Well, nothing from the CapCom count-down but here's new a new chapter to fill the void, lol. sorry for being a bit late. I wasn't really feeling too inspired to write, but I'm getting back into the swing again. There's an important question in the end notes. If you have the time, I'd appreciate your input.

Edit: [insert keyboard smash here] oh my gosh I'm sobbing, thanks so much to Kobutan for nominating The Agent Next Door for the classic collection! That just made my year. I can't even express the sheer level of excitement and confusion that receiving that email from A03 brought me. All of you are amazing, and I can't thank you enough for your support.

Song Suggestion: Midnight by Swingrowers

Disclaimer: I own nothing~ as always all the praise goes to CapCom I'm just filling in the gaps they graciously leave lol


The sun was beginning to set over the BSAA headquarters. The on campus housing was rather busy as live in employees bustled about carrying gifts and bags of groceries. Some wore white, others wore red, all in then hopes to bring luck with them into the new year. With in one particular apartment labeled 23H, family traditions were also well underway.

Emma was hard at work on a New Year's meal. While she poked at a pot of boiling diced potato chunks, she noticed her phone going off as it vibrated against the kitchen counter. The boiling pot was temporarily abandoned as she went to get her phone to answer it. "Hello?" Emma asks after shifting to hold her phone to her ear with her shoulder.

"Hey, Happy New Year's Eve!" Chelsea replies in a sing-song tone.

"Happy New Year's Eve," Emma response with a slight smile. "How have you been?"

"Oh fine, and well enough," Chelsea says in return. "It's been a crazy year."

"Tell me about it," Emma agrees with a tired sigh.

"How are you holding up?" Chelsea asks with a more sympathetic tone.

"Not bad," Emma replies while staring at the boiling pot. "The house repairs should have started by now, so it's just a waiting game at this point."

"Well that's good. Are you sure you don't want to stay with Jack and I in the mean time?" Chelsea offers once more.

"It's fine, nine people and a dog in one house would be way too crazy," Emma answers. "I appreciate the offer though."

"Alright, I just wanted to make sure," Chelsea confirms. "While we're chatting, I was wondering if I could borrow that glazed ham recipe of yours for tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Emma asks with a raised eyebrow.

"For the first... you know. New Year's Day. The day you're supposed to make pork because it's good luck?" Chelsea answers with a concerned and curious tone. "You forgot and made it on New Year's Eve again, didn't you?"

"No," Emma replies while looking over at the crock pot that had a roast pork slowly cooking away inside it. "Jokes on my memory. I was going to make it both days. That way I can't be wrong," Emma says with a laugh. "Pork roast with mashed potatoes and Peas for New Year's Eve, then a baked ham with lentils on New Year's Day."

"Oh my gosh. You couldn't just look it up on the internet?" Chelsea asks with an amused chuckle.

"Well, yeah I could, but then I'd have to think of a new meal for one of the days," Emma admits.

"You are absolutely ridiculous, what am I going to do with you," Chelsea jokingly chides with continued amusement. "You know, It's been a while since we just got to chat. Do you have off tomorrow?" the friendly woman asks. "Maybe Summer and I can stop by and catch up? I won't bring the whole gang, I know space is tight at the moment."

"It has been a while. That sounds great," Emma confirms. "I'm not really sure how civilian visits work for the housing area, but I'll work that out by the afternoon. Worst-case scenario, I can just pack up the kids and visit you."

"Awesome, keep me posted on that," Chelsea requests.

"Can do," Emma agrees.

"Alright. Well, I'll talk to you then. Bye,"

"Bye," Emma hung up and went to put the phone down. It took her a few seconds before the realization dawned on her that she never gave Chelsea the recipe she asked for. "Oh shoot," Emma says as she scurries around to try and find some paper and a pen to write that down.

While she does this, the front door opens and closes as Chris walks in. "I'm home," He says as his light breathable gym clothes contrasted with the heavy, durable winter coat that he put on the coat rack by the door.

"Welcome home," Emma replies. "How'd the workout go?"

