Word count 9,888
2003, Insight Corporation Headquarters.
I leaned back in my chair, waiting for Jill and Chris to come into the meeting room for the debriefing over their latest mission.
2002 had been a bit more exciting than the past few others, considering the events involving Manuella and Leon, followed by those in the Spencer's Rain Umbrella ship.
The first had been dealt with without any assistance from ISIS, though the second had required a team to involve themselves in, just in case.
The revenge of Morpheus Duvall had been far too close for comfort in canon for the world, after all. Only two agents, one from the US and one from China, have saved the world from a madman who had once worked for Umbrella before being betrayed by the company, and who decided to take revenge by taking over one of Umbrella's massive ships which doubled as moving research labs.
And then, said madman had threatened the US and China into giving him 5 billion dollars each, or he'd destroy the world with the experimental virus he'd gotten his hands on.
At first, China and the US had replied by sending an agent each to try and kill the bastard (and really, a single agent? Against a massive ship full of B.O.W's? What the fuck?) but I'd gotten involved by sending in an entire ISIS team led by Miranda White to help kill the bastard, recover evidence of Umbrella's crimes and more.
Which turned out to be sorely needed, because surprise, surprise, two regular spies against a massive boat full of monsters was asking a bit much. The fact it worked in canon was a fucking miracle.
The Chinese panicking and actually paying the madman before trying to kill their agent through a fucking orbital laser strike (yes, really) had not helped.
Still. By the end of it all, Morpheus was dead, the experimental virus he got his hands on was gone from this world entirely, Miranda got a great deal of further evidence we could use in courts against Umbrella, and the betrayed Chinese agent was currently living with her new partner, the American one.
Also, the Chinese were being mocked and berated by the Americans something fierce for actually giving in to Morpheus' demands. The fact those 5 billion dollars ended up disappearing did not help.
I snickered at the thought. A great many organizations focused on helping the world just got a sudden boost in donations from "anonymous donors."
Somehow, I had a feeling the Chinese weren't going to find their money back anytime soon… or ever, really.
How sad.
Anyway, the end result was still a madman dead, a research facility of Umbrella gone with all data and manpower, and both China and the USA even more annoyed at Umbrella for almost causing the destruction of the world. Again.
Yet another victory in the slowly won war against Umbrella for the last several years. Not that the outcome of the war was ever in any doubt, Umbrella had simply made far too many enemies over the decades that now that everyone was gunning for it, there was no doubt to be found about how it would end.
Arguably, the greatest problems of said war wasn't even Umbrella itself.
It was everybody else.
Because rarely in human history has a war seen so many sides hating each other's guts be forced into working together to destroy a common foe.
And as could be imagined, there resulted in issues. So many issues.
It would be a lie to say that ISIS ended up fighting everybody else more than Umbrella these last few years… but damn would it be close to the truth.
Everybody was trying to destroy Umbrella themselves, because every base a side could claim was that much data gathered for their own sides.
As a result, it wasn't rare that an Umbrella base unexpectedly turned into a free-for-all battlefield where elite teams from several different groups met and immediately tried to kill each other.
Wesker's men coming across ISIS teams, who came across Blackwatch teams, who came across teams from Umbrella's rival companies, who-
Well, point was, there had been a rather memorable mission in 2001 where the entire base went up in smoke because so many different groups had tried to get their hands on the data it contained that by the end of things, the number of umbrella affiliated troops dead was far, far outnumbered by the number of non-umbrella affiliated troops having died in the damned place.
For all of nothing in the end, considering that the entire base got blown up when Umbrella just bombarded the whole thing out of spite.
And speaking of Umbrella base, I smiled when Jill and Chris arrived, before giving their reports on how things went in the Russian Umbrella HQ they had been sent to deal with.
They proudly announced the death and utter destruction of the new creation of Umbrella, code-named "TALOS", and how the entire base was currently being thoroughly cleansed of any hint of the T-Virus.
They did, however, grimly mention that they had not seen Wesker, nor had they yet found the leader of the Russian base, named Sergei Vladimir.
And that, while they had eventually found yet another, even more secret part of the facility… it had been obviously ransacked already by someone.
Which is when I shared the good and bad news.
"Basically, Vladimir is dead, killed by Wesker who used your own attack as a diversion to go straight for his own objective. That objective being the UMF database… or in other words, the collective data on every single experiment that Umbrella had ever performed."
Jill and Chris blanched.
"Wait, you mean-"
"Yup. Wesker has everything that Umbrella knew at his fingertips, now. It's not perfect, mind you. He's got the raw data, but none of the actual experiments or actual viruses… But it will certainly help him immensely."
"Fuck!" cursed Chris, slamming his right hand on the table hard enough to crack it. "Fucking Wesker played us!"
"To be fair, in the short term, it'll actually be useful to us… Just, not in the long term." I replied.
"Useful?" asked Chris, sounding bewildered. "How-"
"First, as far as I can tell, Wesker is going to share everything that Umbrella knew of Raccoon City to the US sooner or later." I answered. "He wants Umbrella dead and gone as much as we do, after all, and that'll be the final nail in Umbrella's coffin. Secondly? Once everybody knows that Wesker got that database? He's going to become the most wanted man in the world. Everybody will try to kill him or attack his bases to hopefully get their hands on that data. So sure, it'll help him. But it will also put a gigantic target on his head."
Both Hunters paused at my words, before frowning.
"I can't say I'm still happy about it." grumbled Jill.
I snorted. "Wise of you. Don't get me wrong, Wesker getting his hands on that data is going to be trouble for us all, sooner or later. But, one war at a time. First, we finish Umbrella for good, and that means we need to kill Spencer. He's the last part of Umbrella that needs to go. As long as he's alive, he's going to be a threat to the world. Unfortunately, Spencer has long since gone to ground, and to be entirely blunt? We're going to be dealing with greater concerns for a while."
