Chapter 17

Claire was grumbling while walking in the dirty waters of the sewer, Morgan had offered to carry her while she flew over the water but Claire decided against it because she didn't want to get in Morgan's way just in case some creature attacked them.

Still, she was not happy about this situation and was very grumpy which was noticed by the girls who were walking beside her and over the dirty water, each of them were using their own methods of travel in the air.

Claire sighed as she continues to follow the sewer while looking for Hope and Sherry "Did Hope and Sherry really go this way?".

Morgan nodded as she used her Dragon wings to fly above the water "Yes, I can still smell them besides a bunch of other nasty smells...".

Claire winced knowing that having a super sense of smell here isn't fun and that Morgan might be suffering right now "Let's try to get out of here soon okay?".

Everyone nodded, no one wanted to stay in these sewers for too long and so they moved fast while traversing the long sewer channel, after a while, they finally reached another area where Claire could get out of the dirty water.

She quickly jumped onto the dry stone platform and frowned as she shook her legs as if wanting to get rid of the dirty water on her pants, not wanting to waste too much time she decided to ignore the uncomfortable feeling of having wet pants and shoes and continued following the sewer with Morgan, Yuzu, and Karin following her close behind.

The group found stairs leading to a closed metal door and everyone quickly walked up the stairs and went inside the room to check it out, on the other side of the door they found a cable car.

Claire tilted her head in confusion "A cable car? Here?".

Karin frowned "Okay... that's just too suspicious!".

Yuzu nodded "Yeah, this just screams secret but still why would there be a cable car in the sewers of a city?".

Morgan narrowed her eyes and stared at the cable car "... let's go, guys, we have to find Hope and Sherry quickly but let's keep this in mind, it might come in handy later".

Everyone nodded and turned toward the long staircase to the side, wanting to find both Hope and Sherry quickly they all immediately began to quickly climb up the stairs case.

At the end of it, they found a door leading to a sort of office so they went inside, they found a few zombies but by now the girls didn't even react to them, Claire quickly killed one by shooting its brains out while Karin just cut off the head of the other one.

Morgan jumped up and smashed the head in of one of the two remaining zombies while Yuzu shot the last one with one of her black reishi arrows through its chest leaving a massive hole in its body.

Once the zombies were dead they all looked around and found some ammo but that's it, there was a dead body on the floor by a few lockers that suddenly came to life and pounced at them when they walked by.

Morgan reacted right away and stomped on its head popping it like a pimple, after that little surprise and looking around they found a ladder leading down, and following Morgan who still had Hope and Sherry's scent they jumped down.

Once in the room below they all looked around in curiosity, Claire raised an eyebrow as she saw all sorts of machines around "What's all this?".

Suddenly Annette's voice echoed in the room "Sherry... I told you I cannot leave here until my work is done".

Suddenly they heard Sherry's voice as well "That's what you always say".

Everyone's eyes widen especially Claire who was really worried for her "Sherry?..." not wanting to wait Claire walked over to where they heard the voices.

Meanwhile, Annette continued to speak to Sherry "Why didn't you wait in the house? It was safe there" Hope who was standing beside Sherry was frowning at the way Annette was talking to Sherry, she just met her and she already didn't like her but she kept quiet for Sherry.

The girls arrived at a big window and looked down, they noticed both Hope and Morgan in some sort of chamber but both of them seemed fine, Claire smiled and called out to both of the "Sherry! Hope!".

But it seemed that they couldn't hear them since Sherry continued to speak with Annette "I was scared! Those things were everywhere and-".

But Annette didn't let Sherry finish explaining and cut her off "You should have called the police! That's what we taught you!".

Sherry was beginning to tear up "I did, but nobody came and you didn't answer your phone so-".

Annette cut Sherry off mid-sentence again "Sherry, I don't have time for this!" the speaker made a buzzing sound, and then Annette stopped talking.

Sherry began to cry and shake in both anger and sadness, which made Hope rather angry but right now her friend needed her so the little Potter hugged Sherry "It's alright Sherry... I'm here".

Sherry hugged Hope back and nodded though Hope felt her shoulder get wet from her tears.

Meanwhile, Claire, Morgan, Yuzu, and Karin had heard the whole thing and were very worried and angry for Sherry, Claire smacked the soundproof glass and called out the her "Oh no...Sherry! Sherry! I'm coming...".

