NeoNazo356: Alright then, from Tz342 we have- "How will all the different groups (Justice League, The Team, The Light…) will perceive Virgil & what will be their opinions of him."

Spaceman: For all intents and purposes, Virgil is now a mercenary, which will color any future interactions. Heroes often have a negative impression of mercenaries, because they fight for money and are loyal only to themselves. They want those with superhuman abilities or skills to help others for justice and charity, but mercenaries are not iconic heroes that people strive for. They are not gods hiding as men or vigilantes that hide behind billions, they need money for everything they do and strive for. Any trust would require an effort that may not be worth it to Virgil. It all depends on the rep of the individual mercenary. Right now our protagonist is an unknown.

NeoNazo356: "The greatest achievement of mankind was the realization that voluntary exchange enables both parties to profit; not one at the expense of the other." Basically, while Foxhound & Crynet COULD strong-arm Virgil into testing the suit for them and not pay him a thing, making an enemy of the person most-genetically compatible with a billion-dollar prototype (price of the suit itself AND the R&D that went into it) is NOT in their best interest.

Spaceman: Heroes go after villains because villains commit crimes and hurt others for finance, revenge, or to satisfy their own egos. Mercenaries are all about business and protecting themselves and their own. Virgil being paid is much more secure and considered controllable. Money, protection, insurance, etc. means Crynet won't have to look over their shoulders in his direction 24/7, because they didn't make themselves his enemies. This is not like Taskforce X in which criminals are forced to go on missions using the threat of explosive implants. In that case, the second the bombs were gone the implanters went to the top of their hit list.

NeoNazo356: Also, I'd like to thank Eurigos for the compliments on my story, especially the blending of multiple crossovers into this story. To tell the truth, I was most-inspired by the work of 26-Lord-Pain in NU: RedX Rising, which blended a number of franchises into the Teen Titans universe in a believable way that kept me guessing. That and because in a straight two-way Crossover, things start to become predictable; with things as they are now, no-one aside from Spaceman and I have any idea how things will play out because of all the new variables. Also, I don't think I've done a disclaimer for a while, so I'll go ahead and say what I don't own.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, Crysis, Prototype, Halo, Marvel, Borderlands, Black Lagoon, Assassins Creed, or Metal Gar. Please support the official release of these Intellectual Properties.

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE OLD SOLDIER*

Bludhaven
September 21, 15:30 EST

"Hey guys…" Virgil groaned as he trudged up the steps into the living rom. "I'm back from work…" he said tiredly as he rubbed his left shoulder. He tried going to the gym for training, but Boris turned him away and sent him home as soon as he saw the brunette was injured.

"Hey girl," Tina greeted. "You looks like crap," she said bluntly.

"Feel like it too…" he groaned as he collapsed onto the sofa, completely exhausted.

It wasn't only his work at Marcus Munitions that had tired him out, it was the fact that he went into work while injured from the butt-kicking he'd gotten yesterday. While Brick had easily-enough popped his left arm back into the socket, the muscle around that area was still incredibly sore, as was his neck from when the Destroyer almost gave him whiplash. Not to mention his entire body ached from the little swan dive he took at 50mph before imitating a skipping stone. Also, the demonic calamari platter might've cracked a rib or two before chucking him.

Oh, and there was the fact that he'd drowned and he could still taste saltwater. That also put a damper on his day.

What's worse is without the Nanosuit, he couldn't utilize its 12:1 Minor Healing Factor to help repair some of the damage, so he had to heal the old-fashioned way.

"I still don't understand why you had to go in to work today," Athena said as she walked up behind him and dropped an ice pack onto his shoulder. "Couldn't you have called Marcus for a sick day?" she asked, only to get a flat stare in return. "Yeah… Realized how stupid that sounded the moment it left my mouth."

"My other job hasn't panned out yet, so I need the money," Virgil moaned as he sagged into the couch cushions.

"Don't you have ten grand under your mattress?" Tina asked.

"Its closer to nine-grand now," he corrected. "Also, I can't just dig into it whenever I want. That's my nest egg. I'm waiting until my next paycheck before putting a down payment on my own place."

"Do you have to move out?" Rina asked as she flipped through the channels. "Having you around is kinda like having a big brother, you know?"

"Rina, I appreciate the sentiment, but I can't mooch off you guys forever," Virgil sighed as he moved the ice pack onto his ribs under his armpit.

"Well it isn't like mom's hard-pressed for money," Athena argued. "People always have something to drink to, or drink away, so it's not like we have any shortage of customers."

"Booze ain't the only thing bringing in customers," Tina said making a boob-grabbing motion with her hands.

"Tina, that's obscene!" Athena cried out in shock.

*Br-r-r*Br-r-r* *Br-r-r*Br-r-r* the smartphone in Virgil's pocket rung.

"I gotta take this," Virgil groaned as he forced himself to his feet and walked upstairs, leaving the others to bicker as he pressed the green button, eliciting a high-pitched *Breen* "Hello?" he asked pressing the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he repeated as he looked at the screen, only instead of Caller ID, he was greeted by the sight of that same bracket-like symbol from the back of the phone, and again from that canister of Nanobots. "Uhhh…"

Encoded message received. Analyzing the synthetic voice from his head spoke into his ear as the symbol on-screen began swirling into a whirlpool of glowing pixels. After a few moments, the swirling pixels settled down into a vague facsimile of a human face. His eyes stinging a little, the image on-screen began to gain dimension, almost to the point of it being 3D.

"Hello? Testing, testing, one-two-three. Can anyone hear me?" the pixelated face asked as it panned from side to side. Said face was a bit gaunt, short and messy hair brushed to the sides, a pair of oval-shaped glasses atop his nose.

"Um… Hi?" Virgil asked, looking over his shoulders before stepping into his room and locking the door.

"You're Vincent, right? The new test pilot?" the pixelated face asked, Virgil nodding his head as he tried to process what he was seeing. "You're probably wondering what this is, exactly. I could bore you to death with the techno-jargon, but since you're new, I'll give you the short version. Basically, your internalized DNA Computer, SECOND, is using a form of Nanovision through your optic nerve to interpret visual data being transmitted to you. The sound you are hearing is being transmitted to your auditory cortex through your nervous system, via minute electric pulses emanating from the phone."

"Uh… That's the short version?" he found himself asking.

"In Layman's terms, only 'you' can hear and see the message being transmitted. Of course, once we get you fitted for Codec, such an over-complicated means of communication won't be necessary."

" . . . Who is this I'm speaking to?"

"You can call me Otacon."

"Okay… And the reason you're calling me is?"

"To give you the rendezvous coordinates for your next pick-up. Now that things are more or less finished on our end, we can start getting to work."

"Alright then," Virgil replied with a grin, feeling a rush of excitement course through him at the prospect of wearing the Nanosuit again.

Normal-guy life was great and good, but the lack of adrenaline made it pretty boring.

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE OLD SOLDIER*

Now that he was in the fold, Virgil did not find himself being led along by the nose. Instead, all it came down to was going to the bus stop from before, meeting up with that shark-toothed mummy, and popping a squat behind black-tinted windows. He still had no idea where he was being taken to, but he was fine with it. Just one less thing to worry about divulging accidentally.

Once the van had locked onto the freight elevator, the driver had allowed him to open the windows a crack for some fresh air. Since the air didn't smell like salt or taste like fish, Virgil figured they were somewhere within Bludhaven's interior. Made sense, since it'd be notoriously difficult to keep an underwater base to the shore a secret.

"Don't let the door hit you on your way out," the shark-toothed man snarked as the doors unlocked with a *click*.

"Bite my shiny metal ass, shark-face," Virgil snarked back as he hopped out. He didn't see his relationship with that driver changing any time soon. " . . . How exactly am I supposed to get in?" he asked after stopping in front of the metal bulkhead.