"Which are?" wondered Chris.
I sighed deeply.
"Bioterrorism."
Both stiffened at my words, and I smiled grimly.
"We destroyed Umbrella, true. But a lot of their research and researchers made it out anyway. Those aren't going to just disappear. They are going to find new patrons to help them thrive, and instead of a singular enemy like Umbrella? We're about to fight dozens of smaller groups who are going to know just enough about B.O.W's to be a problem. Terrorists, militaries, other corporations and more are all going to try and fill the void left behind by Umbrella. And if we don't want to see everything we've worked so hard to protect be burned at the hands of dozens of new enemies… We're going to need to keep fighting. Because our enemies might change… but the weapons they will use against us will not. And we're the ones most equipped to fight them."
I leaned forward.
"So prepare yourself. Because a new era of conflict is coming, and we'll be at the forefront of it."
2004, Insight Corporation Headquarters.
"So Aeon, what's the big crisis that requires us all here?"
I glanced at Chris, then at Jill, Rebecca, and several of the leaders of ISIS currently gathered for this meeting.
No Claire, she was sadly busy with other matters to be part of the upcoming mission.
"Basically?" I replied, "We're about to have an all hands on deck situation. Shit has gone down, and unless we want things to get much, much worse, we're going to have to act fast in order to prevent a lot of problems for the entire world."
"So, it's Tuesday, then?" joked Jill.
I snorted. "If Tuesday involves the daughter of the US president being kidnapped by a cult based in Spain using B.O.W's and parasites for mind-control, then yes, it's technically a Tuesday."
There was a deep, grim and shocked silence at my words across the room.
"Right. Shit's very fucked. So how do we clean this mess?" asked Billy Coen.
I smirked. "Well, we know where she is, so there's that."
I waved my hand towards a screen, which began showing pictures of a Spanish village far and away from the rest of civilization.
"Looks charming." snarked Chris, as everyone noticed how gray and dead most of the area looked.
"You could say that again. This place is where a bunch of parasites called Las Plagas by the locals was first discovered many years ago. At the time, the parasites were sealed by one of the local families inside their castle, in the hope that they would never plague Mankind again. And for a while, it worked… Until they were re-discovered, and a man named Osmund Saddler decided to make use of them to gain control of the local population and eventually, the rest of the world. You see, there are two variants of Las Plagas. One who controls, and one who obeys the orders of the dominant strain. And I don't think I need to explain which of the two strains Saddler implemented into himself, do I?" I asked.
"No, you don't." grimly replied Billy, glaring at the pictures of Saddler.
I nodded.
"As far as we can tell, Saddler's goal is to use the parasite to take control of the President's daughter, and then try to influence the White House through her. Naturally, we don't want that, so eliminating the cult, known as Los Iluminados and their leader Saddler will be our goal."
"And the US President's daughter?" asked Rebecca.
"Ashley Graham is not our priority, because she's got her own agent focused on rescuing her. An old friend of ours, actually." I waved new pictures, and a few whispers of recognition echoed in the room.
"Leon S. Kennedy was meant to be the new bodyguard of the US President's family. Unfortunately, Ashley got kidnapped not long before he was meant to officially begin his new job. Not unexpected, considering who did the kidnapping."
"What do you mean?"
I smiled grimly, waving new pictures on the screen.
"Jack Krauser was a former teammate of Leon. One who saw the power of Umbrella's viruses for himself, and began to covet that power. And that's when things get more complicated: because Krauser does not work for Saddler. Krauser, as a matter of fact, is an agent of someone far more dangerous."
New pictures, and Chris hissed in hatred at the sight of them.
"Albert Wesker." I declared grimly.
There were quite a few whispers that broke out at the name, infamous and hated as it was.
I let those whispers be for a moment, before continuing.
"As far as we know, the man himself won't be present in this mess personally." I ignored the disappointed sound coming from Chris. "Instead, he tasked two people to find him a sample of a dominant strain of the Las Plagas: Jack Krauser… and Ada Wong."
Again, whispers broke out. Ada Wong was a well-known name in our line of work, after all.
"Does Leon know?" Wondered Jill.
"I'll let him know before we all get there." I promised.
"So, our job is to support Leon and deal with the cult while he uses the distraction to find Ashley?" asked Jill.
I nodded. "More or less, yes. Things will obviously get more complicated once we get on the field, but that's the gist of it. ISIS handles the cult, Leon gets Ashley. As for Krauser and Ada Wong, well it'll depend on how things go. Considering that-" new pictures appeared "Saddler managed to infect part of the Spanish military, you can expect military gear and equipment to be used, alongside former soldiers wielding them, once we are deep enough in Saddler's territory. Thankfully, those soldiers won't have the intelligence of uninfected humans, but it's still something we're going to need to be careful of. More on this later in the briefing."
"I can't imagine the Spanish military will be happy about this."
"Oh, they won't be… or, they would if they knew. As it is, once this mess is handled we're going to have to tell them about just how deep Saddler infiltrated them. Right now however, if we tried to warn them, Saddler would find out quickly."
I shook my head. "Another V.I.P. to keep in mind is Luis Sera. A brilliant scientist, he was recruited to study and develop B.O.W's with the parasites. However, he quickly began to be fearful of Saddler and his ambitions, and tried to sabotage the whole thing. As far as we know, he got captured, but he should still be alive, and with a great deal of knowledge about Las Plagas and their weaknesses. If you encounter him, try and help him out… but be careful: he got contacted by Ada Wong, who fooled him into believing that she works for the US government. So that's a concern that'll have to be addressed."
There were grim but understanding nods as everyone tried to memorize his face.
