Chapter 6: Reinforced

"Sight is the gateway into the body's mind." ~Unknown

After the incident everyone turned around to start walking back to Chris' house before anything else happened. Piers didn't want to walk with anyone, didn't even want to lift his head. Everyone was keeping a more watchful eye now. Nobody had yet tried to make a move but they could still hear the idiotic bigotry and hateful comments coming from the people walking nearby their small group.

Chris and Sherry stayed as close to Piers and Jake as they could. They tried to keep up small talk but they were failing miserably at it. Chris would look back often to make sure nothing had yet happened. Jake silently laughed at Sherry. Sherry was even more concerned than Chris was if that was even possible, she might as well be walking backwards from how often she turned her head to look at them.

Every once in a while Jake would look at Piers as well to make sure he was ok. Each time Jake just felt worse, Piers' head just kept being held further and further down like he was trying to disappear, and this was all happening because of what he did to save lives. Nobody really knew other than Piers himself how far his hearing went, and judging by the distance they were from the closest people, Jake could see that his hearing extended out pretty damn far.

Jake was keeping a careful eye on Piers because he could see more suspicious people walking around. Sure, he wasn't generally fond of the guy, whom he would normally call Chris' *Puppy*, but even Jake has to give recognition to the kind of person that would almost give their own life to rescue a mercenary like Jake was. Mutated or not, Jake might always have a protective instinct for Piers, after all, the man saved his life and this was how he was being treated by people who didn't even know him.

Jake had no clue how much this could really be hitting Piers because Jake himself was immune to the C-Virus, and in all reality, even the people who hired mercenaries didn't like them much anyway. Jake did eventually get some kind of idea how bad this was for Piers though; he saw something almost unnoticeable fall from Piers' face. It was a tear, Piers was silently crying to himself as they walked on. Jake was shocked, here was a man who fought B.O.W.s and had no second thought about giving his own life. Jake had thought nothing could break a man like that, but here he was, reduced to a quiet and internal fight about what other people thought about him. In Jake's opinion, the kind of person who looked at someone as if they were a monster without knowing them was a monster their self.

Jake slid Piers' hood off his head. He was met with a scared and questioning look, along with reddened eyes that he was obviously trying to hide below his hood. Jake didn't back down or say anything, he just kept walking along, but when Piers went to put his hood back up Jake pulled his arm back down, not allowing him to put it up over his head again. Jake was going to make Piers walk with the hood down and damn what other people think about him. Sherry looked back and saw what was happening but said nothing to them as a smile slowly crossed her face at how caring Jake was trying to be.

They were nearing Chris' house now and there was still a lot of people milling around outside, many of them still giving them questioning looks but nobody tried to do anything stupid. Many people were still eying Piers as if he was going to start killing everyone and everything nearby, and Piers upon seeing this, just let his head hang down again dejectedly. Jake himself would continue to glare venomously until they all turned away. Jake mused that it would probably be hard for him to be this terrible to someone no matter how much he got paid. Paranoia and prejudices were a powerful thing, especially in the hands of those who had no clue what they were even being angry about.

One more person actually approached their group and Jake was suspicious until he realized the man was wearing B.S.A.A. gear and seemed to be lost in thought, not actually paying them any mind as he walked up he just seemed to be staring into nowhere. It didn't seem like Chris and Sherry actually noticed him very much until he stopped in front of them surprised, looking at the group with his eyes finally resting on Piers seeming to be searching for something. The man didn't seem to be the least bit scared, surprised, or disturbed, but rather he just seemed extremely curious about the strange person this group was walking with.

Chris looked at him for a moment blinking in confusion, he saw he was wearing B.S.A.A. gear but this was nobody that he actually recognized from anywhere. Sherry didn't say anything but was surprised that Chris seemed to not know who this was, of course Sherry didn't because she wasn't even a part of the B.S.A.A. Jake, no longer being so protective, was now just watching the soldier to see what he would try and do. Piers apparently had not noticed that everyone had actually stopped moving and noticed that finally when he ran into Chris with a soft grunt; Chris turned around to raise an eyebrow at him but once he saw that Piers' head was hanging down dejectedly he just went back to looking at the soldier in front of them.

The man apparently was so lost in thought searching Piers from head to toe that he barely noticed he was being watched; he cleared his throat and rubbed at the back of his head. The soldier was turning a little red and nobody was say anything to him because they were waiting for him to make the first move. Everyone just continued watching him as he began talking.

The soldier was nervous but he quickly warmed up once he started asking for introductions, "Hi, um, Captain Redfield, right?" the soldier was turning a little bit red as Chris continued to stare him down.

"Yes, I'm Redfield, do you need something soldier?" Chris was skeptical, he was not expecting to run into a B.S.A.A. soldier near his house but the man looked like he had just returned for the day.

