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 IX
by Alhazred
madarab20@hotmail.com
http://www.rockettownonline.com/~alhazred
Not for the first time, Otacon wondered what mental deficiency had driven any of them, himself included, to think this would work. Now, with twilight almost upon the DOX, he summed it up in a simple manner. "This is insane."
"Thank you for that insanely scientific analysis, Otacon," Snake rolled his eyes, straightening his bow tie one last time. "If you have a better idea, I'm all ears."
"Look, Snake, okay, so we don't have any other leads," Otacon replied, "but walking up to Vamp and asking him where Arsenal Gear is will not work."
Tugging at his lapels, Snake answered, "I don't need to ask him where it is, we know it has to be close, I just need to ask him where it's going, then we can catch it."
Tilting his head to the side, Otacon shot him a glare. "You know what I mean."
"Oh, shut up, Yaoi Boy."
Otacon felt tempted to slap him, but he doubted it would do anything aside from giving Snake an excuse to punch him really hard. "Where's Josh, anyway?"
"Getting ready, I hope."
Looking back to the door of the van, Snake could see the colors from the sunset fade. They were already fifteen minutes late for this thing. Quite suddenly, he spun around and looked up and down the parking lot, an action that worried his partner. Otacon knew Snake well enough to know that he wasn't paranoid; if he thought someone was watching him, someone was.
But they couldn't see anyone around. Thermal goggles, on the other hand, would have shown L'Étranger hiding out in the shadows as clear as day.
Inside, Berto was tweaking his laptop for the op and made a final check on everything. Josh's Biolink was sending, Snake and Otacon's Codecs were receiving his signals, clever thing, that little idea, and Josh himself had pretty much psyched himself up for the job as he usually did.
So why, then, was Josh stalling in his room and looking over his shoulder at every little detail?
"You okay, Bro?"
"Yeah," Berto told him, careful not to say it too fast this time. In truth, he did feel better since Kat's… medical attention, though he doubted he'd be getting a good night's sleep for awhile. Josh talking reminded him of the one thing he'd forgotten, something he could mercifully distract his friend with to stop him asking more questions. "Hey, you forgot something, Hermano."
He handed Josh the nanosword.
"Oh yeah," Josh took it and twirled it between his fingers, looking at it like he wasn't really seeing it. He wanted to say something, make up for completely ignoring Berto earlier, but... "so you made this thing, huh?"
"Yeah, it was... a challenge, let me tell you," Berto answered. "It won't cut you, by the way, as long as you're holding it. The grip reads your DNA and dulls the blade if you touch it."
"Cool," Josh answered, not a lot of effort in his voice. "You know..."
"We should get going," Berto said.
"Yeah... guess you're right... are you sure..."
"Yes," Berto almost spat, turning to make sure he had everything.
So Josh turned away and, giving Berto one last glance, left the van.
"Are you insane?" Snake glared daggers at him. After being puzzled for a moment, Josh looked down at himself.
"Whoops." He'd forgotten to change; a muscle shirt and faded jeans weren't very... charity-ball like. "Knew I forgot something."
He tapped a few of the smaller buttons on his Biolink, and this time, when the Max Probes woke up and buzzed over him with their transphasic glow, he was decked out in a perfect tuxedo, bow tie and all.
Snake growled.
Berto soon followed out of the van. "Kat just checked in, everything's smooth... she's talking Orrin's ear off about our new teammate, and he can't wait to meet him."
Snake blinked. "Orrin?"
Straightening his jacket and dropping the nanosword into the inside pocket, Josh rolled a bit on his heels. "Yeah, he's the ZNN correspondent that covers the DOX most of the time. Maybe we're lucky and he's sick of having to talk about Vamp kicking our butts."
"Oh," Snake raised an eyebrow at him, almost saying 'gee, that Orrin.' "Joy."
Somewhere else in the parking lot, a set of electronic binoculars zoomed in on the little group, a directional microphone pointed their way. "They're headin' out, Boss."
"It's about time," Dread answered back, Psycho adjusting the volume of his earpiece slightly. "You might as well head out now; you've been tracking them all day. We know enough about what they're planning, I think."
