34 The Raccoon City Outbreak, Part 3

Word count 11,038

September 28, 1998.

Jill Valentine opened her eyes, taking in the sight of her apartment in Raccoon City.

She slowly got up, stretching out with a yawn before sighing.

The last few days were taking a toll on her, emotionally if not physically.

Fighting against a potential zombie apocalypse will do that to you.

She slowly went to her bathroom, closing the window in her bedroom while a storm raged outside, before throwing a grim look at the big map of Raccoon City on a nearby wall full of sticky notes and newspaper clips.

Several areas had been colored red, and she grimaced when the police station stood out as one of them.

She understood the need for evacuation, but it still hurt to see it fall to infected hands.

As it was, she would need to abandon her apartment soon, since with the police station lost, the part of the city she was staying in was no longer safe.

With a frown, she turned off the water of her bathroom sink that she had apparently forgot to-

She froze as drops of blood fell down into the water below.

Looking up, her eyes widened when she saw the blood going down her nose, followed by her right eye turning putrid and rotten.

She stumbled back in terror, breathing hard, before looking down at her hands, noticing the blood on them and the unnatural color of her veins.

She fell to her knees, before scrambling back towards the sink and the mirror over it, her panic growing when she saw her whole body looking more and more like one of them.

She looked down, finally noticing the loaded gun by her side, and took it with a trembling right hand, slowly putting it over the side of her head.

Gritting her teeth and closing her eyes, she slowly forced herself to pull the trigger-

"Come now, don't you remember? I told you that you would never again need to fear the monsters of this world when you first became a Huntress. After all, they would learn to fear you."

She froze, the gentle voice and the glowed and on her right shoulder stopping her from moving, her blue eyes opening to look through the mirror at the tall man behind her currently smiling gently.

Her hand trembled for an entirely different reason when she looked at herself again, noticing only a completely normal and healthy face staring back at her in the mirror.

The man bent over to whisper in her right ear, and she noticed the bright, burning star taking the place of his right eye, and the pit of infinite darkness in his left, while his black robes shone with the twinkling of countless stars.

"You swore yourself to me, Jill Valentine… and as long as that remains true, nothing else may claim you."

He kissed her neck, and she felt herself relax slowly, her lips parting slightly as a moan rose from her throat.

"Nothing."

Jill woke up with a start, breathing hard with a storm of emotions within her, from fading terror to growing relief and even a hint of lust.

She sighed deeply, relaxing back in the chair she had apparently fallen asleep in at some point, looking around at her desk in the bedroom of her apartment while letting her heartbeat slow down.

"Fucking hell…" she whispered with a slight smirk, the dream she just had fading rapidly from her mind, leaving only the memory of two inhuman eyes looking at her fondly and the false sensation of a kiss on her neck.

"Damnit, Aeon… it's just like you to save a girl and leave her all hot and bothered afterwards, even in her dreams…" she grumbled in amusement.

She got up, turned on the lights, and went to the bathroom where she discovered that yes, she had forgotten to turn off the water.

She looked at herself in the mirror, feeling relief at the sight of her pink, healthy-looking skin, before turning off the tap and leaving the room.

She blinked when the phone of her room began ringing, frowning in confusion.

If ISIS had tried to contact her, they would have called her own phone or Aeon would have sent one of his messengers, so who…

"Jill! Are you ok?"

"Brad? Is that you?"

"Listen! You gotta get out of here!"

She frowned.

"What are you talking about- wait… Shit. Is this about that new Tyrant that showed up? The Nemesis that targeted Rebecca?" she asked, remembering what she had heard about the new Tyrant that had attacked her fellow S.T.A.R.S. during the evacuation of the police station.

It was eventually driven off and hadn't been seen since, but-

"Yes! You need to get out of there RIGHT NOW!"

She nodded. "Okay, let me grab my-"

CRASH!

"Aaah!"

She fell backward, the wall nearest to her blowing up all of a sudden.

Looking up, she noticed a tall monster staring at her with its one good eye, the black coat on it looking to have been badly burnt and slashed.

She glanced at her nearby laspistol and lunged for it, before Quickening out of the way of a brutal kick sent her way by what she suspected to be that new Tyrant, codenamed Nemesis.

She then ran out of her apartment and closed the door behind her, taking a second to take stock of what the hell just happened, before running down the corridor when she heard Nemesis walk closer to the door she was hiding behind.

Her instincts suddenly screamed at her to dodge, and she went flat to the ground, the door she was behind seconds ago cutting through the air above her head an instant later.

She glanced behind her at the growling Tyrant, before ducking into a nearby open door and closing it behind her, while putting a heavy shelf in front of it

Then she went through a nearby opened window, grimacing as she saw much of the street on fire and the sounds of zombies coming closer.

"Dammit." she cursed, as she went through another nearby window to arrive into a new room-

Crash!

And then the Tyrant went through the ceiling to suddenly stand before her again, a tentacle emerging from his right hand.

"Fuck off!" she growled, throwing a fireball at his ugly face and using that distraction to pass by him and get through the door leading to the corridor beyond.

An explosion sent her barreling through the door and into the outside stairs, and she grimaced as she felt a bruise forming, maybe even something breaking.

Thankfully, her healing as a Huntress kicked in, letting her breath in relief as the pain disappeared a moment later.

Going down the stairs, she smiled at seeing a ladder allowing her to go down into the street-

And then Nemesis broke through the wall to her left, took her skull in hand and sent her flying back into the now burning building, and then she was soon chased by him again.

"STAAAARS!" he growled hatefully.

She Quickened towards the door leading into the corridor and out of the building, an explosion going off behind her blocking the path a second after she went through.

Free to catch her breath at last, she sighed deeply, before scowling towards the building.

"Fucking bastard couldn't have waited until I finished dressing myself up for a fight, huh?" she scoffed, before snapping her fingers.

The ground rippled like water close by, and several messengers appeared, looking up at her with joy.

She smirked.

"Too bad, I can cheat."

She gave a few orders to the messengers, then waited as they eagerly went to work and returned not long after with everything she wanted to take from her apartment.

Once she finished putting on her coat and checking her weapons, she nodded to herself once she was satisfied she was as ready as she could be, thanking the messengers for their help before leaving the side passage she was currently in for the street itself.

"Alright. Jill Valentine, Huntress Extraordinaire, is back in business with a grudge to boot. Fucking Umbrella couldn't even let me be in my own damn bedroom... "

She snorted.

"It's a good thing for them that Aeon wasn't there, because there is no way that Tyrant would have survived more than two seconds tops if we had been… busy."

She shook her head with a grin at the mental image of what would have happened if Nemesis had shown up then, before turning serious.

She could hear screams and undead moans nearby, so she needed to-

"Jill? Jill, over here!"

