Chapter Two - Fracture Jaw

"Welcome to West Berlin, Bell, we've got a job to do." Adler told Minako. Minako slipped under the rolling door into the safehouse, where the rest of the team was. This included her old comrade Sims, a man whom she remembered as Lazar from the briefing documents, and a woman she vaguely recognised. She knew her as Park from the team documents, but she recognised her from somewhere. She had a faint memory of working with her during a joint op with MI6, but it didn't seem right. She waved this thought and set her gear bag down, pulling out her weapons to inspect them. Her AK-74 was fine, always was, as was her APS. Adler approached the chalkboard in the center of the safehouse as the team stood ready for briefing.

"Alright then, we're going after Perseus, real piece of work this guy is." Adler began. "Stole nuclear secrets in the war and sold them to the Soviets, he's the reason why they have nukes in the first place. To figure out what he's doing, we'll need to look back at 'Nam. Bell, take a look at the evidence board when you're ready to go over what you remember." Park and Lazar went off to do their thing, but Sims approached Minako.

"Hey, uh, Bell, are you sure that you want to talk about Da Nang?" Sims asked.

"Yeah, if it gets us closer to Perseus, then yeah." Minako answered. She was having trouble remembering Da Nang though. "Do you remember anything?"

"Well, I know we had a Job to do."

JANUARY 26TH, 1968, VIETNAM

Minako enjoyed taking naps in the arms tent. Camp Haskins didn't have an armory yet, so they kept all of their munitions in a tent, and would have someone keep an eye on them for security. Minako jumped at the opportunity to take a watch because the tent had fans set up to keep the weapons cool, which meant she could take an air conditioned nap. Unfortunately, this meant it was easy for someone to interrupt her sleep, like what was just happening.

"Bell, time to wake up. It's crank time." Adler stated, patting Minako on the shoulder.

"Jesus, I'm up." Minako grumbled as she got out of her chair, picking up her XM16. She had to admit, the capitalists made some good guns, though nothing beat a good Kalashnikov. Minako followed Adler to the helicopters.

"Another day in the life at Camp Haskins, our little oasis in this godforsaken shitstorm." Adler grumbled before greeting a soldier. "Hey Butcher, how's the arm?"

"Still hurts like hell, but I can move it!" Butcher responded.

"Hey, Bell, can I take your fine commie-" Another soldier started before Minako shut him down.

"Sorry, but no, you'll find someone though!" Minako responded. She was used to the soldiers asking her out, it was just a fact of life at this point. She just let them off easy. Speaking of lonely soldiers, Sims sat in the chopper, "reading" a copy of Playboy.

"You know this shit will make you go blind right?" Adler asked.

"Hey that's why I'm storing it all up here." Sims answered, tapping his head.

"So that's a yes? Maybe I'll just go home if you keep acting like this, American." Minako teased, letting herself slip into the Russian accent she picked up over the years.

"Hey no need to turn, Madam Bell." Sims sighed, tossing the magazine into the dirt.

"You two are flying together, you bring out the best in each other." Adler sighed with a slight chuckle. Minako nodded and climbed into the door gun. "You'll be guarding FOB Ripcord and retrieving a package once it's secure." Adler continued as the helicopter took off. "Wait, change of plans, an HVT was spotted in a nearby village, you two are going there."

"How bad do they want this HVT?" Minako asked.

"Remember your defection?" Adler asked.

"Which one?" Minako asked with a hint of smugness in her tone.

"Should have clarified, remember Czechoslovakia?" Adler corrected. "More than that."

"Shit, we must want this guy bad." Sims chuckled. "What do we know?"

"He's a high ranking Soviet Agent called Perseus." Adler stated.

"Wait, Perseus? Why does that sound so familiar?" Minako wondered as the chopper approached a village. "Isn't he the one who-"

"No, you don't know him." Adler spat. "It was Gorev who helped you leave Japan, remember?" Palpable amounts of venom infected his tone.

"I guess you're right." Minako sighed. What was with that outburst from her friend? And why did she get the feeling she was here way too early? She waved these thoughts as the chopper entered the airspace of the village. Minako let loose with the minigun, tearing into the buildings and VC below. The chopper eventually landed and Minako jumped out with Sims, gunning down any VC who attacked them. The two moved forward, pushing through ambushes to eventually reach what appeared to be a library or government building of some kind. Of course, the first floor was full of VC, but when they reached the second they started encountering Soviet troops. And not just any troops, they were Spetsnaz.

"Bell, you seeing this shit?" Sims asked.

"These guys are spec-ops, what are they doing here?" Minako wondered. The two kept pushing forward, eventually finding themselves at a large red door, reinforced with steel. Minko forced the door open and Sims beat down a Spetsnaz that greeted them. Minako used her sidearm to take out another one waiting for them. Sitting on a table in the room was a simple file with blood and a hammer and sickle on it. Somehow, Minako recognized the file, but she couldn't tell why.

"Bell, look, we hit the mother load." Sims chuckled. Minako slipped the file into her flak vest. Leaving the building, Minako and Sims were met with a glorious sight. The sight of HE rounds raining on Charlie welcomed them to the outside.

