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"Command, this is Wolfpack! We are pinned down and destroying massive amounts of your precious B.O.W.'s! It is in your best interest to extract us immediately!"
"Command, you need to evacuate us ASAP! Get us out of here- Argh! Fuck YOU!"
"Command, if you're even listening, we need extraction immediately!"
"For fuck's sake, it's been hours already… If things keep going like this, we're all going to die here!" growled Beltway, killing another B.O.W.
"I know! We're running low on ammo, medicine, and… everything! But last I heard, you didn't have any more of a plan than any of us to get out of this damn city, Beltway!" Lupo growled back.
Beltway snarled, but said nothing.
Problem was, Command wasn't answering, and seemingly every goddamn B.O.W. in the southern part of the city were finding their way to them.
Wolfpack was made of the best of the best of the U.S.S, and their kill count for the last few hours alone probably reached a damn thousand or more, but even they couldn't keep up this fucking miracle indefinitely. If they don't come up with a solution soon, their exhaustion will finally catch up to them and someone will inevitably make a mistake and die. And when that happens, things would only get worse from there.
Lupo wiped the sweat away from her face before putting her mask back on, scowling in a mix of helpless rage and despair.
Her throat was parched, but they had so little water left that she didn't dare take any of it. She could tell her team was no better, but the fact of the matter was, they really couldn't afford to use any of their remaining reserves for anything but the most critical of situations.
Lupo thought back to her children, safely away from here, and truly wondered if she would make it back home. Or if, instead, she'd become another corpse in this damn city full of them…
For the seemingly thousandth time lately, she cursed Umbrella with all her strength.
What the hell had made her think that working for them was a good idea? Sure, the pay was incredibly good, but all the money in the world didn't matter if she died! And she strongly suspected that Umbrella sure as hell wouldn't give her children so much as a damn dollar in compensation for her dying here…
She glanced outside, noticing that for now there were few, if any infected, and relaxed slightly… before almost collapsing in exhaustion as the stress of the last few hours, kept at bay by adrenaline, finally hit her all at once. Taking a few deep breaths, she waited until the world stopped spinning, before sighing deeply.
Of all the places to die, Raccoon City really wasn't where she wanted her grave to be…
"Well, well, well, how the mighty have fallen. Wouldn't you agree, Delta Team?"
The building was suddenly filled with loud curses as the entire Wolfpack turned around to point their guns at-
Lupo froze, the rest of her team doing the same.
Aeon, leader of ISIS, calmly grinned back and waved cheerfully from where he was leaning against the back wall, seemingly utterly uncaring of the numbers of guns pointed at him.
"How the hell did he get there?!" exclaimed Specter, and Lupo couldn't help but completely agree.
All entrances had been carefully watched over by her team at all times! A damn fly couldn't enter without them knowing it, so how the hell did a man as tall as this guy manage to get in without being seen?!
Lupo swallowed, well aware that, if he wanted them dead, they probably all would be. Sure, she had heard stories of the guy- there wasn't anyone in the USS that hadn't at least heard of the leader of ISIS, considering just how often he made the best of Umbrella look like incompetent fools- but it was one thing to hear the stories, and another thing entirely to brutally see the truth of them.
Delta Team didn't easily get snuck up on. They didn't get surprised like a bunch of recruits who got caught by a superior officer doing something they really shouldn't. They were Delta Team, for goodness' sake!
Obviously, someone forgot to tell that to ISIS's leader.
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked. Any other moment she'd either be a lot more polite or outright began shooting on sight, but here and now things were more… complicated.
Though the guy didn't seem to care, his smile only widening at her words.
"I'm here to talk about you, Delta Team. Or more specifically, your future."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" growled Beltway, sounding ready to shoot at any moment.
ISIS's leader chuckled. "Tell me… how much would you be willing to give, to get away from this city? How far are you willing to go? Or, more importantly… How loyal to Umbrella are you still, after everything that happened? After they left you here to die?" he asked, smirking at them.
They all tensed. "And what's that supposed to mean?" Lupo questioned, wondering just how much he knew of what Delta Team had been up to in Raccoon City.
Aeon grinned at her. "Your comms systems aren't badly protected… but by my standards, they were all too easy to crack. So tell me, did you have fun chasing after the various copies of the documents I deliberately left behind for you and the USS to find?"
They all tensed at his words.
"Copies? What are you-"
"Really, you know that ISIS arrived there at the very beginning. Did none of you stop to consider how odd it was for all those important documents to be just… laying around?"
He snorted. "They were copies. All of it. Created for one purpose, to tie up USS manpower and resources in trying to track them down and destroy them. And oh my... Umbrella fell for it hook, line, and sinker. And the best part is, Umbrella was even stupid enough to think they could still cover their asses, so they kept sending more B.O.W.'s, USS soldiers, everything! Raccoon City turned into a black hole for Umbrella, and they kept trying to send more of their money and resources at it to fill that hole, when they only made it bigger!"
He laughed. "And the best part is? They outright went to blows with Blackwatch! Meaning that they kept losing soldiers and B.O.W.'s to them, while also pissing Blackwatch off more and more! Why, by now all of Blackwatch consider it their personal mission to destroy you all!"
He shook his head, smirking widely. "And that's without even mentioning all the political goodwill and the numerous favors that Umbrella is spending like water back in Washington. By the end of this mess, their grip on the US government will be weaker than it has been in decades."
The leader of ISIS smirked at their frozen forms, something dark in his eyes. "Umbrella will end up the architects of their own destruction… and you, Delta Team, could all so easily prove the last nail in their coffin. After all, I've got quite a bit of evidence in your involvement with the outbreak, and it would be so very easy to use that as evidence that yes, Umbrella caused the outbreak, caused the deaths of dozens of thousands of American citizens. And you would be the face of that outbreak! You would be seen as the greatest murderers of US citizens in decades! The entire nation would stop at nothing to find you and kill you. Nowhere on Earth would be safe. You'll live your last remaining weeks or months living in terror… until finally, death would come for you."
The leader of ISIS looked in cold triumph at their frozen forms, as they all began to understand just how screwed they were.
Leaving the city wouldn't save them. Not if the entire US government sought their deaths, not if they became Public Enemy No. 1.
Countless governmental agents would seek them across the Earth, to say nothing of bounty hunters and more...
"Or," began Aeon, "there is a second option."
"And that is?" Lupo asked, trying not to appear as desperate as she actually felt right now.
