Leon Kennedy and the S.T.A.R.S. had been doing a simple investigation of Eckberg's old office when the voice sounded. Leon, always one to play it smart, drew the Beretta from its holster and looked around. Oz and Stryker did the same, and as Leon left the doorway to the office, he finally heard the voice clearly.

"Warning. Warning. All systems unlocked. All doors and storage have been unlocked for evacuation procedures. All personnel are to vacate the vicinity until the source of the disturbance has been located. I repeat, all personnel—

"Shit!" Leon shouted, wheeling around to face Stryker. "What the hell do you think that means?"

Stryker shrugged, helpless. "Listen," he said, nodding to Oz, "Oz and I will go ahead and look around, see what we can do to help. I want you to stay and look around the office. We'll be on contact by radio. Got that?"

Leon nodded, and Stryker nodded in return, dashing off down the long corridor, Oz following close behind. Sighing, Leon turned back into the office, brushing a lock of blond hair out from over his eye. He glanced around the office, wondering exactly where to start.

Due to Eckberg's recent disappearance, his office hadn't been cleared out. There were boxes around, empty, but there none-the-less. Leon furrowed a brow, shifting through some papers on the desk. Nothing too special, he noted, just some production notes, a map of the building, including the maintenance routes and sewer levels. Might come in handy later, he thought. As he shifted through some more, he found nothing else special. Just a…

Leon blinked. He read the opening line of the letter and immediately knew he had found something good.

My dear Melinda,

I'm afraid there have been some very troubling rumors going about the workplace. There's been some kind of discussion about some shady business happening inside, under my nose. That man in the sunglasses, he didn't give me his name, but I knew he worked for Umbrella once. And the woman, too, she's been acting suspicious. And don't even get me started about Ryman. He's the most nervous son of a bitch I've ever met. He doesn't know about the man in the sunglasses, and thank God. He hasn't been talking much...in fact, I think he's avoiding me…

Anyways, I just want you to know, pretty soon we'll be able to get away from all of this. Once the project is complete, I'll be a rich man, and best of all, a free man. Maybe we'll buy a house in the country somewhere and raise the kids right.

Loving always,

Your Alec.

Leon frowned. Man in the sunglasses? The woman? Leon Kennedy frowned deeper when he realized who Eckberg had been talking about. There was no other possibility for the suspicious man in sunglasses.

Wesker.

Albert fucking Wesker.

Having Wesker here meant trouble. Wesker and the word "project" worried Leon to a great deal. And this letter had been to Eckberg's wife. She never received it. And if it was here in the LiveRight office, then that must mean…

Oh my God.

Eckberg is here.

Leon glanced around worriedly, looking out of the doorframe to the office. If Albert Wesker was here and LiveRight had been starting a project, there had to be trouble. He grabbed the walkie-talkie from his belt and spoke into it, pressing the button.

"Captain Stryker, this is Leon. Eckberg is here. He's here! They must be holding him prisoner or something. I found a letter to his wife on his desk. I'm taking it with me. I also found a map of the building, a security map."

Captain Stryker radioed back, "Good work, Leon. And, hey, ain't you a happy son of a bitch. Turns out there are monsters about."

Leon paled. "What kind of monsters?" he said softly, his voice hardly a whisper.

"The fuckin' big-ass lizard type of monsters. Oz and I saw it come through here, a bunch a' LiveRight boys are all over the floor. Big gash marks in their chests and shit. There is definitely some fucked up scientist shit goin' on in here."

Leon swore, slamming his fist down on Eckberg's desk. With a faint rolling sound, something slid out from under it, some kind of hidden compartment.

Leon took it, examining it silently.

Oz Neumann inspected the body of one of the fallen LiveRight guards. It looked like a mauling, but whatever had done this was carrying some big blades. Oz frowned, taking a security card from the fallen mans belt. Turning to face Captain Stryker in his crouch, he caught the man's eyes and said to him, "You know the doors are unlocked now. This could get bad. Very bad. I think we need to find that thing and kill it. Quickly. If it breaks free into the city…"

Captain Stryker nodded quickly, raising a hand. His arm reached around his back to grip the handle of the M-16 he had taken from the guard, Oz doing the same, easing up from his crouch. Captain Stryker jerked the walkie-talkie out from his belt, resting the rifle on his shoulder. He spoke into it, his voice filled with dread, "Alright, Leon. Listen up. Oz and I are gonna go do a little huntin'. When we bag us an oversized croc-man, we'll give you a call."

Leon replied, his voice sounding distracted and soft, Stryker could hardly hear him.

"Yes, sir."

