Enjoy this chapter it may be awhile before I get anything in here for another long while

BEAR

"Damn it, we have even more problems to deal with." Bear growled to Snake over the Codex. He was currently outside, hiding a few feet away from the parking lot, where he could easily see the large crowd that had gathered not too long ago.

"That red motorcycle must belong to Ghost." Snake stated in a calm tone from the other end, letting out a slight cough afterwards. "And if that's so, then he must be in the center of that confrontation."

Bear couldn't help but to release a frustrated sigh, "First it was that battle royal in the classroom, then Christian suddenly appears, and now, we have to worry about the damn authorities being dispatched our way. And they could be arriving within ten to fifteen minutes." He said in an agitated tone, obviously caused by the situation that was happening before him. Plus the clothing he was currently wearing wasn't helping either. He made a mental note to himself that his skin and polyester didn't agree with one another.

"Hey, I stayed in character, thank you very much." Christian yelled as he looked towards Bear, who was right beside him. "It's not hard to pretend to be some kid named Ethan." He adds.

"Just shut up Christian!" Bear snapped back. "We have enough problems at the moment, and I don't need to hear your smartass mouth right now!"

"Well sorry for trying to lighten the mood, "Mr. Woods"." Christian said mockingly as a sly smirk appeared on his half-covered face. "Maybe you should send me to the Principal's office."

"Christian, if you don't shut the-" Bear was cut off by the sound of a gunshot, which causes both men to throw their conversation out the window and snap into soldier mode in an instant.

Bear quickly ducked down low to the ground, pulling out a MP412 revolver, pointing the barrel straight towards the general area he heard the gunshot come from. The sound of students screaming in fear and panic continued throughout the parking lot. Bear glanced out the corner of his eye to find Christian grasping a small survival knife in one hand with a USP .45 in the other while he hid behind a dark blue car that was nearby.

"Bear! What's going on? What's happening!?" Snake asked into the still active Codex in a demanding tone.

"Someone just pulled out a gun and fired off a shot." Bear growled into the Codex as he continued to stare forward.

"We need that Erin girl, Bear." Snake reminded the undercover soldier. "If the information we gathered is indeed true, and she does know something, then it's obvious that we need her alive!"

"I'm well aware of that, Sir." Bear replied back as he began to survey the area. "I'll be sure to get to her before the authorities can." He submitted to his superior before ending the connection.

Before the situation could escalate any farther, a police cruiser suddenly pulls up and parks not too far from the crowd. Within seconds, two officers step out of the vehicle, drawing their weapons, as they continue to scream out "Freeze" or "Get on the ground" towards the individuals in the crowd. As Bear continued to look around, he spots a trio of girls hiding behind a car, watching the scene with keen eyes. He could easily tell that the girls came from different nationalities. Ignoring the three girls, he set his sights onto the one he was ordered to retrieve, Erin Grant.

"Christian, you can put that gun away." Bear ordered the younger male, who only grunted as an acknowledgement. "Alright, I'm going in."

Placing his gun back into his holster, Bear slowly began making his way towards Erin. Many of the students were attempting to get out of the area before either one of the officers could get them. They probably though he was an undercover officer helping out. Before long, he was right behind Erin, whose attention was on the officers that were subduing both Elijah and some other kid, placing them both in handcuffs. It took only two officers to take down the first kid, however, it took four officers to keep Elijah down and two more to place handcuffs on him.

While she was distracted, Bear quickly makes his move. In one swift motion, he wrapped his left arm around Erin's waist and quickly places his right hand over her mouth before she could scream for help and alert the officers. Erin immediately started struggling against Bear's hold, but her struggle was proven useless against the trained soldier as he continued to drag her away from the slowly diminishing crowd. Once he was able to get Erin out of sight, he removes his left arm from around her waist and placed it on her neck. He starts to add pressure, slowly cutting off her airway. Erin responded by fighting against Bear's hold even more, but like before, it was useless. Once Erin lost consciousness, Bear quickly release his hold from around her neck.

"Who the hell are you!?" An angered voice exclaimed from behind Bear, causing the man to draw his gun once more. He turned around swiftly, aiming his gun at the individual. There, he found the trio of girls he spotted earlier. Forgetting about his persona at the moment, he just stared at the angry looking Asian girl.

"It's none of your concern." Bear answered the girl calmly as he grabbed the unconscious Erin, holding her close.

"Step away, right now." Christian yelled, startling the girls. When they all glanced back, they found him holding his two weapons, ready to attack at any given moment.

Lifting Erin onto his shoulders, Bear slowly began to back away slowly, but continued to keep his gun aimed at the three girls. As he does so, a large Dodge truck pulls up beside him. Placing his gun back into its holster, Bear quickly opened the back door and placed Erin inside. After closing the door, he opens the front passenger door and jumps in.

