NOTE: Wow, I'm very impressed with the number of reviews I've received for the last two chapters! Thanks guys, I'm glad you're all enjoying the story so far. Sorry I took so long to respond to all your reviews, but I've been busy with my job and other things that a teen has to deal with on a daily basis. By the way, I'd like to take a moment to dedicate this story to all those MGS/Smash Bros. fans out there who feel that Snake isn't portrayed nor explained as well as he should be in other fics of this fandom. Okay, let's get things underway!


-II: Of Mercenaries and Smashers-

Snake stared at the body of the DARPA chief, Donald Anderson, in disbelief.

Moments ago, Snake broke into the man's cell to rescue him using an overhead air duct. Anderson told him about the new type of Metal Gear, codenamed "REX," the secret partnership between DARPA and ArmsTech, and whether or not the terrorists led by members of FOXHOUND could, in fact, fulfill their threats to launch a nuke. Snake was prepared to help the man escape from his cell, but before he could, the man started to shake violently and convulse. Before Snake knew it, the man died right in front of his eyes.

One minute he's fine, the next minute he's dead. The Colonel is definitely hiding something from me.

He called Colonel Campbell on his Codec, but neither he nor Dr. Naomi Hunter could figure out what happened. Naomi thought it might be a heart attack, but Snake was skeptical. How could a heart attack be timed so perfectly?

The mercenary was about to jump back up through the duct but stopped. He heard a muffled yell and some movement outside the cell, but the noise stopped as quickly as it started.

Snake paused and listened for a moment. He heard the cell door next to his open before his own cell unlocked moments later.

Drawing his SOCOM, Snake approached the cell door and opened it. Seeing no moment, he carefully made his way out, ready for anything. He was greeted with the unpleasant sight of a naked man's ass sticking up in the air, the man himself out cold. He realized it was the prison guard from before as the abrupt clicking of an assault rifle forced him to stop.

"Don't move!" the figure ordered in a muffled voice. "So you killed the Chief…you bastard!"

Snake holstered his SOCOM and raised his hands, warily turning to his right to find himself staring down the barrel of a FAMAS. Was it just him, or did that voice sound rather…feminine?

His assailant had the prison guard's olive-colored uniform on; the face mask obscuring any hint of his (her?) identity. Snake noticed rather distinct curves near the chest area and a slimmer frame down the middle. Could it be the woman he saw before; the one he eyed while he was crawling through the cell vents to reach the DARPA Chief?

"Liquid?...No…you're not."

Snake jerked towards her, causing the masked woman to nearly jump out of her skin. She forced the FAMAS in Snake's face.

"Don't move!" she yelled, her hands shaking. Snake smirked; the classic sign of a rookie.

"Is this the first time you've ever pointed a gun at a person? Your hands are shaking."

The woman seemed taken aback, almost irritated under the mask. Using her hesitation to his advantage, Snake used a basic CQB (Close Quarter Battle) move to swipe the FAMAS right out of her hands, aiming it directly at her. She grabbed it back, twisting it around so it pointed directly in the middle of Snake's forehead. He reached for the barrel and pulled it closer so that the ice cold steel was only millimeters from his skin.

"Can you shoot me, rookie?" he smirked. Yup, the woman was definitely irritated now.

"Careful. I'm no rookie!" she said defiantly.

"Liar," he growled. "Your eyes wander. There's no confidence in them. The eyes of a rookie."

He narrowed his eyes, staring intently into hers. "You've never shot a person, have you?"

"You talk too much!"

"You haven't even taken the safety off, rookie," Snake said with another smirk. He had noticed that fatal error immediately when he saw the woman; another rookie mistake. She tightened her grip on the FAMAS and quickly switched the safety off with a small click.

"I told you, I'm no rookie!" she shouted, visibly shaking with rage now.

"You're not one of them, are you?" Snake asked. The woman motioned her FAMAS toward the door.

"Open that door! You have a card, don't you?"

"Why?"

"So we can get the hell out of here!" she said in disbelief.

Before either of them could move, the door opened and Genome Soldiers started filing through, FAMAS's drawn.

"Looks like we'll be a little delayed!" Snake said as he drew his SOCOM immediately.

The woman aimed her FAMAS at the soldiers and hesitated, her eyes turning wide at the sight of them. Muttering incoherently about "idiot rookies," Snake immediately started firing before the first wave could get a shot off. The woman was completely stunned as the men went down, her finger still unable to pull the trigger. One of their attackers aimed his FAMAS at her, no hesitation in his eyes. Snake immediately put a bullet through his head as the Genome Soldier fell forward, staining the concrete floor with his blood. The woman's eyes were wide as saucers at the nauseating sight.

"What are you doing? Don't think, shoot!" Snake barked as more soldiers arrived, gunfire filling the room. The woman pressed the trigger, hoping for the best.

