Forewords

Wow, the previous chapter was posted with exactly 3333 words. Very much a coincidence, don't you think?

Anyways, with the previous chapter finally posted after being in my archives for six months, I can get this series going again at a regular pace.

Given the length of each chapter, expect this story to take over a year to finish. So please wait patiently, as I have the other two stories to update as well.


Chapter 4: Meet The Devil Rebirth

Time: 1200 Hour; 30th of December, 2040.

Location: Golden Gate Bridge; San Francisco, United States.

The Red Eagles were surprised to see what is laid out in front of them.

Rebel Soldiers, Amadeus Syndicalists, Ptolemaic Guerillas, and their various machineries laid all over the San Francisco end of the Golden Gate Bridge, all mangled up beyond recognition and/or on fire.

Looking ahead, they can see a Jet Hammer-Yang carrying the Regular Commandos speeding off toward Alcatraz Island. Behind them were a trail of Ptolemaic Jet Hammer-Yangs and Flying Taras, all shot down by the Regular Commandos.

"Man..." Jason Wayne comments on the sight. "Why are the four of us even here?"

"Following orders..." Ash Kingslayer answers. "But yeah, maybe we should ask Regular Army Command after the mission..."

"At least we still have a way of following them." Jenny Wakeman then points toward a docked Hammer-Yang.

"Let's go, guys! They're stealing the spotlight!" Mina Kabuto told everyone as she rushed toward the Hammer-Yang first.

The other Red Eagles said nothing more and followed...

...

Location: Mission Control, Regular Army Command.

"Sir, it seems that the Rebel-Amadeus-Ptolemaic Joint Forces are not acing alone." A Regular Army technician said. "I'm picking up an encrypted transmission entering Alcatraz Island where Morden, Amadeus and the Ptolemaic Boss are currently hiding out.

It is hard to tell if the AI Commanding Officer is actually paying attention, due to being just a block of CPU with a camera for an eye. But judging by his reaction, he certainly did. "An encrypted transmission? Can you decrypt it?"

"I can't sir..." The technician replies. "This encryption isn't just beyond me, its beyond even the Future Rebels. In fact, I think even the Martians and Venusians are not capable of such a level of encryption..."

If an AI is capable of showing surprise, the AI CO definitely just did. "Beyond even the aliens?"

"That's right, sir." The technician said. "Every time I try crunching even one digit in the encryption, it somehow reformat all of itself into a completely random set of digits. The world has never seen anything like this before..."

"So it seems that there's something about our old enemies that we still don't know about..." The AI CO "thought" for a while. "Keep working on it, Mr..."

Seeing that the AI CO doesn't know his name, the technician told him, "The name's Leon Chi-Ming Chan, sir."

...

Mission Briefing

We have the Devil Rebirth - Donald Morden himself cornered in the basement floor of the Alcatraz Prison. Or so we thought...

As the Regular Commandos blast their way through the RAP-occupied prison island, you should take advantage of the ensuing chaos, and infiltrate a different section of the compound than the Commandos. That way, the enemies will be forced to divert their firepower over two different spots, making it easier to mow them down as you all approach Morden and his allies.

But beware, Red Eagles. Since the Devil Rebirth specifically dared the Regular Commandos to come and get him here, I expect there to be a multitude of traps waiting for the Commandos to trigger them. Just to be safe, make sure you get to the end of the compound before the Commandos does. That way, Morden and his allies will be surprised to see someone they don't know coming to get them.

That is all. Godspeed...

...

MISSION THREE START!

Location: High Security Dock, Alcatraz Island.

"Listen, you asshole!" A lone Rebel Soldier yelled at his mobile phone. "I don't know who you are, but I will find you, and I will kill you!"

Said Rebel Soldier proceeds to throw the phone on the ground, causing it to break into pieces. At the very same second he did so, he took a bullet to the head and died instantly, courtesy of Jason Wayne.

"Okay, guys. Hit... err, Morden is hiding in the lowest floor along with Amadeus and whatever the Ptolemaic Boss calls himself, waiting for the Regular Commandos to spring the trap they have laid." Jason told his friends. "Our objectives is to get to the bad guys first and disarm whatever traps they have laid that are clearly not meant for us. Once we do so and apprehend them, we'll leave the rest to the Regular Commandos."

