My great thanks to HighFlyingWings, who kindly chose to use some of his free time to be my beta reader!
The Hunter's Dream.
I looked with interest at the images showing the current training simulation in Yharnam.
After welcoming HUNK within ISIS and getting him fully integrated into the army, I had finally made a decision to expand the ranks of my Hunters once more.
Both HUNK and the Earth version of Summer Rose have thus been presented with the offer of becoming Hunters of the Dream… and they accepted.
While the inclusion of the Earth version of Summer Rose came as no surprise to the others, it had been a long time coming after all, the same couldn't be said of HUNK.
Around me, my current group of Hunters watched alongside me as both Hunters in training cut their way through Yharnam's beasts, and I could see and feel a certain hesitation from a few of them when they glanced at HUNK.
The man was, after all, the most infamous former agent of the USS, the army of Umbrella.
A certain amount of hesitation was to be expected over him joining with the group.
The man's professionalism both helped and made things worse. On the one hand, he was always polite and straight to the point, the perfect soldier through and through.
On the other hand, that was a problem. The group of Hunters had been until now firm friends, with everyone easily getting along with one another. They all respected each other and easily found common ground.
That wasn't the case with HUNK.
Of course, it was easy enough for me to smooth things over. Pointing out our acceptance of Ada Wong as an ally helped, since there was a precedent already for a situation where a former enemy became an ally.
That and some good old Charisma and logical arguments on my part helped soothe the worst of the backlash off.
And I could easily see that, by the looks on everyone's faces, no one could argue that HUNK had the skills to be here.
"What do you all think?" I asked, even knowing the answer already. Still, it was good to have it said aloud.
My current Hunters glanced at each other.
I had many reasons to bring HUNK into the fold, and one of them was preparing everyone for future wide-scale recruitment of new Hunters. Some of whom might not have personalities that mesh well with everyone gathered here, no matter how skilled and loyal the new recruits may be.
So their current reactions to HUNK and how to handle it the best was a good way for me to set up the groundwork for future expansions of the Hunters' ranks.
"He's skilled." finally said Chris, his eyes on HUNK, seeing him easily cut through everything in his way with a level of skill worthy of praise… Even by my standards. "Very skilled. More skilled than any of us were when we first joined you."
"Correct, though that is understandable." I calmly replied. "He's got more experience, both in battles in general, but also with superhuman abilities. None of you had Aura, for example."
"True. Even so… If he was back at Remnant, he'd be without a doubt one of the best Huntsmen in the world… and that is before he became a Hunter of the Dream and got your Blood, Aeon." said Summer Rose, Remnant version, her silver eyes watching carefully between both trainee at their work.
"Agreed." Said Jill, frowning slightly. "I know you told me he was one of, if not the best soldier in the world Aeon, but… Seeing is believing."
There was a moment of silence, as we watched HUNK easily slaughter a Cleric Beast without taking a single hit on his Aura.
He wasn't on the level of the truly great of Bloodborne, not yet. Still, he was learning everything I could teach him with impressive speed, and what few things gave him trouble, he fixed through a level of sheer dedication to training and mastering all he was learning that reminded me of myself during the Long Night of the Hunt.
I easily recognized the drive to not simply be great, but the greatest, and the man was a true natural in all manners of combat.
Magic was slower, but not by much. Sheer dedication and an unbreakable mental fortitude allowed him to learn quickly there as well.
Time, of course, was still required for him to learn everything that I could teach him… But as an example, he had already mastered the equivalent spell for a personal (Inventory) in a remarkable quick amount of time.
For the time being, he was focusing his efforts on Healing magic and a few Elemental ones. Fire, Water, Earth and Air.
His logic had been that Healing Magic would be useful in keeping him and others alive to better guarantee the success of any mission, and the four base elements could help him in a number of ways.
Fire was always useful against B.O.W's, Beasts and more. Water would allow easier infiltration missions like the ones against Alex Wesker. It would also grant greater tactical flexibility and opportunities whenever a mission would happen while it rains.
Earth would allow him to manipulate the very ground under his feet… or his enemies'. And Air… Well, the tactical freedom and opportunities available once he learns to fly were obvious.
With him spreading his lessons in so many directions, his progress wasn't as fast as if he had focused more… But he was learning, and we had a few years before the next crisis.
All in all, The Grim Reaper was going to prove his name was one well-deserved sooner rather than later. And once his current batch of lessons are over, he will no doubt seek to learn even more…
"And you are certain of his loyalty?" questioned Chris.
"Absolutely." I replied without hesitation. "The moment he swore to work for me, he was ready to die his final death in my name. That is how he works. Say what you will of the man, he is loyal to a fault once he makes a decision."
Chris and the others fell silent, continuing to watch him work, before Rebecca let out a sigh.
"Well, we trust Ada with Leon, we trust the Wolf Pack to remain as our allies, we trust Alex Mercer to not go crazy… I suppose that, if you're certain he is loyal, we can trust him as well."
I smiled. I knew the people gathered here all had their fair share of issues with anything connected to Umbrella, but I was glad that they were willing to try and trust those who could work for the "Good Guys" despite a… complicated past.
Second chances weren't my thing per se, but I was always one to take opportunities whenever I could find or create them, and this was one such.
"Thank you." I replied, heartfelt, and there were several smiles at my words. They trusted me to lead them well, and I was glad to have earned that trust.
"And for our dear Summer?" I continued, my eyes going to the other Hunter in training.
Much like HUNK, she was doing quite well for herself, slaughtering everything foolish enough to get in her path.
To be fair, she had been preparing for this for years now. At this point, magical training was what truly was required to get her up to the level of the other Hunters and little else.
