Finally, I can upload again! Hope you didn't mind the wait, you can charge the bill to thanks.
Chapter 4
BOOM!
The big guy - now known as Mendez when Dai asked Leon - staggered back a few steps, chunks of yellowish blood and gore flying from various parts of his body. Leon had unloaded his 6th shell into the monster yet it kept coming at them.
BOOM!
A disgusting squirting noise was heard and Dai looked to see the lower half of Mendex get ripped away by the shotgun pellets. Mendez' legs gave way and collapsed to the ground while his gross upper body toppled to the floor. Daisuke kept his red circle trained on Mendez while Leon reloaded the 870. Hopfully, Mendez was dead.
Nope, he wasn't dead. The top half suddenly came to life, and the giant feelers from his back shot upwards and latched onto a support beam. Mendez heaved himself up and started to swing towards the two agents, beam to beam. Dai fired a round into Mendez' chest, which caused the monster to swing around in a comical fashion, but he then continued on towards them.
Dangling from one feeler, Mendez shot out his other one, aiming for Dai. Daisuke quickly leapt out of the way and the feeler impaled a barrel behind him. A resounding BOOM was heard as Leon fired point blank into Mendez' chest and the monster flew back onto the ground. By now the fire in the warehouse was growing, and soon the agents would begin to suffocate on the smoke. Quickly, Dai and Leon ran up to Mendez on the ground and began pouring hot lead into his body.
"AAAAAARRRGHHHH!"
Mendez screamed in his final death throes before lying face down on the ground, finally dead. His left eye fell out of its socket and Leon picked it up.
"Trophy?" Daisuke asked. Leon shrugged.
"It might be useful," he answered.
A quick search of the warehouse yeilded lots of ammo, and one of each colored herb. As the building caught more flames, a hole appeared in the side and both agents jumped out just as the rest of the warehouse was engulfed in flames.
"Are you guys alright?" Ashley asked worriedly, running up and giving both men a hug.
"A little singed around the edges, but we'll survive," Leon replied, patting her on her shining blond hair. "I'm exhausted however..."
Daisuke started to hack and wheeze. The others gave him worried looks.
"Smoke inhalation," he coughed. "Ashes in my throat... I'll be okay... Need water..."
The other two quickly supported Dai and the ran from the warehouse, out the metal gate. They passed by the merchant, who waved at them.
"Rough fight stranga?" he asked Daisuke, handing him a bottle of Dasini water.
Daisuke took great gulps of the water, quickly feeling much better. "Thanks," he said gratefully, his voice back to normal. "Got any more water bottles?"
The merchant gave the trio five more water bottles, for a total of 1,000PTAS. "You should rest for a bit," he cautioned. "Wot lies ahead will test your strength and stamina, strangas."
He jerked his thumb to the distant ski lift. "Take the lift back to where I was before," he said. "There you'll find that small bunka, where you can rest easy for a few hours. Believe me, you'll need it."
The trio nodded and thanked the merchant again. He simply waved with his raucous laughter echoing in their ears as he walked off into the darkness.
Leon, Daisuke and Ashley made their way to the stairs under the ski lift when Dai noticed lights in the canyon wall up ahead. "What's over there?" he asked, heading towards it. Leon and Ashley followed.
There was a tunnel entrance, and Daisuke entered it, G23 at the ready. Two Ganados yelled something in Spanish, while pointing at him. It either translated into something like, "Look! An enemey!" or, "Hey, come join the party, we got hotties!"
One pulled out a yellow stick and proceeded to light it. Daisuke paled. Dynamite!
He quickly dove out of the tunnel entrance just as Leon and Ashley were about to enter. The explosion that followed rattled their teeth, and chunks of rock flew about them. Daisuke leapt up.
"Two can play at that game fuckers!" he yelled, pulling the pin on his frag grenade and popping the top. He heaved it into the tunnel entrance. The next explosion featured more falling rock and screams of death.
