Spartan: You'll just have to wait and see. I have character plans, reasons for my story decisions. I went with what worked best for me, and served the story. Can't please everyone with every decision, but I hope you like what I go with.
Magd305TLC: That's Nikolai alright, a cunning bastard, looking for any and all ins or weaknesses to exploit in every situation. Especially towards HUNK, his rival. As for HUNK and the Countess, you'll learn more about their relationship, it's both simple and complicated, one I enjoyed writing, a power couple of sorts. Oh Colonel Vladimir's time will come. Rest assured. I like tying up loose ends in my stories. I can't confirm anything solid at the moment, but in my head I have been toying with assorted sequels, including a Code Veronica one of HUNK meeting Claire, Chris and a certain other character at Rockfort Island, an original story of him working with Rebecca to survive a uniquely deadly outbreak at Umbrella's Antarctic facility not too long before Umbrella's collapse... as well as a HUNK in Resident Evil 4 story of him trying to earn a presidential pardon for his crimes by working with Leon to save Ashley. Would love writing Ashley's father President Graham as well xD that entire story has huge comedic potential, would probably be lighter than most of my stories, given how silly the game is. Alas, I wish I could write all those stories in an instant, or simultaneously... but I try to be a one story at a time person, so I can focus. We'll see what happens. Don't want to raise anyone's hopes and disappoint them.
You are entirely correct, Resident Evil is losing its mystique as a series, sadly, Capcom continues to squander the potential right out of it. Turn it into something it isn't, unrecognizable. I wish that weren't so, but here we are. At least it leaves it for me to work in the RE universe, do my own things that haven't been done. Explore said potential.
His codename is HUNK for a reason ;). Has its advantages, and drawbacks. But really I think female attention exasperates him much more than not. Takes a special sort of lady most of the time. He isn't a Casanova type. Never was. Never will be.
As for HUNK and Nikolai... what kind of story doesn't have a final showdown between the 'hero' (antivillain) and the villain? Not a decent one. I'm not out to reinvent the wheel or 'subvert expectations' for the sake of it like a number of inept writers these day. Tropes, story cliches, exist for a reason. Because they're awesome and fun to work within. To do my way.
Jinero: Thanks for the heads up, pun intended, I went back and described it a bit more. I initially thought it'd work well with fewer details, leave it to the imagination, but in retrospect you were right, something that important needs more detail. Basically look for the image of the original Nemesis Alpha Parasite on the wiki. Now combine that with the Venom Symbiote. Somewhere between the two is how I imagine the Parasite looking.
And Jill's birthday will be touched upon. I try to make it a habit of making the most of the details in my stories.
117: I imagine if Wesker was caught by the B.S.A.A. he wouldn't be there long. He's a classic supervillain like Blofeld from the James Bond series, he'd have a number of escape plans. Most likely he would have a reason for being caught in the first place.
bakaultima: Thank you very much, I thought the 'running around like a chicken with its head chopped off' thing from the game would be too silly for the Nemesis in this story. It is supposed to be a constantly intimidating, relentless, serious force, a juggernaut in the story. I wanted it losing its head to be an opportunity to peel back another layer of its horror and menace... even as it gets steadily damaged and weakened, it is resilient and menacing, mutating. I don't like undermining the villains as threats, I prefer undermining them in other ways that reflect their shortcomings, like making fatal mistakes, having fatal flaws. Exposing the Nemesis Parasite, Jill's true enemy, her getting a glimpse at what she is really fighting was important to me. The Tyrant is the puppet it is wearing, in essence. Writing the Nemesis is a tricky balance, because he must remain intimidating, a powerful force, but at the same time it's a story, not gameplay, so I can't have him actually land a true blow on Jill without it being a one hit kill. So while it soaks up the damage she deals to it, it can't straight up hit her like a game. I have to find other ways in the situation, ways around it, while still depicting it as intimidating and wearing Jill down. I think I'm at a good spot for it, by depicting how fucked up Jill is, just like the Nemesis, from the events of Raccoon City. These two arch enemies have been worn down, and are struggling to defeat the other. Going into their final round now, especially.
Vong: In my version of that event, HUNK will laugh his ass off when he hears from Rebecca that Vladimir finally bought the farm. There are only a few people HUNK truly hates, the Colonel is one of them. As for Wesker's death... I think in my version of RE5... HUNK would play a role in his downfall, alongside Jill, Carlos, Chris and Sheva ;).
Rock992: Alas, not every chapter can be the best, but I do strive to make them part of the whole story, and important in their own right. Some chapters you just have to set up things that are to come, build up the later payoff. Glad you liked it though.
Akira-Hayama: Definitely wanted to give Nikolai more of a presence in this story than he got in either version of RE 3. It especially works with his rival HUNK in the picture in this story. He could take off by now, have escaped like he does in canon, but his contempt and rivalry for HUNK is sabotaging him as a villain. Making it personal instead of professional. You shall see how it plays out.
I wanted Carlos indeed to have a no less vital function in the story, even in his supporting character role, just a more subtle, less overt one than HUNK and Jill. They can't do everything on their own, it's a group effort, everyone bringing their skills to the table, their part to play.
The Nemesis was something I wanted to give more emphasis and oomph to through the story... but not in the over the top way the remake did it. Wanted to give it more menace, but without undoing what made it great, giving it fewer appearances but with more to them. The less is more approach. Putting it through a story progression like every other character, hero or villain. The Nemesis Parasite was a prime opportunity for body horror I couldn't pass up lol love me the movie The Thing for just that reason. Figured it was time to draw back the curtain and unveil the 'alien' horror they've been battling all along, lurking under the surface. Intimidating as it is, the Tyrant it is wearing is only the humanoid disguise.
Poor Jill continues to be put through the ringer, all of them will be, wanted to make the escape from Raccoon City a hard fought struggle. No sense breezing through unmarked and unaffected. The games never really emphasized much the effect something like that would have long term. My Jill will take out more scars, physical and mental, than the game one did. Basically, consider the characters of my story playing in Hard Mode xD.
Thank you again friend, as ever.
evolution-500: It's difficult not to let one character who is a dominant force (HUNK) overshadow all the others. He still does in a lesser way, as the commanding presence and personality who took charge of the story and group, it's unavoidable, but that doesn't mean he has to swallow up the others. They bring their own unique dynamic to the group, and that's the most important dynamic of the journey, the group one. Still, that's a big difference between this story and the original RE3, HUNK's presence, which changes everything. And he's someone Jill and Carlos could come to lean on, count on. A veteran in this kind of shit. So he is a double edged sword, he complicated the story and threats further, but he is fighting by their side, leading them to the escape. Story consequences for his presence, good and bad ones.
Alex: Much appreciated, not every chapter is going to be long in a story, but it is there for a reason, a piece of a greater picture, however small the piece might be. The last one was a 'set up the final stage' chapter, just as this one is. Powerlessness is indeed something HUNK despises, feels it often despite everything he can do. Being trapped in Umbrella will do that to a person. He's a cog in the machine at the end of the day... just a somewhat more important one.
All that means a great deal, I hope the story lives up to its potential and that you enjoy the ending. Almost wish I didn't have to end it, but all good things must come to an end. But I will probably go back and edit and update this story, fix mistakes, expand and add some things, and I have my other short story I'll be posting soon enough, and I might work on a sequel at some point. But I also have a story or two on the back burner I want to continue, so we'll see what happens. Appreciated again, hope you're doing well, friend.
Arkham Knight: I've had a good deal of fun writing Nikolai, sometimes you just need the straight up simple sadistic villain who enjoys what he does and is a nasty piece of work. Not all villains have to be especially complicated and multilayered. There are certainly layers to him I put into figuring him out, didn't want a blank slate, wanted a twisted, dangerous human being... but at the end of the day he's not nearly as complicated a villain as HUNK, War or Sergei Vladimir, among others. That means a great deal, thank you, I try to bring the human aspects of the characters to the focus, explore them more than the games sadly do. I like poignancy, to characters and to a story. Weight. Story over style. Substance over flash. Wish Capcom started doing more of that.
aPancake: That means a great deal, thank you, glad you're enjoying it so much and hope you continue to. Still have the ending and aftermath to go. Along with a concurrent story I'm working on, an interquel set during this story about two other survivors making their final hurtle together out of Raccoon City.