"Right then. With all that said, I'm now going to give you a more comprehensive lesson about the local history and the people who makes the leadership of the cult, then we'll go into more details about the plan of attack and-"
"Are you ready for this, Leon? Once we get started, things are about to get wild pretty fast."
Leon glanced at Aeon, smirking slightly.
"Like they got wild pretty fast in Raccoon City?"
Aeon snorted loudly. "Ah! I hope not. At the very least, the only innocent caught in the middle of this mess is Ashley herself, so that's already a load off our backs. It'll be easier to fight without having to worry about civvies."
Leon nodded. "I'll try to get her off this place as fast as I can… though if your concerns about her being already infected by the parasite are true, that's going to complicate things."
"If that's the case, just try and find a way to cure her. Saddler's got to have developed a way for it, you just gotta find it. Luis Seras might help you with that, if you meet him."
"I'll do my best." replied Leon.
Aeon nodded… before hesitating. "And if you come across Krauser or Ada…"
Leon's grip tightened on his las-pistol.
"We'll see how it goes." he answered, because learning that his old teammate and… Ada… were both involved with this mess had certainly made the mission a lot more personal than he expected it to be.
At least, Aeon told him that Ada wasn't actually loyal to Wesker, and was working for the loyalist faction of the Organization, the ones who distrusted Wesker, so that was a mild comfort… but the same couldn't be said of Krauser.
Still, he'd do his best to see his mission succeed. With the life of the US president's daughter on the line, failure wasn't an option.
And he was going into this with far more intel and back-up than originally expected, considering that he was originally meant to investigate this place alone.
Considering what he now knew lived there, he was certainly very happy to have an army on the level of what ISIS possessed on his side.
To say nothing, of course, of Aeon and his Hunters themselves being present.
Speaking of back-up…
He activated his radio.
"Leon, I hope that you can hear me. I'm Ingrid Hunnigan. I'll be your support on this mission." came the voice of the woman in charge of keeping in contact with him from HQ.
"Loud and clear." he replied. "Somehow I thought you'd be a little older." he remarked, considering his radio actually had a screen which displayed her face in real time, and the woman couldn't be more than… what, 25 years old at most?
He shook his surprise off quickly, however, and kept going before she could reply. "So, you're the one in charge of helping me find Ashley Grahams, yes?"
"That's right. So try to behave yourself okay?"
Leon snorted, but before he could reply Aeon shamelessly leaned over and raised an eyebrow towards Ingrid.
"Well now, sassy and cute, my Leon, you really got lucky with this one." he chuckled. "Good luck trying to keep this guy in check, Miss Hunnigan. Trouble loves to find him."
Ingrid raised an eyebrow at Aeon. "And you must be the infamous Aeon. I've heard a great deal about you. I dare say that in my line of work no one hasn't heard your name rather often."
Aeon grinned. "More likely than not, everything you heard is true!"
A second eyebrow joined the first being raised. "Even the part where you seduced ten women at the same time all to get inside a military base?"
Aeon's grin widened, and made a zip motion over his mouth. "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell! But enough about me, poor Leon will get jealous if I don't let him get his shot at seducing a cutie like you.I must go deal with horrifying creatures from the depth of human history rather than pass time in your far more pleasant company. Ah, how cruel the world is!"
And then he walked away, almost skipping cheerfully, and whether it was because he got to flirt with Ingrid or because of the upcoming battle Leon genuinely wasn't sure.
Knowing him, probably both.
"Good to see that the files on his personality weren't lying when they noted him to be a rather cheerful individual… and one that greatly enjoys the company of the fairer sex." she deadpanned, lips twitching ever so slightly in amusement.
Leon snorted. "That's Aeon for you. Between you and me, it's better that way. You don't want to see him serious, I can assure you of that. Someone usually is about to die when that happens. Many people, more likely than not."
Ingrid looked curiously at Leon.
"I dare say that is exactly what is about to happen." she remarked.
"Ah, but most of them will die at ISIS's hands, not only his specifically. And frankly, I dare say that nothing the cultists possess can give him a challenge. You never saw him fight something seriously, Ingrid."
Leon thought back to those memories of Yharnam Aeon showed them years ago.
And about the fight between him and his mentor, Gerhman.
Leon swallowed.
"I did. And I thank the stars every day that it never happened again so far. I'm not sure our world could handle something evil strong enough to make that man go serious."
Then Leon shook his head, and looked back at Ingrid, ignoring the slightly concerned look on her face.
"In any case, the point is they definitely picked the wrong girl to kidnap."
"I'll try to find more information on things on my end. Honestly, you should have seen the chaos after we got the data from Insight Corp. The fact that they found out so much while we had nearly nothing… Well, Insight Corp.'s ability to dig up information has caused more than a few people to start screaming in their phones about our own lack of results."
Leon chuckled. "Good luck, but something tells me you won't get anywhere if you're trying to compete with these guys. I don't know much, but what little I do know tells me it's a futile attempt at best. Anyway, the assault is about to begin, so I'll talk to you later. Leon out."
Leon cut the connection, then glanced around.
All things considered, he definitely felt underdressed, considering that pretty much everyone in the clearing he was in wore full-body armor.
High-end stuff too, the kind that can resist even a plasma shot with a bit of luck.
And don't get him started on the weapons. Lasguns were everywhere, obviously, but also plasma weapons, and people with rocket launchers, and he even spied a few weapons that Leon had never seen before and had no idea of what they could do. And there were dozens of people armed with said weapons and armor.
ISIS had come in force, and while they had to separate ISIS into several groups to strike simultaneously at every target of this mission, which was the only reason the clearing wasn't filled with hundreds of elite soldiers instead, that still left quite a few people to stay with the group he would remain with for the time being.