Her eyes zeroed on the man calling her, before widening in surprise.

"Brad!"

"You ok?" he asked.

"I'm fine." she replied truthfully, once again feeling thankful to the healing properties of the divine blood running down her veins.

"That thing, that was the Nemesis, right? I heard about it targeting Rebecca…"

Brad nodded.

"Yeah, and it's not just her. It's after all S.T.A.R.S. members still in Raccoon City, so you, me, and Rebecca. Either way, I'm not sticking around with that thing in the city. I just wanted to make sure you were alright, and then I'm taking a ISIS helicopter out of this damned place."

He turned around, walking away, and she followed after him.

She grimaced at the amount of fire around them and distant screams, shaking her head at it all.

"How did all of this happen so fast? I know this area isn't as safe as it once was, but still!"

"I don't know, you should ask ISIS's leader when you get the chance. But one fucked-up thing always leads to another. It's like Arklay on steroids."

Two helicopters passed overhead, and Brad jumped, before waving his arms.

"Wait, over here!... Ah, God dammit…"

She grimaced. This part of the city was obviously lost, though the real question was what could have happened that led to things going so wrong so quickly?

They ran towards a nearby bar, and Brad shouted at her while trying to keep the doors closed.

"The door behind you! Go!"

She nodded and ran towards them, but stopped and turned when she heard Brad scream in pain, freezing at the sight of a zombie sinking its teeth in Brad's left arm.

"Brad!" she shouted, running toward him and taking a knife before stabbing the zombie in the head and closing the doors on the thing.

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"Don't think about it." she said.

He smiled through gritted teeth.

"Don't worry, I got the vaccine from ISIS. A single bite isn't gonna kill me."

She breathed out in relief at the news, mentally thanking Aeon and Insight Corp. for their work, before nodding.

"Then we need to make a run for it!"

He shook his head. "We should split up. That Tyrant is still out there, and while my wound isn't going to kill me, it'll slow us down. So go! I'll find my way to safety, don't worry!"

"Brad-"

"Are we still a team?" he asked, a grunt escaping him as the zombies tried harder to break through the doors.

"Always." she replied instantly.

"Then do me a favor and don't fuck this up, and I won't do it again either. Now go!" he ordered.

He threw her away, face grim, and she gave him a long look before grimacing and running through the nearby door.

"Fucking fine, then." she cursed softly. "I'll just have to get that Tyrant's attention and keep it on me while Brad finds a way back to ISIS. I'm a Huntress, I can handle that fucker, Rebecca obviously did. Sorry Brad, but the only one playing hero here will be me. I've got literal gods on my side, I can survive it."

With that said, she walked away, determined to find a way to get that Tyrant's attention and keep him away from Brad.

Jill put a hand before her face to shield her eyes from the powerful light of the helicopter that was seeking survivors, before waving with her other arm.

"Hey! Down here!" she shouted.

Hopefully she could convince them to stay around long enough for her to go back to that man, Dario Rosso, who had decided to stay inside the "protection" of a shipping container in the warehouse she had found him in.

"Get in!" shouted the police officer from within the helicopter, and she moved closer to ask them if they could wait for-

BOOOOOM!

Jill's eyes widened when something caused the helicopter to suddenly catch on fire, going out of control and crashing on the ground nearby, the ensuing explosion sending her flying back roughly into a nearby car.

She grunted, before a small sigh of relief left her when her healing kicked in.

Quickly getting on her feet, she looked around-

And easily noticed Nemesis walking towards her.

She felt a burst of rage and satisfaction at the sight, rage at the death of the people in the helicopter and satisfaction at the fact that the Tyrant had chosen to target her and not Brad, before she focused on thinking of a plan to kill this bastard.

She was currently in a parking lot at the top of a building, which meant…

She grinned. That was a plan crazy enough to be worthy of Aeon.

She quickly jumped in a nearby car, removing the dead man within with a soft "Sorry." before trying to start the car.

Thankfully, the keys were already in, but the damn car refused to start.

"Oh, come on! Start, damn it!" she cursed, trying her best to start the fucking car.

Finally, the car started, and she grinned fiercely.

"It's my turn, bitch!" she growled, driving straight into the Tyrant.

Who didn't have the decency to grunt in pain, his right arm going through the window and around her neck instead.

She gritted her teeth, and began driving forward at full speed ahead.

As she expected, she soon drove off the top of the building, taking the Tyrant with her… and then they crashed down into the street below.

"Aaagh! Ragh! Fuuuck!" she cursed, as the car crashed on the ground and flipped on its head.

She coughed harshly, thankful her thick coat and hat helped smooth the crash slightly, and especially thankful for her inhuman healing again.

"Fuck… Next time, I'll let Aeon do the crazy plans and think of a better one for myself…" she grumbled.

She turned her head, noticing the Tyrant slowly get up from the ground.

She grimaced, crawling out of the car seconds before it exploded, bathing the Tyrant in flames… not that it seemed to care.

She scowled, got on her feet and took out her grenade launcher.

Fine then. If he wanted to fight a Huntress, then she'll gladly oblige him…

"Echo Six, report." came the transmission from Command.

"Dee-Ay. Assault. Team Leader. Reporting." Crispin "Dee-Ay" Jettingham replied, looking at his team.

"Harley, Medic. Reporting." replied the ex-biker turned medic of the team, Erez "Harley" Morris.

"Tweed, Demolitions. Reporting." Marissa "Tweed" Ronson declared, stretching out slightly.

"Willow, Recon. Reporting." Caroline "Willow" Floyd said calmly.

"Party Girl, Surveillance. Reporting." Sienna "Party Girl" Fowler replied, hand clenching her gun tightly at the scene of destruction surrounding them.

"Shona, Field Scientist, reporting." growled Lawrence "Shona" Kimbala, his one good eye looking around cautiously.

"Command, Echo Six reporting in. Requesting objectives." asked Dee-Ay.

"Reports on Raccoon City in the past 36 hours have been mixed at best. No one's sure what to believe in anymore. Make contact with the local authorities and give us an accurate sitrep. Get to the Raccoon City Police Department and find out what happened there."

"Roger that, Command. Echo Six, moving out. Be advised, we are seeing a large amount of destruction and civilian casualties already."

"Copy that, Echo Six. Get us answers, ASAP."

They began moving, making their way deeper into the streets of the city.

"What the hell happened here?" muttered Tweed, looking disturbed.

Dee-Ay sympathized. He's seen some shit, no one got into Echo Six without being the best at what they did, but there was something… unnatural about the silence in this part of the city.

Not being helped by what they could hear in the distance.

"Sounds like a goddamn war is going on there." grumbled Harley.

