Resident Evil/Biohazard: Hostage Rescue
Rating: T
NOTE:
All characters of Resident Evil/Captain Commando/Street Fighter are under the copyright of Capcom. All characters of Martin Mystery are under the copyright of Marathon. All characters of Kara no Kyokai are under the copyright of TYPE-MOON. All characters of Spriggan are under the copyright of Hiroshi Takashige and Ryoji Minagawa. All characters of Jiraishin are under the copyright of Tsutomu Takahashi. The appearance of Kenneth "Kenny" Feng is under noctorro's jurisdiction. All others are under my jurisdiction.
Summary:
Leon, Kevin and the others have been able to get inside Salazar Castle without much of a hitch. But with the monks in full force, fighting to keep the group occupied and capture Ashley for their master, will the team protect her safely from the grip of Los Illuminados and escape the area alive even without outside support? Stay tune to this chapter to find out.
Chapter 14: Interior Combat
Ground Floor, Huge Foyer, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Leon and Jean were the first ones to enter the huge foyer, aiming and firing their shotguns at the monks wielding wooden shields. The buckshot shells gave them an advantage since it destroyed the shields a lot faster while the shotguns were fired at a semi-automatic rate. With the shields eventually destroyed, this left the monks no choice but to use their spiked flails as their only means of offense and defense.
"Get them!"
Yu advanced to provide support, crouching and shouldering the Heckler & Koch G3A4. He then fired it at their heads in order to gun them down since from experience, shooting them in the chest is a waste of bullets. He wanted to use the incendiary grenade, but decided to hold onto it for now.
Everyone else with a small arm joined in to suppress resistance in the ground floor, firing their weapons until most of the monks were killed off. Diana and Fujino stayed close to Ashley in case a monk were to attack the group from the rear and take Ashley like some buried treasure back to his master. Sho stayed back as well, protecting Ashley from any harm.
Hiryu and Hien stuck to advancing on both sides of the foyer to the stairs, which led to the basement section. As they were about to come near the stairs, the metal doors slid up to reveal two more monks armed with flails and wooden shields.
"They just don't know when to quit." Kevin muttered as he and Jill went to work. Both of them crouched and aimed their sniper rifles at the shield-wielding monks' exposed legs to make them kneel. This allowed Cammy and Chun-Li to attack them by destroying their shields first before using unarmed combat.
"KIKOKEN!" Chun-Li yelled, using her ki-created projectiles to destroy the wooden shields. The Interpol officer went for a Hazanshu to decapitate the monk. But when he had a plaga exposed for his head, Kevin sniped the plaga out of commission. This killed off the monk permanently.
For Cammy's part, she went for the Axle Spin Knuckle. The first attack, which was her elbow, connected to the monk's left temple that he was dazed before a clenched fist was sent towards the monk's face. A Cannon Spike was subsequently executed, sending the monk flying before he landed hard on the tiled floor head first that he was already died from massive head injuries.
Hiryu and Hien shrugged and moved on to secure the last parts of the ground floor.
Basement Floor, Huge Foyer, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Leon and Eriko were the first individuals to arrive at the foyer's basement floor, only finding a couple of vases with a monk wandering around. Unlike the others, his head was not covered by a hood.
"Stay behind me." Leon raised the Benelli M3 and fired a couple of buckshots at the monk, sending him down to the ground while the vases nearby were broken due to the buckshots. When the DSO agent approached the downed monk, he aimed the M3 again to fire a couple of buckshots to ensure that he was dead.
Hien greeted Leon when he went down the stairs leading to the basement.
"Good thing you're here." Leon spoke to the masked Spriggan, grabbing the hand grenade and a box of 7.62 NATO subsonic bullets from the remains of the broken vases. "I need a hand here."
"For what?"
Leon pointed to the metallic door next to him.
"I see."
Leon and Hien stacked up next to it. The former checked the door if it can be opened. Afterwards, the blonde man kicked it open and aimed the M3's barrel inside. Hien secured the rear before he followed him inside.
Small Room, Basement Floor, Huge Foyer, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
When Leon and Hien got inside, the two found that there were two yellow stepping pads at the back of the room. Aside from those, the room looked plain normal with a table at the back of the room with chairs.
"Looks pretty normal." Leon commented. "Except for the pads."
"Wonder what those do?" Hien asked himself.
"Why don't we find out?"
"And hope that it ain't a trap."
Both men decided to resign their actions to fate as they heard more automatic gunfire from the outside with some of their allies yelling their attacks out.
"We better hurry." Leon said as he stepped on one of the pads. However, this allowed a couple of unarmed monks to leap down to the room.
"Where the hell did they come from?!" Hien said as he fired his Pindad SS1-M5 Commando, aiming the mounted red dot sight at their heads. Leon joined in and fired the M3 while he stood over the yellow pad.
Eventually, the two monks were gunned down. Hien moved back and stepped on the other yellow pad.
Suddenly, the two felt the room shake as if an earthquake was currently taking place.
"An earthquake?" Hien said, being too familiar with the feeling.
"I don't think so." Leon calmly replied. "Probably something that we need to use later on."
A few minutes later, the room had stopped shaking.
"Perfect." Leon said when he took a box of shotgun shells on the ground, reloading his M3. "It's stopped. We need to get out of here."
"Agreed." Hien told Leon.
Leon took the green herb before he departed with Hien. He took a good look up the ceiling and saw a 4x4 hole.
He made a mental note on how the monks were able to get inside the room.
MOM's Office, The Center
MOM read over a recent report from the SID, stating that they weren't able to break through the jamming net used by Los Illuminados to ensure that the Salazar Castle and beyond are a dead zone for external communications. The report also suggested that a CIHL base may need to be raided in order to secure anything of value that they can use to disable the jamming net and make contact with the Center agents in Spain.
"Dammit. So Octavia's pretty smart to work with Los Illuminados to get her alien tech used to establish a jamming net over the area." MOM muttered, who was now slowly feeling the brunt of the lack of comms with her field agents. "Even if I sent a SRS team down there, it'll make things worse."
The Center leader sighed and decided to drink her cup of coffee, hoping that her headache would eventually go away.
