33 The Raccoon City Outbreak, Part 2

Word count 10,316

Rebecca Chambers blew off the brains of another zombie, looking around to make sure it was the last one before looking back at her team.

With the battle at Main Street won, Aeon and Captain Geary had decided that it was time to try and find out about the situation beyond Raccoon Street.

So here she was with her squad, investigating the Raccoon General Hospital.

Blackwatch had apparently sent some troops here a while back, but they had lost communications with them, the last message they got talking about some kind of leech monster refusing to die.

Needless to say, Rebecca and Aeon had both immediately remembered Dr. Marcus and his research, and neither of them wanted to risk taking chances with what was possibly a second Queen Leech.

Her presence in this mission was thus entirely natural, as the one most used to fighting t-Virus infected leeches, with only Aeon better than her in handling this, but he had his own matters to take care of.

Satisfied that the entrance of the hospital was secure for now, she and the rest of her team entered the building.

As expected, there were more zombies inside, though they were no match for an ISIS team led by a Huntress.

Rebecca couldn't help but grimace however, as more and more mutated began to attack her and her team.

Poison Zombies, Pale Heads, mutated children…

Rebecca looked sadly at the dismembered corpses of the pale white children, before shooting a Pale Head that was lying on the ground in the head with her shotgun when it began twitching.

Rebecca scowled when, even without its head, it kept trying to stand up, flesh slowly healing around its neck to regenerate its head.

Pale Heads were annoying that way. They were really, really hard to put down for good compared to regular zombies.

So she took her axe and began smashing its corpse apart until it finally stopped twitching.

With a satisfied grunt, she tore her axe out of the monster's body, glancing at the few dead zombies her team killed while she was busy dealing with the Pale Head before she kept moving forward, her team following her lead.

She stopped when she heard humming further ahead, sharing a confused glance with her team before they cautiously moved forward.

Opening a door leading to the next corridor, she froze when she saw a woman sitting in the middle of the corridor, gently rocking a baby back and forth.

Rebecca blanched when the woman looked up at her, the look on the woman's face making it clear that she had snapped at some point.

Rebecca's eyes went wide when the woman held her baby tighter, and she immediately closed the door.

"Get to cover!" she shouted to her team, jumping as far away from the door as she could, her team doing the same a second later.

And then the sound of an explosion echoed from the corridor, the door Rebecca had closed breaking out of its frame and falling on the ground smoking heavily, while the entire corridor behind was filled with a mix of blood, gore, and acid.

Rebecca got up, feeling the same mix of pity and rage she felt when she had first learnt of what the t-Virus did to babies.

Exploding babies filled with acid were just fucking wrong.

Though she wasn't sure which was worse, the exploding ones, or the ones with tentacles coming out of their backs…

She shook her head, taking a good look at the corridor ahead before walking away.

"Let's find another path." she declared, and no one from her team disagreed.

Their next stop happened when they came across a few dead Blackwatch soldiers, their corpses surrounded by various zombies and-

"Hunters." she whispered, seeing the reptilian corpses killed by the soldiers.

"Aren't those-"

"Artificially created by Umbrella, not naturally transformed by the t-Virus? Correct. Quite interesting to find a few here then, right?" she replied grimly, eyes cold.

She pursed her lips, but other than taking the dog tags of the dead soldiers, they kept moving onward.

Insight Corp. knew that Umbrella used the hospital as a front for their research. The fact that Hunters were present only served as proof.

Finally, they came across the rest of the Blackwatch team, all of them dead.

What actually interested her however, was the way they were killed. The soldiers had been drained of their blood, in a manner rather reminiscent to what she had seen back then in the Arklay Mountains.

"Dammit. I had hoped Dr. Marcus' legacy had died in the Arklay Mountains…" she grumbled, green eyes hard.

"Orders, ma'am?"

She scowled. "We find the basement. From what I remember, there is a way to go into the sewers from here. If I'm right, that's where we will find our target."

She grinned coldly.

"And once we do, we burn all the damn leeches we find to a crisp."

She glanced at the flamethrower carrying member of her team, nodding to him, though she had every intention of helping out too. She had a grenade launcher with incendiary rounds for a reason, after all.

With that said, they made their way towards the basement, killing anything infected along the way.

Naturally, a zombie covered in leeches suddenly dropped down from the ventilation system, Rebecca immediately switching to her grenade launcher while a man behind her with a flamethrower stepped forth and began burning the monster.

The thing screeched horribly in pain, the sound actually surprising the team since most zombies hardly ever seemed to care about pain, and it promptly began to run away.

"After it!" she shouted, running after the damn thing with her team following behind her.

The zombie was surprisingly fast, and Rebecca would have been rather worried she would have lost it… if she hadn't been a Huntress.

As it is, it took a bit of effort, but soon enough she stopped and fired a grenade right at the monster's back, sending it smoking on the ground.

Her team arrived not long after, the flamethrower-wielding man grimly burning the damn thing until it finally died for good and only a heavily charred corpse was left.

Rebecca nodded approvingly at the man, glaring one last time at the dead blood-sucking monster before finally making their way to the sewers beneath the hospital.

Once down there, it didn't take long to find their target: a several-foot long Leech, surrounded by hundreds more of the damn things it probably kept giving birth to.

Rebecca coldly stared at the monster, before she and her team began unleashing their full firepower on the abomination and its spawns.

The small size of the sewer corridor actually played in their favor, since all the monsters were forced to go through the flamethrower and the bolts of lasguns when they tried getting near the ISIS team.

Where an underequipped group of survivors would have had problems cleansing the sewers of monstrous leeches, the heavily-armed ISIS squad all but executed the blood-sucking abominations and made certain to thoroughly cleanse the place with fire.

Only once Rebecca was satisfied the job was properly done did she order to cease fire, at which point she made her report to Captain Geary, who contacted General Randall on the current situation.

Rebecca herself however wanted to be completely certain that the job was done, so she took her squad and went further into the sewers in search of any surviving leeches.

And as she did, she thought back to the burned corpse of the giant leech with deep satisfaction.

