"You're not the only one known to be audacious, Tobias."
Tobias' face broke into a scowl at his cellphone levitating beside his ear while he cleaned dishes alongside Shiro, while Kuro was vaccuuming the living room.
Right away Shiro detected the shift in Tobias' body language, watching him carefully as she analyzed the voice on the line.
"If you haven't realized it yet, our fight hasn't ended even slightly since you left me riddled with seven hundred bullets and 18 grenade launcher shells worth of shrapnel."
"This isn't a fight, Wesker." Tobias growled.
"Oh? Do I detect another oneliner from you? Enlighten me. What would you call this? I want your life, Tobias. I want to end it and enjoy every second of doing so."
"If you just want my life, you clearly fail to see what I've made my life since I pumped you full of Quinque Steel on that day 19 years ago." Tobias laughed darkly. "My family is my life, so if you want my life, you have to fight for yours because none of us will back down. This thing between us... It's war. And we're all going to enjoy ending your life. Far too much. Not just myself and Serenity with our sadistic natures, but also Alice, Rize, Kaneki, Mishka, Hinami, Natasha, Sir Andrew, Malcolm, Dakota, Javier, Victoria, Antonio, Stella, Jake, Motoko, Sherry, Yuuki, Rachael, Sheva, Valentine, Odin, Shiro, Kuro, Zen, Koko, Jonah, Lehm, Valmet, Wiley, R, Lutz, Tojo, Mao, Ugo, Wick and Rico too. We are all a family, all you have in comparison is your sister and her son. So if you can tell me that you can make the three of you into a happy little family in Berlin after the delusional little fantasy of killing all of us, then by all means... you do you, boo-boo."
"Quaint." Wesker taunted. "And yet you fail to see that my regenerative capabilities now rival your own."
"The problem with getting upgrades is learning what the hell was upgraded, Wesker." Shiro suddenly spoke up. "By what you just said, you fail to understand what was done to your body, and will likely not realize it until it is too late to fix it... or remove it."
"I survived the T-Virus, and I'm the original source of the C-Virus, every single strain that the BSAA has ever combatted in the past 19 years... I have them all, except for one..."
Shiro and Tobias shared a glance, instinctively going through a list of the known bioweaponry strains... and reached the same conclusion...
"You'll have to get through Yuuki - again - before you can even get anywhere near Sherry."
"Ah, but little Miss Sherry isn't the only one that carries the G-Virus, Tobias." Wesker laughed, low and dark. "Fame is a double-edged sword, wouldn't you say, William?"
"I know what you want from me... but not even you could adapt to it in time, not with that volatile cocktail in your system already." William was audible in the line, making Tobias bare his teeth in rage.
"All I need is a taste. Pain shouldn't bother you, considering your regenerative capabilities, William."
Tobias heard William's body moving slightly, detecting a faint straining to indicate he was bound by handcuffs to something metallic, realizing he was leaning towards Wesker to be defiant.
"For Mother Russia... Cyka."
"He got me, Toby... Whatever he's done to himself is now complete with the G-Virus." William sighed. "You and I both know what this could turn into."
Tobias had arrived to find the Birkin house in slight disarray, evidence of the attack and following struggle. He knew before he'd left his own home that Wesker would be long gone by the time her arrived, so - in his terms, at least - he arrived unarmed, and by himself. The Twins and Silence were always on his person, so in actual terms he was only 'lightly' armed.
"So how'd it go down?" Tobias used his Telekinesis to sort out the mess while they talked, collecting anything damaged to be repaired.
"He knocked on the front door, I answered it. Took my by surprise and overpowered me by force." William explained. "I broke the cuffs, tried to fight him off, but he managed to bite into my arm and ran off."
"He bit you?" Tobias raised an eyebrow incredulously. "Seems strange that he'd do that..." Tobias stopped talking for a moment, and William nodded knowingly.
"He turned himself into a Ghoul."
"Fuck." Tobias sighed. "Need any help cleaning up?"
"I can handle the rest. You go call it in. I'll let Sherry and Annette know what happened."