"Leave 'em, Christian. They're no threat to us." Bear told the younger male through the connection link of the Codex while the truck drove off. Exiting the parking lot, the truck takes a sharp right, heading east.

CHRISTIAN (ETHAN)

"Sorry, but my friend needs her…" Christian told the girls as he put away his guns.

"He needs her? For what?" one of the girls asked.

"Because, she knows something we don't…" he answered as he glanced back. He found all three girls staring at him.

"You mean she knows something about Ghost?" Asked the girl who looked to be a South American native.

Christian didn't say a word. Taking his silence as an answer, the three girls just turned around and headed back over to the silver car they were hiding behind previously. She opened the door to the driver's seat and jump in while the other two got in as well. Just before the car pulled off, the Scandinavian blonde, who jumped into the backseat, sent Christian a wink as she waved goodbye.

"Well… isn't she friendly." Christian mumbled to himself as a small smiled appeared. Christian turned around and heads forward, heading towards the thinning crowd of people. As he walked passed them, he snatched up a backpack that was lying on the ground, and kept walking. After searching for a minute, he eventually pulls out a small set of keys from the small side pocket. "Heh, as if Ghost would go anywhere without his keys." He added as he throws the bag over his shoulder.

Christian chuckled to himself as he took a hold of the helmet that was hanging off the taillight of the vehicle. Hopping onto the machine and placing the key into the ignition, he quickly started the engine, receiving a deafening roar as a response. The roar of the engine immediately gained the attention of officers that were still standing around. Then, without hesitation, Christian slammed on the throttle, causing the motorcycle to lurch forward. Only a few seconds after hitting the road, Christian had already reached the vehicle's maximum speed.

"Damn! This bitch can move!" Christian yelled over the roar of the motorcycle. After taking a few quick and necessary turns, he pulled out onto the main highway.

ELIJAH (GHOST)

While he sat inside one of the patrol cars in handcuffs, Elijah watched as his "borrowed" red motorcycle zoomed down the road. Elijah couldn't help but to release a somewhat frustrated sigh. From what he could tell, he thought Ethan was a good guy, someone he could trust. But still…

"First that bastard, Trent, and now Ethan?" Elijah asked himself. "If Ethan needed to my bike, he could have asked... before taking it."

As Elijah got lost in his thoughts, he was brought out of them when the door opened. Elijah turned his head to find one of the officers standing there. A female officer with dark skin and dark brown hair pulled into a ponytail stood there with one hand secured on her handgun while it was still inside its holster. Elijah's eyes soon landed on the gold colored nametag pinned on her uniform shirt with the name, Mitchell, engraved in black.

"Is your name, Elijah Carter?" Officer Mitchell asked in a calm, intimidated, tone.

"Yeah, I'm Elijah Carter." Elijah answered in an unusually calm tone of his own.

"Do you know how many charges are up against you?" She asked him in a slightly annoyed tone.

"There's only one that I know of…" Elijah started to say.

"Well, you have three people charging you for assault. And the one we detained along with you, he's charging you for not only drawing a weapon on him but aiming and threatening to shoot him." Officer Mitchell explained. "But before we can charge you, we want to hear your side of the story." It was obvious that Officer Mitchell couldn't believe that one person could cause so much damage until she saw the "victims" herself.

"First of all, they're all lying. The three that are blaming me for assaulting them, assaulted me. So what I did was use self-defense before they could attempt to mess me up." Elijah explained, annoyance was clearly heard within his voice. "And second, that gun isn't mine, its Trent's. He, along with a guy named Michael, were the ones pulling weapons out on me. Trent threatened to shoot me minutes ago, while Michael actually stabbed me with his switchblade an hour earlier."

"Hmm, it appears that the only way to find out the answer is by asking those who've witness the events." Officer Mitchell concluded. "However, we'll still need to take you down to the station."

Elijah just remained silent as Officer Mitchell closed the door. She walked over and climbed into the driver's seat while her partner, a young Caucasian woman with long dirty blonde hair, which was also pulled into a ponytail, got into the passenger's seat. Elijah turned his hand and just stared out of the window as the cruiser pulled off.

One hour later….

Thanks to the eye witnesses for telling the truth about both incidents, all charges were dropped against Elijah and he was soon released out of police custody. After leaving the building, and declining a ride home from the officers, Elijah silently roamed the downtown area of Albany. As he walked along the sidewalk, his attention was suddenly directed onto a nearby pet store. In the display window, he could see a couple of puppies roughhousing with each other. Deciding to get a closer look, Elijah entered the store. Once inside, he saw several animals ranging from reptilian animals such as turtles and snakes to birds, dogs, cats, rabbits, ect…

"Hello. Are you looking for a specific animal?" Asked a male attendant, who was standing by the wall with large fish tanks that were filled with different species of aquatic life.

