Disclaimer: I don't own Metal Gear Solid (or anything Metal Gear) for that matter, and I don't own Max Steel. My profit from this is an exact figure of zero dollars.

Metal Gears, Nanoprobes, and a Word from our Sponsor

Chapter II

by Alhazred

madarab20@hotmail.com

Rubbing his eyes and slipping his glasses on, Berto asked, "Did you sleep at all?"

"Yeah," Josh smiled, thumbing through the contents of the folder in his hands. The tag on the side read "Dave Hayter." Berto had tossed it together before going to bed the night before (technically, earlier this morning.) Josh tossed the folder to the table. "It's all fake."

"What?"

"He's Solid Snake, Bro," Josh exclaimed, "it's just a false identity!"

"Wait a minute here," Berto started, rubbing at his eyes. Too early for this...

Kat emerged from her bunk. "Hey, you mean I wasn't dreaming you said that last night? The guy is Solid Snake? He's still alive?"

"Yep, Berto, the Biolink was on after you turned in, why don't you play it back?"

"Uh, sure," the scientist's eyes shifted. "Just... tell me something. Who is 'Solid Snake,' anyway?"

Kat's eyes went wide. "Don't you live on this planet?"

"Yeah," Josh blinked, "what kinda Secret Agent are you?"

Annoyed, Berto glared at them and leaned against the wall. "Obviously, the uninformed kind, Hermano."

"Snake is like, the legend, Bro!"

"Best spy there ever was," Kat added. "Hey Berto, you can read really fast, right?"

"Yeah, it's kinda a requirement for being a computer genius," Berto smiled, certainly not above bragging.

"Great," her face lit up. "I swiped a copy of In the Darkness of Shadow Moses from N-Tek when we left."

Josh followed her as she rummaged through her things. "Kat, you have a copy and you didn't tell me? Maybe others would like to read it."

"Sorry, never crossed my mind," she came out with the aforementioned book and handed it to Berto. "Read."

His curiosity piqued, Berto took the book and started doing just that.

---

Solid Snake was very jaded. He'd seen a lot in his life, and he had no doubt he would see a lot more before leaving this mortal coil. But Otacon... he was a different story. "You stayed up all night again, didn't you?"

"Yep!" He chirped, bringing his laptop over to the table. Snake tried to figure out how he could go with no sleep and still avoid fatigue completely. "And I found a few things."

Snake peered over his shoulder as usual at the official N-Tek data Otacon had swiped. "Doesn't look like much."

Sounding rather glum, Otacon answered, "It's not. I got a little ways in and then the firewalls blasted me. Whoever set up their security is either good or lucky, it was better then Armstech's, that's for sure. Anyway, here's the first little item of interest I found."

Scanning over the simple list of items, Snake couldn't see what was so interesting. "I don't quite follow, Otacon."

"See 'Team Steel' listed on the pay role, no surprise there, right? Lookit the date it was added."

"What the- that's at least two years before they started competing!" Snake rubbed at the stubble on his chin.

"Yep," Otacon raised a finger, and then brought up more data. "Now look at the current roster."

Snake squinted at the words. "Who the hell is Max Steel?"

"I'm getting to that. What I wanna know is, why is he on this list if he's nowhere to be seen? If there's already a third competitor on that team, why do you even have a chance of infiltrating it?"

"'Infiltrating?' Otacon, they're just a bunch of kids," Snake reminded him, "this isn't a hostage situation with the threat of nuclear strike. Yet."

Otacon agreed. "Thank goodness for that. Anyway, here's the last thing I got, this little attachment."

The file Otacon opened was a photograph taken at the front doors of N-Tek.

"That's him." Snake pointed to the man at the far right. It was the guy that'd shadowed him with optic camo, he was certain. Same clothes, gear, hairstyle, the works.

"My guess, that would be Max Steel," Otacon said. Berto and Kat were elsewhere in the shot, but there was one man Snake didn't recognize. "Who's that?"

"Jefferson Smith, all around boss-guy at N-Tek, and, are you ready for this?" Taking his glasses off, Otacon continued. "Josh McGrath's adoptive father. And yet Josh McGrath isn't in this picture, but it's dated last year. Okay, so maybe I'm reading too much into that, but I stopped believing in coincidences after Shadow Moses."

