"Snake!" Lucina cheered happily.
"So, he came. Somehow I'm not surprised." Lucario chuckled. Snake turned to his four comrades.
"I want you all to stay out of this." Snake requested.
"But why?" Lucina asked.
"Yeah, if we team up on him, it'll be 5-on-1, he won't stand a chance." Fox added.
"Fox, you're exhausted. And what about Link? He's got a broken arm; and it's his dominant one as well."
"Don't worry about it! I've may have only one arm, but that's all I need to fight." Link said with great confidence.
"Okay, maybe you are still capable of fighting. Never the less, I would like you to stay out of this." Snake again requested of them.
"Can you at least tell us why?" Lucina pleaded. Snake frowned. He didn't really have a logical reason behind it, so all he could tell her was the truth.
"This is just something I feel like I need to do alone."
After a brief pause, Lucina finally nodded in understanding. "Okay. Be careful."
Snake walked towards Deathborn with an ice-cold stare on his face. Deathborn looked back at him with smirk behind his mask. "I'm so glad you could join us. It seems even when you're part of an organization, you can't stop your nomadic ways."
Snake didn't respond, he just continued to glare at him.
"By the way, I never got to thank you for taking out that bastard Captain Falcon. I've been trying to do it for years, but then you came and did it for me." Deathborn chuckled. He got no response from Snake. Deathborn decided to drop the taunting and to get serious.
"I know it was you that did it." He cryptically said.
"What are you talking about?" Snake asked.
"I know you're the one who destroyed the Chaos Emeralds. Why would you do that?" He scowled.
"Isn't it obvious? It was to keep that kind of power away from people like you." Snake answered. "And if you ask me, nobody should be trusted with that amount of power. The desire for more power is what caused the Catastrophe in the first place."
"Ah! But that's where you're wrong my friend!" Deathborn claimed.
"What? You think there's another reason?"
"But of course! Allow me to explain." Deathborn requested though didn't care for anyone's permission. "It is true that several power-crazed fighters were responsible for much of the world's destruction. However, the ones that are truly to blame are the former gods of this world! The Hands! They allowed those fighters that power when they weren't capable of harnessing it!"
Snake frowned. While the way Deathborn explained it was odd to say the least, it wasn't completely inaccurate.
"The Catastrophe marked the end of the Age of the Hands! Now it is the age of our kind." Snake rolled his eyes. He couldn't count how many times he's heard that one before. "Tell me then, what is this perfect utopian world you want to create?" Snake mocked. He didn't care about what he had to say, but he didn't think it would be bad to know what his deal is.
Though he knew Snake was mocking him, Deathborn humored him anyway. "Isn't it obvious? With the Hands out of the picture, it is our time to choose how the world will be. We, the mortals of this realm."
"I hate to burst your bubble, but that's kind of what the UR is about. Allowing people a voice, creating homes, and making people's lives better." Snake retorted.
"I understand that, and that's one of the main problems I have with your little group." Deathborn sneered. "Your organization; it coddles the weak. Gives them a sense of security knowing that someone else is out there to protect them from harm. They are useless if they're out in the Wasteland. They wouldn't last an hour." He further elaborated. "Ask yourself; is that truly a way to live? Relying on the strength of others to keep you safe? I believe not. The real way to live is relying on your own strength, and that strength alone, to survive! That is what the Natural Order is all about."
"So, a world where everyone's sole purpose is self-preservation."
"It will be filled with conflict and battle. Sounds like our type of world, doesn't it?"
"No! That's not the world I want!"
"Oh, come on Snake! Don't lie to yourself! We both know that fighting is the only thing your good at. If there is no conflict in the world, your existence is practically meaningless." Deathborn taunted.
"Maybe, maybe not. But the world doesn't revolve around my existence. There are many others whose purpose doesn't involve fighting. And I won't allow you to take that away from them!"
"How very heroic." The villain chuckled.
"If you're worried about conflict disappearing from the world, there's no reason to. As long as there are people in the world, there will always be conflict."
