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"And that's Test 2 completed...good work Nemesis," a gruff voice spoke over the intercom, its static undertones making the man behind the microphone more of a robot than human. It wasn't anyone familiar, you knew that for sure.
They had arrived early that morning, barely allowing time to cram down a hearty breakfast of hashbrowns before you were ushered into an Umbrella Corporation van and blasted off to their compound. From there, the maze of doors and hallways awaited you once more, before being led to a training area much larger and fancier than the last sparring area you had been in with Silverwolf. Fitted with gigantic steel machines that tested speed, strength, and other attributes, a large rectangular window sat contoured at the highest point of a far wall, where barely visible silhouettes stood.
"Strength far proceeds previous records taken from U.A...speed as well...interesting...now if you don't mind Nemesis, we'll be moving on to Test 3."
Chugging a bottle of hydrating substance, you shrugged nonchalantly. If anything, they were very similar to the introductory tests taken when you first got into the high school for heroes. Thankfully, compared to the giant robots from the entrance exam, they wouldn't be able to fit in this relatively small space. At least, you hoped.
You hadn't heard the large sliding door as it opened to your far right, but the echoed clacking of shoes made its way to your ears as you glanced over.
"Well if it isn't saucy (Y/N)? I'm just a little too late, as usual..." His deep voice that had been buried so long ago in your mind sprung into the light, a warm feeling enveloping your face and making you smile ear to ear. Sprinting forward and scooping the man up in a bone-crushing bear hug, he chuckled heartily, before lightly paying your shoulder to put him down.
"Easy son, I'm old," The man laughed again, mocking an ache in his back. His gelled-back hair, the small glasses that sat on his nose, his mustard tie, everything was just like you had seen ages ago.
"Where the hell have you been Bob?!" You chided with a grin, stepping back and getting a better look at the man who had disappeared from your life for quite some time. Instead of his original blue suit when you were visited in the hospital, he donned full jet black attire, other than his aforementioned tie.
"I've been busy, kid. I see you finally decided to wake up from your power nap, huh?" He teased, poking you in the forehead. "And taller too...I'll have to get used to that."
"I apologize for cutting this reunion short," The static voice over the intercom spoke. "But can we commence Test 3?"
A visible vein bulged on your head at his remark. "Fine. What is the test?"
A soft hand was placed on your forearm. You looked up to see the smiling face of Bob.
"You're looking at him."
A rush of wind, your neck lurched to the side, and suddenly your back slammed into the distant wall, punching the air out of your lungs and leaving you breathless. Slumping to the floor you fought back a bit of bile that was beginning to rise, confusion of the whole situation overriding anything else. After a moment you began to stand on shaking legs, looking at Bob with a jumbled symphony of emotions.
"What happened to you?" You asked before your body began to crack and reshape into its transformation.
"Come at with all you got! Don't hold back!" He yelled, clenching his fists.
Something switched off in your psyche, no longer seeing the person you had missed. Rational thought was pushed aside, replaced by the pure instinct of fight or flight. Something the NE-α parasite most likely did to some part of your brain, you guessed before your body jumped into action on its own.
Digging into the floor beneath you, you launched high into the air, coming down in front of Bob with a threatening left haymaker. Bob effortlessly deflected the punch away with a push of his backhand, delivering in return a meaty jab in your abdomen. Gritting your disfigured teeth you tried to follow up with a low right jab, yet flowing like water, Bob twisted around the attack before the end of his heel dug into your back.
You were sent toppling forward, catching yourself before you hit the ground. With a quick twist, you found yourself vehemently looking at Bob as he swiftly pulled a cigar and light from one of his back pockets. With a quick flick and a pull to his lips, the smoke wafted into the air, before the cigar began to switch from each side of his smiling mouth.
"You need to think, not just act! You or that parasite don't have enough practice or prowess to just rely on instinct yet. Be abnormal! Do something I wouldn't expect!" Slowly beginning to circle one another, you noticed more peculiarities of Bob you hadn't noticed before. The suit seemed to be straining against his very skin, the enlarged veins on his neck unnatural even in this superhuman society. A different question floated into your head this time...
What did they do to him?
