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:
The group now proceeds to the sewers in Salazar Castle after Ashley has been abducted once again through a surprise trap. But with a new threat coming from a new enemy called the Novistador, it'll force them to stay to their levels. Can they survive their encounter with this new enemy type? Stay tune to this chapter to find out.
Chapter 15: Invisible Enemy
Lower Level, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
After defeating the first Novistador, the group quietly moved in the lower levels of the Salazar's Castle sewers as they were now fully aware of the complications of facing an enemy that has the ability to use invisibility to hide itself from anyone and anything.
"We're here." Leon whispered to his allies, aiming his Benelli M3 at a square-shaped draining ditch. "And it looks clear."
Tea raised her hand and shook her head. "I beg to object, Mr. Kennedy."
"So this means..." Jean shouldered his Franchi SPAS-12 after checking that its firing mode is set to semi-automatic from pump-action mode.
"I'll do that." Kevin knelled down and shouldered the silenced Steyr SSG P IV and began to fire shot after shot at the invisible Novistadors after scoping out where they hiding via scope. He noted the breaths the insects took when they inhaled and exhaled, which was one way for him to see their hiding spot.
Jean immediately jumped down and emptied his SPAS-12 at the downed Novistadors, intending to finish the DSO agent's job.
"All clear!" Jean said, picking up two boxes of shotgun shells, which was perfect for him since he was about to run out of buckshot reserves. He proceed to reload whatever he can with his buckshots as the others either climbed the ladder down or simply jumped down to the drainage ditch.
"Thanks a lot, man!" Hien told Jean as he stopped to pick up a Velvet Blue after being one of the first to jump down the ditch.
"Got it." Leon murmured after he had just jumped down the ditch, picking up a box of 9mm bullets for pistols.
"Looks clear here." Jean said as he jumped up rather climbing up the ladder. He aimed his shotgun, up, down, at the ditch and at the metal door next to him.
"Gee, thanks for making up feel better, Jean." Yu sneered at him as he climbing up the ladder.
"Not a problem, Ominae." Jean smirked at the Japanese Spriggan, approaching the metal door. He gripped the door handle and started to push the door after knowing that the door was not rigged and that the door was not locked.
The ponytailed man went in first to clear the way for the others.
Secret Laboratory, below Mountain Ridge Community College, Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
"ALL CLEAR!"
"ALL CLEAR!"
Bruce had covered his eyes when the lights inside the laboratory flashed open at once, forcing the blonde man to shield them because he would have a hard time seeing if he didn't.
"Wow..." He saw a lot of bodies sprawled all over the lab. He surmised that they belong to the tactical division of CIHL. "Looks like they placed a good fight for us."
"Over here! We found someone!"
Bruce was summoned by a DSO tactical assaulter towards a cabinet. Two DSO tac team assaulters were aiming their M4A1s at the cabinet.
"Uhhmmm..." Bruce was confused to see armed men aiming at the cabinet. "Mind telling me what this is about?"
"Some of the guys noted that something's causing this cabinet to shake." The assaulter tried to explain to Bruce the situation. "We just need you to take a look a this."
"Fine, I'll look." Bruce sighed before he placed his hand on the cabinet handle. "Whatever you do, don't riddle me with bullets. I don't wanna go out by friendly fire."
One... and Two!
Bruce quickly opened the cabinet and saw a man was inside the cabinet, sitting down. He was clearly shaken.
What raised his eyebrow was the uniform he wore. The man was a CIHL scientist. Bruce also noticed that the man had pissed in fear from the shootout.
"Great. Just great."
Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
The group had just walked into what appeared to be an abandoned cell block built in the sewers, placed below Salazar Castle. The perfect place to keep your enemies locked up if you want to keep them there and intimidate them in the long run.
"Looks all clear." Eriko commented all visually checking out the cell block.
"I don't think so." Tea warned the Japanese detective. "Especially since we have enemies that can turn invisible, there's no way we can know if one can show up."
"But where do we start from here?" Leon asked the British psychic.
Hiryu and Hien took note of the open hole on the roof of the cell block.
"Keep an eye on that one." Hiryu told his allies when he pointed to the open hole of the roof.
"All right." Cammy noted the open hole.
"We probably should search the cells." Chun-Li suggested. "Maybe it won't be much, but there can be a clue or two that we can use to see where we can go from here."
But when Martin and Java were walking towards the middle of the cell block, a Novistdor had emerged from the open hole above. This nearly caught everyone off their guard, but had heeded the masked SHADOW agent's warning.
"Java!" Martin warned his caveman friend. He immediately went for the U-Watch to get his I-Cutter, since he understood that using a staff can't kill these... these things.
Java gritted his teeth and cracked his knuckles in anticipation of the Novsitador's attack. As expected, the genetically enhanced insect sighted Java and began a short sprint before it leaped for the caveman's head.
"HRAHAAHHAH!"
To show how his caveman strength is still relevant to the group's line of work, Java moved his right arm back after he raised it. Afterwards, he punched the Novistador by the head.
"OH YEAH!" Martin yelled, grinning to see the Novistador tumble down backwards after being punched. The Novistador then got up and charged again at Java, feeling a lot angrier than usual.
"STAND BACK!" Chun-Li rushed in to help Java before he may not survive another attempt on his life.
The Chinese Interpol executed one of her well-known attacks in the Street Fighter tournaments.
"KIKOKEN!"
The projectile went straight for the Novistador's chest, since she was very, very near the creature. She watched the projectile rip the creature into half, having to concentrate most of her spirit energy into it so that the Novistador can be killed. Both halves of the Novistador promptly dissolved after the attack.
"Another one! Look out!" Leon warned the others when a Novistador came busting out of one of the abandoned cells, ramming the rusting cell door out of the way. The others were kept back, either because their weapons may not be enough to effectively keep them down permanently or 'cause they can't get close to the Novstador without risking their lives and dying due to carelessness.
"Ah, dammit!" Kevin crouched next to Leon. He aimed the Leupold riflescope and downed the Novistador after firing the Steyr SSG P IV, seeing the creature go down on its back after being shot by a 7.62 NATO subsonic bullet at the chest area.
