Isaac retained his sanity after mutating, but his appearance gradually became less and less human.
The unfinished enhancement virus made him swell grotesquely, but also gave him telekinetic powers.
Isaac's eyes widened. The ground in front of him crumbled like tofu, and an invisible force demolished the glass corridor beneath his feet.
Tony, flying through the air, had no time to react before the unseen impact sent him hurtling away.
His crude use of telekinesis went no further than that. The force vanished just as it reached Steve's feet, and Isaac came to a brief halt. Steve took a few quick strides forward and punched him in the head, bending his upper body sharply to the side at a ninety-degree angle.
Isaac's smile disappeared as his head throbbed. It wasn't the punch that had left him dazed, but the brief aftereffect of using his telekinetic powers.
The tug on his left hand brought Isaac back to his senses. His right claw shot toward Steve. Its bony talons were razor-sharp; even a single hit would leave several deep wounds that exposed bone.
Steve didn't dare meet the attack, but he wasn't about to give up his shield, either. Twisting in midair, he kicked Isaac in the chest with both feet.
Isaac wasn't used to the shield he'd stolen, and the kick sent him flying. Steve reclaimed his shield.
Tony came flying back. While Isaac was still down and hadn't regained his footing, Tony aimed both palms at his head and fired.
The repulsors were powerful at full output, easily denting steel plates. Their intense heat could also cauterize wounds.
Tony usually held back against ordinary people, keeping the repulsors powerful enough to knock them away and rupture their internal organs without leaving visible injuries. But against a monster like Isaac, he didn't hold back at all.
The repulsor blasts knocked Isaac's raised upper body back down. The back of his head struck the hard brick floor, leaving a shallow crater.
Compared with Steve, who had fought in a world war, Isaac had pitifully little combat experience.
And compared with Tony, who had a whole arsenal of high-tech equipment, including artificial intelligence, the combat chip implanted in Isaac's brain gave him little advantage.
It was like the final battle in Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Alice had simulated the fight in her mind, but Isaac used more advanced technology to predict her attacks and counter them with ease.
But when facing two people who defied common sense, the chip implanted in Isaac's brain was useless. Worse, it even interfered with his judgment.
After firing his repulsors, Tony followed up with a punch. The fist, accelerated by his thrusters, was heavy and hard, knocking Isaac back down as he tried to get up.
Tony even straddled Isaac and kept pounding him, his fist moving back and forth like a machine, each blow landing with a resounding thud!
"Enough!"
Suppressed again and again, Isaac's reason was steadily slipping away.
He raised a hand to throw Tony off, but Steve caught up and slammed his shield into Isaac's right claw. The force concentrated on one point struck his arm, making Isaac howl in pain.
Aside from the brief moment at the start when he'd dodged bullets and shown off, Isaac, despite injecting himself with the enhancement serum, was being beaten helplessly by a Super Soldier and a money-powered soldier.
But as the assault continued, Isaac still couldn't fight back. His incredible regenerative ability kept him alive, and he continued to struggle stubbornly.
Natasha couldn't join the fight, so she looked around instead, hoping to find something in the surroundings that could help deal with Isaac.
She didn't find a solution, but she did spot a cryogenic pod thawing.
Isaac's telekinesis had plowed through the ground, damaging the wires buried beneath it. Following its safety protocol, the cryogenic pod had begun thawing early.
The pod, clouded with white mist, vented its gas. An elderly woman slowly opened her eyes, a trace of confusion in them.
Then she noticed the chaos and Natasha pointing a pistol at her.
"Are you with Umbrella Corporation too?" Natasha had been about to pull the trigger to prevent another monster like Isaac from appearing. But when she saw what sort of person was in the pod, she hesitated.
The woman inside was so old that her face was covered in wrinkles. Could she really be as fierce as a monster?
As it turned out, the old woman could barely take a few trembling steps. She struggled to sit in the wheelchair beside the pod, seemingly unconcerned by Natasha's gun.
Only after sitting down did she regain a little strength. She turned to look at Isaac being beaten, her eyes widening slightly.
"Heh, heh, heh! Hahahaha!"
A hoarse laugh came from the old woman, making Natasha frown. It was a little unnerving.
"You're with Umbrella Corporation too, aren't you?"
This time, the old woman turned to face Natasha, who still had her gun trained on her. "Don't be nervous. I'm Alicia Marcus, one of the owners of Umbrella Corporation. Decades ago, my father and Isaac founded the company."
"Your father?" Natasha raised an eyebrow. Alicia looked old enough to be Isaac's mother. Had her father and Isaac founded the company together? Was this a case of an underling staging a takeover?
As if she'd sensed Natasha's confusion, Alicia turned back to watch Isaac being beaten and began explaining how it all started.
In short, Marcus used the T-virus to treat his daughter's premature aging, while also developing various drugs. The drugs made it onto the market, where their side effect emerged: they turned people into flesh-eating monsters.
Marcus wanted to recall the drugs, but doing so would bankrupt the company. Isaac, who had tasted the pleasures of power, had his men kill Marcus and then took over the company.
After that, Isaac went mad and devised his plan to destroy the world.
Natasha lowered her gun. She had some skill at reading people, and Alicia's expression seemed genuine. She chose to believe her and asked, "Do you know how to deal with the virus that's been released?"
"The virus was released after all..." The light in Alicia's eyes dimmed. She continued watching Isaac get beaten and sighed. "I once implanted a program in the Red Queen's system to protect humanity. When Isaac's plan began, the program was supposed to activate and protect people. In the end, it still failed..."
After sighing, Alicia turned to Natasha again. "What's it like outside now?"
Natasha thought back to the surface and replied uncertainly, "Um... it should be okay, I think?"
"If the outside world is still the way it used to be, you can find a certain kind of plant in Africa and make Airborne Serum. The exact instructions are in the Red Queen's database."
Alicia looked back at Isaac being beaten. "Isaac has a dose of Airborne Serum, but..."
She trailed off. The once-tidy office had become a mess since she woke up, and she had no idea whether the serum had been destroyed by accident.
Tony and Steve had been beating Isaac for more than ten minutes, but he kept recovering. His body was absurdly tough, both in defense and regeneration.
After fighting for so long, Tony and Steve were both feeling the strain. Since fists, kicks, and repulsor blasts weren't enough, it was time to try an explosion!
"Captain, hold his arms. I'll finish him." Repeatedly working his muscles was causing damage to Tony's body, and he'd already thought of a way to deal with Isaac.
They'd worked together plenty of times, so Steve immediately dropped down, grabbed Isaac's right hand with both hands, and wrapped his legs around Isaac's left arm. He stiffened his body and pulled Isaac into a cross shape.
A missile popped out of Tony's right forearm. He picked it up with his left hand and shoved it into Isaac's sunken mouth.
If he hadn't used up the laser module clearing their way in, there'd be no need for all this. He could simply cut Isaac in half with the laser.
Isaac, still recovering, didn't notice the object shoved into his body. He only felt himself suddenly lifted and thrown. He crashed into his desk, cracking it.
The next second, an explosion's flames engulfed his upper body!
The Airborne Serum was probably gone now...
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