With a swing of your arm, the tentacle from your wrist shot forward to which Bob once more ducked and maneuvered around the attack, breaking into a headlong sprint in a split second. With his right arm raised and fist clenched so hard that his knuckles went bone white, the fist was barely inches from your face before you were even able to blink. A cacophony of reshaping bones and muscles quickly followed suit.
Bob's smile slightly faltered when his fist hit the open air. A decaying and discolored hand wrapped around his face and sent him to the ground. His muffled grunts went unheard as the ground splintered around him, dragged into the floor for what seemed like forever before being thrown against the wall like a rag doll. Your tentacle retracted back into your body, having done its job by propelling you forward in your attack and inflicting more damage.
His glasses had shattered at this point, revealing a look in his eyes that made your skin crawl. Even so, he laughed, clapping like his old self, twisting his neck from side to side so casually it seemed like you hadn't just dragged him through a metal floor.
"There you go! The use of your transformation ability is one of many good ideas I know you have cooking up in your brain! We're not done yet though!" In a blink, he was on you once more, registering his next attack and putting up both hands to block. Something connected with your leg, but you were able to stabilize in time before giving up too much space. When Bob's iron grip found its way around your forearms and ripped them away from your face, his forehead came forward in a deadly arc that slammed into your skull. He followed it up with a barrage of blows as you struggled to regain your composure.
Due to the makeup of the parasite, his actual attacks felt barely that of bee stings, but the impact alone was causing you to falter and stagger like never before, not even to this degree with the superpowered Nomu.
"Put your back into it!" Bob yelled, continuing his barrage of heavy hits. At one point you were able to throw a punch in retaliation, but it was a futile attempt once more as Bob deflected it with precise coordination. At another, your tendril shot out to try to wrap around Bob's ankle, but he was able to lift his foot in the nick of time, slamming it back down onto the ground to pin you in place. The test was becoming more of a one-sided beatdown, Bob giving you no breathing room or time to counterattack at all.
A vicious uppercut sent you sprawling into the air, landing with a hard thump and binding the metal flooring around the impact. After a stunned moment or two, your body was able to stand up, body visibly gasping for air, much to Bob's delight.
"Don't tell me you've already hit your limit!" He teased, wiping off the few beads of sweat that lined his forehead. "You're supposed to be an unstoppable beast! You can't lose against an old man like me!"
You spit out a small blob of dark scarlet, wiping your face with the back of your hand before returning to a defensive stance.
"You're a killing machine (Y/N)! A powerhouse! You're bursting with so much potential! But you don't know how to control it...to use it to your advantage! You're a massive pool of water...you need to be able to condense that water into a powerful stream! Like a massive wave! That is how you will win the battles ahead of you! The only reason you were able to win against that Nomu at the USJ was because its attacks were too animalistic, too standard! Against an opponent with years and years of fighting experience, you will eventually fall."
The cigar, which had miraculously stayed put in his mouth the entire fight, was now lifted from his mouth and stamped onto the floor.
"They taught that parasite of your's how to shoot and use all kinds of weaponry, but never taught it how to fight in the evolving society we live in...for shame."
You looked toward the ground, clenching your fists. He was right after all, the NE-α was basically learning the world alongside you. It was power...power that needed to be tempered by the heat of battle. Even with all that had happened previously, they were just contests of raw power, not honed skill.
A memory of Wesker and the night in Hosu flashed for a second through your mind, his piercing gaze and confident smirk plastered on his face after effortlessly dodging your attacks.
He could've killed you so easily if he pleased...
"What then? You're just gonna stand there and be all cocky, or are you comin' at me!?" You roared, your voice distorted with monstrous undertones.
The static voice blared over the intercom once more. "That's all for Test 3. We've acquired what is needed. You are free to go Nemesis. We will have doctors administer one final check to see any drastic changes from the fight. Thank you for your cooperation."
With a click, the voice was gone, the silence flooding your body and mixing with the hot shame that had begun to resonate within you. A shoulder came to rest on your shoulder before you were even able to realize that Bob was beside you.
