Little delay on this chapter, allergies and holidays don't make for a lot of writing time. That and my constant watching of the Halo 3 trailer and my starting of Halo again contributed greatly to that. Speaking of which, for another very excellent videogame KP crossover, check out WesUAH's SPARTAN-487, a very good combo of Halo and KP if I do say so myself.
Special thanks to: Simeon Williams, Darrinx, Godhand's Number, Tangora, YamiDymlos, Zero-Nightmare, Longsworder, Delta Operator, Jak4, DshizNit, swiglo3000, Savior M. Ascend, Mortal Guardian, Cold-Chaos, anarcrothe, Darks00, Jokerisdaking, IncrediRaider8, Otritzi, bahamut9999, Aelis Aisling, no body, hopeless-romantic-nr-one, Chaos Blade, K-R-4-E-V-A, Kei Ikari, KPFan4Life, Leah Phillips, Draft Strangus, whitem, Uzziel, zero9g9, and surfrost for reading and reviewing.
More important info for you all at the end of the chapter, ;)
Chapter 22
Mack the Knife
Kim frowned as she stared out in front of them, much like the rest of them did.
Their path out of this zoo and toward the airport was blocked by what appeared to be a bus that crashed through the wall, cutting off the path they had to take to get out of this place.
"Damn, ok we're taking a five minute breather while we try to figure out a way around this." Vin told the rest of the team, he motioned for Chris, Jill and Carlos to come with him as they scouted.
The rest of them decided to stretch and sit for a while, Drakken and Shego went over to the animal cages, either to look at the now infected animals, or to shoot them, it wasn't clear on which they would be doing. Felix went over by Bonnie and started to check the ammo supply again.
Kim found a park bench nearby and made her way over to it, un-slinging her rifle as she did so. She placed her fingers on her temple and started to rub them, it had been a long day, for her, as it has for the others. In the space of several hours she went from Teen hero, to teen in peril, to nearly dead, to a trained killer, and to a hybrid mutant/human life form. To say it was a lot to grasp in such a short time was a colossal understatement.
The bench shifted slightly as Ron took a seat next to her, protectively wrapping his arm around her, causing her to smile just a little bit.
"How's my favorite Girlfriend doing?" He mused.
"Favorite? You mean there are more?" She playfully roused, raising an eyebrow.
"Just trying to lighten your spirits KP, you look like you could use some much needed Ronshine"
"Tell me about it, I'm still trying to grasp these new moves I have at my disposal"
"Is it as cool as when you got the super strength? 'Cause that was totally Badical"
"Close Ron, but this feels…different somehow. Like it wants to take total control when my mood changes…"
"Is that what happened with the Dolphin back there?" He carefully asked.
"More or less, I didn't even expect it…and before I got it under control I…" Kim placed her head in her hands again and groaned. Now was not the time to be dealing with something like this.
"Try not to worry about it; if it's anything like the Mystical Monkey Power you should have it under control eventually."
"Really, you think so?"
"Kim, I know so, I have full control of these powers after a few engagements with Monkey Fist, after your first time actually using a good chunk of the powers you should get the hang of turning them on and off like that" He snapped his fingers for emphasis.
"Uh huh, like that" Rufus mimicked form his pouch.
"Speaking of Monkey Power, why aren't you using it now?"
"Unfortunately, the Monkey powers enhance my hand to hand combat, or combat with a melee weapon, which is too close quarters for what we're doing now.
"Besides, I get to use all those video game skills I've mastered to good use" He patted the side of the MP5.
"Rest time's over, plan time!" Jill called back to the others.
Groaning Kim picked up her rifle again, she placed her hand on Ron's shoulder, slowly moving it up to his cheek.
"Thank you Ron, for sticking with me through this newest, change"
"No Big Kim, I care too much about you to let something like a super-virus get between us" He smirked.
Kim mirrored his grin as her eyes started to change from Green to Red, causing Ron to get very, very worried.
"…Um…KP…you're not…" He stammered
"You're not what?" Kim spoke in a sultry voice as she grabbed the back of Ron's head and pulled him in for a kiss.
All of Ron's worries melted away with, what had to be the most intense kiss he'd ever received from Kim, it rivaled the one with the moodulator incident it was that good.
Kim pulled back from the kiss, her eyes quickly changing from Red to Green as she grinned at Ron,
"Spankin" she whispered.
Thanks to her newly added strength she was able to drag Ron over to the rest of the group, as he was still in a very stunned state.