"Not bad," He responds as he makes his way over to the kitchen and put his arm around Emma before giving her a peck on the side of her head. "Smells good, do I have enough time to wash up or?"

"It should be ready in about 20 minutes or so," She answers. "You'll probably be fine."

"Thanks," he says before heading back out and knocking on Rose's door. "Rose, dinner is almost ready. Can you help out and set the table?" he annunciates, so she'd be able to hear him through the door.

"Fiiiine," Rose groaned back in response.

While he wasn't thrilled with her tone, she did agree to do what she was told, so he frowned at the doorway and let it go for now and focused on grabbing a clean set of clothes before making his way to the bathroom. He had just closed the door to the bathroom when Rose's door opened. A pouting frown was present on her face as she slumped her way over to the kitchen.

"Thanks for the help Rosey, I appreciate it," Emma says as she moves to carry the heavy pot to the sink so she can strain out the excess water.

Rose nods in response and gathers the plates and silverware from the cabinets to carry them over to the table and starts setting the table.

"AaaaaAAAAaaaah," Piers calls while quickly crawling his way over to Rose and grabs onto her leg to help himself stand up.

Seeing this causes Rose to smile, she puts down the last plate before reaching down to pick up her tiny brother. "Did you want to help?"

"ooo-see~" he says with a big smile as he reaches to grab her face.

"That's right, Rosey~" She says in return as she smiled back and moved to put him down in his high chair.

"Rose, can you put the water out with the plates?" Emma asks to remind the child of her task.

Rose pouts at this but fluff's the wirey mop of soft thin baby hair on Piers' head before hurrying off to finish her chores. Glasses of water were added to the table by each plate before Rose went back to the high chair to play pat-a-cake with Piers while waiting for dinner to be ready.

A large bowl of mashed potatoes and a serving bowl of peas were added to the table as Chris made his way out of the bathroom. While Emma carried out the last of the food, Chris and Rose took their seats.

"You have the day off tomorrow, right?" Emma asks while everyone started to put their plates together.

"Yeah," Chris confirmed. "I was thinking I might try and stop by the house again. See if I can find anything else to bring back," The agent explains while cutting and pulling apart pieces of pork for them to cool, so they were safe enough to give to Piers. The child was about 13 and a half months old, so it was safe to start giving him solid foods, even if it still felt strange to do so.

"Sounds like a plan," Emma agrees with a nod. "I might be busy as well, Chelsea was thinking about visiting with Summer."

Rose was just about to put a bite of food in her mouth, but hearing this caused her to instantly stop. "Really?" the young girl asks with an excited smile.

"Yep," the motherly woman confirmed with a nod before looking back to Chris. "Do I need to do anything to make sure they can get in?"

"I can get a visitor's pass for her in the morning. You'll need to meet her at the gate," Chris replies before focusing on his own mean, while the food for Piers cools.

"That's fine, I don't think she was planning on visiting until the afternoon anyways," Emma admits as she collects a bite of food on her fork "Which works for me, I think we'll both be tired from staying up," She add with a chuckle before eating.

"You're staying up?" Rose asks curiously, which causes Emma to wince slightly.

"Yeah, it's a tradition for adults to stay up until midnight to greet the new year," Chris answers, while putting some emphasis on the word 'adults'.

"Can I stay up too?" Rose excitedly asks with starry eyed hope as the hint when right over her head. She was absolutely an adult at 3 and a half years old. They kept saying she was practically a teenager now anyways!

"That is well past your bedtime," Emma points out in return, causing the child to pout.

"I stayed up for card night," Rose points out in a pleading tone. "And we stayed up to watch movies on Halloween."

"That is true," Chris reluctantly admits. She did well enough with not complaining the next morning for both occasions. "Mom?" Chris asks while looking at Emma.

"Oh alright," Emma agrees. "You can stay up with us for new years, but once it's midnight, you have to go to bed. Okay?"