At least Leon got a plasma gun from Aeon, just in case he needed something stronger than a las-pistol, along with extra reserves of medi-gel, that miracle cure that could heal wounds, or at least reduce them greatly, in minutes.
He also had gotten a few white and round bits of some kind of medicine from Aeon, who only mentioned them to be used in case he was poisoned.
All in all, Leon was pretty confident. This was the army that held Raccoon City, only stronger and better than ever.
Now, all he had to hope was that he could find Ashley alive. Aeon assured him that she was currently alive, but once the battle started… Well.
War was always chaotic and messy.
"To all units!" shouted Aeon across the comms. "Operation Cleansing Fire will begin in 3…2…1… Go! Go! Go! I repeat, all units are a go!"
Leon rushed forwards, along with the soldiers of ISIS, charging straight into a village full of dilapidated buildings, with the notable exception of the church at the center of it.
The moment they all appeared, after a moment of surprise from the villagers they all began charging at them, screaming insults and praises to "Lord Saddler" as they did.
Leon took a moment to note that Aeon had to have used his powers to keep the gathering of elite soldiers hidden from the locals, considering the genuine surprise and chaos their attack brought, but it didn't change one thing:
Every villager, once their surprise was overcome, began charging them with the intent to kill.
Leon had to wince at seeing a ten-year old girl get her head blasted off by a laser shot, the child having been screaming bloody murder as she charged at the nearest soldier with only a small knife in hand… Only for Leon's blood to turn to ice in his veins as something bursted from the smoking stump of her neck with an inhuman screech, the ISIS soldier not even twitching as he immediately kept firing at the still running horror until both the human child and horrifying parasite were ash on the wind.
Leon looked away, focusing on making his way upwards through the village, even as around him the battle continued to rage.
None of the villagers had guns, but they had axes and molotov cocktails, alongside the occasional screeching parasite bursting from their host's body to try and lunge at the nearest soldiers.
Any other army might have hesitated at the sights and horrors of it all, but not ISIS, and Leon was able to see the methodical progression through the village, as each house was checked and declared safe, or made safe, if necessary.
Still, Leon couldn't stop to check their progress. He needed to find Ashley, and for that-
The Church bells suddenly began ringing, and the villagers froze, before moving as one towards the church.
The ISIS soldiers stopped firing for a moment, caught off-guard by the sudden and unexpected utter lack of aggression, but quickly began firing again, easily putting down the remaining villagers who did not even lift a finger to save their lives or fight back.
Even if the parasites bursted out of the broken bodies of their hosts, they still tried to make their way towards the church, though obviously ISIS killed them all before they could.
"Well that was unexpected…" Leon muttered, looking down at the corpse at his feet that had been about to try and attack him… only to pause and turn his back to Leon a moment later, trying to go towards the church like everybody else in the village.
"Ingrid, do you copy? We took the first village on our way to Saddler's HQ. Over." he reported.
"Already? That was fast." remarked Ingrid, visibly surprised.
In her defense, the whole fight took barely 5 minutes…
"Yeah. Right when things were about to get harder as proper resistance began concentrating… The bells rang. And then every villager started to mindlessly walk towards the church, even as ISIS gunned them down to the last. This… wasn't part of the plan." noted Leon.
"A third party? But who, and why?" wondered Ingrid.
Leon frowned. "I don't know. But I have a feeling I will find out sooner or later. In any case, I'll contact you later. For now, I'll keep going. Over."
"Copy that."
Leon made his way towards the opposite end of the village, passing by ISIS soldiers incinerating the corpses of the villagers and their parasites alike until only ashes were left, and while it was hard to be certain under their armor, Leon couldn't help but think they looked tense, thoroughly suspicious of their good fortune with the swift cleansing of this village.
"Aeon." said Leon, when he finally arrived at the village's gates.
"Leon." the man replied with a nod. "A few of my soldiers went on ahead, had to deal with the villagers trying to replicate Indiana Jones with a giant boulder rolling down a path along the nearby hill and all that. Thankfully, full-powered plasma shots broke the damn thing enough that they were able to retreat quick enough to be safe. They've gone back out to scout, but if I were you I'd be careful: we can expect more traps like those to be waiting for us."
Leon grimaced at the news but smiled in thanks. "I appreciate the warning. Still, you saw what happened with the church. Any idea who did it and why?"
Aeon hummed in thought. "I've got a couple theories, but I've also got no proof. Still, one of my soldiers did find these in the village's chief hut."
Leon took the papers Aeon offered him, before staring grimly at them.
"They knew I was coming. Not you guys, obviously, but me? Certainly." he said, looking at the attached pictures of him.
Aeon chuckled darkly. "Indeed. Something like the kidnapping of the daughter of the US president couldn't have been achieved without good intel… and that means spies. There's a reason we didn't contact you until you were already in Spain."
Leon pursed his lips. Aeon had contacted him and shared what he knew only after Leon had been dispatched and arrived in Spain. The fact that the US didn't even know until then that ISIS had left US ground had certainly been a shock to some, and then Aeon had given him the full briefing on everything Insight Corp. knew of the situation, which was a great deal more than what the White House had before.
Leon wasn't surprised by all of this (Aeon was a god, obviously he could do better than even the best of the US) and had taken it in stride, but now it was obvious that he had contacted Leon so late because he didn't trust the US government to be anything short of a sieve when it comes to keeping things secrets.
Leon couldn't help but wonder: did Aeon have spies of his own in the White House? Or did he just use his powers as a god to know everything he needed?
He supposed it hardly mattered, since the result was the same.
In any case, Leon soon moved on, the occasional sounds of laser fire and explosions following him as he pressed onwards through the woods, until he arrived at another small village.
Letting Aeon and his soldiers handle it, he focused on trying to discreetly move through the village, occasionally passing through someone's house… and it is within one of those houses that Leon heard something banging from within a nearby wardrobe of all things.