The devil of a man smiled coldly. "You switch teams, of course. Umbrella used you and then left you to die, right? So why choose to die for their sake? I'm sure the US government would be all too happy to make a deal with you, in order to try and ensure all backlash of this mess falls squarely on top of Umbrella's shoulders. I imagine that there would be a price to pay for such a deal, but at least you won't be hunted down like dogs all across the world. And hey, ISIS could use someone with as much knowledge of the USS's inner workings as you have. I'm certain that we can come up with a… mutually beneficial arrangement."
"You'd trust us to work for you? Really?" questioned Beltway, sounding rather skeptical… though also desperate.
Aeon shrugged. "Not immediately… but there is opportunity in chaos. So how about this: I'll leave for now, give you some time to… think things through, and then I'll meet you again in, say, a few hours? If you agree to the deal, I'll send you on a mission that will directly oppose USS troops and the will of Umbrella's executive council, as a way to prove your loyalty. If you prove yourself, I'll consider that as proof enough that we can work something out together."
He grinned. "Why, I'll even invite you to try and make a deal with Umbrella at any point up until the conclusion of the mission I'll assign you. See if they are willing to negotiate in exchange for keeping your services."
Lupo blinked. "Are you saying you want us to try and double cross you?"
ISIS's leader looked amused. "And why not? I already know how that's going to end up, after all, so I have nothing to worry about. In fact, I can assure you, it'll only drive you further into ISIS' arms. So by all means: make a deal with Umbrella, see where that takes you. And when it'll inevitably fall through… well, you know where to turn to for safety, won't you?"
He chuckled. "Oh, and don't worry about USS Command overhearing us through your radios, as far as they know right now, you are fighting more of their precious B.O.W's. I also left some ammo, food, and more in a room upstairs, so you can use it until Umbrella calls for you again or until you accept our deal. Until then, by all means, keep killing more infected, you are doing such a marvelous job at it that I've been holding back ISIS's offensive to retake the police station until you've thinned the hordes some more. Make it easier on my people when it'll be time for them to attack, yes? Until then, I'll be seeing you!"
And then he dropped a smoke bomb and seconds later, there was no trace of ISIS's leader anywhere.
The lack of orders from Command made it pretty clear that, somehow, the whole encounter was hidden from them, and Lupo and her team was left to think of everything they had just been told.
Suddenly, the complete lack of ISIS soldiers as they went on throughout their missions made a lot more sense: they had been playing in ISIS' hands all along, they just never noticed.
And now, the trap was about to be set… and the only question left was whether or not they wanted to die as USS soldiers, or live as traitors to Umbrella.
Needless to say, it didn't take long for them to make their choice.
Ada Wong scowled, more at herself than anything else.
Being tricked by Annette Birkin into being trapped into an incinerator, of all things, was just pathetic.
First she underestimated her and almost got shot for it, maybe even died had Leon not been there, and now this?
Sloppy, Ada. Sloppy, she grumbled to herself.
Certainly, being proven right that keeping Leon around her had been a wise decision softened the sting of it all, but she really shouldn't have needed the cop in the first place.
She was one of the best spies in the world, for goodness' sake, requiring a random cop to save her was just sad.
Especially when Ada, in general, worked very hard to ensure she never needed anybody's help for anything.
In her line of work, you couldn't trust anybody, since the friends of today more often than not would turn into the bitter enemies of tomorrow.
That was something she had made peace with a long time ago, and while exceptions needed to be made when teamwork was required to achieve an objective, in the end she knew quite well that any teammate she had would gladly leave her to die if that meant getting the full payout of a mission for themselves.
All that to say, Ada Wong did not rely on people more than absolutely necessary. And making mistakes like this would more likely than not get her killed if she wasn't more careful.
She sighed. At the very least, it just so happened that she had a device that should help her cut the power of the incinerator and open it's door, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem-
She froze when the incinerator suddenly shut down.
Leon? She wondered, before discarding the thought.
Last she had seen him, after she had bandaged his wound (it was the least she could do. Say whatever you will about her, but at least she tried to always pay her debts back), he was passed out laying against the wall she had put him against.
She really doubted he had woken up already.
So then, who-
"Ada Wong… well now, you don't do your reputation justice by requiring me to save you, you know?"
Ada tensed at the amused voice, especially when the door of the incinerator opened to show off Aeon, leader of ISIS and one of the people in charge of Insight Corp., smirking at her. She held herself back from gulping at the sight of him. Showing any kind of weakness meant death as a spy.
And frankly, even if she had an arsenal ready, she still wouldn't want to fight this man with anything less than an army at her back.
The recent showing of ISIS and himself across the battlefields of Raccoon City had made it clear that, somehow, everybody had still underestimated just how utterly terrifying this man was in battle.
Which was saying something, considering he had already been considered something of a boogeyman for all Intelligence agencies across the world.
The number of secret facilities he was rumored to have broken into, if not outright burned to the ground, was the kind of things usually reserved for spy novels.
Not actual facts.
She carefully stepped out of the incinerator, her eyes not leaving the man's body for even a second, which only seemed to amuse him further.
"Thanks for the help, but I could have done it myself." she said.
His eyes flickered towards the device at her hip.
"Yes, that would have allowed you to free yourself… Guess Annette Birkin never heard of the saying about making sure to always check for a body before considering someone as dead, huh?" he replied, his voice as amused as ever.
Then he shook his head and casually leaned against the entrance to the incinerator, which really struck home how utterly safe he felt, even while in the same room as one of the best spies in the world.
In Ada's experience, there were a few reasons someone could have for doing something so foolish as relaxing at a time like this.
Unfortunately, she doubted it was arrogance or a vain attempt at hiding his nerves that was at play here. No, this man genuinely did not see her as a threat.
Problem was, he most likely was right.
Out of the frying pan into the fire, she thought grimly.
"So, what can I do for the leader of ISIS? I can't imagine you don't have greater things to do than to go and help me out." she remarked.
He smiled. "Oh, I just wanted to talk to you. It's so rare for people like us to have a friendly chat, don't you agree?"
And how 'friendly' will this chat truly be? She thought but carefully did not say.
"Perhaps. I suppose it all depends on the topic of discussion." she replied.
Aeon chuckled. "Very true. Then, tell me: have you kept an eye on your old friend, Derek Simmons? He's certainly been hard at work back in Washington with this whole mess going down."
She frowned slightly. She wasn't overly surprised to hear he knew of her occasional work for The Family, but truth be told she hadn't actually kept in much contact with him for some time, now, too busy looking into the G-virus…
"What of him?" she carefully asked, not sure what he was after here.