Ground Floor, Huge Foyer, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Jill and Kevin had recently sniped the last of the hooded monks, who were armed with crossbows that had flaming bolt arrowheads on. Since no other monks were around, they declared the area to be "secured".
At least until they decide to move again.
"Let's go and check what we can get from this area."
Tea, Martin and Java began to scour the area to see what they can procure. For starters, they found 1,600 pesetas, a box of 5.56 NATO bullets, another incendiary grenade and a box of shotgun shells from the remains of the broken big vases. Martin later found 2,000 pesetas exposed in a side table. The small vases netted 1,100 pesetas and a Velvet Blue. It was thanks to Java that they got the items from the vases when he used his caveman strength to break them without giving him so much as a scratch.
"We got the stuff!" Martin waved to the group.
"Who's going to handle that then?" Kevin pointed to the crank that just rose out of the ground.
"I can help." Ashley volunteered herself for the task.
"Alright, Ashley." Jill told the First Daughter. "You just pull the crank and we'll take care of the rest, okay?"
Ashley nodded before she got to work. The 5.56 NATO bullets was divided between Hiryu and Hien with the shotgun shells given to Jean. Kevin got the incendiary grenade from Java, the former thanking the caveman. For the others, Tea kept them as usual.
Leon and the others stayed near Ashley as she continued to work the crank. For a few minutes, it seemed nothing had work.
And then...
"The stairs are coming down." Dan pointed to the stairs behind him, which was coming down. It looked like to serve as the entrance to the next section of the huge foyer.
Until he spotted around four monks. Armed with scythes. And it looked like that they were sharpened and cleaned. Ready for a kill.
Adam Benford's Office, DSO Headquarters, somewhere in Virginia, United States of America
"Excuse me, sir?"
Adam's attention was called for when he was given a manila envelope with the words TOP SECRET stamped on it. He looked at the one who gave the envelope and noted that it was his secretary.
"Thank you." Adam thanked the secretary before the door was closed. He then went to work in getting a retractable cutter blade from one of the desk drawers and ripping the envelope from the top in order to obtain its contents and read them.
"Let's see what I got here?" The senior agent got a piece of paper that was apparently printed with a map of the continental United States with a X mark on the American East Coast.
Second Floor, Huge Foyer, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"LOOK OUT!"
Dan pointed out the incoming monks with scythes coming for them.
"Eat this." Jean said calmly as he blasted the monks with the Franchi SPAS-12 as the buckshots were fired rapidly in semi-auto mode. He continued to keep this up until the monks wearing black garb were red. He knew that the monk wearing red garb would try to put a fight before he died.
"IYAH!" Sho dashed in and stabbed the red monk in the neck before he was decapitated. The plaga then arose from the exposed neck, going about to attack the Ninja Commando when Kevin sniped the plaga from a short distance, killing the red monk.
When Sho turned around, he saw Kevin grinning at him while saluting him with a two-finger salute.
"Americans." Sho muttered, whipping Lightning Light on the side several times until the blood was removed before the ninjato was placed in its saya.
"Let's move!" Leon shouted, climbing the stairs up first before the others went with him up the stairs.
"Now what do we do?" Yu commented, trying to ask Leon.
"Over there." Diana pointed to what appeared to be a crank of the same type Ashley had used to get the stairs down.
"Looks like we got our ticket out of here, then." Martin commented.
"I suggest we search the area of anything we can use." Fujino raised a point to the group, which they agreed on unanimously.
"I shall go and search the area." Sho volunteered himself. "Give me a few minutes."
The ninja began to dash around, securing 1,000 pesetas, a box of 7.62 NATO bullets and a box of shotgun shells.
"It seems that there's not one, but two cranks on both sides of this floor." Sho told the group. "And there is no way for us to gain access to them."
"So what do we do?" Diana asked.
"Well the only way is to get someone to climb on someone's back." Martin suggested.
"If we can get two people to pull the cranks at the same time." Eriko then added. "We can get out of here faster. We just need to get volunteers to watch his or her back until the deed is done."
"I can go." Diana spoke up.
"Same here." Ashley joined in.
"Guess the next one is who's going to watch their backs." Dan then said to the others.
Silence loomed over the group for a few seconds. No one seemed willing to volunteer, even though they knew that Ashley and Diana needed protection.
"Oh well. I'll help for starters." Dan raised his hand, offering to volunteer.
"I'll do the same likewise." Yu did the same as well.
"All right." Leon nodded after hearing Dan and Yu volunteer. "At least we'll get some volunteers to watch Ashley and Diana when they're working on the cranks."
"Jill and I can provide some sniper cover." Kevin told Leon. "Just let me know when things are about to start, Leon."
"The rest of you, get ready for the incoming enemy." Leon told the others. "We don't know which direction they're going to come from."
Dan and Yu went to work, helping Ashley and Diana by piggybacking on their shoulders so that they can't get up on the ledge. Once the two teenagers were able to do so, they proceeded to run towards the cranks.
"Go! Go! Go!"
Kevin shouted as he and Jill moved up the small steps, breaking the big vases with the butt of the Steyr SSG P IV to receive a box of 7.62 NATO subsonic bullets and a box of shotgun shells, which he kept for later.
The others who had small arms at the ready stayed near Jill and Kevin, but out of their line of fire. Cammy and Chun-Li leaped up to the inaccessible platforms above. Sho did the same likewise, helping Fujino get up to the platform.
Tea had already been there first, although no one knew how she did it. Yu, Jean and Hien probably knew a thing or two regarding Tea's "true" heritage, but decided to keep quiet about it.
Adam Benford's Office, DSO Headquarters, somewhere in Virginia, United States of America
What the heck is this?
Adam was surprised to see the map of the United States with an X mark on it. He didn't know what to make of it until he decided to read the printed message that he found from the envelope.
This may be an answer. The map provided is the place you should start checking.
Adam heard a message on the intercom, with the secretary telling him that Hunnigan needed to see him right away.
"Send her in."
The senior agent sighed and tried to make sense of the message. There was no way a foreign intelligence or law enforcement agency would know of the DSO's "true" mission.
"Sir." Hunnigan greeted Adam when she got in his office.
"Was there anything that FOS has received aside from this?" Adam asked Hunnigan, pointing to the map.
"Yes, sir." Hunnigan nodded. "We've gotten a coded transmission from an organization called the Center.
