When William finished initiating the self-destruct sequence for the executive training facility, he immediately ran away. He didn't want to be caught by Marcus. After all, as Marcus had said earlier, only a handful of people knew the passwords and location of the central control room. If it wasn't Marcus himself who initiated the sequence, it could only be William or Wesker. So, if he didn't run fast enough, William could get caught by Marcus on his way out.
With his dirty deed done, William didn't hesitate. He got out of there as fast as he could. The central control room had a special escape route, so his escape speed was much faster than Javier and his companions.
On the other side, Javier, Rebecca, and Billy looked at the Leech Queen in stunned silence.
In that moment, they didn't know whether to continue fighting or to run. If they didn't fight, the Leech Queen could ambush them at any time. But if they continued to fight, they might all be buried in this godforsaken facility.
They wanted to seek justice, that was true, but the precondition for seeking justice was staying alive. No one would be foolish enough to gamble with their lives. Javier certainly wouldn't. He had a great life ahead of him; why would he die here? He hadn't even met the naive Leon and the crafty Ada Wong yet!
"What do we do...?"
"Javier, the facility's self-destruct sequence has started. We have a little over three minutes left. There's no way we can defeat this Leech Queen monster in three minutes. If we don't run now, we might really not be able to get out later," Rebecca said anxiously, looking at her watch.
With only four minutes, even a slight delay could mean they wouldn't escape the facility. If they were to die here, it would be a complete waste and utterly meaningless.
"Buzz..."
"Gurgle... gurgle... gurgle, gurgle..."
While Javier was still hesitating, the Leech Queen on the other side made a strange sound. Its hideous, disgusting tumors began to squirm. The tentacles retracted, and the sharp mouthparts disappeared. The long, messy flaxen hair slowly grew back, as did the white robe from before.
Its clothes, hair, pale arms, handsome androgynous face, and watery blue eyes—Marcus's human form gradually reappeared. At this moment, the Leech Queen had regained Marcus's intelligence.
Looking at Javier and his companions, Marcus also wanted to kill them, but time was running out. He didn't want to die here so soon. He still had a deep-seated grudge to avenge. So, Marcus decided to negotiate with Javier and his companions.
"Let's go our separate ways," he thought.
Any grudges and resentments from before could be put aside for now. It was best to escape and save their lives. As the saying goes, "Let's make a big deal small and a small deal into nothing." After all, "A moment of patience will save you from a great disaster; a step back will give you a wider view." As a genius biologist, he was at least correct in discerning the priority of things.
"Ahem..."
"You three dirty rats... no! S.T.A.R.S. team members, right? You've seen the situation. Now is not the time for us to fight to the death. If we continue to fight at this time, we will surely be buried in this facility,"
"Therefore, I suggest we make a truce. After all, you have to leave a way out for others. Your goal is to expose the ugly deeds of the Umbrella Corporation, and my goal is to get revenge on the Umbrella Corporation. In a sense, our goals are the same,"
"So I suggest that we each go our own way. You can take the lift platform to leave the facility, and I will go to another escape route. We won't interfere with each other, how about that? Time is running out. I hope you don't make a foolish decision!"
The Leech Queen, who had returned to Marcus's human form, coughed slightly. The mockery on its face disappeared completely, and it adopted a negotiating posture, neither humble nor arrogant, as it spoke to Javier and his companions.
As a high-level life form, the Leech Queen was certainly incredibly arrogant. But the current situation didn't allow it to continue being conceited. So, with no other choice, it put away its arrogant expression and adopted a more humble, neither-humble-nor-arrogant tone when speaking to Javier and his companions.
After all, it was also afraid that Javier and his companions would trip it up. If these three madmen were really going to die anyway and decided to drag it down with them, the Leech Queen would not be able to escape the facility, no matter how hard it fought.
Therefore, negotiating... negotiating was the best option.
Of course, the distant Javier had the same idea.
He had just glanced at Rebecca's watch. Out of the four minutes, only 2 minutes and 50 seconds were left. If they didn't run now, it would be too late.
So, in the face of the Leech Queen's eloquent speech, Javier couldn't even be bothered to respond. He didn't want to be a fool and wait for death. He couldn't wait to respond to the Leech Queen.
Javier ran directly to the nearby electrical switch and pushed the lever hard, immediately starting the lift platform. He then said to Rebecca and Billy:
"Hurry up!"
"Don't pay attention to this smelly leech! Run first!"
Waving his hand vigorously, Javier quickly warned Rebecca and Billy. The two of them didn't hesitate. With a jump, they landed on the platform. Although they also wanted to kill the Leech Queen, it wasn't worth it if they had to sacrifice their lives.
Billy and Rebecca weren't fools. They knew the pros and cons of the situation. If they died, no one would be able to expose the Umbrella Corporation's crimes, let alone Billy himself... he was still an international criminal. His innocence hadn't been cleared yet, and now he was going to die in this godforsaken facility. Wasn't that going to make him carry the stigma of being a mass murderer for the rest of his life?
Therefore... they didn't want to die even more!
"Heh heh..."
"A smart choice. It seems that even rats can make the most correct choice when faced with a crisis. Is this what you call biological instinct? That's much better than that stupid old Spencer,"
Looking at Javier's group's decisive choice to evacuate, Marcus praised them. He appreciated this kind of behavior, where a wise person knows when to back down. Before leaving, he didn't forget to mock his old rival, Spencer. At the same time, seeing that Javier's group had already boarded the lift platform, Marcus had no intention of staying.
He decisively turned to leave, and his human form returned to the monster mode of the Leech Queen. In this state, his speed would be much faster. This way... even with only one minute left, it could perfectly escape the facility's self-destruction.
