"You mean to tell me that your only lead, a man who may I remind you was in the prime of his life with no medical problems to speak of, died of a heart attack," the President muttered, seemingly more to herself than to Ocelot.
"That would be correct mam," Ocelot replied anyway. It still bothered him as he and Hawks inspected the rest of Ghost Leopard's house. The hero was by no means old, but he wasn't young either, yet to suffer a heart attack so suddenly seemed impossible.
"We believe it to be the work of a quirk," he explained further, while carefully searching through a kitchen drawer. Inside he found the parts for what appeared to be a makeshift pipe-bomb haphazardly hidden away. It at least gave some credence to Ghost Leopard being the killer, but not who employed him.
"Most likely a timed or passive quirk until the recipient activates it. But there's something else. When we arrived, we overheard Ghost Leopard talking to the guy who hired him. Apparently, he has some leeway in the Hero Rankings."
"What then, you think the person responsible is one of ours?" the President asked with a hint of disbelief in her voice.
"Can't think of who else it would be. The majority of the targets were reps trying to become VP." Ocelot explained further. It was only logical really. He knew the MSF wasn't killing off the HPSC's reps, and the President would have crucified any villain organization that tried it. Especially after "finding" the saboteur. So that left only one possibility. Now he could only debate whether finding the guy responsible was worthwhile.
For one it meant the HPSC would be clawing away at itself looking for the guy responsible. That would hamper quite a few operations. However, it could also lead to some unnecessary consequences if a rep decides to earn themselves some glory to fortify their position in the HPSC. And knowing just what the HPSC did for glory, he knew it would involve a large loss of life.
"Hmm, then someone's trying to kill off the competition." the President deduced stirring Ocelot out of his thoughts, "That would explain the attack on Night Owl,"
Ocelot froze for a moment as the words registered in his head. Even then he didn't fully believe what had been stated, for a solid few seconds.
"Night Owl was attacked?" he asked, an unnoticeable hint of worry clear in his voice. And for good reason. If Night Owl was on the list of targets, then that meant Night Owl was aiming for the VP spot. He could only dread what the madman would do if he got it. Even worse, why was he only now learning of this?
"He was, it happened about an hour ago, and he rushed into the ER." the President explained, confirming his fears. He continued to search around the house though, determined to find even a shred of evidence.
"From what I've been told he was poisoned at a cafe, and only survived due to the quick actions of a nearby hero." the President continued, right as Ocelot found a small glass vile in the kitchen's cupboards. Looking it over he couldn't find any clues as to what it was, but with its proximity to the pipe bomb parts he could infer its purpose.
"If Ghost Leopard's death is the work of a quirk like you think, then we may be dealing with multiple people."
"Seems reasonable." Ocelot agreed, "Might explain some of the more curious deaths I've seen."
Then again, he could be wrong. Ocelot simply wasn't sure, but something about Ghost Leopard's death seemed familiar. If it's what he thought it was, then the only way to know would be an autopsy. Still, he could only hope he was wrong, otherwise, the world would have a new problem. And letting the HPSC know of its existence would make it even worse.
Snake looked over the sign carefully. After hiding the SUV nearby and grabbing his and Nagant's equipment, the two now stood in front of the sign. Upon closer inspection, it held that weird feeling the building back in Belarus has. It was both a bloody mess and perfectly clean. And the face nailed onto the wood was in reality two stitched together. The right side was male with a dirty face and a large unkempt beard, and its mouth was positioned downward in a frown.
The other half was a woman with her face clean and beautiful, and her mouth positioned into a smile. There was nothing else surrounding the sign, just a blanket of snow that had gotten past the foliage above them.
"Tire tracks seem to stop here," Nagant noted, crouching down to better examine them. Snake eyed the nearby forest as she did so, hoping to find any clue.
"Think they went on foot?" Nagant asked.
"No. There would be other tracks if they did." Snake replied, looking back over to her. Curiously she began to dig away at the snow beneath her.
"Well, the foliage means they didn't fly out of here, and a lack of tracks means they didn't walk," she began before something became visible in the snow.
