The trip to Afghanistan was nerve wrecking for Zack; not only was he worried about what they may find once they got there, he noticed that Tretij was having more frequent headaches the closer that they got. Ocelot gave him a shot that would tamper down the pain once they were close to their destination.
"Remember, this isn't training," the man told the two boys as they sat in the second helicopter, to which they had transferred after a seven and a half hour ride with Ptrepos on the first one. "You see someone that looks like they are a threat, you shoot. Don't ask questions until they're wounded and on the ground."
"I have concerns that what we find there may not be something that guns can wound," Mantis replied, making the other two look at him. "I keep getting flashes of images and what I see doesn't appear to be easily harmed by bullets. Perhaps you should start thinking of a plan B."
"Don't worry about that, I already have something in mind." Ocelot looked at Zack who turned his attention back to him. "You and Mantis will stay together when we get to the radio site. I'll split up from you two a mile out and go around a different route in case we run into trouble so that I can catch them off guard."
"You sure you're okay with this, Ocelot?" the blonde asked, pulling his hair up into a ponytail. "Aren't there Soviets out there? Won't you have problems fighting what's basically your inherited side?"
Ocelot seemed to contemplate this for a moment, looking out the window of the helicopter door in silence and Zack recognized the distant look in his grey eyes. Whatever he thought about whenever it came to the Russian half of his blood line, it always made him shut down and he didn't want to talk about it. The boy felt bad usually when he brought up the fact that his lover was half Russian, but at this point he really needed to know if Ocelot was going to be alright since this was no longer up for contemplation. If the Soviets were on the site where they were pretty sure Kaz had been either killed or abducted, he needed to know that him and Tretij would be able to rely on their mentor. The red head glanced at Zack before looking back at the man across from them who finally turned his attention back to them.
"Don't worry about it, I'll shoot anyone that threatens the two of you. Regardless to if they're my own kind or not," he finally answered and the two boys seemed skeptical but nodded regardless.
"Coming up on the LZ, Ocelot," their pilot - a man code named Piquod - told the gunslinger. "ETA is five minutes. Hope you guys know what you're doing."
"We're professionals," Ocelot replied with a smirk. "What, you doubt us Piquod?"
The pilot smirked and looked back at the path ahead of him as Zack moved to open the door and sat down with his feet on the railing, looking off ahead of where they were flying. Tretij disappeared from view but Zack could still sense him in the cab and Ocelot began to check his gear to make sure everything was loaded and in working order. The boy wasn't as confidence as Ocelot was that they weren't going to have any trouble; he'd been restless since they left with the concern about Kaz lingering in the back of his mind. Now with the concern that their enemy may be some kind of inhuman force, that dream about the darkness was coming back to him. This must be what it represented, this force that they were about to meet up with. None of them spoke a word until the helicopter lowered down enough for them to jump out then took off again just after Ocelot's boots hit the ground and they watched their pilot leave. The cowboy clapped the boy on the back so he turned and they walked over to the two horses that had been waiting for them near a rocky outcropping.
They got up into the saddles, Tretij reappeared on the back of the horse that Zack was sitting on before they rode off towards their destination. There were a million scenarios running through Zack's mind as he thought about what they may find at the campsite that Kaz had radioed them from. He tried to tell himself not to expect to find the man alive, but he was holding onto the hope that somehow he had managed to get away from the attack. He recalled someone telling him when he was little "Always hope for the best, but expect the worst or you'll be too naive to make it in life."
That voice seemed like a very distant memory now. But he held onto the words.
They rode for a couple of hours before they found themselves in a sand storm so both of them put on their sunglasses and Ocelot pulled his scarf up over his face. Zack pulled up the gator that usually hung around his neck as Tretij hovered off ahead of them, disappearing in the thick cover of the blowing sand.
"We're coming up on the camp now," Ocelot told Zack over the roar of the wind, taking the iDroid out of his inner coat pocket and clicked it on to look at the map. "We'll use the sandstorm as cover to split up here."
"Copy," the boy replied as Ocelot pocketed the device and both turned on their ear pieces before the older man veered off, the horse he was riding snorting in compliance. "Watch yourself, old man."
He headed down the path that they had marked out on the way here, catching glimpses of Tretij as he faded in and out behind the curtain of sand. As he rode on, he could feel what he believed were eyes watching him and if that was the case then there was a damn lot of them. He lost track of Tretij after a while but could still sense him in the area so he guessed he was somewhere between his position and Ocelot's. He stopped his mare at the top of a slope, looking down at the array of tattered tents and over turned vehicles down below.
"This looks like the place," Zack told his partner as he put his sunglasses away and pulled the gator down from his face since the storm was passing. He got off of his horse and pat her side so she wiggled an ear at him. "Stay here girl. I've got a bad feeling about what's going to happen when I go down there."