"It's getting up!" Yu told Kevin, who fired his Heckler & Koch G3A4 to keep the Novistador.
"Keep firing!" Kevin told the Japanese Spriggan. Despite the fact that Yu was firing his assault rifle very near him, Kevin was used to the sound of small arms being fired close to him. He was already used to it, even though the area was not that wide.
But that didn't matter. As soon as the Novistador got up, Kevin worked on the sniper rifle's bolt to get a round in the chamber before he fired again. The Novistador went down again, on his back after it got hit on the chest.
"Here goes! Keep back!" Kevin worked on the bolt again as fast as possible, aiming for the Novistador's head before he fired again for the third time.
After the bullet made impact with the Novistador's head, the creature keeled over in pain before it dissolved.
"CLEAR!" Kevin shouted after he pulled the bolt to clear the chamber of empty brass.
"CLEAR!" Chun-Li shouted also after Kevin had shouted the "CLEAR!" message first, since she and the DSO agent had killed two Novistadors.
"Okay, let's spread out and search the cells in this empty cell block!" Leon shouted as he began to give a short briefing on his comrades, given their situation against the Novistadors. "Partner up and search them carefully. We won't even know if the area's clear until those insects are wiped out."
Jean went to the locations of where the Novistadors were killed, picking up a Green and Red Eye.
"I got something." The French Spriggan showed Tea the eye jewels he obtained.
"Perfect." Tea smiled at Jean, which made Jean give the immortal an eyebrow.
"Here's one cell." Yu and Cammy found one cell. When the Japanese Spriggan tried to see if the cell door was locked, he found out that the door was locked.
"Allow me." Cammy insisted, executing a spinning roundhouse to bust the cell door down.
"Wow..." Yu was amazed to see the Delta Red agent's work. "Reminds me of me..."
"Glad to see someone admiring my line of work." Cammy smirked as she went inside the cell.
"Looks like a dead guy." Yu said, lowering his G3A4.
"Indeed." Cammy knelt down to check the corpse indeed. "For a while now. And I doubt anyone's coming to claim the body."
"I agree." Yu went to sling his G3A4 behind his back. He proceeded to pick up an incendiary grenade from the cell's dirty sink.
Who the heck would leave this here?
Secret Laboratory, below Mountain Ridge Community College, Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
Bruce waited for word on the interrogation a DSO assaulter was doing with the scientist they found in the cabinet.
"Anything, Bruce?" Bruce received word from FOS on their current situation.
"Oh, Hunnigan." Bruce greeted Hunnigan. "Nothing much. We took care of CIHL tac teams trying to lay an ambush on us."
"Any civilians?"
Bruce turned around to see the scientist still being interrogated. "Still being interrogated. The guys and I found him nearly scared to death and pissing in his pants too."
"I see." Hunnigan replied. "Good work, Bruce."
"What about Kevin and Leon?" Bruce asked Hunnigan back in FOS.
"Nothing yet." Hunnigan told the blonde DSO agent. "We're still trying, but it looks like the cult's got some assistance in establishing an electronic dead zone to block all communications in and out."
Bruce sighed. "Thanks Hunnigan. I'll bring the guy in when we're done."
"Understood. FOS out."
Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Found another cell."
Martin and Diana eyed the other cell next to the one Yu and Cammy had explored.
"Can it open?" Diana asked Martin.
"Let's go and see." Martin grabbed the cell door by the bar and shook it several times. "Nothing. Guess the cell block's too neglected that the rust got to the door and made things difficult."
"Java." Diana called for the caveman's attention.
"Hm?" Java darted his eyes to Diana, who was waving to him.
"Can you help us with this?" Diana pointed to the cell door in front of her. "Martin tried to get the cell door open, but it's too rusted that the hinges won't budge."
"Java can do it." Java reassured the young teenager when he punched the cell door with all of his caveman strength.
"Nice!" Martin was ecstatic to see the cell door out of the door after Java punched it, causing it to cave inward.
Diana was the first to enter the cell, seeing that nothing was inside, but dust.
"All clear from here."
Hiryu and Eriko were standing in front of the cell adjacent to the cell Martin and Diana had just explored after Java had busted the door open.
"Here's another one." Hiryu told Eriko, trying to act very calm since he was "very, very" familiar with the woman.
"Can we get in?" The detective asked.
"Give me a second." The SHADOW agent checked the door and noted that although it can't be opened, the hinges were slowly giving way.
"Okay. Now give me a few minutes." Hiryu told Eriko again when he zipped up the collar of his Armored Machine Suit to get the artificial muscles up and running. Once he took care of that, the masked teen executed a spinning kick onto the cell door.
As a result, the door was removed from the hinges before it fell down straight into the cell.
Eriko didn't say anything as she stepped into the cell, looking for anything out of the ordinary. She knelt down near the corpse of a dead man and picked up a Yellow Herb.
"We got something." Hiryu told the others.
Chun-Li and Jill found themselves looking at a locked cell that appeared to have some pieces of paper.
"Door's locked." Jill told Chun-Li. "Could be opened though."
"Stand back please." Chun-Li advised the ex-STARS officer. She then executed her signature move, the Hyakuretsu Kyaku.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" The Chinese woman shouted as her kicks made work of the cell doors before it eventually collapsed inward.
"I guess I'll have to rely on you next time for things like this." Jill told Chun-Li after she got into the cell with her sidearm drawn out in case of another attack by any Novistadors.
"Anything?" Chun-Li asked after she ceased using her Hyakuretsu Kyaku.
"Yeah." Jill picked up a small box of shotgun shells. "I got this."
"Over there." Chun-Li pointed to the scraps of papers in Spanish.
"Got it." Jill nodded before she picked them up. She ran out and showed Eriko the papers.
"This must be Luis' papers." Eriko said after she picked up the papers from Jil. "Where did you find it?"
"In one of the empty cells." Jill replied. "Must be where Luis was incarcerated before he was able to get away."
