Disclaimer: I do not own any Resident Evil characters or Resident Evil terms but I do own anything else that is original, Kronos virus, everything about the project and much more coming in the next chps.
Chapter Five: Ruin and Reunion
NO!
She fought against it. Clawing her arms to grasp on something. Anything to pull herself up.
But all she was grabbing was nothing. Her body was sinking deeper and deeper into the cold blue void.
No! No! No!
Was she stuck? Iria veered down to find what was dragging her. The broken piece of metal was indeed right behind her, a part of it yanking at her clothing.
Her gun holster? Her coat? She desperately searched for the tangle, yanking harder and harder but in vain.
Her lungs were screaming for air and her head pounded from the ocean's pressure.
In other words, she was going to die.
Drown in the sea. Truthfully, it sounded a lot better than dying to the virus.
But to die now...the thought terrifyingly made Iria struggle even more as the iciness was sucking her energy out of her muscles.
No, she couldn't die right there, right now.
She had too many things to resolve. Too much at stake.
So much to do. So many broken promises to repair and keep.
She still hadn't assured that those kids were off the island, away from the unleashed nightmare...
"You really should cease your naivety." The memory of that shmuck, cruel smile on Wesker's face flashed in her mind. "You can't save everyone."
She hadn't even given him a bullet with his name on it yet...
The scientist had always been teased that she had half the luck of an Irish. It was a running gag among her closest colleagues before the outbreak and one she didn't hold too much of a grudge.
Sadly, it seemed to have run out.
All of her sins have eventually outweighed it.
I'm sorry...
The freezing cold urged her to give up, which she obliged.
This was her punishment. The eleven years of her mistakes had finally caught up to her.
I'm so sorry...
With her fighting spirit ceasing its revolt, she let herself descend deeper into the abyss.
Into regret...
Then something gripped her feeble hand.
Her body was pulled up, the very hand grasping tightly for dear life on whatever it was. At the near brink of losing consciousness from lack of oxygen, Iria glanced up at her rescuer, who glared back at her with furious blue eyes.
Claire had quickly untangled her off the wreckage.
Sluggishly and without eardrums being ripped by pressure, but just steadily enough without losing air, the two women burst out of the surface.
Iria clutched onto the edge of the pool, gasping profoundly and coughing out the saltwater. The TerraSave member pulled herself out first and with everything she had, hauled the scientist up by her lab coat.
"You are not getting off that easily!" the woman hissed at the blonde.
Another pull and the scientist was on solid concrete.
"I don't know the whole story yet," Claire began, rising up. "But after this, you're going to tell me everything."
Iria stared at the brunette in bafflement but gradually that changed to a scowl – that statement was an insult to her, readily painting her a coward. If they were to survive the current ordeal, of course.
"I won't take a no." Claire turned back to the fight on ground level, watching the green monster battle against the hound. Uncanny, she admitted to herself. Seeing Steve go head on against the monster dog while her mind tried to wrap how she could dive in to help him. She would not lose him again. "Now get out of here before you get hurt."
Behind her back, she heard the scientist shuffle onto her feet. Strangely, her footsteps were getting closer rather than further.
"Like I'll run away with my tail between my legs after all this hell."
Not what Claire expected, seeing the woman in white stand forth. Not a cowardly person who valued her intelligence far more important than lives. The hazel eyes glowered out determination that spoke in volume.
As if this woman had looked into the abyss and crawled out of it many times. Something too familiar for Claire herself.
"There are many things I know, Miss. And one of them is how to disorientate these things," Iria snapped, her hand slipping down to the back of her belted pouch.
She pulled out what looked like a test-tube. Clear liquid. She readied her arm far back.
"Kiddo!"
The cry poked at Steve's attention. On the spot, he was greatly relieved to see both women alive. Until he noticed the tube in Iria's hand.
He sidestepped a bit.
CRACK!
The glass shattered onto the huge two-headed dog and clear liquid exploded, dripping down the wrinkles of its hide. For a faction of a section, the two heads glanced curiously. Sniffing. Its legs then wobbled unsteadily.
"NOW SUCKERPUNCH HIM!" Iria yelled.
All four eyes barely registered the swinging green clenched fist. The sound of bone breaking ruptured in one of its jaws as the left head slammed into the right like a Newton's cradle. The monster dog crumpled, its whole body skidding across the floor.
"What-"
"Odorous liquid. Now help him any way you can!"
