I don't own own any of the Metal Gear Solid franchise or its original characters.
WARNING: Intense violence and excessive language you have been warned_Black Pitbull
ELIJAH/DARKARAI (GHOST)
Ghost gave his platoon a small breather while he spoke to the few spirits that continued to roam around his and the others. The main purpose of the mission Old Snake assigned them was to clear out the Big Shell while rescuing the last platoon that was sent inside. The reason the first platoon was sent to the Big Shell was because they were testing out a controlled experiment. Obviously the controlled experiment got out of hand and the inexperienced group found themselves trapped on the forgotten base and needed rescuing. All thanks to a damn Ray that shot their bird out of the sky, resulting in an immediate landing on one of the many helipads.
According to their reports, the Ray didn't seem to be an AI because the instruments on their bird weren't able to detect the program. So if it wasn't a simple machine following an electronic command, then someone was inside the cockpit of the machine or was using a remote control. The mystery was figuring out who, or what, made a Raw attack them and why they did so in the first place. What on earth could they have gained from protecting the Big Shell? Was it really the Big Shell they were protecting, or was it the hidden fortress that sat underneath the structure? Whoever the hell Ghost and his team were up against was no average person. And it was a good thing they didn't suffer the same fate as the platoon before them.
Racking his brain for the answers he was looking for was become a troublesome event for Ghost. Did the enemy planned this or was this just some strange coincidence? And if this was the enemy's plan, why would they do this? It just didn't make any sense. Ghost continued to ponder as he fiddled with his AK-47 idly. Meanwhile, the group was on standby as they awaited Ghost's orders. Hummingbird, the newest addition to the team, was finding her place within the group quite nicely. The females of the group seemed to knit themselves together, as if they were a gang of their own. Flame even gave the shy young woman some tips on handguns while Raven was a bit snarky towards her. However, compared to how Raven was in the past, Hummingbird only received a small amount of Raven's snarky attitude.
When it came to Octopus, she was acting as a safer version of Harley Quinn while Christian's behavior was that of a sane Joker. This was until the two regained their jokester tendencies. The blonde haired young man was a bit rusty when it came to acting his childish self, but luckily he was slowly showing his inner fire as he bluntly talked about the spirits who were still bitching and moaning about the damn playboy poster. Wolf, on the other hand, was acting a bit distant but was slowly warming up to the new member. And Mantis, even though was still a bit stoic, made herself less of a mute, unless Mongoose spoke to her, who would be busy talking to Spider on the subject of drones.
"Maybe Mantis might have a few ideas on how this situation should be handled." Fortune told Ghost as she carelessly lay upon the railing as if it was a bed of some kind.
"Hmpf… I don't trust that bitch as far as I can throw her." Ghost murmured under his breath as he sent the woman a sharp sneer.
"You may not trust her, but you can't disagree with the fact that she's a smart one." Olga jumped in as her ethereal body suddenly appeared from out of thin air. "At the very least, be civil about this. You're going against your morals about women when it comes to her." She added as a smack smirk appeared on her face.
"Great. Now I know how my father felt. Nagging and manipulative… Damn it." Ghost grumbled as he caved in. These mere ghosts were somehow able to break through his suppression technique.
"Speaking of nagging, I miss having my nagging little vampire around when I was alive." Fortune said as she giggled lightly. "But you know, hanging out with you is more fun. Well, until I find him again."
"Oh yes, this is very amusing." Olga added. "Hmm, I wonder if my lover is still alive somewhere?" she asked with a pout as she and Fortune headed over to Christian to annoy him. It was their way of paying him back for the poster incident from earlier.
As Ghost moved, unnoticed by the others, he slowly approached the South American. Noticing his present, Mantis turned towards him. As Ghost stared at her silently, Mantis just stood there, waiting for him to give her an order. An order was the closest thing the woman ever got with contact that concerned the African savage at its best while being flat out ignored at his worse.
"Mantis, I-I want to bounce some ideas off you." Ghost stated in the most calmest voice he could muster while standing near the woman. This halted every conversation as if a horrible song had just killed off the buzz of a wild party. Basically, everyone found themselves in one of those 'what the fuck' moments.
