"This is not how I imagined my first day..."
Leon Scott Kennedy is an American Federal Agent currently employed with the Division of Security Operations (D.S.O.), a counterterrorism agency with direct Presidential oversight. Kennedy is a known survivor of the 1998 Raccoon City Destruction Incident, then as a police officer. Following his escape, he was offered a job in a US-STRATCOM team devoted to anti-B.O.W. combat, and served it until 2011 in repeated operations around the world.
Early life
Not much is known about Leon's life prior to his enlisting in the police academy. Upon graduating from the police academy at the age of 21, Kennedy requested assignment to work for the Raccoon Police Department. His reason of choice was because of the widely publicized murders taking place in and around the Arklay Mountains.
Kennedy had no travel plans or apartment in Raccoon City, and in the hasty departure, his girlfriend broke up with him. Stopping at a motel for the night, he passed out from heavy-drinking and woke up on the afternoon of the 29th of September, on a Tuesday. Kennedy continued driving into the city hungover and now late for reporting in to the station.
In one count of events, his journey to Raccoon City took place a week after a confusing phone call urging him not to come in to work. Driving through Arklay County, he passed through the highway blockade erected by the United States Army and Army National Guard, which had fallen due to the chaos within the city.
Accounts differ as to when Kennedy realised the crisis in the city. In one account, he drove southwards into the city as normal and was surrounded by Zombies while investigating a body in the middle of the unusually quiet main road. Retreating into an alleyway he met Claire Redfield, another newcomer, who was herself fleeing from Zombies within a diner. They commandeered an RPD cruiser and drove to the Raccoon Police Station to seek shelter and answers. In another account, a similar event occurred at the Mizoil Gas Station just outside the city, and they hijacked an Arklay County Sheriff's Department patrol car instead. Whichever the reality was, the car was destroyed when a gasoline tanker collided with it, and the two were separated and travelled to the police station independently.
The station itself had already fallen to the Zombies, and the only unzombified police officers were the injured Lt. Marvin Branagh; Elliot Edward, and Police Chief Brian Irons. It is uncertain if he met anyone, but had he met Lt. Branagh he would have been briefed on current events before becoming a Zombie. During investigation, Kennedy ran into a young girl - Sherry Birkin - and removed any thoughts of suicide from his mind, should his death prevent the girl's escape in future.[12] In the police station's basement, Kennedy met Ada Wong, a corporate spy from one of Umbrella's rival companies sent to steal the G-Virus. To protect the mission, he was not told the truth about her mission. In one account, Wong claimed to be looking for her missing boyfriend, Dr. John Clemens, unaware he had perished in the Mansion Incident. In another, she claimed to be an FBI agent looking for proof of Umbrella USA's illegal bioweapons project. Whichever the reason, she became aware of Ben Bertolucci, a freelance journalist who she believed had uncovered useful information for her mission while spying on Umbrella researchers. Bertolucci was able to uncover information on a conspiracy between Umbrella USA and the local police, which was the reason for his arrest, but not enough for her mission.
Ben was soon after killed by a mutant, with accounts differing as to if it was Dr. William Birkin; a G parasite, or the T-00 B.O.W. sent to kill survivors in the station. Kennedy and Wong continued on to the city's sewers, where they found transport to NEST, Umbrella's laboratory dedicated to G-Virus research. Kennedy was left to do much of the work himself when in the laboratory; though he himself had suffered a gunshot wound, Wong's leg injury made her unable to continue.
During the exploration of the laboratory, Kennedy became aware of Wong's real mission when she cornered, seeking the virus. Accounts differ as to if she fell off a shaft or was knocked out by the T-00, or even both. What is known, however is that she successfully escaped the facility as it began to self-destruct, but lost the G-Virus sample. Fleeing to NEST's bottom platform, Kennedy was reunited with Claire and the young Sherry, who had been infected with G-Virus but was vaccinated by DEVIL to halt her mutations. The facility was destroyed, with Dr. William Birkin perishing soon after.