Carefully moving forward, he quickly opened it-
Only to step back in surprise as a man bound in ropes fell at his feet.
Leon tore out the gag on the man's face, with the man grimacing before giving him a wry glare.
"A little rough, don't you think?"
Leon's eyes narrowed… and then recognition from Aeon's briefing struck.
"Luis Sera, I presume?" he asked, starting to remove the man's bounds.
"You know me?" Luis asked, surprised.
Leon grunted. "I know of you. I'm Leon, I work for the US government. And you're the one who betrayed the local cult, right? Aeon told me about you… Though he told me you also talked to an old… acquaintance of mine. Ada Wong, you know of her?"
"The pretty Asian?" Luis replied, surprised. "Yeah, I did. Not sure who she works for, though she offered to help take down the cult, so that's good enough for me."
Leon grimaced. "Yeah, I'd be more careful if I were you. She works for the Organization and Albert Wesker… The first seeks to create more B.O.W's to sell, the other wants to burn the world down. At most, she's here to wipe out the competition. Not exactly someone you should easily trust."
Now if only I could convince myself of that… Leon thought.
Luis visibly flinched, shock and a quick look of horror passing through his eyes before he turned grim.
He opened his mouth-
Only to freeze as loud growls and footsteps echoed in the small house they were in.
Both men turned, taking in the two feral-looking villagers… and the very tall man standing in the middle, though Leon noted that he was still much less tall than Aeon himself was.
What drew Leon's eyes however was the bright left red eye the man possessed, and his instincts told him this was a far more dangerous man than any of the previous locals he'd met so far.
"Perfect, the big cheese…" snarked Luis, though the concern was obvious in his voice.
"What?" wondered Leon, before his eyes narrowed as he thought back on Aeon's briefing…
And Leon stiffened, as he finally recognized the man in front of him. Father Bitores Mendez was originally a Catholic priest who was taken over by the parasites of the local cult and turned into one of the chief minions of Saddler.
Most likely, Saddler dispatched him here to get to Luis before ISIS could rescue him.
And now, he stood right in front of Leon, looking thoroughly unamused at the American trying to do what ISIS hadn't had the chance to yet.
Leon immediately brought his gun upwards-
Only for Mendez to rush forward, Leon having only time to let out a single shot that smashed into the mind-controlled priest's body without any visible repercussion before said man took Leon by the front of his coat, brought him upwards with inhuman strength and then brutally smashed him straight on top of Luis.
Leon grunted, his vision swam… and then he passed out, the last sight he saw being the merciless blue and red eyes of the brainwashed priest standing above him.
"Wakey wakey, Leon. Sorry buddy, but you aren't the proper gender to pull off a proper sleeping beauty impression, no matter how good-looking a guy you may be!"
Leon woke up with a gasp, before groaning as he glared weakly at the amused Aeon looking down at him, a couple of ISIS soldiers standing guards around them.
"What happened?" he wondered. "The last thing I remember was-"
"Apparently getting knocked out by a guy much taller than you." Aeon finished. "Good thing a few ISIS soldiers were around to save your sorry ass Leon, but unfortunately they didn't manage to shoot down the corrupted priest holding what we suspect to have been Luis Sera over his shoulder. The other villagers literally jumped in the way of any laser shots headed for him. As it was, you got lucky that my people saved your ass at all."
Leon grimaced as he got up and removed a few leaves and dirt stuck on his clothes. "Yeah. I did find Luis… but then I got knocked out. That Mendez guy took a shot from my las-pistol at point blank range to the stomach and seemingly didn't even notice. Dammit, this isn't good…"
Contrary to Leon's concern, Aeon merely shrugged. "Well, Sera was already in their hands before, no reason we can't be lucky twice. Besides, you've got your own mission to worry about, remember? Let us focus on saving Sera, you can always help if you meet him again, but your priority is Ashley."
Leon sighed. "Yeah, I know. Still, I almost had him, and then…" he shook his head, before taking his comm. device.
"I'll give a quick report to Ingrid. For now, you should probably go back to the fight, I'll be fine."
Leon paused, before frowning. "Actually, how are things in the other parts of the attack?"
"Doing mostly fine so far." Aeon replied, before frowning. "Though progress is… slow. The cultists brought out a damn warship hidden in an underground base in their nearby island facilities, and that had stalled things so far on that front. Nothing that can't be handled in time, but I say that trying to find out how that warship ended up here is going to be a very fascinating mission once this mess is done and over with. As for the deeper holdings of the cult, along with the nearby cave system… Well, the cultists are far more numerous and better armed over there. Again, progress is being made, it's just taking time."
Aeon paused, before smiling. "In other news, we found a secret passage in the village. You might want to check it out, since that's the kind of thing that probably means it will lead somewhere important… Perhaps important enough to hold valuable prisoners."
Leon nodded. "Alright, thanks. Well, I won't hold your time up any longer. I've got a report to make."
Aeon nodded back and left, the ISIS soldiers immediately flanking him like they were bodyguards, while Leon activated his comm. Device.
"Ingrid, do you copy? This is Leon. Sorry I couldn't get in contact with you earlier, but I was a bit tied up."
"You okay, right?" she replied, concern in her voice.
"I'm fine. I came across Luis Sera, the civilian Insight Corp. told us about who betrayed the cult. Unfortunately, we ended up attacked by Father Mendez. ISIS rescued me, but sadly couldn't do the same for Luis, so I have no idea what happened to him."
"I see. Any new information about Ashley?"
"Maybe. Aeon informed me that ISIS found a secret passage in the nearby village, I'll go check that out. As he pointed out, it probably leads somewhere important."
