Forewords

Okay, I owe everyone who enjoyed the first three chapters an apology.

This chapter came six months late because I've got no idea on how it can be continued after the second paragraph. Yes, this chapter was un-uploaded in my archives for that long! Along with the problem that Fantasy Blitzkrieg and the new Team Fortress 2: Mann Of Conspiracy were easier to write despite either of them already discussing their conspiracy theme.


Chapter 3: The Rebels' New Friends

Time: 1030 Hour; 30th of December, 2040

Location: Regular Chinook Crash Site; San Francisco, United States.

Arriving at the crash site of the Regular Army Chinook, the Red Eagles found the surroundings to be decimated.

The whole place looked like it was totaled by a contained war...

...But no signs of the Regular Commandos.

"Where could they be?" Jason wondered.

"Let's see it this way..." Ash said. "Either the resulting explosion completely disintegrated their corpses, or..."

The theorizing was interrupted by several gunshots that erupted from far away, accompanied with the screams of Rebel forces.

"...Or they got themselves a headstart on this mission..." Mina told the other mercenaries.

"Then let's give them a hand, everyone!" Jenny said as she rushes off toward the direction of the enemy screams. The other Red Eagles followed suit.

...

Mission Briefing

So it turns out that the Regular Commandos didn't need your help in the first place. They even took off without you, and are giving the Rebels a run for their money.

While the Rebels at city center are kept busy by the Regular Commandos, you Red Eagles should take downtown, take out any enemy forces in your way, and meet up with the Commandos at the Golden Gate Bridge.

Be warned that since the entire Rebel Army is occupied in city center, your trek downtown will pit you against the Amadeus Syndicate and the Ptolemaic Army, both of which are stronger than the Rebels.

Two Metal Slug vehicles have been deployed in the city. One near the Regular Commandos' positions, another in downtown. Use it to your advantage. Even so, watch out for the enemies' larger-sized rip-offs of the Metal Slug, respectively dubbed Formor and Metal Rear, with the latter dwarfing the Metal Slug in comparison. Destroy both of them, and then rendezvous with the Commandos.

That is all. Godspeed...

...

MISSION TWO START!

An Amadeus Syndicalist who was just passing by freaked out upon seeing the Red Eagles, and ran off deeper into downtown San Francisco.

"Just like the days back at Seoul. Don't you think?" Jason asked the others.

"Except that the North Koreans weren't this strong when they attacked South Korea." Ash gave the response. "That, and this is more reminiscent of Syria..."

"Who compares the Taliban with anyone else, anyway?" Jenny interrupted with a lampshade.

"Guys, can we please get back with the mission?" Mina interrupted with a reminder.

"We'll continue this conversation later..." Jason and Ash agreed to talk about things later, as they headed toward where the Amadeus Syndicalist took off, with the girls following behind them.

...

"Oh, look! An ammo crate!"

Ash kicked the ammo crate open, revealing a Flame Shot in it.

At exactly the same second the ammo crate burst open, a mob of Amadeus Syndicalists approached from across the street and aimed their Heavy Machine Guns at the Red Eagles.

"Say hello to my little friend!" Ash picked up the Flame Shot, and proceeds to fry the enemies with it. The Amadeus Syndicalists, on fire, screamed in pain before they dropped on the ground as charred corpses.

As soon as the last Amadeus Syndicalist went up in flames, a silver Di-Cokka approached the Red Eagles from directly in front, and fires a volley of three smoothbores at them.

While everyone else crouched to avoid being hit, Jason went and Vulcan Chopped all three smoothbores out of the air with his machete, and he was relatively unscathed.

"I can survive anything! Even nukes!" Jason boasted, right before he went up close with the Di-Cokka and Vulcan Chopped it to pieces. The wrecked Di-Cokka promptly explodes once, and then explodes again, leaving behind nothing. "Darn, I was expecting at least a Heavy Machine Gun..."

...

Moving on to the next location, the Red Eagles soon encountered a Double-Decker Bus that was crashed into a building, and is used as a barricade by the Amadeus Syndicate.

"It's the Regular Army! Kill them!" One of the Syndicalist shouted.

"Oh, shut up..." Ash snarked, before he fires a single burst of Flame Shot, setting all the enemies on fire.

After dealing with the Syndicalists, the Red Eagles focused their firepower on the Double-Decker Bus. As the Bus was already beaten up firsthand, it didn't take too long for the combined firepower to bring it down.