"Oh, let me get that for you," Otacon's voice said from the door, which *whoosh*ed open. "Don't worry. Your biometrics will be entered into the system sometime this evening."

"Good to know," Virgil said as he passed through the bulkhead door. The next room had been renovated into a security checkpoint of sorts, a redundancy in case someone managed to bypass the handprint scanner and ten-digit keypad. The walls and floor were mostly white, and apart from the beveled wall corners, the whole place looked like something out of Portal. Between the walk-through metal detector and X-Ray machine off to the side, the room looked like a security checkpoint at the airport.

The key difference was that the guy on the other side of the metal detector was wearing a white camouflaged military uniform with white and black-trimmed ceramic armor. He had a matching helmet atop his head with an orange-colored visor, and he had an assault rifle cradled in his arms. The guy had a strangely-relaxed stance for a secret military facility deep underground, mainly due in fact that he was expected.

That and the live feed to the freight elevator outside may've been a giveaway to his approach.

"Well hey there, you must be the new kid on the block. Nice to meet you. Call sign's New York, but you can just call me York for short," the man greeted. Overall, he came across as a pretty friendly, laid-back character, which was just a trifle out-of-place in a secret underground facility. "You should probably hurry on inside. Wouldn't want Maine to give you a cavity search."

"Maine?" Virgil asked, before the stock of a weapon nudged him in the back. Whirling around, the brunette had an internalized- "HOLY SHIT!" –moment when he saw that a large guy in a similar uniform to York, just under Brick's size, had managed to get right behind him. He had a large shotgun cradled in his hands, and in a confined 10x10x10 room like that, the entire room was one big killbox for a weapon like that. "Uh… Sure… let me just do that…" the brunette said as he made his way through the scanner.

*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*

'Awww shit,' Virgil paled as Maine leveled his weapon at him.

"Whoa, easy there, Maine," York said raising a hand. "This kid's authorized to have weapons on his person. Of course, for security reasons, we'll need to ascertain the contents of his pockets, so… put 'em on the table."

'Oh thank god,' Virgil sighed as Maine backed off. Emptying his balisong and wallet from his pockets, he then drew his Makarov pistol before placing them all on the table. York gave them a good once-over, before waving the brunette inside.

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

'That security guy… scares me,' Virgil thought as he left the security checkpoint. York was cool-enough, but Maine scared the shit out of him. It wasn't so much the size of the guy that intimidated him, but more along the lines of how he carried himself. Like the guy had gotten shot in the throat with a magnum nine times, and then at his earliest convenience punched off the head of the guy who did the shooting. 'Hmmm… looks like they did more remodeling than I thought,' the brunette thought to himself as he looked around.

The room after the security checkpoint had a distinct lobby-like feel to it. There were a pair of couches against each corner with a coffee table in front of them, a pair of flat screen TVs hanging from the ceiling on the walls perpendicular to each door, landscape paintings to give the room a bit of color, and in the center there was some kind of directory. Overall, it had a very Aperture-ish vibe to it. If Aperture didn't have a psychotic AI running the place, at least.

"Huh. This place looks pretty nice actually," Virgil said before he stepped toward one of the couches, only for his shin to bump into something. "Ow! What the hell?" he yelped as he looked down. At first it looked like nothing was there, but squinting his eyes about, he saw a sort of lensing effect surrounding something.

"Sorry about that," Otacon's voice spoke up from that spot, before whatever was causing the lensing effect began to bleed back into view. "I was just calibrating the OctoCamo on this thing. Guess it worked since you didn't see me until the last second."

What he had bumped his shin into appeared to be a small robot of some sort, barely coming up to knee height. It had a single pair of legs were digitigrade like a dog's, but positioned backwards, small wheels on the ends of its feet. Based on how the feet shifted every couple seconds, its balance appeared to be auto-correcting. Its body was elongated front-to-back with bevels with a vaguely pentagonal shape. For a head, it looked like a camera with three small lenses recessed into a flat face, with a sideways V-shaped neck sorta like the Pixar Lamp. On the left shoulder was a closed hole, while on the right there appeared to be a small monitor tucked into the side like on an old video camera. Its coloration was primarily white with monochrome accents.

"Am I talking to a person, or some kinda AI?" he asked getting down to knee level.

"Nothing like that. I'm just running some calibrations on the Mk. IV, thought I'd greet you at he same time," Otacon answered before the monitor on the little mech's right shoulder folded out. When the screen came on, Virgil was greeted by the sight of a Caucasian man who appeared to be in his late thirties. He had blue eyes, brown hair, had a bit of five o'clock shadow, and was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt over a white labcoat with a pair of oval-shaped glasses on his face. "Welcome to FoxCry Underground, also known as The Bunker. Name's Hal Emmerich, but you can still call me Otacon if you want. It's nice to finally meet the Nanosuit's test pilot in person," he said as a flexible manipulator arm snaked its way out of the left shoulder, Virgil holding the end of it between two fingers like a very small handshake.

"Nice to see more than one friendly face around here," Virgil replied. "Is that the Cradle in the corner there?" he asked pointing to the screen.

"Hm? Oh, yes, we're running some system checks on the deep tissue layers before we begin more-thoroughly calibrating it to your body. Think of it like custom-fitting a suit at the tailor's. The live field data you've provided thus far has been 'invaluable' to Nanosuit research. Some things you just can't replicate in a lab, you know?" the man replied. "Were almost done here, but we've still got some time left. Until then, how 'bout I give you the grand tour?"

"Sure thing. I'm game," Virgil replied with a shrug of his shoulders. 'If the modeling thing doesn't work out, I might decide to move here,' he thought to himself. "So… Where to first?"

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

As it turned out, The Bunker as this place was called, was divided into three levels. Level One was where Virgil was currently at right now, and was where all of the base's occupants lived and relaxed when they weren't on duty in the lower levels. Level Two was home to the more-sensitive facilities like research, resource management and distribution, as well as the relocated lab for the Nanosuit itself. Level Three was still under construction, but this was all he could get from Otacon, the man saying he wanted it to be a surprise.

'I guess that's all I'll be getting from the guy for the time being,' Virgil thought as he passed through an elevator bay. A separate room from the "Lobby & Directory" after the security checkpoint right next to the freight elevator, there were four elevators, one for each corner, though a keycard was needed to open them, something Virgil did not yet have. Not that it mattered, since he had no idea what the layout was, and if the panels on the walls and ceilings were any indicator, stepping on the wrong toe could get him shot.

Or something.

He's watched spy movies. He knows how that sort of thing plays out.

"So, first stop is the cafeteria," Otacon said as his robot wheeled its way out of the Elevator Room. "Obviously, this is where people eat their meals. Maximum capacity for the cafeteria is around thirty people. The base's max capacity at a whole is fifty, but this arrangement was made because we still expect people to be working at most hours. The base is still relatively new after the retrofitting from the Cold War, so we don't have nearly that many people here, but we're hoping to bring in new personnel soon."

"You don't say," Virgil said as he looked around. There were five tables arranged perpendicularly in a line, each one capable of holding around six people. Against the back wall was a buffet line of sorts, currently empty, while through an open air window you could see the kitchen. Off to the back corners of the room were a pair of doors, obviously leading to the kitchen. "How many other Nanosuit pilots will be down here?"

"Hold on a sec, I need to see if I'm allowed to tell you that," Otacon said as he looked down, his eyes roving left to right as though he was reading a book. Likely a list of things he was and was not allowed to say. "What I'm allowed to disclose is that at the moment, yours is the only Nanosuit currently manufactured by CryNet Systems. The "Protosuit" is essentially a test bed for the technology that will go into the mass-produced models. As we acquire more and more data on how to make the Nanosuit more efficient, the cost of making more will decrease. Essentially, you're here as the beta tester for the newest piece of combat hardware."