The soldier's eyes finally shifted over from Piers to Chris, and they were starting to show how nervous he was. The man had been staring at Piers with some strange kind of fascination that nobody could quite pinpoint a reason for. The soldier also began to start stuttering a small bit.

"U-um n-n-not really, no, Captain Redfield, uh would I be able to speak to you privately real quick, Sir?"

Chris looked back and saw that Piers still had his head hanging down. Chris, despite Sherry's slight protesting, had told them all to go on inside and wait along with Piers so he could hopefully cheer up a bit. Chris turned back to the soldier after they left and the two stood in a silent awkwardness. Chris saw how the soldier's eyes were still following Piers' mutated arm with a huge expression of curiosity and Chris still could not place why. Chris cleared his throat and the soldier looked back at him, rubbing his head nervously.

"There was something you wanted to talk to me about Soldier?" Chris asked him this warily, and was quite surprised by the response he got.

"Yeah, um, your friend with the arm, I heard about him injecting himself with the C-Virus and that happened correct?" Chris nodded, realizing the soldier wanted confirmation before he continued speaking.

"Well, I have… experience with mutations, to put it bluntly. I was wondering, would you mind if I come over later to look at your friend? I think I might be able to help him out a bit, if you don't mind."
 Chris was surprised, he didn't even know this soldier and he was offering to try his best at whatever it was he does in order to help Piers. Chris was cautious about him but accepted the soldier's help anyway. Piers would need a lot of help after what happened earlier that day. Chris thanked the soldier and watched him walk away. Surprisingly, the soldier seemed to be living at the other end of the street and Chris was curious, he had no idea about any other B.S.A.A. personnel living on this side of the city. Chris figured the soldier must just have been a new person around here, or maybe it was just because Chris hadn't been anywhere near his house in a while.

Suddenly, Chris remembered nobody even bothered to ask his name. Before going back inside Chris slowly walked down to the soldier's house and before he even got to the door Chris had received a text from Sherry, who was yet again, worrying about someone.

*Hey, Piers isn't really in a talking mood but I guess that is understandable. Where did you go to Chris?*

Chris smiled, he responded quickly that they had a conversation concerning Piers and Chris watched him walk back to his house before realizing there were a few questions he could ask him. Sherry seemed satisfied with the answer Chris has sent back to her and she just responded with a simple *ok* and did not bother asking Chris anything else about the man.

Chris got to the soldier's front door and heard some loud buzzing noises from inside. He peeked through a window and could see that the soldier was working on something, although he could not tell what exactly it was. Chris decided to ring the doorbell. When Chris did ring the bell he was taken aback by how loud it was, he figured people inside their own houses might hear it. The odd thing about it though, it did not seem to be ringing directly from the front door itself. The sound actually seemed like it came from the room he saw the soldier working in.

The sounds stopped almost immediately after Chris rang the bell. Chris heard the man approaching and could hear him grumbling something about annoying salespeople. He opened up the door and he had on something akin to what looked like wood working equipment. He had on goggles, gloves, and noise cancelling headphones. He had some tools in his hand and the goggles were extremely dark causing him to need to remove them. After removing the goggles the soldier blinked a few times, his eyes adjusting to the sudden light. After a few seconds of blinking the soldier recognized who was standing at the door and his tools fell to the ground. He hastily picked them up stammering as he spoke to Chris.

"Uh C-Captain Redfield, uh w-what exactly do you need, Sir?"

Chris looked at him curiously; Chris Redfield was obviously the last person that this soldier had expected to see on his front doorstep. Chris watched as the man began to hastily look to his side and back towards the room he had just come from, probably wondering if Chris could see what was inside of it.

Chris finally cleared his throat and starting speaking to the nervous soldier, "I uh, didn't catch your name, and was just curious about what you are doing."

The soldier calmed down, realizing that Chris wasn't here for anything else and thought it was safe enough to answer him, "Well, as for my name that would be V. As for what I'm working on… let's just say it is a sort of project that someone asked me to get done."

Chris felt satisfied with that right now, after all he had no right to pry and see what was going on here. Chris turned to walk back to his house when V asked him a question, "So, when would be a good time to come by? I'll be bringing some stuff with me but I would just need to know what time might be comfortable for you guys."

Chris thought for a moment, scratching absently at his chin, "Would about thirty minutes be ok for you V? I think Sherry and Jake will probably be leaving soon and then we should be good for whatever you need to do, Sherry can get pretty worrisome over people."