"Wait! I can't-"
"This is not my first time in an outbreak," Iria barked, drawing out a black handgun. "Now go!"
BANG! BANG!
There were too many surprises Claire was experiencing in just one day – one of them being the scientist dead aiming at the right head of the giant mutt, each bullet pulverizing into the softer half.
"Claire!" Slipping down the ladder, Leon leapt to the lower floor and immediately fished out his gun.
"Shoot the dog! Not Steve!" Claire quickly hollered.
Leon cast out his widened eyes under furrowed eyebrows but he couldn't criticize. Two BOWs were a problem but having one titan against another on a field beyond their level was better than nothing.
If he had to pick, the giant dog had to go. Quickly. For every howl it rung, more Shades were flocking to its calling. Most of them wore the orange jumpsuit of prisoners. A damn siren, the dog was becoming and adding more problems onto their plate.
He shot two down at the head.
Two battles within the hydrodam area – one on the catwalk and one at the bottom. A few Shades tumbled off from the top, only to add more trouble below while the howling drew more and more enemies from every entrance and exit of the ground floor. Many of the survivors had to switch to their held melee weapons in order to conserve their ammo.
CRACK!
Every time a small mod was approaching, Iria pitched more of the test tubes away from the team. The half-dead quickly drew to the clear splatters like flies to honey.
Only to be riddled by ammunition.
A sound touched at Claire's ears as she saw to her happiness, a HCF corpse from above and in his possession, two grenades. Hurriedly, she yanked them off the dead guy and tossed one without its pin at one of the sweet-scented spots of gathered half-deads.
They were disintegrated by the blast in seconds.
"GAAAAROOO!"
The green tyrant managed to grip one of the heads, his claws between a pair of jaws. With Steve's inhuman strength, he stretched the jawbones far apart, easily snapping them like a twig.
CRACK!
"GAAAAAAAAAAROOO!" A more horrific wail fled out of the other head at the agony of its twin's lockjaw. Legs buckled underneath it as it struggled against the pain and the drowsiness – completely distracted for its other good head to be in a deadlock.
"GRAH!" Using his own body like a top, Steve swung the mutt away, the hairless mass slamming into the side of machine and dropping to the concrete floor.
The amount of brute force and flying bullets had to have killed it.
He mentally cursed to himself as the mutt arose back on all four weak legs. In the back of his head, the monster side acting – what he considered partly a Jekyll and Hyde version of a voice of reasoning – grunted at him to stand his ground. Like he had any other choice. This mindless animal would easily bite off his head!
Then all of a sudden, the mutt choked forward. The two heads arched down as if trying to cough out a trapped hairball from either esophagus but struck far deeper at the internal fork.
Horrid liquid slicked out from a creeping wound in-between the heads, the thick reeking smell of death riding into his hypersensitive nose. Oh fuck. Now what?
Instead of coming out from either mouth, a large mass of heat and flesh vomited out from the stretching gap, held from the inside by a revolting excuse of an umbilical cord. The coffin of webbed meat, guts and pus laid before the exhausted and collapsed mutt like a horrific metaphor of vomit projectile-induced birth. He could have sworn, with his hearing and sight, that he heard and even saw a heartbeat quivering from within the cocoon walls.
"Eew." He couldn't help but whine, stepping back. That was just nasty.
The monster part of his mind faintly howled him to kill it. Stomp it. Rip it to pieces. The enemy had exposed its 'heart' out in defeat. Rid of it and the brute he put far back in his head would be the triumphant one. Steve agreed to some extent – more out of protecting the trio with him. However, he waited instead, cringing more at the stench and the ghastly, pulsating casket of pulp.
Control. He had to be in control.
"Please tell me that's its weak spot!" Claire hollered, noting the meat coffin over the sea of Shades they were dealing with. Leon fixed his handgun at it, ready to pull.
"Might as well find out," he uttered.
BANG! BANG!
The coffin tremored at each shot and the mutt stooped up in agony.
"GAAAAROOO!"
A couple of shots more and it would end the fight, Leon told himself.
Out of the team, only Iria looked harder at the slopped mass of flesh with frightened puzzlement. It was then her face molted into horror. Hazel eyes wide. Mouth gapped open.
She honestly wished she was just blind.
"Odell?"
There was a face she recognized. Within the disgusting human-sized cocoon, a face peered out of the organic end. It was a face of a human. In his forties. Panting tiredly.
The name shocked the green monster too.