From somewhere in the distance, Stryker heard an inhuman shriek of fury, and the unmistakable rattle of a machine gun. Oz was already running towards it when Stryker turned to face him, and Stryker followed along side of him, turning the corners of vast hallways. The sound of the machine gun was still there, and even though there were many routes to take, the S.T.A.R.S. could tell where the gunfire was coming from. They raced to it, the sound of their footsteps echoing through the quiet halls. The sound of the gunfire was slowly dying out, and the two S.T.A.R.S. members pushed themselves harder to find the source. Stryker was speeding down the hall; the man was tall, the man was buff, but as if this wasn't enough, the man was fast. Oz, on the other hand, was built like a tank, about an inch taller than Stryker and easily thicker. He was extremely buff, the black t-shirt pulled tight over his muscular chest. His baggy grey camo stuffed into his black boots ruffled, the speed of his pace sending wind across his body. They were both quick, but it was obvious that Stryker was the quicker. They sped down the hall to what seemed to be a large lobby area, when the machine gunfire stopped suddenly. As they skidded to a halt into the lobby area, they saw why. Inside, amongst a mass of more bodies, was the creature they were hunting. The big lizard-like thing blinked at them, its yellow reptilian eyes swiveling around to look at them. It roared, tossing the corpse of a broken guard across the room, turning to face them. Its big tail thrashed about, agitated, and Stryker could swear he heard a word amongst its roaring hiss.

"Blooooond," he thought it said, and it leaned back and roared again, though this one was much more high-pitched, and he could swear he saw the skin of a Caucasian man bubble up from the dark greenish brow reptilian scales. Almost as quickly as it was there, it was gone, and the lizard-thing squatted down and snarled. Then, it leapt at them, its legs splayed wide and the clawed-toes spreading about. Its target was Oz, and with lightning reflexes, Oz fired a burst of ammo into the lizard-thing, ducking as its body spun in the air due to the impact of the bullets. Oz rolled from his duck, standing so that he would face the creature again. It got up slowly, its head pivoted on his neck towards him, and it snarled. He saw some weird, blackish-green blood pour from the wounds, along with a slight clinking sound.

Bullets hitting the ground.

The thing was regenerating.

"Shit!" Oz yelled. Unsure as of what to do, Oz stumbled back, looking back between Stryker and the lizard-thing. It was starting to get up, one foot successfully balancing itself on the ground when Stryker finally made up his mind.

"Run!" he said, turning to dash backwards into a large open corridor. Oz darted towards it on Stryker's command as the lizard-thing stumbled to its feet, and began to pursue its prey. Stryker had made it into the corridor first, sprinting in as fast as he could—

--and ran right into the biggest man he had ever seen. He had to have been at least 8 feet tall, maybe even ten. The huge man stared down at him, blinking stupidly. His skin was grey, his body enormously muscled. The right arm of the man was bigger than his left, but then, only slightly. His legs were a little smaller than they should be, for his size, though it didn't seem to hinder walking or anything. It was barely noticeable. Oz followed closely behind, skidding to a halt as he saw the man.

"You have got to be kidding me…" Oz said, the later part of his sentence interrupted by a hissing shriek. It was the lizard-thing again, just down the hall. The huge man's head jerked up towards the beast, and Oz wheeled around to look at it. He could see its leg muscles tense and it leapt at them. They were trapped, and they were both going to die.

The lizard-thing soared through the air, talons hooked, ready to land on Oz and tear him to shreds—

--when suddenly a large grey fist smacked the lizard-thing back, and it shrieked in surprise as it was launched back into the lobby area. The great grey man took a step forward, his step so huge that it put him in front of both the S.T.A.R.S. He turned to them, yelling in a hoarse, broken voice. "Go!" it said, and promptly threw himself at the lizard-thing.

Oz looked in astonishment as the grey man wrestled with the beast, holding it just below the jaw as it clawed at his arm, not affecting him. His great head wheeled around, tossing the small patch of black hair around. "I protect you!"

Stryker yelled to Oz, "You heard the guy! Let's go!" and began running further down the hall, Oz following behind him.

Joe Duke had made his way up the elevators to the floor of the CEO office when he got the shock of his life. Nearly the whole place was destroyed. When coming out of the elevator, Duke noticed the doors that lead to the stairs had been forced open by something pretty big. The hall leading to the CEO office had a bunch of dents and scrapes in it, and when he'd finally reached the office, it looked like a war zone. Despite the massive bloodstain on the ground beside the desk, there were no bodies as it was hinted. The majority of the control consol had been destroyed, but the cameras still worked. He looked up at the wall of cameras, amazed by what he saw. The failed Tyrant project was battling a—

Duke blinked. A Hunter Rex? But the only specimen had been destroyed, he knew. The only person who had a sample of it was—

--Doctor Ryman.

And the good doctor was nowhere to be found.

In less than a half an hour, the entire building was starting to go to hell.