"While that's true, it just sounds a hell of a lot less fun than what I have in mind!"
Deathborn finally went into his fighting stance.
"Now, how about you show me a good time, hero!"
The battle began. Snake immediately focused on Deathborn's feet. His took a step directly towards him. Snake predicted where he would be after taking that step, right in front of him. He held his arms out in front of him and blocked the punch thrown by Deathborn, who ran at him faster than the eye could see. Deathborn's eyes widened at this.
"What?!"
His shock left him open, and Snake struck him with two body blows and ended with right knuckle ramming into Deathborn's cheek. Deathborn swung his fist wildly at Snake, which was avoided. Snake kicked him in the gut and smashed his elbow on top of the enemy's skull. Snake back-dashed to get a safe distance from Deathborn before he could retaliate. He was careful not to get too far away, for as long as he was a good distance close to Deathborn, he wouldn't be able to utilize his Flash-step ability.
"I hope you know the irony of you giving that speech to my friends." Snake said.
"What?" the monstrous man wondered.
"You, telling my friends that they're weak because they haven't been straining themselves in the wasteland. But I can tell you don't come out to train every day. If you were out here, wandering and surviving, I would have heard about you. But all you've been doing is hiding underground and giving orders. So that seems like the pot calling the kettle black to me."
Deathborn chuckled. "Maybe so, but I have no need for training. I'm already a prodigy when it comes to combat."
"A combat prodigy? Well I guess your god-given combat skills weren't enough, considering you've died three times." Snake mocked, touching a nerve with Deathborn. Deathborn charged forward and bashed Snake with his fist. Snake blocked two incoming punches before his guard was broken by Deathborn ramming into him like a football player. Unable to defend himself, Snake was hit with a dropkick that knocked him on his back.
Snake couldn't deny that Deathborn was quite a powerhouse. His attacks are quite damaging when they properly hit. However, his form and technique started becoming very sloppy, making his attacks sluggish and easy to avoid.
"That's a lot of power you've got there. But is it your own or just the augmentations doing all the work?" Snake snarked.
Deathborn began laughing, which was not the reaction Snake intended to get out of him.
"Oh, so you know about my augmentations? Then I'm sure you want to see what else they can do other than let me hit harder. I'll demonstrate.
Snake remained in his fighting stance while Deathborn dropped his and raised his hand in the air, two fingers pointing to the sky.
"It is rather unfortuanate that you won't live to see young Lucas again. However, I'll give you something to remember him by." Deathborn said with mock pity. Suddenly, his two fingers began to glow.
"PK FIRE!" He pointed towards Snake and shouted, launching the signature attack.
Snake was quickly rolled out of the way of the flaming projectile. He was shocked none the less.
"But how?!" Lucario shouted, him and the others looking on in awe.
"Oh! But that's not all!" Deathborn claimed. He rushed at Snake and then performed Ganondorf's Wizard's Foot technique, hitting Snake with dark aura infused kick. It hurt like hell, but Snake quickly got up before anything else happened. Deathborn attacked with a Warlock Punch, which Snake blocked but still pushed him back regardless.
"I just love the work my people in the R&D department do for me. With a bit of a fighters DNA, they can upload it into one of my augmentations and give me the knowledge of all their techniques."
Snake growled at him. He wasn't expecting something like this. But there was no need to panic, Snake kept his cool.
"And that was only a glimpse of my full power. Now I hope you reali-"
Snake stopped his monologue with a swift and powerful right hook to the jaw.
"You were wide-open."
Deathborn growled when he looked back at his opponent. "Alright. No more talk then."
He immediately went on the offensive, leaping in the air and firing multiple fireballs at Snake.
Lucina gasped. "Isn't that-"
"Yes. It's Mario's technique." Link answered for her.
Snake was careful to avoid the fireballs, and opened fire at Deathborn with his SOCOM pistol. He knew it wouldn't do any significant damage, but the bullets were powerful enough to make Deathborn flinch, throwing off his aim.