"Deal," Rose happily agrees before hurrying to eat her dinner. "Cha we watc moffies aain?" She asks with a mouth full of mashed potatoes and peas.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Chris chides with a tired sigh. He knew she knew better then that.

Rose hurried to swallow the bite before downing some water and trying again. "Can we watch movies again?" she asks with an ever excited smile.

"I don't see why not," Emma agrees once more.

"Wohoo!" Rose happily cheered and continued to scarf down her food. In a matter of minutes, her plate was clean and she was hurrying off to the kitchen to put her plate in the sink. "I'm going to go pick a few now."

Chris suppressed a groan of realization as it finally connected that Rose being present would mean he'd be stuck watching those weird cartoon movies she likes that make absolutely no sense for roughly 5 hours. Instead, a weak smile crossed his face as he watched the girl excitedly pull cases off the shelf. It was only a few hours.

And it turned out to be even less than that. Dinner was enjoyed by all and put away. Emma cleaned up the messy highchair that was covered in mashed potatoes and by 8 PM the infant was tucked away in his crib. While Rose had insisted she wanted to stay up she was out like a light by 11 leaving Chris and Emma sitting on either side of her on the couch.

Time continued to pass and as the latest movie came to an end, Chris turned off the TV and shifted to get his phone out of his pocket, so he could poke at the screen to open an app.

"Well Jackie, it's that time of year again," Says the voice of the male radio announcer as Chris put his phone down on the coffee table.

"Right you are Jim, It's another beautiful New Year's Eve," The female radio host replies.

Emma smiles at this and moves to carefully get up without waking Rose and heads to the kitchen. Some clinks and clanks of glassware could be heard before she made her way back with two flutes of a soft, pale golden alcohol.

"I think we earned a drink," Emma quietly says as she takes her seat with the same amount of care before offering a glass to Chris.

"Yeah. Yeah we did," He agrees just as quietly as he accepts the glass. "That was a year."

"Yup," Emma agrees in return. "Ready for another one?"

The question caused Chris to laugh. "Second verse same as the first."

"We're already off to a better start," Emma points out as a silver lining.

"Are we?" He asks amused.

"Well. You're here and not in the ICU so yeah," Emma replies with a slight smile. "We're doing better, even if it's a bit of a rough start all the same."

"Fair," he agrees with a nod while waiting for the count-down to start. "So. What are the plans this year?"

"Oh gosh, that's right. I actually have to plan, huh?" Emma asks in return. "Let's see, get back into the house. Maybe we can plan to visit your sister?"

"While trying to plan a ring ceremony?" He replies with a raised eyebrow. That would kind of be a lot.

"You think we can still do that?" Emma response with an equal amount of confusion. "We have to put the house back together."

"The BSAA is covering that. We should be fine," Chris confirms. "If we keep putting it off, it's never going to happen."

"I guess we'll need to start planning that again. We'll need to pick a day and go from there," Emma says while thinking it over. "Oh, did you remember to send out your letters for the holidays?"

"Yep. They're a bit late this year but, I think everyone will forgive me," Chris answers with a slight shrug.

"Looks like the new year is just about here. Let's start that count down Jim," Says the female host.

As they hear this, the two shift to try and sit a little bit closer, despite the sleeping child curled up between them.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4,3,2,1

"Happy New Years," The radio loudly announced as the two kissed.

"Cheers, to a year of good health and prosperity," Chris says before gently clinking his glass against Emma's. "Here's hoping it doesn't suck as bad as the last one."

"It's a low bar to clear," Emma replies amused before taking a sip of her drink.

"Exactly," He responds with a playful smile.

Emma nudges him in response before giving him another quick peck. The two sipped at their drinks in content silence. It wasn't until their glasses were empty that Emma spoke. "Well, we should get some rest. We have plenty to do tomorrow."

"True," Chris admits before looking at the curled up child between them. "I'll carry Rose to her bed," He offers as he moves to get up and puts his empty glass down on the coffee table.

"You're not going to be able to carry her forever. You know that, right?" Emma asks, with a sad but amused smile.