"Good, I'm fucking starving down here," Psycho said back. He glanced around the lot with his binoculars a little more and caught site of L'Étranger; the masked man watched the Kasatka take off before nonchalantly turning around, shoving his hands into his pockets and walking off. "And you'll never guess who else is actually here."
"You called it right, I assume?" Dread chuckled over the comm. link.
"Damn right I did. You owe me twenty bucks, I knew this would happen. It's just the kind of... psychotic thing Maxy over there would do."
"Very well, my friend," Dread seemed fairly amused. "You know what to do next."
"Yeah, yeah, Boss." With that, Psycho turned around, flicked off the optic camouflage his brace controlled, and headed back to his transportation.
---
One little detail didn't escape Josh after they landed. "Oh God...this is the Oceanus, isn't it?"
"Yep," Berto chuckled. Snake looked at them and raised an eyebrow. "Don't ask."
With a two-fingered salute to them out his side window, Otacon brought the Kasatka back into the air and flew it off. He would circle from above and monitor for now.
Briefly, Josh had a flashback to the Fantasy Sports Cruise that Psycho had raided a few months ago. As a counter-terrorist, he was starting to hate cruise ships; they were hostage situations just waiting to happen.
So, of course, the DOX had set the event up on a cruise ship docked in the bay. Fortunately, that meant if anything went wrong, it wouldn't be hard to get people off the thing.
Berto, meanwhile, started feeling a little self-conscious on the now-empty helipad. It was standard fair for team managers to dress casual at formal events, but as far as he was concerned, it just made him stand out more as a target. Pulling the strap that held his laptop and the portable generator tighter on his shoulder, he nodded at Josh and they went in separate directions; one to find a reasonably secluded place to monitor things and the others to mingle and look for Vamp.
"Feeling old yet?" Josh smiled as soon as they saw the dance floor.
Looking at the assembly of athletes at least half his age, Snake grumbled something Josh wished he couldn't hear.
---
"Where's L'Étranger?"
Psycho let out a sigh. "No sign of him, Boss."
"He could be… trouble," Dread's voice came back. "Eliminate him if he shows himself."
"I'll let Fangs at him," Psycho answered back, lowering his voice when someone turned a confused look in his direction. He didn't much care, his optic camouflage was impossible to see when he wasn't moving.
"That will do," Dread chuckled at the mental picture that gave him. "Where is Vamp?"
Turning his head slowly, Psycho looked out on to the dance floor. "He's stalking McGrath."
Elsewhere in the ballroom, Josh's infrared caught a signature that he couldn't see with the naked-eye. But it was missing an arm. "Smiley's here."
"Yeah, I see him," Berto replied through his Biolink. Josh could see Berto too, sitting at a table a little closer to Psycho then Josh was happy with. "Too close for comfort, Hermano."
"Too many people around, too." Josh answered. Psycho started to walk off. "Wonder where he's off to..."
Josh was intent on following him right across the dace floor and to wherever he was going, but someone else had other plans. Someone he walked right into because they didn't show on infrared at all.
Switching back, Josh found himself face-to-face with Vamp. "Oh, goody."
"Long time no see," Vamp smiled and half bowed, a dubious intent evident in his eyes. He gestured to the dance floor, "May I have this dance?"
Holding back from raising his voice, Josh gritted his teeth. "I wouldn't even give you the time of day if you were a woman."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Vamp quipped, spinning on his heels once as if he were going to throw a knife, moving behind Josh and putting a hand to his shoulder before vanishing into the crowd.
"Bro, remind me to hit him hard the next time he touches me."
"Will do, Hermano... yech..."
Snake had been looking for Kat, but he hadn't caught sight of her yet, so he started asking around. And then he started talking to a rather attractive young woman at the bar. "So what's your specialty?"
"Cycling, I'd think," she told him. "First DOX though, haven't done as well as I'd like to... you seem kinda... old for this stuff."
Most men would've taken that as an insult, but not Solid Snake. "Old, pfft. I'm in my prime! Throw a board and you're in my dust."
He raised a glass of champaign in mock-toast. And then a horrible, ear-piercing shriek cut trough from the Codec and he promptly flung the glass up and splashed the poor girl.