"No shit." agreed Party Girl. "The question is who's fighting who, and why?"

"Don't know, but they don't seem to care about civvies getting caught up in the fighting."

And considering the numbers and state of the corpses surrounding them, that was an understatement.

"Did you notice? They were all killed by headshots. Even when they have deadly wounds on them already…" pointed Shona.

Dee-Ay grunted. "Yeah, I noticed. Every corpse has either a bullet in their heads, or no heads at all. And that's not mentioning the traces of burns over them and the walls…"

"Agreed. I've never seen anything like that…" said Harley, looking confused.

Their discussion was cut short when a civilian turned the corner of a building to face them.

"Command, we've found a civilian." reported Dee-Ay.

Then he frowned.

"She looks strange though-"

The woman suddenly lunged forward, and his eyes widened when he saw her milky white eyes, pale flesh, and bloody mouth.

"Holy fuck- get off me!" he shouted, pushing the woman away.

"Command! Whatever the fuck is going on, they're not… they're not people anymore!" he exclaimed, he and his team staring wide eyes at the snarling thing getting up from the ground.

"You're authorized to use lethal force on any hostile." coldly replied Command, and Dee-Ay didn't need to be told twice before putting a bullet in the monster's head.

For a second, his team stared at the corpse before them.

"What the fuck-" began Party Girl, eyes wide, but Tweed's shout caught their attention.

"Contact! Multiple hostiles!" she screamed, and they all turned, seeing over a dozen monstrous people like the civilian he killed stumbling towards them, some of them cops.

"Open fire! Shoot their damn heads!" Dee-Ay shouted, suddenly having a good idea of why the corpses they passed by had been killed by headshots.

His team didn't hesitate, firing at anything that moved towards them, even as more and more hostiles showed up.

Finally, the flow turned to a trickle, until the last one got absolutely annihilated by the combined firepower of Echo Six.

There was another moment of deep silence, before Party Girl cursed.

"Zombies. Actual fucking zombies. What the hell is going on here?!"

"Hell if I know, but we should keep moving. Either way… those things are better off dead." replied Tweed, eyes hard.

"Command, did you get all of that?" asked Dee-Ay.

"We did, Echo Six. The mission parameters don't change: go to the RPD, and get answers."

"Gladly." he replied. "Alright, let's keep moving, Echo Six. Weapons free, and remember to target their heads."

Shona looked at the corpses for a moment, before shaking his head.

"I look forward to finding out how the hell actual zombies are a thing, because I certainly don't remember any of that in my studies in university."

"We all want answers. Let's go get them." firmly replied Dee-Ay.

"We follow the sound of fighting, then? From what I remember of the maps of the city, they do sound like they are coming from the RPD's general direction." pointed out Tweed.

"Let's hope the locals have a better idea of what's going on. Let's go." he declared.

And with that, they kept going, killing any zombies on the way, until they got their next nasty surprise.

"Dogs!" shouted Willow.

They immediately turned towards where she was already firing, their eyes going wide at the sight of the undead dogs charging them.

Once they were done killing the new threat, Shona walked up to the corpses, expression grim.

"That's not good, Dee-Ay. If whatever is going on affects animal life as well… the risk of infection spreading beyond this place just went through the roof."

Dee-Ay grunted, scowling.

"Noted. I guess it certainly explains why the Army is working on surrounding this place so that not even a bird can escape."

He shook his head. "No matter. Let's move on, but keep your eyes peeled. Anything can be a threat now."

They kept going, finding several barricades along the way… until they came across a building full of soldiers completely wearing black and with red lenses on their helmets, who took one look at them and immediately began firing.

"Command! We're being fired upon by armed forces!" shouted Dee-Ay, already returning fire with his team.

"Roger, Echo Six. Engage and neutralize, but don't get bogged down."

"Copy that."

They ended up exchanging gunfire with their enemy for a few minutes, until finally, the Racoon City Radio Building was clear of hostiles.

Dee-Ay looked down at the corpse of one of the soldiers, frowning in confusion.

Who were these guys? And why did they try to kill them?

They had no IDs, nothing showing for who they worked for, though by the quality of their equipment, they were certainly not the typical mercenaries.

He shook his head and moved, trying to signal reinforcements of their position, but the electrical circuits of the place blew up.

With a grunt, he took some signal flares and went to the roof with his team, only to find it crawling with zombies, with more coming from the nearby streets.

Obviously, the gunfire had attracted them.

"Cover me!" he shouted, before putting the flares on a nearby wall and launching them up.

Then he turned, joining his team in their efforts to keep the zombies at bay, even as they were swarmed by dozens of the damn things.

"Hey, Dee-Ay! Is it me going crazy, or are some of those-"

"Yes, some of those things have red skin, I noticed! And they are harder to kill, too!" he replied, scowling as he blew the head off another zombie, with yet more on the way.

"Oh, so whatever is going on isn't just making zombies, it's also mutating them! Wonderful!" sarcastically replied Party Girl.

"Less snark, more shooting!" he said, killing yet another of those freaks.

They kept fighting, Dee-Ay starting to seriously feel the sweat on his brow growing as more and more zombies kept coming relentlessly.

"Where are our damn reinforcement-"

A door opened from a nearby building, more Spec Ops soldiers finally arriving.

With the new arrival, they were finally able to easily hold their ground and eventually deal with the last few remaining zombies.

Dee-Ay let out a deep breath, before nodding.

"Alright, we'll take a five-minute break before we'll keep going. We need to get to that damn RPD building."

His team all but collapsed in relief, looking exhausted.

"Fuck… those damn bastards just kept on coming, without caring about anything else but killing us…" said Willow, looking disturbed.

Harley grunted. "Yeah. And what's up with those red skinned freaks? Damn bastards take several more bullets to put down than the rest…"

"Only one way to find out." Dee-Ay replied.

Though privately, he really hoped that the RPD had the answers they needed.

He'd do his duty and follow orders, but damn did he want to leave this place already.

He wasn't trained to handle a freaking Zombie Apocalypse, for God's sake!

"Command, we're closing in on the RPD building." Dee-Ay reported.

"Copy that. Hopefully we'll get some answers at last…"

"Could definitely do with some of those…" grumbled Party Girl.

Just then their attention was caught by a disturbance further down the street, and they saw a woman in a long blue coat send a grenade at something behind her before catching sight of them and running toward them.

The grenade exploded, and something growled loudly, before their eyes widened as an entire bus suddenly began moving towards the woman at high speed… while it was on its side.

The woman didn't even blink, only began to run harder before jumping towards them in a roll while the bus crashed on a number of cars.

And through the broken windows of the bus, they could see a tall, monstrous thing stomping towards them all, its one good eye seemingly jumping from one soldier to another before refocusing on the woman in the long blue coat.