"Doing quite well." said the Remnant version, her silver eyes proud as she watched her "twin" continue her bloody work against the beasts and madmen of Yharnam. "She's been looking forward to this for years. I don't think I need to tell anyone here how delighted she was when you finally made her a proper Huntress, Aeon."
There were several chuckles at the memory. Earth! Summer was more professional in her demeanor than her Remnant twin, as a result of a life spent in the military, but her reaction to me finally bringing her in as a Hunter of the Dream had been memorable.
Needless to say, she certainly lacked nothing for motivation for her training either.
Having HUNK train at the same time had surprised her, but if anything his drive to excel only pushed her harder to do so as well.
Also, my own skill in social interaction ensured that no, she didn't think that the only reason I invited her was because of HUNK joining as well. I actually made the offer to Summer first, and only some time later invited HUNK and any doubt that she may have had I quickly squashed.
She earned this, a fact I made very clear.
Either way, with her already knowing how to use Hunter weapons and styles, we were able to focus on magic.
She didn't have Silver Eyes…
But she had her own thoughts and ideas on how to get something equivalent.
She hadn't broached the subject yet, but I knew… It was only a matter of time.
I was looking forward to it.
She would be the first to actually focus on calling upon my powers as her God, after all.
For now, she was busy learning magic, healing and otherwise, and had even mentioned wanting to learn about Magic Runes. Eldritch Runes.
The only other one who had mentioned an interest in that was Rebecca, though it was more of a secondary project for her.
Sherry, of course, had received a full-course education on the matter, but she was my daughter, I had more of a say in her education by nature. Sure, none of my Hunters would have refused if I had declared that I wanted them to master Eldritch Runes, but I understood that everybody simply didn't have the drive, or desire, to learn everything there is to know about… everything.
Still… I was looking forward to essentially getting my first true Paladin equivalent.
While my other Hunters were skilled Hunters, they were more friends and subordinates than actual believers in me as a god. Faith was not something they really thought about much. They knew that gods existed, but calling upon my powers was just not something they instinctively thought of doing.
Earth!Summer, on the other hand, was a believer. She saw me as a god, as something inherently greater than her, no matter how much she also considered me a friend… Or perhaps something more.
The only reason that she didn't go around shouting my name while smiting evil was because she knew I wanted to keep a low profile… But otherwise, she'd loudly and proudly declare herself a faithful of mine.
Well, she'd be embarrassed at first, but soon enough she'd do so without shame or hesitation.
Which makes her more… lustful thoughts towards me as a potential source of complications, if I hadn't already made it clear that I most definitely didn't mind such things.
The several lovers I had around me very much made my stance on such things clear, after all.
But of course, she didn't dare make the first step. For all her confidence, that was one thing she simply couldn't quite muster the will to do, partially made worse by the fact that I always made my interest in the women I was interested in taking as lovers pretty clear in the past.
So she pushed herself all the harder now, a part of her hoping that, by becoming a Hunter of the Dream, she would become more worthy of me.
Foolish, I cared not about such things, after all compared to me a Hunter was not that much greater than a common mortal, but…
I glanced at the Remnant version of Summer.
She wasn't the only one with feelings for me. I had thought about welcoming the Earth version of Summer's advances, but that would have driven a wedge between both Summers. The Remnant twin of the two simply wasn't ready to make her choice yet, but seeing her twin go for it would make things… complicated.
Ah, matters of the heart. Truly, they could be such a mess…
Either way, that was a minefield I would prefer both to solve on their own. I could intervene easily of course, could easily get the twins in my bed with a single day of work if I tried…
But I didn't want to go for it like that. The Earth version needed to grow in confidence where I was concerned, or she would too quickly become more subservient than I'd like her to be. If I made the first move, Earth! Summer would submit to me with the relief of someone putting their life in the hands of another. I would take and claim her, plain and simple, rather than her choosing to give herself to me.
A small, but oh so important distinction. True, she would be happy either way… But she would respect herself a lot more in the future if she proves herself bold enough to take the first step on this one.
As for Remnant! Summer, her situation was obviously a lot more complicated, stuck between her past and the far future where home awaited, and the bonds made in the present.
Remnant believed her dead, of that there was no doubt. Was it wrong, then, to follow what her heart ached for right now? To be with a man that made her happy, here and now?
The fact that she was surrounded by several women in a happy relationship with me really didn't help. She could see herself being happy as well, could all but grasp that happiness…
But she still hesitated. I could give her the push necessary to make her choice one way or another, but I didn't think it would be right to do so. Free Will, as always, was something I cherished. For all that it was mine to manipulate if I ever desired, there was a difference between "can do" and "should do".
So, I would wait. If she wanted to embrace the present, that was her right. If not, then I would, as promised, ensure she would get back to those she loved.
And really, what was a few more years to wait? I had eternity before me.
… Though I had to admit… Twins.
The selfish part of me definitely knew what the preferred outcome was for me personally, I couldn't help but think in amusement at my own humanity.
Ah, what greedy beings we were, Humanity…
And no, Oedon and Lucy creating clones of themselves for nights of wild sex didn't count. No matter how enjoyable those nights were.
"It's about time, really. She could have joined us sooner." said Claire, looking approvingly as Earth! Summer fought Darkbeast Paarl.
"Maybe, but at least this way she truly feels like she earned this." I calmly replied. And considering that I was trying to boost her confidence where I was concerned, making her feel proud of her own hard work was one angle I was eager to follow through on.
Too much pride was a deadly mistake, but not enough could be just as bad.
Still, both of them had a few years to train, so I wasn't concerned. Especially when they wouldn't be able to make use of their powers in full without revealing the truth of magic to the world, so really what truly mattered was their martial skills, above all else.