Although destroying the Bus revealed another silver Di-Cokka hiding under it.

"Piece of cake!" Ash said loudly. "Leave this to me!" The silver-haired mercenary approached the Di-Cokka and is about to unleash his chainsaw on it...

...Only to jump back in surprise when a R-Shobu came out of nowhere and dropped bombs on him.

"Holy...!" Ash exclaimed, as he turns the Flame Shot upon the helicopter. By the time he managed to blow up the heli, the Flame Shot is already out of ammo.

At about the same time, the other three Red Eagles had blown up the Di-Cokka with their handguns alone.

"Ash-kun, you don't have to freak out like that..." Mina told the silver-haired mercenary.

Moving on, the Red Eagles soon came across another group of enemy soldiers hiding behind a Sandbag. These Amadeus Syndicalist are armed with Heavy Machine Guns. There is also a Landseek behind the group of soldiers, and it is carrying a Mounted Machine Gun manned by a Syndicalist.

Not taking any chances this time, Ash lobbed a Grenade over the Sandbag, blowing up the poor enemy soldiers before they knew what hit them. Jenny lobbed another Grenade toward the Landseek, and the Mounted Machine Gunner who saw it coming could only fire a few shots before the Landseek and him got blown up.

"Let's go help the Regular Commandos." Jason said as he led the way forward through Downtown San Francisco.

...

Moving into a relatively empty street, the Red Eagles are surprised by the lack of enemy troops in the vicinity.

"Oh, look!" Jason pointed at a First Aid Kit on the floor that laid on its side and spilled several bottle of pills over the asphalt. "I wonder how does he say it? Grabbin' Peelz?" The mercenary in red joked.

Although nobody else in the immediate area got the joke.

"Is it the right time to make such a joke?" Ash deadpanned about the joke.

As soon as Ash finishes his deadpan, something smashed through a nearby brick wall.

"There it is!" Jenny exclaimed while pointing at the new arrival. "The Formor!"

Boss battle: Formor

The Formor starts off the battle by firing its cannon once. The Red Eagles dodged the cannon shot as it blows up a wrecked car behind them.

"Destroy that cheap rip-off of the Metal Slug!"

The Red Eagles then retaliates by firing their handguns at the tank. The handgun bullets bounced off the Formor without even chipping the paint off. It then retaliates by firing another cannon shot.

The shell landed short of the Red Eagles, and the explosion did not affect any of them. What does affect them are the shrapnel that came out of the explosion which grazed each of the mercenaries slightly.

"So that's the Formor's upgrade..." Mina examined the attack. "They replaced the Armor Piercer with a Frag Shell..."

The Formor proceeds to unload its Vulcan at the Red Eagles. The mercenaries jumped to the sides to avoid the spray of bullets.

"The original Formor also have a slow-firing Heavy Sniper instead of a Vulcan." Jenny adds in.

Seeing his chance, Jason ran toward the Formor, and Vulcan Chopped it as it is about to perform a wheelie. The sudden melee-barrage caused significant damage to the tank, causing a small explosion that launched it several feet back. Said explosion also caused it to sprout small flames all over its hull.

The Formor resumes attacking, firing a volley of three cannon shells and several seconds of Vulcan unloading at the Red Eagles while jumping backwards.

The Red Eagles got down and slid forward so that the shots flew above them harmlessly.

Standing up, Ash brandished his chainsaw, and points it at the Formor. "Shoot this!" With one taunt, the silver-haired mercenary charged forward and jammed the chainsaw into the underside of the Formor just as it is about to perform another wheelie.

The chainsaw tears through the underside of the tank, possibly damaging many vital components, which caused it to get launched backwards again with another explosion. One last explosion and the Formor is transformed into a smoldering wreckage.

Formor defeated.

"And that's why you don't rip-off someone else's design!" Jenny gave the destroyed Formor one last taunt, along with a single kick to its chassis.

...

As the Red Eagles move on toward their objectives, leaving the Formor behind, the hatch of the wrecked tank begins to unlock from the inside.

The hatch is then opened from the inside, revealing a man in his fifties wearing army camo.

"This is Commander Jake Gyllendal reporting from Downtown." He spoke through a radio. "The Regular Army have hired guns doing their job for them here. Keep an eye out for them. This is what they looked like..."

...

"A Metal Slug! About time!" Jason said upon seeing the Regular Army's signature Super Vehicle parked in the middle of the road. "Jenny, you know what to do!"

