Chapter 26

Dr. Albert Wesker slammed his fist into Ivan's face, causing the tyrant to only faulter for a brief moment before recovering and swinging a massive fist right back at him. Blocking the attack, Wesker jumped into the air, kicking Ivan in the face as he somersaulted backwards, landing on his feet like a cat.

Using her hook launcher, Ada Wong sprung into the air and fired off multiple rounds at Anton as she moved over him and landed on the next level above, continuing to lay out fire on both of the Tyrant targets.

Turning to spring after her, Anton squatted slightly, ready to leap up to the next level to pursue her, but before he could, Anton was tapped on the shoulder. Turning his head slightly, Steve Burnside was suddenly behind him, waving his finger from side to side.

"Naughty, naughty," Steve said, slamming his fist into Anton's face, sending him sprawling to the ground since his balance had been compromised from preparing to jump. "Nighty, night." Steve slammed his foot into Anton's stomach, sending him skidding across the unforgiving cement and right into a wall, putting a hole into it, that led into a hallway beyond.

Wesker spin kicked Ivan back several feet and then did a front kick and a side kick and then finally an upper cut, sending Ivan into the air. Wesker jumped after him, slamming a fist into Ivan's gut in midair. He grabbed hold of Ivan's coat and flung the Tyrant back toward the ground.

"Heads up!" Wesker called down as he slowly moved back down to the ground himself, light as a feather.

Steve looked up, seeing the incoming Tyrant. He jumped to clear the distance to Ivan and slammed his fist into Ivan's face, breaking his sunglasses into a million pieces.

The force of the punch flung Ivan into a wall at the opposite end of the area from where Anton had been flung, knocking him through that wall, revealing a hanger bay filled with Ospreys.

"Ah, our escape route revealed," Wesker stated as he landed on the ground, Steve landing beside him.

"We make a good team," Steve stated.

"That we do," Wesker agreed.

Using her hook launcher, Ada sailed back down to rejoin them. "They won't stay down long."

"Do us a favor, Ada," Wesker asked. "Look through those Ospreys. See if there's any heavy artillery."

Ada smirked. "With pleasure." She fired her launcher again and sailed off for the hole only for Ivan to jump back through, trying to grab for her. Letting loose of the hook launcher's hold from where the hook had imbedded itself, Ada swung herself clear of Ivan and rolled on the ground before coming to a stop, getting into a crouching position.

Ivan moved to clear the distance to her, but Wesker shot forward like a bullet, slamming his shoulder into Ivan, knocking him into another section of wall. He looked to Ada. "Go!"

Not having to be told twice, Ada got back to her feet and ran through the hole in the wall to the hanger bay for her search.

Anton moved out of the hole in the wall that he made and strode in the direction of Steve.

Steve sighed in frustration. "Nothing wants to stay down." He jumped high and backflipped over Anton before landing in a crouch. As Anton turned to try to swing his massive fist at him, Steve sent a mighty uppercut on the tyrant, knocking him right into the ceiling of the next floor, becoming stuck in the cement.

Recovering from the attack, Ivan strode in the direction of Steve, no longer caring about Wesker, which gave him the advantage, as he rushed toward Ivan, grabbing his coat and spinning with him multiple times before tossing him at Steve, who side kicked Ivan in the head, knocking him to the cement floor.

Managing to pull himself free, Anton dropped back to the floor, his sunglasses now falling away as his blank expression stared at both men with no emotion.

"These guys are intense," Steve said.

"They were Sergei's brothers, so that's not surprising," Wesker told him.

"Look alive!" Ada called out.

They both turned around finding Ada moving back through the hole with a rocket launcher over her shoulders, which she immediately fired toward Anton.

Ivan was back on his feet, running for Ada once again, but as Wesker and Steve ducked away from the rocket sailing toward Anton, they both double sphered Ivan into a wall.

Anton actually caught the rocket barehanded. He immediately squeezed his hand, trying to crush it only for the rocket to explode in his face, taking his head clean off, his body dropping.

"Idiot," Ada stated. "I thought these things were supposed to be intelligent."

Ivan grabbed hold of Wesker and Steve by the throats as they had been trying to hold him down. Getting slowly to his feet, Ivan lifted both of them into the air, his expressionless face looking at both of them one at a time.

"Hey, Ivan!" Ada yelled.

Ivan turned his head in her direction.

