Chapter 2

Snake tried to reach Otacon as he entered the Pump Room, but he got a "NO RESPONSE" signal on the CODEC. Where are you? He got by some stairs that led down and there he heard two guards talking.

"Yes, that man and the black woman are very strange."

"They went to stop the SEAL's right?"

Both had Russian accents.

"That was what the black woman told me."

Snake overheard everything and could only hope that Otacon wasn't on Strut B. Snake then sneaked over to the base of the stairs and turned left. According to the maps that he had seen the door that stood right in front of him led to the AB connecting bridge. Snake ran for it and got to the connecting bridge rapidly noticing that two guards were patrolling it. He waited until one of them turned around to make his move. He jumped over the rails of the bridge and was able to move towards the Strut B without the soldier noticing it. Once the soldier moved away again Snake heaved himself up and headed to the Strut B door. As he got close he heard a few noises the door slid opened and he noticed several SEAL's with their backs turned to him. Snake quickly moved to side, still outside Strut B, and heard them talking. Because of the walls around every door of each Strut Snake could stay there without being seen by anyone.

"This is Alpha Zero. We have the President."

Snake heard as one of the SEAL's talked in the distance.

"He is safe." Snake guessed that the SEAL was probably talking to the squad leader.

"Tell the guys upstairs that we've secured the package. Easy Money."

"Roger that…H-holy!"

A massive noise erupted through the room and gunfire followed. Snake saw as the SEAL's started to move deep into Strut B. Snake risked everything and stepped in inside Strut B Transformer Room.

As he entered it he could see gushes of blood spitting on the wall. What the hell. Flashes of Shadow Moses passed over his head. A corridor full of dead bodies and blood spatters the work of the infamous Gray Fox.

Two of the SEAL's ran towards the AB connecting bridge door, where Snake was.

"Please help me!" A soldier cried out as he saw Snake, but something pulled him back.

The other fell to the ground as some kind of dagger hit him on the chest. "Ahhhhh." He cried out in pain. Blood came out from his wound as someone dragged his body across the floor.

Snake could only watch the slaughter from a distance. Those daggers reminded Snake about someone he had read about in Otacon's files. Vamp. He stood still for a couple of minutes before he moved again. As the noise faded away he got close to the fallen bodies and noticed that the attacker was gone. However he could hear that some SEAL's were still alive inside the Transformer Room. He peeked out into the corner and saw a big corridor leading to the BC connecting bridge. He could also see that a SEAL was by that door walking back and forth. Snake wouldn't risk entering the Transformer Room just yet. Instead he decided to take care of that SEAL first. He sneaked past the Transformer room door and quietly made his way to the end of the corridor.

"I should go inside, but…I can't…I don't want to die…" The SEAL said shivering.

Snake had to be silent or otherwise he would make too much noise with his footsteps. As he got close to the SEAL he drew out his USP. "Stop!" Snake spoke out clearly.

The SEAL turned around with a firm grip on his M4 machine gun. Snake however punched him right in the face and followed that with another punch and a kick. The SEAL fell to the floor unconscious.

There was a nearby door that also led to the Transformer Room and the several screams of agony and pain invited Snake to do something, but he couldn't just approach the SEAL's with his suit. He had to use Otacon's plan. He took out the green clothes he had packed before and put them on. His only problem was that the sleeves were too tight around his arms. Dammit Otacon! Snake pulled the sleeves up to his elbow so that it would be inconspicuous. Snake could now hear gunfire. I have to hurry. He then grabbed the rest of the unconscious SEAL equipment. Otacon had given him a small device that could override the protection on two of the SEAL's weapons. He used it on the knocked out SEAL's M4 and SOCOM. When finished he threw the device away. He placed extra clips for the M4 and the SOCOM in his equipment, next to his own, and held the M4 machine gun in his arms. He then took out the SEAL's radio and placed it on his back. Snake checked himself to see if everything was in place. He took out his bandana and put on the balaclava and the headphones. He then placed the knocked out SEAL inside a locker, locking it as he closed it. Good…

Snake got by the north door and it began to open. He could see with incredibly clarity through the wired fenced electric equipment the man he had read about. Vamp! He was stretching out his left hand towards what seemed like someone with blonde hair and a blue suit.

