Disclaimer: As usual, Metal Gear doesn't belong to me.

Chapter 10

"Hey Tony?" Faceless guard 9,742 asked his comrade, Faceless Guard 21.

"Yeah Bill, what is it?".

"Well, I was just thinking. We're in the way of a hostage that the supersoldier is supposed to be fetching.".

"Your point being?".

"Well, I was just thinking. Based on what happened with Baker and the DARPA Chief, you'd think a plot device would happen right about know, just so that tension is built up before an upcoming boss encounter.".

"A plot device? Like what?". Faceless Guard 21's answer came in the form of a predatorish transparent silhouette appearing and, in the most technical of terms, going completely fucking insane. Remember kids, getting blindsided and attacked by a cyborg ninja is just like falling asleep. In a jet engine.

And so the guards were torn apart by the ninja. The guards tried their best "Indiana Jones fighting a cocky arabian swordsman guy" impression, but the ninja blocked their bullets. One guard, who was unlucky enough to run out of ammo, just ditched his rifle and charged at the ninja with a knife. I think we all know how that turned out.

As Snake passed through the doorway to the hall outside Hal Emmerich's lab, he suddenly heard a voice shout out "Freeze", followed by various fight noises. A normal man might've been wary, but a Black Ops assassin who has T-1000esque regeneration as long as he has military rations wasn't exactly normal.

As he entered the hallway, he noticed someone had been busy decorating. Blood, limbs, and various internal organs were left dumped around the walls, floors, and ceilings. "Looks like they were cut by some type of blade." Snake said. Not only was this a trenchant observation, it was also pretty fucking obvious.

Of course, since our hero isn't exactly the world's greatest detective, he was unable to fathom the simple concept of Ninja plus Sword equals Dead genome soldiers. So he decided to call Meryl.

"This pile of corpses. Meryl, is this your handiwork?" He asked.

Sighing, the rookie replied "Snake, look at the facts. I am a rookie with no actual combat experience before this date. I had to be yelled at by you for five minutes before I started firing at the guards that were trying to kill us. Of course it was me who shredded apart a dozen heavily armed guards using a mixture of Kung Fu and swordplay in under five seconds.".

"Really?"

"No, I was being sarcastic. Moron." Meryl said, signing off. Why are all the good looking ones idiots?

Back at the hallway, Snake walked past the blood splatters, looking for clues. One unique looking splatter read "Ninja was here. Love, G. Fox. XOXOXOXOXO". Wow. I wonder who could've done this, Our hero thought.

A guard shambled down the corridor, managing to say "I-It's a ghost..." before dying. Hearing more assault rifle fire, snake rushed down the corner. Well, he would've, but he slipped on some blood, slid face first into a wall, and knocked himself out. After coming to, he recommenced investigating. As he rounded the corner of the hallway, he saw the ninja cyborg standing over the body of an impaled genome soldier, his katana and armor drenched in blood.

Hey, that's the guy who helped me out with Ocelot. Maybe he knows who killed all these guards. Not noticing Snake, the ninja sliced open the door to Emmerich's lab, activated his stealth, and walked in. Eager to find out who was behind the killings, Snake rushed after him.

Hal Emmerich was busy watching pirated episodes of Trigun on one of the computers, but when he saw the ninja, he freaked out an ran. Of course, being a stereotypical nerd, he tripped over his own two feet, and he began fleeing from the cyborg on his hands and knees.

Alas, our engineer friend backed himself into a corner. Becoming visible again, the Cyborg Ninja waved his katana in a threatening manner as he said "Where is my friend?".

Of course, seeing as Emmerich had been locked away in his lab past the electrified floor and poison gas, sequestered from all events of the past nine chapters, he could only say "What? What are you talking about?".

"I'm looking for a guy. Kinda idiotic. Wears a bandana and bulletproof vest. Now, tell me before I go Snake Eyes on your ass.".

"I don't know anything! I swear. I just know I shouldn't of drank all that water!" Emmerich said, and then he wet his pants.

Snake, who had up until then remained silent, felt he had to say something. "Dude, the bathrooms are only one floor up. Jesus.".

Of course, that alerted a certain someone to his presence. "Snake!" The ninja said, in his very badass voice.

Snake had, over the course of the past five minutes, realized his metallic japanese assassin friend had been behind the murder of the guards. But, as alway, he just couldn't resist the urge to state the obvious. "You're that ninja.".