There was something fitting and deeply satisfying that she, Rebecca Chambers, would be the one to put an end to the legacy of Dr. Marcus…

Once and for all.

Rebecca and her squad glanced at each other, before entering the Umbrella research facility they had come across while cleaning out the sewers around the hospital.

Rebecca made sure to copy all the data from the various computers they came across, but one thing that became quickly clear was that this research facility was experimenting with various t-Virus infected life forms, one of which was some kind of plant that they had completely lost control of in the chaos of the outbreak.

However, Rebecca was more than capable of understanding the various chemicals required to damage the monster plant, and soon enough, she was able to remove the massive plant from the doors it shut with its vines.

Of course, since things could never be easy, they quickly found out that not only was there a giant blood-thirsty moth flying around, but also dozens of Hunters that had been frozen by turning the temperature of the facility far under 0°C in a somewhat successful attempt to stop the monsters from escaping the facility.

And the way out of the facility required taking a train which was currently stuck in ice, so they had to increase the temperature in the whole facility in order to leave it.

The moment they were able to increase the temperature, Rebecca and her team ran like hell towards the train, the screams of more and more Hunters no longer frozen by ice echoing all around them as they did.

Only to find out once they made it to the train that there was a timer before the elevator the train was on could take off, forcing Rebecca and her team to take defensive positions and wait for the horde to arrive.

And arrived, it did. First a small trickle of zombies, but soon the entrances of the train station were flooded by both zombies and Hunters, forcing Rebecca and her team to keep firing at all times if they didn't want to be overwhelmed.

"30 seconds until departure of the elevator." echoed the system's warning.

Rebecca scowled, smashing her axe through the brain of yet another Hunter.

Another jumped towards her, and she blew a hole the size of her head in its chest thanks to her shotgun, though it took another blast to actually kill the monster.

"Aaargh!"

Rebecca turned, eyes widening when she saw one of her soldiers holding his bloodied side while a Hunter stood above him with bloodied claws that managed to go through his armor.

She snarled, Quickening behind the Hunter and splitting its skull with her axe before kneeling to the side of the wounded soldier, the rest of her squad closing around them to better hold back the monsters.

She put her right hand over his wounds, muttering a diagnosis spell quickly followed by a healing one as her right hand glowed white.

Seconds later, the soldier breathed a sigh of relief as his wounds closed, and she took the time to shoot a Hunter that was about to get the jump on another one of her soldiers before looking back at the newly healed man.

"Sorry ma'am, that bastard jumped on me when I wasn't looking his way." the soldier declared, sounding apologetic.

"No time for regret, just do better soldier. Now get up and fight, this isn't-"

"Train departure imminent." declared the system.

"-over quite yet." She finished, getting on her feet and shooting a few more Hunters, the soldiers around her doing the same until finally, they made it out of the area.

Her team promptly let out deep sighs, feeling the exhaustion of the battles they went through without much rest in-between, but Rebecca remained tense.

Her training as a Huntress had made her instincts razor sharp, and right now, they were screaming at her that this wasn't over yet.

And her instincts were proven right when a small monster jumped into the elevator platform, quickly growing in size until it stood taller than even Aeon.

Her eyes widened, having a good idea of what this monster was and not liking her theory at all.

"Kill that thing! Kill it before it keeps growing or makes more of itself!" she shouted to her team, who thankfully reacted quickly and immediately began to open fire.

The creature roared, and her eyes narrowed. If she was right, this thing was some kind of G-monster, and while she had no idea what one of those was doing here, she knew that it could not be allowed to grow or reproduce.

She could tell just by the deformed appearance that it wasn't at full strength, that however it ended up here something had gone wrong with its growth. However, it was still a G-monster and thus more dangerous than most t-Virus monsters in Raccoon City.

In short, it needed to die, here and now, before it could evolve beyond its current weaknesses.

Her team then opened fire, and she took her grenade launcher and began firing at it, the monster trying its best to dodge the grenades sent its way.

Things became more complicated when its flesh began wriggling, and smaller versions of it seemingly born from its own body began jumping out of it, trying to lunge at her and her squad, no doubt to use them as hosts to grow stronger from.

Two from her squad began focusing on the little monsters, while she and the rest kept firing at the G-abomination.

If she had been alone, she could have gone in close and used her axe, but as it was, there was too much risk of friendly fire.

So instead she scowled, firing grenade after grenade at the monster until it stumbled and fell to one knee.

Her green eyes shone with anticipation, and she shouted at her team to focus on the surviving little monsters.

Without waiting for a reply, she charged towards the G-monster, putting the business end of her grenade launcher into its maw and pulling the trigger.

She immediately Quickened backwards, letting the shockwave of the explosion carry her back with ease.

Satisfied that the G-monster was dead, she glanced around, noticing that her team had dispatched the last remaining small monsters left.

Finally, she let out a sigh, letting herself relax as the elevator reached the train station above ground and the train itself began moving forward.

"Ma'am, that thing…" wondered one of her soldiers.

She nodded grimly.

"A G-monster, yes. And no, I have no idea why one of those was here. The best reason I can think of was that there might have been more samples of the G-virus than we expected, and that one of the samples was in the facility we went through."

She shook her head.

"It's not within controlled territory, so trying to take and hold it isn't a priority right now. We're stretched thin as it is. This is only a scouting mission, plus assassination of any potential valuable targets we encounter. Well, we've killed those leeches and that G-monster, on top of getting the data from that facility, so I'm going to report to Captain Geary and then we'll make our way back to the Police Station to get some rest."

"I could do with some rest and some warm food after this." muttered one of her soldiers, and she chuckled.

"Agreed, Corporal. Agreed. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a report to make."

Her team nodded, keeping an eye out for hostiles while she called on the leader of ISIS (if one didn't count Aeon, at least).

"Captain Geary, do you copy? This is Huntress Chambers reporting in, over."

"Copy that, Huntress Chambers. How is your mission going? You've been out of contact for a while now."

She grinned slightly. "Well, it's a bit of a long story…"

Rebecca and her team stared at the entrance of the Raccoon Zoo with grim looks on their faces.

It was just their luck that they had to go through the zoo in order to return back to friendly territory.

