RESIDENT EVIL: BASILISK

CHAPTER 2:

REUNION AND RAZING

Sheva frowned as we finished an abridged version of what had happened. "So, what you're saying is that this Albert Wesker has teamed up with Excella Gionne of Tricell?"

"And we're facing possible Las Plagas infectees, like the Ganados Leon Kennedy encountered?" Chris asked.

Jill nodded. "If it weren't for Harry, I might still have been under Wesker's control."

"Have the brass accepted Harry coming with us?" Sheva asked.

Reynard nodded. "He may not look like much, but Harry has a decade's worth of experience in the Ragnuk PMC. Of course, it goes without saying that, while BSAA personnel are allowed to know about magic, it must be kept secret."

"Magic," Chris said, shaking his head. "Well, half the stuff I saw some of Umbrella's monsters do seemed like magic. Why not actual wizards?"

"You seem quick to trust me," I said, looking at Chris. "Not that I'm complaining, mind, it's a refreshing change, but…"

"If the brass think you're on the level, then I'll go with it. And you did get Jill out of there," Chris said.

"Thanks," I said, thinking back to the wonderful and glorious times of the Fourth and Fifth Years at Hogwarts, where distrust towards me was high, especially in Fifth Year. I could tell Chris was slightly wary, but willing to accept me being around.

"You're welcome." His eyes flickered to the wand at my hip. "You even have a wand and everything."

I nodded, pulling it from its holster. The satchel containing the Cloak of Invisibility was also on the battlesuit, Wesker having attached it to the battlesuit along with the wand holster when he realised how much of an asset they could be. "Yep. Normally, I don't cast lethal spells, but these infectees, sadly, are too far gone to be cured of Las Plagas. They use an engineered form that takes over the host body in less than a minute. However, I'll probably be the team medic, so give me your first aid stuff. I won't be using guns. I don't need them."

"All right. But keep in mind, we're a team. We stick together," Chris said.

"Sure." I found myself liking Chris already, despite my impression of him being a meathead. He certainly had the charisma needed to be a good leader, and also didn't talk down to others. Then again, while we were still in stasis, Jill often spoke to me through our link of him. She admired him, even loved him, and it was easy to see why he was admirable. Jill's survival had taken a weight off his broad shoulders.

"In the event of any big crowd of Majini or an Uroboros monster," I continued, "stay back. I've got a few high-level spells in my arsenal, but they're dangerous to get in the way. In narrow areas or single ones, I'll use less powerful spells, or else leave it to you guys. Just keep in mind that my magical ability isn't infinite. I can run out."

Chris nodded, and then looked at us. To his three comrades in this mission into the unknown, he said, "Okay, let's move out…"

Now, for those of you who are confused, let's have a nice primer on Las Plagas. It's not a virus as much as a parasite, found only in a remote part of Spain. Some years ago, Leon Kennedy, himself an alumnus of the Raccoon City School of Zombie Apocalypse Survival, became part of an organisation charged with protecting the family of the President of the United States. Just as Leon was fully inducted, the President's daughter, Ashley, got kidnapped, and Leon had to rescue her. She had been taken to Spain by agents of Los Illuminados, a small but powerful cult that had taken control of a remote Spanish village, using Las Plagas. You see, when Las Plagas infects someone, it removes their sentience. Not their intelligence: the infectees (dubbed the 'Ganados' or 'cattle' by Los Illuminados' leadership) are capable of using cars and weapons, and they can speak to each other. But their free will is gone, and they're not really people anymore.

Of course, some Las Plagas parasites allow the infectee to retain their free will. Apparently the Los Illuminados leader Lord Osmund Saddler, along with Castellan Ramon Salazar, had these special parasites. Saddler wanted to implant Ashley, and then Leon, with these things. Thankfully, Leon and Ashley managed to remove the parasites before they fully matured. Unfortunately, once fully mature, the person the infectee once was dies. And Wesker's engineered Las Plagas parasites mature within a minute.

Wesker and Excella, in a fit of dark humour, decided to call the infectees 'Majini'. The local language is Swahili, and 'Majini' means 'evil spirits'. A perverse joke, at the expense of so many people's lives.

As we made our way through the back-alleys, trying not to gag on smells that weren't normal, even for a relatively poor African country, we stayed alert. Sheva looked at Jill and I, and asked, "Aren't you hot in those suits?"