"Then they must have gone down," she said with a slight smile on her face. Under the snow rested a large slab of metal. Snake couldn't tell how large, but it was covering a decent part of the area. Having an idea, Snake walked over to the sign and carefully dug around it. It fell off to the side once he had cleared it, revealing a keypad under the snow.
"I think I found our entrance," he called out, wiping a bit of snow off the keypad's screen. Nagant soon walked over to him, before pulling out her Idroid. Scanning the keypad, the Idroid revealed what buttons were pressed the most. After a few seconds, the Idroid had the code needed.
"Well then," she commented looking over at Snake who punched in the code, "open sesame."
The ground beneath them began to shake suddenly, as the ground began moving downwards. Instinctively Snake checked over his rifle, ensuring it was loaded. The large elevator, like with everything else, held similarities to the sign. Half of its walls were rusted or missing panels and parts. The other half had a fresh coat of paint, and bright lights shining into the elevator.
One thing was for certain though, this facility seemed ex-military. Everything was heavily reinforced, even the rusted portions of the elevator. If Snake had to guess, the facility could probably survive a bunker buster. Then there was the general location and feeling of abandonment he got from it. It all added to that weird feeling he kept getting. Eventually, the elevator came to a stop, with a grand wooden doorway sitting in front of them. Silently looking over to Nagant, Snake motioned to the door. Quietly the two approached it, with weapons drawn.
Slowly he cracked the door open before his eyes widened. Snake ducked back quickly with Nagant doing the same as bullets flew through the door. They ripped off bits of wood from the door, as the enemy on the DHsK held down the trigger. When they stopped firing, a large hole rested above them, with a voice echoing out around the next room.
"Right on time ladies and gentlemen! Please give a warm welcome to this season's special guest, the legendary mercenary, Big Boss! And as always, I am your gracious host, the Showmaster!"
Carefully Snake peaked through the hole in the door above, finding what could only be described as madness in the next room. A dozen different men stood armed on what amounted to a large TV set. It had obstacles all around the room, with some coated in blood and others perfectly clean. Some were more comical, like giant boxing gloves on the walls, or moving platforms.
Others were more violent, with visible buzz saws moving along the floor, and small walls with hidden guillotines. Then there were the enemies themselves. Some wore suits or civilian clothes; others were clowns or jesters. But all were heavily armed, with body armor present as well. Snake ducked back down as another rain of bullets flew past him. It created a new hole to the side of him, as Showmaster kept talking.
"Now, now Big Boss. It's cheating to start before the rules have been read," the voice called out as a faint whirring noise. Looking up, a small drone flew above him with a camera positioned below it.
"Smile for the camera, would you?" Showmaster commented before the drone turned to the side, spotting Nagant.
"Oh! I didn't realize you brought a friend. Ah well, the more the merrier!"
The drone flew farther away, while still keeping the two in view.
"Now then viewers I wanted us to start off strong today, which is why this episode's first challenge is a fan favorite, hide and seek! The rules are simple, make it to the other side of the room and you live, get spotted, and-"
Another torrent of bullets flew by the two, this time tearing up the door near Nagant. She ducked back, narrowly avoiding the rounds before the machine gun stopped firing.
"Damn it, Terrence! How many times have we rehearsed this!"
A sole gunshot rang out then, followed by something hitting the ground.
"Ugh, extras." the voice muttered, giving Snake enough time to peek out over the door again. On an elevated platform, he spotted the DHsK and the corpse of the man who fired it. A new guard walked over and pulled his body away before quickly taking his place.
"Anyways, you have thirty minutes to win, else I'll set the room on fire. Starting… now!"
The gunfire resumed, although this time it became harder to avoid. Acting quickly Snake tossed out a flashbang and waited for it to go off. Once it did there was a brief lull in the gunfire, giving Nagant time to aim her M110. She pulled the trigger three times, with the bullets ricocheting off the walls and into the heads of three dazed enemies. Snake soon did the same, slowly advancing out of cover as he fired his M4 one.
"Hmph, so much for hide and seek," Showmaster muttered aloud. Snake ignored him as he pressed forward, spotting a clown with an AK-74. Quickly aiming he shot the clown, the 5.56 rounds tearing through his arms and denting the vest on his upper torso. Yet the clown made no cry of pain as he squirmed on the ground, trying to stand back up. Snake couldn't ponder this for long, before ducking back behind a small wall.