"Nice of you two to show up" Chris said with a playful tone.
"What's with him? Is he ok?" Jill asked, motioning to Ron.
"Hey, buddy, you ok?" Carlos nudged Ron.
"Huh, wha?" Ron finally stammered as he came back from his dream world.
Vin just rolled his eyes,
"He's fine, the plan?"
"Oh, right. There is a way around this mess, there's an exhibit entrance and exit just twenty yards to the right of the path, it's clear so it should be easy to get through." Chris spoke.
"So, uh, why are we having this meeting instead of going through this exhibit space?" Bonnie questioned.
"It's because of the exhibit Bonnie, more like its content" Vin answered.
"Just what happens to be the content?" Drakken asked.
"Sharks, specifically Bull and Tiger sharks" Jill said.
"Did…did you just say sh-sharks?" Felix stammered.
"Is there an echo here? Yes sharks, and lucky for us it's the two most vicious of the sharks too." Vin answered, sounding a little annoyed.
"What do you mean two most vicious?" Ron asked.
"None of you watch shark week? We have the swimming trash can that will try anything, and we have the shark that is very possessive of what it bites"
"Possessive? How so?" Shego asked.
"Once it bites you, you're pretty much SOL of getting away in one piece, and if they've gotten the virus in their system they'll be tougher." Vin yanked the magazine out of the AR-15 and checked the ammo.
"So they're behind glass right? We don't have to worry about them" Bonnie surmised.
"Don't be so sure of that" Chris said quietly.
"What do you mean by that?" Shego asked.
"Exactly what you think he meant" Vin said as he slapped the magazine back into the rifle before yanking on the lever at the back of the handle.
Everyone was silent as they thought it over, none of them wanted to test what he meant.
"Now let's get through this thing"
Vin led the group towards the entrance to the shark exhibit, peering into the viewing area the visitors always stayed in.
The place was pitch black, the only sounds in the area was that of a single drip of water splashing against the concrete floor. The heavy Plexiglas windows were on the right, and they too were completely black, hopefully meaning that the sharks couldn't see them.
"Everyone got their lights?" Vin called back.
The rest of the group showed the flashlights they picked up when they previously went for the long boots in the store; He had them grab the lights just in case it was really dark in the sewers.
"Cool, this gun has a light built right in" Ron joyfully exclaimed as he clicked the light on the gun on.
"Ok, lets get through this quietly and carefully, they may not see us, but they could hear us so keep the chatter low." Vin clicked his flashlight on as he started into the tunnel.
He scanned the walls, his light bouncing from floor to wall to ceiling, making sure as to not shine it on the Plexiglas windows, the dripping water echoed throughout the tunnel.
He placed his hand back at the others and motioned for them to follow. Soon the area was full of darting flashlight beams as they slowly made their way into the tunnel.
There was another reason to be careful in this unlit space, the tunnel was roughly fifty yards long, with a slight right hand curve near the center to allow a better view of the tank, so they were not able to see if it was all clear up through the tunnel. They also didn't know if anything waited for them at the other side.
They moved quietly through the tunnel, the dripping water was now joined by the sounds of footsteps on the concrete as they slowly inched into the tunnel.
"So far so good" Chris whispered.
"Chatter, minimum!" Vin hissed back, sounding very pissed.
He had a good reason for being pissed, being in this scenario before; he knew that when ever someone said something like that, it ended up blowing up in their faces. Call it superstition, call it paranoia, call it whatever you want, but it always worked without a hitch, and he dreaded what the repercussion of saying that would be.
Another sound joined the chamber, causing Vin to halt his advance as he listened to the sound.
"What is that?" Jill asked as she scanned the wall.
"Sounds like someone's rubbing sandpaper on something" Carlos said.
"Sandpaper on Plexiglas…" Vin said quietly.
He quickly brought the light over to the window, just in time to see the tail of a shark brush against the window before it disappeared into the inky black depths of its tank.
Vin flicked the AR-15 to the fully auto setting, as he continued to scan the window. Another thing from watching shark week that he picked up was that sharks skin has a rough texture…like sandpaper. The sharks knew there was someone in the viewing area.
"Pick up the pace" Vin whispered as he started back down the tunnel.
They heard the rubbing sound again and again; only each time they went to look all they caught was the tail flicking away from the windows, making each of them very, very worried.
They finally reached the halfway point in the tunnel, when Vin halted them again as he scanned ahead, so far it looked clear and they probably wouldn't run into anything when they got out of the tunnel, thankfully.
