Chapter Eleven: Arboria (Planet of the Tree Men)
The air was crisp and cool, an occasional leaf a shade of brown or rust red crunching under his boot heels. October was just around the corner, but the air was still pleasantly warm, nice, and cool come nightfall. As he walked across the central campus of the local college Claire attended, Tony Redgrave allowed himself to let his shoulders relax, rolling them along with his neck with a sigh.
It had been something of a hectic two weeks for him. Enzo and Morrison had gotten multiple jobs lined up for him and Grue almost back-to-back. Not that the young mercenary was ungrateful; more like relieved, to be honest. He and his older partner had something of a dry spell ever since that newcomer announced himself to Bobby's only a couple of weeks ago: the mercenary calling himself 'Gilver.'
He was a weird one, too, even by the low standards set by the average patron that inhabited that dump. He dressed himself up as a professional, suits and all, but kept his head and hands completely covered in white bandages, making him look like a mummy who had forgotten to unwrap himself from his funeral dressings before going out into the world. Weird dress habits aside, the guy was the only other patron to carry a sword on his person.
The second person, actually, after Tony himself.
Redgrave would never admit this to anyone out loud, least of all to the new weirdo, but he had been impressed by how Gilver handled his own blade: a long eastern katana, which was a stark contrast to the broadsword he himself always brought with him to Bobby's and on the jobs he'd get. The white-haired youth recalled his sudden and impromptu duel with the strange mummy man, the guy having the nerve to interrupt his dinner to pick a fight.
Not that he was really complaining. It had been a pretty sweet duel, all things considered. Tony was hard pressed to remember the last time someone had actually made him put any effort into a brawl. Of course, Bobby had probably been none too pleased to have his bar messed up...
He still wasn't sure why Gilver had done it, even now, a few weeks later. Maybe it was that old prison adage he had heard of? 'Pick a fight with the toughest guy on the block,' or something like that? Prove that he was as tough, or even tougher, than the guy at the top? Maybe he had sensed Tony was that proverbial 'top guy?'
Or maybe it was because Redgrave was the only other guy in the bar with a sword at the time?
Either way, it must have worked. After his duel with Tony, which had ended in a tie, the new guy mummy had been given the best jobs for a while now. Hell, he even took the assassination gigs, and sure, they paid better, but they weren't exactly popular for the guild that occupied Bobby's Cellar. Of course, it helped that the dude just threw the money he got from those jobs to the hungry soldiers of fortune that still occupied the place, winning him a long line of friends.
It was weird, though, Tony mused. Why take the jobs if he was just gonna throw the cash out with the rest of the garbage?
...Ah, who cares? It's his business, not mine, he concluded with a smirk.
He wasn't much further from Claire's dorm, and the thought of seeing his girlfriend after a while was enough to make his grin genuine. The boy found his thoughts turning back to the last couple of jobs that had kept him somewhat busy and away from his favorite biker girl.
They hadn't been any great shakes, nor were they anything too noteworthy. Just your typical 'Get Person A to Safehouse B,' or 'Run Package C to Carrier D.' Easy money. Stuff he could do in his sleep if he'd felt like it. And while he had busted up this sweet Heckler & Koch he had taken from a previous gig, along with a wimpy .32 semi he had picked off a goon who had stupidly gotten in his face, he still had a nice payoff, even after having to haggle with Enzo and Morrison. Sure, he was minus some sidearms, but he was sure he could talk Nell into loaning him some before his next gig: a job for some Yakuza type by the name of 'Shibata.' And Enzo had promised him a big payday for it, too.
The rest of his money had gone to a little nest egg he had set aside on Claire's advice. She had made a comment to him about how money tended to slip through his fingers like water. Until she had mentioned that, Tony had never realized just how fast and loose he had been with his money, though he chalked that up to his lifestyle.
Being a merc for hire wasn't cheap, and being a STYLISH merc for hire only added to those expenses. Not only did his guns inevitably break after a few uses, his clothing tended to get riddled with bullet holes and the occasional splash of blood. Replacing them was a hell of a lot cheaper than getting them cleaned, he had learned.
"'Course, that was before I had a girl to spend my hard-earned cash on..." he nodded with a wide grin.
Pausing just before he turned to the corner, Redgrave began to feel around the many pockets his long red coat contained, looking for a certain something he had made sure to get before heading over to see his favorite redhead.
When he felt his fingers brush the small item wrapped tightly in red wrapping paper, he smiled again. Funny, he had always thought himself as a man of simple tastes. His sword, a pair of guns, some nice clothes, and the occasional strawberry sundae to go along with his pizza. But after meeting Claire...
Well, he had to admit that nicer restaurants beat the scummy dives he usually frequented. Not to mention seeing a movie in a dark theater with a significant someone was a lot more fun than catching the occasional old black and white re-run of Dracula or The Wolfman for the hundredth time on TV. And just generally being around someone who shared similar tastes in music and a love for motorcycles beat hearing Grue gripe about the latest boy sniffing around Jessica's skirt...
The pale-haired youth was broken from his thoughts when a familiar voice called out, "Tony?"
Looking towards the voice that had called his name, he spotted Claire's blonde-haired roommate, Elza Walker, wearing his girlfriend's leather jacket with the flames on the arms. The young girl had a tendency to 'borrow' her roommate's riding clothes and gear on occasion, but Redfield insisted that she was fine with it as long as Elza returned them afterwards. Tony himself could never imagine sharing his clothes or other possessions with anyone, but that was Claire's business, not his, so he let it slide.
The young girl was also carrying her red and white helmet, so the young man figured she was probably heading out for a ride on her own, or just coming back from one. Either way, it was good timing. Elza would probably know if Claire was back in her dorm.
"Yo!" he called back with a wave as he continued for the dorm, stopping once he was close enough to the shorter blonde.
"Haven't seen you in a while. Where've you been hiding?" she greeted with a teasing grin.
Grinning back and shrugging, Tony replied, "Eh, you know how it is. Just catchin' up on some work, is all. Hey, is Claire around? I was hopin' to surprise her."
His girl's roommate nodded, turning and pointing back at the dorm before saying, "Yeah, she'll be in the dorms, hanging by the payphone. She's been calling her brother for the hundredth time today. She's been a little stressed out, worrying about him nonstop, so it's good that you're here. Maybe you can take her mind off of whatever's bugging her."
That comment about Claire's brother made Tony's lip curve in a frown, his brow furrowing as the blonde biker began walking away after a quick "See ya," which the snowy-haired boy acknowledged with a nod of his own.
"Her brother?..." he mused to himself.
Oh. Right, he remembered with a grimace. The cop.
One who was part of a special forces unit, at that. Fancy name and all, though he couldn't recall what it was at the moment.
The only downside to being with Claire, if it could even be called that, was that Tony had to stay on his toes whenever the subject of his 'job' was brought up. He had told the younger Redfield that he was a handyman, who took on any job no matter how dirty. And while that was somewhat true in the sense that that was how the boy viewed himself and his line of work, the young woman took it literally, and just thought of him as another average joe. While the mercenary in red loathed the idea of being thought of as 'average,' it was fine as long as his girlfriend took it at face value.
He hadn't met her brother yet, as he was a town or two over. One that was actually a city, in fact. And to be honest, Redgrave was dreading that meeting. From what he had learned about Claire's brother - Chris was his name - the guy was a tad overprotective of her, and had a bit of a temper. When his sister had told him that he had been part of the Air Force, the mercenary had asked her why he had left.
"Oh, he didn't leave... He was discharged for getting into a fight with a superior officer."
She had told him that with a straight face and a smile, leaving Tony flabbergasted. A word he never thought he'd ever use to describe himself.
Yep. Definitely not a meeting he could say he was looking forward to...
Shaking his head, the young man walked into the dorm through the front doors, heading for the back where he knew the line of payphones for the students were kept. He found himself wondering why Claire was so stressed about her brother. Chris was tough, and that was just Tony's opinion based only on what she had told him about the guy.
He frowned, his steps slowing a bit as another memory came back to him. The last time he had seen her, he recalled that she had been looking a bit down. And when he had asked what had been bugging her, she had mentioned that Chris' team had come back from a rough mission, with some investigations being called in on his unit as well. Cops tended not to like being investigated, ironically enough, so that stress on the older Redfield had the younger sibling fretting.
...Eh, I'll be getting her mind off of that soon enough, he thought, his grin returning.
He was passing the hall where Claire's dorm room was. Good ol' 098. Lots of fun times in there...
Before he could bring up those pleasant memories, the man turned the next corner, spotting the row of five payphones lined up along the back wall. That was where he spotted Claire, who was standing in front of the middle one, holding the receiver to her ear. The auburn-haired girl was pacing in place impatiently, an annoyed frown on her pretty lips.
After a few seconds, she slammed the phone back onto its hook with a disgusted "Ugh! Could someone - anyone - just pick up the damn phone?!"
"Hope you're not studying to be a telemarketer, babe, 'cause somethin' tells me that line of work just ain't you," he uttered aloud, prompting the young woman to blink in surprise, and spin around towards him.
Instantly, her anger fell away into a bright smile as she exclaimed "Tony!" Quickly clearing the short distance between herself and the young man, she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug that he eagerly reciprocated, her warm lips planting a quick kiss on his cheek before letting him go.
Smiling back, savoring the lingering warmth of her lips on his cheek, he divulged, "Your roommate told me you've been stressin' out over the phone, so it looks like I got back just in time."
Claire's smile faltered, her left hand reaching up to rub her right arm's upper forearm as she nodded. "Yeah... I've been trying to get in touch with Chris all day today after trying to reach him yesterday... And the day before... And the day before that..."
Chuckling to himself, Tony spoke softly, trying to soothe her worries away as he assured, "I'm sure he's fine, babe. He's probably just busy, or something. Tell you what, how's about I take you to Fredi's for dinner tonight? Getting out of this dorm will help clear your mind. Besides, it'll give us a chance to catch up."
She bit her lip at that, looking from her beau back to the phones before facing him again, shaking her head while saying, "I... No, sorry, I can't. I gotta stay here and wait in case Chris actually does return my calls."
Sighing loudly and throwing his hands up in defeat, Tony proclaimed, "Alright, fine, maybe some other time... How about we just chill in your dorm, then? I'll order some pizzas, and maybe rent a movie from Blockbuster or something to pass the time while we wait."
Claire smiled at that, but shook her head again before saying, "As fun as that sounds, I've got homework tonight. Maybe tomorrow, okay?"
Rolling his eyes in mock annoyance, Redgrave nodded, making sure to keep his disappointment off of his face. She trailed off, looking somewhat sheepish, but the youth could still see a lingering flicker of worry and anxiety in her eyes. He knew how close the two Redfield siblings were, but this disquietude about reaching him was uncharacteristic of her.
Furrowing his brow, feeling his curiosity piqued, the merc found himself saying, "So, uh... I guess your brother must be workin' on a pretty tough case if he hasn't returned any of your calls."
To his surprise, Claire shook her head, her arms crossing as she looked away before replying solemnly, "That's the thing. His unit hasn't been assigned to any cases since July. And I haven't gotten a call or even a letter from him since August. It's been over six weeks since we last spoke. It's been like this ever since he got suspended, and I just... I just have this terrible feeling that something really wrong is happening over at Raccoon City."
Tony had merely been nodding along to her words when he blinked, echoing aloud, "'Suspended?'"
From what Claire had told him of her brother, aside from being as hardheaded as she was, he was a stickler for orders, rules, and procedure. So what could he have possibly done to get himself suspended?
Nodding, the girl added, "He punched another officer; someone from a different department. It's just... It's just so unlike him. I think he was still stressing out over the investigation."
Suspension, and now the word he knew anyone with a badge despised hearing: Investigation.
"Heh, well that explains it! Sounds to me like your bro's team caught your typical case of bad cop syndrome," he quipped with a chuckle.
Claire's expression fell away, suddenly, becoming disturbingly blank as she asked quietly, "...And what is that supposed mean?"
Tony's eyes were closed as he shrugged, hands raised, his closed eyes preventing him from seeing the very clear warning signs of Chris Redfield's sister's own eyes narrowing in anger as he spoke on cluelessly.
"I mean, 'suspension?' 'Investigation?' Hell, punching another cop? Sounds like Chris and his crew got caught doin' somethin' they shouldn't have. My guess is helpin' themselves to some of the shiny stuff in the evidence locker, 'misplacing' a file. It happens, babe. Cops aren't always the shining white knights people think they are-"
"How DARE you!"
Claire's sudden exclamation broke the youth off from his monologue, his eyes blinking open in confusion, his icy orbs widening as they met the infuriated grey blue gems of his very angry girlfriend glaring up at him.
Before his brain could even think to sputter something out of his suddenly dry lips, Claire jammed her finger into his chest and snapped, "How DARE you suggest such a thing?! What gives you any right to say that about him?! My brother's TWICE the man you are!"
Blinking again, finding himself flabbergasted - a term he never thought he'd associate with himself not once, but twice in one day - the youth was stunned into silence as the furious college student raged on.
"He puts his life on the line EVERY DAY! And what the hell do you do?! You're just some jackass handyman who needs to grow up!"
Finally finding his voice again, Tony sputtered out, "B-babe, I was just joking-"
"NO!" she fiercely interrupted, tears of anger sparkling in the corners of her eyes. "You don't get to make excuses! You don't get to say those things about him! Not about my brother!"
"C'mon, Claire, you know I didn't mean that!" the man in red pleaded.
"Oh?! Then what the hell did you mean?!"
"I'm just sayin' it's weird, that's all!" he responded, an annoyed tick overcoming his right brow.
"Yeah, no shit!" she cried, turning back to the payphone, reaching into her pocket to fetch a coin to call her brother again, only to groan when she found none. "Fuck!"
Still feeling put off by her behavior, Tony went further. "It might come as a shock to you, Claire, but not every cop's a prim, proper, stand-up guy."
"Maybe, but Chris isn't one of them! He's not a criminal!" she retorted, purposely looking away from him.
"You sure about that?" he shot back. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe that's the reason why he doesn't wanna pick up your calls? Because he actually is mixed up in some shady crap? That the last thing he wants is for his little sister - the same one that sings his praises left and right - to find out that he's actually nothin' more than a lying, cheatin' crook-"
*SMACK!*
...Three times. Three times the word 'flabbergasted' had crossed his mind in the same day. Only this time, he had the stinging mark on his cheek to prove it.
He had been so into his rant, he hadn't seen Claire's right hand practically whip out towards him, cutting him off with a sharp strike the young mercenary hadn't been expecting.
All emotion fell into nothing but a shocked expression on his face, his mind struggling to comprehend what had happened. Only when he saw the furious scowl on his girlfriend's face, tears actually falling down her cheeks, did his brain start to work again.
"If you ever run that fucking mouth of yours about my brother to my face again, so help me GOD, I'll...!" she growled, roughly wiping her tears away with her forearm before giving him the nastiest glare she could muster. "God, you are such a fucking ASSHOLE!"
With that, she shoved past him, Tony stumbling aside, at a complete and total loss for words as the young student marched back to her dorm, shoving the door open, and slamming it closed with enough force to shake it.
The man in the red coat stood there, silently balking before slowly fuming once again, his hands shaking as they closed into tight fists.
Tossing his hands up, he swung them down as he barked, "BAH! Fine! Go ahead! Do whatever the hell you want, sweetheart!" and began marching out of the dorm.
What the hell was her problem?! All he had been trying to do was take her out, and get her mind off of whatever crap her brother was going through, and that's the thanks he gets?! This is how she reacts?!
What did she know?! His line of work was a helluva lot more dangerous than Chris' was! The most he'd ever had to deal with was a drunk driver, while Tony didn't have enough fingers to count all the times he had been shot at, or stabbed, or whatever!