Morgan then suddenly grabbed Claire's hand causing her to turn her head towards her, Morgan smiled "It's okay Claire, I'll contact Hope right now just give me a second".

Claire looked distraught but nodded trusting Morgan, the little Stark nodded back and then closed her eyes and searched for the link Hope always leaves to her mind inside of her own {Hope! Hope! look up!}.

Hope heard Morgan through telepathy and looked up, she saw Claire looking at them and when she noticed Hope looking at her she waved, Hope smiled and then spoke to Sherry "Look Sherry, Claire and the other are here for us!".

Hope pointed up and Sherry let go of Hope and took a look, she saw Claire wave at her while Yuzu and Karin smiled at her.

She also noticed Morgan who had her eyes close but she soon opened them and waved at her as well, Sherry brightly smiled back at them and forgot what pain her little heart was feeling right now.

Claire then turned towards Morgan and said something she couldn't hear, Morgan nodded and then smiled.

Suddenly Hope began to speak "Morgan is talking to me through telepathy, Claire wants you to know that she and the girls will be here soon".

Sherry smiled and nodded "Let them know that we will wait here patiently".

Hope nodded and did that, she got smiles and nods from everyone and then saw them take off running more than likely already knowing where to go to get to them.

Sherry then rubbed her sleeve on her eyes to dry her tears and smiled knowing that her friends were on their way to get to her.

-----

Claire and the others moved out quickly and took off running planning to get to Hope and Sherry as quickly as possible, Claire was very determined to go get her "Hold on Sherry... we'll be right there soon".

Morgan, Yuzu, and Karin nodded in agreement to Claire's statement, unlike Sherry's mother they will do everything in their power to get to her as quickly as possible and anything that gets in their way will regret ever doing so.

They ran over the side of the soundproof glass and looked over everything to see if there was any clue as to how to get to Sherry.

But all they found were some notes and ammo, still, they were determined so they decided to investigate further and see what they can find out, so they headed to a close by doorway and followed it to see where it led.

They found themselves outside and on a metal platform leading to another room, they also saw a lever which Morgan pulled right away to see what it did.

A loud mechanical noise startle everyone a bit but then they saw a platform drop-down that led to the other side, the girls nodded to each other and immediately ran over to the platform.

They crossed it as soon as they reach it and followed the platform to see where it leads until they walked around the entire chamber and at the end, they found a tool.

Karin took it and held on to it for now knowing that more than likely they will need it at some point, they had learned to expect things like these when it came to this world.

After that, they continued their way and found some sort of tunnel, not even stopping the just continued moving quickly.

Right now their main concern was to get to Sherry and Hope quickly so they didn't want to waste too much time, though they did pick up anything that might be useful on the way without even stopping.

Everything they picked up they threw to Morgan who caught it and put it in her Boosted Gear inventory right away, after a while they went back to the metal Platform and ran around to the other side.

They found a big safe at the end of the other side of the metal platform and Morgan immediately ripped it open, inside they found a reinforced frame for Claire's other handgun.

Even though Claire wasn't using it anymore it was a good idea to upgrade it just in case of an emergency so she did that as soon, as she finished she nodded to herself and then to the girls letting them know she was done.

The girls nodded back and set out again following the metal platform to a door leading to a staircase leading down and so everyone walked down the stairs.

It got dark so Claire pull out her flashlight and turned it on so she could see, eventually they reached the bottom and found two zombies, Morgan growled and swung her arm at them unleashing a wave of dragonic energy that vaporized both of the zombies.

Claire ignore that and walked over to a mechanism nearby and pulled down the lever, as expected a metal gate nearby opened up revealing another dirty water sewer, Claire jumped into the water not even caring it was sewer water anymore while Karin and Yuzu jumped on top on the air and created reiroku platforms to walk while Morgan spread her red Dragon wings and flew over the water.

They quickly moved through the water as all they could think off is getting to Sherry and Hope, in their minds Sherry's heartbroken expression continued to flash through making them want to hurry up but as they rushed through the sewer a big creature dislodge itself from one of the walls and roared at them.

Morgan quickly grabbed Claire by her armpits and flew back to avoid the creature's tentacle that lashed out at Claire, Yuzu and Karin jumped back dodging even more tentacles from the creature.