Said woman took one look at the monster before turning towards them and shouting "Run!"

"STAAAAARS!" the monster growled hatefully.

"What's that?!" shouted Willow.

"What the fuck is that thing?!" loudly agreed Tweed.

"No time! Run if you want to live! You can't fight it!" replied the woman, running onwards while they tried their best to follow after her.

She was the first survivor they met after all, and they really wanted answers to the rising number of questions they all had!

A number of zombies appeared in their path, but the woman in blue didn't even hesitate to fire.

"Shoot them in the head! We can't afford to slow down!" she yelled.

His team didn't argue, but to their shock the giant monster was already waiting for them around the next corner and sent a tentacle coming from his right hand to bind the woman in blue.

Said woman snarled, and Dee-Ay blinked when suddenly a sword was in her right hand, cutting through the tentacle with ease.

Did she have that sword before? He wondered, before shaking his head- he had more pressing problems.

Like the giant monster in their path.

Then the woman in blue (he really needed to get her name…) actually charged at the monster, dodging what had to be a bone-shattering punch and slashing the monster's one good eye with her blade.

It roared, stumbling back and she yelled at them.

"Run! He'll heal soon!"

They didn't waste time agreeing, merely running forward as fast as they could.

"I don't think this bastard is going to leave us. Any of you have a genius idea?" asked Harley.

The woman in blue shot a nearby scaffolding, creating a path for them to take.

"Well done!" shouted Dee-Ay, before they all ran on it.

From there they got onto the rooftop of a nearby building, before entering it through a nearby door.

"Don't stop running!" shouted the survivor.

"Wait a minute, what was that monster?" questioned Willow, sounding rather appropriately disturbed.

"That's the newest Tyrant, Nemesis, one of the greatest bio-weapons of Umbrella. The details are a long story we don't have time for. Just keep running for now!"

"Umbrella? What-"

"More running, less talking!"

"Alright, but we'll ask questions later!" replied Willow, and the survivor merely nodded before focusing on running.

Eventually, they made it back into the streets, pausing a moment to get their breath back, the woman in blue looking around for any hostiles in the area and looking satisfied when she found none, though Dee-Ay noticed that the woman didn't even breath as hard despite the running they all did.

"That won't hold him back for long. We need to keep moving."

Dee-Ay stopped her, having had enough to be left in the dark.

"Wait, who are you?" he questioned.

"Jill Valentine. Formerly of S.T.A.R.S. I work for Insight Corp. and ISIS nowadays."

Dee-Ay frowned, before nodding.

"And that thing comes from Umbrella's labs?"

Valentine smirked slightly. "Yeah. We're not exactly Umbrella's favorite people. We've been investigating some of their more questionable activities for a while now. And with ISIS coming in strong to try and save the city, Umbrella has been trying their best to kill us. That monster was just proof of it."

"Command, are you getting this?" he asked, hand going to his radio.

"She was part of RPD's S.T.A.R.S. She checks out, but you are not to share your mission objectives with her."

Dee-Ay frowned, but would do as ordered.

He turned back towards Valentine.

"Where are you headed?" he wondered.

"Back to friendly lines. ISIS lost the RPD Building after Umbrella sent a massive wave of monsters at it, but there's a secondary HQ further north-west from there. Frankly, you should do the same."

She looked at them all, before shaking her head.

"You aren't equipped or trained to deal with the kind of monsters that roam around the parts of the city lost to the infected. And that's not even mentioning the kinds of things living in the sewers... "

"We're here to rescue civilians. We can't leave yet." replied Willow.

Valentine scoffed at that.

"Right... that's the same bullshit the UBCS said when they first arrived, and then their Monitors got them all killed so that they could go after their real objectives. Now the UBCS troopers are pretty much all dead. Besides, you don't look much like a rescue team."

She glanced at them all, turning thoughtful, before sighing.

"Look, I need to go. But if whoever's holding your leash cares about what happened here, I'd start with City Hall. You'll find intel on Umbrella there… hopefully. But if I were you, I'd go to the nearest safe zone and just hold the lines there. Less chances of dying. You don't even have lasguns!"

"Lasguns?" questioned Harley.

"Lasguns. Courtesy of Insight Corp. and ISIS, and used by the RPD and Blackwatch." she explained, taking out a gun of some kind out of one of her coat's pockets and firing it towards the street.

Dee-Ay and his team stared in shock at the laser bolt blowing a hole into the ground with ease.

"They've proven themselves effective in helping us all defend the city. There are several kinds, this is a spare laspistol I keep with me just in case. Considering we're fighting enemies that don't care about any injuries except those that destroy their brains, having weapons capable of blowing a zombie's head in one shot is a lifesaver."

She put the laspistol back in her coat, looked at them all, before walking away and disappearing through one of the nearby building's doors.

"Well I'll be damned. Laser guns now? Where can I get myself one of those?" joked Harley after a moment of silence.

Dee-Ay snorted. "Tell me about it. Still, we've got a lead, so let's get to it."

"And what about that giant monster?" asked Willow.

Dee-Ay pursed his lips.

"Not our concern… for now. If we cross paths with these two again, we'll try and help, especially if her info pans out, since we owe her one."

"Roger that." replied Willow, sounding satisfied.

Dee-Ay nodded, and they moved on.

They had a lead to get more answers and hopefully they would find the proof they needed to make sure the people behind this hell would pay for their crimes.

With that said, it was time to get on with their mission.

"Command, there's a survivor up ahead, surrounded by zombies!" declared Dee-Ay.

"Save that survivor. They might have valuable information."

"Copy that!"

His team ran onwards, firing at the zombies surrounding the lone soldier until they were all dead.

"Clear!" reported Party Girl.

The soldier looked from the dead zombies to them, before relaxing and letting out a relieved sigh and nodding in thanks.

"My name's Carlos. Thanks for saving my ass."

"No problem. Are you alone?" Tweed asked, her eyes staring at the UBCS logo for a moment before looking at him in the eyes.

"No, but I got split up from my team at City Hall. We were trying to rescue civilians…" he trailed off grimly.

"Funny, we were just on our way there." replied Tweed, her eyes narrowing.

"Last I heard, some soldiers were rolling through trying to set up explosives all over the place." Carlos said, not noticing the sudden suspicion in Tweed's eyes and voice.

"We'll take care of it. You get yourself to safety." declared Dee-Ay, not that much more ready to trust this guy than Tweed was after what they heard from Valentine.

He was UBCS after all, and that meant he was one of Umbrella's pawns.

The only question was whether he was a willing or unwilling one.

Whatever Carlos would reply was lost forever when several gunshots echoed and impacted a car they were standing behind, Dee-Ay and his team immediately rolling for cover while Carlos took one look at the incoming black-clothed soldiers and ran the hell away from there.