Feeling the light weight of the gift he had been planning to give her resting in his coat's side pocket, he briefly considered yanking said item out and smashing it into the ground, the sight of it breaking into a few hundred pieces appealing... But he didn't.
Shoving the doors to the dorm open, knocking one of them off their hinges in the process, the angry youth marched off for Bobby's. Maybe some of the proprietor's infamous home brew could cool him off.
A part of Redgrave hoped he'd run into that smug prick Denvers along the way. He really wanted to punch something to a bloody pulp...
Whatever. She wanted to wait in her dorm for a call that was probably never gonna come? Fine. No skin off his back.
He'd stop by Nell's later, since he wouldn't be wasting his hard-earned cash on his girl for once. He'd try to talk the old lady into a new pistol...
The cable car descended smoothly into the darkness, the front lights only letting his icy blue eyes see the deep shadows ahead that never seemed to thin out. The gentle squeak of rusty gears also plagued his ears, though they weren't coming from any of the car's own machinery. No, this noise was coming from a smaller, more insidious source.
Tony's gaze drifted away from the clear windshield above the control panel to the ugly little bobblehead toy set to the side of the panel: an anthropomorphic, red-furred raccoon in blue shorts, yellow shoes, a red neckerchief over its neck, and matching black gloves on his hands at his hips to go with the dark mask over his eyes. The ugly little bobblehead was situated atop a small red plaque with the word 'Raccoon' written on it, it's head bouncing every now and again, prompting that irritating sound of rusty squeaks springing to assault his ear drums.
The white-haired youth desperately wanted nothing more than to take out one of his pistols, and shoot the hideous figurine into oblivion, but he refrained from doing so. Smashing it with his fist probably would have been just as satisfying, but he held himself back from doing that as well. The sudden sound of plastic and metal breaking would shatter the rare moment of silence Tony Redgrave had found for himself since first arriving in Raccoon City.
While he was grateful for a much needed moment of peace, the young mercenary would easily admit he was more comfortable in the heart of a good fight, blood thrumming in his ears like the sick beats of a kickass guitar riff. If the bouts of quiet were too long between each fight, that left him with a heavy sense of unease and foreboding.
And why wouldn't he feel uneasy? They were heading for the very labs where the viruses unleashed upon Raccoon City's unsuspecting populace had been cooked up. A home for horror itself.
A residence of evil.
The young man had been in plenty of scraps that had been the picture definition of bad, but he always came out of them on top. Perhaps not unscathed, but certainly alive. Even after getting a partner he could trust to watch his back, namely that old timer Grue and his six-shooter, he never saw any reason to let himself worry before.
But this time was different.
He glanced over his shoulder, his icy blues settling past his bangs on the crouched figure of his ex-girlfriend kneeling down next to the small bench attached to the wall close to the cable car's control panel, where little Sherry was lain out, her eyes closed, breathing slow and shallow. Claire had removed her vest and placed it over the child as a makeshift blanket, the clothing a size too large for the little girl, letting its makeshift function work well. Tony had offered his own red leather coat as well, but the young woman had rebuffed the offer.
Not that she hadn't appreciated the gesture, but Redgrave's coat was just in too poor a condition at the moment, torn, soaked in sewage, not to mention splattered with so much blood, it was almost impossible to tell what was actually leather and what was dried gore. So she instead opted to use her own vest, exposing her sleeveless black undershirt beneath.
Taking a few steps closer, he quietly asked, "How's she looking?"
Claire, who had been gently wiping at Sherry's brow, replied without looking away from her charge. "She keeps slipping in and out of consciousness. I'm hoping she'll stay asleep. She seems to be in so much pain when she's awake... And she's cold."
That made Tony blink and echo, "Cold?"
The redhead nodded, pulling her hand away from the child, and scooted back slightly, inviting him closer. The taller male crouched down slightly, pulling the glove off his right hand as he did, before laying the back of his palm on the girl's forehead. No sooner did his skin make contact with Sherry's did he feel an involuntary flinch twitch through him.
"Jeez, she feels like ice!" he uttered in horrified awe, pulling his hand back and slipping his glove back on as he stepped back, letting Claire return to her previous position.
The college girl nodded, her expression one of deep worry and ever-growing concern. "I've never heard of an infection that does this..." she whispered.
Unable to help himself, Tony let out a derisive scoff as he stepped back towards the control panel of the car. "Yeah, well, this ain't exactly your average case of the sniffles," he uttered dryly, looking back out into the unending blackness through the window.
His words made Claire's expression falter, the young biker looking back at the child's pale face with growing concern before asking hurriedly, "Do you think it'll be much longer until we get to this lab Annette was talking about?"
The red-coated mercenary sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted as he peered over the controls, looking for something that would give him a time or any type of indication of when they would be arriving at the underground laboratory Umbrella had built beneath Raccoon City. He couldn't make heads or tails of what the many buttons or few gauges were for, leaving Tony shrugging helplessly, and rubbing the back of his neck.
"No idea. This cab's going at a snail's pace as far as I can tell."
The older girl nodded, her face forlorn and miserable, though not for herself, but for the unconscious young girl shuddering before her. Unable to do anything else, she continued to gently rub the younger blonde's forehead, hoping the skin-to-skin contact, plus her vest, would keep her warm and at least somewhat comfortable. The white-haired boy remained at the front of the car, his eyes staring out ahead, but no longer really seeing the endless darkness before them.
Unbidden, his thoughts drifted back to the day before once more. And then a familiar voice began speaking his mind, roughened from years of sucking on those godawful death sticks he was addicted to.
"Look, Tony, whatever happened is strictly between the two of you, and none of my damn business, to be honest. But if ya really wanna patch things up with her, here's a word of advice: apologize."
Inhaling heavily, then exhaling slowly, letting his shoulders fall before straightening them, Tony finally admitted to himself why he was still thinking about their argument as they approached what he strongly suspected was to be the end of this nightmare. And now, here in this precious moment of calm, was probably going to be his only chance to take his partner's advice, given what felt like a year ago, in reality only less than twelve hours. So, he'd take it.
"Hey, uh... Claire?" he called to his ex, his gaze peering over his shoulder to look back at her.
"Yeah?" she replied, glancing back up at him, still kneeling next to Sherry, her hand rubbing the younger girl's brow to warm her.
"I... I, um..."
The youth noted with irony how he felt his tongue start to knot up around her again. She was the only person that had that effect on him. Looking away again briefly, letting out another exhale of air out of his nostrils, he turned his gaze back to her, and decided to simply say what he wanted to say.
"...I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
Claire blinked at his words, her sadness replaced with puzzlement as she replied, "I appreciate the gesture, but now's really not the time for that. Besides, it doesn't change anything. It's over, Tony. We're over."
His chest tightened at her words, but loosened as he quickly understood she thought he was referring to their earlier argument and breakup over his lying about his profession. Turning to look back at her, his icy eyes meeting her grey blue orbs, Tony quickly tried to recover. "No, wait, th-that's not what I was saying sorry for!... Well, I mean, yeah, I am sorry about that, too, don't get me wrong, but it's just that...! You know... Ah, dammit!"
He smacked his right hand over his face, running it down with a furrowed, annoyed, and embarrassed look in his eyes. For the Redfield girl, who was constantly used to seeing the man in red struggle very little to look cool, to see him fumble his words like this was both alarming and amusing.
Letting out another sigh after a rough shake of his head, her ex closed his eyes briefly before once more looking back at her, leaning back against the controls. "I am sorry about lying to you... but I was actually apologizing for what I said yesterday... About your brother."
His words, now clear and true, made her blink, her mouth falling open slightly, but she didn't utter a word. With her attention focused on him however briefly, the flustered young man went on.
"I... Those things I said... I shouldn't have mouthed off about him like that, especially since you were worried sick about him. I know I tried to play it off, but..." He then waved his hand in surrender. "A-and I know you're probably thinking I'm only saying this now because of our fight earlier, b-but I'm serious! Honest and true, I..."
Sagging almost in defeat, he sat back down on the driver's seat, shrugging as a genuinely regretful frown fell on his features. "I was wrong," he admitted. "Your brother... Those bastards at Umbrella set him up, when all along he was just trying to do the right thing, and warn everyone about all the crap they were spewing. Chris... He's a good guy, and I was wrong to ever say anything that said otherwise. So... Yeah..."
Shaking his head lamely, Redgrave looked at Chris Redfield's sister squarely in the eyes as he finished up his apology. "...I'm sorry. I really am."
The previous confusion flashing through her soft grey blue eyes gave way to understanding. The girl's eyes widened slightly before she blinked, her gaze lowering, her left hand rising up towards her mouth, obscuring her lips. When her shoulders began trembling ever so slightly, Tony knew he had screwed up yet again.
Squaring his shoulders, he prepared himself for her to lash out again, her anger reignited by him dredging up such recent wounds. He could already hear her saying how she had been right about Chris being a better man compared to him, a lowly criminal who lived on the edges of society, and an outcast in every sense of the word.
But what Claire did next caught him completely off guard.
Her hand fell away, revealing her lips were curled up a smile, soft giggles escaping them, her eyes closing briefly before opening, her orbs shining, and filled with mirth.
And all the while the snowy-haired boy sat there, blinking stupidly, only able to utter a rather unremarkable, "Huh?!"
"Tony..." she said as she got herself back under control.
"What? What's so funny?" he asked warily.
The reason, he learned, was rather simple, if baffling.
"I honestly forgot all about that stupid fight we had."
Now Redgrave was the one gaping and blinking in stunned silence.
"You... You did?" he replied, brows furrowing in confusion.
The biker girl nodded, her eyes blinking closed as she smiled back at him.
"...Oh," he finally uttered stupidly, unable to really think of anything else. Then he blinked, an eager grin appearing on his face as he quickly asked, "So you're not mad at me about that anymore?"
"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Claire replied, tone even, daresay, almost chipper.
"It's more like... Well, now that I know that Chris is safe somewhere over in Europe - far away from this disaster in Raccoon, at least - I feel like a weight's come off my shoulders. And... despite my better judgement... you were just trying to make me feel better... Even if you did make a complete ass of yourself."
Well, that was better than her still being angry at him, he supposed. Probably not by much, but Tony would take anything at this point. The redhead looked away from him and back to Sherry, rubbing her cheek, which was deathly pale compared to the sickly red veins appearing around Sherry's eye.
When she did look back to him, Redgrave saw her expression had fallen again, her voice low and sad as she reminded him, "But while I can let that go, Tony... I can't forgive the lies."
The snowy-haired youth nodded somberly, rubbing the back of his neck while his icy eyes fell on the ugly Mr. Raccoon bobble once again. Smashing or shooting it had suddenly lost its appeal. With a sigh, he looked back up to meet her gaze before acquiescing.
"Yeah... I suppose that's fair..." he murmured. "...For what it's worth, I think you have every right to be angry with me. And if this is it, and you really wanna break it off with me once we're outta here... so be it. I won't try to stop you."
His statement surprised her, the young woman having expected him to pull out all the stops to get her to change her mind. "You... You won't?"
He shook his head. "Nope... Not that it ain't tempting," he admitted. "...But it doesn't matter. It's not up to me anymore. It's your decision, and whatever it is, I'll respect it. No matter what."
Comprehending his words, realizing that he was willing to accept her choice in spite of how much he wanted otherwise, Claire quietly expressed her gratitude. "...Thank you for understanding."
Tony somberly turned away from her slightly, the conductor's chair squeaking as it did, before abruptly stopping, causing her to look back up. His legs were stretched out, crossing over the other as he clasped both hands over his lap.
"...But, uh, for the record?... It wasn't because I didn't trust you."
Confused by his sudden statement, Claire frowned at him. "What?"
"The reason I lied," he further explained, his icy blue eyes glancing towards her direction, but still not looking directly at her. "It wasn't because I didn't trust you."
Comprehension dawned on her face, jaw slacking briefly, though the young man kept speaking before she could compose herself.
"It's just that I... You're right. You don't know me, Claire," he began, slowly turning the swivel chair towards the redhead, icy blue eyes now looking her way, leaning forward in his seat to rest his elbows on his knees. "But I know me... Or at least I think I do. And I... I'm a piece of work. I'm brash, flippant, I eat pizza and ice cream like there's no tomorrow. And my job... Well, it ain't exactly completely legal. In my line of work, you very rarely get attached to people for too long. Which worked out just fine for me, least for a while. Especially considering I'm not... y'know, normal."
"But then I saw you kicking ass at Bullseye," Tony chuckled, his lopsided grin returning. "To be honest, I wasn't really sure how we'd turn out. Was half-expecting to blow it on the first date." His chuckles became full on laughter now, Claire slowly beginning to get caught up in his rhythm. "Might surprise you hear this, but I've got terrible luck with women. Apparently!"
Redfield held a hand over her mouth, trying to stifle her laughter. "Oh, nope. I believe that."
Nodding along with her, Tony's grin relaxed into something earnest. "So... I guess that means we lucked out. 'Cause with you, one date became two. Two became five... You know the rest." He shrugged his broad shoulders, clasping his hands again. "When we were together... I was happy. Happier than I'd been in... Heh, I can't even remember how long."
The snowy-haired mercenary finally frowned, slinking back in his chair. "But then I remembered... I'm a piece of work. And you didn't know that. What I did, what I was, none of it. You were in the dark. And you had a brother in law enforcement, and... I mean, that wasn't even an issue, really, and I didn't really care if he approved of me or not, but... I knew you thought the world of him. And if he found out about who I was, and that changed the way you felt about me..."
Forcing himself to stop, Tony gave himself a moment to compose himself, shaking his head roughly. "The truth is I lied because... I was scared."
Claire, who had been patiently listening to the man's explanation, finally took it upon herself to ask, "Scared of what?"
Tony shrugged. "That if the truth about me got out... you'd be afraid of me. That I'd lose you." His expression became sad despite the fact that he let out a chuckle. One bitter and sardonic. "'Course, that ended up happening anyway, though it was more because I hid the truth, rather than the truth itself. Either way, I'm the one that blew it, so... So yeah..."
Looking back up, he smiled weakly at her. "I just... I just wanted you to know."
The woman looked away, her expression pensive, considering his words before nodding back. "I see... Thank you for telling me."
Tony nodded, face becoming morose again as he spun away from her, chair squeaking again. "Anyway, yeah, that's it. The freak of nature rests his case."
"You're not a freak," Claire snapped, disapproval for his self-depreciation showing in her narrowed gaze and frown.
To that, Redgrave scoffed bitterly, looking at his glove-covered hand, seeming to study his hidden palm momentarily before speaking again. "Well, I certainly don't fit the bill for 'normal,' now do I?"
His tone was bitter, his buried frustrations over his superhuman abilities and lost past briefly rising to the surface.
"And would a 'stylish, jack-of-all-trades handyman' such as yourself be satisfied with just being 'normal?'" she shot back, raising an auburn brow at him.
The red-coated mercenary actually found himself mulling that one over. Though he often thought of his supernatural aspects were what set him apart, making him wallow in isolation, cut off from everyone else... would losing them even change that? Or would he sink further into loneliness?
He didn't have long to consider Claire's words as Sherry stirred on her metal cot, her face scrunching up in pain, harsh exhales and moans of agony rising from her pinched lips.
The older girl turned away from her ex-boyfriend, looking back down at the smaller girl, asking hurriedly, "Hey, are you ok?"
As she spoke, Claire slipped her hand under Sherry's head, supporting her, while her other rested on the preteen's shoulder. The pained child rolled over, her eyes opening to look up at the taller girl with a weak smile as she whispered, "Your jacket's so warm..."
Claire smiled back, her thumb brushing Sherry's forehead while her other hand rubbed the young girl's arm before replying back, "My brother gave it to me. It's supposed to be lucky, you know."
"Real comfy, too," Tony added from the control panel.
