"She's not just some killing machine," Claire snapped. The heat and fury of her glare was comparable to that of a thousand suns.
"That's what they made her for," Rain replied with a nonchalant shrug. She wasn't backing down, even in light of the redhead's pissed off state.
Claire looked like she was on the verge of completely losing her cool. "They assigned Alice to my team for a reason, Rain. You're not taking her," she stated.
"Project Alice could save a lot of people's lives on my end. Her skills would be an invaluable asset to my team. I could use half the people I normally do, putting a lot fewer people at risk."
"Then tell Alexander you want someone similar to Alice when he comes back. She is under my authority and that is how it's going to stay." The redhead wasn't budging on the matter.
To the casual observers – the others sitting in the tactical room with the two women – it honestly looked like the two were about to take off the gloves and break out into a fist fight. If such a fight did occur, there was obviously going to be a lot of collateral damage.
"Ladies, ladies… take it easy," Luther told them. "At this point in time, the people that make decisions like that one are in agreement that Project Alice is, indeed, more valuable under Ms. Redfield's command."
"You're kidding, right?" Rain inquired, clearly not happy with what she was hearing. "I've seen her fight… but instead, you're going to stifle her potential and turn her into yet another babysitter?"
"Watch it, Ocampo," Luther warned. He didn't like the attitude the woman was taking with him. "But I am serious. Until further notice, Alice will be with the retrieval team."
"This is bullshit," Rain shook her head, sitting back in her seat.
Luther stood up, passing out black folders to those sitting around the table. Each folder had 'CONFIDENTIAL' stamped on the front in red ink. "Be that as it may, that's how things are staying. Now can we move on to what this meeting is really about?" he inquired. "We have some very serious topics to go over before moving forward."
The helicopter strained against the ferocious storm as they flew into it. If their missions weren't so important, it would have been wisest to just turn around and go back to the ship. Alexander didn't take weather as an excuse to delay the mission.
As they closed in on the convention center, it became more and more apparent that maybe – just maybe – they should have brought more soldiers. Outside their target building was a mass of undead larger than any they had seen. There were hundreds trying to get to the meal that waited inside.
Rain reached up to press the button on her radio. "We're going to need some heavy back up, send another team," she relayed back to the Arcadia. A few moments later, she got confirmation that there were more soldiers inbound with an estimated arrival time of 15 minutes.
"I wasn't expecting such a large biohazard number," Alexander admitted, looking out the window as their helicopter circled the convention center.
"We should wait until the other support team arrives," Rain said with a nod.
Alice turned and reached behind herself, giving the pilot a couple taps on the shoulder. He nodded in confirmation and lowered their altitude; he stopped circling too.
Alice stood up, double checking her M4A1 Carbine to make sure it was ready. She had checked the H&K MP5Ks at her thighs earlier. "Carlos, Jill," she nodded and they got up as well.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" Rain demanded.
"Our job," the blonde answered easily as Jill opened up the door of the helicopter and the three tied themselves off.
Thankfully, the raging storm they were in offered plenty of cover. The undead mass had yet to notice the helicopters – the noise was canceled out by the howling wind and rain, and nearly constant thunder.
"You're not going out there until that other team gets here," Rain stated, getting up and grabbing Alice's arm.
It turned out that was a mistake though. Alice whipped around, grabbed Rain's wrist and wrenched the other woman's arm painfully around her back. "Do not touch me," she warned lowly. "And do not presume to tell me what I can and cannot do. You are not this team leader."
"Project Alice, enough," Alexander said. "I have to agree with Rain, we should wait until the other team gets here."
"By then we'll probably have been struck by lightning," Alice replied, shoving Rain back into her seat. "My team knows what they're doing." She turned back to Carlos and Jill. "Let's go."
Whatever further protests came from Alexander and Rain were lost on them. Jill and Carlos dropped out of one side of the helicopter and Alice dropped from the other. Following suit, the soldiers in the other helicopters dropped to the ground as well.
As soon as their feet hit the ground, the lines were untied. "Carlos, Jill! On me!" Alice said as she moved forward.
The driving rain was certainly annoying – cold too. Lightning flashed overhead more often than any of them could keep track. Such distractions could lead to critical errors. Thankfully, the retrieval team was extremely good at their job.