And considering that Rebecca knew all too well what the t-Virus did to animals, she really, really wasn't looking forward to going into this death trap of a place with her team.

But the zoo was the fastest way to go back towards the Police Station, and the captain had requested them to go through it and report on the situation when they are in the zoo if possible.

At least I don't have to worry about ammo, she thought with relief and gratefulness towards the Messengers.

Sure, her team had given her a few wide-eyed looks when she suddenly got ammo out of nowhere, but the people of ISIS had long since been trained to not bother asking questions as long as the weirdness going on was helpful to their side.

"Once more unto the breach, people. Let's go." she declared, and her team followed after her into the zoo.

Naturally, they weren't inside the zoo for even five minutes before an undead elephant crashed through a nearby building and began charging them.

They immediately started firing, massive chunks of flesh exploding out of the elephant each time a lasbolt hit, while Rebecca began firing grenades at the charging undead animal.

Unfortunately, the undead elephant was tough, and even their combined firepower didn't seem to do more than annoy it.

"Spread out! Surround it and target the legs!" she ordered.

Her team didn't waste time following her order, but Rebecca herself didn't move, she merely stared back at the bloodthirsty monster charging at her.

She felt a bit of sadness at seeing the elephant so horribly mutated and monstrous, having actually gone to see the zoo in the past and remembering well just how peaceful the poor thing had been, but she hardened her heart a moment later.

There was no place for pity and compassion here and now, there was only a beast… and a Huntress on the Hunt.

So Rebecca waited until the last moment, and then Quickened out of the way of the elephant, her left hand gripping the flesh of the undead beast and allowing her to jump on top of it.

The elephant roared in response, trying to remove her from its back even as her team kept blowing chunks of its flesh out of its legs, but she clung to its back, stabbing her axe into its back and then using her axe to get closer to its head.

The elephant began thrashing around, hitting nearby buildings and even forcing a few from her team to scramble out of its way, but she stayed focused, refusing to let go.

The elephant may be big and monstrous, but she had killed the Cleric Beast and fought the monster that Vicar Amelia had turned into. In comparison, the mutated elephant just wasn't on the same level.

And as always, she could count on Aeon's lessons to see her through.

In this case, it didn't matter how big something was; destroy the brains, and it will die.

Finally, her team did enough damage to its leg that the elephant collapsed after its right front leg took one too many hits, and Rebecca didn't hesitate.

She tore her axe out of the elephant's back, then jumped forward, smashing her axe down into the brain of the beast, then did it again and again, uncaring of its screams, until it eventually stopped moving.

She kept hacking and smashing some more, her vision filled with the red of fresh blood and flesh, until finally she stopped, panting hard.

She noticed her team surrounding the elephant, though they seemed more focused on her than the dead beast for some reason.

She took a deep breath, the familiar smell of blood clear even behind the cloth over her face, before letting out a deep breath.

She looked down and grimaced. Good gods, she really didn't know how Aeon could walk around soaked in blood without a care in the world.

She looked towards some of the small pools of water around the zoo where animals usually drink. Surely, her team wouldn't mind her trying to wash out the worst of the blood? It wasn't as if they weren't already dirty, anyway…

Surely, just a little soak would be fine, right?

Next time, I'd damn well just stay soaked in blood and fucking ignore how inconvenient it is! Rebecca mentally growled, wrestling in the waters with the alligator that hadn't taken kindly to her trying to use its home to wash off the blood on her.

There were supposed to be gazelles in this damn enclosure! Not damn alligators!

The alligator's maw snapped off close enough to her face she could feel the air being displaced as he did, and she growled harder.

The only ones allowed to eat my ass are Aeon and his lovers! Not you! Now Get. The Fuck. Off.

"Me!" she shouted, finally able to kick the alligator away from her.

Her team, finally free to shoot without having to worry about hitting her, promptly executed the damn alligator, turning it into nothing more than a pile of burnt flesh and blood.

Rebecca returned to her team, her green eyes staring at them darkly.

"Not. A word." she growled.

They raised their hands in surrender, though she could almost feel the smirks behind their masked faces.

Then she looked down at herself, noticing that at least she wasn't covered in blood anymore.

She was just drenched completely in water.

Well, at least that I can fix.

A bit of fire magic later, and she was dry and no longer smelling like blood.

… Mostly.

"This never happened." she said flatly.

"Of course, ma'am. But do you really think that the Boss isn't going to find out somehow? I mean, you probably know him better than us, but…"

She stared at her subordinate, before sighing deeply.

"I'm doomed, ain't I?" she lamented. "I'm so going to get remedial training for this… Next thing I know, I'll be no better than him, walking around not caring about the amount of blood drenching me…"

And it's not like I can pray for salvation to whatever gods are listening, since they're literally part of the problem… she mentally grumbled.

Goodbye, beloved common sense. She lamented. You'll be dearly missed.

And with that, they kept going.

Naturally, five minutes later they were attacked by infected birds, and Rebecca ended up drenched in the blood of one that got too close for comfort.

She promptly came to the conclusion that gods were smug assholes.

And she could have sworn she heard familiar laughter in the back of her mind as she thought those words…

September 27, 1998.

Rebecca Chambers was, to put it mildly, rather done with this day.

After the hospital, the research facility and the zoo, she now had to go through the dreaded underground areas of Raccoon City to make it back to the Police Station.

Considering the kinds of monsters that even now most of ISIS were fighting down there, she really wasn't looking forward to leading her team through the subway tracks of the city.

But it would lead her and her team almost right next to the Police Station, so it was either brave the hordes of zombies in the streets leading to friendly territory, or go through the subway.

"You're sure about this, ma'am?" questioned the corporal who was staring down the entrance of the subway with her, concern clear in his voice.

"I know that fighting through the hordes will be a pain, but…"

"It's the fastest way back." she replied grimly. "And once I told Captain Geary of how close to the subway station we were, he requested us to check it out if possible. To be blunt, you're in ISIS. If you wanted the easy jobs, you should have enlisted in the army, not with Insight Corp." she joked.

The corporal snorted. "Right, because those lucky bastards have to worry only about human enemies."