That made the student blink and look back at the taller male while Sherry closed her eyes again, inhaling slowly and deeply as the older girl asked, "How would you know?"
"Tried it on once," he explained, before his lips curled in a smirk. "You left it at my place after one of our 'slumber parties...'"
His sly words ignited a fierce blush across Claire's face, though she quickly shot him an aggravated glare before looking back at the little girl, stroking her face again.
Sherry's eyes opened in response to her touch as she whispered, "I don't know what I'd do without you guys."
Smiling back at Sherry, the college girl asked in mock incredulous, "Are you kidding me?" Rising back up so she was standing over her now, Claire went on, saying, "You were doing just fine without me until I came along and got you into all sorts of trouble."
"I can vouch for that," Tony added, arms crossing over his chest as his ex gave him a sideways glare.
The white-haired swordsman shrugged, prompting Claire to roll her eyes before her right hand dug into one of her pockets, telling the blonde, "I have something of yours."
The older girl produced the small golden necklace that had fallen from Sherry's neck hours ago, though it felt like months to Claire.
To her surprise, the young preteen rolled back onto her back, turning her one blue eye and the yellow infected one away from the sight of the trinket, whispering bitterly, "I don't want it."
The words and the girl's tone made Claire frown, crouching back down towards her while asking, "Really? Why not? It's so pretty."
As she said those, her thumb brushed over the engraving of Sherry's name on the golden charm, before flicking it over with her finger, and Claire found her eyes drawn to the curious carving on the gold metal, a triangle with a circle inside it, two entwining serpents wrapping through the shapes. Before she could give the engraving any more thought, her ex beau spoke up once again.
"Eh, mine's fancier," he interrupted, tugging on the silver chain of his own necklace, the large red gem encrusted in the silver somehow shining even in the dim light.
Claire rolled her eyes again, whispering to herself, "Fancy does not equal taste..."
If Sherry had heard the two exes' exchange, she didn't indicate it, her pained and exhausted eyes flickering as she struggled to just whisper. "It's-it's from my mom... For my birthday, last year." The young girl's words trailed off, her face flinching in a grimace of pain as she gasped sharply, though her words only carried sadness this time as she added quietly, "All I really wanted was for her to be home more..."
Claire felt her shoulders fall at that, her smile fading, and even Tony seemed to feel the grief emanating from the younger girl on the metal cot. But her words also seemed to resonate with something deep in the back of his mind. The older boy frowned, his eyes twitching as he winced, a dull throb resounding through his temples...
When in his mind's eye, he saw the blonde woman in the red dress from his nightmare, standing and smiling in a green field against a blue sky. Tony's eyes widened as the mental image played out, the woman's hands emerging from behind her back. Against the shining sun in this strange vision, two objects sparkled in her hands.
In the right, she held a familiar necklace of silver with a large red gem set in it. And in the left...
A twin of the necklace in her right hand, save this one was gold, with a matching red gem.
Her lips moved, and she uttered two names he couldn't hear before smiling.
"Happy birthday..."
And just like that, the vision faded, leaving Tony blinking and confused.
Neither Claire nor Sherry had noticed the strange look on his face as the college student tried to comfort the younger preteen, saying, "I know it seems like your mom doesn't care, but-"
Whatever further words she was going to add were cut off as the blonde child suddenly gasped and cried out in pain, her eyes snapping shut, her face wincing and contorting in agony. This broke Tony out of his stupor with a blink, his arms falling away from his chest as he instinctually stood up, taking a step closer. But Claire was already moving, pulling the preteen up gently while speaking quickly.
"Hey, Sherry. Come here."
Gently ushering Sherry up into a sitting position, one comforting hand clutched the girl's upper arm as she panted in pain and delirium, clutching her infected eye as Claire urgently pleaded to her, "Hey... Hang in there, ok?"
She looked back over at Tony, her lips opening as she prepared to ask him if he could tell how much longer it would be, when the automated female voice beat her to it.
"Now arriving at NEST."
Claire couldn't keep the relief off her face as she felt the cable car's movements begin to slow to a gradual halt, but the feeling didn't last long as Sherry's pained gasps increased in intensity.
Acting quickly, the taller girl scooped the younger back into her arms while saying, "It's ok. I've got you. Come on."
She had barely taken a single step up the small set of stairs when Tony marched past her in a flourish of red, drawing his sword from it's position by the door to the tram as it slid itself open with a hiss. The young boy and girl stepped out onto a loading dock-styled platform, the cable car parked at the upper level, a set of metal stairs descending down onto a second lower platform, where various large barrels, crates and other items were stacked about. Pausing to give Claire and Sherry a quick glance, Tony focused his gaze forward, giving Woozy a casual twirl as he quickly descended the stairs two at a time, his icy orbs flickering from one corner to another, looking for anything that may come lurching out of the shadows, hungry for their flesh and warm blood.
The college student followed after her ex at a slightly slower pace, wanting to both hurry but mind her steps as she walked down the metal stairs, noting how darkly hilarious it would be if she tripped and fell, breaking her neck this close to Sherry's only hope for a cure. The preteen girl moaned deliriously, her eyes half-open and unseeing, the pitiful sound spurring Claire to move just a bit faster. She would drag herself through Hell if that's what it would take to get the little girl treatment...
"Just hold on, Sherry. It's okay..." she whispered, hoping the child could still hear and understand her.
As Tony and Claire arrived on the lower platform, Redgrave's eyes glanced downwards, noting a series of lights were emitting from certain panels on the floor, lined next to metal railings, turning to the right, leading both youths around the corner. As they turned, they spotted a massive steel door lined with yellow and black hazard markings, along with a glowing green electronic panel directly on its center.
The swordsman slowed his stride, glancing back to let Claire move ahead of him this time. The green screen on the door had the image of a locked padlock on it, but as soon as the woman was close enough, the bracelet on Sherry's limp wrist flashed, prompting the image of the padlock to unlock, the words 'Visitor' next to the unlocked padlock, followed by 'Access Granted' appearing under them. The same electronic female, monotone and mechanical voice from the cable car issued from speakers above the door.
"For your safety, stand clear until the doors are fully open."
At the mention of 'doors,' Claire blinked, stepping back reflexively while Tony slowly moved closer, observing as the first solid steel door began to rise up, revealing a second, which began to mirror its predecessor, albeit at a slower pace. As the first neared finishing rising entirely, the second was almost halfway up, exposing a third, which began to rise at a pace even a snail could outrace. At the sight of the third door slowly beginning to rise, the biker girl sighed, wanting to let her shoulders drop in exasperation but resisted, lest she might drop Sherry by accident.
"Of course..." she muttered to herself.
To her side, Tony planted his sword into the floor, resting both of his palms atop the barbed pommel of the hilt, showing no discomfort whatsoever as he let out a mirthless chuckle. "Seems like a perfect analogy for how this night's been going."
"You're telling me," Claire murmured back just as the third door finally gave out in a sudden shower of sparks, revealing the interior of Umbrella's underground laboratory.
The group advanced inside, both taking in the newly revealed area, while above them, the lights flickered on, giving them a clearer view.
As they entered, the robotic female voice sounded out again. "Welcome to NEST. Enjoy your visit."
The swordsman balanced Woozy over his shoulder, scanning their new surroundings from left to right before finally speaking again. "Huh... Not exactly what I was expecting a secret underground lab to look like."
Indeed, the best way to describe the new room was how similar it looked to a hospital waiting room, a long desk panel to their right, the words 'Umbrella Corporation' on the wall behind the panel, the company's logo next to the 'U,' a set of potted plants situated about on the desk, and lining the left side wall, along with a couple of chairs situated along the left hand wall, a long hallway leading further into the back, where a lone electronic door waited, while another had almost hidden itself from the young man's gaze, nestled deep in the right corner by the desk panel.
As Tony continued to let his eyes roam about, Claire strode forward ahead of him, her gaze frantically looking from the desk to an open door behind it, before suddenly looking to her left, seeing a second door already open. Rushing inside, the biker girl's eyes darted about, seeing the room was a large security office space.
"Ok, umm..."
She spotted a bed situated against the wall ahead of her, next to a desk with a laptop computer open and running atop it, while various medical equipment was situated on the opposite wall near the head of the bed itself. Feeling her arms start to give, she quickly approached the bed.
"Here you go," the older redhead murmured as she laid the unconscious blonde onto the bed.
Behind her, Tony was walking in, sheathing his greatsword over his shoulder as he entered the room, his icy eyes taking in the new scenery, his nostrils flaring suddenly, inhaling the clean if somewhat stale air of the office... when he caught a whiff of a familiar smell. One that made his eyes widen a fraction. The man in red quickly walked around Claire, heading for the opposite side of the security room, walking past a desk covered in piles of paperwork, folders, and binders, towards a second desk stuffed in the back. A series of television monitors were set up atop of it, stacked on top of each other, though the pale-haired merc had no interest in the static images they depicted, his gaze falling on a single, familiar item splayed across the desk top, an excited and hungry grin forming on his lips.
Claire, meanwhile, had barely taken a step back from the bed she had placed Sherry on as Tony reached the tucked away desk in the back, muttering to herself as she did, "Alright, now what?..."
Annette was nowhere to be seen, unsurprisingly, if not any less infuriating. The college student had no idea what she was supposed to do now that they were actually at Umbrella's underground lab. She was going to have to find Annette, or even look for the treatment needed to cure Sherry's infection herself-
-when she noticed the spinning work chair pulled a little ways from the desk at the end of the bed was slowing down to a complete stop. Frowning, she moved closer to the chair, her eyes wandering from it to the desk it was next to. Atop of it - experiencing a sudden sense of déjà vu - was an open laptop, an open window file still visible on the screen.
"Huh... There's gotta be something here," Claire told herself, mostly trying to convince herself of her own words as she stood before the desk, peering down into the laptop, poring over the contents written on the file screen; an email box from what she could see. It was some kind of security alert...
[IMPORTANT] NEST-wide Alert
Due to an incident in the North Area, all NEST personnel are to immediately use the "DEVIL" antiviral agent on themselves.
DEVIL is the only way to prevent G mutation. If you have been infected with the G-Virus, seek help immediately to target and destroy the G cells in your body.
This email is automatically generated in the event of an emergency. Please do not reply to this message.
DEVIL, she whispered internally to herself.
"Antiviral agent?" she uttered aloud, feeling a smile growing on her lips. "That's it! That's gotta be it!"
Maybe Annette actually had been waiting for them here, sitting at this desk in this very office, and for whatever reason was forced to leave. She could have left this email file open for Claire to find to give her the information needed to save Sherry. It was all conjecture, but the mere fact there was a potential cure for the little girl's infection was more than enough incentive for the older girl.
Looking back over her shoulder, Claire called to her ex, "Tony! Check this out!"
As she was calling him, the man in red was already turning around, his right arm raised up, his hand holding something up close. To her surprise, the young biker saw it was a piece of sliced pizza, pepperoni topping the cheese... which had turned an interesting shade of green mixed with yellow, with dull dark spots of mold topping the slices of pepperoni; topping the toppings as it were. The young man looked over the moldy pizza with a look that was a combination of disappointment and disgust. She then saw a box containing the rest of the spoiled pie was laid out on top of several more atop the desk against the back wall.
"I dared to hope..." he moaned to himself, throwing the moldy slice of pizza back in its box before walking over to her.
The college girl found herself almost pitying her former beau. Pizza was perhaps his favorite food compared to strawberry sundaes, though that was quickly replaced with annoyance that he was even thinking about food while a child's life was at stake. Then again, considering the last thing she could remember eating had been a toasted bagel before setting out for Raccoon what had to have at least been by now approaching twelve hours ago, she could almost understand the appeal of a mold-covered pizza. Almost.
"What'd you find?" the snowy-haired swordsman asked as he reached the redheaded motorcycle rider, who moved back a little ways, giving the taller male access to the laptop. With a quick gesture from Claire, Tony glanced at the screen, reading over the email's contents. A bemused smirk formed on his lips as he uttered to himself, "Devil, huh?..."
Claire wasn't quite sure if she really saw the strange light flash through the boy's eyes, a spark of red seemed to flash in their icy corners, briefly turning them from chilled icy blue...
To burning amber.
But no sooner did she blink did the strange sight disappear as quickly as it appeared, Tony's eyes returning to their normal icy hue. The youth turned away from the computer, favoring Claire with a familiar grin before saying, "I like it."
Before she could respond to that, he promptly turned on his heel and headed for the open door, saying as he did, "You stay here with Sherry. I'll go find out where they've stashed this 'DEVIL' vaccine."
Claire bristled with indignation, and quickly raced after him, catching up with the taller youth in a few long strides. "Like hell I am! I'm not just gonna sit here and do nothing!"
Tony turned to look at her, only managing to get out a single word, "Claire-"
"Don't even try it with me, Anthony!" said redhead snapped back, giving him a fierce, defiant glare. "I promised Sherry I would get her treatment, and I'm not breaking that promise."
Whatever else Redgrave was going to add to his argument seemed to die once he heard the word 'promise.' Understanding dawned in his eyes, and the gunslinger nodded slowly, muttering to himself, "Yeah, I can't really argue against a promise..."
He unsheathed his longsword from over his shoulder once again, giving the blade an idle twirl before telling her, "But I've got my own promise to keep, so I'll be taking the lead this time."
The college girl decided to let him have that one, and as Tony moved for the door again, Claire turned and went back to Sherry's bedside. Gently stroking the girl's forehead, brushing limp locks of her blonde hair aside, the older girl whispered, "Hey... Hey, Sherry... I gotta go. You stay right here, though, ok?"
The barely conscious preteen eye's flickered, her head weakly moving in a small nod. Claire nodded back, her hands reaching out to clasp Sherry's own lying atop her chest, quickly unlatching the metal bracelet with the green light glowing on it. The bracelet had gotten them access to the cable car and into Umbrella's lab, and the auburn-haired woman suspected that if she didn't take it with her, neither she nor Tony would be getting any further into the main sections of the lab.
Slipping the bracelet onto her own right wrist, Claire assured Sherry, "I'll be back soon, I promise."
The young girl nodded slowly again, her eyes closing, breathing slow and heavy. The older girl internally hoped the child would be able to fall asleep, and when she woke up again, Claire would have returned with the antiviral agent. With a deep inhale and squaring of her shoulders, the biker drew her .38 from its holster on her hip before following after Tony.
The young man was waiting in the in the hallway of the NEST's entry point, and only once he saw his partner emerge from the office, closing the door firmly behind her as she did, did he resume his way down the remainder of the sterile white pathway, sword resting on his shoulder as he arrived in front of the door at the far back. Tony gave it a quick look over, his eyes narrowing when he saw a similar electronic panel set on the front of it, like the door to the cable car and the larger one at the entrance of the lab. Only this one was a bright blue compared to their green, and instead of displaying the word 'Visitor', it read 'General Staff,' while still showing the same unlocked lock above them, though the screen flickered with static after a few seconds before stabilizing.
Tony took a step closer towards the door as Claire caught up to him-
-and then the screen flickered again before the automatic door opened with a gentle beep and hydraulic hiss.
Both young boy and girl blinked at this, though their surprise gave way to quiet awe when they saw just what was waiting for them on the other side of the door. The two slowly stepped through a metal archway and onto a metallic platform, their heads tipping back as their wide eyes took in the sight before them.
Unsurprisingly, it was Tony who broke the stupefied silence between them.
"I think this is the part where I'm supposed to ask if they're overcompensating for something," Redgrave stated dryly as he swept his head slowly from left to right. Claire didn't bother responding, still trying to process exactly what she was seeing.
Both her and Tony had been expecting to walk through the door and begin a simple trek into the heart of Umbrella's secret laboratory, but what awaited them on the other side had not been what they were expecting, to say the least.