"Odell!" Iria cried out at the familiar human.
The cry alerted the security officer from above that he darted to the side. He too, stared down with bugged out eyes.
"Chief!"
Leon lightened his finger off the trigger in horrid awe. Sure enough, he spotted the dying human face through the fleshy webs. This kind of scene immediately reminded him of the twisted face of another being eaten up by a parasitic virus from '98 and at once, he held back down his finger on the trigger. As sad as it was that this was a well-known personnel to Iria and Kent, he knew what the outcome was, nevertheless if the host was still in his right mind or now.
"Stop! Don't shoot him!" Iria pleaded, waving her arms to Claire and Leon to lower their guns. The two stared at her wordlessly, their weapons still steadied until they had no choice but to aim at more wandering Shades.
She wheeled back to the flesh breathing coffin quickly.
"Odell!" Without thinking, the scientist ran.
Leon darted forward, only to be halted by a Darkened. That woman was putting herself in danger! "Stop!"
"Doc! No!"
Iria was grabbed by the arm, stopped instantly by the green monster that it nearly took her off her feet. She didn't care.
"Let go! We got to save him!" she yelled. "Odell!"
Easily and carefully, Steve wrapped both arms around the panicking scientist. She flayed about to weasel out. But she couldn't. The kiddo already had the upper hand for her sake.
"Steve! Let me go! Odell!"
The constant yelling over the Shades' growling and stampeding seemed to raise the sleepyhead inside the cocoon. The man, barely a chief anymore, noticed them.
"M-McLenlan..."
It was a gurgling and feeble sound. Iria stopped her brawling and stared aghast at the man.
He's still alive! Iria hollered from inside. There was still a chance.
That chance died inside of her when Odell spoke out.
"Kill me."
It was a beseech Iria didn't want to hear, coldly running inside her chest.
"You have to kill me... I-I can't control... The noise..." The man in the meat coffin hunched down his head, trying helplessly to cover his ears but with both hands inside the cocoon, he could only groan agonizingly. "The noise..."
"Odell..." The blonde's face soured with bleakness. She quivered in Steve's arms – it was a request she couldn't do to another co-worker. To anybody.
And yet the logical side of her brain was already telling her there were no other options. She would only be prolonging his pain and even the team's danger if she let him live.
"P-Please...kill me...before I lose it again."
Shuddering behind the meat coffin. The giant two-headed dog slowly climbed back up, sipping the biological cord back into itself like a spaghetti.
"No! Odell!"
There was nothing anyone could do but watch the cocoon be devoured back into the split of the canine beast like a hyena chunking in a whole heart.
"GAAAARRROOO!" it roared.
"Odell!"
"Doc!" The green tyrant called out, striding back from the awakened dog with the scientist still trying to break out from his arms.
"Let me go! Odell!"
"Doc! Stop!" Steve wailed, forcing her to see eye to eye. "You know as well as I do. It's too late!"
It snapped her out but the distressed face from the scientist didn't make it any better. He was the clear reminder – takes one to know one. To have been unwillingly turned into an infected Guinea pig once and lose his mind to the thirst for blood. To the monster part of his wrapped persona.
Steve wished for another way for the suffering chief of security. Just as he had been wishing that he wasn't the way he was right now.
"Steve! Look out!"
The internal conflict was a split second, Steve returning back to more dire problems thanks to Claire's cry. However, the two-headed creature was already heading towards them with flashing teeth.
He shoved Iria back away and took the chomp on his shoulder.
"Steve!" Claire aimed her gun but didn't pull in fear of hitting the green monster.
"Hostia!" Iria cursed at her negligence, rushing back up to help the big guy with another pitch of a test-tube far to the right. His back was open for another pack of Shades, ready to leap onto him while his attention was all on trying to unclench the jaws off him.
One didn't waver to the alluring smell. Iria leapt onto the Shade with a drawn out taser in hand.
She stabbed hard into the back of its neck, frying it up from the inside.
"GAAAARRROOO!" Fire raged out as the mutt pulled out, gums burned off by the red and surprisingly combustible blood of his prey.
An opening! Steve seized the dog by one neck and flung it across the floor, into another horde of three Shades – their small bodies crushed under the weight of his opponent.
A fizzing sound echoed from above. The short burst of impulsive fire tickled at the sprinklers above. Great, a drizzle in the middle of a zombie boss fight.
