Metal Gear Solid The First Fox

by ImageViewer

The Establishment of Fox wasn't done by the legendary efforts of one Man who would become a Hero, but by another who worked behind the scene's. A unforeseen element that would change History as we know, for when there is a Snake, there will always be a Fox to work in the shadows.

4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the long wait with this chapter.

Writers block plus a few other things kept me from continuing this till now.

anyway, nothing new to give in regards to new chapters coming.

only the star wars Fic i've got is nearly completed.

Metal Gear Solid The First Fox Ch 4

The silence was shared between the two secret agents or to be more precise the man and his young ward.

Snake was tracking through the thick tall grass after crossing through the large lake full of leaches which were a pain to rid themselves of the stubborn suckers.

Snake followed Fox's directions as he followed the young and already experienced child operative though the hostile foreign terrain teaming with danger both natural and military.

"How far?" Snake asked as he followed the young man in their destination to the base.

"Not far. We'll be coming up to the first outpost where we might find some much needed supplies for this long mission." Fox informed before he crouched low into the field of grass as they approached a large iron fence that blocked their path forward as it ran from rock to rock.

The spiked wires hummed and sparked with power, a voltage high enough to debilitate or if lucky kill any foolish or unsuspecting being who tried to cross through it. Fox knew this obstacle in their path, having cut and dug a path big enough for a man of snake's size to crawl under the electrified wire's "through here." Fox gestured to the senior agent on the cut wire on the right of the long fence.

Snake followed fox as he led to the dug dip under the fence, keeping watch as fox lay down on his stomach and began to crawl under the live wire before coming out from the other end and taking watch from his side. "Mind the wire." He said as snake followed in his example, pushing his larger deep into the dirt as to avoid his back gracing the electrified metal barbs till he made it over.

The two continued on, slowly moving as sentry's patrolled the area along with army trained guard dogs, as they slowly walked, Fox stepped lightly on the ground. His senses on high alert and running wild as alarm bells rang in his head telling him that there danger but he just couldn't see it, his eye's darted from side to side, looking for the cause of these alarm's he saw nothing, telling him that there was no soldier's hiding within the tree line but that still didn't stop them.

Just as he was about to take another step he was suddenly jerked backwards and held that way by the man who was following him, a finger to his lips in a silent command to keep quiet and not utter a sound as he slowly gave fox his footing back. He pushed himself in front and dropped down to the ground, slowly crawling forward with the odd look he was receiving from fox who followed after him as he parted and moved through the tall leafs before finally parting a pile away to reveal to Fox's shock as he felt fear explode within the pit of his stomach and the cause of his head full of alarms.

There hiding from sight was a claymore mine, and anti-personal device designed to eliminate infantry within the area they were placed in. and when there was one, there's bound to be more, with his eye's now focused on the ground he saw several more outside the cover of the tall plants, camo painted on their bodies to mask them with the brown dirt of the ground.

Fox tuned his radio to ask the one person that could help them in this situation "Sigint, this is Fox. We have encountered claymore mines in our path, Please advice?" fox called out to their technology specialist.

The receiver on the other end turned on, and he got his man who hissed a deep inhale from what he heard "Claymore's, nasty stuff. Developed by the good U.S of A after the Koran war they saw-"but fox didn't want the boring lecture of their history, only the practical instructions on how to disarm them.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Give me the details after this is done. Just tell us how to disarm them?"

"Remove the priming adapter from the mine and it should be fine. But be careful, if these Russian have gained copies to make these then they must be the sensory kind so I'd advise crawling toward them when you disarm them as they can sense vibrations from the slightest footstep."

"Understood. Thanks again Sigint." Cutting the connection between us, Fox followed in snake's example as he defused the first mine by the time he hit the ground and began to crawl after the others. Coming at them from the side where Fox carefully and delicately defused the armed explosives without causing it to tumble from its footing.

-Fox's Pov-

We managed to defuse them all, creating a clear path for us now that the lethal traps were out of the way but the danger was still around us as further up was another fence just at the end of them. Fully closed on both ends with a guard dog standing guard at the other end, stationary and ever watchful of the barrier between this end and the next.

They've definitely rig up security last time I was here to bring trained hounds to guard the post, but my work was still there as a breach in the wire defence was exposed with two levels of razor wire cut but still alive with power.

Taking out my EZ while the mutt's back was turned, I took aim and shot the non-lethal dart into it, instantly knocking it to the ground and out like light, giving us the clear to proceed now that the lone sentry was out.

I indicated to the boss to the power box powering this entire thing, it was rectangular piece at the end of the left side of the entire fenced wall. Easily destroyed by simple shot or two, speaking from personal experience that these things may be water or weather proof, but not bullet proof.

He disappeared whilst I remained to keep watch, the single patrol man came from the right on the other side of the fence, out of visual range of the downed dog but not for long as he reared around the corner and would've sighted the slumbering hound had not a dart been sticking out of his head for a single second which was all it took before he laid on the bed of dirt.