It was a massive room, easily spanning the length and width of the largest stadium, but aside from the platform she and the mercenary were standing on, along with two more halfway across the span of the room and occupying the east and west sides of the walls, each platform hung over empty black space, which seemed to go on and on for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of feet into perpetual darkness. There was a larger platform stationed in the room's center, perhaps twice the length compared to the one they were on, with a large glass and metal dome in the direct center of it.
Finally, after a long moment of silence, Claire spoke again. "This is insane... What's the point of even building something like this?"
Tony shrugged at her question, moving slowly towards an electronic panel set up by front edge of the platform, where a single walkway had extended outwards, its safety rails barely coming up to either of their ankles. Redgrave studied the panel, noting it had the same blue image as the door they had come through, this one flickering with static every couple of seconds as well.
Finally, he replied, "I guess you'd need to be one of their mad scientists to appreciate it... Geez-louise, it's like they hired the Death Star's interior decorator."
He glanced back at Claire, who was still taking in the obscene sight, when he noticed something slumped against the right-hand corner of the walkway. Shouldering Woozy again, Tony stepped past the young woman, breaking her from her reverie as she followed his movements. The red-coated swordsman crouched down, making her finally notice the body sitting limply against the railing of the platform.
It was identical to the two bodies of the gas-masked soldiers they had come across in the sewers, save for the massive puddle of dried blood it was lying limply on top of. Claire found herself wondering if they were guards or some kind of security force for Umbrella's underground lab. The pale-haired boy was looking over the body, his free hand sifting through the dead man's various pockets and belt packs, his gaze narrowed and his brows furrowed in thought.
He spoke up as he finished looting through the corpse's various pockets and satchels. "His weapon, ammo, and anything else he might've had are gone... Just like the other two."
Tony started to rise up from his crouch when his eyes spied a long black object lying almost a foot away from the body. Gaze narrowing again, he quickly scooped the item up as he finished his ascent, and Claire saw that he was now holding an electronic tape recorder. She briefly wondered where such an item had come from, before concluding it must have fallen off of the dead man.
He hit the power button, a red light blinking on, but when he pressed the play button, nothing happened. Frowning, Redgrave hit the rewind button, and after a long pause followed by a gentle *click,* he pressed the play button again. This time, a voice began emitting from the recorder, a man's, deep and muffled. Emotionless, but somehow eager. Followed by another's, somehow deeper than the first speaker's, an air of stoic menace undertone in his words. In between each exchange of the speakers, there were soft, muffled sounds, like something moving in short bursts.
"Alpha to Ghost. Target moving to the West Area. Must be going to retrieve the G-Virus and antiviral agent."
"This is Ghost. Understood. Rendezvous at Point W-3."
"Roger."
"This is Alpha. Arrived at destination."
"Understood. Stand by for target.
"This is Alpha, I've got eyes on the target. He's going to open the safe."
"Roger. Awaiting the signal.
"Got eyes on the G-Virus."
"We're going in..."
"Doctor Birkin, you'll come along with us quietly."
The recording ended there with a soft *click.* Claire stared at the small device, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape while Tony was wearing a more neutral expression as he slipped the recorder into a pocket inside his coat.
"Birkin..." he whispered to himself. He knew that name from what the female F.B.I. agent had told him hours ago, though it felt so much longer since, about the woman scientist she was looking for: Annette Birkin, Sherry's mother. But the men on the recorder had said 'he' was going for the virus.
So that could only mean...
"Were they... talking about Sherry's father?" Claire asked aloud, more to herself than Tony, who blinked and glanced back at his companion.
The redhead had gone silent, remembering her brief encounter with Annette after she had first awoken in the sewers, studying and documenting the destruction caused by the monster she called 'William.' The same monster Sherry had called 'Daddy.'
When she didn't say anything else, Redgrave looked back to his right, spotting a large stylized 'W' hanging over the platform ledge in the distance. The college girl followed his gaze, fully recalling what else the two men on the recorder had been talking about, her eyes widening with excited hope.
"So... the antiviral agent's in the West Area."
Tony stepped past her, sword in hand as he resumed his leading stride.
"Then that's where we're goin'," he affirmed.
The duo made their way across the extended walkway, Claire only a few steps behind Tony, her grey-blue eyes locked on the gaping holes in the back of his coat, mostly to keep them from wandering to look over the edges of the walkway, deep into the seemingly never-ending abyss just below them. One slip, one stumble, one simple misstep...
She brushed those thoughts aside, reminding herself that she had survived far worse since arriving in Raccoon City, and it would be laughably pathetic to come this far only to die by tripping into an abyss. The thought did bring a small smile to her face, and the biker allowed her shoulders to relax once more as she and Tony arrived at the central hub of the walkway. The white-haired swordsman walked up to the glass and metal doors in the hub's center, giving it a cursory glance before turning his icy gaze to his right, glancing at the terminal in front of it, the screen glowing with a bright magenta light, the Roman Numeral IV visible on it. The gunslinger frowned before slowly walking around the dome, while Claire quickly moved for the right of the hub.
Her quick pace came to a sudden stop when she saw no extending walkway connecting the center hub to the entranceway to the West Area across from them. Blinking, she paused momentarily before spotting a small computer terminal next to the open path in the railing where the walkway would emerge from. Quickly striding over to it, the college student blinked when she saw the familiar lock emblem, but the screen wasn't glowing green or blue, but purple, with the Roman Numeral III also flashing across it.
Frowning, brow furrowed, Claire raised her right hand up, hovering her wrist with the wristband she had had taken from Sherry over the screen, but the lock emblem didn't change from locked to unlock, instead it turned red, a rapid beep issuing before the female computer voice spoke from the speakers on the terminal.
"Senior Staff clearance required for bridge access."
"What?" the girl uttered aloud in a confused hush.
Behind her, Tony had begun to make his way over to her, his icy blue orbs looking from the terminal with the purple screen to glancing back across the walkway they had first come from, towards the back of the similar terminal, unseeing but recalling the blue light it had emitted. Claire tried waving her hand over the screen a second time, only again for the terminal to issue a harsh beep, the female voice repeating its message of denial.
When Tony reached her, the redhead looked back to her companion, her expression a confused one as she spoke up, "I don't understand. We were able to get across before. Why won't it let us through now?"
The youth was silent for a moment, face contemplative before finally looking back at the terminal screen, deducing, "'Cause we don't have clearance."
That made the young woman blink in further befuddlement, which prompted Tony to reach out, hooking the index finger of his left hand through the wristband Claire had taken from Sherry, tapping the glowing green segment before pointing back at the purple-tinted screen of the terminal.
"My guess is Umbrella only wants certain people to have so much access to their labs. Green only lets us go so far. We need a bracelet with a matching color to get across," he explained.
Claire blinked as Tony pulled his hand away, raising her wrist to eye-level to further examine it for a moment, before looking back at the first terminal they passed. In the back of her thoughts, she recalled the massive doors at the entrance to the lab had a similar green light on the screen on it, same as the cable car door. Her brow furrowed again, however, when she remembered the door to this strange hub and the terminal before the first bridge had blue screens, not green.
"But the door we came from was blue, and so was the terminal by the bridge, yet they let us through. How can that be possible if we don't have the right clearance?" she argued.
Tony was retreating towards the left side of the platform, and as Claire kept up with his stride, she saw the bridge connecting to the entranceway to the East Area was already connected as well. Following after him, the shorter girl quickly arrived next to the taller male as he stopped in front of another terminal, this one's screen also blue like the first ones. Except, Claire noticed, that the image of an open lock and the Roman Numeral for II were flashing every few seconds, static snow briefly obscuring their images.
"Oh, that's an easy one," he replied with a grin. "Somebody beat us to the punch, and generously left the way open for us."
That made Claire tense up slightly, while her ex simply began to walk across the bridge for the East Area. The girl blinked at this, calling after him, "Tony, where are you going?"
"To look for a spare wristband with a purple light on it, same as whoever went through here first," he called back casually, never ceasing his stride, Woozy sheathing over his shoulder to hang on his back once again, his now empty hand drawing his Colt out.
Claire opened her mouth, but blinked before saying anything, closing her lips after a moment before shrugging and following after the taller youth. It was not like they had any other options at this point, she concluded.
The college student quickly caught up with the mercenary as they both arrived at the entrance door for the East Area, an identical mechanical sliding one like the one they had walked through to arrive in the large central hub area. She saw the familiar blue screen on this door as well, and saw the screen flicker before sliding open with a soft hiss, revealing a short corridor with another door at the end of the short hallway. The crimson-coated youth resumed his walking, icy eyes giving the corridor a brief look over, but aside from some furniture stashed against a door in a small alcove to their right, along with a smashed ceiling, a large ventilation pipe hanging out and pumping out chilled misty air, there were no bodies or any splashes of blood, just like the entrance.
Somehow, he was finding the absence of bodies to be more worrying, for once.
As Claire followed Tony, she too glanced at the blocked off hallway, spotting some rather large moths fluttering about around the broken piping. She felt her skin bristle, and it wasn't just from the cold air. Thankfully, Umbrella's viruses seemed to have left the insect population alone so far, for which she was grateful. Bugs were disgusting enough, and she didn't want to think about coming across any that may have become infected...
The door at the end of the corridor was another mechanical one, sliding open automatically once Tony stood in front of it with a *hiss.* They found the next room to be another waiting room-style area, a counter and series of desks with computers and even an old typewriter nestled in the corner to the ex-couple's left, a white board with marker scribbles drawn on it on the wall closest to the counter, while the majority of the room felt open and empty, with Claire concluding the furniture stuffed in the small alcove they had passed had come from this room. Redgrave was already moving towards the counter, glancing first at its top before peering over it, a disappointed scowl appearing when he saw nothing of use. His companion had made her way for the door in the far back corner on the right side of the room, seeing it was a normal one compared to the automatic ones they had encountered so far. But when she tried the handle, the woman found it firmly locked.
She frowned, then stiffened when she heard muffled footsteps behind the door, followed by a low groan of hunger. The college student quickly backed up, understanding why the door was locked, and realizing that Umbrella's lab, despite its mostly sterile appearance, was just as infected with their artificial disease as the rest of Raccoon City was above them. Tony glanced towards Claire, seeing her backing away from the door in the right hand corner of the lounge. He watched the metal frame shake slightly, and was able to catch the sound of a faint moan of impotent frustration, as well as weak scrabbling of hands pushing against the obstruction between it and the living morsels just out of reach.
Welp, guess it's better to go with door number two, then, he concluded mentally as he walked for the door closest to the counter.
It was another automatic one, sliding open as the other ones had, revealing another large open room, and from its layout, Tony could surmise it was probably a type of presentation room... especially once he saw what was on the other side of the far wall, which was nothing but several large panes of glass, exposing what lay beyond this room. The red-coated man sauntered closer to the glass window, his face illuminated by a faint purple glow as he grinned mirthlessly, shaking his head in mock disbelief.
"Just when I thought I'd seen it all..." he mused aloud, while behind him, Claire stepped through the automatic door as it opened a second time, closing behind her with a second soft hiss. When she saw what Tony was still gazing at, her reaction was less subdued.
Her free hand flew to her mouth, her grey blue orbs wide as saucers as they took in the horrible sight, a faint whisper muffled by he fingers. "Oh, god. That's... terrible."
'Terrible' was probably too weak a word to describe just exactly what it was the two youths could see on the opposite side of the glass. The room beyond was perhaps twice the length and width of the presentation area they currently stood in, and it was filled with numerous types of plants, trees, ferns, almost to the brim of it all. But the largest plant dominated the center of the room, a long tree neither had ever seen before, dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of snake-like green vines hanging off of its branches and bough, while a truly monstrous series of vines had coiled together, and from the ends of their stalks several large purple petals had seemed to grow out of...
And had engulfed an unlucky individual in a crushing grip, pressed tightly against the glass. The poor person was wearing a yellow hazmat suit, the helmet crushed against the glass, the glowing purple light flickering from the wristband on their right hand illuminating his horrified, agonized expression.
Tony stepped closer towards the glass, drawing Woozy from over his shoulder. The sudden sound of sliding metal snapped Claire out of her horrified daze, causing her to blink before flinching as the man in red slammed the barbed tip of his sword into one of the thin cracks radiating from where the crushed man's body had impacted against the glass. Aside from the smallest chip of glass falling off to bounce soundlessly across the floor, his strike did nothing to expand the crack.
Scowling and huffing out a "Tch," Redgrave pulled his blade back, giving the glass wall another look over. "Reinforced. Probably shatterproof, too, if our unlucky friend here's anything to go by." With a sigh, he slung Woozy back over his shoulder, speaking on as he did, "But that's life. Sometimes you're the windshield... Sometimes you're the fly."
Claire barely heard his words, her eyes slowly looking away from the dead man's face to his wrist, where she saw a twin wristband to the one she had taken from Sherry, only the light on it was purple instead of green. She blinked, breaking free from her stupor, quickly turning to Tony, and spotted him behind a podium across the room, his eyes looking downward at something she couldn't see.
The biker called to her ex, saying, "Tony, he has-"
"Yeah, I saw. Looks like we've gotta chop ourselves a tree down to get it," he confirmed, his icy eyes looking over the flickering screen of the laptop. It was open on another email box, but the screen kept flickering like the terminal panels they had passed on the way to the East Area, making it almost impossible to read the text as it kept blurring every few seconds, prompting him to give up and step away from the podium as the college student approached him. The two turned towards the only other door in the presentation room, with Tony walking towards it first.
The door started to open with a mechanical whoosh and a beep-
-only to stop barely a third of the way open, green vegetation clinging to the back the metal door. After a few more hard pulls and tugs, the door finished opening, revealing a tight corridor covered in vines and green plant matter.
Neither youth moved, Claire giving Tony a concerned glance as the taller male rolled his eyes and unsheathed his sword again, muttering, "Guess someone watered this fern a little too much..."
He paused before moving through the open doorway, looking back at his companion with a dead serious expression before speaking again.
"If these vines start singing, I'm throwing down my sword and leaving," he said before moving through the open doorway.
Claire actually had to stop and blink, digesting his words before understanding hit her. "Never figured you for a fan of musicals," she muttered as she followed after him.
"It had the guy with the glasses from Ghostbusters in it. And I was bored," he explained conversationally as they walked down the packed corridor, both youths eyes flickering over the vast vegetation clinging to the walls and ceiling above.
Tony's walking slowed as he spotted a large bundle of the vines hanging together in clumps at the top of the ceiling, a little ways into the center of the room, which seemed to have been some kind of operating room before turning into an impromptu greenhouse, more vines clinging to glass display cases, over a small gurney, and a lone chair.
Frowning, the young merc stepped closer to the wall, aligning himself so he was almost under the bundle entirely, but just far enough away to be careful. Claire moved past him, both eager to get to the dead man's wristband and a step closer to the antiviral agent needed to save Sherry, as well as put as much distance between herself and this greenhouse from Hell.
"Tony, come on. Let's get-"
Her words stopped as abruptly as she did. Once past the vine-engulfed gurney and chair, the girl spotted a body lying limply in the short corridor leading to another door. Or at least, it looked like a body, covered in the encroaching plant matter the same as the rest of the room. But something was definitely off about it...
She hedged a step closer, eyes narrowing, her brow furrowing as she studied the corpse. Its askew limbs were unnaturally skinny, less than half of her own wrist by comparison, same as its legs, the torso and waist likewise shrunken down, while the head seemed swollen; bulbous almost. Frowning, she unconsciously drew her revolver back out, while behind her, Tony finally pulled his own eyes away from the strange bundle of vines in the corner of the ceiling, looking over to the young woman as he spoke.
"Weirder and weirder... Claire? What's up?"
The biker girl didn't respond immediately, continuing to look the body over...
When it twitched, a sickening *crack* issuing from it, like the sound of a branch snapping.