"I know," He reluctantly admits, but all the same he picks up the growing young girl who had already grown another 4 inches taller in the last three months. "Hopefully Rebecca will find something soon... I know she's trying but. We're running out of time..." she kept saying she was getting closer to finding the solution, but it never really felt that way.

Emma quietly nods. "We just have to make sure she's ready. No matter what happens."

It was easy enough to say, but he didn't even know if he was ready...

'*'*'*'*'

The next morning arrived and with it there was a notable lack of activity as many, who spent the night partying and celebrating with friends, stayed in bed while nursing a headache. It was the perfect start to a new year. Having had a much quieter night, despite some noisy neighbors, Chris was already up and ready for the day.

He helped Emma get the pass that was needed for Chelsea and summer to visit, and by 10 he was on his way to the wreckage of the house. It wasn't until almost 11 or so that he actually made it there. Thanks to the plethora of construction equipment surrounding the area, he had to park some ways away from the site and walk the rest of the way. The sound of crunching snow seemed to echo in the crisp, frozen air.

Chris stopped where the front door once was and looked around at what was left. A large hole in the floor kept his from walking any further and fresh fallen snow blanketed the more of the space that made it look like the house had never been there to begin with, if it weren't for a few spare walls that managed to stay up. A tired sigh crossed his lips as he adjusts the empty rucksack on his shoulder before walking around to the back of the house to enter through what used to be the kitchen. As he looked around, his boot hit a solid mass hidden between the frozen blanket.

Feeling this caused him to stop as his eyebrows knit together from curiosity before he knelt down to brush away the snow. Resting peacefully on the ground was a bent and beat up metal house standing on 4 metal legs that were crushed to the side. Seeing this caused him to press his lips together in an effort to push back a frown. The metal was already starting to rust from being left in the elements for so long. All the same, he moved to put the tiny metal house in the bag with gentle reverence. It took him a few minutes, but he was able to dig up the bent up roof and tray that went with the tiny worry hut and stored those in the bag as well.

"What a mess..." he says under his breath as he looks around. While he could probably find a few other ruined pieces of cherished items if he continued to sift through the snow, his attention turned to a resolute doorway that lead to the basement. It was still covered, so anything that survived would be down there. The first few steps were covered in a light dusting of snow thanks to a hole in the ceiling above them. Chris used his foot to brush as much of the snow on each step off to the side, to avoid slipping on it, before making his way into the basement. The area that had once been their home gym was covered in snow thanks to the hole created above it by the acidic vomit of the beast. It would be a bit too dangerous to go that way again. Once was enough to get what clothes he could from the laundry room. This time his focus remained on his study.

Part of him had been dreading seeing what was left and what was destroyed. There were plenty of important pieces of memories tucked away in that room. All the same, he pressed on and walked in. A few shelves had fallen over thanks to the impact of the creature landing on the house. Books and loose pages were scattered everywhere because of this.

Chris carefully pushed the fallen shelf back into place before starting to sift through what he could find. Chris made his way around his desk to access the safe first. Upon opening it, he found his collection of guns and munitions safely stored inside. The only thing missing was the rifle Emma took.

"Good everything's still here," He says and starts loading up the ruck sack with as much as he could. Books and documents filled the remaining space, alongside family photos in frames with broken glass. As he was adding the toy helicopter that Emma gave him to the collection, the sound of crunching snow caused him to pause. Maybe he was hearing things... No one else should be here.

He remained still and continued to listen, and further the creaking of the wooden panels above him proved that someone else was here. "Shit..." he quietly whispers while reaching into the bag and carefully retrieving his pistol along with some ammo. It was probably just a curious neighbor who wanted to see what happened. However, there was an equal chance that it wasn't.

Airing on the side of caution, Chris shoulders his bag and made his way back towards the stairs. From the bottom of the stairs he could see the movement of a shadow thanks to the gaping hole in the floor by the front door. The agent held his breath as he waited for the shadow to disappear before painstakingly moving up one stair at a time to avoid making a sound.