The periodical sparks from the exposed fence stopped and the hum of power silenced, giving the indication that the boss did it. I went through first, taking the chance and securing the grounds, despite me holding my body down to the earth and trying to suck in everything to squeeze my form through, I could feel the spiked arms of the wire scratch and tug at my clothes but no sharp or sudden pain of electrical shock shooting through me.

This was a relief as I continued on and came out the other end, pressing myself against the fallen large piece of tree trunk with my gun at the ready as I peered over the entire thing to keep an eye out for anymore GRU soldiers.

The rattle of the wire told me that snake was coming through, the shifting of dirt and the rattling of wire sounded out while I still kept an eye on things before a firm hand was laid upon my shoulder and I turned to see him crouched behind me.

He nodded, telling me that we're moving on before I began to follow him now, going down the right path filled with pits of sinking mud water. It was it a better alternative then safer and highly patrolled route on the left.

Snake took point as I matched in his pace; we kept to the solid ground that surrounded the stretch of mud pits that led to the next area. Only one patrolmen but he was taken out pretty easily without raising the alarm.

Soon we got to the final area, this time the fence that ran on both sides but opened up right in the middle, giving passage through.

Two men guarded it.

One outside facing towards the two paths, another right behind the fence on the hill watching over.

Snake waited and watched as he aimed down his tranq Gun at the first guardsmen, waiting for the other to turn his back *Phoot* the numbed down bang of his gun sounded out as he hit the solider directly at the head.

The man was down before he even realised the dart sticking out of his head.

Then we ran straight towards the opening while the second patrol men had his back turned.

We sprinted left where I took the led as snake followed me to the patrol's base on our route to the main facility.

-Bolshaya Past base south-

Here was the first patrol base en-route to the main one.

For weeks I would harass the entire outer base for supplies like the noodles, TNT and ammunition that I carried on me for the boss.

I was the only pest that they couldn't eradicate with mouse traps and poisoned provisions.

It was small base, one flour foundation that was both the barracks, radio room and lounge while the supplies such as ammo and weapons, and provisions were held in two separate shacks on the other side behind the grounded Hind that sat in a large clearing as the trees that grew within this densely populated forest sat high above on the rocks surrounding this large clearing.

Our way in unwatched despite the Machinegun pointed in our path, no one was manning it unlike the other as we could see one patrolmen ready on the gun and aimed at the clear pathway we could've taken had we gone right.

About five to six guys patrolled in this area last time I checked, and this forward outpost supplied everything for the soldiers here, a perfect target for sabotage if you're looking to demoralise and weaken the troops for a few miles before the next outpost.

I pulled snake down as we crouched low and kept our eyes on the base, pulled out my knife and drew into the dirt, marking what I know "5 or 6 soldiers here. Three shacks filled with rations, medical supplies, Guns, ammunition and telecom room. Here, here, and here." I gave him the layout of this place, so he knows what we can get here.

"alright." He nodded as he got the information he needed "You wait on the other end. I'll meet you there." After that we went our separate ways.

I went around the out fence, taking out one that walked around on the left as I made my way past him to the only way out. However there preventing me from walking out, I saw another manning a gun aimed at the path I was meant to meet snake at.

And speak of the devil, my relief came as I saw him pulled the gunner away and throw him to the ground, effectively knocking him out.

I could walk out now, and now stood on the path leading to our next destination, all the while watching the boss drag the body into one the dugout trench ditches circling around within the fence.

And while he was doing that, I kept my eyes open for anyone coming, but… I was also…planning. I could us doing some real damage here to last.

But first I needed to wait.

I waited for a while as I kept to the shadows while Snake move to the shacks gaining what supplies he can before he came back.

"Alright. You ready to go?" he asked, but I had some other ideas.

"Hang on. I got an idea. Do you still have those TNT Charges I gave ya'?" I asked if he still had those explosive charges he took from me when we met.

"Yeah. Why?" he asked.

"Just trust me on this. It'll help us out in the long run." I said.

Snake thought about it for a long time, judging whether or not I could be trusted to handle such destructive and volatile equipment.

He weighed his options heavily and decided in favour of how well I had been doing in such a hostile environment for kid my age to be trusted with handling the explosives.

"Aright…" he accepted, as he fished out the TNT I had handed him earlier along with a few more "But be careful! They are not toys." He warned me of their ever dangerous nature even when inactive in their current states.

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing." I said back before I made my move back towards the outpost.

I snuck in the supply shed where the food was being stored. There I planted a charge right in the middle of the huge cache of rations made available to these guys before sneaking back out.

I made sure to stay on the outer perimeter and away from the sentries that weren't taken out by snake as I made my way to the comns building, where again I place another charge and bolted out towards the ammunition shed on the far right of the entire base I made it in with no problems and placed it directly over the pile of explosives that wasn't taken.