"Bounce ideas…? Are you sure?" She questioned wholeheartedly as she became slightly nervous. "And why me?"
"Yeah, I'm sure." He assured her. "I'm just trying to vil, for now." Ghost added as he adjusted a large bayonet on his damaged gun.
There was utter silence among the group while Hummingbird stood there with a confused look on her face. It was obvious that she was unsure what was happening.
"Huh…. Why I-is everyone s-so t-tense?" Hummingbird managed to ask innocently as it grew even more tensed. "I-It's not like she s-shot him or s-something. I mean, s-she didn't. R-Right?" At this, Christian couldn't stop himself from snickering. Even Octopus suddenly found herself giggling.
"Well, technically speaking, she did. Several years ago, Mantis shot Ghost when they were in Africa." Spider stated as he took a long drag of his cigarette. He turned his head, blowing the smoke away from the others. "The shot nearly killed him."
With that, Hummingbird gasped in horror at the revelation she just had.
"You and I both know that who and why shot the other platoon out of the sky could be anyone's guess." Ghost told Mantis. "We might be able to see what's going on if we can get to a nod or get our pilot to try for tangos the old fashion way. What do you think?"
After pondering the thought for a few minutes, Mantis responded with, "That sounds like a sound plan; however, what's the plan after we see them? All we have is a hand full of guns, two mediums, one telekinetic, and a Pyrokinetic." Mantis put in after a couple minutes of thought.
"How about Ghost blows the damn thing up. I mean, he blew that Gekko up with ease?" Christian suggested, sounding like a child wanting watch fireworks go off.
"It's too large and it would take too much time and power to take it out." Ghost lectured, not even looking up as he stocked one bullet after another. "And besides, because of its size, Rays are built with large cooling systems. Even if I wasn't trying to destroy it and it wasn't against us, along with it standing completely still...it would take hours for that monster to overheat, much less blow up."
"How about that shield thing you do sometimes?" Octopus asked, getting worried that they might be stuck in the middle of the ocean and cut off by a monstrosity of a machine.
"Unfortunately using a force field falls into the same problem. It takes too much power to make it that large. And for me to hold it for a long length of time, along with trying to blow it up...not a good plan." Ghost explained as he slapped a magazine into his gun and aims at a sign across the room that was directing to one of the buildings. "I'm not becoming a sitting duck just to take out one target, while there's the possibility of there being more than one around. We are standing on top of Arsenal Gear. The floating fortress full of unmanned Rays, just waiting to be turned on" Ghost added as he fired a practice shot at the sign.
"Dead center of the D..." Flame whistled as she took a glance through her scope.
"Yeah, just as I thought. It's a millimeter off." The savage commented as he holstered the handgun.
After the conversation went on for a few minutes longer, more ideas where suggested. Such ideas consisted of Wolf using her ability of telekinesis to hold the Ray down. But of course, the idea person in question would still end up becoming a sitting duck as they concentrated on holding the enemy down. As always, it came down to just doing what they were best at, dealing with whatever shit that was happening at the time. As the team moved out, Hummingbird couldn't help but to feel appalled that that's how Ghost ran his platoon.
After prying open the orange door, they came to face a half rebuilt two level bridge. The lower portion was fixed but the upper level was just a skeleton to aid the builders in construction. Crossing the bridge, Ghost look up to the top of the building across to see a man wearing some sort of brown metal suit with two large extended limbs on his shoulder. He stood on the crane with his arms crossed against his chest.
"I want my memory, my existence, to remain. Unlike an intron of history, I will be remembered as an exon. That will be my legacy, my mark in history. But the Patriots would deny us even that. I will triumph over the Patriots and liberate us all. And we will become-the "Sons of Liberty" A man he figured was Solidus Snake speaking a dying thought for him and Christian to hear.
Christian shuddered slightly as the ethereal body suddenly appeared before him, staring down him, as if he was judging him. Ghost stopped to see what the spirit thought of his adopted grandchild. Solidus Snake then turned to Ocelot/liquid Snake with a hard look in his one good eye.
"Don't even think about trying to taint him. If you do, I will find you and beat the two of you so bad that you both wish that there was a hell to go to instead of getting stuck roaming like the rest of us. You hear me, Liquid Ocelot?" Solidus said with a monotone so harsh, it sent shivers up the dead man's spine instantly.
