Resident evil : Rise of a Monster english

After dropping Lisa off at school, I head to the lab to join Marcus and Albert Junior. Unlike usual, there are no more animals, just glass and steel containers, which already makes me feel uneasy.

"Ah, there you are, Gérald! Come on, strip down, we're moving on to the next step of strengthening your body!" Marcus says with that slightly crazy look I hate.

"Hello... first of all! And, uh, what are you cooking up this time, Marcus?" I asked, instinctively stepping back from him, already feeling a sense of dread creeping up.

"Come on, don't be a child! We need to make progress! We made a nice discovery when you survived Yawn's poison, right?" He says this while opening a reinforced container without even looking at me, as if all of this were perfectly normal. "Come on, get in there, and don't ask any questions. It's for your own good... I think!"

I look at him, incredulous. "That's so reassuring, really…"

His tone is so nonchalant, it feels like he's talking about a routine checkup at the doctor's.

"Don't worry, Gérald," says Wesker Junior as he arrives, still as relaxed as ever. "We're going to subject your body to different types of attacks while adjusting the intensity. The goal is for your body to develop immunity or at least sufficient resistance."

I sigh, resigned, taking off my clothes, leaving just my boxers. "You could have at least let me have a cup of coffee before locking me in a freezer," I say as I step into the metal container, already feeling like a frozen steak ready to be packed.

The container closes with a clang, and I'm plunged into a slightly unnerving darkness. "So… what's first, mad scientists?" I ask, trying to keep my cool despite the horror movie atmosphere surrounding me.

"We're starting with cold," announces Marcus, in a calm tone that makes me roll my eyes. "The great weakness of many organisms is ice, so we're going to immerse you in ice water, then take you out to see how your body recovers. Then, we'll gradually increase the levels of cold until we try to make you immune."

"Great… fantastic…" I can't help but rub my arms, as if that would help in this giant tin can.

A mechanical sound echoes, and suddenly, I'm submerged in freezing water. "W-what the hell is this?! Are we in Titanic or something?" I shout, my teeth chattering so loudly they sound like human castanets. "I'm warning you, if I come out of here looking like Mr. Freeze, I'm tossing you both into this ice water, got it?"

Wesker Junior bursts out laughing. "Hold on, Gérald, we're just getting started. If you're already shivering, it's going to be fun watching you when we move to the next level."

After a minute that feels like an eternity, they finally pull me out of the water. I'm shaking so badly I look like a washing machine on spin cycle. "S-s-super, r-really... I-I always dreamed of b-b-being a polar bear…"

Marcus calmly observes, taking notes. "Good, your body is warming up, that's a good sign. We'll increase the level of cold for the next phase."

I frown, frantically rubbing my arms. "Wait… wait a second… increase the cold? You're trying to turn me into an ice cube, aren't you?"

"Exactly," Marcus responds with a sly grin.

My regeneration slows drastically due to the cold, but Marcus and Wesker, undeterred, refuse to let me warm up by my own means. They want to see how far my body can go without external aid.

"Come on, let's move to the next one," I say through gritted teeth, once I feel my body slowly returning to normal, even though my muscles are still numb.

I return to the container, plunging again into the icy water. The cold is still there, relentless, but it no longer has the intense bite of the first immersion. My body is starting to adapt.

"Not bad, Gérald," Marcus announces, a satisfied smile on his face. "You're now standing in water colder than the North Pole. Minus 55 degrees Celsius."

I shoot him a dark look. "Son of a…" I yell, but the rest of the insult is cut off as he slams the container shut, cutting off my words. Silence settles in. Then, suddenly, a bluish light fills the interior of the container, creating an eerie, almost clinical atmosphere. A gas is slowly injected, forming a thin layer of frost on the water around me.

I feel the water becoming denser, almost viscous, and within seconds, it starts to freeze. My skin is covered in a thin layer of ice, and I feel every pore in my body freezing, as if I'm becoming a living ice sculpture. I struggle to breathe, feeling the cold seeping into my lungs. The burning sensation of extreme cold is so intense that it turns into painful numbness.

I close my eyes and cover my face with my hands, trying to create an air pocket. But the sensation in my limbs slowly fades away, the cold swallowing any feeling in the lower part of my body. I can't feel my legs or feet anymore. My breathing becomes labored, each breath creating a small cloud of frozen vapor.

The world becomes blurry, my mind dangerously close to blacking out.

Just before I lose consciousness, the container opens abruptly with a screech. Wesker, using his supernatural abilities, pulls me out of the frozen water, but not without difficulty. Pieces of ice cling to me, my skin still frozen, bluish from the cold. Every movement feels unreal, slow, as if time itself has stopped.

I'm on the verge of passing out, my body trembling violently, every muscle numb from the cold that seems to consume my being. Everything is hazy, like a thick fog enveloping me. I vaguely hear shouting, a voice piercing the silence, but the words are incomprehensible, drowned out by the dull buzzing of my frozen mind.

"Damn it, Marcus, we said gradual!" Wesker Junior's voice booms as he struggles to break the ice stuck to my skin, fragments of ice shattering into tiny pieces without me really feeling the pain.

"You started with water that would kill any human quickly, and you took it from minus 55 degrees Celsius to minus 271 degrees Celsius with refrigerated helium! That was supposed to be the final step of the process!" he yelled, his voice filled with anger and concern as he hurriedly carried me to a desk, covering me with whatever he could find. I barely feel the weight of the blankets on me, my body still frozen in that strange, icy stupor.

In a last subconscious reflex, I summon two of my G lionesses. They appear, their presence warm and reassuring, and instinctively lie down next to me, pressing their bodies against mine, surrounding me with their heat. The contrast is striking, their fur radiating soothing warmth, as I feel myself wrapped in a cocoon of animal warmth, my muscles relaxing slightly.