Taking his pistol back out, Dai peeked into the tunnel and saw that the Ganados were long gone, as were most of the things in the tunnel. Motioning that it was safe, he and the others walked into the tunnel, which opened up to a cavern. There was some sort of stone slab on the right side, with a huge symbol on the wall behind. There was fresh blood on the slab. No one wanted to go near it.
The ladder at the end of the cavern brought them to another level, where a single Ganado was easily killed by Leon. They picked up a frag grenade from his body and a Yellow Catseye from the chest he was guarding. Leon fitted the catseye into the Beerstein he had found. There was already a Green Catseye in it, so that left one empty hole.
They quickly made their way onto the ski lift, and were back at the gorge. The familiar blue flames of the merchant burned away in the distance, and they saw the bunker-like building at the foot of the merchant's stairs. They walked tiredly towards the bunker and inside.
-----
It looked to be like a sort of locker room, or storage area. A search revealed another frag grenade, and this time Dai gave it to Leon. A locker that had fallen over proved to have a bountiful amount of green herbs growing inside it, and Ashley tore out 6 roots.
"This looks like a secure resting place," Leon commented, looking around. "The windows are high up and tiny, not to mention covered with bars. And the front door is heavy steel."
"We can use the lockers to wedge the door shut by placing them against the door and opposite wall," Dai offered. "But first I'm gonna visit the merchant for some supplies."
"We'll stay here," Leon said as Ashley nodded with a yawn.
-----
"What can I do for yeh stranga?" the merchant asked.
"Do you have any matches?" Daisuke asked.
"'Ere, Zippo lighter for 100PTAS," the merchant said, tossing a shiny silver lighter to Daisuke. "Anything else stranga?"
"Yeah, do you have any .44 magnum rounds?"
The merchant pulled out a black and red box after rummaging through his things. "You're in luck stranga, I just got this!" he crowed, giving the box to Dai. "Unfortunetely, a full box only has ten rounds, so you'd best make good use of em! That'll be 4,000PTAS!"
"Thanks," Daisuke said as the merchant edited his notepad. He went back to the bunker.
-----
"Well, that takes care of the front door," Leon grunted as they heaved the last locker and jammed it between the door and wall. All four lockers were now providing a big ass door jam, two on the floor beside eachother and two on top. Nothing would get through, nothing Ganado-sized of course.
Ashley had found some rough blankets in the other lockers and placed them onto the floor, making plenty of room for the trio. Daisuke brought out his backpack and fished out the MREs.
"Anyone hungry?" he asked, holding out the packages. Leon and Ashley's faces lit up.
"Tonight's menu features several delicious meals!" Daisuke said in his best snobby-waiter voice. He began to read off the packages. "We have grilled beefsteak with mushroom gravy, ribless pork ribs in BBQ sauce, chicken breast filet and beef stew!"
"I'll take the chicken," Ashley said, reaching for the package. Leon took the beef stew and Dai opened his package of beefsteak.
In each package was the main entree, side dish, desert, some crackers or bread depending on what you got (Leon got crackers for his stew), peanut butter for Ashley and Dai's bread, some fruit powder they could mix in their water, coffee packets, spoons, forks, etc, some matches and tissues.
Heating up the meals was easy since the package contained a smaller package that could be filled with water and broken in half, which would cause the chemicals inside to mix and heat up. They chatted as their food was heated, and when one heating package ran out, Dai would light up some broken bits of wood with his Zippo to substitute.
The MREs were decent foodstuff, but no one complained since they were starving. Leon especially appreciated the coffee, and drank it down black. When they were finished eating, they combined all their garbage and stuck it in a corner.
"I'm still sort of hungry," Ashley muttered with a blush on her face.
Daisuke tossed her a ration can. Inside was a mixture of meatloaf and gravy. She opened it up and placed it over the fire, watching eagerly as it warmed it. When it was sufficiently hot enough, she dug in, and surprisingly, it wasn't that bad tasting. It was kind of like those Michillini (or however it was spelt) stuff.