Steve peered at the bite wound. It stung badly by the dribbles, the small embers from inside his own flesh closing the holes up like one would stab a heated rod onto a severe bleeding wound. As much as he has hated his new body since the first time, the only benefit he ironically appreciated was his blood's defensive and healing properties.
The mutt slowly got back up and the three shooters took to filling it with more bullets into its hideous hide. Now wasn't the time to stop, Steve told himself.
Ka-Chak!
BAM!
Pellets flew into a charging Shade on the catwalk, its body flopping over the edge. Another swarmed towards Kent, still trying to reload his next shells. He clicked close his empty weapon and instead, greatly swung the hilt into the Shade.
"Duck!"
His eyes widened at the sight of a spray can behind him and he immediately dropped down. A dragon's breath erupted above him, swimming out of the gas stemmed through Rebecca's held out lighter, and engulfed two walkers. They wailed terribly as their flesh burned off, igniting a reaction inside them to convert into Darkeneds.
"Bloody-!" He had to admit, that was bold of her. "You are ballistic!"
"Get up!" The small woman quickly hauled the Aussie onto his feet and fired her gun again at the blackened beings, giving him time to reload.
Click! Click! Click!
Her hand quickly and frightfully searched for a new cartridge in her pouch but on such a narrow platform with both ends covered, Rebecca felt a little suffocated. Scared. Like the train ride back in Raccoon City.
She almost froze as one, still unfazed by all of her bullets into its chest, picked up the speed with stretched out claws.
The shotgun barrel quickly slipped up to the Darkened's blazing red mouth.
BAM!
Its head, skull and all fractured apart into flying pieces.
Kent turned to the second Darkened.
BAM!
"Keep at it!" he uttered out, quickly chucking in his next two shells. "Faster we clear these bastards, the faster we help them below!"
Rebecca brushed away her packet of fear and clicked in the cartridge.
"Whoa!"
She wheeled around in the confined space, seeing the prisoner pushed back to the edge with his crowbar shoving against another walker on him. She joined in to help, grabbing the Shade by the collar and both easily towed it over the railing.
It wasn't the only thing that fell. The scuffling of legs on the catwalk knocked off yet another of the fallen HCF corpses overboard.
One grenade skidded across the floor from its vest.
THUD!
Another clawed fist at one of the dog's eye. Yes, that was a shark thing Steve had heard from outside but still, anything was better. The hound just wouldn't go down. By hits, by slugs, by everything they got.
One head launched at him. In demi-seconds, his monster side took over his reflexes and claws fastened onto the chops. Another good and hated benefit of being a giant tyrant. Now, he couldn't complain, pushing the clacking canines from nibbling into his face.
Again, Steve threw the giant dog as simple as a wrestler with one in a headlock in a match. He watched the four-legged body this time smash into the side of the turbines. He had thrown the hound a fair good distance too.
Please let that be it!
His prayer must have been answered by some higher power who at last took pity on him. Because again, the mutt puked out the meat coffin onto the hydrodam's deck.
Steve made his wordless apology but ending the chief's woe now was better than continuing to watch it go on.
This would make it the third time-
"ARGH!"
A surprise attack from behind – it was hard to look back with his body like so but at the corners of his eyes, he could make out two Shades over his spurred hunchback.
He hissed at the stabbing of what looked like a handmade shiv and tried to pull the half-dead prisoner off him. His distorted muscular arm chucked it far, the vertebrates of the Shade crippling on contact of concrete.
"Claire!"
For some reason, he no longer felt the other Shade on his back. Only realizing that the agent had yelled out Claire's name, Steve searched about with terror.
To his shock and relief, Claire had jumped up and riveted the Shade in a headlock off of him. Both plummeted to the ground.
Claire held down the half-dead and thrust her combat knife right into the walker's head. Quick and deadly.
He kept his thanks in, still frightened to speak to her in his new form. Awkwardly, he watched her heavily gasp from her attack and stand up, looking back at him. But god, she was still the same hard-core Valkyrie he remembered from the past.
"Incoming!"
Now wasn't the time to say hi or quickly hide in a closet all because he was a freak. Claire and Steve glimpsed up at Leon's warning and held back their ground again.
More Shades. Just were where they coming from and why! ? Actually, no. The answer to where was the prison cells from another floor. Why was the unanswered question.
In the commotion, everyone took the swarming as higher urgency over the downed mutt with the exposed meat box.