Alice's plan was to punch enough of a hole into the infected mass to get inside the convention center. They could round up the survivors inside and by that point, the other team would be there and could offer support in fighting back out.
Jill and Carlos were on the blonde's heels as she moved forward with purpose. She didn't want to draw attention too soon, nor did she want to draw it too late. About 20 feet out, she opened fire on the unsuspecting undead; that was what drew their attention.
The other members of the team followed suit and opened fire with their machine guns. The undead fell by the dozen, but for everyone that fell, three more came up in its place.
"Alice!" Carlos shouted over the noise.
The blonde didn't have to think twice about what needed to be done. The ground beneath them shook before a telekinetic wave burst forth from where Alice stood. With the telekinetic energy, Alice punched a hole in the crowd of undead. The team was on her heels, keeping the infected at bay as they moved through the hole Alice had made.
They found another obstacle when they got to the building. Entrances were locked and blocked from the inside. Luckily the blonde could take care of that, but it would leave an opening for the undead to get inside.
Another wave of telekinetic energy blew a pair of doors apart and they moved inside. "Kaplan, Nicholai, Angel, guard the door. Do not lose this position," Alice ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," the three men said in unison, moving to dig into the position and guard it.
"Everyone else, on me," the blonde commanded, moving further into the dark building. She was on point, her heightened senses giving her advantage over the others.
The dark corridor opened up into a large area littered with small fires with groups of people gathered around them. Alice held up a closed fist, signaling the others to come to a quiet stop. "This is strictly retrieval, we do not open fire," she told the other soldiers. "Keep it tight, keep it clean."
The group worked their way into the open area of the center. They kept to the shadows and were silent as they moved. The team was actually able to surround the area without alerting anyone to their presence.
"On my mark," Alice's voice crackled lowly over their radios. "Now."
Everyone moved in at once. There were many more civilians than there were soldiers, but they had the element of surprise on their side. The team moved in swiftly, capturing and detaining the unsuspecting people with ease.
Once people became alerted to the threat, they scattered; many of them had already been captured though. As the civilians scattered, the team had to break formation to round them all up.
"Jill, Carlos, you keep an eye on things here, I'm going to help round up the others," Alice told them before heading down one of the dark corridors she'd seen someone flee to.
It did not take her long to track down the person. What she found surprised Alice though. She'd chased the figure down and cornered them in a bathroom. "K-Mart?" she asked in disbelief when she realized it was the blonde teen.
"Alice?" the girl questioned in return, just as surprised. "Oh God, this isn't good."
"What are you doing here?" Alice inquired.
"Chris and I… we heard the transmissions coming from the people here," K-Mart explained. "These people needed help, but then we got your message too. He took a group from this building and went to intercept the people you were sending. I stayed here to help with what I could and to look after everything until he got back."
"Alice!" they heard Rain's voice shouting from the main area of the center.
"Come on," Alice told the girl. "We'll figure this out along the way. I won't let anything happen to you." She took K-Mart by the arm and led her back down the corridor.
Rain was waiting for Alice, absolutely livid. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" she demanded. "Disobeying orders like that… you put everyone in danger. And who the hell is this?"
"None of your business," the blonde answered simply. "On the ground, this is my team. You aren't the one that I answer to, either."
Rain stepped forward; her gun was up and she looked ready to use it. "You think you can just disregard my orders?" she asked.
Alice's eyes dilated briefly and the gun flipped out of Rain's hands. "You have no authority over me, so back the fuck off," she said lowly.
"Alice! Team Two is here and in position!" Kaplan's voice crackled over their radios.
"And now that you're unarmed, I suggest you stay close," the blonde told Rain. She kept K-Mart close, not letting any of the other soldiers take her.
The fight back out wasn't that hard. They had air and ground support from the second team that came in to help them. The civilians they had rounded up were herded onto the helicopters. This time Jill, Carlos, and Alice rode in a different helicopter than Rain and Alexander. K-Mart was with them too.
There wasn't time to fill Jill and Carlos in on why the teen was suddenly with them. Hopefully they'd find time on the Arcadia. They also had Rain to deal with, too.
If worst came to worst, though, they'd set Claire on the other woman. She'd put Rain down more than once, she could manage it again.
And the plot thickens... Tell me what you think about it so far, yeah? Reviews offer inspiration for faster updates.