And there were few scenarios as concerning as finding herself in a room with Aeon of ISIS with no idea of what he wanted.
Aeon grinned at her, though there was a distinct lack of humor in his cold eyes.
"Well, he's been pushing very hard for Raccoon City to be cleaned up through thermobaric bombing since the outbreak began. And that, despite the fact that we are actually retaking the city back. So I couldn't help but wonder if you knew how much of a mass-murdering lunatic your old friend truly is."
Ada didn't allow herself more than a blink, but internally she was left reeling.
Simmons was pushing for a complete wipe out of the city?! But there had to be still dozens of thousands of people in it! And doing it on US soil, that was-
She paused. Oh…
Of course. He was trying to cover up as much of the US government's involvement in this mess as possible, wasn't he? And what better way than to turn Raccoon City into a smoking crater?
But the sheer destruction and death brought by that…
She knew Simmons was devoted to keeping the USA strong, but to the point of wiping out Raccoon City for no other reason than to protect the country from the consequences of their own sins…
Aeon chuckled darkly.
"You didn't know, did you?" he said, and she grimaced slightly at being seen through. "Well, now you do. I've heard a great many things about you, Ada Wong, but a genocidal maniac I did not believe you to be. I'm pleased to see I was right… though of course, the nature of your current mission does leave me questioning that truth…" he trailed off, staring hard at her, and she tensed again, wondering if that was when things were about to get violent-
"But, you're right that I have other concerns to take care of. So as enjoyable as this was, I'm afraid that I must go. Until we meet again, Lady Wong."
The next thing she knew, Aeon sent a smoke bomb at his feet, and by the time the air had cleared he was nowhere to be seen.
Ada frowned hard, thinking deeply over the last few minutes. Obviously, Aeon had been here to drive a wedge between her and Simmons… The question now, was why?
And why did he not do anything to stop her mission to get a sample of the G-Virus?
That made no sense. If he just wanted to protect the world, then letting her get her hand on the G-Virus and bring it back to her employers would go against that. And yet, he still just left her there…
She scowled. The man didn't do things for no reason. Whatever he hoped to achieve by letting her get on with her mission, it probably wasn't anything good for her employers…
But then again, did it matter? After everything she had seen in this damn city, she really couldn't argue that the world would be a better place without Bio-Organic Weapons…
But she was still Ada Wong, and above all else, she was a professional. Once she agreed to a job, she would do it or die trying.
If it just so happens that her employer's wishes turned against them, however… well.
The world was a big place. Ada Wong certainly wasn't going to run out of work, B.O.W's or not.
For now, she would focus on her mission. Then, she would check if what Aeon said about Simmons trying to destroy Raccoon City was true.
And if it was, then maybe it was time to seek employers elsewhere.
After all, as she knew well, in her line of work the friends of today could be the enemies of tomorrow…
Of course, 10 minutes later her third meeting with Annette Birkin ended with Ada having a sharp piece of metal embedded in her right leg and herself stuck among literal garbage unable to move, her only hope being Leon saving her, so maybe she really ought to rethink accepting missions involving B.O.W.'s and the viruses making them. If that mess in the Arklay Mountains should have taught her anything, it's that B.O.W.-filled missions were always messy and full of complications...
The storm of emotions in her heart when Leon did show up and saved her as she had hoped really didn't make things better in that regard.
"Wake up. Wake up!"
Claire opened her eyes slowly, ears ringing badly.
"Open your eyes… Hold still…" said a blonde woman kneeling above her, holding a light towards her eyes.
"Not infected…" muttered the woman, while Claire looked away, trying to remember where she was and what was going on.
She stared at the destroyed elevator above for a moment, before shaking her head.
"Sherry?" she said weakly, slowly getting up and looking around. "Where's Sherry?" she asked, more strongly this time.
"Sherry… Sherry's fine." absently replied the blonde woman, staring at the destruction in the room.
Claire got up, glancing at Aeon leaning against a nearby wall with a slight scowl on his face.
"Do you know Sherry?" Claire asked, looking at the blonde woman curiously.
"... was an impressive display of strength…" muttered the blonde woman, too focused on whatever it was she was doing to answer.
"What happened to her?" Claire asked.
The blonde woman walked towards another part of the room they were in, frowning towards the damage the wall in front of her had taken. "We have to assess the situation…" the woman muttered.
Claire glanced at Aeon, who was still scowling slightly towards the blonde woman.
"Who are you?" Claire questioned. "I'm Claire."
"I didn't foresee this…" kept muttering the woman, scribbling something quickly on a notebook.
"Excuse me, where is she?" Claire questioned firmly. "Hello?"
"What?" said the blonde woman, blinking up at her. "Oh, I'm Annette." she replied. "Tell me, what happened to William?"
Claire blinked. Annette? That name was familiar…
And William?
… Wait…
She glanced at Aeon.
"Claire, meet Annette Birkin." Aeon said to her questioning look.
Annette glared at him, though there was a measure of fear in her eyes as she stared at the scowling man.
"You're Sherry's mother?" Exclaimed Claire. "Can you help us find her?"
Annette glared at her. "Look, I don't have time to play twenty questions. Everything's under control." she declared firmly, before turning away.
"I need to find Sherry-" Claire insisted, before being cut off when Annette turned to glare even harder at her.
"My daughter is not your concern." she said bluntly, turning to glance at Aeon and opening her mouth, before hesitating under the strengthened glare of the man and choosing instead to take the nearest door and slamming it shut after her.
Claire blinked, before looking towards Aeon.
"Charming woman, isn't she?" Aeon sarcastically declared.
"Yeah, you can say that again." Claire shook her head, before looking at him again.
"Where's Sherry?"
Aeon scowled, glaring slightly towards a broken down part of the wall.
"She ran while I was busy fighting off her mutated father. Can't say I blame her, but as a result she is somewhere in the sewers now." Aeon got off the wall, nodding once at her. "If you are feeling better, I'd like to follow her as quickly as we can, before she gets into trouble."
Claire grimaced at the news, but didn't hesitate to nod.
"Then let's be quick, who knows what kinds of things live down there…"
They quickly moved on, going through a few rooms until they ended up in the sewers proper.
Claire promptly grimaced as she had to walk through literal sewer water and garbage.
"Now I'm going to smell like shit- literally." she grumbled.