However, just as Marcus was about to leave in glee, he didn't notice that Javier, who had just jumped onto the platform, was slowly taking two green things out of his tactical backpack. Javier had said before... this was going to be a complete slaughter!
Damn it! Marcus had beaten the three of them so badly just now. How could Javier not get back at him?
Besides, this was something Javier had specifically prepared for the Leech Queen, Marcus, ever since he left the Raccoon City Police Department.
"Click, click..."
After assembling the rocket launcher, Javier put the huge green rocket into the barrel. Billy, who saw Javier's actions, was shocked. This guy actually carried an RPG rocket launcher with him? Holy cow... this was too insane!
After all, Billy had never checked Javier's tactical backpack from the beginning, so he naturally had no idea that Javier would carry such a heavy weapon. As a former Marine Corps second lieutenant and an American soldier who had often participated in wars, Billy naturally knew the power of an RPG rocket launcher.
This thing... was almost a signature weapon of terrorists. With its low cost, decent power, ease of use, light weight, and a devastating long-range strike against various vehicles, it could also be affectionately called the "Vehicle Slayer"!
Anyone from terrorists and ordinary citizens to boy scouts and children who hadn't even reached puberty could use this weapon very easily. They just had to aim the sight at the target.
Plus, the rocket launcher had various types of warheads, such as armor-piercing, high-explosive, and accelerated. Therefore, it could easily deal with tanks as hard as rock or helicopters soaring in the sky.
This was why American soldiers like Billy were so afraid of this weapon and had developed a psychological trauma. So, when he saw Javier take out the RPG rocket launcher, his expression was involuntarily startled. After all, he was too familiar with this thing!
"..."
"You're finally taking that thing out! I thought you were going to hold it in forever. But who are you going to blow up now? Javier, the base is about to self-destruct... Wait! You want to hit that bastard with it?!"
"Heh heh, hurry up! Or let me fire it! I'm going to backstab that monster!"
Rebecca, on the other hand, was different from Billy. She already knew Javier had a rocket launcher, but she didn't know when he was going to use it. And now... seeing that the base was about to explode, it was a bit too late for Javier to take it out.
But on second thought, if Javier hit the Leech Queen, Marcus, with a rocket at this time, it would just happen to delay it. This way, it wouldn't be able to escape the facility. At that point, with the facility's self-destruction, it would be difficult for the Leech Queen, Marcus, to survive!
After all, this facility contained most of the Umbrella Corporation's evil experimental records, so it couldn't be found by others. Therefore, as for the amount of explosives... there was no need to say more. It was best for it to be reduced to a pile of ashes.
Javier even suspected that there were several ballistic missiles' worth of explosives hidden inside.
...
However, Javier couldn't be bothered with Rebecca's nonsense.
Although Rebecca was a member of the S.T.A.R.S. team, she was a medic by trade, and her marksmanship was not very good. Not to mention using a rocket launcher. Javier highly doubted that if he let this girl play with it, she would end up blowing themselves up instead of the Leech Queen, Marcus.
"Whoosh..."
Taking a deep breath, Javier moved the scope. The green crosshairs were locked onto the Leech Queen's back. He then tightly gripped the rocket launcher's handle and braced it against his shoulder to reduce the recoil.
Looking at the back of the Leech Queen, Marcus, in the distance, Javier couldn't help but shout loudly:
"Hey!"
"Marcus... no! You genderless freak! Try this thing! This is a local specialty black banana rocket that I specifically had O'Dea from Black Africa transport for you. It's black, thick, big, and hard. It must taste delicious when you stick it in your mouth!"
Before leaving, Javier wantonly mocked the Leech Queen, Marcus. This remark made the Leech Queen, Marcus, who was about to leave, turn its head abruptly, intending to retort with a verbal attack.
But it didn't expect that what was coming its way... was a sonic boom and a flying rocket!
"Click... whoosh...!"
"BOOM—!!!"
The rocket was successfully launched.
A puff of white smoke suddenly shot out from the tail. With an intense burst of flames, the rocket's cross-shaped tail fins, which stabilized the airflow, unfolded. The rocket just drifted for a moment in mid-air before a section of the booster at its tail fell off. The second section of the booster suddenly fired, and a more violent jet of flame shot out, hurtling toward it at an incredible speed.
Seeing this, Marcus had no chance to dodge. Besides, even if it dodged, it wouldn't get very far. So, facing this rocket, the Leech Queen, Marcus, could only choose to take the hit. It used the same move as before. Its entire body's muscles began to twist rapidly, curling itself into a ball. Its skin and muscles began to harden, attempting to withstand this attack.
But unfortunately...
The power of this weapon was not on the same level as the previous Molotov cocktails. In the history of Resident Evil, countless arrogant bosses have died from this weapon. Even Wesker, the man who tried to become the god of the new world, was completely annihilated in the volcanic lava after being hit by two rockets. Therefore... a mere Leech Queen was nothing to fear. It was just a small boss. As soon as the rocket was fired, its head would be taken from a thousand meters away, as easy as picking something out of a bag.
"Bang—!"
"BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!!!!"
A huge explosion rang out. Without any surprises, the Leech Queen, Marcus's entire body was blown into countless pieces. Rolling flames enveloped its entire body. In this situation, the Leech Queen should have been as dead as it could be.
"Gurgle, gurgle..."
But unexpectedly, from the burning pieces of flesh and a body on the ground, a mutated leech, covered in thick mucus, slowly squirmed out. This was the Leech Queen's true form—shedding its skin like a cicada to escape great danger. If it could continue to suck blood and hide for another ten years, it would still make a comeback.
But... time was not on its side. This slow, snail-like crawling speed was simply too slow to escape the facility's explosion in time...