He sighed, before nodding.

"Right then. What were those words again? 'Once more unto the breach?'"

Rebecca grunted. "Yeah." At least it isn't Yharnam's underground… she thought with a shudder at the thought.

They moved into the subway, ready to fire at anything moving at a moment's notice, bodies tense, and faces grim.

Slowly checking each new room they passed by, it didn't take long for Rebecca to notice something.

"The zombies… they looked to have been drained of their blood." she muttered.

"More leeches?" questioned the corporal.

She pursed her lips, then shook her head.

"No. The bite marks are different. I think… we've got giant ticks running around somewhere." she declared grimly.

"Oh, so we went from blood-sucking leeches to blood-sucking ticks. Just great." dryly replied the corporal.

She snorted. "It's something of a theme, isn't it? Either way, keep that flamethrower ready." she ordered to the soldier wielding it. "Just in case."

"Aye aye, ma'am." he replied.

She nodded, and they kept going, Rebecca rather concerned over just how few zombies they encountered. Sure, there were a few here and there, but still…

She opened the door to another room, and the answer to her concern became obvious.

Over a dozen zombies trapped in the room moaned at the sight of her, but what really made her freeze was the nest filled with giant ticks inside the room.

"Shit. Flamethrower!" she shouted, immediately stepping back and letting the soldier spray fire over the entire room.

Undead moans and screeches from the ticks echoed in her ears, but after a minute or two of fire cleansing the room, everything went silent.

"Clear!" shouted the soldier, and they all entered, ready to fire at any of the burned corpses if they proved to still be alive.

"It looks clear, ma'am. You think this was their main nest?" eventually asked the corporal.

Rebecca scoffed. "If only we're so lucky… no, this is probably just an offshoot. It's too small to be the main one."

"Figures." grumbled one of her soldiers.

Rebecca took one last look at the room, satisfied that all within had been killed, before turning around.

"C'mon, let's go. That nest won't destroy itself."

Of course, they first had to remove the water that had ended up flooding some of the corridors, followed by repairing the damage the electrical grid had taken, before they finally were able to reach the subway train.

Where they were immediately attacked by some giant ticks almost the size of a human.

Rebecca didn't hesitate in charging at the monster head-on with her shotgun and axe while her team provided fire support even as she deliberately sought out the attention of the monsters to keep them off her team.

The monstrous ticks were capable of jumping at shocking distance and speed, but it also caused them to be vulnerable while in the air, a fact that Rebecca ruthlessly took advantage of with her shotgun.

And then a train crashed through the subway station, putting much of the place on fire.

Thankfully, no one from her team was hurt, but it did force them to backtrack and use the fire fighting system to quell the raging fires.

And when they went back to the subway train, all of them stopped and stared at the sight before them.

In their absence, the subway station had become a battlefield, as giant ticks bigger than any they had ever seen fought giant spiders which reminded Rebecca of those in the Arklay Mountains back then, the two sides seemingly fighting for the right to claim this whole area as their nesting ground.

The ground and walls ran green and red with the blood and viscera of the giant monsters, and the air was filled with the dying hisses of both ticks and spiders.

"... orders, ma'am?" softly asked the corporal, voice shaking slightly at the surreal sight of the war of monsters going on in front them.

Rebecca took in the scene before her, face grim, before she let out a small sigh.

And to think that those in the sewers had to deal with shit like this frequently from the day we arrived…

She opened her mouth, presumably to give some kind of order, but then the ground began to shake, and a third side to this war of beasts revealed itself, as giant worms broke through the ground and began attacking both sides.

The group of ISIS soldiers took one look at the utter insanity in front of them before looking at Rebecca.

Said woman let out a deep sigh, and nodded firmly to herself.

"You know what? Fuck the subway. I'll let Aeon deal with this. Let's go back up, I'm sure we can handle hordes of zombies. Nice, normal hordes of zombies sound great right about now."

"Aye aye, ma'am! You heard the Huntress, double time it out of here!" passionately shouted the corporal, who somehow looked the picture perfect of 'relief' even with his full body armor on.

The fact the rest of her team were no better made Rebecca smirk for a second, before that smirk disappeared as she threw one last look at the madness going on behind her.

If she had been alone, she might have been tempted to fight her way through, but while the soldiers of ISIS were good, they've been fighting non-stop for hours now.

Her men's body armor had various slashes and bite marks, and their bodies were getting tired physically and mentally.

And who knew what they might find deeper in the subways.

Also, they were sent for a scouting mission, not one where they were supposed to fight through this kind of craziness.

She shook her head, the sounds of dozens of gigantic monsters killing and dying echoing through the air, and she walked away with a grim look on her face.

She was probably going to be sent back here sooner or later, most likely with Jill as back-up too.

That, or Aeon would deal with it himself.

Either way, she needed to focus on bringing her team back to the Police Station. She could worry about the status of the underground war for Raccoon City later.

Though she really didn't want to think about what else might be crawling around down there…

I frowned while sitting in front of the desk that Lieutenant Marvin gave me in the Police Station, thinking deeply over the latest report from Rebecca about the situation in the subway station close to the Raccoon Zoo.

The situation over there was bad, and from what I knew things weren't exactly much better in the rest of the city.

Well, the US Army and Blackwatch did manage to more or less get the situation under control east of the circular river, so at least the various schools of the city were under control and already being used by both groups as FOB's and refugee camps.

And of course, the USS controlled the north-west of Raccoon City, alongside some of the northern facilities in general, since that was where most of Umbrella's facilities were based.

The real problems were the south-west of the city, and a good part of the northern regions that Umbrella didn't care about.

And of course, there was the message from Lucy that Umbrella Europe had activated a whole bunch of its B.O.W. reserves and were sending them towards Raccoon City…

As I expected, really, there was a reason I created a back-up HQ, and the fact that we were so close to the beginning of the events of Resident Evil 3 make it clear that shit was really about to hit the fan soon.

And that was without mentioning USS Delta Team, who all had laid low all this time… but probably not for much longer.