Once he made it to the top of the stairs, he was able to peer through the crack in the partially ajar door. Just as he feared, a lone figure could be seen standing not far from the door wearing full military gear including a helmet and gas mask. The vibrant red lenses of the gas mask and pitch-black uniform stood out against the stark white environment around them. While Chris hoped to find any sort of patch on their uniform he could recognize, the garments were bare of any markings, making it clear enough to him that whoever this was. they're not with the BSAA.

Chris ducks down and takes a step back as the figure continued to look through the snow by kicking around at any sort of lump or mound while keeping a steady hold on the rifle in their hands. A loud staticky beep sound was heard before a voice filled the air.

"Hey Grim Reaper, any luck?" the radio attached to the individual's gear asks before a similar staticky beep announced the end of the transmission.

Hearing the question caused the figure to stop and shift their hold on their weapon so they could retrieve the radio from their vest. Another beep rang through the air as they reopened the communication line."Nothing yet," The voice replied, though it was distorted through the filter of their mask. "This place seems picked clean. Someone got here first... Recently." Beep. The figure gave a tired sigh. "how boring..." they quietly mused while waiting for a response.

"Not much we can do for it, then. Finish the sweep and head out, If you find any remnants of the experiment great if not, that's your ass, not mine," The radio replied with the usual piercing blips.

"Right," The figure replies. "Hunk, over and out," They reply.

Chris waits for the figure to let go of the radio while squaring up to aim. Patience. wait for it.

BANG!

The figure stumbled back a few steps as one of the glass lenses shatters and were punctured, revealing a piercing blue eye. However, the shot ultimately missed its mark by a few centimeters. Those centimeters were what counted, though, and the figure quickly returned fire.

"Shit!" Chris shouts as a stray bullet grazed him, he while managing to duck down and out of the way long enough for whoever this was to need to reload.

"I need back up," The figure says as the consistent blip alerted that a message had been sent.

As silence replaced gun fire, the time to act arrived. Chris hurried forward, and with a few swift movements disarmed the soldier in black and throw their rifle off to the side, into the hole by the front door to guarantee it would be unreachable.

The figure seemed undeterred as they retaliated in kind. A grab, jab and a bit of pressure knocked Chris' pistol from his hand and had them both on the ground as the figure tried to get Chris into a pin. This only worked so well as Chris was able to free himself in a mater of seconds and a grounded brawl of punches and grapples began. Hit for hit and blow for blow, the two fought relentlessly as crimson drops stained the snow due to their various injuries.

It wasn't until Chris heard the loud hum of an engine that he finally looked up to see an armored vehicle pulling up in front of the house. The figure saw their opening and kicked Chris away, so they could get up and start sprinting. To prepare to jump across the gap in the floor. Rather than chase after, Chris dove for his abandoned pistol, aimed and fired as the figure made their leap.

While the figure made it to the other side, they did so with a tumble that stained the snow red before getting up without hesitation and booking it for the vehicle.

"GO GO GO!" The figure say as Chris continued to fire rounds at the group. the pistol munitions were not enough to do serious damage to the tank like SUV and whoever they were, they managed to get away.

"Dammit!" Chris shouts before wincing as he held his side. He couldn't go after them. not like this... frustrated and now sporting a freshly blackened eye and busted lip, Chris makes his way over to the ruck sack that had been abandoned in the fight and picks it up. This was going to be a long drive back.

'*'*'*'*'

Emma paced around by the main guard house of the BSAA. It had been some time since she last saw Chelsea. They'd talk on the phone, but life had just been too busy for them to meet up more than a few times over the last year. Excited butterflies danced around in her stomach alongside the nervous once. This would be Chelsea's first real glimpse at Chris's work, and she knew there were still some reservations about that after the biting incident, so she wasn't sure how this was going to go...

"Relax," Emma coached herself. "She asked to visit you, it's in the past." she adds while trying to calm her jitters by continuing to pace. As she walked back and forth the snow turned brown with mud and before long a dark green minivan could be seen approaching the guard house and rolling to a stop. Emma smiled as she waved while Chelsea rolled down her window.

