Long waits for short chapters, but well, every single story has been getting updated pretty slowly lately, so...

Either way, at least the chapters have been growing slightly longer with each update. And in other news this story may get much darker in the future. Possibly and M rating, but we'll see.

It was a bit larger than he had expected. It was all Ryu could think as he used a pair of binoculars to peer at Black Hole's new laser weapon nestled at the foot of the nearby mountain range. From his unit's hidden position in the woods a few miles out, they sought some sort of weakness to the weapon that Kanbei's forces could exploit when they came through here in a few hours.

The laser itself was a strange contraption, with four cones that Ryu assumed were the 'barrels' of the weapon pointing north, east, south, and west. The size of the device overall was impressive, roughly the size of a base, but so far there was no real data to be gleaned from their ongoing observation. Ryu had seen troops walking in and out of the facility, presumably the crew that manned it, but the weapon had not been fired yet, so nothing useful had been discovered.

Perhaps they would have to get closer to the weapon. But at the moment, no one was really willing to do that. After all, no one knew what the weapon was capable of. Who knew if it could simply obliterate them if they were seen? But they had a mission to complete, a very important mission that could save the lives of dozens of men that would be involved in Kanbei's assault. Someone had to do something. And all things considered, Ryu felt the most qualified to do it. He had cheated death plenty of times already, after all. If someone should take the risk it should be him.

That said, he clambered out of his jeep without a word to the rest of the squad, stopping only when the squad leader noticed his actions. "Suzukai, what are you doing?"

"I'm getting out of the jeep, obviously."

"I can see that, but why?"

"To go and investigate the laser weapon. We aren't going to figure out anything just sitting around out here."

The squad leader looked at him like he was crazy. "You want to go out there? Alone? Are you out of your mind?"

Ryu looked at the man with that strange look that had come into his eyes ever since he had put the Joker into his goggle strap. "Well are you going to do it...Sir?"

Immediately uncomfortable with this question and the look Ryu was giving him, the squad leader struggled to maintain some semblance of command. "Alright... if you're determined to do this, go ahead. Don't know if the commander will like it though..."

Ryu shrugged as he drew his sidearm from his holster in preparation for his excursion. "Sonja will get over it. It's not like she'll miss one measly soldier if something happens to me."

Practically everyone in the unit looked at Ryu incredulously. He was talking about their CO way too casually: not to mention that he had just referred to her by name. But before anyone could reprimand him for it, Ryu was already leaving the area and heading out towards Black Hole and their new weapon. The leader of his unit couldn't help but stare after the man, whose mental state he was beginning to seriously question.

As for Ryu, he was actually kind of excited. Even he knew there was something unhealthy about his current state of mind, but he didn't really care to try and fix it. He even found himself looking forward to how fate would try to do him in today. Would he chance upon a full infantry squad, getting gunned down before he had a chance to react? Would he step on a mine guarding the laser and get blown to pieces? Would the weapon's crew just so happen to fire the laser right when he was in its path, vaporizing him?

And if these things did occur, would his luck hold out? Would he miraculously avoid every bullet from the enemy squad as he fired back at them? Would the mine he stepped on be a dud? Would there be a trench or a depression or something he could jump into when laser fired? It was all very intriguing, and the fact that Ryu was questioning his own fate in such a manner didn't bother him at all.

Still, he wasn't pushing his luck to a degree where he would go out and actively look for trouble. He figured that the game didn't work that way. He still had to be cautious and careful and do his job properly. The danger would come to him when it was time to gamble again, and all he'd be able to do is wait and see how destiny wanted to play the game at that time.

That being the case, Ryu did his best to advance towards Black Hole's position stealthily. He made use of whatever cover he could find, or resorted to crawling his way there when he was forced to traverse a plain. He didn't actually spot too many Black Hole troops around the area, even as he came closer to the weapon. There were a few squads of infantry on patrol, but their vigilance was far from good enough to spot Ryu as he moved past them.

Still, his target had been several miles away from his starting point, and Ryu was moving very slowly to get there. He was only about halfway when his squad contacted him over the radio, irritating the man who was currently prone in a field of grass. "Suzukai? Do you copy, over?"