He was too busy grabbing his ear to see her immediate reaction, but he felt her slap him across the face and heard her stomp away. "Otttaaacoooon…"
"Well, that's what you get for the 'yaoi boy' crack," the engineer retaliated, calm as ever, the Kasatka's engines thumping in the background. Snake decided Otacon was hanging around him too much; he was starting to develop a spine with frightening results.
---
At the edge of the dance hall, Berto sat alone at a table, his back to the wall, an N-Tek headset plugged into his ear, and the image from Max's Biolink from his laptop lighting up his face.
While it wasn't the most ideal of working conditions, he looked exactly like the myriad of other managers sitting about while their teams mingled, and that was a good thing. Managers didn't tend to socialize all that much, either, and considering the closest ones he could see was the manager for Team Raptor and the goth managing Team Freakz, this was most certainly a good thing.
"Hey Bro, I'm gonna follow Smiley," Max said to him.
"Careful Josh," he warned, watching as Josh's eyes caught site of less and less people as he went deeper into the ship.
A hand came down on his shoulder. Nearly jumping out of his seat, Berto turned his head.
"Sorry Berto," Kat winced.
He just stared in a rather non-chalant fashion. Kat was, in simple terms, an absolute knockout when she dressed up in something nice, and the fairly revealing satin dress she currently wore was no exception. "Uh...hi?"
Glaring back at him, she said, "Yes, hello 'Snake.' I'm looking for the other guy that stares?"
"Eh heh," he tried to smile, pointing across the dance floor to the bar where Snake was trying to pick up another young, female athlete with rather blond hair. "Over there. You look...nice?"
"Well, that's better then Vamp's 'lick me,' at least," she winked at him, walking away.
It was a minute before Berto looked back to his monitor.
'Lick me.' Well, at least Vamp didn't seem to notice his own presence as much as Josh and Kat's...
---
On the one hand, Josh was fairly well versed in the layout of this ship, having dealt with Psycho on it a few months ago. On the other hand, that little incident felt like a bad omen now. "I really hate cruise ships..."
He mumbled to himself a little as he dashed down another set of stairs. He was fairly close to one of the anchors, but he hadn't caught sight of Psycho yet. Still, he was hearing footsteps, and he was fairly certain they were from his objective.
The corridors looked a lot different in infrared, and running through them, chasing Smiley, of all people, was starting to remind him of something. Last month had been Max Steel's third birthday…oh, how things came full circle.
Except this time, he not only knew what he was getting into, but he knew he could handle it. And he was glad for that when he finally caught sight of Psycho down a corridor. He didn't switch out of infrared in case Psycho was still cloaked and risk losing him, but then, he didn't really need to.
Unfortunately, Psycho saw him too and promptly turned to run around a corner.
"Déjà vu, eh Smiley?" Josh called, going into Max Mode before he was even running at full speed. He'd kept his tux after powering up; on the chance of getting caught causing trouble, it was easier to claim being in the wrong place at the wrong time if one had the appropriate clothes.
Running around the same corner, however, proved hazardous to his health, because he also ran into something that wasn't there, almost like someone held an arm out that he smacked against like the branch of a tree and fell flat on his back.
And he could see that Vamp stood over him as soon as he turned the infrared off, looking down with a grin on his face and a hand on his combat knife. A small smear of blood dotted his lips, but it wasn't there for long, as his tongue snaked out, slowly, deliberately, licking it off. "Three today...or rather, four?"
He drew his knife and dived at Max; Max, in turn, rolled back and to his feet. He brought an arm up to catch Vamp's when he saw the knife come down, but Vamp moved back once his blow was stopped, the knife slicing across Max in the process.
Max paid it no heed; it wasn't a serious wound. He hit Turbo Mode and, ducking under Vamp's swinging knife, barreled into him. Plowing the bloodsucker through a door to the anchor room, Max shoved him into the wall next to the open hull and tried to kick him back into it, but Vamp pushed him back.
Flicking his Turbo Mode off to save energy, Max took a defensive stance.
Vamp, on the other hand, didn't attack. He took one look up and swung his knife, the small HF blade slicing cleanly through the massive anchor chain that ran along the ceiling.