V smiled and gave Chris a thumbs up, indicating that would be a good time for him. Chris waved goodbye and started walking back to the house. Once he got in he saw Jake and Sherry standing in the living room, Sherry looking more agitated than ever. Chris assumed that Piers was in the bedroom with Hope down the hallway because he could see that one of the doors was open. Chris walked over to Sherry and Jake waving them a greeting before the conversation started up.

Jake looked exasperated, "Redfield, don't ever take any of my ideas concerning your little puppy seriously again ok? He may have saved my life but I'm not going to follow that little dog of yours around everyone to stop people from acting like jackasses."

Chris smirked at him, "Oh really Jake, and you have never been a jackass to someone yourself?"

Jake scoffed at the implication, "Only if I get paid enough to do it Redfield."

Sherry stepped between them exasperated, playfully slapping them both across the face so they would look at her instead of continuing bickering, "Will you both just stop arguing for once sheesh! Anyway Chris, Piers didn't seem to intent on wanting to talk to us so we just left him alone in the bedroom with your guys' dog. Me and Jake are going to head on out and relax for the night, you better be able to cheer him up or I'm going to hound you the rest of your life."

Chris rolled his eyes at Sherry but was taking her words seriously, "Yes mom I will apologize to him."

Sherry chuckled at him, "Seriously Chris, try and cheer him up ok?"

Chris smiled at Sherry's persistence, at least this time, this form of persistence is something Chris was glad for, "Yes Sherry you know I will. You guys have fun now, don't stay out too late."

Sherry and Jake both assured that they would be careful, obviously everyone was starting to wonder if people would try anything against them just because they had been seen walking with Piers. Chris slowly walked into the bedroom where Piers was laying down. Chris stood in the doorway for a moment watching him. He was lying in the bed, television on, but the hood was pulled over his face. Chris moved over to the bed and looked down at Piers. Hope was lying next to him, curled up and snoring softly in her sleep.

Chris decided it was time to talk to Piers. He slowly grabbed the hood and pulled it back over his head. Piers tried to pull it back down but Chris wasn't having any of it, he just held the hood back as Piers tried to move it away from Chris. Chris just stared at Piers, he could tell he had been crying and was sorry that he ever wanted to try the dumb idea Jake had come up with of going out for a walk. Chris was hoping what he would say would get through to Piers somehow.

Chris started off as gently as he could, "Hey Piers, c'mon don't let those idiots get to you you're fine there isn't anything wrong with you."

Piers looked at him trying to put a scowl on his face, "Chris can you honestly say that to me? I mean for god's sake someone tried to fucking stab me in the back today. I was going to fucking let him do it too I didn't even try to do anything!"

Chris' face flushed and for a moment he hadn't realized what he was doing. When he finally came back to it his hand had punched a hole in the wall and Piers was staring at him and very frightened. Chris looked from his hand to Piers and the hole in the wall. He silently cursed himself for somehow having a blackout from hearing what Piers had just told him, he was just inwardly glad that he hadn't aimed the hand at Piers.

Chris took a deep breath to try and calm himself before he started talking to Piers, "Don't you ever act like that Piers! There are people that are trying to get you to realize you aren't alone! Do you even remember what the doctor said to you? That stuff is temporary so stop giving a shit what other people think and live your life! Nobody should be able to bring you down this far so why in the hell are you letting them do this to you?!"

Chris was practically blowing steam out of his ears when he was yelling at Piers. He received no answer from Piers when he was done, just the continuance of a shocked and scared expression on his face. Chris was about to say something else when he heard the doorbell ring. He went to the door to go see who it was. Chris looked through the eye hole and saw that it was the soldier from earlier; V. Chris opened up the door and let him in. Hope, startled by the noise of the doorbell, was also at the front door and as soon as V had walked in Hope had jumped up on him and started licking his face, almost making him drop the stuff he was carrying.

Chris pulled Hope off of V and got her to calm down so that she would not jump on him again. Chris eyed the stuff V had brought with him and once the soldier saw that he raised an eyebrow at Chris, waiting for him to ask about it. Chris finally gave in to his curiosity and asked some questions.

Still eyeing the stuff curiously V asked him, "So, what are those for exactly?"

V smirked, "Well, I am going to see if I can get your friend to shoot off some of his electricity to try and loosen that thing up for him. These are just so he has something for it to go into, rather than accidentally setting something on fire. By the way, I have done this once or twice before. If it does work like I think it will, don't be offended if I take one of these back with me alright?"

Chris nodded, apparently satisfied with the answer he received, "Well, he is in the back room if you want to just follow me over there. Oh and yeah, don't worry about that it's not like we will probably have any use for… whatever it is those will do."

V nodded and followed Chris to the back bedroom where Piers was, Chris slowly stepped in first talking to Piers, "Hey, got someone who wants to see you. He might be able to help with your arm a little bit."