Claire was so surprised at this that she couldn't help but curse out "What the fuck?!."

The girls landed a fair distance away as the creature squirmed around and lashed out at everything around it with its tentacles, Morgan narrowed her eyes at the moment "... This thing feels like William".

Claire who Morgan was still carrying looked up "Are you sure? That thing doesn't look like anything close to what we have seen before!".

Morgan nodded "Yes I'm sure, my senses are going crazy plus I recognized his scent... this thing is definitely something similar to William and it seems like it has evolved quite a bit".

Yuzu made a face as she stared at the creature before them "It must be looking for Hope and Sherry, we can't let him find them!".

Karin looked around "It's tight in here and it won't let us go around him... Yuzu, Morgan, and I can make it but Claire won't and we're not leaving her here with this thing or risk her".

Claire stared at the William-like creature and narrowed her eyes "Let's kill it quickly and get to Sherry and Hope, we can't comfortably fight in this sewer so we're going to have to finish it off some other way plus... we need to get to Sherry as soon as possible I refused to leave her alone after that talk with her mom".

Morgan nodded "Yeah... Sherry needs us now and this thing is in the way! Everyone let's kill this thing now! and get it out of our way quickly!."

Everyone nodded and got ready, Karin and Yuzu summoned their weapons while Morgan put Claire down and summoned her Boosted Gear Gauntlets and Grieves.

Claire reached behind her and grabbed her submachine gun and immediately began to shoot the creature before them, the William-like creature roared and began to crawl toward them.

Despite its monstrous shape and its size, the creature moved at a shocking speed while ignoring Claire's shots at its body but Morgan pointed her open palms at it and growled as she gathered her energy "Back off! 'Twin Dragon Shot!'".

From the palms of Morgan's hands, two big balls of energy shot forward and loudly crashed against the creature engulfing him in a big explosion that shook the entire sewer.

Yuzu frowned "Morgan! Don't use explosion-type attacks, it might bring the entire block above us down!".

Morgan huffed but nodded since what Yuzu just said made sense "Okay! Sorry guys my bad!".

Everyone nodded but the creature suddenly burst out of the flames caused by the explosion of Morgan's technique and rushed at the girls.

But Karin disappeared and cut off all of the creature's tentacles in a split second causing him to roar in pain and reveal a massive eye in its body, Yuzu noticed it and smiled "Ah! If that isn't a weak spot then all the video games I played lied to me!".

In an instant Yuzu shot a black reishi arrow that struck the creature's massive eyes popping it like a water balloon and causing him to flail around in the ground in pain, Claire put away her Sub Machine Gun and took out her Grenade Launcher and shot a flame grenade at William.

The grenade soared through the air and then crashed against the creature detonating and engulfing his mutated body flames.

But he suddenly regenerated his tentacles and lashed out all around himself, Karin immediately blur out of there with Shumpo and reappeared beside Claire.

But by lashing out around himself the creature splashed dirty sewer water all over his body putting out most of the flames on his body, this allowed the girl to see how his injuries began to heal at a rapid pace.

Morgan frowned "... Now I know how it feels to fight one of us in the Potter Household... I kinda feel a little bad for the bad guys now".

Yuzu and Karin sweatdropped but nodded as well since they were feeling the same thing Morgan just confessed to feeling, Claire couldn't help herself and snorted a bit "Well don't feel to bad, in any case, any ideas?".

Yuzu nodded "In Kyoto, everyone pretty much has a healing factor, it's one of the first perks everyone chooses to get because of how useful it is for dungeon diving and fighting.

Karin then grinned "But there's a difference between the healing factor this creature has and the one we do".

Claire watched the creature's wounds were close to finished healing "What's the difference?".

Morgan grinned "Supernatural healing factors work on burning some type of energy and that means we can keep it on indefinitely since we all have a large amount of energy but this creature's healing factor has to be burning off something in order to keep healing which means all we have to do is keep attacking and overwhelmed his healing factor!".

Claire nodded and narrowed her "I see... Fire would work best then! Let's do this everyone!".

Everyone nodded and now that the creature was done regenerating he roared and launched himself at the girls, Morgan walked in front of everyone and took a big breath, she then let out a massive stream of red hot flames.

The stream of flames rushed over the creature and engulfed him in seconds causing a screech of pain to come out of him, Karin grinned and then held her sword "hah!".

