The two equine carried the men down the hillside as fast as their four legs would allow, trying to outrun the glow of the fire that was quickly covering the direction they had come from. Zack could sense that Tretij was with Vicente still, but it didn't ease his anxiety about the figure lurking on the horizon. The boy gasped when a loud explosion went off in the direction they were heading, causing D-Horse and his mare to stop, whinnying loudly.
"What the hell was that?!" Zack wondered out loud, trying to calm his steed down before looking over at the man who managed to get D-Horse back on all fours after a moment.
"I don't know but something tells me we don't have time to contemplate. Hurry!" the gunslinger replied so Zack nodded.
The teen rode his horse down the cliff first, heading for where he saw Mantis next to the man who was about to turn and run. Zack went out into the road, pulling the mare's reins so she would rear back, stopping the man in his tracks.
"Get on!" he called out to the man, holding his hand out but the man was clearly scared, confused and in shock. He backed up just in time to have Ocelot ride up between them.
"We're on your side!" he told the man as Zack grabbed Tretij instead and pulled him up on the mare's back. Ocelot held his hand out to the terrified male just as a large wave of fire roared to life behind them. "Hurry!"
Clearly weighing his options, Vicente finally grabbed the gunslinger's wrist and allowed himself to be hoisted up on D-Horse's back, grabbing the man's shoulder as the two took off down the road, heading in the direction of the docks where the boat would be waiting for them. And not a moment too soon as the scarred male engulfed in flames appeared from the wall of fire, the heat from his steed's body causing the abandoned ambulance to explode. Zack looked over his shoulder at the man, passed Tretij who was holding onto him.
"Bastard doesn't give up does he?!" the teen sneered, grabbing the shotgun off his back and cocked it. "Venom!"
The man seemed to know that had something to do with him at least and looked at Zack just in time to catch the gun as it was thrown at him. With only minor difficulty, the man took aim at the one following them and fired. It slowed the man down, but didn't seem to do much aside from that, except maybe agitate him. On the last shot, Vicente raised the gun enough to look down the barrel and hit the man in the left shoulder, sending him falling backwards off the horse which made a scream of aggression and slammed its feet down on the road, sending out a shockwave of fire ahead of them. Zack and Ocelot didn't look back and their steeds didn't slow down, just rushing right through the wall of fire that erupted ahead of them like it was nothing.
They were nearing the bridge that the lighthouse overlooked when the sky split open with an angry roar and a bright flash.
Before either Zack or Ocelot realized what was happening, Mantis had jumped into the air and held his hands up to form a mental barrier, blocking a bolt of lightning that was aimed right at Ocelot and Vicente. The red haired youth grunted, closing his eyes as the barrier immediately shattered and he was thrown backwards towards the ground.
"Mantis!" Ocelot called out in shock, horror and dread filled his veins as he watched his adopted son fall after taking the attack that was clearly meant for him.
Without thinking twice, Zack stood up in his saddle and without knowing how, jumped up and caught his younger brother. He landed what seemed like only a small distance away, but it turned out to be the other side of the bridge that they had been approaching. He looked around in confusion but quickly forgot about it in favor of checking on the psychokinetic in his arms. Thankfully, the boy seemed to only be out cold and bared no physical injuries, except his hands had small blisters on them from the heat of holding the bolt off. The teen looked over when he heard D-Horse and his own steed slow to a stop on the bridge and saw the shocked, confused looks on both Ocelot and Vicente's faces. He had to wonder what it must have looked like from their point of view because to him it didn't seem like he had jumped that far or fallen that distance. The relief was short lived as another bolt shot down from the sky, destroying the bridge that the two equine and men were sitting on, sending them down into the river below.
"Ocelot! Venom!" the teenager called for them as he watched in horror. He couldn't leave Tretij until he woke up, he'd never forgive himself if something happened to the boy.
Zack lay his adopted brother down and ran to the edge of the bridge, looking down for any signs of the men but it was too far down for him to actually see anything. He cursed under his breath and looked up when he heard hooves coming towards him so he quickly turned and ran to Tretij, picking him up bridal style. He was just about to turn to leave when the glow caught his attention and he looked over at the man as he stopped on the opposite side of the broken bridge and smirked darkly at him.
"Hello, little cub," the man said to him and Zack growled, showing his teeth. "Ooo, someone's as feisty as his father. I admit, when I came here to take him out, I didn't expect to find his son instead. I suppose you and the imposter will have to do for now until we can find the real one."