"I've been waiting for you, Snake.".

"What is it with everyone. Ocelot was waiting for me, Raven was waiting for me. And dude, I came here five seconds after you. That doesn't count as waiting!".

"Ah, damn. Let me rephrase. I've waited a long time for this day. Now, I want to enjoy the moment." The ninja said.

Meanwhile in the background, the nerd decided to truly prove that he was a hopeless geek. "This is like one of my Japanese animes.". Meanwhile, both Snake and the Ninja thought the same thing. Christ. What kind of anime character has bladder control problems? Man, I hope he's not thinking of some hentai. That would be just, just... ick.

Snake decided to get back on task. "What is this about anyway?" Snake said, hoping that if he talked enough, the ninja would have a heart attack and everything would be fine.

"I will kill you, or you will kill me. It makes not difference. Well, I guess it does make a difference to the millions of people who'll be turned into radioactive dust if you lose, but anyway...".

At that point, Emmerich decided to duck inside a locker. Just like in high school. Except that there weren't any football players shoving him in.

Glad to be rid of the scientist, the ninja once again spoke. "Ha, fine! He can watch from inside there.".

"I need that man, keep your hands off him. Wait, that didn't come out right. Crap. Let's just fight." Snake said, holstering his gun and raising his fists.

"Now! Make me feel it, make me feel alive again!" The ninja shouted, flipping his blade around.

And thus, as the theme from Mortal Kombat began to play, Snake and the ninja charged. Ducking an attempt to behead him, Snake punched the ninja in the jaw. Of course, the ninja was covered in high quality metal.

As Snake clutched his fist and swore, the ninja backflipped across the room. Putting his sword away, he said. "That's good. Now we can fight as warriors. Hand to hand, it is the basis of all combat. Only a fool would trust his life to a weapon.". So not only was the ninja a deadly fighter, he was also a military historian.

Of course, he was too busy gloating to notice Snake sneaking up on him. Of course, the ninja super strong and fast, like Spider-Man. So Snake's attempt to snap his neck ended with Snake sent flying into a nearby wall.

Seeing that a change in tactics was in order. Snake decided to ask everybody he knew for advice. So he activated his CODEC.

Campbell was useless. "Uh, I'm just here to remind you of your mission and be occasionally argumentative.".
"Snake, I don't have any clue who that is. He is definitely not my adoptive brother who you killed and who was resurrected as a cyborg. KICK HIS ASS FRANKIE!" Naomi said. Snake moved on before she could even start about genes.
"Snake, Confucius once said 'Run the fuck away, you retard!'. I think you should listen to his advice." Mei Ling said. Thanks to pain induced dementia, Snake was confident enough to decide against it.
"He's wearing a powered exoskeleton. It increases his strength, speed, and durability to superhuman levels. I think you should... uh, damn, I got nothing." Came from Nastasha.
"He wants to fight you hand to hand." Master said. It's good to know that if Snake died, someone else could state the obvious.
"I'm a rookie, and you're a deadly mercenary, and you're asking me for combat tips? Aw,That's so sweet. We should really go out, unless he does a fatality." came from Meryl.
Deepthroat didn't respond.
So, with his support crew useless, Snake just decided to improvise. And by that, I mean he shot himself in the leg so that the pain in his hands didn't seem as bad. The ninja was so busy laughing at Snake hopping on one foot, swearing at his gun, at Heckler und Koch, and at the man who invented firearms, that he was unprepared when Snake punched him in the face, twice, then roundhouse kicked him on his ass.

Snake and the ninja began fighting anew, with the ninja jumpkicking Snake through a glass panel, only to be tossed into a computer back when Snake got up. The room was destroyed. Snake was sent flying through a bookshelf. The ninja got shoved, facefirst into a computer screen. And then, the most horrible thing happened. As the grappled, one of them smashed the Playstation that was sitting in the center workbench. Immediately, both of them screamed "I ain't paying for it!", while in the real world, a tear formed in DarkGidora's eye.

And so the battle raged, the stuff of legend. After a while of fierce back and forth fighting, the ninja once again backflipped. "That's good Snake.". Activating his stealth camo, he said "Hurry up and catch me.". He then backflipped again, into the corner where Hal Emmerich had hid. "W-woah! ARGH! DAMNIT! SON OF A BITCH!".

"Slipped on the wet spot?" Snake bemused.