"Aaahhhh!" she screamed as the rifle recoiled, completely out of control in her hands. The wild bullets killed a few soldiers as the rifle kicked her shots wildly into the air. She stopped and stared in shock at the lives she had just ended.

With an exasperated groan, Snake forcefully grabbed her arm and shoved her into the nearest cell for cover as bullets flew through the air like angry hornets swarming a threat. He returned fire as he gritted his teeth, not liking their odds in the least. The woman stood frigidly in the corner, her eyes still wide in disbelief as the scene played over in her head over and over.


Glimmers of white light breached the darkness. Solid Snake could barely make out the outlines of various figures above him. Whether these figures were real or merely figments of his imagination were the least of his concerns.

His head hurt like hell, but his heightened training as a solider started to kick back in; the first of these instincts being to block out the pain and power through it; the second to figure out where he was without letting his "captors" know that he was awake.

He knew he was on something soft, most likely a mattress. He felt machine hookups at certain parts of his body and thought he heard the sounds of a heart monitor and an IV, which led him to believe he was in some type of hospital. He heard different voices in the room as his sense of hearing returned.

"…and the next thing I know, the guy collapses right in front of me. It's a good thing I was taking a ride through the Lost Woods on Epona when I was; else I don't know if he'd have made it. Packs of Wolfos and Stalhounds can be dangerous to deal with at night, especially by yourself."

Snake turned and barely opened his eyes to see a green-clad figure talking to something that looked like a giant, floating white hand. He noticed the green guy's pointy ears had small blue rings pierced in each one.

What's this guy, some kind of elf? And what's with that floating hand thing?' he wondered. Now I know I must be dreaming…

"I'm thankful you found him when you did, Link," the hand said. "Who knows what could have happened if you hadn't shown up?" The man-elf called Link shook his head with bewilderment.

"Honestly Master Hand, he was doing just fine until I had to intervene," Link said. "He was using a combo of high-tech weaponry that I've never seen before, along with hand-to-hand combat moves. The guy was incredible! I just wish I knew who he was and what he was doing out there all by himself."

"We'll find out more when he wakes up. Until then, go and attend to the other Smashers," the hand replied. "Also, on your way out, please send in Mario. I need to discuss some things with him."

Link gave a curt nod and walked out of the room, leaving only Snake and the floating mutant hand-thing.

Snake attempted to sit up, but his body screamed out in protest. He realized his Sneaking Suit had been removed and that several layers of bandages were wrapped around his torso. He also felt patches on both his arms and shoulders. Some of the wounds were from the demon wolves, but some of them were also from his fight with Liquid and Metal Gear REX. That's not even counting the burn marks from the shock treatments he received from Ocelot's torture machine hours earlier.

To his relief, his trademark bandana was still securely tied to his head. The gloved hand appeared to notice his feeble attempts to rise.

"So, you're awake," the hand started. "Relax—you're safe here. You're lucky to be alive. Even if you hadn't been attacked, you probably would have died of dehydration after a few days. Not many bodies of water run through the Lost Woods. How are you feeling?"

"Where am I, and who, or what, the hell are you?" Snake asked in a raspy voice, not caring if he had offended the hand-thing or not. Damn, he needed a smoke.

The hand-thing moved closer so Snake could easily see him. "For starters, my name is Master Hand, and you're currently in the hospital wing of Smash Mansion," he began. "This mansion is the home of myself and an elite group of fighters known as the Super Smash Brothers," it proudly proclaimed. Snake stared at the hand as if it were tripping on LSD.

"Uh-huh…and where is this…mansion, located exactly?" he asked.

"Why, in the Nintendo universe of course! Where else did you think we were?" it asked, as if Snake should have known that already. The mercenary was stunned.

Nintendo? Now I'm positive that I've gone crazy. Where's Otacon when you need him? He's a geek, maybe he'd know who these people are. I sure as hell don't… Snake thought before responding. He'd take the evasive answer approach.

"Let's just say I'm not from around here," Snake said.

"I figured as much. If you don't mind, I have a few questions," the hand said. "Who are you, and why were you out in the middle of the Lost Woods?"

Snake considered lying for a moment but reconsidered. This guy, or thing, seemed to be okay; he hadn't detected a single trace of a lie in his voice. Plus, these people could possibly know of a way to send him back to Shadow Moses. Back to his world, where he was supposed to be.

"The name's Solid Snake, and I'm a retired solider from Alaska. Well, that is, I was retired," he muttered bitterly. "I was abruptly called back into service when a group of terrorists staged a coup on a military installation on Shadow Moses Island, and then…"

"…your mission became far more complex, and you were involved in an explosion so large that somehow it opened an interplanetary wormhole that transported you to our world. Right?" the hand said without hesitation.

If it had been a cartoon, Snake's jaw would have dropped to the floor. He was flabbergasted. He reconsidered his evaluation of the hand; this guy could be an enemy after all.