"I'll need a few minutes to read over them, Jill." Eriko said after hearing Jill. Where do I start...
Eriko began to read Luis' memo, which is natural for her since she speaks fluent Spanish alongside Japanese (her native language), English and Mandarin Chinese (fluent languages).
There are some parasites that have the ability to control their hosts. It's basic knowledge among biologists, but not much is known as to how the parasite does it. Studying these parasites might reveal some clues to as to how the powers of the Las Plagas work. And perhaps provide more insight on the victims of Las Plagas, the Los Ganados.
Here is a list of some of the parasites that have the ability to manipulate the behavioral patterns of their host.
Dicrocoelium:
Once the larvae of this parasite migrates to the ant's esophagus, it alters the behavior of the ant. When then temperature drops in the evening, the infected ant climbs to the top of a plant and clamps onto a leaf using its mandible.
It stays there immobile until the next morning, placing the ant where it's most vulnerable to be eaten by a browsing herbivore such as sheep.
One could conclude that the parasite is manipulating the host's behavior to its way into the body of its definitive host.
Galactosomum:
The larvae of this parasite makes its home inside the brain of a fish such as the yellowtail and the parrot bass. Once infected, the fish make their way up to the water's surface where they'll swim until eaten by seabirds.
Once again, the peculiar behavior can only be explained by the parasite's desire to get into the bodies of the seabirds.
Leucochloridium:
This parasite's sporcysts develop in the snail's tentacles. The sporocysts are vivid in color and pulsate continually somewhat like a worm.
Surprisingly the infected snail makes its way to the top of a plant where it is most visible to the eyes of birds, therefore more likely to be eaten.
Once eaten by a bird, the parasite will complete its metamorphosis into an adult.
MOM's Office, The Center
MOM proceeded to receive her updated report from Billy, who was ordered to receive hourly reports on Los Illuminados and CIHL and other things that are important to the mission of her agents.
"Here you are." Billy handed MOM a report on the DSO's raid on a CIHL facility.
"Thanks, Billy." MOM nodded to Billy. "Anything new from Security & Intelligence Division?"
"Yeah. It's in the report." Billy went to explain to MOM. "SID reports that a CIHL facility was already raided by the DSO."
The report raised MOM's curiosity.
"Go on."
Billy continued to explain MOM on the report. "So far, it appears that the CIHL facility is an underground research type. Appears to have been recently constructed, but the DSO is talking to someone they caught in the facility. A civilian. Looks like a scientist. There's no name yet."
MOM then replied. "Anything else?"
Billy shook his head. "Aside from the fact that Albert Wesker shook off our surveillance teams in downtown Madrid, there's nothing I can add in. SID's still trying to make contact with Martin and the other agents, but there's no luck."
"Dammit..." MOM sighed. "Continue to keep up intel reports from SID. And let me know if our hackers can break through the jamming zone in Spain."
"On it, MOM."
Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Quite the notes Mr. Luis had." Eriko said after the group gathered up from clearing the cells. "Looks like he took the time to write some notes on the parasite."
"Anything specific?" Martin asked Eriko.
"He did mention some names. Dicrocoelium, Galactosomum and Leucochloridium."
Fujino ran a quick check on the O-Watch's Search Mode from the name Eriko mentioned.
"I can confirm that the names Eriko-san mentioned are the names of parasites."
"Whoa..." Yu gave a whistle. "So it seems that the parasite the cult uses is done through the insertion of these bad germs."
"Appears that way." Leon told the Japanese Spriggan. "Now that we've cleared the cell blocks, we can proceed on to get out of this place."
"Please give me a second." Fujino calmly told Leon as she worked on her O-Watch to materialize a Karambit Knife for her own use.
"What's she doing?" Kevin asked the Center agents.
"Fujino's very good at this." Dan told him after the Japanese SHADOW agent spoke briefly to Tea for a few seconds.
Fujino approached the L-shaped hallway up ahead and concentrated carefully. The group suddenly heard the wailing sound followed by a limb that had been completely twisted while still attached on the body.
"What the heck is that?!" Kevin shouted, covering his ears to avoid being deaf.
"Search me!" Diana shouted, covering her ears.
The others had their ears covered to avoid being deaf from a creature's wailing.
Fujino then saw a Novistador that was hiding in the L-shaped hallway, charging at Fujino despite having a broken arm. The SHADOW agent charged in with the Karambit at the ready. She ducked in after the Novistador charged in by trying to swing its right arm horizontally.
"Hah!" Fujino then brought the karambit's knife blade onto the Novistador's chest, stabbing the creature by the center.
"Whoa..." Martin whistled.
"Martin..." Diana grumbled at Martin. "That's gross."
"But come on, Fujino did what she had to do."
"All clear..." Fujino informed her allies after she coolly removed the karambit blade from the Novistador before its body began to dissolve.
"Looks like a ladder over here." Hien knelt on the side and saw the ladder. "Looks like the water's covering the rest of it and what appears to be a door."
"We'll need to drain this." Leon informed Hien.
Jill tossed a box of shotgun shells to Leon, the latter giving his thanks.
"It appears that we can split up." Sho said, who had been impressed by Fujino's actions with her karambit. "But this should be easy. If the water is covering the ladder to make things hard for us, I believe that there should be a room where we can find a valve."
"I can go with you, sensei." Hiryu bowed, insisting that he should go.
Sho knew that it was hard to argue with him when he took him under wing as a SHADOW agent candidate when MOM asked the ninja commando to train the first generation of SHADOW agents in unarmed combat.
"See if you can keep up with your sensei, then."
"Aa..."
Together, the two traveled through the L-shaped hallway, through an empty cell that had a hole in the wall (since there was huge debris blocking the way) and towards a room that had a valve with some controls.
But that was after Sho kicked the door open.
Storage/Valve Room, Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Room is secured, sensei!" Hiryu told Sho after he completed a sweep of the room with his Heckler & Koch G36C shouldered. The room had a pipe with a valve, some shelves and lockers with a treasure chest.
