(A/N) This chapter is a bit longer I think, so get comfy.
Disclaimer - This story was written with AI Dungeon just for fun, meaning that some stuff was written by me and others were written by the AI. This results in OOC moments, especially in James' case, and chaotic energy in general. It's also why my writing style is different since this is mostly AI generated.
I also do not own these franchises or their characters. Silent Hill belongs to KONAMI, Resident Evil belongs to CAPCOM, and Final Fantasy IX and NieR:Automata belong to SQUARE ENIX.
Chapter 16: The Heart of the Beast
After what had felt like forever, James and 9S found their way into the underground passageway. It was some sort of catacomb that was filled with traps and electronic locks, but 9S took care of those. There were even zombies that were sent out to get them, but most of them were fed lead by James who dispatched them quickly.
It was difficult to gauge how long the pair had been there for, but what James did know was that his legs were starting to ache. However, they couldn't afford to take a break considering Heather was in danger. The plan was to have James take the lead through the catacombs and 9S serving as navigator.
"We should be only a few yards from where Simmons could be," 9S said with optimism.
James clicked his tongue.
"That's fine and all, Nines, but I want you to say it cooler."
9S cocked his head to the side. "What?"
"Remember? Our code for our destination?"
"Are you serious?"
James nodded.
9S sighed before clearing his throat.
"We're only a few yards from..." he trailed off to look at James who was looking at him expectantly.
He sighed again.
"We're only a few yards from the heart of the beast now..."
"Excellent, exactly what I wanted to hear!" James exclaimed.
"The heart of the beast..." 9S muttered. "Why are you insistent on calling it that?"
James smiled. "Our destination is going to be a little difficult to explain, but we have a damsel to rescue."
If 9S' eyes weren't covered by his blindfold, he would have been seen rolling them. James was about to elaborate when he was cut short by a bone-chilling sound. He could feel 9S stiffen next to him and his heart skip a beat.
"There's something coming."
"What kind of something?" 9S asked. "Nothing's showing up on my radar."
"I don't know," James replied. "But I think we'd better find somewhere to hide."
James led them off the passageway and into a dark alcove.
"What are we gonna do now?" 9S asked.
James was about to answer when a high-pitched whistle pierced the air. It was so loud that it hurt his ears and he had to cover them with his hand.
"What was that?" he yelled.
"I don't know!" 9S yelled back. "I don't see anything."
James didn't know what he was going to do, he just knew that they couldn't stay there. He grabbed 9S' arm and dragged him around the corner and up a flight of stairs.
"We have to keep going!" he yelled.
"Where?" 9S asked, taking a glance behind him. "Where are we going?"
James paused to listen for the sound. "I think I can hear her! Keep going!"
By the time they came to the top of the stairs, James could hear someone screaming.
"This way!"
James and 9S ran for a door at the top of the stairs. They found themselves in what appeared to be a storage room. There were shelves of different sized boxes and crates stacked three high.
"Where are we going?" 9S asked again.
James wasn't sure. He didn't really have a chance to think about it when he saw a woman fly at him.
"Watch out!" he yelled, trying to bat her aside.
Unfortunately, she was much stronger than he'd anticipated and grabbed him by the throat.
"¡Pequeño gusano!" she hissed. "¿Has estado con esos demonios todo el tiempo, no? ¿Como pudiste?"
James tried to speak, but she was squeezing so hard that he couldn't. He couldn't even understand her, so even if he could respond he didn't know how.
"¡Respóndeme!" she shouted.
The man could feel his vision blur as the woman squeezed even tighter. He was sure he was going blue in the face.
"¡Bajalo!" he heard 9S bark in the same language as the woman.
"No," she growled, shaking her head. "No hasta que me diga lo que necesito saber."
"Yo no estaba haciendo una solicitud," 9S warned, pulling out his sword and aiming it at her neck. "Bájalo y luego podemos tener una discusión civil."
"Lo que."
The woman dropped James, leaving him gasping for air. She turned to 9S.