"I can't wait to kick Morden's ass!" Ash announces excitingly, while showing off his chainsaw.

As soon as the Red Eagles stepped off the Hammer-Yang, they are greeted by a large mob of Rebel Riflemen approaching from the main entrance of the Alcatraz Prison Compound.

"Man, that's a lotta Riflemen." Ash points out. "But no matter, we'll kill them all."

The Red Eagles proceeds to slowly gun down the mob of Rebel Riflemen whilst the latter continues to fire shots that don't hit their intended targets.

It took a full minute until the mob of Riflemen are completely gunned down. But as soon as the last one drops, the Red Eagles are greeted by a squad of Masknell Regiment flying above their heads and raining down bullets on them.

"What, now?!" Jenny exclaims.

"Just destroy them!" Jason calls out to the others, and begins firing at the red-painted lead Masknell.

Everyone follows suit and fires their handguns at the Masknell Regiment Leader while dodging incoming fire. After about two minutes, the Masknell Regiment Leader is blown up, setting off a chain reaction that took out the rest of the Regiment.

"Multi-kill! Yeah!" Mina announces.

With no more enemies pestering them, the Red Eagles made their way into the Alcatraz Prison Compound.

...

Location: Morden's Fake Hideout, beneath the Alcatraz Prison Compound.

Although the Red Eagles don't know, their entering the Alcatraz is caught on tape by a Supervisory Camera which is then viewed by the Devil Rebirth - Donald Morden himself.

"Curse the Regular Army!" The leader of the Rebel Army said furiously. "I challenged them to specifically send Marco and his friends at me, yet they cheated by hiring these Mercenaries to do their dirty job!"

Amadeus, who is watching the same footage had a different response than Morden. "Life is never fair, after all. Take for example, on the fact that the Regulars have beaten the Future Rebels despite the massive difference in technology levels..."

Morden slammed an old computer terminal with his fist in anger. "Grr... Is there nothing that can stop the Regular Army for good?!" The Devil Rebirth then turned toward the third person in the Fake Hideout - the Ptolemaic Boss. "You, say something..."

The Ptolemaic Boss did not utter a single word. He just stood there silently.

"It seems that this fellow here choose to be silent..." Amadeus told Morden.

Morden's sole response is to turn back toward the security footages. He then adds, "Nevertheless, I will crush those puny Commandos and their new allies with my newest super weapon!"

...

Location: Section 1 Prison Cells, Alcatraz Prison Compound.

"This. Is. SPARTA!" An insane inmate suddenly yelling like that from behind bars surprised the Red Eagles as they walked past him.

"You. Shut. UP!" Jenny responds and proceed to Taser the inmate for a ten full seconds.

"You do know that attacking irrelevant people, even if its an insane inmate, is going to cost us our reputation with the Regulars?" Jason reminded the blue-haired female Mercenary.

"If they do that to me, I don't care who I attack." Was Jenny's reply.

The Red Eagles walked down the corridor for a meter uninterrupted, until they came across a Ptolemaic Gunner Unit that is facing away from where the mercenaries approached.

"Right, guys..." Ash told his friends. "I'm gonna use this Shotgun which someone conveniently left here, and pump the back of that thing full of lead, without it realizing what happened." That said, the silver-haired mercenary slowly approached the Gunner unit from behind with his Shotgun ready at hand. He got really close to stealth-killing the mech, until...

...Ye another insane inmate, this one in a cell behind the Gunner Unit interrupted the silence.

"Fegelein! Fegelein! FEGELEIN!"

This insane inmate's ranting toward Ash alerted the Gunner Unit to his position.

"Oh, shit..." Ash could only utter softly. He quickly unloads a Shotgun shell point-blank into the Gunner Unit's single mechanical eye right as it is about to punch him.

The point-blank shot totally mission-kills the Gunner Unit. It explodes once from within, and then its limbs all detaches before it goes up in a bigger explosion which Ash is able to dodge in time.

"So much for a stealth-kill, buddy..." Jason told Ash.

That being said, a group of Ptolemaic Special Force Troopers arrived and have converged on the Red Eagles' location.

"Now what?" Mina asked the others.

A third insane inmate in a cell next to the second one's appeared all of a sudden. "I need scissors! 61!"

