Metal Gear Solid: New Prime
I don't own Metal Gear or its characters, they are the property of Hideo Kojima and Konami.
Note: To Faksak. Damn, man. Wipes away tears Do ya always got to be so nice? Lol. Thanks, man.
Chapter 2: Closer
Snake pressed 1 on the elevators panel as he patiently waited for the machine to rise to his destination. He would have gone straight to the resting quarters but that wasn't an option on the panel for some reason. The elevator was quite slow, actually, leaving the soldier to mull with his thoughts. Normally, he was...somewhat calm during missions, even when the entire world was at stake. However, this time, things were much different. Snake folded his arms as he closed his eyes and leaned against the wall.
It was hard to put into words, but, Snake was feeling a high sense of anxiety for lack of a better term. An emotion that hadn't reared it's ugly head in his mind since he had clashed with Big Boss. At the time, he was a rather green soldier, but he overcame all odds and defeated a man with more than twice his experience. Not really an accomplishment considering the man was 80 at the time now that he thought about it. Now Big Boss is nothing more than a rotting corpse and a forgotten memory in some government facility.
I'm watching, Snake....
Snake was roughly snapped out of his thoughts at the voice. That was...strange. He couldn't hear the voice in his ears but rather.... There was obviously no one in the elevator with him, and there were no speakers in sight. Snake slowly brought out his USP, ready for any ambush. How could they have been aware of his presence already? Who could have possibly seen him? Snake's eyes widened at the realization.
Coyote! He must have reported to his comrades about Snakes friendly arrival. Snake growled at the idea of being constantly stalked as he narrowed his eyes.
"Looks like I have company," Snake announced, a hint of humor in his voice.
The Legendary Solid Snake. The one who defeated so many before him. Many of them being masters of their art. Revolver Ocelot, Sniper Wolf and the king himself, Big Boss. Quite an accomplishment.
"Are you a Prime soldier?"
Snake immediately noticed that the elevator stopped beneath his feet. Whether this was from the influence of his stalker or just power failure was mystery to him, but deep inside he knew that it was more than likely the former. Snakes patience went lower while his annoyance did just the opposite as he "heard" his watcher burst out in full hearted laughter.
I'll be watching...
And with that vague response, the elevators gears sounded and the machine rose again. Snake furrowed his eyebrows, as he kneeled and activated the CODEC.
CODEC
"Otacon, the weirdest thing just happened to me," Snake said.
"What's up?" Otacon asked, wondering what could have startled his longtime friend.
"There was this voice in my head--"
Immediately Otacon burst out laughing, cutting off the legendary soldier, "I've got a pretty good psychiatrist who could help with that, Snake."
"This is serious!" Snake said. "I don't know who that was, but he knew exactly where I was."
"You mean this guy could have the same skills as Psycho Mantis?"
"I don't think so. If he had that kind of power, he would have definitely crushed my mind or something," Snake shook his head.
"Maybe you were hallucinating. This is a high stakes mission," Otacon reminded his companion.
"I doubt that...Otacon can you run a search on any of the New Prime soldiers that you can find?"
"I'm on it."
CODEC OFF.
As soon as Snake turned off the CODEC, the elevator doors opened. Snake immediately hid behind a forklift, and peaked around the corner. His eyes searched the room, looking for an exit, and for any possible combat. Snake looked around as he saw crates labeled with an insignia, "ARMSPrime" being loaded onto the back of large tucks. The soldiers doing the moving wore different issue gear than the ones armed with weapons. They wore caps, and had their sleeves rolled up to their elbows. Snake couldn't see what they were doing, so he decided to inch his way closer to them.
Snake noticed that the soldiers all wore sapphire colored camouflage gear, complete with helmet, ski masks (Eye slits) and AN-94's. They also all wore black gloves that reached all the way up to their elbows. Some soldiers had shotguns, but only a few. They all stood protectively near the back of the trucks, near doors that led to stairways, searching the area with their eyes. Snake laid low, as he carefully crawled his way near the trucks. He peaked over the crate, and saw another soldier standing there with his back to our protagonist.
Snake crawled past the location of the guard without getting spotted and basically blowing the entire mission. He neared what seemed to be at some sort of checkpoint that led to a long tunnel, obviously heading to the outside world. Two soldiers, unarmed, would check the trucks for any chance of intruders or faulty weapons. If Snake decided to hitch a ride, he'd be caught at their first glance at the truck. Not a smart thing to do, obviously.
