Chapter 2: Metal Gear Akito

And I'm back. Finally, I was procrastinating on this one, and finally got it done!

Anyways, the title is sorta misleading. It's not all about, well you know what, I'll let you find out.

But let's just say Evan Character Development (I think so, anyways) is mostly the point of this chapter, I suppose.

This is a story of a young man who continues to go down his spiral path…

Previously, he overcame an assassin and rescued the Elven Queen Mercedes, who now accompanies both Akito and Evan in their adventure towards who knows where?

"Why-" Sploosh! "Are-" Sploosh! "You-" Sploosh! "Doing-" Sploosh! "This?!" Sploosh! Akito screamed during the breathing chances he got as Mercedes dunked him underwater repeatively.

"Mercedes… I think you should stop…" Evan said shyly.

"Very well then. Thank Evan today, Akito, since you might've died if he wasn't here."

"Ack! Ack!" Akito pounded his chest and coughed up water, "Why?"

"For that perverted comment about white clothing!" Mercedes slapped him in the face again, smacking him to the ground, "How dare you make such a comment!"

"I didn't mean it that way, geez! It was a fact!"

"Hmph!" she turned away, refusing to look at him.

"Look, will it make it any better if I say that I'm sorry?"

"No, but I would appreciate it."

FINALLY! Evan mentally screamed. While he wasn't normally an impatient one, something inside him was just irritated about how they argued. He guessed he may or may not have to be the peacekeeper around them. If he would have to… this was going to be a long journey.

"Very well then. Mercedes, I am sorry for that comment I made even though I had no intention of it being perverted. Happy?"

"…Yes. Now, let's get going." she turned to Evan, "Ah, can you swim?"

"Yeah, don't ask me." Akito rolled his eyes, "Well, if you can't, I guess I can carry you."

"Oh, don't worry, Aniki. I remember what you taught me about swimming. What about you, Mercedes?" Evan smiled at the memory of swimming. It was always a pleasant experience when it came to learning how to swim. Akito had always taught him well, making sure he knew technique before speed so he could do both. Where he had learned swimming, he had no idea. Then again with all that reading that he did…

Then it crossed his mind: Why did mushrooms attack that time they went through? Wouldn't Akito have been used to dealing with them? Maybe he just ran through them all the others times? Eh, he'd never really know.

"I am well educated in the arts of swimming." she said eloquently, "Well, if we can all swim-"

"Seeya there!" Akito yelled, slinging his drill spear over his back and diving into the water, breaking into a very good freestyle.

"Hm… the sun isn't out today," Evan grinned, "I guess that means I can do a relaxing backstroke." He dived in after Akito, making a loud Sploosh! as he cannonballed into the water.

"Boys will be boys," Mercedes shrugged before diving in herself, going into a elegant butterfly.

As Akito soared through the blue crystal clear waters, stopping his freestyle to simply kicking, having fun as he barreled rolled and swam like a dolphin. Unlike land, water was where he could defy gravity a lot better.

"Whluuuuuuuubeeee!" he giggled mentally at the sounds he made underwater as they were distorted. Spiraling through the water, he took a second to look back and see Evan doing backstroke and Mercedes with her butterfly stroke. It would seem Evan was learning well with swimming, being not too far from him. Akito stopped for a quick second to bring his head up from the water and check where he was. He couldn't see the pyramid anymore, but he saw the town of Henesys far off in the distance. From there he'd look for a taxi that could take them to the port town known as Nautilus. After they sold what loot they had gotten anyways. Continuing his swim, keeping pace with the others as not to get too far and get everyone lost, the group arrived, soaking wet, in Henesys after a short while.

"Finally!" Mercedes gasped for air, "That was a long swim!"

"Your fault for doing butterfly," Akito sighed, "That's known as the most exhausting stroke there is!"

"Shut up!"

"Oh, bro, you alright?" Akito quickly turned to Evan, who was smiling.

"No Aniki, it was rather relaxing for me. I wish we can do this some other time again." he said, his grin widening with each word. At least two of them had some fun with this.

"Mercedes! Akito! E-evan!" Athena called for the trio, seeing them soaked, "Oh my! All of you, quickly, get inside the Academy. I'll find some towels for you, after all, you don't want to catch a cold! Quickly, quickly!" she ushered their soaking selves into the Academy.

"Ah," Akito sighed blissfully as he put on his dried clothes, "Thank goodness for furnace drying."

