Chapter 4

"What about…" Raiden started shouting as he saw Snake speed off. "Crap!" Snake was out of sight. Raiden turned around and decided to head down to the holding area, as he did he reached for the CODEC. "Otacon are you there?"

"Yeah. What's the update?" Otacon asked.

"Snake went after the hostile." Raiden replied quickly reaching the bridge stairwell.

"Are you saying it was only one?" Otacon asked.

"It seems that way, he noticed us even with the SCS on" Raiden was reaching the door to the holding area. He quickly turned off the SCS, removed the red lenses from his eyes inserted his sword on its cover and shoved the door open. Right in front of her stood a startled woman.

"Raiden?" She said clearly startled.

"We've been looking for you, Meryl" Raiden said. "C'mon we've got to move!" He gestured to her so she would hurry.

"Snake!" Meryl knew that if Raiden said 'We' Snake had to be with him. "Where is he?"

"I'm not sure, I'll check but we've got to hurry…" Raiden gestured again and Meryl followed him out of the room.

"Otacon, patch me through to Snake!" Raiden said as he took a hold of Meryl's arm and led her to the left.

"Where are we going?" She asked as she felt Raiden's grip on her arm.

"To the deck…Snake's there…I think"

"I've got him" Otacon came on the CODEC again.

Raiden was quick to initiate the conversation "Snake it's me I've got Meryl. We're heading towards the deck…" But he could hear Snake already talking.

"What do you mean?" Raiden heard Snake say.

What the hell? Raiden thought to himself. Snake seemed to be talking to someone. "Don't move or I'll shoot!" Raiden heard Snake say.

"Up ahead." Meryl pointed with her right index to a sign on the wall. 'Upper Deck'

Raiden nodded while running and listening to Snake at the same time.

"Ahh!!" Raiden heard Snake grunting and then static.

"Otacon I've lost him!" Raiden said slowing down his pace.

"I did too." Otacon replied.

"What happened?" Meryl asked.

"Snake can you hear me?" Raiden heard Otacon say on the CODEC as Meryl's piercing eyes looked straight into his.

"Raiden what happened to Snake?" She asked again.

"I can't reach him!" Otacon replied sounding a bit preoccupied.

Raiden looked up and saw the door that led to the deck. "We're close to the deck. We'll find him" Raiden said decisively as he pressed on up the stairs with Meryl following close behind.

"Slowly turn around" Snake ordered while looking at the man down his sights.

Initially he just stood still. "And don't even think to wave your hand!" Snake said as he looked to the man's left hand and saw a string attached to it.

The man began laughing and started to turn around. "I have other ways to kill you." The voice was profound and calm as if it was the most normal of situations. "I killed all the officers and the man that wanted to blow them up" Black Tiger said as he completed the turn. Snake could now see his enemy, albeit being just a red blob.

"Blow what up?" Snake asked.

"Humph." Black Tiger smiled. "Like you don't know? That invisible suit won't fool me? You came to help him didn't you?"

Snake had no idea of what Black Tiger was talking about. Suddenly Raiden came on the CODEC. "Snake it's me I've got Meryl. We're heading towards the deck…" Good work, but I can't talk right now. I have find out what this man is doing here.

"What do you mean?" Snake hoped Raiden would be quiet, maybe he would even get here before the man tried anything. Until then Snake would attempt to get something out of him.

Black Tiger grinned and jerked his right hand slightly.

"Don't move or I'll shoot!" Snake said noticing it.

What happened next was too fast for Snake to see. Something shot out from under the man's right sleeve and hit Snake on the right side of his chest. "Ahh!!" The pain was incredibly strong, so much so that it sent Snake to the ground. As he fell his head hit the deck floor, the impact even threw the CODEC out of his ear. Even worse was the fact that the SCS began to disappear. Snake blinked his eyes several times because the back of his head was throbbing with pain. Beyond the red lenses Snake could see what had to be small sparks flying out of the suit. Snake reacted immediately by getting back on his feet and pointing his tranquilizer gun, however right away something rolled around the gun. Some kind of blade connected to a string that in turn was probably wrapped around the man's wrists. The man pulled the string and Snake felt his gun leaving his hands and most likely sent overboard. Snake used his, now free, right hand and took out the lenses. In front of him stood a man wearing what looked like an ordinary black suit, swerving two weird blades on his hands.

"Now, whoever you are…" Suddenly lighting struck just a few feet from the deck and at that moment Black Tiger stopped swerving his blades and opened his eyes wide. It can't be!!

Snake was fast on the uptake. He quickly got up and reached for something strapped on his back, a knife. At least now he had somewhat of a fighting chance.

"You?" Black Tiger said not believing his eyes.