A new pair of clowns fired at him, one with an AK-74 and the other with a Saiga-12. Shotgun shells and 5.45 rounds impacted the wall hard, as Snake crawled away. Unseen by the enemy he crawled over to the side, flanking them. Quietly he shot them in the back of the head, before looking around the area. Nearby Nagant had moved forward, switching to her M18 and her quirk for close combat.
One guard tried to sneak up behind her, but the sound of his boots gave him away. In a fluid motion, Nagant moved her arm back as the barrel of her quirk shot out. It struck the guard in the chest, causing him to fly back. As he did so Nagant shot a second guard in the chest with her M18. Retracting her quirk, she shot the guard that had tried to sneak up on her. With two more dealt with, she kept moving forward, narrowly dodging a saw blade as a new guard fired at her.
Staying low she used the sawblade as cover, the bullets denting and breaking it. It came to a quick stop, with the guard quickly running out of ammo. With her opportunity, Nagant leaped over the sawblade and fired three rounds into the guard's chest. As she watched the guard fall dead, something about it seemed unnatural. For the few seconds she looked at it, no blood came out.
She assumed it was the ballistic plates stopping the rounds, but another look told her otherwise. Like Snake though, she couldn't ponder it for long, having to duck behind cover again quickly. Looking around, she saw Snake running over to her. He slid in beside her as the DHsK began firing again.
"How much time do we have left?" she asked while reloading her M18.
"Twenty-five minutes," Snake replied, before tossing out another flashbang. The DHsK stopped firing briefly, and Nagant took advantage of it. Switching back to her M110, she fired a round at the wall and watched as the round ricocheted and tore through the machine gun. To her dread, the Showmaster's voice rang out around them again.
"It seems our contestants are blitzing through the challenge easily folks! How about we up the difficulty?"
The temperature suddenly spiked around them, the heat coming from out of nowhere. Snake could already feel sweat forming on his brow, as he looked over at the other side of the room. Only two guards remained, and they had nothing more than AKS-74s. Yet they seemed unaffected by the growing heat. Turning back around, Snake checked the chamber of his M4 and looked over at Nagant.
"Only two left. I'll take the right; you take the left." Snake ordered.
"Got it," she replied before the two leaped out of cover. All the while they could feel the room's temperature increase, slowly becoming unbearably hot. A quick look back at the room's entrance revealed the wooden door beginning to smoke. Wasting no time, Snake rolled through a small wall avoiding a falling guillotine. Once clear he stood back up and kept running. The guard meanwhile held down the trigger on his gun, having no care for conserving ammo.
His shots were off and lacked any form of accuracy, which led to Snake quickly firing back. Two rounds cracked the guard's ballistic plates, and the third ripped through his skull. With little time Snake ignored the fact the guard's head held no blood and instead looked over to Nagant. Her guard was quickly killed and the two booked it for the end of the room. Thick black smoke was already forming above them as more of the room began to ignite. Running at a full sprint, they narrowly made it to the other end.
Ramming into the door, it cracked open loudly with an equally loud buzzer going off behind them.
"And they've done it! Truly a remarkable display ladies and gentlemen! I must say, I haven't seen a performance like that since Little Lucile back in season seventeen. Now, we'll be right back after these short messages, so stay tuned!"
With the quick break they had been given, Snake looked around the new room they had entered. Immediately something felt off as he looked around. There was only one exit, and it was behind a solid steel door. Then a metal door slammed down behind them, sealing them inside. Seeing what was happening Snake grabbed a small gasmask from his bag, remembering what had occurred in Venezuela. Nagant quickly did the same, right as a pale blue mist began to fill the room.
As the gas rose, Snake continued to inspect the room. Above them rested a vent, most likely where the gas would be filtered out. Quietly he motioned to it, informing Nagant. Nodding, she drew her knife, as Snake moved to boost her up. She fiddled with the vent's screws carefully, before removing the vent's cover. With the way open, the two climbed in.
"Ah, Nezu," Miller greeted, "What can I do you for?"