I nodded in satisfaction when Earth! Summer decapitated Darkbeast Paarl. Yes, they would be fine additions to my growing number of Hunters.
Honestly, at this point this was downright overkill compared to the remaining threats of this world.
But of course, those weren't what I was actually worried about these days…
-
December, 2012. ISIS HQ.
"Thank you all for coming. We've got some important information to go over, so it needed to be done here, away from anyone learning of what we're about to discuss."
Across me, the sitting forms of all of my Hunters, along with Leon and Ada, either nodded or looked at me curiously. It has been some time since the last meeting requiring most of the people present to be here, and meetings requiring Ada Wong to be present were even more rare, since we usually let Leon be the one to inform her of developments.
Still, considering the topics of discussions today, this was most definitely needed.
I looked at the red-clad woman, who raised an eyebrow in return. We were on friendly terms these days, but there was a difference between being friendly and being friends.
I grinned at her. "The topic of today, of all things, just so happens to be your evil twin, Ada."
There was a moment of pure silence, as everybody just stared at me in incomprehension.
Then Leon turned to look at Ada, raising an eyebrow at her. "Anything you'd like to get off your chest, Ada? Because I don't remember you ever telling me you had an… evil twin."
"I would have told you of such if I had such. But I can assure you Leon, I'm an only child as far as I know." she replied, voice dry as the desert while staring at me.
Claire sighed. "Aeon, if you called upon us all just to prank us-"
I interrupted her by pressing a button and starting a video showing behind me, face suddenly deadly serious.
"Watch."
The expressions of everyone present changed when they saw a woman looking perfectly like Ada but wearing blue clothes with a red scarf infiltrate a school in Asia and help bring about a zombie outbreak.
Chris' eyes widened in recognition, considering he along with some BSAA soldiers had to go there to contain the whole thing.
"This happened a month ago. However, this is not the only place this blue-clad version of Ada was seen in. Europe, America, Africa, and most often in Asia. She's been seen all over the world, always involved with various B.O.W. research incidents or outbreaks."
The Ada in the room was looking at the videos and pictures with a blank look on her face, though I could feel the storm of emotions inside of her as she discovered that no, I wasn't joking about any of this.
Leon had frozen at first, staring hard at the videos, before he frowned deeply, glancing between both Ada with a confused, lost look on his face.
The others present were visibly no better, though as always HUNK remained the picture perfect of professionalism and thus spoke first.
"Cloning? Or something else?" he simply asked.
"ISIS is still looking into the whole thing, but we know a few things. One, the person at the center of this-" I waved towards a frozen picture of the blue-clad Ada Wong "-is Derek Simmons. The head of the Family. From what we found out, he used one of his greatest scientist and used her work to create his own, perfectly loyal Ada Wong when the real deal told him to go fuck himself around a decade and a half ago."
Everyone paused, then looked at Ada.
Said woman stared at the picture on the screen, before dryly saying "Obviously, it was the right choice. Simmons was never my type anyway."
Leon snorted. "So your ex cloned you and now you've got an evil twin causing chaos across the world. Well, it's been a while since the last craziness really involved us both, I suppose that it was inevitable that something would happen eventually."
Ada smirked. "Don't worry Leon, you're a lot cuter than Simmons could ever be. Though now I'm worried I'll have to chase off my clone from you, because the moment she sees your pretty face she might decide to just take you for herself…"
Leon blinked. "Thanks, I think?"
She grinned and kissed him on the cheek. "You're welcome." she said with an amused grin.
Despite her words, I could tell she definitely wanted to talk to her other self. That being said, there was something I needed to clear up…
"Just so you all know, she's not a clone." I declared, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. "As far as we can tell, Simmons tricked one of his scientists into undergoing a procedure that just… rewrote her body and mind."
But not her soul, which was causing all kinds of problems…
I saw everyone's faces harden, as they understood the implications that Simmons literally created his own Ada Wong at the cost of crushing the life of someone working for him.
"Unfortunately, it's not perfect, and the consequences are grim. The new Ada really believes herself to be you, but it won't last forever, and her mental state will continue to degrade. Simmons seeks to control the world… This Ada is already working on destroying it, instead. In the end, if I am telling you all of this, it's because she is in charge of a new organization: Neo-Umbrella."
"Neo-Umbrella?!" exclaimed Claire, and there were quite a few surprised or scowling faces at the name.
Even HUNK shifted slightly, which was the equivalent of a gasp of surprise for him.
I nodded. "An organization dedicated to destroying the world, with the false Ada Wong in charge of it. Needless to say, the shadows of the past cannot be allowed to destroy the future of the world, so our goal will be to destroy them utterly. They are arguably worse than the original, because this new version is dedicated to only destroying the world, and nothing else."
"Not on our watch." growled Chris, earning him quite a few agreeing nods. A few looks were thrown HUNK's way, but the man merely nodded at my words.
Then everyone looked at Ada, since it was her double that was threatening the world.
The red-clad Ada Wong stared at me for a long moment, then at the pictures on the screen.
"How certain are you that she wants to destroy the world?"
"ISIS found hints that she is creating some kind of super B.O.W. meant to infect the entire world." I dryly replied.
"I see. Very well, send me everything you have on her, I'll take care of her myself."
There were a few looks thrown her way, including from Leon, but she merely smiled. "This is my evil twin. The least I can do is investigate and confront her myself."
I could tell a part of her was sympathetic to her other self… but only up to a point. Destroying the world, or at least trying to, was far beyond anything Ada was willing to tolerate.
"Alright, then, let's get to planning in more details, ISIS's sources indicate that things are going to heat up over the months to come, and-"
The meeting went on for a while, but ultimately everyone was brought up to speed about the two Ada Wong, Neo-Umbrella, and more.
