Bonus Chapter!
I am thinking of the worlds of House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones around the fifth or seventh volume. What do you think he should be? Or maybe even sooner, as by then he would be as strong as Basic Thor from Marvel. What do you think? Does the world have potential with dragons and magic, capturing his own empire there with mostly queens ruling? A vacation world of you will motley fast kill and harem..
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"The two Chimera hybrids," the Red Queen continued, "remained in the ventilation shafts of the Hive. They did yet to exit the facility."
"Regarding the Lickers..."
The hologram shifted, showing a list of ten subjects.
"Ten subjects were active in the Hive. Subjects 001 through 010. During the incident, nine of them were contained by the emergency bulkhead seals I initiated prior to the Electric Charge blast. They are trapped within the Hive Sewers for now."
"And the tenth?" White asked, though he already suspected the answer.
"Subject 009. A mechanical malfunction in the Cryo-Tube release mechanism occurred during the power surge. It escaped. This is the entity that pursued the survivors to the train platform."
"And was subsequently decapitated by the A-1,"
White finished, a greedy glint returning to his eyes. "So, the heavy hitters are contained. What about the Tyrant series?"
This was the main jewel of White's division. The Tyrant program was the endgame of the T-Virus—the creation of the ultimate biological soldier.
"All Tyrant units are secure," the Red Queen reported. "The T-00 'Mr. X' prototype. The T-001 Proto-Tyrant. The T-002 combat model. All remain in deep-freeze suspension in the lower labs fully adapted to Nemesis-α Parasite."
She brought up a schematic of a massive, heavily armored containment unit.
"Furthermore, the three T-103 Mass-Production models, 3 clones currently undergoing the Nemesis-α Parasite integration, are stable. The parasites have successfully bonded to the host cortex. We have full synaptic control. They are sleeping, awaiting activation codes."
"Excellent," White whispered, running his tongue over his teeth. "The Nemesis project is our failsafe. If the city falls... we will have the ultimate clean-up crew."
He paused, looking at a specific file on the bottom of the list. A file marked with a triple-red biohazard symbol.
"And Subject Type-B? Lisa Trevor?"
The Red Queen's avatar flickered, bringing up an image of a grotesque, hunched figure, bound in shackles, her face hidden behind a mask of stitched human flesh.
"Lisa Trevor remains in the circular containment track beneath the mansion. Her regenerative capabilities continue to exceed all theoretical limits. She has absorbed the Progenitor virus, the T-Virus, and the NE-α parasite without undergoing critical mutation failure up until now. And currently undergoing the Nemesis-α Parasite integration, is stable. We are in… control."
"The most successful mistake we ever made," White nodded, a wide, prideful smile stretching his face. "She is the bridge. The mother of the Golgotha Virus."
At the mention of the G-Virus, White's expression shifted. It became sharper, tinged with a mix of professional respect and intense rivalry.
"Speaking of G," White asked, glancing at a secondary monitor that showed a blacked-out feed. "What is the status of the NEST facility? Dr. William Birkin and his wife, Annette?"
The NEST was the other massive underground laboratory here in the Zoological Sector and Animal-based and Insect-based prototypes came from him; its a—larger, more advanced, and dedicated almost exclusively to William Birkin's G-Virus research. While White oversees the Hive and the T-Virus applications, Birkin was the golden boy of Umbrella, working on the next stage of evolution.
"They weren't in the Hive during the outbreak,"
White reasoned aloud. "Birkin rarely leaves his lab in the NEST, but..."
"Correct," the Red Queen confirmed. "Dr. William Birkin and Senior Researcher Annette Birkin were not present in the Hive, nor were they in the NEST facility at the moment of the initial outbreak."
"Where were they?" White asked, surprised. Birkin was a workaholic.
"They were attending a mandatory school function at East Raccoon Elementary," the Red Queen replied. "A parent-teacher conference regarding the academic progress of their daughter, Sherry Birkin."
White let out a sharp, cynical laugh.
"Domesticity saves the day. Irony at its finest. If Birkin had been in the Hive, he would be a zombie right now. Instead, he's sitting in a classroom listening to a teacher complain about his daughter."
"Good," White nodded, his face turning serious.
"The G-Virus is too valuable to lose. Ensure the NEST facility remains on independent lockdown. If the city goes to hell, Birkin will retreat to his lab. We need to make sure he can get there."
The Red Queen's avatar suddenly distorted, a wave of static washing over her image.
"Dr. White," she interrupted. "There is additional anomaly data you must be aware of. While my sensors in the Hive were offline, my remote telemetry from the city infrastructure detected... irregularities."
"Define irregularities," White said, stepping back to the main map.
