The Mansion of Crossroads

Andrew flinched ever so slightly as gore splattered his armor. he was used to it, especially after the one slave, Roy or something, had his head explode right in front of him when his Slave Collar went off.

Still, the Marine immedietly turned around as the trailer door opened, but he didn't approach it. Instead he shuffled to the side, and slightly forward. "Pieing'" around the back of the truck, so he'd shift around so the rear was visible, but be a good ten or twelve feet away, still on the side of the road.

Of course, the Knight never lowered his rifle.

The trucker's head exploded, splattering orange goop onto the ground, the truck and the poor kid in the armored suit, the armored man promptly moving to the rear of the truck which had seemingly openned without an physical input.

Something was off, Leon found that much to be obvious. He should have realized something was wrong a truck randomly stopped in the middle of the street and a man's head exploded for no real reason whatsoever.

The agent crouched next to the corpse whilst the Knight went about checking the rear of the stopped vehicle, his mind had run through the usual list of suspects...zombies and Ganado. But the first type were obviously not at play here, and Ganado never had their heads explode without reason. Usually Leon's trusty Riotgun was the cause for that. And this one hadn't popped some kind of Plagas out of it's neck, instead merely falling to the ground dead. Maybe it wasn't a Ganado at all, his mind trying to explain things it couldn't understand with things it at least mildly understood.

Leon understood Ganado well enough, shoot them and they die. All he really needed to know in Spain, so far it'd worked out fairly well.

"I would suggest you get into the trailer. We haven't much time..." A large, booming voice resonated over the forest, coming from some speaker inside the inside of the truck cabin. It was loud, and the voice was scarmbled, as to stop the person from being identified. All the lights on the truck were off at this point, making the errie blue light from the truck even more noticable, and weird.

Aya stayed in the brush, to keep the two covered. She didn't like the idea of everyone rushing the back of the truck at one time. There was a high probability there was a nasty surprise, or something...worse.

Andrew stopped in his tracks as the booming voice told them to hurry, for reasons unknown. Fuck that. The Knight looked back at Leon, and made a hand gesture towards the Truck's cab, as to check it out.

As for the Lone Wanderer, he circled around a little bit more, so he could BARELY see the inside of the trailer, he couldn't see deep into it, however.

The man pulled a small cylindrical device out of his kit, a Flashbang. Andrew pulled the pin, and lobbed it inside. Bouncing off the small amount of interior wall he could see, and landing out of his sight. The man looked away and heard a loud 'pop'. Andrew immedietly raised his M199 and stepped around a little bit further, revealing the full interior of the trailer but keeping his distance.

Leon responded to the armored soldier's command with the all-powerful 'okay' hand signal before creeping to the front of the truck, which was bathed in darkness. The flashbang exploded, amblified by the steel walls of the truck. Leon stopped a few feet from the cab of the truck, clicked on the laser light for his Silver Ghost whilst side-stepping past, but inconviently enough...his belt light was too low to get a good view.

Leon huffed, dropped his left hand from his gun and repeated the cycle, this time holding the small light high enough he could actually see inside the cab of the truck.

"That won't do much to the likes of a monitor, I'm afraid." The singular object in the trailer was at the back, mounted up. A large screen stood, taking up the trailer wall, side to side, and about half the vertical portion as well. However, what the monitor was displaying was the more curious thing, out of the weirdness of the situation. The monitor displayed a fairly aged man, hands crossed, with a black suit on. He had a white striped, red tie on, sitting in a red chair. Behind him, an old, but updated map of the world was on display, having a bit of an aged feel.

"I don't believe we've been introduced, Lone Wanderer. Jack Hargreave, at your service." The man had lowered the explosive loudness of the speakers, and had apparently shut down the ones in the main cabin of the truck. Two speakers, one on each side of the truck, were there, though a few more were around the trailer, if one looked close enough. The old man waited patiently in response, regarding the lone wanderer closely. No cameras could be seen in the trailer, however weird that may be.

Spoiler:

Andrew's grip on his Assault Rifle suddenly tightened. Very much reminded of President John Henry Eden. The supercomputer that ran the Enclave from their HQ, Raven Rock. That was until they captured Andrew... and he then broke out, killed a couple dozen of them, and destroyed the place with a Self-Destruct sequence.

"Jack Hargreave? Are you another ZAX Supercomputer, or is this some Teleconference?"