Karin swung her Zanpakutō hard unleashing a wave of black wind that not only fanned the flames Morgan was breathing out but began to slice William's body.

Claire had to cover her face with her arm and take a few steps back from the heat while Yuzu pull on the string on her Reishi bow and began to charge a black reishi arrow.

Claire's eyes widen in shock as Yuzu's black reishi arrow began to spin like a drill making a soft and odd screeching sound, Morgan let out her fire breath and sighed to the side huffing a few embers out her mouth while Karin let up her wind technique.

William was roaring in agony while his body was flailing and squirming all over the place, Yuzu smiled and shot her drill like reishi arrow.

The arrow flew from her reishi bow at an incredible speed and in the blink of an eye, it struck right at the center of the heavily mutated creature drilling into his body and leaving a massive hole in it.

The black reishi arrow exploded behind William as soon as it came through and out of his body sending the creature forward and falling into the dirty sewer water.

Claire saw all of this and couldn't help but gape, she knew that the girls were powerful, and she also knew that this wasn't even close to their full power either but knowing and seeing what they're capable of when they decided not to hold back as much were two completely different things.

This was proof that the cute and funny girls she befriended through this entire ordeal were something far beyond her understanding, the way they just attacked the heavily mutated creature showed just a glimpse of what they're truly capable of and it left her in awe.

But Morgan suddenly called out to her snapping her out of her awed state "Claire shoot him! Give him everything you got!".

Claire reacted and pointed her grenade launcher at the creature who was still roaring in pain since his healing factor was having difficulty keeping up with the amount of damage he was receiving.

Claire in a moment of clarity and confidence glared at the creature "Get out our way!".

The young Redfield then shot a flame round at the creature, the shot crashed against his body and exploded feeding even more flames to his already burning body but Claire didn't stop there and shot again.

The creature roared as he was once again engulfed in an explosion and flames, Claire swiftly changed weapons and fired at the creature with her submachine gun.

All of this proved to be to much for the current level of evolution in this heavily mutated creature and his healing factor finally shut down, with one more loud and pained-filled roar he drop onto the dirty sewer water and stayed there unmoving.

Claire sighed and began to reload all her weapons while she kept an eye on the creature in case he began to move again, Morgan walked up to Claire and smiled "He's dead, I doubt it will be able to regenerate after all the damage we gave him so let's go get Sherry and Hope".

Claire finished reloading her weapons and nodded to Morgan "Yes, I really want to get them with us again will be able to feel at ease then.

Karin and Yuzu nodded in agreement and with that said the small group of girls rushed forward and ignored the mutated creature while Morgan frowned, something in her was telling her that this isn't the last time they'll face something like this.

But she wasn't too worried, next time something like this shows up she was not going to hold back anymore, next time any abomination like this will know what happens when you go after the Red Dragon Empress but that's for later.

Right now though it was more important to get to Sherry and Hope, a frown appeared on Morgan's face as she thought back on how Annette had treated Sherry.

In her mind she couldn't understand how a mother could be so cold and uncaring for their child, she had never seen anything like that before and her mommy loved her a lot.

So she was heartbroken and confused about Annette's way of treating Sherry, it was like Sherry was a burden she didn't want to deal with right now.

*... Don't worry Sherry, I'll make sure no one hurts you again I promise!*.

With that last thought running through her mind Morgan Stark and her party ran past the dead creature and rushed over to get to Sherry and Hope as soon as possible.

-----

The group ran through the sewer to the other side from where the creature tried to ambush them and there they found some sort of gate with a mechanism to the side, Karin noticed that it was missing the lever that would allow them to turn the mechanism on and probably open the gate.

She then remembered the tool they had found before and took it out of her pocket, she then fitted it into the mechanism and grinned when she saw that it fit.

Not wanting to waste any time she used the tool as a lever and twisted it, the gate immediately opened and allowed the girls access to a new area, inside they found a dark room and an elevator.

The girls immediately got into the elevator while Karin grabbed the tool and took it with her just in case they need it again, Karin then joined everyone in the elevator to see where it would lead, Morgan pressed the button and the elevator took them up.

After a few seconds, they reached some sort of rundown office, they all got off the elevator and looked around to see if they can find anything useful but the only thing they got was another hip pouch.