"Biological mass readings in the sewers that do not match T-Virus infection patterns," she explained. "I am detecting massive, slug-like biomass signatures in the waste processing sectors. Giant leeches. They are aggregating in the damp zones."
White frowned. "Leeches? Local fauna mutation?"
"Negative. The growth rate suggests direct exposure to a pure viral strain, distinct from the T-Virus. It bears markers similar to the early Progenitor experiments conducted by Dr. James Marcus."
White froze. James Marcus was dead—assassinated by Umbrella's own hit squads ten years ago on Spencer's orders.
"That's impossible," White muttered, waving it off, though a cold shiver ran down his spine. "Marcus is dead. It's probably just chemical runoff from the waste plant interacting with the local ecosystem."
"Perhaps," the Red Queen said, though her tone suggested she calculated a 0.01% probability of that being true. "Additionally, there are reports from the Arklay Mountains. Hikers have reported packs of wild dogs exhibiting high aggression and necrosis. The MA-39 Cerberus prototypes from the mansion kennels... they may have escaped earlier than we thought."
"Great," White sneered. "So we have zombies in the labs, giant bugs and animals in the sewers, and zombie dogs in the mountains."
"And the water," the Red Queen added, delivering the final nail in the coffin. "The waste processing plant beneath the Hive has been compromised. T-Virus effluent is leaking into the soil and the water table. Hospitals in the city are expected to report sporadic infections with a probability of 73% within the next two to three days.—the 'cannibal sickness'—are not just from rats. The citizens are drinking the virus."
Dr. White stared at the map. The red lights were no longer blinking; they were solidifying into a web of death that covered the entire grid.
"It's over," White realized. "Containment is impossible. The city is already dead; they just don't know it yet. Let's see what we can salvage from here."
He stood in silence for a moment, the hum of the computers filling the room. He wasn't mourning the loss of life. He was calculating the opportunity cost.
"If we let this spiral naturally," White murmured, "the government will intervene. They will seize our assets. They will take the G-Virus. They will take the Tyrants."
His eyes hardened.
"But if we control the collapse... if we turn Raccoon City into a testing ground... we can salvage the data. And more importantly..."
He looked at the freeze-frame of Atlas on his tablet—the grey blur of motion, the silver claws, the intelligence.
"We can catch the Apex."
White turned his back on the monitors. He walked over to a standalone console in the center of the room. On it sat a heavy, red analog telephone. It had no dial pad. It connected to only one place: The Umbrella Corporation High Command.
White picked up the receiver. The line clicked open instantly.
"This is Dr. Alexander White," he spoke clearly, his voice steady. "Clearance Level 9. Authorization Code: Zero-Zero-Alpha-Zeus."
He waited for the mechanical click of the encryption key verifying his voice print.
"I am declaring a Code Red emergency for Raccoon City," White stated. "The Hive is compromised. The infection vector is uncontrolled."
He looked at the map of the city—the schools, the police station, the suburban homes where families were currently sleeping, unaware that monsters were scratching at their basement pipes.
"Initiate Protocol 4-4."
There was a pause on the other end, then a robotic confirmation. [Protocol 4-4 Authorized.]
"Close the city," White ordered, his voice devoid of empathy, replaced by the cold authority of a god deciding the fate of ants.
"Seal the main gates. Weld them shut if you have to. Blockade the bridges. No one leaves. No one enters."
He paced around the console, the cord trailing behind him.
"Mobilize the U.B.C.S. and the National Guard. Spin the media narrative. Tell them there was a spill at the nuclear power plant. Tell them it's radiation. Tell them it's a terrorist attack. I don't care what you tell them, as long as it keeps the civilians inside and the military outside."
He paused, listening to the confirmation.
"Signal the extraction transport. Secure the Key Assets," White said smoothly.
"Deploy the U.B.C.S. to secure the corridor. I require the full might of Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omega teams. Nothing gets in or out without my say-so."
"And the support staff, sir?"
White smiled, a thin, cruel curving of his lips.
"Only the essential personnel get a seat on the choppers. The rest? Consider them... live combat data for the experiments. They are expendable."
"They are liquid assets. Expendable. Leave them to the B.O.W.s."
He hung up the phone. The heavy clack echoed in the silent room.
"Protocol 4-4 initiated," the Red Queen announced. "Perimeter lockdown in T-minus ten minutes."
White walked back to the main screen. He watched as the icons for the blast gates on the Raven's Gate Bridge turned from Green to Red. He watched as the icons for the National Guard units began to move toward the city limits.
"Control the infection spread as much as we can," White whispered to the empty room, his reflection ghostly in the glass.