"I stopped during Outer Heaven," Snake started to pace around the room, his feet making a rather distinct sound against the cheap wood floor. "So. There's this Max Steel character that's connected to Vamp... how, exactly? And he's supposed to be part of Team Steel but is never there. So this all adds up to... Otacon, what does this all add up to?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

Looking back at the image on the laptop screen, Snake started to wonder. Max Steel, if that's who it was, had a familiar look. Red flags started waving in Snake's head; the face and head were all wrong, but the build, the stature, the body language... "You know, if I didn't know any better, I'd say he is McGrath."

While Otacon pondered that, a sigh escaped from Snake, long, deep and exasperated. "You know what this means."

"What?"

"We're taking a trip to N-Tek," Snake answered. "I'll get the Kasatka."

---

Berto was tempted to call a mental institution and have his teammates committed. "Guys, this is ridiculous," he called, more then three-quarters done with In the Darkness of Shadow Moses. "Don't tell me you guys believe this crap. All this 'Metal Gear' stuff has been in every tabloid for years. And is there enough phallic imagery in this thing? Solid Snake, Liquid Snake, sounds like porn stars."

He flipped by more pages, reading each one almost instantly.

"Uh, Bro, you do know N-Tek had files on the whole thing?" Josh asked.

That got Berto's attention, he looked up, eyes wide. "Seriously? Man, I knew I shoulda' looked in the historical archives more often... wait, there are people out there that actually call themselves these names?"

"Scary, isn't it," Kat added, watching the end of Josh's Biolink records from early in the morning. "I doubt Psycho Mantis had many dates."

"At least we only deal with 'Psycho,'" Josh added, his phone ringing. He wasn't surprised at who was calling. "Hey Dad!"

Berto sought out his computer. "I gotta start digging some of this stuff up."

Kat wasn't far behind. "Hey, find out what the guy's been up to since then," she suggested.

"Uh, Berto," Josh hung up, now fairly alarmed. "It'll have wait. Dad needs us at N-Tek."

Berto and Kat looked at him without saying a word. They hadn't been to the N-Tek building for more then five minutes since...

"Someone good hacked into the computers last night," Josh added.

---

"How are you doing, Snake?"

"Coming out of the ventilation duct," Snake said back. "I took a fork and came down a really long ladder that wasn't showing on the radar, might be something good."

"I had to hack the architect's database for the radar's schematic function this time, the construction materials used to build it absorb radar naturally. Expensive stuff," Otacon told him, "The building is old enough that there have likely been additions by the company themselves since it was designed. Have you actually needed those armor piercing rounds yet?"

"Nope," Snake absent-mindedly patted his SOCOM, "but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. It's nice to have bullets that could actually damage a Metal Gear. Okay, kind-of damage a Metal Gear."

The grate that led out of the ventilation duct was being stubborn. Snake wasn't getting any readings on the radar, and people would have shown even without the floor plan. He pulled a nice contortionist trick by turning around, after which he kicked the grate clear off the wall. It clattered to a stop on the metal floor in the room beyond, kicking up dust, and Snake stood in that room shortly.

"Otacon, you should see this," he looked around, "this stuff looks more advanced then the supercomputers you had in your Shadow Moses lab."

"Damn, just my luck to be in the air," his partner replied.

But upon closer inspection, Snake realized it was almost a false alarm. "Actually, you might've been disappointed, looks like most of the equipment's been stripped away."

Indeed, whatever the room had once been used for, it was long abandoned. The door was crisscrossed with what looked like police tape, except the label read "Federal Bureau of Investigations: Cease and Desist." The massive computer systems were missing console boards, monitors, and probably key hardware, though the large main screen was still there. Snake guessed no one knew what to do with it.

"Is there anything left?" Otacon's hope for something useful was fading, but Snake had already noticed a few things.

"Computer's still got a few lights blinking, I'll see if I can start something up." The "On" button worked fine. The system booted up to the N-Tek logo, but it seemed more then a little sluggish. "Well, I started something up."

Otacon pushed his glasses up. "Put the wireless modem I gave you on the floor and turn it on."

Snake did just that. "Done and done."

"Okay, let's see what I can get at here..."

---

Kat didn't mind being left alone; it wasn't like the boys were being mean, after all. Besides, Berto was the genius and Josh was Jefferson's son. The Helifoil had two seats. It made sense.

