breath, but Chris needed to know more about the photo he had found of Jill, and whether or not she really was still alive. Instead of answering, Irving coughed while laughing a little, replying sarcastically that the BSAA was right on top of things as usual; angering the Agent enough to want to punch him, but surprisingly Irving reacted when Sheva used his name.

"Chris? Holy shit, are you fuckin' Chris Redfield?" The target groaned. "God, they was right… tough as hell but dumb as they come… Uroboros is about to change the whole fuckin' world, and you'se clueless idiots are chasin' your tails."

"What is Uroboros!?" The Agent demanded, getting angry again. "What happened to Jill Valentine?! There was a picture of her on your PDA, where is that facility located?! Answer me, you piece of shit!"

There was no point in threatening him, since Irving's body was melting away into nothing, it was just that this guy was their only lead to… anything that was going on with this whole disaster. If he died then it was back to square one with a big outbreak around Kijuju and no answers, but thankfully Irving wasn't done talking just yet. He said he owed his partners a little payback for this, and that all the mooks had to do was let this boat take them to its programmed destination, and they would find all the answers they could ever want.

"So go on, Chris." Irving laughed, coughing as he slowly became a puddle of foul smelling muck. "Go find the truth… it doesn't matter, though… cause' you're still screwed! I just wish I could see the look on your face… when you find… your… answers…

With that the last recognizable parts of his body were gone, leaving nothing left of Ricardo Irving except that big puddle, which was rapidly evaporating in the sunlight. Good ridden, the Agent thought, one less scumbag terrorist in the world, but… where was this boat taking them? Either way, all of this had to be reported to Headquarters, so he took out the satellite phone and began to update them on the situation, only to receive some startling news. With a widespread as the outbreak in Kijuju had become, all BSAA assets were ordered to withdraw from the region immediately to prevent the loss of their people's lives.

"We can't pull out now." Chris argued. "Irving's been neutralized, and we've got a solid lead on his partner. If we don't follow it, she could get away."

"Your argument is valid, but the withdraw order stands." The contact replied. "Transmit all data for analysis, and then retreat beyond the Kijuju Autonomous Zone to await further orders."

With that, the conversation was over, but the Agent couldn't just abandon the mission when they were so close… especially with how Irving made this Uroboros thing sound like some kind of doomsday weapon. Crap, he was hoping not to have to go solo on this one like Leon had been forced to do in Spain, but he couldn't ask Josh and Sheva to violate their orders. Still, it would have been nice to have a weapon of some kind, since this boat didn't even have a flare gun, and the cannon was empty even if he could have somehow carried it along.

"Naira kumi anasema American anataka kuendelea." The Captain said with a slight snicker. "Vipi huyu mchungaji ng'ombe ameweza kubaki hai bila wewe?"

"Atakufa kwa dakika ikiwa amebaki peke yake." The young woman replied. "And that's why I'm going with him; Josh these are our people whose lives Irving's partners are playing with, and if some kijana mweupe is willing to fight for them… then it would shame the memory of my parents if I ran away now."

Then it was settled… as soon as they got to their destination, Chris and Sheva would continue on, while Josh used the boat to get back to Headquarters and try to get the withdraw order cancelled. After all, situations like this one tended to escalate the closer they got to the source, and it was a good bet that the two of them were going to need backup when they caught up to the plague doctor again.