[The Mansion, Outskirts of Raccoon City]

[March 26, 2022]

Here in the Mansion, it was easy to lose track of what was happening in the world.

I was sure that crazy things were happening every week, but on Val Verde, or in Venezuela?

Much less so.

Yet reports and paperwork waited for no one. I was looking over the various critical items

The door opened, and I looked up to see my Supreme Scientist. The head of my science division. My secret power that had done more for Val Verde than any single person has in decades.

“Results?” I asked as Sue walked into the solarium. The afternoon light showcased the still world outside.

“The AI is fragmented to all hell. We have stabilized it, but it has amnesia and it's distrustful of us,” Sue grumbled as she sat down on a recliner.

A maid appeared shortly after and handed her a drink. The scientific woman sighed as the margarita’s sweetness filled her. Its cold temperature, its sweetness, and the kick from the lime.

The last two days had been a whirlwind of hacking, data gathering, and testing. So far, the rewards had been far better than they had guessed.

The raw data from Umbrella’s underground servers had yielded incredible data. The only oddity was the server’s data were intact. She figured that because of power loss via the Type-3 breaking out. It must have severed the building’s power line.

They had some corruption… but not enough to destroy that much. The sheer data on biological research was going to push Val Verde to new heights.

Of course, the projects were completely hilarious to her. Val Verde could create monsters of war. Johnny wanted them to master lab-grown meat. The finest filet on demand.

“The others?” I asked as I set my paperwork down.

I had locked the AI into a server that was studying it. Seeing how it ticked. Sue was sure it had decayed when we got to it, but it was resilient. She might not remember who she was, but she was brilliant. She had accessed other systems without them noticing at first.

Sue had decided that read-only access to the local database would not hurt. At least she hoped it wouldn’t.

What we needed now was maybe a shrink? Trying wouldn’t hurt. We even had a test subject lined up, and the effort would not cost us much.

“The three women are still on ice. We figure we can try to thaw the terrible two and see how it works. Then we can try lady number three,” Sue said as she leaned back and finished her drink.

A maid took the empty glass and left the room to get another. There was a standing order to keep the woman forever refreshed. Unless it was an official work meeting.

Sue yawned as the simple rest from sitting allowed her body to inform her of the facts. She had been staying up looking into everything under Umbrella. They had a lot of unlisted equipment and mountains of data.

She closed her eyes to relax for a moment. This was a mistake.

The combination of sweet alcohol drink, warm sunlight, and a comfy chair. The sleep-deprived doctor was gently snoring in moments.

The new sound woke the third person in the room. Kori sat up and saw Sue napping. She took a moment and looked around. With nothing new, she leaned back and resumed her own nap.

I looked at the new Kori. Sure, she was wearing a sundress, but the last power explosion had triggered something. Her StarNova attack had used her full power, harmonizing her physical body.

Combined with the various genetic work done by the Psions, she came out changed. An odd situation as she was feeling great, but was now taller.

Where the sundress was designed to fall to her calves, it now only reached mid-thigh. The 175cm tall young woman had sprouted to a stunning 193cm and gained some 8kg of mass.

I assumed it was all muscle, as she looked even fitter than she had before. A fact that she now giggled at when we all realized that day after. She towered over all of us, and her skin had darkened to a more peachy tone.

Sue had run a battery of tests, but the results were that she was as healthy as ever.

I stared at the three napping women. They were all using the up the only recliners in the room. Sue, who had gone to sleep sitting, had extended in her own recliner.

I stared at the three napping women. I took a breath. I was not jealous. I was not envious.

I looked over my stack of paperwork.

Military oversight. Military expenditures. Military reports. Military requisitions for the new Scopedogs.

Sue’s reports on the very nice Umbrella facilities. Ana’s reports and requests for more bodyguards.

I vaguely recalled some mutant refugee in the pile somewhere? Ah, the blue folder… that was halfway through a stack of papers a bit shorter than my hand was wide.

Maybe if I… no. Clara had standing orders to not let me nap. Damn you early morning-Johnny! Traitorous bastard!

I looked over and made eye contact with the ever-present Clara. The other maid had returned with the fresh drink, but Sue had already passed out. I motioned for her to hand me the drink and took a long sip. Blah, strawberry.

She cocked her head to the side and smiled. “Coffee, sir?”

I nodded and pulled off the top sheet.

It was an order form for an orbital laser cannon? Who the hell asked for this?

Denied. I stamped the paper and tossed it into the much smaller done pile. That would get the world pointing their guns at us real quick.

Although… a giant laser in space would be super cool…

—

[Warehouse 17, Raccoon City]

[March 28, 2022]

“Vitals are nominal.”