Thank you all for the reviews, as ever, and your continued patience. Thankfully my other short tie in story has been completed, just editing it now and doing the notes for it. I will start posting it once I am done this story, prefer doing one at a time instead of concurrently. Now I will be able to focus a bit more on this one, should be able to update sooner, as we get into the final act of the story. So, without further ado, here we go again. Time to finish setting the final stage:
October 1st, 1998, 4:32 AM
Rear Entrance Corridors, Incineration Disposal Plant P-12A, Northern Raccoon City
It wasn't long before they reached the entrance corridor again. They moved rapidly the whole way there, over the platform. Passing over the infected and mutated corpses along the way one last time, boots tapping on the metal platform suspended high over the resolution pool area below. She took a glance over the side of the railing as they passed... watching the bubbling an putrid purple the chemicals down there had turned as they worked to dissolve her Nemesis... and was heartened by the sight. Satisfaction flitting over her bruised features. One threat had been defeated... at last... now only one remained. A human monster. Not to be underestimated any more than they had the Nemesis. The image of its otherworldly tentacled visage within the husk it had worn still rankled at her. As did the screams of the soldier as it had pulled him into the air ducts. The screams of the past days. It would never go away... but she trekked on now towards the end... was still alive. The three of them were. They had a chance... however remote. Whatever Nikolai had planned for them... would have to be faced. A final hurtle. He'd had time to plan all this... set it up... and thus far it was going accordingly, whatever his plan was. For the moment. She intended to correct that, with the help of her team. She wasn't afraid of him... as she had been of the Nemesis. She simply hated him. Her boots nearly slid under all the blood in the corridor, but HUNK held her upright as they reached the corner where he had been shot. He kicked aside the broken MP5 and some shell casings on the way past, while Carlos raced up to the sealed door to the Control and Communications Tower. Withdrawing the red key card from his vest and looking it over again. HUNK and Jill stopped in front of the automated steel and titanium shutter, and both raised each other's pistols at the steel. The laser sight he had attached to her Beretta glinting off it.
With another nod, Carlos swiped the key card over the card reader... and it activated, the red light turning green. Tucking away the card he rose the rifle to his shoulder and moved to their side, the three of them aiming in unison as the door responded. Braced themselves for anything lying in wait beyond. The metal door retracted and unsealed, lifting up out of sight and revealing the stairwell beyond. Nothing lunged out at them... for it had already been cleaned out. Several bullet ridden bodies of facility staff were visible... their uniforms and flesh burned away as though by strong acids... like some of the others they'd encountered. They lowered their weapons, and Carlos went ahead again, taking point. None of them spoke to the other... words weren't needed just now. They knew what they were doing and what was at stake. Knew that the finish line was just ahead. And by now... Jill understood her companions well enough. The mask couldn't hide who HUNK was... the man she had come to know beyond it. Nods and gestures were all they needed by now, when on the move. Something had changed between them all, in so short a span... Jill could feel it. And was certain they felt it too.
Glancing their way again, Carlos took point again, sweeping forward through the open gate and over the burnt, bullet ridden corpses. Beyond was a narrow metal passageway slanting upwards. Reaching the metal stairwell, he began his ascent to the top of the facility, and Jill and HUNK followed suit, weapons at the ready. Jill kept looking around their surroundings as she supported the U.S.S. Agent... but she was distracted by her quickened pulse... her excitement, to be so close. She dared to hope... even as she feared doing so. They passed more bodies along the way up, each shot through the head, brains and blood leaking freely, or sprayed on the walls, dripping and running down them and the stairs. Reaching the top of the stairwell, she caught sight of a rusted metal door at the end of the cramped corridor to the Control and Communications Tower, and the team raced towards it. Carlos gripped the handle, waiting until they were in position to cover him. On three, he burst through the door loudly and swept inside, assault rifle aiming about... and gradually lowering. Beckoning them inside after him, tone calling down to them.
"Clear. More or less. No sign of the bastard... but he's been through here."
The two of them moved inside at once, remaining at the door and looking the place over, while Carlos went deeper into the room. Like every other section of the aptly named facility, there were dead, rotting bodies strewn about the sizable Control and Communications Tower... former employees, infected and shot, blood puddles and spent brass casings on the floor, as it had been on the way up here. Equipment racks, cabinets and various types of machinery and computers ran along much of the walls. Desks and rolling chairs. In the center of the room was a closed metal hatch with a railing around most of it, and a metal ladder descending down it. To the north east were the closed metal doors of the facility's central elevator shaft. To the north was the main computer systems of the tower, more elaborate machinery... and large windows... broken windows, the glass strewn about as well. The cold near morning air streamed through the window, filled the room, giving Jill goosebumps. Beyond them the rain was still coming down out there... the sound of it as present as the distant moans of the infected outside. Jill could make out the glowing buttons and a microphone installed to the device. Carlos had moved over to the computer systems, pushing the chairs out of his way and was looking the machinery over... and then rose his gaze out the shattered windows, looking downward. Slowly he looked back over his shoulder to them and beckoned again, looking startled in a bemused sort of way.
"Uh... guys, you might want to come see this."
Jill and HUNK looked to each other, and then moved together again, joining Carlos in front of the main system. Jill glanced over the machinery, but rose her eyes to the window, where the two of them were already staring. She could see the platform containing the helipad of the Dead Factory several floors below... a sizable platform with metal railings around the entire perimeter, with several white helipads around it. Only one of them was occupied, to the far north side of the rooftop... just as HUNK had promised... the escape chopper. But it wasn't a civilian helicopter as she might have expected from a facility of mostly researchers and workers, but a much larger, military one... what looked like a modified Boeing AH-64 Apache... in a jet black painted color scheme. It had two fully loaded Hellfire missile launchers on either side of it and an M230 chain gun on the nose. The side of the attack helicopter prominently displayed the familiar red and white Umbrella logo... along with some white painted text below it.
UB-603
For the first time in her life... an Umbrella logo looked welcome. Made her smile. Gave her hope. It was so close now... they were almost there. The worst of it behind them. Carlos's voice spoke up then, equal parts impressed and tepid, uttering a low whistle. Looking from the attack helicopter on the platform below and to the silent U.S.S. Agent observing the same view.
"An Apache. Damn. Didn't see that coming. Thought it'd be a civilian chopper for sure. Hate to be the bearer of bad news though... but there's only two seats on an attack chopper. Don't tell me we're going to have to draw straws..."
"We'll fit. Make room if we have to. Flew Apaches before. Know the interior dimensions. If not... you are incorrect. There are four seats."
"Huh?"
"Two on the outside."
It took Carlos a moment to realize what the agent was talking about... as it did her. Looking to the two wings on either side of the attack helicopter. Makeshift seats for two more... fast deployment for operators. Carlos's eyes widened at that understanding and he shook his head rapidly.
"No fucking way, man! I'm not sitting on the wings of that helicopter like a goddamn fool!"
"You will if it's necessary. Or are free to remain behind."
"Well... when you put it like that, suddenly I could use the fresh air..."
"I thought so."
"Look at those Hellfire missile pods and chain guns. Hey, mind if we swoop over the horde on Main Street on our way out and unload those babies on em'? Be nice to cut loose, have some payback. Owe em' for most of my buddies."
"Not a priority. The missile strike will accomplish that already."
"It's not the same thing, man, and you know it."
"Prefer if we lit up City Hall, myself...", Jill heard her tired, bemused voice suggest when the idea occurred to her, cutting through the banter with some of her own. Looking from the young man and and back over to the U.S.S. Agent, who met her gaze. Carlos looked at her as well, visibly impressed... and she shrugged to the agent knowingly. "Root out the corruption ourselves. Owe Mayor Warren and his cronies that much. After all they've done to my home."
"Hmm. Perhaps so. We'll see."
"Then it's settled. We light up City Hall and Main Street like a Christmas tree, get us some payback, unleash some literal hellfire. Then we fly off into the sunrise like big goddamn heroes. Jill can sit on your lap in the front seat while I take a nap in the back co pilot seat with all the luggage. Sound good to you, Supercop?"
"No complaints here, Carlos. I don't take up much space. Sounds like a comfy seat, too."
"Oh Lord... walked right into that one. Get a room, you two. Anyways, we've got a solid plan here. Beats any of us sitting on the wings, at least. Let's get our asses down there already. Plenty of time... but I ain't keen on wasting any of it with a nuclear shitstorm on the way."
"Thermobaric. One plan at a time, Corporal. One problem at a time. Getting ahead of yourself. Look further down there... both of you."