"I'm a different entity now. I have no use or enjoyment of making a new version of myself." The two-faced spirit spoke in unison as their voices meddled together for just a moment in a quiet truce between the two halves.
As fast the moment came, it passed and most of the platoon was staring at both Christian and Ghost as if the two had gone clinically insane for the moment. As they were caught staring into blank space, from their point of view.
"Spirits talking" Ghost spoke evenly and without any nervousness. He had done it a couple of times during outings in the city going for a supply run back in Georgia.
Most shrugged it off while Hummingbird looked utterly confused as she tried to make out what was happening before her. Moving along, they felt a sudden rumble at their feet. To the right, a Ray rose up from the water line, dripping with small streams that flowed down its brown metallic surface. The bright sun made the monstrosity shine in its light. As it raised its head, it let off an ear-ringing screech before looking down to stare at the small group before it.
"OH, FUCK! MOVE, MOVE!" Ghost ordered as he started for the other door.
The Ray pulled back and aimed it's arm, readying itself to fire at the bridge. Nobody needed to be told twice as they all made a mad dash to get out of the line of fire.
"Get off my base...NOW!" an electronic voice boomed over a PA system that was on the hulking machine. It sound slightly feminine even after the heavy amounts of distortion as it opened fired on them.
The line of bullets followed after them until they made it into a dug out like structure that went to the next building. The Ray screeched again as it launched itself into the air, eventually landing on E Strut. At that, the savage got a codec call from one of the pilots on their bird.
"You see the Ray too right...?" A thick Russian voice asked.
"Is it big, brown and trying to kill me and my platoon? Then yes, I fucking see it!" Ghost barked out in a frustrated tone. The question the pilot asked him was one he would have heard from either Christian and Octopus.
"Good, because I was beginning to think that I was starting to god crazy." Christian said from the corner of the dugout.
"Not the time for this bullshit, Dmi." he snarled as he ended the call and took a peek from the doorway and ducked back as a new barrage of bullets was fired off.
"Get out here so I can squash you like the insects you are!" The individual manning the machine roared at them as it let out another screech.
Silence was heard as Ghost and his platoon made no move to appease they're enemy. Suddenly, Ghost got another codec call, this one with an unknown frequency number. Answering the call, Ghost made a hand gesture to the others, signaling them to quiet down as they threw ideas to one another.
"Whoever the hell this is, you better speak while you got the chance." Ghost growled at the caller.
"Nataka mende mbali msingi wangu. (I want you bugs off my base)" An angry female voice snarled at him in Swahili.
"Ambao ni wewe na jinsi gani unaweza kuwa na mzunguko wangu. (Who are you and how do you have my frequency)" Ghost answered back in his native tongue. Irritation could be heard in his own voice as the most of his platoon looked at him in shock as he continued to speak in another language to their enemy.
The members of the B&B corps were quite surprised, as well as confused, that their enemy had gotten their leaders frequency. They never came into contact with any other people and the only person outside their group that they had spoke to was Old Snake, Otacon and Raiden. They haven't even come in contact with the second of command of MSF that went by the codename Python.
"Tisa ... na I nyara udhuru yako dhalili kwa ajili ya redio salama. (Nine... and I hijacked your pitiful excuse for a secure radio.)" The mystery attacker, now named Tisa, responded in an even more annoyed tone as if she didn't like that it was so easy to hack into one of the most secure ways to call people around the world.
"Unataka nini, Tisa?(what do you want, Nine?)" Ghost demand in the deadliest voice he hadn't used since he tried to kill Mantis. The very sound made most of his teammates step as far away from him as they could. Mantis backing away most with good reason.
"Mi-Mimi nina afraid ya wewe-(I-I'm not afraid of you-)" Tisa stuttered and slightly gulped before she was interrupted.
"Tisa, wewe na vitu vya kuchezea wako mdogo hawafanyi kazi. Inaonekana kama wake zamu yangu ya kucheza. (Nine, you and your toys aren't doing the job. It seems that it's my turn to play.)" said a deep male voice with an icy tone to it as each world sounded half crazed.