"Eat this!" was all Ada had to say as she fired another rocket.

Wesker and Steve kicked against Ivan's stomach, forcing him to let them go as they rolled away, the rocket sailing right into Ivan's side, exploding, completely obliterating his entire left side, his right side twitching on the floor.

Wesker got back to his feet, breathing heavily. "What a woman."

"And don't you forget it," Ada told him with a smirk.

"I'm going to handle Sergei on my own," Wesker told them as he helped Steve to his feet. "Get an Osprey ready and track me with this." He pulled a device out of his pocket and handed it to Steve. "That has my GPS signal linked to it."

"How?" Steve asked.

"A little chip I had inserted for emergencies," Wesker explained. "If I were ever captured, my allies would be able to recover me: the both of you in this case."

Steve nodded. "You sure you don't want backup?"

Wesker smirked. "Sergei's had this coming for a long time." He turned, moving off for the hole in the wall that led to a hallway. "Something I have to do alone."

Steve and Ada watched after him before looking at each other.

"You heard the man," Ada said, moving back for the hanger bay.

Steve looked back toward the departing Wesker, nodded, and then followed after Ada.

David Trapp didn't think that the massive freight elevator would ever reach its destination. His team had been blasting BOWs for what felt like an hour, but in reality, it had only been a few minutes. He didn't know where all of these creatures were coming from, but it appeared to him that they'd managed to find one of the biggest production facilities that Umbrella had.

Near to him, Rain nodded behind him. "There's the entrance. Ride's about to stop."

David turned slightly to where she'd nodded, seeing a door coming into view as the elevator slowly continued its final descent. "Everyone, nine o'clock." He moved with Rain over to the door, continuing to blast the BOWs, an Eliminator baboon getting blasted out of his way as it jumped toward him.

Leon, Carlos, John, and Kevin all moved to follow David and Rain, still fighting off the horde of enemies.

"Even Raccoon City wasn't this bad, amigos," Carlos pointed out as he ducked and rolled to the side to avoid a slash attack from a Hunter right before blasting it with many rounds from his minigun.

Leon helped him to his feet and shot a few rounds into a Chimera that moved quickly toward them, running across the wall like it was second nature.

Carlos joined him in firing at the creature, downing it after a few rounds tore into its head.

The elevator finally came to a stop as Rain pulled a security card and swiped it on the lock for the door.

"You're coming in handy," David told her.

Rain smirked. "That's why I was sent."

The door opened and David gestured for Rain to enter. "Ladies first."

"What a gentleman," Rain observed as she moved in, followed by David, the rest all filing it afterwards. Pressing several buttons on a control console nearby, Rain watched as the door closed again and locked. "That should keep them out."

David looked around the small, completely white room they were in, seeing that there were only two doors that they could go through. "Great. Which one?"

"I've always been told to keep to the right," Carlos said. He moved to the door, pressed a button, and then swept the minigun as the door slid open, reveal several zombies that instantly tried to pile in. Carlos immediately opened fire on them. "Maybe I was wrong."

John stepped to the other door and pressed the button, opening it, finding the room empty. "Nothing in here, but there's just two more doors beyond."

"It's a maze," Kevin observed.

"It's meant to give us a sense of failure," Rain said. "I'm certain both directions will eventually converge on the final location."
"Then we just split up and see which direction gets who there the fastest," David ordered. "Rain and Kevin with me. Leon and John stick with Carlos."

And so, the teams of three split off as Leon and John helped Carlos to finish off the zombies before moving onward.

Similarly, David moved with Rain and Kevin into the empty room and then chose their next door, finding Cerberus Dobermans waiting for them.

"Terrific," David said flatly.

Dr. Albert Wesker shot down Chimeras that were moving through the floor grates in the hallway. He'd been having this issue for the last five minutes, and he figured he knew exactly why. It had been these blasted BOWs that had taken him down all those months back in the boiler room of The Spencer Estate, and now he was dealing with them here. Sergei knew that it had been the Chimeras to nearly eliminate him before, so he probably figured they could do it again.

'Bastard,' Wesker thought to himself as he downed three more Chimeras with well placed bullets and spin kicks. 'I'm far beyond these pathetic monsters now.'

Rounding to the end of a corridor, Wesker came upon a large vault looking door. Moving to it, he punched in a few codes that he knew from his previous days as a researcher for Umbrella but none of the codes were working.