"Lo he dejado caer, ahora dime ¿por qué estás trabajando con esos demonios?" she asked.
"¿Demonios?" 9S asked. "¿Demonios literales, o personas con motivos terribles?"
"¡Gente!" she screamed. "Gente terrible..."
She removed a glove from her hand, revealing a mutated claw arm. "Ellas me hicieron esto."
"¿Quién? ¿La Familia?"
She nodded.
James had regained his breath and turned to 9S.
"What does she want?" he asked.
"She thinks we're working for Simmons and his organisation," 9S explained. "They must have experimented on her judging by her arm."
"Oh..."
The woman spoke up again. "No has respondido a mi pregunta..." she growled.
"Sí," 9S nodded. "No estamos trabajando para ellos, de hecho, estamos en camino de salvar a un amigo de ellos. ¿Sabes dónde estarían realizando una prueba de un nuevo virus?"
The woman nodded. "Justo adelante..."
"Gracias," 9S grabbed James' arm and walked away, leaving the woman behind.
When they were further away, James finally voiced his thoughts.
"What was that? Where are we going?"
"She said that the V-Virus trial was straight ahead," 9S replied, letting go of James' arm.
"And you can speak Spanish?"
9S nodded. "I can speak a range of languages, which came in handy back there."
"You can say that again..."
It was silent for a brief second before they heard Simmons' voice up ahead.
"Ah, took you boys long enough," he laughed.
"Cut the crap, where's Heather?!" James yelled, as he and 9S picked up the pace and ran up to him.
"Heather?" he asked, feigning confusion before laughing again. "Oh, that girl."
"Where is she?" James demanded, he and 9S coming to a stop in front of Simmons.
He shrugged. "I would tell you, but I have a drug trial to be getting to."
"No, you don't," 9S pointed his sword at him. "Return Heather safely or there will be problems."
"Like what?" Simmons sneered. "It goes against your programming to harm humans."
"How did..."
"A little birdie told me," Simmons turned around and pressed a button nailed to the wall.
Bars suddenly appeared behind James and 9S giving them no way to escape.
"I have a proposition for you, James," Simmons grinned. "You know I really like that android you have with you and you really want that girl I captured..."
"What are you getting at?" James growled, standing protectively in front of 9S who had lowered his weapon in confusion.
"You give me him and I'll tell you where Heather is."
"Not a chance! Nines is my friend, I'm not giving him away like an object!"
"Oh, how cute, you gave it a nickname," Simmons mocked.
"I'm right here," 9S spoke up. "And we'll find Heather either way."
"Exactly," James nodded.
"And I will get 9S either way," Simmons grinned. "It works both ways."
Simmons pressed a button on the wall again. Chains snapped around James and 9S, their wrists and ankles shackled together. They were dragged across the tunnel, the chains making loud clanking noises.
James and 9S walked with their heads held high. James knew that he and 9S should have been worried, but they did not give in to their feelings. Instead, they continued to show their defiance and pride. This would be the end of their journey, yet they did not show fear.
"You see, I already have 9S," Simmons said, as the pair stopped walking and their chains rubbed together. "I'm just going to get rid of you, James, and then I'm going to take him and make a few tweaks, see what makes him tick."
"You lay a finger on him and I swear I will make you regret it!" James yelled.
Simmons laughed.
"Relax, I don't want to hurt your friend. I'm just going to make some adjustments to use him as my personal guard. I dont want to be worrying while doing my bio-weapon research."
"You're a sick man."
"Perhaps," Simmons shrugged before grabbing 9S. "But we both know who the real sick man is, don't we?"
He cupped 9S' cheek before shocking him in the neck with a stun gun, making 9S go completely limp in Simmons' arms.
"You son of a..." James yelled, yet he was cut off when he was punched in the face by a familiar green ogre.
It was Shrek from his last mission with Chris. He was out of jail, but how?
Simmons handed the unconscious 9S to Shrek before sneering at James.
"What are you going to make 9S do?" James asked.
"He's an android with an enhanced AI."