Ryu scowled as he reached for the device. What were they thinking, hailing him while he was trying to sneak around? "Are you trying to get me killed? What is it?"

Needless to say, the squad leader was not happy with Ryu's tone or the words he spoke, but he refrained from saying anything about it since Ryu had a point. "The commander wants you back here now, over."

Ryu shook his head as he imagined the look on Sonja's face when the squad leader had informed her of his actions. He sure had taken a while to actually tell her though. "I just spent the last hour and a half covering all of this distance. I'm not turning around now."

He could practically feel the anger and irritation coming from his squad leader as he answered. "It wasn't a request Suzukai. Your commanding officer wants you to return to your unit immediately."

With a smirk, Ryu scanned his immediate area, worried that an enemy soldier may have overheard this conversation at this point. "Does she now? Well, you can tell my commanding officer that her concern is touching, but I'm kind of busy here. Over and out."

"Suzukai, don't you dare-!"

Tired of this pointless exchange, Ryu cut off the communication, amused as he imagined the flustered and irritated look on Sonja's face right now. Had she ever been flat-out disobeyed before? Ryu was sure she hadn't, and he couldn't help but wonder how it made her feel. Probably mad, that someone would dare say no to one of her prodigious commands. Ryu almost laughed at the notion, but his attention was caught by the rustle of something behind him.

He had figured this would happen. Now it was time to see if he could cheat death just one more time. Quickly rolling onto his back and leveling his sidearm at the source of the noise, Ryu laid eyes on a lone Black Hole foot soldier, his rifle likewise pointed at him. Ryu was surprised to see the soldier alone, but then again, Ryu himself was separated from his unit too. What surprised him even more was that, at this close range, he could actually see the soldier's face past that visor all Black Hole Infantry had.

As expected, the visage of his foe was far from human, but it wasn't as frightening as Ryu had always imagined them to be either. In the past war, when the enemy had been human too, Ryu wondered how something like this would have played out. Being this close, face to face like this, would two human soldiers have trouble shooting one another? Would the expression of fear or pity or something else be enough to stop them from pulling the trigger? Perhaps, but this situation was not the same. This Black Hole soldier did not have any expressions Ryu could recognize. It looked like a monster, and Ryu was perfectly fine with killing a monster.

Having not expected Ryu to be aware of his presence as he approached, the Black Hole trooper was startled when his Yellow Comet adversary turned on him, weapon drawn. The suited alien invader fumbled with his weapon for just a brief moment, pulling the trigger but not aiming all that well, spraying the ground around Ryu with bullets. On the other hand, Ryu aimed without folly, and one squeeze of the trigger was enough to kill the enemy before him, piercing the glass of his visor and creating a grisly mess out of his face.

As the dead trooper fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, Ryu once again took note of the strange, pale blue gas that leaked from the breach in the suit. He wondered if he could breathe it safely himself, what it was exactly, but there was really no need to try and find out. That said, Ryu stood to pilfer the enemy's machine gun, but he was stopped short when he heard water spewing onto the ground. Glancing down at his hip, he saw that his canteen had been shot through, its contents pouring onto the grass beside him.

The sight of it only made him smile sardonically to himself. "Looks like I win again."

Pleased with yet another victory over fate in the twisted game they played together, Ryu took the dead soldier's assault rifle, briefly studying the thing. Like all of Black Hole's technology, its aesthetic design was strange. The rifle was little more than a solid rectangular contraption with a barrel and a trigger. It didn't seem to have any of the moving parts Ryu would have expected of a projectile weapon, but as long as he knew it worked, he didn't quite care how it did.

That said, he realized that Black Hole really had a great love for geometry. As he pictured many of the vehicles he had seen in his mind, he realized that most of them were square or circular. Very few of their vehicles bore the sharp diagonal slant of armor that most of the allied nations did. Ryu had always found it strange. From a tanker's perspective, having tanks with flat surface armor was very foolish. Slanted armor helped divert incoming tank rounds, and dispersed the force of the impact. Black Hole tanks had no such thing. But then again, maybe their technology compensated for the strange design somehow?