Finally, the door magically opened on its own, which caused Wesker to tilt his head to the side in amusement. "Sergei's watching."

"Actually, I am," a flat voiced female girl said.

"Ah, your majesty," Wesker stated. He looked into the room, seeing that it was just a small hallway with lit up walls leading to another vault like door at the other end. "You're the reason I'm currently here instead of dealing with my destiny."

"The founders are not your destiny," The Red Queen stated.

Wesker looked all around, trying to find the holographic Sherry representation of her, but he couldn't see the girl anywhere. Her voice was coming through the PA System with nothing else at all. "I'm not about to go through that door."

"Why not?" The Red Queen asked.

"Because you want me to," Wesker told her. "I heard the stories of what you did when Simon Barr first activated you." He turned to the side and the waiting hallway that he hadn't checked, moving down it. As he went, the first vault door closed, locking once more.

A door that was much bigger than the ones before finally came into view as David Trapp led Rain Ocampo and Kevin Ryman out of the last sliding door. However, from out of the other, smaller door nearby immediately came Leon Kennedy, Carlos Oliveira, and John Andrews.

"Looks like we have a tie," Carlos stated with a smirk.

"Tie, my ass," Kevin said. "David stepped through before you three."

Leon shook his head. "I see you're still just as competitive as you were in high school."

"And don't you forget it, Kennedy," Kevin said, pointing at him.

"Alright, enough," David said as he moved for the massive door, looking for the button that would lead them through.

Rain stepped over and pointed at a screen. "This requires a woman's touch." She pulled out her card and swiped it in front of the screen, but she received an error message for her trouble.

"Rain Ocampo," a flat female voice stated.

"Shit," Rain said under her breath.

"Your Umbrella credentials have been striped," the voice said.

"Who is that?" David asked.

"The Red Queen," Rain replied.

"However, Sergei Vladimir is in a giving mood, and wants you to proceed," The Red Queen said.

"She's a bit dramatic," Kevin observed.

"You have no idea," Rain told him.

The massive door finally opened outward, revealing another completely white room, but this one was humongous and circular. There were high concrete barrier shields surrounding the center of the room that looked like it could open into a shaft.

"Proceed with caution," David ordered, leading the way in.

Once they were all through, the door immediately slammed closed. They all looked back at their only escape.

"Do not worry," a Russian voice said on the PA System. "You won't need an exit where you're going, comrades."

"Sergei Vladimir," Rain sourly said.

"Greetings to you, Rain Ocampo," Sergei's voice said. "I had heard about your betrayal from Dr. Bailey."

"Who's Dr. Bailey?" David asked.

"One of Umbrella's lesser known founders," Rain replied.

"You foolish people have come a long way to meet your early grave," Sergei told them. "You will wish that you hadn't done so once you meet my ultimate weapon, and trust me, TALOS will destroy you all. For what are you, really? A Special Forces traitor. Two disgraced S.T.A.R.S. of an organization that no longer exists. A U.B.C.S. turncoat. Two failed RCPD cops. I don't see any true threat to Umbrella or anyone else here. You're all pathetic."

David clinched his empty hand tightly, the leather of the glove making a noise as he did so. He also tightened his grip around his gun with his other hand. 'Disgraced S.T.A.R.S. of an organization that no longer exists. Is that all I'm worth? Will that be what's on my tombstone? No, I can't allow that. There's more to me. I have to put aside my guilt over Karen and Steve. I have to allow myself to be more.'

"I was a hired mercenary!" Carlos exclaimed. "I didn't know what Umbrella was capable of, or I wouldn't have been part of any of it, so you can take your turncoat shit and shove it up your Russian ass!"

"The Oliveira family is well known," Sergei revealed. "I know what bloodline you come from, comrade. Your mother alone brings great fear wherever she goes. It is commendable. Perhaps once you're dead, I'll recruit her services, and we will destroy this world together."

Carlos lifted the minigun into the air and fired off rounds around the walls, screaming as he did so.

"Oliveira!" David yelled.

Carlos stopped firing.

"He's trying to make us angry," David told him. "You have to keep control. That's an order."

"A pathetic former captain giving out orders like he is deserving of being a leader?" Sergei asked with a laugh. "I honestly don't understand why Ocampo isn't leading. At least she shows bravery. I saw the recovered security footage from Caliban Cove. I know what happened to your fallen comrades."

David shook his head. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to get under my skin. I have worked a long time to forgive myself for what happened to them."