The horse snorted in response, lifting her back left hoof to rest as the blonde walked down towards the camp and drew his revolver as he went, taking in all of the sights around him. He knew that some of this could have been weather related damage, but there were clear claw marks on the fabric of some of the tent walls. He rounded the first two tents that would have been for loookouts and blew out a breath as the smell of decomp overpowered every other dusty smell in the area. This was where the actual struggle had taken place that they heard on the radio, he concluded. The bodies that he found were exactly as Kaz had described them: Mutilated and barely anything left on the skeleton.
Some of them were even missing limbs.
He knelt down next to one, flipping up the patch on its shirt and furrowed his brows as he saw the Soviet's army symbol. He stood up and looked around at all of the other bodies litering the area. Some he could see were Diamond Dogs by what was left of their uniforms, but some of them were Soviet soldiers too? He was getting a good idea of what had taken place here, but no wild cat could have done this much damage to a body. So what exactly was strong and big enough to tear a fully matured human male to shreds like this? He noticed one of the tents was still in tact so he started to head that way only to stop when he noticed a sparkle of blue light go in front of him and the feeling of eyes on him came back. He heard footsteps rushing towards him and rolled to the side just as a creature lunged through the air from behind him.
He got back to his feet and looked at the creature as it circled around to him and made what could only be described as a underwater growl.
"Whoa, hey there boy," he said to it as it showed all of its massive fangs to him, chained with saliva and dark yellow. "I think I saw a stinkly little pooch just like you in a video game once."
The creature roared at him, opening its mouth to show its mandibles and large tongue. Zack grunted as the creature swung its tongue out and it wrapped around his arm.
"Alright, no sense of humor. Well let's get down and dirty then."
He swung his arm underneath it and grabbed the appendage, pulling hard so that the creature staggered towards him and he shot it in the forehead. The tongue went limp so he pulled away just in time to turn and see another group of five other ones coming at him. He ducked as one jumped at him and shot up through its lower jaw through its head and the body fell on top of the other one. He kicked a second one away from him, turning and stepping up onto its head as it tried to get its balance, shooting down into its skull before kneeling down and shot two of the others that came at him. He grabbed one of the other ones' tongues when it was swung at him and pulled it tight as he stepped to the side, effectively clothes lining the fourth one and shot it in the head when it fell to the ground. He shot the one he was holding the tongue of before letting go of it. The last one made him mildly panic because he knew that the sixth bullet never hit, no matter how many times he practiced.
He lifted the gun and took the shot anyway, not giving himself time to overthink it but it missed the creature's forehead and instead hit through its cheek, making it - if possible - more mad than it was to begin with.
"Oh boy," he mumbled and reloaded his gun to get ready to take aim again. But before he could lift the gun again, a jeep suddenly flew and took out the dog, splattering it into a mess of gore against the cliff wall.
"Thought you could use a hand," Tretij said as he hovered down from where he had been hiding. Zack smirked at him and stood up from the bodies, stepping down. "You're welcome."
"You're too smug for your own good," he told the red head, his smirk fading as he looked around the camp. "I think I know now what happened to Kaz. But help me look over these bodies and see if we can find anything to get an idea of where they took him."
The two went to all of the bodies and checked what was left of their clothes to try and see if they could find some shred of information on where their commander had been taken. Zack was kneeling beside one of the bodies, looking at is jaw structure which made him conclude this one had been a woman. He heard a noise off towards the far back of the camp and figured that it must have been Ocelot finally catching up.
"Hey, I found something Nymph," Tretij called so Zack got up and went to where he was. He was looking at a piece of paper, stained with blood but the black letters were still visible on the paper. Some of it was missing from the soldier's uniform being shredded, but there was enough there to see. "Can you read Russian?"
"No, but Ocelot can," he replied, taking the note to look at it closer. He looked towards the back of the camp.
Zack and his partner headed for the largest tent near the back of the came only to hear a gunshot go off, both of them dove in opposite directions. And not a moment too soon as the jeeps that were all parked next to each other suddenly began to explode and go up in flames. Zack was winded as he hit a rock, lying on the ground and coughed, trying to catch his breath.
"Nymph!" the boy said in worry. He was about to go towards him but he winced when a pain shot through his head, almost piercing his mental barriers. He saw a the reflection of a man appeared behind him in one of the flames so he turned to look at him. Six more dogs were along side of him and all of them had come seemingly out of thin air, the dogs growling at the boy as the man holstered the gun he'd been holding.
"You must be Psycho Mantis," the man said to the masked youth. "I had sensed you coming on the way here. You're a very powerful telekinetic, to be able to keep me out."
"It's rude to know my name and not give me yours," the boy replied, hovering up off of the floor by a foot or so.