"Your lucky your clothes didn't catch fire." Mercedes said coldly.

"Yes. Yes I am." he said, "Geez, who spit in your soup anyways?"

"Oh shut up."

Off to the side, Evan, Athena, and Mir were watching the two bicker, with Evan looking down at his philosophy book (which was very educating and seemed to be helping his insight) every now and then.

"It's just like watching a newly dating couple." Athena remarked.

"That's what I was going to say!" Evan smiled at her, causing Athena to blush, "All they do is argue all day. I think the most amount of peace we've gotten is when they're both eating, because they can't argue with their mouths full."

"What about afterwards?"

"Oh, Mercedes then goes on about how Akito eats like a pig, and then it goes from there." Evan sighed, "Is she usually like that?"

"No, not really." Athena shook her head, "Is there something he did to set her off?"

"It's nothing major or anything for an argument. If they can have one, it just starts." Evan explained.

"I think Mercedes likes him, I mean-" Mir started.

"YOU SAY WHAT?!" Akito and Mercedes screamed at hearing Mir's comment.

"WHY THE HELL WOULD I LIKE HIM?!"

"JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM?! I WOULDN'T LIKE HER!"

Evan would normally make a note in his mind to play a guessing game about who said which phrase. Most people thought he was a shy boy but in his mind… there was so much more going on in his mind. More than he let on about. It was really that he just was afraid of hurting others so he kept everything bottled up in his head. Most people would say it was unhealthy but it allowed Evan a small bit of sanity in his life.

"Ahahaha!" Athena giggled, "You know, denial isn't just a river in-"

"Okay we've all heard that one before," Akito interjected.

"I haven't! Tell me, how does it-" Mercedes raised her hand politely as if asking a question in school.

"What?! How have you not?!" Akito yelled.

"Well excuse me, pervert-"

"How the hell does this have to do with being perverted?! If anything, you're the pervert for thinking so!"

"How dare you accuse me of such a thing!"

"See what I mean?" Evan asked, pointing towards the arguing duo.

"I don't see how you put up with it," Athena said. In her mind, he'd have to be a very emotionally stable boy (not that he wasn't) to put up with all of this and still maintain a smiling and innocent face. He was one heck of an optimist, that was for sure.

"It's not much, besides, I learn new things from them what not. It's a nice way of… how did Aniki put it? Ah, 'A way of learning how others see life in general'."

"Who is 'Aniki'?" Athena asked. Evan often said that word, and it was driving her to insanity trying to figure out who it was. She had an irking is was Akito, which was very likely. But the reason why he did was still an unsolved mystery.

"Oh! It's Akito. I can't really say he's my 'brother', but he said Aniki also means that, and it's almost like his name, so I find it easy to call him that. Even though we're not related, he still says we're spiritual brothers, and we'll never be apart. I truly believe in that, so I'm going to get stronger so Aniki won't always have to defend me! My dream is to one day actually defend him for once… I owe him a lot."

Something about it just was purely heartwarming to Athena, how this young boy had big dreams that came from his caring (if not also idiotic, but it didn't matter) brother.

"Wow! That's a nice dream…" she said dreamily. To be free and go wherever, not limited by anyone or anything… she gave up that dream when she became a job instructor.

"What's your dream, Athena?" Evan asked with that damned smile of his that could melt anyone's heart.

"It is… it was to be free of anyone or anything."

"What do you mean 'it was'?" he tilted his head in confusion.

"I… had to give that up in order to become a job instructor."

"Oh… I'm sorry…" Evan stared at the ground, "But… maybe you can dream of something else?"

"Something else?"

"You're a teacher, right?" Evan asked, "Well, maybe you can dream of having all your students smile! I mean, the world would a much happier place if people made other people smile- ahem!" Evan coughed, "So… yeah! That should be your dream!"

So innocent… so pure… Athena couldn't help but smile ear to ear. Every lonely day at the Academy with paperwork and paperwork, every day regretting how she didn't go out into the world and explore, every day full of impatience and torment… and it was gone in a flash at those simple words.

Now everyday would be for a purpose, a reason, a resolve to keep going on through the day.

Where had this boy been all this time…? she asked. Was this fate, the fact that he had decided to venture with Akito that day, encounter and defeat the assassin and make friends (more like 'allies', if you asked Akito), and all the other things that happened. Was it fate?