The human in the cocoon, by the name of Chief Ian Odell, opened his weary eyes to the sound of fire and screams. No more darkness and sleeping under organs of the two-headed BOW. His vision was fuzzy for a moment but within reaching distance, he spotted the lone grenade.
The once chief-of-security couldn't feel his legs anymore. Or his lower torso. His consciousness kept on splitting in two, bit by bit draining down the cocoon, through the umbilical cord and into the beast of himself.
It didn't help with the accursed singing. Beckoning him to obey.
It was hopeless.
He was beyond saving. Except for one way out.
It was a better choice than losing the rest of his mind.
Odell screamed out his remaining portion of his lungs as he fought – pushing his arm out through the slimy dissolving layers of pus and meat. Or at least what was left of his arm. Bones of his fingers, barely held together by melted muscles, pierced through his meat coffin.
That tired him out.
Then he felt his body drag away from the grenade.
No! His damn monstrous self was going to swallow himself back inside.
He shuffled desperately forward, ignoring the liquid of his lower half seeping out.
His fingers gratefully clutched onto the grenade.
"Odell!"
He was coarsely fatigued, the pain riding throughout him in places he never knew existed till now. But he weakly squinted up with the rest of his strength.
"I-Iria."
It was the first time he called out to her on first name basis.
There was no way he could live. No chance he could probably be as lucky as the green specimen.
He was a goner for good. What was frightening was that he was leaving his family behind. Unable to do the same thing Iria was surely doing for hers: get them off the island.
"P-Please..." Odell miserably requested. "Save them."
It didn't matter to him that the scientist, always annoying and sometimes a bit stubborn in the past, was giving that pitiful look to him. Sometimes, you just couldn't save everyone. He knew that just as well as Iria did from their past on this miserable piece that didn't deserve the local name, the fortunate islands. A cruel joke indeed.
"S-Save our families..."
All he cared right now was that Iria would ensure his family's safety in his absence. Despite their differences, Odell knew deep down Iria would keep that promise.
Then he was pulled away.
"Odell!" she screamed. Madly, she dashed.
"Doc!"
The hellish dog grunted out a loud slurping noise as the meat coffin slithered back into the split. It shook back up with regained vigor, the sleeping liquid now wearing off.
"GAAAAROOO!"
"Odell!" Iria cried again.
She wanted to stop the chief. Yes, her mind was telling her it was pointless. She was a woman of logic and all she was doing was denying the truth. The virus had claimed him and that was that. But she was too hopeful again.
She hadn't learned her lesson about how fragile lives were.
She knew. Odell was as important as everybody indoors. Outside, his wife, daughter and son were waiting. They were waiting for him to come back to them. Alive. Human. Breathing.
BOOM!
The explosion of a tiny grenade flowered out from the beast's gap, shuddering Iria down into a fetus position on the floor. The two heads were further apart from each other, their inner sides torn by shrapnel and heat. The burning whiff of meat overcame the salty smell inside.
Like a tree chopped at the sides, the ripped-open hound timbered down with a loud clunk. This time, it didn't get up.
Few seconds passed and the last few Shades were taken out. But still the dog stayed motionless. At last, the sprinklers ceased the indoor raining.
Iria, loosening her head up from her sheltered arms, stared fixed on the corpse. Anger gradually wrote onto her face.
"You bastard!" she screamed, climbing back up. "You moron! What about you? What about your family! ? Killing yourself won't solve anything! You...you damn old geezer..."
Screaming at the deceased chief was pointless. Venting out at his choice for leaving behind his family wouldn't go into his ears.
She was reminded. Kent had told her there would be death. There would be consequences and many would pay the price. That was the miserable truth.
"You were still needed..."
She fell, bent down onto her knees. Another loss added to the long list of those who had died by the sudden outbreak and those who died years ago. Another life slipped through her fingers so easily. Above her, Kent shared her angst with a hard fist on the railing.
Although they had all survived the atrocious animal attack, the victory was bittersweet. Killing off a zombified nobody in Rockfort was one thing. Killing off a person one knew, no matter how little or great, was another.
It was both. The amount of luger ammo Steve had fired easily at the zombies back on Rockfort was plenty but he never knew the names before the T-Veronica virus hit the old prison. The gunshot at one familiar face was the hardest he had to endure.
The beheaded body of a scientist still flashed fresh in his mind, sending shivers down his spine that he gazed at his claws. That one too was the hardest.