Deathborn could tell this wasn't working, and those bullets were annoying the hell out of him, so he ceased fire and went back to the ground. Snake came at him with two punches, both of which were blocked. He quickly counter-attacked with a strike to the gut. Snake recovered from the hit faster than anticipated, and took a hold of Deathborn's right arm and put him in an arm lock. Without hesitation, Snake tightened the hold and broke Deathborn's arm. Deathborn shouted in response to the pain. He forced himself out of Snake's hold with a back-fist attack. Snake was knocked back a bit but he recovered quickly. He went back into his stance, focusing on the opponent in front of him, whose left arm drooped down like a wet noodle.
"Damn it! How could this happen? I can't be defeated!" Deathborn panicked.
While it seemed that the battle had been won, Snake thought otherwise. From experience, he had learned that it's never THAT easy.
"Don't bother with the act." Snake said, shocking Deathborn. "You've got heavy-duty augmentations on you. There's no way that something so simple like a broken arm would make you helpless. You have to have something that counters a situation like this."
Deathborn smiled behind his mask and chuckled with a sinister tone. "My, my! You are very clever aren't you?"
He got up without any trouble. His arm started to bulge, his bicep and forearm pulsing like a heart. And within a few seconds, his arm was fully functional again.
"Just as I thought." Snake said to himself.
"Yes indeed. This enhanced body of mine can reconstruct broken bones, and even injuries worse than that." Deathborn proudly explained. "But I must say, you deserve props for seeing through my act. Most of the time people think they have it in the bag and lower their guard, and then I give them a big surprise. But you did your homework Snake. Congrat-"
Once again Snake punished him for lowering his guard with a powerful attack. This time it was a roundhouse kick.
"Okay! I guess you don't want to have a little fun. Then I'll cut the crap and just kill you!"
Dashing right for him, Deathborn began exchanging blows with Snake. They punched, kicked, blocked, dodged and other things in their scuffle.
Snake began to realize that this current approach was not going to work. He could not defeat Deathborn by attacking him directly. Deathborn was much stronger than him, and far more durable physically. He needed to be creative, be more pragmatic with his attacks. He thought of something. Pulling out a frag grenade, he pulled the pin and charged at Deathborn. He hid the grenade from Deathborn's sight to trick him into thinking Snake was going for a dashing punch. Once the grenade was cooked, and he was close enough to Deathborn, Snake hurled the frag at him like a fastball. Deathborn's eyes widened before the grenade went off right in front of his face. Once the smoke cleared, Deathborn was flat on his back. Once he got back up, it was clear that Snake's attack did a substantial amount of damage. A piece of his helmet had been blown off, a bit of his head could be seen. It didn't look like skin. It looked more like black aura leaking from his helmet. He became furious and started shooting energy blast frantically. Snake was forced to get away from him, giving Deathborn the perfect distance to use his Flash-step.
With one foot forward, he ran right up to Snake faster than the eye can see, catching him off guard. Raising his fist, he smashed it right into the piece of shard shrapnel embedded in Snake's head. It actually hurt his hand, but it hurt Snake much more. He screamed in pure agony as he fell to the ground, blood dripping from that area and his head feeling like it was about to explode.
"Did he hit him where I think he did?!" Fox asked, eyes widened and filled with fear.
"Y-Yes!" Lucario hesitantly responded.
"We have to help him! Who knows what state he'll be in after getting hit there!" Link ordered.
"Right! Let's go!" Lucina lead the charge.
The terrible pain in Snake's head started going away, but things still weren't normal. Everything felt off. He couldn't remember where he was or why he was here. He didn't remember he was in combat.
"Can you still fight after that?" Deathborn laughed.
Hearing his voice, he turned around and looked at Deathborn. But from his eyes, Snake was not seeing Deathborn. Instead, he was seeing a certain familiar blonde haired man that he had a history with. And it made him absolutely furious.