So yeah. All told, I fully expected things to really get ugly in the next few days. Umbrella was going to make its move, and considering how bloody things already were…

The only reason ISIS still had no deaths was the amount of equipment, training, and of course, the supernatural healing that ISIS could call upon.

Even so, the Underground War of Raccoon City was only growing in violence, to the point that I spent most of my time down there leading ISIS from the front lines rather than up there helping to reclaim the city itself.

True, having Jill and Rebecca up there to help really was a plus, but-

I froze, head snapping towards a point in the distance as my eyes narrowed and began glowing.

Ah, of course. That little virus was trying to escape the city, huh?

I stood up, dusting myself off while scowling.

The Executor Virus, also known as the Cameron Virus after its creator… a type of nightmare fuel so utterly bullshit that the only ones who knew of it in the entirety of Insight Corp. (ISIS included) was quite literally only myself, Lucy, and Oedon.

In some ways, it was more bullshit than the Blacklight virus, which was really saying something.

A virus which allows one to survive anything, as long as even only a single infected cell survives, was really broken, especially when it further allows one to take possession of anything that comes into contact with infected cells.

Birds, insects, humans, it didn't matter. A single cell made it into your body, and you were screwed.

Hell, not even the Resident Evil Jumpdoc offered a sample of the damn thing, which was saying something!

I actually cheated and learnt everything there was to know about the virus in order to strengthen the Blacklight virus within me, effectively making it such that only full body disintegration could kill me now.

That being said, this wasn't something I could take risks with. This wasn't something the world could face on its own.

So I wasn't going to hold back on this one.

I teleported, appearing right in front of a military jeep containing a UBCS soldier currently being killed by various tentacles coming from the monstrous form of Dr. Cameron.

Said Doctor had only a second where her eyes went wide at the sight of me before I extended my right arm, and then the jeep hit me at speeds close to 100km/h.

I didn't even blink, my right hand clenching around the throat of the monster capable of dooming the world, the jeep exploding around us and incinerating the UBCS soldier's corpse to a crisp, though Dr. Cameron only received enough burns to incinerate her tentacles and outer body, not enough to outright kill her.

I didn't want her to body jump out of here. I would waste a few pointless seconds teleporting back to "her", after all.

Instead, thoroughly uncaring of the burning wreck of the jeep and the fire coating my whole body, I focused on ending this quickly.

So I spoke.

[Executor Virus/Dr. Cameron = 0.]

The burned body held in my right hand ceased to exist.

The existence of both the Executor Virus and Dr. Cameron ceased to exist in all ways, shapes, and forms across the entire Multiverse, using this version of the two to reach their counterparts all across every possible timeline.

Conceptual speech backed up by the full power of an Omniscient/Omnipotent/Omnipresent god on a multi multiversal level was no joke, after all.

I took a moment to tilt my head, double checking with my true self for confirmation, before nodding.

Then I teleported back to the police station, satisfied the job was done.

I sat in my chair with a satisfied sigh… before stopping.

… Oh right, I was still on fire.

Ooops.

I cut the fire, then fixed the chair.

Note to self: humans aren't supposed to find being on fire surprisingly soothing. Must avoid while being surrounded by mortals.

… I blame my [Child of Fire] perk for this.

Rebecca opened the door to the room given to ISIS by Lieutenant Branagh eagerly, smiling in joy and relief as she finally stood back before Aeon.

Her boyfriend looked up from the map on his desk, smiling at her.

"Rebecca. Happy to be back in safe territory?" he declared, grinning slightly while taking in her weary form.

"Definitely!" she replied passionately. "I really could do with a nap… and a shower. A long shower…" she grumbled.

Aeon snorted. "Welcome to war. Comfort isn't a concern in the face of survival. That being said…"

He got up, hugging her tightly, a hug she happily returned.

"... you'll have to make do with a hug from your boyfriend." he finished with a hint of amusement.

"Mmm… I suppose that I'll make do…" she mumbled in his chest, smiling slightly.

"That bad?" he replied, a note of concern beneath his amusement.

She sighed. "No, not really. No one from my team died, and while we had to fight our way through a variety of monsters, it could have been worse. It's just… seeing the city like this…"

Rebecca bit her lip, finally letting down the walls she put up while on the field.

"I know that you warned me that it would be bad, but even so… hordes of zombies everywhere in every street, and hordes of gigantic monsters down in the underground of the city… It makes what we had to deal with in the Arklay Mountains look tame in comparison. And to think that this is only a fraction of what Umbrella wants for the world…"

She shuddered, hugging Aeon harder.

"I hate them." she said softly. "I hate Umbrella for all of this. I had to kill so many people who turned into monsters… mothers, fathers, children… even babies weren't spared by the virus. This is... " she trailed off, her green eyes shining as she remembered all the horrors she had witnessed in the days since the outbreak.

"I hate it." she snarled softly.

"Do you regret becoming a Huntress, after having to face the burden of being one?" gently asked Aeon.

She shook her head. "No. If anything, being here, in Raccoon City, seeing all this… it only further proves why Hunters are needed. You were right, the world needs protectors, ones fearlessly capable of facing the monsters threatening it. I just…" she bit her lip harder.

"I just hope that one day, we'll be able to put an end to all of this, once and for all." she finished, her mind going back to the visions she saw when she first became a Huntress.

Aeon hugged her tighter, sighing slightly.

"One day." he promised. "One day, it will end. I promise."

Rebecca nodded, letting herself relax in the arms of her boyfriend, before stepping back.

She took a deep breath, before nodding at Aeon, making it clear that she was once again Rebecca Chambers, Huntress of the Dream, instead of "only" his girlfriend in need of comfort.

He smiled at her, half proud of her and half sad of the burden he helped bring on her shoulders, before going back to his seat and sitting, his own expression turning serious.

"Alright. I'm not sure if you've been informed, but Umbrella Europe has sent their B.O.W. reserves towards Raccoon City. It won't be long before they arrive, so we've been preparing for the worst."

Rebecca thought back to what she had seen in the Police Station, the flurry of activity, now that she thought back on it, having a certain measure of grim anticipation to it.

"You don't think we can hold this place?" she asked, rather surprised at the pessimism from Aeon.