Jill looked up from the Apache and back over to the Corporal and U.S.S. Agent... to find it wasn't to the chopper the two men were looking at... rather somewhere closer to their position. Jill followed their gaze down as well... and saw what was up. There on the southern side of the platform crouched a familiar man in a black and green uniform and body armor... with silver hair. Nikolai, just out of the rain beneath a section of the roof over part of the platform, examining something... a computer laptop. A long cable ran from the back of it to an open breaker beside the pair of metal elevator doors visible down there. He looked thoroughly amused with himself, whatever he was looking at on his screen, pressing buttons now and again... not noticing them watching from above. Carlos's triumphant voice brought Jill back from her contemplation.
"There he is down there. Son of a bitch is busy checking his mail. We've got him by surprise. Let's get down there and kill him already."
Without waiting for either of them to reply, Carlos stormed past them to the doors of the elevator. He readied his rifle and tapped the call button, waiting for it to respond. But it didn't. He tapped the button again... but the button didn't even light up... none of them did. The elevator power had been turned off. Realizing it, Carlos swore loudly and kicked a boot against the metal doors with frustration.
"God damn it... he locked down the elevator! His laptop is hacking the system! What the hell is he waiting on?!"
"Calm down, Oliveira. One problem at a time.", HUNK's low, muffled tone reminded the young man steadily from her side. His grip on her tightening a bit. "There's a cord attached to the breaker box of the elevator. Must be keeping it shut down. Or could have remote access to the facility from there. He has the means and technology. Doesn't have to be up here controlling the system."
"Let's shoot him from here... he's right down there.", Carlos declared, marching back over to them at the machinery and windows. He looked down over it again, exhaustion replaced by deepening anger. "End this once and for all. Maybe if I hit his laptop too it'll return power to the elevator."
"That laptop is the least of the problems. He has explosives, remember?", Jill pointed out warningly, looking between the two men, drawing a low breath. "We don't know where they are. He could set them off any time."
"He knows we're up here, what the hell is he waiting for?"
Neither of them had an answer for that. But within moments, one came to them all the same. There was a beeping then from the primary computer of the communications system in front of them. All their eyes snapped its way. The glowing red intercom button next to the microphone glowed green in a flash, and from it poured a man's hatefully familiar voice. Carrying throughout the tower. One she wished not to hear again, but had known she would have to.
"I was waiting for the opportune moment, Corporal. Timing is the key to everything. Making sure all the pieces are in place... and now they are. You moved faster than I thought people in your conditions would. I had to play a bit of catch up.", The coldly amused, accented voice spoke over the intercom to them, going on as calmly as ever. The voice of a man clearly enjoying himself. Enjoying what he had wrought. "And you are correct about the explosives, Officer Valentine. You would do well to remember them. I have placed them at key strategic locations throughout the facility. As I did at Raccoon General Hospital. We shall do this my way, or I will detonate them. Bring this whole facility down on top of you."
"Nikolai...", Jill muttered, leaning a bit closer to the microphone... feeling both anger and dread coiling inside her. After what he'd attempted down there in that chamber... it would figure he would have another repugnant plan on the back burner. Or more than one. "Haven't you played enough of these sick games?"
"Not quite... but nearly. All good things must come to an end. This one I intend to be as spectacular as the missile shall be."
"I've had enough of this shit!", Carlos declared angrily into the microphone, hand tensing into a fist, slamming it down on the control panel. "Come up so we can kill you already!"
"Tempting invitation, Corporal. But I must decline. Before we continue here, there is something you might want to see, first. I shall leave it for you to resolve, Valentine... before we end this. I know you will act accordingly for your companions. As you have thus far. You are sickeningly predictable that way. Even without your badge."
Every single monitor on the main system flashed on, then, lighting up in front of them. Revealing various security camera footage in locations all around the facility. Places they had gone and many they hadn't. On some of them were more infected workers shuffling around the Dead Factory, in sections they fortunately hadn't had to explore. Along with more mutations crawling about on the walls... or feasting on corpses. She saw the mutated infected as well... the pale things, littered among them. The tunnels under the facility were visible, containing the inert cable cars down there, and more former employees trapped down there. Much of the facility was overrun... in such numbers Jill knew they had lucked out somehow. The RED QUEEN had been right about that much, Umbrella creation or not... containment had been necessary. If this was merely a plant connected to the NEST... its dumping grounds... what must have Birkin's primary facility looked like? Not for the first time... she was tempted to ask HUNK. He had been at ground zero, at its worst... survived it... she was curious, but afraid to know. A number of infected were scattered outside in the scrapyard behind the plant as well. And there were camera feeds of the sealed front entrance and main gates of the plant.
A horde of infected lie beyond the main gates, some tugging at the metal uselessly, most wandering out in the street... even this far north from Downtown. It was everywhere... nowhere in the city was safe. Nowhere left to flee to... but away. As far away as possible. And here they remained, trapped in a factory for the dead. Forcing herself to, her gaze slowly moved on. It was the footage coming from one of the ventilation shaft cameras that caught her attention, then. Jill leaned forward when a distorted, sizable shape appeared on one of them, sliding through a duct on a wave of purple slime flowing from it. A pulsating, rippling, biomass that vaguely resembled an acid burned torso... devoid of limbs. No... that wasn't quite true, she realized... just devoid of legs and one arm. She could barely make out its appearance from the grainy footage... but what she saw was enough. It's massive remaining clawed hand pulling it along amid the scraping of metal, sparks flying, muscles visibly straining, rope-like veins. That and a swarm of wriggling tendrils coated in dripping fluids all around its form, helping pull it along the interior. As it drew closer, one of the tendrils lashed out at the camera and broke it, white static overtaking the disabled screen. Carlos had gone pale, mouth opening and closing, trying to speak but unable to find the words. She felt HUNK's grip on her tightening, understanding what she did. And what the computer confirmed their fears with a feminine, synthesized, monotone voice with an English accent.
"Warning... unidentified Tyrant class Bio Organic Weapon loose from containment. Detected approaching facility's lower generator room. Initiate imminent containment procedures."
"Beautiful. Resilient... isn't it? Indomitable. Even as it mutates. The samples I have gathered of it that you three kindly provided will be worth another fortune. The combat data alone worth millions. What it has been put through would have destroyed any other Tyrant by now. Still it persists. The Nemesis Parasite adapts and survives against all odds. The Colonel's favorite son. You are all it knows, Valentine. Be flattered. It exists only for you. Was made for you. While your companions were merely happenstance."
Jill stared hard at the static filled screen in grim silence... still seeing it. It slid by another camera, shattering it as well before it could get much of a view of it. One by one screens in the ventilation shafts were broken. She nearly jumped, startled, as a series of automated clicks and snaps sounded behind the three of them. They turned as one to watch the automated hatch in the middle of the Control and Communications Tower draw backwards, revealing more of the length of the ladder connected to it to the lower level. His icy, pleased voice spoke again from the intercom, drawing them all back to it again.
"Your path to it is now clear. And Death? Corporal? If you go down there with her... I shall activate the bombs and take off. Bury all of you before the missile does. Don't get any funny ideas. I am watching. I shall call you again with further instructions, when she has departed to meet her true Grim Reaper alone below. We all have a rendezvous with death... you are not hers. I'll leave you now to enjoy the last of your nauseating exchanges. I am merciful, after all. And in control of all this. You have made it this far only because I have allowed it. And this game will end the moment I demand it. But not yet. It's not over yet."
At last, the cold, calm voice died away from the intercom. A small mercy... but not much, with what it had dropped on them again. The three of them studied the camera feeds, and looked out the window down at him again... in the light, she could see the bastard smiling and laughing to himself from where she stood. He looked right up at them in the tower, waving at her mockingly... waving the detonator visible in his hand. Again the system blared its warning to them... and to the rest of the Dead Factory, through the halls of the dead. Falling upon uncaring ears... all but theirs.
"Warning... unidentified Tyrant class Bio Organic Weapon loose from containment. Detected approaching facility's lower generator room. Initiate imminent containment procedures."
"How the fuck is it alive?!", Carlos finally burst out, unable to restrain himself, slamming his fist against the machine. Picking up and throwing aside one of the monitors, breaking it apart in his sudden rage. "It bathed in a pool of acid! You blew its head off! Me and HUNK blew its legs off! We set it on fire! HUNK hit it with a grenade shell on that bridge! The train! The clock tower! Everything else we threw at it! How is it doing this?!"
Jill closed her eyes tightly and was silent for a long moment. She heard Captain Viktor fighting with it in the rear car, heard the explosion... heard Brad's screams... the screams of the soldier in the passageway. Saw the battle in the courtyard again, felt its tendril slamming against her shoulder, infecting her, violating her. She heard its voice again... saw every encounter she and HUNK and Carlos had had with it. Saw the parasite that dwell within. All of it vivid. When her eyes opened again, she had made her decision. No, that wasn't true... she had made her decision a long time ago, she was certain. Watching it murder Brad. Only now she had finally come to peace with it. Looking between the two of them carefully... she withdrew reluctantly from HUNK's side, and turned to the center of the room... to the open hatch. She moved over towards it... looking down the ladder to the area far below. Finally, she turned back around to face them, where they stood before the monitors... showing them a genuine tranquility she somehow felt within.