"Echo Six, go to City Hall and disarm the bombs these soldiers put there. We identified them as Umbrella Security Service soldiers. They cannot be allowed to destroy the evidence we need."

"Copy that, Command. We're on it."

Echo Six then exchanged fire with the USS soldiers for a while, until they were able to make it to the entrance of City Hall, where they discovered that the USS were burning various documents.

"Probably evidence implicating Umbrella. Whatever's left will be blown up if you don't diffuse those bombs."

"Copy that. Let's do this quickly, people!" Dee-Ay said to his team.

The first two bombs were relatively straightforward to deal with, they only had to deal with some local USS troops, but the third immediately proved itself much more problematic.

Mostly because of the massive amount of mutated things that crawled out of various holes in the walls of the vast room they were in that were trying to kill them.

"What are those things?" cried out Tweed, firing at one of those weird monsters with unnatural long tongues and a seemingly exposed brain of all things.

Which were surprisingly tough to kill, requiring more shots than regular zombies by far.

"Echo Six, those are mutated zombies! Don't let them get close to you!" exclaimed Command.

"Cover me while I disarm the bomb!" ordered Dee-Ay, who proceeded to what was without a doubt the most tense bomb disarming of his life while the screams of monsters and gunfire and explosions from his team fighting back echoed around him.

"C'mon, c'mon… Got it!" he shouted with relief.

"Then let's get the hell out of this room!" replied Tweed.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" shouted Party Girl, as they ran back to the entrance Hall while firing at the seemingly endless horde of mutated zombies who just kept coming, no matter how many were killed.

"Echo Six, go to the Archive Room on the top floor."

They ran up the stairs, killing a few more zombies along the way, before crashing through the doors of the Archive Room while breathing heavily.

"I'm not… trained… to fight fucking monsters…" complained Willow in between pants for breath.

"No shit." agreed Tweed.

Dee-Ay let them rage, silently agreeing but too focused on the mission to say anything, and what was in front of him did not please him any more.

Much of the room looked to have already been burnt, which made their odds of finding anything of worth… low.

Still, he led his team forward, killing a few more USS soldiers that had obviously been left here to keep burning as much as they could of the documents held there while they still lived, before he split his team to search for anything left of worth.

Unfortunately, after a while it became obvious that they really did arrive too late.

"Shit." cursed Dee-Ay softly, his team holding grim looks around him.

"So what now?" asked Willow, and Dee-Ay bit his lip as he thought hard.

Their only lead literally went up in smoke, which meant-

"Perhaps I can be of assistance, since you're all late to the party?"

Dee-Ay and his team jerked, guns pointing at the tall man leaning against a nearby shelf seemingly without a concern in the world.

"Identify yourself!" demanded Dee-Ay.

"The name's Aeon, leader of ISIS." he gave them a two fingered salute. "I heard you people were in town, I figured that I might as well check you out for myself. Too bad you showed up too late, the USS team Wolfpack already came by here a while ago, what you encountered were just a bunch of regular USS grunts charged with making absolutely sure nothing of this place was left."

Dee-Ay frowned, lowering his gun slightly.

"Valentine told you about us?" he asked.

The man blinked, then shook his head.

"Nah, I think she's still busy with that Nemesis Tyrant after her. No, I was in the area to help extract her old co-worker from S.T.A.R.S., then I made my way here to meet you."

"You seem remarkably unconcerned by the fact Umbrella sent that Nemesis thing after her." noted Tweed.

Aeon shrugged. "It'll be good training for her. If I went to fight it, it'd die like a bitch, and as funny as imagining the looks on the scientist's faces of Umbrella after I whoop the ass of their greatest creation, I'd rather not do any kill-stealing. Kill stealing is bad, after all, and it's not like I'd have that much fun fighting that thing. Much too weak to bother with it."

Dee-Ay felt his eyebrows rising as he considered the man before him, nonchalantly declaring Umbrella's greatest creation "weak."

Especially considering that he and his team had pumped the damn thing full of lead and it hardly seemed bothered.

"You think that thing's weak? Valentine seemed pretty insistent at getting us all away from it, though." pointed out Tweed, a frown on her face.

The blinked, tilted his head, before suddenly nodding.

"Ah, she wanted to get you squishies out of the way. If you had been there while they fought, you probably would have all died as collateral pretty fast."

Harley mouthed 'squishies' with a bewildered look on his face, one shared by himself and his entire team.

They were one of the best soldiers of the USA, for goodness' sake! They wouldn't go down that easily!

"Anyway, here, you probably want these."

He took out a bunch of plans out of one of his pockets, holding them for Dee-Ay to take.

He blinked, slowly taking the plans while frowning.

"Where-"

"I made copies before we lost the RPD and this place. Wolfpack only burnt those copies I left behind, nothing more. After all, the more Umbrella thinks they can still recover from this, the more stupid mistakes they'll make out of desperation to try and keep things under control. The latest orders from General Randall of Blackwatch make it clear that things are about to get hot between them and Umbrella."

Dee-Ay stared at the man before him, before activating his radio.

"Command, you got all of that?"

"We did. Aeon of ISIS and Insight Corp. has a… reputation in quite a few circles of influence. I'd suggest taking the plans, thanking him for them, and then go back on focusing on the mission. The man in front of you likes to fuck with the minds of people and play pranks when he can get away with it, but make no mistake, that man right there is one of the most deadly individuals on the entire planet, and you do not want to piss him off."

Aeon grinned. "My reputation precedes me, I see."

Then he shook his head and turned around, giving them another two-fingered salute while walking away.

"In any case, I need to get going. I'll pop up again if you guys need me, don't worry."

"How do you know we'll need you?" wondered Party Girl.

"Oh, I'll just listen to your communications. It's not like they are hard to hack into or anything, it's child play really. Ta-ta!"

And on those words he turned a corner around a shelf and disappeared from sight.

"... He's got to be joking, right Command?"

There was a long sigh from the radio.

"No comment."

Party Girl snorted. "He's got you that bad? Hah, I like him already!"

Dee-Ay was suddenly reminded of the fact she got recruited after successfully fooling one of the USA's best agents and making money off of him.

He held back a groan. Just what he needed, mischievous teammates, and potential allies teaming up in the name of chaos and profit...

USS Team Leader Lupo carefully made her way forward while flanked by her team, her finger on the trigger, ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

Command had sent them to the Raccoon City hospital to get several electro-magnetic bombs that were being sent there by a helicopter in order to then use them to blow up the city's northern reactor and cut the power there.

With that, Command hoped that the defenders and survivors there would be easier prey to the infected.