It was the first time she actually saw him think about losing any battle, after all.

"We might." he nodded, increasing her confusion. "But we wouldn't be able to hold it for long."

Her eyes narrowed in thought… before she sighed.

"Of course. You're worried about casualties?"

He turned grim.

"Correct. I could fight off the incoming assault by myself… but I can't. There are too many people still in the station, some of them civilians. I can't be everywhere at once… or at least, I can't be seen at several places at once, unless I have absolutely no choice. So a full-blown assault of the worst monsters that Umbrella can create on the police station would result in far too many losses, even with the defensive advantage."

"At which point, any victory would be pyrrhic at best. I understand."

"Exactly."

Rebecca growled slightly at Umbrella causing them more headaches than they already have, before sighing.

"Alright. What about Jill, though? I don't think I saw her around here…"

"No, she's-"

He stopped, head snapping towards the nearest window, eyes narrowing in concentration.

"Aeon?" she asked, concerned.

He raised a hand, silently asking for silence even as he kept looking out towards the sky… before he suddenly cursed.

"Damn! They're here!"

Rebecca's eyes went wide, and she rushed towards the nearest window, eyes narrowing as she focused...and could barely see a few specks of black in the sky coming closer.

Aeon, meanwhile, had already walked to the nearest alarm and hit it, a siren echoing through the building.

"This is Aeon of ISIS!" he shouted through an intercom while walking out of his office. "We're about to be attacked by B.O.W.'s sent by Umbrella! Begin the evacuation immediately! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! Begin evacuation-"

Rebecca stayed focused on the incoming black spots in the sky, finally seeing that they were helicopters… and that each of them held some containers underneath them.

She took out her axe and shotgun, gripping them tightly while scowling.

And then she followed after Aeon.

The people here were soon going to need all the Hunters they could get, after all.

Sergeant Miranda White gripped her lasgun tightly, ready to fire at any moment as the roars of the reptilian hunters could be heard coming closer to the police station.

At her back, civilians, police officers and ISIS soldiers alike began to evacuate the building as fast as they could, spurned on by the increasing intensity of the inhumans roars coming closer.

Beside her, fellow ISIS soldiers, and several brave police officers were manning the barricades they had built specifically in case the police station was attacked, Aeon and Rebecca Chambers standing at the front line, the former seemingly unbothered by the loud sounds of the incoming monsters while the latter, rather amusingly, seemed to try and fail to be as calm as her mentor.

It wasn't too visible, but the occasional slight tilt of her head towards her teacher and the way her hands gripped her weapons made it clear that she was tense, even while trying not to appear as such.

Miranda let a moment pass to lament the absence of Jill Valentine, being currently occupied with a horde trying to make it through their southern lines, but hey, two out of three Hunters was still pretty good.

Especially with the fact the greatest of them still stood calmly at the barricades… even as the incoming horde of monsters finally arrived.

Miranda blanched slightly at the numbers of Hunters (and wasn't the name confusing in times like these) running their way, but what really made her swallow was the dreaded sight of several Mr. X Tyrants walking swiftly towards their lines.

"Umbrella really didn't hold back, didn't they?" casually commented Aeon, with what Miranda could have sworn was a hint of amusement in his voice.

"They probably want to make sure that we're all dead." grimly replied Rebecca, staring darkly at the incoming Tyrants.

Aeon nodded slowly. "That, and Colonel Vladimir's past in the Soviet Union is probably showing. It figures that his best strategy involves human wave tactics, only with monsters."

Rebeca snorted with disgust. "An appropriate tactic for an Umbrella goon."

"Indeed. Shall we prove to the good Colonel that there is a reason the Soviet Union collapsed?"

"Gladly."

Aeon raised a hand… and then brought it down.

"Fire at will."

And with that, the street turned into nothing else but red as far as the eye could see, as lasbolts, the explosion of grenades, and the occasional rocket launcher mixed with blood and gore from all the dead monsters.

Miranda began to focus more on her part of the battle than the rest, but even so, she could still hear the occasional shouted order or report from her radio, informing her that the convoy had been attacked in-route to the secondary HQ… only for the attackers to run into the tank and military helicopter protecting the convoy.

She allowed herself a smirk at the news. Sure, both vehicles could have been useful to hold the line here, but they had Hunters. They would hold.

Hell, their leader could hold the entire damn street by himself, if need be.

Of course, problems did arise. As they feared, not all B.O.W.'s were focused on the street, and a number of Lickers used the roofs and windows to enter the Police Station.

Furthermore, with most of their forces stuck defending the convoy, various hordes of zombies made it through previously safe territory.

So they were quite literally on the clock, because if they gave time for those hordes to surround them and hit the convoy, things were going to get ugly.

And it wasn't as if ISIS could use its full forces defending it, since most of its troops were still underground, fighting the war against all the monsters living down there.

Someone needed to prevent those monsters from coming up top after all, and that meant holding the lines underground.

Still, all these were just background concerns to Miranda in comparison to the much more prevalent concerns of the monsters up top causing trouble.

She snarled slightly as a Hunter tried to jump on top of her, Miranda dodging at the last second before stabbing her bayonet through the monster's brain and shooting a few lasbolts in it for good measure.

She looked around, shooting another one who was about to slash a police officer with its claws and blowing its brain out in time before it could kill the blonde woman, and she turned towards another target, not even acknowledging the grateful look from the woman-

"STTTTAAAAARRRSSS!"

She whirled, her face going white as she stared at what had to be some kind of Tyrant with a minigun attached to its right arm, its one good eye staring coldly at Rebecca Chambers.

Said woman took one look at it, froze, and then cursed loudly.

"Aeon! Protect the convoy, I'll draw it away from here!"

Her leader threw a look at his student, before nodding once.

"Got it! Jill's in Downtown if you need backup!"

Rebecca gave Aeon a thumbs up, before charging at the Tyrant, while behind her Aeon was now the sole focus of several Mr. X's all walking towards him.

Miranda's grip on her lasgun tightened, a scowl appearing on her face as she struggled with her desire to help out the two in their fight, even as she knew that this wasn't her fight. This was a Hunter's job, while hers was to keep protecting the rear of the convoy.

