A/N: NOW HEAR THIS! NOW HEAR THIS! (Sorry. One too many rounds of Heartbreak Ridge. XD) Those of you who freaked out and thought WRATH was the final chapter have nothing to worry about. That was simply the end of a prompt, and not the end of the collection as a whole, I promise. ALSO! Just as a warning, this fiction is a little "Crackish". I was talking to a lacrosse player friend of mine who freaked out like a little girl when a spider ran under his desk during English. He looked at me when I laughed at him and said "Throw guys with guns and bombs at me all you want, but leave the fucking spiders out of it." And for some reason, that made me wonder... What if Ghost were arachnophobic? This is a whole lot of Soap teasing Ghost, just for shits and giggles. :D
WhiteNoseHound: I'm glad you liked them. And I would personally do more than hug Soap... Heheh.. XD
GothicBandicoot: Wow... Thanks a ton for the AMAZING review, hehe.
Space Lion: Yes, Kira is definitely one of my favorite OC's of all time. :D
FireDragon218: Happy Birthday To Youuuuuu! Glad I could make you day like that. :3
Trish: You are very, very welcome. You are also using my nickname. o.O GIVE IT BACK! Jussssst kidding. :) hehe.
GrassWing-TreeTail: Haha! There is plenty more to come, that much I can promise. I have a close friend in the Army, and two brothers (about to be three) in the Marine Corps. As long as they're actively invovled, there will be PLENTY of inspiration and plenty more topics to come. :D
PhonyPrincess: Yay for warm-fuzzies!
yeah-bled: Hehe. Sorry about not updating sooner. I'm going through finals week right now, with graduation happening on the second of June, so things have been crazy, and they're progressively getting worse, haha. And don't worry about tracking me down. I love Soap and Ghost (and Roach. Also Price and MacMillain) too much to let them die. :3
Xania from PSNH: That "you'll see me soon enough" kinda made me tear up a little too. I totally did not mean to try and put Soap in Pripyat. I don't even really remember which level I meant, but I wrote a majority of it in the middle of the night after a double shift, so I apologize profusely for the mistake. :/
duvalia: Thanks for the mountain of reviews! And, because I'm so goddamned scatterbrained, I actually forgot about mentioning Ghost's brother. XD The only OC that I will bring back again and again and again shamelessly is Kira, because I think she's just perfect. X3 And I kind of made the knife talk got over the head in the beginning on purpose. I kind of like that whole "What the fuck are you on about?" leading up to "Oh. Well. I feel like a fucktard... Seems kind of obvious now... Hehe... /shame". That and I like it when people reread my stuff, as conceited as that is. XD I'm not really a huge fan of the name Simon, and I wasn't supposed to be writing the story when it happened. I was supposed to be getting some sleep before my class in the morning, buuuuuuuut... There's never too little time to work on an update. Haha. And don't worry about rambling. It bothers me not. :D
xGhostxStealth: I get very, very, very involved when it comes to making sure everyone stays in character. On my favorites bar is actually the Wikia for Call of Duty so I can cross-reference most commonly used phrases, weapons, and fighting styles, just to make sure everything is just perfect. I actually made it a point to beat the game MULTIPLE times before I would commit to writing something, because I hate OOC, especially when it's due to laziness on the author's part. Yes, the last chapter was a tear-jerker, and I hate thinking about Ghost being dead. Makes me sad-faced. And there will be more to come, because hopefully I can inspire someone else to contribute to a lacking fandom. :3
"Jesus!" Squelch.
John looks away from the television and into the kitchen in time to see Riley shudder. Riley looked up at met his lover's gaze.
"Spider." Simon muttered.
"What kind was it?" John asked, returning his attention to the XBox. (1)
"What difference does it make?" Simon demanded. He wiped up the insects insides with a wad of paper towels and another shudder.
"It could have been harmless."
"There's no such thing."
"Tarantu--"
"I don't care!"
After very thoroughly washing his hands, Simon picked up his Ramen noodles from the counter and made his way to the living room of the off-base apartment he shared with the Captain. He sat down on the couch next to the Scot and watched the television screen.
"Go left here." Riley suggested.
MacTavish muttered something under his breath, but followed the route anyway. This was frequently how they fought. They would scream at each other, possibly resort to blows, follow the whole ordeal with food and booze and forgive and forget. Ah, the benefits of not having a woman in the relationship...
"You know Sheperd is talking about sending us back to Afghanistan. Again."
"So? Reload here before you go in there."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm reloading. There are reports of camel spider swarms popping up in Afhanistan."
"Shut the fuck up."
"I'm only trying to be helpful."
"You're trying to be an arse."
John shrugged and mashed the "A" button as he ran his character into the fray. No point in keeping Ghost pissed off...
Sand was spraying in every direction as the helicopter dropped them off in the center of an American Army installation. They were met by a Corpral Sebastian Phillips, one with dark blond hair, grayish blue eyes, and a scorpion on his shoulder, who was introduced as Colonel Mustard. Riley made a point of keeping MacTavish between himself and the Corpral and as much distance as possible between himself and the "Colonel".
"He's mostly harmless. Tip of his tail got jacked up somehow, so he can't really sting anyone with it. Don't know how he survived that shit, but he did." Sebastain stroked the back of the scorpion, who defensively raised his claws and arched his pointless tail.
MacTavish seemed rather interested by the entire ordeal, but it only served to unnerve Riley.