"I don't know, Carlos. But it is. The computer is right. Nikolai can wait. The Nemesis won't. It must be contained. Permanently. I have to go. I have to stop it. No more running away."
"Jill, this is what he wants-..."
"I know it is... I hate that. But if I don't do it, either he detonates those bombs, or it comes up here and kills us all anyways. That is our situation."
Carlos looked as though he wanted to argue with that, looking for words. Trying to look for the words to argue with her cool headed assessment... but unable to find them. She didn't have that problem, continuing forward, calmly and clearly.
"In the clock tower courtyard... I tried to match its brutality. Fight like it, up close. I nearly died doing that. I can't beat it that way alone. I have to outsmart it. That's how I survived it in the treatment room. After what we did to it there... it must be losing its intelligence. Its control. There's a railgun down in that generator room... and more weapons along the way, most likely. That soldier's team set up shop there. If I can power up the railgun, lure the injured, mutating son of a bitch in front of it... fire a round down its throat... it will have to work. Or nothing will. Both of you stay here. Stall Nikolai as long as you can. Carlos, try to reach someone on the outside on the system's communicator. It must have a far reach. Someone, anyone who can help if things go to hell. If Nikolai gets away on that chopper."
"I am not staying here, Valentine.", HUNK informed her flatly, starting forward, limping closer towards her, inclining his helmeted head. "I'm coming with you. We do this together. Nikolai is bluffing. I know him well. There's always a trick."
"We can't take that risk. And... you've already done so much for me. It's time for me to do something for you. Time for me to protect you, HUNK. You stay. I'll go. No following."
HUNK stood in front of her... silent and visibly discomforted, even in that fully concealing outfit. She was starting to understand him... every nuance in his body language. In so short a time. But then... an entire world had changed in so short a time, including hers. His. Theirs. Turned upside down, broken... and mended back together. She understood now why he was so calm, so often, even surrounded by the hell of war. Still waters ran the deepest. He cared about things and people... about her... more than he could probably ever say. But she knew, by now. She saw the man he was, separate of Umbrella. They hadn't managed to steal his soul, or heart, as they had everything else. He looked away, off to the side, head lowered slightly but remaining silent. She stepped over to him, taking his free hand into hers... squeezing it firmly, ignoring the pain in her burnt, gloved hand. Carefully, she drew it to her heart... hoping he felt her heartbeat through his glove, fingers intertwining with his. His head slowly turned back to face her, reluctantly meeting her gaze. She looked back at her serene expression in his lenses. She spoke quietly to him... and Carlos stepped off to the side, turning away from them and pretending to watch the monitors again. Ever quick on the uptake, where they were concerned. Deft.
"This is... something I have to do. If I don't... even if we escape... that thing will still chase me in my nightmares. For the rest of my life. I know it will. It has always been coming down to this, since the R.P.D. Since Brad. Since we met. You can't be there on a rooftop to protect me, this time. He's right... it was made to kill me. I have to be the one to stop it. I owe it to so many, and to myself... and I have to show Umbrella. I think you understand."
He slowly looked down at her... considering it. Maybe he wanted to argue the point... but he was a man of clarity, and logic. Even if he was a mystery. He nodded instead, releasing a slight breath through the mask.
"I do.", His low, muffled voice finally answered reluctantly. "I just... should be there with you. I'd go with you. To the end."
"I know you would. And you will. When we get out of here. Together. It's not the end, yet."
Holding her gaze... he leaned down closer to her... and she pressed her head gently against his mask and helmet, nuzzling it. Wishing he could feel it, closing her eyes. She felt his hand settle on her back, his arm envelope her. Hold her comfortingly. Giving her his strength, even now, pushed to his limits, injured and exhausted. He spoke again. A murmur, for her alone to hear. The voice that had spoken in her eat back at the police station. Stolid.
"Do it, then. Kill it. Finish this. And come back after... Jill. Don't make me come down there looking for you. I'll kill Nikolai, and rip and tear my way through the entire facility to do it."
"I believe you. And I will."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
She pressed her face gently against his mask again and held him as long as she could. Wishing they had more time. That they dwell somewhere in peace, quiet and security together. Still... even in the midst of this nightmare, they had something more. Something that gave her hope... even as she had to separate from him, for what might be the last time. Promise or no promise... the future was known to neither of them. All the same... she was ready, no matter the outcome. Finally, she reluctantly withdrew, and he let her go as well. She looked down over to the young, uniformed man standing in front of the monitors, glancing back at them now and again. She smiled when she caught him watching... and he finally turned from them and back to her, as she broke the silence, addressing him.
"Carlos... didn't think I'd end up saying this when we first met, but... it's been an honor. Really."
"Hey, don't say it like that. I mean, it has been one... but don't make it sound so damn final. Give me something more mushy, like whatever sweet nothings you were whispering to the big guy."
"Alright then. Just wish me luck." Jill smiled over at him, repressing a laugh with effort at his wry look and tired grin, holding out her gloved hand in offering instead. "Need as much of it as I can get."
Carlos looked at her hand for a moment, and then over between her and HUNK. He moved forward at last. Joining them before the hatch.
"Fair enough. Good luck then... Jill.", Carlos said, swallowing hard and taking her hand, shaking it firmly... before, with a degree of hesitance, leaning in and hugging her. She smirked a bit at the gesture, hugging him back gratefully at once. Patting him on the back reassuringly. "Give it hell from us. And twice as much from you. Kick its fucking ass, Supercop. You know... if it even has one left."
"Damn right. Just take care of HUNK. Try not to let him play the hero again."
"Hard to promise that.", Carlos chuckled under his breath, withdrawing from the hug and looking over to the U.S.S. Agent, who shook his helmeted head. "Secret Agent Man here gets into trouble all the time. Like you. And me, now that I think of it. I'll try, though. And try to reach someone by the time you kill that big bastard."
Drawing a low breath, she forced herself to turn her back to them, holstering Matilda at her side securely. Moving carefully for the ladder, she gripped it in both gloved hands and swung around on it, facing towards them again. Before she began her descent into the belly of the Dead Factory... she looked up at their contrasting figures looming over her. One green, the other dark. Youthful, and experienced. Extroverted and introverted. Two men who couldn't be more opposite, working for Umbrella, who should have been her enemies, what seemed long ago... now they were her team as much as S.T.A.R.S. had been. Two men she cared for and respected deeply. She left them with some parting reassurance. Receiving it from them in kind.
"This isn't goodbye, gentlemen."
"No... it isn't."
"We'll see ya when we see ya."
"You will."
Carlos snapped to attention in a salute that wasn't mocking... while HUNK remained still and upright, gazing down at her. Jill looked between the two of them standing above one more time... and giving them one more smile, she resumed her descent. Forcing herself to look away... before she changed her mind about this. Resuming her mission. Reaching the bottom of the ladder, she glimpsed another item box off to her right side and some wooden boxes with tools in them just behind the ladder. She stepped away from it, turning and drawing Matilda in one fluent motion. Sweeping down the left side of the corridor... there was a bridge-like walkway over part of the corridor... while over its edge were the subterranean levels of the Dead Factory. A swarm of the undead shambling down there, in the bowels of the facility. The transit area leading between the Dead Factory and NEST, from the look of it. She'd had a better look of it on the camera than she could get from here... but still, the view left her uneasy... how many infected facility personnel lurked down there. At last she rose her head and looked back towards her path again.
Jill was unsurprised to find several infected workers in the path down to the far door at the end of the corridor. They were all burned and naked like some of the corpses above... acid burns... aimlessly shuffling about... until they caught sight or scent of her. Their moans echoed around the corridor, and they began to shuffle down towards her in a familiar gait. Aiming Matilda, she took her time firing a shot into each of their heads, starting forward towards them as she did so. Skull and brains burst with each roar of the weapon, spraying the walls and floor. Each roar like a lion, heartening her. She kept advancing forward, taking them all down, and shooting the already fallen corpses on the ground to be sure. When she had finished with them, she glanced about the corridor again... spotting some papers laying on a crate, going over to it, picking them up and looking them over. Silently reading the report and absorbing the information.
