Darkest Dreams, Brightest Hopes
Chapter Five: Coy Shrieks
Leon watches as Charles slides a clear card with a single blue strip into a card reader in the elevator, "Is that a biometric card?"
"Quite the eye you have there," his former interrogator nods and waits for the elevator to descend, "state of the art tech here. My DNA signature is fed into the blue strip, but it's only activated by my fingerprints on the card itself."
"All this tech," Josh scoffs at the card and crosses his arm, "and you guys couldn't do a damn thing to help Kijuju…"
The remainder of the ride is silent, Leon noticing that Charles seems to be lost in thought but he doesn't push it. Eventually the steel coffin slows to a stop and the doors part in the middle, disappearing into the top and bottom of the shaft. The air that greets them is cool and slightly damp, possibly from how far underwater they are now. Charles pays the two other occupants no attention as he quickly exits and makes his way down the corridor and turning left at the end, forcing Leon and Josh to hurry to keep up.
"You want weapons? Pick what you'd like," the card is slipped through the reader and the magnetic lock disengages, revealing an armory that almost rivals that of Chris Redfield's personal stash.
Almost, Leon chuckles at what he knows has been sitting in Chris Redfield's house in Montana.
Josh steps into the room, picks up a T91 with a collapsible stock, pulls the bolt back, and then releases it, "Do you have a spare bag for ammunition?"
"Always," Charles reaches into a locker, removes a small bag, and tosses it at Josh, but Leon catches it.
"Load yourself up and I'll fill the bag," Josh nods at his partner, grabs a tactical vest, and begins loading the pockets with magazines for both the pistol and his rifle.
The next few minutes are spent picking out weapons for Leon, filling the bag with extra ammunition and explosives, and discussing tactics for the monsters that lie ahead, "You said they are based off the T-Abyss virus, right? Exactly how did that virus make that floating bastard upstairs?"
"Researching various wildlife found in the deepest reaches of the ocean, we found an interesting little creature called a Telescope Octopus," Charles slings the sound-rifle over his shoulder and picks up a single HK45, his left eyebrow raising before he quips, "You think that thing was floating?"
"It was floating," Leon says solidly and Josh nods to accentuate it.
The chuckle that leaves their tentative partner's mouth startles them both, "Oh no, see, it walks on several of its arms, or, well, guess you'd call them tentacles. Field-Agents love putting scary names to things all the time… They are the most translucent part of the body so you weren't able to notice them during the fight."
"What did it spray us with when he first walked into the room?" Josh reaches up to swipe some of it from his face, noticing that it has dried into a fine powder.
"That?" Charles reaches up to touch it, but shakes his head and smiles, "That is a potent neurotoxin that feeds on the fear-center of the brain. It causes your mind to overreact, see things, terrible things. It's short-lasting though, so that's a positive."
Leon pulls the slide back on a Desert Eagle and releases it, "Why does the soundwave weapon work on it?"
"The body has been made of a concussive…" Charles struggles with the right words, "Concussion conductive organic material is what they called it. It allows the shriek it releases to be louder than usually possible, but also means that sonic weapons can easily reverberate through the body and destabilize it for a bit of time."
The two men are fully equipped and ready to go, looking at Charles with expecting eyes, "Ah, yes. The map? Here."
A small wrist computer is handed to Josh, who straps it over his left wrist, "Right, then. Shall we continue?"
The blonde agent steps toward the door, smirking before looking back at Charles, "I think you should lead the way… You know where to go better than we do."
"Quite," the response is full of apprehension, which puts both Leon and Josh on edge.
11
A flash of black leather and red cotton between rooftops, the hushed winding sound of steel cable being fed through a hookshot, and finally the soft chuckle of a woman on the edge of darkness, "Almost in position."
"Fantastic news, Wong. You are an hour ahead of schedule, I'll inform your rendezvous target of the earlier arrival time," the voice means nothing to Ada, just like the hundred other voices calling themselves her 'handler' over the years.