Adding the now-empty can to their pile of garbage, Ashley looked back to the blankets to see Leon propped up against the wall, backpack, shotgun and TMP beside him as he rested, hand still on his USP. Daisuke had stripped off all his weapons and most of his gear and was sprawled out on the blankets.
"Two man shift sound okay?" he asked Leon. "How long should we rest for?"
Leon pulled out his comm. "Hunnigan," he called.
"Leon, great to see you!" Hunnigan said cheerfully. "Are the others okay?"
"We've had some rough bits, but for the most, we're fine," Leon said, turning the comm around so that Hunnigan could see the others. "We're taking a break. Is our mission time-sensitive?"
Hunnigan pondered for a moment. "I think you can afford two or three hours of rest," she answered carefully. "The president will understand that you can't fight if you're exhausted. We're still working - more like arguing - with the Spanish government to let us send some choppers over there, so it might not be till morning or even midday until we can get you out of there."
"Great," Leon said. "Alright then, we'll take a 3 hour nap if that's okay with you."
"I'll set your comm to ring its alarm in three hours Leon," she warned. "Yours too Daisuke. Hunnigan out."
"Great!" Daisuke said as he cracked his back. "You take the first ninety minutes, I'll take the last. Ashley, try to get some sleep!"
"Right!" she said, lying down on the blankets near Dai. Both dropped off nearly instantly.
A few moments later, Leon looked over to the sleeping pair. A small grin appeared on his face. They both had shifted in their sleep, and were now holding onto eachother unconsciously. Both were on their sides, and facing eachother, with their noses touching and lips dangerously close to the other's. Leon watched as Daisuke gave out a quiet snore, and Ashley buried her face into his neck. He smiled wryly. How cute.
-----
Daisuke played around with the laser on his Glock while he sipped from his coffee bottle. After extricating himself from Ashley's smooth - but strong - arms, he had endured smarmy looks from Leon as they switched guard. Ashley was currently hugging Leon's arm to herself as she slept on her side, and Leon was flat out on his back, snoring softly. The 90 minute nap worked wonders for Dai, and he was very refreshed. Hopefully, the others would be good to go afterwards as well. Ashley would be getting 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep, which would be good for her, since she hadn't slept in over 12 hours.
Sipping at his coffee - 5 sugers and 6 creams of course - Daisuke contemplated what was going on. He had read whatever notes and plans that Leon had found throughout the area and everything disturbed him greatly. It was like a really bad horror movie or a really good video game. Monsters, people who shouldn't be able to do what they do, exploding heads... Eurgh. It was freaky to say at the least. Would they even survive until morning? Daisuke had a feeling that trolls weren't the most dangerous creatures out there. He hoped that he and Leon would be able to protect Ashley, just a bit longer...
-----
Beep beep beep.
It was just past midnight local time when Leon and Ashley woke up from the comm's beeping. Ashley stretched, arching her back like a cat as Daisuke watched. Her form was breathtaking. She was quite thin, but you could see no ribs sticking out or signs of being malnourished. Her stomach was flat from what he cold tell under her orange shirt and if there were any perkier breasts out there, he didn't want to know. Right, now he had a slight blood pressure problem and he had to get rid of it quick.
Thinking quickly, Daisuke brought up images of the rotting Ganados and trolls. Yup, that worked wonders! He'd have to use it for future instances.
"Good nap?" he asked the others. Leon gave him a smile as he put all of his gear back on.
"Best nap I've had in a while," he said.
"I feel great!" Ashley said, her cheeks slightly tinged pink. Midway in her slumber, she had slightly awoken when Dai had put his arm around her waist. Her nose was pressed up against his neck and she had never felt so comfortable in her life. She liked Daisuke, a lot.
"Good to hear that," Dai said warmly. "Well I guess we should check up on our gear before heading out."
