Full Metal Panic: Zanzibar Land
By: Ominae
Rating: T
NOTE:
All characters of the Full Metal Panic! series are under the copyright of Shouji Gatou/Koichi Chigira/Yasuhiro Takemoto, GONZO Studios, Kyoto Animation Studios and Kadokowa Shoten. All other characters are either under the copyright of their respective owners or are under my jurisdiction.
Summary:
Semi-sequel to Overwatch. Sousuke, Kurz, Shinji and Ronald return back to Zanzibar Land where the four had fought as pro-independence mercenaries under Big Boss' command where they rekindle their memories prior to their reunion in MITHRIL.
Heroes Square, Zanzibar City, Zanzibar
Sousuke Sagara, Kurz Weber, Shinji Kazama and Ronald Takeda Chua had arrived in Heroes Square in downtown Zanzibar City after arriving in the South Asian landlocked nation in the morning to attend a ceremony marking the beginning of the Zanzibar Land Independence Wars against the USSR in the mid 1990s.
"I'm not sure about the opening ceremony." Kurz yawned. "I'm quite bored about that kinda part."
"At least try to pay attention." urged Sousuke. "The last thing we need is unnecessary attention on us."
"I agree." Ronald added in support of Sousuke's words. "We're honorary citizens of Zanzibar. So we need to place a good impression on the other visitors."
"Alright." Shinji looked around and saw that some people were being ushered to their seats. "Hey guys, some of the guests are being seated."
"Looks like we better go." Kurz said, going ahead with the other SRT operators following him from behind.
Living Room, Penthouse, Unknown Building, somewhere in New York City, New York, United States
A silver-haired teen was in the living room of his penthouse, watching the news from CNN on a widescreen television about the upcoming ceremony in Zanzibar marking the 4th anniversary of the independence wars against USSR control.
"Such a nicely done ceremony." The teen yawned, fixing his purple trenchcoat. "Well, what do you know? The guy who Tessa knew is there as well." The teen smirked.
"So these guys are the opposition that got Amalgam's attention?"
The teen turned around to see a man in his late 30s wearing a brown trenchcoat with the hint of a red necktie being worn though the coat covered his body. His hair was neatly done with shades that somehow looked like it was made back in the days of World War II or in the 1950s.
"Yes, indeed." smirked the teen at his guest. "Mr. Gold has been bothered by their success after they defeated Gauron and his SRT friends in the TDD-1 hijacking."
The shades-wearing man grinned. "Is that so, Leonard Testarossa? Well, that looks interesting since most of the guys in the television are veterans of the Zanzibar Land Independence Wars."
Leonard nodded. "That is right indeed."
"So..." The man seated on a couch near Leonard's. "What's the reason why you called me here for?"
Leonard pondered on his guest's question before he replied. "The main reason I called you is because I want your honest assessment regarding them." He pointed to Sousuke, Kurz, Shinji and Ronald on his TV screen.
"Even though they don't show it," The black-haired man grinned, watching the TV. "I can see it in their eyes and some of their scars that they're veterans. They sure look dangerous, but they're quite a challenge."
"I see." Leonard was impressed by his guest's thoughts. "Quite an assessment."
The man gave an evil grin. "Yes, indeed." He clapped his gloved hands together. "They look so quite impressive that I want to give them a test run personally."
"Oh please. I'm sure that Mr. Gold will give you the opportunity to do so."
"Excellent." Taking the shades off, the man stared at the television screen with the grin still on his face. "Excellent indeed."
"You seem quite excited." Leonard said, facing his guest. "In fact, I like you to do my a little favor for me later on."
"You're on the right track, my friend." The man donned his shades. "That's why you need the Dog for this job. The Wild Dog." Wild Dog gave a wicked smile.
Near Heroes Square, Zanzibar City, Zanzibar
"So this is Zanzibar? Quite intersting for an ex-Soviet oblast."
Tessa, in civilian clothes with a loose jacket, walked towards Heroes Square in her loafers while being accompanied by Richard Mardukas. Like his superior, Mardukas was wearing a white dress shirt with a black suit jacket on.
"It seem so." Mardukas told his captain. "Most of their leaders were pro-West for years under Soviet oppression and went into exile in the West. What strikes me is with their military and their training by Big Boss and his mercenaries. Not to mention that he personally led a foreign legion corps during the country's independence wars."
"I have a feeling that sooner or later," Tessa though about Mardukas' statement. "mercenaries will be the commodity of the future and replace standard militaries in the near future."
"That is unfortunate. Let's hope that it doesn't happen."
"There they are." Tessa pointed to Mardukas Sousuke, Shinji, Kurz and Ronald leaving the square.
"I wonder if the ceremony's finished?" Mardukas pondered, pushing the bridge of his glasses.