Nothing else need be said between them as the spy clears another jump between two buildings, her outfit almost not designed for this type of activity, almost. The package, given to her by Cranston, rests in a shock-proof container at the small of her back and is ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. Some small part of her wonders if there was ever a version of her that would be put off at the idea of possibly killing innocent civilians and children. Maybe once, but that's long been buried by her training and tutelage under Albert Wesker. As the lithe espionage agent glides over another gap, a car alarm blares beneath her, but it doesn't stop her sprint to her destination.
There, three buildings away, a man stands in a perfectly-ironed suit, hands tucked in his pockets as he props one foot up on a small metal crate. Two more jumps, a shot of her hookshot, and one more roll finds Ada Wong standing face-to-face with the man she is to see for the next step of her assignment. No words are exchanged, just a single piece of paper and a match from him to her. This shouldn't feel normal, but it's all Ada's dealt with since she escaped from Raccoon City that fateful night, G-Virus sample intact.
Attach this device to your present and plant in the main courtyard of Ivy University, she chuckles dryly and sets the paper alight with the match provided to her.
Another day, another dollar in the life of Ada Wong.
11
"You want to try that again?" Sherry shuffles the cards in her hands while the men across from her root through their pockets, "Or… Are you all out of money?"
"There's no way a little brat like you could possibly be this good at poker! You're cheating!" he's just as loud as he looks: all tattoos and scars from long-removed piercings.
"Yup," Sherry holds up her arms, showing them she has absolutely nothing up her sleev- well sleeveless arms, "I'm totally hiding Aces and Queens in my armpits here, guys… Sorry to take all your money and run, but all the fun's gone."
The blonde girl steps away from the table, growls as a hand wraps around her left arm, and she spins around, driving her left foot across another man's face, "Is this how it's going to go? Three big strong men attacking a defenseless woman? Have some common sense here, it's not going to go well for you…"
"You bitch!" the man she kicked, wearing a decent suit now covered in blood, jumps up and lunges for her.
Use your small size to your advantage. You won't have much muscle due to your natural body size, so use your hard-points. Knees, elbows, forehead, and shoulders, Leon's voice rings out in her head as Sherry ducks a little bit and quickly shoves her shoulder into the man's stomach, causing him to cough loudly and double-over.
One down and it seems like the other two are going to play it smart, "Thanks for all the cash, gents!"
As Sherry exits the warehouse office to the lively streets of mid-afternoon Tall Oaks, she wonders where she got her sarcastic mouth from, "Oh, right, Leon."
There aren't many memories in her mind of Leon from right after Raccoon City, even with the four or five months they were town-hopping, but she always remembers how sarcastic he was to people who threatened either one of them. Apparently, she wasn't the only one who lost something that night as Leon started to change. From the main street, Sherry hears a form crash through the same door she exited and slam into a parked car, setting off an alarm and drawing the attention of passersby. Blue eyes follow the turn of her head, but instead of locking on the man apparently trying to chase her through a broken nose and swollen eye, they glance up to see a woman's form cross over the alley.
Curious… she pays it no more mind as she is forced to vacate the immediate area as the man screams after her.
Her pockets are full of loose bills and as Sherry turns toward the block where Claire and the others are holed up, she mentally counts her take, Walked in there with a hundred bucks; walk out with over a grand. Suckers.
11
Claire sits next to Jill as she hooks the laptop up to a TV they 'procured' a bit ago, "Hah! Got this bad boy to work!"
"Proud of you, Jill," Chris calls out as he dumps another case of bullets onto the floor in front of him and proceeds to load more magazines with the loose rounds.
His sister smirks at the sight of her brother, almost like he's playing with a container of Legos, "What are we looking at, here?"