"So work out the kinks in the prototype, make the main product better. I can live with that," Virgil said with a shrug. After all, it wasn't like he could just do "normal" ever again. He'd seen too much, and even if he tried to live like a normal person, the weirdness would just drag him back in.

It was for that very reason that the members of the Justice Society of America ran around in capes and tights, doing their superhero thing until they either got too old to get out of bed by themselves, or died in action. Vigilantism had been around for as long as there was incompetent or corrupt law enforcement; even in the BCs, there were still people in places of authority willing to look the other way in exchange for whatever currency was prevalent at that time or place. However, the Justice Society's heyday was the first-recorded event of numerous vigilantes, super-powered or not, coming together and forming an organized group out in the open.

When the second world war stared, those that fought the Axis Powers on either American or foreign soil were regarded as the American All-Stars. Because their efforts saved countless lives, all the while sparing countless American taxpayer dollars, their actions were tolerated even if it was considered vigilantism. However, after the war ended, McCarthyism forced most of the caped heroes into hiding, some letting their legacy end, while others did their work through their successors. Because the shady government agencies at the time did a very poor job of concealing their motives, namely the capture and experimentation of and on SPBs to either control or duplicate their powers, it became very easy for people to sympathize with caped heroes. Non-powered and super-beings alike could relate in that the government wanted to screw them both over simply because they could.

Exactly the reason why so many decades later, after the alien invasion by the Appellaxian race, that the Justice League had permission to go wherever they pleased as long as it was within UN Charter and they attempted to keep collateral damage to a minimum.

"Our staff if pretty small right now, but I can introduce you to our chef if you want," Otacon offered, knocking Virgil from his thoughts regarding the history of superheroes.

"Sure, I'm in no rush," Virgil replied as he was guided over to the open air window, the smell of cooking food meeting his nostrils a few feet away from the window. "Hello? Anyone around?"

"Well hey there. Haven't seen you around these parts before," the kitchen's chef greeted, popping up from behind the open air wall with no warning.

"Jesus Christ!" Virgil yelped, wondering how all these people kept getting the drop on him. The man he assumed was the chef, had a boyish expression on his face, light blue eyes, with blond hair styled in a cross between a fade and a ducktail. For some reason, he was wearing a pink chef's uniform sans the hat.

"Whoa there, Jesus doesn't like his name being used like that. Reverend Kilgore taught me that one."

"And where is this… Reverend Kilgore?" Virgil asked nervously.

"Back at the chapel in Iowa."

'Note to self: Never go to Iowa.'

"Anywho, the name's Franklin Delano Donut, but everyone just calls me Doughnut," the man now known as Donut greeted as he extended his hand.

"Oh, well… it's nice to meet you," Virgil said taking the extended hand. "So um… Total noob question, but what's with the pink uniform?"

"It isn't pink, it's lightish red!" the man argued with a pout.

"O… kay…" Virgil returned. "So… You work the kitchens here?"

"Yep. I'm also Vice-Chief of Interior Decorating. You would not believe how hard it was getting those landscape pictures into that dreary lobby of ours. White floors, walls, and ceilings with black accents; what is this, Portal?"

"I… guess I can understand that…" Virgil replied. 'There's something about this guy that weirds me out, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is.'

"On top of that, I'm also the captain of the Tossing Team. We meet up in the communal showers every alternating Saturday and Sunday. The others haven't taken me up on my offer to join yet, but I'm sure they'll come around."

*Snap* 'There it is,' Virgil thought as he snapped his fingers. Frankly, Donut seemed like the kind of guy who grew up in a progressive home, which meant he either had no mother, or more than one mother. This was on the assumption that "Tossing" in the showers was just vulgar slang for Masturbating. "You uh… You wash your hands before working in the kitchen… right?" he asked wiping his hand against his pant leg.

"Yep. And sometimes I lube it up for no reason at all."

'Wonderful…' Virgil thought to himself. "Well, I've got to get going, but I'll see you later," he said hitting the emergency escape button for that conversation and walking to the right-side exit alongside Otacon. "So um… Is Donut a homosexual or not?" he asked once the door hissed shut behind them. "It's kinda hard to tell sometimes."

"No idea. I'm not sure if he uses those sexual innuendo intentionally or not, either."

'Hm. Sounds like him and Moxxi could gab about gams and shafts for hours on end,' Virgil thought to himself as he put the potentially-metrosexual man at the back of his mind. "Where to next?"

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

Next on the tour of Level One out the Cafeteria's east exit was the Gym. In the center of it was a regulation boxing, the floor mat colored blue, while the ropes were alternating red and white with red corner posts. Off to the corners were a couple of wing chun wooden striking dummies, punching bags, sandbags, and an array of high-end workout equipment along the walls. On the room's four walls was a round-the-room hand-painted mural, portraying soldiers in time-appropriate attire as they marched through every major conflict in world history. Ones like the American Revolution, World War II, and Vietnam stood out like a sore thumb, but others like the Crusades and the Hundred-Year-War needed a little head-scratching to piece out.

Overall, it played very well into The Bunker's blatantly-apparent military background as a Cold War bunker. Cabin Fever is one thing, but in an underground bunker with nothing to do and you'd probably have something like out of Fallout on your hands; Lots of people in an enclosed space killing one another until there was only one feral person left.

To the North of that room was the Barracks & Showers, the barracks themselves looking like something out of a Japanese Pod Hotel, while the showers were communal, and apparently gender-neutral. The pods themselves were arranged five across, two high, back-to-back divided into two rows 20 apiece, totaling in 40 pods overall. The dimensions of each pod was 3 feet wide, 4 feet high, and 7 feet deep, each one with a fiberglass door, privacy curtain, light, mirror, and air conditioner.

Clearly this was a tight ship where people were expected to not laze about in their rooms all day.

"Hey Otocan, you said the max capacity was fifty, but I only count forty pods."

"The remaining ten are in the VIP Barracks across from the kitchen, and are reserved for chief staff or other important persons. Each one is about eight feet wide, twelve feet in, and ten feet high with their own showers, toilet, Murphy bed, TV, and wifi."

"Huh… And that hasn't caused friction with the rank-and-file?"

"Not at all. The pods might be small, but they're still comfortable, the kind of thing that most soldiers get used to in their line of work."

"Huh, you don't say," Virgil said as he and Otacon left the Barracks, heading across the Gym to a room on the other side, a sign with a red cross and the word NURSE underneath it slapped above the door. Inside it was a white-washed room with a couple beds, some chairs, and some shelves filled with medical supplies. It was closer to a nurse's office than a fully-stocked clinic.

And fortunately for Virgil, the room's singal occupant did not sneak up on him that time. The man wore black shoes, pants, a purple shirt, a white doctor's coat, and had a stethoscope around his neck. He had dark green eyes, light brown hair cut short, and strong features. Behind him in his own personal space was a diploma that read Jamaica State, as well as a Hang in there Kitty motivational poster and other miscellaneous nick knacks.

"Hello there, friend. I'm Medical Officer Super Private First Class, Frank DuFresne. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance…" the man greeted fishing for a name.

"Virgil," the brunette replied. "And, I'm sorry, but did you say 'Medical Officer Super Private First Class'?" he asked incredulously.

"That's right," the man said with a smile.

"How the heck did you get that rank?" Virgil asked, the whole thing sounding like a crock-a-shit.

"Since I sent them a letter every day for four years requesting that promotion," the man said like it was no big deal.

"You got promoted for that?!" Virgil gaped in shock. "Are you some kinda spec ops, crackshot sniper on the fly too!?"

"Leadership isn't about firing bullets or stabbing people. Leadership is about telling other people to fire bullets and stab people," Frank DuFresne returned.

"You know what, I can't pronounce your name, can I just call you Doc instead?"

"Why does everyone insist on calling me that? I'm not even a real doctor!"