In a split second almost everyone moved as the wall facing the bridge was pierced by long whitish green needles. Mongoose roared in agony as one needle jutted out of his lower right torso, possible hitting or narrowly missing his kidney. Another had pierced straight through his hand as he was steadying himself against the wall at the time. Christian had his legs going bowlegged as if by some weird luck a couple needles almost sheared off his package as they poked out from between his legs. To say the blonde was scared was an understatement as he bluntly said, "what's up with you killers and male castration".
Ghost grunt as three needles went through his arm and a final one through his shoulder blade. The needles suddenly curved at the end as if they were alive and hooked themselves into the flesh. Mongoose was soon on the floor gasping in pain, Christian was able to move before they got his little soldier and Ghost said nothing as he just looked down at them. His skin was already dead cells, and most of his nerves were already deadened. It was the reason to why he was a juggernaut with no armor in the first place.
Pulling his arm from the wall, Ghost ran his hand against the length of one and found that they were ice cold and slightly slippery as if it was frozen water. Making a theory, Ghost lightly warmed up his hands and watched as the needle melt and dropped to the floor as water droplets.
"Its, its only frozen water." Ghost said aloud, confusing the platoon. Something as common and mostly harmless as ice could be made into a weapon.
After figuring it out, the savage stepped up to Mongoose and spoke loud and clear.
"When I melt the ice, it is going to hurt even worse. There is only one water source around and it's filled with salt. That salt along with air hitting the wound is going to burn like hell before I try to close it up. So you need to mentally prepare yourself for the worse. Are you ready?"
Ghost sounded so calm, keeping his words from faltering, that it made the Russian pause for a moment. "Just do it already. This hurts like hell." Mongoose growled as he angled himself to ease the pain.
Placing his hand on the ice, Ghost warmed it up just enough to cause the ice to melt. As he did so, Mongoose clawed at his hand in order to make him stop. When Ghost heated his hand up even more, he caused Mongoose to roar in agonizing pain. When the ice was finally completely melted the African started to burn the flesh back together on both sides of the wound. The entire process took only a couple minutes but to the Russian, it felt as if it took hours before the pain calmed from a burning sensation to a dull throb.
"Kwamba mara tu upendo bomba. (that was just a love tap.)" the icy, half crazed, voice on the other end of the Codec call stated with a laugh to match."Tisa, kutuacha. (Nine, Leave us.)" the voice sounded like it was smiling psychotically.
At that, the Ray released a large scream and jumped into the water, disappearing into the depths of the sea. As it did so, its controller laughed at them mockingly. Ghost looked out onto the pathway to see a lone figure on the other end of the bridge, blocking their path to advance forward. What was strange was the fact that the figure shined as if it was made out of some kind of metal.
"Ghost you got to see this." Raven commented as she handed him a pair of binoculars she was using to scope out their new enemy.
Taking a glance, Ghost saw that the man was covered in some kind of skin tight, silver-colored material from the neck down. His body looked muscular, around the same mass and height as Ghost. Instead of a shaved head, this man had long dreads hanging down to his shoulders. Most were held together, tied into a ponytail, with a few hanging around his face. A handkerchief was tied around his forehead with a picture of a hyena made of tribal marks prowling the excess off the fabric on the side of his face.
On the lower portion of his head, he wore a silver gas mask. Every now and then, the mask expelled a white mist. Attached to the mask was some kind of strange bulky black collar that was around his neck that had small blood red thin cylinders protruded from it. He had a dark skin that pointed out that he was no doubt African and his eyes were dark and serious, exactly like Ghosts. By his posture, you could tell he was born and raised to be a soldier just like Ghost was.
"Stay back, he used Hydrokinesis. It's an ability that allows him to control water." Ghost announced. "It's pretty similar to my Pyro and Wolf's electricity." He added. "Wolf, you don't have enough experience to throw your power around like me. And for him to be able to make his ice melt and reform from that distance, he could kill you with his secondary before you could hit with any Telekinesis." Ghost said with finality before stepping forward onto the bridge.
"So you're going to handle him alone?" She asked.
"I'm going to have to." He answered.
