Ryan and Alice followed her back to the apartment building that they'd been assigned to live in. She lead them inside and said. "Do me a favour first, give your daughter her guns and a place to wait for you while you are down there. I already explained that you two get to choose your apartment first, before your convoy."
"She has a point, Alice." Ryan regrettably agreed with Michelle on that point, plus it gave them a place to recover - if necessary - after they returned. "Besides, we just have to pick a place to call our home. Nothing we can't handle, right?"
Alice smiled and nodded her head. "I have a bit of a thing for balconies. Let's check out the upper floors." She took Ryan by his left hand and lead him up the stairs until they reached the top floor.
"Quite the view." Ryan commente as they approached a window that overlooked a large expanse of Sanctuary's huge area. Barely visible in the distance was the hydroelectric dam, and nearby dozens upon dozens of wind turbines.
"It is impressive... But back when I worked for Umbrella, I was assigned to live in this beautiful mansion on the edge of the Arklay Forest. I had a clear view from the upper terrace all the way to city hall on a sunny day like this." Alice rested her forarms on the edge of the windowframe. "Too bad I was assigned an asshole for a partner, otherwise I'd have probably enjoyed my job a lot more."
"Did something happen between the two of you that caused the problems?" Ryan asked, standing beside her with his hand wrapped around her waist.
Alice laughed at the question, making Ryan raise an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, something happened alright!"
"Care to elaborate?" Ryan asked as Alice continued to chuckle to herself in amusement.
"We got married." Alice replied, but her expression quickly became serious. "Don't take that the wrong way; the marriage was orchestrated by Umbrella to fabricate a cover story for our presence in the mansion. It was entirely fake. Besides, he never saw me the same way that you do, Ryan. He was always... so cold, distant... even cruel at times."
"What did you do with him in the end?" Ryan asked, giving her a kiss after tugging his mask down. She returned the kiss for several seconds before separating her lips from his and smiled devilishly.
"I snapped his neck with a fireaxe after he dragged himself across the floor to my feet when he betrayed me." Alice whispered, and touched her forehead to his and closed her eyes for a brief moment to concentrate.
Before Ryan could praise her, he was suddenly flooded by a memory that wasn't his own... but was Alice, from her perspective, standing over a blood covered man that was clearly infected with the T-Virus. The man was missing his legs, so he dragged himself towards Alice as she took a nearby fireaxe and slammed it into the back of the man's neck. She then tossed the axe aside and wrenched a golden wedding band off her left hand, and Ryan caught a glimpse of the words 'Property of Umbrella Corp' etched on the inside of the ring as she tossed it beside the man's left hand, where his ring was surprisingly untouched by the blood covering his body.
With a gasp, Alice pulled her head away from Ryan, who - after a moment to reorient himself - gave her a warm smile.
"Poetic justice."
"Pardon?" Alice stared at him in slight confusion.
"It's poetic justice, really. From Umbrella it came, but through their actions, that it shall fall." Ryan gazed out the window for a moment before adding. "I mean you meeting me, Katie, and everything leading up to this moment. If it wasn't for that fateful moment where you severed that final chain imprisoning you to Umbrella, then where would the three of us be today?" Ryan smirked. 'I for one, would still be a scrawny little gun loving smartass. Katie would still be one of Umbrella's playthings... and you... You'd still be wandering the wasteland, all alone, with nothing but the hatred for Umbrella to keep you going."
"What are you trying to say, Ryan? Are you saying that if I hadn't..." Alice began, but Ryan turned and gave her another long kiss to silence her.
When he finally released her, he very calmly and point blank said. "Yes, we've had to go through our own version of Hell to get to the point that we're at now. Yes, I understand that. But, without that trip into Hell, then things would be different for all of us."
Alice went silent for several seconds before she finally heaved a sigh and pecked him on the cheek. "His name was Spence."
"I see. Well, burn in Hell, you backstabbing bastard! She's my wife now!" Ryan tilted his head back, as if he was projecting his Telepathy into the sky at Spence's spirit. "Should have realized what real beauty was when didn't involve your fucking paycheque!"
Alice laughed at his choice of words, then lead him down the hall by the hand until she found the room she wanted; the one with the full sized balcony.
"If he did have one saving grace..." Alice said as she savoured the view of all of Sanctuary before her eyes. "He had the decency let me enjoy the beautiful view I had from that balcony right after we had a big argument. He would somehow calm himself down just at the sight of me... staring off towards the city." She rested her hand on top of the railing.