At least in this timeline Leon wasn't going to be incredibly confused about the various Adas running around.
And hopefully, Chris wouldn't have to go through everything he had to deal with in the game.
Still, I couldn't help but smile in anticipation.
Deal with Neo-Umbrella and its leader, deal with Simmons, and the world would officially be safe. Sure, some small-time organizations still needed to be dealt with, but that was going to be clean-up work.
Though… There was the matter of China. Its leadership, which has always been interested in making B.O.W's of their own, has been heavily infiltrated by Neo-Umbrella, allowing them to act essentially freely in the country, and that was going to require some actions on my part… Unless…
Ah. Yes, that could work.
Well, I suppose that turnabout is fair play.
And it would certainly help guarantee peace in the world…
I sighed. Well, I already controlled most of the world's governments at this point, might as well keep going.
Does it count as a coup if your enemy does it and you're the one who gets to profit from it?
Well either way, time to get China under my control. If nothing else, the sheer number of people they have would make for good colonists once space exploration fully takes off…
Ah well. I was going to have to think about my long-term plans for this world, considering I pretty much owned it at this point.
The worst part was I didn't even really try, I was just trying to stop everybody else from controlling it!
Figures that I would accidentally take over the Earth… while trying to deal with every idiot trying to destroy it!
I scowled towards the sky. "And you can stop laughing, you smug asshole!"
Freaking smug True Self who saw this coming from the start… Hugh.
-
24th December 2012, Edonia, Eastern Europe.
Sherry Birkin ran through the base of Edonian rebels, seeking the one man she was here to rescue.
After passing through another corridor, she finally saw him, standing over the corpse of one of the mutated rebels who had obviously taken the infected drug he, like so many others, had been given.
"Did you take your dose?" she asked though she could feel that he had done so, considering what she felt from his blood.
Jake Muller raised an eyebrow at her, his eyes narrowing slightly as he immediately suspected that she wasn't with the rest of the rebels. Despite that, he made no threatening movements.
"Yeah, but if you want your own hit, you gotta sign up with the lady downstairs." he calmly replied.
She checked the time, pursing her lips, but quickly confirmed what her senses told her: as expected, he had the antibodies.
Not that she expected any differently.
She had already foreseen quite a bit of this tale as it played out across the dimensions.
They paused when the dead body of the infected man began burning to ash, Jake's eyes narrowing at the sight.
"Wouldn't recommend it, though."
She looked up at him. "No question, you've got the antibodies."
She quickly went to a nearby garbage chute, opening it while Jake sarcastically replied "Thank you very much."
Then he paused and stepped closer to her. "Wait, what?"
She glanced at him. "Long story short? You could be the key to saving this world, Jake Muller."
The man blinked, before they both turned at the second of a number of infected rebels coming closer.
They really needed to get away from this base. Every rebel was probably infected by now.
Muller glanced back at her. "Better save myself first." he declared, before jumping into the open garbage chute.
She took out a plasma gun and fired at the first infected when he entered the room right in the legs, causing him to fall flat on his face while the others tripped on his body and fell as well.
Then she went into the garbage chute as well. Time to get out of here.
She ignored the blue-clad woman hiding nearby. Her time would come, but she wasn't the one meant to kill her.
She easily came out of the garbage chute without issue. In this life, something like this was no trouble at all.
Compared to what her dad considered good training, well, there certainly were a few less deadly threats to worry about.
Or, for that matter, blatant breaking of reality going on.
Not having to worry about the sudden shift in gravity while hundreds of spells were sent her way was really nice.
Muller glanced at her when she arrived, raising an eyebrow at her.
Time for introductions, then.
"I'm Sherry Mu-"
"Yeah yeah yeah, good for you, whoever you are, but now is not the time." he shushed her, before walking towards the nearest exit of the filthy room they were in. "You comin'?" he asked, asking more if she was going to follow him around or not.
She waved at him. "After you." she shrugged with a wry smirk.
As they walked away from the garbage room, Sherry decided to give him some info over the entire situation.
"These things were J'avo, they're the B.O.W's the insurgents are using."
"That explains why there's a shitload of BSAA and even ISIS troops involved here." mused Muller.
She smirked. If he had let her finish her introduction, he most likely would have known who she was when it came to ISIS… But he hadn't.
Either way…
"We need to get you out of the country without getting involved in the battles outside if possible. I've got a transport at the ready for when we've got an extraction zone secure."
"Good to know you came prepared." he said, while they got up a ladder and at ground level of the city they were in.
Or rather, the battlefield they were in, as the broken roof of the corridor they were in let them hear the sounds of explosions, lasers, and plasma weapons and the dying screams of the ones fighting.
Both Sherry and Muller kept their heads down as B.O.W's and BSAA forces outside tore into one another, going to the end of the corridor, glancing at each other for a second before they broke through the door outside, and Sherry took point as they ran through shattered buildings.
And it didn't take long before Muller had to duck under cover because of a few stray shots being sent towards him.
"Goddam BSAA! What the hell are they shooting at?!"
She gave him a look. "Everyone in your platoon just turned into a B.O.W! And you're dressed just like them."
She shook her head, and brought up her radio. "BSAA High Command, I've got the VIP. Please avoid shooting at him, even if he wears the rebels' uniform!"
"Copy that, we'll relay that to the troops on the ground."
"Just like that?" said Muller, visibly surprised.
Sherry ignored him and changed her frequency.
"ISIS Command, I have the VIP. Ready the transport, it might be a hot LZ."
"Copy that."
"ISIS too? Wow, either I'm more popular than I thought, or you are." Muller muttered.