Redfield's eyes widened, her whole body jerking backwards, while behind her, Tony spotted the body she had been studying, seeing it was beginning to twitch and spasm, more branch-snapping sounds issuing from it as it slowly clambered upright-
-when something landed with a *thump* to his left.
The swordmaster's eyes widened, Woozy thrusting out in the same motion as it took him to turn, faster than the eye could follow. The barbed end of the sword ran through the abdomen of the second creature that had fallen from the ceiling, cutting through it easily. Which would have been relieving, if it wasn't pulling itself closer towards the red-coated mercenary, thin arms and long fingers, all the same green as the vegetation engulfing the room, desperately grasping at the dark steel. Redgrave glanced from his sword up into the creature's face, seeing the dark holes where a person's eyes would be, the strange, plant man's mouth a small, sucking hole...
Which quickly grew, as the top and bottom began to split open, the swollen skull splitting wide apart with it, a horrible sound like branches and bones shattering issuing as the two halves revealed twin rows of rotten, yellow teeth that began to gnash hungrily as the plant creature continued to pull itself closer towards the man.
Claire heard Tony's sword slash and cut through something with a strange, wet sound, and her head snapped over her shoulder, her eyes widening when she saw the strange, plant-man hybrid lunging for her ex-lover, its head splitting open to reveal a set of jaws snapping hungrily for his face, Redgrave's free hand grabbing its neck to hold and push the creature back. The warrior's icy eyes met her own before looking past her, widening in alarm.
"Claire, BEHIND YOU!"
Realizing she had turned her back on the plant-covered body that had been pulling itself up, the college girl whirled around, sighting the creature as it finished rising back up, taking a single wobbly step closer towards her, a twin to the one attacking Tony. Not wanting to waste any more time, Claire opened fire, six shots repeating loudly, striking the body and head of the plant man with enough force to push it back, and almost knock it off its feet completely, splatters of green mulch striking the wall and floor behind it...
But it didn't fall down.
The skinny plant monster stumbled forward again, and the redhead saw small green tendrils weaving through the holes her bullets had punched into its body, causing them to shrink rapidly.
"Oh shit," she whispered for what had to be the hundredth time since arriving in Raccoon City.
Behind her, she could hear the second plant monster still hungrily snapping its head-jaws for Tony, who was still holding it back with his free hand, Woozy's long length emerging from behind the monster's back, covered in green gunk that dripped thickly onto the floor. Sparing his ex a glance, seeing her .38's shots had barely staggered the thing, the youth almost felt like panicking...
When he caught sight of the long grey tube strapped to the back of Claire's black shirt. Two words echoed in his mind, spoken hours ago when he had first laid eyes on the grenade launcher back when in the armory of the R.P.D.
Napalm... Nice.
"Claire! Your grenade launcher!" he called, his voice rising over the hungry, snarling, gnashing of the plant man impaled on his sword still struggling to pull itself closer to his warm flesh.
The biker girl didn't even pause to think of the impracticality of firing such a highly destructive weapon in close quarters, quickly concluding that burning to death was still a more humane way to go compared to getting eaten by a plant monster. Dropping her revolver and unslinging the grenade launcher from over her shoulder, Claire lined the launcher up with the plant creature, whose head began to split apart, revealing its own set of sharp yellow teeth, and squeezed the trigger. A soft *fwp* issued, the heavy round striking the plant man dead center on its chest-
BOOM!*
Flames engulfed the monster, which screeched out a horrible, otherworldly shriek like nothing Claire or Tony had heard before, its thin limbs flailing in panic and pain as it staggered backwards, its green plant flesh blackening, sharp cracks like those heard from a pyre issuing from it as it collapsed, burning and twitching, the floor under it charring and smoking with it. Then, it stopped moving entirely, the flames continuing to consume it, its already frail and thin form shrinking further.
The auburn-haired student couldn't keep the relieved and triumphant grin off of her face as the plant monster continued to burn silently, most definitely dead, when she heard Tony grunt behind her, snapping her out of her premature victory high. Spinning around, cracking the tube of the launcher open to load her last round in, Claire watched as the plant monster lunged for the boy's neck, her eyes widening-
But Tony easily held the creature back, sneering at its snapping jaws to quip, "Sorry, fella, but no necking on the first DATE!"
He punctuated the word 'date' with a hard kick to the plant man's abdomen, a sharp crack issuing from it as it was knocked clean off of his sword and into the back wall, green mulchy blood splattering on the white surface. The man stepped back, spinning Woozy to clean the green gunk off of its dark surface while giving the college girl plenty of room to line her next shot. The final napalm round sang through the air, striking the stunned plant man before engulfing it in flames like its sibling.
The same, warbly screech issued from it, but it struggled even less against the flames eating away at it, the thin body crumpling to the floor, unlucky vines and other tendrils of plant matter caught in the fire burning the ivy zombie to ashes. Claire watched the monstrosity burn, glancing back at the first one she had lit up, seeing that the fires consuming it were beginning to die, but its body was shrunken and black, a foul smell, like burning meat and dead wood mixed together, beginning to overpower even the clinging smog of smoke.
Tony approached her, flicking the last of the green plant mulch off his sword before sheathing it again. "Nice job, hot stuff."
She gave him a side-eyed glare but said nothing, looking back at the grenade launcher in relief... and dread.
The swordsman caught her expression, and quickly caught on to its meaning.
"That was our last round, wasn't it?" he asked calmly.
Claire nodded, carefully dropping the grenade launcher against the slightly charred gurney before looking back at him and asking, "What are the odds these were the only ones around?"
The taller male shook his head. "Bad."
He walked in front of Claire, casually stomping over the burned body, his heavy boots crushing its abdomen and head into burnt splinters. He drew his Colt back out, beckoning her after him before speaking. "Whatever's ahead, we'll deal with it like everything else we've run into so far. You got my back?"
She nodded, scooping up her revolver before holstering it, and drawing the Ruger Blackhawk Tony had given her back at the police station. It packed a heavier punch, and while the bullets from the .38 hadn't done much against the ivy zombie, she was willing to bet the larger revolver would knock them off their feet.
Redfield nodded and affirmed, "Yeah. Let's go."
The white-haired young man returned the gesture, offering her his trademark cocky grin before stepping in front of the next automatic door. It pulled itself open with a chime and a hydraulic hiss-
-before Tony Redgrave found himself staring down the barrel of a submachine gun.
Whoever, or perhaps even whatever, was about to step through the door into the control room for the NEST's Greenhouse would find themselves with several dozens MP5 rounds to their face and abdomen, Ada Wong decided as she waited calmly a few feet away from said door, positioning herself halfway between it and the control panel behind her. While she was more willing to believe it was probably a person, and not one of the many, many ivy-coated plant people wandering about, based on the sounds of gunfire and explosives, that thought didn't exactly make her want to greet them with open arms and a smile. If anything, it made her trigger finger eager to twitch.
The agent had arrived at Umbrella's hidden laboratory, dubbed the 'NEST' by the company, several hours ago after making her way to the cable car situated close to the water treatment areas in Raccoon City's sewers. Arriving at the underground lab had given Ada some much needed relief. For one, reaching the lab felt like a final step towards achieving her goal of recovering a G-Virus sample, knowing fully well that there had to be at least one surviving viral culture left in the very lab William Birkin had worked for over a decade to perfect the synthesis. A few hacked emails she had been able to pull up, as well as a recording from a dead security serviceman, confirmed that the samples were held in the West Area.
The dead man had graciously lent her all his equipment, the very same compact MP5 submachine gun she was now holding, an extra side-pack and spare holster, along with five extra magazines for the MP5, a single grenade, and a combat knife, which, compared to the lone Mauser she had brought along initially, felt like stumbling across the Holy Grail itself. For a single moment, Ada had let herself believe she'd be on track to collecting the sample and escaping the lab all in under an hour.
In hindsight, she never should have let herself even think things were looking up.
Right, she thought with internal bitterness. As if anything's gone according to plan since I've gotten here...
The first obstacle, if it really could be called that, were the blue coded doors. The ID wristband she had taken off of the dead man in the sewer incinerator was only a glorified 'guest pass,' the door leading into the NEST's main hub refusing to open when she presented it to the scanner, a computerized woman's voice informing her only staff were allowed past this point.
Annoyed, Ada had briefly thought she would have to go looting through the bodies of NEST's mostly deceased staff for the appropriate wristband, when she remembered the handy little hacking tool in her holster. The EMF Visualizer had managed to easily break through the encryption software the door utilized, erasing it and opening door for her. The Visualizer had worked on the encrypted bridge control panels, giving the agent access to the Main Shaft and central platform of the NEST's hub, where a lone elevator was situated at the platform's center.
It was on the platform connecting the reception area doorway and the center platform where Ada had found the dead Umbrella servicemen and procured his gear, along with a digital tape recorder that confirmed the location of the G-Virus samples in the West Area, only a single bridge away from her current position.
But of course, the control panel for the bridge access point to the West Area featured multiple encryptions that were much stronger than the one for the general staff access, requiring senior staff clearance to unlock instead. And though Ada had debated trying the Visualizer anyway, she chose not to. The device might have been able to slice through the electronic barriers, but it also ran the risk of frying the circuitry within, destroying the panel, and leaving her with no way across. She knew she was going to have to find another wristband with the appropriate clearance level. One with a purple chip instead of the green in the one she currently had.
A quick search through the cafeteria and nap room back in the reception area of NEST had turned up nothing of use. And while she had found a second wristband, it was only cleared for general staff, and possessed a blue chip instead of a purple. Returning to the central hub, she had used the Visualizer to gain access to the East Wing, where NEST had reportedly working on something called 'Plant 43.' Her contact had informed her of the original t-Virus plant experiments conducted during the outbreak at the Spencer Estate, dubbed 'Plant 42,' and it seemed that NEST had decided to try recreating the lost project under safer conditions.
When Ada had arrived in the East Area labs and discovered the titular plant had overrun its greenhouse habitat, the staff of the area who weren't dead or turned into virus carriers had been implanted with spores or seedlings from Plant 43, turning them into carnivorous plant men, who she learned first hand could be downed by gunfire, but not killed, rising again after a short time.
A part of her wondered if Umbrella would deem Plant 43 a success or a failure after discovering what it had done to their lab. The fact it could make its own B.O.W.s would probably please them, and make them forget said impromptu bio-weapons were once their own scientists. But since when has their own researchers becoming the very monsters they created ever bothered Umbrella?
Still, it only made her headache grow.
Thankfully, someone had the smarts to come up with a chemical herbicide that could potentially kill the overgrown fern... but they hadn't been smart enough to synthesize any BEFORE the damn thing went on its rampage.
So for the last hour or so, the agent had been running back and forth all over the East Area, dodging the plant men when she could, or shooting them into temporary death when she couldn't, discovering the strange, glowing yellow pustule sacs on their bodies to be a weak point that could drop them, all the while searching for the access codes to unlock the shutter door to the Drug Testing Lab. The computers controlling the locks in the Control Room were also encrypted, making the EMF Visualizer useless, forcing her to look for the actual codes. She had found one of a hatch inside the Greenhouse itself, the looming Plant 43 ignoring her entirely, either not noticing her, or full from its feeding frenzy.
The code on the hatch had only unlocked the hatch, but exploring the Lounge it led to had yielded better luck: an eyesore of a trophy - a gaudy, fake gold sculpture of a DNA helix - had the code to the Drug Testing Lab stamped under it. Ada had managed to unlock the lab, where she had found the necessary documents to guide her to creating the herbicide.
She had placed it in the dispersal device in the Control Room, and had been ready to hit the button to spray the glorified weed killer into the carnivorous plant when she heard the gunshots and explosives go off in the next room, and so she had positioned herself behind the counter in the Control Room, MP5 up and ready for her unexpected company to step through the door, as good as dead the moment she had them in her sights.
Sounded like small arms fire before the explosives went off... Maybe it isn't a cleanup crew, her mind drawled as she waited impatiently for the door to open. She could hear voices, but the walls muffled them sufficiently enough for her to be unable to make out what they were saying.
Still, gunfire means it's not... him, at least...
For a brief moment, the image of the darkly dressed man, his face coated in gauze, flashed in her mind's eye, the cold gaze of his eyes a harder steel than that of his katana...
But she shoved that thought aside as quickly as it came, stopping the brief shiver that shuddered through her hands, steadying the sub-machine gun once again. She could hear the interlopers' footsteps now, growing closer. Any second now...
The door pulled open with a hiss, and Ada thrust the gun forward, her finger ready to squeeze the trigger-
-when her eyes widened, the brown orbs recognizing the shaggy, snow-colored locks and the crimson red coat of the man walking through the door.
"You?!" she gasped, blinking in shock as she recognized the new arrival to be the loudmouthed swordsman she had encountered in the parking deck of the Raccoon City Police Station what felt like a lifetime ago.
The icy-eyed youth blinked as well, his blue eyes looking from the barrel of the MP5 to Ada's face, then back the gun, a bemused, wry grin forming on his lips.
"Heh, talk about your déjà vu," he noted aloud.
Behind him, someone in black and pink walked in after the taller male, a soft, feminine voice asking, "Did you say something, Tony?"
Ada's eyes flickered towards the voice, meeting the owner's grey-blue eyes. Both women's eyes widened, the agent snapping the sub-machine gun at the newcomer in the same moment the younger girl raised a large revolver at her.
"Don't move!"
"Drop it!"
They both shouted at the same time, when matching gloved hands shot out, the left shoving the MP5's barrel down at the same time the right knocked the long barrel of the revolver up.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, ladies, ladies, relax!" Tony Redgrave urged the two women with an easy smile, looking between both of them, seeing they were still glaring fiercely at the other. "We're all still alive and kicking, aren't we? So let's pump the brakes before one of us decides to get a twitchy trigger finger. Capisce?"
"Tony, you know her?" Claire asked, still glaring distrustfully at the older woman, eyeing her apparel in a combination of confusion and aggravation.
Redgrave nodded, pulling his hands off the two females' weapons, letting Claire lower her Blackhawk to her side, while Ada only lowered the MP5 to just below chest level, shooting an equally irate glare back at the younger girl.
"In a manner of speaking. We ran into each other back at RPD's parking deck, right after we got separated again. She's a fed diggin' through Umbrella's dirty laundry." Tony explained, seemingly indifferent to the acidic looks shared between the two as he let out a small chuckle. "I've been so caught up in surviving the night, I totally forgot all about her!"
The white-haired merc looked back at Ada, gesturing to his companion. "Agent Ada, Claire Redfield." He then looked back to the other girl. "Claire Redfield, Agent Ada. And before you ask, no, I didn't get a last name."
"...Wong," the woman in question answered, a harsh edge laced in her tone, keeping her hard gaze on the younger girl. "Special Agent Ada Wong. F.B.I."
Heedless of his own partner's fiery glare, the man went on with his introduction. "Yep. Flashed me a badge and everything." His ice blue gaze fell back on the older woman, only this time lingering just a tad longer than his companion would have liked. "Though, uh... she wasn't exactly rockin' the nighttime escort look last time." he mused. "Not that you don't look fine in that dress, doll. Really digging the color."
That prompted Claire's glare to shift from Ada to Tony, her elbow jamming into his ribs hard enough to make him flinch and look back at her, making Ada smirk despite herself.
"Hmph. Guess you're not all talk, after all..." she mused to herself, finally lowering the MP5 entirely, her finger sliding off the trigger at last.
Her brown eyes studied the two further, her brow furrowing and nose wrinkling as she saw the splashes of blood and dried sewage on them... as well as the various tears and holes in the taller male's crimson coat, seeing a few corresponding holes and rips in his loose black shirt and pants as well. He looked like he had been a human pincushion at some point, but aside from a few dried stains along his pale skin, she couldn't see hide nor hair of any real injuries.