"I'll need to check one thing before I go." Tobias reached into his suit jacket and produced a new prototype given to him by Valentine. It was a smaller version of the sonar system that the T-15's used, a monocle-style visor connected to a handheld scanner by a short cable. "Virus scanner, it's loaded with our main database for the genetic struture of all known bioweaponry strains we've encountered in the BSAA."
"I see the reasoning, go for it." William nodded, watching Tobias put the lens over one eye and aimed the scanner at him, immediately earning a quick beeping noise.
"You're good. Just G-Virus." Tobias replied to William's expectant expression. "He didn't infect you with anything from that bite."
"Now, Mr. Darkwood, you promised us that your ship would be airborne within six months, and you've yet to launch as promised." Donald Trump, the Congressman that had attempted to give Valentine grief during his proposal for the Nightfall's budget in April, spoke with a noticeable note of cocky pride in his voice as he addressed Valentine's full-colour hologram being projected at the podium, both of them standing with their arms crossed over their chests.
"Don't even try to pick a fight with me, I can just as easily aim those 18 railguns at your damn wig as I can at a B.O.W research facility." Valentine's tone silenced Trump immediately. "I have withheld launching the Nightfall due to a recent breach of security, attempted sabotage, and this little thing called 'school' has been heavily occupying my time."
"Should have thought of that before you started..." Trump held up his right hand, pinching his index and thumb pointedly. "I believe this whole ship fiasco has cost America more than it should've in the first place, and that we should relinquish the rights to it over to the Air Force..."
"Best of luck to you when you try to get it airborne. Without me, it's not budging an inch, and last time I checked, you can't lift 187,500 metric tonnes of metal by yourself."
"You've been rather tight-lipped about what you mean by the ship requires you to personally launch it. Now would be a good time to explain what that entails." Another Congressman stood up, speaking calmly, but was clearly remaining neutral between the slight duel between Valentine and Trump.
"I control magnetism, the ship is powered by a magnetic power source. Without me, you'd need to generate enough electricity to power a small city in the span of eight seconds, all done with a giant magnet or a turbine, to kickstart a Magno-Core of that size. That Core, by the way, is a fifteen foot wide sphere." Valentine explained. "I won't deny it's possible to fire one up without me... You just need a lot more power than you'd think to do it."
"I thought you said these Cores of yours are self-sustaining?" Trump challenged with his eyebrows raised arrogantly after he'd rolled his eyes during Valentine's reply.
"They are. I never said they didn't need a swift kick in the ass to begin producing that amount of power, now did I?" Valentine replied to the non-verbal taunting by suddenly laughing. "If powered for four minutes, that size of Magno-Core exceeds the initial charge required to start up. In one hour of activity, it requires the energy it produces in just 12 minutes. Do the math, if you want. My point is they don't just start by flipping a switch like you seem to think."
"And what about that breach of security you mentioned?" The same Congressman asked.
"Unfortunately that's not my jurisdiction to comment upon. You'll have to inquire through proper channels within the BSAA to discuss that in any form. All I can say is that it was handled by our own personnel and repairs were conducted for what little damage was inflicted upon the ship." Valentine replied with a smoothly cocky glance at Trump's angry scowl. "So, I will launch the Nightfall within my originally declared six-month schedule, which is coincidentally a week after my older sisters' birthday. So, you can expect a courtesy fly-over the White House on Remembrance Day. Any further complains will be silenced now, as I said earlier, I have other matters that unfortunately occupy a majority of my time. You will receive an update when I feel you require one. Do svidaniya, Congress. Madame President." Valentine curtly nodded to the room at large, then much more respectfully bowed his head at the President herself, since she was standing a few steps away from his hologram at the podium. With her small smile and a nod of her own, the hologram flickered and disconnected completely.
At the other end of the country, Valentine let out a large sigh through his nose, just like Tobias did when he wasn't amused by something.
"I should've realized that orange spray-tanned blonde jackass was a Syndicate puppet sooner..." Valentine scowled as he stepped out of the hologram projector's broadcasting bay and hurried straight back to his beloved ship. "I probably should give him a personal railgun broadside, now that I think about it... Right Acidika?" Valentine stared at me pointedly, smirking. "Sere and my sisters aren't the only ones that've picked up on Dad's ability to break the Fourth Wall, you know."