Leon poked around the cab of the truck for a few moments, finding nothing of other than a half-empty box of year old condoms and a .45 handgun, which he consequently took for himself. The dead trucker sure didn't need it anymore. Shoving the gun into his waistband, Leon returned to the rear of the truck to find the Lone Wanderer, and a rather obnoxiously large monitor, he nudged the armored man, "A friend of yours?"

"We have little time for games such as these. The probability that another ZAX is on this planet, is rare. Broaden your horizons, think outside that wastelands small box. There are an infinite number of universes out there. Do you honestly think your universe so special as to automatically have another major player on this Earth? The chances of that are very low, if not insane to think. Inso far, I may have offended you, but we don't have time for pathetic formalities, Son." Hargreave kept his voice level, though he was clearly annoyed, but certainly not angry in the beginning. His tone made it perfectly clear he was no ZAX, and was either annoyed or offended Andrew had asked him that.

"I would suggest you call your other friend. Time is short, and the other group is fighting a battle you -and they- cannot win as we speak."

Andrew glared at Hargreave for a moment, before craning his head to look directly at Leon. "No." Was his simple response, as the man leaned backwards slightly, so he could see behind Leon; and into the trees on the side of the road. The Lone Wanderer waved for Aya to approach.

The Lone Wanderer then straightened out and turned to look back at Hargreave's moniter. "Sounds like time is of the essence. How about we skip introductories and get to the point?"

"I think I'm beginning to like your matter of thinking. No political bottleneck that irreverent board spat out. But look at me, I'm just as unscrupulous as them right now, getting side tracked. The old man cleared his throat, then continued.

All of you, every single one of you living in that Mansion are critical to humanities survival. You each hold something special, sometimes far greater and more important than the person wielding it. Such as your armor, for example. As specious as that statement may be, we both know it’s true, son." Hargreave paused; waiting for the power armored man to speak again, keeping a fairly good poker face.

Aya arrived by Andrews side nearly as soon as he called for her. She was extremely fast, and hadn't detected anything weird going on. Given, a sniper could be lining up his sites one of them, probably the leg. Either her or Leon, but if the sniper hit Andrews armor in the right place, such as a unarmored leg joint, they'd be worse off. That armor had to weigh a lot, making it almost impossible to carry. And given that, shooting one of them in the leg, and waiting for the others to go for him while he was done was standard practice. Or, if the sniper was good, lucky, and if they couldn’t get behind the cover of the truck quick enough, they'd all die.

"Yeah, I know. Certain sensitive technologies can change the fate of this planet, especially if they fall into the wrong hands." Andrew glanced at Aya as she arrived next to him, but looked back at Hargreave.

"But what can we do about it?"

"Again, the box, get your head out of it. The technology does not matter, or moreover, who has it really." Hargreave leaned closer into the monitor, his face nearly on it, a serious as God look on his face.

I have seen what is approaching. And if it arrives now, we will all die. Not just this universe. All of them. This is all happening for a reason. This planet, while being the principal Earth, the prime, the original, is quite helpless against this.... horde of locust forthcoming. An enemy that only the greatest of all heroes and villains of all the cosmoses could ever hope to rout comes hither. And even that will not be adequate.... You must find the shards. Avalon. The Beijing FEV. Durandal. The Shield installation. The blood of Eve. The Star Gate. The Holy Grail. The Psychic commander. The ultimate Holocron. Uroboros, The Suit. The Root of all Creation. The Reaper. I'll try to update you as more come in..." Hargreave squinted his eyes, looking at Aya and Leon, then back to Andrew.


"These things must be found, or sought out. Retrieved. It all depends on what they are, of which I am economical to state what. The important things is, that you remember them. Because not all of them will have denotation to you, but to the others, could mean everything. You are all fragments in an enigma, and when it is finalized; perhaps we will have a minor gamble against…Them." Hargreave pulled back from the moniter, settling back into his chair, his face close to a professional poker player. He waited for their response to this revelation.

Andrew groaned as he wiped dust from his visor. The Power Armor equivlant of pinching the bridge of one's nose. "Another fucking asshole who speaks in riddles..." the Lone Wanderer mumbled to himself, then looked back at Hargreave.

"Who the fuck is coming? Why would you keep all of the info hidden when our lives, and more are at stake?" The Knight demanded, his tone of voice raising as he became more irritated.