The many things he had seen others endure within the white walls of the facility were much different from his time in Rockfort prison, some that nearly broke minds far higher than his average thinking. But the one thing he had learned from the past and even till now on Cape Inacio, survival was necessary.
"There is no such thing as heroes or villains. Only survivors."
That phrase from the Texan still buried deep in his brain.
Click!
His red eyes streamed to the right at the sensitive sound.
He knew that sound. Many times, he had heard it before. Hell, he even held one that made that sound before in another sort of nightmarish prison.
The other part of his brain, the more vicious one, demanded him to bat the threat away. He resisted, more out of curiosity. More out of fear.
Steve glanced down to the barrel of Leon's gun.
"Leon!" Claire jumped forth.
Click!
Another gun drawn. Oh come on, he groaned from the inside. Couldn't he just get a break?
But this time, it wasn't another lackey.
Iria was back on her feet, handgun pointed. Dead set at Leon.
"Whoa! Put that down!" Vince took aim, having dropped down to the ground floor with the rest of the survivors.
Ka-cak!
Goosebumps stood on the scruff of the agent's neck, feeling the heated nozzle of the shotgun.
"You drop yours, wanker."
"D-Doc," the green monster whined nervously. He didn't dare to move an inch, no matter how much his guts was telling him to drag the scientist to safety.
Dammit. Dammit all.
Why, of time and places, did this all have to happen?
What didn't make it any better weren't the eyes of three new faces staring at his disgusting, extemporaneous form.
But those blue eyes staring at him terribly.
He wanted to dig into a much deeper hole away from Claire. He was happy. At long last, he was able to meet her after years.
But not like this. This was the last thing Steve wanted her to see.
He didn't want her memory of their reunion of him being a monster. Claire should be remembering what he had been, not what he was now.
"Don't move!" Vince ordered at the slight cowering from the tyrant. Steve froze.
"Stop it!" Claire begged. "Don't hurt him!"
"Are you kidding me? That's not a human!"
The blonde's expression remained stiff, unmoved. And that pecked at Vince's confusion.
"Back off. Now," she ordered firmly.
"You're protecting that thing?" Vince hollered.
"This thing has a name." Iria's voice broke the tension, surprising the newcomers even more. "His name is Steve Burnside."
"I don't care what its name is, that thing is a freak!"
"Vince," Leon ordered, hinting not to make the other party anymore aggravated. But his partner ignored.
"If you want to gun down monsters," Iria started, calmly strolling until she was right in between the older agent and the tyrant, her firearm still pointed dead at Leon's. "Then shoot me."
Leon flinched with surprise. That was bold.
"D-Doc..."
The scientist ignored, staying put. "I'm the head director of this facility. This virus is because of me."
"Oi, McLenlan," Kent called at angrily.
"The Kronos Project falls under my responsibility, including this disaster happening around us," Iria explained steadfastly. "That makes me a better threat. Wouldn't you agree?"
"...Why are you protecting him?" Leon asked curiously.
This was all new to him. A woman protecting a guy who was once dead, now alive and very much not human. So he wanted to understand.
"Isn't it obvious? Because he's your lab rat!" Vince hissed.
A grumble softly and irritatedly escaped from Steve's gritted teeth. That was a low insult to him, despite the phrase holding true-
"He's family."
The grumble croaked away. Steve looked at the back of the scientist with a mild astonished look, partly grateful.
"He is a friend to a lot of people here. He is just like every one of us on this island," Iria explained calmly. "He is human."
"Have you lost your marbles?" Vince muttered insultingly.
Iria didn't budge, her glare stern and firm at Leon. "You only see him as a risk because of what he looks like. But you have not spent the amount of time as I have with him. You don't know him."
"And you do?" Leon asked.
Her eyes mellowed. "I owe a lot to him."
"Owe? That's a fucking monster."
Iria kept her composure, regardless of Vince's probing to 'common sense'. "...There are many definitions on the term, 'monster'. I think the one about calling a person a monster because you choose to harm another fits better than appearances. This kiddo doesn't fit that bill. Frankly, it's more suited to us staff for making this virus," Iria admitted wearily. Then her eyes furrowed. Like a mother bear ready to attack. "So like hell, I'm going to let you kill him while I'm still standing!"
The sentences caught Claire by surprise. She couldn't see the significant reason between them, whether if related by blood or not.
But to call Steve family... A total stranger...
"This woman's crazy," Vince grunted.