"A good showing me strongest of two, I can tell woman is only practice with her power" The silver clad man stated with broken English as he clapped his hands, the sound was like metal hitting metal.
"Hmm, this guy is wearing flexible metal... Good, that makes roasting him alive that much easier." Ghost thought to himself as he moved to grab his handgun, but was stopped as a ice needle shot near his hand.
"Warriors use blades and power, not guns. Battle won't last long." The man growled like the Savage broke some kind of code to him.
Dropping the Handgun and AK-47, Ghost drew two machete blades as he faced down his opponent. In response, one tendrils in each hand formed out of the same silvery metal as his body suit. From a quick whip of his wrists the tendrils cracked and cut a grove through the railing of the bridge.
"Name Nne. (Four) I test for Babylon, new recruits" Nne called as he got into a ready stance.
"Babylon?!" Ghost barked as he got ready to cut the man to pieces, and charged forward.
Nne snapped his weapon out at him as the savage parried the move in his bull rush. Sparks flew as the metal made contact with the blades. Ghost flicked a few throwing knives at the silver clad man. In a counter move, Nne whipped around the tendril and knocked all but one out of the air as the last flashed by his head.
The sharp blade sliced away a lone dread lock from Nne's head. At that, Nne used one whip and snapped it at him. Acting fast, Ghost swatted the long metal away as he got into his enemies guard. Nne slapped his hands together, forcing the metal whips to mold into a short, sharp spear. There wasn't any time for Nne to use his new weapon as Ghost got close enough to stab his chest. To the surprise of both the African and his platoon, both machetes snapped in half as they impacted Nne's chest.
"Fuck..." Ghost commented as he looked up into Nne's eyes.
"Damn moja kwa moja. (Damn straight)" Nne laughed in his face as a wave of water pushed Ghost back.
Stepping back, creating spacing in between him and Nne, Ghost began forming a plan. He couldn't use his blades since the suit Nne was wearing was made of stronger metal and water naturally beats fire. He was at a disadvantage already and the battle was only two to three minutes in. And with the secondary ability still being a wild card, which could be the power of telepathy for all he knew, he chances of defeating this opponent was very slim. Before his plan could be finalized, hundreds of blobs of water lifted up into the air. At that moment Ghost had a slight flashback of the ice needles running the wall through.
"Get back now, stay in the dugout!" Ghost barked as he turned to the platoon in drill sergeant urgency.
Upon hearing the order, they all remembered the same thing as they scrambled from the hot zone and out of harm's way as the water turned into frozen needles and dropped from the sky like a deadly hailstorm. In that split second, Ghost formed a force field around himself. The hailstorm of needles rained hard onto the bridge, lodging themselves into anything they made contact with. Nne just stood his, unscathed , as the needles rained down around him.
"Good, nobody ever get out that attack." Nne cheered with a small bout of applause.
"This ends now." Ghost growled as his hands engulfed with orange, burning flames.
"You like demon. I call you Sita. (Six)" Nne proclaimed as he waved his hand round the area turning the ice into water, pulling the puddles together to form something new.
The water coiled and raised high into the air, morphing into a head of a snake. The water reptile was soon completed as its surfaced hardened into solid ice. The snaked glanced down, staring down ghost with greenish watery eyes as its tongue flicked out to add to the effect.
"Meet Boipelo. My power of water given life." Nne cackled as the water snake slithered and bore down on the savage.
"This can't be. I haven't figured out the process of the elemental animal." Ghost said in slight awe of the water given life. "So how could he…?"
"You do this with any animal. All you need to know is hard part." Nne said as Boipelo opened its jaws, showing ice shards of teeth before closing its mouth shut. It soon coiled up, preparing to strike its target.
In a show of agility, Boipelo strikes out, attempting to bite a chunk out of him. With his flames burning brightly, Ghost caught the snake before it bit the top part of his body off, holding both the top and bottom jaws open with his brute strength. The tail soon wrapped around his body and started to constrict, slowly squeezing out the oxygen in his body. In response, Ghost burst out his power of fire, forcing Boipelo to jump away at the sudden heat it felt to its frozen rigid body. It hissed in anger as its body melts slightly.