The meeting had been rather unexpected, and somewhat poorly timed. He'd just lost contact with Snake when he received word that the rat had called for a helicopter. He raised his brow however as Nezu seemed to cringe at his words and covered his ears.
"Can you be a little quieter, please? My sleep schedule has been rather nonexistent the last few days, and this headache is killing me."
"Oh, sorry," Miller replied quietly, as Nezu walked up to him. He took a seat nearby, watching as the officers moved around the operations room.
"No, no, it's fine. I did come in unannounced after all." Nezu told him, looking around the room.
"It seems you're quite busy," he noted, to which Miller nodded.
"Snakes on a contract out in Siberia, and we just lost contact with him," Miller explained as a nearby officer passed him a new document. He signed it quickly before passing it back.
"Then this is a bad time," Nezu replied, moving to stand back up. Miller stopped him though, before calling over a lower-ranking officer.
"Maybe, what exactly is it you need?" Miller asked before sending the officer out to grab some drinks.
"Well… UA is in a bit of a precarious situation at the moment, and I need a loan." Nez answered to the confusion of Miller.
"The HPSC?" Miller inquired, as the officer returned with a coffee and a tea. To Miller's surprise, Nezu took the coffee, leaving him with the tea.
"Yes, they just recently had our international entity status revoked," Nezu replied before taking a small sip.
"I'm making UA a charity to circumvent their control somewhat, however, we would be entirely reliant on outside donations."
"Which brings you to us," Miler deduced, "I think we can work something out."
"About that… it's quite a large sum of money." Nezu stated, but Miller wrote it off.
"Please, this is a high school we're talking about. How much could it be?" Miller replied before taking a sip of tea.
"Around forty-two billion," Nezu replied calmly. And suddenly Miller was coughing out a lung as he spit out the tea. In between coughs, he sputtered out "F-forty-two!?" before regaining his breath.
"Holy, is that in yen?" he asked, somewhat hopeful of Nezu's answer.
"USD I'm afraid," Nezu responded, crushing what hope Miller had held. Somehow the carrier and two submarines combined cost less. It was ludicrous to think about.
"For a school?"
"Some of our facilities are rather expensive," Nezu explained, before pulling out the Idroid he had been gifted. It lit up and displayed a spreadsheet of the entire school's budget. It wasn't even close to how much the MSFs spent and earned, but it was still a large amount.
"Five billion on raw materials, six billion for basic maintenance, four billion on school supplies. How big is your damn school?" Miller muttered as he went over everything. The MSF had the money available, but they were more than likely never getting it back. Thinking it over Miller looked back at the command room, an idea beginning to form.
"You have any contacts in Poland?" Miller asked.
"A few, yes"
"Alright then here's what we'll do. The Polish government won't give us any intel as to what we are facing. If you can get me a line with their President, then I can get you the money." Miller told him, as Nezu brought his hand to his chin in thought.
"I believe that is doable," Nezu replied.
"I hate to tell you this Midoriya, but you're not winning," Rody stated, somewhat smugly as Midoriya desperately scrambled to protect his base. The two were busy playing Command and Conquer Six, the reboot. They sat across from each other with two computers set up, and DD resting underneath the desks.
"My winning streak will not be so easily broken!" Midoriya countered "I will win, in the name of Ka- Oh that's an ion cannon."
The laser struck down, obliterating the last of his base's powerplants as Rody's aircraft flew in for a bombing run. Now Midoriya was beginning to worry and for good reason. With his main base destroyed, that left only his smaller secondary base. His funds were nonexistent as well, as he plunged everything into trying to stop Rody's advance. Only for his units to be caught in the ion cannon's blast.
"Sorry dude," Rody said with a cheeky grin on his face, "But this victory is mine!"
Carefully Midoriya thought up his next move. The ion cannon would take a couple of minutes to charge up again, so it wasn't a worry for the moment. However, Rody's faction was. While Rody was normally a Scrin player due to their better aircraft, the two had decided to randomly pick factions. That gave Midoriya Nod's Blackhand and Rody GDI's Steel Talons. This would be an issue, as Midoriya could not build aircraft, only anti-air. While Rody could create a mass of armored walkers.
