Venom Coursing
Disclaimers: I do not own Metal Gear or King of Fighters and Riku 'Drakken' Hanabishi belongs to DarkFusion.
Author's Notes: Special Thanks to Darkfusion for his editing.
Chapter 2 – Meeting Old FriendsMichael found himself tumbling off the cliff and ended up striking a jutting rock formation before tumbling into the river below. The current was merciless as Michael tried desperately to grab onto something in attempt to pull himself to shore, but his hands grasped only air. As the current mercilessly pounded him even more, Michael's hand suddenly grabbed onto something that felt like a tree branch. Not wasting this opportunity, he immediately began pulling himself to wherever the branch led and was rewarded when he felt one of his hands touch firm and dry earth. Using as much strength as he possibly could, Michael pulled himself out of the raging river and rolled onto the riverbank.
Michael tried to get up but it proved to be a futile effort due to the large amount of pain from the injuries he had sustained from his fight with Shade along with the fall added to the fact he was completely exhausted from his ordeal in the river.
After a few minutes, Michael finally was able to muster up enough strength to get up and as he did, the pain if his wounds racked his entire body. Gritting his teeth in an effort to hold back the pain, Michael slowly started walking away from the river.
This proved to be a very taxing effort as Michael was breathing heavily a few minutes later. It wasn't long before his vision started to turn hazy and he staggered without any idea of where he was going before he finally collapsed onto the ground. Almost as soon as he did, he suddenly felt someone nudge him lightly.
"Mister! Are you alright?" A voice asked him and someone shook him a little.
Michael's reply was inaudible as he passed out...
Michael woke up with a start and he was yet again in a hospital but wasn't sure where exactly he was...
"Easy there young man." said the Russian doctor as he went over to Michael.
"Where am I?" Michael asked in Russian.
"Novosibirsk General Hospital, a group of campers found you yesterday and brought you here." The doctor answered. "I must say you're quite a lucky man; you've suffered some pretty bad scrapes and bruises."
"How long before I am discharged?" asked Michael who knew his injuries now left him vulnerable and sooner or later Bulgarin and his men were going to find him in this hospital.
"I need to do a few check ups, but you'll most likely be out by tomorrow."
Michael nodded in silent understanding and then the doctor left.
Later that night, Michael woke up the minute he heard a noise in the hallway outside his room. He immediately got out of bed and quickly arranged the pillows in the place he had been lying and then pressed against the wall near the door. Suddenly two men dressed in dark clothing burst in and fired their weapons at the bed.
Seizing the opportunity Michael kneed one of them hard in the stomach before slamming him against the floor and quickly turned to the other and then used his Steel Trap technique to send the hit man smashing through the window.
Michael found his clothes and changed quickly, and then wasted no time in getting out of the ward knowing full well that there would be more of Bulgarin's hit men in the area. He checked to make sure no one was waiting to surprise him outside his room before he dashed out and headed towards the stairwell. Suddenly a gunman burst out aiming his gun but suddenly a dark figure shot out of the shadows and the would be killer was sent flying down the stairwell.
Michael stopped and clearly saw the one responsible. He was a man in his early fifties with dark hair wearing an eye patch over his left eye, along with his usual off duty clothes and he was someone Michael instantly recognised "General Heidern!"
"Nice to see you too, Mike, but let's save the greetings for later." Heidern said. "Come on! We've got to get out of here! There are a few more of these guys!"
They rushed down the stairwell knocking aside the assassins that got in their way until they reached the lobby and rushed outside. Michael glanced back and saw more of the killers coming after them from behind to give chase. The two men wasted no time and rushed to a car parked in front of the hospital and they entered the back seat. The driver was a man wearing a dark vest, jeans, and a black cap on his head.
"Clark, get us out of here!" Heidern ordered the driver and they sped off down the road.
"Thanks General!" Michael said gratefully.
"Don't thank me yet, Michael." Heidern replied. "We've still got to get out of this town first."
They drove on for a bit until they saw a large roadblock sign was ahead of them. Clark didn't seem to notice it and kept on driving and started to slow down, as he got closer.
