Chapter 4-Dust Bowl Dance

~Snake's POV~

So here we are in this desert. This Dry, Dry Desert. And strangely, I feel at home. Or, somewhat. This seems like a place that'd be familiar to me, only I've never been here, this I know for a fact. But it feels like a place I'd be performing my best at.

Or maybe I'm just tired.

Tired or not, Luigi says that we should walk a few miles to the desert despite it being nighttime, just to get a head start. I start to question his judgment, but not even a second after I open my mouth, I understand his hidden reasoning. He wants to get the hell away from the ship. Makes sense, so do I. And I haven't a sliver of a doubt in my head that Meta Knight wants to as well. He's far into the lead when we start walking, before Luigi can even designate a direction. Luigi shrugs and follows the spherical mystery, who probably has a better sense of direction than Luigi does at the moment-after all, he was the one behind the ship's wheel, and the map.

I start to follow the two, trying to make up lost time. To pass the walking time amid the silence, I try to observe my surroundings. It's sort of habit by now after all these years. This time, I try to entertain myself with the activity. Unfortunately, there's pretty much nothing interesting. At all. It's like watching a screensaver, and I almost question if we're going in circles.

It's almost a total shock when I see birds flying into my view. I grin and say "Hey, guys, check it out." I point at the flock of white birds above us and say "It looks pretty awesome, doesn't it?"

Meta Knight looks up, his eyes widening. "Rather so," is his reply.

Luigi just tells us a surprising "Guys, we gotta jet. Now."

"Why, Luigi?" I ask, still entranced by the flock.

"Because," he says, and I hear fear in his voice "these birds are called Goonies, and they're some of the most dangerous carnivores in the kingdom."

Oh shit.

Needing no further persuasion, we started to run as fast as we could across the sands, or in Meta's case, fly. But we're facing dangerous birds that can fly, while Luigi and I can't. And even Meta doesn't seem to be much faster than the damn things, if faster at all.

So running's out. Looks like it's time to take action.

"Showtime."

I drop to the ground, put my bag down, and as fast as I can, unzip it, grab out my gun and just start going berserk. With reckless abandon and precise aim, I start picking off the birds. They start falling to the sky, to my relief.

Some start coming behind me. With reflexes of a stealth soldier, I jump around, shooting it right before it goes in to take a bite out of my neck. Smugly, I grin as a group of them flies away.

"Well, that takes care of that." I say as I start to pack up my weapons again.

Luigi simply points behind me. I look back and my eyes widen.

"Give me a break, will you?"

I scared away about 20 birds. They brought about 200 more. No more pussyfooting around a gun anymore. I dig into my bag more and bring out my grenade launcher.

"Now it's really showtime."

I know I'm only going to have to use one grenade-I'd like to make these last. So to everyone's surprise, I wait. Luigi's shouting for me to do something for Christ's sake and even Meta Knight's looking at me incredulously, pointing with his sword to the birds. I simply turn back with a confident smirk. Granted, if I kill us all I'm going to feel like a real ass, but I'm willing to bet the farm on this.

All 200 birds swerve together in a sort of V, and then they start to divebomb at me. Luigi's digging in his packet for a fire flower, seeing as I look like an incompetent, but I hold up a hand. When they get close enough, that's when I fire.

There's an explosion, and a giant flash of light, and the next thing I know, the sky is clear. I'm surprised for a second that I managed to scare them all away.

Then I look around me. Holy Grandmother of Christ.

All along the ground, near me, are ashes. I mean, you could build a dune out of it and add it to the sand dunes here. It's really morbid. I look out even further, and then my eyes bug.

It takes a lot to surprise me, but if you saw at least 50 dead, non-charred birds surrounding you, you'd probably stand there, jaw-dropped, wondering what twisted Hitchcock warp zone you stepped into. Did I really kill all those birds?

"Did I really kill all those birds?"

When I didn't hear an answer, it came to me that I should try to find Luigi and Meta. God knows what happened to them after... whatever the hell just happened here. I start looking around, and I see Luigi, thrown to the ground, eyes wide open in shock. Meta simply sits there, looking about normal. Luigi looked at me and gasped out "What in God's name did you [i]do?"[/i]

"I launched a grenade at them." I say matter-of-factly.

"Holy hell... are you mad? This... this is insane." he seems in shock. Good lord help me I screwed over the leader.

"I agree with you." I groan, pulling him to his feet. "But environmentalists can complain to me later. We almost died there." I start walking, pick up one of the unburnt birds and say "Well, we have dinner at least. Go on another mile?"

Luigi nodded mirthlessly and we set off again.

We don't go much further than that. We go for about 30 minutes, when we're sure that we were away from that graveyard of birds. Hell, I've got enough ghosts haunting my life that I most certainly don't need to add a couple hundred birds to it. When we find a decent enough place, we set our stuff down- me my giant bag of stuff and the bird, Luigi his suitcase, and Meta Knight his sword, cradled gently to the ground.