"She didn't ask you, punk..." Jason said as he guns down the insane inmate with his handgun.

The moment Jason fires that shot is the moment the Special Force Troopers starts rushing toward the Red Eagles with their knives.

"This has just got a whole lot harder..."

...

Several minutes later...

"Well, whad'dya know? We've survived!" Jason told the others while standing in the middle of the corridor that is covered in Special Force Trooper corpses.

"Wait, how did we?" Ash was confused as to the current situation.

"If we're in a work of fiction, maybe the Fourth Wall is responsible." Jenny tries to explain.

Mina turns toward a particular direction that doesn't seems to have anything interesting or relevant, and said. "Baka..."

...

Location: Section 2 Prison Cells, Alcatraz Prison Compound.

As the Red Eagles proceeds deeper into Alcatraz, they soon find themselves face-to-face with a Melty Honey positioned in front of an Iron Iso.

"At least this one's easier..." Ash comments, as he spends the last shell in the Shotgun to mission-kill the Melty Honey before it can attack. The ensuing explosion completely disintegrates the Rebel Soldier driving it.

The Iron Iso fires a single ball of energy which the Red Eagles easily avoids by just walking toward the tank that fired it. The shot lands several feet behind the mercenaries without hitting anybody.

Jason and Ash then Vulcan Chops and chainsaw-slashes the Iron Iso at the same time. The turret of the tank explodes, leaving behind an empty chassis.

"Now, who else wants to fight us!" Jason boasts loudly, as he raises his machete above his head.

"I will!" A familiar voice made himself known to the Red Eagles. That said, Allen O'Neil entered the corridor from the topmost platform, brandishing his signature M60 machine gun as well as making his also-signature laugh.

Boss Battle: Allen O'Neil

"That's Allen, Morden's right hand man." Jason told his friends. "The most muscular loudmouth in the Rebel Army."

Unfortunately for Jason, Allen heard that all. "Who are you calling muscular loudmouth?! I'll send you home to mommy!"

The bare-chested muscle-head's first response is to throw a grenade at the Red Eagles. This grenade came out very fast, and the mercenaries barely manages to avoid being hit.

"Fly, boy!" Allen throws another set of four grenades at the Red Eagles.

Jason, Ash and Jenny manages to dodge the first three grenades by jumping over or sliding under them...

Mina, on the other hand, manages to deflect the fourth grenade back to Allen, with her bare hands. "Return to sender!"

Allen dodges his own grenade by jumping down from the higher platform onto the floor.

"Not bad, girl..." Allen quips. "But try deflecting this!" He then fires his machine gun at Mina.

The purple-clad Japanese girl only manages to avoid being hit by being pulled out of the way by Ash.

"Thanks." Mina thanked Ash for saving her.

The Red Eagles then retaliates by throwing their own grenades at Allen. Not surprisingly, Allen survives having all four grenades exploding right next to him...

And the ensuing smokescreen had allowed him to run up close to the Red Eagles. "You're mincemeat!" Said Allen, as he prepares to whip his ammo belt at the mercenaries.

Jason and Ash quickly responds by standing up and Vulcan Chops and chainsaw-slash him before he can attack.

Allen certainly couldn't withstand such damage. "Good job, Red Eagles! You're as good as the Regular Army's archives said! I'll see you in hell!" He yelled out before dropping on the floor in his own pool of blood.

Allen O'Neil defeated

The Red Eagles decided to play it safe, and poke Allen to check for any pulse.

"Pretty sure it's irrelevant to check his pulse, seeing how he comes back from the dead all the time..." Jason lampshades Allen's supposed immortality.

"But wait!" Jenny suddenly points out. "How did he know we are the Red Eagles? This mission is our first one against them, and our names have never been revealed to the public before."

"Hey, guys..." Ash said. "Remember how Morden and his new buddies specifically asked for the Regular Commandos? I mean, not just any Commandos, but those nine folks specifically..."

"Which might mean that we're getting ourselves involved in a Metal Gear-styled conspiracy..." Mina continues the sentence.

...

Location: Morden's Fake Hideout, beneath the Alcatraz Prison Compound.

Morden and his allies watched a live footage of the Red Eagles entering a stairway that leads to the lower floors of the Alcatraz Prison Compound.

"Every minute we sit here and watch, the Regular Army's hired guns gets closer to us!" Morden ranted to himself as he watches the footage.