"Wait, you're not? Then why the hell are you in a nurse's office?"

"Uh, because I'm a licensed medic. Duh," the man replied in a playful manner.

"What's the difference?"

"Well, a doctor cures people. A medic just makes them more comfortable while they die."

'Mental Note: Do not get hurt in the gym,' Virgil thought to himself, readying the emergency escape button for this conversation as well. "So Doc…"

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

"Well that was… terrifying," Virgil thought to himself as he and Otacon left the Nurse's Office, making their way across the kitchen to the Lounge and VIP Barracks.

"Thankfully, we have a 'licensed' medical practitioner on-site. One with a degree from an accredited medical institution, and four years equivalent experience," Otacon replied as the duo left the Cafeteria's west exit which emptied into the lounge.

As opposed to the rest of the base, the Lounge had a lot more color to it, far more inviting than anything seen thus far, definitely made the space feel warmer. As opposed to white linoleum tiles, the floor was covered with a straight Red carpet, which combined with Brick Red walls gave the room a very mature feel to it. The ceiling was a pale orange, and in place of glaring lines of fluorescent lighting, there were instead softer-glowing energy-saving bulbs that made the lighting feel less stale, giving the space a much more relaxed feel than the rest of the base.

Reflecting its opposing nature to the Gym across the way, the Lounge was purely-recreational in its contents. Directly across from the door were an array of flat screen TVs, which made Virgil think they were meant to show sports feeds like in a sports bar, a number of black sofas and a matching coffee table situated in front of it. Off to the left was a flat screen hooked up to DirecTV, and off to the right was an entertainment center bearing the newest consoles, a couple controllers, and a few games. In the back right corner there was a minibar shelved to the ceiling with alcoholic drinks, and in the forward right corner to sleep off the eventual hangovers was a set of Napping Pods. In the forward left corner there was a trio of computers in a row, shelves of books and periodicals next to that, and in the back left corner there were a few massage chairs. In the center of the room there was a large card table, while to the door at Virgil's back on the left was a hand sanitizer station, and to the right a bulletin board.

"Well…" Virgil hummed at the sight, expecting a military lounge to be a little more… boring. "It's like I'm not even in The Bunker anymore."

"That 'was' the intent of its design, yes," Otacon replied. "This singular space is meant to be a respite for all of the work that goes on here. While most of the base's occupants have to pass through the Cafeteria to get here, the VIPs have completely uninhibited access to this room, which is why the VIP Bunkers are directly adjacent to this room," Otacon said directing Virgil's attention towards a door on the north wall, another metal bulkhead with a metal floor panel in front and a facial scanner overhead. "Not only does this door use facial and retinal recognition, it also measures precise weight distribution, ensuring that even if we get a shapeshifter or something like that in here, they still won't be able to get through without setting off a security alert."

"And you're saying I get a room just past that door?" Virgil asked.

"Well, you 'did' re-appropriate the prototype that Blackwatch conned into their possession. I think that warrants nicer accommodations," Otacon replied. "Unfortunately, your biometrics haven't been entered into the system, so you won't be able to get in."

"That's fine, I guess," Virgil said shrugging his shoulders. "You done with those system checks yet?"

"Just about. I think now's a good time to bring you downstairs," Otacon replied. "Follow me to the Elevator Bay. I've just given you clearance to go to Level Two."

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

In a stark contrast to the rest of The Bunker, the elevator wasn't so painfully-white to look at. The floors were black, the bottom halves of the walls and hand-rails covered in stainless steel, while the upper halves of the walls and ceiling had wood paneling as a respite from the rest of the base. There wasn't any boring elevator music, and the touchscreen itself had a live monitor showing the progress between its transition between floors.

"I'm guessing elevator music is against regulations?"

"More like an unnecessary waste of energy and hardware. This 'was' a Cold War bunker after all, only the bare-minimum energy for creature comforts was meant to be spent down here."

"And the Lounge?"

"The psychological health of those staying here has been taken into consideration as well. The Bunker will likely see continued use, even after you cease to be a test pilot for the Nanosuit. If all people did was work all the time, their performance and physiological health would slowly deteriorate."

"I guess I get where you're coming from."

*Ding*

"Good, we're here," Otacon said as his little mech hopped over the gap of the door, and began wheeling its way down the hall.

It was a little hard to get his bearings when all the halls looked almost exactly the same, but Virgil oriented North with entering the base through the singular door at the bottom of the small freight elevator. Thus, heading North out of the elevator bay, Virgil was guided into another lobby-like area, and then into a door on the left. Said door opened into a long hallway about ten feet wide, and on the right side they passed a bulkhead which had ICU painted on the front in red letters over a white square, a red light with a syringe-shaped cutout indicating it was some form of infirmary, maybe a dedicated hospital.

"Watch your step. We're doing a little cleaning-up after the recent additions made to the next level," Otacon said as he guided Virgil out of the hallway and into another room. This one was rather plain, a hub similar to the lobby-like area prior, however the platform with the control panel and hand railings in the center of the room showed signs of being a new addition. Turning left into the west exit, Virgil was greeted by another reinforced bulkhead, this one bearing a handprint, retinal, and weight distribution scanner. The moment Virgil stepped in front of it, two panels on the wall and one from the ceiling opened up, a trio of miniguns folding out, laser sights locking directly onto him. "Whoops. Forgot those were still on. Let me just enter your security clearance and… you're good to go," Otacon replied as the turrets retreated back into the ceiling.

'Jesus, just how fortified was this place?' Virgil thought to himself as he pat his chest. Walking through the door, the bulkhead closed behind him moments later, the brunette taking the time to look at where he'd just been lead.

Similar to Athena's bedroom, the whole place just screamed R&D, only this one paid for with taxpayer dollars. A lot of taxpayer dollars, with a lot of zeros. There were computer banks, 3D printers, full-body scanners, what looked like virtual-reality chairs, and a number of things Virgil couldn't even identify. With the Nanosuit sitting in its Cradle smack dab in the center of the room, the whole place looked like S.T.A.R. Labs on steroids and a government paycheck.

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," Otacon's voice said in stereo. Looking around, Virgil saw a man in front of a computer screen, with a live feed of himself from a floor-bound view.

"I get the reference, but it would've been better if you actually had a curtain," Virgil quipped.

"Hm, you're probably right about that," Otacon said with a shrug as he wheeled the little robot forward and setting it off to the side. "It's nice to finally meet you in person. I'm looking forward to working together," the man greeted as he extended his hand.

"Likewise," the brunette replied as he shook the man's hand. "Are you the only one here?"

"No. Dr. Yumeno should be here shortly," Otacon replied, the room's only door hissing open moments later. "Speak of the devil."

"Hello, Virgil. Glad you could make it," the effeminate doctor greeted. "Come along, now. Let's get to work."

"Did anyone ever tell you your bedside manner sucks?" the brunette deadpanned.

"From time to time," the doctor waved off with a lazy wave of his hand. "Now, stand over by that wall while I scan you," he said directing Virgil to a blank wall off to the side, coming back with a high-tech-looking hand scanner. "Arms out, feet shoulder-width apart," he ordered, the brunette doing so before a wide red laser beam ran over his body, a set of measurements appearing on a computer monitor across the room hooked up to… something. It looked like something straight out of science fiction; a box covered with buttons, screens, and a semi-clear hatch in the front. "Now, go behind that curtain and take off your clothes. I'll have something for you to put on momentarily," he said motioning towards a drawn curtain in one of the room's corners, the legs of a stool visible under the bottom.

"So are you going to tell me what I'm taking my clothes off for?" Virgil asked from behind the curtain. It was opaque enough that he didn't have to worry about being seen in the buff, which was the only reason he was comfortable doing this outside of a doctor's office.

