Quiet fell from the portal, alongside D and Stefanie.
They had not yet understood where they were, and a armed soldier was already pointing his gun at them.
"Don't move!" shouted the man.
They were in a sort of storage room.
Stefanie checked the soldier.
He was wearing a tiger-striped uniform similar to the one used by G.I. during the Vietnam War and a balaclava and holded a rifle that looked like a Kalashnikov.
D was just realizing the place they were.
"Dead Cell, we are Dead Cell, don't shoot us..." said D with a feeble voice.
"What did you said, durak? Dont move, dievuchky!" shouted the man in a heavy Russian accent to all of them.
The soldier didn't understood, what D was saying, so D's bluff didn't worked.
D screamed.
"Quiet, Al-Ta-Je-Jay!"
The silent woman disappeared.
"Sto?" exclaimed the Russian in his native language.
But before he could react, she was already knifing him.
His comrade came from the door, but she threw her knife and hit him in the troath.
Even if D didn't ordered to her to attack, she would have done it anyway.
She hated Russians.
Revolver Ocelot, that wanted to torture her to get to Cypher and the Soviet soldiers she saw in the video that D showed her.
The first thing you done for me was protecting me. You deserve my love. I love you so much. You prevented a lot of sufference for me. Thank you my savior.
Then she gave an air kiss to D.
Stefanie was impressed, as she never seen Quiet in action.
She felt some kind of envy, before remembering the price for her skills.
She took a deep breath and enjoyed it.
D got back on his feet and helped Stefanie.
He smiled as he touched her hand.
She was kinda annoyed but let him enjoyed the small moment.
D quickly realized.
"Ok, I know where we are! Quickly, let's go to the elevator."
D pressed the button to call the elevator.
Stefanie meanwhile grabbed the soldier's rifle and commented.
"What a weird AK-47. Look at the muzzle and the tilted magazine..."
D corrected her.
"Is not an AK. Is a AN-94 Abakan. 5,45x39mm. Is inspired by the AK but is different. In this universe it replaced the AK-74M but in mine it wasn't adopted and the AK-74M was replaced by AK-12 but much later. Is special. His special 2-round burst have a ROF of 1800 and can hit the same hole with a small error margin. In Quiet's hands that margin would be non-existent. Too bad, we can't use it."
"Why?" asked Stefanie.
"NANOMACHINES, SON! I meant... girl! Fuck! You won't have got the reference anyway..." replied D.
"Is from a movie?" asked her back.
"Well, no but..." replied D, before noticing a glint in the girl's eyes.
She saw a shadowy silhouette that hid in behind some boxes.
D made a shush.
The elevator finally came.
They got on.
The elevator was almost gone, when somebody in a weird suit came.
He was freaked by the dead guards and hid behind the door and made a call with his Codec.
"Colonel! What happened? There are guards! But they are dead. They were stabbed!" And the mysterious figures in the elevator! Maybe a woman with military boots, wearing black but with her legs uncovered and a rifle in her hands. The other two, got a tactical uniform but I dind't saw them clearly! What I need to do?"
Colonel replied with a calm voice, almost robotic.
"Raiden, calm down. Relax. Dead guards means that you don't have to worry about them. Connect to the node now. I will try to find intels."
"Did you said "nerd"?"
"Node. Hurry now, but don't lower your guard."
Meanwhile the shadowy figure that was now hidden in a cardboard box was having a Codec call too.
"Otacon! I just saw 3 people that were infiltrating. A man and a woman in tactical gray uniform and a bikini-clad woman with a sniper rifle on a sling. They killed the guards with knives. Do you have any idea of who they are?"
Otacon was thinking.
"Could they be Dead Cell? The knives are the favorite weapon of choice of Vamp, while the half naked woman could be Fortune, as she is famous for wearing sexy in the battlefield and carries a railgun. For the other woman... could be she have been Olga? She is in charge of these mercs, now."
The hidden man pointed out.
"No, I would have recognized Olga after the "Tanker" Incident that happened 2 years ago. Similar in the movements and manners but wasn't her. She had longer brown hairs, while Olga was blondie."
Otacon nitpicked.
"Snake, remember that changing hairstyle and dyeing hairs, is not exactly rocket science. Totally plausible."
Snake was exasperated.
"Well, surely she won't kill her own men."
"Fair point. Anyway... is weird but I will try to find more intel about them."
Meanwhile in the elevator, D was explaining the situation.
"Ok girls. We are on Big Shell. Today is 29th April 2009. Technically this is a platform for cleaning a oilspill that happened 2 years ago. Ok, quickly recap of situation. Terrorists called "The Sons of Liberty" captured this structure and took hostages. They are aided by Russian mercenaries. Oh, since one of the hostage is the POTUS, someone sent a guy to save him, a bloke called Raiden."
Stefanie was about to make a question but D shook his head and continued to explain.
"No. The man you saw was the legendary Solid Snake. He have some stuff to do too."
D took a breath and then exhaled.
"But... I don't have a plan this time. I was hoping to get to Shadow Moses. I know what to do, but I will improvise along the way."
Quiet saw that they almost reached the roof, as light become visible.
She grabbed D and kissed him on the mouth.
It could have been the last moment of calm, before what could have an adventure full of action, so she caught the occasion.
D hugged her, as he received the kiss.
Quiet looked at the love of her life in the eyes.
She knew that whatever would have happened, D was close, to protect her.
Of course, she would have to protect him too.
Stefanie stood still.
Her heartbeat become slower.
While her face looked emotionless, inside she felt weird.
Will I fall in love with him? Future me, surely does. But... I... Him...what happened?
As the elevator reached the roof, D quickly added.
"Oh, get ready. We will meet the weirdest band of freaks ever, during this "little adventure". Dead Cell. But they are dangerous as they are freak. So watch out, girls."