Unfortunately, it also made her bored to an unfathomable level. The van was a lonely place with no one else in it, and movies only went so far. Of course, it could have been worse, Berto could've been sick again. And it was more fun being bored then making more sooop and joooce.

Rather then continuing to pace inside the van, Kat decided she would pace outside for a few minutes. She couldn't actually go and practice anything because the D.O.X. competitions for the day had already started.

So she walked around the van. Once, then twice, and a third time for good measure.

Then she went back inside. "How thrilling," she muttered.

"Not at all."

Instantly spinning on her heels, Kat took a defensive stance against the intruder... but no one was there. Or so she thought; a second later it became obvious someone was there, the wall behind them distorted by a cloak. The voice didn't sound like Max... or Biocon, for that matter.

The cloak dropped, and Kat took a step back. She didn't let her surprise show, but if the armor this guy was wearing wasn't that cyborg-ninja exoskeleton described in In the Darkness of Shadow Moses, she'd declare herself to be Queen Victoria. The only difference was the sword, or lack thereof; this one had a rocket launcher slung over his back.

"And you are?" Kat demanded.

"Hmm," the Ninja considered, raising his hands to show he was unarmed. "Neither enemy nor friend."

"What do you want?" She asked, determined to get some sort of information.

The ninja took a step forward and slowly reached into a pocket of his suit. Kat kept one eye on his hand, but it just came back holding onto a computer disk. Holding it out for her take, he said, "I'm doing you a favor. Give this to Dr. Martinez."

"Why the favor?" Kat asked, swiping the disc from his hand without moving her eyes. She didn't know the voice either; it sounded fairly electronic, but there was a distinct Russian accent to it. Assuming that wasn't false.

"You don't need to know," the ninja answered, pulling the rocket launcher from his back and holding it out with both hands. "You may need this as well, your friends could need help. N-Tek has been infiltrated."

Kat stared him down without taking it; grabbing something that large meant using both of her own hands, and she wasn't willing to have some massive object impair her if things got ugly. Apparently seeing this, the ninja crouched down and propped it up against the wall.

His business done, the ninja snapped off a mock-salute, turned his optic camo back on, and dashed out the door.

And Kat saw no trace of him when she ran out of the van less then a second behind. So she went right back in, slammed the door shut, and sought out the phone.

The line rang exactly once before being picked up. "Roberto Martinez."

"Berto? Yeah, it's Kat. We might have a problem."

---

It was all Berto could do not to go hysterical over the phone. "A what in a what broke into the van?"

"Whoa, Berto," Josh put a hand on his shoulder, "what's wrong?"

The younger man put a hand over the phone's mouthpiece. "Some guy dressed like a ninja broke into the van. Uh huh... uh huh..."

Josh, though concerned, gave up for the moment as Berto resumed his conversation.

"Alright, don't let it out of your sight, I'll take a look at it when we get back," Berto went on, "he left you a what and said what?"

Deciding that this was going nowhere, Josh tried to yank the phone away from Berto. Berto wouldn't give it up, but aside from tightening his grip, he didn't seem to be aware of Josh's actions as he listened. Eventually, however, Josh claimed the prize.

"Kat, it's Josh. Uh huh... he what and said what?"

"Oh for cryin' out loud!" Jefferson roared, stomping over and grabbing the phone himself. "Kat? Jefferson. Yeah... he left you a Stinger missile launcher and said N-Tek's been infiltrated?"

Jefferson lowered the phone. No one said a word for a long moment... and then all three of them said the same thing at once. "N-Tek's been infiltrated?!"

The phone on Jefferson's desk rang. An eerie quiet fell over Josh and Berto while he answered it. Hanging it up after a few acknowledgements and an 'understood,' he looked at the pair. "A motion detector just went off in a restricted area."

"I'll hate myself for asking," Berto raised a hand, "but... what area?"

His face warping into the very definition of stress, Jefferson answered, "I'll give you one guess."

---

"Well, I think it's safe to say N-Tek is up to something," Snake sat back in the dusty chair as more and more information flashed across the screen. "And this place is underground. Way underground. I found it by luck. And you should see the room I went through to get here."

"I dunno," Otacon came back. Rarely did someone show so much emotion that Snake could make it out on their face through the tiny Codec image, but Otacon was clearly skeptical. "A lot of this information is just leftovers, stored in unmovable hardware and just left around after they packed up shop. Not that it's worthless information, you're not going to believe some of this, Snake, but I'm starting to wonder if we're chasing a wild goose here."