Strange...
Letting her gaze shift towards the younger girl, the agent observed, "I see you managed to find your girlfriend, at least."
"Ex-girlfriend," Claire interjected, her venomous glare falling back on Ada. Redgrave's smirk faltered at her rebuke, a flash of hurt briefly flickering through his icy eyes.
The older woman had to resist rolling her eyes at the display of immature youth between the two, instead turning on her heel while saying, "My condolences."
She let the rifle slip from her hands, the strap around her shoulder catching the weapon, and leaving it hanging at her side for easy access as the Asian-American woman strode towards the dispersal unit near the window display looking into the Greenhouse.
As she did, Tony cleared his throat before speaking again. "Anyway, we're trying to find a way to get into the West Area. And it looks like you've been snooping around, so-"
That made Ada pause, looking back at the duo from over her shoulder as she asked, "The West Area? Why do you need to go there?"
In their last encounter, the youth had mostly seemed ignorant in regards to Raccoon City's situation, questioning her on the causes of the outbreak... but she also remembered the bandaged man calling himself Tony's 'keeper.' If this guy was good enough to survive this long and make it to the heart of Umbrella's research, it could only mean that he was definitely more than he appeared to be...
"The G-Virus antiviral agent, DEVIL," the younger girl answered for him, crossing her arms, keeping her glare on Ada.
The female agent cocked a brow at that. "The antiviral agent? What do you want that for?"
"There's a little girl with us. She's been infected by the G-Virus, and we need the vaccine to save her," Tony explained.
That had Agent Wong's attention as she turned around to fully look back at the two youths. From what little information her contacts had been able to recover on the G-Strain, there were only two methods of infection: direct injection, or parasitic implantation from a first-generation infected. The parasitic implants were always fatal, because the host inevitably rejected the parasite. Unless, of course, they were genetically compatible, like a sibling...
...Or direct offspring.
Her thoughts drifted back towards her earlier run-in with Annette Birkin in the sewers, the body the scientist had destroyed, and the creature inside it that had burst out from it in its death throes...
William's handiwork...
Ada felt like an idiot for not having made the connection sooner. But this late in the game, there was no point in stomping her feet over not having figured it out back then. And if these two needed to get to the DEVIL Vaccine, that meant they needed to get to the West Area, same as her, where the G-Virus samples were stored. Perhaps too much of a coincidence...
But if they tried anything, she was confident she could get the drop on both of them if it ever came to that.
Turning back to the dispersal console, Ada reached into her pouch, pulling out the small vial filled with the green herbicide she had synthesized, speaking as she did. "Then we're going to need that Senior Staff wristband in there. I'm sure you've noticed it's currently in that overgrown fern's vines?"
A quick glance back, and the agent saw a shift in their body language. The girl relaxed visibly, her shoulders loosening, her irate glare melding away to a more neutral expression, though the relief in her eyes was obvious. Redgrave's smirk had returned, and he stepped further into the lab, drawing that gothic longsword as he did, raising the sword up.
"I think I can hack my way through and snatch it up," he proposed.
She smirked at that, facing the dispersal unit, and slipping the herbicide vial into the open socket. "Don't bother. Thanks to this, we won't have to go anywhere near that house plant."
She hit the button, and the computerized female voice spoke.
"Dispensing solution now."
Inside the greenhouse, the numerous sprinklers situated at the piping overlooking the plantation began to rain a misty film over the numerous plants and vines overgrowing throughout the room. The trio watched silently, but could discern no noticeable changes in the greenery. Ada frowned at the apparent lack of effect when the computer chimed again.
"Error. Solution temperature is outside acceptable range."
She grit her teeth, fighting back the urge to scream and smash her fist into the device as it ejected the vial containing the herbicide solution. Snatching and shoving it back into her pouch, Ada quickly yanked out the file containing the instructions on the solution, incredulous over how it had failed her... when she realized the bottom of the page was bent partway. Unfolding it, sure enough, Step 3: Cool immediately.
"Goddammit..." she whispered to herself, crumpling the file up, while Claire quickly stepped closer, concern and slight panic forming on her young face.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"...I missed a step when I was making the plant killer. It has to be chilled before dispersal, or it won't have any effect," the Asian-American explained, tossing the file aside.
Tony scratched his chin in thought before asking, "So, what, we gotta find a fridge to stick it in, and wait for it to get cold enough?"
Again resisting the urge to roll her eyes, finding herself missing her sunglasses since they would have let her get away with said action, the dark-haired woman shook her head. "Even if that was an option, it would take too long. There's a low temperature testing lab on the floor below this level. I just need to use one of the machines down there, and it'll cool the herbicide to the proper temperature."
Claire blinked, asking, "How are we supposed to get to the floor below?"
"Easy. We walk. There's a service chute in the Greenhouse we can use to get there," she replied, drawing her submachine gun as she headed for the door leading into the large chamber.
The redheaded woman's eyes widened before she dashed after the agent, calling out as she did. "Are you insane?! Did you forget about the giant carnivorous plant that's inside there, too?!"
Wong gave the younger girl a mocking, pitiful side-eyed glance, raising her submachine gun before replying, "I've already made a run through there before you two showed up. Twice, actually. It ignored me both times, so it's safe for the moment."
Redfield returned the glare, mockingly retorting, "They say third time's the charm."
Ada was about to bite back when Tony moved for the door behind her, interrupting the argument before it could go any further. "Okay, okay, how's about I go first? That way, if those vines get grabby, I can introduce them to my little friend here," he offered, raising his longsword with his right hand while pushing the door open with his left. He paused before looking back at the two women, asking the fed, "Where's that chute?"
Not interested in arguing any further with the younger girl, or dissuading the man, since if Plant 43 DID decide to attack, it was his neck at risk and not hers, she answered calmly, "Down the steps to the north, past the walkway that leads to the Drug Testing Lab."
Redgrave nodded, flashing both women a smile and a two-fingered salute before stepping into the Greenhouse, the door closing behind him. From the viewing window, both Ada and Claire watched as the young man made his way down the stairs, balancing his gothic sword across his shoulder as he descended the first set of steps, walking a little ways, then down the next set. None of the vegetation surrounding him made any move, and everything else was quiet.
Unable to resist, Ada flashed the biker girl a mocking smirk while sneering, "See?"
No sooner did she say that did the swinging of metal through air cut through the silence, striking something with a wet thumping sound, followed by a loud *clang.*
Claire's eyes widened, and she drew her Blackhawk back out, quickly darting for the door. As the younger girl burst through it, Wong finally allowed herself to roll her eyes with a sigh before readying her MP5 and following after the girl at a calmer gait. By the time the agent was down the first set of steps, the redhead was flying down the second, sprinting for the lower walkway when she stopped halfway, letting out a relieved sigh.
Frowning, Ada power-walked a bit quicker to catch up and get a view of what she was looking at. When she did see it, she stopped dead in her tracks.
Redgrave was close to the chute, standing over the body of one of the plant men, watching with rapt fascination as its decapitated head grew small vines that were dragging the severed part back towards its neck. His longsword had a splash of dark green gunk along the barbed tip, which he flicked off the blade before remarking, "Huh. Guess just whackin' the weeds ain't gonna cut it."
The cocktail-dressed woman inclined her head back when she heard the familiar warbly cry and snapping of branches, indicating another one was coming. And she was willing to bet it probably wouldn't be alone.
Pushing past Claire, she snapped, "Let's move!"
Tony slung his sword over his back, stepping back closer to the chute, and hauling the cover open without so much as a grunt. Holding it up, he let Ada quickly slide down the ladder, followed by Claire. Once the two women were safely down, the red-coated mercenary hopped down into the opening, holding the bottom of the latch as he did, pulling it shut as he landed on both feet with a heavy *whump,* blinking at the sudden lack of illumination.
"Anyone got a light?"
At his prompt, Claire was reaching into her side pack to produce her flashlight, while Ada was already stalking towards the door at the far end of the room, calling to the former couple as she did. "It's just through here. Come on."
Tony and Claire did as she bade, following after her as she reached the door, quickly opening it, and stepping through into a dimly lit hallway, the blue walls casting eerie shadows from the bright emergency lights lit up near the bottom, where the floors and walls met. Walking ahead at a ginger pace, her pumps making soft *clicks* with each step, Ada called back to the youths as they stepped through the door after her, the agent and the young girl never seeing the taller male pause, his nostrils flaring as he caught a familiar whiff of a faint odor under the smell of blood and rot.
"The power's out. I can get it back on, but I'll need a minute. I took care of the infected while I was down here, so there shouldn't be any problems-"
"I wouldn't bet on that," Tony Redgrave whispered, making Ada blink and spin around, finding the crimson-coated man was already moving past her, his sword drawn from over his back.
He stepped into the lounge, taking note of the various bodies lying strewn about, most covered in blood, with fresh bullet holes in their heads. When the mercenary saw the very same gaudy trophy their new companion had found the passcode under, he reached out with his blade, poking the trophy with its barbed tip, causing it to fall off the table it was on, and strike the floor with a loud clatter.
Almost instantly, two high-pitched shrieks erupted from the far back of the other hallway, Wong hearing the rapid *click-click-clicks* of something with claws dashing across the floor.
No sooner did she realize exactly what was making those sounds did the first Licker leap from around the corner, its large, clawed hands drawn back, mouth open, and razor sharp teeth bared as it dove for the source of the sound. Ada felt herself reflexively open her mouth to scream a warning-
Only for her jaw to go slack as Tony Redgrave dashed out of the creature's way, causing it to slam into the table and scrabble awkwardly on the floor, leaving it open for the snowy-haired swordmaster to ram his longsword straight through its back. The skinless beast howled in agony, its long tongue whipping about the air in a pained frenzy, but the sharp organ never touched the boy, who was already lashing forward, ripping his shotgun from over his shoulder, racking the gauge, and thrusting it out, striking the second Licker dead center on its mouth before pulling the trigger. The point blank blast of buckshot shredded the upper portion of the monster's head apart, leaving it with only half a face, its bloody tongue hanging out of its ruined jaw as the creature went limp.
Pumping the gauge a second time, Redgrave calmly walked over to the first beast, which was still struggling in a pained frenzy. With complete calm and an air of casualness, Tony yanked his sword free from its back, and in the same motion, cut the Licker's head clean off before kicking it across the room, where it struck the wall with a wet splat, before sliding off and striking the floor with a wet bounce.
With a victorious laugh, Tony thrust both arms up and shouted, "SCORE ONE FOR REDGRAVE!" Turning back to the stunned Ada and unfazed Claire, the merc gave a flamboyant bow before declaring, "Now it's safe."
The agent had to force herself to blink and close her jaw, wetting her lips before asking, "How in the world did you do that?"
With a chuckle, the gunslinger first slung his shotgun, then his sword, before saying, "Like I told you before, sweetheart. Guns or blades, I'm the best there is."
Regardless, the woman found her thoughts drifting back to her earlier unwanted companion. Redgrave's skills were flashier than the silent swordsman's own, but his feats of strength and movement speed vaguely reminded her of Gilver's. The mystery man's connection to the red-coated youth was still unknown to her...
Next to the still somewhat shell-shocked Ada, Claire cleared her throat before reminding her, "You gonna get the power back on, or what?"
Shaking her head to rid herself of her lingering stupor, the scarlet-dressed woman nodded, walking around the smashed and overturn tables for an open power panel in the far back wall, near some vending machines. Reaching into her own side-pack, Ada produced a device that resembled a small radio, standing in front of the panel as Redgrave walked towards one of the vending machines, patting his various pockets before stopping, then smashing his fist against the machine. A mechanical rumble issued out, and a blue soda can fell out.
Tony picked it up, eyeing it with distaste. "Ugh. Pepsi."
He tossed the soda in Claire's direction, the college girl easily snatching it, popping the tab open, and quickly downing the soft drink in three large gulps, her throat as dry and parched as a desert, and more than eager to quench her thirst. As Tony smacked the vending machine a second time, producing the familiar red Coke can, Ada finished adjusting the Signal Modulator she had procured from a dead Umbrella serviceman, and overhead, the lights flickered back on, an electronic hum emitting and reverberating through the walls.
"Let there be light," Wong whispered to herself, looking back as the taller male finished his own drink, calmly crushing the tin and tossing it aside before staring sheepishly at the woman, pointing at the vending machine with a jerk of his thumb.
"Want one?"
Ada shook her head, saying, "I'm good, thanks. The low temperature lab is just down that hallway."
Tony nodded, glancing over to Claire while saying, "Go with her, ba- er, pal... We passed a supply closet on the way in. I'm gonna go check it out."
Both Ada and Claire exchanged uneasy glances, the latter mixed with a grimace at her ex's cringey comment.
Despite that, the white-haired male chuckled at the sight of their expressions as he began walking away, calling from the corner as he reached it, "Play nice now!"
Once he was out of sight, Ada began striding down the hallway the two Lickers had emerged from, Claire a few steps behind her, the Asian-American agent noting the sections of ceiling paneling crashed on the floor, explaining where the two creatures had come from. When she arrived at the door to the lab, it opened with a hydraulic hiss, revealing a large workroom shrouded heavily in darkness. Behind her, the younger woman gripped her revolver with both hands whilst keeping it near her hip. Ada, for her part, raised her MP5, and began maneuvering carefully into the lab.
As they passed the first section of work desks with various test tubes and other scientific equipment scattered about their tops, the dark-haired female quietly inquired, "...So what brings a high school student to a necropolis in the midst of a bio-hazard outbreak?"
Claire shot the older woman an annoyed glare, hissing, "I'm a college freshman, thank you very much." Ada remained quiet, resisting a roll of her eyes as said college girl inhaled sharply before answering her question. "I came to Raccoon City to look for my brother... But he's been gone for a while now. Left before the outbreak started, apparently. Now I just want to cure my friend, escape the city, and go find him."
The older girl couldn't blame her for that, quietly adding, "You must be pretty good with that gun, then... Or did you have your boyfriend do all the heavy lifting?"
That got a sharp hiss from Claire before she snapped, "He's not my boyfriend!... Not anymore, at least." She said nothing for another moment's pause before quietly adding, "My brother's with S.T.A.R.S., and he's given me some training. I can handle myself."
S.T.A.R.S., huh?... She must be Chris Redfield's sister, then...
Her contact had been intimately familiar with the disbanded special forces unit, and Ada had done her own research on them before coming to the city on the off chance it could prove useful. She hadn't encountered any of the five survivors from the Spencer Mansion outbreak, but her employer would be very interested to know that at least Chris Redfield had survived Raccoon City's outbreak.
They cleared past the work desks, arriving at a junction where a row of desks with computers were situated in front of a viewing window that let both women see the next section of the lab, which was frosted over in a thick layer of white condensation. Wong espied the lone body of a female in a lab coat slumped against the wall, and without missing a beat, raised her MP5, and let loose a trio of rounds, each bullet slamming home on the woman's head, making it jerk back in a burst of blood, a dying sigh emitting from her rotten lips. Aside from a small flinch at the sudden sound of gunfire, the young redhead only glanced at the body once before looking back through the window into the next part of the lab.
Looking back at the female agent, eyeing her state of dress, she asked, "You gonna be warm enough in there?"
Ada nodded, moving towards the nearest computer, and hitting the space bar, the screen lighting up, revealing an open email box. A quick glance through its contents yielded nothing of importance, prompting her to move away from it, and start heading for the back of the lab, where the entrance to the cold portion of it was.
As she did, she spoke to Claire again. "Was the breakup mutual?"
The younger woman blinked, eyes falling to Ada's back as she continued walking, replying, "Somewhat... Why do you care?"
"I don't. I just find it odd that you two are still working together even though you split up."
Claire shifted uncomfortably, adjusting her feet before replying, "It... It wasn't. I caught him in a lie, and that's why I ended it. Let's just leave it at that."