Either way, Ryu figured that it would not be wise for him to stick around the scene of his brief conflict here. This soldier may have been alone for whatever reason, but the rest of his squad had to be around somewhere, and between four enemies, Ryu was sure one of them would be able to shoot straight. With that in mind, he continued his trek towards the Black Hole laser weapon, where he noticed that security was indeed getting a little tighter. There was a lot more infantry milling about as he came closer to it, as well as a few tanks rolling (or hovering rather) about as they scanned the perimeter for intruders such as himself.

Ryu was slightly worried about his chances of sneaking past all of these enemies, but he noted in confusion that the security almost seemed to be more for show than actual protection. As he observed the situation from a reasonable distance, Ryu realized that his Black Hole adversaries didn't react to the same things he would have, or that any human soldier would have. Whenever there was some noise caused by an animal nearby, none of the soldiers even looked in its direction. They didn't keep their head on the swivel as they patrolled, instead choosing to stare straight ahead as they marched to and fro in front of the laser weapon.

Did they not think the same way humans did? It would not have been surprising considering that they weren't human at all, but somehow Ryu still found the realization alarming. What else did they not know about their alien adversaries? What if there was some glaring weakness they could exploit, if they but captured and interrogated one of them? But while Ryu thought this, he knew now was not the time to try and take a prisoner. He was a lone soldier, surrounded by foes on all fronts. Besides, he doubted that he could use the 'human' shield technique: Black Hole probably would have gunned right through one of their own if it meant killing him.

That being the case, Ryu spent a few more minutes analyzing the pattern of the guard's movements, only choosing to move when he was sure he could slip between them. There were a few moments when none of the infantry was looking in his direction, at which point Ryu moved forward, rushing directly towards an enemy tank.

A crazy idea maybe, but one that would likely work. Black Hole didn't have a crewman on the outside of their tanks, and their view port from within the vehicle was small. He could walk right up to the thing and casually stroll alongside it and no one would know. Ryu made for a particular tank whose circuit brought it relatively close to the laser weapon, coming to move alongside it as it patrolled the area. Keeping the black steel of the vehicle between him and the patrolling infantry around was easy, and soon enough the vehicle came close enough to the facility for Ryu to make a break for it.

With a crouching type of sprint, the young soldier made it to the entry way of the weapon without being detected, though he was careful as he stepped inside of the facility as well. Who knew if it had guards of its own?

But apparently it didn't. The narrow, dark hallways that formed the interior of this structure were devoid of almost anything, save for a few passing soldiers that were probably the crew of the weapon. Avoiding them was easy, and though Ryu could have slit a few throats along the way, he figured it was better not to. If the enemy knew a Yellow Comet soldier had been in here, they would likely know something about the weapon had been compromised, and who knew how they would react to that.

No, it was better to leave no trace of his presence. The element of surprise demanded that Black Hole not know that Yellow Comet knew about their weapon and how it functioned: if Ryu could somehow determine that while he was here.

That said, he was trying to locate a room of some importance, a room he figured would be near the center of the complex, but it was quite easy to get lost in here. It wasn't until the high-pitched, shrill voice of a young girl echoed throughout the halls that Ryu had an idea of where he needed to go. Though he could hear her voice, he couldn't quite tell what she was saying, and if this girl was who he thought it was, he needed to know what she was saying.

Ryu followed the echo of her voice throughout the facility, still careful to avoid being spotted. His efforts paid off when he came to a large central chamber that had a massive power generator in the middle of it, with tubing and wires and tons of other electrical gear connecting it to the ceiling. If Ryu had to hazard a guess, this contraption powered the laser itself.

But he was more interested in the two people standing in front of the generator. One was a short, young girl with wild hair and a long coat, and the other was a tall, slender man with purple hair and a pallid complexion. Yes, Ryu knew who these two were. Lash and Adder, two of Black Hole's commanding officers. But he was still confused. Adder's presence was understandable, as he was the one spearheading Black Hole's invasion into Yellow Comet territory. But why was Lash here? Granted, Sonja had faced her before in an earlier battle, but wasn't this girl supposed to be taking care of the Blue Moon invasion? Surely she didn't have enough time on her hands to leave the front to come play around here?