"LIQUIIIIIIIIID!" He roared, he voice seemingly powerful enough to destroy windows.
"What?!" Deathborn took a step back in confusion.
The others heard his shout. And decided to pick up the pace.
"What is going on?!" Deathborn wondered. Suddenly the "shrapnel" in Snake's head began to glow, shining with multiple colors. Snake also appeared to get more powerful, his pupils no longer black, but a bright yellow. And that's when Deathborn had a realization.
"SHIT! That's no shrapnel! It's a shard! THE shard!"
"LIQUID!" Snake dashed at him with blinding speed and started attacking him with fast and powerful punches and kicks. "I'll make sure you're dead this time!" Snake said to who he believed to be Liquid Snake.
"What happened to you?!" Deathborn asked, truly frightened. Snake grabbed him and threw him through a crumbling concrete wall.
Snake's friends finally arrived and were surprised to see it was actually Snake who had the upper hand. But were ignorant of what the situation was. Snake pulled Deathborn out of the rubble he was buried under.
"So, that's the Mark! Crazy Hand gave you the Mark!"
Snake didn't give that vital information regarding Crazy Hand any attention. He was not himself. Instead he ripped Deathborn's left arm off with inhuman strength. Though the loss of an arm wasn't too painful due to it being cybernetic, he realized he had to get out of here. He kicked Snake off of him and tossed a smoke bomb on the ground, quickly fleeing and making his escape afterwards.
The other four had caught up to Snake in time to witness him rip Deathborn's arm off. While what he did was very gruesome, they felt it couldn't of happened to a nicer guy.
"Dammit!" Snake growled, furious that "Liquid" got away. His friends began to approach him, completely ignorant of his current mental state.
"Snake that was amazing!" Fox cheered. "A little bit brutal, but amazing!"
Lucario stopped in his tracks after getting closer to Snake. His eyes widened. Snake's aura was so much different. Something was wrong.
When Snake didn't face them, Link became concerned. "Hey Snake? Are you all right?"
Snake turned around, but not to the faces of his friends. Instead they looked like masked Genome soldiers from the Shadow Moses operation. His eyes twitched as he looked at Link. Lucario knew some shit was about to go down.
"LINK! Raise your shield!" Lucario demanded. The warrior instinctively did so, and blocked the incoming bullets Snake fired at him.
"Snake?! What the hell!" Link shouted, feeling a mix of anger and confusion as he slid to cover.
"Lucario?! What is going on?!" Lucina shouted.
"I do not know exactly, but I do know he is not himself! We must subdue him. Get him back to his senses!"
"I'm way ahead of you." Fox replied, taking careful aim with his blaster. Pulling the trigger, he shot the pistol right out of Snake's hands, effectively disarming him.
"Let's go!" Fox shouted and charged ahead. Running towards Snake, he ducked under one of his punches. He thought he was safe when he got behind the mercenary, but Snake showed him otherwise by lifting his leg up and smashing his foot against Fox's chin. He quickly grabbed Fox and put him in a chokehold, beginning to squeeze the life out of the pilot. Fox's story would have ended there if Lucina didn't step him and scrape Snake's back with her falchion. Snake tossed Fox aside, turning his focus to the blue haired woman, but just another Genome soldier in his eyes.
Now that she was facing him, Lucina realized the disadvantage her current situation put her in. Though Snake was currently trying to kill them, this wasn't really him. He could be brought back to reality, so they had to do anything in their power to neutralize him non-lethally. Therefore, she was quite limited to where she could attack with her sword.
She dodged as Snake threw punches and kicks her way. She managed to get a few small pokes with the very tip of his sword to land on him. But Snake would not let up, and she was beginning to lose her energy. Thankfully Link and Lucario intervened, with Link tackling Snake with his shield.
"Snake! Stop this! We are not you enemy!" Link began to reason with him. His words seemed to fall on deaf ears.
"Where is Liquid?!" Snake angrily questioned. Link walked towards him.