"The Center, huh?" Adam murmured. "I see."
"Is there something that I should know about?"
Adam nodded. "The Center is an anti-paranormal organization that was established before the DSO existed." He then continued to explained to the woman. "They're the ones who started anti-paranormal missions that involved either criminals or terrorists in the 1990s. In fact, they're originally took anti-Umbrella and anti-bioterrorist missions long before the BSAA was established under Federation of Pharmaceutical Companies supervision."
Hunnigan nodded, remember what she knew about the Center, aside from being called in to handle paranormal cases. "But why did the Center wish to contact us?"
"They probably had agents trapped in the jamming dead zone in Spain like ours." Adam answered. "In this case, they could be trying to feed us some information that can be useful to us."
"Which is why I think we need to mobilize our forces." Hunnigan said.
"Agreed." Adam nodded. "The map indicates something of importance in Virginia."
"Well the coded transmission FOS received indicates a group that supposedly does anti-paranormal operations aside from the Center."
"And does this organization have a name?"
"Yes, sir."
Hunnigan presented to Adam an unusual insignia. A black circle with a yellow hand and fingers taking hold of the planet Earth, colored in red.
"It's called the Creature Intelligence Hybrid Laboratory. Although we've been warned by Center intelligence that it's got a fake name, known as the Creative Institute for Higher Learning."
The name greatly earned Adam's interest.
Second Floor, Huge Foyer, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
When Ashley and Diana began to pull the cranks, hordes of monks began to emerge out of the woodwork. Most of them were either unarmed or had crossbow armed with flaming bolt arrowheads. A few had wooden shields and spiked flails at the ready.
"They're coming!" Kevin shouted out loud, kneeling before the monks came in to interrupt things. The ex-SPD officer went to work to provide cover for his allies, peering through the Leupold scope and aimed for any of their exposed heads.
"I'm on it." Jill told Kevin, shouldering the Heckler & Koch SL8-4 as she peered through her own Leupold scope.
Together, the two snipers gave the group cover, firing their sniper rifles as they made their shots count by the bullet. Their backs were against the small moat where another path was suppose to be, which led to another door up ahead. Jill didn't have any problems firing the SL8-4 since her sniper rifle was semi-automatic. Kevin's sniper rifle, had a bolt that needed to be operated on by pulling and pushing it to extract the bullet cartridge and load up a fresh one into the chamber. The brown-haired man didn't have a problem with this, given his awards back in the former RPD for his shooting skills.
"This ought to be easy." Kevin muttered, seeing that he and Jill delivered head shots to the monks around the second floors and those in the platforms trying to get Ashley and Diana away from the cranks.
Java stayed with Kevin and Jill in case the monks would try to attack them.
Adam Benford's Office, DSO Headquarters, somewhere in Virginia, United States of America
"The CIHL, huh?"
Adam uttered the abbreviation one more time.
"Is there something wrong, sir?" Hunnigan asked the senior agent.
"How come we never heard of this CIHL?" Adam questioned Hunnigan on the CIHL.
"They've only been a recent anti-paranormal organization." Hunnigan tried to answer. "The FOS doesn't have much information, but they've said to have recruited most of their agents from a few colleges that the Center listed to be fronts."
"How interesting."
"The Center has also presented us a list of colleges in the eastern part of the United States that are secretly known to be CIHL fronts."
"Do you have it?"
"Here you are."
Hunnigan handed Adam a printed piece of paper that showed the names of colleges in Virginia the Center reported to be CIHL fronts.
"Okay." Adam began to read over the list of names of colleges in Virginia. "Let's start with the ones nearby DSO at least..."
Second Floor, Huge Foyer, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Dan and Yu kept Ashley and Diana under cover when the monks showed up, moving in to approach the two girls to prevent them from operating the cranks.
"Don't stop! Keep going!" Dan informed Ashley, who kept the monks back by firing his Sig SG 552 Commando at them in full automatic mode.
"Okay!" Ashley kept pulling the crank with her of all strength.
Yu crouched behind Diana, firing his Heckler & Koch G3A4 at the monk from his position in full automatic mode. He killed as many monks as possible.
When they had to temporarily reload their weapons, Cammy, Chun-Li, Fujino and Sho engaged the monks in close quarters combat. Tea provided a distraction with her kerchiefs with pentagrams by dropping them to create illusions of winged lions. This scared off the monks by keeping their distance, allowing the four to have their kills without most chances of the monks fighting back efficiently.
Down at the ground, Hiryu, Hien, Leon and Jean provided close quarters support for Jill and Kevin since they were providing sniper support. They all agreed that they won't use any grenades they acquired unless they had been able to lift any kind of path from the moat.
"Now!" Dan said, firing the SG 552 in semi-auto mode after he reloaded at the monks at the ground level with the trio taking care of the monks in close quarters. Yu did the same thing, but kept the full automatic mode on.
The group was giving more than enough cover for Ashley and Diana to keep pulling the cranks until Kevin noticed that the platforms were slowly rising out of the moat water.
"Keep going!" Kevin shouted, executing a double kill with one shot when he scoped a couple of monks walking towards him with their heads lined up together.
Jill fired as many bullets as she can before she told Kevin to provide cover for her. The ex-STARS officer proceeded to reload by getting a fresh magazine and used her right thumb, keeping a grip on the fresh magazine to release the empty magazine from the SL8-4 after she pushed the magazine release. This allowed the empty magazine to fall down to the ground, making her reload quick and fast.
"You're clear to fire!" Kevin called for her attention, firing the SSG P IV to allow Jill time to pick up the empty magazine and keep it. He kept firing the sniper rifle until it was empty, reloading it with another magazine.
Behind the two snipers, the two platforms were almost done rising up from the moat water to the surface. Eventually, the platforms had locked into place when they fully rose to the surface.
"We're clear!" Jill shouted to her comrades when she took a glance from her back. "We got the platforms up from the moat surface! Move! Move! Move!"
Hiryu, Hien, Leon and Jean began to move backwards after being told that the platforms were raised up, hopping onto the first platform. They eventually were able to walk over the other platform and hopped over it to reach the other side of the floor, which had double wooden doors at the end.