Snake, satisfied with what he's found, decided to find a way out of this place. He noticed how it seemed almost all the entrances and exits were guarded. Humph, nothing a good hit to the back of the head couldn't do. He walked around the room, carefully taking cover behind anything sufficient enough to get him the hell out of there. Snake got to the other side successfully and saw another Prime soldier, just asking for a bullet through the head. However, Snake decided to be more merciful and instead used a dart to the soldiers temple.
Snake walked over to the sleeping sentry and looked for any ammo or weapons that could be useful. Something caught Snake's eye. It was a combat knife that was safely secured to the soldiers pants. Snake took the knife, and eyed it for a while, considering. In the end, his decision was to keep the knife, as it could come in handy later. He wasn't a big fan of knives or blades, but when it was for survival, Snake would end up using it.
"Ok, go ahead. Tower 5, remember that."
"Understood."
Snake overheard the people at the checkpoint allowing admittance to the truck to wherever the hell they were going. Snake looked next to him, and saw an elevator, most likely leading up to President Sheffield. He stood up, and tapped the button for the elevator to come down to his level. He nearly jumped out of his skin when a computerized voice spoke up.
"ARMSPrime keycard required. You have ten seconds to confirm."
"Cr---!" Snake nearly growled.
Unaware to Snake was that two guards overheard the voice, and grew even more suspicious after hearing the Legendary Mercenary swear. The soldier with the shotgun shot his hand up to halt his comrade with an AN-94 and pointed in one direction. The obediant soldier nodded his head and took a few steps back, readying his weapon.
The other soldier slowly and calmly walked towards the possible intruder. He went around the crates and disappeared behind the stacked objects. The AN-94 wielding soldier eyes widened as he heard several blows being landed behind the crates.
"Are you ok?" The slightly frightened soldier yelled out. This got the other soldiers in the rooms attention as they turned their heads to the scene.
"What's going on!?" Another soldier demanded from across the room.
Feeling a strange surge of confidence, the timid sentry walked to where his fallen comrade was last seen, or rather, heard. Damn it, why was he always the one to get screwed over!? He finally made it behind the crates and saw nothing. Except for his fallen comrade, who had his throat opened up! The sentries eyes nearly popped from its sockets in shock.
"What the---"
His profanity was interrupted as Snake got up from his crouched position and sent a fierce blow right to the gut of the masked Prime member. A painful gasp left the soldier mouth, but the beating didn't end there. Snake swiftly took out 'his' combat knife in one fluid motion, and sent the blade across the chest of the soldier gruesomely. Blood sprayed out, but not rivers and streams of it, for the attack was not a fatal one. Dangerous yes, but not fatal.
The other soldier waited on edge for their comrade to respond on what he had seen. However, after their comrade came out with an intruder pressing a knife against his neck and gun against his temple, everything came together.
"Drop your weapons!" Snake demanded, his voice not showing any wanting for negotiating.
The other soldiers had the exact same feelings as Snake, but they didn't want any harm to come to their comrade, so they faltered before lower their weapons so the barrels pointed downwards.
Snake smirked, and returned his attention to his captive, "You got the key card for that elevator?"
"Y-yeah. In my back pocket," He stammered, his eyes hoping that the intruder will show him mercy.
"Take it out for me," Snake ordered, inching the knife closer to the sentry to back up his command.
The soldier reached back, his hand trembling as he retrieved the card for Snake. Snake put away the knife as he accepted the card. He looked around, noting all the objects in the room that can help him out.
Now how to get out of here....
Snake wrapped his arm around his captives neck tightly as he sent off shots to the fire extinguishers in the room. The room was engulfed in the extinguishers contents and sight was nearly impossible.
"Can you see him!?" One soldier yelled out.
When the smoke cleared, and the soldiers opened their eyes they looked towards where the intruder last was. However, the only person seen was the cowardly soldier, with that long gash across his chest.
"Damn it Sasaki you let him get away!"
In his usual spot of solitude, Phantasm seemed to be once again, having a conflict with the several sides of his mind. On the outside, it sure didn't seem that way, but of course no one knew just what was going on inside his head except for his comrades. They have seen his inner demons first hand...they had all seen it that one night. The one night that he's been haunted with.
