Time for more Metal Gears
10 days after the situation with Rose has passed, since then Raiden has still had several conflicting emotions on the subject of Rose & Fluttershy.
On one hand, Raiden still had feelings for Rose and wanted to be with her, he wanted to keep his family together.
On the other hand, he also felt something for Fluttershy as well, he has grown to love her, in more ways than one, and she has grown to love him, though she understands the confliction Raiden is going through and believes he should get a chance to reconcile if he can.
Despite Raiden's personal conflictions, he had still shown romantic interest in Fluttershy, with the two still spending time together, even after the training.
This also hasn't stopped Raiden from his sexual desire for Fluttershy, especially considering that she too craved his love, Raiden felt some guilt but he also felt that Fluttershy needed some of this as well.
Snake was aware of Raiden's relationship with Fluttershy, he didn't say too much about it since he didn't want to make things awkward, he knows Raiden is struggling quite a bit, and he figures it's temporary anyway since Fluttershy might go home, though somehow, no matter how he viewed it, something just felt wrong about it.
Meanwhile Liquid Snake was just about ready to strike again, to finally eliminate Snake, along with Raiden & Futtershy.
Raiden, Fluttershy & Snake were waiting in a room, Campbell had an assignment for them.
"What do you suppose the Colonel wants?" Raiden asked.
"He said something about a Base Raid, back to the usual stuff, though this base is larger so it could take longer", Snake said.
"Might need to do a lot of sneaking around then", Fluttershy added.
Soon Campbell arrived and pulled out some documents, "Glad you're all here, I'll get to the point", he pulled out a map, "At the edge of this forest area is a large factory that's producing weapons for the enemy, we have belief that there are several Metal Gears in the hanger, your mission is to take the factory down and cause a huge setback for out enemy forces"
"Feels like we've been causing these 'setbacks' for a while, and yet somehow it seems like it's not doing much, Liquid's still running strong", Raiden stated.
"Patience Raiden, wars can last a while, who knows how long before we get to Liquid, but every little thing we do counts for our goal", Campbell said.
"Hope so, Liquid's been avoiding justice too long, this better bring us that much closer to stopping him", Snake said.
"We all hope so Snake, now get ready, we'll be there in about 2 hours", Campbell said, dismissing the soldiers. they had gone back to their rooms to prepare for the mission.
Soon enough the 3 had arrived at the base, ready to fulfill their duty. Snake turned to Fluttershy & Raiden, "Stay close to me, we're gonna use a little stealth first, try not to make a scene"
Raiden nodded, "Right Snake", Fluttershy also nodded, "Sure thing"
Snake then motioned for Raiden & Fluttershy to follow him, they approached an area where the trucks go in and out to drop off the supplies.
Snake tossed a rock to distract an enemy, then he Raiden & Fluttershy snuck past him and walked close to the trucks to maintain their cover.
They snuck through a bit, going through a door leading to a long hallway, not too many guards, though there were still a few crates to hide behind.
They snuck through a bit, going through a door leading to a long hallway, not too many guards, though there were still a few crates to hide behind.
Snake, Raiden & Fluttershy snuck around a bit and hid behind the crates to let the enemies pass, then quickly moved until they made their way to another hallway, this had slightly more soldiers, Snake then motioned to the ventilation shafts, the 3 then crawled through the vents, Fluttershy hated it though ,it was really dirty, they then left the vents and entered a cater room, when they heard some soldiers they quickly went under a table.
3 soldiers entered the room, they were talking sports, nothing important. One Solider grabbed a drink, the other two looked for some food.
Snake & Raiden snuck up on them and got them in a sleeper hold to make them dazed.
The Solider with a drink noticed them, he was about to shoot and set off an alert but Fluttershy kicked the gun out his hand and hit a pressure point in his neck, knocking him out.
Snake checked the soldiers and grabbed a key card, "This should come in handy"
They then looked for the boiler room to plant the bomb, figuring that's the best place to go about this. They hid when they heard some soldiers pass by, after they passed they continued to look for the boiler room and found a sign leading them to the precise location.
The door was locked, old fashioned lock, didn't stop Raiden from using his sword to break the lock. Once inside Snake planted the bomb, "One down, come on let's head to the hanger and place the second bomb there"
After a little more sneaking around through the hallways, they found a guarded door with a red light over head.
"We need to head in there, follow me", Snake said. He shot an M9 at the two guards, causing both to fall asleep and used the keycard to open the door, "Let's go"
They went through the hall and found some windows leading to a hanger. Once they looked through the windows, they found what they were after.
"Is that...The Shagohod?" Snake asked.
Raiden looked confused, "I thought Big Boss destroyed it?"
Snake groaned, "Looks like Liquid's been busy, but why a Shagohod? Does he have an affinity for the older models?"
"Gekko, Ray, Rex...now Shagohod, maybe he wants a Metal Gear collection or something", Raiden said.
Snake gestured, "Let's go". The trio went into the hanger and snuck around, knocking out all the guards in sight, making sure to stay absolutley quiet.
Once the area was clear, Snake planted a few more smaller bombs, then approached the Shagohod and made contact back at base, "Colonel, I found what they were working on, it's the Shagohod"
"Shagohod? The Metal Gear Prototype from Operation Snake Eater?" Campbell asked.
"Yeah, the very same, Liquid seems to wanna bring back the old Metal Gears, probably trying to prove a point"
"How very right you are brother", they heard Liquid's voice say.
They turned around and saw him with some FROG soldiers.
"Liquid!" Snake shouted and aimed his gun, Raiden pointing his sword and Fluttershy aiming her own weapon.
