Chapter 6 : Rescue Mission Number 1.
Snake spent most of the next day on the boat the same way he had the first. Irreparably bored. Their just wasn't that much to do. The highlight of his day occurred when he went fishing for a spell and caught some truly interesting specimens that he released, one of which nearly took four of his fingers off and had to be bludgeoned into submission with his boot. He spent some time in and out of minor conversations with Yuna's entourage just to get to know them a little better. He ignored Kimahri since he was pretty sure that the furry wasn't interested in furthering their partnership. The food on the ship was terrible. He stuck to his remaining rations for sustenance. After that, he decided to catch up on his sleep debt and subsequently crashed for the remainder of the day. The next morning Tidus woke him up by standing ten inches away from the door to his room and banging on the wall with his fist while shouting that they were pulling into Luca at the top of his lungs. When that didn't seem to work, Lulu sent one of her possessed dolls in after him. Gunshots and screams confirmed that Snake had already woken up.
Luca, unlike the last denizen Snake had seen, was heavily populated. He was the last one on deck as it prepared to pull into the port. From the ocean Luca looked like it was about the same size as a small city. The architecture was an upgrade from the buildings he had seen in Kilika. Straw huts had become stone buildings. Dirt roads were now paved. Everything was built with a brilliant white color. Snake was having a hard time getting a feel for how technologically advanced Spira was. At that point he decided it would be better to just give up and accept things for what they were otherwise every day would be a sensory overload. Wakka's blitzball team was met with a barrage of catcalls once they were off of the boat. He did not seem bothered by them even when some people began throwing things. Apparently they weren't the best team in the league.
Another ship began unloading passengers as they checked their inventories to ensure that they hadn't left anything on the ship. Snake watched as they set foot on the port. They had to be royalty. Some were dressed religiously with much nicer clothing than the priests at the temples had. Of particular interest was the man in blue with blue hair and blue veins bulging visibly out of his skin. His hair was a defiance to gravity and beyond hideous. He spotted Snake looking at him, smiled a little, and gave him a polite nod. A feeling of uncertainty entered Snake as he watched the man walk down the platform elegantly. He looked around, clearly apart from the crowd he was traveling with, and spotted Yuna. Snake saw his face light up with surprise at his discovery. His eyes narrowed as the man approached them.
Wakka was the first to notice the new character.
"Maester Seymour!" Wakka exclaimed.
The part of the group from Spira did their funny salute. Otacon and Raiden tried to emulate it. Snake remained motionless with his arms crossed. If people like Seymour were in charge of Spira, it was no wonder the place was such a mess. Snake corrected himself. He had never trusted politicians. Perhaps Seymour was ignorant and could thus be partially forgiven for his involvement in the dishonest religious government.
"Are you the captain of the Besaid Aurochs?" Seymour asked.
"I am!" Wakka replied enthusiastically.
Judging by how attentive Wakka had become, Snake was certain that Seymour rubbed out a set of twins to Yevon every night before he went to bed. Just like Wakka did.
"Resilience is such an admirable trait." Seymour remarked.
"We do our best in every game we play." Wakka said.
"Try not to let your record bother you. I know how discouraging it can be to have more than five seasons of bad luck, but you shouldn't let that affect your strategy. Is this not your last game?"
"It is. After this I'm retiring and carrying out my remaining duty as one of Yuna's Guardians."
"Yuna? The daughter of Lord Braska?" Seymour asked.
"Yes." Yuna replied.
Seymour turned his attention to her. Snake rolled his eyes and shook his head. This was almost too painful to watch.
"How are you doing, Maester Seymour?" Yuna asked.
"You can just address me as Seymour." he assured her. "There's no need for useless formalities. I'm afraid my emotions are rather mixed right now. My father has recently passed away."
"I heard about that. I would like to give you my condolences." Yuna said.
"Yes. It is rather unfortunate. I will surely miss him. However, there is no need for others to share in my sorrow. It would be more appropriate to share in my victory. All of my hard work has finally paid off. I have been promoted to head Maester." Seymour said.
They all gasped in surprise. Seymour smiled pleasantly again.