"I shall do the valve." Sho told Hiryu. "Sweep the room and see if you can take anything useful."
"Understood."
As Sho began to turn the valve and drain the water blocking the way, Hiryu went to work and destroyed the wooden boxes on the shelves after he slung the G36C at his back. There, he found a box of shotgun shells and a Green Herb.
"About time." murmured the SHADOW agent. Taking the herb, he knelt down in front of the treasure chest and visually inspected it to see if it was rigged with a trap to catch someone off guard in case he or she tried to open it up.
"Careful now." Hiryu drew out his Fairbarn Sykes from the knife sheath and used its blade to check everything from the lock to the latch and the edges between the lid and the chest body. "Alright, all clear to be opened."
"I'm done here." Sho told Hiryu as the water completely receded.
"I got something." Hiryu showed Sho the Butterfly Lamp the former found in the opened treasure chest.
"Well done." Sho was impressed by Hiryu's work. "Looks like you are using some of the training we learned from SHADOW training."
"Do we go now?" Hiryu didn't know if he was to be impressed or something else.
"Of course."
Corridor, outside Storage/Valve Room, Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Sho and Hiryu were walking through the corridor after leaving the Storage/Valve Room when they were about to go into the empty cell with the hole in the wall when the former began to draw out his Lightning Light.
"Something wrong?" Hiryu asked.
Sho nodded. "Put down the lamp."
"How come, sensei?" Hiryu hesitated, but he agreed to follow the ninja's instructions.
"Just be on your guard."
Sho walked slowly, approaching the open hole until he made sudden movements. This started by a dash before he leaped up and stabbed his ninjato at the ceiling. Hiryu was about to object to this move until a Novistador materialized. It squealed in pain after being stabbed in the chest. Sho landed with the ninjato at the ready while the Novistador landed on the ground.
"Ambush..." Hiryu shouldered his G36C.
"Indeed." Sho replied as another Novisator seemingly out of nowhere and made a leap towards the two after the first one had died.
"Eat this!" Hiryu shouted when he opened fire with the G36C in full auto, shooting the second Novistador in the chest while it was leaping for his head.
Makeshift Electronics Room, Unknown Facility
Krauser was in the room to monitor the progress of the jamming zone after he received word that someone was trying to hack through it.
"Hey, Krauser."
Krauser turned around to see that Kenny had just arrived.
"Anything?"
"Yeah." Kenny nodded. "Word is that Ashley's been caught by Saddler in one of his traps at his personal castle."
"Well that's perfect." Krauser gave a grin. "Saves the trouble for us in trying to locate her."
"So what's the next step?"
"We wait and see if that skank in the red dress has some new intel that we can use."
"And the others..."
"They'll be taken care of, you'll see..."
Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"INCOMING! SPREAD OUT!"
Tea warned after they heard Hiryu firing his G36C.
"What's the matter?" Jill shouted after hearing Tea's warning.
"The invisible creatures!" Tea shouted after she hurled some of her pentagram cloths at a Novistador that just showed up after it rushed out of one of the empty cells by hiding on the ceiling after it stealthy infiltrated the cell block. The cloths turned into winged lions and charged at the Novistador. It didn't know what hit it when the winged lions pounced on it.
"Java!" Fujino had her karambit at the ready. Java growled and punched the Novistador at the face, sending it down. Fujino jumped and stabbed it at its chest.
Two more Novistadors came down the cell block from the hole in the ceiling. Leon used his M3 and fired at one of them at a semi-auto rate after being told by Kevin that he needed to keep an breathing on the breathing to spot one Novistador if it is invisible. After he emptied his shotgun's magazine at the downed Novistador and watch it squeal in pain, Leon retreated to the side in order to reload his weapon. Jean intervened to make sure the Novistador was dead for good.
Kevin had his Glock 21 Mariner at the ready, gripping the pistol at a Weaver stance. He saw the Novistador try and charge at Eriko and Jill. Shooting at it from the back, the brown-haired DSO agent watched the Novistador tumble onto the ground, face first. Jill aimed her Beretta Px4 Type F and fired her sidearm at the downed Novistador until it squealed in pain.
The others simply stayed back since those who had faced off against the Novistadors were already doing a good job.
Corridor, outside Storage/Valve Room, Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
After Sho and Hiryu had downed the two Novistadors, two more came down from the ceiling to surprise them.
"Ikkuzo!" Sho yelled out at the top of his voice, cutting one of the Novistadors diagonally with Lightning Light. He had previously dodged the Novistador's slashing attacks towards his chest.
"Hah!" Hiryu went for a backfist, stunning the second Novistador before shooting it up. After it went down, Hiryu continued to fire his weapon at it until he heard the Novistador squeal.
"Clear!" Hiryu shouted when he reloaded his G36C.
"All clear from our part..." Sho said, still gripping onto Lightning Light. "Let's go and see the others."
Cell Block, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Yo..." Hien greeted Hiryu after the latter arrived with Sho.
"Missed me?" Hiryu sarcastically greeted Hien, the latter who had been reloading his Pindad SS1-M5 Commando.
"Not really. I just had some fun back there."
"Speak for yourself." Martin sighed, stretching his arms. "Those damn insects nearly took us by surprise."
"How many?" Sho asked.
"We got three." Leon told the ninja after he had just reloaded the last buckshot round.
"Not the challenge." Jean commented after he reloaded a few buckshot rounds onto his SPAS-12. "Although I have to admit that those buggers are quite scary if you haven't met them for the first time."
"So everything all clear?" Cammy asked.
"It appears so." Chun-Li replied. "The water already receded and there's a door visible."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Kevin spoke out when he leaped down to the subfloor.
"Wow." Jill whistled. "Kevin's pretty quick on the go."
"Yeah." Leon shrugged his shoulders. "Who knew?"
The others followed Kevin after they collected all the available eye shards from the dead Novistadors. Kevin had the honor of kicking the cell door blocking their way.
Lower Level, Sewers, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"All clear."
Kevin gestured to his comrades that the path was clear, running across the water-covered floor and up the staircase.