"Um, no. I'm just looking around." Elijah told him as he kept moving.

With a nod, the attendant returned back to his job of feeding the animals. Elijah continued to move until he came to an area that housed dogs of different breeds. Back up front, the display window only contained pure breeds, which he knew were quite expensive. So he decided to see what other breeds they had to offer. He walked over to a small play pin that held several small puppies. He spotted one that looked like an Alaskan Husky, but since it was in the back, he assumed that it wasn't a pure breed and was mixed with another dog. Sadly, he couldn't tell what. He soon walked over to another topless pin that contained puppies with light brown, black, or a mixture of the two.

"Are you finding everything okay?" he heard someone asked. He glanced up to see a female attendant slowly approaching him.

"Can you tell me what kind of breed puppies are inside this pin?" He asked, pointing towards the puppies.

"These are all Pit-bull Terrier and Rottweiler mixes." She answered. "Sadly they're not selling well since the Pit-bull has an aggressive reputation." She added in a saddened tone.

"Hmm, I see." He replied as he reached down to pet one of them. Almost immediately, nearly every single puppy ran to his hand and started licking him. "Well, it seems that they like me." he mumbled quietly.

"Well, they all love to be held and petted. Plus they love licking people's hands." The attendant said with a small smile on her face, which slowly disappears. "Well, all of them do, except that one." She added as she pointed at the said puppy that was literally staring at Elijah's hand.

"Hmm, alright, let's see just how bad you are." Elijah said to the puppy as he looked at him.

As Elijah's hand grew closer, the puppy instantly started growling. Elijah continued to reach out, unfazed by the puppy's attempt to scare him off. When Elijah grabbed a hold of the small animal, the puppy wastes no time biting his hand. Elijah let out a small chuckle as he carefully pried the puppy's jaws open, releasing his hand. While his right hand continued to hold the puppy up into the air, he used his left as a temporary muzzle to keep the puppy from biting him again.

"You know how to handle aggressive dogs?" the attendant asked, quite surprised by how he was handling the small creature.

"Yeah." Elijah answered as he continued to stare at the puppy. "You're a feisty little guy." He added as the puppy continued to growl at him. "Heel!" Elijah stated in a stern tone, startling the animal. His growls soon turned into small whimpers. Seeing that he had calmed down, Elijah removed his hand from around his mouth and held him with both hands. "I'll take this little guy. He just needs an alpha male to put him in his place." Elijah said with a small chuckle.

"Well normally I wouldn't sell an aggressive dog. But since you look like you know what you're doing, I'll make an exception just this once." She told him as she returned the small smile.

"Great." Elijah told her. "Oh. Do you have any chain link collars?" he asked.

"Sure, right this way." she told him as she gestured him to follow her.

In about thirty minutes or so of gathering the basic essentials for the puppy, giving him the necessary shots and finishing the paperwork, everything was completed. As for the puppy's name, Elijah decided to call him Buddy. With his new collar and dog tags secured around his neck, Buddy walked out of the store with his new owner following him. As the two walked down the sidewalk, heading towards the closest city bus stop, Elijah noticed an individual walking behind them. The stranger was clad in a dark colored trench coat with a black fedora covering his head. After walking a little farther down the street, he knew this guy was definitely following him. Elijah finally stops in his tracks and turns around to confront the stranger. Once he was standing before the individual, he noticed that the mysterious guy was also wearing tight dark and silver pants along with black combat boots.

7h ago"Why are you following me!?" Elijah asked in a demanding tone. However, the man just remained silent. Standing there, Elijah also noticed that the guy had long girlish looking blonde hair. "Look, whoever you are, you need to…"

"You're coming with me, Ghost." The stranger said. He tone was definitely that of a male, but it had a strange metallic sound to it as well.

As Elijah prepared himself to fight off this strange, if he decided to attack, a large truck came from out of nowhere and parked up against the sidewalk, right beside Elijah and the strange man standing before him. When the door opened, this caught Elijah's attention, which gave the stranger the opportunity to grab a hold of Elijah's arm. He quickly dragged Elijah into the vehicle, sitting him down right next to an unconscious individual who was already sitting there. Before he could get a good look at the individual and see who they were, a thick cloth was suddenly placed and held tightly over his mouth and nose. The substance within the fabric acts quickly, causing him to start losing consciousness. As he continued to struggle, his body finally went limp as he blacks out. Buddy, who was squirming in Elijah's arms, goes limp and blacks out as well. Once the task was done, the strange climbed into the truck and shuts the door as it took off down the road, heading to its next destination.