I take a seat, stretch my arms and legs, sore from the night, and say "Well, Luigi, you brought us a tent or two, right?"

Luigi looked at me blankly and said "You mean in that giant bag of stuff, you didn't bring a tent?"

"I thought you handled it." I mutter, exasperated and a bit humiliated.

"I thought you handled it!" his voice is a shout of disbelief in contrast to mine. "You're the outdoors guy, the stealth agent!"

"My idea of a tent usually composes of a cardboard box." I hiss. "I need to hide after all."

"A cardboard box in the middle of the jungle? Are you really that incapable?"

Dammit, he got me there. "Well we didn't even plan for a tent, we expected to be able to fly there on that goddamn ship."

"Yeah, well that worked out fan-flipping-tastic, didn't it?"

"I give up." I mutter. "Hey, Meta Knight, you got anything for shelter?"

I only get a grumble as a response from him, completely covered by his cape, clearly not wanting to get in on our argument.

I don't even know why the hell I asked him.

At the very least I spot a dead tree. I walk over, snap off a large branch and a smaller, sharper one more reminiscent of a spear, and bring them back over to our base camp. Getting out a lighter, I set the edge on fire and watch as the spark morphs into a fire. Not anywhere near Boy Scout material, but enough to cook the bird. I take the leaner stick, jab it through the bird and start to roast it over the fire like a marshmallow. Absentmindedly, I let it cook slowly as I just sit there, dead to the world. I may as well be asleep.

When I notice unconsciously that the bird is cooked enough, I take it out from above the fire and look it over. I know for a fact I did a piss-poor job at it. The feathers are still on it in some places, although most of them have burnt off or drifted away. The meat of the bird was burnt in some places and near raw in others. Certainly no cover piece for Better Homes and Gardens. But it's not like I was trying to please Tom Colicchio.

I take my pocket knife out of my bag and start cutting up pieces of the meat for us to eat. I hand an ugly-looking piece to Luigi, who sets his book down. I look at the book and roll my eyes. Tent? No. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Yes. His priorities are certainly to be praised.

Meta Knight looks up to see that the bird is ready. He accepts a piece and nods his thanks. I carve off one more piece for me and start eating. Upon my first bite I shudder. This certainly isn't the worst thing I've ever had but I knew I wasn't going to enjoy it. Unsteadily I start to finish the piece in dead silence. You could hear a cricket chirping in Altea, it was that quiet.

I finish my food and, having nothing better to do, got out my sleeping bag and got ready for bed, or as close as one could get in the desert. Not going to protect me from the cold winds but at least I'll be somewhat warm. Luigi sighed as he got out a single blanket and wrapped up in it, using his suitcase as a pillow and closing his eyes, shivering in the cold. I had less than no sympathy for him right now.

I got into my sleeping bag and closed my eyes. I was out in less than 5 minutes.

And then I woke up.

When I woke up was in the middle of night. Where I woke up was in a cold sweat in an even colder desert. How I woke up was screaming. Why I woke up was because I was still being haunted by ghosts of my past.

After I try to clear my head of the negativity of my dreams, I take a quick look around and see that Luigi was still asleep. Hard sleeper, that guy. During the tournament, we were sent to stay at a nice hotel in the middle of Intersection City during the month so I should know. Intersection City acts as the sort of capitol of our world, and although not all of the nations and kingdoms touch the large city of several million, each nation has a stake hold in the city, and it's where their leaders all meet every year to discuss their interactions, plans and other exchanges with each other concerning their lands and other such things. Some of the fighters in our tournament are actually rulers and leaders of their land, such as Princess Peach and Bowser.

Bowser, I thought. Such a dangerous creature. What makes him so intimidating though is not just his large stature and numerous sharp spikes lined around him. It's that he's a very good ruler of his kingdom. Everyone was under the assumption that since he was a villain that he obviously treated his people like scum. As I would come to hear from Prince Marth, a friend from the tournament, Bowser's passion was in his people, and his people's passion their leader and nation. While people would only see Goombas and Koopas thrown out all over the placed forced to kill Mario for Bowser, the reality was that they were a dedicated group of soldiers willing to fight for the king of their people and for a better life for their people. Bowser did the best he could for his citizens.

And how could he not? The Koopa Kingdom was born out of Civil War in the Mushroom Kingdom. It was common knowledge that Koopas and Goombas and other such creatures were treated unfairly in the Kingdom, and that 30 years ago Bowser led a revolution against the current king, a revolution that turned into a war; the Koopas and Goombas against the humans and other citizens. After 3 years, however, the two sides were at a stalemate. In an effort to stop the war, the king agreed to giving a portion of his kingdom to Bowser's side after the loyal citizens were evacuated. Bowser accepted the land and was anointed king of it.