The fact that she had put on shorts today really didn't help her mood…
"Tell me about it." agreed Aeon. "At least I don't have to worry about giant bloodthirsty crows trying to eat me this time, which helps a little, but frankly, I'm getting real tired of having to go through the fucking sewers. The first time around was more than enough for several lifetimes… or they definitely should have been!"
She glanced at him. "Giant bloodthirsty crows?"
He grunted. "Damn things couldn't fly for shit, but damn could they somehow jump far…" he grumbled.
Claire promptly decided that no, she really didn't want to know more about giant, jumping bloodthirsty crows. She would have enough nightmares after this as it was, thank you very much.
They kept going, eventually managing to leave the sewers to come across-
"A cable car? Here?" muttered Claire in surprise at the sight of it.
Aeon frowned. "Umbrella, no doubt."
Claire stared at it for a moment, before they kept going, eventually going down into a room where they heard Annette Birkin's voice from further ahead.
"Sherry… I told you, I cannot leave here until my work is done."
"That's what you always say."
Claire's eyes widened at hearing Sherry's voice, and she quickly moved closer to the window opening down into… a garbage room where Sherry was standing in the middle?
"Why didn't you stay in the house? It was safe here." came the harsh voice of Annette, apparently speaking through the surveillance system of the place.
"I… I was scared." replied Sherry, looking up at the camera fixed towards her. "Those things were everywhere and-"
"You should have called the police!" snapped Annette. "That's what we taught you!"
"I did, but nobody came!" shouted Sherry, voice trembling. "And you didn't answer your phone, so-" she stopped, her voice breaking.
"Sherry, I don't have time for this!" replied Annette, voice full of exasperation.
"Mother of the year, right there." muttered Aeon, a dark look on his face.
Claire was about to agree, but the sight of Sherry falling on the ground made her eyes widen.
"Oh no… Sherry! Sherry! I'm coming!" Claire shouted, though she apparently wasn't heard because of the glass standing in the way.
"Hold on, Sherry… I'll be right there." Claire said softly.
Claire and Aeon moved towards the doors leading further… only to find it locked by some kind of elaborate mechanism requiring chess pieces of all things.
"This damn city, I swear…" Claire cursed.
"Come on, there's another door we can use. We might find what we need through it." said Aeon, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Claire scowled, but nodded, and they went through the door on the opposite side of the room. Said door opened the way to the cable car back then, but it was locked via ID wristband.
"Of course it does… everything in this fucking city is locked somehow." complained Claire.
"To be fair, we can hardly take it without Sherry." pointed out Aeon.
Claire sighed. "Fair enough. Come on then, let's find those chess pieces."
"What's the point of having a safe box when its code is literally written at its side?!" complained Claire.
Aeon shrugged. "It's Raccoon City, don't think too hard about it and just be happy for our good luck."
Claire grumbled. "No wonder this damn city went mad, it was always mad to begin with…"
Claire stared at the dead monster which had tried to get the jump on Aeon from one of the sewer's piping.
Or what was left of it, at least.
"Reminds me to never try to surprise you by sneaking up on you. I'd like to need something bigger than a matchbox for my eventual coffin." she said dryly.
Aeon shrugged. "It's not like it succeeded in surprising me."
"Exactly. If this is what's left of something failing to surprise you, I really don't want to see what you'll do to something that does."
Aeon snorted. "You don't have to worry about it, you'll never manage to do it. And anything else…"
He smirked. "I say, let them try."
And then he turned and walked away.
Claire followed after him, giving him an amused look.
"You're rather confident you'll never be sneaked on. What, you've got eyes at the back of your head or something?" she joked.
"Yes."
Claire blinked.
"So, we found a secret passage leading to a secret elevator that brought us directly back to the police station."
"Yup."
"Just how many secret passages does that damn building have?!"
Aeon laughed. "Enough!"
"Yeah? Well I am getting really tired of seeing that damn police building! At least most of the zombies in there are dead by now…"
Claire and Aeon stared at the picture titled "Rising Rookie" that they had found.
"... So. First, the next time I see Rebecca, I'll make sure to give her back this picture. Second, I'll make sure to not mention where we found it."
"You know her?"
"She was a S.T.A.R.S. member… before joining ISIS."
Claire blinked, before looking again at the picture.
"Two things: first, she's pretty cute. Second… we found that in-"
"Albert Wesker's office. Yes."
There was a moment of silence, as she contemplated everything Aeon told her of the man.
"You know what? I won't say a thing either."
"Thank you."
Aeon put in the digital video cassette they had found on a USS soldier's corpse into the device connected to the TV.
"Please… Oh… Please… Stop… St- stop!"
Claire frowned as the screen showed an opened briefcase of some kind filled with syringes containing glowing liquid, though a number of those syringes were broken and their contents could be seen splattered on the ground.
"Don't… don't… no… no… no!"
"Over here, you freak!" shouted a soldier.
Claire leaned forward. "Wait, isn't that-"
"William Birkin drinking the contents of that briefcase? Yes, it is." grimly replied Aeon.
"Don't hurt him… Don't hurt him!"
"Argh!"
Claire grimaced as a heavily mutated William Birkin casually punched a soldier into a wall hard enough to kill him immediately, but her attention was taken by a number of rats suddenly appearing by the glowing fluids on the ground. The last seconds of the video showed those rats consuming that fluid… and the rest could be easily deduced.
Aeon then took the cassette tape and put it in his coat.
"Evidence." was all he said, and Claire nodded.
It was certainly a pretty damning showing of the origins of the outbreak…
Claire and Aeon stared at the sewers in front of them, filled with… something they really didn't want to think about. All they knew was that it was some kind of organic material, and big enough to create small hills in the sewers.
And inside the passages between them were things crawling in the water…
"Okay… this place is creepy." she said with a shiver.
"You can let me go find those chess pieces myself, you know. You're a civilian, I'm not."
She hesitated for a second, before shaking her head.
"I promised that I'd go help Sherry. I just won't let you do all the work, Aeon."
She glanced at what lay beyond and grimaced. "No matter how much I may want to."
He smiled. "Stubborn, eh? Well, I really can't talk on the matter, I'm just as bad."
She smirked at him, and stepped forward.
Only to pause and stare in horror as a corpse on her right suddenly shook before his chest bursted into blood and gore and something pink and ugly fell out and into the waters.
"Chestbursters. Fucking Umbrella." cursed Aeon.
"I'm never going to be able to watch Alien again, am I?" she lamented.
"I can." replied Aeon.
At her incredulous look, Aeon shrugged. "I mostly pass my time criticizing what the heroes do to survive and complain about the times I met similar monsters and what I did then, to be fair."