Maybe that meant Blue Moon had pushed back the invaders already? Maybe that was just wishful thinking, but Ryu wanted it to be true. Reinforcements from Blue Moon and Orange Star would have been the greatest thing he could ask for.

Either way, Ryu slid behind some piping to listen in on their conversation, which was mostly Lash defending her invention from Adder's slithering accusations.

"It's a prototype you creep, a prototype. Obviously it isn't going to work as well as the final version. You should be glad you even get one to play with at all!"

Adder did not seem impressed by this. "Your prototype takes two days to fire. What kind of weapon needs such a ridiculous charge time? By the time it is ready to fire Yellow Comet's forces will be out of its effective range, which, need I remind you, is severely limited."

Lash did not take well to having her invention defamed. "First of all, the fact that it fires in four directions only is a sacrifice you make for a weapon that can reach across the entire field of battle. And yeah, it takes two days to charge right now, but we're talking about a laser that can vaporize a neotank like it was butter! Just use your tanks to funnel Yellow Comet's troops into the valley, and voila, you can wipe out the majority of their army in one shot. Seriously, what are you complaining about?"

"It's not as heavily armored as it needs to be. Some fool with a rocket launcher could damage this weapon."

"Well welcome to the club, Adder. In case you haven't noticed, there's no such thing as an invincible weapon! Yeah, it could get blown to bits by a few rockets, but that's what you have troops for! Don't let them get close you idiot!"

Adder literally hissed at the girl, something that freaked Ryu out to no small extent. "I hardly think you have any right to accuse me of idiocy when you were so easily crushed by Blue Moon."

Ryu tuned out whatever Lash's reply was. So he had been right. The Blue Moon theater had been cleared, and soon enough they and Orange Star would be here to help liberate Yellow Comet as well. After that they would all converge on Green Earth. Either way, Ryu had heard everything he needed to. The weapon's firing line was fixed, it could only fire every two days, it could be destroyed by conventional weapons, and it was positioned to fire into the valley that approached the cities Kanbei was hellbent on liberating.

But Ryu wondered if he should really just leave. Two of Black Hole's COs were right in front of him. He had a machine gun, surely he could kill them both before they had time to react. Killing Adder in particular would have made it much easier for his country to push back the invaders...

Coming to a decision easily enough, Ryu prepared to step out from his hiding place and mow down the enemy. But before he could make a move, several Black Hole soldiers entered the chamber as well, supposedly to report something to their leaders. There were now too many for Ryu to take on himself. He could still probably kill Adder and Lash, but there was no way he'd be able to get every single foe in the room before one of them got him first. If he made a move now he would surely die.

Then again, what were good soldiers supposed to do? Sacrifice themselves for the greater good, right? Killing two of Black Hole's CO's would strike a crippling blow against them. Their assault on Yellow Comet could be effectively halted if he but killed Adder here and now, and getting rid of Lash would put an end to weapons like the one Ryu was investigating right this second. Without a doubt, killing these two would go a long way to helping the war effort, and would save countless lives...

But it sure as hell wouldn't save his. Besides, Ryu had to escape this installation alive in order to relay what he had discovered about it to his comrades. If he didn't, who knew how many of Kanbei's men would get incinerated by this laser?

To some extent, Ryu knew this was an excuse. The fact of the matter was that he didn't want to die. Sure, he had made a habit out of playing chicken with the grim reaper, but in those situations it was always chance. Sure, he could die, but in this scenario he was practically guaranteed to die, and at this point that wasn't Ryu's game.

So instead of doing anything potentially life-threatening, Ryu simply slipped out of the facility as quietly as possible, alerting no one as he retraced his steps to escape. He noted that most of the troops that had been guarding the outside were absent now, though the reason for this became clear when the sounds of battle entered his audible range. Clearly he had taken a little longer to perform this solo reconnaissance than he thought.

With little time to waste, Ryu contacted his unit, so they could in turn relay what he had found to Sonja. After all, he only had a short range radio: to contact HQ he would need the facilities of his recon unit. His squad leader had a few choice words for him upon contact, but all things considered he calmed himself readily enough. Once Ryu finished relaying his knowledge of the laser cannon to his fellow comrades and by de facto Sonja, he simply began making his leisurely way back to his unit, so he could return home and call it a day.