Before Java moved across, he used his caveman strength to grab a couple of hooded monks by their necks and hurled them onto the moat water when they tried to rush Jill and Kevin. Since they weren't able to swim due to the plaga, it didn't allow them to preserve their lives since they were "programmed" to die for Saddler and for Los Illuminados.
"Move! Move!" Kevin shouted, providing fire support for Ashley and Diana to get to the other side. Dan and Yu got back with Kevin and fired at the monks to cover their escape. Sho joined in and used Lightning Light to kill a few more monks, allowing Cammy, Chun-Li and Fujino to go across the platforms.
Once the majority of the group had made it safely, Sho made it across the platforms while Dan and Yu moved backwards and continued firing their weapons. Java and Sho were the last ones to move across, being covered by Kevin and Jill.
"Thanks, big guy!" Kevin thanked Java for saving his life.
"Your welcome." Java replied to Kevin. He then moved it and pushed the double doors inward with ease.
However, a lucky shot from a crossbow bolt (Which by luck, didn't have its arrowhead burning) struck Kevin on his left arm. He staggered a bit in pain after he got hit. Yu and Leon conducted suppressive fire to cover Kevin's retreat before they did the same.
The group then got inside after the doors were opened. Since the monks were slowly making their approach towards the platforms for some reason, it gave them the opportunity to get away fast.
Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Java closed the double doors and locked it from behind the group when they got inside the keep's foyer. Most of the people in the group had temporarily spread out to cover much ground to prevent an ambush.
Fujino took her time to observe the foyer. It had pillars in the middle with tall candlebras nearby and a red carpet that started from the doors down to the other side of the foyer, which had a hallway at the end. Marble statues of persons were seen in the foyer, except that they were positioned from the ceiling. A stairway was also visible, but the landing above was sealed off with a gate.
The foyer seemed to have a Renaissance-like feeling in terms of its architecture. In addition, the walls had a decaying appearance since most of the plaster (or paint, Fuino couldn't tell) looked very old without any signs of modernization or anything else that was done to keep the walls looking new.
"We're..." Martin began to pant, a bit tired from the running. "We're safe for now."
"Good to know, kid." Kevin politely retorted Martin's comments for being a bit obvious. "Good to know."
"Stand still, Kevin." Leon approached the slightly wounded Kevin. "And whatever you do, don't move. It'll make things worse."
Kevin nodded.
The blonde DSO agent came near Kevin and held his wounded arm tightly. Leon got a good grip on the bolt and removed it from Kevin's left arm.
"AAAAHHGGGGHHG!" Kevin yelled, gritting his teeth in pain.
"Here!" Jill tossed Leon the Tricell First Aid Spray, the latter catching it are taking the bolt off Kevin's arm. He told his DSO colleague to not move his arm while he began to apply the spray onto the wound.
"How much longer?" Kevin asked, feeling some pain in his left arm.
"In a while. Just hang on tight, Kevin." Leon assured Kevin, continuing to apply the spray towards the open wound.
"Whoa..." Yu mumbled before he gave a whistle. "Didn't know those monks were pretty good sharpshooters."
"Couldn't have said that myself." Leon said as he gradually stopped applying the spray to Kevin's wound.
"How's it look, Leon?" Kevin asked, somewhat not feeling the pain in his left arm.
"You..." Leon took a closer look at where the wound should be. He saw that the wound was not there and instead, it was healed. "You look pretty fine, Kevin. Wound's not there anymore."
"The wonders of medical science, huh?" Jill commented, watching Leon toss the spray away as it was now empty.
"Over there!" Jean pointed out to the group an area in the foyer. "I found the blue flame pillars again."
"The Merchant's here?" Chun-Li asked.
"We could use the time there to get some rest." Cammy advised. "Pretty sure most of us are pretty deadbeat over the fight back there."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Corridor, DSO Headquarters, somewhere in Virginia, United States of America
Bruce had just been summoned a while ago by Adam to lead DSO tactical teams in order to raid a community college somewhere in Virginia. This somehow raised a lot of "flags" in Bruce's head when he was debriefed by Hunnigan.
"I don't like the idea that we're going to launch a raid into a community college somewhere in Virginia." Bruce stated out loud his dislike to Hunnigan, walking alongside him.
"I don't either." Hunnigan told Bruce. "But we've been given enough intel to suggest that this college is a front for a CIHL base."
"CIHL? What does that mean?"
"Creature Intelligence Hybrid Laboratory. But we've been told that it has a false name and it's publicly known as the Creative Institute for Higher Learning."
"Quite a name you got here, Hunnigan."
"Hey, it's not like I named that group anyway."
Bruce saw Hunnigan giving him a glare, complete with a raised eyebrow.
"Okay, I'll believe you."
Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Ah! We meet again, strangahs!"
This was becoming one of the Merchant's standard greetings for his "guests". "Guests" who were apparently been meant to die on Salazar's territory. He stood next to a blue door, which had a frame mounted on it with a bronze sculpture of two blunderbuss pistols aka dragons.
"Hey..." Leon greeted the merchant. The others did the same likewise.
"I'd really like to know how you were able to move around even though we've met only hours ago." Sho was convinced that the Merchant could have been some kind of British ninja with some kind of ninja martial art he used to get around here.
"It's a trade secret, strangah." The Merchant told the ninja before he started to laugh.
"Ah, good." Tea spoke to the Merchant. "Now that you're here, I thought that we'd negotiate for selling our wares to you."
"To business as usual, strangah." The Merchant replied. "And what are you selling to me, strangah?"
Tea began to speak to the Merchant while as usual, Martin and Java were excited to search the foyer for anything they can use for either personal or just to sell to the Merchant.
Initially having 36,100 pesetas in total, the British Spriggan sold the gold bars (5,000), Velvet Blue (2,500) and two Spinels (4,000). Tea kept the purple gem for now, knowing that it can used elsewhere. For now, the group has 47,600 pesetas.
"Look there." Chun-Li pointed a shining Spinel mounted at the back of a statue's head, which was positioned upside down since it was mounted from the ceiling.
"Who the heck in his right mind would do such a thing?" Hien said out loud, wondering who the hell placed the statue upside down.
"I guess we'll never know." Jill said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Master." Dan pointed to the Spinel Chun-Li found to Sho.
"I understand." Sho told his ex-student. "Leave it to me."