"It has not yet been announced. Try to keep it between us. Will you and your team not sit with me during the blitzball tournament today?"
"Today?" Wakka exclaimed. "Oh, no. When?"
"This afternoon. Did you not know?" Seymour asked.
"No, we didn't! We thought it was tomorrow!" Wakka exclaimed.
"On top of that, we ran into some trouble in Kilika. Sin attacked. Our arrival here was a bit delayed because of it." Lulu explained.
"That is truly a shame." Seymour said sincerely, although his words were heavily drenched in a type of charisma that had no effect on Snake. "Don't worry. You still have time to register and I wish you the best of luck. Make this your best game, Wakka. We shall all be watching you from. . ."
Seymour trailed off when he suddenly remembered something. He sighed heavily.
"On second thought, perhaps it can wait until later." Seymour said. "I have a previous obligation to fulfill today."
"Do you still want a personal audience with us?" Yuna asked.
"Of course. I have met with all the summoners except for you." Seymour said. "The spirit of the summoner never ceases to interest me."
"Have you met with Dona?" Snake asked.
Seymour smiled tightly.
"Ah, yes. Dona." Seymour mused aloud. "Issaru was better company. Let's leave it at that. Before I go, I'd like to pass a rumor around. Sir Auron has been spotted in town."
"Auron?" Tidus asked. "Sunglasses, red coat, always carries around a flask?"
"Yes, the same. More appropriately, he was one of Lord Braska's Guardians. He's been missing for years. Many people believed that he was dead." Seymour explained.
"Who did you hear this from?" Tidus asked.
"A reliable source." Seymour assured. "If I see him, I'll be sure to let him know that you're looking for him. Anyway, I need to get going. Hopefully the next time we meet I will have a few minutes to visit with all of you. Until then."
Seymour gave them a parting wave and proceeded to leave the port. Tidus looked visibly disturbed by the information he'd just learned. Yuna was also very interested.
"Wakka, can you go on ahead of me?" Tidus asked. "I need to find Auron."
"What? In a city this big?" Wakka asked. "You've gotta be kidding, ya?"
"I have a good idea of where he'd be." Tidus said. "If he's not there, I'll head directly to the stadium."
"Okay. But you'd better hurry." Wakka said.
"I'll go with you." Yuna said. "I would like to meet him as well. We'll head to the stadium within an hour, Wakka."
"Alright. We'll go register." Wakka said. "Be careful, ya?"
X
"Kidnapped?" Snake roared. "You let Yuna get kidnapped?"
"They came out of nowhere and knocked me into the ocean! It all happened too fast." Tidus said.
Raiden grinned. Snake sighed in sheer exasperation and sat down on a nearby bench. After registering at the stadium, the team was forced to wait until Tidus came back. There was such a sense of urgency in Tidus' insistence on finding Auron that Wakka had to let him go. Being a confused teenager, Tidus really needed an older man to play dad in the absence of his real father. Auron fit that description perfectly and probably knew what was going on, hence why Tidus needed to find him to clear up the confusion around all the recent changes in his life that he'd experienced. For some reason Snake knew Auron was the same man he'd seen in the vision the Fayth had given him.
Nobody opposed letting Yuna go along with Tidus by herself so she could spend some time alone with Tidus. She seemed to like him and Tidus wasn't really that much of a bad influence. However, Yuna being kidnapped was something that nobody had bet on. Yuna's other friends were waiting in the locker room for Tidus to return while Snake went outside to have a smoke. Raiden and Otacon joined him. When Snake saw Tidus running up to them, he knew something was wrong but he couldn't have guessed it was this. Spira didn't seem like a place prone to such occurrences.
"I know where they took her." Tidus said. "She's in dock four. That's where the Al-Bhed Psyches are holed up at."
"Did they pass along any demands to you?" Snake asked.
"They gave me this letter written in English." Tidus said as he hastily retrieved it from his pocket. "They're demanding that the Besaid Aurochs throw the game. If they don't, they won't return Yuna."
"What?" Snake asked, highly skeptical. "I saw the records for the Aurochs. They haven't one a single damn game in ten years."