Incinerator Manual
The incinerator plant is one of the facilities that burns the disposable items which are sent from the NEST laboratories. The incinerator burns the waste materials that cannot be decomposed at the treatment room. It also supplies electricity to the facility by a thermal power electricity generator. Part of the electricity is stored in the big battery installed in the facility's underground area.
The electricity is used as an auxiliary power source. The auxiliary power circuit will be activated once the three "auxiliary circuit units" are properly placed in their sockets. In case the circuits are not connected automatically, a person can connect them manually to activate the system.
She considered the information for a moment, before recognizing there was no time to waste. Instead, tucking away the report, she marched over the bodies and straight down to the rusted doors at the far end, bursting through them, out of the corridor, and into the scrapyard's passageway. Jill stood in what seemed a great hangar within the facility... metal clutter strewn about it... piles of automobiles stacked on top of each other at different sections. A number of forklifts that had been in service littered about the hangar, and great automated cranes hanging at different sections of the room above, on the intersecting platforms and catwalks. There were a number of observation windows above as well overlooking the hangar, attached to offices.
Despite all the metal clutter, there was a man made pathway around the area to the generator room... though the doors to the room remained out of her view. A number of yellow and black striped signs and lights lined the path like beacons. What she looked to instead was all the uniformed and armored corpses on the path ahead of her... laying on the ground... and otherwise. Infected... of course. As it had been before, as it always was, they picked up her scent from afar and turned, lights around the passageway revealing their vacant, torn, bloodied, rotting faces. Some of them in balaclavas and helmets... all of them clad in the armor and uniform the soldier had worn. They moaned and started towards her... the ones that saw her, anyways. Maybe a half a dozen or so of them. Marching forward inexorably, unperturbed, she gunned them all down one after the other, putting them out of their misery. When she had finished with the first batch, she found herself grateful most of the bodies around the hangar were silent and still.
The soldiers bodies weren't the only ones... more workers and scientists had been dumped here... mutations as well... probably as there had been no room in the treatment area. There were signs of an intense battle all around the hangar too, as the soldier had told her had taken place... bullet filled corpses of infected and mutations that were not her handiwork... countless spent brass shell casings... signs of explosions and there were a number of scattered fires still licking up certain sections of the hangar... the ventilation shafts on the ceiling high above absorbing the smoke. How long the battle might have lasted, she could not say... but she pitied all who had been involved. Of which only one had escaped alive... only for her to lead the Nemesis right to him. Jill drew a low breath, repressing her pang of guilt, and started forward down the path... thankfully, it proved to be a short distance to the generator room... moving around the first bend of three stacked cars and around the second. The giant metal automated doors of the generator room, and accompanying signs indicating it, greeted her... but didn't hold her attention.
More infected soldiers were feeding on the bloodied corpses of their former brothers in arms... but only a few of them. Most of the soldiers were dead on the ground, as it was with the staff of the facility they had eliminated. And they were so preoccupied with their feeding, red teeth gnashing against flesh and bone, they didn't even notice Jill. It was too easy. Repugnant, even now... but easy. Or at least simple. She gunned them all down, the echoing rapports carrying through the hangar, amplifying it to an even mightier roar. The sound gave her confidence... what a difference something as simple as a gunshot she was delivering could make. Her hand and aim remained steady, as one after another she blew their heads off... finishing the last of them, before popping out the spent magazine and loading another. The front pathway area down to the generator room doors was much more spacious than the doors she had come from... and had two other noteworthy things. Moving closer down to the doors, Jill saw one of the five Tyrants that had been sent to the facility... one of them laying dead next to the generator room door, just beneath the control panel accessing the door. It lie partially within a fire... and had been there for God knew how long... but the flames had not managed to consume it.
Surrounded by human, uniformed corpses... its outfit and face were stained with their blood. It had been towering mountain of muscle... bald, and wearing a different sort of armored trench coat outfit than the one the Nemesis had been. Covered in bullet marks, tearing through its flesh and coat alike. And despite its monstrous size... its face was remarkably human... if blank expressioned and too big... eyes opened, even in death. It was riddled full of rounds, and tangled up among the corpses of the soldiers. It looked as though the Tyrant hadn't been armed... weren't capable of carrying weapons, as the Nemesis was, perhaps. All the same, it had given more than it had gotten. It had torn heads off of at least a couple of the soldiers... beaten others into bloody, pulverized pulps incapable of becoming zombies.
The area reeked of rot she smelled even with her broken nose. The other even more noteworthy observation she made... drawing in all her attention... was the small armory the soldiers had set up off to the side of the generator room's great doors. Making sure none of the corpses were twitching, Jill broke into a run, moving as fast as she could down to it. She had her lockpicks if they proved necessary... but gripping the handle, she was relieved to find it had been left partially ajar. She drew it open widely... and stared back at the treasure trove that awaited her. Smile breaking out on her bruised, pained face again. Unable to help it. An assortment of pistols... shotguns... assault rifles with attached grenade launchers... and one particular device, the best of all. A fully armed four barrel M66 Rocket Launcher with a shoulder strap fastened to it sat on the top shelf of the large locker. The light glinting off its sleek surface... beckoning to her.
"Holy shit."
And it wasn't only weaponry, there was ammunition... for all the weapons... a great deal of it to match the military hardware. Silently, she thanked the soldiers. No... she couldn't beat the Nemesis in brute force... but it sure as hell would help her in her plan to outsmart it in the meantime. Stall it... while she did what she had to. Jill ignored the pistols and shotguns, but refilled the space in her bandolier not occupied by proximity dart explosives and one of her pouches full of 12 gauge shells. Next she took the closest M4A1 with an attached grenade launcher... already fully loaded for her. She slid some spare magazines for it into her pouches, and several grenade shells... including high explosive, napalm and acid grenades from the grenade boxes inside. Finishing stocking up, leaving the rocket launcher for last, she slung the assault rifle across her back with the double barrel. Before she could turn her attention to the rocket launcher again... she spotted something on the ground, in the hand of one of the dead soldiers. Some papers with an attached photograph that seized her focus. Kneeling down, she took it from the dead man, to find it was a report of sorts. Studying the photograph... a great machine stood out on it. Something she had never seen before... but could guess what it was. Even before she read the words quickly and silently, confirming her guess.
In my opinion, in contrast to Simmons, I feel that it's too early to use this, "Demon Sword of Paracelsus" in actual fighting. It will require further development, refinement and funding to work out lingering issues and prove worthy of mass production. Like Simmons' nanorobotics, and its related biological variants, "Rail Cannon" weaponry is exceedingly complicated and difficult to get right. However, in order to reach the NEST and acquire the G-Virus that Doctor Birkin has developed for the bioweapons division, as well as resist any potential on site B.O.W.'s and Tyrants, it will be a great help to us. I cannot imagine any of Umbrella's finest creations capable of withstanding even a single blast of its raw power. I doubt Spencer's tech boys have anything like this, even in so great an arsenal as Umbrella's.
The power of the "Rail Cannon" is satisfactory for its required purpose, far superior to that fool Garner's ludicrous "Ferromagnetic Infantry-use Next Generation Railgun". The pursuit of perfecting hand held railguns is a sick joke at best, disintegrating each of the unfortunate test subjects who have tried. He insists he is close to a breakthrough on it. Bullshit. It is simply unworkable, the output too great for any human user. Real life is not an action movie. Railguns must be stationary, mounted and/or mechanized. All the same, despite Paracelsus's superiority to any competition, please note that it is still having a few remaining problems. I look forward to the Delta Force team's report about its functionality and capability in the field. This has been some of the finest and most difficult work of my career. If it is damaged or destroyed, I intend to make a full inquiry and hold person or persons responsible for its misuse. Consider yourselves warned. I will not have my life's work wasted courtesy of fools.
Technology Division
Colonel Franklin Hart
Along with the report was a bunch of text walking a user through the process of operating the railgun... but she was still reeling from the unexpected revelation. Delta Force... they were Delta Force all along... had known about Umbrella, and been sent in to acquire the virus. She had trained with them... told the soldier... the operator, as much. She understood his reaction to her claim now... but felt a deepening anger and sadness as well. She never would have thought such good men would get involved in fetching bioweapons for the government, their own program, in an attempt to rival Umbrella... and being ordered to remove all insignia, dog tags. Black ops operations. And coming here... dying as horribly as they had... had been all for nothing... HUNK and his team had already beaten them to the G-Virus... and Birkin had destroyed the city in his madness. The best of the best... wasted so senselessly and selfishly... in the hopes of collecting biological samples.