With little time he decided the best plan would be to swarm Rody with flame throwers and hope they would torch his base. As he did so, Rody sat back and focused on cleaning up what remained of Midoriya's old base. He was confident that the game would soon be over but decided to remain cautious. The other times they had played this, Midoriya had usually won. Granted he normally got to play as the faction he knew the best, but Rody wasn't risking it.
"If you're so sure, let's make it interesting," Midoriya stated, confirming Rody's caution.
"If you win, I'll buy that F-14 model you were after,"
"The replica one?" Rody asked, intrigued by Midoriya's offer. Just as Midoriya was hoping.
"Adjustable wings and all," Midoriya answered, "But if I win, and you buy me that new All Might poster."
Rody's eyes widened slightly as he thought it over. The poster Midoriya was referring to, was a limited-edition copy with All Might's signature. It was rare, it was cool, and it was expensive. Rody wasn't even sure where Midoriya would put it though. One look at his room and you would find posters on the ceiling because the walls were out of space. Yet it was too good an offer to pass up.
"Deal," Rody replied, before calling his troops back to base. He wasn't stupid, he knew Midoriya would try something. So, opening the construction queue he built four anti-vehicle defenses and placed them around. Midoriya meanwhile, had built up a vast horde of infantry. With a few upgrades, all his troops had flamethrowers, even the anti-vehicle ones. With them ready he sent them out to where he suspected Rody's base was.
Sure enough, the computer rang out "Enemy Base Detected". Midoriya looked over the computer then, and chuckled when he saw Rody's face. Now it was Rody's turn to panic because there was a con to a mass of armor. It tends to be quite slow.
"Yes! Feel the cleansing flames!" Midoriya commented, watching as his units began burning away the few defenses Rody had built. As that happened Rody attempted to send in aircraft to fight back, only for Midoriya's rockets to shoot them down. All the while he could only watch as his main force slowly came back to base.
"Surrender my friend!" Midoriya stated, getting a little too into the game "The Blackhand has won this day!"
Then again Rody couldn't blame him.
"Never! The Steel Talons do not bow to terrorists!" Rody replied, while quickly spamming aircraft in the production queue. Every unit that was built, however, was quickly destroyed when it arrived. Seeing Rody's desperation, Midoriya sent his units to Rody's construction yard. They burned it to the ground quickly, before turning on the nearby structures. Soon Rody's barracks and airfield followed suit.
"It is hopeless! Your defeat was prophesied by Kane!" Midoriya told him, as his troops destroyed the last of Rody's harvesters.
"Prophecy or superstition? Either way he's wrong." Rody countered. He silently cheered as the first of his units made it back to base. Even with his construction yard gone, he could still salvage this.
"You will learn, there can only be peace through power!" Midoriya replied, now noticing Rody's troops arriving. Wasting no time he redirected his ant-vehicle units to attack Rody's walkers. Victory was as good as his. Rody was beginning to think so too, as Midoriya's remaining troops scorched his power plants. But then, he noticed the small square next to the map. Seeing how little time he had left, he had his faster units scout out the surrounding area, as his tougher ones moved to protect his super weapon.
"So, nonbeliever, any last words?" Midoriya taunted.
"Yeah," Rody replied, a wide smirk on his face "Exterminatus."
Midoriya became confused by it, before looking back at the screen. His eyes widened as he realized his mistake. In a panic, he sent his units to destroy the superweapon. But it was too late. Rody's units found Midoriya's second base, and with a few clicks, it was all destroyed. Midoriya could only stare in shock. The entire time he had forgotten about the ion cannon, thinking he had enough time to destroy it.
"Haha! Steel Talons rule!" Rody exclaimed. The screens changed over to the endgame page, with the two going over the game's statistics.
"Can't believe I forgot about the ion cannon," Midoriya muttered, to which Rody chuckled.
"I mean I forgot about it until five seconds ago," Rody told him, with Pina flying onto his shoulder. The bird nodded with him as Midoriya.
"But you know the deal," Rody told him, to which Midoriya gave him a light chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah… care for a rematch though?"
"Oh absolutely,"