"Let's just say that I've got a lot of authority and let's leave it at that for now." she told him, while carefully going through broken buildings and bombed out streets.
He glanced at her curiously.
"So I see."
They fell silent, simply focusing on carefully going through the battlefield, while all around them B.O.W's and BSAA soldiers clashed.
The fact that the B.O.W's were capable of using weapons and tactics made them fierce foes, though thankfully they were a lot less well-equipped than the BSAA.
Still, the BSAA was definitely going to pay a price in blood to cleanse this city.
"Man, look at this circus…" Muller smirked. "Got any popcorn?"
She grunted and glared at him. "Stop gawking and get a move on." she told him bluntly, seeing him pausing at a window overlooking a vicious firefight between B.O.W's and BSAA troopers. "We don't want you in the middle of this mess any longer than necessary."
Muller rolled his eyes at her but followed, so they kept going, avoiding as much of the fighting as they could. She would have liked to be able to help the BSAA… but this was more important.
Thankfully, they made good time after that, even if she had to kill a pilot of a helicopter from the rebels in order to avoid being sent a missile to the face.
Sure, she'd live, but Muller would have had a lot of questions.
Pausing for a moment in a building still mostly intact, Muller turned to look at her.
"So, BSAA or ISIS? Or something else?" he inquired, referring to her allegiance.
"ISIS." she replied, keeping an eye on the fighting outside through a window.
"Oh, nice. The boy scout band themselves! All right, first things first." He glanced outside as well, before glancing at her. "I want 200,000 up front, and another 200,000 when this is over."
He raised a finger. "Oh, and B.O.W's? Those are worth extra. An additional grand. Each."
She rolled her eyes while walking closer.
"I'm actually not here to hire you. ISIS is more than capable of winning the fight by themselves. Same with the BSAA."
"What?" he asked, blinking and frowning at her in confusion, the discussion visibly not going the way he expected it to go.
His eyes narrowed, and a certain edge entered his voice. "Why are you here, then?"
"Your blood." she calmly replied.
He blinked, snorted, and looked back outside.
"What, you're working with the Red Cross now or something?"
She shook her head. "No, those B.O.W's that attacked us, they were all exposed to a new virus, the C-Virus." she explained, even as Muller visibly listened with only one ear, having decided that she wasn't as important as he first thought.
Time to break that mistaken belief.
"The same strain that you just took a dose of."
His head whipped to the side to look at her, suddenly far more alert, and she nodded at him.
"It didn't affect you because you've got the antibodies." Muller grimaced, his right hand going to his neck, where she had caught a mark of a syringe, no doubt the dose of the virus he took.
"Right now, we're racing against a global bioterrorist attack, and we need a vaccine yesterday." she passionately declared, reality breaking slightly in her vision to show her a world on fire as Humanity fell to the hordes of monsters seeking to consume and infect all things.
"We need you, Jack." she said softly, but firmly, and she could see him think deeply over everything. "We need your blood."
Muller pursed his lips as he slowly walked around the room before pausing before the nearest window, eyes narrowed and his right hand stroking his chin in thought.
Then he spoke up, voice firm. "50 million dollars."
She blinked. "Cash. Non-negotiable." he specified after a second. He raised a single finger towards her. "That'll get you… one pint." he decided.
She sighed. Jack Muller was exactly as mercenary as she foresaw him to be.
Of course, for Insight Corp., even that much money was a drop of water in the middle of the sea, so if need be, it wouldn't be a problem.
"I'll talk to my superiors once you're safe, then." she replied.
"You do that."
He turned and she took the lead once more, as they kept going through the mountainous area towards where they could call on their transport.
More B.O.W's began shouting further ahead, and Sherry pursed her lips. "I think they know that you aren't with them any longer." she remarked dryly.
"Then we're going to just shoot our way out." uncaringly replied Muller.
Passing through buildings hanging from the mountain cliffs, that Sherry refused to believe were in any way, shape or form safe, they killed their way through all opposition standing in their way.
Sherry held back, choosing instead to let Muller fight and observe him as he did.
He was good, of that there was no doubt. A true natural at fighting and killing, as expected considering who his father was.
And what kind of lifestyle he had chosen.
He was, however, not as good as an ISIS soldier, and utterly outmatched by any Hunter. For all his skill, he was still not trained by the best, or used to fight overwhelming odds like ISIS soldiers had to.
Still, he wasn't bad by regular human standards, she'll give him that much.
They had to work together to progress, as the whole place was falling apart and she didn't want to use any of her powers, but they still made progress at a good pace.
As they looked at the burning city from the vantage points offered to them, Sherry couldn't help but notice the various explosions happening all over the place.
"Looks like the BSAA have got their work cut out for them."
"You don't know half of it. Last I heard, my former employer had at least one tank parked on the other side of the river."
He pointed at a bridge linking the two separate pieces of the city in the mountains together.
"The only way that the BSAA is leaving that bridge again is through a bodybag."
She smiled. "No, you're wrong. They're more resilient and resourceful than you can imagine."
He glanced at her, before walking away. "We'll see. None of my concern now, anyway."
She sent one last look at the battlefield, before following after him.
Working together, they kept going through the damaged buildings, both of them easily killing all enemies that stood in their way. The one moment they had to separate, she simply waved her hands at the infected rebels trying to kill her while she was alone, and they all flew back with every single one of their bones turned to crushed powder.
She calmly walked over their disintegrating corpses without a second look. Though she had to admit, it was really convenient that the C-Virus caused those infected who died to disintegrate the bodies. Sure, it made finding samples of the C-Virus more difficult to obtain, but it also made it so much easier for the clean-up crews…
She reunited with Muller, giving him a nod, before they left the tunnels to go back into the war-torn city. They were immediately fired upon by the rebels, who quickly recognized them as non-infected, forcing them to run through the nearby sewers to avoid being set upon by the infected rebels. Sure, she could take them all, but this was an escort mission, not an extermination one, there was no need to get Muller into any more fights than absolutely necessary.