"Go ahead!" Sho leaped up and used Lightning Light to stab a Novistador that waited on the ceiling, kiling it even before its corpse touched the ground.
Leon kicked the barrels open to pick up 1300 pesetas.
"Wait! Wait!" Martin shouted after the Novistador was killed by the ninja. "I know we need to rescue the President's daughter, but can't we take a break for four minutes? I need to catch my breath."
"Alright." Leon replied while he nodded to Kevin.
"I believe this lamp has some areas where things can be attached." Hiryu presented the lamp that he carried.
"Will this do?" Sho landed on the floor with his feet touching it while he picked up the falled Green Eye shard.
"Thank you, sensei." Hiryu got the Green Eye shard and inserted it into the Butterfly Lamp.
"I believe that we can use this to combine with another herb." Sho presented the Green Herb to Jill.
"Ah thanks." Jill got the herb from the ninja.
"Here." Eriko gave the Yellow Herb to Jill. "I found this in one of the empty cells."
"Looks like we got some health supplements next to the six First Aid Sprays, plus the one that's gonna run out."
"Can you hand me one of the sprays then?" Diana asked Leon. "Java's got some injuries on his knuckles."
"Knock yourself out." Leon tossed the almost empty First Aid Spray to Diana. The teenaged girl got and began to shake the can up and down.
"Hold still Java and don't move your hand, okay?"
Java nodded.
"Here goes." Diana began to use the First Aid Spray to heal up Java's injuries.
Tea collected most of the shards taken from the dead Novistadors and began to work with Hiryu in setting the Blue and Red Eye shards onto the Butterfly Lamp.
Kevin and some of the others who had used small arms to fight off the Novistadors took a few seconds to reload their weapons, either because the current magazine they had was about to run out of ammo or they just used the bullets they collected to refill their empty magazines since they don't have the luxury of throwing them away, which meant that every bullet counted.
"All done?" Chun-Li asked when she was watching Tea work on the Butterfly Lamp.
"All done." Tea showed everyone the Butterfly Lamp with the attached eye shards.
"Looks like this can fetch up a lot of money with the merchant." Dan said before he gave a whistle to admire the newly updated Butterfly Lamp.
"Indeed it will." Tea said before she kept the lamp.
"Do you know where she keeps that and the other items we pick up?" Leon asked Yu and Jean.
The two Spriggans looked at each others and simply shrugged their shoulders.
"You're good as new, Java." Diana saw that Java's wounds have healed up. She placed spray down on the floor since it was empty.
"Thank you, Diana." Java was happy that the spray worked.
"No problem."
"Come on you guys, we're almost out of the area."
Cammy told her allies before she kicked the metal door open, which led them to...
Swinging Blade Room, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
The group was greeted by the sight of swinging blade in a motion similar to the Pendulum.
"Holy sh-t!" Yu was the first to react by shouting out his frustration when he saw the Pendulum-style blades blocking their way. "We can't just walk pass through them at once!"
"Of course not!" Jean slapped the back of Yu's head, also angered by what he saw. "Be calm and use your head."
"The only way out is to move in one at a time." Sho advised the Spriggans. "A perfect trap as laid out by our host."
"I remember how SHADOW training consisted of something like this." Dan groaned, remembering the days of how he, Mark and the first-generation SHADOW agents were forced to go through a very hard obstacle course that included pendulum blades.
"Yeah, I know." Hiryu sighed. "I also remember that the course was designed to weed out any potential SHADOW recruit out of the game."
"I guess he's right." Hien patted Hiryu's shoulder. "Not like there's another way that we can use to get out of this mess."
"Follow my lead."
Sho told the group as he showed them that being slow and careful can help you get past the swinging blades. The others followed them with Java being a bit late since he almost messed up with the jump since he's not agile. Fortunately for him that Sho and Fujino that they were able to help him out with the latter using her manipulation skills, using her Mystic Eyes of Distortion to twist the chains that were holding the swinging blades up with Sho cutting them up to pieces so that they won't harm him when he assists Java in getting up the platform.
Jill kicked the metal door on the other side of the room, leading them to a small room with a ladder. Most of them got in and began to climb up before they were greeted by a couple of barrels and another door. The brown-haired woman got the barrels open with her kicks to pick up a Spinel.
Sho stopped momentarily to pick up a Velvet Blue he found on the ground.
Upper Floor, Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
The group found themselves back at the very same area they were before Ashley was caught in a wall trap.
"Well, isn't this a very familiar sight?" Kevin sarcastically remarked about their room they're in.
"Be quiet." Eriko told Kevin to stop talking. "Listen."
The group could also hear some chanting from the lower floor.
"Is that in Spanish?" Fujino asked Eriko.
"I think so."
Kevin and Leon crept up on the ledge and went to see what was happening downstairs. The two DSO agents saw that most of the floors was already transformed into a makeshift altar with the cult's monks making chants with a sword's blade driven onto the tablecloth with red blood on it, its handle having the insignia of Los Illuminados. In addition, a couple of torches were seen decorating the sides of the makeshift altars. A few of them had black robes with one having a red robe and a pendant worn on his neck.
"Over there." Leon pointed out the pendant on the red robe-wearing monk while the black monks were bowing.
"So how do we get that pendant off that crazy bastard down there?" Kevin asked his partner.
"I think I remember that we took inventory of a grenade or two..."
Command Center, Field Operations Support Division, DSO Headquarters, somewhere in Virginia, United States of America
"Talk to me."
Hunnigan had received word that Bruce was trying to make contact with her.
"Nothing much, except that the scientist we interrogated is just a newbie recently recruited by CIHL."
"Anything else?"
"He just pissed himself out of fear during the shootout between us and the CIHL tac teams sent to kill us."
Hunnigan wondered if it was such a good idea for Bruce to let her know in the transmission about that little detail.
God. Just when I got the important details from Bruce...
"Alright. Just make sure to transport him back to base. You know the usual protocol."
"Understood FOS. Bruce out."
Secret Laboratory, below Mountain Ridge Community College, Roanoke, Virginia, United States of America
"We have our orders!"