"On the other hand..." Amadeus added. "The Regular Commandos are occupied by our traps as planned..." He looked at a different live footage which showed the Regular Commandos trying their best to fight a mob of Rebel-Amadeus-Ptolemaic Joint Forces troops.

"But those so-called Red Eagles are not part of the original plans!" Morden rants about the situation. "That bastard-of-a-President Baltazar Drippiek never plays fair, as usual! Why did I vote for his presidency back then?!"

...

Location: Section 3 Prison Cells, Alcatraz Prison Compound.

As soon as the Red Eagles comes out of the stairway into the lower floor, they are 'greeted' by a Ptolemaic Claw Unit rushing toward them.

"Nope!" Jason throws a Grenade at the Claw Unit before it gets close enough to punch anyone. The Claw Unit explodes once, falls apart, and then explodes again. "Alright, guys, let's go."

Just a few steps later, the Red Eagles ran into an ambush consisting of Gunner Units and Claw Units from both directions.

"I thought the Ptolemaic Army could do better than this?" Jenny comments.

A few seconds and several shots later, the Red Eagles moved on, leaving behind a pile of destroyed mechs.

"What else could they possibly send at us?" Ash tempted the situation.

A lone Ptolemaic Officer appeared in front of the Red Eagles. After the Officer gives his command, a large numbers of Fanatic Bikers, both Rebel and Ptolemaic, drove into the corridor while performing a wheelie.

"Oh, come on!" All four Red Eagles said a the same time, as they tries to gun down the Fanatic Bikers.

A few Fanatic Bikers are blown up before they could jump off their bikes. The resulting explosion set them on fire and kills them. At about the same time, the Officer freaked out and had already left the scene.

More Fanatic Bikers kept coming through the corridor, and more kept getting blown up by the Red Eagles. Only a few had managed to toss their bikes and continue the fight on foot, and even then the Red Eagles shot those thrown bikes out of the air, and gunned down the bikers before they can continue attacking.

The Fanatic Bikers swarm lasted for several minutes. By then, there were motorbike parts and burnt corpses strewn all over the place.

"Next time I see someone performing a wheelie on a bike..." Ash mumbled under his breath.

...

Location: Unidentified Extension, Alcatraz Prison Compound.

The Red Eagles continued their trek through RAP-controlled Alcatraz Prison until they found themselves in a room none of them could identify.

"Uhh... I may know very little about Alcatraz..." Jason points out to everyone. "...But this room certainly isn't part of the original blueprint."

There were multiple Supervisory Cameras hanging off the ceilings, but all were positioned in a way that made them easy to avoid. There is also a Slug Gunner conveniently placed in the center of the room, and it is overlooking the opposite end of the room where a bulkhead stands. Said bulkhead bore the Rebel Army's insignia along with the Amadeus Syndicate and Ptolemaic Army's.

"This is too easy..." Jenny took suspicion of the features of the room. "This must be the trap laid by Morden, Amadeus and the Ptolemaic Boss..."

The mercenaries looked around the room for anything else. Aside from the Supervisory Cameras and unmanned Slug Gunner, there is nothing else in there to be vary of.

"They even left a Laser Gun lying on the floor..." Ash said as he picks up the Laser Gun. "What have they built that will assure their defeating the Regular Commandos?"

That being said, Ash proceeds to gun down the Supervisory Cameras with the Laser Gun. All of them, leaving behind loose wires hanging out of their harnesses.

"You'll have to do better than this, Morden!" Ash taunted the Devil Rebirth, even though he had no idea exactly where he is.

The other Red Eagles all turned toward the grey-clad chainsaw-totting mercenary and gave him the look.

"You baka!" Mina chided Ash for what he just said. "You should not have tempted fate!"

As that is said, the bulkhead slowly opened, and out came no other than the Devil Rebirth - Donald Morden himself, seated at the top of his saucer-shaped tank while holding a bazooka.

...At least, that's what Morden and his allies wanted the Red Eagles to think. The Red Eagles quickly noticed that the infamous madman they are currently looking at is a Morden Robot double.

"Someone need to remind Morden that his robot double looked very shoddy..." Jenny hangs a lamp about the Morden Robot's appearance.