"Athena? Are you alright… my God! Look at the time! It's getting late! You must go to sleep! I'm so sorry, so sorry that you had to stay up late taking care of us!"

"I-I'm fine… just deep in thought. Thank you for the concern."

"Awww, that's sweet of you, Master!" Mir chimed in, "Master is a very kind person!"

"M-mir… please don't refer to me as such… we're friends. I don't own you, so… we're equal." Evan sighed, "Besides, I don't really deserve such a title."

So humble, so innocent, so pure! Athena giggled inside, Oooh, if only I had met him before that Victoria girl he had told me about. But I suppose I shouldn't get in the way of love! Haha!

"Hey, isn't it a bit too quiet?" Mir asked.

"Huh… they stopped arguing." Evan looked around the lounge trying to find the normally arguing duo.

"No! Why the fucking hell would I let you look into my eyes?!" Akito's voice came over from the next room.

"What." Athena, Mir, and Evan said flatly. Athena's jaw hit the ground first, and Evan went into a mini-coma, but quickly recovered when the force of his jaw hitting the ground (if it was even possible. That's what the impact felt like, at the least) shook him out of it. Mir on the other hand, instead of a cheery voice, was completely silent.

"I just need to look for something in them!"

"Like what? Your reflection?" Akito's voice came out as a sneer, "Seriously, you treat me like garbage and suddenly your acting so nice! What the hell is up with you?!"

"J-just shut up!" Mercedes' stomps were loud even from a distance away.

"They need something as an outlet, I suppose." Evan shrugged, "Huh, I guess my mind link with Mir's letting me get smarter. Anyways, is there somewhere they can just duke it out or whatnot?"

"Well, it was just finished, actually! We just got the place built and enchanted so that people can duel eachother and test their skills without actually inflicting pain on each other, but the magic lets them feel the pain. It's a hundred percent safe though."

"Hmm… that just might work. Maybe if we let them fight right now, they'll be too tired tomorrow to argue…" Evan smiled, "I'll go get Aniki!"

"I'll grab Mercedes," Athena nodded, with the two splitting off to find their respective person.

Akito cracked his knuckles as he prepared to face off against Mercedes, who was checking her bowguns. Giving his spear a good twirl, he smiled his general creepy smile that still unnerved Mercedes when she glanced at it.

"One last chance, surrender and I'll forget about this." Mercedes tried to sound calm even as she stared head on at Akito's terrifying smile.

"Not yours to give, I'm afraid. Let's dance-"

"I'll lead," they said together, "HEY! THAT'S MY LINE!"

"Alright, fuck this." Akito said, "Let's GO! LEEERRROOOOOYYYYYYY-"

Shck! Shck! Mercedes began firing crazily at him, but Akito brought up his drill spear, using the drill on the end as a shield. Rushing forward, he quickly closed the distance between them, forcing Mercedes to stop shooting and move, but Akito caught her wrist and spun around, then threw her to the ground.

"Ugh! That was a dirty move!"

"That was a horrible pun," Akito sighed.

"The hell are you talking about?!" Mercedes grumbled.

"Your clothes are covered in mud now." Akito said, devoid of all emotion.

"W-what?!" she looked down, and her eyes widened in horror, then contracted in rage, "Those were my fucking favorite clothes."

"So what?"

"Your gonna pay, you asshole." her eyes began to glow, "Besides, you're not the only one who can rush."

"Wait, wha-" Akito tried to guard as Mercedes dashed at him and launched him up, then began shooting at him, "Damn!"

"Ha- OW!" in her brief moment of hubris she didn't notice Akito coming back down and smashing the drill on her head, "That hurt!"

"So what! Getting shot in the air a few times does as well!" Akito screamed back before blocking her rush attack (which she had mumbled something about it being called Rising Rush), preventing her from throwing him up in the air. He quickly countered with a punch to her face, which launched her back as she was off balance from the block.

"Ooooh, that so does it!" Mercedes' eyes flashed before she began shooting her bowguns, unfortunately for Akito, twice as fast.

"What the FUCK?! How do you even DO THAT?!" he asked as he dived behind a rock and did some quick planning. Okay, time to rush her head on… No looking back! "HYAAAAAAGGHHHH!" His eyes lit up green with the spiral pattern as the drill began to spin, flicking aside the crossbow bolts (which Akito noticed were glowing) as if they were mere flies. "TAKE THIS!"