So she growled and looked away, focusing on killing more Lickers, Hunters, and whatever else Umbrella sent at them.

Fucking Umbrella. She mentally snarled as she blew off the chest of another undead abomination.

"The failure to contain virus samples has left Umbrella in a precarious situation. HUNK is not responding. The UBCS wing has deployed their forces… and they are being killed off. To ensure Umbrella's survival, the story of what happened here must never be told. We need to make sure the truth dies along with every scrap of evidence and every survivor."

"Umbrella Security Service Task Force, begin Operation Raccoon City."

"Let's move out. Our objective, City Hall, is just up ahead." declared Lupo.

"I can't believe Umbrella is blaming us for the outbreak…" grumbled Beltway.

"Yes, and that's why we are being redeployed. Let's hope things go according to plan." grimly replied Lupo, not any more happy than he was at still being in this damn city.

"Command will not be happy with us until we can assure them they will not be connected with the outbreak." pointed Vector.

They kept moving, until Lupo updated Command.

"Command, position 1 reached."

"Position confirmed Wolfpack, proceed into the 'Cold Zone.'"

"Copy that."

They moved on in silence, until Beltway stopped.

"Shh. I heard something."

"Copy that." replied Lupo. "Hostiles up ahead, weapons ready everyone."

Lupo carefully opened the door in front of them… and immediately blew off the head of a zombie, before entering the room.

After a short but intense battle, the room was cleared of hostiles.

"Why are there zombies here, anyway? Aren't we close to the police station? I thought ISIS was holed up over there." wondered Vector.

"Not anymore." replied Lupo. "Command threw pretty much every B.O.W. that Umbrella Europe had to finally get them to ditch the place. Last I heard, they fell back to a secondary base not long ago."

Vector grunted. "Casualties?"

Lupo scoffed. "Some wounded, but no deaths from ISIS. And once again, their leader seemingly gave no fuck about the numbers of hostiles, because he apparently took on several Mr. X's by himself and walked out of that fight looking the best of them all."

"Figures. I heard Command had thought about sending HUNK after him in the past, but held back. A shame. I'd be curious to see which of those two crazy bastards would get to win that fight…"

Lupo couldn't argue that she wasn't curious herself, but discarded the thought. She needed to focus on the mission at hand.

She walked closer to the door leading to next room-

Which promptly opened.

Lupo's eyes widened, and she began shouting orders at her team.

"Hold your fire! He's UBCS."

The white-haired soldier looked at them coldly, though she didn't like the glint of interest in his eyes as he looked at her and her team.

Her instincts screamed at her to be careful with this guy. That kind of glint in one's eyes never meant good things.

It looked far too close to a lion looking at a piece of meat.

"Nicholai Ginovaef, UBCS-D Platoon, B-Squad."

The man slowly lowered his gun, his eyes jumping to one after another of her team.

"You're Umbrella Security Service?" he questioned, though his voice said the words more like fact. "Upper Management must be in a panic if they sent you."

Her eyes narrowed. "Save it. What are you doing here?"

His eyes examined her, that cold interest not even flinching at the coldness of her voice.

"My team was sent here to rescue citizens, but there's no time for that. City Hall is a mess. I'm trying to find a safe zone." he replied slowly, and she couldn't help but notice that he certainly didn't seem all that saddened about the fact he couldn't help any civilians he was supposedly here for.

"There is no safe zone." she replied, which was certainly true. At least, not in this part of the city, considering she doubted that ISIS would welcome anyone working for Umbrella with open arms right now. "What is going on there?" she asked, requesting a sit-rep of City Hall.

Ginovaef glanced at her, before looking at the rest of her team.

"City Hall is crawling with infected and some… unidentified military personnel. They are looking for something… Why, what are you doing?" he suddenly asked, the glint of interest in his cold grey eyes growing.

"We're asking the questions." coldly replied Vector.

He looked at her.

"Is this guy a loose end?" he asked over their comms.

For a moment, she contemplated following her instincts and killing the guy, her hand tightening on her assault rifle… before she grunted.

They didn't have time for this, they had their mission to worry about.

"He's UBCS. He'll get himself killed somehow."

She turned away, hoping she wasn't making a mistake but otherwise removing Nicholai from her list of concerns.

"We've got orders. Let's move." she commanded.

"All the best for your mission." said Ginovaef, a hint of mockery in his voice.

"The City Hall has been locked down. Access the security room and override it." declared Command.

"Copy that, Command."

They moved on, killing a few zombies on the way until they found themselves at the entrance of City Hall, leaving the underground passages they had taken to get there… and coming face to face with a group of soldiers in all black.

"Blackwatch. Kill 'em." declared Lupo.

"Government forces have already entered the area. Do NOT let them leave this place alive!" further ordered Command.

Neither Lupo nor her team hesitated, opening fire and killing all soldiers after a short but brutal firefight.

"Don't get sloppy. That won't be the last of them." grimly declared Lupo.

A fact proven when they had to go through several more teams of Blackwatch soldiers on the way to their objective.

At last, they reached their goal and contacted Command.

"Command, we've entered the security room." declared Lupo.

"There should be a console nearby. Use it to override the security lockdown."

"Done." replied Lupo a moment later.

"Good. Now you can access the server room and destroy all the city records."

Vector suddenly pointed out one of the monitors of the console.

"Check out that monitor. Looks like a security feed from earlier today."

Her team gathered before the monitor, seeing Ginovaef reach a door, turn around and then shoot one of his teammates in the knee before closing and seemingly locking the door, dooming the three UBCS soldiers that were with him to die at the hands of the horde of zombies running after them.

"That's Nicholai and his team…" she said grimly.

"Nicholai fed his team to the infected." remarked Beltway with disgust.

Lupo turned away.

"No one cares about a few dead UBCS. We've got a job to do." she replied, though she was already regretting her decision to not have killed the bastard when they had the chance.

No one said anything, so she opened the nearby doors and moved on with her team towards their new objective, killing any infected along the way.

They also encountered the occasional Blackwatch group, but they were no match compared to her team.

