Author's Note: I think the release was bugged since I didn't get an email, so just to be safe...

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Personwhofanboys - Indeed we do! Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 21 - Metal Gear Solid

The blustery winds of December barreled through the town, and poor Chiyo nearly got knocked over! But she pressed on, scarf around her neck and schoolbag in one hand.

"Let's see….oh, this is her house."

DING-DONG

"I'LL GET IT!" Tomo shouted, racing to open the door. "Ah, Chiyo-chan! Come in, come in! Lemme take your coat…" She pulled it off the small girl.

"Ah, is everything alright? You told me to come by myself…."

Tomo dragged her into the kitchen, where her family was. All Takinos, all not nearly as energetic as Tomo, but they got pretty close. "This is Chiyo-chan, the GENIUS that made me get an A on that last test!"

Her family stared critically at her.
"A-Ah! I mean, we were just doing homework…."

"Don't be so modest! You must be pretty darn smart, if Tomo can still get an A while playing video games all the time!" said her father. "From now on, you're gonna be her personal tutor!"

"W-What?! I mean…..Mr. Takino, Tomo can really put her mind to anything if she just applies herself!"

"She really IS a genius!" said Tomo's amazed mother.

"Uhhhhh…."

Yomi looked up from her book when the two entered Tomo's bedroom. "Hey Chiyo. I guess Tomo paraded you around her family?"

"It WORKED, Yomi! Now this sweet little gaming marathon can continue for the rest of the year!"

Chiyo opened her mouth, then closed it. Then: "I'm not some kind of monkey, you know…."

"Far from it, buddy! So! Wanna play a quick game? I got a REAL cool one in store today!" Tomo ran over to her closet and began to rummage through her clothes pile.

"That reminds me! I want to reorganize this rotation order now that Miss Yukari and Kaorin are joining us…."
"It won't be long before Miss Kurosawa joins too," Yomi predicted.

Tomo pulled out her Playstation. "Bwaaa! Still got it! Anyways, just make them go after Osaka, Chiyo. First come, first serve!" Eagerly, she began to connect the wires to the TV.

"But that's just it, sometimes we have a smaller group play games….." Chiyo trailed off. She was handed a controller, as the PS logos passed the game booted up.

Metal Gear Solid

"No more kiddie stuff, Chiyo, it's time for a REAL experience!"

The opening cutscene featured a man in scuba gear arriving on an island, undetected by the guards with guns all over the compound - Shadow Moses. Once he emerged, the screen switched to a codec call.

"This is Snake. Colonel, can you hear me?"

"Goodness….are w-we playing some kind of war game?"

"Hehehehe….don't worry Chiyo, it's not some kind of Desert Storm stimulator, it's ALLL about sneaking around and taking out the bad guys indirectly!

The channel Snake and the Colonel were speaking on could only be heard by the former, on a device stimulating bones in his ear. Snake took the elevator as the rest of the opening credits played out. When he got above ground to the snowy exterior, Colonel Roy Campbell revealed some more info.

"This is Mei Ling. She was assigned to us as our visual and data processing specialist."

"Oh, the other woman on the call…."

Snake's mission was to stop the titular Metal Gear from attacking the U.S Government, along with saving some hostages on the island…

"Okay! Let's see…." Chiyo switched to the first-person camera. "There's guards all over! I guess I have to be careful….as long as we're not shooting people, right?"

Yomi covered Tomo's mouth before she could start talking about weapons. "That's the idea."

But Chiyo was still fiddling with the controls when she heard a very VERY distinct alarm sound and looked up just in time to see a "!" above the guard's head.
Then he started to shoot.

"GUH?!" Snake tried to flee, but he was shot down.

"Snake? What happened?! Snake?! SNAKE?! SNAKEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

The game over screen popped up. Chiyo was speechless.

"Pffffffft Chiyo! You got killed by the first guard of the game, that's like getting hit by the first goomba!" Tomo laughed. "C'mon, you can do it!"

"Tomo, do you PROMISE we don't have to shoot people to win?" asked the anxious player. She reloaded the file. "That gave me a heart attack!"