Making sure that everything was open and ready to be wiped out, crept towards the last thing on my to do list.

The hind sat unmanned and unguarded on the stretch of earth around it.

I was out in the open as I bolted towards it, making sure that no one saw me as I took out another charge and placed directly under the attack chopper.

With all charges set, I bolted back the way I came and directly got back towards Snake who watched and waited as I did my thing.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

I just smiled so deviously that if I had horns, I'd look like the devil "Almost~" I sang out in a mischievous way as I held out the trigger to all of the bombs I had so carefully placed around.

And with a push from my thumb *BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOOM!* the entire base lit up like fireworks on the 5 of November.

The wooden shack that contained the rations blew off its roof with the top half of the entire building missing with fires blowing out from inside the body, eating at the foods these troopers will not be having any time soon.

The comns shack stood strong from the explosion inside of its body, the equipment inside was easily destroyed with the door to it blown off.

Same with the ammunition box with the sound of gunfire ringing out as the ammo inside was going off from the intense heat of the flames and fire engulfing it.

And finally the piece da la resistance was the hind.

Destroyed beyond repair, the Russian helicopter was now grounded, split in half and unable to be used for a long time.

My little stunt had what remained of the sentries awake, scrambling to put out the flames and try to salvage what they could.

It was pretty funny how they ran around like headless chickens.

Unfortunately… not everyone got it.

"What they hell did you just do!?" Snake yelled out as he pulled into the cover of a tree, he had yet to understand the motive of our loud send off. "Are you trying to alert them to where we are!?" he yelled out furiously in face.

But I was unfazed "Firstly. They already know we're here. It's just a matter of time of when they're going to find us. Second, I just crippled them. This is the only outpost for miles around, and that hind over there would've been trouble for us had we been spotted anywhere from here to the base. Besides, that coms station now a burning pit fire, was their only source of communication from here to the base. We've just temporarily disabled them and by the time they call for back up, we would've been gone and be a few miles ahead of them."

Snake took my words into consideration, and then looked back at the damage that although screamed our position, and likely hundreds of troops were on their way here to investigate. In the long run, it was an ingenious and classic strategy to disable the enemy as you moved further in their land.

Techniques and battle strategies used during the Great War that saw supply chains cut and troops demoralised as the allies led the victory against the Nazi regime.

Snake conceded "Alright." He saw the wisdom and truth in kid's actions.

He was trained to survive off the land, and the kid… despite his age and inexperience has proven his mettle in surviving in his own right by stealing and scavenging gear and equipment they most certainly needed when Snake arrived with nothing but his knife after the Boss left him defenceless.

"But warn me next your about to blow something up." Snake didn't need to worry about the kid much more then he already did if he pulled stunts like that without going over what he was about to do.

"You got it Boss." I saluted him in a mocking fashion before we packed it in and began our track onward.

-Bolshaya past crevice-

As we entered, we came upon a clearing that was an altogether new landscape, bare rock and three dead trees' said on the other side of large crevice that separated us from our path to the destination ahead while the vibrant and lush forest was behind us all green unlike the dead sand and dust we stood on.

It looked pretty clear but my instincts said otherwise and proved right as the chiming sound of spars reached our ears and from behind the rock HE appeared.

"Ah, you're here at last." Ocelot stated as he walked out, passing before us without so much as stopping to look at us as he walks to the centre of his side of the ridge before stopping. He made no move for his weapons that he recently changed after our last encounter before especially as I aimed my weapon at him.

"Oh no! Not you again!" I complained as it wasn't that long since we dealt with this clown but he ignored my outburst as he did that stupid cat sound that resonated in the air before my ears heard the rapid crunching of leaves and sticks breaking under feet that charged towards us.

I spun around to see that we were surrounded, little to no cover against the GRU operatives and soldiers that completely cut off the way we came with a dozen or so guns trained on us and a second group covering the path behind them to make sure no one entered from their flank.

There was no other way to describe our situation… we were screwed.

It would only take a second for the entirety of them to gun us down from all angles, what cover there was couldn't protect us.

"I hate to disappoint the cobras. But you're mine now."

"All of you, leave us!" he commanded, and just like that all of the gun's pointed directly at us lifted but the men remained stationary as they blocked our only way out over the small gap that had us stuck between a rock and a hard place… literally.

I still kept my gun trained, not once faltering in my stance or my guard as I watched them carefully for any sudden sign of attack with my back still to the blonde jack ass with two new weapons in his arsenal.

"It's just you and me. No one to get in our way." It was insulting that he didn't consider me a threat but then again, this guy seems to have this weird obsession with snake. "Ocelots are proud creatures. They prefer to hunt alone." But snake understood that this man wanted to have an old fashioned duel between the two of them.

He looked at me and motioned his head for me to move away.