"Keep trying," Snake sent. "I want to know who these clowns are anyway."

Without warning, the screen went black and the system itself shut down.

"Uh oh," Otacon visibly jumped. "I just got busted. Snake, they're onto us!"

But Snake was already out of the chair and heading back the way he came. As far as he was concerned, they'd gotten something, and it was time to become scarce.

The real fun would be finding an alternate way to the surface; if N-Tek security was smart, they'd have all the exits sealed, and ventilation ducts were easy to guard.

---

Never thought I'd see this place again...

Max crept along the rubble, currently stepping on the only stable part of the ring. The chair he used to sit in for a charge-up was destroyed, the machine itself was in ruins... none of it had been cleaned up, none of it at all. Even the door was taped off. What remained of the magnetic rings was being held up their own debris.

It was a depressing sight. But Max couldn't see anyone around, so he went into stealth mode and listened.

"You're sure the structural layouts you hacked don't show this place?" Snake whispered, hopping up to catch the edge of the ring. It shuddered a bit, but he pulled himself to the top without incident.

"Not that I can tell, Snake," the engineer came back. "But it is kinda hard to fly the Kasatka, hack a computer and look at diagrams. Maybe if you could be more specific..."

"Otacon, it's a room," grunted Snake. He pulled himself up and stood on the ring, nothing showing on the radar. "It's big, it's round, it has rings, and it's totaled."

Taking a look back at his printouts, Otacon answered, "Nope, that's definitely not in the diagrams. Is there a little red light in the wall anywhere?"

"No," Snake looked around, a puzzled look on his face.

"Dave, I suggest you take a nerve pill."

"Shut up, Otacon," Snake growled. But the anger just wasn't in him and he gave in. "Why can't you just pretend to be Mei Ling again?"

"Now Snake, I never 'pretended' to be the young women you hit on, maybe you should-"

"If this comment involves the word 'Vamp,'" Snake cut him off, "I do not want to hear it."

Otacon just chuckled. "For the record, I am now serious about the nerve pill."

Snake rolled his eyes. Can anyone remember when spies actually got support from their base?

Max didn't have the faintest clue what Snake was talking about, but it was obvious he wasn't talking to himself. No; he remembered from the book, Snake communicated with something similar to his own Biolink, if less advanced.

His thoughts turned to more serious matters. Snake was snooping around the old rooms, and it was entirely possible he'd already found something. Fortunately, there were only scraps left to find.

So he crept up behind Snake and decided to break the ice by switching off stealth.

What he didn't remember from the book was Snake's radar, and when he uncloaked, he lost the radar absorption that prevented Snake from seeing him on it.

And Snake's immediate reaction upon seeing the dot appear directly behind his position was to whirl around and backhand Max across the face. Snake hit him with such force that he almost fell from the makeshift platform, but he managed to use the momentum to roll backward and spring to his feet.

Snake didn't back down. "Max Steel, I presume."

Despite the bruise developing on his cheek, Max couldn't hold back a smile at the fact that a living legend knew his name. "Got it in one. And you're Solid Snake?"

"Am I?" Snake tilted his head. "Friend of mine once said, 'I am like you, I have no name."

"Gray Fox?" Max raised an eyebrow.

Snake twisted that around a little. He shook his head, "I must have words with Nastasha about giving me an alias in her next book..."

"Might be a good idea," Max called, leaping at Snake. The fight was on.

Wearing the goggles tuned into Max's Biolink was an experience. Berto found that the lack of peripheral vision tended to make it seem like he was Max himself, and it made it all the more horrifying when Max took a hard blow and staggered or fell.

Right now, Berto was horrified and instinctively ducking around blows. Snake was good, there was no question about that, and he was giving Max a run for his money. But that wasn't what worried him. "Max, be careful, he's got guns on his belt; looks like a .45 caliber and a tranquilizer."

Max's method of answering was to grunt back while he positioned for another attack.

Snake pulled his M9 before Max moved and took a shot, but Max saw it coming and hopped up onto the actual floor. Feigning a standoff, Snake cocked the gun and pretended to aim again, but his other hand took the SOCOM from his belt brought up.