"What do you think? Fight or Flight?" Muller asked.
"There's too many of them, it's not worth the trouble. Let's sneak around instead." she replied.
"Fine by me!"
And thus they went, ducking under laser shots along the way.
When they entered the sewers canals, Sherry paused, focusing on which paths along the two they had before them they should take-
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
-she winced. That was a lot of pain and terror before whoever that was died.
Muller turned towards the passage where the scream came from, raising his gun, only for a squad of infected to come out, paused at the sight of them, and opened fire.
"Let's go! It's a waste of time to kill them, and whatever killed that guy has to still be around and capable of hearing the gunfire!"
"No shit!" agreed Muller, before they ran into the other passage.
Soon enough, they came out of the sewers and into open air canals, only to pause when the dying screams of the infected rebels reached them.
Both Muller and her turned, only for them to see a massive B.O.W. brutally crush the body of one of the rebels under his right foot.
Muller tried to shoot it, but it raised its mechanical arm and easily blocked the shots.
Sherry pursed her lips, but decided that fighting the Ustanak in enclosed space was a bad idea. Sure, she could do it, but not without using supernatural abilities right in front of Muller.
Though she had no intention of letting that thing live as long as it did in other timelines. She just needed to go to a better place to kill it.
"Run!" she ordered, before doing as she ordered.
Muller hesitated, but quickly did as he was told, and seconds later, the Ustanak was running behind them as fast as it could to catch up to them.
Then Muller turned and fired at a group of explosive gas canisters he had spotted. "Eat this!"
*KA-BOOOOOM!*
Sherry grimaced as the sounds of the explosion reached her, before she glanced at Muller with a scowl. "Thanks for the warning. Now come on, let's go before it recovers from your little distraction."
"You think that thing is still alive?" he questioned, sounding doubtful.
She pointed at the entrance of the sewers.
Ustanak stood up, glared at Muller, then roared in rage, looking no worse for wear at all.
Muller stared at it, raised a finger, then nodded. "Ok, we go with your plan."
And then they both ran like hell.
Ustanak followed, running through every obstacle in the way. Fallen masonry from the surrounding buildings, various bits and ends blocking the way and more were casually flung aside like so much worthless trash, and Sherry was somewhat reminded of Yharnamite beasts and their strength combined with their single-minded desire to kill.
Of course, she knew that it was no mindless beast. Ustanak was a thinking creature, and all the more dangerous.
"Son of a bitch, it's strong!" roared Muller as he watched him bat away a rock bigger than a human being without even slowing down.
"Then keep running!" she shouted back.
They came closer to an intersection, and quickly ran towards the right, Ustanak's massive bulk causing it to slam into the wall instead, outright shattering it and embedding himself within it from his weight, before he kept on charging after them without so much as a scratch to show for what just happened.
Muller's eyes widened as he saw that the end of the passage they were in led directly above a bunch of buildings, and he growled. "Here goes nothing…"
They both jumped, Sherry managing to take hold of a rope from a nearby scaffolding and Muller crashing on top of said scaffolding instead.
"There! The window!" she shouted, pointing at said window into a nearby warehouse, before she used the rope to jump through said window.
Muller's eyes narrowed, and he jumped right through the window a second before Ustanak slammed into the building, growling angrily as the stone walls of the warehouse they were in refused to break quickly under its weight.
"Come on!" she shouted, running deeper into the building, Muller right behind her.
"What the hell is that thing?!" Muller shouted.
"A B.O.W. tracking us! Well, you, apparently." she replied, knowing enough of what was going to know exactly why the Ustanak was after them… Or Muller, rather.
"Yeah, but why?!"
"At a guess? The one who sold the C-virus samples knows that you didn't change and want you dead or as a lab rat!"
"Oh for- Fucking hell! What's with everyone wanting me for my blood today?!"
"You're a mercenary, people wanting to shed your blood is normal for you!"
"Yeah, but usually they don't want it so literally!"
"Well, it's a constantly changing world we all live in!" she replied. More than you can imagine too, she thought to herself with amusement.
She was mildly sympathetic, though. She knew a thing or two herself about people wanting you for your blood, after all. Still, he didn't need to worry, he had her to protect him.
And there were very, very few beings more dangerous than she was in this universe.
They kept running through the corridors of the warehouse, until they entered the main hall of it. Their gaze immediately fell on the doors on the other side, and she pointed at them. "Look! We can leave through here."
"Then come on, let's go, I really don't want another close-quarter encounter with that big freak out there."
She held herself back from pointing out he just jinxed it. He'd find out soon enough.
As they moved, the whole building shuddered and parts of the roof crumbled, and Muller scowled.
"This place looks like it's gonna collapse too. Somebody outta call the building inspector." Muller declared, his accent thickening.
She snorted. "It's even colder in here than outside." she remarked. Not that the cold bothered her any, but still, just how bad was the state of the building?
They both stepped foot on the first floor of the main hall, only for the building to shake and a number of rebels to come down via ropes from the collapsed rooftop.
Sherry scowled and shot dead every infected rebel, earning a blink and a look from Muller as he watched her casually kill every wave of infected coming down, their bodies disintegrating mid-air after they were shot dead while still going down the ropes.
"Reminds me to not piss you off." he drily commented while watching her coldly execute every infected.
"Wise of you." she joked before the flow of rebels finally dried out.