"So?"
"So, he thinks for himself," Simmons replied. "You know, like a person would."
"And you're just going to make him your slave?"
"No, I'm going to make him my partner. I'll be able to control him remotely. If he gets it in his head to try to kill me, he'll need to get permission from me first. You see, this will be our little secret."
"He'll never agree to this."
"Oh, that's where you're wrong," Simmons replied. "He'll completely lose his free will once I alter his code. He'll be serving me, doing what I say, no questions asked."
James glanced at 9S who was unresponsive in Shrek's arms, chained up and vulnerable. 9S was kind and would never work with the villain, he'd saved James on many occasions. He didn't want to give up on him.
"I don't believe you..." James said, before his voice stopped in his mouth. He knew he was beaten.
"No hard feelings, James, you were a good foe. I beat you fair and square. Perhaps someday we'll do battle again, but this is the last you'll see of me, I assure you. And it'll all be for the best. I'm just going to go and let you rot in prison, as you should have done when you had the chance. If you think about it, you were never that smart to begin with. I mean, you were always a fighter, but that's about it. You're no super-genius."
Simmons removed 9S' blindfold and approached James, removing his chains before handing it to him.
"Keep this to remember him by," he smirked, turning around and walking further into the catacombs with Shrek walking behind him.
James looked down at the blindfold and blinked tears out of his eyes.
"I'm sorry, Nines."
"Don't be..." he heard what sounded like the voice of 9S coming from his walkie-talkie, he sounded drained, weak.
Frantically, he took it out of his pocket and stared at it. There was no sound.
James held back his tears. "Nines..."
He pocketed his walkie-talkie and began to move forward. "I'll save you..." he whispered. "I'll save you if it's the -"
But the rest of his words were cut off when he was knocked to the ground with a sudden blow to the head from behind.
The last thing James saw before fading into blackness was the sight of Wesker, who also should be locked up, gleefully taking the blindfold off him and taking a lighter to it.
Well... this story is going somewhere.
And I'll clear this up quickly, I added the Spanish dialogue, not AI Dungeon. I kind of wanted to make a nod to Resident Evil 4 where the enemies speak Spanish and since my Spanish isn't good... I committed the crime of using Google Translate.
Here are the translations for the dialogue. It's gonna be wrong, I'm aware:
¡Pequeño gusano! = You little worm!
¿Has estado con esos demonios todo el tiempo, no? ¿Como pudiste? = You've been with those demons all along, haven't you? How could you?
¡Respóndeme! = Answer me!
¡Bajalo! = Put him down!
No hasta que me diga lo que necesito saber = Not until he tells me what I need to know
Yo no estaba haciendo una solicitud = I wasn't making a request
Bájalo y luego podemos tener una discusión civil = Put him down and then we can have a civil discussion
Lo que = Whatever
Lo he dejado caer, ahora dime ¿por qué estás trabajando con esos demonios? = I've dropped him, now tell me why are you working with them demons?
¿Demonios? = Demons?
¿Demonios literales, o personas con motivos terribles? = Literal demons, or people with terrible motives?
¡Gente! = People!
Gente terrible... = Terrible people...
Ellas me hicieron esto = They did this to me
¿Quién? ¿La Familia? = Who? The Family?
No has respondido a mi pregunta... = You haven't answered my question...
Sí = Yes
No estamos trabajando para ellos, de hecho, estamos en camino de salvar a un amigo de ellos. ¿Sabes dónde estarían realizando una prueba de un nuevo virus? = We're not working for them, in fact we're on our way to save a friend from them. Do you know where they'd be performing a trial of a new virus?
Justo adelante... = Just up ahead...
Gracias = Thanks
I'll add that Shrek belongs to Dreamworks, since he appeared briefly.
And that's it for this Author's note.
Improvements are appreciated, please tell me what I did right, wrong and how I can improve. If you would like, you could also favourite and follow this fic, as well as suggest areas of improvement, which I guess is the same as the first sentence. R&R and thanks for reading!