"So good to see you again brother, I see you've brought your friends with you as well, your little protégé Raiden, and that adorable little pony, she looks so cute holding that gun doesn't she girls?"
The FROGs laughed a bit mockingly, Fluttershy felt a little awkward.
"Are you still going for Outer Heaven Liquid!?" Snake asked.
"It is my Destiny Brother, to be the command of this world's Military, maybe after I'm done here, I can also test my military prowess against soliders from another world, like maybe the Canterlot Royal Guards"
That caused Fluttershy to freak a little, "Did you just say Canterlot!?"
Liquid grinned, "That's right young one, I know all about Equestria, though I'm sure Mantis would have helped make that obvious, King Sombra has contacted me and promised me great weaponry if I helped make sure you never get back home, perhaps I can lend him a Metal Gear or two and kill those troublesome princesses he's told me about, and the rest of your friends, if they're not dead already"
Fluttershy growled, "Don't you DARE talk about my friends like that! I won't let you hurt my fellow ponies, and I damn sure won't let you hurt my friends here!"
Raiden looked surprised at Fluttershy's outburst, he rarely sees her get angry, though it didn't sound too angry.
"Tough talk for a little pony, regardless as fun as this little reunion was, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cut it short", Liquid walked backwards a bit, "Ladies...kill them", he turned around and left, the FROGs then went in to attack.
Snake aimed his Socom Handgun and managed to take several down with some head shots.
Raiden rushed in and used his sword skills to slash all the FROGs, spilling their blood everywhere as he cut and slashed.
Fluttershy tried shooting them but they were not like the regular enemies, they were able to maneuver around like it was nothing, they were every acrobatic and she found herself mostly avoiding their shots.
Raiden noticed Fluttershy having some trouble, so he went to her side and cut and slashed all the FROGs that went near her.
Snake shot his way through the FROGs and went to where Liquid went to, after going through a door, he encountered several enemies soldiers.
"Open fire!" they shot at Snake, who simply went behind the door for cover and switched to his AK-47 and shot the soldiers from his cover.
Once the FROGs dwindled in number Raiden went to follow Snake and he ran into the hallway to deflect the bullets and slash each of the soldiers, allowing himself and Snake room to go through.
Fluttershy followed into the hallway, a few FROGs went after them, though since the hallway was smaller it allowed Fluttershy to shoot and kill the FROGs easier.
They rushed through the hallway and eventually found a door that led outside, Liquid was boarding a helicopter, Snake shot at Liquid but Liquid was able to evade and returned fire against Snake from his sub-machine gun as his helicopter took off.
Other soldiers arrived to shoot Snake, Raiden & Fluttershy, only for them to be shot and stabbed. Liquid then grabbed a Rocket Launcher and fired at the trio, causing them to move quickly to dodge, but they felt some impact from the explosion.
Liquid's helicopter had managed to get away, much to Snake's annoyance, "Dammit! He got away!" then then kicked a wall.
Raiden made some contact, "Campbell, we found Liquid, but he escaped"
"Damn, continue with the original mission, destroy the factory, do you have the bombs planted?"
"Yeah, gonna activate the timer now", Snake pressed the button, "In about 5 minutes this place is gonna go, maybe that Shagohod will also", he then heard a large crash sound, The Shagohod had busted out of the hanger and was looking for the trio, "Oh shit!"
They ran off in hopes of avoiding the Shagohod but it was pretty quick and fired a few shots at them, luckily they each found some motorbikes, likely used by the enemies.
Snake boarded one, Raiden boarded the other with Fluttershy riding behind him.
Both then sped off on the bikes but the Shagohod was pursuing them.
"This isn't good!" Raiden said.
"I know, just keep going to the coordinates!"
They made a sharp turn to where Otacon was coming with the Helicopter, thanks to the sharp turn they got some distance from The Shagohod since it can't make smooth turns like that. They continued speeding away in hopes of getting to Otacon soon, but The Shagohod fired at them, mostly machine gun firing, causing the two to start zig zagging. The tank gun also got fired but they lucked out, however the shots were getting too close, soon they weren't gonna be lucky anymore.
Eventually The Shagohod managed to shoot a wheel on Raiden's bike, causing him to lose control, "Oh crap!" Fluttershy held onto Raiden tight and lifted him in the air, he was a bit heavy but Otacon's helicopter wasn't that far off.
"Fluttershy, would you be able to handle Snake's weight as well?" Raiden asked. Fluttershy nodded, "I can handle it". "Good, fly over to Snake"
They approached him, Raiden's feet above him, "Grab my feet!" Snake looked a bit unsure but decided to take the chance, hoping Fluttershy can handle carring two grown men, Raiden then made contact, "Stay in the air Otacon!"
The Shagohod got close to the trio, luckily they reached the helicopter just in time and managed to board it as it flew away, avoiding soem last inute shots from the Shagohod.
The Helicopter flew off and made it's way back to the Cargo plane, by this point the factory was destroyed. Once on the plane the trio sighed in relief.
"Good work Fluttershy", Snake said.
Raiden nodded, "You did well", he stroked her mane a bit, causing her to giggle, "Though now we need to train you on how to deal with those FROGs"
Fluttershy nodded, "I'm ready for that".
Raiden smiled, "I know you are"
Campbell approached them, "Great work, unfortunately that Shagohod is in one piece, but we'll deal with that later, for now rest up, you've earned in"
The trio nodded, Raiden once again left his cyber form and went to his room with Fluttershy, both intending to realize a little 'tension' after a job well done.
Snake himself was now wondering, what is Liquid up to with those machines?
A Metal Gear Collection