"Sir." Ronald greeted Mardukas with a nod. As they were in civies, it's forbidden by MITHRIL policy to salute less their identities would be exposed.
"I hope that the ceremony was enjoyable for you boys." Mardukas said, referring to the ceremony that the four Zanzibar Land veterans had attended.
"I don't know." Kurz yawned. "I felt kinda sleepy for some reason."
"Dork!" Shinji punched Kurz in the gut. "You were like that for most of the time even back in the independence wars! The only time you weren't like that is when either One Eyed Uncle or Sniper Wolf's giving a talk or a demonstration."
"Hey..." Kurz whined. "Watch it, man. I just ate remember."
"Whatever." Ronald rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"We're all glad to see you here, captain." Sousuke greeted Tessa, on behalf of his crew as they were busy arguing with each other. Mardukas, even though he wanted to intervene, decided to let them mind their own business.
Heroes Square, Zanzibar City, Zanzibar
A Caucasian man in his middles 30s was staring at the group that gathered near the outskirts of Heroes Square, viewing the statue of students with flags facing Soviet and Zanzibarian auxiliary troops with their IZHMASH AK-74s. Brushing some strands of his brown hair, he carefully observed as they were casually conversing with one another.
Kashim...Al-Aziz. Even the sniper Kurz trained by Caspar and that kid Shinji. All of them. I never thought I'd see them again after 3 to 4 long, hard years of fighting in an independence war against the Soviets.
Placing a cigarette stick in his mouth, he whipped out a lighter from his pants pocket and placed them close to the stick's foreend.
Guess it must be a coincidence. But oh well, it's not like that it's my business for now. I wonder what they're up to nowadays?
Near Heroes Square, Zanzibar City, Zanzibar
Hmmm...
Ronald eyed the man who was staring at them before he walked off and went to mind his own business.
If I'm right, that man was Jack Connors and he fought with us during the first few engagements in the independence wars...
"Ow..." Ronald felt someone had pinched his right hand.
"That's what you get for not paying any attention to me." Tessa glared at Ronald. Even when I tried to see if I can resonate, he ignored it. The nerve of him!
"Owned." Kurz chuckled. Mardukas was not with them as he had left to look for a toilet to relieve himself after drinking a few glasses of water after he arrived in the country by air due to the heat in the afternoon in the first few days of September.
"Er..." Ronald blushed. "Sorry, Tessa."
Tessa beamed a smile. "Since you apologized, I'll forgive you." She then gave a glare; Ronald swore that she grew a big head that rivaled the Saotome patriarch from Ranma 1/2. "But if you keep doing this again..."
Ronald began to sweatdrop. "Alright, alright. I understand! Please don't kill me!"
"Man, is she scary?" Shinji whispered to Kurz, who agreed by nodding. Even Sousuke did the same thing.
"Well then." Tessa's head went back to its normal size. "I have to tell you guys that there's this teeny, weeny upcoming mission."
"What about this teeny, weeny upcoming mission, Tessa?" Kurz asked with a pleasant smile. Tessa raised an eyebrow over Kurz's excitement over what Tessa was suppose to tell him.
"I have an upcoming mission to attend to in a couple of weeks," Tessa began to explain. "And I need you four to come with me on a bodyguard trip."
"Sounds fair." Shinji nodded. "But where to?"
"That's a secret for now." Tessa giggled.
The four SRT operators were at a loss when they were busy scratching their heads or were trying to figure out their next mission. Tessa smile and giggled when she tried to watch Ronald figure out what their next mission was.
I wonder where our next mission is?
That's...a secret, my dear!
Ronald snapped at attention to see Tessa smiling and looking around the square.
Damnit! I hate it when she uses resonance to tease me!
Admiral Borda's Office, ARGYROS Corporation Australia, Sydney, Australia
Admiral Jerome Borda, former US Navy officer, was reading over a report with an update on Tessa and Mardukas' arrival in Zanzibar.
That accursed Badakhshan... Borda never liked the place; he found out from an uncle of Ronald's that he had been living in the mercenary-established state in the 1990s after his uncle approached Borda and requested for his assistance.
I was lucky to hit the jackpot when I saw him in the news that showed the Zanzibarian army parade to Tom. Borda remembered that he gave a call to his uncle, who was then stationed at another MITHRIL location outside of Asia. Otherwise we would be back at square one all over again.
Placing the report on the IN paper tray, Borda took the report beneath it. It was a report handed in by another MITHRIL agent, specifically from the Intelligence Division.
At least it's not from Wraith. Borda read the intelligence report thoroughly and sighed. "Dammit, why does that Sergeant always cause trouble at his assigned location?" It detailed on the troubles that Jindai High had after Sousuke had, ranging from brandishing various firearms that nearly intimidated students, faculty and staff personnel to explosions that were seen from the entrance all the way to the corridors that led to the classrooms and near the swimming pool.