"Kim, do you smell that?" Ron asked as he looked around him, sniffing the air, Rufus did the same thing, trying to see what it was.
Kim sniffed the air, but didn't get anything; she started to focus on trying to smell, allowing some of the power to run through her, advancing her senses.
"Smells like, salt water?" Kim asked as she looked around.
Vin immediately turned to her.
"What did you say?" He asked, almost in a panic.
"I said it smelled like salt water" Kim replied, noticing the look in his eyes.
Vin spun to the center window, shining the light all around the seams he stopped the light when he came to the top of the window, allowing the others to see what he found.
The windows where bolted in place, and caulked into place to prevent leaks, however at least ten of the thirty or so bolts that held the window in place where gone, and small amounts of water leaked out from around the window, which was the cause of the drip they've been hearing.
"Oh, crap" Ron muttered.
Vin slowly started to bring the light down, bringing it across the window. Suddenly from out of the darkness, a very large shark zoomed straight at the window, surprising everyone by its sudden appearance as it smashed face first into the center window.
The force of the impact forced another eight bolts from the window as they shot out with tremendous force, bouncing on the wall across from the window, the window itself cracked in a very large spider-web formation as water started spraying from the joints of the glass.
"RUN!"
All at once everyone started sprinting towards the far end of the tunnel, the impacts reverberated again and again as more sharks smashed full force into the windows, trying to get to them.
With roughly ten more yards to go one of the windows behind them gave way, allowing the salty water from the tank to rush into the hall with alarming speed and force, knocking them off balance. Vin was pushed into the steps leading up and away from the tank; he quickly spun around towards the rest of them.
The water level was increasing by the second, and he knew they had at least one shark in the tunnel already.
"Come on, Come on!" He screamed as Jill and Carlos rushed by him, they both stopped to try and help the others get up and out.
Next was Chris, closely followed by both Ron and Kim, who quickly climbed up and out of the tunnel.
Drakken held Shego's hand tightly as they held onto the center banister and made it over to the stairs, they wasted little time getting out of there.
The water was already about waist deep now, and Bonnie and Felix were still in there.
Their lights scanned the surface of the water, looking for them, Bonnie was spotted first, she was close to the railing that was in the center of the tunnel, and completely drenched she struggled to get over to the steps which were just out of reach.
"Come on, Bonnie Come on!" He shouted as he reached out for her hand.
He was able to grab her wrist, and with the added help of Chris and Carlos pull her up the steps and to relative safety. However they were still missing one.
The water had to be about neck high by now, which would make Felix's survival diminish rapidly, being as he was wheelchair bound.
"FELIX! FELIX!" Vin called, hoping to spot him in the water.
After what seemed like minutes Felix broke to the surface, clinging to his wheelchair, which turned into a hovercraft like vessel.
Vin then caught sight of the dorsal fin roughly twenty feet behind him, which fluttered back and forth, propelling the shark towards him.
"Hurry Felix, Hurry!"
The chair started moving rapidly towards the stairs as Felix tried to climb back into his seat.
The shark closed the distance between it and Felix rapidly, drawing near five feet of him. Vin could see the top of its head start to break from the water, its eyes, glowing bright red as they broke the surface. Its mouth wide open as it reached Felix.
Three feet away from Vin the shark struck, grabbing both of Felix's legs, as it bit down the water around them filled with blood. Vin was initially shocked that Felix wasn't screaming in pain, but remembered that he was wheelchair bound. But even though he couldn't feel it, didn't mean he was going to be ok after this.
"Come On!"
The sharks eyes rolled into its head as it released its hold of Felix's legs, just as it's teeth pulled out of his flesh it lunged forward again, this time biting into his waist, electing a very painful scream from Felix as the teeth dug deep into his skin.
Felix lost his grip on the chair, just as it raced up the stairs, leaving him stranded in the water, Vin leaned out as far as he could, and Carlos and Jill made a human chain, allowing Vin to reach way out to hopefully grab a hold of Felix.
He grabbed hold of his left hand, gripping it tightly so not to loose hold, the shark stayed locked on his waist, leaving him crying in agony.
"Pull me up! Pull me up!" Felix cried, as the shark slowly inched up to his stomach.
Vin was pulling with all his might, trying to free him from the grasp of the shark, which was until The shark bit into his stomach, on his next scream Felix's mouth spit his own blood out, which didn't bode well.
"Someone shoot the son-of-a-bitch!" Vin shouted back to the others.