"Hey I finally found the place. Do I just go up to that gate there?" Chelsea asks, gesturing to the guard house a little ways ahead of them.

"Glad you made it! Yeah, I'll meet you there, I have your visitor's pass," Emma confirms and gets the folded paper from her coat pocket.

"Awesome. Once We're through the gate, I'll give you a ride," Chelsea offers, which causes Emma to laugh.

"That's appreciated, you'd be waiting a while if I had to walk," She jokes before shifting her focus to start walking toward the guard house. The paper was offered and signed off before being handed back. True to her word, Chelsea allowed Emma to climb into the side seat of the car and the group made their way towards the BSAA headquarters.

"Hi auntie Emmy," Summer greets.

"Hey Kiddo, goodness you've grown," Emma says with a mix of existential dread and surprise upon realizing that summer was now maybe only an inch or two shorter than her.

"Yeah, I'll be twelve in a few months," Summer replies. "and I'll be starting High school in the fall." She adds with a sense of pride.

"You're going to the 8th grade center, not high school. That's next year," Chelsea corrects. "Please stop trying to grow up so fast," she adds under her breath.

"It sounds like you're excited, that's good," Emma says to summer all the same before turning her attention to Chelsea. "you're going to want to park over there, we need to walk through the main lobby to get to the courtyard which leads to the onsite housing."

"Gotcha, I'm on it," Chelsea agrees and follows the instructions given. After finding a parking space, the 3 got out, and walked to the main lobby.

"This is where Uncle Chris works?" Summer asks while looking around at the large, stately buildings with a sense of wonder and awe. "I wanna work here with Uncle Chris."

"Are you sure about that?" Chelsea asks with a concerned, forced smile. She'd kind of hoped that Summer would grow out of this...

"Yeah!" Summer affirms as she watches various employees in fancy uniforms walk around as they passed by. "I'm going to be a super spy, and we can go on missions together and save the world and stuff."

Chelsea looked over at Emma.

"Well, it's a very difficult job to get," Emma says with a nervous laugh. "You'd have to work very hard, and it's always important to have backup ideas."

"Right," she agrees with a nod as she listens, and the idea of a backup plan went in one ear and out the other. If she worked hard, she could do it. That's all she needed to know.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Chelsea admits, "Thanks again for sending that recipe over, I have Jack watching the oven while it bakes."

"Not a problem, I'm always happy to help," Emma replies as her nervousness subsides one again.

The two continued to talk about this and that as Emma led the way back to the cramped apartment and opened the door. Rose was contently helping Piers walk around the apartment by holding his hand, while Duke contently rested on the couch. Running around was hard on his aging, stiff legs.

"Thanks for watching, Piers Rose, you can go back to playing if you want," Emma says with an appreciative tone. It was nice that Rose had matured enough to help watch the baby for a few minutes.

"Rose! Hi!" Summer says while grinning from ear to ear as she quickly moves to hurry over. "How are you doing?"

"Hey Summer," Rose replies with "Not bad just staying home. like always," She says with a more sheepish smile. "We can hang out in my room."

"That's right, you have a new room I want to see," Summer says and follows rose to the door that lead to her somewhat cluttered room. It was difficult for it to really be messy when the more of her belongings were gone.

"Well, this is it," Rose says with a shrug as she closed the door. "The nice part about being on the middle floor is that dragons can't just land on the roof and pull you out of your room." She says with a forced laugh.

"You got to see a dragon?" Summer asks with wide-eyed awe. "A real one? No fair you get to do all the cool stuff." Summer says as she walks over and flops onto Summer's bed.

"Cool might not be the right word, more like terrifying," Rose says with a tired sigh as she shifts to lean against her wall.

"You get to fight dragons and spend time with super spies, and you have superpowers. How is that not the coolest thing?" Summer points out in return, still blissfully unaware of the trouble it caused. "And you get to live here. I'm so jealous."