Ashley drew her 5-7 and made sure it was loaded and the safety off. In the past, she would have been trembling furiously if she was holding a gun, but after the horrors she had been through, the then-whiny daughter of the US President had matured greatly, showing confidence and cool in the face of danger. Leon and Dai were especially proud of her for that.
Leon began to reload his shotgun, pressing three shells into it. The 870 was midsize, and held only 7 shells total. While it made reloading more often, it also helped on conserving ammo. His TMP had one empty mag, and he thumbed 30 custom 9mm Luger rounds into it. His TMP ammo box was now empty, so he tossed it, along with the empty shotgun box. His USP was still full, as were his spare clips, so he counted out an extra 55 9mm rounds.
Daisuke tossed Leon his full box of 12 gauge shells, which the older man took with a smile and nod as he stuffed it into his bag. Taking out the box of .44mag rounds, Dai pressed 6 of the long bullets into this Raging Bull's cylinder. Better not use up the speedloaders when not needed. His Springfield had at least 2 rounds in it, so he picked up some bullets that weren't in clips and pulled the bolt back. A single round flew out and he picked it up. Dropping it into the rifle chamber, Dai pushed down on it with his index and middle fingers, until a click was heard. Taking the spare rounds, he pressed another two in before finding out it was now full. He stuffed the two extra rounds back in the rifle ammo box.
When everyone was finished, the men quickly removed the lockers barring the door and walked outside. It was pitch black out, so Leon switched his taclight on and Dai set his LAM to Light Always On and Laser on Pressure. Ashley was given a pocket torch from Dai, one of those small Maglites that could fit anywhere. It featured a 60 lumen LED bulb, which was fairly bright compared to normal flashlights.
The trio headed up to the door and were met with an intricate carving of a woman's face. The left eye (on their right side) was glowing red.
"Looks like a retinal scanner," Leon said, pulling out Mendez' fake eye. "Maybe this will work, that's what his notes said."
The scanner ran a red beam over Mendez' eye and the door unlocked. Leon tossed the used eyeball away as they entered.
-----
"Ganados!" Ashley hissed, pointing her 5-7 up the hill. Three Ganados were standing up there, looking around stupidly. Daisuke pulled out the Springfield and painted the hill with their brains. Suddenly, a loud honking was heard and an ancient truck appeared at the top of the hill, barrelling down towards them!
"Ashley, get back!" Leon yelled, pulling the TMP from his chest and pressing the buttstock against his shoulder. He fired quick bursts into the driver's side window and the engine, causing it to explode. Leon emptied the rest of the mag into the truck's left front tire, and it exploded, causing the truck to veer to the right and slam into the bank, causing it to flip onto its side and slide to a stop just a foot away from the trio.
Dai whistled. "Sweet shooting."
Leon took a spare mag from its pouch. "Thanks," he said, ejecting the empty mag and catching it with the hand that held the fresh one. He put the new mag in the TMP and the empty one in the pouch. Thumbing the bolt catch, the gun was now reloaded. "Let's get a move on."
Daisuke spotted a big bag of coins at the rear of the truck and put it in his backpack. When they had walked a short distance away from the truck, yells suddenly erupted and they turned around to see Ganados crawl out the rear!
"Look out!" Ashley cried, shooting one in the shoulder. The Ganados were very close, and one with a torch went to blow something out of its mouth at Dai. Dai quickly shot the bastard in the mouth and watched as a liquid (probably vodka) caught fire and the idiot ran back, screaming as his brains were fried.
Leon opened automatic fire into the large mob, and several were dropped. Dai switched to auto and helped out, squeezing out bursts into heads. Ashley had taken two down with some careful shots and soon the rest were eliminated. Dropped items littered the ground.
"Good shooting Ashley," Dai said as he touched her arm. She flushed prettily as she reloaded her 5-7.
"I had a good teacher," she said shyly, giving him a queer smile.