The robot double in question does Morden's signature laugh (much to the Red Eagles' annoyance), prompting someone to hang another lamp.

"You know, that infamous laugh is kind of getting old already..." Such was Jason's take on it.

Boss Battle: Morden Saucer

The Morden Robot manning the saucer-shaped tank showed no emotional response to Jason's lampshade-hanging insult. Its physical response, on the other hand, is to fire its bazooka at the Red Eagles.

Instead of evading the shot, the Red Eagles shot it out of the air with their guns.

"Say hello to my little friend!" Ash chewed the scenery as he fires the Laser Gun at the Morden Saucer.

The Morden Robot responds by firing another rocket at Ash. He simply adjusted his aim to vaporize the rocket.

Seeing the second bazooka shot failing to hit its target, the Morden Saucer deployed a Gatling Gun (which emerged from the position of the Rebel Army insignia on the vehicle), and starts firing a volley of large-caliber rounds at the Red Eagles.

The mercenaries had a tiny bit of trouble evading the volley. But they manages it anyway.

"You missed!" Jason chews the scene even further, as he throws a Grenade at the Morden Saucer.

The Grenade hits the saucer-shaped vehicle directly, but doesn't do immediate visible damage to it.

It was then that the Morden Saucer suddenly begins to hover above the ground, with no visible means of propulsion anywhere on it.

"I know it wasn't supposed to be surprising since this thing really did fly back when the Regular Commandos ended the Venusian Invasion." Jenny points out as she approaches the parked Slug Gunner and tries to enter it. "But I still have a bad feeling about this..."

After hovering about 5 meters into the air, the Morden Saucer suddenly slammed down on the ground, creating a shockwave that travelled at every direction on the horizontal axis.

"HOLY SH...!" The entire Red Eagles Squad practically shouted in unison when they saw such an unexpected attack being employed.

Jenny, who is in the Slug Gunner is not harmed by the shockwave. The Slug Gunner itself, on the other hand, took a bit of damage. The rest of the Red Eagles weren't able to evade it, and got knocked off their feet, but they are otherwise unhurt.

"Jeez, we totally did 'Nazi' that coming..." Ash comments while trying to get back up. He tries to fire at the Morden Saucer, only to find out that the Laser Gun is out of juice.

"Ow... Iceland was painless compared to this..." Mina complains as well.

Jenny moved the Slug Gunner right next to the Morden Saucer, and proceeds to pummel it with one strike of the pile bunker. The melee attack only caused a dent on the saucer-shaped vehicle, but its still a start. "Eat this!" This time, the blue-haired female mercenary chews the scene.

The Morden Robot's sole response is to shoot the Slug Gunner once with its bazooka. The shot creates a similar dent on the bipedal Slug vehicle.

Jenny, in the Slug Gunner continues to pummel the exact same spot of the Morden Saucer with the pile bunker, whereas the Morden Saucer shoots at the Slug Gunner with its Gatling Gun. The fight continued for a while as the other Red Eagles just stood back and watched.

Several pile bunker strikes later, a gaping hole has been created on the hull of the Morden Saucer. But the Slug Gunner has taken so much damage at the same time it can't take much more either.

"Even if you're not the real guy, I would like to see you burn!" Jenny hams it up one last time, before firing a Cannon shell straight into the gaping hole point-blank.

The resulting explosion completely crippled the Morden Saucer, and burned off the rubber face of the Morden Robot, revealing a skull-like robot face underneath.

Jenny jumped out of the Slug Gunner just before the Morden Saucer explodes again, this time completely. As with the Hairbuster Riberts back in the city, the Morden Robot's head flew off its body, and landed on the floor, rolling toward Jason's feet.

"Oh, come on!" Ash went and kicked the head into the air like a soccer ball just as it starts sprouting Morden's infamous laugh endlessly.

"Totally agree with you, buddy." Jason said and then shoots the head out of the air with his handgun.

Morden Saucer defeated.

"And another point for the Red Eagles Squad!" The Red Eagles grouped up and posed together.

A weird tingling feeling prompts the mercenaries to turn toward the door which they entered the room from. There stood the Regular Commandos, all watching with deadpan on their face.

"And these are the guys and girls Regular Command said will be helping us?" Marco deadpans even further.