"Honestly, if I could trade places with you, I would," Rose admits. "I don't like it here, everyone is mean. Fighting is scary. I'm always worried that I'll end up hurting someone when I don't mean to."

"Hey, if you want to go to school and deal with boring teachers and papers and homework, I'd totally trade," Summer agrees with a bored tone. "It's all so boring."

"If I could, I would," Rose repeats with a similar bored and worn out expression. If she went to school then she could make friends and she'd have people to talk to on her phone that wasnt chris and Emma and. "OH!" Rose loudly exclaims as the thought developled. "Hey do you have a phone?"

"Yeah, mom wanted me to have one, so I can call her when I'm done with karate class," Rose explains as she moves to take her phone out of her pocket.

Seeing this caused Rose to smile as she took her phone out too. "Can we trade numbers? then we can talk more often."

"Heck yeah!" Summer agrees. "That would be great. you can tell me all about your adventures, and we can play games and stuff."

"Games?" Rose asks curiously.

"You don't play games on your phone?" Summer asks as she moves to scoot over, so she wasn't taking the whole bed anymore.

"Kinda. I can only ever find the boring ones with bubbles and gardens and candy grids," Rose admits.

"Here, I'll show you my favorite ones, and we can make a guild." Summer offers and motions for Rose to sit next to her. The older child walked through the steps of getting Rose set up with an account for the latest and greatest MMO app, Dreamscape and before long a cute avatar appeared on a forested map that rose was able to control to explore.

"Wow, I can go anywhere I want?" Rose asks, as she quickly took to wandering around and ignoring the little fairy that wanted to talk to her, so the tutorial could begin.

"Technically yes?" Summer answers, though she seemed unsure. "I've heard of people skipping the tutorial, but if you don't finish that you can't quick travel and that's pretty important."

"Oh..." Rose says before navigating back to the annoying fairy to do what it said. Before long, the two were able to group up and start on their digital adventure. The hours passed by as the two girls giggled and laughed at silly mistakes and shouted in frustration when monsters showed up out of nowhere. yet another enemy spawned behind Rose. "not again, that's not fair," Rose whined only to stare in surprise as the beast was quickly defeated.

"Don't worry, I got you. This area might be a bit too much for you. you're still only level 2," Summer says with a sense of pride.

"How did you do that? I didn't even see your character," Rose asks as she followed behind Summer's avatar.

"I'm a level 18 rogue, so I do sneaky ninja stuff like go invisible." "What class did you pick anyways?"

"Dancer," Rose quietly admits while hunching forward a bit to try and hid her face.

"Ah, no wonder, that's a really difficult starting class, I rarely ever see healer mains," Summer says with a mix of concern and disbelief.

"really?" Rose asks, feeling even more embarrassed. She was playing the game wrong? she just thought the outfit looked cute.

"yeah, it's easier to learn to fight first, so you can switch classes if you get into a scrap," Summer explains with a sympathetic frown.

"Can I change it?" Rose asks with a pouting frown.

"Not easily, no... you need to get to level 10 first." Summer admits. "but hey it's okay, we're working together, so I can help you get your level up. and it's good to have a support class when working in a group."

Rose was about to speak again when shouting from the main room cut her off.

"Chris?!" she could hear Emma shout, which caused both of the girls to jolt before looking at the door.

"Oh my god, what happened to your face?!" Chelsea could be heard shortly after.

"Come on, let's go see what's going on," Summer says as she quickly hurries over to the door.

Rose was a bit more hesitant to do so. it didn't sound good. Rose eventually followed behind Summer, and sure enough, it wasn't good. Chris had a few bandages on his head, a black eye and a busted lip that was held together with some kind of sticker stitch.

"Thanks. Good to see you too," Chris says while looking at Chelsea as he moved to put his full Ruck sack down by the door.

"Sorry, just... What happened?" Chelsea asks while trying to process the notably injured Chris.