"You should take that back," Kent warned, nearing the shotgun closer. "You haven't spent time with this kid well enough to know him like we do."
"You're joking. You're into this shi-"
"Wanker, while I am grateful for you all bloody coming to our rescue, I ain't going to just let some hoon shoot him. We wouldn't be alive if it weren't for him. Do you know how many close calls we've had? Too many to count. And at any time, the thing you call him could have abandoned us..." Kent enlightened, ignoring Vince's shocked expression jumping about from person to person as the agent was noiselessly begging someone to have the same thought as he had – that this was crazy talk. No one did. "Like Iria says, he's more human than those walkers we're dealing with."
Another person to vouch for Steve. It was puzzling, astonishing to Claire. But deep down, she admitted to herself – that was good.
How long he had been on this island, when did this guardianship start; those questions she knew she would get her answers. But for now, all she knew that during his time on the island, –
–he was never alone.
"No matter what, I will not move from this spot," Iria continued. "I won't let you hurt him. So you might as well go ahead and shoot me now."
The guns locked firm in the air. As calm as Leon was, the woman in front of him remained with the same strong composure as his. She wouldn't budge at gunpoint.
"Hey," Leon broke the silence, calling out to Steve. That got his attention but the monster cautiously hunched back with uncertainty. "That person at the elevator." The red eyes widened. "You were there."
Now it was Iria's turn to be surprised. "What? How did you-"
"Why did you kill him?
"Wait just a-"
"Harrisss..." Before Iria could speak on his behalf, Steve spoke. The voice out of him was croaked, hoarser but there was some trace of his original tone. He glanced down to the floor with a saddened expression. "He... He was already infected..."
At the mention of the Texan scientist's name, Iria tightened with the clear intention of biting the inside of her mouth. And it was a quick glare back for Leon but he noted Kent's shotgun lowered slightly and the Aussie's wrinkled expression, cursing out "Damn that bastard..."
So they both knew that person too, Leon thought.
Yeah, now that he thought more, that person strangely lunged forth instead of trembling in a corner.
"That was out of mercy?"
Nothing but squished eyes and closed claws. Then a slow painful nod.
Human.
How funny. No one from the bureau would believe him that he just met a specimen with a conscious. Or even two people crazy enough to protect him.
At last, Leon withdrew and heaved a sigh. "Vince, back down."
"What? But-!"
"Back down."
A warning tone. Vince searched about for someone to agree with him that this was insane. No one stepped forward. Losing the fight, he reluctantly reclined back but not even shooting a scowl at the monster. Or perhaps the scientist. Maybe both. Steve wasn't too sure.
Well, that was one person he had to stay away from.
A sigh heavily escaped as the scientist relaxed. The captain withdrew the shotgun, but still kept it at a level for any double crosses, his eyes hawked on the New Yorker.
"Thank you," Iria said and then wheeled back. There was a wait. "Well? Aren't you going to say thanks?"
An eyebrow rose. "You're kidding, right?"
Iria folded her arms with a disgruntled look. "Really? You were about to be gun down and that's all you have to say?"
"I don't know. How is anyone supposed to say afterrr having a gun pointed at them?"
A chuckle out of the Aussie's closed mouth while the blonde rolled her eyes. The prisoner was more gleeful to have the chaos die away but then again, he was still new to the whole monster thing, Steve thought, to be frank.
Still, Steve also heaved a sigh, too soft for anyone to take notice as they turned away from him with matters to talk – Kent and Iria asking Leon why he and his group of newcomers had just wandered down to the hydrodam area. He overheard the names, Victor and Katherine and just like Iria's relieved smile at the mention of those names, he too was pleased.
At least now, he could relax. A tiny bit, despite sticking out like a sore thumb, painted green with red Christmas lights. There were some stares from the others but they were brief. However, there were two problems that didn't help calm him down. One, being the happy-go-trigger with that New York accent. He'd have to be very careful around him because for sure, if he was left alone with that stranger, he would be shot dead for good.
And two, Claire.
Steve had only realized it, his red eyes detecting those blue ones on him. He could feel shame smother him slowly from the inside.
He was scared.
He shouldn't be in the same place as Claire was.
He had died and come back to life. He was still a monster. A freak of nature that could spontaneously sprout out scales and spurs all because of fright. Out of emotion.
There was no way she'd want him like this.
He took a heavy step back but shockingly, he noted her reaction – Claire skipping forth just a bit with a hand nearly reaching out but it stopped in midair.