Now that, Ada could understand.
"Men will always try take something from you, honey. Mostly your time, sometimes your dignity. The sooner you learn to stop relying on them, the better off you are."
With that piece of advice given, the older girl stepped in front of the door, which opened automatically, a blast of cold air washing over her. Now missing her coat, Ada ignored the biting chill and discomfort it brought, quickly moving into the chilled-over lab, and found the sample cooling control unit near the viewing windows, where Claire was watching her quietly. Slipping the vial with the herbicide inside the port on the control panel, she hit a single frosty button, bringing the machine to life.
Inside, a yellow mechanical claw picked up the vial, moving and screwing it into an open spot in the back. The computerized female voice spoke up.
"Cooling sequence in progress."
The vial was sucked deeper into the slot it had been placed in, a hiss of white vapor emitting from it before it rose back up. The claw picked the vial back up and slipped it back into the first slot she had placed it in, where it was ejected out. Ada picked it up, wincing at the ice cold permafrost now covering it, the previously green liquid now chilled over into a cool blue. Stuffing the vial back into her pouch, the agent ignored the computer as it proclaimed the cooling complete, quickly rushing out of the lab and back into the relatively warmer section, rubbing her exposed upper arms to warm them back up as she did.
Walking back over to Claire, the college girl offered Ada a sympathetic glance before saying, "I'm pretty sure silk and nylons aren't standard issue for federal agents."
Ada nodded, rubbing her hands as she explained, "This job wasn't supposed to be like this. I wasn't exactly mission-ready when the outbreak hit."
Patting her side pouch, she gestured back towards where they came. "Come on. Let's get this over with so we can get the virus sample and the antiviral agent you need."
Claire frowned, following after her while asking, "Wait, why are you after a virus sample?"
"I need a sample because it's incriminating evidence against Umbrella. With it, I can bring down their entire operation," Ada explained automatically, keeping her eyes forward.
Claire was silent, seeming to mull over her words.
Don't think too much on it, honey. Accidents tend to happen at Umbrella labs as of late. Especially to those who ask too many questions, the agent darkly mused to herself.
The two stepped back into the lounge hallway, making their way back for the door into the darkened room that had the ladder chute back to the Greenhouse. As they did, they heard another door open, followed by rapid footsteps. The steps' owner, an excited Tony Redgrave, announced himself as he dashed from around the corner, spotting both women as he excitedly shouted, "Hey, ladies! Check THIS out!"
When they both saw just what it was the youth in red had found that had him so excited, Claire sighed and shook her head, resisting the urge to smack her forehead while Ada smirked, looking amused and impressed.
"Well, that's certainly gonna come in handy," she remarked as Redgrave bounced on his heels, both hands holding a long and dangerous new weapon...
Back in the Greenhouse, the previously decapitated ivy zombie had successfully reattached its head, the last of the thin vines sewing themselves through the flesh-turned-plant matter. The creature was stumbling around the closed chute, its throat emitting a creaking groan as its thin legs struggled to support its body. The closed hatch suddenly reopened, the soft sound of squealing metal causing the plant monster to slowly stumble back around, its empty holes spotting a tall figure in red standing across from it at the top of the chute, a fierce grin on his pale face...
With a long, metal gray rifle in his hands, the base between the grip and rail outfitted with three small chemical tanks stacked in a triangle formation... and a soft, flickering red and yellow flame dancing at the tip of the barrel.
Unable to see or care for the imminent danger, the plant creature lurched forward, skinny arms reaching out as its head split in two, a hungry howl screeching from its new mouth.
With a squeeze on the trigger, Tony Redgrave unleashed a stream of flames from the chemical flamethrower he had discovered in the storage server room back in the floor below, the high-intensity fire washing over the ivy zombie, its starved howl becoming an agonized screech as it frantically waved its branch thin arms about before collapsing onto the walkway, still screaming as it quickly cooked into a charred black, the flames destroying the regenerative plant mass faster than it could heal itself.
The boy eased his finger off the trigger of the flamethrower, casually balancing the large weapon across his shoulder as he observed the very dead and crispy plant man, small plumes of smoke wafting off of its corpse, that rancid, strange mix of burnt wood and meat assaulting his nose again. But he was used to all the foul odors afflicting Raccoon City at this point.
Glancing over to his right, Redgrave called down into the chute, "Come on up, ladies! Coast is clear!"
From the darkness below, Agent Ada was the first to climb up the ladder back into the Greenhouse, followed shortly afterwards by Claire.
The older woman observed the burnt body of the ivy zombie, satisfaction flashing in her brown eyes before she sighed, murmuring to herself, "That would've been useful an hour ago..."
The trio began walking back towards the stairs leading up the walkway and back to the door to the Control Room, when Tony paused, craning his head backwards as he heard more ivy men groaning and moving about, the distinct *crack* of their branch limbs alerting him. Spotting two approaching from the center of the walkway, the man gripped the chemical flamethrower with both hands again, but refrained himself slightly when Ada smacked his shoulder with the palm of her left hand, gesturing to the approaching plant life-form.
"Don't bother with frying them both. Just get the one in front. That'll cut the others off from us," the woman ordered she slowly walked backwards, Claire waiting by the door to the Control Room as she waited for the other two survivors.
Frowning, he raised the flamethrower closer to eye level, checking the fuel gauge. When he saw he still had more than ninety percent fuel left, the gunslinger let out a disappointed sigh.
"Barely gonna even get to play with this..."
Regardless, no sooner did he say that did the heated *whoosh* of the flamethrower sound out before it was drowned by the screams of the leading vine monsters. Just as the agent had predicted it had fell on the walkway, cutting off its fellow from the three as Tony rested the flamethrower over his right shoulder, the door to the Control Room closing right after him.
Despite the crimson coated youth's slow gait, Ada power walked towards the dispersal unit, Claire hot on her heels, the college girl asking nervously, "This'll do it, right? This time it'll work?"
Ada resisted the urge to give the girl a knowing smile as she slipped the chilled herbicide into the open slot on the dispersal, replying and hitting the button at the same time. "It better. It's designed to react only to infected plant cells. The worse case scenario is it'll make those vines a little wet."
Inside the Greenhouse, the sprinklers began to rain down the herbicide as the female computerized voice spoke.
"Dispensing solution now."
Unlike last time, there was a very obvious effect.
Inside the Greenhouse, the plants came to life, however briefly, as the various trees, plants, and vines began shuddering and shriveling as the faint mist touched their surfaces, going from healthy green to dead brown in seconds. The white-haired gunslinger approached the window next to the two women, watching in rapt fascination as all the plant life on the other side began to wither and die. The effect on the remaining ivy zombies was the same, the creatures shriveling up into even smaller, dried out brown lumps, their bodies crumbling apart as they struck the floor.
The large flowered roots clutching the dead man in the yellow hazmat suit shrank and died at a faster pace, the vines sloughing away, letting the body hit the floor with a heavy *clank,* the purple glowing wristband clattering across the floor by his outstretched hand.
Tony gave an impressed pout as he surveyed the now very-dead and soaked Greenhouse, curiously squinting his eyes at a moist brown leaf that had previously been a vibrant viridian.
"There. That did the trick," Ada pronounced, gesturing towards the window with her right hand.
Claire, on her part, sighed in relief. "Finally... So much the weed infestation."
Rubbing his chin with his free hand, Redgrave smirked as he mused to himself, "I guess a little rain can kill ya, after all..."
Rolling her eyes at both young adults' quips, the female officer briskly turned on her heel, heading for the door back into the Greenhouse. "If you two are done messing around, we've got a wristband to collect, remember?"
Groaning half-heartedly, Tony conceded, "Yeah, yeah..." as he strode after her, the biker girl following by the tails of his coat.
As they reentered the chamber, the electronic female voice spoke up again. "Warning: You have dispersed a dangerous solution without authorization. Your actions have been logged and you may be subject to disciplinary measures."
The young mercenary scoffed at this, sarcastically dismissing, "Ooooh, I'm scared!"
"Discipline..." Redfield seethed to herself. "Not too hard to imagine what that looks like."
Ada huffed to herself. "She says that as if she hasn't run into hordes of zombies the entire night."
Claire sent the agent an annoyed glare at her remark, but said nothing, the group having already crossed the center walkway, and making their way around the right corner, just below the large wall section of reinforced glass the dead man in the hazmat suit had been crushed against, along with the wristband they needed. Ada hurried her pace, stalking towards the chip when an arm stuck out in front of her. Turning her startled, irritated glare to Tony, he gave her a shake of his head as he gestured to the body.
"Gotta check it out real quick, doll. Make sure it's actually dead," he explained, not even bothering to wait for the older woman's response as he approached the body.
Letting the flamethrower hang loosely by his side, the boy shoved the hazmat suited body with the tip of his left foot, tensing as he anticipated a response. The corpse gave no such lively reaction, marking it as truly dead. Grinning, Tony gave the body a grateful nod before crouching down, and picking up the wristband, twirling it on the tip of his index finger as he rose back up. Eyeing the purple chip on it, he flicked it in the air and then caught it, the white-haired youth holding the item out to the two women.
"Looks like we're back in business, ladies!" he declared.
It was half a millisecond after he'd said that, the Asian-American woman already taking half a step toward him, arm moving to reach out in his general direction, that Tony realized he now found himself in the middle of a particularly unexpected dilemma: who was he going to hand the wristband off to?
On the one hand, giving it to the federal officer was probably the smartest choice for the average joe, giving the responsibility of it to the one most qualified for the job. Thing is, he was anything but average, and he was certainly no joe. As a mercenary, he was heavily reluctant to trust cops on principle, let alone a fed. And as much as this particular one had help them out so far, there was something about her that stunk, though he couldn't quite put his finger on it at the moment.
Then on the other hand was Claire. The girl he was crazy about, who had broken things off with him due to his own deceit. The young man had meant what he'd said back in the tram car. Whatever her choice was regarding their future, he would respect it fully. Still, that did not mean he wasn't hoping she would change her mind. And if he didn't trust her with something like this, she would get the wrong impression. Doubly so because the chip was the key to getting the cure that would save little Sherry's life.
Ada, or Claire? The fed, or the college student? The stranger, or the girl who knew him better than anyone else he knew, including himself?
When worded like that, there really wasn't a choice to be made.
Slowly trailing his gaze from the cocktail-dressed woman to the vest-less biker girl, Tony's left wrist twitched as he prepared to toss the security wristband to Redfield underhanded-
-when above, heavy sounds like smashing hammers issued out, the reverberations from them making Tony, Claire, and Ada all freeze, icy-blue, light brown, and gray-blue eyes widening as each realized they recognized those heavy boot stomps.
Turning his head to the right, the crimson-coated swordsman blindly shoved the wristband in his pocket, hissing out, "Go, go, go, go, go, go, GO!"
Then, the reinforced shatterproof section of glass the dead man had previously been smashed against was shattered with a single blow from the coated giant that had pursued the trio throughout the night, the behemoth leaping through the hole it created, and landing on the walkway, the metal underneath its massive boots bending slightly from the heavy weight and impact of the pursuer, the shards of glass raining down around it like sparkling sharp rain. The towering giant turned its dark black and red eyes on the group, and with a single stomp, crushed the dead hazmat suit wearer's head, blood, bone and brain matter splattering across the walkway as the monster resumed its pursuit of its quarry.
As soon as its eyes fell on him, the youth slung the flamethrower over his shoulder, and took out Woozy, his eyes narrowing as he took in the sight of the behemoth, flashing between icy blue to burning amber in a spark of red.
"Seriously, buddy, take a hint!" Tony snapped at the silent creature, bringing the edge of his broadsword on the taciturn titan.
All that did was force it to cease its approach, and raise its right arm to cover its unprotected face, shielding itself from the worse of the blow that struck it with the metal 'X' on the back of its glove, metal meeting metal as it deflected Woozy away. The creature took another stomp towards the red-coated merc while he rapidly swung at it, recalling from the corners of his memory that the giant had all too easily manhandled him like a ragdoll anytime it got within arm's-length, and not caring at the slightest.
As long as Claire got away safely, that didn't matter.
The girl in question, meanwhile, was trying to push back against Ada, who was surprising strong despite her feminine appearance, watching anxiously as her ex fought the monster back, metal ringing out every few breaths.
"Tony!" she cried, eyes widening as the boy ducked beneath a hard hook from the beast. "Tony! He-hey! Let me go! We have to help him!"
The target of her glare shook her head, shoving her back as they arrived at the center of the central walkway, opposite the large window the golem had entered. "He's buying us time to get away! We have to get a move on now!"
"But what about him?! We can't just leave him here!" Claire protested, harshly gesturing towards him with her left arm.
Her own fire briefly stalled, however, when Ada's next remark cut her to the quick. "Yeah? And what about the little girl you're supposed to be helping, huh? You're just gonna leave her behind to help him?"
The redheaded biker girl balked at the other woman's remark, her face beginning to scrunch up again in anger when a loud *CLANG* sounded out from their right. Along with a cry that was growing louder, as if approaching-
Suddenly, both women found themselves falling to the floor of the walkway, on the middle of the t-intersection towards the chutes to the Drug Testing Labs. The air knocked out of either women, Claire groaned as her eyes darted up to see what had collided with them, her gray-blues shooting open at the sight of her red-coated ex, his big sword held across his chest.
"Tony! Tony, are you okay?" she asked worriedly, watching as he sat up with a groan, Ada doing the same beside her, albeit with a hand to her forehead.
"Peachy..." was his answer, before groggily adding, "I think it's still mad I busted a cap on its stupid hat."
As if in response to his barb, the coated creature suddenly landed a few feet before them, having hopped over to their side from in front of the broken window, now looming right over them.
Instantly jumping into action, Redgrave shot to his feet, his ex and the agent following shortly after, the trio retreating away from the golem as it began its approach.
"You two need to get the hell outta here! I'll hold it off for as long as I can!" he sharply ordered, reaching over his left shoulder with his left hand, and pulling out the flamethrower, to his own surprise, having been expecting the shotgun. The frown was quickly replaced with a crafty grin. "Guess I get to play with this after all."
"Tony, that's insane! We're not just gonna leave you here!" Redfield tried to argue, trying to pull him back with a tug of her arms on his shoulder.
"Claire, there's no time!" he snapped. "Sherry needs you, remember? So get a move on, and find that vaccine! I'll catch up in a bit!" His glare then fell on the female agent. "Watch her back, alright?!"
Ada glanced at him, then briefly back to the giant, before nodding back to him, pulling his ex-girlfriend along with her. "C'mon, you heard him. He's got this, so let's go!"
Keeping his eyes lingering on her a second longer than he should have, knowing she was doing the same, Redgrave turned his attention back to the towering coated giant, sheathing Woozy behind his back, trigger finger readying itself as it took another step closer.
"Here's hopin' fire's not bad for your complexion!" he jeered as he set the flamethrower off, sending a torrent of flames jetting towards the goliath, prompting it to slow its gait, and move its right arm to over its unprotected face, covering it from the worse of the fires that struck it. The creature took another step towards Tony, then another, and another, while the crimson-coated gunslinger rapidly backpaddled away from it.
The beast then swung its arm out, fist coated in flames from Tony's flamethrower, the massive burning mitt missing by a fraction of an inch as the gunman in red dashed backwards, landing on the lower catwalk by the chutes to the Drug Testing Lab, the air whistling and igniting where his face had previously been. Despite the near decapitation, Redgrave found himself grinning.
"Yep. Still mad."
Back in the Control Room, both Ada and Claire watched Tony futilely trying to smother the seemingly unstoppable giant as they passed by the large window, with the older woman internally cursing at herself for trusting Gilver's word on his disposing of the creature. As inhuman as the bandage-wrapped mystery swordsman was, the Tyrant's own inhumanity had allowed it to survive and recover from the wounds her temporary partner had inflicted upon it. Now it was back, and its targets were running out of places to run and hide.