Claire paused.
"Does that make me a character in a horror movie? Oh God, it really does, doesn't it? Fucking hell, I'm never going to be able to watch a horror movie again after this…"
Aeon patted her shoulder sympathetically, though he was grinning at her.
"Well, look on the bright side! At least you aren't in an apocalyptic movie, just a regular zombie one!"
She grimaced. "Please don't jinx it, Aeon!"
His only reply was a laugh.
She was really starting to wonder if she was the only sane one here...
Claire took the last chess piece they needed with a look of tired triumph, her other hand holding tightly unto the electric gun that she had found along the way.
Her feelings of triumph lasted exactly as long as it took to walk back and stare at the organic hills full of sewer water and ugly monsters once again.
"It's not enough that I smell like shit, or that I walk through shit, I have to deal with monsters covered in shit, too!" she cursed.
"No one said that doing the right thing was always glorious work, Claire." said Aeon, nonetheless looking no more pleased at the sight before him than her. "Thankfully, humanity created heated running water for people like us."
Claire let out a groan. "A bathtub filled with hot water sounds fucking fantastic right about now… I'm going to take so many showers after this..."
Aeon grinned. "Well, if you want something to cheer you up, just imagine me naked and in one of those showers!"
Claire paused, letting that image shine in her mind for a long moment.
She smiled.
"Okay, now that I can get behind."
"Well in that case, just keep in mind that, once this whole mess with Raccoon City is over, it would be my pleasure to make that dream come true." he replied, grinning widely.
She smirked. "I'll hold you to that, handsome. In the meantime…"
She looked once again at what stood before them.
"Please go first?"
Aeon looked at what lay beyond for a moment.
"You want to get on my back for this part? It should help… hopefully."
She turned to look at him.
"... If we were not in the sewers, I'd fucking kiss you for this."
He grinned at her.
"Table it for later?"
"Deal!"
Aeon put the final chess piece into the hole, allowing the locked door to finally open.
"Thanks for the help, Aeon. Now come on, let's get to Sherry."
Aeon nodded, and they went down the stairs to try and go to Sherry… only to find the heavy door to the room she was in apparently being out of power.
Claire grumbled, going with Aeon to a nearby room where they activated the power generator-
Only for Claire to stumble back in shock when suddenly a massive clawed arm broke through the ceiling right in front of her face.
"It's Birkin! He's back." declared Aeon, taking her by the right shoulder and getting her away from another strike from above.
To make things worse, the monster hit a fuel tank, and now a good chunk of the room they were in was on fire.
Aeon stayed close to Claire, saving her life repeatedly by always somehow knowing from where the next strike would come from, until finally the monster broke through a wall, allowing Aeon and Claire to go through the new passage to escape the G-monster.
They ran on top of a platform where Aeon pointed to a console controlling a construction crane holding a heavy crate.
"Use this to throw him off the platform! I'll distract him!"
And the fight was on, Aeon dodging and weaving in between strikes from the mutated Birkin while shooting back with his plasma guns, while Claire waited for the right moment until-
Now! She thought, hitting the red button on the console.
Aeon backflipped immediately, getting out of the strike zone of the crate a second before it brutally hit the monster.
Claire for a moment thought that would be enough, but the monster's giant clawed hand pierced through the crate, and her eyes widened when she saw it used his new hold on it to avoid falling.
"Aeon-" she tried to warn, but she was interrupted by him firing… right where the construction crane held the crate.
The crate promptly fell… taking with it the monster, screaming all the way down into the darkness below.
Claire let out a long sigh of relief, even if she truly doubted the monster would die from that fall.
"I'm getting really tired of this guy…" she said with a scowl.
Aeon nodded. "He's a persistent bastard, isn't he? Well, at least he'll be off our backs for a little while after this."
He shook his head. "Come on, let's get going to Sherry. We've wasted enough time with all of this."
She grimaced. "Agreed. This is taking forever…" she cursed softly.
They went back to the waste disposal room where Sherry was, finally able to open the door.
"Sherry? Mommy's here."
Claire exchanged a glance with Aeon at hearing Annette's voice, though Claire was far too focused on getting to Sherry than to care about the girl's mother returning to talk to her.
"Sherry! Sherry, can you hear me?"
"Not good, if she's not responding." muttered Aeon, and Claire couldn't but agree, silently begging the heavy door in front of them to open faster.
Claire knelt, her blood turning to ice in her veins when she saw Sherry laying unmoving on the ground in the middle of the room.
"Oh no." she whispered, before rushing forward.
"Sherry?"
"Claire?" came Annette's voice from the speakers, but once again Claire's entire focus was on the unmoving form on the ground.
Claire tried to hold Sherry in her arms, before freezing in stunned horror when she saw the ugly yellow veins around Sherry's sickly left eye.
"What are you doing?!" exclaimed Annette.
"I'm here to help." replied Claire at last, even as her mind raced at the knowledge that Sherry was infected… somehow, her mutated father must have gotten to her first, and she really doubted that the vaccine for the t-Virus would do anything for a G-Virus infection…
There was a moment of silence, before Annette spoke again, voice soft.
"Sherry's been implanted… She can't be saved."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!" snarled Claire, even as Aeon knelt by her side to look at Sherry with a concerned frown. "You're her mother. Get in here!"
"You don't understand!" stammered Annette. "William is still out here, and if I don't stop him-"
"This conversation is over!" shouted Claire, utterly furious at the words she was hearing. That Sherry was hearing!
Claire took Sherry in her arms, turning around and thinking desperately of anything she could do to help.
"Wait! Wait… I-I can treat her… In my lab. It's not far away…" finally stammered Annette after a moment of silence.
Claire looked down at Sherry, who let out a weak "Mommy...?"
Claire felt her heart break at how desperate the word was. At how weakly it was spoken.
As if Sherry desperately hoped her mother would help, even as she almost didn't dare to hope.
"There's not enough time… Millions of lives are at stakes…" said Annette, sounding lost.
"Yeah? Well ISIS and the US Army are handling things well enough that we are retaking the city. So maybe, just maybe, you can be a decent human being for once in your life, Annette Birkin. Or would you rather be the direct cause of the death of your own daughter?" coldly remarked Aeon, glaring towards the speaker that Annette was using.
There was a moment of silence, before Annette spoke up again, voice incredibly sad.
"Sherry… Mommy loves you, sweetie… Aeon… help them reach my lab, I'm sure you know where it is... Goodbye."