Bruce shouted to the DSO tac team assaulters after he ended his transmission with DSO HQ.
"What do we do with this guy here?" One of the assaulters asked Bruce, who was still handcuffed for security reasons.
Bruce took a good look at the scientist. He then said to the assaulters. "Make sure his cuffs are secured. Afterwards, gag him and cover up his head. We're bringing him back to HQ for additional interrogation."
"Understood." The assaulters replied in unison.
"Hey! Hey! What are you doing...!" The scientist was now beginning to protest when one of the assaulters placed masking tape over his mouth to shut him up, which was conveniently found on top of one of the working tables in the lab. Another one had secured the scientist by placing a blindfold over his eyes, which was followed by placing a hood over his blindfolded eyes for an extra security measure.
Upper Floor, Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"So how do we play this?" Leon asked Kevin for tactical advise in taking out the opposition at the lower floor of the temple.
"The grenade idea can work." Kevin told Leon before he prepared to shoulder his SSG P IV to peer through the riflescope. "Just leave the rest of the sniping work to me, although I suggest that the others with rifles provide suppressive fire."
Leon nodded and motioned to Yu and anyone else with an assault fire to come see him. The ex-RPD SPF officer was given the incendiary grenade acquired before.
"Here goes nothing." Kevin murmured after he gave the signal to Leon to pop in the grenade when he's ready to do so.
Leon nodded to Kevin after he got a good on the grip before the former began to secure the safety pin. Giving it a good tug, Leon hurled the primed grenade at the lower floor, watching it land near the small Los Illuminados congregation.
The monks saw the grenade land in the center of the group, but wondered what kind of thing it was. When one of them decided to pick up the primed incendiary grenade in order to get a closer look, it exploded in his hands. It resulted in the black robe-wearing monks being burned to death.
"FIRE!" Kevin gave the order, allowing Yu and the other assault rifle-armed allies to immediately open fire and bring down a fiery rain on the cultists.
The plan was working. The monks didn't know what had happened to them. The black robed-monks were being killed in the hail of gunfire while being burned to death.
However, the red monk was still standing even though he was burning. Kevin peered through the riflescope and took aim at the monk's bone mask. As soon as Kevin fired the shot, he saw that the bone mask had cracked open. After seeing the monk's exposed face, the DSO agent prepared to fire his silenced sniper rifle again.
But instead of doing a head shot, the subsonic 7.62 NATO bullet made impact on the monk's neck instead.
"Dammit..." Kevin muttered since he saw the plaga emerge from monk's open wound on the neck.
"I'll give you a hand, Kevin!" Jill joined in and shouldered her Heckler and Koch SL8-4. She aimed the rifle through the riflescope and began to fire 5.56 NATO bullets at the exposed parasite.
"Thanks!" Kevin retracted the bolt twice, once to remove the subsonic 7.62 NATO cartridge from the barrel after the SSG P IV was fired once to shatter the red monk's bone mask. The second time was done to remove the bullet cartridge again after the rifle was fired again to perform a headshot, which failed.
With all the shots hitting the exposed parasite, it exploded with the parasite's blood and guts splattered onto the floor. Afterwards, the red monk's body collapsed as it went on its knees before it fell down onto the floor. The bodies of the black monks dissolved into nothing after they were killed off.
"All clear!" Jill shouted after she began to reload her SL8-4.
"Clear!" Dan shouted when he ceased firing his SIG SG 552.
"Clear!" Yu said when he stopped firing his G3A4.
"Clear!" The others who had assault rifles shouted in unison when they too ceased firing.
"Let's head downstairs and check what we got." Eriko told the others, drawing out her Sig Sauer P228.
"But where do we start?" Fujino asked Eriko.
"I shall secure the other side of this floor." Sho dashed onto the chandelier and used the momentum of it as it began to move back and forth. As soon as the chandelier moved towards the other side, Sho executed a double jump to land safely.
Lower Floor, Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Martin and Diana were the first ones to check the lower floor of the temples, seeing around seven Spinels were on the floor where the corpses of the black monks had been.
"Looks like we got ourselves a lot of things we can sell back to the Merchant." Diana commented when she knelt down next to one of the Spinels and picked it up.
"Tell me about it, Di." Martini grinned after seeing the Spinels on the ground. "I'm just wondering why these monks leave these jewels after being killed off..."
"Over here!" Leon motioned to the others on the spot where the red monk was killed. He slowly picked up the Illuminados Pendant from the man's neck.
"Check it out." Kevin said after giving a whistle, looking at the pendant.
"Look at it." Cammy said, studying the pendant. "The craftsmanship resembles the insignia of the cult. Makes it a bit creepy."
"Indeed." Fujino said when she got a good look at the pendant. "But if we could see it to the merchant, perhaps we could get a lot of money from him."
"The question is where is he?" Hiryu asked Fujino when the masked SHADOW agent heard his comrade's remarks on the object Leon had just pocketed.
"Yeah I won't bother with that one." Diana said after she pointed to the sword on the makeshift altar.
"Let's go and search the place." Jill told her allies. "The merchant couldn't be that far off from this place."
Sounds of pottery being shattered were soon heard.
"No need to be alarmed." Dan assured the others. "It's just my master breaking up pottery to pick up some valuable items."
And then there was a beat for a few seconds before the Malaysian SHADOW agent further explained.
"That is if there's anything to be found."
Then there were more sounds of Sho moving through the upper floor, which included jumping on top and from the chandelier.
"Never mind."
"I have found a switch!" Sho shouted to the others from the upper level.
"Is it safe, master?" Hiryu shouted back the question.
"We shall see." A few minutes, a clicking sound was heard when Sho pulled down the lever switch on the wall.
In response, the metal gates that sealed off a few areas on the upper floor were opened up.
"We have another place where we can go to." Tea suggested after hearing the metal gates open up.
Upper Floor, Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
The group got up the staircase on the left side of the keep and turned to the left side, being greeted by the waiting Merchant.
"Ah, greetings strangahs!" The Merchant greeted before he gave a slight bow.