Though... perhaps their coming here was not all for nothing. They had brought the railgun with them... and there was a chance for her now. To set one thing right, at least. And now she knew it had a rather impressive name for the weapon as well. The information might be useful, in the future, if... when they got out of here. Though it was more incriminating, damning to the government than it was to Umbrella. They had sent a capable, large Delta Force team to the city during its downfall to procure bioweapons, when they should have come to protect and evacuate the civilians. Even Umbrella's disastrous U.B.C.S. incursion painted the company in better light than the government... at least they had publicly made the attempt. She regretted her heated words and thoughts against them, during the downfall of the city. Most of them, anyways, the ones who hadn't known... unlike the Monitors. They had tried... and even being mercenaries of Umbrella, had been more soldiers than these men... these tools of the government, had been. They hadn't come here to save anyone or anything. Heads were going to roll when all was said and done... and it wouldn't only be Umbrella on the chopping block. She bitterly hoped someone would take a scythe to Capitol Hill as well. The son of a bitch who had authorized this mission, and whoever had recommended it.
Simmons... she didn't know the name, but perhaps he was the former or the latter... either way he was involved. She vowed to look into the scheming bastard's name... along with the Colonel. But now wasn't the time for her to be a cop. It was time to be a soldier... and make good on the weapon they had inadvertently handed to her. Jill glanced at the photograph on it one more time, familiarizing herself with the machine, and rapidly read the accompanying instructions on its operation and functions, and tucked it and the report away in the right pouch with the other information she'd gathered. Finally her gaze returned to the top shelf of the locker... the rocket launcher continuing to beckon to her. She went to it at once, holstering Matilda to free up her hands, reaching over and picking it up by the handles with a low breath at its weight. Still... not as heavy as it appeared... she had thought it would weigh more when she had first used one in her Army training. Cumbersome though... took up too much damn space... she would have to quickly discard it once she'd used it. Still... a slow smile touched her bruised, battered features, and her satisfied voice escaped her lips.
"Fuckin' A."
Looking over the rocket launcher one more time, nodding with satisfaction, she turned from the locker, passing over the soldier's broken, bloodied bodies and moving over to the burning Tyrant next to the sealed generator room doors. Looking at it again... even if it wasn't the Nemesis, she pitied anyone being pursued by this model. T-103's, she recalled HUNK mentioning. She didn't want to think about what it was capable of, whether it was inferior to the Alpha Parasite or not. She went to the control panel, taking a hand off the rocket launcher long enough to tap the door activation button. It responded at once, with an audible beeping and flashing of lights overhead, and there was the loud noises and groaning of parting metal. The seals on the great automated double doors began to part, unlatch and unseal, and slowly open all the way. The lights of the generator room washed over her... and her left hand remained on Matilda at her holster, while her right arm and shoulder supported the launcher. Thankfully, nothing stirred within, took notice of her or tried to lurch towards her... her eyes swept the area of the generator room quickly, detecting no hostiles. When the doors finished parting, she looked down to find the Umbrella logo on the floor just past the doors. Finally, she moved through them, standing upon the logo. Behind her, once she was through, the doors closed again automatically... shutting tightly and sealing her within the generator room... with the thing she knew awaited her somewhere within the great, cluttered chamber. Her heart beat quickly in anticipation... but she was not afraid. Not anymore.
She wouldn't let it have that satisfaction any longer. It was nearly the end. And at that end, came a peace.
No more running.
"Look at her, gentlemen... descending to her death... so confident. Such is the ignorance of youth. She has made it thus far only to your tiresome interventions... meddling... without you to save her again... well. We know what will happen. Our little scuffle back at the hospital, all your monumental effort to cure her... all for nothing. The struggle and wasted hope in coming here. I can't imagine how world crushing that must be to both of you... despairing... but I am trying. And I am enjoying it."
HUNK's gloved hand gripped on the Samurai Edge at his side, as he and Oliveira watched the camera footage on the numerous screens. Watched the blue clad figure passing through the passageway below them. Watched and heard the shots of Matilda ringing out as she gunned down the infected lying in wait below. On another screen the mutated, malformed, tentacled biomass the Nemesis had become passing through another ventilation duct, moving towards the generator room as surely as she was... shattering that camera as well with a tendril. The Corporal looked back to the open, beckoning hatch, incensed... visibly wanting to go after her, but remaining with HUNK at the control panel. Nikolai's coldly amused voice continued, continuing to taunt them. To taunt him.
"I am tempted to force you both to watch her die... what a show that would be... but I am not about to make her the main event of the morning. She is a sideshow... an afterthought. Her and that rather beautiful abomination are no longer factors. Though I am remotely recording the footage to my laptop... to view later... the combat data will give value to her worthless life, and I expect it to be quite a show. I would prefer you in the state of not knowing, before the end. Someone vanishing from your life of great significance... you know the horror of that already, Death. The phantom pain of loss, like losing a limb. I want that... just for you. From me, to you."
All the surveillance monitors switched off as one, cutting off their final views of Jill and the Nemesis... replacing it with darkness. HUNK's jaw tightened... forcing himself not to put his fist through the intercom and climb down the ladder after her. Forcing himself not to break the promise had made to her. He felt a dull, throbbing anger that was spreading, coursing through his veins. The helplessness again... as he had felt it watching her through the door. Just as Nikolai intended. Just as he enjoyed watching. As it had been then... he would deny the son of a bitch a reaction. An acknowledgement of his petty cruelties. The Corporal at his side, on the other hand, was less controlled, reaching his breaking point.
"Fuck this. I'm not just standing here waiting and listening to this sick shit. I'm calling for help."
Carlos started forward closer to the control panel, reaching for the radio to activate it, prepared to speak into the microphone. But as he did the power in the machine's connected microphone shut off on its own, leaving it dead, inert. Again came that smug, self satisfied voice over the intercom instead.
"No, Corporal... I think not. You will not be permitted to send out a distress call. Though you will remain where you are. Every spectacle needs an audience. Now that Valentine has been dealt with, it is your turn... Death. We have a rendezvous of our own to keep. I am activating the central elevator shaft. You are to proceed down to the roof alone and join me out here. It is time."
The Monitor's voice faded away off the intercom as he turned it off from his end. True to his word, the power almost immediately booted up in the elevator... and the doors beeped and parted, revealing the cold metal interior. Both HUNK and Carlos's heads snapped up towards the elevator, weapons snapping up in its direction. To find it empty... and awaiting HUNK... the only thing emerging from it was an out of place, upbeat elevator tune playing in the loudspeakers... not far off from the one at Raccoon General's elevator. Slowly, they lowered their weapons together... glancing to one another in silence for a long moment. Understanding one another, and the situation they were in now. Finally, sighing tiredly, the Corporal broke it.
"Leave your radio's receiver on... like the corridor with the soldier, so I can hear."
The U.S.S. Agent merely nodded in agreement... before turning from the control panel in front of them and leaving the Control and Communications Tower. Limping painfully into the elevator and turning back around swiftly to face ahead. Carlos looked back at him from the control panel... again visibly forcing himself to remain where he was... turmoil writ large in his disheveled features... gripping the rifle in both hands. His concerned voice calling after HUNK hesitantly.
"What are you going to do?"
"Don't know yet. Sure I'll think of something. Usually do."
Carlos stared at him as he tapped the button on the control panel for the helipad platform... then laughed bitterly at his dry remark... and the metal doors closed, cutting off HUNK's view of him, sealing him away within. If that would be the last time he saw the Corporal... it was better than it might have been. The young man had earned a last laugh. The elevator began to rumble as it began its descent... the irritating upbeat music continuing to pour into his ears... and HUNK felt a lightness pass through him that he didn't really feel in his mind. He had to force Jill from his thoughts... her beautiful face... even with all the bruises, the broken nose. The way her blue eyes looked at him, invaded his thoughts with such ease. In a way even the Comtesse's couldn't. Even with her injuries, she was strong, capable... and had the means, skills and weapons to succeed. The Nemesis was severely injured and mutating, losing control, slower. And there was the variable of the railgun and armory the Delta Force team had set up down there. She had been right, if the railgun didn't do the job, it was almost doubtful even the thermobaric missile would. She was as prepared for this as she was ever going to be... didn't need him... and it was time for him to surmount his own implacable obstacle. One of them. One that had been around for years.
For too long.