The ninja hurled a shuriken at the spinel carefully so that it could drop to the ground without breaking.
Fujino ran to the dropped spinel to inspect it if it's broken.
"It's alright." She showed the spinel to Sho. "It's not broken or damaged."
"Let me go and ask Ms. Tea if this can be sold to our friendly merchant."
Motor Pool, DSO Headquarters, somewhere in Virginia, United States of America
A DSO tactical team operator gave Bruce his body armor, which he immediately wore since the blonde man was needed in the field. He saw that several operators were already armed and waiting, worth the equivalent of four squads.
"Listen up!" Bruce began to debrief the teams. "Senior Agent Benford has given me instructions. Instructions that are meant to be followed." He then continued. "We have orders to launch a raid at the Mountain Ridge Community College to locate and seize a suspected CIHL base."
This earned Bruce several questioning stares, especially with the part of raiding a community college.
"Uh..." One of the operators spoke up. "What exactly are we looking for here?"
"We're just going to seize the group's assets." Bruce replied. "Also, we've been given information that CIHL has its base located underground. Normally, this would be a pain in the butt for us to locate its entrance. However, FOS has received information on its secret entrance."
"And we're doing this without LEO consent?" Another operator asked Bruce.
"DSO has already requested the cooperation of local PDs to seal up the area. In addition, we would evacuate all students, faculty and other personnel before we launch the raid. Right now, they're just doing that."
Bruce wore his left earpiece then when he received a transmission that the college was almost evacuated.
"Okay, guys!" Bruce then told the teams. "I've been told that the college is almost evacuated and the LEOs are waiting for us there! So go, go, go, go!"
The operators rushed to get inside the parked Chevrolet Suburbans before and after their engines were turned on. After Bruce did a quick brass check on his Beretta 92F, he holstered it on his right leg holster and got into one of the Suburbans in the front passenger seat.
The SUVs had the sirens activated, located at the push bumper and inside the SUV near the rear view mirror, before they drove off towards the college.
Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Ah." Tea greeted Sho as she was done talking to the Merchant. "Is there something that you need from me?"
"I found this." Sho showed the immortal a Spinel he just took from the ground. "It may be of some use to you."
"Thank you." Tea thanked the ninja. She then showed the merchant. "Can I sell this to you?"
"Ah..." The Merchant looked very pleased when he picked up and inspected the third Spinel from Tea. "I'll buy this from you as usual, strangah." He took a closer look at the item.
"You'll take it, then?"
"Of course I will, strangah..." The hooded merchant was kind enough to take the spinel of Tea's hands and buy it for 2,000 pesetas. Now the group has 49,600 pesetas in their hands.
"Good news, everyone." Tea spoke up to the group. "I've managed to sell whatever items we can get. So far, we got 49,600 pesetas."
"Nicely done." Hiryu complimented Tea.
"Now it's about time we get First Aid Sprays." Kevin told Tea. "Leon used up the last one. 'Bout time we restock."
"Not to mention refill our magazines." Leon added for more emphasis.
"Right. How many sprays are we gonna get this time?" Dan asked the blonde man.
Leon began to start counting with his fingers. Eventually, he counted with four fingers.
"I'd say four. Unless there are people who are going to object over that suggestion."
When Leon looked around, Jill tapped him on his left shoulder.
"How about six?" Jill suggested. "The teams can have three each for emergency measures in case we can't obtain enough herb supplies?"
"Good idea." Hiryu seemed to agree with Jill's suggestion. "The more, the merrier. Besides, it's not like we can know when we can meet with the Merchant again."
Ashley watched the group talking to each other, taking to sit down on the floor with her back behind one of the marble pillars. The blonde university student had a sudden cough, but she was able to hold it.
Is it from the parasite? I can't tell yet.
When Ashley tried to use her left index finger to check the edges of her lips, she felt what seemed to be blood. The girl just tried to rub whatever the heck was at her fingertips, swearing that it was just nothing.
Blood... It can't be! I must be just hallucinating or something.
"Are you alright, Ashley-san?"
Ashley saw that Fujino was standing in front of her, leaning down to face her.
"I-I'm fine..." Ashley mumbled, looking at the floor. "What are the others doing?"
"Buying what they can from the Merchant." Ashley eyed Leon buying six First Aid Sprays from the Merchant. All of them had Tricell logos on it.
"I see." Ashley then coughed again for a bit.
"Are you alright?"
Ashley nodded.
Chairman's Office, ARCAM Japan Headquarters, Ichigaya, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
A semi-bald Japanese man in his 50s with short, straight black hair sighed, leaning back in his office chair. He only had his white dress shirt, black dress pants and Oxford shoes with red necktie on as his black dress suit was hanging in a nearby coat rack.
"The things I do to ensure humanity's future." The chairman and ex-Spriggan mumbled while waddling through a lot of paperwork placed on top of his desk.
He had just dispatched Yu alongside Jean, Tea and Hien to investigate the Spanish countryside for any traces of a plaga that can control anything, including humans and animals alike. According to ARCAM's Spanish Headquarters in Madrid, their archaeologists and scientists have uncovered evidence in the early 2000s that the plaga used by Los Illuminados was a pre-20th century biological warfare agent. The uncovered evidence, which included preserved documents and fossils, suggests that the plaga had been used since ancient times. Records showed that it was possibly used from the Middle Ages all the way to the 19th century by the Spanish to mostly pacify their colonies ranging from the Americas to the Philippines in order to stamp out any anti-Spanish insurrections, although ARCAM Spain was still trying to clarify if the said records were really making these claims.
"I hope we can hold on on our own with Ominae and the others out of Asia." Yamamoto murmured, knowing that Yu had left on a Friday afternoon and he won't be back even next week. Because he still has school, he needs to provide the school with an "excuse" that he's out of Japan to attend a personal matter. Not that he can tell the school administration that he's out there fighting the good fight to prevent Los Illuminados from taking over the world with their plagas.
Yamamoto then went to check up on the papers and saw nothing about the incident with the cult or with the disappearance of the First Daughter in America.
Looks like the Americans are doing a good job in concealing information about the disappearance of President Graham's daughter. The thing is how long can they do this before people start to poke around?
Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"We're back, guys!"