"Not before this!" she screamed back before her eyes began to glow again, and Akito felt his steps becoming more tiring as the barrage of arrows seemed to hit a lot harder. His rush however, wasn't stopped as he drew energy from his determination to keep moving forward, once again closing the distance between the two.

"Hyyyyyaaaaaaahhhhh!" they yelled as Mercedes poured all her magical energy into the arrows she was shooting while Akito's drill began to spin faster and faster , and if one looked closely enough, his drill was slowly getting bigger, even if it wasn't noticeable.

The resulting explosion filled the room with plenty of smoke, and when it cleared, Akito and Mercedes were lying on the ground next to eachother, gasping for air.

"W-why did it explode? What happened?"

"Everything… is better… with random explosions… I suppose…" Akito forced out between heavy inhales, "T-truce? For now… Until…"

"We… wake up…" Mercedes finished, falling asleep next to Akito.

"Do we have a camera?! Take a picture!" Mir whispered.

"My God! You're right!" Athena gasped, "Ooh, this might prove to be useful later on to you, Evan!"

"No thanks," he shook his head, "I don't like methods like that. I believe in honesty… but just this once, I suppose I can let it slide," he finished with an evil grin on his face as Athena handed him a camera.

(Next Day)

"Alright, we're off! Thanks Ms. Athena!" Akito waved goodbye as he looked around for a taxi.

"Thank you so much, Athena. It's been a pleasure with you." Mercedes gave a small wave and smiled as she followed him.

"May we meet again, Athena." Evan smiled at her, then whispered, "I'll take more pictures and show them when I get back."

"Snrk!" Athena giggled. She had to hand it to Mercedes, finding these two (mostly Evan though) had allowed her to start living life to the fullest again. She recalled something that Evan told her as he waved goodbye to follow the others. He had told her that his Aniki once said that it's not enough to just go through the motions of living unless they're your own motions. Holding her hands over her heart, Athena made a mental promise to stay true to those words.

"Thank you… Evan."

As Evan stepped into the taxi, he couldn't help but feel there was supposed to be glass cracking and a voice yelling something about maxing out… something. He dismissed it as nothing however, as he closed the door and the trio went off to travel to Nautilus.

It was a little while later that they arrived, Akito paying for the taxi ride (with him adding it would be Mercedes next), in the port town of Nautilus.

"Wow! The sea breeze… it's quite soothing!" Mercedes said, taking a large whiff, "Ahhhh, that's nice."

"The smell of adventure on the infinite seas!" Akito closed his eyes in and stood silently in a brief moment of respect, which confused Mercedes, "Ah, the many that have dedicated and given their lives so that others may have a chance to cross these seas."

"Wow Aniki, that's very… uh, poetic! Yeah, that's the word." Evan smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, I learned a bunch of stuff from the books Athena had and it's still taking a short while to process."

"Damn Evan, you're getting pretty smart. I don't think I could get as smart as you," Akito chuckled, "Anyways, I see the ship I want." He pointed towards the largest and most heavily armed ship in the entire harbor.

"That's the Nautilus! Are you crazy?!" Mercedes whispered harshly, "That's the ship of one of the pirate job instructors! You're insane! It's going to be heavily guarded and you'll die if you get caught!"

"Simple! I don't get caught," Akito flashed his 'Let's Get Dangerous' smile, "Besides, have a little faith in me." He began walking casually towards the Nautilus, the wooden planks creaking as he took each step closer to his doom.

"That's it, I'm stopping this." Mercedes looked around, checking for witnesses before she quickly shot Akito once in the foot.

"Shit!" he snarled, grabbing his foot and hopping on one leg-

"Phew," Mercedes went over to grab him.

-then he fell over the side, right into some huge crates that were on a smaller boat. Huge enough that his drill spear could fit into it. To Mercedes' horror, said boat was heading for the Nautilus. Akito had been fully hidden in one of the crates, and now he was going to make it onto the ship. The lid of the crate had been sitting straight up, and the impact had caused the lid to close itself, giving Akito a good hiding spot.

"Nice going, Merc!" Mir cheered.

"I don't need your sarcasm," she said darkly.

"I'm not being sa-ar-caus-tic?" he pronouced, "You helped Master's friend do what he wanted!"

Mercedes sighed as she realized the small dragon was serious, "Well, hopefully he'll get caught and he can explain everything."