"Link what are you doing?!" Lucario shouted, wondering why he was doing something so crazy.
"Liquid? He's dead! You killed that guy years ago! It's me, Link!"
Snake smashed Link with the back of his fist, flooring him.
"NO!" Lucario roared and began charging an aura sphere.
Snake pulled out Fox's blaster he stole during their scuffle and aimed it at Link's head.
"SNAKE! DON'T!" Lucina and Fox pleaded.
Lucario almost had his aura sphere fully charged. It pained him very much, but it was looking like he was going to have to kill his good friend. Snake didn't hear their voices, but he did hear someone else's.
Snake. Stop this.
Snake looked startled, he began looking in every direction to see who was speaking
Don't tell me you've forgotten about me.
Snake took a moment to register the voice, and then it hit him.
"G-Gray Fox?!" He called out.
The others were clueless about what was going on, but it seemed Snake was becoming less volatile.
Do you remember the last thing I said to you?
"Of course, I do. You said fighting was the only thing you were ever good at. But at least you always fought for what you believed in."
That's right! And that applies to you as well. But right now you're off track. I need you to wake up…and remember what you're fighting for.
After that, Snake's hallucinations vanished. He was back in reality, and the first thing he saw was him standing over Link, with a blaster pointed at his head. He gasped in horror and backed up, dropping the blaster.
"L-Link?" He roughly spoke up.
"Heh. It's good to see you're back." Link chuckled. Lucario sensed Snake's aura return to its natural state, and dissolved his aura sphere. He sighed with relief.
"What happened to me?" Snake desperately asked his friends. They had a feeling that he wouldn't remember any of what he did while he was going berserk. So, they filled him in. On how it all seemed to start once Deathborn punched the 'shrapnel' in his head. How he became faster and stronger. And how he was looking for his twin Liquid Snake who was long since dead.
"Aside from all of that, the good thing that came out of this is that you put Deathborn on the run." Fox said.
Snake let out a heavy sigh as he took in all this information. He quickly decided on what to do next.
"Okay, here's the plan! The four of you storm-" He had to stop mid-sentence due to a sudden pain in his head that quickly went away. "Storm Deathborn's base. Look for intel, and find Lucas. I'm going to go after Deathborn. DO NOT follow me!" He ordered.
"What? Why?" Link asked. Snake growled at that question.
"Isn't it obvious? I am now a danger to everyone around me! Who knows when this might happen again. I could become like that in the middle of HQ! I could start hurting, or god forbid killing people in there!" Snake explained. "I have to go on alone until I can figure out what's going on."
"And what makes you think that following Deathborn is going to give you that answer?" Fox asked, with a somewhat irritated tone in his voice.
"I…just have a hunch."
With that, he took off.
But it was more than just a hunch. It was information he heard from the bastard, Deathborn himself. While Snake was going berserk, his mind didn't respond to some of things people were telling him. Such as the cries of his friends, trying to get him to snap out of it. But there was one thing Deathborn said that registered through his mind.
So, that's the Mark! Crazy Hand gave you the Mark!
So, he knows about Crazy Hand and most likely how he could still be alive. Snake guessed that maybe Deathborn began looking into that long before they did. Maybe he had some of his journal entries. Either way what was more important was "the Mark"; Whatever it was it was apparently Crazy's doing. And if going by Deathborn's statement, it's possible that it was on Snake.
"Where could it be?" Snake muttered to himself. He thought back, trying to remember if Deathborn was pointing somewhere when he said what he said. Nothing. Anything visual during his berserk state was a complete blur to him. He had little to no memory of it. Either way, there was still one more on this list of questions. And it's-
"What the hell is the Mark?"
So many questions, with little to no answers.
"You know who you have to find to get those answers." A man said somewhere nearby. Snake quickly grabbed his knife and pistol, readying them for a potential threat.
"Who's there?!" Snake shouted. A blonde haired man with aviator glasses, a missing arm and leg with a crutch to accommodate both of those, came towards Snake.
