Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Tragic Heroes ❯ Two-on-Two ( Chapter 5 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Grey Fox 
It's time for the first 'boss' battle of the fic. Hikaru and Snake must now take on a deadly duo of cybernetic soldiers!
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 06.26.2003 | Updated On: 08.25.2003 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 332 | Status: Completed
It's time for the first 'boss' battle of the fic. Hikaru and Snake must now take on a deadly duo of cybernetic soldiers!
Anime/Manga: Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 06.26.2003 | Updated On: 08.25.2003 | Pages: 3 | Words: 4.8K | Visits: 332 | Status: Completed
Tragic Heroes
a Magic Knight Rayearth/Metal Gear crossover
Chapter 5: Two-On-Two
6-25-2003
by Grey Fox
Disclaimer: Solid Snake and Metal Gear are the creation of the gaming genius Hideo Kojima and the property of Konami. Hikaru Shidou and Magic Knight Rayearth are the creation and property of the talented ladies of CLAMP studios.
*****
Snake wasted no time. Upon jumping out from behind the cover of the crate, he immediately opened fire on their assailants. Unfortunately, whoever they were, they were too quick; they easily rolled to the side. Then Snake heard the click from his rifle that told him the clip was out of ammo, far sooner than it should have. *Damn!* Snake thought angrily. Apparently, he hadn't bothered to check if the ammo clip that was in the rifle was full when he took it from that guard.
"Well well well, out of ammo already? Didn't bother to check the clip?" came the taunting voice of one of the attackers as he stepped out from behind the crate, giving Snake and Hikaru a good look at him.
"And he didn't even nail us? He must be losing his touch, huh Johnny?" came the voice of the other, who also stepped out into view.
"Sure looks that way, Joey," replied the first man.
Now Hikaru and Snake could see who it was they were facing, and that they certainly weren't any normal soldiers. For one thing, it was now obvious why their voices sounded so similar: they were twins. Both were black men, very tall and extremely muscular, around 6'3", and were wearing the same standard camouflage uniforms worn by the rest of the soldiers they had encountered. They had bald and had angular faces that had looks of hatred and contempt etched into their features. But what really made them different was what appeared to be mechanical devices attached to their bodies. Both had a strange eyepiece attached to one of their eyes that looked similar to the eyepieces on the night-vision goggles they had acquired earlier, and both had a device that looked like a weapon on one of their arms. To Snake, it looked like a machine gun, grenade launcher and nikita missile launcher all combined into one menacing-looking device. To one who had been referred to as Johnny had the eyepiece attached to his right eye and the weapon attached to his left arm, while the one referred to as Joey had the eyepiece on his left eye and the weapon attached to his right arm. And both had their weapon arms pointed right at Hikaru and Snake.
"Cyborgs, huh?" Snake thought aloud as he reloaded his assault rifle with a fresh clip of ammunition.
"No shit, Sherlock," Joey blasted vehemently. "We're known as the Cyborg Twins."
"Oh, that's an original name," said Snake, rolling his eyes.
"What do you want with us?" demanded Hikaru harshly.
"Nothin' much, kid. We just want you dead," spat Johnny, leering menacingly at Hikaru. Then he turned his attemtion to Snake and said, "We know all about you, Snake, and that you must've somehow found out about Metal Gear. We can't let you and your little playmate here go any further."
"'We'?" said Snake in a questioning voice. "I wonder, just what do you mean by 'we'? Do you just mean the two of you, or are you part of some organization here?"
"It's true we're not workin' on this Metal Gear project alone," replied Joey in a hateful tone. "But there's no way in hell we're tellin' you about it. You'll have to beat it out of us."
"Like he's not gonna try, Joey," hissed Johnny. "This is the Legend, after all, and he's legendary for killing everyone who gets in his way, slaughtering anyone on the order of his masters back in Washington." A wicked smile formed on his lips. "Well, this time, it'll be the Legend who dies."
"That's not true! You're wrong about him!" cried out Hikaru, her hands gripping her sword tightly.
"His track record says otherwise, kid," retorted Joey disdainfully. "I don't know what he's told you, but he's killed a lot of people in cold blood, and even let people who were supposed to be his friends die." Hikaru turned to look at Snake, who had his eyes shut tightly and was shaking his head.
"You're right about all that, I won't deny it," said Snake. "But it's not like I wanted to. I never wanted any of that."
"He's right!" shouted Hikaru. "Snake never wanted to kill anyone, and we don't want to fight you now!"
"Well too bad kid. We sure as hell want to fight you," sneered Johnny. With that, both Johnny and Joey fired a cylindrical-shaped device out of their weapon arms.
