"And that should be that. Welcome back to the land of the living Ms. Valentine. Officially, as far as the government is concerned."
Jill wasn't quite sure why the DSO director had taken the time away from his likely busy schedule to meet her personally, but she could guess. She'd only really heard of Leon Kennedy until recently despite their shared paths almost crossing in Raccoon, but the man had made clear in their last meeting earlier that week that Simmons was headhunting for her to join the agency. She planned to turn him down, but not before he greased some bureaucratic wheels for her.
Namely by getting her IDs reissued and social security number active again. Technically he'd thrown in a driver's license as well, though she questioned the logic of that one. Her vision wasn't actually bad, just a bit different in some odd ways. The tail of course was a problem that she hadn't quite solved when riding in most normal vehicles. At best it would be a tight, and pinching, fit.
Though she'd probably wait on dealing with those sorts of things.
Her re-commissioning into the US branch of the BSAA had all but been official already, and technically she'd been functioning as an on-site agent and coordinator since early after getting back to this side of the Atlantic. The European BSAA had been glad to be rid of her as they were busy trying to clean house as the fallout from Leviathan Chemicals and Quint Grady came to light. Not that they would have had a choice, Chris was probably ready to launch a one man mission when he caught wind of what had gone down over the last couple days as the teams came in and quarantined the ship, crew, and surviving BSAA agents.
They'd used what remained of the vaccine on themselves and spread it through the air vents of the ship, already needed as by the time they'd gotten back some of the survivors had already started to show signs from either direct exposure in the original release or from wandering out of the lower decks to see what had happened when the sounds of firefights suddenly came to an end.
It had seemed to stop further mutations.
At first.
By then the BSAA had shown up and since a third of the passengers had been from the US they'd pushed for return there instead of being quietly shifted to some quarantine camp where their treatment would come down to a few dozen approved antiviral drugs and a bullet at the end if it didn't work. Given what a complete international embarrassment it was turning into they were more than willing to slide on protocol for once. Before they even made port biohazard gear equipped medics had shown up carrying cases of current generation inhibitors stamped with the labels from the BSAA and off-loaded by supply helicopters from Blue Umbrella.
She'd met Leon in person for the first time around then, as even the DSO was busily trying to get ahead of this before it hit the newscycle. Thankfully there hadn't been much need to debrief on what she would say, not that she intended to budge on anything. Leon might be a company man now, a long way from a hopeful cadet thinking they'd solve the Arklay mountain disappearances, but she still had principles as stiff as her spine (and long as her tail). But with the source of the Arctic incident clearly caused by mismanagement and corruption in the BSAA, the European branch at that, the intention was to clearly and publicly lead with that at first opportunity.
Oh, those old men in Paris probably hated her when she got in front of a camera, shrouded in shadows as they'd said she had been affected by the outbreak and wanted to remain anonymous. The only lie in her statement, she couldn't have cared less at that point what the tabloids thought about her appearance. Let 'em make a thousand shitty Jaws jokes, she relished the chance to shine a light on the whole dirty affair and know that the guilty parties were running scared.
Those she hadn't gotten to personally filet with her own claws as it were.
Once they hit land she found herself among friends, those she'd know and those she'd never met. It was surprising to hear that Chris had never really stopped singing her praises to his new team and they were honestly cordial and polite on first meeting despite it all and only warmed up from there. She spent more time at their barracks than in quarantine, ate cheap chinese takeout by the tub full, and relished every moment of it. She slept on a spare couch, legs and tail laid out over the side and caught up on a series of pirate films she'd been either too busy or lost to have seen before.
Even better was getting her damn gun back again, Chris pulling it out of storage. With four fingers instead of three it was a bit easier to use, taking less modifications to the pistol than just getting used to her grip again. With clothes that fit, and weren't a skin tight wetsuit that had barely covered anything by the time she'd finally been picked up, she was finally starting to feel like everything just fit again. Even when she walked out of the shower, gazing at her reflection in the mirror the self hatred for being too weak for failing to stop what had happened to her and others was gone.
She knew what she was capable of now, recognized her strength and will had preserved despite it all.
And if another Wesker tried to screw with her, she'd bite their damn head off.
"So have you considered my offer?"
"Right, here it comes," Jill thought, keeping a neutral and closed mouth expression on her face. "Yes, but I'm still getting used to things. I think I'll stick with the BSAA for now, though I do appreciate the offer."
"No offense taken," Simmons replied with the practiced smile of a politician. "Though you might get more in the future. You've come back as quite the celebrity now that the full story of Raccoon is declassified and this latest incident. I wouldn't be surprised if they ask you to help train upcoming agents in a few years."
Jill tried not to laugh at that.
"I'm not sure what I could teach would be that helpful to some of them."
The smile stayed, but something about it bothered her in a way she couldn't catch. "You never know. The narrative on SBOWs and mutation research is changing. One day an upcoming GI Jane at Coronado might request the Valentine treatment."
