A Deal Must Be Struck (part 1)

Steve, Yumi, Jason, Clyde, Billy, and James all walked down the always seemingly neverending, white halls. Every footstep they made echoed calmly as they walked to the main hall of the facility. Steve glanced back at his team and noticed how determined they looked at being by his side.

Yumi met his glance and smiled softly. His orange eyes showed excitement as he smiled right back at her. He appreciated her greatly and wished for the world to be as honest as she was. Her kindness on the other hand was easy to be given to the wrong people, but he knew Yumi was not dumb enough to be kind to the wrong people. At the very least, he hoped that would be the case. He wondered if he could feel love again, and if he could, he would prefer to love Yumi. Steve would hope that she would still be by his side when he feels love once again.

On the next corner, Steve took a turn and saw a group of people that stood right in front of them with rifles and pistols all pointed at him and his friends. A young female voice that had a powerful sense of dominance in her tone spoke out. The small freckled redhead had her assault rifle pointed at Steve, "Stop right there!"

Steve halted his motion with wide eyes. He stared at the team in front of him and his friends. It was obvious they went through a bit of hell to get to him. Steve stayed still but calmly gestured his hands to his friends from behind to keep their weapons lowered and hidden.

There was a moment of tense and frustrating silence as Steve quietly examined their team. The smaller girl with red hair was obviously the leader of the team. Her armor and clothes seemed to have small tatters of aged blood soaking in the dark fabric. The taller male at the left of her held a sawed-off shotgun, pointed towards the general direction of Steve and his friends. His eyes were as brown as his long thick wavy hair that stopped at the man's neck. His hair was longer than the girl's hair. Behind the girl to her right was another male. This one was much older than the rest. He had no weapon out but glared at Steve. The man was Latino and was very fit. The shape of his muscles did not hide under his armor, which was noticeably different compared to the other armor the rest of them wore. He was the only one who did not wear the standard BSAA bullet vest and padding. There were two more males behind the small woman. One had brown hair and held an assault rifle with a big scope attached to it. Steve could see the inside of the man's barrel. He was the sharpshooter of the team. Next to him was a black-haired male that was slightly taller. He held some sort of tactical shotgun and had it relaxed to his side.

These people confused Steve a bit. Some of them had their arms relaxed as if they didn't see Steve and his friends as a threat while the others all looked as if they were ready to unload all of their ammunition to kill Steve. Steve took this moment to speak honestly, "...I was wondering when you were all coming," He heard several guns click and readied. Safeties were off, now.

The lady with red short hair lowered her gun but kept it pointed at Steve, "So, you noticed the coded, hidden message?"

Steve gave a soft grin and relaxed as he spoke. The tone gave still sounded a bit uneasy, "Morse code is technically a code, but it's, kind of, asking to be found when it's coming from the ID of Albert Wesker," Steve joked, which did give this rather tired woman a grin.

"You're Steve Burnside, yes?" The woman spoke calmly as she completely lowered her gun, which had most of her team do the same. Steve gave the redhead a confirming nod. She spoke up, "Good! Steve Burnside, you are now under the custody of the BSAA and will be evaluated and interrogated for further questioning. We would appreciate your full cooperation and to not make this any harder than it needs to be."

Steve blinked as he thought about her words. She only implied Steve and nobody else. He preferred things to go quietly and calmly but he had terms and conditions that needed to be met. Steve took a step forward and firmly spoke, "What about the folks behind me? What're you gonna do to them?"

The captain gave him a confused glance. Her eyebrow rose to his question and felt that there was no harm in telling him the truth, "They will be where all Ex-Umbrella employees go. Either thirty to forty years in prison or will serve their time helping the BSAA in whatever way they can. Either way, they're not going with you."

Steve spoke calmly as he glared at the captain, "That's not good enough."

"Excuse me? Kid, you're not in the position to make demands," The redhead gave a glare back and shown a stressful grin.

Steve gave a heavy sigh as he had noticed that their sharpshooter still had his barrel pointed at Steve's head. Negotiating was the only way out of this. He needed to be civil and calm otherwise someone on either side may die. Steve spoke again, "May I know your name, Captain?" Steve's eyes were focused on the woman.

The captain tilted her head in slight confusion as she had glanced at someone to Steve's left, "...Cara Ambers. How did you know I was the captain?"

Steve slightly relaxed a bit. Knowing her name made things a bit more calming, "It was mostly a guess but from how exhausted you look. Someone with a lot of responsibility only gets that tired without complaining," Steve scoffed and gave a shrug he knew he adorned the same look. He spoke honestly to Cara, "Look, Captain. The people here are just doing what they can to survive. Not a single one of them prefers having Umbrella under their Resume. I don't think anyone would, in the last few years."

He heard Cara chuckle at that comment and she had noticeably looked more relaxed with Steve as he tried to defend his friends. If he can just convince the captain that they mean no harm then Steve can rest easy, "They hired mercenaries simply to provide them food and supplies because they know how often your drones fly by this facility. They were afraid that if the BSAA knew that this facility still had people inside, they would kill and raid like how the BSAA did in the other hidden facilities."

Cara stared at Steve unsure how he was able to obtain such information. Whether it was accurate or not, Cara was fascinated by how much Steve seemingly wanted to protect the people here. She gave a soft nod and spoke, "Then what do you purpose? What can we do?" Cara's team visibly looked at her, baffled that she was even willing to negotiate with a BOW. To a demon, like Steve.

Steve looked slightly relieved to know that the BSAA is not as bad as promised. He cleared his throat as he thought of the right words to pull out, "I am fine with you taking me in and needing me to do whatever to ensure that I am not a threat to the world... But after all of that, I propose to become a member of the BSAA and to have my friends behind me be part of the team that I would be in, "He saw Cara scoff at the thought, "Even if I am not the captain of the team, I need to know that they'll be safe and by my side from here on out. If you cannot meet those terms, I will be leaving at the back end of the facility, without you and your team."

Cara scoffed and laughed somewhat to his terms. She found it pretty damn comedic, it seemed. Steve kept a look of seriousness as he waited for her answer. Cara soon calmed herself and noticed that Steve was being serious and wanted a genuine response. Cara spoke honestly, "Steve... The chances of anyone with a rank higher than me agreeing to these terms are slim to none. All I can do is promise you their safety when they are in my hands. After that, It's up to the higher-ups where they go."

"That's NOT good enough!" Steve persisted. Yumi glanced at Steve, unsure how to even take all of this. Jason kept his eyes on Steve as Clyde had been palming his pistol this whole time. Billy stood behind Steve along with James. Steve took a step forward and every gun on the opposite side of the hall had immediately been pointed towards him. "You can't even put in a good word for us? Please, Captain Ambers!"

"Not another step, Steve!" Cara demanded as she gestured her Team to lower their weapons. They wouldn't notice her signal and continued to point at Steve and his friends. Steve felt the air get tense in an instant. Cara then spoke, "Just come with us and we can talk in the air."

Steve shook his head as he protested, "I can't take another step until you guarantee all of my friends' safety!" Steve felt Yumi's hand hold his. Steve held hers back. The air got thinner as he was ready to die for the safety of his allies.

Cara spoke desperately as she realized aside from Carlos, her team was going to open fire without her demand, "Steve, stop this. Now!"

Steve felt a hand on his shoulder. Steve looked. The hand belonged to Jason. He gave a calm smile and spoke, "I can pull some strings," Steve's eyes widened and the color on his face left him as he just realized what was about to happen. Jason spoke loudly, "Team Charlie! Lower your weapons now. You're pointing at Second Lieutenant, Jason Bastil of the BSAA!"