"Get down!" Snake screamed out to the person with the blonde hair. After that he almost emptied an entire clip as he tried to hit Vamp. However he soon noticed that he had hit nothing but hair.

He stopped firing and frowned still with his gun ready. He looked left and right surveying the rest of the room and then made his way in. The door closed behind him not causing Snake to lose his attention. "Where is he!" He directed his question to the person with the blonde hair, but he got no answer for he was still down. Snake walked cautiously towards the room and sensed something. He quickly looked up and tried to aim his gun. Vamp however was faster and as he jumped onto the floor he swerved his knife to take the M4 from Snake's grip. "Agh!" The M4 was thrown away as a nasty cut appeared on Snake's left arm. Vamp then proceeded to grab Snake by the head like he was a doll. Vamp was a tall man who wore a large raincoat, brown gloves, brown pants and brown boots. He wore no shirt at all and on his waist stood a big knife and small daggers.

The person with blonde hair rolled to get the M4, however he couldn't make the shot without hitting Snake too. Vamp was incredibly strong and with no difficulty he pulled Snake up and bashed him against the wall. "Urgh...!" The headphones fell to the ground and Snake felt an incredible pain on his back. He saw as Vamp turned his face to him and white smoke came from his mouth. It seemed that he was colder that everyone else. Snake stood there motionless as he felt the massive strength of Vamp's grip.

Vamp got by Snake's left side and started inhaling. "Hmmm? Strange smell..." Vamp's cold breath revolved around Snake as his piercing accented voice echoed across the room.

Snake tried to look down at Vamp wondering what the hell he was doing.

"You smell like…!" Vamp talked again, this time like he had discovered something. He let the grip on Snake go and Snake fell flat on the floor. "Are you…it has to be!" Vamp talked again still surprised.

Snake quickly faced the person with blonde hair, ignoring Vamp's remarks, and shouted. "Shoot him! What are you waiting for!"

The person with blonde hair shot the last rounds that were left on Snake's M4. However Vamp was able to swerve every bullet using some sort of dance and pirouettes. The clip was empty and Vamp readied for the attack, however something stooped him and Snake noticed it. He quickly reached for a new clip. He slid it across the floor to the person with the blonde hair. Vamp was still standing quietly. He could see as the person with the blonde hair grabbed the clip and quickly inserted it into the M4. Vamp suddenly disappeared and started to jump all across the room at an incredible speed whilst giving out a weird cry. The person with the blonde hair tried to aim at him, but it was obvious that he was gone. He then aimed the M4 to Snake.

"Hold on, I'm not an enemy. Calm down." Snake talked to the man. He however continued with the M4 pointed. Snake crawled to one of the Transformer's fence so he could lean on it and rest a little.

"My name is S..." Snake was about to tell his name when the whole situation sank in his mind. As he was wearing SEAL's clothes and he didn't know this person. It would more cautious if he used another name.

"My name is…" Snake chose his name carefully. "Pliskin. Iroquois Pliskin. Lieutenant Junior Grade." Snake chose a name with meaning. 'Pliskin' was an obvious hint to the 'Escape from…' movies where the leading actor was named 'Snake Plissken'. The 'Iroquois' name was a francofied version of the Algonquin word for rattlesnakes. He also made up the rank of 'Lieutenant Junior Grade'. He then proceeded to take his balaclava off and show his face to the strange blonde man. He closed his eyes as he pulled the balaclava and as he opened them he eyed the strange man lifting his head up.

"Are you a Navy SEAL?" The strange man asked with a very clean and young voice.

Snake however didn't answer instead he just stood motionless on the ground.

"How did you get in?" The strange man asked a new question.

Snake dropped his head and spoke out. "Fast rope descent, from a Navy chopper."

"Have I seen you before?" The strange man asked Snake as if he had seen him before.

Snake however noticed something he hadn't noticed before. That suit. The man was wearing a strange looking suit which reminded him of something. Snake eyed the suit from bottom to top and asked. "That suit…are you FOXHOUND?" Snake could only wonder what that meant.

The strange man seemed surprised, but he answered back. "...That's right." He was still pointing the M4 at Snake.

"FOXHOUND was disbanded." Snake said decisively as if it was impossible for this man to belong to such a unit.