"Grenades! Look out!" screamed Snake as he rolled to the side; Hikaru did the same. But they were both a few seconds too late. One of the grenades was a stun grenade, and it unleashed its flash-bang combo that temporarily blinded Hikaru and Snake. The other grenade released a cloud of semi-opaque gas, so that their vision was still impaired even after the effects of the stun grenade wore off.
Hikaru glanced around nervously, hoping to be able to see something, anything, through the smoke, but had no luck; all she could see were the outlines of the stacks of cargo crates. She briefly considered shooting off a fire spell blindly, hoping she might hit one of the Cyborg Twins. But there was also a good chance she would accidently hit Snake, and she couldn't take that risk.
Hikaru then heard someone creeping up behind her, undoubtedly it was one of the Cyborg Twins. She turned around to face him, but again, she was a few seconds too late. Through the thick smoke, a large, powerful hand reached out and grabbed her by the throat. Again, her attacker acted before she could do anything, and she was thrown through the air, going through the doorway that led to the other large storage room.
At this point the gas was starting to clear up and Snake saw one of the Cyborg Twins hurl Hikaru into the other room. He watched helplessly as he followed Hikaru into the room and seal the door shut behind him. "Hikaru!" he cried out desperately.
"Don't bother worrying about the little girl," came a sardonic voice from behind him. "You've got enough problems of your own." Snake quickly turned around to see Johnny glaring menacingly at him, cybernetic weapon arm at the ready. Johnny shot off another volley of machine gun fire at Snake, who barely managed to dodge the attack and find cover behind another stack of cargo containers.
"Damn," muttered Snake. "This is not my day." Standing up and turning around, he readied his assault rifle and fired, but Johnny also managed to find cover behind some metal crates. After a while, Johnny came out from behind the crates and fired at Snake, who barely managed to duck for cover in time, and then retreated again behind the crate. *I'm getting nowhere with this guerrilla fighting. I have to find a way to draw him out,* Snake thought. But his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of another weapon, a sound that he recognized instantly: the approach of a Nikita remote-controlled missile.
Snake deftly rolled away, hearing the explosion from the missile behind him. Snake stood up and looked back, seeing Johnny was quite a long distance away from him. He lifted his weapon arm and fired off another missile, and despite the distance between the two, it was closing on him fast. Snake fired his rifle at it, and it exploded. However, the missile had gotten so close to him that Snake could feel the searing heat of the explosion, and had to shield his face and turn away. Then he heard the sound of yet another weapon: a grenade launcher.
*Damnit, he just doesn't let up!* thought Snake bitterly as he quickly ran to the left to avoid the grenades. *I'll have to be just as relentless.* Pulling two grenades out, he pulled out the pins and tossed them at Johnny, then and dashed to the side of the storage room behind yet another wall of metal containers. Judging from the "Urgh!" sound he heard along with his grenades going off, he had done some damage, but there was no telling how badly he had managed to injure Johnny.
"Oh Snake, why don't you come on out and play?!" came Johnny's mocking voice. Snake muttered a curse as he reloaded his rifle with a full clip, his back flattened against the wall of containers. Now knowing that Johnny had too much heavy weaponry at his disposal, another frontal attack wouldn't be wise. Snake knew he would have to try coming at him from behind. But before he could put his plan into action, Johnny called out again. "Okay then, I guess you're fine with playing hide and seek!" And then the sound of yet another Nikita missile being fired off. Snake looked around frantically, trying to spot the guided missile. Eventually, he saw it round a corner and come straight for him. He immediately fired upon it, and it exploded harmlessly a safe distance away from him. But then Snake heard yet another missile approach behind him. He turned and fired, hitting it dead-on but this one had gotten so close that Snake was knocked flat on his back. "Now I know where you've holed yourself up. OK Snake, now it's time to play catch!" taunted Johnny.
Snake then heard the grenade launcher again. He quickly scrambled to his feet, and saw a grenade come over the wall of containers. It landed too far away from him to hurt him, but he knew that sooner or later one would manage to hit him, unless he fought back. *At least he seems to be out of those damn missiles,* he mused as he reached into his pouch for another grenade and pulled the pin. He tossed it over the side, but no cry of agony accompanied the explosion this time.
"Oh C'MON Snake! I know you can do better than that!" bellowed Johnny haughtily as he launched another grenade over the stack of crates. This one got closer to the last one - too close for comfort. Snake pulled out three more grenades and quickly tossed them over at Johnny. Maybe now there'd be a good chance he'd hit his attacker. This time, he did hear another muffled cry of pain, but immediately following it was another one of Johnny's snide remarks. "Oh yeah, NOW we're getting somewhere! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about Snake. That feeling you only get when you're fighting for your life on the battlefield."