"You'll know in a minute," Dr. Yumeno said from his place at the terminal, the whirring of the machine at his side ceasing a few minutes later, cueing a gray-colored bundle to be displayed on a tray that extended from the side of the machine out the hatch. "Here. Put this on," he said holding the bundle out to the curtain, the brunette reaching out to take it before drawing back in.

"A wetsuit?" Virgil asked as he unfurled what was handed to him, a gray-colored wet suit with a rubbery feel to it. Finding the seam along the right side of the chest, Virgil squeezed his way into it, the suit going up to his neck and covering everything down from there. Taking a minute to adjust himself inside of it, he drew the seam along the side of his chest closed. A moment later blue circuit-like marks glowed along the length of the suit, which proceeded to tighten around his body, accentuating his muscular frame. "What is this thing?!"

"That would be the Undersheath, a protective covering that you will wear underneath the Nanosuit whenever possible. Not only will it increase your synchronicity with the Nanosuit, but it will also promote your survivability overall," Dr. Yumeno explained. "Mind you, this super-textile is still in the developmental stages, so it isn't perfect, and overhauls to the design will have to be made in response to new shortcomings becoming prevalent."

"So you're saying until the design gets perfected, I should avoid getting killed?" the brunette questioned.

"In essence, yes," the man replied. "Now, I'll need you to step into the Nanosuit. Its size has been adjusted since you were last here, so it should be a more-snug fit to your body and more responsive to your movements."

With a nod, Virgil reached into the now-open Cradle and pulled the Nanosuit over his body. As it sealed shut and tightened around his frame, it was immediately-noticeable how much better the fit was from the previous times he'd worn it. When he was wearing a full set of clothes underneath it, said garments were pressed painfully into his body leaving marks when he took it off, and he got full-body chafing like there was no tomorrow. When he wasn't wearing clothes underneath it, not only did it still chafe, but it got really sweaty in there, and it was loose in too many places for it to be a comfortable fit.

"I'm guessing you took out some of the muscle mass from my armpits," Virgil said as he rolled his shoulders. "Hey wait a minute, where's the armor plating?" he said patting at his chest. Instead of a Kevlar-like vest, the muscle-like fibers were now visible, moored to his body by a set of silver braces shaped like a pair of collarbones, sternum, and a couple ribs. The forearms and shins similarly had their solid armor removed, revealing black muscle fibers and silver bone-like bracings.

"When R&D went over the data, they discovered that the armor plating was actually detrimental to the dexterity of the pilot in a live battlefield scenario. Adjustments have been made to the outer layers, enabling bulletproofing against small arms fire. Anything from a rifle and up will require Armor Mode to protect you from," Dr. Yumeno explained.

"And if something does manage to get through?" the brunette asked.

"The Undersheath you are currently wearing is designed to clamp down around any bodily ruptures and stem the bleeding. Once that's been done, pain-numbing chemicals will be directed into the afflicted areas from the Nanosuit, while Nanobots within your body repair the damage."

"And if I happen to get head-shot?" Virgil asked as he activated the helmet, which quickly enclosed itself around his head, artificial muscle fibers wrapping around his neck and holding the bottom of the helmet in place.

"Modifications to the design include carbon-lattices along the helmet's exterior and interior. Live testing confirms that high-powered sniper rounds will completely flatten against the helmet's exterior, but anything like an armor-piercing round will likely render a concussion. Just because it can stop the round in its tracks, doesn't mean it can completely dispense the kinetic force, which is why when under sustained fire, Armor Mode is still heavily advised. The mass-produced models likely won't have that level of protection in the helmet, but your continued survival is our number one priority during the initial stages of Nanosuit development."

"I figured 'that' much," Virgil said in his synthesized voice as he stated looking around, testing the range of motion. For all intents and purposes, it was almost like he wasn't wearing a skull-encapsulating helmet over his head. They even managed to make it look a little more like he was looking through an open window, than a pane of hexagonal monitors. "What else will I be doing while I'm here?"

"We're still moving around resources, so you won't be mission-ready for a while," Otacon answered. "However, there are still a couple errands you need to do while you're here, so try and break in the suit, tell us if anything needs adjustment."

"Hmmm… The crotch area 'is' oddly roomy," Virgil thought to himself as he grabbed his waistline and tried shifting the armor a little.

"Merely to maximize comfort and efficiency for the wearer," Dr. Yumeno explained. "Also to mitigate heat buildup to a manageable level. The Nanosuit as-is has very limited climate control."

"So what am I doing exactly?" Virgil asked.

"You'll need to go across the room to the Armory. There, you'll complete a quick survey that dictates what weapon types you're most-comfortable with, and any preferences on what you want to learn to use," Otacon answered. "I hear you're a Two-Percenter… Is that true?"

"That's what I've been told."

"And are you presently entertaining the motion of committing a mass murder?" the man asked.

"No. No I am 'not'," the brunette said plainly.

"Ah, that's good. Means we won't have to worry about giving a psycho killer military-grade weapons," Otacon said as he turned back to the console, the little mech whirring back to life. "Just follow the little guy there. He'll lead the way before bringing you back here."

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

Crossing the room immediately outside the Nanosuit R&D, Virgil entered another white-washed room. This one had a few seats against the walls beside the door, and ten feet away from said door was a waist-high counter covered in wood paneling. The back half of the room had large aisles of nothing but weapons running perpendicularly to the door. Knives, batons, pistols, rifles, SMGs, grenades, claymores. If it can kill someone in a way that strips them of all their honor and dignity in an instant, it was there. In the WAY back of the room were a number of benches, likely for weapon maintenance.

In short, it was like a supermarket of death.

Sitting at the counter were two people milling about until the bulkhead doors closed behind Virgil and notified them of his presence. Their appearances were both very similar, the man on the let having his blond hair brushed back over his head, while the woman on the right had hers down and was a bit messy. They both had grey eyes and scars on their left cheeks, the two of them wearing white military fatigues with grey and black accents.

Obviously, he couldn't tell what they were wearing from the waist down.

"Well hey there. Heard you'd be coming by," the man on the left replied.

"Hm. Figured you'd be taller," the woman on the right waved off dismissively.

At this greeting, Virgil sighed inside of his helmet, but the voice synthesizer kept the noise internalized. "Nice to meet you too. You part of the same unit as the guys upstairs?"

"York and Maine?" the man on the left asked. "Yeah, we're all here on special assignment and mission-rotation. Call sign's North Dakota, but you can call me North. Nice to meet you," he greeted, extending his arm over the counter. "That's South Dakota, South for short."

"Hey, I can introduce myself," the woman known as South snapped. "All you're getting out of me is South Dakota. Got it memorized?"

"Yeah, I hear ya," Virgil replied before leaning over to the side slightly and "whispering" toward Otacon- "That thing come with a taser?" To be perfectly frank, South came across as rude, unfriendly, and selfish like a brattish child. On the flipside, North was much kinder, almost like a big brother. With all the similarities between them, he figured 'twins'.

"Nope. It adds unnecessary weight," Otacon answered.

"Hey, you wanna say that to my face, tough guy?" South demanded, slamming her palms on the counter.

" . . . " Virgil remained unresponsive before turning to the left. "So I hear that this is the place to get weapons," he said brushing her off.

"That's right," North replied while his sister fumed. "If it can hurt a person, we've got it down here, and if we don't we can get it. Nationality is not an issue," the man said drawing out a piece of paper. "Here you've got your standard spec ops survey, which will help determine what weapons you're most-suited to wield. Try not to go crazy and put check-marks in all the boxes."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Virgil said as he looked down at the paper. The questions were arranged I 1 through 10, 10-being-the-highest format, as well as a couple fill-in-the-blanks. When it came down to the bottom where his desired weapon layout came into play, he saw fit to speak up. "I notice the bow and arrow don't come standard."

"What are you? Fucking Robin Hood?" South quipped.

