1984

Nine years.

It had been nine years since my father died and I began the process of taking his place.

Every day, I trained to use the powers I inherited from my father. Ocelot used me to make predictions every day. It started off small. "How many fingers am I holding behind my back" he'd ask. I touched his arm and see him holding up a hand, but his fingers were too blurry to see how many were there. If I couldn't see, then he'd tell me to make an educated guess. It was all to improve my instincts, as well as my abilities.

Ocelot also taught me the basics of CQC. "You're sloppy" he told me as I hit the ground. "Your swings are too wide" Ocelot cricetid "and you're too close to the ground".

CQC was still my weak spot to this day.

I slowly got up from the bed in my room. My muscles burned with every movement and it felt like my bones were made of flint and steel. My last CQC training session had been worse than normal and left me bedridden for the last two days.

My room was fairly barren, apart from a desk in the far corner. On it was a set of books and a framed photo of me and my parents. I was a baby and my parents were smiling down at me, a freshly built home behind them.

After the Snake Eater incident, mom and dad built the home I'd grown up in for the first eleven years of my life. An island off the coast of Greece had been the foundation, which had been bought using a small portion of the Philosopher's Legacy. The exterior of the house was a deep green to hide from any passers-by. The inside had three bedrooms, one for my parents, one for me and a third for emergencies. We never had any guests and I was home schooled by mom for my entire life, whenever she was home.

The walls of my room were barren. 'No point in decorating something that could sink at any moment' was my reason. I had a wardrobe on the opposite wall to my desk, which was about five meters apart.

A pair of knocks that came from the door, which caught my attention. I slowly stood to my feet and made my way over. I felt like a splint had been tied to my knees and I had to fight against it to move.

Another, more aggravated knock came from the door. "Give me a minute!" I cried out as I limped over to the door.

In total, it took ten seconds for me to reach the door. My whole body felt stiff and painful as a result, but I was able to open the door.

As I pulled the handle towards me, I heard the sound of a hammer being pulled back. The heel of a boot was slammed against the door and I was flung backwards. I landed on my ass and immediately felt pain shoot through my entire body.

Two men, armed with AK-47s, stormed into my room and took aim at me. They were wearing balaclavas over their heads and wearing Cipher uniforms.

I slowly raised my hands in surrender. I knew I could handle them if I tried, but it was whether or not I could do it without injury.

The closest guy walked closer towards me, the hand holding the barrel of his gun reaching to restrain my right hand. Ignoring my pain, I grabbed his wrist and pulled as hard as I could. I moved the first guy in front of me stopping the second from firing at me. I reached into my hostage's holster and pulled the pistol that had been hanging there. I pointed it at the second guy in a threatening manner. These assholes had killed my father.

They deserved to die.

I pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The shot hit the standing intruder's chest and he dropped to the ground. Dead.

I heard a rage filled growl come from my hostage. A severe pain erupted from my stomach and I dropped to the ground. The first Cipher guy had slammed his elbow into me to escape and was now aiming his AK-47 straight at me. I reacted quickly and aimed the pistol at his head.

We stayed like that, fingers resting on triggers, daring the other to fire. We couldn't fire at the other without the other firing as well.

I felt a stinging pain coming from my neck. I slammed the hand that had been holding up the gun against the pain. I found a small wound coming from my neck.

Injection.

I turned around to fire at whoever had injected me, when a pistol was slammed against my temple and I fell to the ground. My vision was blurry from the blow and the injection was making it impossible to concentrate.

I passed out shortly after.

The pain from training had subsided by the time I woke up. I was still in my room, back on my bed. I wondered, at first, if it was real. But when I checked the back of my neck, there was some dried blood covering where I had been injected.

"You're not ready"

I looked over at Ocelot, who was leaning against my desk. He looked disappointed by my performance earlier.

"What do you mean?" I asked, slowly getting up from my bed.

"The doctor says Snake is due to wake up soon, I was hoping you would go and bring him here" he told me "but you couldn't even take on our worst soldiers". I looked down in shame...

"I'll be back soon, be ready to check Snake when we get back" Ocelot told me.

I got out of bed and began to follow my mentor. "I'm coming with you!" I called out, but Ocelot just ignored me.

"I've been training for nine years. You can't take that from me!"

"I was injured, I can do better!"

Ocelot stopped in his tracks. I tensed up. Something about this felt wrong.

Ocelot suddenly turned around, fist aimed straight at my face. Somehow, I felt it coming and dropped out of the way before it could connect.

Ocelot seemed to be stunned for a second. This was my shot. I grabbed the out stretched hand and slammed my wrist into his ribs. I repeated the action to his chest, before letting his wrist go and punching him in the face.

I felt stunned for a second. I'd never moved that fast before.

"Huh" Ocelot chuckled "was wondering when that would kick in".

I frowned. 'He'd been expecting this' was my thought process.

"Your dad had the ability to see attacks before they connected, was wondering if you had the same"

I looked bewildered for a moment. Ocelot had planned this?

"Get ready to go, wheels up in ten"

I sent a smirk at Ocelot, before standing to attention and saluting. "Thank you, sir!"

Ocelot put my hand down and smiled at me "don't worry about it..."

"Naked Scorpion"