"Where were you, man?" Martin responded, feeling a bit upset.
"I apologize for moving from my location a while ago, strangah." The Merchant tried his best to comfort Martin by patting his left shoulder. "But the monks you've killed had forced me to move since they were performing a ceremony."
"I'm not going to ask that." Diana told the Merchant of her answer.
"I wanna." Martin was about to raise his hand when Kevin placed his hand on the Canadian's blonde hair.
"I'm afraid we don't have time for that." The brown-haired DSO agent said before he gazed at the ninja. "Anything you got?"
"Yes, I do." Sho nodded, standing as usual with his arms crossed on top of his chest. "In addition to picking up 1,400 pesetas, I've found what appears to be a Velvet Blue and another Elegant Mask from a treasure chest display I've just broken into a while ago."
Sho handed the Velvet Blue and the Elegant Mask to Tea, who gladly accepted them. Leon had given the Illuminados Pendant to Tea as well.
"I shall see if we have extra gems that we can put into the second Elegant Mask." Tea told her allies. "In the meantime, let's barter with the items that we got right now, especially the pendant Mr. Kennedy had just acquired."
The British Spriggan agent present the Velvet Blue and the Illuminados Pendant to the Merchant.
"Ah..." The Merchant was very pleased to see the Illuminados Pendant when Tea showed it to him. "I'll buy it at a high price!"
"For how much, my good man?"
The Merchant taught how Tea's question very carefully before he told her his decision.
"I'll take that pendant out of your hands for only 12,000 pesetas. How does that sound?"
"Yeah, sure." Leon nodded.
"Sounds good to me." Kevin nodded.
"Why not?" Jill nodded.
The others gave a collective nod, having no objection to the price offered by the Merchant to buy the Illuminados Pendant.
"Then I shall offer the pendant to you for a price of 12,000 pesetas."
Tea then sold another Velvet Blue for 2,500 pesetas.
"Anything else that we can sell to our Merchant friend?" Eriko asked Tea.
"I shall check my personal inventory." Tea said. Aside from remembering to put another Purple Gem onto the Elegant Mask, she presented the Butterfly Lamp to the Merchant with all the eye shards inserted.
"Ah..." The Merchant was very pleased to see the lamp in her hands. "I'll buy it at a high price!"
"And that will be..."
"For you, my good lady..." The Merchant began to reply to Tea. "I'll buy it for 32,000 pesetas."
Everyone was shocked to hear how much the Merchant was willing to go to buy the lamp from them.
"Pretty nice if you ask me." Jill chuckled when she heard the price.
"Looks like this is going quite nicely for us." Dan grinned when he watched Tea hand over the Butterfly Lamp to the Merchant.
"As long as we got that much money, we can buy anything from the merchant himself." Yu said out loud, shrugging his shoulders afterwards.
"I presume that the next order of business for us is to reload our guns." Kevin said while he began to reload with whatever ammo he got for his SSG P IV. "I'm not sure if I'm running short, but I just wanna play it safe."
"The same goes for me." Leon chimed in, loading up 12 gauge buckshots for his M3. "I'm just lucky that I got enough ammo for my shotgun."
The Merchant was kind enough to offer Tea some bottled water.
"Some bottled water?" The Merchant asked. "Of course, this will be free of charge."
"As usual." Tea told the merchant as she accepted his offer. Tea tossed another bottled water to Jean.
"Very strange that the merchant would offer this to us on the house." The French Spriggan commented after catching the bottled water tossed to him by Tea.
"Why? You want us to pay for it in the first place?"
Jean didn't answer his comrade. Instead, he removed the cap from the bottled water and consumed it.
"Hey, Bonaqua." Hien said as he took the bottled water from the merchant. He then examined the label. "And it's from Hong Kong?"
The Merchant didn't answer like Jean. Instead, he opted to shrug his shoulders.
"Kinda weird." Eriko murmured before she took a sip from the Bonaqua bottled water. But it's not that bad actually...
"Alright, I'm now officially going to take my time with my reloading." Hiryu declared out loud as he began to insert a fresh magazine for his G36C. "I just need to find me a seat that I can use to sit on for the meantime. I could use a break here."
"Just sit down here." Dan insisted, using his left foot to emphasis the location of the steps behind him. He was busy doing a reload for his SG 552.
Somewhere in Madrid, Spain
"We're moving in now, over. Suspect just went inside one of the apartments."
A four-man team wearing windbreakers and jeans moved in towards an apartment that Wesker had just moved into after being surveilled by a team from the Center's Special Reaction Squad or SRS for short. They were simply armed with pistols, collapsible batons and had earpieces on their ears.
"What about the guys from the National Police Corp?" One of the SRS agents asked, who was in his late 30s and was of Caucasian origin with his usual blonde hair and skin.
"MOM cleared it up with them that we'll take the lead." Another SRS agent of Southeast Asian descent told his colleague. "Besides, we need to take this bastard in to get some answers on why we can't make contact with our guys."
"In position." Another Caucasian SRS agent warned his comrades to stack up near the door. As soon as the gesture was given to move in, he used his boot-clad foot to kick the door open hard.
"GO! GO! GO!" The agents got inside, only to be met by an explosion that killed all four of them.
From a distance, Wesker found safety in the streets thanks to his superhuman strength and agility. After getting in the apartment, he used his agility to escape. The blonde man was very careful to set a trap at the apartment since he knew that sooner or later, someone would go after him. After all, it was better to be safe than to be sorry.
Wesker later hailed a taxi and told the driver to proceed to the Madrid–Barajas Airport immediately.
Upper Floor, Temple, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Mind if I ask how long have you been doing this kind of work?"
Jill had directed the question to Dan, who had just acquired a bit of extra ammo for his SG 552 since he didn't use his Heckler & Koch USP Expert until the group met the merchant in the Keep.
"Me?" Dan asked Jill, who simply nodded. "Well, I've been a SHADOW agent with the Center for a while now..."