His free hand reached up, turning on the radio receiver to keep his word to Oliveira. Raising Jill's silenced Samurai Edge, he drew his combat knife as well... holding the two close together. Adjusting his stance accordingly for the inevitable combat. In spite of his exhaustion... the pain of each breath... the oncoming battle gave him life. Focus. The thought of facing off with Nikolai at last. With nowhere left for him to run to. It was almost enough to keep the growing fugue at bay. The exhaustion within and without. He shrugged his stiffened shoulders, hearing and feeling the popping of his muscles responding. The red laser sight glanced off the metal doors... and at last the elevator came to a stop, and they parted... the muffled rain growing louder. Revealing Nikolai's figure not far in front of the doors. He stared back at HUNK calmly as HUNK stepped out of the elevator, tapping a button on his laptop that closed and powered down the elevator behind him, the lights on it switching off, the doors closing audibly, sealing away the dying music. Nikolai's backpack lay near the laptop, removed... and his rifle was nowhere to be seen. As the red laser sight settled on Nikolai's head, the Sergeant merely smiled, shaking the familiar detonator in his right hand slowly.
His left hand was down at his side relaxedly, not going for his holstered pistol. He knew he didn't have to... had planned it this way. He grinned at HUNK in a manner to rival the Nemesis... looking like the cat that had eaten the canary.
"Death. At last you come to me. For me.", His familiar accented voice, unfiltered by a radio, greeted him with a nod. Nikolai stepped backwards away from the laptop and cord attached to the nearby elevator's breaker box. Stepping back out into the rain... almost immediately soaked through by it. "Right this way. We have much to discuss, first. No clever ideas... or the Nemesis will be the least of the good Officer Valentine's concerns."
The Monitor kept the detonator held up, smile lingering, as he turned his back without a hint of unease to HUNK. The red laser sight touched the back of his silver head... and it took all HUNK had inside him not to squeeze the trigger... and do the natural thing. The right thing. Instead, glancing at the laptop, then looking back to Nikolai's figure, he followed the man. He looked to the backpack as he passed it... it wasn't covered in explosives, as it had been at the cabin... but it was big, bulky, jammed full of something, likely. His physical data... whatever he had been collecting out there, perhaps. It touched his curiosity... but he resisted the impulse to check... focusing on the Monitor. He followed Nikolai out to the middle of the spacious rooftop... out into the rain. It washed over his form at once... and in the semi darkness of the looming early morning, they both looked like they wore jet black body armor and uniforms. The closer they walked to the middle area, HUNK looked to the cockpit of the Umbrella Apache again. Escape... so close. Closer than it had seemed on the rooftop of the R.P.D... what felt years ago now.
Another lifetime.
Their combat boots splashed through the numerous puddles along the way, the few lights around the rooftop catching them, illuminating their reflections in the water. Reaching the center of the platform, some distance from the central elevator and Control and Communications Tower overlooking it, he finally stopped where he was on the spot. He didn't look back at HUNK right away... rather over the burning, smoking, of the ruined city. HUNK followed his gaze out there... looking at the devastation... from this far away, it was a portrait of hellscape that none before it could rival. Hell on earth. The fires out there gleamed in Nikolai's satisfied, coldly amused eyes... and he chuckled under his breath, finally turning back around, the laser sight settling on his forehead in the process. Releasing a low, contented breath... he began steadily.
"Peaceful, isn't it? It has been a long few nights... all of this. A more difficult, if profitable mission, than any other we have served upon. But I have enjoyed my time in this city. Everything will change after this morning. The company... the country... the world. You, and me. Raccoon City's destruction shall herald the end... a new world will be born in its place from the charnal pit the missile will leave behind. We are watching its delivery, and played a part in it. Particularly you... down there in the NEST with Birkin. You made this happen. Just as you did storming Marcus' lab. Dumping his corpse into that sewer, with his leeches. Your legacy few will ever know of, the events you helped set into motion. It will be a world of viruses and bioweapons... high technology and espionage. On a scale larger than before. It approaches... numerous corporations competing for each... and those like us, the valuable commodities, operatives, to make that world turn. I don't want to go on as it was before. Back to the way it was. There's no going back. I'm thinking bigger, now. Looking outward. To expanding horizons."
The Monitor looked from the agent and back over his shoulder to the awaiting attack helicopter on its landing pad. His smile deepened faintly. Looking back towards HUNK, he gestured to it casually with the detonator.
"We needn't be here when the missile arrives. We can get in that chopper right now, together. Leave this sniveling, bleeding heart girl of yours and the foolish Corporal behind to their fates. There is nothing special or significant about either of them. They aren't like us. Never will be. Nor will you ever be like them. No matter how much you may wish it. While it would have been nice to take her along, deliver her and collect on her bounty... I have already gathered more than enough data and carried out enough assignments to make this venture profitable. And with that Golgotha sample of yours, we stand to be exceedingly wealthy and powerful players in the Organization indeed."
Nikolai paused for a moment, considering his words again visibly. While HUNK's hand tightened upon the grip of her pistol. Continuing to will himself not to silence him permanently with one squeeze.
"One must know when to fold the cards and walk away. She is more trouble than she is worth. I would have thought you of all people would have realized that simple calculation by now... but you love this one, don't you? In so short a time too. I understand... even if that is not for me. One cannot choose who they love, nor where. The circumstance. War brings unlikely people together. But they can always choose how much they suffer for it. You make yourself suffer, as she brings you down. Weakens your resolve. She makes you lesser. All of this... this weakened state you came to me in... never would have happened if you hadn't wasted such time and effort upon her. You would have escaped the city by now, long before even me."
The Monitor's eyes swept over HUNK's form... trying to read him for a reaction. He didn't give him one. In spite of the anger he felt through his exhaustion and pain... HUNK held on to control. Finally, Nikolai found his words again, getting to the point at last.
"What would you say if I told you he was putting a team together, of many talented specialists... that shall survive what befalls Umbrella? Rise from its ashes? That he wants us both on it? That we can go to him now, leave the company behind... and take our rightful places at his side? Not at the feet of Lord Spencer or the Colonel. Fulfill our potential, not as the rivals we've been, but as comrades? Partners? What would you say to all that, Death? To the deal of a lifetime?"
"I would tell you... to go fuck yourself. As I will him. When he calls with the offer.", HUNK's muffled tone answered him simply at last without a moment's hesitation. "I've made... my decisions. Made up my mind. Nothing has changed since. You already knew that, though. What my answer was going to be."
Something flickered in the other man's visage, then. A deepening anger mixed with his cold amusement... and it was reflected in his voice. And something that might have been disappointment in his eyes and terse tone.
"Of course I did. I know more about you now than your own Bella did, know you better. But for a matter of the record, I had no choice but to offer. He insisted I make the attempt. It simplifies things... makes what comes next easier. And I prefer your rejection. You have squandered your potential for years. You do not want to be an equal, or to have the standing and recognition you are entitled to. You would rather be another cog in a machine... it even bothers you to be a favored one, as you are. Moving from master to mistress through backroom politics... performing one mission after another, alone or with a team. More a zombie than those infected down in the streets. You have zero ambition... and are only alive on the battlefield. You pretend to be alive while waiting between missions. Were it not for your benefactors within the company, and your capability, you would have been discarded long ago. We both know this. Your Comtesse protects you, as your Bella once did. You fuck her, and she fucks up anyone who looks at you wrong. A kept pet... a tool... and a fool. No matter how talented of one you are."
The Monitor stared hard at him again... and the anger seeped away when he went silent. The venom subsiding. His cold eyes looked downward, to the gun and knife... well aware the red laser sight was centered on his head. Not the least bit afraid of it. His expression and manner grew a bit thoughtful and distant as he went on.
"I have studied you since joining the company and hearing of you... as I do all potential future... threats. Know thy enemy. That stance... the optional knife and pistol addition to it as well... C.Q.B.Z, is it not? Close Quarters-Quarantined Battle Zone. You developed it with Lady Spencer. Never taught it in its entirety to any of the other U.S.S. Agents... though there have been cookie cutter imitation attempts. It works as well against humans as the infected. Is that what you used at Rockfort Island in 1993? When Colonel Vladimir came knocking for some friendly sparring?"
HUNK had been wondering when Nikolai would start delving into that story. Among others. It had only been a matter of time. HUNK didn't answer him... but didn't need to. He seemed to be sure of himself already, and the version he knew. Or the version he had come up with in his head. The truth did not matter to this man anyways... it never had. Only his own truths. Sure enough, he went on, speaking his mind freely.
"It is said your Bella asked you not to kill him... and the Colonel mistook her to be talking to him. Referring to not killing you. And she corrected him in front of her class of agents and his men alike. That part is my favorite... if only I could have seen the look on his face. The disbelief. Though the fight itself... at least how it was told to me... is a close second. Did he really laugh about it afterwards, that mountain finally bloodied and toppled by a young opponent he had thought his lesser?"