"Promise, promise."

XXXXX

Snake got far enough to crawl through the vents, and Chiyo reached a bathroom where one of the hostages was.

"You're the DARPA Chief, Donald Anderson, right?"

Chiyo was heavily engrossed in their conversation about nukes and terrorists, and it made her poor little head spin. Tomo and Yomi, however, were no strangers to the game's themes.

"Was it really a good idea to show Chiyo the espionage/global security game?"

"Aw come on, Yomi, it's not like we're gunning people down! Besides, wouldn't this game make an AWESOME movie! Kojima should play Snake!"

"Kojima has kinda moved on from the series, hasn't he?"

The chief gave two pieces of critical information - a clairvoyant assassin named Psycho Mantis was running around, and Snake needed three card keys to progress.

"Oh cool, it's Meryl!"
"Spoilers, Tomo!"

Chiyo rubbed her weary head. "Okay, I understand. We just have to….wait! S-Something's happening to the poor chief!"
Donald suddenly collapsed due to a heart attack, and the Colonel seemed to know more than Snake could figure out.

But then,

"You've got one of the card keys, right? Use it to open the door!"

-three armed guards came to attack Snake and this "Meryl", and they were shot down. Chiyo was appalled, doubly so when Snake yelled at his new partner to shoot, not talk as more filed in.

"T-Tomo! You promised!"

"It's not my fault, Chiyo, the game is scripted at this part! Snake doesn't NEED guns to win the game, but y'know, cutscenes and all that!"

She was handed the controller back with a firm pout after the shootout. "I refuse to shoot more people, even if it's just a video game!"

"Chiyo! Come on, the game's getting interesting now!"

Chiyo looked to Yomi.

"Well….you're right, this is a game for a higher age group, and you are technically only 12….it's not the bloodiest game I've seen….Tomo, maybe she shouldn't play."

"Bah! How is it different from stomping on Koopas in Mario? Everyone always *dies* in a video game, Chiyo, but it's HOW they die that matters! If it's dust or they just vanish, the developers don't want you to worry about it. But if you see blood, then maybe you're supposed to think a little, right?"

"Then….I still shouldn't play! Hmph!"

Tomo got to her knees. "Pleeeeeeeease? I'll do whatever you want! Honest!"

"…honest?"

"Yep!"

Chiyo took the controller back. "I want to see A's on every test Miss Yukari gives us! If not, then….then….I won't play your games!"

"WHAT?!"

Yomi snickered. "Sounds like fun."

"Er….fine! But you'd better keep playing!"

Eventually Snake clashed with a man named Revolver Ocelot. True to the name, his weaponry was firearms, and soon the two were locked in another gun battle, much to Chiyo's chagrin.

"Just relax, Chiyo, this fight's kinda tricky."

Ocelot kept moving around the square grid arena, where the bullets from both could ritochet off the walls.

"Don't you want to settle this?"

"Not with guns!" Chiyo whimpered. "C-Can't we play Janken instead?" Ocelot had a larger health bar, which meant he had to take more punishment.

"You're almost there!" Yomi encouraged. But she saw how Chiyo's face got all weary whenever she had to press the shoot button on the side. At the end, Ocelot escaped, but before Snake could talk to the hostage (Baker)-

"W-What is that?!"

Her shaking hand pointed to a mysterious figure in a blue exoskeleton and single eye mask. He also had a katana, which never failed to impress Tomo.

"Like you…I have no name…."

Said figure suddenly spazzed out, flipped around, and disappeared, before Snake could take a clear shot.

"Who the hell….?"

"Yes, who the…heck is right! Tomo, why do all of these strange and scary people come to this island?" Chiyo gulped. "We're probably going to see him again…."

Baker spoke with Snake; the chilling images of real-life rockets and dealings playing during his explanation haunted Chiyo's brain, but she paid attention. The strange blue man was from FOXHOUND.

"You….think Chiyo's gonna be okay?"

"Well, if she survived Five Nights at Freddy's…."

