60 The Arachnid Hive

"Good luck," said Nick. It was his way to say, "shut up and clean that shit. Call me after it's done."

"Hey, at least have a little conscience and answer my last question," I replied, rather anxiously. It was not that the task was impossible or anything. I just hate bugs, moreover if it was a spider. Now that I knew that their size also increased by the damn mutation, it made the matter even worse.

Nick just sighed and said, "okay, one last question, you better make it count."

"Uhh... It may sound a bit too sudden, but do you have someone under you that has the name, Hans?" I asked.

"Nope," answered Nick, and the communication abruptly ended.

"Nick? Nick!! Dang it, I should just ask if he has some flamethrower." I tried to call him a few times, but that bastard just ignored it. "Okay, Edward. Just think of them as walking EXP. EXP equal happiness. EXP equal happiness..."

I keep chanting those three words as I made my way toward the powerplant's main building. Inside it was an empty control room. There were some blood marks on the wall and scraping marks in some places, it seemed the prime suspects would be those crawling bugs in the hive. Luckily, the control system was left untouched. Just like Nick said, all I have to do was to turn on the generators.

First, I need to find a map or blueprints to show my way. There was a stack of parchments and papers on the desk in the middle of the room, but I just scoffed, ignoring it, and started looking inside some cabinets. If it was the game, there's no way they would just simply put a key item in an open spot.

However, my searching was interrupted by the sound of the door being opened from outside. Light glimmered and two handguns appeared in my hands, courtesy of Leon's huge duffle bag. The more I think about it, the more the contents of that duffle bag baffled me. I wondered if I was allowed to use them.

"Wait! Don't shoot!" said the woman that was standing over the door. Even if she didn't tell me not to shoot, I wouldn't even think of pulling the trigger. How could I? It was Jill Valentine.

"How did you get here? What do you want?" I asked, with a fake voice of my Glass Helmet.

"I came from the train station, the power didn't work, so I came here to fix it," she answered, rather cooperative. Lights glimmered again, and both of my guns were back into my inventory. Although watching the guns turning into lights and vanish was odd, it still made her feel relieved. It means the person in front of her was on the same side as her, at least for the moment.

I turned back and resumed my search, but I still couldn't find the map yet. Watching me opening one cabinet after another, Jill asked, "what are you looking for?"

"A map or something, to show the place of the generators," I answered.

"Do you mean... this?" she grabbed a parchment from the desk right behind me and rolled it out to show me.

'What the hell, it was really there this whole time!?' I deeply cursed inside my mind. What a shitty game! Well, real life is indeed shitty.

The location for each generator was quite simple, the first one was right behind the control room, while the others could be found in three different areas, but still parallel to each other. According to the map, the four generators would form a cross if I drew lines on it.

"So, miss..." I said, acting as if we met for the first time.

"Valentine, Jill Valentine," she said, continuing after me.

"Miss Valentine, if you want to help, just stay here and turn the power on once I activated all of the generators. Those things inside might be more dangerous than we thought." I said, not that I intended to scare her, but putting more guards won't do any harm. Besides, I need all of the EXP I could get, one less competitor is a better working condition.

"Yes," she answered.

"You seem to be more cooperative than I thought," I said. I couldn't hold my curiosity anymore and stated what was on my mind. From the moment she came in, until now, she never questioned me on anything. If it was me, I would be very suspicious if I saw a masked figure in an unexpected place.

"We've met before. No, actually I saw you before." The first part got me scared, I thought she was trying to say that she knew my identity.

"When?" I asked.

"Three days ago, I saw you roaming the Northside of the city, saving people," she replied with a smile.

'Ahh... so that was it.' I breathe a sigh of relief and went outside through the other door. Right after I was outside, I could smell the rotten flesh that formed the maze hive. They were glued to the wire fences, forming slabs of rotten walls. I found the entrance, but it was locked with a high-grade security lock, the best of its kind. Oh no! I have to find a key.

Bang!

With a single shot from Blackbeard, the lock turned into dust. Well, that was pretty underwhelming. Although real life was a shitty game, it provides a much simpler answer to everything. Can't get in? Shoot. Blocked by thugs? Shoot. Don't feel like living anymore? Shoot.

Suddenly, I heard a small screeching of insects through the meat of fleshes. 'Good. I don't have to look for them.'

A drip of weird liquid substance fell from the flesh ceilings on my shoulder. Thankfully the reinforcement from the helmet provided better air for me to breathe. Suddenly, a spider half my size reach out from the ceilings and latched onto my neck hanging me high. It attacked me with its blade mandibles, but I was immune to surprise attacks, so it did no damage. It also tried to shove something into my mouth like the Facehuggers from the Alien movies, but my head was covered by the helmet, and it couldn't get through.