Jill released her grasp on the railing, bringing her assault rifle up to her shoulder she started firing short bursts into the snout of the shark, the rounds punched holes in the shark's flesh, small trickles of blood poured out of the wounds, its grip slackened.
Felix was now partway up the rapidly diminishing steps when the critical round ripped into the sharks right eye, causing it to let go of Felix all together and swim back into the nearly full tunnel. Allowing the three to pull Felix up and out to safety.
Everyone watched as they brought up the now bloody Felix and laid him down not to far from the exit; he was visibly pale from the loss of blood he already sustained.
"Come on Felix, stay with me, Stay with me!" Vin shouted as he checked to see the extent of his wounds.
Blood was trickling out of Felix's mouth as he pulled his shirt up. His flesh was torn in several places, the blood made it hard to see but after cleaning some of it off with his soaked shirt Vin was able to see some of Felix's internal organs, and while that in itself was bad, his stomach and small intestines were punctured in several places, he reached into one of the wounds to pull out a stuck tooth, Felix cried out as he yanked the tooth out of what he could assume was his liver.
"Get some bandages here! Come on!" Vin yelled to the others, but none of them moved.
They all realized it would be a lost cause, they didn't have the proper medical training or equipment to heal him, even if they did his survival would be a long shot.
"Stay with me, come on stay with me!" Vin shouted as Felix's shallow breathing slowed.
Ron leaned down next to his friend, as did Kim, taking his right hand in theirs, tears rolled down their faces as Vin continued fighting his loosing battle to keep Felix alive.
With his last ounce of strength Felix turned to Kim and Ron, giving them the faintest of smiles before his eyes closed for the last time, his arm grew limp in Ron's hand.
"No, god-dammit no! I will not let you die on me!"
Vin started CPR on him, pumping on his chest.
"Come on Felix come on!"
He started pumping again after not finding a pulse.
"He's…gone" Ron said faintly, Kim placed her head on his shoulder.
"No he's not, Come on, Felix!" Vin protested as he started again.
"Vin" Shego said, placing her hand on Vin's right shoulder.
Vin paused briefly, looking back at her angrily.
"He's gone" She said quietly.
Everyone around them was teary eyed, with exception to Jill, Carlos, and Chris, although they looked incredibly down.
Vin hunched his shoulders, defeated. He looked at his hands, which were covered with Felix's blood. He stayed that way for another minute, just looking over his hands.
He grabbed for something to clean the blood off, as he started whipping he noticed what he grabbed was part of Felix's shirt.
"Ah, Dammit!" He rose from his feet, and headed to the now starting to overflow tunnel passage, dipping his hands in the water, either oblivious to the sharks or not caring anymore.
As he pulled his hands up the same shark that killed Felix lunged for Vin's hands. The rage over came him again as he not only moved out of the sharks bite zone, but managed to grab onto it's dorsal fin and amazingly pulled the shark out of the water and slammed it into the ground, no easy feet considering the shark was at least eight feet long.
It started flopping around on the ground while the others looked at the sight, stunned at what they just witnessed.
Now that it was on the ground and out of its environment they got a good look at Felix's killer, which was a bull shark. Blood was still pouring out of its bullet wounds as it slowly suffocated.
Vin forcefully kicked the struggling creature in its left side gills, causing the shark to try and lunge at Vin again, only as it did it received the butt end of an AR-15 to its good eye, the stock of the rifle ripped out some of its skin in the process.
"What the hell are you doing?" Shego shouted at Vin.
"Releasing some frustration, what the fuck does it look like!" He replied as he kicked the shark again.
By now the shark's flailing was slowing, as it started to die. Vin spit on the sharks nose before he started walking away, allowing it to die.
"Bite me fucker" He muttered as he walked back.
Bonnie was able to find a jacket attached to a tree and draped it over Felix's upper half. Everyone gathered around as if to say a few parting words before they left him. As they did Vin took a seat on a nearby bench.
Too much, this is too damn much…
He did a mental toll of how many they lost so far, there were Tara, Monique, Will, Josh, Steve Barkin, and now Felix. They lost six of the survivors in a matter of eight hours, only five of the original nine left alive,
…how many more of them are going to have to die to get out of here…
Shego came by and sat next to him,
"Hey…"
"…Hey…"
"Not doing to well I imagine?" She asked quietly.
"What do you think, six of us are gone…never to be seen again"
"And you're wondering how many more are going to die before we get there right?"