Johnny was right about that - he was indeed very familiar with that feeling he had felt numerous times on the battlefield, the feeling that made him feel more alive than anything else. The exhilarating thrill of battle, the rush of adrenaline, and the feeling of raw fighting instinct taking over - it was all coming back.......
*No,* thought Snake, a wave of disgust sweeping over him for almost submitting to those snesations again. *No, I'm not gonna give in. I'm not gonna play it his way.* He looked down at his grenade pouch. He had only one grenade left. Suddenly, an idea came to him. If he managed to pull this off, that one grenade would be enough to take down Johnny, possibly without having to kill him.
"Hey Snakey, what's the holdup?" questioned Johnny imperiously about why Snake had ceased throwing grenades back at him. He fired two more grenades over the crate wall, but still no signs of retaliation. "Guess I got 'im," muttered Johnny.
"Oh please, it'll take much more than you've got to kill me," cried Snake loudly as he climbed atop the stack of crates he had taken cover behind, grenade in hand. Johnny looked up and saw him, and rasied his weapon arm to fire, but he was too slow this time. He leapt down and tackled him, sending them both crashing down onto the floor. Wasting no time, Snake put his plan into action and lodged his last grenade into Johnny's weapon arm, where the Nikita missiles had been fired from. Pulling the pin, he quickly rolled away, leaving Johnny wondering just what he had been up to.
He learned what Snake's plan was soon enough, and in a very unpleasant manner.
The grenade detonated, sending bits of shrapnel flying everywhere and completely disfiguring the end of his weapon arm. Now none of his weapons would function, giving Snake the chance to take him alive and get information out of him. Snake ran toward Johnny, who retaliated by using his weapon arm the only way he could - by trying to bludgeon Snake with it. But once again, he was too slow. Snake ducked out of harm's way, and came back with a vicious uppercut straight to Johnny's jaw, followed up by a brutal right to his face. A swift kick to the midsection ended Snake's assault, and Johnny collapsed onto the ground. He scrambled to get up and attack again, but Snake had pulled out his pistol and aimed it right at his head. "It's over," he muttered.
"Goddamnit," cursed Johnny as he wiped away the blood oozing from his mouth. "So, I guess I'm another feather in your cap, huh?"
"Shut up," spat Snake, having had enough of Johnny's taunts and accusations. "I could've tried to finish this the easy way, but I went ahead and took you alive."
"So maybe the buzz about what happened in Galuade was true after all. Maybe you really are getting soft in your old age," retorted Johnny.
"Think whatever you want. I don't give a damn," said Snake. "Right now, all I care about is destroying Metal Gear so I can get the hell out of here. Now where is it?"
"And if I don't tell you, you'll what? Kill me?" asked Johnny mockingly.
"Don't push me. I am NOT in the mood for games," Snake replied threateningly as he tightened his grip on his gun. Truthfully, he didn't want to kill him, but better if he thought he might. He'd be more likely to spill his guts that way.
Johnny hesitated for a long while, but eventually he spoke. "Alright, I'll toss you a bone. We've got it hidden deep underground. If you want the gritty details about this place, I'm sure you can radio Campbell or whoever the hell you're taking orders from this time."
"I'm taking orders from no one," said Snake. "Except for that girl, I alone here...." Snake stopped abruptly, realizing he'd just told him more than he should have. *I'm supposed to be getting information out of him, not the other way around!* he thought acidly to himself.
"Oh really? So you're all alone here huh?" said Johnny with mock curiosity. He then turned his head to look behind Snake. "Well, me and my buddies sure as hell aren't. Did you get that little girl Joey?"
"What?!" exclaimed Snake as he spun around to face whoever Johnny was talking to. No one was there. It was a ruse, and he fell for it! He quickly turned back to face Johnny, who had drawn a pistol of his own and was ready to fire at him. Acting on battle reflexes, Snake shot at him before he had a chance to fire. The bullet tore through his cybernetic eyepiece, sending sparks spewing everywhere. Johnny dropped down again, completely motionless. He had been killed instantly.
For a few seconds, Snake just stood there, staring at Johnny's lifeless body. Why did things always have to turn out this way? Even now, when he went out of his way to take his enemy alive, he was still forced to kill. But soon enough, Snake came to his senses, remembering Hikaru. If she was still fighting the other one, she might need his help. He quickly ran to the door Joey had thrown Hikaru through and slid his ID card in the electronic lock. The door hissed open, and he walked through, assault rifle at the ready.