“Removing all injectors.”

“Administrating minor shock therapy.”

The various screens held graphs and charts. They jumped with each minor electric shock much like a party buzzer.

“Brain waves are fluctuating.”

The woman on the right immediately woke up. Which didn’t surprise anyone as she groaned.

The woman on the left reacted seconds later. Her vitals giving off a minimal fluctuation before settling down again. For anyone else, it would be an oddity. In these girls, it was a glaring red flag.

I watched as the two women, whose brain waves were now very active. Yet didn’t laid still after the one moan.

“Good morning, Ladies,” I spoke as I stepped into the room. Kori stood beside me, her arms crossed as she glared at the two ‘sleeping’ beauties.

“You are currently in Venezuela, and it is March 28, 2022,” I said as the other soldiers closed the door.

I figured the time would help them understand they were more than a few days out of date. In this case, honesty was the best.

“What? How are we missin’ a month?” Harley asked as she sat up. It exposed the simple hospital gown as she threw off her blanket.

“And why are we in Venezuela?” Pamela asked as she also sat up. Her calmer motions kept her blanket on.

“My guess is that you were a part of a deal gone bad,” I explained as he pieced together the data. They had been in Umbrella custody for about three weeks. “They had you in for genetic scanning. Specifically you, Doctor Isley.”

Pamela Lillian Isley gave me a smirk but didn’t speak. Her mind whirled as it tried to recall the last thing she remembered. A warehouse meeting? Something with Cobblepot.

“Weren’t we lookin' tuh raise some money fawh your new garden, or whatever?” Harley asked as she turned to her bestest friend.

“Yes. We should go ask Cobblepot,” the woman known as Poison Ivy said with a deep hiss.

“Yes, before you are ready to go, you need rest. As well as repayment for my lovely services,” I said with a smile.

The two women looked at me as if I had grown another head.

“It's simple. From Doctor Isley, I need recommendations. Her expertise with plants is critical. I need to support human life in an enclosed space. Such as underwater, or deep space,” I explained as I looked at the light green woman.

She seemed paler than her photos, and I wondered if it was because of her lack of exposure to sunlight. I know Kori was similar if she didn’t get sun for half a day.

“From Doctor Quinzel, I need your formal appraisal of a person of interest. She is suffering from amnesia, and is a self-aware AI,” I said as I broke eye contact with Isley and looked over to Quinzel.

“A real AI?” she asked as her eyes shone. She hadn’t practiced in a while, but it was like riding a bicycle, right?

“Correct, a free-thinking AI, made by one Tony Stark. Her name is Friday. You will meet her tomorrow if you agree,” I said as the door opened. Four soldiers entered pushing in two trolleys with food and water.

“You both can of course refuse. Neither Val Verde nor Venezuela has active warrants for either of you. Though cooperation will be rewarded. Things like transportation to a country of your choice,” I explained as I dangled the carrot.

“What’s de stick?” Harley asked as she grabbed a ham sandwich and ate. Life with Puddin meant you needed to find the stick quickly.

“You are both underground with two hundred soldiers. Each soldier is female and wearing power armor. They are all instructed to kill you if they see you without an escort. We can also seal the lab from the outside and detonate the self destruct sequence,” I offered with a smile.

Harley smiled back, feeling happy at the obvious length we had thought it through. Pamela sneered as she was certain she could find a way out. She had dealt with worse. Though the lack of male guards would negate some of her allure based tactics.

“That's, of course, assuming you aren’t already infected. The two weeks is a formality to see if you turn into infected zombies or not,” I smiled and gestured to the TV on the wall. “We of course have a cure on hand, just in case.”

The device flickered on and played back that fateful interview. Virginia was a lot smugger that night compared to our last interview.

I left, and the guards followed. The door closed with a click.

The two women watched with boredom as the veiled barbs flew back and forth. Two smug men measuring their dicks.

Then Zartan’s face melted, and the dial was quick to reach 11.

The infected got showcased as the camera’s zoomed in. The Type-2s got beaten down. The Type-3 was a monster.

Virginia, ever the professional, captured the scene as Kori killed the first one. The resulting energy cascade causing the camera’s image to go fuzzy. Images of panicked people showed the sheer power that rolled over everyone present.

Then the Avengers came.

It finished with the Supreme Leader shooting two of the Avengers in the face. Something Harley was a big fan of.

Then the two girls looked at each other, and then at their own bodies. Though the generic gowns were unflattering, they didn’t feel any different right now.

Two weeks. No problem.

————

Chapter 44: Surprise Guests