The memories of that day on Rockfort Island flashed in HUNK's thoughts... what had really happened. How it had really happened. Bella's soothing touch on his shoulder. Her accented murmur in his ear. The towering silver haired Russian grunting and bearing down on him with titanic fists... looking more like one of his Tyrant sons than a man. The blood and sweat... the heat of the distant sun over the shimmering blue of the South Pacific. The jeering and cheering of her U.S.S. Agents and his U.B.C.S. Elites around them on that beach, on all sides. The elaborately uniformed Ashford observing it all from afar atop his office balcony with unveiled intrigue, sipping his champagne. Laughing his girlish laugh, as ever. And her vivid green eyes, watching him silently throughout the fight, standing there in her full body brilliant white Battle Suit... bearing the black and white Umbrella emblem of their faction... looking angelic in the sunlight, between it and her tied back golden hair. The faint, satisfied smile that touched her lips... that he had earned... when he exploited the Colonel's shortcomings, and prevailed. Just as she had taught him to. But as it had been with Jill, he forced the vivid memories away... the feelings they drew. Knowing Nikolai was trying to distract him. Take him off guard. Lull him into a state of vulnerability, for what was inevitable now. He remained as he was, silent and still... but it didn't seem to bother the Monitor, from his knowing smile.
"No matter. That story, of the many, is still passed around... whispered about. On the island, the Leviathan, as well as among the U.B.C.S. I imagine your own men have whispered about it and other matters behind your back. Too afraid to ask the truth of it. You must hear some of it. I wonder how much it bothers you, their curiosity. About you and about her. What you shared together. Created together. I still get a good laugh over the fool you made of her unsuspecting husband. Tell me... regretfully not having been on the island that day... how much of the story was true? I never asked you."
Looking back at the bastard's cold, leering smile... there was a great deal HUNK wanted to tell him. Before putting a bullet in his head. It would be so easy... the right thing to do. Many would congratulate him for it. But he would not lose control... not with the device in the Monitor's hand. On the chance he wasn't lying... that the explosives were scattered about the Dead Factory... with Jill down there... even if... when she defeated the Nemesis, it would all be for nothing. He had to wait. Had to wait and bide his time. And not add to the Monitor's satisfaction.
"Come now. Don't be developing any false modesty. We both know better. I always thought it funny you and Vladimir should come off to such a rocky first meeting... one that had endured. Whatever happened, there is a reason he sought to undermine your mission. Missions, when he was handed the power to. You are both very much alike anyways. Robotic company men, through and through. Loyal to nothing in the end but Umbrella. To a Spencer. The ones who made you both what you are. While Vladimir is the progenitor of the Tyrants... you could very well be one yourself. It was you they chose to field test the first Tyrants against, was it not? He could not have been pleased, watching you defeat his children, any more than he was when you defeated him. It will be my greatest satisfaction to do to you what he could not."
HUNK did not reply... simply waited for the madman to be finished already, and get to what he had planned. He had known this was coming... but even it had to end eventually. The Monitor looked off to the west... over the railing encompassing the platform, and back to the city one more time. With another slight, irritated breath at the lack of response, he turned back to face the agent... resolved to whatever course of action he was. Nodding very slightly.
"Very well, then. Be as voiceless as you are faceless. Alas. We could stand here all morning, watching the final sunrise over this ruined city. Reminiscing of what was. Looking to what will be. But... this is the end. And it would not do to ruin a perfectly good morning. It would be too simple for us to gun one another down. Then we would never know which of us was the other's better... who prevailed... and emerged from Raccoon City's destruction."
The Monitor carefully slipped his hand to the sheath at his armor, removing the knife there, and lazily casting it off to the side. It landed with a clattering echo over the rooftop. And reaching for his silenced, laser sight bearing sidearm next, he repeated the gesture... through kept the detonator in his hand throughout. When he had finished disarming himself, his low, steady voice spoke again carefully.
"Your turn. Do it, and I will tuck away the detonator. For the moment. We will resolve this another way. Detonation not required."
Every instinct... told him to shoot the man. Over and over. To empty the magazine in his head. The truth, he hated to admit... was quite unprofessional. Like the Monitor... he wanted to know if he could take the man. Despite their encounters over the years... this was the first time they might find out. Under better circumstances, it wouldn't have even been a question... but now? Like this? He had to know. Needed to know. And as satisfying as shooting him would be... it would be too damn quick. Too easy... sparing himself of the dirty work, and bloody effort, taking the bastard down should entail. The satisfaction of it. What he had felt on Rockfort Island five years ago. Finally, HUNK held out his own combat knife off to the side, dropping it with an audible clanging of metal into the water soaked rooftop. Switching off the laser sight, it vanished from Nikolai's head... and lowering himself slightly, despite the pain... he set the Samurai Edge down carefully, and rose again to meet his pleased expression. True to his word, he tucked away the detonator into one of his front pouches... and HUNK memorized which one for future reference.
"Now we are on a proper footing. I know you are far more injured and exhausted than I... but all is fair in love and war. I am not nearly the fool you have been since returning to the surface. I will add your life and story to my own legend. Absorb Death... and become it."
"No... you're only going to die. Nothing more. You're a legend... in your own mind. Suppose... you deserve a handicap. Fair is fair."
"Heh. Now there's the fighting spirit, Death. I knew the Succubus of Loire had not yet taken it all from you."
The Monitor laughed coldly and appreciatively at HUNK's reply and began to circle around the U.S.S. Agent in the rain, shadow moving about in the light... watching him closely... both hands raising, but not advancing on HUNK just yet. Circling him silently in keeping with his nickname... cold, hard stare predatory. Calculating. HUNK's eyes within the mask tracked him when he was in his sight, but when he stepped out of his point of view for a moment, as he circled, he did not turn his head to track the man. Merely listened to his boot steps in the rain, splashing. Marking his position in his mind. Nikolai was a said to be a damn good hand to hand combatant... his Soviet training mixing multiple fighting styles. And he was experienced... before and during his time with Umbrella. Now HUNK would finally get the chance to judge the Monitor's talents for himself. The hard way. The only way. The Sergeant moved back into his sight, completing the circle and standing not far in front of him, in a familiar battle stance... ready to meet him.
"I suppose I will just have to furnish the Golgotha Virus from your corpse, then. Make all this aggravation worthwhile. A Monitor versus an agent. U.B.C.S. versus U.S.S. A man versus a slave. Freedom, versus Umbrella. My Sambo, against your C.Q.B.Z. What say you, Grim Reaper?"
No... he didn't know if he could beat the man, in the condition he was in. Nikolai had been far more careful the past days... working in the shadows mostly. Hadn't been hunted by a Pursuer. Had mapped everything out ahead of time... knew the city inside and out and had a number of plans. HUNK had been a stranger in a strange land on the surface... only the fact it was infested and a war zone familiar to him. Without Jill, he wouldn't have made it this far... without the help of one who had lived in the city all her life. Despite his disadvantages, the memory of what Nikolai had done to them... to Jill... the memories stood out at the forefront of his thoughts. And the sick pleasure he had taken from it. He saw it all, as clearly as when it had happened. Sealing them in that chamber. Blowing up the hospital. Ambushing them in the park. Breaking her nose... and wanting to take Jill away to his employer, to be used in a fucked up genetic experiment over a vaccine he had administered to her. Another test subject... like the others he'd seen over his career. Like the countless children of the Raccoon Orphanage that Birkin and his wife had experimented on down in NEST. Like the one he would have been long ago, if not for Bella. And he thought of Jill now, down in that generator room... confronting her own relentless, merciless tormentor. Fighting for them. Protecting them from the monster. Could he do anything less for her on this rooftop? Regardless of the risk... his decision had never been easier to make.
He was filled with cold, tranquil clarity... and controlled fury. Pulse quickening. He slowly cocked his neck from side to side, popping the muscles within it with a low breath. Raising his gloved hands, he did the same with his knuckles... as he settled naturally back into the stance War had taught him long ago... hard eyes within the mask not leaving his gleaming pair. Answering the crazed former Soviet in his own country's tongue. Fists clenching... prepared to speak to him in the other language he understood better than Russian.
He was ready, now... as he would ever be. Resolved. To the bitter end.
"Silver Wolf... you bark too damn much."
You wanted it folks, the two showdowns you've been waiting for, you're gonna get it ;). Only hope to do them justice, might take awhile to edit them to be sure. And no, I couldn't resist knocking the ludicrous concept of the remake's hand held railgun. No regrets xD. Jill would have been atoms after firing one by hand.
Anyways, on that note, the final act of the story commences at last. Stick around.