"That's it; who are you really?!" he bellowed. "How can you read my mind like that?! Do you know Psycho Mantis or something!" He struggled to rise as Master Hand firmly held him down. Realizing the hand was too strong, he slowly relaxed as the hand released him from its grasp.

"Relax, Snake. Sorry about that, I read your mind to make sure you were telling me the truth. Would have done it sooner but I needed you to be conscious. Sorry if it upsets you, but it's faster than you simply telling me everything," it apologized before pausing.

"I understand that you come from a different world than ours. Like I said though, you've somehow been transported here through a type of wormhole."

"Wormhole?" Snake asked. All I remember is the crash while I was battling Liquid…

"Yes it was a wormhole, most likely caused by the explosion. It's an extremely rare case for a wormhole like that to open, but then again if the explosion was huge enough, theoretically the amount of force could, for a moment's time, cause a tear in the fabric of time and space between dimensions, thus creating a small wormhole. Unfortunately, the exit factor of a wormhole is random, and you happened to end up in this dimension," explained Master Hand. Snake cut the hand off before it could continue; scientific explanations were never his favorite thing to discuss.

"Lucky me…" he muttered. "Look, that's all fine and dandy, but I have a mission to complete. Is there any way you can transport me back to my world?"

Snake didn't care how it happened; he just wanted a way back to Shadow Moses and fast. Otacon could be hurt and dying for all he knew. And what about the Colonel and the air raid?

"I'm not sure if there is. Wormholes are a touchy subject; I'd have to do some more research to give you an answer, not to mention to find out exactly which dimension you came from. It's fairly complicated stuff, you know. There's billions upon billions of dimensions you could have come from."

Snake turned his head briefly, forcing down the sadness that was once again assaulting the steel barrier he had built around his heart.

It's not like I have much to go back to anyways…I failed the mission, and the people whom I thought I could actually call "allies" double crossed me…

"Regardless, I have a proposition for you, Snake. I've heard you're an avid fighter, and from what I've gathered from reading your mind, an elite soldier."

"So?" the mercenary asked, turning his head back to face his host.

Master Hand paused for a moment, almost as if for dramatic effect. "I'm asking if you'd be in joining the Super Smash Brothers and become a Smasher. We have many warriors here, all from different cultures and worlds. A fighter such as yourself would feel right at home."

Snake thought about it for a moment before he shook his head. "Sorry, but I always work alone. I'm not much of a people person."

The door on the far right of the white room automatically opened as a short, moustached man, dressed in overalls and a red cap with an "M" plastered on the front entered the hospital wing. He paused to finish stuffing a white doctor's coat inside a black supply bag he was carrying before walking toward Master Hand.

"Master Hand, you sent for me?" he asked in a thick Italian accent, looking at Snake out of the corner of his eye.

"Yes Mario, I did. Have there been any problems with the Smashers in my absence?"

Mario!? Snake thought, as in the "Super Mario Bros." Mario? I thought that guy looked familiar. Come on; you've got to be kidding me! I got sent to a dimension of kids' video games?

"Well, aside from a small fight between Bowser and Ganondorf, things have been pretty quiet." The plumber motioned toward Snake. "I see our new arrival's finally awake."

"Ah, yes," the hand said. "Solid Snake, may I introduce you to Mario, one of our veteran Smashers and also the part-time head of the hospital wing here at the Mansion. He's the reason why you're still alive right now. Mario, this is Solid Snake. He's a mercenary from some place called Alaska." Snake shook hands the Smasher, giving him a curt nod. For some reason, Snake already kind of liked the guy.

"Nice to meet you, Snake," he said. "You were in pretty bad shape when Link brought you in; I wasn't sure if you were gonna make it. Luckily you have a strong immune system, and you heal fairly quickly for someone your age. How are you feeling?"

"I've felt better. How long have I been out?" Snake asked.

"About three days. You seemed exhausted from whatever you'd been through, like a bad case of fatigue caused by battle stress," Mario said, gesturing at Snake's burnt and worn Sneaking Suit.

"Mario, I was just inviting our new friend here to join us here at Smash Mansion and become a Smasher," Master Hand said. "From what Link's told me, he's quite the fighter." Mario's bright eyes perked up at the mention of those words.

"That's great!" he exclaimed with a warm smile. "We've had several new members arrive recently, so you'd be in good company. Heck, the Brawl tournament hasn't even started yet, so you could even enter that if you wanted to."

"So Snake, what do you say? You know, you're not the only one here who tends to go it alone," Master Hand said. Snake took another moment to think before making his decision.

"Guess I could give it a shot…" he muttered.

Well, what choice do I have? I'm stuck here in a dimension I only thought existed in stupid video games, I don't know where Otacon is, and it looks like there's no way I can return to Shadow Moses. What do I have to lose?