"But that's what the note says!" Tidus said, offering it to Snake.
Snake took the crumbled piece of paper and read it for himself.
"This can't be right. What a weak motive." Snake said as he passed the note back to Tidus. "How well are they armed?"
"Not at all from what I could see. They could have weapons on their ship, though."
"How big is a blitzball team?" Snake asked.
"There are six main players and usually six extras for a total of twelve." Tidus said with way too much confidence. "Their boat isn't very big. I'd say maybe twenty people are on it at the most."
"We could easily ambush that." Snake said. "And to think you had me worried."
"We're not going to kill them, are we?" Tidus asked.
Snake thought of Rikku and knew Tidus had her in mind as well. Perhaps these were merely rogue Al-Bhed. There was a bad apple in every basket.
"No." Snake said. "We'll just hurt them really badly. Go tell everyone else. They're in the locker room."
Tidus ran into the stadium while Snake dove into his bag and pulled out an M1014 combat shotgun since they would find themselves in close quarters. Raiden was immediately jealous and took a large step towards Snake.
"Can I hold it?" Raiden asked.
Snake attached a butt stock and let Raiden ogle the gun.
"I don't think I saw you carrying this during the Big Shell incident." Raiden said as he played with the pump.
"I didn't have it on me. That Fayth kid put all my best guns in this one bag."
"I wish I had a lot of guns. May I have this one after our journey is over?"
"Absolutely not. Honestly Jack, how brazen can you be? I gave you a SOCOM and a pack of smokes. What more do you want out of me? Besides, that SOCOM is vintage. It's a collector's item."
"What do you mean?"
"I shot at Ocelot with it." Snake said. "But I didn't stop there. I shot at everyone on Shadow Moses with that gun."
"Now I can almost forgive how heavy it is."
Raiden gave Snake his gun back. He loaded non-lethal rubber rounds into it. Snake then temporarily switched his M1911 out for his M9. He made absolutely certain that the gun was loaded with darts by checking the clip twice. This would probably develop into an obsessive compulsive habit if he wasn't careful. Tidus finally returned with everyone but Wakka in tow.
"We've got to make this quick." Lulu said. "The game is already underway. We have less than thirty minutes until the Aurochs begin."
"I'm coming too." Tidus added. "Wakka said he can take care of the first round if it's needed."
"I think you should stay behind just in case he can't." Snake said. "Besides, you're going to waste a lot of energy fighting."
"This is my fault. I'm going to help fix this mess." Tidus told him.
Snake sighed.
"Fine. When we get to the ship, Jacky boy and I will go in and save Yuna. The rest of you watch our backs, okay?"
"Are you sure you don't need the extra help?" Lulu asked.
"I make a living off of doing things by myself, but thanks anyway. Let's move out."
Snake ran off.
"Snake, the ships that way!" Lulu shouted, pointing in the correct direction.
"Of course it is!" Snake said as he turned around and began following everyone else from behind.
Snake eventually took the lead as the entourage ran like the wind toward the ship. The harbor they had already been through was made up in a wide circular fashion with a path leading up into the city. Dock four was located in the middle of the bend. They could tell they were getting close when they came upon some security bots prowling around the area. A chaff grenade made it easy for them to go in and pummel the cheaply constructed heaps of junk. All the robots were armed with were two spears carved out of diamonds that served as arms. Getting hit by one of them would certainly hurt since they had a device strapped to their shoulders that helped propel their spears for extra damage. Otacon pulled off a detachable pack on the back of one and the thing fell completely apart. The square slab he held in his hands looked a lot like a lithium battery. There was even a spot for it to plug in and recharge. He tossed it aside.
A second barrage was taken down much in the same manner. The small robots could be quite effective if they were built a little more efficiently. They would certainly dominate against smaller Fiends or anyone who didn't have an abundant supply of chaff grenades and rifle ammunition. When the ship came into view they saw it being guarded by a frighteningly familiar robot. Snake rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. A nine foot robot that looked a lot like an upgraded Metal Gear TX-55 was scanning the area. It did not have a turret, a laser groin, or a slot for missiles. What it did have was a hose and an enormous amount of water strapped to its back. Snake winced inside when he figured out how it would attack. He had been hit with pressurized water more than once in the past and it had never been a pleasant experience.