"Don't beat yourself up too much about it kiddo, you're still young. You've got a lot of years ahead of you to master the art of fighting. If anything, you're still pretty high up there compared to your classmates."
His affirmations made you feel slightly better, but your focus was elsewhere. You could feel Bob's hand vibrating on your shoulder, and the veins in his hand seemed to match those on his neck; bulging more than can be classified as natural. His fingertips felt ice cold as well. You looked him dead in the eyes, and the look he gave back swirled with unease.
"Let's talk..." He whispered with a grave smile. "We'll hit the lunch hall, those medical tests can come later. I've got a lot of explaining to do."
With a soft sigh, the doors on the wall opened for him with you slightly behind. Watching his shoulders as you went, you paid little attention to the changing scenery around you before after what seemed like forever before you entered another large room.
When another set of sliding doors opened for the two of you, you were hit with the slightest sounds of chatter that mixed with the hum of overhead lights and other mechanical contraptions. Starkly contrasting from the rest of the modern white interior, the mess hall had attributes like that of the countryside, with wood laminate floors and rustic plank walls, as if trying to pluck out a piece of nature and placing it in such a technological setting.
As if to counteract this new theme, a large monitor that took up most of the far wall seemed to be broadcasting the latest news and weather. Currently, a small heist that had been busted was being portrayed over the news by helicopter, depicting a small bundle of flames that circled around an overturned car with a large, steel safe smashed through the front window.
Once again, before you had even realized it, Bob had left your side and come back with two platters of food, the smell wafting towards you doing little to quell your stomach turning at the prospect of his previous words. He ushered you towards a table near the corner, setting down the trays with a soft clank.
"A real American meal for this type of situation," Bob joked as you got a good look at the hearty burger and side of fries placed before you. He sat with a loud thump, rolling his shoulders and staring at his meal as though his eyes were glued to it.
The silence was becoming nauseating as you slowly nibbled on the fries given to you before a low string of curses emanated from Bob's mouth.
"Look, kid..." Bob sighed, looking up from his plate slowly. "I just want you to know that I'm still me. I will always be here for you."
"Like you were the whole time I was unconscious?" You shot back, the anger bubbling in your throat surprising you.
Bob stayed silent, twirling a fry in his fingers. "Words cannot describe how sorry I am for leaving you for so long, and how awful it made me feel as all I could do was watch from afar, but I swear, cross my heart, it was for a good purpose."
He took a deep breath through his nose. "Back at the Sports Festival... seeing you and all your classmates out there...it made me realize something. I was sitting on the sidelines my entire life. Stuck behind a desk doing papers or overseeing assessments or new pharmaceutical products. Sure I was helping the world, but you, you're truly saving the world. I guess...I just wanted to be more like you guys. To be a hero."
"You've seen my power; it's nothing special." With a flick of his hand to the sky, his fingers that had been positioned in an "O" shape began to stretch and transform until his hand resembled a large cone. "Megaphone hand? How the hell is that supposed to help people? The most I could do was yell at people louder during board meetings..."
"Until one day, I had overheard that Umbrella was still in the midst of testing a new substance, a different form of the same parasite that lives within you."
"The base mutation that your NE-α Parasite is based on is known as the T-Virus...I'm sure someone probably already told you by now. They needed new test subjects...and images of you flashed through my head and well, I signed myself up."
"They ran a bunch of tests. Said I was suitable but there was a slight risk. But I'm a gambling man, and...here we are..." Bob finished, clasping his hands together on the table. "I can finally be something, someone that can inspire. I'm tired of being just a nobody in someone else's story. Don't get me wrong, I'll always be a part of yours, but now I can be there with you!"
You looked at him with a blank expression. "..."
"...You're a damn fool, Bob."
After a short moment, Bob nodded his head solemnly. "Tell me, (Y/N), when you fight, what do you believe in?"
"What?"
"What do you fight for?"
You paused. "I guess I...fight for Umbrella-"
Bob slammed his fist on the table, hard. The slight chatter that had been consistent in the background faltered for a moment before resuming.
"Wrong answer. What do you believe in?"
"...I don't know what you mean."