Quickly refocusing herself, Ada snatched Claire's wrist and began running for the automatic door, dragging the younger girl with her while saying, "Come on!"
The college girl blinked, caught off guard as she found herself dragged back into the room covered in vines and plant matter, nearly tripping over the burnt remains of the first ivy zombie she had killed. She could hardly gather her wits to resist the agent's frantic grip on her hand, only managing to cry out in response, "But Tony's still-"
"Your ex already told you that he can handle himself! But if he leads that thing back to us, and we're caught in close quarters with it, we're as good as dead!" Ada snapped back as they charged through the next door and back into the presentation room, her brown eyes flickering towards the massive hole in the shatterproof glass wall the Tyrant had created with a single blow. Thankfully, Claire stopped her childish attempt at an argument, following Ada in pace instead, which the older woman was grateful for.
Still, she knew Redgrave wouldn't be able to stop the behemoth, his own seemingly supernatural abilities still insignificant compared to the Tyrant's raw strength. But maybe he could buy her enough time to come up with a plan...
Back in the Greenhouse, Tony was still back dashing away from the coated giant, spraying more torrents of chemically-fueled flames against the monster, coming across the t-intersection farthest away from the door to the Control Room. But the titan continued to protect its face with its arm, the reinforced coat it was wearing sporting a few new cuts across it, charring into a solid black from the continued assault. Still, the pale-haired gunslinger didn't bother to kid himself that he was dishing out anything close to lasting damage. His mind raced to come up with a plan, or any idea at this point. Anything that could help him find some way to hurt the damn thing, or slow it down long enough for him to retreat.
Pistols, a shotgun, a freakin' GRENADE LAUNCHER! Almost all of them fired at point-blank range, but none of it hurts this guy as long as he's got that stupid coa-
And then, a miracle. One so small he was almost sure he had imagined it. But his icy eyes did not lie to him.
As the burning fuel from the flamethrower continued to splash and spray across the monster's coated arm, a good chunk of the material, which was nothing short of Kevlar, actually sloughed off of the monster's arm, exposing a small patch of grey flesh which began to cook and burn under the fiery blast.
Tony's grin returned, savage and eager, his eyes flickering towards the fuel readout on the chemical flamethrower. When he saw he was down to 68% and dropping fast, he decided the best course of action was to dump the whole thing on the one open spot the monster had: its hideous chrome dome.
Eyes flashing from ice blue to burning amber and red, Redgrave charged forward, his finger releasing the trigger of the flamethrower as he lunged out, smacking the stock of the weapon across the monster's smoking face hard enough to bend the rifle slightly and actually knock the freak's face to the side, making its own black and red eyes blink in surprise. Back pedaling again, the snowy-haired youth threw the chemical flamethrower at the pursuer's face, the weapon smashing into its ugly scarred mug and bouncing up, the creature pausing as it watched its red-coated prey whip out his Beretta and Colt. Two shots sounded out, both bullets colliding with the small fuel tanks on the flamethrower-
The weapon exploded, showering flaming liquid and shards of metal down on the beast's face... forcing the monster to finally stagger backwards, both gloved hands grasping at its flame-shrouded head, the smell of burning flesh, metal, and synthetic fibers mixing together.
Unable to help himself, Tony let out a triumphant laugh.
"Feelin' a little hot under the collar, ya ugly sonuvabitch?!" he taunted, holstering his pistols... before his laughter and grin died then and there, becoming a stunned - almost horrified, even - expression as he heard the hideous squelch of tearing flesh.
The coated monster's burnt right hand dug deep into the smoldering right side of its face, and with a sickening, squelching sound, ripped the charred and burnt cheek and upper portion of its jaws flesh off in a single motion, tossing the burning meat aside. The creature lowered its smoking hands, the fingers flexing open before clenching into fists so tight, Tony heard the knuckles of the titan's hands pop. But Redgrave never tore his eyes away from the creature's face... Or rather, its new face.
The left side was still partially burned and smoking, but the right portion of its face was just GONE, exposing red muscle tissue and tendons, the black and red of its red eye mixed with white as the rest of the orb was exposed, while part of its teeth and jaw were exposed in a permanent snarl of pure rage.
Despite himself, Tony felt his grin return, a mirthless chuckle leaving his lips.
"Heh... Not gonna lie, it's kind of an improvement."
His words seemed to set the behemoth off once more, the scarred monster clenching both fists together as it leapt up and out, Tony's honed reflexes saving his life once again as he dodged backwards, the pursuer's double fist smash striking the section of the walkway he had previously been standing out, the metal crumpling and shattering as easily as the reinforced glass had. Tony drew Woozy from over his back, but was eyeing the door back to the Control Room, seeing Ada and Claire were already gone, which was a relief, since he had the monster enraged enough to charge after him. Using the flamethrower as a makeshift explosive had finally done some real damage, but the beast was still more or less at full strength, and Redgrave didn't have a high spot to knock it off of this time.
No sooner did he think that did he remember that he actually DID have a high spot to knock it off of again. One arguably even greater than the one before, at that.
With a grin, Tony called to the infuriated titan, "Hey, Ugly! Why don't you do your job, and come and get me?!"
That earned him a punch too close for comfort, but the young man was darting through the door back into the Control Room, said door getting torn off of its hinges a split second later, his chaser's massive boot stomps leaving huge dents in the floor as it continued its pursuit. Now, all Tony had to do was survive long enough to get back the central hub of the lab, and pray either Claire or Ada would figure out his plan...
"You can't be serious?!" Claire cried out, her voice echoing through the empty chamber of the NEST's central hub.
The young redhead was standing next to Ada by the control console of the connecting bridge to the East Lab, the agent having quickly pulled up the command to retract the bridge. This would trap the Tyrant in the East Lab long enough for her and Claire to get to the West Lab, and recover the G-Virus sample and antiviral agent they both needed.
And leave Tony Redgrave behind, trapped alone with that monster.
It was a harsh choice, but the older woman had made decisions like these all her life.
Her own survival, and the completion of the mission, had to come first.
"There's no other option. The only way to beat this thing is to not engage it. To run as fast as you can, and hope you can put as much distance between yourself and it as possible," Ada explained calmly.
And it was the truth. Nothing short of heavy artillery, like an R.P.G. or cannon fire from a tank, had the capacity to put a Tyrant down for good. Even if all three of them were to fire at it at the same time, the damage inflicted would be nil, their small arms no better than a child's pop gun as long as it was protected by the reinforced coat it was wrapped in.
Ada saw the command to retract the connecting bridge appear on the blue touch screen, but before her hand could get near the screen itself, Claire frantically grabbed the older woman's wrist to stop her. She fought back the reflex to flinch at the sudden unwanted touch, and her natural urge to arm lock the younger girl, but when the agent's brown eyes met younger girl's desperate grey blue orbs, she hesitated.
"Please, just give Tony one more minute! Please!" the redhead desperately begged.
Tugging her hand free, Ada let her finger hover over the command button to began disconnecting the bridge... but stopped just short of actually touching it.
Despite herself... Ada found herself somewhat sympathetic.
Sighing heavily, thinking to herself how this was a huge mistake that could potentially get them all killed, the agent complied rather reluctantly.
"Fine. One minute," she repeated to Claire, tone firm, with no room left to argue.
Claire nodded, relief flashing in her eyes, though her expression was still concerned as she looked back across the bridge to the East Lab. No sooner did Ada allow herself to follow the younger girl's view did a red blur dash under the automatic door as it opened halfway, Tony Redgrave running across the bridge.
Spotting both women by the panel, he barked out, "DO IT! DISCONNECT THE BRIDGE!"
Annoyed to have been right once again, Ada smashed her fist against the touch screen panel. With a mechanical groan, the two halves of the bridge began to retract... with Tony still standing on the section retreating back for the East Lab. Behind him, the automatic door was yanked out of its panel in a shower of sparks and crumpling metal, as the Tyrant pursuer, half of its face hideously burned into a countenance of rage, tore its way after the one who had injured it so. Both Ada and Claire called for the swordsman in red, eyes wide with disbelief and terror as Tony spun around to confront the hulking goliath, sword drawn.
The behemoth straight for him, right arm drawn back, huge fist clenched tight as it lunged out in a strike that would see its whole arm impaled through the young man's chest-
If Tony hadn't suddenly jumped over the blow, unseen to the two women behind him, his eyes flashing red and gold again as he grinned savagely. Woozy swung out, striking and cutting deep into the Tyrant's front leg, the attack hitting hard enough to make the creature wobble, its body stretched far out, and now hovering dangerously over the expanding vast emptiness below out. The boy rushed through the air, slamming the back of his booted heel down on the Tyrant's bald head, red energy crackling around his foot as it shoved the monster down and out, the unstoppable creature finding itself unable to stop itself from plummeting down into the darkness yet again.
Tony rolled in midair, correcting himself, and lunged his entire body out. His feet connected next to each other as more flashes of red ignited in the air where his boots struck out, seeming to connect solidly despite the emptiness, and propelled him across the empty space between the entrance to the East Labs back to the central hub in the center of the room. He sheathed Woozy back over his shoulder and thrust his arm out, his hand catching the edge of the retracting bridge, and, in a single smooth motion, hoisted himself up and over, landing back on the main platform in a flourish of his coat tails.
Both Ada and Claire had watched the entire exchange, which had taken less than thirty seconds to happen in total, in complete silence, the older woman way more stunned than the biker girl, who's worry morphed into relief as she watched Tony pull himself back up, and rise to his full height.
Looking back at the vast darkness below them, the white-haired youth let out a heavy sigh before looking back at both women, jerking his thumb over his shoulder before saying, "Hopefully, that was the fall that killed him. I already ran out of giant falling monster quips hours ago."
Completely shocked and quiet, Ada watched silently as Tony walked away from the edge of the platform, Claire running over to him, asking concerned questions the agent ignored.
"Tony! Are you alright?! Did it hurt you?!" Claire immediately, the two questions bursting out of her lips before she could help it. Right as Redgrave was about to respond, however, the auburn-haired woman smacked his shoulder harshly. "What the fuck were you thinking, staying behind to fight that thing?! Are you crazy?! What would've happened if it had killed you, huh?! For once, can you stop trying to so uber macho all the goddamn time?!"
...To her surprise, the only reaction she got out of him, aside from the stunned surprise on his face at first, was the sudden bout of laughter escaping his lips. Though this was not anything cruel, condescending or sardonic. No, Tony Redgrave was holding his stomach as genuine, honest laughter echoed throughout the central hub.
Startled, and more than a little wary of what she was seeing, the young woman immediately demanded, "What?! What the hell's so funny, Anthony?!"
Waving a dismissive hand in her direction, the boy stood up straight again, shaking his head as he let out one last chuckle. "Oh, it's nothing... Just glad to know you're still worrying about me. Even though you... y'know."
Furrowing her brows in thought, it took Claire a few seconds to narrow down that he was talking about the fact she'd broken up with him. What appalled her more was that a part of him had feared that she had stopped worrying about him because of it.
"Of course I do. That hasn't changed. Not even for a second," she assured, actually looking somewhat hurt. "You know me better than that."
He shrugged, rubbing the back of his head with his left hand. "Yeah, I do. Just couldn't help it, you know?..." Letting his arm fall down to his side, he placed his right hand on her shoulder, smiling at her in a way that was not his usual cocky bravado, but heartfelt and genuine. Like when they'd first met. "Still... Thanks for that. For caring."
With that, Tony walked past her, eyes focused directly on the path to the West Area before him, and what lay beyond.
If he had looked back, however, he would have caught the brief flash of heat overcome Claire's cheeks, before she roughly shook her head, and hurried to catch up to him.
While they were chatting to themselves, however, Ada Wong was too busy thinking to herself, mind racing as she digested all that she had just seen.
The way he moves, his ability to swing that sword with a single hand... And what he did just now, leaping almost thirty feet through the air?... I was right... He is like Gilver... He's not human.
"Yo, fed lady!"
Ada blinked, the sound of Redgrave's voice snapping her back to attention. She looked over to the taller male, who was cocking a curious eyebrow in her direction. "Why're you gawkin' at me like that? I got something on my face?"
Steadying herself, she shook her head, gesturing back to him. "No, that's not it. I'm just starting to wonder if you guys really are broken up, with how close you two still seem to be."
At this, the young man actually paused, face falling as he sheepishly glanced back at the younger woman, who also froze at the other woman's remark. Both of their eyes met before they mumbled over each other, trying to brush off the agent's words.
"No! We... We did! Back there, I told you..."
"Yeah, it's... It's complicated. You... You gotta ask her..."
Shaking his head, Tony then waved his hand at Ada before pulling something out of his pocket, twirling it on the tip of his index finger. It was the bright glow of purple that made her realize that it was the wristband with the Senior Staff security clearance on it.
He offered her that same cocky grin he had sported from their first meeting as he asked, "So, uh, you mind steppin' to side real quick while I test this baby out?"
Ada returned the smile, extending her hand out as she urged him, "By all means. Though I do have to ask what would've happened if that thing managed to grab you and that wristband?"
With a chuckle from Redgrave, he sauntered past her, assuring, "Could've, should've, would've. Doesn't matter. We're here."
With Claire on his heels, that left Ada to bring up the rear, both hands on her MP5. She watched the two youths continue for the touch panel that would give them access to the West Lab, her mind racing quietly as she prepped her final plans once she recovered the G-Virus sample.
She could try just shooting them both now, but then she remembered what happened the last two times she had tried such an attack on an inhuman opponent. And while she was willing to bet the rapid fire of the machine gun could easily kill the girl, dealing with her infuriated boyfriend afterwards would be a problem.
Whoever... Whatever this 'Tony Redgrave' is, he's still too trusting to turn his back on a complete stranger...
She would have to make a move after collecting the sample, if it came to that, though she was willing to bet real money she was about to find out where Annette Birkin was hiding in the NEST since their last encounter in the sewers...
She had a feeling Gilver's parting words were more prophetic than she had initially hoped... But if Redgrave was his target, then perhaps she could slip away in the chaos to come...
The trio watched as the bridge to the West Area connected to the central hub, the three of them walking over to the edge as all of their eyes fell on the path ahead. Tony glanced at each of his companions, exchanging brief, curt glances before pulling out his Berretta, which prompted the other two to do the same with their own weapons, Claire taking out her Blackhawk, and Ada readjusting her grip on the MP5.
"Looks like we've made it to the home stretch," he declared, reloading his gun in short order before letting out a deep exhale. "Time to wrap up this crazy party."
With that, Redgrave strode forward, his ex following right behind him, with Ada taking up the rear. The three of them crossed the bridge as they headed for the next area, the prizes they sought waiting for them on the other side...
The pieces are in place, the goal is in reach, the final hour of this story is upon us!
It only took almost 5 months (Not to mention it's been almost TWO YEARS since this thing was first posted) for me to get here, but hey, better late than never.
Most of that time was spent listening to Bury The Light on loop.
(As you may have noticed I changed my UserName and avatar to reflect the hype that is Vergil and Special Edition 5.)
First things first, thank you all (If any of you are still here that is) for your patience, second, HUGE shoutouts and props to Da-Awesom-One for continuing to co-write this story with me! Dude rewrote a good chunk of this chapter, adding better dialogue and changing some sequences up to make em flow better. As well as adding stuff in that I forget, and for generally just tolerating my laziness when it comes to getting these chapters done. Dude is a saint.
Next chapter will see some more truths come to light...and very soon...
Someone will reclaim their name...
...
BORN IN FLAMES!
I HAVE BEEN BLESSED!
MY FAMILY CREST IS A DEMON OF DEAAAAAATH!
I'm not sorry, that song is pure hype.