They found some more pesatas and some rifle ammo. They made their way up the hill to see an impressive looking castle across a drawbridge.
Foreign cries caught their attention and they saw a huge wave of villagers bearing up at them from the bottom of the hill.
"Quick, let's get to that castle!" Leon shouted, grabbing Ashley's arm. The trio crossed the bridge quickly. At the other side were two cranks that probably operated the drawbridge.
"Ashley and I will turn the cranks, cover us Dai!" Leon shouted as they went to the cranks.
"Got it!" Dai said, standing at the ready.
Leon and Ashley quickly began to raise the bridge up, and the Ganados at the other side roared in fury as they were cut off.
"Phew, that was close!" Ashley muttered. She latched onto Daisuke's hand as they entered the huge castle.
There was a courtyard which had several barrels littered around. A stone house was adorned with the merchant's blue flames, but they decided to go treasure hunting first. The barrels in the courtyard were destroyed with well placed kicks, and Dai recieved 5 rifle bullets, and coins. Behind the house yeilded two boxes of shotgun rounds, 5 shells in each. Leon put all the shells in one box and stuck it in his bag.
Ashley then cried, "Look what I found!"
They ran over to her where she stood in front of an open chest. She held up a beautiful golden bracelet. It looked like it had sapphires embedded into its front.
"Nice find!" Leon said.
Ashley put the bracelet on. "It's really nice," she mused, holding her arm out and admiring the bracelet. "And it looks really expensive! If we have to, we could sell it later on!"
Daisuke nodded. "Hopefully we won't have to," he told her. "It looks great on you."
Ashley blushed red again and merely took his hand. They went into the merchant's house.
"'Ello strangas!" he greeted. "Got some new things that might interest ya."
His new inventory consisted of a custom Colt 1911 .45ACP pistol, a freaking M79 grenade launcher, and an SL-9 semi-automatic sniper rifle.
"Man, that rifle is so mine," Daisuke moaned, picking it up. It had a custom illuminated scope on it, and the markings showed that it was 2-11X digital magnification. The illuminated crosshairs could be red, blue or green. It had a short G36-style mag, which held 10 rounds. "How much?"
"45,000 with the scope stranga," the merchant said. "I've also got some standard G36 thirty round mags that work with it too."
"How much for my Springfield if I trade it in?" Daisuke asked as Leon picked up the M79.
The merchant rubbed his chin. "15,000 sounds fair," he said. "So 30,000 for the SL-9 then? Each mag costs an additional 3,000PTAS."
"I'll take two then," Dai said, hefting his Springfield out. Cycling the bolt quickly, he ejected the five bullets out and put them in his pocket. He gave the empty rifle to the merchant, who placed it in his pile. Then, Daisuke, Leon and Ashley gave the merchant all their coins, which added up to be 40,625PTAS. So now their tab totalled 100,150 pesatas. Take away for SL-9 it was now 64,150.
Daisuke thumbed the .308W rounds into the mags. Thankfully, the SL-9 could use these rounds along with the 7.62 NATO and Russian rounds. He filled up the 10 round clip and one full 30 round mag. The other mag was left empty. He stuck it into his pack.
Leon decided to buy the grenade launcher. "We might need the firepower later," he told the others. It was surprisingly cheap at 9,800PTAS, but that was because it only came with 2 40mm HE grenades.
"40mm grenades will be hard to find stranga," the merchant said. "They come in three flavas: High Explosive, Incendiary and Acid. You'll not find many until you reach the island, where they'll be plenty."
Leon nodded anyways, and the M79 joined the shotgun as it was slung to his back. After buying a few more water bottles, they bid the merchant goodbye as they exited his house.
"I wonder why the Ganados don't attack him?" Daisuke wondered. Leon looked at him as they walked up the stairs.
"He's got a plaga inside of him as well," he said. "Although he's able to retain his free will somehow. Doesn't stink as much either."
Dai snorted as they opened to the door to whatever lay ahead...