Author's Note: Well, here we shall seem more action then anything else. I insure some depth to Leon pretty darn soon. Along with bringing in our lovely RE characters.

Chapter III: Survival of the Fittest

Leon never heard them come as they surrounded the torn down confessional. It happened so quickly when they attacked. They were ambushed by a whole horde of villagers and their huge seven foot, shotgun wielding creatures.

He felt the butte of a gun against his spine as he watched them grab Madeline. Her screams were the last he heard before he fell unconscious.

I heard the screams far off in my sleep. Madeline was screaming, and I could not find her. I couldn't open my eyes to the new voices. They kept talking about Madeline, and how they would find her secret. Then the voices directed their attention to me, and how I would become their next subject.

I couldn't move as they talked about me. They knew a lot about me, because they knew about Pueblo and the Las Plagras.

"He will be the most exquisite subject since 'Enigma'. No doubt he will be a success for Sir Spencer," was all I could truly make out through my grogginess.

Damn it, where was Madeline? Is she safe?

Leon slowly awoke with a slight burning sensation crawling up his body. His eyes opened slowly to the pain, and everything was unfocused to him as he attempted to examine his surroundings. There were several robed figures around him as he finally noticed.

"Ah, you are awake now American agent," one of them spoke to him.

They all came closer, into the light, as their old decrepit laughter filled the dungeon room.

"Who the hell are you all?" he winced.

Another of the cloaked figures responded this time, "Who we are should not concern you, but rather what we have become. We have become gods, and so will you."

Then Leon felt it, felt something moving. Except it felt like a million things were slithering their way through his body, and he cursed himself for letting this shit happen again.

"You shall obey us, and spread our righteous wing to others. Make the world know that Umbrella and Sir Spencer still exist," they all rejoiced as one of them placed a large vile of what seemed to be the virus down upon the table.

Leon continued to struggle against his bindings to no avail. Then a sound from above came, the sound of glass shattering as the roof came in. The sound of something slamming the ground above them tore fear suddenly into the cloaked figures.

Suddenly the ceiling caved in as dust and debris blurred his vision with the screams of the men going into total chaos.

"Enigma!" they all kept wailing.

His vision attempted to focus as a blurry shadow dropped in the middle of the chaotic mess. From this womanly figure what appeared to be tentacles shot from where her hair should have been. Her lively hair attacked and massacred all the villagers and cloaked men in the room. As they fell their cloaks fell and they were all deformed and mutated middle aged men. Their eyes shining a dying red as their lab coats underneath contrasted, filthy from years of no wash.

Finally the dust and screams died as a sole pair of bloody red eyes watched him. Before him stood a womanly figured creature; her skin texture was like that of a snake, and her eyes were a haunted feature of a reptile.

"Shit, what a situation I'm in," he sarcastically made note of.

He knew as she approached him slowly that he would be killed like the cloaked men. Her full form became clear to him finally as she met him face to face. There appeared to be fang-like blades attached to the sides of her arms, and her hair were not tentacles, but rather snakes that were a part of her. They hissed and even snarled at Leon as she drew closer. Her eyes though, there was something behind them. She was like no creature or bio-weapon before with those eyes. It was like she could understand him, as if she had a human conscious thought.

Slowly she stopped a mere foot in front of him, and he felt one arm loosen as if something sharp tore through the steel. Before his arm could go anywhere, it was in the palm of her hand. She raised his arm so that he could see it, and suddenly a shock of pain wrenched through his body as she grasped him tighter. Then he finally saw what she wanted him to see, his skin was discoloring upon the entire arm. The pain shot directly to his chest as it made sense. The villagers injected him with their virus, and she was only confirming it to him.

"Damn it, they weren't lying. I was hoping they were playing chicken bluff with me," he said in frustration.

Suddenly he pushed himself against the vertical table as her other claw reached out for his face. Her index finger's claw gently touched his face making a faint line down his cheek. Her touch was electrifying to every inch she made contact with. Then a sudden snap echoed as the rest of his body was released. As he came off the table, the woman creature had stepped back.

The sounds of the villagers screams outside were not to far off, and Leon knew he couldn't stay here long unarmed. As he looked around, the woman kicked aside a body, slamming her fist through the wooden floor. As the door began shaking from the villagers pounding, Leon moved to the secret passage she unveiled beneath the small church. He leapt down into the poorly lit under passage as he watched the woman cover the passage with bodies and other heavy objects.

Leon took in his new surrounding to find piles of bones. It seemed this small church had a deep secret with these catacombs. He cautiously moved down the lightly lightned catacomb with quiet footing.

"Walking through an underground grave, hunted above by deranged Europeans, a bio-weapon helped me out, and to top the ice cream I'm unarmed."

He needed to get out of here in haste, because he needed to find Madeline. Losing her was one thing he wanted to avoid while here. He hoped nothing drastic happened to her. She had said she was sick, and this kind of change could really damage her health.

As he walked through the deserted catacombs he could hear in the not to far distance a low grumble. After walking for several more minutes, he found himself in a large, dimly lit pit room. There was only one walking across the dark abyss.

"I know this is not a good idea," he said to himself.

He kicked his mind mentally as he began what felt like walking the plank of a pirate's ship. As he made his way across a low snarling growl drew closer as it seemed to echo all around him in the darkness.

Then it happened suddenly like a flashing moment; before him something landed and tore away from its ball-like form. In front of him stood a large deformed feline creature, and it continued to snarl at him as it approached, and that by instinct had Leon moving back.

"Great, big ass kitten has come for some tuna," he said until he heard a new, different, snarling sound coming from behind.

He had to only turn slightly to be eye to eye to a creature similar to the feline except it was a canine. Its nostrils flared as it bared its teeth at him, and he could feel the hot smoggy breath of the creature.

Slowly he moved forward, back towards the smaller of the two large creatures. The various deep growls and snarls surrounded him along the vast walls, indicating to him the growing numbers of both species. So, with his choice made, his reaction time suddenly felt enhanced, as he dodged the first claw strike to climb up the other feline's arm. Once he reached the shoulder, he pushed off the feline to send his fist into the skull of the creature. He couldn't believe the damage he created when his entire lower arm sank through the skull, which in turn delivered an instant kill.

He turned quickly to the advancing canine with a smirk. It seemed his body would have to be his weapon for now against these slow beasts of burden. Then the pain took over him suddenly as he fell down to one knee holding his chest. It felt like someone took a grasp of his heart, and was crushing it in their hand.

There was nothing he could do as the deformed canine advanced upon him with now another feline creature close behind.

The sound of gunshots rang out from a far as the canine creature stumbled back into the feline. Leon watched as the feline pounced the canine, immediately tearing him apart as its other companions joined it. Soon a whole horde of felines and canines were fighting along the narrow walkway.

"Leon!" a familiar female voice echoed from behind him in the shadows.

He turned from the bloody carnage, and used all his will to stand and limped his way to the other side of the underground pit. Finally he was back in a narrow hallway, but ahead a shadow figure stood there provocatively with their handgun.

"What a wonder that I needed to save you again Leon," she spoke again.

He looked up at her breathing heavily as he replied, "Ada."

To Continue…