"Of course!" Jenny replies, as she jumps in to the Metal Slug.

It didn't take too long before the Red Eagles, with Jenny Wakeman driving the Metal Slug, came across another Double-Decker Bus being used as a barricade. Except that not only is this one not protected by any enemy soldiers, but it is also relatively unscathed.

"That might take a while to break down..." Mina commented on the situation.

Jason and Ash approached the Double-Decker Bus, and respectively Vulcan Chopped and chainsaw-ed the massive public transport. While at the same time, Mina and Jenny helped bring down the Bus by firing at it.

It took a long while, but the Double-Decker Bus finally gets chewed up enough that it falls apart...

...And what came from behind it is neither Rebel Army nor Amadeus Syndicate...

...Its a Ptolemaic Landseek, carrying a squad of Ptolemaic Guerillas.

"Good news: we've broke down the Double-Decker Bus that is in our way." Jason deadpanned about the change of situation. "Bad news: we're now facing the Ptolemaic Army."

The Ptolemaic Guerillas aimed and fired their Submachine Guns at the Red Eagles' general direction.

The Red Eagles dived for cover as the bullets flew over their heads.

"Shoot them!" The mercenaries then returns fire, focusing their firepower on the Ptolemaic Landseek until it blew up with the Guerillas still on the forklift-equipped flatbed.

Once again, the Red Eagles didn't move very far until they encountered more enemies. This time, a Ptolemaic Di-Cokka in the front, a Ptolemaic Girida-O at the back, and a Ptolemaic Masknell up above.

The Red Eagles are able to evade the shots from the Di-Cokka and Girida-O by crouching. The same can't be said for the Masknell.

"Take this, devil-worshipping fanatics!" Jenny yelled, as she fires a shell from the Metal Slug and annihilates the Ptolemaic Di-Cokka before it can fire another volley.

Mina took the opportunity to throw two Grenades at the Ptolemaic Girida-O. The explosion completely disintegrates the chassis, leaving behind only the cannon.

The Ptolemaic Masknell continues to fire its guns on the Red Eagles. The bullets hit the Metal Slug square on, but doesn't do much damage to it.

A few seconds of Jenny unloading the Vulcan, and the Masknell exploded mid-flight.

"Oh, yeah! Even the most powerful aircrafts are no match for the Slug!" Jason boasted loudly.

Jenny responds by gently bumping into the mercenary-in-red with the Metal Slug. "Don't be too proud. The Rebels have once managed to build a war machine that made scrap metals out of a Slug vehicle."

"Like, for example, the Metal Rear..." Ash cuts in. "Wish we have a cardboard box..."

...

The Red Eagles found themselves surrounded by Ptolemaic Fanatics as soon as they turned around a corner. Although all it takes to get out of that situation is for Jason to Vulcan Chop those from the front with his machete, and Ash to slice up those from behind with his chainsaw.

A Ptolemaic APC joins the action from the enemy side. But one Metal Slug shell from Jenny, and its a pile of burning wreckage before it gets to do its job.

"Play fair, you bastards!" Jenny taunted from inside the Metal Slug.

Another short trek later, the Red Eagles ran into a group of Ptolemaic Mortars positioned behind a pile of Sandbags. A Ptolemaic Commander gave the orders to attack, and then just ran away without a fight.

The Ptolemaic Mortars fired a volley of mortar shells at the Red Eagles. But thankfully, all of them stopped short of hitting the mercenaries.

"What's with bad guys and inaccuracies?" Jason and Ash lampshaded the phenomenon in unison.

"How should I know?" Jenny responds with snark from inside the Metal Slug. She then fires a Metal Slug shell at the nest of Mortars.

The Guerillas all have a moment of freak-out when they saw the shell coming straight for them. One of them literally took the shell right in his face as it exploded, blasting the other Guerillas into the air.

"That never gets old..." Mina comments.

...

The Red Eagles came across a third Double-Decker Bus being used as a barricade.

"I hate busses..." Jason deadpans. As he approached the Bus and prepared to Vulcan Chop it, the sound of metals being crushed came from behind the massive public transport made him change his mind. Jason opted to rejoin his friends.

"This definitely isn't good..." Jenny points out from inside the Metal Slug.

One huge explosion later, the Double-Decker Bus is blown into several pieces, and the scaled-up version of a rather familiar shape emerged from the inferno.

"Metal Rear?!" All four Red Eagles exclaimed in unison.