Marcus, for his part, stays back, his face impassive but with a faint glimmer of panic in his eyes. Not panic from what he's just put me through—no. It's the panic of a man who knows the punishment that might await him for failing in his role. He throws a quick glance at my frozen body before raising his hands in denial.

"Wesker, it was just a calculation error," he says in an almost indifferent tone, trying to justify his actions as if it were a minor detail. "I just wanted to add a bit of liquid nitrogen to bring the temperature down to minus 100 degrees Celsius, but… well, it got a little out of hand."

Wesker shoots him a glare, clearly furious. "Out of hand?! You practically froze him alive, damn it!"

Marcus, still unfazed despite the gravity of the situation, shrugs. "We'll do better next time. I'll prepare specific containers for each stage. That way, I won't be able to make a mistake."

As my body warms up, I slowly feel life returning to me. The warmth of the lionesses is comforting, and their deep, steady breathing helps my body react. My breathing stabilizes, my muscles stop trembling, and I gradually regain consciousness, still shaken by the experience but alive, ready to face Marcus and his madness once again.

After fully regaining my senses, I feel my body returning to its optimal state, every muscle fiber warmed and restored. I stroke the soft fur of the two lionesses that have warmed me. "Thank you, girls," I say softly, taking their heads in my arms, appreciating the contented purring they emit in response to the closeness.

I then turn to Marcus, my gaze as sharp as steel. He freezes, wide-eyed, realizing that the time for payback has come. My lionesses fix their gaze on him, their amber eyes gleaming with a predatory glint, ready to pounce.

"Girls," I say calmly, "punish him."

Without a moment's hesitation, the two big cats leap toward Marcus. He immediately raises his hands in surrender, his face contorted with panic. "Wait, wait! It was an accident, I swear! A small scientific misunderstanding, nothing more! Be reasonable!"

But his pleas fall on deaf ears. The lionesses pounce on him with feline precision and begin tossing him back and forth like a ragdoll. Marcus is thrown from one side of the room to the other, his glasses flying off into a corner as he flails in the air.

"Wesker! Say something! I'm a renowned scientist, not a ping-pong ball!" he screams, his words punctuated by yelps each time he changes direction.

Wesker, leaning casually against a wall, watches the scene with a neutral yet clearly amused expression. "You brought this on yourself, Marcus. I'd say it's well deserved."

The lionesses continue to have fun with Marcus, tossing him into the air at regular intervals. With each landing, Marcus emits a comical sound, somewhere between a cry of terror and a squeal of panic.

"Okay, okay! I promise I'll never freeze you alive again, alright?!" he finally shouts, waving his arms frantically, still mid-flight.

I cross my arms, amused by the scene. "We'll see about that. But for now, enjoy this little lesson."

The lionesses continue for a few more moments before letting Marcus collapse to the ground, dazed, disheveled, but miraculously intact. They calmly return to my side, purring as if they had just finished a simple game.

"Well," I say, turning to Wesker, "shall we move on to the next step?"

Wesker motions for me to return to the container, a smirk on his face. "Because of that idiot," he says, casting a disapproving glance at Marcus, "you skipped the cold zone stage. We'll go back through the previous steps, and when you're ready, we'll return to the helium. This time, it shouldn't cause you as many problems."

I nod before turning to the two lionesses still by my side. "Girls, go sit on him," I say, pointing at Marcus, who's struggling to get up.

The two big cats don't hesitate. They walk over calmly and then lay heavily on Marcus, crushing him under their weight. "Ah… no… wait…" he groans, unable to move under their pressure, his face pressed to the floor.

Satisfied, I step into the container without rushing.

Wesker starts the first steps, plunging me into the ice water. "We're starting slowly, like the first time," he says in a calm but professional voice. I feel absolutely nothing, not a trace of cold, as if I were bathing in a heated pool.

The next step combines the ice water with a small dose of liquid nitrogen. Wesker informs me that the temperature is now minus 102 degrees Celsius, but again, my body doesn't react.

"Impressive," Wesker murmurs, observing the sensors. "Your body is treating this temperature as if it were completely normal. This means your regeneration is adapting to extreme cold."

Finally, I'm almost entirely submerged in liquid nitrogen, the temperature plunging to minus 196 degrees Celsius. This is where I start to feel a slight chill. It's nothing dramatic, but enough to remind me that I'm not completely immune to this extreme cold.

"The real test begins now," Wesker announces, his voice a bit more tense. The walls of the container light up with a blue glow, casting cold shadows in the confined space. The refrigerated helium is injected into the container.

It's at this moment that I feel a real shock. The cold bites at my skin like thousands of tiny needles, and my breathing becomes more difficult. But unlike the first time, when I nearly lost consciousness, the sensation now is more like hiking in icy mountains. Uncomfortable, but not unbearable. I focus on my breathing, which remains steady despite the low temperature. My body is adapting.

When I finally step out of the container, my muscles are tense but functioning perfectly. The lionesses, seeing my condition, immediately get up from Marcus, who groans under their weight before rolling to the side, half-crushed.

"You know, you could be a bit more gentle…" he groans.

The lionesses surround me again, rubbing their heads against me to warm me up. I let out a satisfied sigh as I pet them.

"Well done, Gérald," says Wesker, slightly impressed. "Your body seems to have adapted perfectly. The helium, which should have killed you, is now just a formality for you."

I smile. "I suppose I owe you a thank you… even though it wasn't easy."

Meanwhile, Marcus, massaging his sore ribs, weakly mutters. "Remind me never to make a mistake again… especially not when there are lionesses around…"

(Note: a small chapter this time, I hope you enjoyed my humor ^^)