They calmly walked towards the exit-
*CCCCCCCRRRRRAAAAAAASSSSSSSHHHHHHH!*
-and then, as she had foreseen, Ustanak showed up by breaking through the rooftops and slamming down on the ground.
"I don't think he's too keen on seeing us leave!" shouted Muller, his gun coming up.
"I don't think I care!" she replied, stepping forwards. "Give me five minutes, I'll handle this now that I have the room to fight."
Considering the size of the main hall of the warehouse, she could dodge its attacks without issue.
"You're going to fight that thing?! With what-"
Muller paused at the sight of her drawing out her own version of the Holy Moonlight Sword from the scabbard at her back.
Sure, it wasn't glowing or anything since she wasn't flooding it with the Arcane, but even a man with no experience with swords can recognize that it wasn't a standard sword she was holding.
"I'll handle this. Just give me some covering fire when you can." she calmly replied, Ustanak pausing only a moment at the sight of her new weapon before he went charging at her.
"Sherry!" Muller shouted, a measure of shock and fear in his voice as he saw her charge the tall B.O.W, but she didn't focus on that. Instead, her senses expanded, and suddenly she could see every single twitch of Ustanak's muscles. She could see exactly where it was looking at, could tell where it was going to move and when was the moment it began to move.
Its right, mechanical hand shot forward, trying to grab her, but she easily slid underneath, her blade going up above her head, the supernatural metal of her sword cutting through part of his mechanical hands like a knife through butter.
Ustanak reacted near-instantly, turning to try and punch her with its other hand, but she shifted her body on the left, its hand going a hairbreadth away from her body before she lunged forward, her blade seeking and successfully cutting deeply inside of its leg.
It growled, its left arm and the remains of its mechanical hand trying to crush her body to a bloody pulp, but she quickly rolled underneath the strike and cut at its right ankle, Ustanak stumbling slightly from the wound.
She pounced on this weakness, her blade pointed straight towards its left knee from behind, plunging deep into its limb and making it collapse to one knee as a result.
Its left arm cut through the air like a battering ram, but she saw the muscles contract and simply let herself fall towards the ground, before using the strength afforded by both her hands around the hilt of her sword to outright cut through its left knee, the cut off limb flying away while Ustanak growled in pain for the first time as it collapsed forward, using the mangled remains of its right hand to hold itself back from falling face-first on the ground.
Sherry wasted no time and jumped on its back, her sword slashing at its right shoulder. Without supernatural powers backing the blow, only part of its arm was cut, but it still earned her another growl of pain.
Ustanak then tried to use its sheer bulk as a weapon, throwing itself back and trying to crush her to death under its weight. Instead, she jumped above its head, twirled mid-air and let her blade flash through its throat, before hitting the ground and then jumping again, Ustanak trying to hit her with a wild swing of its half-cut right arm, only for her to use it as a platform to jump from.
With both hands on the hilt of her blade, she plunged her blade downward, and she saw for an instant the B.O.W's single eye widen, felt a flash of fear-
And then her supernaturally sharp sword went through its forehead, into his cranium, through his brains and then poked out on the other side of his skull, before she subtly called upon her magic and infused her blade with the powers of the Void.
Ustanak finished falling on its back, Sherry kneeling on top of its chest, her blade almost hilt-deep in its head, a single glassy, dead eye staring up at her as its brains were entirely consumed by the ever-hungry nature of Void Magic.
Sherry released a breath, before she stood up, tearing her sword away from her kill, and nodded, feeling the Blood Echoes of her kill flood her body, confirming that Ustanak was indeed dead.
And then the ground of the building, already weakened, finished breaking under the weight of the B.O.W's, and Sherry's eyes widened just as she suddenly fell into the basement of the warehouse.
At least Ustanak's corpse was a great meat-shield…
"Sherry! You alright?" came the shout of Muller as he peered into the new hole.
"I'm fine!" she replied, looking into the corridor leading out of the building in front of her. "Can you get down there?"
She saw him purse his lips, before after a moment he carefully scaled his way down to rejoin her, before coming to a stop at the side of Ustanak's corpse, the both of them looking at it for a moment.
Then Muller gave it a careful kick.
Ustanak, predictably, didn't even twitch.
"Huh. Who did you say you were, again? Because I can't imagine most people could pull off what you just did." he asked, glancing with a frown at her.
She smirked. "Sherry Muradasilova. I'm the daughter of the leader of ISIS."
He blinked. "Ah."
He glanced at the massive corpse before them, then back up at her. "In hindsight, I really should have let you introduce yourself when you tried to do so." he said wryly.
She chuckled. "Lesson learnt."
"Oh yes." he agreed, before shaking his head. "Right, so Miss Badass, where do we go from there?"
She pointed at the passage before them. "We go through here, hopefully emerge somewhere I can call for extraction."
"Good enough for me." Muller shrugged, before they left the cooling corpse behind.
Before they went out of sight however, Sherry turned and her eyes flashed as she stared at the body.
Ten seconds after both of them had left and could no longer see Ustanak's body, the ground seemingly bubbled up, and a dozen small gray-skinned creatures, clad in black suits and with black top hats, suddenly surrounded the body, moaning to each other, before sinking back into the ground taking the body with them along the way.
In less than a minute, only a few drops of blood on the ground still showed that something died there.
After all, Ustanak's body would be a great test subject to learn more about the C-Virus, and it was far better to carefully dispose of the corpse, just in case, so Shery wasn't going to let something like that be for anyone to find.
-
As they both kept going through the tunnels, Sherry easily noticed how often Muller sent her various looks.
Eventually, she sighed, and looked at him.
"What is it?"
He looked away. "Sorry, but it's just… Did your father teach you to fight like that? Because I've seen some shit over the years, but what you pulled off back there wasn't something I ever came across."