"The latest in Umbrella battlesuit technology," I replied. "Whatever it is, it's surprisingly cool. Personally, though, I think Wesker had a fetish for this sort of thing."

"What can you tell us about Irving?" Chris asked.

"Annoying, sleazy, acts like he's high on something most of the time," Jill replied. "Ugly little bastard too, inside and out. Thinks himself a businessman, when in reality, he's just a small-time weapons merchant specialising in bioweapons. He's competent, but not all there, and when stress gets to him…"

"He loses it," I concluded. "He's like a petulant toddler with a screw loose and a New Jersey accent."

"And he is selling bioweapons to terrorists," Sheva murmured with a shudder.

After making our way past a cow carcass and a hut filled with skulls and other lovely things, we heard a scream coming from a house. Bad things were happening there, obviously, and we rushed to a door, and opened it, weapons at the ready.

A pair of men were forcing something down the throat of another man, who was on his knees, and crying out in pain and fear. The two men turned to face us. They both snarled upon being discovered in the process of some kinky violation, and fled.

"Harry, they've infected him!" Jill said.

I nodded. "Lemme try something. ACCIO, PARASITE!"

A writhing mass of tentacles flew out of the man's throat, a spray of spittle and blood in its wake. He coughed and gagged, while I set the parasite on fire with an Incendio spell. I hoped that I had gotten it out before its removal could do any major damage to the man.

Chris rushed over and helped the man. "Hey, are you all right?"

The man looked at him, and spoke in Swahili, his voice rasping and punctuated by coughing. Sadly, neither Jill or I spoke it (although I could use a Translation Charm), and it seemed neither did Chris. However, Sheva walked over, and spoke, gently and calmly. I cast the charm on all of us, discreetly. "…monsters attacked me!" the man babbled. "They were going to shove that…THING down my throat!"

"How come I understand him now?" Chris asked.

"Translation Charm," I said, waggling my wand. To the man, I said, "Are you all right, sir?"

"Of course I'm not all right!" the man snapped, understandably upset. He then peered at me. "How did you get that thing out of my throat? Are you a warlock?"

"The good kind, I hope," I replied. "Sir, we need to ask you some questions. I know you might not know the answers, so please, be patient. We're with the BSAA."

"I know. Sheva told me. What do you want to know?"

"Do you know or know of a man called Ricardo Irving? European?" Chris asked.

"That demented lunatic? Yeah, I've met him once or twice. He's got an office beyond the mines," the man said. "I don't know much more, though. Guy gave me the creeps." He began coughing again. "But I heard he's hanging around Tricell, the ones doing the oil drilling and refining out in the swamps. Damned Tricell! It's only after they really started messing around that this trouble started. Even with the civil war and all…I think they're behind the nationalists who are gaining power, the ones who are possessed."

"They're not possessed, not exactly," Jill said. "You know that thing they were going to put into you? It's a sort of parasite, it controls your mind. And it's another man behind Tricell who made them even worse than they were. Have you ever seen a man with blonde hair, sunglasses, and dressed in a long black coat?"

"Him? Oh, yes. He's been a couple of times, stirring trouble. He feels like the very devil. I heard him say his name was Albert. Is he the one behind my people's enslavement?"

Chris nodded. "We're trying to get him. Do you have anywhere you can hide?"

"I know of some places. Just be careful. The enslaved ones…they are like demons, and it will take more than bullets and sorcery to take them down," the man said, finally getting to his feet. "And they detest foreigners. Thank you, though, for your help."

As the man left, Sheva shook her head. "They must be trying to increase their numbers to use as footsoldiers. They're getting bolder."

"Wesker's plans are almost complete," Jill said. "He's probably trying to make sure the BSAA are delayed before they can be a threat."

"Can't you use that teleport thing to get us closer?" Chris asked.

I shook my head. "Not really. Firstly, your orders are to capture Irving. Secondly, I need to visualise where we go to, and I've been only to a few places in Wesker's lair. He may have unleashed Lickers, for all I know."

"Lickers?" Chris asked. "Those damned things Kennedy talked about?"

"If you mean those mutant flayed corpses with sharper tongues than my old Potions teacher, then yes," I retorted. "Finally, one of the better places I can take you to is really just one big elevator shaft. If I teleport you there, and the platform's not directly underneath us…"

"A long drop and a sudden stop, I get it," Chris said.