"Understood. Try and be more careful, Leon. Who knows what might have happened had those ISIS soldiers not been here to rescue you?"
Leon winced at the concern in her voice… and the truth of her words. "Copy that. I'll do my best. I'll contact you once I've made progress, Leon over and out."
Leon put away his comm. Device… and then froze at the sight of an incredibly shady-looking man staring at him from a nearby window.
"Over here, stranger." the man rasped, before walking away.
Leon blinked. "Oookay?"
He carefully made his way out of the building he was in and went behind its back, where the shady man awaited.
"I've got something that might interest you." he rasped, before laughing and opening his coat… to reveal a rather staggering amount of weapons, ammo and more.
Leon blinked again… and then decided to not think overly hard at the sheer insanity of the situation.
Like, who was this guy? How was he here, when only ISIS and the cultists should be around?
How did he know to be here, with a small armory's worth of stuff on him?
But as important as those questions were, he pushed them out of his mind. This man probably wouldn't answer his questions, and as it was Leon wasn't going to complain about unexpected help.
He didn't have much local money on him, but he did collect a few things along the way that he exchanged for credits with the man.
At least now he had a laser shotgun, on top of his las-pistol and plasma gun…
And he got some extra medi-gel, just in case. That stuff was a literal life-saver after all.
Once he was done, he moved on through the wooden buildings built for some reason around the walls of a ravine, and then kept going through a number of corridors built within the stone of the ravine itself.
All of which showed heavy signs of battles, scorch marks from missed laser shots and explosions from grenades clearly visible all around the ravine, with a few ISIS soldiers still around burning the corpses, and Leon couldn't help but be grateful once again for having an army for support.
There was nothing quite like dozens of heavily armored elite soldiers armed with high-tech weapons to easily clear a path through any sort of heavy resistance.
Of course, part of why things were easy so far was that they were still making their ways towards the center of power of the cult. For the time being, this part of the offensive had fought only the civilians and less mutated members of said cult, sweeping through the outlying territories of the cult while slowly squeezing down towards their headquarters.
He'd already caught rumors of what the other combat groups had found, with whispers of giant creatures in the tunnels within the nearby mountains and heavily mutated infected of some kind causing issues on the island.
Things in the mountains had become problematic enough that now no one was to advance if they didn't have some kind of heavy weapon specialists on their teams, as a results of the number of time that the teams fighting there had to deal with sealed experiments considered uncontrollable by the cult being found by ISIS teams going deeper within the mountains.
Leon was both grateful he didn't have to deal with that himself so far, and a bit guilty over that very same fact. It felt wrong to leave to others the biggest part of the fighting, but fact of the matter was, he wasn't here to deal with the cult, he was here to rescue Ashley Grahams.
Now, if only he could find said girl, that would be great. Hell, at this point he'd take even a good guess at a specific location! It would still be better than what he had so far, which was a grand total of "No clue" and "Take a wild guess."
At least he trusted Aeon to know whether or not she was still alive and in the area. The fact that Aeon mentioned that secret passage indicated he probably was on the right track.
… He hoped. It would feel a bit awkward if an ISIS team came across her first and Leon's full contribution to this operation was killing a few villagers that crossed his path, getting knocked out, saved by an ISIS team and then all but gift-wrapped his VIP by another ISIS team.
Sure, it'd make his job so much easier, but still…
Being given the best training the US government could give him, and then further trained by Aeon himself for years only to have his job be done by others would sting a bit at his pride.
Ah well. For now, he should just focus on the mission.
He entered into the next room of the mansion he had found himself in, hands holding his gun tightly as he heard sounds of fighting and the screams of cultists nearby-
And then he gasped as Father Mendez brutally sent him flying, Leon crashing on the ground and wincing in both pain and shock at the unexpected attack.
How the hell did I not see him?! He thought incredulously, before gasping again as Mendez's right boot slammed on top of him, slamming Leon down flat on the ground.
He gasped for air, desperately trying to remove the weight on his stomach-
And then the sounds of several laser shots echoed in the room, Mendez stiffening before turning to look over his shoulder.
Whatever he saw, Leon was grateful it was enough to make him forget about Leon, and to his surprise Mendez proceeded to outright jump out of the nearest window.
Leon immediately rushed towards his discarded gun, taking several deep breaths before slowly calming down.
He glanced towards the nearest window. Considering he was not at surface level, he probably didn't need to worry about Mendez for a little while, though he doubted greatly that Mendez would die from a mere fall.
Leon frowned, however, as he tried to remember who saved him. He thought he had caught a flash of bright red clothing, but…
Probably his imagination, or the lack of air messing with his vision.
… Still, he was getting annoyed at so easily being taken down and needing saving, so he'd have to be far more careful from now on. Maybe the overall lack of fighting thanks to ISIS' presence was throwing him off his game, but he really needed to do better than this.
Leon scowled, determined to do better. He had to, for Ashley's sake if not his own!
I glanced at the lake in front of me.
And more importantly, at the giant monster inside it.
"Right, I can see why you called for back-up and bigger guns." I dryly said to a nearby ISIS sergeant.
"Yes sir. Since it's staying inside the water, it's rather problematic to deal with. Our weapons can't easily get to it, unfortunately." replied the sergeant, sounding slightly sheepish at having to request for my presence. That was the problem with having my kind of reputation, sometimes my own soldiers hesitated to call on me because they believed that I had better battles to fight than to deal with problems that, with all the equipment and training I gave them, they felt that they should be able to handle on their own.
"Quite. Well, tell everybody to step back. I'll deal with the big bastard myself."
"Yes, sir!"
That didn't mean, however, that they weren't quite eager to see me at work when the opportunity presented itself.
Well, better not disappoint, then, I thought with amusement.