She was afraid. More afraid of him leaving than of his form.
Steve stayed put, his claws absentmindedly fiddling with each other like a frightened child. He glanced back at the brunette, then at the scientist with hesitant eyes.
Iria noticed, paying little attention to the conversation between men. She nodded with a soft smile.
Yeah... How long has it been? Eight years?
Had Claire not stopped looking for him, he asked himself.
Steve sighed deeply and again looked at her, fighting every ounce of awkwardness and fear to break out a contented smile. But not too big to show his teeth.
"H-Heeey...Claire..."
The next thing that happened was sudden - something he didn't expect for the brunette to do. But the warmth inside of him encouraged him not to care.
The tiny arms embraced tightly around him as much as they could stretch.
And finally, he didn't feel terrible anymore...
Kent Williams
White Rook
Date of Birth: 1967
Age: 39
Blood Type: A
Gender: M
Race/Nationality: Caucasian/Australian
Occupation: Security, Captain
Teammate Class: Operative
Weapons of Choice:
Melee – Combat Knife
Primary – Handgun (Security standard)
Secondary – Assault Rifle
Stats:
Strength: ****
Stamina: ****
Accuracy: ****
Wits: **
Speed: ***
Endurance: ***
Ability:
*/*/*/*
Timothy Stuart (aka Tim)
White Pawn
Date of Birth: 1980
Age: 26
Blood Type: O
Gender: M
Race/Nationality: African/American
Occupation: Prisoner
Teammate Class: Field Agent/Medic
Weapons of Choice:
Melee – Crowbar
Primary – Handgun
Secondary – Machine Gun, Tranquilizer Rifle
Stats:
Strength: ****
Stamina: ***
Accuracy: **
Wits: ***
Speed: ****
Endurance: **
Ability:
Enemy Data
Orthrus
Based: Beast/Human
Date of creation: 2006
Purpose: Kronos virus infection
Orthrus is a canine-like BOW and the mutation of chief-of-security, Ian Odell, created by the Kronos virus and the t-virus. Orthrus is the first boss encountered by the current team: Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Steve Burnside and Iria McLenlan.
Orthrus resembles an oversized hairless hound that at first, has only one head. The one head, however, splits down in the middle to form two more functioning heads, being Orthrus' notable feature. Orthrus can brutally lunge forward, knocking down characters and even clamped them down with its jaws for a moment of time unless someone comes in to save that trapped character. In between the heads is where its weak spot is – the cocoon of Ian Odell – and this can only be exposed out after excessive damage. This is the best time to shoot it down as much as possible before it swallows its weak point back in and get up. Orthrus's wail can also attract other wandering Shades within its perimeter so that it does not fight alone.
Its name is derived from a two-headed hound, who is a doublet of Cerberus and involved in one of Heracles' twelve labours. He was in charged with guarding red cattle belonging to a three-bodied giant named Geryon. Heracles eventually slew Orthrus before taking the red cattle to complete his tenth labour.
Game Objections:
-Fight Orthrus.
Vickie: And here people, is the last chapter of the first episode of CODE: Kronos. :D WAIT, NOT THE END OF THE FIC DAMMIT! Sheez! I said the end of the first episode. There's still more to gooooo~!
And boy was this battle tough to write under a few days. I actually wasn't too sure how it'd go after finishing the last chapter but because of the great lovely reviews I've been getting, I was just so eager to get this up. But hopefully I pulled it out... Though Steve the Tyrant got most of the spotlight. :P
And yes, THIS IS MY VERSION OF AN ORTRHUS. Aaaah...still kinda wish it wasn't so ironic that I already chose this name for this boss waaaaay before RE: Revelations 2 picked that name. :')
Also another piece of good news. I have just made a tumblr blog of this fanfic – basically where I'll be posting character concepts, details, backstories, etc. I'll be using that mainly as a visual means while this will be more of the story direction. I'm trying my best to constantly update the blog daily (but with life and other projects on hand, that's a bit tough) so hope you guys will enjoy and follow the extra stuff of the blog: residentevil - codekronos .tumblr (exclude the spaces...sigh)
With that said, happy reading and reviewing and see you all in the next instalment of CODE: Kronos. Cuz the next's one gonna be talking about the events hours before leading up to the hydrodam area. Through the tales of one specimen and a couple of co-workers. :D Also it may take a while for the next chapter but I'll be trying my best to get it up as soon as possible.