Vin looked at her, baffled.
"How did you…"
"Something I picked up from working with Dr. D, I can tell what's going through your head. It also helps that I was thinking the same thing." She quickly added the last part.
"Is this worth it? I mean, are all of our lives worth risking for this? How many of us are going to be left when we finally get there?"
"I can't answer those questions, but I can say that personally, I'd rather fight for the chance to get out of here rather than sitting around and waiting for the inevitable, I'd guess the others feel that way too."
She got up off the bench, slinging her SMG around her arm.
"Now come on, we can't have these questions now, we need to get the hell out of here"
"You're absolutely right," Vin rose off the bench "And Shego…"
She turned back to him.
"Thanks, for everything so far."
"Don't worry about it now, but you owe me when we get out of here" She smiled as she walked back to the others.
Vin shook his head as a smile crossed his face. At least he felt a little better now, and possibly had something to look forward to after they got out of this.
As he approached Drakken was the one who spoke up first.
"We've lost the shotgun ammo and the hunting handgun"
"You mean the fifty cal.?" Vin asked.
"I mean the Eagle is gone"
"So we still have the revolvers?"
"Yes, but they have maybe two reloads left."
"Damn, ok ditch the shotguns once their empty, Drakken, carry the remaining Glock. Let's try to conserve ammo guys, aim for the head if we come across anything in our way."
"How much time is left?" Bonnie asked.
"Roughly three hours before the area is glassed, and once we're out of the zoo it should be a straight shot to the airport, then we have to deal with Wesker and Will"
They started out again, Ron glanced one last time back at his friend Felix, said a silent goodbye, and turned back to join the rest of them.
"What's the status on the recon team I sent to that location?" FBI agent Morrison asked in the field tent.
"Sir they just reported, six bodies, apparently the guards sir" Agent Hamlin reported.
"Any sign of the families?"
"Negative, however the away chopper reported in just after it touched down, pilot said he spotted another chopper heading toward the airport."
"Damn" Morrison stroked his chin, something he didn't like about this.
"Were we able to get the files Load sent us on Umbrella's previous episodes at least?"
"Yes sir, we're having them examined now, so far Umbrella is going to be in serious hot water when this gets out" Hamlin handed some of the information to Morrison.
Morrison glanced over it quickly, one name stuck out of the report.
"Hamlin, get in touch with Washington, tell them to lock down Global Justice right now, no one goes anywhere, and bring their field agents in as well, make it priority one"
"Yes sir."
Hamlin turned and headed over to the communication area of the tent.
Morrison checked his watch, just over 3 hours till they called the air-force in and the town was glassed. He just hoped that they made it out in time.
They were nearing the end of the zoo, thankfully they didn't run into anything that needed attention so few rounds were fired. There was one problem however.
To leave the zoo, they had to go across a field, a field that was littered with skeletons and rotting flesh.
"Are you sure we have to go across that? I mean it doesn't seem safe." Ron asked, Rufus nodded in agreement.
"We don't have a choice, the entrance is on the other side of the park and would eat up too much time, lets just move quickly so we limit our exposure" Vin said as he hopped the fence.
Shortly after the others followed him, they got halfway across the field when Kim stopped, her eyes going red.
"Run!" She shouted.
Everyone turned to her in surprise, just in time for the ground to shake. The earth near a derelict cabin across the way opened up, and a long giant creature came out of the hole, its tongue darted out of its mouth.
Ron was the first to scream what exactly was on everyone's mind.
"AAHHHHH, GIANT SNAKE!"
You know you all like being left in suspense, come on admit it.
Yes I know, Felix is gone, just be glad I reread Zaratan's Bonnie's curse story before I started the last few chapters because Felix's spot was originally belonging to Bonnie. I just can't bring myself to kill her off. Or can I…
Ok, important story info time.
While I said I hoped for twenty more chapters of this story, and all of you want this story to keep going, its plot has expanded substantially, so much so I'm breaking it into two parts.
What does this mean?
It means that there will definitely be a sequel to this story, it also means that this story is now on short time. I may have enough to get it to 30 chapters, but I doubt it'll go beyond that.
Thanks again to all you awesome readers out there and to those of you who actually bothered to review! (The rest of you are on my no Christmas card list! So get to reviewing!)
Read, Review, and get a response, Or I'll email you a mutant Tiger Shark! Think of it as a shiny cartilage filled puppy!
Oh and for Simeon Williams, if you didn't get my reply, send me a email, the link's in my profile. ;)