"They're silent and don't leave a muzzle flash," the brunette snarked back. "So how 'bout it? Think I can get a bow and arrow set down here?"

"Hmmm… Well, there are a few specialists in FOXHOUND who use the bow and arrow almost religiously. I think I can pull a couple strings," North replied.

"That wasn't even remotely funny," South sighed at the dorky pun.

"Quick question: Where do guys like Green Arrow stand in terms of skill?" the brunette asked, curious if he could close the gap in case he came head-to-head with the hero-types.

"Not even close," South replied. "Those panty-wearing yahoos are just a bunch of punks. Put 'em up against FOXHOUND, and they'll lose every time."

"Guys like Superman and Wonder Woman might give us a bit of trouble, but since their respective appearances, we've been making contingency plans," North commented. "I did a bit of digging on you before you showed up. Hell of a thing you went through, I'll tell ya that."

"Yeah, well, I don't wanna talk about it," the brunette replied. If he hadn't told the Moxxi family anything about it, he certainly wasn't going to open up to a couple of strangers who didn't even give him actual names.

"Fair enough," the man replied as he took back Virgil's papers. "Hm. Pretty basic loadout you've got here. I guess you're more of a stealth-type, eh?"

"Yeah. Leave rushing headfirst into bullet storms to the guys who get their rocks off on getting shot," the brunette replied off-handedly.

"Pheh. Whatever," South replied as she crossed her arms.

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

"That one chick was a little hard to stomach," the brunette replied, taking off his helmet as soon as he'd left the room. Last thing he needed today was some chick he didn't even know making kid comments at him.

'I'm turning seventeen this year, goddamn it!' he ranted to himself for whatever reason.

"Well, she 'is' a trained soldier on guard duty. That's bound to get 'anyone' riled up."

"Still… Doesn't mean she has to be a bitch about it," Virgil pouted. "Where to next?"

"We need to make a stop at the Med Lab. After going over your biometrics since you were last here, we've been concocting something to remedy your physiological shortcomings, that won't be completely nullified by the Nanobots currently in your system before the drugs can take effect."

"Oh god, I knew it! The suit is making me sterile!" the brunette cried in panic, scrambling to take the suit off.

"Wh-What? No, nothing like that! You're completely virile," he said reassuringly, ceasing Virgil's attempts to take off his suit.

"It's really gross that I've got another dude telling me this," the brunette sighed as he came upon the door in the hallway once again. Unlike the bulkheads for the other rooms, the double-doors opened like any other set of hospital double-doors. Probably to facilitate hasty treatment in case of injury.

To the immediate right there was an L-shaped counter that arced around to the right, while on the immediate left there were a number of chairs, making the space look like a reception room. The entire facility was open-walled, no useless doors or anything like that in sight, as a number of medical beds were immediately visible across from the door extending all the way to the far right. On the far left of the room was what appeared to be the door to an operating room, with bulkheads likely meant to keep out pathogens. Just outside of it appeared to be a doctor's office of some sort, with partitions meant for patient confidentiality.

"Name," a voice suddenly said out of nowhere.

"Wha?" Virgil gawped as he looked around, trying to find the source of the voice.

"Name," the voice repeated, prompting Virgil to look over the counter.

Sitting behind it was a small Caucasian girl with short gray hair brushed down and brown eyes, maybe eight years of age and around four feet tall, a little too short to be completely visible from behind the counter. Her attire consisted of a black high-collared blouse with long sleeves, military green shorts, colorful pinstriped kneesocks, and dark-green and black military boots. Her hair was brushed to the right away from her left eye, and above it was a white rose-like barrette.

"Um… Virgil Valentine," the brunette returned, processing that there was an obviously prepubescent child behind the counter.

"I have a Vincent Valentine on the waiting list. No-one by the name of Virgil," the girl replied.

"Ugh…" Virgil groaned, knowing it'd be a pain in the ass getting used to the name change already. "My name was changed to Vincent from Virgil."

"I see," the girl replied before pressing a button on the intercom. "Dr. Grey, the patient is here to see you."

"Thank you, sweetie. Send him down in a minute, I just need to tidy the place up a bit," a cheerful voice said on the other end. If anything, it meant her bedside manner did not suck, unlike Dr. Yumeno's.

Guy made him feel like a bug under a magnifying glass.

"Otacon. Is it standard procedure to have children working in the med bay?" the brunette asked off to the side.

"Well… Most of the personnel has already been allocated to either security detail, or supporting roles for The Bunker's various facilities. There really isn't anyone else to act as receptionist at the moment," Otacon replied. "We try to put one of C.E.L.L.s people from behind a desk and we'll just make them testy. The only reason North and South are behind one is because it's the armory, but that role itself is on rotation."

"Hal," the girl said leaning over the counter. "You forgot to leave the lab again."

"Uh… Whoops, sorry about that, Sunny," Hal replied nervously.

"How many meals have you skipped since yesterday?" the girl, Sunny, asked drumming her fingers on her forearm.

"Maybe… one or two…"

" . . . Please report to the cafeteria and get something to eat," Sunny ordered.

"Um, sure, let me just recall this guy here and-"

"Now," the girl ordered with her best glare, which somehow cowed the man into killing the power on his end, the little machine hunkering down into a smaller form. "The doctor will see you now. I'll escort you back to the lab after she's finished," Sunny said turning her attention back to Virgil.

"Sure…" Virgil replied nervously, wondering just what kind of girl Sunny was that she could boss around a full-grown man.

Walking past the row of medical beds, Virgil turned the corner and opened the door, walking into a small but well-equipped doctor's office. The room was pretty Spartan, as aside from a couple framed degrees and a jar of lollipops, everything else was high-end medical examination equipment. Off to the side tidying things up while singing Habanera from Carmen to herself, was who he assumed to be Dr. Grey.

"Oh, hello there, I didn't hear you come in. I'm Doctor Emily Grey, but you can just call me Dr. Grey," the woman greeted in a friendly tone. She was of Asian descent with lightly tanned skin, light blue eyes, and short black hair in a pixie cut. She had a beauty mark under the corner of her left eye, and she had a small amount of purple eyeliner with a touch of mascara. Her attire consisted of white shoes, pants, and a doctor's coat, under which she wore a purple tight-fitting shirt.

"Hey. I'm… Vincent," he said letting the name roll on his tongue a bit.

"Ah, yes, the new specimen," she said in an… eccentric tone. "I'm looking forward to getting to know you better," she said in a slightly lower tone as she eyed his body up and down.

" . . . I need an adult…" the brunette felt compelled to say, not sure if the doctor was hitting on him or not.

"I'm not an adult, I'm Dr. Grey. Ha, bad joke," she replied jovially.

" . . . Sooo… Otacon said you had something for me?" Virgil asked, wondering just how effective the conversational emergency escape button would be in an actual doctor's office.

"Oh yes, your prescription medication," the woman replied with a smile as she turned around and went to one of the cabinets. "As you might already be aware, part of your nondisclosure agreement included the agreement that, should you ever require medical attention, you receive it from only a medical practitioner approved by Hargreave and Rasch Biomedical. Your body has a lot of expensive medical hardware swimming around in it now, and it wouldn't be good for it to be made public too soon. Medical nanotech is a very new technology after all, and some people might consider the prospect to be a liiiitle on the invasive side."

"I can't imagine why," Virgil returned, aware that Re-l could superimpose herself upon his reality with the flick of a switch.

"I know, right?" the woman asked as she took out a couple of bottles. "Anywho, because of the Nanomachines in your bloodstream, you have very acute medical requirements that only a few people are legally qualified to treat. Everyone else might as well be a DuFresne or a Zed, if you know what I mean," she said ribbing him a little.

'I won't even ask why she knows about Dr. Zed,' the brunette thought to himself. Was his reputation really that preceding? "Aaanyway… What kinda pills will I be popping?"