"No need for introductions since it's too bad you're on the wrong side. Would have loved to see what you could do." The man whistled low to the creatures and they began to advance on the red head.
The boy looked at them as they began to surround him, narrowing his eyes behind his mask as they all growled and gurgled in aggression. He had to think of something quick since Zack had been taken down by the explosion and he needed to get to them. He noticed that some of the busted doors from the vehicles were lying near by and picked them up using his telekinesis. He brought them over to him and made a shield out of them just as the creatures tried to hit him with their tongues. He turned them horizontal and swung his arm, sending them at the monsters. Two of them were cut clean in half, one's head was taken off and two were pinned to the cliffside by the sheer velocity of the metal flying at them. The boy turned and hovered in front of the red skinned male who had been controlling the creatures. He regarded the psychokentic youth with interest. He had clearly never met another like him, especially one as young as the Russian boy was.
"Your talents are wasted with them," he finally said behind his mask, holding up his hand to the red head. "Why not come with me instead? Where you'll be with someone who can teach you how to use your powers properly."
"Over my dead body!" Zack declared, surprising both of them when his mare suddenly jumped clear over the blown up jeeps and through the wall of fire.
The youth pulled a broken piece of metal that had once been part of one of the vehicles that had just exploded out of the rocks when his horse ran by it. Despite the rough edge digging into his hand, he gripped it firmly and swung up at an angle against the man's chest with the sharp end of it. It staggered the man, more than wound him and he grunted, being forced backwards as he looked down where his suit had been cut open. Tretij quickly grabbed onto Zack's waist and settled onto his horse's back. Ocelot suddenly appeared out of the fire as well, the white horse he was riding whinnied loudly to tell its companion to go, so Zack's mare shot off towards the slope they'd come down as Ocelot drew the revolver from his hip with a smirk.
"Enjoy the gift, since you like explosions Calamity," the man said, aiming over his shoulder at the ruined campsite.
He slowed his vision down, taking the shot only a second later and the bullet flew passed the man and hit the dynamite sticks that he had set up on the table near the radio. It set off a chain reaction, making the cliff crumble as they rode out of the area without looking back as it came down behind them. Once they were sure they were safely away from the area, the two horses slowed to a walk and Zack looked over his shoulder to make sure Tretij was okay. He was unharmed and seemed to be recovering fine from his headache but that made the blonde realize just how strong Calamity's telepathic abilities were if he penetrated the mask wearing boy's mental barriers.
"You two did good," Ocelot told them, catching their attention. "Most would have panicked in the face of a Cipher general. You should feel good for yourselves."
"That's who that guy was?" Tretij asked, resting against Zack's shoulder. Ocelot nodded. "Calamity you said his name was?"
"Yeah, the second General of Cipher. I caught a transmission interference on the way to the campsite and heard his name. What did you two find out?"
"Well before tall, dark and creepy tried to take us out by recycling, we found this on one of the Soviet soldiers." Zack reached into his pouch on his waist and took out the note, handing it across to the man who unfolded it and read over it. "Over half of those bodies weren't Diamond Dogs, they were Russian soldiers."
"Yeah, I saw a couple on the outskirts of the camp, too," the man said, stopping his stallion so Zack stopped the mare as well. "It looks like they took him to Da Ghwandai Khar."
"They took him into Kabul?" Tretij asked.
"Nevermind that, they lived through that massacre?" Zack asked, clearly in shock. There was some hope left that Kaz was alive and he'd take that. But it surprised him that anyone got away from those creatures alive, let alone with a prisoner.
"Yeah, pretty impressive feat, if I'm honest. Judging by what we just saw and what you two went through." He put the note in his pocket and looked at them. "Not bad for your first time, I'm glad you're both unharmed. That ups our odds of getting Kaz out alive."
"Thanks Ocelot," Zack said, reaching up to wipe the creature blood off of his face with his sleeve. "What were those things Calamity had with him though? Some kind of mutant dogs?"
"Not pleasant, that's all I know," the man confirmed. "But the small bit of information we had on Calamity says that he does have some kind of parasitic animal following him around. Wasn't expecting them to have tongues like a whip. Whatever he was doing there, it had nothing to do with Kaz."
Zack agreed with a hum of thought, still mildly disturbed by the fact that the animals' main way of attacking was their tongues. Thankfully their saliva wasn't acidic, so he counted that as a win. He looked over at the man who was now folding up a familiar pair of aviators before placing them in his coat pocket. "Those are Kaz's..."
"Yeah, I found them by the radio in the communications tent. He's going to be missing them until we can get to him." Ocelot looked at Tretij when he suddenly lifted his head from Zack's shoulder and looked off towards the southern direction. "Mantis, what's wrong?"
"I heard someone say your name," the boy said in thought. He then looked at Ocelot and the next words shocked both him and Zack. "Apparently Venom Snake has come to."