"It's me Snake…well sorta."
"Master Miller?" Snake identified him, his old instructor from FOXHOUND. He then shook his head. This wasn't really Master Miller. Miller had died around the time the Shadow Moses incident began, with Liquid being behind it. "You're not real, are you?"
"Well I'll be damned! How'd you figure that out so fast?" The hallucination of Miller asked.
"Not too long ago I was hallucinating being attacked by Liquid and four Genome Soldiers. I don't think it's out of the question for me to start seeing things."
"It's a side effect of the brain damage you've sustained." Said Big Boss, who seemingly walked in out of nowhere. Snake wasn't going to ask any questions.
"Well I'll look into that after I find Deathborn and get some answers about the Mark before I take him apart." Snake replied.
"Then what the hell are you doing? You ripped his God damn arm off! Use your NVGs to trace his blood, or whatever it is cyborgs like him spurt out!" Miller suggested.
"Huh. Right. Who would of thought that voices inside my head would actually help me?" he chuckled.
"You seem to be adjusting to having hallucinations talking to you rather quickly. Maybe you've been crazy longer then you thought." Big Boss joked.
"Shut up Boss." Snake simply replied and took out his goggles. He set it to Night Vision mode, and sure enough, he spotted a trail of 'blood' that was likely to be Deathborn's. "Well you were right Miller. I found…I don't know, oil? Maybe artificial blood like Raiden has? Whatever, a blood trail, and it's fresh. Should lead us to Deathborn."
He didn't get any response. He looked around and saw his hallucinations were gone. "Oh, so now you two decide to go away! Whatever!"
Having his whole arm ripped off was more damaging than Deathborn had thought it would be. His augmentations were not working properly. He couldn't cover ground at massive speed as his Flash-step was disabled. He wasn't quite aware of how his augs worked. He was regretting not paying attention to the doctor after the implant surgery.
Okay, so I punch him in a spot that should've killed him, or at the very least give him severe brain trauma. But no! Instead it powers him up, makes him go apeshit, see people that aren't there, and above all else rip off my fucking arm! Did I miss anything else?
Deathborn took a moment to calm down, recollecting his thoughts.
"I had my thoughts about Crazy, but this just confirms it. It's that mark he talked about in one of his notes. He said he'd put it on someone, and I guess that someone was Snake." He clenched his fist. "Well fuck my Natural Order plan, that will have to wait. Now I have to go find that Hand, kill him, then obtain the power of a god!"
"And then he just took off. Now we don't know where he or Deathborn is." Link sighed, finished explaining what occurred to the others over the radio.
"Oh, Goddesses damn him! First, he sneaks out, now this!" Zelda said in frustration.
"Doesn't he get that we're want to help?" Luigi asked.
"Do you think he doesn't trust us?" Bayonetta questioned. Lucario snarled at that question and grabbed a radio.
"No!" He shouted, startling everyone in the conversation. "Do not question Snake's trust in all of you. He sees all of you as friends, and he would die for any of you."
There was a strong amount of conviction in the Pokémon's voice. If there was anyone who knew his friend Snake, it was him. He calmed himself down before speaking again.
"I understand your concerns, and I agree with many of them. It would be better if Snake stayed with us. But this is just his nature; It's how he is. For a long time, things like friends, companions, were foreign to him. But over time he began to know these things, and began to cherish them. Though he often acts aloof and will never admit it, Snake treasures his friends. He cares deeply for each of them. Which is why he is acting the way he is now. He does not wish to burden any of his friends with what he perceives to be his own problems, and feels he must solve them himself." Lucario explained.
"Doesn't he know that helping each other through their problems is part of being friends?" Peach said.
Lucario chuckled. "Indeed. It is one of the aspects of friendship he doesn't quite understand yet." He turned to his friends. "Either way, I'm sure he will be fine. He'll have a lot to explain when he gets back. But for now, we should do what he said and search this base."
c'mon! You didn't think that shrapnel was for show did you?