Meanwhile…

Akito held his breath as he felt the forces of the workers outside the safety of the barrel lift him up and put him somewhere.

"Hey, didn't that last one seem a lot heavier?"

Akito's mind began to race, Ohshitohshitohshit! He closed his eyes and took a small breath, hoping they wouldn't come over to check on his barrel.

"Eh, maybe it's just because we're getting tired. They are really big crates."

"Yeah, I'll give you that. They're big enough that you could fit a few people into it. But what the hell are we even putting into these things?"

"Eh, I think the last few ones were bags of flour. Heard Kyrin hired a baker so we don't have to eat fish all the damn time."

"Finally! Anyways, one more crate and we're done."

"I know," Akito flinched as the sound of another crate being dropped next to his shook the crate he was in, "Alright, we're done here. Let's grab something to eat."

Closing his eyes, he listened for where the door was opened. Bingo, Akito smirked as he slid the strap for his drill spear off of himself and began rotating it in the direction where he heard the door open. Peeping in the small hole he made, he found the light of the room blinding, but quickly adapted as he pounded his way out of the box.

"Alright…" he looked around, seeing the wooden insides, "Heh, it looks very technological with all the metal on the outside, but… it's some homey inside." He noticed a window and saw fishes outside, "Whoa! It's not just a ship… it goes underwater… wow…" Akito froze as he heard footsteps coming closer, "Shit! I have to concentrate on my plan!" Quickly going over to the door, he reached for the handle and shoved the door open as hard as he could.

"Oof!" he heard a voice as the door met a bit of resistance. Had Akito bothered to look, he would've seen an unconscious guard on the ground.

Casually walking down the hallway, he found a guard with his back facing towards Akito. Okay, what was that technique I learned? Oh, right! Tiptoeing right behind the guard, Akito reached out a hand and pinched around the base of the guard's neck.

"Ah, no, no," the guard chuckled, "Just a little lowe-" He collapsed as Akito adjusted his hand's position.

Kyrin, Job Instructor for new Pirates, gasped as she turned to the surveillance cameras and saw the intruder. Rewinding the footage, she listened to the guard's last words before he fell.

"Just a little lowe-" Crunch! The body hit the ground.

"Damnit, I need to hire better guards. But let's see what this guy wants…"

"Alright, luckily they post signs on where to go," Akito swung his spear around to awaken his arm which was getting a bit numb, knocking out another guard without his knowledge, "Huh, it's getting hard to swing this thing. I'll have to train a little harder."

Calmly walking down the hall, Akito hummed a relaxing tune to himself as he ascended the stairs up to the next floor, when he spotted an open door, and with his curiosity piqued, entered the room.

"Ha, just a normal- Oh shit!" Akito yelled as the floor gave way. Landing in a giant bundle of wires that broke his fall, Akito looked for a way out as he tested out if he could walk on them. Noticing a vent, he smiled as he drilled his way in.

Of course, as he swung his drill spear over his shoulder, he didn't realize as he cut and broke a few wires… which happened to be the ones for the power supply. Being in the vents, he didn't notice the blackened hallways as he climbed his way through the vents.

"Damnit! How did this happen?!" Kyrin growled, "How did he know which cables were for our power?! That's it…" She grabbed her megaphone and opened the bridge door and yelled, "ALL CREW TO THE BRIDGE! ON THE DOUBLE!"

Damn! Akito shook his head, Who's screaming?! It hurts A LOT! That's it, someone's getting a serious asskicking!

Climbing up another service ladder to reach the highest floor, Akito peered through a vent cover and saw a face in candlelight. A rather beautiful face he did say so himself. A redhead with a flowing red coat to match her hair along with a pirate hat that made it seem like she was the leader.

Well, let's do this. Akito smirked, "Heeeee~eeeey."

"Who's there?" the redheaded pirate asked, readying her hand cannon.

"I kinda, I dunno… need to borrow the ship?" Akito went for his peaceful negotiations… not that he expected them to work or anything…

"Like hell you will!" Akito bit back a swear as he peaceful attempts failed, "Show yourself!"

"Alright then." Akito dropped down, "I'm right here. Now-"

"Get him, boys." Kyrin smirked as several candles were lit, illuminating the room, along with the window shades being opened, which lit the room completely, revealing all the pirates around him.

"Well… fuck." Akito sneered, readying his spear, "Let's dance."