Seeing the silent command from the corner of my eye, I glanced at him and nodded in understanding as lowered my gun and walked to the farthest corner I could get in this small arena, with my eyes trained on our spectators for any sign of dirty plays about to be made.

The tension was high like in those western cowboy gunslinger movies you see on TV where the good guy has an epic showdown with the antagonist of the story.

The only sound that could be heard in my ears was my heart beat, the slight buzzing of wasps from nearby nests and the wind blowing the dust around us as Snake and Ocelot stared down until-

"Draw!"

-Fight-

At the starting cry, the battle begun.

Ocelot drew first, quick as a viper with his hand snapping the gun out of his holster and firing like a cowboy with his free hand cocking the hammer back with each shot to load the next chamber.

Snake threw himself behind some cover that came in the form of natural rocks and boulders, his M1911A1 clasped in his hand as he ducked down under the suppression of ocelot's gunfire as he switched to the next gun after his first ran out.

Then he did his amazing trick of aiming not at Snake's spot but a nearby rock just behind him, his bullet ricocheted from it and hit Jack in his shoulder who cried out at the bullet hitting him.

He quickly returned fire, forcing ocelot to take cover before he used the opportunity to move to new cover and tend to his wound.

I watched as ocelot came back around, going right into the middle of his side of the gap, and shooting blindly at where snake was, till he ran out.

With all 12 chamber's emptied, ocelot began to reload them stating his exhilaration of the fight and the difference in reloading chambers individually when compared to simply loading a clip into a gun.

Snake used this moment of distraction to shoot from his cover, hitting Ocelot who barely avoided being fatally wounded, the blonde commander quickly snapped the half loaded chamber in and shot back as he rushed right into cover.

His soldiers who saw the attack on their commander acted "You dirty!" one of them cried out before a hail of fire came from the forest and snake dived into the long grass.

"Hey!" I cried out, standing from my cover and opened fire blindly into the trees, forcing them to take cover as I supressed them, my assault rifle shooting from side to side till emptied the clip "No cheating!"

"NO ONE INTERFERE!" ocelot commanded, peering from his cover over to his men who backed down.

"Sorry sir!" they apologised and resumed their guarding.

I pulled out the emptied magazine from my gun, dropping it to the ground before I re-inserted a new one in place, making sure I was well covered from ocelot.

The battle went out like a shootout, as both men went from cover to cover. Narrowly missing being hit in the most vital of areas.

Snake had Ocelot pinned behind a rock, when his eyes caught sight of hanging wasp nests just above the GRU Commander and quickly took aim. He shot it from its branch, causing it to drop just right were ocelot was as the cocooned nest smashed into the ground, releasing a horde of really agitated wasps that attacked the closest thing there was to them.

Ocelot did not expect that, as few of the buzzed hornets pricked at young commander, forcing to him to try and swat them away. Snaked used this moment to move around and get a few hits in before once again the GRU soldiers decided to intervene.

"We got your back Commander!" again a hail of gunfire and smoke went out in the clearing around us.

I quickly returned fire just before they could try and take their shots at me.

Wildly I unloaded into the trees, forcing them back into their cover as the stopped firing to take cover.

Their little intervention was short lived, and quickly reprimanded by Ocelot.

The fight begun again.

In a way they were evenly matched to some degree.

Ocelot was skilled with gun, using the bullets from his revolvers to ricochet off the rocks to hit snake.

Snake used the environment to distract Ocelot as he landed a few blows himself with his 45 colt.

The battle draw on for a long while, neither gaining the upper hand nor even close to beating the other.

A few mags spent on keeping the GRU at bay, a few stray shots narrowly missed and even I was tired as they were.

The match drew to a close as the both of them reared from their covers, guns drawn and aimed.

But no bullets were fired.

The air was alive with buzzing that grew louder and closer till a few stray wasps appeared.

But no nests were present after Snake shot them all down.

But then more came until suddenly there was as storm of them all around.

They attacked, showing no discern between us and the GRU.

I waved my hands and swiped my gun and knife in every direction to swat the bugs away "Damnit! Where a bugs spray when you it!"

I wasn't the only one; Snake and ocelot were both fighting off the swarm that seemed to be concentrated rather than naturally attacking.

I rolled and swatted frantically as they formed a thick shield around him, trying to cover me entirely.

I could hear the screams and frantic cries of the GRU soilders who were victims themselves to this swarm assault.

The wasps seemed to never end, as I took out one to 5 of the, 10 more just seemed to appear.

Their buzzing deafened my ears that I could hear nothing but them.

Suddenly out of nowhere a hand grabbed and pulled me by the back of my collar.

I had no time to resist as I suddenly found myself falling into the dark craven, screaming my way down till I finally hit the hard rocky bottom.

-Chyornaya Peschera Cave Branch-

Pain flared throughout my body from the rough landing, but nothing felt broken.