Yuzu grabbed it and immediately gave it to Claire who equipped it right away, having more pockets was always a good thing in her mind especially since she now needed to carry more types of ammo around for her weapons.

Meanwhile, Morgan walked up to a locked door and unlocked it, she then opened it to see where it leads, and she found a dark corridor filled with zombies who were roaming around all over the place.

Not wanting to waste time with all these zombies Morgan summoned her Boosted Gear and then pointed a fist toward the Zombies and then fired four tiny missiles.

These four tiny missiles flew at high speed and seemed to seek their targets as they moved in mid-air toward the zombies and in seconds the tiny missiles crashed against them exploding on contact and turning the zombies into puddles of blood and gore.

Morgan grinned and then nodded to herself she then stepped into the dark corridor, Claire, Yuzu, and Karin stepped out soon after that and together they left the room to follow the corridor.

After a little bit of running, they found a few stairs leading down and they climbed down them until they reached another part of the dirty water sewer.

This time however Claire didn't even hesitate and jumped into the water right away while the girls followed her using their own methods of air travel. it seems like Claire had already gotten used to having to thread into dirty water.

At the end of the dirty sewer water, they found another high platform and a mechanism with a gate, Karin grinned and immediately took out the tool and inserted it into the mechanism.

With a few twists, she opened the gate and then took the tool out and put it back in her pocket just in case they might need it again, they all then stepped through the now opened gate and saw another corridor and staircase leading down.

Claire nodded to herself and then rushed down the stairs with Morgan, Yuzu, and Karin following her close behind and after a few seconds of going down the stairs, they found some kind of maintenance room.

The girls looked around and while doing so, Claire found some keys, thinking that they might come in handy Claire took them and put them inside her pocket.

Morgan looked around and then noticed a metal ladder leading down to the side, she walked up to it and looked down to see where it leads "Hey guys! I found a ladder leading down".

Everyone walked up to Morgan and looked down beside her, Claire frowned when she noticed the dirty sewer water "Sighed more stinky water, I can't wait to get out of here guys...".

Morgan patted Claire's back to comfort her a little bit, Claire smiled at Morgan and then began to climb the metal ladder down while Morgan, Yuzu, and Karin floated down with their own air movement techniques.

Once down into the dirty water Claire looked around with a frown "Okay... this place is... creepy" Morgan, Yuzu, and Karin who can see in the dark frowned at what they were seeing.

Karin walked up to Claire's side on top of a reiroku platform "Claire... this place is full of dead bodies, be careful and keep an eye open at all times".

Claire nodded and looked around "Jesus... they're everywhere".

The girls nodded, Claire shook her head and had a frown on her face as she began to move forward while paying attention to her surroundings.

The atmosphere was definitely creepy and even someone like Morgan was feeling a bit tense, not for her safety but Claire's who could be taken by surprise so she kept all her senses on high alert in order to keep her safe.

Suddenly big William-like monsters began to groan and move around causing Claire to gasp in shock "What?! but we took this thing down! He couldn't have healed that fast right?".

Morgan shook her head as she got a sudden realization "These things... they're his offspring...".

Claire turned her head in shock towards Morgan "Offspring?".

Morgan nodded "Remember those notes we found about the G-virus? Someone infected with it only acts on its basic instincts... hunger and the desire to reproduce".

Claire frowned not liking what she was hearing, the implications of what she just heard were too horrible to even contemplate, Karin looked at the monsters intently for a few seconds "These aren't as strong as the original but there's quite a lot of them too...".

Yuzu continued with what Karin was saying "So these will be easier to deal with, I bet that they might not have a strong healing factor and if they do it isn't as powerful as the one we fought earlier has".

Claire frowned and then looked down lost in thought for a few seconds before nodding to herself and coming up with a decision "Girls could you take them down quickly? I don't want to waste ammo and time dealing with all of these".

The girls all turned their heads towards Claire and noticed the guilty look on her face, they had known that Claire didn't want to rely on them too much and that she wanted to help them as much as possible.

Not out of arrogance but out of worry for them, so they know that coming to this decision was hard for her because she didn't want to abuse her friendship with them like this.

Morgan smiled and then hugged Claire which made her wobble a bit but Claire caught her balance and hugged Morgan back, the little Stark then looked up at Claire and gave her the brightest smile she had seen "Don't feel bad about asking us for help Claire! We're friends and friends help each other so don't worry and leave this to us!".

