The Bat slowly nodded. "It'll be worth the delay. Because then we'll have...damn," said The Bat. "Some sentries over there. Better snap 'em and come back later...see ya." And with that, The Bat jumped off into the white abyss.
--
Snake was just recovering from what had just happened, and Raiden was still clutching tightly at his abdomen. But still they carried on, albeit Raiden had difficulty in doing so. Snake knew where he was shot luckily wasn't in any internal organs, it would just cause massive pain.
After a long walk, Snake heard something faint. Thinking quickly, Snake dived behind a large steel crate in the large hallway, with Raiden following closely behind. Raiden just barely took cover before the threat revealed itself. A squad of seven guards was strafing down the hall. "Hey," one of the soldiers said, "see that?" He pointed at a scorched part of the wall Snake and Raiden hadn't noticed. "This is the stuff Bear told us to watch out for. He's probably down this way..." When the soldiers passed by, Snake and Raiden stalked and peeked around the corner to see if they were out of earshot and spotting distance. All of a sudden it got very cold in the hallway. Everything seemed so bitter so fast. It must've been below zero degrees, rivaling the coldness of the harsh, unforgiving snowlands outside of the compound. The entire hallway frozen, but something strange happened. When the ice hit Snake's feet, Snake couldn't move no matter how hard he tried. Snake's weapon froze and it levitated out of his hand, hitting the ice. The frozen M9 was part of the icy floor now, and Snake couldn't reach it. Over a loudspeaker, these words came. Then, the ice all melted, almost as soon as all of this happened. Written into the wall with icicles, the words "YOU SHALL FALL" seemed glued in place. Snake and Raiden both looked around, and knew the message was correct; a trap door opened beneath them and they fell into the darkness. Then, lights shot on, illuminating the entire underground area. "Snake...and the blond one..." All of a sudden a completely black-cloaked figure stood in front of them. Snake fired an M9 round at him but the round went through him and bounced off of the wall behind him. Then, three additional images appeared, side by side. Snake and Raiden were confused. Snake and Raiden fired their M9s at the images, but when they were shot, they disappeared. Then, nine images of the same structure were backflipping and cartwheeling. One was jumping off of the steel rafters. Then, they all frozen leaving only one. "Snake, The Polar Bear has denied you life. I have promised him you both would die. Raiden said "What does that cold-crotched pansy want with black-cloaked 'intimidating' figures like you?" "Oh, you'll find he needs me a great deal. You see..." The image disappeared, and reappeared behind Snake and Raiden. "There is no possible way you can defeat me. This area is equipped with a sonic mind semi-nullification generator, developed by 'them.' You have no idea where I truly am, or if I even look like this black-claoked figure..." Raiden said "Oh, I think it is you. All of you freaks have some Halloween costume." Snake nodded his head and shot Raiden a God-fearing look. Snake could only tell the voice was feminine, so it meant they were facing a woman. Just great...
To play with Raiden's head, the woman simulated Snake getting his throat slit, blood spewing from his neck, his writhing body collapsing to the floor. After the horrible scene ended, Snake was standing right there, unfazed. "Ha ha ha...! I can mess with your minds so hard you can't even realize what I'm going to do..." four images appeared around Snake and four images appeared around Raiden, "next." aiden dropped his M9 and drew the M4 strapped to his back, and started firing wildly. It seemed Raiden had lost all sanity, firing in all directions. Snake was untouched but everything else was sorry. "Ha ha...do you really this think battle can be won with weapons? This is a battle of the mind, the psyche...thanks to...'them.'" She then changed her tone. "Sentries, come to Hall 14B2. The enemy is here." Snake and Raiden both needed to break out of this mind trance quickly before enemy reinforcements arrived. Snake threw four grenades into the air as quickly as he could and shot all four of them with his M9, detonating the explosives. Raiden fired wildly with his assault rifle again, and all of a sudden, the visions stopped. Raiden heard something crackle and pop. When the visions stopped, it appeared they had never left the hallway, and they had never fallen into a trap, or even that the hall had frozen over. But one thing still remained; the enemy reinforcements, for they were about to see Snake and Raiden. They hid again from the sentries. "The Alterer, they are not here. What gives?" "I...the signal died...never mind. Forgive me soldiers, for giving you a false alarm, then." Raiden chuckled very lightly as to not alert the enemy soldiers at what was "The Alterer's" failing.