The woman's voice broke on the last word, but nonetheless the blinking red dot on the side of the camera facing them turned dark, showing the conversation was over.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" whispered Claire, not sure whether her disgust or her rage was the strongest emotion she was feeling right now.
She looked down at the young girl in her arms.
"Don't worry Sherry, I'll give you whatever you need, ok?"
"Agreed." said Aeon. "Honestly, it's a good thing for Annette that Oedon isn't here right now, or things would have turned ugly fast…" he muttered.
"Wh-Why are you doing this?" whispered Sherry, sounding like she was on the verge of tears.
"Because I care." immediately replied Claire without hesitation, saddened that the question even needed to be asked at all.
Aeon came closer, a complex look in his eyes as he stared at Sherry. To Claire, it was almost as if he was lost in thought, and yet there was an intense look in his eyes, and his stare suddenly turned so sharp and hard that a shiver went down Claire's spine at the sight of it.
There was something almost… inhuman in the intensity of his gaze, not in a threatening way, so much that no human should have the sheer power that gaze held.
Sherry locked eyes with him for a moment, tense seconds passing without a word before Aeon gently put his right hand close to the infected part of Sherry's face.
"Claire is right." he said firmly. "We care."
"Thank you." whispered Sherry, tears in her eyes.
"Which is why I am going to do this."
Claire and Sherry's eyes widened when his right hand began glowing green, Aeon's eyes suddenly changing as his right shone like a star and his left seemingly turned so dark as to absorb light around it, casting the left side of his face in shadows.
Slowly and carefully, his hand traced a circle around Sherry's infected eye, glowing arcane symbols of some kind being left behind as said hand moved, until it formed a full circle.
Then Aeon tapped a specific symbol, and Sherry gasped before letting out a sigh of relief.
"The pain's… gone?" she said softly, wonder in her voice.
"It's not perfect, but it will stop the spread of the virus and the growth of the embryo. I should be able to heal you completely... But I'd rather find that cure your mother spoke of, since that should be a tried and true method of healing you rather than me using my powers. If we're going to heal you, I'd rather we do this properly, after all."
Claire stared at Sherry for a long moment, easily noticing how much better she looked even if she apparently wasn't cured, and then looked up to stare at Aeon.
"I have… a lot of questions." she said to him. "But frankly, all that matters right now is that you helped Sherry. So… thank you."
Aeon nodded. "I try to keep that part of me hidden, since I don't want to give my enemies ideas or opportunities to attack me and mine. But there come times where secrecy isn't worth the cost, and this is one such moment. Just… keep the questions for another time, and I promise I'll answer them all eventually."
"I promise." she replied, before turning around. "But for now, let's heal Sherry."
"Agreed. We need to take that cable car we saw earlier, I believe."
"Then let's get to it."
Captain Geary of ISIS looked at the soldiers around him, proud of each and every single one of them.
They had fought hard and successfully cleansed the underground at the southern parts of Raccoon City, with only the occasional pockets of resistance remaining where infected monsters remained, and he had been recently informed that the USS Delta Team had moved out of their position.
In other words, the infected's ranks had been cut down without risking his troops, and now was the time to properly launch the counter-attack.
And with Blackwatch doing well up north against infected and USS troops alike...
He glanced at Lieutenant Branagh, the leader of the RPD looking back and giving him a firm nod.
With that done, Captain Geary took his radio and spoke the words that all of them had waited to hear.
"This is Captain Geary to all units participating in Operation: Lawn Mower. Operation is a go. I repeat: Operation is a go! Ladies and gentlemen, let us all take back Raccoon City once and for all! Onwards, to victory!"
As acknowledgements were given from all units and the distant sounds of gunfire and explosions were heard, he allowed himself a satisfied smile.
No one from ISIS had died so far (in no small part thanks to Rebecca Chambers' exemplary work as a medic, both regular and magical) and the end of this battle was finally in their sight.
True, it wasn't the end of the war for the sake of a bright future for all of humanity, but it was firm proof that ISIS could accomplish its stated goal of protecting the world from B.O.W.'s.
It made him and everyone from ISIS proud to be a part of this fight, proud to be members of ISIS, and confident that, whatever challenges the future may hold, they would be ready to meet them head-on.
Now then, let's finish this, and then we can all go home. And boy, do I have a few stories to give to my wife and kids waiting back home…
"Umbrella's logo! We're finally here!"
"About fucking time!"
Jill Valentine didn't join the happy shouts of Echo Six, but it was a near thing.
After all the twists and turns they had taken, after the numerous infected they had to deal with, they had finally found the entrance into the Umbrella research facility they had all been seeking.
Needless to say, she didn't think she'd ever be so relieved to see Umbrella's logo…
"Echo Six to Command, we're inside Umbrella's lab. What are your orders?" asked Dee-Ay.
"Copy that, Echo Six. This is a recon and data collection mission. Try to find the command center of the facility."
"Understood." replied Dee-Ay, seconds before they had to deal with incoming waves of infected and parasites of some kinds.
The entire team therefore had to progress throughout increasing waves of monsters until they finally reached the command center they sought.
Thankfully, so far there were only regular infected along with the parasites attacking them, no mutations involved.
Dee-Ay messed around with the console at the center of the room, eventually managing to activate it.
"Welcome to Umbrella." said a synthetic voice delivering an automated message. "Well-known by the general public as the global leader of pharmaceutical products, we are also pioneers in biological and genetic research. As specialized researchers, you shall have the opportunity to work on our T-Virus. This revolutionary virus can be used to create adaptable biological weapons in order to fulfill our clients' wishes. The MA-121, the T-103, and the new Nemesis T-02are but some of our star products. The greatest geniuses of Umbrella have recently made an incredible discovery: a new branch of the virus called G. Only a select few researchers will be granted the right to study it. The G-Virus shall make Umbrella the leader of military industry and shall create a revolution inside of the scientific community, surpassing the vaccine against Polio or even the atomic bomb. And this, thanks to the fact that the G-Virus will allow us to control the natural evolution of Mankind. With your help, together, we shall reveal the full potential of Humanity. Welcome... to Umbrella."
There was a deep silence in the room as everybody took in what had just been said.
"Well, a greater proof of guilt, I could not imagine." eventually declared Party Girl.
"No kidding…" muttered Harley.
Jill stared in silence where a hologram of the Nemesis and other monsters she had to fight and kill had just been shown, before shaking her head.
"Come on, let's just grab what we are here for and then leave. ISIS can return later on with a proper group armed to the teeth to cleanse this place properly."