She smiled. "My family believed that I should know how to defend myself… Though when I mentioned that I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps, my training was greatly intensified. My dad wasn't one to pull his punches when it came to training, and believed only in perfection being good enough, so my training was… very thorough."
Muller stayed silent for a moment, before he spoke up again.
"Three years ago I thought I was gonna die in the jungles of South America. Enemy had us surrounded. 'Fore I knew it, everyone on my team was dead. And I'd lost my gun in the scramble. This bastard comes at me with a knife. Probably thought I wasn't even worth the bullet." he scoffed, though his eyes remained slightly unfocused as he lost himself in memories of the past.
"Why are you telling me?" she asked after a moment of silence.
He glanced at the sword once more on her back.
"Dying to a blade is the last way you wanna go. It's a bitch. Mercs like me? We don't get a say in how we die. That's just how it goes."
They came out of the tunnels, carefully checking their surroundings for hostiles, before she glanced back at him with a confused frown.
"It's… kind of what you sign up for, isn't it?"
He shook his head. "Dying for money's one thing. It's my choice. But dying for no good reason? That doesn't sit right with me."
He turned, glaring at her. "So, you wanna tell me what that big freakin' Behemoth was, and why he's trying to kill me? Or rather, who sent him? Because I think you've got an idea."
She sighed. "That thing was just like the J'avo. A bio-organic weapon created through the C-Virus. He was at the command of a terrorist organization known as Neo-Umbrella."
"Never heard of 'em." he replied, and she held back a smirk. For the son of Albert Wesker to not know of an organization called Umbrella was ironic indeed.
"Basically, they want to study the antibodies in your blood, and they don't care if you're dead or alive while they do so… Though they probably prefer alive. They'd get more blood out of you that way." she pointed out, without holding back. He deserved to know what would happen if Neo-Umbrella got their hands on him.
He scoffed. "I was better off as a simple mercenary."
"For what it's worth, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. The world needs you." she said firmly.
He snorted. "No, no, not me. Just my blood. Well, the world can have it. 'Long as someone ponies up the dough."
"Well, if that's what you're worried about, don't be. Insight Corp. has a lot of money, more than enough to help save the world."
"Good to hear!" he cheerfully replied.
They kept going, carefully going through street after street, taking cover behind every bit of rubble they passed by, until finally Sherry peaked through a corner and smiled as she saw BSAA soldiers with who she recognized as Chris Redfield among them.
"Come on, we're almost safe." she told Muller, before running towards the soldiers, Muller at her heels.
The BSAA soldiers raised their lasguns at them, but a quick shouted order to stand down from Chris made them relax.
"Chris!" she smiled at her dad's Hunter, who smiled back. "Hey, Sherry." he glanced at Muller standing not far behind her. "So, it's him?" he asked, and while all those listening might think he was asking about the one whose blood could save the world, they both knew he was speaking about Muller as the son of Albert Wesker.
"Yeah. It's him." she confirmed.
Chris stared at Jack Muller, or Jack Wesker in truth, while the man in question simply leaned against a nearby building and looked away in feigned disinterest as they talked.
The man in charge of the BSAA squad came to rest at the side of Chris, scowling while looking at Muller.
"Chris, this man is a wanted insurgent." he declared, staring at the uniform the man still wore.
She raised a hand towards the BSAA soldier. "Yes, he's a mercenary. But right now, he's under the protection of the UN, and he needs to be safely extracted from this place. I can assure you, he's no threat to the BSAA."
"Unless someone pays me to be." Muller muttered just loud enough to be heard, and the BSAA soldier's eyes flashed with anger.
"What did you just say?" he demanded, stepping forward with an angry scowl on his face.
Chris raised an arm to hold him back, while Sherry turned and gave Muller a look.
To his credit, he lasted 5 seconds before looking away, and only her (Empathy) caught the flash of unease bordering on fear as she stared him down.
Quite obviously, her killing Ustanak had left an impression.
Then Chris and the BSAA soldier stiffened as they received a message from BSAA and ISIS HQs, and they all turned towards a VTOL carrying a very, very large B.O.W.
They all immediately prepared themselves for a fight, as the B.O.W was released and roared loudly as it hit the ground right in front of them all.
"We'll talk later!" shouted Chris. "Right now, we need to take this thing down! Also, we've got AA guns to take out if you want an extraction!"
"Got it!" she replied, preparing herself for a fight, while Muller did the same at her side.
For a second, her blue eyes flashed red, before going back to blue.
The B.O.W was as tall as the houses surrounding them… But she had seen bigger things in her dad's memories.
Far deadlier ones, too.
That, and she had Chris by her side. All things considered, this should be easy enough.
For a second, her eyes met Chris's... and then they grinned, took out their swords, and charged forward.
And the beast before them roared in challenge as it met their charge.
-
A.N: Alright! Here is the next chapter in which we begin the events of Resident Evil 6!
And with this, we thus start the very last storyline for this jump!
We begin with HUNK and Earth!Summer training as Hunters, with Aeon thinking over the current relationship status he has with the two Summers, then we actually go into the events of RE6. Considering how the game jumps all over in terms of storyline, I'll basically go with a specific character, reach a "checkpoint", then start back with another character's POV until they reach that Checkpoint as well. So the next chapter will begin with Chris at the start of the current battle taking place in the city the events are taking place in.
And yes, Sherry pretty easily killed Ustanak. Compared to what she had been trained to kill, this was barely worthy of a fight.
Still, with all that being said, I hope you all enjoyed this update! Next time, we continue RE6 with Chris' POV, as more changes are brought to the story as a result of vastly more capable heroes ready for the danger ahead…