Though Ryu had not expected any different, the ride back to HQ had been unusually tense. The rest of the men in his unit, and especially his squad leader, were unhappy with him. He had been borderline insubordinate in attitude already, but he had actually defied orders too. But Ryu didn't know why it bothered them so much. It wasn't any skin off of their teeth if he disobeyed orders, so long as they hadn't. It wasn't like they were in danger of being punished.

Speaking of which, Ryu wondered what Sonja would do to him when he got back to her. Oddly enough, he felt no dread in contemplating the matter: in fact, he only felt amusement. After all her misguided efforts to somehow endear herself to him, would she cut it all down in a fit of indignant anger? Would she pout like a child, appalled by the idea of being defied by someone under her command? Or would she simply act like nothing had happened at all, granting him that cold, aloof persona she was so good at exuding?

It was kind of exciting actually. Not quite as exciting as dealing with the exhilaration of a near death experience, but still exciting. In fact, as Ryu's unit rolled into the base, he was almost bouncing in his seat. Something was wrong with him, clearly. He knew that, knew that something in him had snapped when he released the Joker from its decimated container, but he didn't care. He didn't care about anything at this point, other than some scraps of duty and honor he still had left.

He'd still do his job as a soldier. Mentally unstable or not, he was a Yellow Comet soldier through and through, and he hated Black Hole. He'd fight them and kill them and risk his life against them, even if he couldn't find it in him to care for anything else other than that. Perhaps everything else could just be noise.

But as he rolled up to the HQ Sonja commanded, Ryu knew he would have to expand the horizons of his concern just a little bit farther. The livid, downright furious expression on his commander's face was enough to tell him that.

She was actually out here herself to meet him. She was pissed, but about what? Surely she wouldn't make a scene in front of her own soldiers just to reprimand one insubordinate trooper? Or would she? Was she really that angry? Ryu figured he was about to find out as he exited his vehicle, casually advancing towards the base as Sonja stormed angrily towards him. The other men of his unit were quick to scatter when they saw her visage.

Ryu wondered what she would say. Would it be formal or would she be angry enough to address him casually?

"Ryu!"

Casually, apparently.

"What on earth were you thinking?! Of all the asinine things you could possibly do, you choose to rush into a heavily fortified enemy position with nothing but your pistol?!"

Ryu heard everything she said, but he wasn't really paying attention. He was paying attention to her alright, but not to what she was saying.

"Do you have any idea how high the probability of your death was?! I did the math, and trust me, it was astronomical!"

Had she always had such a cute face? Even as she raged at him she really was adorable. It must have been the eyes. Even furrowed in anger, they had some gentle quality to them that Ryu really liked.

"You are an absolute moron! The most foolish man I have ever met! And what makes you think you can just shrug off my orders like they're nothing to heed at all?! I am your commanding officer, in case you've forgotten-"

Before Sonja could continue her incredibly uncharacteristic tirade, Ryu wrapped an arm around her waist, cutting her short. He was feeling unusually bold at the moment, and he couldn't get enough of the absolute shock on Sonja's face. "Sonja."

Completely flabbergasted by this sudden turn of events, Sonja barely managed to utter anything at all. "R-Ryu?"

"You're really cute."

"W-w-what?! What-"

Before the stunned girl could go any further, Ryu pulled her closer to him, to a degree where there was literally no space between their bodies at all. He could have leaned forward a mere two inches to kiss her if he had wanted to. "But you talk way too much."

With that, Ryu released his hold on his commanding officer, brushing past her as the girl reeled in a mixture of shock and embarrassment. She had not expected this. She had not expected any of this.

As for Ryu, he simply made for the barracks, wondering to himself if Kanbei would have killed him faster for the way he had hit his daughter in the past, or for the way she was playing about in his mind at the moment.

Alrighty, so here it is. I'm doing another play-through of AW2 right now, so I've got the spirit for this story in me. Hopefully that'll equal a less ridiculous update timeframe.