"I agree. Let's get a move on." declared De-Ay, pulling up a hologram of the facility's plans.
"The T-Virus may have caused this mess, but the G-Virus might make things so much worse." grimly said Harley.
"Affirmative. We need a sample of this G-Virus. Go to the lab for the programming of biological weapons. That's our only lead."
Jill wasn't sure giving Echo Six a sample of the G-Virus was wise… but then again, not 5 minutes later, they encountered a USS team in the facility, so it was clear it was better to give any samples they may find into Echo Six' hands for safe-keeping than to let said samples fall into Umbrella's own.
As such, she fought by the side of Echo Six as they went deeper into the facility, killing monsters and USS soldiers alike, until they found the lab in question… where they discovered the required key that led to the G-Virus was apparently held by the Birkin's daughter of all places.
"You need to find this Sherry Birkin. However, you must first stop the programming sequence of the Tyrant in this lab before it can become a problem. It must not be allowed to hunt her down."
The team looked at the unconscious Tyrant currently laying on a nearby operating table and being worked on by the still-powered automatic system of this place, and nodded.
Echo Six thus leveled their guns at all the equipment around the Tyrant and opened fire, destroying any hope of the Tyrant being controlled by Umbrella.
"Good job, Echo Six." declared Command once it was done. "This building is equipped with a self-destruct system, which is the best method of guaranteeing the death of the Tyrant. Activate the self-destruct and then get the hell out of here before everything explodes!"
Jill narrowed her eyes. Yes, blowing the facility up sounded logical to cleanse all the monsters within, but it also conveniently removed any trace of this facility and its content existed…
Thankfully, it turned out the self-destruct needed to be activated from several consoles at once, so Jill went on her own to activate one such console… and download as much data as she could from the main computer.
She was sure that Insight Corp. would put that data to good use somehow.
Once that was done, the team ran as fast as they could while fighting off infected and parasites alike towards the exit… especially once they noticed that activating the self-destruct system somehow awakened the Tyrant.
And none of them particularly wanted to waste time fighting a Mr. X in the middle of a facility doomed to blow up sooner rather than later.
Finally, they reached the elevator and rushed inside, Jill slamming the button to close the doors-
*ROOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!*
"... That Tyrant sounds really pissed." pointed Party Girl, rather unnecessarily Jill couldn't help but think.
The doors closed, and the team breathed a sigh of relief.
Jill, however, couldn't help but be concerned. What had pissed off that Tyrant so much?
An uncontrolled Tyrant fell to the ground, overwhelmed by countless parasites striking at him. One of them jumped on his back, entering his body and feasting on the mutated flesh. The Tyrant roared in agony as not only his body was wounded, but his mind became shackled by the will of another monster. At last, the parasite within him was done claiming his new meat puppet, and the merging of Tyrant and Parasite mutated both, allowing something stronger and all the more abominable to be born of that unholy union…
Jill took a step back, blinking rapidly.
That had been… What the hell?
Her heart beating fast, she focused on everything she had seen…
And she felt a measure of dread growing within her.
Aeon's true self must have shown her this vision… and she doubted it was for no reason.
Somehow, that mutated freak would survive the facility's destruction and become a problem.
And Jill could tell that she'd probably end up encountering the damn thing…
She let out a sigh. Never a boring day to be had as a Huntress, that was for sure…
"Echo Six, we must find Sherry Birkin before Umbrella. They have something of an advantage in knowing Raccoon City better, though that advantage is counterbalanced by how much of it is under control by either ISIS, who are currently making a push towards the RPD building in the south, and Blackwatch, who have been destroying as many USS bases as they could in the north. We need to help destroy Umbrella's grip on Raccoon City utterly, and for that we need to neutralize their operational base in the waste treatment plant P-12A, also known as the Dead Factory. Go over there and eliminate all resistance from Umbrella."
"Yes, Command." replied Dee-Ay.
So they went, Jill still following them along, having absolutely no problem killing more Umbrella goons from Raccoon City.
From the streets of the city, they then passed through the cemetery, where they were attacked by Hunters delivered by Umbrella choppers.
"No doubt about it, they are headed towards the factory." grimly said Command.
"Probably one last effort to send more USS forces and B.O.W. 's against Blackwatch and ISIS alike, considering the factory lies close to the center of the city, making it perfect as a forward operating base to strike from against both." replied Jill.
"And they are apparently sending some of those reinforcements towards you, Echo Six. Proceed with caution."
"Copy that." grimly replied Dee-Ay.
And as they were warned, a number of Hunters, on top of various mutations amongst the infected, charged straight at them.
Jill pretty much had to dance around the sheer numbers of enemies trying to kill her, swords flashing and grenade launchers at the ready whenever an opportunity to strike appeared.
It took them several long, bloody minutes of fighting to finally cross through the cemetery, but eventually they managed to reach the lines of US Army soldiers and Blackwatch ones holding the area around the factory, gunfire being exchanged between them and USS troopers.
More than a few Blackwatch soldiers did a double-take at the sight of Jill, not entirely surprising considering that ISIS and Blackwatch had kept a… respectful distance from one another during the Raccoon City crisis.
As in, both sides had effectively claimed one side of the city and very carefully made sure that all patrols taking places between both sides were done at a distance where twitchy fingers would hopefully remain minimal.
The situation made Raccoon City honestly look more like Berlin during the Cold War than anything else, as both sides watched each other carefully, waiting tensely for the other to make the first hostile move.
Neither being unaware that their leaders held little love for one another, for all that they were cooperating against a common foe for the time being.
All that to say that Jill was not surprised in the least by the numbers of Blackwatch soldiers obviously reporting her arrival to their superiors and staring at her as carefully as they could while also keeping an eye out for USS snipers.
Still, that mattered little to her. She was here to kill Umbrella soldiers, not pick up a fight with Blackwatch.
So she ignored the looks thrown her way by US soldiers, Blackwatch ones and even Echo Six who easily picked up the sudden tension in everyone and focused on making it through the street towards the factory up ahead.
Taking a stray bullet to the head and dying would be rather problematic with people around considering she'll eventually return from the Hunter's Dream without a scratch, after all.
Thankfully, Echo Six recognized that this wasn't the time to ask questions and followed her example of focusing on the fight ahead.
Which was good, because the USS soldiers had put no less than three turrets at the end of the street that they had to go through firing at anything that moved, on top of various USS soldiers and snipers holding the line.