Snake was no Revolver Ocelot, however, and Max stepped to the side long before the shot would've hit him. Deciding he needed another strategy, Snake quickly let his eyes wander; there was a steel girder hanging precariously from the ceiling, it wouldn't take much to knock it down if he hit the right place.

Expecting Snake to shoot at him again, Max was someone surprised when he aimed his gun high and fired a pair of shots. But the armor-piercing rounds cut through the fatigued metal of Snake's target, and the girder dropped right on Max's head.

Max wasn't out by a long shot, he'd been hit by worse, but for the moment he was totally dazed and Snake took the opportunity to make his exit.

Otacon called him. "Snake, I've been looking at the stuff I got, it looks like there's an elevator that leads back to the surface, but you'll have to find it yourself."

"Of course," Snake rolled his eyes, running out the half-open door instead of back through the ventilation systems. "Bring the Kasatka in."

---

Max had never suspected the stuff in this room was this heavy. "Damned lucky nothing's broken..."

With a grunt, he put his hands on the debris burying him and shoved it off. Anyone get the number of that Snake that hit me... Snake!

"Berto, you there?"

"Heading down there now, Hermano," Berto called back. "You've been on Mars for a couple minutes!"

"No, no," Max shook his head, trying to think straight. He vaguely recalled something that Snake while he was delirious. Bring it in, Kasatka... Kasatka... Russian helicopter! "I'm fine, go get the Helifoil, he's got a chopper waiting!"

He could almost hear Berto skidding to a stop and changing direction. "Gotcha, want me to wait for you?"

"No, take off, I'm going to go see if I can grab him."

Snake, meanwhile, had managed to avoid any situation defined as being 'grabbed.' There were only two security guards outside the little shed that hid the elevator, easily taken care of by knocking their heads together. "Oh of course, I climb how many stories down a ladder in a ventilation duct and this is right here."

With that out of his system, Snake turned toward the growing sound of a helicopter approaching. Otacon wasn't going to approach closer then the waterline to avoid anyone getting a visual, which was fine with Snake, considering it was all of twenty feet away.

It was also fine for Max when he ran out the door and site of the chopper himself. He could run faster then Snake, and run he did. When he was halfway there himself, he heard the Helifoil approaching from behind... but Berto was too far away. The Kasatka wouldn't have to land, a fact made obvious when a ladder dropped out of the side.

"No way in Hell," Max snarled, seeing Snake make a grab for the ladder. The chopper turned and started to fly off as soon as he had a hold. The Helifoil could catch up with a Kasatka, but boarding a helicopter from a helicopter wasn't the easiest or safest way to go about things.

If he wanted to catch them before they were too far out over water, Max would have to be fast, and that was a simple enough thing to accomplish. "Going turbo!"

Snake took one last look back at the island while Otacon raised the chopper higher into the air. At first, he found it amusing that he'd managed such an easy getaway; he couldn't remember the last time he'd been on a mission and didn't have to do things like fight forty-foot tall 'mechs and avert nuclear attacks by terrorists. In fact, he was fairly certain he'd never been on a mission that didn't involve that.

But the site of Max Steel, glowing brightly and running faster then humanly possible towards the edge of the sheer cliff the Kasatka was just over was not amusing. Nor was it amusing when Max hit the edge of that cliff, leapt into the air, and snagged the very last rung on the ladder.

And Snake was at the end of his rope when he spied the smallest helicopter he'd ever seen catching up fast from their six.

"Otacon, we've got company!" Snack called, unsure whether Otacon would hear him better over the Codec or through the air with the noise from the chopper's rotors.

"Uh, Snake, I can't exactly man the guns and pilot at the same time!"

"Forgot," Snake muttered, climbing faster.

Max dropped out of turbo mode as soon as he caught the ladder, already feeling the effects of pushing it too much. "Berto, have you got the portable generator with you, by any chance?"

"Left it with Kat," Berto answered, "how much T-Juice you got?"

Looking at his Biolink and seeing he was dangerously low, Max gave an unconvincing "Uh... plenty!"

Berto certainly wasn't fooled. "Don't push it, Hermano! Hanging off a ladder a hundred feet in the air is bad enough as it is!"

"Oh, I don't plan to be hanging for long," Max assured him, already scrambling up to the chopper.

Snake dived onto the deck and grabbed the lone combat knife sitting on the sparse weapons rack. The terrorists had, of course, taken almost everything as soon as they'd disembarked onto the Big Shell, but an M4 rifle was left.