"Weeell, unlike your typical over-the-counter drugs which are usable by everyone, your medication was hand-tailored to your anatomy exclusively in order to maximize bodily intake of foreign materials, after taking your body-cleansing nanotech into account," Dr. Grey explained. "This, is a counter-adrenalant meant to retard the activation of your body's adrenal response when prompted to do so by external stresses."

"Like when I faced the squid-thing?" Virgil asked, wondering just why everything had gotten so bright, and slow, and smelly.

"Suuure. Whatever that means," the woman replied with a wave of her hand as she handed him a semi-opaque orange-colored medication bottle. "Take these once a day before bed with water or milk until the bottle runs dry. Once that happens, we'll need to run more tests to see whether you need more of this medication or not," she proceeded to explain. "As for this," she said pulling out another bottle. "Thanks to the nanomachines in your system, your reproductive organs are super-virile, and pre-marital pregnancy is almost guaranteed in the event of sexual intercourse with the fairer sex. In the event you do managed to get past third base, be sure to pop one of these before sexy fun-times start. If you can burn a couple minutes with kinky foreplay, all the better," the explained with a wide grin on her face.

"That… is a very casual explanation for the use of male birth control," the brunette said looking at his second bottle. At first he thought the doctor was ad libbing, but in the Instructions part of the label, it had all the casual jargon from "sexy fun-times" to "kinky foreplay".

"I try to be very accommodating to all my patients," Dr. Grey replied. "Apart from that, you have no other pressing medical needs that require addressing."

"Actually… there is something I'd like to bring up," the brunette replied nervously. "The other day, these little yellow symbols like exclamation points in square brackets started popping up over the heads of people who had favors for me to do."

"Sounds like something pertaining to your SECOND System. You'd have to talk to Dr. Yumeno about that. My specialty lies in blood and squishy guts."

"SECOND?"

"Semiautonomous Enhanced Combat Ops: Neuro-integration Delivery AI," the woman clarified. "The original abbreviation was "SANTA", Semi-Autonomous NeuroTactical Augmentation, but it was changed to SECOND at the request of CryNet's marketing staff."

"So that is the voice I've been hearing inside my head whenever I wear this thing," Virgil said looking down at the suit.

"Like I said, Dr. Yumeno would give better answers than I," Dr. Grey replied. "Anywho, I've given you your drugs, completely non-addictive by the way," she added, "so unless you want to take off all your clothes and get a thorough medical evaluation from yours truly, I'd recommend speaking to Dr. Yumeno about your little AI problem."

"Are… Are you coming onto me?"

"Only if you want me to," the eccentric woman said sending a wink his way.

'I am both scared and turned on at the same time,' the brunette thought to himself.

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

While Dr. Grey was quite attractive, and her knowledge of human anatomy could make things… interesting, Virgil wasn't 100% positive if she was flirting with him or just being coy. As such, he opted to decline her offer to take off all his clothes and have her examine every square inch of his body in an in-depth physical.

Maybe almost getting killed every day for a month in a quarantine zone had something to do with his over-active libido. That and living in close proximity to a hot older woman who he spent almost all of said time with. Like any zombie movie, leaving visual range of another person was a sure-fire way of getting teeth sunken into your neck. And not in the fun way.

Anyway, after politely declining Dr. Grey's offer, he proceeded to leave the room, where Sunny was waiting for him.

"Um… Did you… happen to hear any of that?" the brunette asked nervously.

"Only the last part," Sunny replied plainly.

"Oh… Okay then," he replied, suddenly really glad he opted not to take Dr. Grey up on her offer. "So… Am I done here?"

"You are," she replied, guiding him away.

"If you mind me asking, how does a little girl find herself in a place like this?" Virgil asked trying to make casual conversation.

" . . . My… grandfather's health was failing, so I hacked into Hargreave & Rasch Biomedical to find a treatment that would extend his life. I… may have gotten a little sloppy and let them backtrack the source code, but because of the connections we had with FOXHOUND, we were able to come to an agreement," Sunny answered. "That's all I can really tell you at the moment."

"Huh. Has anyone told you you're really smart for your age?" Virgil asked.

"From time to time," Sunny replied with a smile. "Anyway, we're here. I'll leave you to your business," she said walking away.

"Right," Virgil said as he entered the room. "Hey guys, I'm back," he said announcing his presence. True to form, Otacon was missing from his station. Dr. Yumeno was off by one of the computer banks, and there was someone sitting in the virtual reality chair. "Dr. Yumeno, you have a minute?"

"I can talk and work," the man replied. "What do you need?"

"Long story short: I need someone to adjust SECOND without damaging my brain. Short story long: The other day, I started seeing things whenever people were about to ask me to run errands in town for them, so I really need someone to adjust SECOND without damaging my brain," the brunette replied.

"Ah yes, I remember observing some unique power fluctuations," the doctor replied as he typed on a few keys. "Fortunately, I've formulated an answer in the event you asked that question."

"Then will you spit it out already! I don't wanna flip my gourd and start talking about myself in the third person! Or even the fourth person!"

"There is no fourth person," the doctor replied. "As for 'spitting it out', R&D has a theory about what the exclamation points within square brackets meant. We have reason to believe that SECOND was compartmentalizing physiological data from eye movement, body language, and lingual cues, in a form that was indicative of people's desires to ask others for help."

" . . . What?"

"In nerd-speak, they're like indicators on your Heads Up Display about optional side-quests that need doing," the doctor replied plainly.

"Well can you turn them off? I do not want my mental health going any further over the deep end then it already has."

"Hop into the Cradle and I can make the adjustments right now," Dr. Yumeno instructed, pressing a couple buttons on the console and causing the Cradle to lower. "Oh, and while you're in there," he said digging around in his pockets, "we can install the Codec nanomachines," he said drawing out a small clear box from his pocket, held within a pair of silver-colored earplugs.

"Oh yeah. Otacon said something along those lines needed to be installed," Virgil remembered. "How does Codec work exactly? He said that a form of it was being used via my phone and SECOND through my nervous system, but honestly, most of that went over my head."

"Let me see if I can get him on the line," the doctor said pulling out a smartphone and pressing a few buttons on the touch-screen. "Mr. Emmerich, this is Dr. Yumeno. I need you to explain to Mr. Valentine how the Codec works before I begin installing it. I'm putting you on speaker," he said holding the phone out.

"Oh that's right, I forgot to explain it to you didn't I?" Otacon's voice came out of the phone. "Well, the Codec system is actually a really fascinating piece of tech, its usage dating as far back as the Cold War, and only becoming more advanced and more streamlined as time went on. The version 'you'll' be using is the recent nanomachine update."

"Yeah, I figured that much. But why does the nanotech look like a couple of earplugs?"

"Oh, the earplugs aren't the nanotech, they're the delivery system," Otacon clarified. "The Codec functions by directly manipulating the small bones in the ears, like the stapes, so it appears as though the user is talking to themselves, making it completely impossible for outside sources to listen in. Unless they have something plugged directly into your ear that is, but then it'd be kinda obvious they're listening in," Otacon explained. "The Codec 'itself' incorporates anti-wiring coding and, digital real-time burst communication. A normal communication over ten seconds is instantly codified, compressed, and transmitted in a burst one microsecond in length. As it's received in real-time, it is unscrambled and decoded, comparably more innovative than the conventional anti-wiring frequency scrambler. This makes it completely hack-proof, ensuring complete privacy between both parties. In the past, bulky radios in suitcases had to be carried around and destroyed prior to capture by enemy forces in order to conceal American involvement in internal affairs. With the new nanotech, there's almost zero evidence of it even existing."

"What about airport security? Nanomachines are still metal, won't they be picked up?" Virgil asked.