When they finally reached the server room, they found the remains of an UBCS team.

"Looks like Nicholai's team." remarked Vector.

Lupo scowled, a sneer on her face. "Who knows how many people he has fed to the infected. His mind has been warped."

She shook her head, looking at the data servers around them.

"Don't forget why we're here. Let's take care of those servers."

She leveled her gun towards the nearest one and started shooting, her team doing the same a second later.

"Command, the servers are gone."

"Good. Now proceed to the records room and finish the job."

"Affirmative, Command."

They moved on, killing more infected and a few Blackwatch stragglers along the way, before entering the record room.

"Command, we've entered the records room."

"Alright. Now find all evidence and get rid of them!"

"Copy that." Lupo replied.

"Be careful. The room is full of traps." remarked Beltway, pointing at a few explosives traps across the room.

They carefully made their way through the room, burning various plans of the city showing a number of Umbrella facilities Command wanted to keep secrets, before they regrouped.

"Command, we've burned all the evidence we could find."

"Good."

"Then let's fucking get out of here, before more infected or Blackwatch reinforcements arrive."

They left the records room, eager to leave this place behind, only to stop when they reached the next room, a rather wide and open one, the sound of many, many infected close by making them tense immediately.

Then their focus fell on Nicholai, who casually walked into the room with a small smirk on his face.

"Nicholai! What is the meaning of this? And why did you kill your team?!" exclaimed Vector, sounding pissed.

Lupo blinked when Nicholai began laughing, the man looking utterly unconcerned at the accusation thrown his way.

"They served their purpose most excellently." he replied, somehow sounding and looking genuinely cheerful.

"Just as you will!" he shouted, pointing his gun at them and firing in their direction.

"Nicholai! Hold your position!" snarled Vector, while the sound of the infected suddenly grew in intensity.

And then their eyes went wide when dozens of Lickers suddenly used holes in the roof to crawl in the room they were in.

Nicholai promptly ran out of room, and while Lupo would have loved to shoot the bastard in the back, she and her team had their hands full dealing with all the Lickers attacking them.

"Run! Towards the door on the other end of the room!" she screamed, her team and herself running like never before while more and more Lickers rushed in the room.

"Why are there so many Lickers?!" shouted Beltway.

"Don't know, don't care! Just run!" she shouted back.

They stopped when they found the doors locked, and Beltway snarled hatefully.

"Fucking bastard tried to do to us what he did to his team! Well fuck that!"

He fired at the doors while she and the rest of her team covered him and fought off waves of Lickers, and once the doors were broken they ran like all of hell was after them, which certainly sounded like it considering the number of Lickers screaming behind them, the team finding themselves back at the entrance of City Hall.

"If that asshole crosses paths with us again, I'll kill him!" shouted Vector while running.

"Get in line!" she snarled back, very much eager to make up for her spectacular lapse in judgement concerning letting Nicholai live by blowing his brain out personally.

They went through the regular infected before them like a knife through butter, taking their rage against Nicholai on those weaker infected, before running out of the building at full speed.

"Alright, get it together if you want to be extracted. Don't forget that you caused all of this."

She held back a growl. They weren't the ones who fucked up with Dr. Birkin, they were simply the only ones left that Command could blame for this mess!

"In the meantime, we'll look into that UBCS operative… Nicholai."

Lupo tightened her hold on her rifle. Yes, she most definitely wanted to know more about him.

Specifically, where she could find him and brutally murder the bastard for trying to get her and her team killed!

"We'll get him, Lupo." said Vector. "And we'll make him pay for this. Then maybe we can leave this fucking city behind, too."

Lupo grunted. "I look forward to it."

Both killing Nicholai, and getting out of here.

She had children back home who counted on her to come back, after all.

And no fucking mad Russian or asshole commander was going to stop her from making it back to her children!

"General!"

General Randall, commanding officer of all Blackwatch forces, looked up from the report he was reading to look at the soldier before him.

From the look on the man's face, this wasn't good news.

"What is it, soldier? Some new kind of mutation causing trouble?" he asked, because it wouldn't be the first time since he first arrived in this fucking city.

The man hesitated, before shaking his head.

"No, sir. We lost all contact with our forces at City Hall. Last thing we knew, they were under attack… by human forces, sir."

Randall scowled deeply.

The closest human soldiers to that location were ISIS. Did they-

"And, sir… we heard from the radios that they were using regular firearms, not lasguns."

Randall paused.

It could be a trick from ISIS…

But he quickly discarded the thought. ISIS controlled the City Hall since the outbreak began, and only lost it after…

"Damn it. Fucking Umbrella." he cursed.

Of course. Umbrella didn't attack ISIS directly, they sent their B.O.W.'s to dislodge ISIS from their HQ and used the ensuing chaos to try, and apparently succeed at, removing whatever sort of evidence that linked Umbrella with this mess in the City Hall.

Which rather ironically was close to what Blackwatch had tried to do, using ISIS's withdrawal from the area to try and gather whatever information about Umbrella Blackwatch could get… though it obviously backfired.

Randall thought deeply, face grim.

The fight in the city was going alright, all things considered. High casualties all across the board, but that was expected. ISIS and the RPD withdrawing from the police station and effectively abandoning Downtown and most of Uptown was a concern, but Blackwatch's lines were holding strong for now.

Last he heard, ISIS was going to try to focus on the southwest parts of the city, which should be easier to take than other parts since there were less houses and thus less people in those areas.

Combined with their victory in Main Street, and they had a decent chance of winning, now that they didn't have to worry about holding the high-density residential areas of the southern parts of the city.

Of course, there was still the matter of The War Below, as it was getting called by the troops. The subterranean parts of the city were a fucking mess, and he'd actually lost more troops holding the line down there than up in the streets.

And something was growing big enough down there that it moving could be felt through the fucking ground across entire streets, which was Bad News, capital letters completely intended.

All that to say, now really wasn't the time for Umbrella to go fuck everything up, but apparently they didn't get the memo.

… Fuck it. If they wanted to play things like this, so be it. Let them dig their own graves deeper.

"Alright soldier, listen up, I've got a few orders for you to relay to the troops…"