Martin and Java had just gotten back from exploring the mostly empty foyer while the others took their time to reload their guns. The duo were able to secure some items including a box of 9mm bullets, 1,200/800 pesetas, a Green Herb, Frag Grenade and a box of shotgun shells.
"That all you got?" Jean asked, examining the grenade and the box of shotgun shells. He tossed it to Leon, who gladly accepted it without any problem. Martin tossed the box of 9mm bullets to Eriko. The Center agent, however, decided to keep the herb for himself in the meantime.
"Well counting the pesetas Martin collected, we now have 51,600 pesetas in our possession." Tea announced to the group after she collected the pesetas from Martin.
"Looks like the money we got is enough to buy another weapon." Hiryu surmised, hearing the peseta amount Tea had said.
"Sorry to inform you, strangahs." The Merchant spoke up next. "I won't have another weapon until much later."
"Supply problems?" Kevin asked the hooded seller.
The Merchant nodded in reply. "Very much so, strangah." He then continued to explain. "I probably won't have new weapons yet until I can resolve that problem. But otherwise, do expect new merchandise from me."
"Uh..." Eriko didn't expect to hear new weapons would be coming to the Merchant himself. "Thank you very much."
"I'll go and take a look around while you guys are resting." Leon told the group as a few of them sat down on the floor to catch some air and rest.
"Can I come with you?" Ashley approached Leon, trying to suppress another coughing fit.
"Sure, why not? You could probably use the exercise." Leon told the First Daughter.
Together, Leon and Ashley walked down the hallway to explore it and to see if there was any visible exit they can use.
"By the way," Diana asked the Merchant. "What's behind the blue door?"
"A shooting range, strangah. If you go in there, you can take your time and practice your shooting skills."
"A shooting range, huh?" For some reason, Kevin was interested in the shooting range the Merchant had just mentioned to Diana.
"I think we have other things to worry about other than the shooting range, Kevin." Jill reminded Kevin.
Mountain Ridge Community College, Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
The DSO Suburbans arrived at the outskirts of the Mountain Ridge Community College, the premises already evacuated by officers of the Roanoke County Police Department. A RCPD officer greeted Bruce when he disembarked from the Suburban.
"We've evacuated the college as requested." The RCPD officer, who was of Southeast Asian descent, said when he greeted Bruce. He was accompanied by an armed DSO tactical team assaulter.
"Thanks a lot for that, officer." Bruce thanked the officer before he drew out his Beretta 92F.
"Is there something that we should know?"
"No. The DSO will take over from here. You get your fellow officers to secure the scene. Make sure no one gets into the college unless someone related to the place is left behind."
"Understood, sir."
A Caucasian RCPD officer lifted the police tape, allowing Bruce and the DSO tactical teams to get inside the cordoned community college without any opposition.
"I wonder what's going on here?" murmured the officer before he got the police tape after the last DSO tac team assaulter entered the cordoned college.
Hallway, Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Leon and Ashley were just walking down the hallway when the former noticed that the latter began to cough again.
"Are you okay, Ashley?" Leon spotted the blood that was on the palm of her right hand. This alarmed the First Daughter greatly.
"I-I'm fine!" Ashley insisted, shoving Leon away when he tried to check on her right hand. "J-Just leave me alone!"
"Ashley wait!" Leon began to run after Ashley after she began to sprint towards the end of the hallway. Dammit! Just what did I get myself into?
Spikes began to appear from the ground, forcing Leon to separate from Ashley until she made it to the end. But as Ashley leaned on the wall, restraint appeared and grabbed Ashley. Binding her to a section of the wall, it began to move to whatever was on the other ground, leaving Leon alone in the hallway.
"ASHLEY!" Leon shouted after he saw her disappear from his sight.
Shit! Leon thought in anger before his radio was receiving a transmission. But while he was going to answer it, he didn't see Hunnigan's face on it. This greatly worried the blonde DSO agent.
"Hunnigan, what happened? The transmission got cut off."
He started to walk away from the hallway to see Kevin when he saw Salazar's face instead of Hunnigan's.
"Salazar!" Salazar's appearance on the radio startled Leon. "How'd you..."
Salazar replied with a huge grin up his face. "Let's just say that we jacked the line. We didn't want or your friends to be telling unnecessary information."
Somewhere in the Mountain Ridge Community College, Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
Bruce in an empty hallway as the DSO tac teams began to sweep the main lobby and some of the offices in the area at first before moving further inside after they got access in the community college. So far, things were quiet aside from the radio chatter from local LEOs.
"Quiet." Bruce murmured. "I don't like it. I think I better ask HQ for more manpower."
"I think we found something." A Colt M4A1-armed DSO tac team assaulter approached Bruce in the hallway.
"Something up?"
"Yeah. You may want to see this. It's urgent."
"Alright. Show me the way."
The assaulter led Bruce towards a flight of stairs and climbed up. After a while, they arrived at the faculty area. The place had been cordoned off by a few DSO tac team assaulters, indicating that the area is secure.
"So what's the thing that you need to show me?" Bruce asked the assaulter who was escorting him towards a section of the faculty area.
"Here it is." The assaulter showed him the dean's office. It looked normal with a desk and chair and several bookshelves. The only thing that was not normal is that one of the bookshelves was pulled aside as if someone had just pulled the door, revealing a flight of stairs that were heading down.
"Looks like the Center was right on the mark with the intel they provided us." Bruce said, giving a whistle when he looked at the staircase.
"Should we get the others?" The assaulter asked Bruce, not sure if they should get most of the manpower down the secret passage.
"We should." Bruce replied. "Probably just a couple of teams to be safe. Leave the others to secure the base. Hopefully we can put in a request for additional manpower in things go really, really south."
Hallway, Foyer, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Aw... So she fell into one of our wonderful traps."
Salazar was trying to pity Leon in a sarcastic way.
Minutes later, Kevin ran up to see Leon with his own radio working. The others joined up after a few minutes.
"We'll make sure we find her. Don't you worry about her."
"Somehow that doesn't make me feel safe about this place." Kevin retorted to the Salazar family head. This made the midget raise an eyebrow at him.
"Not feeling confident are we?" Salazar replied. "Which reminds me, I was able to release my insects for an exercise in the sewers."