"To detect the Codec nanomachines would require metal detectors 'far' more sensitive than what's currently available to the public market. Also, because the nanomachines incorporate seamlessly into the small bones of your inner ear, there's no way of visually verifying their presence unless they know 'exactly' what to look for," Otacon explained. "With this, we have a one-hundred percent private, completely uninhibited channel of communication to you at all times. The most damning moment for any operative is communicating to and from home base, but with this, it'll only appear as if you're talking to yourself. Walk into a bathroom stall or something and you can communicate with us in total privacy."

"So…" Virgil said trying to wrap his head around it. "It takes what you are saying it to me, breaks it apart for shipping, then reassembles it inside my ear, meaning even if someone manages to hack the frequency, all they'll have are puzzle pieces they can't put together? And because it vibrates my ear bones themselves, I am the only one capable of hearing it?"

"That's pretty much it in a nutshell," Otacon replied.

"Also, you're contractually obligated to put these in as part of your contract," Dr. Yumeno added.

"Yeah, I figured that much," Virgil said taking the ear plugs and putting them in.

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

Aside from a mild headache, the adjustments to SECOND went by without too much hassle. Thankfully, the exclamation points in square brackets would not be happening again. Last thing he needed was another straw to break the proverbial brain-camel's back. As for the installation of the Codec's nanomachines, that too was practically seamless. Apart from a mild tickling sensation in his ears, there was no other way to tell that a layer of nanomachines were being placed on the small bones in his ears.

All in all, it took far less time than it would to update your personal computer.

"Alright, the final adjustments have been made to both SECOND and the Codec nanomachines. You're good to go," Dr. Yumeno said from outside the coffin-like Cradle as it began to tip upward.

"Oh thank god. I was afraid I was starting to lose my mind there," Virgil sighed as he pulled off his helmet, pulling the nanotech delivery plugs out of his ears.

"Your sanity is well within acceptable deviations," Dr. Yumeno clarified. "For now," he amended moments later.

"Wow. What a ringing endorsement," Virgil said blandly. "I am filled with confidence."

"You're welcome," the man replied. If he had glasses, he'd probably be adjusting them.

"All that aside…" Virgil said as he rubbed his temples. "Is there anything else I need to do here, or can I get ready to go home?"

"There's only one other person you need to have a few words with, and he's right here in the room with us," Dr. Yumeno answered motioning over to the virtual reality console, which was not beginning to open up, freeing the hands and feet as the helmet retracted, revealing its occupant.

The man was old, really old, his short gray-colored hair, matching stache, blue gray eyes, and wrinkles making him look like a man well beyond his forties. Despite this, he stood at an impressive five feet nine inches, and was as if not more fit than most people half his visible age. He was clad in green camo military fatigues and boots, but the real kicker was the FOXHOUND patch on his right shoulder. That on top of the partially-healed burns dominating the left side of his face, showed he'd seen all kinds of action.

"So… You're the kid who managed to get himself mixed up in this world," the man said sizing the brunette up. "I've read your file. Not many people could go through what you did and still be sane."

"I've been told my sanity is only within acceptable deviations. For now," the brunette sighed.

"Regardless of what people might tell you, most would've cracked under the pressure, even a trained soldier or a Green Beret. Surviving an act of bioterrorism is an achievement in itself," the old man returned as he reached into his pocket, putting a cigarette to his lips, but abstaining from lighting it. The fidgeting of his off-hand said he was still fighting the habit. "I'm told you're a Two-Percenter. Is that true?"

"It is, sir."

"And do you feel guilty after you've killed?"

"Afterwards, yeah. But in the middle of a quarantine zone, I don't really have the luxury of falling to pieces. I had to push all of that aside and focus on surviving. The guilt can come later."

"And do you believe you're fit for duty?"

"Depends on what I'm being asked to do."

The man nodded in response, humming to himself before saying- "This is a very dangerous line of work you signed on for. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." –is what Virgil wanted to say. However, something about the way this man carried himself, and how time had taken a toll on his body, demanded nothing but the utmost respect, so what he actually said was-

"Look. I know, that what I'm doing right now, probably isn't the smartest thing. Heck, this is probably the most reckless thing I've ever done in my life. But my family… They died because guys like Blackwatch get to run around completely unopposed, and I'm sick of it. I'm just… so sick and tired of always getting the short end of the stick. Tired of losing people I care about and not being able to do a thing to help them. To save them," Virgil said angrily as he raked his fingers through his hair. "You tell me this is a dangerous line of work, I already know that. I don't know how much people down here know about me, but I lived a month in a real-life post-apocalyptic zombie flick complete with Nazis and a bio-terrorist who can supposedly chuck forklifts like softballs," he was ranting now. "If I have the power to actually do something, something that actually matters, then I'll take this chance! I have friends and family, again, and I don't want to lose any of them, again. So don't try and convince me to leave. I'm tired of being weak, having to hope that others will come and help, only for them to never come and leave my ass hanging out in the wind. That is why I am here, and it's why I'll stay here, and see this thing through! Even if it kills me, if I've managed to make a difference, then I've still won."

". . . Heh, good answer kid," the man replied with a wizened smile. "I'm looking forward to working with you."

"Thank you, um…" Virgil said fishing for a name.

"You can call me Snake," the man replied.

"Snake… That's cool," the brunette stated rather informally.

"So I'm told," the man replied. "I'm not sure how much I can help you out in the field, I'm not as young as I used to be, but I'll tell you this much," he said looking Virgil dead in the eye. "No matter what people say to you, how much they think its fact, you are not a weapon to be used and thrown away when you break. You're a human being, and you deserve to walk off the battlefield. To live your life like everyone should be able to. Remember that, and survive what's to come. Don't spend the only life you have fighting to the bitter end. That's a mistake I almost made…" he trailed off to himself as his gaze fell to the side.

"Thank you, sir," Virgil returned, following through the very strong urge he suddenly felt to snap off a salute, which the man returned.

"Heh. Don't thank me just yet," the man chuckled. "I don't know what Ms. Meyer has planned for your alibi, but do know this. If you really want to make a difference, you're going to have to work harder than you have in your entire life. Sweat, blood, tears, the whole nine yards. Are you up for it?" he asked, sounding more like a wizened old coach than a military trainer.

"I'll be ready," Vincent said with a nod, clenching his fists.

*THE HACKER, THE PRODIGY, AND THE SOLDIER*

NeoNazo356: As some of you may or may not have noticed, there were a lot of cameos introduced in this chapter. Otacon, Sunny, and Snake from Metal Gear, as well as New York, Maine, Donut, Doc, Dr. Emily Grey, North Dakota, and South Dakota from the popular web series Red vs Blue. The reasoning for all the cameos, as opposed to a stream of hand-tailored OCs, is quite simple.

Spaceman: Crossover cameos make for more-compelling side-characters, than an endless stream of OCs. This is due those characters coming with a sense of familiarity and fans of their own. While an Original Characters needs time and devotion to develop into real characters, most readers want to hear about familiar characters. A cameo only needs a few paragraphs to remind the reader why they enjoy him or her, while a new character could need an entire book just to get the reader interested. A story with too many OCs is an attempt at creative writing disguised as a fan fiction.

NeoNazo356: It isn't so much that we CAN'T come up with OCs to fill the roles, but using cameos instead of characters with non-existent backstories makes for more-compelling reading. Also, if you've ever WATCHED Red vs Blue, you would be aware how the wide variety of (colorful) character types meshing in an enclosed space makes for good reading. As I've been told, readers WANT more dialogue in their stories, even if they themselves don't know it. As for the other thing you might be wanting to know…

Spaceman: In the world of the Hunter, events of Metal Gear have not played out completely the same as in the Games. One major event is Big Boss woke up 5 years early from his coma and the events of MGS4 happened in 2008. The events and technology of Metal Gear universe has changed things for many characters in the Hunter-verse.