The rest of the Regular Commandos proceeds to discuss with each other about the Red Eagles. The Red Eagles themselves needed not listen to the dialogues to know that the Commandos were saying things about them. The Ikari Mercenaries' discussion, in particular, made Jason felt like he was stabbed in the back with a knife made of humiliation.

"Come on! After everything you guys went through, wouldn't it be nice to have assistance for once!" Ash calls out on the Regular Commandos to silence them.

MISSION COMPLETE!

...

Location: Morden's Fake Hideout, beneath the Alcatraz Prison Compound.

"Damn it!" The real Donald Morden cursed. "I've set up this trap so that I can end those meddling Regular Commandos forever, and in the end the trap is set off and promptly destroyed by this so-called Red Eagles Squad!" Morden turns around, as he prepares to address his allies...

...Only to find out that Amadeus has hastily boarded Morden's Hi-Do helicopter. The Ptolemaic Boss, on the other hand, seems to have literally disappeared into thin air.

"You can finish your rants somewhere else..." Amadeus told the Rebel Army's leader. "Unless you want to be humiliated by the Regular Army again..."

Amadeus didn't get to finish his sentence, and Morden wasn't able to ask where he was going, due to an expected interruption.

"You have nowhere to go, Morden!" Marco called out. "Surrender and face justice!"

Morden turned and faced the Regular Commandos whom have found their way into his hideout. He seemed calm for someone who was just freaking out about being captured by these people seconds ago.

"You and your 'justice'. Hmph! Its because of that goddamned Regular Army that my son is dead!" Morden said. "President Baltazar Drippiek is not fit to run the United States!"

Marco was disgusted at the madman's rant just now.

"Then why did you vote for him back then?" Tarma delivers his line regarding the rant.

"President Drippiek was favored by everyone because he helped end the Middle Eastern terrorists for good, as well as convincing North Korea to cease all hostility with the rest of the world. But back then I didn't know he achieved those goals by playing dirty!" Morden gives his answer.

"What do you mean by 'playing dirty'?" Fio retaliates verbally. "Isn't that your way of doing things?"

"How about the White Baby Crisis your friend, Amadeus released into the Internet?" Trevor added his comments in.

At this point, Morden had given up on his argument. "Then it seems that I have to go with Plan B..."

"What Plan B?" Ralf was confused about Morden's statement.

Amadeus suddenly poked out of the Hi-Do helicopter, holding what appeared to be a flare gun in his hand. "This is the Plan B General Morden is talking about!"

With a pull of the flare gun's trigger, the hideout emitted a bright flash that stayed active for an entire minute, blinding the Regular Commandos in the process. By the time the flash died down, Morden, Amadeus and the Hi-Do helicopter is nowhere to be seen, and the ceiling has been replaced with a gaping hole that led all the way back to the surface. The tip of one of the Golden Gate Bridge's tower supports is visible through this mile-wide hole.

"Damn, he got away again!" Marco cursed. "We better report back to Command, tell them that Morden's not done with his plans..." He thought for a while before adding in "...And tell them how the so-called Red Eagles stole our spotlight..."


Afterwords

Whew, what a wall of text...

The last paragraph of this chapter shouldn't come as a surprise to you. There's no way the story would've ended in just three missions.

Quick character note: President Baltazar Drippiek is the true antagonist of the Metal Slug History X web comic series. You should be able to tell at first glance of his name that he's going to be a future big bad if you've read MadSoldierProduction's comics. That's why I didn't even bother to hide his identity. Also, Leon Chi-Ming Chan is an OC created by Soldier Of The Future right here in Fanfiction Dot Net. Special thanks to him.

And so it appears that the Rebel-Amadeus-Ptolemaic Joint Forces are not the only ones in the works here. But who could've used the encrypted frequency that is beyond even the Future Rebels?

Shout-out index:

"This. Is. SPARTA!" - "You. Should. Have. Got. This. ALREADY!" ~King Leonidas the First, 300.

"Fegelein! Fegelein! FEGELEIN!" - Hitler Rants about not being able to meet Fegelein.

"I need scissors! 61!" - "I hear its amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm on Flap-Jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hara-Kiri Rock..." ~AI!Colonel, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty.

"I did 'Nazi' that coming..." - Yet another one from Hitler Rants. This one is from Hitler is trapped on a roller coaster.

That is all. "Dismissed!"