Bang!

Blackbeard blasted a hole in its body, and it fell on the ground as it slowly disintegrating into dust. I landed on my feet and cracked my neck.

"Fuck you!"

But it did still make me squirming from disgust. I imagined if I wasn't wearing a helmet, damn, I would have been gang banged by these mouthfuckers.

<+500 EXP>

At least, the EXP's amount was more than the zombies. Something that comforts me in this doomed place. I went through the entrance. There was a warning, saying Danger, High Voltage, which is pretty normal considering where I'm going. 'Let's just not touch anything that's made from metal, carelessly,' I thought inside my mind. Then, I met a crossroad.

"Uhhh... Regina..."

[Sigh*... To your left, sir.]

"Hey... what's with that tone?" I said, pretty offended. I'm not bad at directions, sometimes I just advance to other directions. It was called the soul of an adventurer if I must say.

[Can you also call me at other times? Not just when you need my help?] She replied.

"Awhh, someone is sulking," I said, teasing her. It wasn't that I didn't want to talk with her. It was just, there's nothing to talk about.

[...]

Regina then went on strike. She didn't reply even after I call her a few more times.

"I'm sorry." I apologized. I even went on my knees.

[Why are you apologizing?] she asked.

"I'm sorry for teasing you..."

[And...?]

"And I will talk with you more often." I continued while dropping my head.

[Good. Now turn right.]

I stood while smiling like a dog founding its owner after it got lost. A swarm of mutated spiders tried to block my advance, but I was like a tank going straight while spewing shells after shells. I learned to safe bullets by using Blackbeard more often, unlike bullets, MP could recover just by resting.

I could discern my enemies properly now. Rather than spiders, they resembled more like a giant flea. The thorax and abdomen were covered with spikes and lines of hairs. Two claw mandibles worked like hands and three pairs of legs. They crawled from every side and went in or out of the wall of flesh effortlessly. Their mouths would constantly produce saliva which made me want to puke.

With Regina's help, finding the other generators wasn't as fard as I thought. Except for the slight disgust, everything went well. I also found a note from one of the workers. These monsters would plant their eggs on a human host through their mouths, just like the Xenomorph, and then after a day, it would hatch and burst out from the victim's stomach.

"Fuck you and your families!!" I shouted. The more I thought about them, the more I felt disgusted. Thank God I wore a helmet!

With the third generator turned on, I moved toward the last one. The further I went in, the darker it gets. Although the sky outside was still bright, the source of light was too limited. I had Nightvision from the helmet, so I didn't have any problem. If it was Jill, she might have a hard time handling it.

"Shit! Now that I think about it, Green, Blue, and Red Herb didn't exist! How the fuck they're going to handle the apocalypse!?" I complained about this shitty game called real life.

[Sir...]

"I get it... No swearing... Just this time." I replied.

[It's not that, Sir. You have a guest waiting.] she said. Then my view focused on the one in front of me. A man was standing in my way, holding a living spider-flea using its metal arm.

"Fuck... how is he here?"

[It seemed, the Hydra sent him, Sir.] she answered.

The Winter Soldier is here, although no one would know him. I was so familiar with the man. Bucky Barnes, you poor soul.

======

Wade woke up from his sleep in an unfamiliar room. He was still inside the underground facility, but instead of the cold floor, he woke up in a proper bed.

"What, how? It was all a dream?" muttered, Wade. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep after he couldn't release himself from John's binding rope. Wade swore he would learn that technique from John, no matter what it takes. Of course, he would use it for a good and heroic reason, not something selfish like ahem... bondage.

"It's not a dream." an old man in a white coat answered to his mutters. He held a cup of coffee and put it near Wade's bed.

"And who are you O' wise old man? No way, did you do it?" inquired Wade, he looked under the blanket, seeing that his pants were still on and his butt still clenched properly, he breathed a sigh of relief. Dr. Bard didn't notice it and just introduced himself.

"Ahh... Where's my manner, I'm Dr. Nathaniel Bard, a senior biologist working in here," he replied with a slight smile, covering his deep fear and uncertainty of the future.

"Wade Wilson, mercenary and good looking one at that," he replied.

"Oh... I can see why." replied, Dr. Bard, still maintaining his posture.

"Stop, humoring me, Dr. Bard, and start talking." Wade knew that Dr. Bard wanted something from him. He already meets a lot of customers and he picked up a lot of their behaviors. Dr. Bard couldn't be more obvious. He stopped smiling and pulled a chair and sat in front of Wade while making a tired expression.