"Shouldn't we..." Michael was about to ask and then stopped when he saw two familiar figures standing at the signs.
The first one was an American male with black hair wearing a black vest and pants along with a red and black bandanna on his head. The second one was a woman with blue hair tied back to keep it from getting in the way wearing a green army uniform.
"Ralf, Leona, I see you've taken care of getting us our escape route." Heidern said.
"That wasn't all that hard, sir, we just had to persuade a couple of the good General Bulgarin's men to let us borrow this road." Ralf said with a grin, indicating some unconscious men lying over to the side of the road and then looked over at Michael. "Hey, Mike, what have you been up to these days?"
"Trying to stay alive for now. Glad to see you're doing well, Ralf." Michael replied and then looked over at Leona. "You too, Leona."
"Think nothing of it." Leona answered. "It's the least we could do for an old friend. Now let's just concentrate on getting the hell out of here before Bulgarin sends more hit men after us."
They drove for a while until they arrived at a hotel in an old town. General Heidern spoke to the man who seemed to own the place before they went to a room and made sure to lock the door behind them.
"So how did you guys find me?" Michael asked as everyone settled in.
"We heard you had a meeting with Bulgarin, then I found out you were at that hospital." Heidern replied. "And don't worry, the owner of this hotel is a good friend of mine so we're safe here for the time being
"Thanks again." Said Michael
"No problem. What happened what did your meeting involve?" asked Heidern
"Well..." Michael began and explained what happened, his meetings with Bulgarin and the subsequent mission.
"I see..." Heidern said quietly "Well we had a similar situation..."
"What do you mean?" Michael asked.
"We were also given an assignment by your former employer." Heidern answered. "Bulgarin had asked us to get him some information on the developement of some advanced weapon. What kind we don't know."
"That's not like you, General." Michael commented. "Usually you'd have looked more into the assignment."
"The whole thing wreeked of a trap, but we didn't have much choice but to take the assignment." Leona spoke and looked at Michael seriously. "Michael, you remember your last mission with the army where you and your team were trying to discover information on a new metal gear?"
"Of course, but all the data was destroyed." Michael answered. "What does all of that have to do with this?"
"It seems Bulgarin has some connection to it." Leona replied. "We confronted Bulgarin about it, even though we didn't get any real information on the metal gear."
"Did you find anything out from Bulgarin?"
"No." Heidern spoke. "We went to the rendezvous point to meet with Bulgarin, but we had a surprise waiting for us when we got there."
Flashback:
General Heidern and Leona stood in an abandoned factory talking to a man in black.
"Where is Bulgarin?" Heidern asked the man dressed in black who was meeting them instead of Bulgarin.
"I'm afraid the general has more important things to attend to at the moment." The man answered. "I was instructed to recieve whatever information your group was able to obtain and deliver it to the general."
"Unfortunately we weren't able to find any significant information on the weapon your boss was talking about." Heidern said.
"That's too bad...Oh well, the general instructed us to give you your reward as promised." The man then smiled. "Your eternal reward." He then snapped his fingers and suddenly a squad of Russian soldiers burst out of their hiding places and pointed their guns at the two of them.
End flashback...
"Fortunately, we figured something like this would happen, so Clark and I had to intervene and give those guys a lesson in manners." Ralf spoke. "After that, we found out about what happened to you and came tp give you a hand."
"Wonder if this is a coincidence." Michael wondered out loud.
"Maybe or maybe not." Heidern replied "Anyway we should hold up here for the time being. At least until we can find out more on this situation."
Three days later Michael was walking down a street carrying a bag of food he had bought for everyone, when he heard gunfire up ahead. Quickly reaching for his weapon he looked around the corner.
A young boy with long black hair, dressed in a red t-shirt, brown jacket, and dark jeans was fighting a group of armed men in black uniforms. A few other men in black were lying on the ground unconscious. The boy effortlessly dodged an incoming blow and delivered a sharp kick into his opponent's stomach and quickly turned around and threw a throwing star shuriken he had kept concealed up his sleeve at one of the other hit men who was about to shot him. The man dropped his gun as the young man's shuriken struck his upper arm.