The two sides left each other alone for awhile until the Mushroom King died and his only child, Peach, took the throne. She was adamant about not letting Bowser intimidate them out of their own land. She started to lead efforts to reclaim their land, which enraged Bowser and he kidnapped her for the first time. And so the story we all know began.

That was what was so scary about Bowser is that he wasn't fighting selfishly or doing evil selfishly. He had an entire kingdom as motivation. And he was willing to do every deviant act in the book to win for them. That's not to say that he wasn't underhanded, vicious, hateful or even evil.

There's one thing I can't quite understand. Why kidnap both Bowser and Mario? The whole mess was confusing. If only Mario was captured then Bowser'd have a lot easier of a time finishing off the Mushroom Kingdom. If Bowser's captured, then all Peach has standing in her way of reclaiming her land is his 6 little turtle brats, or 7, I don't remember. But if you kidnap them both, then what? It's like capturing the king on the black side of the chess board and the bishop on the white. Obviously without the king the black would fall, but without the bishop the black rook has a straight shot at the king, with nowhere for it to hide. What is this kidnapper planning? There's so many possibilities, but I haven't a clue.

But it certainly is an interesting lesson in history and politics.

And it's certainly an interesting lesson of where your mind will wander when you let it. I shake my head clear of these thoughts and try to focus on... not thinking about anything. I climb all the way back into my sleeping bag and looked around me one last time before I close my eyes.

And open them again. Where the hell's Meta Knight?

I look around, suddenly alarmed. I leap out of my sleeping bag and start to search. But it's not like he could be hidden anywhere nearby.-it's all sand.

Man, this is bad. What if he left us? I know that someone like him would be frustrated to have to work with idiots like Luigi and I, especially after this evening. I shake my head. He's not that type of man, he's too dedicated to all that stuff like Honor and such things. That just gets me more worried- what if he was attacked? Could more Goonies have swept down on him? Or another type of monster, or maybe even a bandit- the possibilities are-

Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh

I turn around and then I see Meta Knight, flying down from the sky employing use of his wings, looking at me quizzically from behind his mask.

"Snake." he says, hesitantly. "I... I apologize, I thought you were asleep." He finishes landing and takes a seat. "I hope I didn't worry you with my absence. I find it's nice at night to take a flight, to clear my head."

I nod, smiling a little. "Sounds fair enough. No problem." I crawl back into my sleeping bag and say "Good night, Meta." as I close my eyes.

"Same to you, Snake." he says, his voice seeming a bit... lackluster in its usual confidence. But who am I to judge?

I lay there, eyes closed, trying to will myself to sleep. It was one of those nights, ones where sleep tells you that you had your chance and then leaves you when you first wake up like a scorned wife meeting a mistress. Ugh, I'm too tired to make decent analogies, why can't I sleep still?

About 30 minutes in, that's when I hear it. It's a muffled sound, and I can barely hear it. But I do. I can't tell what it is at first, but I start studying it. It sounds like a moan, a small one, broken up into several, and it was hard to tell that it was one. But it was. And the more I listened to it the more I realized what it was. It was crying. Someone was crying. It was soft, betraying little emotion other than sadness, but it did betray a feeling of loss.

Meta Knight, the indomitable, stoic warrior, was crying.

I didn't know how to feel about that. It made me feel hopeless, sympathetic, pensive, and somewhat relieved to know that there was a true soul behind that mask. I felt that if Meta Knight lost hope then we were all going to fall, and I felt ambient in this feeling. My pain from the past was resurfacing-no particular moments, but everything. The so-called adventures I had taken. Shadow Moses, Zanzibar, Foxhound-I could swear my life started flashing before my eyes. I put my hands over my ears, closed my eyes and started to block the world out as I slowly drifted into a sleep I knew was going to be riddled with nightmares.

Author's Corner

If it was obvious that I'm still learning about Snake through Wikis and stuff, then... well, bear with me. It's rather obvious. XD

Well I did it again. What was going to be 1 chapter is being split into two. Next chapter (coming next week) should round out my plans for the desert. And shall also really start revving things up.

Thanks again for the reviews! I love hearing from you, as could be expected. Also, here's an announcement-I'm starting another chapter fanfiction in my off-time. Title pending, it's going to be named Universal Aura, and it's going to follow a "sticker" (who happens to be one of my all-time favorite video game characters) and the smasher she helps. It'll delve into the job of the stickers and such, and the sticker in question's transition from what she thought was normal into what really is-a world like stuff that would only be in stories.

Cheers!

MoD

P.S. I watched Kick-Ass the other night. I was shocked at how much I loved it. The Oscars owe me a hell of a lot of explanations.