It was so absurd that Max didn't realize what was happening until the heavy links swung down and almost took his head off. He did, however, smack against the railing and slid down as the anchor itself fell overboard.
Max was out cold, though for how long he would stay that way was anyone's guess. Vamp wiped the sweat from his forehead and sheathed his combat knife. The cuts his blade sawed across Max's arm had long since closed, so there was no snack to be had there.
However, there was more then one way to rend steel. Letting out a breath he could see, Vamp smiled and talked to himself. "Mmm, being killed and rising as a romantic psychotic, my unlife has its perks."
He dropped to one knee over Max, nudging him straighter against the wall.
"Maaaaxxx," Berto grew tense over the Biolink when his monitors stayed black, but Max wasn't cognizant to hear as a pair of icy lips touched his own, sharp teeth drawing blood.
"Max, wake up," Berto called, sending him into Turbo Mode remotely. The jolt woke him up like it had on other occasions when Berto had used that trick, but those occasions were much less traumatizing, to say the least. "Woah!"
Berto had jumped as soon as he saw Vamp in Max's face. Max had the presence of mind not to move when he noticed Vamp's eyes were closed...and he had the restraint to keep still for a moment when he felt the blood trickling down his chin and Vamp's tongue in his mouth.
But only for a moment, after which, he bit down; hard.
Vamp's eyes shot open and met with Max's for the briefest of moments before he howled into the other's mouth, tearing away so fast that Max almost ended up biting his tongue off.
He didn't get far. Before Vamp could stand, Max slammed a knee into his crotch, the added strength probably enough to kill a normal human from the sheer pain. Vamp just froze and squeaked a little 'ow.'
The bloodsucker didn't entirely register Max standing up and punching him across the face with the meanest right hook he'd ever feel, but he was more aware of his surrounding when Max picked him up and hurled him overboard.
Dropping out of Turbo Mode, Max leaned over the railing, groaned, and spit the rather vile liquid in his mouth out. He wanted to throw up; after all, he didn't know where Vamp had been, and he didn't really want to know, either. Unfortunately, there wasn't time; Smiley was still running around and Max wanted to find him before he did something so typically Psycho and sink the ship for no reason at all...
"You okay, Hermano?"
"I could use a stick of gum," Max spat again, "or five. But yeah."
"Transphasics got hit from that, though," Berto answered back. Max could feel that, he didn't even need to look at his Biolink. "Any sign of Smiley?"
"Nah, looking for him now."
"I'll bring you down the portable," Berto said. Max heard his laptop close over the Biolink. For a second, he opened his mouth to tell him to stay out in the open...but he didn't.
Berto, on the other hand, wasn't stupid enough to run around alone in a place where he'd be in danger of running into a guy who could crush him to death in the span of three seconds. So he went looking for Snake and Kat.
Kat had led Snake to Orrin, and they were currently both smiling for the camera, arms around each other's waist. Berto came close just in time to see Orrin move on and Snake move his hand too far down. Kat promptly slapped him.
And Snake seemed to be satisfied with that.
Kat seemed to be satisfied at the idea of joining Josh in the bowels of the ship. It didn't take them long to get down to the same deck; Snake split off to search the port side.
No sooner had he done so then Psycho walked out of one of the crews' bunkrooms ahead of them.
"All dressed up and nowhere to go," he drew the HF sword on his back. "except in pieces."
"That doesn't make sense," Berto raised an eyebrow.
"Shut up," Psycho glared at him, stomping forward.
He didn't get far. Another of the ship's heavy doors swung open and he walked right into it. The arm pushing the other side of the door promptly pulled it back and slammed it into his face twice more before his assailant stepped out, grabbed Psycho by the back of his shirt and cracked the top of his head against the metal.
Sword falling from his hand, Psycho made a sick gurgling noise and collapsed.
"I never liked him."
Unconsciously taking a step back, almost hiding behind Kat, Berto squeaked, "L'Étranger..."
---
It's actually important for later, so if you don't know, L'Étranger's name is pronounced "LAY-tron-JAY." I think. I never trust voice actors with non-English words.