"Please, help us. We made vaccines to stop the spreading of the virus long before the outbreak happened, and we did succeed in developing it. However, a new order was made from the HQ this morning..." Dr. Bard turned downcast and depressed. He couldn't even continue his words, but Wade already picked up the dots and connected them.

"Let me guess, HQ wants you to dissolve them. Erasing the existence of the Vaccines," said Wade.

"How did you...?"

"How did I know? I've worked in this kind of circumstances too many times. I can't even count using my finger anymore. Although no zombies and monsters are included, the main story cliches are too obvious. If I was Umbrella, I would do the same thing. Just imagine, controlling the world from fear of the virus." he explained.

"Yes... you got everything right. If only... if only Wesker project didn't fail..." Dr. Bard held his forehead, recalling his memory of the past.

"Western project?" Wade wanted to ask about it, but a younger man with the same clothes as Dr. Bard came in, interrupting them. He went to Dr. Bard's side and whispered something to him. His expression also held the same nuance as the old man.

"They... arrive?" Dr. Bard's face turned even gloomier and pale.

"What? Who's arrive? What happens? Stop talking in pieces! This is not how you make a grim and mysterious atmosphere!" complained Wade, he was pissed off because he couldn't get a single answer from the question he wanted to ask.

"Mr. Wade, please help us. Umbrella's order didn't end on just destroying the vaccines. They were ordered to do something else as well." said Dr. Bard, begging on his knees.

"Wait, the order was not made for you?" Wade's question was again interrupted by the sounds of gunshots outside the room. Screams and crying for help echoed inside the facility, resuming the battle from last night. But instead of a battle, it was a massacre, even worse, it was from the same side.

======

Inside the hive of the Spider-Fleas, a steel armed man was fighting against a blurry figure that was moving at the fastest speed that normal man could see. However, the former didn't seem to be bothered with the speed of the blurry figure as he blocked every attack the latter threw.

"Damn it! He's too strong! Isn't the serum only enhance his strength to peak human level?" I complained.

Regina then calmly answered my complaint, [That's wrong, Sir. Even if you're the strongest man at the normal human level, how could you stop a helicopter from flying just using your arm strength? How could you still survive falling from the sky just using a circular shield to hold the impact?]

"How the hell could I know? It's a movie! And it looked coooool as hell!" I retorted while blocking Winter Soldier's titanium arm. It pushed me a few meters on my feet. A hidden Spider-Flea took this small gap and used its blade mandible to attack me, but it was counted as a surprise attack, so the damage was nulled.

I wanted to use my firearms to attack him, but he always moves faster than me toward my side, not giving me a distance to prepare myself to shoot. I did force myself to shoot, but I always miss because of my awkward posture. I can't use Blackbeard because I don't want anything bad to happen to him. He was Bucky Barnes, a good man that fought against the Nazi and the best friend of Steve Rogers, a figure that I still adore. The only bad thing he had was being controlled by Hydra's operative.

"Shit! This won't do."

I finally snapped and give up fighting him. A punch came like a hornet's sting, I clenched my stomach and let it hit. The power threw me a few meters away.

"It hurts!"

But it worked! The power propelled me toward the last generator, the thing Winter Soldier protected since the start of the fight. I couldn't touch it earlier, but now, I finally can. I grabbed the damn lever and yanked it downward. Light glimmered and Blackbeard appeared on my hand.

"Dark Blast!"

I shot it toward the ceilings and mini explosions tore a huge hole on it. I mustered all of the strength I had and shouted, "NOW!"

A second later, the main power was turned back on, frying the wall of flesh around us. I dropped myself on the floor and changed all of my equipment to my normal clothing. What follows when a high voltage of electricity flowed suddenly in a power plant?

The hive catches fire and burning the Spider-Fleas, not only that, small rays of dense electricity sparked everywhere, but the main target was a metal object, including a titanium arm. But, my expectation couldn't be realized. I didn't know that Titanium isn't a good electricity conductor.

The Winter Soldier just stood there, unaffected by the hell that surrounds us. He made charging stance, preparing himself to fight me once again.

"Although I love your past and future self, I hate you at the moment," I muttered.

It need a second to change back into my armor, but it was all he needed to close our distance.

Flow Mo—

Boom!

Suddenly, from the wall of flame, a huge figure appeared. He resembled Nemesis, but much neater and cleaner. The fedora complimented his style as he tackled the Winter Soldier using his body.

"Time to make my escape, I guess."