Chris paused. "I just feel down a few stairs while I was visiting the house. they were icier than I thought they'd be," He lied. the last thing he wanted to do was make Chelsea panic because that would make Emma panic, which would make the kids panic and that was not a great situation. "I got checked out by the med team, it's all superficial bruises and scrapes."

"Okay," Chelsea says while keeping an eye on him. "It's good timing all the same I was just about to go and get Summer so we can go home." The concerned motherly woman admits. "It's already 5 so i need to get to work on the rest of dinner."

"Same," Emma admits. "Will you be okay to make it back to the car?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Something says you need to look after this guy," Chelsea agrees. "Summer, come on dear, get your coat on, so we can head out." She instructs.

"Yes mom," Summer says before going back into Rose's room to get her coat. the slightly taller girl stopped by Rose. "I'll text you when I'm home if you want to play later."

"Sounds good," Rose agrees and smiles in return. "Talk to you later."

"Bye," Summer says before going over to Chris and Giving him a hug. "Bye uncle Chris it's good to see you."

The hug put pressure on his freshly cleaned and bandaged bullet wound that was neatly hidden under his shirt. The pain caused his eye to twitch as he winced but returned the gesture. "You're getting stronger," he says while exhaling to try and play off the pain.

"I am?" Summer asks excitedly. If she was getting strong enough that he noticed, then maybe she really did have a chance to become a super spy!

"Yep," he managed to wheeze out with a pained laugh. "Keep it up." he says before patting her on the head and moving to sit down.

Emma smiles and waves, waiting for the door to close before she looked over at Chris. "Okay... so stairs?"

"I just didn't want to scare them," Chris admits with a slight shrug.

"how many were there?" She asks with a slight frown. Maybe they should consider a different house...

"Just the one. If you think I look bad, you should have seen them," Chris says as he winced again as he moved to pick up Piers who had crawled over to greet him. "Would have got them with the first shot, but, it's hard to account for wind that you can't feel."

Emma shook her head but moves to sit next to Chris. At least he got patched up... "you need to tell someone. maybe they can find clues?"

"Tell who?" Chris asks with a tired sigh. "There's no one left... The director still hasn't been replaced. There are no mission, no assignments. Nothing. The US headquarters has basically ground to a halt."

"There's got to be something," Emma says in return.

"I'll put in the report, but it's going to be at least another month until things start picking up again..." Chris replies while thinking back on the prior month.

"You've just opened Pandora's box, and things will only get worse from here."


Well, that took a turn X'D very slow and mellow opening followed by wham bam of plot because I have no concept of chapter tone consistency /o/ woot! lol I can't deny I was really excited to add in this latest cameo from Hunk X'D I want to try and get in as much of the RE universe as possible.

Important question explanation: I'm a bit stumped about how I want to continue, and I'd appreciate your insight. Initially, I was going to have this mysterious villain be kind of a 'one that got away' villain that shows up with the Second Generation fic I started called Immortal Machines where Piers and Heisenberg's daughter work together to take it down and all the fun that comes from that. I posted one of the four parts a while back and haven't gotten around to writing more since, even though I have the outline done.

Important question: Should I stick to having this be the villain that slips away? I have a few options at this point.

A) Stick to the plan and just write cute fluffy stuff to wind down and put the story down until RE9.

B) the second gen fic is AU anyways. Go ahead and include the villain in both and leave the AU as a 'what if this went unaddressed' scenario.

C) Leave the second gen alone, finish it when you can, and just make a new villain for this story since they haven't been revealed yet.

Which would you prefer as a reader of this story? While I do tend to try to write the story I want to tell, I'm at a cross road where I don't know which option I want, so I'd like to weigh in your opinion on the matter.

'*'*'*'*'

Review Responses:

starrat - Glad that you liked it, thanks as always for your support 3

Hell Raptor- I'm not sure if you'll see this, but thanks so much for your comments on chapter 3 and 7 3 I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far! Summer is definitely one of my favorite characters through and through lol I feel like I say that about all of them, but she's an adorable bean and one day she will be a super spy lol. thanks again for the comments and the extra motivation they brought me.