"Ow!" I cried out as I stiffened from the pain, trying my best to sit up.

Darkness.

Darkness was all that I could see in this new environment from all directions.

The way we came in where the light seemed to shine, could not penetrate through.

I stood up as best as I could, trying to find support to lean on and hopefully find my way out.

"You alright kid?" a familiar and well relieving voice told me that I was not alone.

"Yeah." I replied back as I tried to listen to where it was "what was that just now?"

Suddenly in the space between us, a single fire from the lighter was enough to illuminate our faces and show that we were standing face to face.

Of course, the boss also pulled out a large cigar to light while he had the flame. Taking a big puff, he relished in the young aftertaste that seemed to calm his nerves "No idea kid. But those weren't normal hornets." He looked up, the light from his cigar and the lighter still alive and helping in lighting their way.

Fox followed his gaze back up to the long stretch that was once on "Now that you mention it… did the same thing happen back on the bridge? When Socolove was taken, I noticed that one of the cobras was not just waving his hand but also seemed to have small smarm around it as well."

It was clear to the both of us, that this somehow was caused by the cobras.

And that there only one person who could verify this.

The both of us switched to codec's on the same frequency, only I was the once to call it in "Fox and snake to Major. Come in over?" letting go of the transponder, we awaited to hear back from them.

Static cut in our ears, the density of the rocky walls and ceiling of this cavern bounced the signal about, until finally we managed to get through"*TZZZT* S- *TZzzt* snake? Fox? This is the Major, we read you. Over." We could hear him through the slight static tune in the back ground.

"This fox. We had a run with ocelot not a minute ago and were forced to take a detour into cavern after being attack by an entire army of Hornets that just came nowhere!" I explained the situation that led to our detour into this dark cave that we were meant to take.

"We copy that fox." Major acknowledged our situations, before signet took over.

"It sounds like pain." He said which confused us as to who and what this Pain was.

"The Pain?" Snake voiced his confusion.

"Is he one the Cobras?" I asked about the group of people who sided with the boss and joined the cornel.

"That is correct. The Pain is one of the Cobras, a Special Forces unit comprised during the Second World War. They often refer to themselves as the sons of the Boss, and are extremely loyal to the boss, also known back then as The Joy." Sigint gave us a basic biography of the cobras.

However the woman whom was known as the boss, had an equally confusing name that not even snake knew about.

"The Joy?" he asked, much to his further bewilderment of his former master.

Thankfully Sigint cleared it up for us on the odd naming of these people "Each of the cobras is codenamed after aspects found in war and portray those aspects with their unique style of fighting. The pain as you know has the ability to control large swarms of deadly hornets thanks to pheromones he produces from the parasites in his body."

"Parasites?" we both called out, our voices bouncing through the cavern and echoing.

How could such creatures with the purpose of thriving off another provide such a beneficial aspects as to control swarms of deadly hornets.

However, before we could press for more information, the major cut in "That enough for now. I don't think the higher ups will like it if we spilled confidential secrets so openly."

"Ah Right." Sigint knew to keep his mouth shut for the time being concerning the process that turned men into deadly weapons of war.

So I instead changed the subject to something just as useful in our mission here "So who else is there? We're pretty much stuck in a cave until we find a way out, so lay it on us. Who are the cobra's?" snake took the lead as he began his aimless search through the cave, with me following after the only light source he had in hand.

Sigint went on to explain as we searched for a way out "Well. As I said before, the Cobras were a special task force. May be even the first that laid the ground for all known Special Forces units around the world. They were all trained and led by one woman, who came to be known as the mother of Special Forces."

"The Boss." Snake answered, learning more about his mentor then what he had previously known.

"At that time, she was known as The Joy before being titled The Boss after the War. She raised and trained these men who would serve as the instruments that broke the Nazi's. Their deeds and heroics were the stuff of legends. During the Normandy landings of D-day, they were behind enemy lines destroying V2 Rocket installations and other wet work operations they don't put in books." In essence they were a mixture between black ops and spec ops operatives. The original Special Forces team that won the war for the allies.

"So how many are there and who are they?" I asked out as we came to a water fall that could now be easily seen as our eyes adjusted to our dark environment.

In the middle of a small pool of water appeared to be small rock step, but further ahead it looked like a path. We went where it took us, only to find a small dead end just a few feet from the pool, where laying there was the skeletal remains of another who found themselves down here and unable to escape, but there also appeared to be a stick, just lying there.

Snake went forward and picked it up; scorch marks were present on the head which meant that this was once a torch. Then he fished out what appeared to be bandages from his pack and wrapped it around the thicker part of the torn branch. Once down he brought his lighter up to the wrapped head, letting the small flame press against the fabric till it caught on fire and we now had a greater source of light to lead our way.

While we navigated our dark maze, I was still conversing with the team.