"But what about him?" Jill nudged her head towards Hiryu, who was talking to Hien and the Spriggans while Tea sold all of the unused Green, Red and Blue Eye shards to the Merchant for additional pesetas for a total of 162,000 pesetas.
"If I recall," Dan started to explain when he began to place the last reloaded 30-round magazine into his tactical vest after being assisted by the Merchant a few minutes ago. "he started working with the Center a bit earlier than me. But..."
"I knew there was something else going on here." Leon sighed when he heard Dan say the word "But". Not the word "Butt" by the way.
"There's word from within us guys in SHADOW that he was chosen to be a Center agent for a specific reason before MOM became the head of the Center."
"You mean like a special ability or something?"
The Malaysian SHADOW agent shrugged. "I guess so. He never told me what it was. He's a nice guy, but he doesn't blab much on his private life when he's with us. He's a bit selective."
"Do you know something else about it?" Jill raised the question to Dan.
Dan thought about Jill's second question. He wanted to answer her, but so far Dan had been very carefully to tell them what he knew about Hiryu. Especially when it comes to his relationship to the masked SHADOW agent during their time together in several anti-crime/terrorist ops against criminals and terrorists who wished to use the paranormal or make contact with aliens already on Earth to use their knowledge to further their activities. The only thing Dan wanted to do right now is to screen himself carefully so as not to say anything that could give away Hiryu's actual identity. Well, there is a reason why he had a balaclava on after all.
"This is just a rumor." Dan began to explain to Jill. "But I heard that the previous head of the Center recruited Hiryu after an incident when he was in his early teens."
"What kind of incident?" Leon asked Dan, raising an eyebrow after hearing Dan's answer. That does... sound interesting. Something to look at perhaps.
"Let's just say that I'm not that privy enough to discuss that with you guys." Dan replied, loading up a 5.56 NATO bullet into the chamber after pulling the SG 552's bolt. "I'm sorry, but you guys'll have to ask him that."
"Everyone finished loading their weapons?" Kevin called to the others after he loaded a fresh magazine onto his SSG P IV.
"Yeah, we're done here." Leon told Kevin, patting his M3 for emphasis.
"Good." Kevin grinned after he worked the bolt of the SSG P IV. "'Cause I was starting to get a bit impatient, even if we did get some time to rest."
"Don't forget the fact that some of us went out of our way to take a leak..." Martin reminded Kevin.
Yu sighed, slapping his face. "I can't believe that you said that."
"Yes." Chun-Li agreed with the Japanese Spriggan. "That is highly inappropriate."
"Aside from Martin's stupidity here..." Hiryu was near Martin and gave him a head slap at the back of his head, earning him an "OW" reaction from the Center agent. "are we all done?"
"I guess we're all good." Cammy said, stretching her arms in front.
"We should continue on." Fujino told her allies, pointing to the door next to the merchant. "Starting from that red door."
"Let's go then."
Jean and Leon got their shotguns ready and stacked up at the red door. Leon placed a hand on Jean's right shoulder. A few seconds later, Leon gave Jean's shoulder a hard pat, meaning that it's time to move in.
The others subsequently followed the two after Jean kicked the door open with his boot-clad foot.
Ground Floor, Small Foyer, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
"Clear!"
"Clear!"
Jean and Leon were the first ones to advance down the small hallway, leading to a small area with a cabinet, some chairs and paintings. There was a staircase leading up.
"Over here." Jill secured the Red Herb she found from a side table.
"Nice painting." Diana said when she looked at the painting.
"Except that we don't have time to admire it." Dan reminded her. "Let's go."
Dan was the first to slowly advance up the staircase, shouldering his SG 552. He hoped that the way ahead was clear of any hostiles.
Second Floor, Small Foyer, Keep, Salazar Castle, somewhere in Spain
Dan finally got up to the end of the staircase, checking out the second floor. He found more painting, chairs, a small round table and a door leading outside.
"All clear." Dan told his allies that the staircase leading up is clear of hostiles.
"Let's see what's up here." Yu said, being the next person to get up the staircase.
"I got something." Leon was next to ascend the staircase, approaching one of the chairs to see a box of pistol bullets. He checked it out and saw that it was for .45 ACP-based pistols. "Kevin!"
"Yeah, what is it?" Kevin asked, already upstairs.
"Catch. It's for you."
Leon tossed the small box of .45 ACP bullets to Kevin.
"Thanks very much, Leon." Kevin thanked his DSO partner when he took the box from Leon after catching it. "I'll be sure to put in a good word for you."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "And you think that can work?"
"Of course it can." Kevin insisted, waving a hand to show that he means business.
"Got something here." Chun-Li inspected the roundtable and picked up some papers. "As usual, it's in Spanish."
"Allow me." Eriko's fluency in Spanish has been very useful to the team that they gave her the responsibility of using Spanish if they come across anything that requires the use of that language.
"Here you are." Chun-Li handed the memo to the Japanese detective.
"No problem." Eriko began to check the memo, which was a memo about the Castellan of the Salazar Castle. "Guys, I need a few minutes to read this up. There may something here that can of intelligence value."
Chapter 15 END
PS - Another one for ya, folks! Been busy this Fall of 2012 that I didn't post it. Although I did post a fic story on Jormungand to pass up on whatever time I got, that's not a priority and I plan to update whenever I want to. Plus, it's a fic with many crossovers planned for it via chapter. Otherwise, it's been quite the few months for me. Especially since I'm trying to get back to university with the required GPA to do so. I've been making some progress, but not much.
I invite all the readers to review this chapter and let me know it is. Also, I wish to invite my readers to read up on my Jormungand story called "The Stories" and review it whenever you get the chance. Means a lot. Thanks! I have some planned chapters containing more crossovers after that. I don't know if I can get a Jormungand story out there since I'm not sure if I have the time these days.
Otherwise, feel free to review this chapter in Hostage Rescue and let me know how it is. Thanks. I guess the next one is either The Stories or Peacekeepers, whichever is convenient for me to do another chapter I guess.
Have a good 2013 and happy new year!
Pesetas in Total = 162,000