Meryl and Raiden ran across the doorway and found themselves on the deck of the carrier. As the distance shortened between them and the Metal Gears they became more threatening. Noticing Meryl's lack of astonishment Raiden asked. "You knew about them didn't you?"

Meryl turned and looked at him. "I saw them when I infiltrated this place..." Her head fell. "…I was captured soon after that."

"We better get going." Raiden said fully aware that Meryl was disappointed with herself.

"Yes" She replied and both ran off again. They had to go to the back of the main building were Raiden had last seen Snake.

"What about me?" Snake asked with his rough voice as he held his knife tight behind his right leg. Hopefully the man hadn't seen it yet.

"Salil...you…you're the one…the one that killed Salil!" Black Tiger said. He looked deeply into the face of the man in front of him and there was no doubt, this man was his sworn enemy.

"What are you talking about?" Snake said oblivious to what might have had happened to this man.

"You…you look just like him …" Black Tiger blinked his eyes. "You're the one that killed Liquid"

Liquid!! Snake said calmly. "Yeah, I killed him. What's it to you?" He hadn't thought much about that day in Washington D.C. when he had finally shot Liquid dead, or so he thought, unfortunately for Snake, Liquid was still very much alive.

Black Tiger's face changed from surprise to a weird frenzy. "It makes no sense that you are here…or does it, no matter I'll take it…I'll take my revenge!"

The moment had arrived, in a split second, when Black Tiger looked at the floor beneath him Snake advanced without fear. He ran towards his enemy with the knife tightly secured in his right hand. Black Tiger promptly reacted and threw both his blades towards Snake. The first one wrapped itself around Snake's left arm, but as the distance between them was smaller the blade didn't have enough momentum to pierce his arm, it was just hanging. The other was heading straight to Snake's face and on another lightning reaction Snake placed the knife in front of it and fortunately hit the string, albeit not cutting it the weird shaped blade missed Snake's face by a few inches and wrapped itself around the knife.

"How did you?" Black Tiger was keeping a fierce grip on the strings, not letting Snake make any moves. It was a stand-off. Snake and Black Tiger kept grunting and trying to force each other out of it. Snake's left arm was getting worse by the second. The tight grip on the string felt like an Indian burn on his arm. Snake had to hurry. He looked at Black Tiger and noticed his movements. Every now and then he would pull the right string a little bit. It was instinct, it happened in a stand-off situation. Both kept trying each other to see if someone was backing down. However in this particular scenario Snake could take advantage of it. Although the pain was getting bigger in his arm he had to wait for the right time. C'mon… And then it came.

The floor was slippery and every step should be taken with extreme carefulness, but Raiden and Meryl couldn't afford to waste time. Snake was fighting alone with someone who had probably killed all the men that Raiden and Meryl had seen before.

The run across the deck was a fast one and not soon enough they reached the back of the main building. However the lights weren't nearly enough as the ones near the Metal Gears. "Hold on a sec." Raiden said as he reached for his equipment and took out his lenses.

Meryl looked inquisitive at Raiden as he placed the lenses and looked into the distance, where the stormy night clouded everything.

"I see two people…Oh wait!! Somebody's…." Raiden flinched for a second. He couldn't believe his eyes. "Son of a…" He looked at Meryl. "Let's move"

Snake pulled with his right hand as hard as he could and this allowed for the string around the knife to get slightly loose, and before Black Tiger noticed he slid the knife down and grabbed the weird looking shaped blade. "Uh!" Black Tiger reacted and Snake didn't wait. He threw the blade almost at the same time that Black Tiger pulled the string. The trajectory was weird and with absolutely no control over it the blade lunged itself towards Black Tiger's left hand. The strike was horrid. The very sharp blade slit Black Tiger's left hand clean off. Both the string and the blade fell off the deck. Unfortunately Snake couldn't have known that Black Tiger's reaction was to move his right hand to hold his left arm. The enormous elevator right next to them hadn't been a matter of concern to Snake, now however the situation was different. As Black Tiger pulled his right arm, Snake was thrown off balance, his left arm lunged forwards and Snake fell to his knees.

"Bastard!! How could you!!" Black Tiger shouted as he saw what pulling his right arm had done. "You really are like him!" Black Tiger let go of his bleeding wrist and began pulling the string every time Snake tried to get up. By doing this he kept Snake on the floor and got near him. It didn't take long for Snake to see the blood spatters mixing with the rain water. "Now it's my time…my time to kill you" Black Tiger loosened the string around Snake's left arm and before he could do anything he kicked him as hard as he could in the head and effectively threw him down into the lift below. It was something like Snake had never experienced before. He was falling down, watching his enemy looking down at him as he threw something shiny overboard and began to move away. The fall almost felt like flying, but before Snake knew it all went black.