AN: Hey all, nearly done with this story. If this chapter is short, I will make up for it with a LONG final chapter (which I will hopefully get done before I start college again). As for making you all wait . . . Inspiration lagged and I got lazy. I have no other excuse.
Thank you all for being patient, and thank you to my reviewers (AzureSonata23, Johnclaw Dragonhelm, and SaiyanEpicness) for sticking with me and leaving feedback! I love hearing what you guys think of my efforts.
Couple of updates in my life:
*With the help of an old friend, my drawing tablet has come back to life, so I am doodling stuff.
*I have joined Tumblr. As of now I use it to stalk my fandoms, but I may post drawings on there once I get good at drawing again. Message me if you want to follow me. I want followers.
*My summer is now over halfway over. :( Soon I will have college again and very little time to spare.
Disclaimer: I do not own Resident Evil or its characters. Non-canon characters are my responsibility. JediSpartan217 helped me with the plot for this story.
The two agents moved quickly, darting around the room, in and out of the tyrant's reach. Kate and Jill took turns running into Chris' field of vision, distracting him while the other person shot at him, hoping to hit one of the vital points. Sometimes one of them would get a lucky shot and hit an orange, gaseous sac that rested on Chris' shoulders or chest, but beyond that neither of the fighters knew what to do. Time was running out; the intercom had announced that they had ten, maybe fifteen minutes left? Nobody was keeping track. The two women were low on strategies and energy, not to mention bullets.
"This isn't working!" Kate grunted to Jill. "Got any ideas?" the bespectacled cadet shouted to her partner across the room.
"Those orange sacs seem to hurt him a lot when they're hit," Jill stated in reply.
"Yeah, and they keep growing back!" the younger agent shouted back, "I've seen three of those on him so far."
"Me too," the older woman replied. "Think we can hit them all at once?" she suggested, "That might slow him down enough for us to get close to him."
"At the rate those things grow back?" Kate replied before dodging a swipe of Chris' claws, "We're gonna need more people with guns to do that!"
Jill prepared to reply, only for radio static to buzz in her ear. "Jill? Any help here?" Keith spoke, "We got three big guys beating us to a pulp!"
"Hold it!" Kate spoke into her radio. "Do they have hair?" she asked.
"They do, but-! What does that have to do with anything?!" the male agent replied.
"Just wait, we'll explain!" the younger agent replied into the radio before cutting the connection. "I think they found Billy, Carlos and Steve," Kate spoke to her partner, a hint of relief in her face as she circled around to rejoin Jill.
"Those guys were human when you found them, right?"
The bespectacled agent nodded. "Their transformations were forced. It happened right before we found you, actually," she explained.
"Any chance they can they be saved?"
Kate thought fast. "...Steve was able to change back when he was in Antarctica. Shouldn't the others be able to as well?" she tried, "They should have similar weak points like Delfredi's. I think I saw similar marks when they changed!"
"Right," the older agent replied before activating her radio. "Jill to Backup, If at all possible, use non-lethal force; we might be able to return them to a human state." she ordered.
"Are you nuts?! These things are tryin' to kill us!" Quint's voice objected through the radio.
"You'll have to believe me here, Quint," the female agent replied. "Do you guys see any orange sacs on the their bodies?"
"Yeah, three on each of them!" Keith's voice confirmed.
"Those could be weak points," Jill explained, "If you hit them all at once, they should change back to their human bodies."
"Copy that!"
Another voice called Jill's name. Kate and the older agent turned in their hiding place to see Stevie and Mattie running towards them. "Right on time," the blue-clad woman muttered under her breath.
"You got a plan?" Stevie asked upon approach, kneeling down next to her teammates.
"We might have singled out weak spots. You?" Kate replied.
"We found his pills," Stevie reported, pulling out the bottle of pills and tossing it lightly to Jill. "If they work, they should get him back to normal ."
"How big a dose do we need?" Jill inquired.
"A lot," the youngest cadet replied. "Hopefully the whole bottle won't poison him."
"What's our strategy?" Mattie asked, looking Jill in the eye.
The older woman gestured towards Chris' mutated form. "See the orange sacs?" she started. Stevie and Mattie peeked over the crates. "They're loaded with Gx-A virus and burst when hit, so we can't get too close. If we can spread out and take all of them out, we might be able to stun him long enough to get those pills in his mouth."
Stevie nodded and looked back at Jill. "Sounds like a plan to me," the blue-eyed cadet replied.
The three younger women sprang from behind the crate and spread out. Kate and Mattie moved to flank Chris on either side while Stevie stayed in front of him, acting as a decoy to keep the mutated soldier's attention on her while Jill prepared the medicine.
Five bullets fired into Chris' chest before one hit its target. The glowing sac burst, releasing a cloud of gas before the tyrant bent forward in pain. Kate and Mattie saw the opportunity and fired, bursting the remaining two sacs at the same time.
Chris fell forward onto his knees, breathing harshly. "Now!" Mattie shouted, signaling for her superior to approach.
Jill bolted from behind the crate, open bottle of pills clutched tightly in her hand. She skidded to a stop in front of the ailing tyrant and grasped a patch of messy hair. She shook the contents of the orange container into his mouth, praying that some of the medicine made it in before releasing his head and forcing his mouth shut. "C'mon Chris! Swallow!" Jill grunted, her muscles straining as she held the tyrant's jaw closed.