I walked forward, and with no one but my own men watching I didn't even hesitate to simply walk on top of the water, or summon one of my old Yharnamite cannon in my hands as I did.
Then, once I was right in the middle of the lake, I looked down… and violently hit my right heel on top of the water.
A small shockwave spread out, and I had only a few seconds to wait before-
The world seemingly slowed down, as Del Lago jumped out of the water, his giant maw opened wide to try and eat me with one gulp.
Unfortunately for it, I had jumped upward a fraction of a second before he had broken through the surface, and as we hang in mid-air, moments before gravity would claim us once more, I angled my cannon downwards, infused it with fire, and then unleashed the Fire-infused cannon-ball straight into its gullet.
Less than a second later, the cannon ball hit the depth of the creature, who promptly exploded in an orgy of charred flesh and blood while I calmly fell back down on top of the water, making sure to avoid being hit by the broken corpse of the monster as I did.
Then I reloaded my cannon, put it back in my [Inventory], and used my magic to drag the broken corpse of Del Lago to the shore as I walked back towards solid ground, so that my people may have an easier time disposing of the corpse and burning it to ash.
Once I was done, I turned towards the frozen sergeant and his team, who were staring at the broken corpse of the giant monster in utter silence.
"Anything else I can help you with while I'm in the area, sergeant?" I calmly asked.
The sergeant visibly flinched at the sound of my voice, his full-body armor doing nothing to hide the full-body twitch, before he turned to look at me.
"Errr… No, sir! We can take it from here!"
I nodded while mentally chuckling at the awe I could feel from him and his team. They weren't there in Raccoon City, so while they had all heard the stories they weren't quite as used to… well, me being me as the older members of ISIS were.
Which was easily noticeable by the way that my bodyguards (because apparently, I needed to have those nowadays. Something about me being too important or such rot to not have those in combat-heavy areas… Bah! Kids these days…), who were Raccoon City veterans, radiated amusement to my senses as they stared at the younger soldiers.
Oh, you couldn't tell under their armors, but they couldn't hide it from me!
So as we left the team behind to deal with the corpse and securing the area, I glanced at said veterans.
"Using alternate comm. Lines to joke about the new blood? Really people?" I said with outward judgement and inward amusement.
They shifted ever so slightly. Anyone else wouldn't have noticed, but again? I was not so easily fooled!
"Sorry sir." awkwardly apologized John.
I snorted, smirking. "Bah! Don't worry about it. I certainly didn't hide my amusement when I saved your ass back in 98'. I swear, that zombie was seconds away from giving you the greatest French kiss in your life!"
I could feel the blush spreading on his face as the other three ISIS soldiers snickered softly.
And again, I didn't bother hiding my amusement when I glanced at the other three and they all stopped snickering immediately, stiffening in dread instead.
"Oh, amused are we? What about you, Jane? Why don't you share with us in what state Gamma team found you after one of the worms took off with you from the front line in the War Below?"
Jane cleared her throat and looked away. "I'd rather not, sir." she replied, and boy did her blush had to be nuclear if what I felt was anything to go by.
I rolled my eyes, but nodded.
"Alright, just remember: I don't mind you laughing at the new blood, but it better stay in good humor. Or else I might get involved and share some stories too…" I trailed off, but by the way they all stiffened it almost looked like they were standing at attention so rigid they all were.
"Sir yes sir!"
I smirked. "Good! Then let's see what else could be fun to kill around here!"
Rebecca stood up, dusting herself off as she finished an, admittedly very bare bone, examination of the… thing… whose corpse was at her feet.
And towered over her even in death, but such detail had long since stopped being noteworthy by her standards.
"So? Any idea what it originally was?" wondered Jill.
"Not a clue!" Rebecca cheerfully replied.
Jill blinked.
"I'm going to have to look into it once I'm back home in my lab, but whatever this thing used to be, I can't recognize what it might have once been. All I know is that it most likely wasn't anywhere near that big originally, or had tentacles, or any of the other things this abomination against nature possesses! Seriously, way too many teeth to be natural. Most of them aren't even inside its mouths for goodness' sake! Animals aren't supposed to have the majority of their teeth on the outside of their body, that's not how evolution works!"
She paused, glanced at the corpse, and then shook her head. "Eldritch nonsense aside!"
"Which this thing… or any of the others we encountered so far… don't possess, right?" questioned Jill.
"Nope! Trust me, Oedon has taught me a lot in how to recognize if something has been touched by the Arcane, and nothing we came across so far was." Reassured Rebecca.
Jill sighed in relief at the news. "Good. I doubted it, but I wanted to make sure. Some of the things we encountered were pretty disturbing, even by our standards."
"I'm aware, but-"
"Ma'am!"
Both women glanced at the newly arrived ISIS soldier, who looked… disgruntled?
It certainly seemed that way, at least. Which was an achievement, considering the full-body armor.
"Soldier. A problem?" asked Jill.
"We found what seemed to be a parasite-mutated spider nest in the south. The teams over there request assistance dealing with it, if possible."
Rebecca blinked. "Parasite-mutated spiders…? Oh dear."
The ISIS soldier seems to be giving her a tired look. Again, impressive considering that his face wasn't even visible.
"Me and my men had to deal with mutated spiders in Raccoon City. None of us are particularly happy about having to deal with even worse versions of the damn things."
And then he began muttering under his breath, so softly only their Huntress hearing allowed Jill and Rebecca to hear: "Spiders. Why is it always spiders?!"
Rebecca chose to reply anyway by saying "Well, sure it's often spiders, but to be honest I'd rather never have to face bloodthirsty butterflies if it's all the same to you. I never liked spiders anyway, but if these bastards ruin butterflies forever for me, I'd be pretty pissed."
The soldier raised a finger in the air.
Paused.
And then lowered it.