"Well, I doubt that little memory trick you pulled on me would do the view of the city much justice... But I think..." Ryan step close behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing the back of her neck as he smiled happily. "I think that an even better view is of you... In the light of the full moon, backlit by the city lights in the distance and the stars overhead. THAT, Alice, is a view I would never forget... nor would I throw it away either."
Alice blushed, but she hid it well as she smiled and gave him one final kiss before she teased. "You've got quite the imagination. Where'd you get such a sappy idea like that from anyway?" Despite her teasing, Alice was actually touched. Somehow, Ryan could see past the pain she felt while staring at the city lights, and see the beauty she had long ago ignored.
"Surprisingly, that was all mine... and all true, Alice." Ryan took her by the hand, interlocking their fingers before he continued. "I love you, Alice. As long as I'm with you, I'm happy. But what I now stride for is YOUR happiness, and Katie's happiness as well. Now, we'd better get back to our job with Michelle, otherwise SHE won't be happy one bit." Ryan gave her a nod as she lead him back through the apartment door. It was then that they realized that the key was in the lock already. She took it and handed it to Ryan.
"Put that on your chain for now. We'll duplicate it after we finish with the lab."
Ryan unclasped the silver chain around his neck and hung the key from the center, then reattached it and slid it underneath his shirt for safekeeping.
"I'll have Michelle give it to Katie so she can get inside." Ryan replied as they descended the stairs, meeting Michelle at the bottom.
"Top floor, apartment number 72. That's the one we chose." Alice explained to Michelle as Ryan handed over the key after removing it from his chain. "Can you give this to Katie so she can get inside. I left her a note."
"Will do. Now that everything is done and dealt with, are you two ready to begin with clearing the lab?" Michelle took the key and placed it in her pocket. "Ryan, remember that fenced off area from this morning?" Ryan nodded. "The entrance to the lab is hidden somewhere in the northern corner of that quarantine. I hazard a guess that you can also detect anything electrical or magnetic in nature, right?" He nodded again. "Good man. Just try to find the entrance. Sadly when it was first discovered, it was late at night during a routine patrol of the area, but the patrolman who originally found the place was one of the men who I sent inside, and as you know, they're probably dead. Anyway, I know for a fact that he specifically had a pair of magnetized Benwa balls on his person, and a polarized bracelet. He had some weird balance issue that the bracelet and the balls help fix. If you can sense either of those, then you're sure to find them."
Ryan gave one final nod before turning to Alice to relay his message.
"He said that he can't sense anything electrical or magnetic while he's outside the quarantine's fenceline, but once we're inside, maybe he'll have a better chance."
"Makes sense that the fence would interfere. Alright, you guys need directions to the way through the fence?" One of the guards suddenly spoke up while taking a step forward.
Ryan gave Alice a knowing smirk as he pulled his mask back onto his face. Alice in turn smiled, but she then said. "Trust me when I say this, the three of us can do more than you'd think possible for us. Even our daughter can do something that is completely unrelated to her Pyrokinesis."
"Like what?" The guard asked as Ryan strode out of the building's front door and suddenly jumped in a high parabellic arch, landing on the opposite sidewalk with a small cloud of dust.
"He's a jumper, doesn't sleep, and he can run so fast that he can briefly become invisible. Myself on the other hand... I can tap into your mind, and give, take, reveal, or even implant memories into your mind." Alice smiled in a sinister way, broadcasting her words to Ryan so that he heard them as well. She'd revealed one of her own memories to him - the one of her killing Spence - and basically duplicated it into his mind from her own. He would make the connection and understand.
"What about your daughter?" The guard asked, clearly hiding his uneasiness well. But Alice could tell by the way his eyes darted between her own that he was becoming scared.
"I'm psychic. I can relive the recent events of a location, Not to mention I'm also super strong for my size." Katie's voice spoke up from directly behind the guard, who almost jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance of the third - the child - of the 'family of freaks' he'd been hearing rumors about.
"Hey kiddo. Michelle has the key to our new apartment. It's on the top floor, number 72. I left you a note, and Michelle gave you two new guns. Dad left them on the couch for you. Anyway, head upstairs. Me and dad have to do a job for Michelle, so we might be a while." Alice took the apartment key from Michelle and tossed it to Katie. "Do me a favour, the furniture's layout is terrible. You mind changing it around? Make it more..." Alice considered the right word for a moment. "Actually, why don't you surprise me and dad, okay? Have fun!"