Claire smiled back at Morgan and nodded, Morgan then let go of Claire and turned towards Yuzu and Karin who were smiling at them "Let's go all out for a few seconds and quickly kill all of these offspring".

Yuzu excitedly grinned and summoned her Zanpakutō and held her above her head "Sweep and blow the clouds away from the starlit sky Fugetsu!".

Karin Zanpakutō lit up with black reiroku and wind and suddenly transformed into a massive sword, not unlike what Ichigo's Zangetsu looked like the difference is the serrated edge Karin's sword has.

Yuzu smiled and then summoned her reishi bow, she then twirled around and her clothes suddenly changed into a quincy uniform with a small white hat on her head, her reishi bow lit up with black reishi and grew into a longbow.

Morgan summoned her Boosted Gear and immediately went onto her Balance Breaker which took the form of an Ironman Suit just more feminine and dragonic, with her helmet on Morgan scanned and tagged each and every one of William's offspring.

She then telepathically sent all of their locations into Yuzu and Karin's minds, the twins nodded letting Morgan know they got the information while the Red Dragon Empress spoke up "Alright sweep the place a take everything mutated down, Claire just keep moving we'll take care of everything".

Claire who was looking at her friends in awe jumped up in surprise and then nodded "Ah! Okay!".

Morgan giggled and then took off at high speed with her propulsors with Yuzu and Karin following after her, Claire immediately began to move while watching the girls do her thing.

She has seen some very amazing things while traveling with these young girls but it was a completely different thing when the girls stopped holding back too much.

With every swing of her serrated and massive blade Karin tore apart creature after creature with ease, every swing would unleash a burst of black sharp wind that Claire saw tear into the creatures.

Yuzu would shoot arrow after arrow of black energy and hit everything she aimed at, she even saw her shoot some very far-off creatures with ease.

Claire couldn't help to wonder just how much Yuzu must have trained to get that good with a bow and arrow, she herself had a very good aim but Yuzu was on another different level.

And then there was Morgan who was wearing a set of awesome and very advanced red and gold armor, she could even feel the pressure that armor exuded and it left her feeling very small.

The fact that Morgan was punching and kicking creatures left and right and turning them into red mist with how strong she was hitting them left her a little bit stunned.

Still, Claire Redfield knew that she needed to hurry because there was no way she would ever hold her friends back in any way and so she rushed through the dirty sewer water knowing that she can trust the girls to cover her back.

The fact that every creature that suddenly appeared in front of her was swiftly killed by Morgan or sniped by Yuzu showed her that the girls were really keeping a close eye on her and that made her smile.

Eventually, Claire quickly reached the other side and immediately jumped out of the dirty sewer water, she immediately turned around and watched for a few minutes as the girls killed creature after creature with ease.

But she could see that there might be no end to these things and not willing to wait too much to get to Sherry she decided to call out to the girls "Guys! Come on!".

Morgan, Yuzu, and Karin heard Claire and immediately dropped what they were doing and flew off toward Claire, there were still some creatures left but they ignored them for now since they didn't want to make Sherry wait for them for to long.

As soon as they arrived with Claire they immediately powered down and smiled at Claire who nodded, they quickly walked through the door close by and headed inside.

Once on the other side of the door, they all saw a staircase heading up, Claire turned to the girls and smiled at them "Thanks for doing that girls".

Yuzu, Karin, and Morgan smiled at Claire, Karin then grinned and crossed her arms "Come on Claire there's no need for thanks, we're all in this together after all".

Yuzu nodded "It's okay to rely on us once in a while Claire, we won't think any less of you".

Claire softly smiled at the girls and nodded "I'm so glad we met... I don't know what would have happened if you guys weren't here to help me and support me".

Morgan grabbed her hand and gave Claire a bright smile "You would have been fine Claire, your strong you know? So I have no doubt you would have been able to handle this on your own, luckily you don't have to because we're here with you!".

Claire tear up a bit but rubbed her eyes with the sleeves of her red jacket and nodded "You guys are the best! Now let go get Hope and Sherry back!".

The girls fist-pumped and then cheered causing Claire to giggle and fondly smiled at them, she was really glad and happy to have these overpowered girls by her side.