Boipelo snapped at Ghost again, only to receive a flaming punch to its face, resulting in a large crack. Seeing his elemental reptile struggling, Nne pulled back his partner and stared to shape him once more. Before long, Ghost found himself staring at two water snakes as they hovered over him. The duel snake began their attack, causing Ghost to act on the defensive as he dodged the icy fangs and striking fast tails. Before long, he found himself standing before Nne once more. He managed to spear the man to the ground, holding a blade inches away from his face. The two snakes readied for another onslaught but were stopped as Ghost raised a hand to them. with that, steam began to escape the water reptiles' skin.
"It doesn't matter if they are made of water or ice, the fact still remains... they can still boil and evaporate." Ghost growled as the two water-made reptiles writhe in pain as they started to melt back into harmless water and finally into steam in the wind.
"Good to know you not weak. You real warrior Sita." said Nne as he managed to escape the savages grasp and gain some distance. "I hate can't finish (come back alive Six)" the silver clad man called as a huge watery version of Boipelo rose from the side and took a bite out of the area of the bridge Nne was standing on. The reptile retreated bellow the ocean's surface. Silence took over as Ghost waited for the creature to return. Fortunately for him, it never did. And even though the immediate threat was gone, they had another problem.
The bridge was missing a huge chunk, keeping them from crossing the old fashion way.
"Let's move Platoon" He barked as he came up to the very edge.
"How the hell are we going to cross that?" Christian yelled as he looked over the railing, expecting to see the head of Boipelo looking from the ocean.
"I can walk, Wolf and Mantis can levitate themselves, and a few others, across." Ghost stated as he looked over the platoon, getting a curious look from Hummingbird.
With that, Mantis did what Ghost suggested and levitated across and landed without incident on the other side. Wolf used her power to take Raven, Octopus, Christian and herself across. Mongoose, Spider, Flame and Hummingbird looked over at Ghost, ready to walk across with him.
"Move it, we don't have all day." Ghost gestured forward while the others took a couple steps back in response.
The African growled and grabbed Mongoose by the shoulder, pushed him forward. The Russian stumbled over the edge and fell onto his hands and knees... in thin air. The man slowly got to his feet and slowly moved forward, one step at a time, while Spider followed along with Flame. Hummingbird still wasn't going, mumbling something about heights and fears.
"Just close your eyes and listen to the ocean..." Ghost said as he lightly ushered her forward. By the time Hummingbird was told to open her eyes, she had crossed without even knowing it.
Prying open the electronic door, they continued their search. They avoided the flooded areas after Bird told them that her Platoon didn't have the equipment to go through those struts. So that left the core, G and H strut. G strut was deserted along with H which only left the core. Coming across a slightly opened electronic door, the team cautiously moved forward with Ghost stepped up to the door first. Putting his back flat against it, he listened for any voices.
"Corporal, where is the backup ETA?" A thick Irish voice questioned with annoyance.
"How the hell am I supposed to know?" A woman growled.
"Well for one platoon 'leader', you're in charge here and you were the one who need to keep in contact." another woman said mockingly, despite the situation.
"When we get out of here, I'm having your ass for insubordination, Badger" the first woman who spoke barked at the soldier.
"Don't forget to report how you dropped two of our own to save your own ass-" Badger was about to start a rant but was stopped as Ghost spoke up, having had enough of their bullshit.
"We are MSF..." Ghost said as part of a code for allies.
"As soldiers with no borders?" Badger answered with a sigh of relief.
Ghost pulled the door open to come face to face with a young Hispanic woman with silky dark brown hair and brownish black eyes. Sharply motioning his head, Ghost's platoon followed him into the room. There was a bulky Irish man fiddling with a shot as he took a swig from his canteen. The man had short brunette hair with a short beard and green eyes. There was a Russian with the trademark face mask taking a breather against the wall and another woman who had black and dark red hair that was tied in a braid. She had a hand on her hip as she stood in a irritated position.
"Name? " Spider asked as he looked at each of them while giving his fellow Russian a handshake that only their nationality used.
"Badger" the Hispanic said with a slight smile.
"Bull" The Irishman rumbled out with the nod of his head.
"Cougar" The Russian said quietly as if he didn't like talking very much.