"At least we won't have to worry about anything. As long as our agents are in the school's Student Council," Borda murmured after going over the report. "Sergeant Sagara's errors can be taken care of."
Come to think of it... Borda drummed the fingers of his left hand on his desk. Another agent from the Combat Division's helping out too. I wonder who that person is since I have the habit of forgetting people's names if I don't see or hear about them in a long time... Must be getting Parkinson's or something.
Balcony, Penthouse, Unknown Building, somewhere in New York City, New York, United States
Leonard twirled a black, generic USB flash drive as he stood outside his penthouse to view the night sky of New York on his balcony.
Hmmm... Leonard watched his fingers twirl with the flash drive. I wonder if I should give him the advantage. It's quite tempting.
The silver-haired Amalgam agent had placed in private research data, apart from what he had contributed to Amalgam's, on the flash drive while he had been a part of the group's R&D division.
Perhaps I should. After all... Big Boss did train Al-Aziz and his friend in order to bring down the accursed Patriots. Yes, I think it's to my advantage if I covertly help Tessa's friend.
A smile came upon his face.
Aberdeen Harbor, somewhere in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, South China
Two figures began to approach a Junk that had been moored into Aberdeen Harbor. One of them was a Caucasian man in his early 30s with dark brown hair and wearing a trenchcoat. The other was a 16-year old female with two bunches on the front part of her temples wearing a black coat and boots that reach near her knees.
"How is it?" The black coat-wearing girl called out to the people in the Junk.
A short black haired-teen with the same as the girl was on deck, wearing a familiar dark blue shirt, black pants and vest. "Not good, Yu Fan. We found Gauron-lǎoshī at the sea a few days ago."
Xia Yu Fan felt joyful upon hearing the news. "Is he alive, Fei Xiu?"
A girl with short hair came on the Junk's deck as well. "He...doesn't seem to be alive after we found him."
"What? What happened, Yu Lan?"
Xia Yu Fan was startled. "Come on, Cole! We're going up..."
"Why me?" Cole Sterling aka Bushmaster sighed as he went up on-board the Junk with Yu Fan.
Deck, Junk
"Hey Cole..." A 16-year old male with bangs knelt over a stretcher with a gray blanket covering a body on it. Like his twin brother Fei Xiu, he wore a red shirt instead of a dark blue shirt.
"Fei Won." Bushmaster knelt next to the stretcher. The Xia and Fei siblings gathered behind Bushmaster, waiting to see if Gauron was still alive.
"Not too close behind my back, please." The American mercenary told the teenaged assassins. When he lifted it, the man was not able to look at the sight any longer that he immediately placed the blanket back down over the corpse.
"He's dead." Bushmaster plainly told the assassins.
"Why?" Fei Xu began to cry, facing his older brother. "Why is this happening to us?" He was comforted by Xia Yu Fan, who hugged him from behind.
"It's okay." Yu Fan placed Xu's head on her right shoulder while she gently placed her chin on his. "It's...okay." She too began to cry as well.
"So what now?" Yu Lan stared at the stretcher, clenching her fists. "What do we do to avenge lǎoshī's death?"
"W-wait!" Fei Won knelt on the stretcher and rechecked the pulse on Gauron's neck. "H-he's alive!"
"Really?" Bushmaster was a bit shocked, but glad to hear the news. He watched Fei Won lean his right ear near Gauron to hear him speak.
"Bushmaster." Fei Won addressed the mercenary. "We better get some medical attention to him this instant."
Bushmaster replied. "Can you get him the things he need?"
Fei Won nodded. "We can, but we better leave." He faced Fei Xu. "Get someone to transport him to our safehouse."
"Understood." Fei Xu wiped off his tears before he wiped out a cellphone from his pants pocket and dialled a series of numbers on its keypad.
I just hope Gauron can pull through. Bushmaster watched the Fei siblings tend to Gauron before the Xia siblings stepped in to help the boys.
THE END
PS - Hope you guys got the hint of the new villain in my FMP universe. If you know who he is, then you get karma points. XP
For pointers, the location of Zanzibar Land is using the location of Badakhsan in real life, which Borda is referring to. In the MG universe and in my FMP/xover stories, Badakhsan is another name for Zanzibar in Central Asia.
And yeah, I'm using Jack Conners courtesy of GrayWolf 4. Thanks Gray, I'm making him the good guy for my fics.
I have plans for a Darker than Black/Batman Begins & Dark Knight/MGS4 fic that I had in mind. I'm not sure if anyone likes the idea. If you do, let me know when you review. Thanks. For now, stay tune for another FMP oneshot (I guess).
For the vest thing, think of the UK/Commonwealth counterpart aka Waistcoat.