"For the reason that they're eavesdropping right now. I would advocate running, because these animations take no prisoners. Run; run like inferno is behind you. Because it is. Your guns and powers mean nothing against these beasts from beyond the boundaries of the Omni-Verse.” Hargreave shook his head, shutting the moniter off.

“Remember EVERY word I said. Get to the King. She’s near the exodus of the metropolis. Her armament will be more nominal than yours. Against these weak ones, at any rate.” With that, the speakers shut off as well, and a crash in the line of woods could be heard. Something was approaching. Fast.

"Aw shit." Andrew took a step back as he heard the rather loud crashing through the woods. It was obvious that something big was heading their way.

The Knight turned to run. Gently, yet firmly, grasping Aya's hand and pulling her away from the scene. "Leon, let's move!" He shouted as he let go of Aya, and broke into a sprint down the road, towards the city. Whatever was out there was on their tail.

Aya got her M9 out in her left hand, holding Andrews hand with her left.

"Hold on. I go fast." Brea increased her speed to an unnatural amount, almost dragging Andrew behind her.

Andrew was surprised in the sudden increase in speed, his feet almost flying out from under him. Luckily his Servo-Joints allowed his feet to keep moving at the appropriate speed. And he really didn't mind the increase in speed, getting away from whatever the hell was out there.

He gripped Aya's hand tighter, as if he slipped out of her grasp he highly doubted his T-45D's weight would be on the good side of things. "Damn, you go fast."

"Ya well, being an evolved being has its perks. We're almost there." Aya kept running at full speed, that is, until a cop car activated its lights as they passed it. Hidden in the brush, waiting for speeders. She looked back. They'd left the truck back a few blocks, but she could still hear snapping trees, as that thing approached. The only reason she could hear it however, was because of her enhanced senses. One of the cops got out of his car, approaching her gun raised, telling her to put the weapon on the ground.

"Crap."

Leon quickly took off at Andrew's warning, getting himself slightly ahead of the group. Apparently outrunning boulders in Spain had done great things for his stamina...or so he thought. Because apparently that Aya woman was some kind of Olympic runner who could also drag a fully-armored terror of a man down a hill at speeds that would make a jungle cat cringe. And soon the Agent realized how alone he really was, the road leading to the outskirts of Racoon, and god-knew-what was still hot on his heels. Just his luck.

"Argh fuuuck." Andrew grumbled as he turned towards the two Cops approaching him. The man snapped up his M199, cracking off two rounds. One slapped the cop approaching them in the inner thigh, and he immedietly collapsed with a loud scream. The second bullet shattered the window of the passenger door, passing through and into the waist-region of another cop. Who fell backwards gripping his bloody wound in pain.

The Knight spun on his heel, grabbing Aya and stringing her along as he broke into another sprint. "C'mon, we can't stay here!"

"What the fuck was that?" Aya shoved Andrew back full force, and ran over to the cop car, M9 at her side. At the least she could help these people, and they couldn't fire their weapons at her. She had reversed her usual gun magnetizing on their guns, so they couldn't fire anyway.

"That's this little thing called survival where I come from, they'll live. I've lived weathered worse. Now c'mon!" Andrew swore as the thudding got louder, and Aya checked the cop's non-lethal wounds. Leon could be seen running in the night, approaching.

Fuck, Andrew needed to adapt to this place. He was too stuck in thinking like he was in the wasteland. These cops were lucky he didn't just kill them outright.

"How about you take that, and shove it up your ass. Never talk about how you were with the *military* near me again. It's fucking insulting that you dare talk about that, then shoot innocent people. Go. Get the fuck out of my sight." Aya got to the CB, calling in help. They could've just used the car, but she had a feeling it wouldn't work for them....

Leon's feet picked up speed at the crack of two gunshots, and the fact the pair were lingering around a Racoon City Police Cruiser, "Shit."

The Agent glanced over his shoulder as he picked up speed, but his life-or-death run was cut short by the blaring of a car horn, "Get out of the road you fucking moron!" The driver flipped the blonde agent off as he sped past.

~

Hurrst gave the asshole running down the middle of the street the bird as he cruised past, a ballistic vest strapped over his usual white button down shirt and a holster for his SIG attached to the front by MOLLE webbing and in the passenger seat was his trusty Colt M4A1 carbine. In the back of the car was everything the Agent could scavenge from the armory and jam into the CIA-issue car. Along with a Milkor forty-millimeter grenade launcher for good luck, it was Hurrst's baby after all.