"And I'm Tiger. I'm in command here, so I suggest you tell me who you are." The last woman snarled. It was obvious that he was definitely a control freak.
"Well, Tiger, you've lost your command as soon as I stepped foot into this room. I'm in charge now and I got a few words to say to you." Ghost said as he got in the Black woman's face, making her crane her neck from her short height.
"Look here, buddy. I've done ROTC to get my rank. what have you done" Tiger barked in his face with arrogance.
"Spent ten years in the African war and killed countless men..." Ghost said with a emotionless voice which shut the woman up quickly as she visibly gulped."Chris, hand me those dog tags.." The blond stepped forward and handed the African the blood stained dog tags while sending Tiger a heated look.
"Tell me why my subordinate found these on a half eaten MSF? It says here that his codename was Raccoon. Last time I checked, I don't have someone by that name on my platoon." Ghost growled.
"We were surrounded and he fell behind..." The woman said not sounding very sure of herself.
"How about you tell that to his sister. Hummingbird front and center" Ghost ordered and after a few seconds Tigers squad was looking slack jawed at their comrade being alive. "I found this little lady hiding in a locker with six cannibals banging on the door trying to get to her. I got to her before they broke through the door."
Tiger couldn't even voice a plausible excuse as she had called the younger woman useless before leaving her behind because she would never pull the trigger.
"Now when I get everyone off this facility and onto mother base, I'm having you demoted to private and reprimanded for abandonment of fellow comrades-" Ghost would have continued if Tiger hadn't spoken up again.
"You can't do that to me! Snake put me in charge! And another thing, I don't have to follow your orders!" Tiger growled defiantly as she faced the mass murdering savage.
Ghost swiftly hoisted her by the suspenders and slammed her into the wall while drawing a machete that was half the size of her arm. Lifting the weapon up, he held it to her face.
"Look here you little bitch, you don't have the experience nor the mentality to lead a squad, let alone a entire platoon. And you sure as hell don't have the experience to overstep me." Ghost growled. "Now listen here and listen good, you along with your squad are now under MY command. That fucking means that when I saw jump, you don't ask how high, you jump and hope to God it's high enough! Do you understand me?" The African snarled in her face like the animal she named herself after.
"Yes sir" Tiger answered in a small voice.
"I can't hear you!" Ghost said again, putting the large blade on her cheek, drawing blood.
"YES SIR" Tiger yelled as she closed her eyes shut. Sheathing the blade, Ghost stepped away as he looked at his new temporary subordinates with a hard stare.
"Anyone else want to challenge my command over this squad?" Ghost asked as he looked towards Badger, Bull, Cougar and Hummingbird for any answer. There were none.
"Permission to speak freely Sir?" Cougar asked standing straight and at attention.
"Permission granted" Ghost barked.
"I am glad you are in control, commander" The Russian stated with a salute at the end with a grin clearly visible on his face. The Squad was looking at the man as if he grew a second head at the comment.
Octopus question it and Bull answered with saying Cougar never saluted to anyone, not even Snake. Not during boot camp where the first battalion was to pay respect as the aged G.I inspected him. Nor did any other Russian either. Most of the soldiers of that nationality never considered Snake the leader. Just the man in charge. He stated that their Spetznaz ancestors only followed Big Boss. Snake may have looked like him and had part of his biological DNA, however, he was not the man himself. Therefore not the true commander who could truly demand their camaraderie from them like Big Boss had.
It was not a concept or a principle, it was a sense of duty with the Russian as many were born soldiers and will die as one. It was clear to Ghost now since Spider and Mongoose had done the same thing when they were first dropped under his command. Both men never called Snake by commander or even saluted him when they sent him off, not even words of good luck. But not moments later they called him Boss or Serge as soon as he put them hard to work on the their abilities as soldiers for improvement as they needed work. Ghost shrugged it off and asked for a status report from Tiger who was looking at him intently with a glint in her eye.
Thank goodness here were no other casualties other than Raccoon. And luckily no one was injured, but the main issue was the fact that they were dangerously low on ammunition. The African sat down for a breather and thought on the situation. He had to get fourteen people off this facility and back on solid ground. At least they didn't have to go all the way back to E just to get on the bird since there was a landing pad on H. With a plan made up, Ghost set up a Codec with his pilots.
