She looked him over. Getting him into that outfit was trouble. He still looked a bit out of place, but better than before...

>>Flashback

"Snake, we're going out in public. You've got to change clothes!" Anya shouted.

"What's wrong with this?" He gestured to his green-blue jumpsuit. Anya tried not to laugh. It looked okay in the game, but in real life...

"Its good for sneaking, yeah, but in normal life you'd be spotted immediately." Anya ran downstairs to her dad's room. "Follow me."

As Snake made his way down the stairs, Anya watched with a giggle. He walked like a girl with a dress on down the stairs. Snake noticed.

"What's so funny?"

She coughed. Better not tick off Snake again. She'd have another gun pointed to her head in no time.

"Nothing. Now, let's see what my dad has down here..."

Snake noticed a mirror next to the staircase and peered into it. Anya could hear him gasp from the next room.

"What is it, Snake?" Anya jogged back in, some clothes in hand.

He was rubbing his face, looking closely at it.

"I...I'm...young."

Anya went crosseyed. Side effect of the wish...

To her surprise, Snake grinned, something she had never seen him do.

"Nice." He turned to her. "Find anything, er, 'normal?'"

Anya nodded. She handed him the contents in her hand. Snake held up the shirt for inspection.

He was silent for a long moment. "...flannel?"

Anya shrugged. "What can I say? My dad took all his work clothes with him on a business trip. That's all he had left." Snake gave her a stare that shot daggers. "Don't look at me! So you'll look like a lumberjack for a while, get over it!"

Anya went back up the stairs. "You'd better be up here in that outfit By the time I'm done with my shower."

"Yeah."

Just as Anya got back out of the bathroom, she heard Snake coming back up the stairs. She turned around, toweling her hair dry.

"This is normal?" he asked. Anya wanted to laugh so bad.

"Better than before. C'mon, we'll be late." She threw the towel in the bathroom and pulled him out the door.

>>End flashback

"Did Otacon say what our informant would look like?" Snake whispered as they walked in the door.

"Shh! Whatever you do, don't talk." Anya straightened up. Someone might recognize your voice. If they brought up Metal Gear Solid 2...

Snake's face contorted oddly, but he nodded once.

Anya went and took her normal place in the LAN party seating arrangement. She settled down and booted up the computer.

"Took you long enough to come," Matt, aka DaNgErBoY, muttered. "We're getting our butts kicked by these losers!" Anya heard a splat from DaNgErBoY's computer and he cursed.

"But they're the same people as before, last week, right?" Anya asked as she logged on to the server.

"Yeah, but they have a new clan leader. He's a freak." DaNgErBoY pointed to a middle-aged and balding man sitting in the middle of the rival Half-Life clan. "He doesn't even have to talk to any of those guys. Its like they're wired or talking telepathically or something."

Anya glanced at the man. She immediately noticed that one of his hands was constantly to one ear. So were the rest of his team's.

What the heck is going on here? Anya thought. The man stared back, then abruptly put his other hand on the keyboard. His teammates did the same. Anya shook her head. "Freaky," she whispered.

"Hey, is your friend here just gonna stand around, or is he going to play?" Matt asked, not taking his eyes from the screen.

"He'll play." Anya continued firing off the shotgun as she switched the computer next to her on. "C'mon, sit down."

Snake slowly sat down in the chair and watched as the computer went through boot-up. When the desktop showed up, he continued to just stare blankly at the screen. Anya almost hit herself in the head.

"Snake, boot up Half-Life!" she whispered hoarsely.

"Boot up what?"

"Argh. You--" She began to boot up and set up the game for Snake. "For a top mercenary...you sure can be stupid. Doesn't even know how to use a computer...sheesh."

"That's Otacon's area," Snake muttered. He grabbed the mouse and began clicking. Shots fired off on the screen. "Cheap VR..."

Anya sighed. She was going to explain the control mechanics of Half-Life when an odd character walked in. A young woman, around 20 or so, dressed in a short skirt and fluffy pink longsleeved shirt sauntered in. Snake took notice.

"Hello..." he said quietly. Anya grunted and smacked Snake in the stomach. The woman walked up to them.

"Hello. Snake? And Kitty I presume?" she said. Snake stood up, and Anya just sat for a moment. Kitty... She glanced at her login name.

Dagger Kitty. Her fake codename she had made for an old MGS fanfic. That was her name now, she guessed. She stood up now.

"Yeah. You are?"

The woman glanced around. She saw quite a few of the young men on the computers staring at her.

"Is there somewhere private we can talk?" Anya nodded slowly and led Snake and the woman to a back room of the place.

"Codec," the woman said. Snake and Anya nodded.

"Hear me?"

"Yeah," both Snake and Anya replied.

"Good. My name is Jayna. Hal sent me. Although I really can't help all too much."

"What do you know about the situation?" Snake asked.

Jayna sighed. "Like I said, not much. Hal only managed to tell me where he is approximately. Somewhere in the middle of the Pacific ocean."

"Oh, that helps us a lot," Anya said, rolling her eyes.

"We managed to get a near lock on where the artificial island is. His connection was cut before we got an exact location, but this can't be too far off."

"Well? What are the coordinates?"

Jayna rambled them off, along with where they could hitch a ride. She then cut the Codec connection. Before Snake or Anya could even say thank you, she had disappeared.

"Whoa." Anya blinked and looked around the dark room. "Weird."

Snake shrugged. "I've met weirder people." He stood up. "We'd better get going. That ride isn't going to wait that long." He stared at Anya questioningly. "...Kitty?"

Anya blushed. "Well, my codename...it was...well, I'm good with knives and very graceful, so, they called me Dagger Kitty." Eh, what a great backstory. 'Blah blah blah, so THEY called me Dagger Kitty.' Whoever 'they' is.

"Great. Come on." Snake walked out the door. Anya sighed happily and trotted after him.

She wasn't even thinking about the fact that she had just gotten herself into more trouble than before. And she didn't even notice DaNgErBoY's eyes flashing and him yelling and cursing after her as she walked out the door. All she was focusing on was Snake and his cute headband.

Waitaminute. He still has his headband on?!?! "Snake!"