"On second thought, burning spiders to death sounds just fine!"
Jill snorted, then turned to look at Rebecca. "I presume you'll deal with it? I need to go deal with a group of giants up in one of the north corridors."
"Sure! I'm the best equipped to study the damn things for weaknesses, after all. If we have to deal with more, the more we know the better."
Rebecca turned towards the soldier. "Right, I'll come with you. Show me where those things are."
"Right this way, ma'am!"
Chris didn't even blink as yet more explosions echoed not that far from his position. Honestly at this point he was getting rather used to it, really.
"Defenses still holding, sir!" shouted a nearby soldier.
"Good." he replied, internally swearing once again at the fact that this damn warship the cultists somehow got their hands on was still firing.
He and his men had done quite a bit of damage to the thing, and thankfully it wasn't that big of a warship, but the cult had added as many guns on the fucking thing as they could put, and it showed.
The only reason no one died so far was partly because of how tough the armors of ISIS soldiers were, and the widespread use of medi-gel.
Even so, it has been a long time since ISIS had so many injured, and their numbers were slowly growing.
The fact that the cult had their most well-equipped soldiers in this area was known, and Aeon had given them warning about the warship, but somehow it still ended up being a surprise just how much of a pain in the ass the damn thing was.
Because as it turns out, trying to sink a warship was pretty hard without a warship of their own. Who would have thought?
And it wasn't like they could call on artillery or air support, since there was hardly anywhere in these lands that would allow for their uses!
Hills and small mountains and marshes and worse, that was all these lands possessed, and it made fighting through it all a pain in the ass.
Not even Chris, who was a Hunter, could actually try to take out the warship. He'd need to come closer to it, and it was only a great deal of luck and some inhumanly good reflexes and dodging skills that had saved him from being blown to bits the last time he had tried that.
Not that he'd stay dead, but still!
And the cultists weren't stupid enough to not know how much of an annoyance that warship was, so they made sure to put it in the bay where their headquarter on the island was, allowing it to act as a floating artillery division protecting said base.
Sure, it couldn't fire everywhere, but it certainly could limit the number of ways the base could be approached… which meant those ways were reinforced by cultists to hell and back.
ISIS was essentially trying to crack open a fortress defended by the cannons of a warship and inhuman creatures who laughed at the idea of needing rest, or faltering morale, and were mostly uncaring about injuries to boot!
It was, needless to say, not the best tactical situation, and a testament of ISIS's skills, determination and equipment (and probably a bit of divine blessing, Chris suspected) that no one actually died so far and at most lost some limbs.
And yet, against all odds, progress was made. Slow, very slow progress, but some crazy risk taking had seen Chris and some of his best men and women damage part of the warship, and even the cultists simply couldn't fight ISIS's elite soldiers forever.
For all their advantages, the cultists simply weren't used to war. They weren't tactical geniuses, they had no real idea on how to defend a position, and a lot of their physical advantages were mitigated by superior training, equipment and experience.
All they truly had on their side were good defensive positions… and that damn warship.
Remove it, and ISIS could finally launch a proper offensive.
Chris almost once again decided to call on Aeon, but the man was overseeing the slow, methodical squeezing of Saddler's own territories, with the fighting having reached some of the important locations of the cult. True, there were subordinates who were helping to coordinate things who could take over for a time, but apparently there were indeed some actual threats that needed his personal attention having already been encountered.
Something about a very big fish? Or crocodile? He wasn't sure, just that whatever it was had been dealt with permanently.
Though Chris had heard rumors that at one point Aeon had taken a speaker and loudly began to throw insults aimed at Saddler in the hopes that the bastard would actually lose his cool and come out to kill him in person. It had not worked, but it certainly made the cultists rush like fools towards ISIS lines in a vain attempt to get at him.
They had lost quite a few of their number that way before someone with authority managed to take control back of the cultists and stop their mad run towards their own death.
Unfortunately, Chris couldn't replicate that feat and insult a warship to its death.
No matter how satisfying that would have been.
He sighed. Slow and steady it is, He mentally grumbled. Since flanking attacks are out, I might as well try the front door.
At the very least, a Hunter fighting there will draw their attention, and hopefully manpower, enough for some other teams to make better progress…
He could certainly hope so, at least.
And it'll take him out of that damn warship's range, which was even better!
Omake: What Claire was doing while ISIS fought.
"I'm sorry, miss, but could you repeat that?" asked the man in charge of Spain's naval military, staring with great confusion at the civilian woman who had somehow managed to get enough pull to get a meeting with him.
"I said, I was doing research on corruption in the militaries of the world for an article, and I felt that you were the best man to ask the point of view of on the matter." Calmly replied Claire Redfield, the American woman currently sitting in front of his desk and calmly looking at him.
The Spanish man blinked, took a quick look at his whiskey and wondered if there was something wrong with it before dismissing the idea, and instead gave a honestly confused look at the American in front of him.
"Alright, but that doesn't explain why you went to me of all people. As far as I know, I am the first person you asked this question of in the Spanish government and military. Is there some specific reason that you believe that the Spanish Navy is more corrupt than other parts of the Spanish military?"
Said woman shrugged slightly and then raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well I have it on good authority that one of your warships plus enough ammo to sustain it for a small war somehow ended up in the hands of a cult in the southern part of the country, so…"
The man didn't hear the rest, as he was too busy choking on his own spit and trying to get his breathing back under control over the insane words he'd just heard.
And then the American brought out evidence, a great deal of it, and he was soon enough far too busy cursing in his native language and making frantic phone calls for anything else.
The rest of the government soon followed once everyone was caught up on the fact that the very same cult had kidnapped the daughter of the US president and there was currently a full-on war going on at the south of the country against said cult.
Needless to say, it was not a good day to be an official in the Spanish government.