As the boy was fighting, he didn't notice a man in the window of one of the buildings behind him point a sniper rifle at him.
"Look out!" Michael warned.
The boy immediately realized the danger from the sniper and leaped out of the sniper's firing range as the sniper fired at him.
Michael quickly aimed his USP, fired it, and caught the sniper with a shot to the head,and then shot at the other men, who were surprised at the sudden back up, bringing them down one by one as the boy quickly finished off the other hit men. When the hit men had all been eliminated, Michael turned to the boy.
"Follow me!" Michael shouted; the boy nodded and they quickly fled from the scene.
When they were near the hideout, Michael took a closer look at the young man he just saved. He was of Asian decent and looked to be about 15-16 years of age. He had a very friendly look about him and grinned at Michael in gratitude.
"Thanks a lot for your help back there, man." The boy said gratefully. "You really saved my life back there."
"Anytime..." but their exchange was suddenly interrupted by Ralf and Clark
"Hey Mike, you sure took your sweet time!" Ralf said and then they both took note of the young man's presence.
"Who's your friend?" Clark asked looking at the young man.
"He was fighting with some of Bulgarin's men." Michael answered and looked at the boy. "What's your name anyway?"
"Riku. Riku Hanabishi." The young man answered and looked at the three men in the room. "How do you guys know about Bulgarin?"
"Let's just say we have a quarrel with him." Clark replied. "What's your business with him?"
"I was assigned to spy on him." Riku answered. "Unfortunately, I was caught and I was trying to escape from those guys. They've been after me for two whole days."
"Why would whoever it is you work for send a kid to...?" Ralf began.
"He's not just a kid, Ralf." Michael spoke. "He's a ninja, or at least he uses ninjutsu as part of his fighting style."
Riku looked at Michael with an interested expression on his face.
"You're right about my being a ninja." He said. "You must know another of my kind to tell that."
"Yes, she's a good friend of mine." Michael replied. "So..." He was then interrupted as Leona and Heidern entered the room.
"Who's this?" Leona asked when she saw Riku.
"Someone Michael rescued from Bulgarin's hit men." Ralf answered. "His name is Riku Hanabishi."
(Hanabishi...) Heidern thought. (I've heard that name somewhere before, but I can't remember where or when.)
"According to what he's told us, this kid was sent to spy on Bulgarin, but was caught." Ralf continued.
"That was due to faulty leadership on my side." Riku spoke. "So who are you guys anyway, mercs?"
"You could say that." Heidern answered. "My name is General Heidern, the woman next to me is my adopted daughter Leona. The other two men are Ralf Jones and Clark Steel."
Riku's eyes widened considerably as he instantly recognized those names.
"You're the famous Ikari Team?!" He exclaimed. "Gosh, I never thought I'd meet people like you in a place like this!"
"You've heard of us, I see." Leona spoke.
"You have quite a reputation." Riku replied. "I must say that I'm truly honored to meet such amazing fighters."
"Thank you, but could you explain what your involvement with Bulgarin is?" Heidern and then stopped when he remembered. "On second thought, you'll have to tell us later. Since Bulgarin's men are getting this close to us, we'd best get going. You're welcome to come with us if you want, kid."
"General, are you sure we should take him with us?" Ralf asked.
"We can't afford to leave him behind now." Heidern answered. "Besides, this kid looks like a formidable fighter for his age. He might be useful." He then turned to Michael. "Michael, you're going to be in charge of him."
"Of course, General." Michael replied and turned to Riku. "Is that all right with you?"
"Just fine, Mr..." Riku then smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I forgot to ask what your name is."
"It's Michael Hansen." Michael replied and shook Riku's hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"The same here, Hansen-san." Riku grinned as he shook his new friend's hand.
"Just Michael, please."
"Okay, Michael. So where are we going?"
"You'll see when we get there." Leona spoke and turned to Heidern. "Shall we get going now?"
"Yes." Heidern answered. "Everyone, pack up and let's head to the destination."
Within a few minutes the room was completely empty, as if no one had been there, and the Ikari team, Michael, and their new traveling companion, Riku, were long gone.
TBC