----------------------------------------------------------- -----------
Hikaru landed hard on her butt, and skidded backwards for a while on the smooth metal floor. But she immediately got back up, ready to face her attacker, who she saw closing the door behind him as he entered the room with her. *Fine, if he wants to take me on by himself, I'll be more than happy to accomodate him,* she thought tersely as she drew her sword. "YAAAHHH!" she screamed as she charged toward Joey, sword at the ready to strike him down. However, he quickly blocked her sword with his weapon arm. *What, it didn't cut throught it?* thought Hikaru, who had figured an Escudo weapon was capable of easily slicing through any metal from Earth. *What's this thing made out of?*
"The old witch was right. You are fast," said Joey as he got right in Hikaru's face. "But you'll have to do better!" With that, he pushed his weapon arm forward, shoving Hikaru away from him. Then he lunged forward with his weapon arm, attempting to clobber her. But Hikaru managed to avoid his attack by jumping backwards, and the only thing he managed to hit was the metal floor.
"Alright, time to show you what I can really do!" yelled Hikaru. "Flame Arrow!" Hikaru shot her fire spell right at Joey, who just managed to leap aside and avoid getting scorched.
"Yow, hot stuff!" Joey shot back bitterly, holding up his weapon arm. "Now try this!" he cried as he launched grenades at her. Hikaru turned heel and ran, feeling the heat of the explosions on her back, which were way too close for comfort. Straight ahead of her was another large stack of metal boxes which almost reached the ceiling. Hikaru deftly leapted from box to box until she reached the top of the stack. She quickly turned around to face Joey again.
"Ruby Lightning!" she screamed, firing off her deadly energy blast. But once again, Joey managed to jump out of the way just in time, and all her spell managed to do was leave a smoldering impact crater in the floor.
"Nyah nyah, missed me again!" taunted Joey. "But this next one won't miss!" Hikaru then saw him fire off some sort of missile, which was barreling right towards her. Hikaru jumped down from the stack of crates in an attempt to avoid it, but she saw the missile suddenly changed direction and head straight for her! In desperation, she used her Flame Arrow spell to destroy it, but it had gotten too close, and the explosion knocked her down.
*Oh great, he's got some sort of guided missiles,* she thought bitterly as she stood back up, her back searing with pain from the impact. But she didn't have much time before Joey was on the move again, running towards her and firing his machine gun. Hikaru flipped to the side, feeling the deadly barrage of bullets whizzing past her. *Got to keep him on the defensive so he can't use his weapons,* Hikaru thought. With that, she shot her Ruby Lightning spell at Joey again, this one more powerful than last time. Joey jumped backwards slightly to avoid it. Hikaru had missed Joey himself, but had hit the floor right in front of him, sending up a big plume of smoke and debris, which served to temporarily blind Joey, much like how he and his brother had done to her with their smoke grenades. Suddenly, an idea came to Hikaru about how she could use that to her advantage. It was time to take a page out of Snake's book.
Eventually the smoke cleared and Joey could see clearly again, only to clearly see what Hikaru was gone. "What the hell?" he exclaimed as he walked up to the big stack of crates where Hikaru had been standing before. He even walked behind it to see if she was there. Nothing. Perplexed, he walked back in front of the crate stack. "Where the hell did she go?" he thought aloud, scratching his head.
"Right under your nose!" came Hikaru's reply. Joey looked around desperately trying to locate her, but still could not find any trace of the fiery little girl. Then the top of one of the crates flew off, and out leapt Hikaru. She landed a good ten meters away from Joey and then cried out, "Flame Arrow!" Her blast of fire magic went right past Joey and plowed right through the crate stack.
"That's four times you missed me!" shouted Joey.
"Who said you were the target?" questioned Hikaru with a smirk.
"Huh?!" said Joey. All of a sudden, a low rumbling sound was heard behind him. He looked back to see that since Hikaru had destroyed a good number of the crates, the rest were threatening to topple over. As in fall forward right onto him. Joey tried to run and get out of harm's way, but it was too late. Numerous crates fell right onto him, knocking him to the floor and pinning him down, with only his upper body sticking out. Joey writhed in pain as he struggled to raise his weapon arm, but Hikaru walked up to him and with her sword gripped in both hands, pointing downwards, she thrust the tip of her sword down onto the middle of Joey's cybernetic arm. This time, her sword tore right through it, noisily snapping it in half and causing sparks to fly out.