"Uh, yeah. Ow. My ass.".

Hoping to end the fight soon, Snake said "Should we just keep going?"

"Sure." Ninja said, backflipping again while invisible. Of course, Snake tossed on his thermal goggles, so the ninja was totally exposed. He just didn't know that. Don't move, Frank. He can't see you if you don't move. That's when he Snake uppercutted him into next week.

Again, the ninja leapt across the room. Dropping down to one knee, clutching his chest, and realizing it was at least half a chapter since the last creepy Freudian piece of dialogue, he clutched his fist and said "Like old times? I've been waiting for this pain!". So you can add 'masochist' to the ninja's list of careers.

"Okay." Snake said, rushing towards the ninja and punching. And of course, like all ninja, the cyborg disappeared into thin air. Except this ninja decided to reappear behind Snake and punch him in the back of the skull.

This cycle of the ninja teleporting and punching went on for fifteen minutes, before Snake, devouring a ration, decided to do something he saw in every Kung Fu movie, and, in many episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. As the ninja teleported, Snake stood, looked forward, and just swung his right fist back. And lo and behold, the ninja was knocked on his ass.

"More! More!" The ninja said, getting a little bit creepier every time he got hit.

THWACK!

"Do you remember Snake? The feel of battle? The clashing of bone and sinew?".

BAM!

"Hurt me more!"

Pow!

"That's it! I remember, that punch!"

RANDOM PUNCH NOISE!

"AGAIN!"

And so this continued until the ninja's lifebar fell to zero. At which point, he stood up, began convulsing, his exoskeleton began to overload, energy blasting out of it. Everything in a five foot radius was destroyed.

Of course, Snake still had some common sense, so he knew when a masochistic cyborg military ninja historian began screaming and surrounds himself with a blue electrical field, it might be the wrong time to be using kung fu. So, he just raised his FAMAS and pulled the trigger. It took a full clip, but finally, the electricity died down and the ninja fell to his knees.

"-cough-I felt that Snake." The ninja said. Considering the battle had raged for a good half hour, he had been tossed into a computer bank, Snake had bashed him over the head with the broken Playstation, and he had just been shot 25 times with 5.56mm bullets, yeah, I'd reckon that would hurt just a tiny bit.

Standing up, he once again spoke. "Do you remember me now!".

"Uh, Burt Reynolds?".

"-Sigh- No, dumbass. Guess again."

"Well, it's either Burt Reynolds or my old friend Gray Fox, but I shoved a landmine down his throat six years ago after he blew up his fiancé accidently with a Metal Gear. Wait a minute. Crap. Did I just sound like an idiot?".

"Yep.".

"Should we just go back to before I said Burt Reynolds?".

"Fine.".

"Okay.". Snake then spoke in amazement "Th-that can't be. You were killed in Zanzibar.".

And they stood there for a few minutes before the next convienient plot point. "Th-the medicine!" Fox screamed, and just like he did after the fight with Ocelot, he convulsed. This time, he began bashing his head into the floor.

"What's going on!" Snake demanded. Obviously, Snake had seen a few strange things, but his deceased cyborg buddy headbutting the carpet was one of the strangest.

"I-I'm losing myself..." Fox said cryptically. And thus, he backflipped again, and rushed out of the room.

Pondering what the hell "the medicine" meant, Snake deduced his friend was just having a nicotine fit. And so, he decided to call his superiors and report this strange occurrence, and then talk to Hal Emmerich.

Man. With all that "hurt me more" garbage, Fox had some creepy issues. Christ, I bet Emmerich doesn't have anything that could top that. Of course, we all know that yes, Emmerich did have stranger issues than Gray Fox.

To be continued...

Author's Note: This chapter is the longest one I've written, and that's for one good reason. Gray Fox kicks ass. He's the greatest ninja ever. He's even better than Snake Eyes, Scorpion, and Deathstroke for crying out loud.

Anyways, if you didn't notice from my Batman and Spider-Man references (and my reference to Deathstroke last paragraph), not only am I a gamer, I'm also a comic book nerd. When we get to the Mantis section, I'll run with that a bit. "You are very powerful indeed. But I know your weakness.".

And finally, I've decided that neither Fox, nor Otacon will speak entirely in 1337. However, Otacon will occasionally (VERY OCCASIONALLY) slip into 1337, just because he's a gr8 h4xx0r. Anyways, thanks for your support. See you next time.