"Humph," Phantasm grumbled as he jumped out of his seat.
Damn it, so many years on the battlefield and he'd think he would've gotten over it already. The scars on his body weren't nearly as agonizing as the ones burned into his mind. He paced around the room, sending his hand through his black hair several times. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the radio on his hip crackle.
"What is it?" He said with a rather impatient tone.
"Sir, an intruder was spotted," The soldier said breathlessly.
"...Where?"
"Tower 1, the weapons loading floor."
"You realize that that was the worst place he could possibly have entered."
"Yes I d---"
"You realize that the intruder could have done some serious damage to our worthy cause?" He said, putting an extra edge in his tone.
The man on the other side seemed hesitant to answer, for he had never seen his superior ever seriously lose his temper, "...Yes, sir."
"Then you will find the intruder and kill him. Understood?"
"Understood."
A sudden thought came to him, "What did the intruder look like?"
"Male, shoulder length brown hair, 30s," He replied obediently.
The description of the intruder caused the leader of the operation to smile. It brought back the memory of his mentor, and having a chance to meet someone like him would be an honor.
"Thank you."
Snake padded lightly across the floor as he walked out of the elevator. In front of him was a long narrow hallway, with doors lined up (Slits on each one) at each side. There was only one sentry, and he was sitting in a chair, arms folded, in front of the last door at the end of the hallway. He seemed to be dozing off now and then, considering how he seemed to be jerking at an upright position occasionally.
Snake was about to use his tranquilizer gun, but quickly hid behind a corner when he heard the guards radio crackle. Snake closed his eyes, and listened intently on the oncoming conversation.
"Why are you late with your status report?" A strong, male voice demanded on the other side of the conversation.
Snake could hear the soldier nearly jumped out of his chair at the voice of his superior, "Nothing to report, sir."
"You are to give a status report every 25 minutes," A low sigh could be heard on the superiors side of the conversation. "Is the hostage alright?"
A slight pause. Snake assumed that the soldier is checking the hostage through the door slit, "Yes, sir."
"Has he done anything out of the ordinary these past couple of hours?"
"No, sir."
"Fine. Be on the look out. There's an intruder at large. We have the entire New Prime army sweeping the base. He may be looking to kill the Vice President."
"Understood, sir."
Snake could hear the soldier making his way to him, and he prepared himself. When the soldier walked past Snake, he grabbed the sentry by the neck and sent a loud, deafening crack throughout the room. The sentry fell limp to the ground at the mercenaries feet. Snake turned away from the fallen soldier, his expression unmoving from this merciless action.
Snake walked down the hallway, but as he did so, he would turn his head to glance inside the rooms from the slits. His eyebrows furrowed as he saw blood splattered on the walls inside, broken mirrors, and beds turned over. What could have happened here? Snake walked to the last door, and he threw the chair away. Snake walked inside, and saw a person, male sitting at the edge of his bed.
"Are you the Vice President of ARMSPrime?" Snake asked, his voice lacking any true emotion.
The man shot up from the bed and spun around to his new 'guest'. Snake got a full look at the man, Caucasian, he had short black hair, glasses and wore a white buttoned up shirt. He had on a black tie, black pants, and his jacket was laid out on the bed.
"You come to get the code?" He asked with an impassive tone, totally ignoring Snakes question.
"I'm no terrorist," Snake said, reciting Otacons words on what Philanthropy was.
"Oh...you aren't," He turned away folding his arms, he seemed to be in deep thought. He turned back to Snake; "Well then who are you?"
"Philanthropy," Snake said, only revealing his group name to earn the mans trust.
"Philanthropy?" The man furrowed his eyebrows. "That's a strange codename."
Snake let out a low, long sigh, "That's the group I'm with."
"You mean that Metal Gear resistance group?"
"Yeah," Snake answered. "Solid Snake. Honor to meet you, sir."
Snake stuck out his hand, and the man smiled, gladly shaking his hand. What most people don't know is that Sheffield also fought alongside Big Boss (Not the same age, fought together in the 80's). He had a helping hand in the creation of FOXHOUND. He fought all over the world, and has around the same experience as Snake. They met once before, back when Snake was still a rookie.
"Solid Snake," Sheffield smiled at the memory of the name. "You've grown. Not just physically, I can tell."
"It's been a while," Snake grinned.