Boss battle: Metal Rear

The enormous Metal Slug rip-off plowed over the remains of the Double-Decker Bus, even wheelie-ing over what it can't crush further.

The Metal Rear starts off the battle by firing a huge ball of burning napalm at the Metal Slug. The Red Eagles on foot dove for cover, but the Super Vehicle took a direct hit, and Jenny is forced to abandon it before it explodes.

"We kill it until it is deader than dead!" Jason shouts, as he and the others begin unloading their handguns on the massive tank.

Unlike the Formor, the Metal Rear completely shrugs off all those bullets. It then retaliates by firing another huge fireball that, upon landing, created a blaze which lasted for seconds.

"I guess we should stay away from where the fireball lands!" Jenny told the others.

The Metal Rear then does a wheelie as it approaches the Red Eagles.

The mercenaries lobbed as many Grenades as they have at the underside of the massive red tank. The Grenades does quite a bit of damage to the chassis, but not significant enough to weaken the Metal Rear.

The Metal Rear stopped short of crushing the Red Eagles under its chassis, and then jumps back to where it started while firing its massive Vulcan at the mercenaries.

The oversized bullets of the Metal Rear's Vulcan flies over the Red Eagles' heads.

"Can't we ever fight something our own size?!" Ash shouts angrily, while lobbing another Grenade at the massive tank.

The Grenade explosion breaks off a shall chunk off the hull of the Metal Rear. The massive tank resumes its attack with yet another huge fireball.

The Red Eagles had to jump out of the way to avoid a direct hit. Even then, a small amount of napalm is still splashed upon Mina.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" The purple-clad Japanese girl cried out, while rolling on the ground to put out the fires on her back. It takes a few seconds, but luckily, she is not hurt. "Now you've done it..." That said, Mina reached into her fanny pack and grabbed an Anti-Tank Mine she then throws at the Metal Rear. "Run over this!"

The Anti-Tank Mine landed where the massive tank will run over it. As it did, the Anti-Tank Mine exploded violently, causing enough damage to cause another explosion within the Metal Rear itself. Entering its second attack phase, the Metal Rear performs another wheelie, except that it approaches slowly while firing its Vulcan at the Red Eagles' general direction.

"Yes! Don't you hurt Mina!" It was Ash's turn to be angry. He charged forward, brandishing his chainsaw towards the Metal Rear. Amazingly enough, the chainsaw actually tore right through one of the oversized bullets without breaking, or harming its wielder. Ash proceeds to drive the chainsaw straight into the underside of the massive tank.

This attack caused enough damage to the Metal Rear that it exploded a second time from within without getting a chance to finish its current attack, and then explodes a third time, this one rendering it as a massive red wreck.

Metal Rear defeated.

"And I thought the original was tough..." Ash comments. "This upgraded version just took it to the next level..."

Jason walked in front and led the way. "Come on, guys. Golden Gate is just up front. Let's get back to our objectives."

MISSION COMPLETE!


Afterwords

Finally, I was able to post this chapter after a six month hiatus. I guess that's the problem with working on three separate stories in which the entire plot has already been planned out in advance...

The thing is: you plan too far in advance, and you'll become unable to plan what's coming right up...

As for Mina suddenly getting an Anti-Tank Mine from her inventory... Mina Kabuto, despite being a recolor of Fio, is actually a bomb expert surpassing Eri in MadSoldier's Metal Slug History X sprite comic series. There's actually one scene where she jumps several feet into the air with a somersault (not sure how high in terms of Metal Slug sprite sizes, but definitely higher than Leona super-jumping in Metal Slug XX) and drops four Tani-Oh mines on a boss enemy who is simply a recolor of a Rebel Gatling Gunner.

So, yeah, the Red Eagles' skills will be portrayed in accordance to how MadSoldier portrayed them. Same goes for all the mercenaries that will join the party later in this series, they too will have their own unique skills.

In the meantime, do check out my other stories, including Team Fortress 2: Mann Of Conspiracy.

Shout-out index:

"Say hello to my little friend!" - "Hey, that's my line!" ~Tony Montana, Scarface.

"I can survive anything! Even nukes!" - Not so much of a shout-out as a nod to canon material. This line is copied straight from one of Ralf's lines from The King Of Fighters.

"...Grabbin' peelz..." - "Peelz here!" ~Louis, Left 4 Dead.

"Wish we have a cardboard box..." - I would be cool to have Solid Snake from Metal Gear as a guest character in Metal Slug...

That is all. "Dismissed!"