"6 in total… well five now really. One was killed by the boss herself many years ago." This got our attention.

"Killed? Why?" this was news, as from what he described and how the cobras acted to the woman, it seemed like there was no bad blood between them.

"After the war ended. The Cobras were disbanded, each of them going back to their respective countries or just going into exile. The Boss came back to America while the Sorrow, the man she killed returned to Russia."

"The Cold War." Snake concluded as the tense standoff between the capitalist west and the communist east, split the world in two with many countries under threat by yet new war and forced to pick sides as America and the Soviet Union stand off to a Nuclear war.

The Major now joined in "Correct. The early parts of the cold war were… hard. Stalin's iron curtain and grip on half the world weren't pleasant, especially with former allies under threat of communist east threatening to invade. It was during one of missions she had there that she encountered him, no one knows what had happened, only that one walked away."

"I can't imagen for it to be that easy for her. From how you've describe them, and the way they interacted. It must have been painful for all of them to just, get up and leave or become enemies." In war, a soldier relies on more than just his instincts and training. A squad is more than a group of people you're put with, they become the only family you know during the hardships of war, and you see them as brothers despite their ethnicity and race.

To fight a person you shed more than just blood, sweat and tears with isn't easy. Having to put a bullet in them is akin to murdering your own family.

"War is never easy Fox. It can destroy or build empires, and ruin long term alliances and friendships."

"Yeah. I hope that world never has to experience such a war ever again." I prayed to never experience such a dark moment in the history of the world. The Second World War was a dark time when barbarism and hatred were brought out in everyone, and a race as old as all of known history was brutally supressed and targeted to the worse sufferings mankind is capable of.

It seemed that time filed by as I followed after snake, that I didn't notice how far and deep we were and the light at the end that showed how close we were to exiting this place "Whelp'. It looks like we found our exit. Talked to you guys soon." I switched off my codec

The light came from large hole in the ceiling that illuminated the entire cave to show a large pool of water with an ecosystem of large fish. Two rock platforms stood up from the large body of water, one small enough for one man, opposite and separated the large formation that could house of group of twenty or thirty people.

On the other side, opposite the cave entrance we were in, was another way forward with what looked like another small rock platform similar to this one on our side...

-The Pain-

Not a step forward and already, the horrendous buzzing of hornets filled our ears and we caught the sight of a large group of them heading straight towards us.

Thinking quickly, we dived straight into the body of water that covered us more than any else against this troublesome insects.

After a minute or so under the water, we surfaced and broke through the layer to the air filled surface.

Snake climbed onto the rocks and face the main rocks where the hornets configured into a single mass that took on a humanoid shape "I've caught you at last." Spoke a deep voice through the buzzing filled cave and the body of hornets that dissipated to reveal a familiar man in hornet styled camo "We are the sons of the Boss." He backed flipped once and held himself in wide stance. He was a large man dressed in a mixture of combat armour and beekeeper garments. He had a large puffed out bulletproof vest coloured and styled like a bee, but his limbs and face were garbed in black interwoven fabrics, on his face was a balaclava mask of the same fabrics and style.

"I am The Pain." He boasted before he did some silly and flamboyant moves with his leg swinging around in the air and then back into the air "I will guide you to a world of anguish beyond your imagination…" he then did a high back flip somersault before hornets converged and covered his hands in a large writhing ball of insects "Let's get started!" he thrusted his hands forward and sent the entire swarm right at us.

"Shit!" I cursed as I took another dived into the water, hearing the echoing splash as my ears caught the resounding sound. It was fortunate that it was clear and not murky, allowing me to see where I went as I kept under the surface, swimming deep and behind the main rock floor.

Seeing the many large fish swimming and otherwise at peace despite the fight over head.

I surfaced gently and kept my voice to a whisper as I radioed in, hearing the sound of gunfire and the cries of our foe taunting snake as he was in for a fight of his life.

"Fox to Major!" I whispered shouted into the comns.

"This is the Maj-!"

"We've run directly into the bastard. Any advice right now would be great!" I needed something to help snake gain an edge over this bastard, as from the sound of things, it was not going well.

Sigint quickly took over and gave me a brief on the Pain's arsenal "The pain uses his hornets as his main weapons but rumour has it he has a tommy gun as well. Grenades and even the vials containing pheromones he used to direct his hornets to attack his targets." The sound of shattering glass made it clear that the he does indeed have said vials of pheromones that he was using against snake.

"Anything that could help against this guy would really be appreciated." I hurried him for any idea he had to give us a weapon to use.

"I suggest heavy ordnances. Explosives and heavy calibre weapons should make mincemeat of his hornets when he uses them as a coat of armour. Stun grenades can also be useful as well in taking out a portion of them."

"Found you. You little gutter Rat!" that voice called right over me as the buzzing of hornets was practically in my ears even before the dark shadow washed over me...