"At the beginning of your journey, this new life you've been thrown into, you despised Umbrella, despised everyone and everything, and now what, you're on their side?" Bob brought his head forward and began to speak in a hushed tone. "Don't let other people's ideals influence who you become, especially Umbrella."
"But don't you-"
"I might work for them, but we are all just pawns in their giant game of chess. You know that as well as I do. Big Pharma doesn't give a damn about us at the end of the day. People these days don't care about what's right or wrong."
The french fry that was in his hand had turned to mush in his grip. "It's all about the spin, how well you can shift blame to the other guy. People these days only see what they want to see. How do you think Umbrella gets away with all they do?"
You took a moment to collect. It was only occurring to you know how the explosion at Racoon City had not really made National Headlines yet...
After the fog of thinking lifted from your eyes, Bob began to look at you with a slightly softening look. "So...what do you fight for?"
"I...I fight to make things right. For my friends, for Aizawa, for those who have fallen into situations like mine."
Bob smiled, stern but light. "Remember that. Remember those words for all your life. Fight for what you think is right."
You and Bob stood up simultaneously, and in a flash, you were around the table and squeezing him in a tight hug.
"I don't want to hate you Bob...but you're going to have to give me some time now."
After a moment's hesitation, a pair of arms reciprocated. "I don't blame you, kid. I won't leave you like that ever again."
Another reassuring squeeze and the two of you disconnected before Bob bopped you on the head with the side of his fist.
"So what do you wanna do know? Watch a movie? Go for a walk? Go for another spar?" He chuckled, shaking your shoulder. After a few long seconds, he shook your shoulder. No response.
"Kid?" He questioned, slightly crouching to get to your eye level. The laughter that had laced his tone had been repossessed by uncertainty as he gazed at the dead gaze in your eyes. He shook you harder this time, your body going slightly limp yet still standing.
"(Y/N)?!" He asked forcefully, his grip tightening on your shoulder until his knuckles were white as bone. His voice was pleading now for any indication of what was happening.
Your cheeks begin to bloat, eyes widening as tears brimming at the corners. Your body was suddenly slicked with sweat before you could no longer hold it in.
A vicious black and gray fluid erupted from your mouth, splattering the floor underneath you. In tandem, the entire room turned flashing red with blaring sirens and the hastened shuffling of dozens of feet. It poured and poured out of you, and to your fright, it began to curl out of your mouth and down and around your body.
You could barely hear Bob with his crying pleas as more and more of the liquid surrounded you.
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When your hands and knees touched solid ground once again, you keeled over and tried to expel the remnants of that vile taste from within your mouth. It began to mix with the dust and heat that had entered your lungs, seeing through watery eyes the ground below you. It cracked and splintered like the old wood of a shipwreck, fingers gripping around small pebbles and shards of debris.
Standing up, you wiped your mouth with the back of a hand before a cold, dead feeling settled in your gut. All around you, buildings had toppled over and filled the air with plumes of filthy gray. Fires seemed to make a wide arc around the impact area, which you now realized you were standing in, while a rectangular building that had practically been cut in half stood strong in front of you. In the corner of your eye, you looked upon some odd-looking person with features that resembled an orca whale, slumped and unconscious against a small bit of wall that had survived...a hero?
The pure scale of the destruction before you could not possibly be rendered within your conscious. You purely looked past it all, to the deepest depths of your mind to figure out how this had all happened.
And more importantly, how you ended up here.
"Ah, (Y/N). Look how much you've grown."
The air went cold.
Your body involuntarily tensed. The parasite in your head was screaming incomprehensible mutterings, yet it would not show itself. New waves of sweat ran down your face and arms, your hands clenching in the air.
It was suddenly so, so very cold.
With body like ice, you slowly turned around, your body creaking with mouth and teeth clenched in a firm line.
Something itched at the back of your brain, something that seemed like the final nail in the coffin for the dread that was uprooting you.
A mechanical mask, black as night, gazed at you in a manner that feigned longing. If a metal mask could even mask such an expression.
The voice, mechanical yet soft, spoke again. Shiny black shoes clacked against the pavement as he took a few steps forward. The black suit attached to the mask held out an extended hand to you.
"It has been much too long? Wouldn't you agree?"
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