The rest of the conversation had been simple pleasantries before he left, but Jill was still stunned from that. She'd heard that he was something of a radical in helping support the legalization (or re -legalization) of biotech research but even then that was a crazy far step. Chris didn't completely trust him, and neither did she, but it was statements like that which had her wondering what his angle really was. If that was just his idea of a joke, trying to imply that she was so aspirational (or god, attractive ) that someone would want to not only be like her but look like her still was a pretty odd direction to go.
Besides, while she might have taken to this like, well, a fish to water in the end, she knew others were having trouble.
Dr. Radame's Confidential Report:
The examination of J. Valentine and the other T-Abyss subjects brought in has been fascinating. Her body achieved total cooperative synthesis to multiple strains of the Progenitor Viruses, likely the source for her exceptional regenerative ability and their stability. Normally TYRANT class BOWs (of which J. Valentine almost qualifies, perhaps a TYRANT-lite?) show unpredictable mutation even in the best of cases, but J. Valentine has adaptive regenerative properties that continuously move back to a stable homeostasis in her body without tumorous growths or vestigial remnants.
Even by aesthetic judgements her body has a symmetry of form and function that is quite impressive by comparison to other samples from the same viral line. While A. Graham developed similarly her case was a fortuitous accident by comparison to J. Valentine who was engineered to be an almost perfect post-human aquatic killing machine. A shame so much of A. Wesker's data remains lost to us, I am sure the details on how he designed J. Valentine's body would be enlightening.
The other subjects from the initial outbreak and attempted viral inhibition have mirrored her development over time. They'd already passed 35-40% genetic drift from human normative standards by the point they were recovered with physiological changes held back by psychological conditioning and the antibodies and vaccines they'd been given. By Director's approval I altered further inhibitors to instead optimize mild catalyst events so we could observe the remainder of their transformations smoothly over a period of six to eight weeks.
Development went smoothly, and while they lack the hyper-regeneration of J. Valentine this data proves with absolute certainty that at least this template of the T-Abyss can now be reproduced at will should we desire it.
"I miss hair."
Anita felt like rolling her eyes, not that it was particularly easy to tell when she did with the mostly black orbs in her head. They did have pupils of course, it was just hard to see with how their faces looked now, short or longer protruding snouts, hoods of fleshy armor layering just above their brows where the hair Joanna was complaining about had once been. She turned to face her, her almost pearly white face, speckled with black dots and blotches along the edge and with a few at the tip of her snout opening in an exasperated sigh as the rows of shiny white razors were revealed in her mouth.
"And I miss having teeth… real teeth. Chewing with these things has me biting myself half the time still."
Joanna folded her arms against her chest, slight and shorter gray fins past her elbows sticking out as she did so and returned the look with an irritated glare. Looking down at Anita, their once equal heights shifted as one shot up a lot and the other not quite so much. Joanna Kropowska was now almost eye (and fin) level with Valentine and none too pleased that even if she had access to her clothes (she didn't) they'd take a lot more than some new cuts and a bit of tailoring to fit her now.
"I also miss looking like a woman."
"Oh god, this again…"
"Jäkla , have you looked at yourself Joanna? I think that part looks fine, problem is finding a dress that fits right." Internally Anita thought to herself, "If anything I'm in the best shape of my life. Didn't have abs this good when I was on the national swim team."
The lack of a belly button took a bit of getting used to, but she was starting to like it honestly. Weird, but in a good way compared to other things.
"Easy for you to say. Yours look bigger for some preposterous reason."
"My what-Joanna, we are not going to stand in the locker and talk about that like teenage girls," Anita said, turning tail and walking towards the exit as she finished adjusting her modified uniform. She paused, not turning so the lighter blue back of her body was still facing Joanna as she spoke, "And besides, you don't have anything I don't. It's… what did you say-ah, vestigial , right?"
"Which is what makes it so silly that you look better than-"
"Hey ladies, are you done in there?"
"Stay out Armando!" They both shouted almost in tandem as the pointer face of their one remaining male teammate peaked around the entrance. Armando Cascos quickly stepped back, barely a hint of his shorter body showing as he did. While they'd both gained several centimeters of height at a minimum it barely looked like he'd grown larger at all. Even Anita now stood almost a head taller than him.
Which had actually been funny, as some of the doctors examining them had pointedly reminded them that they should refrain from indulging in any drives that might come up. As if the first thing any of them were likely to do was go off with Armando of all people and start repopulating the planet with fishmen. Joanna had apparently given the medic a good fright as she couldn't help but grinning like a mad woman and laughing, her jaws open wide to the reddish black dots along the sides of her face where freckles had once been.
Apparently she'd then gone off about how even as a fish she could do better than that.
"Still he's right. We have to get out of here. Valentine is coming by to discuss some options for us." The European BSAA was still in turmoil and several of their home nations had rather stringent laws very hastily drawn up banning SBOWs from stepping foot inside their borders. But they might be able to take up temporary residence and temporary positions with the American side of the agency. At the very least it would give them something to do now instead of just sitting around while doctors poked and prodded and said "My, how interesting" at their conditions.
And weird as it was to say, she was actually looking forward to the chance to work with Valentine again under better conditions, if not necessarily drier.