I quickly pushed myself deep into the body of water before he could get a hold of me.

I swam as quickly as I could the other way, taking a long detour in case he was following, I took quick breaching and quick gasps of air before submerging I swam directly to where I could see snake.

Finally I made it, getting to the rock he was standing on and calling up to him "Snake!" I cried out, earning his attention as he unloads a magazine on the man with his AK-47 "Word from signet. Use Heavy Ordinances! Heavy weapons! Heavy Explosives! Heavy EVERYTHING!" I shouted out what we needed to do in order to take this man out, uncaring if he heard us.

"Grenade!" The pain cried out, and our heads snapped to see a small group of hornets, all huddled together in large colony of balls that hovered right at us. Already guessing what they were carrying, we quickly dived back into the water.

The loud and deepening blast sounding in the water, and the shockwaves that came with it as I swam in the other direction.

I came to the right of the large rock the pain was on, leaning on the wall for support "I've had enough of this Shite!" I swore as this guy was getting on my nerves.

I took out my EZ gun and pushed off from the wall as I aimed at his exposed side.

*Phewt!* One and two and three I got off on the man as he fell on his back from the third shot, taking the attention off snake's side and now directing his ire at me as he got back up "you little bastard!"

He then raised his hand into the air "Tommy gun!" the hornets converged into his hands, and took the shape of a gun before dispersing to reveal that the Pain had a new weapon.

"Oh hell!" I shot down into the water just as he began to unload where I was.

I swam, the sound of the bullets breaking through into the water, they didn't disappear nor get lower as they followed right after me as I kicked my legs under the water.

The Pain obviously following my trail as I kicked and pushed, bubbles escaping easily from my mouth and breaking through to the surface as he followed.

The grip on my lungs begging for air was becoming intense as I tried not to swim up, but the demand for air was unbearable, I tried to keep myself below the water but it proved inevitable as I needed air badly.

But luck was on myside as I felt the shaking of the water and cave along with the low depth basting sound that halted the onslaught of the bullets.

Taking what chance I can I breached through to the surface and took a long deserved gasp of air for my lungs that relieved by the intake of oxygen they were deprived of.

I looked up and saw that snake was lobbing grenades at the Pain, saving me from certain death if I had chosen to keep under, or break through to the surface and be filled with lead.

I took this opportunity to saviour the few seconds of air I could as the Pain soon commanded his swarm to cover his entire body, making himself armour of hornets that took the blunt of the shrapnel and fire.

The pains attention was focused back on snake, giving me the opportunity to help out again.

As he shot at snake with his Tommy gun, quickly fished into my back pack, feeling around until I felt what I was hoping to find.

Pulling out the metal cylinder object, I pulled the pin and tossed it onto the floor behind the pain's feet, and then I covered my eyes and braced to hear as a sharp explosion went out and when I uncovered my eyes. I saw that the entire body of hornets had fallen to the ground dead, leaving the pain open to attack.

Snake took the chance as he hovered in the body of water and unleashed a barrage of bullets that hit their mark.

Once more back up, and clearly enraged.

The pain pulled off his balaclava mask to reveal a bald head, and a face swollen and riddled with welts from the hornets' sting. He dropped to his hands and knees and from out of his mouth shot three hornets that speeded out of his mouth like bullet.

Larger and faster than the hornets he had, as their flying created noises similar to airplane as they circled around.

"Get them!" he commanded, I dived, and just in time too as one of those bullet hornets shot passed by face in the water, its large body sinking deep into the lake as it twitches and flails about.

I swarm deeper into the water, not risking being close to the surface in case those things kamikaze their bodies into me. The banging of fire arms above continued out, as I swam towards that snake was on.

As I got closer, a large body fell into the water right in front of me.

It was snake!

The surprise had me screaming out a breath full of air as he sunk a little into the waters.

A red mist of blood poured from a fresh wound in his shoulder.

I quickly swam right at him.

Push with all of my strength as I kicked against the water, my body against his as I pushed the both of us back into the cover of the small rocky platform, and pressed up from the water.

Snake bit down a scream as much as he could, as he grasped at the bleeding shoulder that was getting worse as blood flowed out continuously to be more than a bullet.

I watched as he pulled out his combat knife and stick it into his wound, digging into it as he fought the urge to scream.

Finally he managed to dislodge what it was that was hurting him so badly.

It was one of those Hornets!

The large insect fought to get back into the freshly made flesh wound it had been eating at, but snake flick away were its large body hit and sunk into the water.

"You Okay!?" I asked over the sound of the cave filled with hornets and the mocking sadistic laughter of the Pain enjoying his moment of pleasure.

Snake peered at me through his half closed eyes as he clasped his wound "Yeah." He nodded.

This fight was going on for long enough.

With a small hint of courage, I quickly had an Idea "I'll distract him. You hit him." Before he could protest, I dived back into the water and kicked myself towards the large rock formation the Pain was on.