Trekking forward, Snake and Raiden managed to slither past a few sentries before they heard a radio transmission on one of the guards' radios. "I TOLD you," said a voice that belonged to Troubled Hand, "you were supposed to STOP him!" "I'm sorry, sir..." said the sentry. "I have a mind to let Polar Bear have his fun with you..." The feminine voice on the radio replied "No...no...what are you doing...? AGH!" Suddenly the radio cut. Snake hoped that was the end of the Alterer.
--
In a different part of the compound, The Bat and The Dragon were stalking near Troubled Hand's headquarters. Getting prepared for the assault, The Dragon shot forth an explosive flame burst that engulfed the steel PAN security door into liquid metal. The Bat jumped into the room so quickly that a very surprised Troubled Hand grabbed his TMP and opened fired on The Dragon. This was useless, of course, for the Dragon had a very hot flame shield against the bullets, which melted them before they could harm him. Troubled Hand fred until his gun was empty. But before he could reload, The Bat had Troubled Hand's throat against his knife. "You have failed...Hand," said The Bat in a raspy voice. He then used the weapon on Troubled Hand's helpless neck. But rather than slicing open his throat, he butted the end of it into a specififc blood vessel that caused him to stand for a few moments looking at The Dragon and The Bat. Touching his neck, no blood had came, but before he finished his thoughts, he fell to his knees in absolute pain. He started vomiting blood and coughing uncontrollably. Blood was spurting out of his nose and smoothing out of his eyes like bloody tears. His heart spasmed and Troubled Hand finally died...but the convulsions didn't stop even when he lay dead. The Bat laughed hysterically as The Dragon looked triumphant. The Bat let his face get near the blood to be soaked in some kind of twisted fetish. The Dragon spoke. "Our job is finished here, Bat. We should go now..." "But boss, what of The Polar Bear?" "...I...I..." "Boss, we can both defeat him if we work together." "I...alright. We can attempt." With that, the two set off.
When they arried in The Polar Bear's ice chambers, The Dragon took a deep breath before bursting in. The Bat leapt into his chambers and attempted to slice The Polar Bear's throat quickly, perhaps catching him by surprise. But The Polar Bear formed an ice barrier where The Bat was to be attacking. The Bat backflipped off of the barrier. With that, The Dragon said "We have come to end you, Polar Bear. You cannot possibly take on both of us." The Polar Bear smirked. "Oh yeah?" With that, he formed a spherical shield that was nine foot thick, and was harder than permafrost. The Dragon shot forth superheated flame, but The Polar Bear seemed to be at peace keeping the barrier up, because The Dragon was only able to melt three inches, and The Bat helplessly sliced at the ice. Then, an earth-shattering bang filed the entire compound the sound was so massive. Shards of the barriers flew in every direction and shredded his chambers to pieces. The Dragon ran over to The Bat and shielded both him and himself from the flying ice shards with his 4,000 Kelvin shield. It took a lot out of the Dragon to reproduce the surface heat of the sun, and was left drained. He collapsed, but The Bat caught him before he fell and fleed from the compound out of the new exit The Polar Bear had made with the massive explosion of ice.
"It's all right, boss..." said The Bat to his near-unconscious friend, "we're getting to safety. I don't think I'm ready to help you yet..." The Dragon could've produced the same effect as The Polar Bear had with his exploding ice sphere, but he could not because The Bat was nearby. Just wait...just wait until The Dragon can face The Polar Bear without anyone in his way, and not in the confines of a compound.