"...?" The strange man reacted not knowing what Snake meant by that.

Snake looked into the man's eyes and they seemed quite cryptic. He couldn't tell if he was a rookie or an experienced soldier. "Where were you before FOXHOUND?" He took a guess. "Delta Force?"

"I was part of the Army's Force XXI trials..." The strange man sounded proud.

"Force XXI? That's about tactical IT deployment, right?" Snake could only guess why this man was here. "Any field experience?"

"NO…not really." Somehow the man didn't sound truthful to Snake.

"So this is your first?" Snake tried to get something out of him.

"I've had extensive training…the kind that's indistinguishable from the real thing." The man lowered the M4.

"Like what?" Snake asked.

"Sneaking mission 60, Weapons 80, Advanced…"

Snake interrupted the man. "VR, huh?" He sounded disappointed.

"But realistic in every way." The man was sounded offended.

"A virtual grunt of the digital age. That's just great." Snake had had enough of VR missions in the past.

"That's far more effective that live exercises." The man was trying to find plausible reasons, but Snake had a counter point.

"You don't get injured in VR, do you? Every year a few soldiers die in field exercises."

"There's a pain sensation in VR, and even a sense of reality and urgency. The only difference is that it isn't actually happening." The man sounded like he was defending himself.

"That's the way they want you to think, to remove you from the fear that goes with battle situations." Snake knew only to well the fear and the rush of being on battlefield. "War as a videogame…what better way to raise the ultimate soldier."

The man approached Snake and handed him his M4. Snake grabbed it using its right hand. His left arm was still aching a little bit. He rested the butt of the M4 on the floor by his side.

"So your saying VR training is some kind of mind control?" The man asked. Suddenly the man turned around as Snake got up from the ground.

"The Alpha team from Navy SEAL team 10 is dead. No, a single survivor."

Snake heard the man talking, but he wasn't talking to himself, he had seen the technology before. "The kid's wired with nanomachines." Snake made his way to pick up his headphones and to fix some kind of bandage for his wound. He put on the headphones and bandaged his wound. At the same time he headed for the stairs on the left side of the Transformer Room. As he headed down the stairs the man, who apparently had finished his conversation, followed him behind. There Snake witnessed a terrible sight. Several dead bodies sprawled across the floor, but one in particular caught his attention.

"What's up?" The blonde man asked as he noticed Pliskin looking down to the left.

Snake turned his head to him. "Take a look." Snake then looked to the ground again. A Navy Captain lied on the floor with several cuts and blood all over his clothes. On his right hand only half of a handcuff could be seen.

Damn. This could be worse than we thought. Snake thought to himself.

"What the hell?" The man seemed puzzled.

"A Navy Captain…" Snake said and immediately he started to fell a little woozy and off balance. "Aghh..." Snake found himself stumbling backwards. He recovered his balance by using his right hand against a step. He then seated himself on the last step of the stairs.

"You all right?" The man asked Snake.

"Give me a few minutes." Snake reached for his own equipment and took out his pack of smokes. "Must have lost a few more pints than I thought." He put one of the smokes in his mouth and groped the SEAL's pockets for his lighter. Where did I put it? He found the lighter in his own right chest pocket.

"What was that man…just now?" The other man asked as Snake lit up the cigarette.

"That bloodsucking freak?" Snake spoke out with the cigarette on his mouth. "That was Vamp..." Snake tired to give him a short explanation of what he head read about Vamp. "He's Romanian, a wizard with knives as you saw."

"The way he move…didn't seem human." The man said incredulously.

Snake had seen weirder things. "You won't see that in VR, I guarantee." Snake mocked.

"Dead Cell... Him?" The blonde man asked.

Snake had also read about them. "A special forces unit created by Ex-President George Sears." Snake began the explanation. "The name was originally intended to effect its anti-terrorist functions. The unit would launch unannounced assaults on government complexes, for the ultimate terrorism simulation. They were needed to show VR troopers like you how to deal with the real thing." Snake was remembering what he had read from the files that Otacon had given him. "But around the time their original leader died in prison, the unit began to unravel. They were always close to the edge, but they became more and more extreme; began to go after U.S. allies, even civilians. We estimate that no fewer than one hundred people died as a result of 'accidents' the Dead Cell arranged on their own. They were out of control and it all came to a head six months ago."