It spotted them easily since their ambush hadn't taken its presence into account. The mech ran towards them. Snake immediately threw a chaff grenade that it targeted and blew out of an effective range with a squirt from its hose. Lulu conjured up a spell that dropped a lightning bolt on its head, but the machine seemed immune to it. The machine then blew a gallon of water directly into Lulu's chest, knocking her over the side of the harbor and into the ocean. Kimahri jumped in front of everyone and hurled his lance into the pack containing water. It pierced the pack and caused a leak. Kimahri braced himself for the impact of the water, which didn't knock him off his feet. He managed to look over at Snake and nod, urging him to proceed forward and rescue Yuna.
"Kimahri's right!" Tidus said. "We've got this, Snake."
Otacon was inspired by Kimahri's idea and began shooting up the water tank, putting more holes into it. Snake and Raiden ran past the mech and boarded the ship. They made their way below deck while the others fought with the pesky Metal Gear ripoff. Their two weapons didn't compliment each other well. Snake's shotgun was slow and Raiden's M-9 was even slower. Still, he believed they could pull this off rather easily if they got the jump on the Al-Bhed's first. The ship had a neatly kept interior that closely resembled the other Al-Bhed ship they had been on. This one was a lot smaller, as Tidus had noted. They could hear the sounds of someone struggling at the other end of the ship near the back. To be safe, they cleared each room before that. Nobody was around. They were all holed up in the back in the cargo hold. Snake got on one side of the door while Raiden took up the other. He signaled Raiden to use a flashbang before they attempted to clear the room.
When the plan was set, Snake opened the door and Raiden tossed in a hot flashbang. The two men averted their eyes. Even though they weren't close to the explosion, they knew the bang was not quite unlike putting one's ear right next to an amp at an AC/DC gig. Snake rushed into the room and took out the first guy he saw with a rubber bullet to the chest. There were five other men to deal with. Yuna was in the middle, tied to a chair with a gag in her mouth and a blindfold around her head. The Al-Bhed really knew how to treat their captives. Raiden took out another guy at the same time Snake did. These kidnappers were starting to become a threat to themselves. The two remaining Al-Bhed began screaming in their own language and got on the ground with their hands over their heads. Snake nodded at Raiden, who shot the men that had surrendered with a tranquilizer dart. He then plugged the two Snake had shot. They probably needed a nap anyway.
Now that the excitement was over, Snake noticed that there were three rifles on the ground. The panywaists must have dropped them when the grenade went off. Snake knelt down and examined one. If he wasn't mistaken, he was holding a battered K-98 Mauser. While dated, it was a good rifle to have if the person holding it was being charged by a dude carrying a sword and another dude carrying a beach ball. The unconscious men at their feet looked like bench warmers. Three of them had very nasty gashes across their skulls most likely caused by a blow to the head with a staff. The regular Psyches must have been really confident that their plan would work. Yuna mumbled through her gag, getting his attention. Raiden untied her and Snake took the gag out of her mouth and lifted the blindfold.
"Snake!" Yuna said. "I knew it was you."
"It's that obvious, huh? Are you alright?" Snake asked.
"I'm a little dizzy."
"That's normal."
Snake shouldered her while she was still disoriented and headed to the deck.
"Do you think you can still manage to. . ." Snake trailed off as he looked ahead.
The mech he had been concerned about was in pieces. Otacon was holding a circuit board and sitting on top of the contraption with a wide grin on his face. The rest of the team waved when they spotted Snake.
"Summon something?" Snake finished in a barely audible mutter.
"I'm sorry I got myself captured." Yuna said. "I almost managed to fend them off with my staff until one of them snuck up behind and put me in a choke hold. Then the men with rifles arrived."
"Don't worry, you did what you could."
"Has the blitzball game started yet?"
"Yes. We need to hurry back to the stadium. I doubt Wakka can do everything by himself."