Snake got a drive loaded with information, but before he could learn more about the Metal Gear, the hostage suffered another…..heart attack.

"N-No!"

Yomi shook her head. "That'll do it."

"This can't be a coincidence!" Chiyo predicted. "There's so much more to discover about this whole mess…terrorists, the government…I won't let the bad guys win!" She continued on. Tomo smiled.

Eventually the guard from before introduced herself as Meryl, the Colonel's niece, via codec. According to her, FOXHOUND's presence on the island was to try to keep the projects on Shadow Moses a secret.

Chiyo had gotten better at the sneak mechanic overall - knowing when to duck out of line from a camera's view was a key component.

"Nice, Chiyo! Although I'll miss that alarm sound…"

"Hehehe….well, anything to avoid more shootouts…"

Tomo scratched the back of her neck. "Sorry. I guess I should've warned you."

"It's okay. Every video game is different, right? How fun can they truly be if they don't challenge some aspect of yourself? Yomi, you mentioned a Kojima, he made this game?"

"Yeah. He's known for cinematics and real pressing themes in his games. Other developers just want to make a fun game, here we're getting stuff about wars and weapons."

Chiyo nodded. "It's something to really think about."

Then the codec rang.

"Oh! It's Miss Meryl!"

"You can't probably see them with your naked eyes, but there are infrared beams coming out of the wall."

"How do I….?"

Tomo nudged her. "Why don't you light up, huh?"

Confused, Chiyo panned through the inventory and searched for the right option. Tomo kept loudly coughing until she reached the "Cig" option.

"You can't be serious!"

When Snake "lit up", the beams became visible, allowing Chiyo to pass through with moderate ease. That didn't stop her shaking hands.

"This game…encourages smoking…?"

"What? No way, but smoking looks cool! Snake's a big action star, and all the action stars do it! Arnold, Sylvester,-"

"I'm surprised you know who those are," Yomi remarked.

Chiyo snuck around some more and ended up outside again, where eventually, the most shocking sight that she had ever seen came in Snake's path - a tattooed man emerging from a tank.

"This is Raven's territory! Snakes don't belong in Alaska!"

He (Vulcan Raven) fired at Snake, who barely dodged the shot. The boss battle began.

"What?! I have to fight a TANK?!"

Even worse was the fact that Snake had to fight Raven on foot, with no shortage of weapons, grenades included. She yelped as the turret swung around to fire again.

"Run!" Tomo yelled. "And throw a grenade right back at him!"

"This is a TANK!" Chiyo squealed. "A war machine used to burrow down armies, and he's using it on just one soldier!"

"SO YOU HAVE TO BE A TANK RIGHT BACK!"

"…..what does that mean?"
"JUST GO WITH MY METAPHORS, YOMI!"

Unfortunately Snake died, promoting the Colonel's frantic cry again. But Chiyo (still trying to process this whole thing) went at it again, and eventually, she won. She definitely was screaming with every other shot, though.

"You did it!"

Snake picked up the next card key, and hurried along. But Vulture was still there, and his words with his unseen associate taunted the player…

"We'll play with him a little longer…."

"Hey Tomo!" Tomo's father peeked his head through the door. "It's dinnertime, so pause the game!"

"Right on, Dad! Can Yomi and Chiyo stay for dinner?"

"Why not? Koyomi's pretty much family, and this little genius is welcome to come to my house anytime!" He exited to the hall.

"C'mon girls, Mom makes the best soba…"

Chiyo saved her game, and set down the controller. "…"

"Um….you okay? You really got far for a newbie!"

"…."

Yomi raised an eyebrow. "Still upset over the gunfire?"

"…a TANK! W-What was Mister Kojima thinking?!"

"Hehehe, that's not the weirdest Metal Gear has to offer…."

FIN

Ending notes: Some games I can't cover ALL the main points in a single chapter, but that's the fun of Metal Gear. It has some serious themes, then you also have these batshit insane moments.

Next Game: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past [Chiyo, Yomi, Osaka, Sakaki, Chihiro]