"Yeah. That ought to keep us company." Leon glared at Salazar. "'Cause boredom kills us."
"I look forward to our next encounter." Salazar calmly told Leon before he added. "In another life..."
The hacked transmission then ended.
"Leon, what happened?" Kevin asked his DSO partner.
"Ashley got a bit scared after she coughed up blood." Leon pointed to the end of the hallway. "So she went there. But she got caught in another trap."
"We'll need to find her fast." Jill told Leon, being first to speak up after hearing what Leon had told Kevin.
"Yeah... That'll be swell." Hiryu sighed, rolling his eyes. "Considering the master of the house has some friends for us to play with."
"We should be able to beat them at their own game." Sho told the SHADOW agent. "As long as we keep our guard up?"
"But where do we start?" Diana asked the ninja.
"Over here." Fujino pointed out a lone brown door on the right side of the corridor.
Leon and Kevin were the first to stack up near the door. The others who had guns stacked up from behind them. The others who didn't have guns as weapons stayed a bit behind so that the ones with guns can clear what's behind the door.
Leon nodded to Kevin before he checked if the door can be opened. Once it was confirmed, the blonde man pushed the door aside before he moved in with his M3 ready.
Command Center, Field Operations Support Division, DSO Headquarters, somewhere in Virginia, United States of America
"Ms. Hunnigan! We've got some bad news!"
Hunnigan was urgently summoned back to FOS after her meeting with Adam had just concluded.
"What happened?" Hunnigan spoke to one of the FOS personnel who had just came to meet her. She was Caucasian in her middle 20s. Blonde hair with a dress shirt, knee-length blue office skirt and high heels.
"We were able to make contact with Agents Kennedy and Ryman after the hackers got through." The FOS operator explained to Hunnigan. "We got cut off again. It seems Los Illuminados has strengthened the jamming zone and hacked through our channels."
"Has it been compromised?" Hunnigan asked as she went to her station.
"No. It seems that the cult's not interested in compromising our network."
"They probably hacked us to make contact with the agents."
Some of the FOS personnel shouted inside the command center, yelling something about whether the jamming zone had been hacked through. None of the replies heard were favorable for FOS.
"Try again and see if we can get through with our agents."
"Understood, Ms. Hunnigan."
Unknown Area, below Mountain Ridge Community College, Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
Bruce began to move down the staircase, aiming his 92F while having his tac light at the ready. He held the pistol on his right hand while the tac light was held on his left hand, being positioned on the side of the right hand. Bruce had the tac light illuminated after getting on the staircase. Even though the wall had some lights on, Bruce used his tac light anyway since he wanted to be sure that the path ahead of him was safe.
The DSO agent was joined up by two DSO tac teams, all of them armed with M4A1s. Their assault carbines were already outfitted with tac lights and red dot scopes.
"Keep up your guard, guys." Bruce warned the assaulters as they continued down the staircase, not knowing if they'll be walking into an ambush.
Within almost an hour, they were at the bottom of the staircase with a door in front of them.
A sliding door? I wonder if you'll need some kind of access card to get pass through? Bruce carefully approached the sliding door. He was a bit surprised when it opened up. Okay. No surprises now.
Bruce then slowly walked passed the opened door, having his sidearm at the ready. He didn't know if the area was safe since the place was a known CIHL base. At least according to the Center's intelligence.
"Looks clear." Bruce murmured before he gestured to the tac teams to follow him.
As the tac teams fanned out to search the area, which was dark, they used their tac lights to sweep the floor and the ceiling before they looked around the room to see if the coast was clear.
Then all of a sudden, gunfire rang out. Bruce noted that one of the assaulters was hit in the chest. This forced all of them to see cover. Fortunately, the assaulters had noted that the room had tables that they can use to provide protection against the gunfire.
"TAKE COVER!" Bruce shouted as he dragged the downed assaulter by the drag handle at the back of his tactical vest. "TAKE COVER!"
The last thing he heard before getting into contact with FOS in inquiring about the lights since the room was dark, Bruce heard a couple of empty cabinets and bookshelves toppled to the ground to provide some cover until the lights can be turned on.
Upper Level, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Clear!" Leon was the first to enter through, sweeping the area with his M3.
"Clear!" Kevin came in next, sweeping the area with his Glock 21 Mariner.
"All is clear." Sho said to the others when they poured into the upper floor of sewers.
"Looks like the place is decent." Martin observed the area before he saw the wooden barrels on the side. "Except for those guys."
"Let me handle this one." Cammy told Martin before she approached the barrels. The Delta Red agent kicked the barrels, breaking them apart to reveal the contents. She picked up 1,200 pesetas and a flashbang. The blonde woman tossed the flashbang to Leon, which he accepted without any problem.
"There's a ladder here."
Leon and Kevin turned a couple of corners to see Chun-Li standing next to an open hatch, which has a ladder leading down.
"Is it safe?" Kevin asked the Interpol detective.
"I can't tell." Chun-Li told Kevin. "I just found this with the hatch opened already."
Tea approached the hatch and examined it.
"Something?" Jean asked the British Spriggan agent.
"It seems that the master of the house has indeed left his pets prowling in the sewers for us to interact with." Tea said calmly.
"How can she say that while she's all calm and everything?" Leon whispered to Yu, just staring at Tea.
"Hell should I know?" Yu said, shrugging his shoulders.
"Regardless, we need to head down there immediately." Kevin said, gripping on the Glock 21 Mariner. He ensured that the sling to the SSG P IV was secured on his left shoulder before the brown-haired DSO agent leaped down from the upper level to the lower levels of the sewers.
Unknown Area, below Mountain Ridge Community College, Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
"How much longer?!"
Bruce shouted at his earpiece when he checked the health of the downed DSO tac team assaulter, knowing that the body armor had stopped the bullets from killing him.
"Four more minutes, Agent McGivern! We're almost there!" Someone from FOS made contact with him when the downed assaulter crouched properly and returned fire towards the unknown assailants with his M4A1.
"I NEED A GRENADE!" Bruce spoke to the assaulter, who nodded and pointed to the M67 frag grenade strapped on his tac vest since the gunfire was drowning out any chances of having a normal conversation. The blonde man grabbed one of the M67s, removed the safety pin and hurled it towards the other side of the area.