After all, while ISIS and the RPD had been pushed back for now, the same couldn't be said of Blackwatch and the Army up north.

So Command had decided to try and reverse the progress both groups had done taking back the northern parts of the city.

So here she and her team was, in what was arguably one of the worst places to be in Raccoon City: the hospital.

Needless to say, none of them were thrilled to be here, but orders were orders.

But what really made her and her team on edge was the suspicious lack of any hostiles.

The moment they entered the building, not a single sign of life (or undead in this case) had yet to be found.

So they were all tense and expecting a trap-

The doors behind them closed.

A recording began playing, and Lupo immediately snarled in hatred.

"Good evening, Umbrella Security Service." began the cold voice of Nicholai, the coldness of his voice not hiding a certain amount of glee in it.

"Hope you haven't forgotten your friend, Nicholai. I see you escaped my little diversion at City Hall."

"Nicholai. We're dealing with him again?" coldly declared Vector.

"Unfortunately, my… client… can't have you interfering with our little side project. So, I've rigged up a few… toys to keep you busy."

And then at some unseen signal, dozens of zombies previously hidden underneath various tables in the wide room they were in came out, their milky white eyes staring straight at her and her team.

And then to top that off, even more zombies came out of the doors leading to the next room, with-

"Shit! They are rigged with explosives! Shoot them before they come too close!" ordered Lupo, already firing.

"Fucking Nicholai!" cursed Vector.

Lupo focused on firing, blowing the heads of one zombie after another, until they were able to go into the next room.

"Ha ha ha! My little contraptions seem to be working perfectly."

Lupo promptly shot the nearby speaker, scowling at not being able to do the same at Nicholai himself.

They then moved from room to room, the sounds of undead moans accompanied by gunfire and the occasional explosives going off.

And then because this damn city was cursed, they got attacked by a pack of Lickers.

Lupo felt sweat falling down her face as she kept on shooting at the zombies, being careful to prioritize those who had explosives on them or the Lickers whenever more of those popped up.

"He's set up tripmines! Watch out for laser triggers! Shoot them if you see them!" suddenly exclaimed Vector, and Lupo cursed again.

I'm going to strangle the bastard the moment I get my hands on him! She thought darkly, taking pleasure in imagining the number of ways she and her team could butcher Nicholai when they inevitably crossed paths again.

"Delta Team, the supply chopper is coming close to setting up on the hospital rooftop! Get moving!" declared Command.

They took care of the last hostiles in the area before running forward, careful not to run into any mine along the way.

Finally, after dealing with a small horde of Crimson Heads on the roof, they relaxed and waited for the helicopter to arrive.

Lupo took another look around, confirmed it was currently safe, and sighed before sitting on the edge of the rooftop, looking at the horizon for signs of the supply chopper.

"Here it comes!" she alerted her team when she spotted it coming, getting up and-

A gunshot echoed in the air, her and her team immediately falling to the ground in response… before staring in horror at the incoming chopper who suddenly went out of control and crashed further into the city.

Her eyes looked around, finally settling on the form of Nicholai on a nearby rooftop, who-

Her eyes widened.

Nichlai smiled.

And then pressed the detonator.

A good chunk of the hospital promptly went up in flames.

Lupo, ears ringing and tasting a slight amount of blood in her mouth from crashing roughly on the ground after the floor she was on gave in, promptly cursed Nicholai Ginovaef loudly to every hell in existence.

And then she and her equally battered team ran like hell out of the burning building that was the hospital of Raccoon City.

Their next goal? To get to that crashed chopper and then become the first USS team to try their hand at modern art.

Using the entrails of Nicholai Ginovaef as fucking materials!

Lupo scowled as she and her team investigated the crash site of the supply chopper for those Electromagnetic bombs they were supposed to use.

They currently were near the Clock Tower, in an area behind it with lots of open space and-

"There!" exclaimed Four Eyes while pointing further ahead, and they eagerly claimed the second bomb.

"Alright, now where's the third?"

"If you want the last EMP charge, come and get it!" came the hated voice of Nicholai, and Lupo sneered, not that surprised the bastard got there first.

"Damn, it's Nicholai again!" raged Vector.

"Wolfpack, take him out! You need that EMP!" Command ordered, and that was by far the most satisfying order she received since arriving in this damn city.

"Gladly." she growled much like her namesake, before they went towards the Clock Tower.

"Take cover! He's got a sniper rifle!" Exclaimed Beltway, and they all rushed to get cover a second before a gunshot went off.

"Suppressive fire!" she ordered.

"Ha! You fools don't even know what you are doing!" came the gleeful voice of Nicholai in between gunfire. "Do you really think I could have done this all alone, comrades? How do you think I knew where you were going? How did I know about your precious EMP devices?"

He laughed. "My client gave me your comm channel!"

Lupo snarled while ducking behind cover as a bullet passed just above her head, while Nicholai's laughter became even more gleeful.

"That's right! I've been gathering combat data for Operation Watchdog! You have been most useful in assisting me!"

Nicholai threw a grenade towards Beltway, forcing the man to jump away from his cover and almost getting killed by a bullet to the head if Lupo didn't fire a panicked shot towards Nicholai that distracted him for long enough that Beltway got back into cover.

She breathed in relief while Nicholai kept laughing.

"Of course, if my client wants that information, they will have to pay for it, and neither you nor Umbrella can stop me!"

A moment later, a number of zombies attracted by the fight showed up, and Lupo growled as she had to focus on killing them to protect her team's backs while they tried to finally nail that fucking bastard Nicholai!

For a time, the situation turned to a stalemate, and Command obviously decided that things weren't going well when they contacted her again.

"Nicholai isn't a priority. Disengage and proceed to the power plant immediately. We need to deactivate that power grid. We'll make do without the third bomb."

Lupo snarled, but pragmatism demanded she obeyed her orders so her eyes settled on a door into the Clock Tower.

"Over there! Fuck Nicholai, we'll get him later! Let's move!"

"Fucking damn it, fine!" growled Vector, and they all suppressed Nicholai long enough to barge through the door.

A moment later, they all stopped and stared at the EMP currently resting on the altar of the small church they apparently ended up in, before Beltway snorted.

"Well look at that, a gift straight from God!"

Lupo held back her own snort at his words, but certainly didn't hold back from taking the EMP with fierce satisfaction.

"Command, we've located and retrieved the third EMP. Standing by for mission update."

"Perfect. Wolfpack, Management isn't sure what's motivating Nicholai. But he seems to have ulterior motives. We'll keep looking into it. In the meantime, get to that power plant and take care of it."

"Copy that. What can you tell us about the resistance expected at the power plant?"

"Expect various soldiers from the regular US Army and a number of Blackwatch soldiers present onsite. Kill them all, don't let anyone alive see you blow up the power plant. No survivors, understood?"