"Well, this is where the two of you will be staying. Officer's mess is down the hall, and--"
"Sebastian! Check this fucking thing out! If it's six inches then it's a foot!"
There was another Corpral running down the hall towards them with a large clear container clutched in his hands. When he noticed the officer ranks on the Task Force members, he hastily saluted, nearly dropping the clear container with the largest camel spider any of them had ever seen. John returned the salute and told him to carry on.
"Captain, Lieutenant, I'd like you to meet Corporal Thompson and the biggest fucking camel spider to cross this compound. Holy shit! Where did you find that thing?" Phillips demanded, temporarily forgetting his tour-guide duties.
"Hiding in the garage under a pile of Humvee parts. Little bastard tried to take my finger off." Thompson poked the box and the spider's massive jaws snapped shut.
"Can I ask what the point of catchin' him is?" Soap asked.
"Well, we're trying to set a record. Owner of the biggest fucker when we go back home wins the pool we have going. Money's been on Addler for a long time, but this one is bigger than anything he's brought in." Thompson grinned.
Ghost ducked into the room he'd be sharing with the Captain while MacTavish discussed the Americans' odd pets. He was in no mood to be in a hallway with that many disturbing creatures.
"Apparently their record for largest camel spider until now was eight and a half inches." John chuckled as he entered the room. Simon ignored the comment. The last thing he needed t o think about before bed (or at any time, really) was spiders larger than dinner plates.
"They're worse in Australia. Remember that time Royce went there to visit his sister and her new husband and he woke up with that bird spider on his chest?"
Simon shuddered and tried to block out the barrage of disgusting (terrifying) mental images that came with thinking about spiders touching people... Soap chuckled to himself again and decided to give the Lieutenant a little bit of a break from all the taunting. "All in good fun" was an excuse that soon ran thin.
The rest of the day passed without further incident, until they wandered into the officer's mess and noticed a small black scorpion "standing guard" by the doors. Riley inched past it and MacTavish nearly crushed it under his boot until he was (not so) gently pushed to the side by a soldier with a coffee can, saying something about setting up a scorpion fight(1).
"This place is far too strange." Ghost muttered. He was already uneasy, having to go through chow with no mask and encountering one of those blasted arachnids... He was contemplating just going back to his rack and not leaving until a helo came to get them.
Things were relatively fine for the next two days. Riley learned that the camel spiders prefered shady places and made a point to avoid any place that was cool and dimly-lit. He wasn't about to put himself in a copromising situation that would probably result in a minor mental breakdown. An enemy with a gun you could see and hear and dodge and attack easily. Spiders were small, light enough so you wouldn't feel them until they were already crawling on you, small enough for you to not see (well, except for the GODDAMNED CAMEL SPIDERS!) until it was too late, and once they decided to bite you, chances were you were just going to end up bit.
"Son of a bitch!" He drug his fingers across his arm and threw a dangerous glare at John who stood behind him, laughing and holding a bit of dental floss between his fingers.
He was glad the door was closed and locked and lunged at the Captain with a murderous intent. They fell to the floor with a thud and a tangle of limbs. He drew his fist back and went to hit Soap, but he was just a little too slow and his fist hit the floor. He hissed at the pain and knew his knuckles would end up bruised later. He didn't care. He swung again, this time going for the body. John flipped their positions and tried holding the squirming Simon still. It wasn't working too well. He was growling at Riley, ordering him to calm down, and nothing seemed to work until the Lieutenant with impossibly stiff and still.
"Well it's about damn--"
"Let me up." Simon whispered hoarsely.
"What?"
"Let me up." He was a little more hysterical and his eyes weren't focused on the confused Brit above him. His frantic blue gaze was focused under the bed where a large, pale yellow scoripion stood with its claws raised defensively. It was only a few inches away from Riley's head and it was clearly freaking him out.
John was torn between telling him to face his fears and just letting him up, but the decision was soon made for him when Ghost threw him off and jumped away from the bed.
"Fucking kill it!" He hissed.
John dutifully stood and crushed the pale arachnid with his boot and glanced over his shoulder where Simon was sitting in the center of the bed, eyes on the spot where the monstrosity had stood only a few moments before.
"I'm really ready to be out of this goddamned desert." Riley muttered.
John smiled softly and sat down on the bed. In a rare moment of gentility, he hugged Simon close and told him he'd get them out of there and away from the camel spiders and scorpions.
"For the record, I am never going to forgive you for this." Simon muttered.
"I told you to reload!"
The yell echoed through the sparsely furnished apartment.
"Well I can only reload so fast." MacTavish gowled.
"So much for superior reflexes." Ghost smirked.
Muzzle flashes illuminated the television screen and the fierce clicking coming from the XBox controllers in their hands. Their arguments in Afghanistan were forgotten, as long as they weren't dredged up and mentioned.
"You might want to skip the next level." Soap warned.
"Why's that?"
"The boss looks something like a spider."
Next door, their insomniatic neighbor rolled her eyes and turned up her music. The neighbors were quiet, for the most part. But when they decided to fight... There was a loud thump as they obviously crashed into the connecting wall and she swore she heard something about snakes and spiders, but who was she to judge?
A/N: So, the idea for the XBox games came from the wonderful DeviantArtist Ameij who has actually drawn a picture inspired by WRATH under the title of "If Only". The inspiration for the XBox scene is titled "Game Rage". Hope you guys liked it. :3