"This," the brunette taps away at the keyboard, pulling up a Google Maps image of Tall Oaks, "is how we are going to plan our movements once we start getting information on the B.S.A.A.'s protection details. We know that Adam is going to be giving his speech here," the cursor is circled over a spot of green surrounded by concrete and brick, "Ivy University's main courtyard. So, we can imagine there to be snipers, some helicopters, patrols, and undercover protection."
"Is that all?" it sounds like a monumental undertaking, but Claire knows that getting President Benford to flip on Cranston is the fastest way to bring this all to a close. "Do we have a basic plan so far?"
"I won't be going in, that's for sure," her brother's voice no longer sounds off from Claire's right, but from her left, where she finds him currently making a quick sandwich from the packaged lunch-meats in the mini-fridge Sherry brought in from somewhere.
Where does she keep finding all this stuff?
Jill turns to join Claire in staring at the leader of their little team, "Why is that?"
"Someone has to keep the snipers in check. I can do that from here," he bites into the sandwich, chews loudly because he knows it bothers Claire to no end, and nods toward his perch as he swallows the mashed sandwich, "take a look."
Claire steps up to the balcony, where Chris has his bipod mounted with a Spotter's Scope, and places her right eye against the pad of the scope, "This covers a lot more of the University than I thought it would… Are you sure you're good enough, big bro?"
"Kiss my ass, sis," Chris stands beside her and takes a long drag of the cigarette in his lips before letting the smoke snake around his face with a slow exhale.
"Guys!" Sherry's excited voice is a welcome addition to their little pow-wow, "You'll never guess how good my day was!"
"You've been gone," the redhead checks her watch, "all of four hours, how good can it really b-" and is silenced as the wad of cash is dropped on the table.
What have I released upon the world? Last time I saw you, you were an innocent little girl. You returned to me a card-shark and hustler…
11
Watching Charles move, Leon sees the presence of Government training, something that clearly takes away a bit of humanity as Charles's eyes scan things like it's only about the inorganic details. The blonde man doesn't want to even picture the kind of man he would be if he went through the same training, the same tearing away of his humanity. Josh keeps up with the man he's watching, but Leon continues thinking about the person he would be…
Probably all sarcasm and protocol… Traveling the world, offering my American humor to all those that have no humor at all… the thought makes him chuckle, imagining traveling to far off locations and war-torn areas, battling either corrupt world leaders or maniacal arms dealers.
Another corner is taken, this one leading to a larger room that the trio begins scanning for threats as they make their way across it, Oh man, I'd probably be a lady-killer, dropping pick-up lines left and right, leaving them wanting… Be a real Man of Mystery. Name's Kennedy, Leon S. Kennedy. He stops his walk and shakes his head, I would never, ever, just say my middle initial…
"On your left, Leon," he spins around at Josh's warning and fires a pair of rounds from his Desert Eagle into the face of this monstrosity.
Brackish blood sprays into the air as the malformed creature flips through the air and drops to the ground, no longer moving or breathing. Several more burst from the doors and dark areas of the room, Josh and Charles immediately dropping rounds into the creatures. Leon feels one approaching behind him and he spins around, bringing his right leg up into a roundhouse that flips the creature into the air and down to the ground, where the B.S.A.A. Agent drains another two rounds into its head.
"Are these things supposed to actually overrun and kill us?" Josh's words force a smirk to Leon's lips.
"Maybe," he shoulder-charges another one, "if they were going up against some normal grunts…"
Leon takes a second to actually inspect these mutated humans approaching them. He can see the clear influence of the Trench and its lifeforms in the Virus as this thing before him looks like it has the mouth of an Angler fish. Glancing around he sees a few more nods to the deepest part of the ocean, more horrifying creatures that will definitely give him nightmares for a few weeks after.
Halfway through the room and already they have killed over a dozen of the creatures, "Glad to see these things actually die from a gunshot to the head!"
"Definitely a change of pace from what I saw in Spain..." flashbacks to the infected villagers there almost brings Leon to a stop.
Yeah, this is another nightmare I'll be fighting…
END