Katie gave an energetic nod before she reached behind her and dragged Taylor into view, then together they scurried up the stairs to the apartment so they could get straight to work.
Alice followed Ryan's example and used her Telekinesis to levitate herself across the length of the street, lightly floating to the ground beside Ryan, who had been leaning on a wall, listening to Katie and Alice broadcasting the entire conversation for him to hear.
"Want to know something I just thought of?" Ryan gave Alice a glance as they took each other by the hand and calmly strolled down the street, as if it was just a walk around the block.
"What is it?" Alice gave him a quizzical look. Something in his tone was like he was planning something, but at the same time, it was oddly amused. "Should I be worried about what I'm about to hear?"
"No." Ryan was clearly giving her an innocent expression behind his mask as he gazed at her. "But I'd better explain it in detail."
"Go on." Alic acknowledged that he would explain, so she prepared herself for something complicated.
"Remember that computer game that Mikey and I were playing, way before we even met Katie when she was still 'Project: June'?" Ryan asked.
Alice remembered something about an electric hammer, and fireproof enemies. But for the sake of his question, she answered. "Not much, but yeah, I remember it. Why do you ask?"
"In that game there are Quests. Go here, do that, find this, kill that. Shit like that." Ryan explained. "But whenever you entered any Dungeon, you were given a specific Challenge. Something like 'Do not take any damage from traps' or 'Do not use Fire magic'. Makes sense, right?"
"I'm with you so far." Alice nodded her head. It made sense so far; traps were meant to hurt you, and if a Dungeon was filled with a flammable gas, then not using Fire spells seemed perfectly sound logic. These Challenges were meant to change the flow of exploring the Dungeon. "Sounds pretty logical, if you ask me."
"Ah, but those weren't the only types of Challenges that Mikey and I've been forced to do." Ryan smiled behind his mask. "That one boss fight with the fireproof minions was part of a quest that gave TWO challenges for the Dungeon. First one was 'do not use any offensive magic spells at all.'"
"What was the other Challenge?" Alice asked, curious, but also aprehensive.
"'Let your Companion acquire five kills.'" Ryan replied. "The Quest forces you to bring a specific Shock Mage into the dungeon as part of the story. Dude had to do research, and wanted the main character to act as his bodyguard."
"I see the problem. The Mage casts offensive magic to defend himself, and screwed you over." Alice finally understood the story. He failed the first challenge due to the Quest's requirements. "What about the other challenge, 'let the Mage get five kills.' Did that one fail as well?"
"Yup. The mage is killed by the boss as part of the quest, but every time me or Mikey did the parts leading up to it, the Mage only ever got four or less kills."
"So what does all this have to do with the lab, if you don't mind me asking?" Alice indicated the fenceline ahead of them.
"I am declaring this a Quest for Michelle, and the Lab is the Dungeon." Ryan smiled. "And the Dungeon Challenge is do not kill anything with a firearm. All kills must be from a T-Virus ability, a melee weapon, hand to hand, or using the environment. You up for the challenge, Itoshii?"
"What do I get as a reward?" Alice asked in a teasing voice. "Surely you are rewarded for fufilling those Dungeon Challenges in that game."
"Yup. But in the game, it would unlock a hidden treasure room near the exit. Inside was whatever random reward was given for the challenges." Ryan turned to Alice and smiled. "I already have your reward in mind. But you have to fufill the challenge before you can receive it. Deal?"
"Done. I'll play your little game. Same conditions for you as well. No gun kills." Alice gave his hand a firm shake before she started to approach the nearest guard and explained the orders they'd been given from Michelle. They guard - who appeared to be quite understanding, unlike the Sergeant that Ryan had first encountered - gave his approval and moved towards a locked gate nearby.
Alice held up her hand to stop him and simply levitated over the fence, just as Ryan launched himself over the man's shocked head, landing on the other side and sliding on the ground for several feet.
"Onwards, Itoshii. I want that surprise reward." Alice smiled while she unsheathed her kukris as Ryan stood up straight and unsheathed his katana.
Ryan glanced over his shoulder at her and smiled.
"You're gonna love it... If you succeed, that is."