"Understood, Command. We'll get on it."

"Good."

"Command, we've reached the power plant."

"Copy that. Plant the EMP charges on the generators and knock out that power grid."

"On it."

Seconds later, the soldiers charged with protecting the power plant appeared and a firefight broke out.

Lupo grimaced as a laser bolt passed far too close for comfort for her, before putting a bullet through the right eye of a Blackwatch soldier.

They had hesitated at taking for themselves some of those new guns given by ISIS to everyone fighting in this damned city, but they had been concerned that the lack of training and experience with them might actually decrease their capabilities in the battlefield.

That being said… fucking laser guns.

She's watched Star Wars enough with her children to know how they would react to her using actual laser guns in real life!

So yes, Lupo and her team were really, really looking forward to the day they could use those without having to worry that the guns would explode in their faces because of their lack of experience.

As it stands, she focused on putting another bullet through the head of another soldier. She was already used to dealing with B.O.W.'s, so putting constant headshots on normal soldiers became almost automatic nowadays.

She did wonder about how Command expected to deal with the fallout of killing these Blackwatch soldiers and knocking out the power grid, because she really didn't think the leadership of Blackwatch was going to be happy about this, but she was a soldier, nothing more, and it was not her job to worry about that unless ordered to.

When they finally put the first EMP in place however, their own personal nemesis reappeared.

"I'm done playing games with you USS dogs. Time to finish this!"

"Nicholai's back! He's on the catwalk! Kill him!" screamed Vector.

"Damn it! Can't he take a hint?!" shouted Bertha with rage.

"Less talking, more killing!" she shouted back, though she was just as pissed about this than her team was.

"It's been a long time since I've held such a strong urge to use someone as a test subject for my personal experiments, but this man is really getting there!" exclaimed Four Eyes. "Lupo, you think you can just cut off his legs and then let me work my magic on him? I promise to be as creative as I can!" she finished while killing another Blackwatch soldier.

"Focus! Don't let him distract you!" she replied, ducking just as a bullet would have hit her in the head.

"Lupo! I've put all the EMPs! We can get the hell out of here!" shouted Spectre.

She blinked at the words of her surveillance specialist, before grinning.

"Well done, Spectre! You heard him, suppress Nicholai and we'll get out of here!"

Bullets flew and explosions echoed across the room as Wolfpack slowly but surely disengaged from the battle, and eventually they heard Nicholai curse and disappear.

While they would have been much happier killing him, driving him back would do for now, so they ran out of the room not long before the bombs went off.

"Good. The power grid's down. Our job's done. No need to keep fighting, leave these bastards in the dark…"

Lupo let out a relieved sigh. If everything went well, they might actually be done dealing with this damned city.

Even so, she had a gut feeling that they were far from done.

That whether she liked it or not, Raccoon City wouldn't let her and her team go that easily…

She turned around, staring at the now defunct power plant.

I'll make it back home, she remembered her promise to her children.

No matter what, I'll come back to you. I promise.

Jill Valentine smiled at the message given to her by a messenger of the Dream, informing her that Brad was found by Aeon and made it out of the city thanks to an ISIS helicopter.

Burning the message with a small use of fire magic, she then kept moving toward the metro station up ahead.

Apparently, there were a number of surviving UBCS soldiers there alongside civilians, and Aeon wanted her to try and help them… well, the civilians in particular.

And she was the only one free to go there, as ISIS currently had their hands full dealing with the latest complication that had risen from the city.

Or rather, from the depths of the city…

She grimaced at what the message said about the current situation, before cursing Umbrella for blowing up the power plant up north.

Thankfully Aeon was a paranoid bastard and had prepared for that eventuality, but the same couldn't be said for Blackwatch and the Army…

Though apparently General Randall was done playing around, since he had officially ordered the Army and his own troops to shoot any and all USS soldiers and helicopters in the city.

Which sadly didn't mean much right now, considering what they were all already dealing with…

Jill noticed movement from the entrance of the metro and tensed, before relaxing slightly as she saw a UBCS soldier stop and blink at her.

The soldier smiled.

"Hey! It's good to see another friendly face in this hell. My name's Carlos, what's yours?"

"Jill. I'm with ISIS. I've been told that there were UBCS soldiers and civilians down in the metro, I'm guessing you're one of them?" she replied, not doing much to hide her distaste of the UBCS.

A part of her felt bad for them, considering how they got stabbed in the back by their own leaders, but the rest just found it really hard to be anything but suspicious of anyone working with Umbrella.

Especially considering the existence of Monitors within the UBCS.

Carlos blinked in shock, before whistling slightly.

"You're with ISIS? Damn, didn't you guys lose the RPD building not that long ago? Are you doing alright?"

She waved him off. "Don't worry about it. We've got a secondary HQ we retreated back to."

That, and it's your bosses' fault this happened in the first place, she barely held back from snarling at him.

He nodded, before waving at her to follow him.

"Good to know. I was there during the battle in Main Street, and I must admit, I don't think I've ever seen anything as insane and impressive as that guy of yours who held the line pretty much by himself. He's doing alright?"

Jill laughed. "Oh trust me, Aeon's right at home in this hell. Don't worry for him, worry about all the zombies in his path."

She shook her head, before glancing at him.

"So, about my question…"

He smiled. "Yeah, my guys and I turned the subway train into a shelter. It's safe." he replied with satisfaction.

She grunted. "Right. I'll be the judge of that." she replied coldly.

He glanced at her in surprise.

"Whoa there hot stuff, we're all on the same side here. What's the aggression for?"

She scoffed. "The same side? Spare me that bullshit! You're with Umbrella! You guys are the ones who caused all of this!" she shouted, letting her frustration with the past few days leak through.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa! What are you talking about? We're here just to help people! What's wrong with Umbrella?" he asked, sounding bewildered, stopping and turning to look at her.

"'What's wrong with Umbrella?' Oh by the gods." she sneered with disdain, looking at the man in front of her like the worst of trash.

"Your company is responsible for infecting everyone!" she snarled.

Carlos blinked, looking thoroughly lost and confused.

"Yeah, uh, I don't know anything about all that." he replied, sounding rather stunned by the accusations thrown his way.

Then he shook his head and frowned.

"Look, you don't have to trust me, but I'm going to the shelter. You're coming?" he said, turning around and walking off.

She followed, frowning hard at his back.

Again, part of her disliked him by default because of who he was working for, a group of literal genocidal maniacs who wanted to burn the world down and recreate it anew filled with monsters, but a more logical side of her pointed out he was more of an unwilling pawn and outright victim of Umbrella than a true monster himself.

But at the same time he was UBCS, which meant he could be a Monitor for all she knew.