A few seconds later, he heard an explosion. That was followed by some screams and wails of some people being killed by the frag grenade's shrapnel.
"Are we there yet?!" Bruce asked again, firing his 92F by conducting blind shooting in order to get the opposition down by at least forcing them to stop shooting since the DSO tac teams didn't expect a complete blackout of the area.
"Almost! In five, four, three, two and one!"
The lights came back on, which forced the opposition to stop shooting with the lights being on.
"ATTACK!" Bruce shouted, gesturing to the assaulters to move in. The tac teams noted that their opponents also had similar tac team gear, except that they wore night vision goggles which allowed them the initial advantage.
The DSO tac teams assaulters, using the environment to cover themselves while firing back at the blinded gunmen to kill them before they got a chance to effectively fight back.
Lower Level, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Kevin was the first to descend down the lower levels of the sewer, making minimal noise as much as possible when his boots made contact with a puddle of watter. Thankfully, the floor was not deep otherwise it would give him and the others trouble in navigating through the sewers.
"All clear?" Jill and Chun-Li were the next ones to leap down.
"Yep." Kevin told Jill. "But the British lady says that we could expect some trouble anytime."
"Yeah." Jill smirked. "I know how that feeling is."
The others came jumping down to the lower levels of the sewer, being careful to ensure that their clothes were not drenched in water.
"Here's the plan..." Leon began to explain how they would proceed through the sewers. "Jean and I would go first since we got shotguns. Kevin, you'll conduct long-range support. The others will back us up in case a sneak attack would occur."
The rest of the group had chorused "You got it" and "Understood" in response.
"Looks like the area has little puddles of water." Sho observed the floor. "Probably has been used before."
"Even so, let's be on our guard." Leon told the ninja before he walked, leading the way while porting his M3. Jean was behind Leon, having his SPAS-12 placed on his right shoulder.
Aside from some noises from the water with the sound of metal falling down, the area looked safe. They turned a corner to the right and spotted two openings. One was the long pathway ahead. The other was an opening made in the wall.
"Which one?" Eriko asked the DSO agent.
"I spotted something here." Leon told Eriko, pointing to the opening in the wall. "A box from the look of things."
"I can do this so that we don't have time to waste." Sho insisted, making a run for the end of the pathway after he entered the opening on the wall. Smashing the box with a roundhouse, he picked up the box of shotgun shells and ran back to Leon.
"That was fast." Leon whistled when Sho gave the box to Jean. The blonde was about to go down the path when Tea stretched her left arm in order to get her hand to touch his chest.
"I would advise you not to go forward." Tea calmly warned Leon.
"You mean..." Leon was about to ask Tea when she nodded.
"Mr. Ryman." Tea asked for the other DSO agent's attention. "Please get into a prone position and shoulder your sniper rifle."
"Yes, ma'am." Kevin grinned, obeying Tea's instructions. Once he was able to peer through the scope, Kevin asked Tea. "What should I be doing here?"
"Can you spot anything?" Tea asked Kevin. "If the master of the house has something for us, it would be possible that they were invisible or at least using some form of natural camouflage to fool our eyes."
"I'm not liking this type of enemy." Diana said to M artin, feeling apprehensive.
"I'm sure that they'll be able to do something." Martin tried to calm his stepsister. "Even Java's ready to help. Right, buddy?"
Java smiled and gave a thumbs up.
"Hold on a second..." Kevin said, peering through the scope carefully. "Looks like I can see something."
"Excellent." Tea nodded. "If our next enemy has a form of camouflage that can fool our eyes, then it would be obvious that standing still for a few seconds can allow us to see the outline of their bodies."
"Right. I gotcha." Kevin replied, scanning an area of the sewers where he spotted a fading outline of a body. The body wasn't human. However, it has an insect-like shape. Or rather, a humanoid/insect-like hybrid's body.
"Why am I getting memories of Raccoon City?" The ex-SPD officer murmured, searching for labored breathing in order to score a hit in the creature's head. Kevin did find the hiding creature thanks to its breathing in addition of a few seconds of its eyes glowing.
Got it!
Once Kevin was able to locate the creature's head, he scored a headshot at the being's head. Thanks to the suppressor (in addition to the 7.62 NATO subsonic bullets), the creature didn't see what came to its head.
"I got it!" Kevin shouted, watching the creature fall on its back. Through the scope, Kevin saw that the creature looked like some kind of giant dragonfly that had its genes placed on a human. It squealed in pain before it eventually died.
"Saw something?" Leon asked Kevin as he got up.
"Looked like some kinda dragonfly with genes placed on humans. Damn cult bastards."
"Looks like the cult's showing off its true colors." Hien glared at where the creature had been, known to Los Illuminados as the Novistador.
"We need to move." Fujino advised the group. "There's no telling when more of those creatures would show up."
Together, the group moved down the path to navigate through the sewers. Before they made a turn to the left, Leon picked up what appears to be a diamond-like item. It was the Blue Eye, although it had a purple-like color. He handed the item over to Tea before they moved on.
Chapter 14 END
PS - Chapter 14 at it is, ladies and gentlemen! If you did enjoy this chapter, please read and review my other current story "Peacekeepers" as well. I look forward to all the reviews for this chapter and all. It would be of big help to me as I continue finishing this story up. Heh heh. Least I'm "narrating" the story half way through. Gameplay wise, we're in the beginning part of Chapter 3-2. Oh joy!
I've been watching some Macross (Both the original one and Frontier) recently, though I stay away most of the time because of the constant shipping wars. Which makes me damn glad that I always accept a neutral position at times.
LEOs usually meant law enforcement officers, which I'm using.
Like I said before, I am tinkering on a Super Robot Wars story. Although I can't (and probably won't) due to time constraints being slowly placed on me, I do plan to outline what the story would have. Besides, I plan to wrap this main storyline that I had going since 2004/05 IIRC with one centering on Resident Evil 6 as the end. Though if anyone likes to take about this, then I'm game. Just let me know. Anyhow, I did say that I'll be a tad slow since there are other things I need to do, but I hope that I can finish my stuff though.
I probably should add the total of pesetas the group acquired/lost in each chapter since I'm worried that I may lose track eventually.
Good day/evening to you readers.
Pesetas in Total = 52,800