"And what of what happened to your mother?" Sergei asked.

David's mouth dropped. He didn't expect that.

"She was attacked by your own father," Sergei said.

"How the hell do you know that?" David asked.

"Umbrella's higher ups are quite good at digging up the past," Sergei explained. "It must be difficult for you, having to walk around with Jesse Trapp's name as your middle name after everything he did."

John quickly moved over to David and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't listen to him, David. It doesn't matter. None of what he says matters. We're here for a job. We get this done, and –"

"John Andrews," Sergei said. "You've grown close with young Miss Chambers, haven't you?"

John looked away from David, anger starting to build. "I'm going to make sure she doesn't ever have to meet you."

Sergei laughed. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. Once TALOS is finished with you, I'll send him after her."

An alarm sounded throughout the room.

"Playtime is sadly over," Sergei said. "I did want to play a little longer, but I have places to be."

The floor at the center of the room pulled away, revealing a massive hole.

"Die well at TALOS' hand," Sergei said. "Long live The Connections."

A massive Tyrant based creature pulled itself up through the hole. This Tyrant, however, was armored, most of its body covered with the armor, unlike all other Tyrants before it. It had a massive minigun with a long trail of bullets behind the weapon. There were a lot of tentacles flowing behind his back, and his face was concealed with a helmet. TALOS raised its weapon, barely struggling with the weight of it, and fired.

Sergei Vladimir sighed. "So, you defeated Ivan and Anton."

He had spoken to Dr. Albert Wesker, who had just strolled into the lab, the door sealing behind him. "They were child's play."

Sergei finally turned to face his foe and shook his head. "Where is the boy with the big mouth? Didn't he promise to kick my ass?"

Wesker smirked. "That task is left to me alone."

Sergei laughed. "You may have defeated the twins, but I am an entirely different weapon all together." He opened up his dress coat and instantly began an unexpected transformation, turning into a Tyrant variation, a massive tendril escaping Sergei's mouth, encapsulating itself around his body as his skin turned gray and his human exterior morphed into the monstrous creation that he'd always been underneath.

"Frankly, I'm disappointed," Wesker said. "I didn't realize that just like your siblings and conspirators, you were also changed. This is going to be easy." He pulled up two handguns and immediately commenced to firing as he moved around the circular control room, keeping his gaze locked on Sergei as this Tyrant form pursued him around the room.

"No one is allowed to escape my grasp!" Sergei called out, avoiding most of the bullets that Wesker fired at him as he continued to pursue. "My genetics were too important to Umbrella to keep me human!" He did an unexpected turn and moved around a container, grabbing hold of Wesker by the throat. "I'm sure you can relate!"

Wesker struggled against the hold and fired off round after round into Sergei's head. Finally, the Russian was forced to let him go and Wesker used that opportunity to backflip kick Sergei right in the head, knocking him back several feet.

"You've gotten old, Sergei," Wesker teased. "You should've seen that coming."

Sergei yelled in frustration and charged forward once more, receiving bullets for his trouble as Wesker moved around the room again, finally spotting the massive red tower that more than likely housed The Red Queen's main hub. He moved in that direction while still firing off rounds.

"You will not have my queen!" Sergei screamed.

Suddenly, a massive explosion broke through the wall near Sergei, sending him sailing to the far end of the room. Getting back up, his tentacles helped to stand him as they flailed all around before finally lifting him off the ground, two of the tentacles being used on the floor as legs.

The hole left from the explosion led all the way up top to the surface, and up there was an Osprey.

Sergei screamed in anger. "How dare you blow a hole in the Hive!" As if just remembering that he wasn't alone down there, Sergei turned to find where Wesker was only to see him pulling a disc out of The Red Queen's tower. "No!"

Wesker turned around, smirking once more as he fanned the disc outward. "Looks like I have your dear lady where I want her now."

Sergei's tentacles rocketed from his body, moving to attack Wesker, but he somersaulted over them, firing off rounds as he did so, before landing on his feet. He pocketed the disc in the interior pocket of his jacket and then jumped to the side as he heard more rounds being fired from the Osprey up above.

The bullets slammed forcefully into Sergei's body, sending him sailing into a wall. Finally, a rocket fired from the Osprey, moving down the shaft. Sergei moved to escape the rocket, but the explosion on the wall was enough to fling him to the floor, debris from all over the room crashing around him.