A dangerous growl came from Chris' throat. "Everyone get back!" Jill ordered before releasing her old comrade's head. The cadets backed away quickly as Jill sprang backwards, guns at the ready should the tyrant attempt an attack.
"Did it work?!" Mattie asked, her eyes darting to where Jill stood.
The veteran agent observed the monstrous form of Chris as he got to his feet, studying his body for any sign of change, only to find the three orange sacs had healed and refilled themselves. "No good. We gotta do it again," she confirmed.
The three cadets split up again in the same formation, drawing Chris' attention away from Jill with some well-placed potshots while the senior agent prepared to administer a second dose. The trio repeated the process, eventually bringing a stunned and weakened Chris back down to his knees.
Once again, Jill ran up to Chris, shoved the last of the pills in his mouth and held his jaw closed, forcing him to swallow the bitter medicine. A gulping noise informed the senior agent that the pills had been swallowed, followed by a low groan. Chris allowed his head sink forward as the rest of his body grew smaller and his jaundiced skin returned to normal. With a few spasmodic twitches in his reformed limbs, Chris looked up and recognized his longtime partner before silence and darkness overtook his senses.
"We got him, Captain," Mattie confirmed, hand hovering over her radio to inform the others.
Jill relaxed her muscles a little, only to be interrupted by the intercom. "5 minutes until self-destruct. Please evacuate quickly and calmly," the automated voice directed, bouncing echoes through the entire room.
"We have to get out of here," the senior agent decided as she ran forward, picked up the unconscious Chris, and slung one arm over her shoulders,"Now!"
Outside the facility, the battle raged on against the mutated test subjects. It had taken several minutes and conning the two larger tyrants into fighting each other, but the small back up team was able to subdue the smaller, green-skinned, orange-haired monster first. The team watched in stunned wonder as he shrunk down to a human form. Rebecca jogged towards him as he fell unconscious and began checking his vitals. "He's still alive!" she declared.
"Jill's strategy works!" Quint confirmed to his partners, "Get this one to a safe area and go after the next one!"
The second tyrant went down easier than the first, given that the larger monsters had worn each other down, but it still meant that the back up team now had to focus on not getting stepped on by the third tyrant. Quint and Keith distracted the final tyrant, giving Rebecca cover as she verified the test subject's health and pulled him towards the wall where she left the first survivor.
One last tyrant remained. Despite their weariness, the trio managed to wear the monster down and strike all three weak points simultaneously.
"We got him!" Rebecca confirmed as the third monster slid to the ground, "Cover me!" The medic ran over to the transforming body, skidding in her tracks when she recognized the infamous tattoo snaking up the figure's arm. "Billy?!"
Billy turned his head towards her. "Hey doll face. Long time no see," he groaned, looking up at her with heavy eyes.
"That's the last one! Let's get them in the chopper!" Quint ordered.
Quint, Keith, and Rebecca each took one of the test subjects and ran to the landing zone where the helicopter waited. The no-longer-mutated tyrants were loaded in first and strapped down to stretchers so they wouldn't injure themselves further. Once they were secure, the backup team checked their status.
"Where's Jill and the others?" Keith asked over the noise of the spinning blades.
"We're on your ten o'clock! Over here!" A female voice shouted over the radio. Keith looked over to witness Stevie, Mattie, and Kate sprinting out of the wreckage. Jill followed the trio of cadets, carrying Chris on her shoulder.
"The place is about to self-destruct! Let's get a move on!" Stevie barked to the backup team. The men assisted the younger women into the helicopter before taking Chris' unconscious form out of Jill's arms, securing him to another stretcher as the senior agent climbed in.
"We're all in! Go!" Quint ordered to the pilot as everyone else strapped themselves to the aircraft's seats.
No sooner had the helicopter risen to three hundred feet in the air, the familiar sound of a controlled blast echoed beneath them, followed by a shockwave that shook the aircraft about. The passengers of the helicopter gazed out the windows. The facility below crumbled under its newly rendered lack of structural integrity, ending in a pile of crushed concrete and metal.
"That was close," Kate sighed as she leaned back into the cushioned seat.
"Got that right," Stevie added, settling in next to her older friend, "I don't think anything's gonna be climbing out of that mess anytime soon."
Mattie continued to look out of the helicopter window, staring down at the destroyed building. "Thank goodness that's over," she whispered. Right after she spoke, her eyes closed and she slumped forward.
"Goggles? You okay?" Keith asked nervously, shuffling forward to check on her.
Jill leaned over and gave Mattie a quick shake, earning a groan in return. "She's fine. Just exhausted," she verified before returning to her seat. "Anyone who has been infected is going to need medical attention. Tell HQ to get the infirmary ready."
"Jill." Quint's voice brought her attention back to him. "We got a bigger problem back at HQ," the technician added, leaning towards the female agent. "We just got a tip-off that two moles have infiltrated the BSAA," he reported. Stevie and Kate's shoulders stiffened, but they held back any expression that would give them away as they listened.
"Any idea who they are?" Jill asked.
Quint shook his head. "Not yet," he replied, "We got techs working on it right now."
Stevie and Kate focused all of their remaining energy on acting uninvolved. Despite their desire for silent communication, they had to sit still; acting on impulse could destroy their entire cover. Just when they thought they were safely out, trouble just had to pull them back in.