"What happened?" The blonde man interrupted.

Snake took a minute to respond. He remembered reading that two members, Chinaman and Old Boy died and the entire unit had a rough time. "The unit was devastated. There are only three left now—and you just saw one of them."

"Why would they go after the Big Shell?" The blonde man asked.

"How should I know? I told you they were on the lunatic fringe." He and Otacon were here to find out why.

"What about the leader? He says he's Solid Snake?" Snake took immediate action to the name Snake. What! Snake would have to ask Otacon about this. "Snake died two years ago." He said decisively. He and Otacon had gone to trouble to make sure of that.

"You mean the incident that made this Big Shell necessary in the first place?"

"Right. And he was the one that sank that tanker." Snake said making sure there were no doubts in his voice.

"But he's a legend…"The blonde man seemed a little bit disappointed.

"Legends are usually bad news. There's not a lot of difference between heroes and madmen..." Big Boss came to Snake's mind.

"You're saying Snake is still alive and pulled another one?"

"No, he's not involved in this one. His body was positively ID'd two years ago." Snake lied, it had been Otacon's and Snake's work to steal Liquid's body from some organization and making sure the public knew that Solid Snake had died.

"Snake is dead..." The man sounded let down.

"And buried." Snake finished his sentence.

"What about the other soldiers? I saw Russian equipment too." The man asked.

"Former Soviet military. They're probably mercenaries. The Big Shell is too much ground for just Dead Cell members to hold down." Snake wondered why this man would come here not knowing anything. "You weren't briefed on any of this? ...And you came in alone to boot? What are you really doing here?" Snake tried to get a response out of him, but the man kept silent. "Can't tell me, huh? Fine with me..." Snake had more urgent matters to worry about. He looked at the pack of smokes and decided to hand them to the blonde man.

"I don't smoke." The man responded.

"Keep it anyway. May come in handy." From the states of thing Snake had to make sure he was in his top shape. "Take this too." Snake reached for his equipment and took out the extra SOCOM he had gathered from the NAVY SEAL.

The man took it and with his left had he took out something from his own equipment. "Here. Take this..."

Snake reached for it with his right hand and looked at it intrigued. The shaver! It was the same shaver Snake had thrown away in the sea dock. Snake eyed the man and packed the shaver. Suddenly the radio on Snake's back came to life.

"Come in Alpha Zero!" The blonde man turned and faced the still bodies of the dead SEAL's. "This is Bravo Zero, currently at the bridge between Struts B and C. The President is…" Noises of gunfire could be heard through the radio. "Damn! I can't hit this thing! It's like some bad dream…"

Snake showed no sign of wanting to answer the call.

"Alpha! Anyone! Come in, all Alpha! This is Bravo Zero!" The man pleaded through the radio.

The blonde man turned his face to Snake and asked. "Aren't you going to answer him?"

Snake eyed the blonde man and slowly he turned his head to the right side of his back and started moving his hand.

"Aaah!" A loud scream could be heard and then nothing else.

"The B-C connecting bridge." Snake said to himself.

"We need to get there. Can you handle it?" The man asked.

"I need a few more minutes." Snake pretended he was worse than he really was. He wanted to keep tabs on this kid and the only way to do it was not by his side. Snake made sure the blonde man kept in contact with him. "Remember my frequency - its 141.80."

"141.80. Got it." The blonde man replied.

"I've been briefed on this plant's layout. If you need information on the place or about Dead Cell, contact me." Snake had to make sure that this man needed his help. "You're using nanocommunication, right?"

"Yeah. But I can patch into your frequency." The man started to make his way up the stairs.

"Hey…what's your name?" Snake turned his head and called out to him. He needed to call him something.

The man paused for a few seconds before responding. "Raiden."

"Raiden? Strange codename." Snake knew that the name Raiden was vulgarly associated with the god of thunder and lightning in Japanese mythology.

"Makes up for the boring one my parents gave me." Raiden made his way to the top of the stairs.

"Maybe I'll find out someday." Snake was just being polite. He turned his head and lifted up his left hand to say goodbye. He then held the M4 firmly in his arms and leaned against the wall. The situation had radically changed, Snake was going to rest for a while and then contact Otacon.