Knife in hand, Snake turned around to cut the ladder right off and give Max Steel one mother of a bath. Unfortunately, Max had already climbed up to the Kasatka and, still strong enough to do simple tasks, swung up onto the deck and kicked Snake right back to the rack.

Berto could just barely see the ensuing brawl as he approached in the Helifoil. It could only be called a brawl, Max and Snake were going for every hit they possibly could without flying out the missing wall of an enclosed space. There was just no room for being graceful. If one of them knocked into the pilot, then there would really be a problem.

"Damn persistent kids," Snake punched Max across the face. Several times. Max was no longer strong enough to take the blows in stride, but he was strong enough to swing his own fist. He was too slow; Snake grabbed his arm and flung him hard into the back wall.

Deciding Max needed some direct help, Berto reached under his seat for the spare grapple gun and took aim. He didn't give himself time to think about what insanity he was about to attempt pulling, lest he chicken out. He just fired.

The grapple was on target as far as the Kasatka went, but there was precious little inside for it to latch onto and Berto had missed anything bolted to the hull. Intending fully to try again, he hit the retract button.

Snake registered this as another problem to deal with. "Otacon, keep her steady!"

From the corner of his eye, he saw his partner give thumbs up to show acknowledgment with minimal distraction, and he promptly pulled his M9 and put a tranquilizer in Max's head.

With that accomplished, he dropped the M9 to the deck in favor of his SOCOM. Taking cover behind the hull, Snake leaned out across the door and opened fire.

Acting on reflex, Berto banked the Helifoil to the side as soon as he saw the gun in Snake's hands, putting the armor plating between the bullets and his flesh. Snake's first few shots were misses, but the hits shook the entire craft and caused far more damage then a simple handgun should have; one went through an engine, and if the damage report on the dashboard didn't tell that, the smoke rising from the back would.

"What's that thing loaded with, Stinger missiles?" Berto cursed, maneuvering back into position for another try at boarding. One way or another, he was going to have to get the Helifoil to the ground very shortly.

Snake took aim, but Max, kept awake by the nanoprobes, pulled him to his feet and kicked him back against the wall before he could fire again. Caught completely off guard, Snake tried to bring his gun around, but Max would have none of this and tried to knock it from his hand.

Unwilling to drop his SOCOM, Snake managed to slip behind Max and shove him toward the rack. Max promptly grabbed the M4 and jammed the butt of the rifle into Snake's chest, but his withering strength didn't count for much.

The grapple from Berto flew into the chopper again, and this time it caught the top bar of the gun rack itself.

"Otacon!" Snake yelled, not really sure how he wanted the would-be pilot to solve the problem.

Way ahead of Snake, Otacon banked the Kasatka around, but Berto managed to keep the Helifoil flying alongside. He set it for an automatic landing in one minute, crossed himself, prayed he wasn't completely insane to think he could pull this off, and hit the retract button on the grapple gun.

Looking behind Snake and seeing Berto fly through the air in his direction, Max dived to the side. Berto wasn't in the air long before the gun brought him aboard the Kasatka, but he didn't know how to stop himself and slammed right into Snake's back. In turn, Snake fell forward, and his forehead bounced off the bar on the rack.

Head spinning and eyes crossed, Snake fell flat on his back. Seeing this, Otacon flipped the auto pilot switch, grabbed the fire extinguisher from the cockpit and leapt into the cargo area yelling like a banshee on crack.

But Berto recognized what the M9 on the floor was; before Otacon could bean him, he snagged the tranquilizer from the deck, cocked it, and capped the engineer in the heart. Otacon passed out in mid-leap and hit the floor, snoring.

"Siddown, Kid," Snake's voice came. Berto turned his head in time to see Snake lunge, grab his leg, and twist.

Hearing his ankle snap in two, Berto cried out and crumpled to the floor.

Unrelenting, Snake grabbed the M9 when Berto dropped it and shot Max in the neck. Max couldn't stay awake this time, he was too low on energy for the Max Probes to fight the sedative off again, and he fell to the floor. The audio warning on his Biolink went off.

Snake forgotten, Berto tried to crawl over and flip the switch to power him down. But Snake, completely oblivious to his noble intentions, cocked the M9 and shot him with the last tranquilizer.

---