"Why don't you go to hell? That clearly is where you crawled out of anyway," Zack spat, venom dripping from the edge of his words. Whoever this man was, Ocelot was scared of him and that made him all the more angry. "The Hazbin called, they want their mascot back."
"You little bastard," the man sneered. "I'll cauterize your mouth shut for that."
Zack held Tretij as close to him as he could and turned his back to the man just as he saw him raise his hand up and it ignited with fire. If he was going to get scorched, he wouldn't let the red head suffer the same fate. Before anything could happen to either one of them, what sounded like a miniature canon fired off and he heard the scarred man behind him scream in shock. He didn't know exactly what happened, but he took that moment to make a rash decision and ran towards the bridge, jumping down towards the rushing water below. The rushing air seemed to wake Tretij from his unconscious state but a second too late and both of them hit the water with very little grace. Luckily the river didn't carry them very far before they were able to pull themselves out of the water and onto the bank, coughing and Zack spit up the water he had accidentally inhaled.
"A rash choice," Tretij groaned. "Had you waited a second, I would have woken up."
"Shut up," the boy groaned and finally got to his feet, looking up towards the bridge where they had fallen from. The glow from the scarred man was gone which meant they were safe, at least for now so Zack turned to his adopted brother. "Come on, Ocelot and Venom fell down here too. We need to find them."
The red head looked up for a moment before nodding to Zack. "This way."
Zack followed after him, heading down the river to the east when his mare suddenly walked towards them, greeting Zack with a snort. He pat her on the shoulder, seeing that she was okay which was a good sign so they got on and finished heading down the river to climb up and back out onto the street. Ocelot was here with Vicente and both of them seemed unharmed, the man gave a relieved sigh at the sight of the two boys and Zack smiled a little. With knowing that all of them were okay, Ocelot turned to Vicente who had been looking off towards where the hospital was clearly still burning over the horizon. The man looked at him finally and Ocelot gave a reassuring smile.
"The name is Revolver Ocelot," he told the man who looked less nervous now but still very confused. "Venom Snake, you know who I am. You and I worked together nine years ago under the lead of Big Boss in the MSF. You remember?"
The man shook his head, looking at his feet and Zack couldn't help but feel sorry for him. It was clear that he was struggling with the memories either from whatever Big Boss and his partner had done to him or because of the metal in his temple.
"Don't force it, most of it will come back with time." Ocelot got back into D-Horse's saddle, who snorted in compliance. He then looked back at the man. "I've been given a job by the head man himself: Help rebuild his army. In order to do that, I'm gonna need your help."
"I don't know why we're helping him," Zack noted, making Ocelot look at him and Vicente as well. "What did he do for any of us besides screw up our lives?"
"Behave now, Clover. This is no time for that trash talk. I know you're mad at him, but that's not what our focus is right now."
"Who's the kid?" Vicente asked, looking back to Ocelot.
"Zachary Cultz, or Clover Nymph, is your godchild. You've been in a coma for nine years, protected by the head man himself and his wife while I raised Clover in hiding along with our partner, Kazuhira Miller."
"Kaz?" The man clearly had some recollection of who he was at least which was a relief to both Ocelot and Zack, the aforementioned of which, nodded.
"He's been captured in Afghanistan and taken hostage while he was running an operation to keep Cipher away from you and Boss." The man looked at Ocelot who motioned to his arm, so he looked at it. "Nine years ago, the MSF came under siege by Cipher and you were nearly killed protecting Big Boss who they wanted dead. And it's not just them really, the whole world wants our leader's head on a pike." Ocelot nodded towards the remnants of the burning hospital so Vicente looked that way.
"The only way we're going to be able to save Kaz is with your help," Zack told the man. "He was willing to give his life for you and I'm sure you don't want that."
"So come on, let's get moving," Ocelot said, offering his hand to the male beside him. He gently motioned for the man to get up with him, giving him the same reassuring smile he had earlier.
It didn't take long for the man to grab Ocelot's wrist this time so the gunslinger hoisted him up onto the stallion's back and they situated as Zack smiled and Tretij let out a breath of relief. The two turned their steeds around and nudged their sides, riding off towards the lighthouse once again where their vessel waited to take them back to Afghanistan and - with any luck - to Kaz's rescue.