There is definitely a component of psychological reinforcement with their transformations. Several passengers on the Lady Aurora were selected for placebos or catalysts instead of inhibitor treatments and we observed that those that were aware of what J. Valentine looked like developed toward that even without the antibody treatment acting as an additional template. When kept ignorant variations involving other deep sea vertebrates began to develop with the inhibitor facilitating slower viral adoption and BOW transformation.
Ultimately the sample of passengers which had been exposed to the T-Abyss was found lacking, so with Director approval an additional forty were injected with small amounts during their initial quarantine for further study of variations, adaptation, and the use of the currently produced inhibitors. Study of those subjects remains undergoing, with some allowed to partially mutate so as to observe the varying stages of stability for the T-Abyss before we implement it in other cases.
Regardless, A Jacobs, J. Koprowska, and A. Cascos have developed into entirely healthy and stable variations of the Scarmiglione-variant, showing a preponderance of genetic material from the Lamnidae family with traces of several other vertebrates. My hypothesis is that we may in fact be seeing a repeat of the Ravencroft Phenomena, where a shared genetic template combined with an imprint from a pre-existing SBOW donor is leading them towards an expected end.
See the contrasting developments in the Plagas SBOWs working for Leviathan Chemicals compared to those that had direct contact with A. Graham.
Note, this is not to be confused with the possibility of passive control or hierarchical system developing among the Plagas derived SBOWs. That, if true, is likely a side effect of mammalian and insectile instincts merging together and A. Graham's presence as the origin and oldest representative of this type. If this exists, it is likely that A. Graham might in fact not even be aware of the effect she would be having on those around her.
This does lead to an interesting conclusion that once we produce a desired variant we only need make use of that variant when conditioning further subjects in order to drastically increase the chances of successful viral adoption and mutation.
Further investigation will be required with Director's approval.
Her nose still felt weird.
It didn't look weird, but it sure felt weird.
But whatever drug they'd given her had managed to not just stop the slow and steady pace of her body out of humanity but reverse it. With a bit of surgical help.
Though there should have been scars shouldn't there?
"I'm still infected, aren't I?" Jessica looked at the package on the table, her most recent delivery from her new benefactors. She should have ended up in prison or bartering for a way out based on what she could sell them or tell them about black market bioweapons sales. But instead she'd found herself looking down a job offer and potential last minute Hail Mary save for her humanity. Or at least the appearance of it.
After all, normally when someone cuts up your face that much, you'd scar. Or spend weeks in a hospital.
But only three days later she was back at her apartment, under supervision of course, and nothing either looked or felt out of place. It had healed spookily fast. Though it felt tender and odd and sometimes stung in a way that told her some part of her body, some part of what was now her wasn't happy having things go back instead of forward.
Fuck that part.
She'd hold on to having five fingers and toes for as long as she had them, which looked like it might be indefinitely for now. As long as she did what the DSO asked anyhow. Which was to start with names and places of every saler she'd heard of, every buyer she'd meet, and most important of all any competition she'd encountered when she'd gone freelance after Tricell collapsed.
So she sat down, the chair groaning beneath her as she scooted back and once more noticed that her legs were just a bit longer than they had been. She felt taller in general, though it had stopped. There was no real way to fix that, least none that wouldn't possibly cripple her even with the unnatural regeneration she'd been showing.
"Back to the grind," Jessica said as she started finishing up the next report on everything she knew about left overs of Tricell in Central Europe.
The case of J. Sherawat is particularly interesting. By Director's orders I used an experimental inhibitor and retroviral agent to stop the T-Abyss activity and strengthen the remaining human DNA in her system. Surgical solutions drove back some of the mutation while the already accelerated healing factor allowed for a quick and smooth recovery. At this moment J. Sherawat appears superficially cured.
The truth could not be further from the case. The T-Abyss has achieved 100% viral saturation in her body, held in check from active transformation by the inhibitor preventing anomalous cell growth. In addition, while the other subjects that J. Valentine treated showed a relatively simple subset of genetic sources for their mutation the same can not be said for J. Sherawat. The family Sphyrnidae was identified as dominant, but traces of Astroscopus Guttatus, Eurypharynx Pelecanoides and even traces Porichthys Notatus among a small selection of others. I can only speculate what a stable mix of such a wide selection would produce but I once again must say that my scientific curiosity makes me wish to remove her access to the inhibitors or replace them with placebos so as to observe the effects.
One would think such an amalgamation would lead to rampant and disastrous growth, but I have my own hypothesis that part of why so many of the SBOWs we are generating include non-human genetic material (the process by which Progenitor Viruses are able to access such seemingly ex-nihilo remains unknown even as we control the selection in some cases). The additional time to adapt and change a human into mutation exhibiting non-human biological features slows down the virus much as the inhibitors do and thus drastically increases the time for full mutation and subsequently reduces the stress on the host. Decreasing the chance of transformation induced psychosis, temporary or not, and any other neurological damage which has become the hallmark of more normative 'primate' focused versions of the T-Virus and its derivatives.
Regardless, if perhaps for personal reasons, the Director has requested that J. Sherawat remain an at least human looking agent while we work to eliminate or monitor competing forces in the arena of bioweapons research.
Time will tell if she, or we, get to decide when that contract is… altered.