"Great, it's decided then! I'll send someone to get you in the morning Snake, but for now you should rest and regain your strength."

Snake nodded, watching as both Master Hand and Mario turned around and exited the hospital wing after shutting off the lights. Snake lay awake for a few minutes, mulling over his present situation in his mind before sleep and fatigue overtook him once again.


Snake awoke with a jump in the hospital wing; Liquid's demented laughter still lingering in the back of his mind. It was nighttime from what he saw outside. The craving had come back. He really needed a cigarette, badly.

Checking around for a moment for any movement, Snake slid his legs out of the covers to the side of his bed, the cool tile flooring feeling smooth beneath his feet. Once he felt comfortable enough, he gingerly walked toward the far table where his Sneaking Suit lay. He took notice of the many beds that aligned both sides of the wing.

Jeez, guess they get a lot of injuries in this place…

In what felt like an eternity, he finally reached his carefully folded Sneaking Suit. He didn't see any of his weapons lying around, but he couldn't have cared less at that point. Besides, there was only one thing he was really looking for.

Un-zipping the outside covering, he reached inside and dug into a hidden pocket near the rib cage area where he kept a lighter and a pack of his special hand-rolled cigarettes handy. Not really caring if there was a "No Smoking" policy here or not, Snake quickly looked around for any hazardous oxygen tanks and took out a cig. He placed it in his mouth, the smooth tobacco feeling like bliss to his taste buds.

After making his way back to his bed, he opened the window above it slightly. The warm night air felt refreshing to his face as he lit the cigarette, the nicotine almost immediately soothing his anxious nerves.

People had always told him he should think about quitting, but in his profession, guys like him had a low life expectancy. So it'd be either cancer or a bullet. What did it matter? He stared out the window at the forest outside, thinking as he breathed out the excess smoke from his lungs.

So much had happened to him in the span of what felt like months. Within twenty-four hours, he'd gone from being a retired soldier living peacefully in the Alaskan wilderness to a mercenary with the fate of the world resting on his shoulders. As if that weren't enough, three days later he's invited to become a fighter competing against dozens of others in some kind of tournament, all in an alternate dimension.

Like I have anything better to do since I'm stuck here for now, he thought bitterly. Liquid is probably dead from the explosion, and I can't contact Otacon or the Colonel. Besides, I stopped Metal Gear, the terrorists, and FOXHOUND; mission accomplished as far as I'm concerned. Let that bastard Secretary of Defense obliterate Shadow Moses and the politicians point fingers. It's not my problem anymore…

Snake sighed as he looked up at the sky, silently smoking his cigarette. It was a gorgeous night. The pale moon shone as brightly as the gleaming stars, which resembled jewels glittering in the blackness of space.

The pain in his heart had returned, but by now he knew it wasn't FOXDIE. Naomi had said in her last transmission that FOXDIE was part of the shot she had given him containing the nanomachines for his mission. It was a type of retrovirus that killed its victims by simulating a heart attack. However, its victims were pre-programmed beforehand by the fine folks at the Pentagon. He still wondered if he was on their blacklist, also destined to die at the hands of the deadly strain. He was a so-called "failed" experiment now, after all.

At this point, he didn't care. His entire life had been a lie concocted by Big Boss and the higher-ups that raised and trained him. If he was to die now, then so be it.

No...this pain was the one he had been feeling earlier. The constant reminder of that one aspect of the mission he had failed. Yes, he had failed to rescue both the DARPA Chief and the ArmsTech President, but they were already dead or close to it by the time he had found them so it didn't matter.

No, he had failed one other person. The one person who had mattered the most to him. All because he had given into Ocelot's torture. He hadn't been strong enough to save her, the woman whom he came to love in so short a time. She was taken from him too quickly.

He still remembered how limp her body felt in his arms as he lifted her up; how cold she felt against his warm, blistered hands after he had disarmed the bomb at her feet. Her faded red hair, the paleness in her still-beautiful porcelain face.

Meryl…I…I'm sorry…I'm sorry I couldn't save you, he thought. The only person I have ever come close to loving…did end up loving...I couldn't save…

The cigarette and the moon were his only comforts. He slammed his hands down on the base of the window, curling them into tight fists. For the first time in his life, the legendary mercenary Solid Snake; a man revered everywhere as the best soldier in history since Big Boss himself, shed tears of agony.


And that's the end of Chapter Three. Expect fewer flashbacks until I actually spell out what happened on Shadow Moses for everyone, so if you're still a bit confused about Snake's past don't worry, I'll get to it eventually. If you're really curious however, you can always go on to other sites and find out the full story of MGS for yourselves (sorry if I'm not quick enough for you people…). Expect an update soon, but I can't say for sure when (same goes for LAH). Thanks like always for reading everyone, and please review if you have any questions/comments/critique!

-Sheik