"Good. It's better if I use it to try and get us out of danger, or past some stubborn obstacles. Jill told me about what happened in the Spencer Mansion." Filled with ridiculous puzzles and keys, all because Ozwell E Spencer had a hard-on for such things. At least the obstacle course for the Philosopher's Stone was meant to delay or deter Voldemort from getting the Stone. Maybe the old goat, the late and slightly lamented Dumbledore, should have taken notes from Spencer.

We encountered some of the Majini along the way, shouting imprecations in Swahili at us. Bullets and some Cutting Curses made short work of them. But in the distance, I could hear someone snarling and shouting harshly in Swahili through a megaphone. Oh, this wasn't good, to say the least. It seemed that Wesker and Excella were already stirring the populace up. I remembered what they called the 'Instigator Majini', who had special megaphones that also projected sound at levels the Las Plagas parasites could hear, and thus helped enhance the power of orders(1).

We made it to a house in time to see we were close to a square of some sort. And in that square, a bunch of the locals, all Majini, were being stirred up by the xenophobic rantings of an Instigator. I couldn't see him yet, though. But then, I heard a familiar voice yell, in English, "You don't know what you're talking about! You can all go to Hell!"

I paled, looking at Sheva. "Wasn't that Fisher?" I rushed to the window, in time to see Reynard on an elevated platform, his head on some sort of chopping block, an Instigator Majini with sunglasses giving an order, and a massive lump of muscle, covered in nails and wearing a hood, wielding a massive axe.

Quickly, I concentrated, Apparating onto the scaffold, and startling the Instigator and the Executioner. I would have doffed my hat Sylvester McCoy style if I had one(2). "Hello," I said in Swahili, the Translation Charm still working. "I'm here with the official pardon!" Even as I bullshitted through this situation, I looked around briefly, before seeing a stone building nearby. Which was good.

Of course, the bullshitting couldn't last for long.

"Kill the traitor!" the Instigator roared. Clearly, Wesker or one of his underlings had told them about me and Jill.

I grabbed Reynard and ducked around the Executioner's swings. Thank Merlin for experience as a Quidditch Seeker. I managed to leap over to the rooftop I wanted, calling into my earpiece, "Jill, Chris, Sheva, put as much distance and walls as you can between you and the square!"

"Why? What're you gonna do?" Chris demanded.

"Unleash the magical equivalent of napalm on them," I said, grinning despite myself. "It needs utmost control to use properly, though."

I deposited Reynard on the ground, who looked up at me with an understandable look of fear. "Are you going to use Fiendfyre?"

"Fuck the hell yeah," I said, still grinning. I looked at the Majini, shouting and swearing at me. I bellowed, albeit in English rather than Swahili, "I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE! AND I BRING YOU…FIENDFYRE!"

I'm sure Arthur Brown would have approved of my modified lyrics(3).

Diabolical flames burst from my wand, smashing into the scaffold that Reynard nearly met his end on, disintegrating it and sending any Majini on it screaming into an inferno. Then, I directed the flames around the square, Majini consumed by the flames, explosions occurring when the Fiendfyre hit oil barrels.

I hadn't had this much fun for a very long time. I had some pent-up issues from both my time at Durzkaban and Hogwarts, as well as my time imprisoned by Wesker. Killing Majini was good stress release.

Reynard was, of course, all but pissing himself. After all, one didn't summon Fiendfyre lightly. It was difficult to control and disperse, after all. But I managed it, spurred on by anger and hatred and frankly, a bloodlust Bellatrix Lestrange would have been proud of. I actually found myself seeing the faces of Death Eaters amongst the Majini.

And then, it was over. The square was now a blackened, smoking parody of itself. The Majini were all ashes. The buildings were still standing, but many were blackened. I had been holding back somewhat.

As I dismissed the Fiendfyre, I swayed. Woowoowoo, can someone make the world stop spinning? And oops, down into unconsciousness I go…

CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:

What can I say? I wanted to write Harry being awesome. Don't worry, the other characters will get their chance to shine…

1. Ada's Report in Resident Evil 4 states that the Las Plagas can be influenced by special sound waves. I thought this was a plausible theory as to why the Instigator Majini exist, beyond stirring the other Majini up.

2. Sylvester McCoy played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who. He had a habit of doffing his straw hat in odd situations. In the last classic series story, Survival, he does so shortly after tripping up a Cheetah Person.

3. Harry's bellowing is a reference to the opening of the song Fire by Arthur Brown.