That being said, he sounded rather shocked at her words, and she liked to think she wasn't that bad of a cop to not be able to tell if someone was lying to her face.

…aside from Wesker.

So she followed with a sigh, because if nothing else there were civilians involved and Jill wasn't going to abandon those to a bunch of Umbrella goons.

She entered the subway train, looking around for a moment before looking at the man currently sitting while pressing a hand on a wound at his side.

"Hey Captain, ISIS sent us this fine young lady to check up on us." said Carlos at the now revealed Captain of the UBCS.

Jill looked towards the other subway cars, noting a number of civilians inside.

The captain's eyebrows shot up in his airline.

"Really now? But Carlos, you didn't even think to ask this fine young lady her name?"

She turned to look at him, noticing the Russian accent of the man, and the way his eyes looked at her with interest.

"She was an elite operative of the RPD. Special Tactics and Rescue Service. Her name is… something… Valentine."

She grinned at him. "It's Jill. And I'm no longer with S.T.A.R.S. Blame the former Chief Irons and his masters at Umbrella for that. I work with ISIS now."

He smiled back. "Nice to meet you, Jill. I am UBCS Platoon Leader Mikhail Victor." he replied, and the look in his eyes was cautious but surprisingly not hostile for someone who was obviously aware of her history with Umbrella.

"My forces were sent here to rescue civilians-" he began, before stopping with a grimace of pain and holding his wounded side.

She was curious to see it looked more like a bullet wound of all things, not a bite mark or a laser wound, and it made her immediately suspicious.

Then she remembered the battle at Main Street and put two and two together. This man was obviously a commanding officer of the UBCS, and one of the Monitors shot him to sow chaos in their ranks.

Which had worked well, unfortunately.

Of course they had then tried the same to Aeon and failed spectacularly, but by then it was already too late for the UBCS.

Jill couldn't deny feeling some sympathy for Mikhail. The fact he got shot by one of the Monitors probably implied he was exactly what he said he was, a soldier sent here to rescue civilians, and his reward for that was an assassination attempt not long after arriving on the field.

Of course, that still left Carlos. Was he a Monitor, or another helpless soldier way over his head in a literal hell on Earth?

"Right. How's that going for you?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

Mikhail grimaced. "The city's completely cut off. Isolated. You and ISIS seem to be fighting hard, but for all I know, most of the hundred thousand civilians will wind up dead. Ah, correction: Undead."

He sighed. "My platoon has suffered serious losses. Just keeping them alive is more than I can manage." he revealed, sounding pained at the admission.

Her heart went out for the poor captain, but even so…

"Well, you can thank your corporate overlords for that." she snarked back.

"Yes, well… We are doing all we can. If we can get this subway train moving we can evacuate some survivors."

He leaned forward. "But we need help. My men cannot do this alone." he begged her.

Jill bit her lip, grimacing at the thought of working with Umbrella in any way, shape, or form, but ultimately knew that there was only one answer she could give.

She was still a cop at heart, in the end, and damn it all she wasn't going to abandon any innocents if she could help it.

"Alright, I'm in." she replied at last.

If nothing else, she wanted to make sure those civilians wouldn't just up and "disappear."

She knew all too well that Umbrella would love to use these people as test subjects if they could get away with it.

"But I'm on their side. Not yours." she said firmly, pointing towards the civilians in the other cars of the train.

"Oh hey, hey, that's cool, we all want the same thing." said Carlos, finally speaking up again.

She gave him a dry look, still not sure to believe him or not.

"Thank you, Jill." also said Mikhail, and she glanced at him, noting the genuine relief and gratefulness in his eyes, then her eyes flickered towards his wound before nodding.

Him, she trusted. Carlos, that remained to be seen.

"Alright, supercop." Carlos suddenly declared, and she held back a flinch at the word Aeon used to describe her coming from the mouth of an umbrella goon.

"Here you go. We can use this to stay in contact."

He gave her a radio, and she looked at him dryly. "I know what a radio is."

Carlos smiled, seemingly not bothered by her continuous snark.

"If you want supplies, go to street level. You'll find some here."

"Alright."

She turned away, and then began her walk back up to street level.

She had a train to help get moving to safety, and no time to waste.

Best to get on with it.

I look grimly at the burning corpses of hundreds of worms in the tunnel before me, a number of ISIS soldiers standing around various bits of improvised fortifications behind me.

I had wondered how exactly Leon and Claire were going to make it past the Army surrounding the city, but now I knew.

My true self didn't need to do a thing, the world itself provided the answer.

The remake of Resident Evil 3 didn't include the giant worm boss fight… but as was quite obvious right now, that didn't mean it didn't exist.

Quite the opposite, unfortunately.

Because the inevitable finally happened, and groups of the monsters fighting it out underground finally made it above ground.

Blackwatch and the Army up north, alongside various USS outposts, were currently dealing with waves upon waves of giant spiders and other monsters attacking them from below.

ISIS, on the other hand, had to deal with the faction of monsters that were currently pushing for dominance in the underground of the city.

That is to say, giant worms. Hordes of giant worms.

Enough of the damned things that, combined with the fact we lost the RPD building and the area around it, the army outside the city was currently buckling under the tides of giant subterranean monsters.

Well, there were the occasional giant ticks too, since the mother of their kind didn't die as it did in canon, but the giant worms were actually pushing every other kind of monster back… and that led them to going topside.

Oh, and on top of that, Umbrella blew up the northern power plant. I could have stopped them, but honestly, it was better in the long run to let it happen.

I had already made sure the southern parts of the city wouldn't be affected, and the deaths of a high number of Blackwatch soldiers guarding the power plant means that general Randall was done holding back against Umbrella.

Of course, he and his forces were currently too busy trying their hand at being giant bug exterminators extraordinaire to really fight against Umbrella right now, but hey, once the tides of giant spiders (among other giant things) ended, he should have the freedom to finally deal with the USS outposts up north!

And once the giant worm behind all the other smaller ones was dead, we -should- be able to cleanse the undergrounds at long last, since the only things left down there will be lesser giant worms!

So instead of fighting against several different kinds of giant monsters, we'll be fighting against only one, and one without leadership at that!

Of course, that still required us to actually kill that giant worm.

And burn down its nest.

Which was easier said than done.

Well, Jill was going to be busy with the events of RE3 for a while, so…

I had a day to deal with the giant worm and its nest, since Claire and Leon were going to show up tomorrow night.

Time to call Rebecca and get to work.

If some of the reports on the worm's nest I got were true, this was going to be a true Hunter mission, in all of its terrifying horrors…

I grimaced. It's a good thing I don't let the people I'm close to suffer from nightmares, because Rebecca was going to get enough fuel for many of those for years to come…