Piers nodded begrudgingly, he wasn't about to argue with what they wanted to do after Chris had punched a hole in the wall earlier, and then V looked at Chris and asked him about it, "Uh, Captain, were you the one that punched the wall?"

Chris nodded in embarrassment and then V continued, "Um, don't take this the wrong way but could you uh… wait outside while I do this? I don't want you freaking out if this works."

Chris nodded in defeat, realizing that this guy seemed to know more about what would happen than what Chris did, so Chris just watched from the hallway. He watched as V slid the arm of the hoodie that was still on Piers off of his arm and started to stretch it out. Chris also decided to listen in intently on what was being said.

"Alright, Mr. Nivans, I'm going to need you to just let me do this. I'm going to push a few points on your arm here and hopefully you can get a little more use out of it after we are done tonight ok?" V was using a kind and gentle tone, and Chris couldn't help but smile at what he was saying because Piers actually seemed to be really interested in what he was saying the second it was concerning his arm.

V slung one of his cases over his neck and kept it in front of his chest, the other two were sitting on the floor. He slowly straightened Piers' arm out and began pressing a few points on his arms, it almost seemed like he was pushing what would be pressure points. After a few pushes V grunted from a burst of bio-electricity that arced from Piers' clawed arm into the case on his chest. Chris almost rushed in because it looked like it might have had some effect on V, but stopped when the soldier held up his hand towards Chris in a stopping motion. It seems Chris would just have to sit back and watch the show.

Chris watched as V took a moment to lower Piers' arm and check his case, at what it was that surprised him Chris doesn't know, he only saw V raise his eyebrows and quickly sling the case off and grab another one. The same thing was repeated, but V pressed slower and in different spots on Piers' arm. This time, another burst came out but not as wild and erratic as the first one was. V seemed satisfied because this time when he looked at the side of the case he smirked and slung it back off and the last one on at a regular pace.

The same motions were done again as the second time, although the same spots V did it a little quicker this time, and this burst was halfway between being as wild and erratic as the first, but as contained as the second one. V seemed even more satisfied this time as he set down the third case and picked up the first one he had used, slinging over his back so he could carry it out with him. Then he started up a short conversation with Piers.

V seemed genuinely curious as to the results of his actions, "So Piers, try moving your arm. Are you able to feel anything below this little outer shell you have?"

Piers did as he was told and his eyes lighted up, "Y-yeah actually… it feels like I have an arm surrounded by a freaking jar of hardened molasses or something."

V chuckled at him, "Awesome, it's better than nothing but that means you are actually on track to that thing cracking away one day."

Piers looked at him curiously, a question forming on his lips but he apparently could not find a way to voice it. V just chuckled at him and clapped his hand onto Piers' mutated shoulder reassuringly. Apparently V felt no need to explain what he meant to Piers and so Chris, who had been standing in the doorway, saw no need to ask him what he meant either. V gave Piers a smile before standing up, and even if his vision had been better he wouldn't have noticed because he was too busy moving his arm around slowly.

V walked to the door, motioning for Chris to follow him. They both walked out of the door and stood on the front steps for a moment. V turned around to look at Chris and had a smile on his face. Chris was still curious about what was going on because he had no idea what that just did to actually help Piers but apparently now V might think it is a good time to explain some of the stuff to him.

V still smiling, had a happy tone to his voice when he started speaking to Chris, "Alright so yeah I know you are probably wondering what that was right there. The three cases I had were basically power storage units, you can use them like batteries, or in the case of the one I am using, you can use it as a… modification for something. As for his arm, it was a good sign that he was able to feel something in his arm after all of that. The fact that he could move it means he is on a good track of recovery for that partial cocoon to fading away."

Chris smiled and shook V's hand thanking him, before he could say anything V raised his eyebrows, "Oh shit! Hey I almost forgot something; I was given a note to give to you. Go ahead and read it, I will be on my way back to my place now, I will see you tomorrow."

V handed the note to Chris and walked away towards his house. That was such a sudden change in the conversation that Chris got a little suspicious as to why V had used the word modification and almost hurried back to his home. Chris decided to open up the note to read it, first looking to the names that were signed at the bottom of the paper. It was the signatures of all of Alpha Team. Now that was strange, how did they know this guy would be bumping into Chris today?

Chris took out the note and started reading it:

~Dear Captain Redfield

Hey Captain, greetings from Alpha Team! We know you and Piers aren't really doing that well, and we figured he might need some cheering up. If you are reading this then you have met V. We need you to bring Piers down to the base tomorrow for some practice and something that should be a sure-fire way to cheer him up! Don't ask V what it is because honestly we don't even completely know what he is doing but we do know that he is damn good at it. See you guys tomorrow!

~Signed: Quentin, Ares, Jack, Ed, Andy