"Yes it has. You're still fighting I see," Snake watched as Sheffield sat back down on the bed. "I heard about what happened at Zanzibar. Impressive."
"Listen, I didn't come here to reminisce with old friends," Snake said, taking the small wooden chair and sitting on the chair backwards (The back of the chair in front of him, and his arms resting on it)."I'm going to need some answers from you."
Sheffield was slightly hurt but masked it right away; "I thought so."
This place was starting to creep Gene out. There was this strange music coming from somewhere in the room, but the song was depressing. It totally fit the atmosphere...that bad vibe in the room. Just plain creepy. He was sitting in a chair in front of some desk, as he waited for some reply from the leader of this operation. He just came about 5 minutes ago and he was escorted to this room by two soldiers.
"Beautiful song don't you think Dr. West?" Phantasm asked as he turned down the music a bit from somewhere in the shadows. Phantasm stepped out from the darkness, and into sight for the first time.
"Yeah, yeah!" Gene stammered.
"It's made by my favorite Maestro," Gene saw the ghost of a smile forming on Phantasms features. "It's starts out sad at the end but eventually leads into something exciting, happy."
"It's a nice song."
"The song reminds me of my life. This mission. At last, there will be a happy ending, where everyone gets their just desserts."
"W-What do you mean?"
"Humph. I knew those parasites wouldn't tell you the full story," He leaned against the desk. "The story, the ending, your fate, will come in due time. What I need now is your help to our worthy cause."
"Cause?" A frown formed on Phantasms face.
"Your role will be unfortunately critical for our mission. Well," A chuckle escaped Phantasms mouth. "Unfortunate for you."
"Unfortunate? Are y-you going to kill me?"
"It depends. Your strength, your integrity, shall all be brought into account today."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to bring back a good friend."
Gene narrowed his eyes, "I won't help you bring back someone from the dead."
A low sigh came from Phantasms end, "I thought so."
Suddenly, a cold chill came into the room, and up Genes spine. He shivered, rubbing his arms for some warmth. Gene looked up to Phantasm who seemed unaffected by this stimulus.
"Ah, Cerberus, perfect timing," Phantasm smiled, looking towards the darkest part of the room.
Gene turned around, and saw a man, who's black hair was in a pony tail. There was a bad vibe coming from this guy, and even Gene noticed. He walked further into the room calmly, and walked up to Phantasm. The man wore black pants along with black boots, and there were dark blue straps wrapped around the boots (Up to the shin). He had blue, finger less gloves that reached all the way up to his elbows.
"Sir," He did a small bow before continuing. His voice was very calm, at ease. "There was no sign of Dead Cell, anywhere. Except for you know who."
"Hmmm....good," Phantasm responded.
"However lately I've sensed this strong, troubled presence. The mans soul reminds me of yours," He crossed his arms.
"Interesting," Phantasm remembered Gene, and returned his attention to the scientist. "Van, I would like to introduce you to my guest. Dr. Gene West."
Cerberus turned his eyes to Gene for the first time this entire meeting, and once he did, another shiver went up Gene's spine. His eyes, they were so...strange. It's as if there's nothing but darkness that dwells at its most lonely depths.
"Have you convinced him to...assist us?" Was all the long haired man said to his superior.
"That's where you come in," Phantasm smiled. He shoved his hands into his pockets as he headed towards the door. "I'll leave you two alone."
With that, Phantasm left the room. Gene looked on as Cerberus just stared at him with his cold, unforgiving eyes. As said before, there was a very bad vibe, and it was even worse now. It seemed as if Cerberus was piercing his soul with his eyes. There was very uncomfortable silence in the dreary room.
"Now I've figured you out," Was the first thing that broke the silence, and surprisingly, it came from Cerberus. "Now, time for you to see the truth."
Cerberus lifted a pendant with a very distinct skull in the center. Gene could feel the unpleasant sensation of him soiling his pants slowly.
A loud piercing scream made its way to the room Snake and Sheffield were in. It was blood-curling, and anybody could tell that voice was filled with pain and agony. Snakes head nearly snapped as he looked towards the door, obviously startled by the sound.
"What was that?" Snake asked.
"Another innocent going to their side..." Sheffield muttered.
End of Chapter.
Dun dun dun.
Another boring chapter, but it was just to bring Solids skills into the equation.