Wesker moved to the crumpled body and saluted him. "You could've been a worthy adversary, but the problem is, Sergei, I don't like to fight fair, and as such, I will always use my pawns against you." He fired multiple rounds into Sergei's head and then pulled out a pineapple grenade. "A classic weapon to ruin an old-world man." He pulled the pin, placed the grenade near him, and then moved for the hole made by the Osprey. "Fair well, comrade." He then jumped through the hole.

"Do svidaniya," Sergei weakly said as he stared at the pineapple grenade for just a moment before the explosion.

The side entrance door to the Osprey slid aside as Dr. Albert Wesker moved in. He went to the cockpit and nodded to Ada Wong, sitting in the pilot seat. "How do you feel about Italy?"

"Oh, that's romantic," Ada said. "But I don't think either of us want to complicate our business arrangement."

Sitting in the co-pilot's seat, Steve Burnside rolled his eyes. "Oh, brother."

Wesker pulled out the disc and showed it to her. "I have The Red Queen's entire program on here. She won't be able to stop me from going to see the founders now."

Ada nodded. "Then Italy awaits." She pulled up on the wheel, taking the Osprey away from Russia, thinking only briefly to herself about not liking that she was leaving Leon and his teammates behind, but she knew that he was a big boy that could take care of himself. He'd be fine.

The team of six had been moving behind one concrete barricade after the next each time that TALOS fired at them, but this strategy was getting old. They couldn't pierce the armor. There was no way they'd be able to beat this thing like this. That was when the explosion occurred, a higher up room seemingly being blown on the other end of the test floor they were in.

Debris crashed all around, but the important thing was the amount that crashed on TALOS, seemingly crushing him. However, moments later, TALOS blasted his way out of the debris, causing it to fly everywhere, the six people moving back behind the nearest concrete barricade. TALOS' armor was now falling away, revealing the exposed creature underneath, but it barely had legs without the armor. Its arms, however, were now unhindered, and as such, they could stretch, reaching up to the ceiling, grabbing hold of conduits to use for support.

Then, the unexpected happened, and laser beams shot out of TALOS' eyes, moving directly toward the concrete barricade they were all behind.

"I don't like the look of that," Leon said.

"That's going to go right through the barricade like butter!" Rain yelled. "We have to move!"

She was right as the lasers split the concrete barricade down the center, knocking it in two different directions as the six people scattered.

"It doesn't have armor anymore!" Carlos exclaimed. "We can take it now! Just watch out for the lasers!"

"Yeah, no shit!" Kevin exclaimed as he sidestepped one laser only to have to roll away from another one. It was absolute madness. Finally, he got pulled to the side by Leon and the both of them blasted their weapons at TALOS' arms, knocking the creature free from its grip above.

Once it fell to the ground, crashing hard, the team of six all moved in, firing rounds into the head and exposed heart of the creature. Its tentacles thrashed around, trying to stop them, but they simply shot at the tentacles before returning to their onslaught. Finally, a few moments later, TALOS was barely recognizable and no longer moving.

"So much for your ultimate weapon, comrade," David stated before spitting on TALOS' crumpled body. He looked to Rain. "You think you can activate this facility's self-destruct system? We don't need anyone stumbling upon the BOWs that are still roaming around."

Rain nodded. "I believe so." She pointed up to the room that was destroyed. "Assuming I can get up there and the controls aren't ruined."

David ejected a spent clip and slammed in another one. "Works for me. Let's make this quick and get out of here. The others may need us in Italy."

As everyone followed after David, John moved to be in step with him. "Are you alright?"

"Couldn't be better," David lied.

"Yeah, I know better," John said.

David barely glanced at him before moving to the wall, looking for a new way out of the testing grid that they were stuck in. "Whatever you're going to say, John, just say it."

"Well, I didn't realize that your middle name was Jesse," John said. "And I've known you for a long time. If Umbrella knew about your parents, which I also didn't know, there's no telling what else they know about both of us. About everyone. People that we love and care for are in danger. Family, friends, hell, even acquaintances."

"Well, you'll have to worry about that," David said. "I don't have anyone left outside of the team."

"What about your mom?" John asked.

David sighed. "She passed away three years ago, but we'll have to take care of this situation after Italy."

"Found a way!" Rain called out from the other end of the testing grid as she moved through a passage that she'd opened from a hidden panel. Russia's Hive would be gone soon.