Battle Against the Lickers

"Bring the equipment over. We're going in to shut her down."

Seeing the door open without a hitch, Captain James breathed a sigh of relief. He ordered two commandos to carry over the machine for shutting down the Red Queen, preparing to enter the laser corridor.

To keep these three fighters alive, Kazuhiko Uchiha had to warn them. "Wait. Do you think the Red Queen will let us shut her down that easily?"

Kazuhiko Uchiha's earlier performance had won everyone over, and they took his advice seriously. They immediately stopped in their tracks.

"Chad, check this area's security again." Captain James went on guard and issued another order to Chad.

After carefully checking all the code, Chad jumped out of his chair in fright and exclaimed, "Oh my God! There's some kind of dormant defense system hidden here. If too many people pass through the door, it'll activate once they're inside and fire laser beams that cut through anything."

"Good thing we didn't go in, or we'd have been done for. Thanks for the warning." Captain James and the other two wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads, overwhelmed with relief, and thanked Kazuhiko Uchiha.

Kazuhiko Uchiha smiled and shook his head to show it was nothing, then told Chad, "Disable that program completely, right now. We don't have much time. We need to shut down the Red Queen and get back to the surface as soon as possible."

"All right. It won't take long." Chad sat back down and began modifying the code, switching the defense system off.

Only after Chad had dealt with the deadly lasers did Kazuhiko Uchiha enter the Core Server Room with Captain James and the others. They found the supercomputer housing the Red Queen's motherboard, installed the machine they had brought, and prepared to reboot her.

The Red Queen seemed to realize why they had come. Using a device on the wall, she displayed her virtual form as a 3D projection.

"Shutting me down will cut the main power. I'm begging you, please don't do this." The Red Queen looked at everyone present, her pitiful plea echoing through the cramped computer room.

"Sorry, but our mission is to shut you down." Captain James glanced at the Red Queen's virtual image and pressed the button on the machine.

"You will all die down here."

At the instant before she was shut down, the Red Queen's expression turned chillingly cold as she pronounced their fate without a trace of emotion.

Crackle!

A powerful electrical surge erupted from the machine the commandos had brought, forcing the Red Queen supercomputer to reboot. The Hive's main power went out, and darkness spread from the Core Server Room throughout the entire facility.

Dozens of seconds later, the Red Queen finished rebooting. Only then did the main power return, and the lights throughout the Hive came back on.

Chad crouched down and pressed a few buttons, removing the Red Queen's motherboard from the supercomputer and handing it to Kazuhiko Uchiha, who had been waiting for it.

"All right, our mission's complete. Let's head back." Captain James breathed a sigh of relief, ready to lead everyone back to the B Dining Room, regroup with Rain and the other two, and return to the surface together.

"Ah! Help!"

"Get away!!!"

Rat-tat-tat!!

They had barely taken a few steps when they heard Rain and the others shouting, along with bursts of rifle fire. They exchanged glances and immediately ran toward the B Dining Room to reinforce them.

When Kazuhiko Uchiha reached the B Dining Room, he discovered that events had diverged drastically from the original plot. The Licker that should only have appeared at the end had emerged early-and there was more than one.

The three people left in the B Dining Room had all become food for the Lickers. Having acquired new DNA, the Lickers were beginning to evolve into higher-level Hunters.

"Damn it, what are these monsters?!"

Captain James stared in horror at the monsters with exposed muscles, long tongues, and enormous claws, then raised his rifle and fired.

The high-speed bullets did little damage to the Lickers, but their tremendous kinetic force still pushed the creatures back, preventing them from getting close enough to attack.

"Fall back and keep firing! We're heading back to the Red Queen's room!"

But their rifle ammunition was limited, and their firepower soon dropped a notch. At Captain James's command, the commandos retreated toward the Red Queen's room.

Kazuhiko Uchiha felt frustrated. Plans really could never keep up with changing circumstances. If his guess was right, the instant the Red Queen was shut down, she had released the restraints on the Lickers and set them loose to eliminate the commandos who might carry the T-Virus out of the Hive.

He had intended to use the commandos to help him quickly clear away the zombies blocking their path on the return trip. Now it seemed he would have to reach the surface on his own.

"You can't handle the Lickers. Escape through the Public Sewers near the Red Queen's room."

After giving them that final warning, Kazuhiko Uchiha drew his Tachi, turned around, and engaged the Lickers.

The Lickers' eyes had degenerated, leaving them entirely reliant on their keen hearing to locate their targets. Hearing Kazuhiko Uchiha move, they lunged at him with claws outstretched.

"Die!"

Kazuhiko Uchiha sidestepped the tongues the Lickers shot at him and drove the Black Iron Katana into the nearest one's arm. Using it as leverage, he flipped through the air and landed behind the Licker, then swung backhanded and severed its neck.

Even a Licker's astonishing regenerative powers could not save it once its head was cut off. It staggered forward a few steps on momentum alone before crashing to the ground.

After he killed that Licker, the others abandoned their pursuit of the expedition team and focused their attention on Kazuhiko Uchiha.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several Lickers changed direction and barreled toward him, shooting their barbed tongues at his body.

Slash, slash, slash!

The Lickers' powerful, resilient tongues failed to hurt Kazuhiko Uchiha. Instead, he used his agility to dodge them and cut them off one by one.

The Lickers whose tongues he had severed had now reached him. They swung their razor-sharp claws, capable of shearing through metal, and stabbed viciously at him.

Kazuhiko Uchiha's expression remained unchanged. The instant their claws were about to strike, he activated the Substitution Technique and evaded them. Rather than prolong the fight, he ran toward the passage to the upper level without looking back.

Roar!

Two Lickers broke off to chase Alice and the others, while all the rest pursued Kazuhiko Uchiha.

"What a pain..."

Looking at the horde of Lickers close behind him, Kazuhiko Uchiha used his energy-burst technique, leaping between containers with ghostlike agility. As he charged out of the B Dining Room, he wielded his Tachi and the Rasengan, killing any Lickers that left themselves exposed.

With the Lickers chasing and him fleeing, they soon reached the Train Station Plaza where the train had been parked earlier. After Kazuhiko Uchiha's repeated counterattacks along the way, the several dozen Lickers had been reduced to just over twenty.