Making it through that death trap required every bit of skill from Jill as both an ex-S.T.A.R.S. member and a Huntress that she possessed, and she fervently thanked the added speed, agility and much improved reaction time of her body while bullets, grenades and more flew all over the street.
She dodged, jumped, ran and rolled behind whatever pieces of cover she could find, firing towards the enemy lines as often as she could to force the USS soldiers to take cover themselves, while Echo Six leapfrogged behind her as they slowly but surely managed to make it through the street.
This kind of warfare wasn't something that Aeon had trained her much for, but her previous training in the special forces certainly came handy and her supernatural agility really pulled through.
It was thus difficult, but not impossible, to finally make it to a side entrance of the factory they were seeking to enter, where after taking a moment to recover from the short but intense charge towards enemy lines they moved on deeper inside of the building.
Though of course, their arrival was by no means subtle, so none of the group was surprised when the leader of the Umbrella forces in the area suddenly spoke to them over the security system.
"Spec Ops and Miss Valentine, welcome to the waste treatment plant P-12A, also known as the Dead Factory. You shall now take part in a little experiment… For how much time will your little group, for whom failure is not an option… how long will it take for you all to accept your death?"
The woman speaking chuckled darkly, even as their group kept moving further inside of the facility.
"10 seconds? A minute? Oh, but how important is that truly, when my little… friends shall tear your legs out of your body? Either way, it should be a very fascinating experience!"
And it was at that point a Mr. X broke through the ceiling to crash right in front of them, eyes fixed with murderous intent upon them all.
Dee-Ay took one look at the incoming Tyrant and immediately reached for his radio.
"Command, shall we expect help or should we start making our prayers?"
"We got your back, Echo Six. Please wait for your support."
Jill didn't wait however, immediately taking her grenade launcher and firing at the charging Tyrant.
The Mr. X barreled through the grenade and ensuing explosion, seeking only to bring about their death without care for his own survival, and the room they were in turned into a wide battlefield as Echo Six tried to support Jill as she deliberately stayed close to the Tyrant and used her inhuman agility and reflexes to avoid his punches.
The air became filled with the sounds of battle, but all of Echo Six nonetheless heard Command when they finally replied again.
"Echo Six. The electric cannon Paracel's will be arriving in 3...2...1-"
*Crash!*
Echo Six turned to glance towards a spot nearby where a rotating canon of some sort suddenly crashed through the floor, spinning gears crackling with electricity showing off exactly how and why the weapon bore its name.
Dee-Ay immediately ordered one of his team to go use the canon… only for yet another Mr. X Tyrant to crash through the ceiling.
"Where the hell are these bastards coming from?!" shouted Harley.
"Don't know, don't care! Just keep shooting!" Yelled Dee-Ay, putting words with action himself towards the nearest Tyrant.
The chaotic battlefield became only more so as Hunters suddenly came through the doors, turning the whole place into an even greater death trap than before.
Jill didn't really know what happened next. Not fully at least, so intense was the fighting that broke out.
She remembered fighting both Tyrants at once at one point, stopping only when the US Army's cannon fired and caught one of them straight in the chest.
Then she vaguely remembered exchanging blows with several Hunters, claws and swords cutting through the air with deadly speed and skill and leaving bloody gashes behind whenever one of the combatant's struck true.
She remembered saving Dee-Ay's life, and then avoiding being pierced from behind by a Hunter's clawed limb only thanks to Party Girl's last second headshot killing the monster…
And finally, she remembered some of the Mr.X's coming in, mutating from all the damage they took, becoming taller creatures with giant claws hands, jumping around the room seeking to slash apart anything human standing in their way.
To Jill, all of that were only distractions, as she kept dodging, and slashing, and shooting grenades and stabbing and-
"Valentine! Valentine! It's over! We've won."
Jill jerked back, staring at the concerned face of Dee-Ay before looking down, seeing the bloody pulp that was all that remained of the Mr. X she had just been repeatedly stabbing.
Looking around, she noticed all of Echo Six being still alive, though all of them wore some measure of injuries, some more extreme than others.
Harley especially, looked to be barely standing and was covered in bandages, most of them red.
Still, a quick look around only showed off dead B.O.W.'s, no humans, so she sighed in relief and nodded in thanks to Dee-Ay.
"Thanks. Things got pretty crazy for a while there."
The man snorted. "That's one way to put it. If it hadn't been for you and the cannon we got from Command…" he shook his head, face dark for a moment, before he sighed and glanced at Harley.
"Either way, some of us can't keep going after this. Thankfully, it turns out that we provided enough of a distraction that the local US forces will be able to take this place. Last I heard, they were making good time cleaning this whole place up."
Jill frowned. "Wait, if they are then why didn't we get any reinforcements?"
Dee-Ay's face tightened. "The man in charge of the local forces, General Randall, gave his men the order to avoid our area and focus on the rest of the facility, claiming that we were doing a, and I quote, 'fine enough job distracting the local USS forces that he couldn't afford to let this window of opportunity close by reinforcing us,' unquote."
Jill scowled. Yeah, that sounded like the leader of Blackwatch, alright. The bastard probably hoped that Jill would die here, depriving ISIS of her, and damn the lives of Echo Six. Acceptable casualties, no doubt, as far as he was concerned…
"Yeah, about that, I'd love to have a word or two with the good general if I could…" muttered Party Girl, clenching her rifle hard and looking ready to commit bloody murder on said general.
Dee-Ay sent her a warning look, though it was obvious he didn't disagree with the woman's feelings at all.
"Either way," continued Dee-Ay, "We're going to let those of us who took heavy injuries rest and recover, but the rest of the team is going to keep tracking down Sherry Birkin. Apparently Command might have an idea of where she is. We'd appreciate it if you could join us- we could definitely use your help, if you are willing, especially considering that we most likely would have died without you."
Party Girl snorted. "You can say that again. If it hadn't been for you somehow surviving three Tyrants trying to kill you at the same time at one point, we totally would have been overwhelmed, and we would all have to kiss our asses goodbye. So once this is all over, consider any drinks you want on me, because damn girl you earned it."
Jill blinked. Three Tyrants at once? Really? Guess she was more out of it than even she thought…
Dee-Ay hesitated for a moment, before nodding firmly. "She's right. We owe you big, so if you need a favor later on, don't hesitate to call us, and Echo Six will try our best to help out, I promise this."
Jill smiled. "Well, if you are offering… and don't worry, I'm going with you to find this girl. Sherry Birkin, was it? Come on then, let's not waste any more time."