"Bell, Sims, get in, it's about time we get to Ripcord." Adler greeted. The two got on the chopper and explained their findings to Adler.

"Figures." Adler groaned. "For now, we need to secure that package from Ripcord. Langley will want to hear about this later." The chopper approached Ripcord, landing in an area cleared for the chopper. Soldiers sat around a large white drum, all aiming rifles in various directions, some even flagging other soldiers. Soon, Minako would learn what was so important.

"Adler, is this a goddamn nuke!?" Minako spat, her accent slipping slightly.

"Are we that desperate already?" Sims asked, a slight condemning tone in his voice.

"It's a failsafe, that's all you need to know." Adler answered. Though he was answering Sims' question, it almost felt like he was talking to Minako directly.

"RPG!" The chopper's co-pilot screamed before an explosion burst on the tail. It began spinning out of control, the pilots being sucked out of it before it crashed.

Minako woke up upside down, still in the gunner's position. Sims and Adler woke up at the same time, also upside down. The smell of smoke overwhelmed Bell's senses as she checked to make sure the nuke was still in the chopper. Sure enough, it was. Bullets suddenly whizzed by, cracking her focus to the shooters, a small horde of VC. Minako grabbed the door gun and held the trigger down, turning the VC into a thin red paste before the gun finally gave out. Minako cut herself out of the seat before picking up an M60.

"Bell, there's more coming, call in napalm, NOW!" Adler ordered. Minako nodded and pulled a red smoke grenade off her vest and tossed it into the jungle. VC spewed out of the smoke as it billowed into the sky. Minako let loose with the M60 as they approached, with Alder and Sims focusing on guarding the nuke. A napalm run did come, about 50 meters off target, before a second run finally did the job.

"That sure went wrong in more ways than one." Minako groaned.

"At Least we got something." Sims sighed.

PRESENT DAY

Back in the safehouse, Minako found herself asleep at a desk, the familiar file sitting on the desk. Next to it was a piece of paper with notes scrawled all over it, explaining each detail of the file. She felt like shit, and could barely remember doing anything. A cup of coffee was put right in front of her.

"You like hammered shit, Bell." A man with a mullet and a beard laughed as he set down the coffee.

"Huh? Do I know you?" Minako asked.

"You should, name's Frank Woods." the man introduced.

"Minako Arisato, call me Bell." Minako responded. "You on Adler's team?"

"Apparently." Woods answered with a chuckle. "Probably won't be with you on the next op though, Mason and I have work to do in The Ukraine."

"Ah, well, I hope to work with you soon." Minako stated, a slight smile forming on your face.

"Same here." Woods responded. "Best I get going, don't want to leave Mason waiting."

"Ah love blooms on the battlefield eh, Bell?" Sims snickered after Woods left the safehouse.

"Shut up!" Minako spat. "I just met him!"

"It's fine to like somebody, Bell, just keep it professional." Adler teased.

"He's twice my age you assholes!" Bell hissed. "Besides, I don't date coworkers!"

"Leave her be." Park ordered. "She's clearly just exhausted from decoding the dossier and a coworker brought her something to cheer her up, there's no love involved."

"Thank you, Park." Minako sighed. "You wouldn't believe those two."

"No problem." Park stated. "By the way, excellent work decoding that dossier, not even the CIA or MI6's best codebreakers could crack it. Though I suppose you have an advantage, being Ex-KGB."

"So you know about that huh?" Minako asked.

"Of course, I always do research on the people I work with." Park answered. "If you don't mind me asking, what was it like in Moscow? I'm dying to know what the KGB is like."

"Well, it was like any other intelligence agency-" Minako began before realizing that she didn't spend a whole lot of time at Lubyanka. "Well, I wouldn't know, I was rarely at Lubyanka."

"You were a cryptographer though, weren't you?" Park asked. "I thought you would have been there more often."

"Well, I was mostly pulled for field work." Minako explained. That was what she remembered, but it didn't seem right. She had memories of active field work, assassinations, smuggling, kidnappings, not just cracking codes and messing with radios.

"So we're in the same boat then? Two people who really shouldn't be in the field but usually are." Park asked with a chuckle.

"You aren't a field agent?" Minako asked.

"No, I'm technically logistics, but that's just the official title." Park answered. "I plan these operations but they always suspiciously rely on me being there."

"Real clever, Park." Minako complimented. "Say, you seem rather familiar. Have I worked with you before?"

"It's possible, I was the marksman for your defection to the US but you never actually saw me." Park explained.

"I don't remember any marksman, infact, I barely remember my defection at all." Minako said with a slight grimace.

"You'll definitely want to drink that coffee Woods gave you then, we're going to West Berlin at midnight."

A/N: Chapter two is out! I'm really having fun writing this. Since Bell is a blank canvas, it gives me so much freedom, meaning I get to come up my own falsified background the CIA makes. Also, Minako and Woods will NOT be shipped. Minako will have a childish crush on him, but nothing more, kinda like a kid having a crush on their teacher. Well, aside from that, nothing else, hope you enjoyed!