"Good to know you're still alive down there. We were just about to report you guys KIA since you hadn't called back since that Ray ditched and that weird instant hailstorm fell." One of the Russian pilots answered with a cheery drawl.
"Listen, we have our targets. Head over to H landing deck and keep it low profile." Ghost ordered as he stood up and started out the door with his platoon and temporary squad tailing behind with their weapons drawn.
"Understood. We'll be at the LZ in five minutes. You guys have only two minutes to get on board. H landing is too trashed from the last bird for us to touch down and the osprey can't handle a low burning turbine for very long before we literally drop out the sky" The pilot droned on seriously as he flipped switches and started the engines.
Ghost ended the call and relayed the time frame which got everyone double timing it through the deserted structure and almost tripping over themselves trying to get up the stairs fast enough. By the time they got there, the bird was just getting close enough for them to hop a small gap to get on. Tiger's squad had got on without incident, next was Flame and the two other Russians. They were followed by the B&B corps. Just as Christian was jumping to get on, the Strut shuddered and became lopsided at an angel that made Ghost slide down slightly. Looking over the edge, he saw Nne's huge version of Boipelo constricting around H, I and G. slowly snapping the bridges away from H. Just under the lip of the roof, the reptile's watery head was using its jaws to break the singular support holding it suspended in the air.
"Ghost we have to get out of here NOW!" Mantis screamed to him as Spider and Mongoose helped Christian up as he was hanging onto the bay door with only one arm.
Drawing a large blade and taking a running position on the sloped surface, Ghost took off like a bullet to reach the bird as Boipelo finally ripped the support away leaving it falling into the ocean. With only a few meters to go, the African launched himself and landed hard on the bay door, tipping the bird enough to cause Ghost to dig his knife into the floor as he started to slide out the door. Catching himself, the dark skinned male pulled himself in with some minor help from Wolf and got to his feet. He walked further in as they picked up speed to fly off.
"SITA!" Ghost turned around to look out to see Nne standing on his towering snake as it flicked its watery tongue out "I kupata kaka. (I will find you brother.)" The man said as he pulled off his gas mask showing an lean and sharp face with a shark like smile that wouldn't have looked out of place on Ghosts' face.
At that, the Ray again launched from out of the water and landed on B strut. It let out a screech as another flew out the water and landed on E. Two more Rays rose from the water and screamed like a vengeful predator like its other companions. Tisa was laughing manically from over a PA system from one of them.
"God help us all..." Badger murmured from her corner of the ship.
"Leave God out of this, for he wants no part of this apocalypse." Ghost stated with a dead tone as he banged his fist against the bulkhead of the ship, signaling that the pilot to close the bay doors. It was a couple hours of silence as the pilot relayed that they were getting close to New York airspace. No one said a word and Ghost was fine with it. The African man enjoyed silence.
ASHIA (CRYING WOLF)
"Just who the hell were those people? But I guess a better question would be what the hell are they? Nne. Tisa. I've never heard those names before." Wolf thought to herself. Nne had a similar ability just like she and Darkarai had. And to make matters worse, Hydrokinesis seemed like a powerful ability. Especially that snake Boipelo. How he was able to create such a creature was beyond her. It even caused her to think if maybe she and Ghost were able to do the same if they could figure out how?
So many questions, but there was so little time or answers to them. Wolf was going to ask Ghost but he most likely had no answers either if he hadn't spoken them by now. Octopus and Christian haven't even asked yet and they were the most curious people on the planet. Whoever said curiosity killed the cat never met those two and the new squad didn't know any of them enough to question command yet.
"Were getting close to being over land Boss. After that, it's going to Canada and onto Alaska. Snake's orders" the pilot relayed as he swerved slightly in their flight. Suddenly, the pilot shouted loudly over the speaker system, "Brace for impact, were being attacked!" Just as the Osprey lurched harshly on the side, everyone was sent to the floor.
"Damn it! Do you bring any good luck at all?" Christian growled.
"We've been hit, WERE GOING DOWN?!" The pilot snarled as he struggled at the controls.
Thank you for reading, commentary means an opinion and i need lot's of it to know if i;m doing something right people.