As I got to it, I pulled out from bag; a few more stun grenades as I hovered in the water.

Slowly I rose up, making sure I was pressed much into the body of earth so as not to be seen by the Cobra.

Pulling the pin by my teeth, I rolled the grenade in the earth towards the man and sunk back down, waiting to hear the bang.

*BOOM!* that sharp explosion, followed by that cry of confusion pain, gave way that my plan worked.

And snake heard the signal and began to unload on the Man.

The Pain was unbalanced and thrown onto his back as he sustained much more damage then he could take "You Bastards!" he cursed at us as he jumped to his feet.

I was swimming right around him as he got his hornet armour back on.

…but not for long as I once more tossed another stun grenade at him.

*BOOOM!* again the sharp non-literal explosion went off, followed by snake rearing from his cover and hitting him for the last time.

The pain fell to his hands and knees.

The swarm of the hornets dissipated to a few in number that encircled around the bee cameoed man as he picked himself up he seemed focused on us and more himself as he looked at his arms with great confusion "the pain…" he muttered as touched his arm only to flinch away as he now looked down at himself.

"The Pain…" fear now graced his features and he flinched and twitched as it seemed to all of us, that he was just now experiencing the very sensation he named himself after.

"THE PAIN!" he let out one final cry before he fell backwards and when his body hit the ground it exploded "The Pain….!" His death cries echoed as hundreds of dead hornets fell all around us from that explosion that left no trace of the man. Not a body part was there apart from something I could not make out from this angle.

With The Pain now dead.

We breathed a sigh of relief and began our soft strokes towards the shores of the exit.

My feet touching the cold stone.

Water that drenched us now poured onto the ground.

The cold air now nipped at us from every angle as we shivered.

Snake slouched against the cold stone wall, pressing his hand against his wound.

"Hang on." I said, as I pulled out my back pack and began to rouge through my bag of mysteries. The saving grace to all of this was that everything was perfectly preserved from the waters, including my radio which news to me was water proof.

Snake undressed himself from the top half of his mission suit, leaving him bare and exposed of his chest.

I pulled out a bottle of disinfectant, bandages, styptic and a needle with surgical thread. Putting them all to the side as I kneeled before Snake, I uncorked the bottle of disinfectant and poured it on the wound, Snaked grunted in pain as the disinfectant burned the wound, before I pulled out the Needle with the thread tied into it.

It was from here that snake took over as he pinched the needle in his fingers and began to stitch his wound closed.

The pain of the disinfectant had numbed the area around the wound, making it easier for snake to thread his skin closed without flinching or hesitating. After that he slapped on the Styptic over the wound and bandaged the area.

Once done he began to put his clothes back on and take a breather after that harrowing encounter with one of the cobras.

I decided to update our progress with HQ "Fox to Major. You there?"

"This is the Major. What have you got for us fox?" the major received our transmission.

"I've got good news and more good news." I gave an introduction to how well our progress has gone "First. We've taken care of The Pain, so there's one less cobra for the world to fear." I informed them of the demise of one of the legendary Cobra's.

Needless to say one could hear the joy in the Major's tone along with the background cheering of those present and observing the conditions of our mission "That is indeed good news to hear."

Now I went on with the second good update "Second, it appears that we may be out of this cave. There's a breeze of wind blowing outwards towards the tunnel before us. We should be closer to the research facility they have Socolove at."

"Alright. Remember fox, your mission along with Snake's, is to destroy the Shagohod and any data of it. Secondary you are to extract Socolove out of there in one piece." He reminded us of our present objectives other than killing the Boss and her unit.

I nodded "Understood." But he wasn't done

"And Fox… Be careful." The fear and the softening in his tone were clear that he worried about my safety in this hostile environment.

"Will Do. Will call you if anything comes up." I ended the transmission, just as snake got the energy to stand back up.

"You ready?" he asked, but I wanted to check something out before I left.

"Just in a sec. there's something I see over there." I pointed to the main rock formation the Pain had been using against us, where I saw something laying just there in place where his body should be.

I saw that I could get there with the along the rocks that ran across the wall body and even made a short bridge over the water leading to said rock platform.

I ran along the edge leading up to small bridge where I jump onto the rock formation the pain was on.

There I saw what was left and still intact.

His Hornet camo.

A spare uniform and just about snake's style and size.

I jumped back into the water and swam my way back after seeing that there was nothing else I could get here.

With the camo in hand I tossed at him "here. It's not something I see for myself. Too big from my size, maybe you'll find use for it?" Snake hanged it out before him to its fullest length that dropped right down to his ankles much like the rest of his uniform camouflage he has on.

He stuffed it away and we prepared to set out and get the hell out of this damn cave.

"Alright, I'm ready. "We journeyed on.

Our mission unchanged as we moved closer into enemy territory.

Finished.