"It's over," said Hikaru as she withdrew her sword into her glove ormament. Joey just spat out a string of hideous profanities in response. Hikaru simply ignored him, feeling incredibly relieved that the she had won the battle, and that she didn't have to resort to killing him to do it. What's more, maybe she could get some information out of him. But before she could ask him any questions, she heard the electronic door separating the two storage rooms slide open. She spun around nervously to see who it was, but calmed down once she saw it was Snake instead of the other Cyborg Twin. "Snake, you're alright!" she exclaimed happily with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine," replied Snake in an impassive manner.
"What about the other guy?" asked Hikaru.
Snake just stared at the ground for a moment. "Taken care of," he said morosely.
"So, you killed him," snapped Joey. "Struck down, just like the rest of my family."
"Huh?" asked Hikaru curiously, turning back to face her defeated foe. "What are you talking about."
"I'm talking about how the rest of my family died because of senseless slaughter," replied Joey hatefully. "Back in the 60's, during the Civil Rights Movement, our mother and father were actively involved in making sure we blacks got a fair shake. They were lynched by Ku Klux Klan members, and later it turned out some of 'em were police officers."
Hikaru just stared at Joey, nonplussed. "T-that's... horrible...." she said in a low whisper.
"But that's only half the story," continued Joey. "After that, we were sent to live with our grandma over in Los Angeles. Things were better there, and we lived happily. The murder of our parents still hurt bad, though, and then, years later...."
"Don't tell me... the L.A. riots?" said Snake, who had walked up behind Hikaru. "Are you saying your grandmother was killed because of racial violence too?" he asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," said Joey with a malicious look on his face. "You have no idea what it's like to lose people you love like that, twice! All just because of the color of our skin, and the almighty high-horsed U.S. government didn't really do a damn thing to stop it, ignoring the so-called ideals the country was based on...."
Hikaru looked fixedly in disbelief at the downed Joey, trying to comprehend how such cruelty could be heaped on people for such trivial reasons. But something just didn't make sense about what he had said to her. "Wait a minute. If you hate America so much, how come you're in the U.S. Army?" she asked him.
Joey just let out a peal of malicious laughter. "The U.S. armed forces?! ME?! Girl, you obviously don't get what's going on here. We're..."
That's all Joey managed to get out, before a bullet from an unseen shooter tore through his skull, killing him immediately.
"What the...?!" shouted a surprised Snake as he spun around to look behind him. Hikaru did the same. All she and Snake saw was the outline of someone holding a gun, standing in the doorway that let back to the mazelike corridors of the building's upper level.
"Who was that?!" asked a baffled Hikaru. "Who would kill off his own comrade?!"
"Someone who didn't want us to hear what Joey was abou to tell us," answered Snake angrily. "C'mon, after him!" he said as he ran towards the door. "I wanna know what all this is about." Hikaru nodded and followed him.
They had had to split up to search the winding hallways of the storage base. Hikaru didn't even bothered trying to evade the surveillance cameras, since anyone here probably already knew that she and Snake were here too. *Thankfully, none of the other guards seem to be around,* she thought to herself as she rounded a corner. And ran smack dab into something solid. Like a brick wall. Hikaru fell down painfully, and then, rubbing her throbbing head, looked up. She hadn't run into something, but SOMEONE. A woman, to be exact, and a very tall and well-muscled one at that, somewhere around the 7 foot range going by American measurements. She silently stared back down at Hikaru with an icy glare, her long, thick black hair obscuring most of her face. Her skin had a slight reddish color to it, and she was wearing camouflage pants, shiny black combat boots, a black ribbed-knit sleeveless turtleneck top, and had a gun holster at her side. Evidently, she was the one she and Snake were after. Too bad she now had her. With speed that belied her immense size, she reached down and grabbed Hikaru's throat with both hands, and effortlessly hoisted her up and slammed her against the wall, slowly choking the life out of her. "Gahhh...gack," Hikaru spat out weakly as the woman continued to strangle her.
"Enough! Let her go!! NOW!!" she heard Snake yell at the woman. They both turned to see Snake with his handgun drawn. It was then that Hikaru's attacker finally spoke.
"You should have killed me when you had the chance," she said in a low voice. And her accent, it was.... Portuguese?! And then, acting again with baffling speed, she twirled around and threw Hikaru at Snake, then turned and ran. She threw her with so much force that Snake got knocked flat on his back, with Hikaru on top of him.
*I could say the same to you,* Snake thought wryly as he untangled himself from Hikaru. "You OK?" he asked her. Hikaru just nodded, her hand nursing her aching neck. "Good, then let's get her before she escapes." With that, the two of them took off in pursuit.
Hikaru and Snake managed to follow her to the outside of the base, back to where they had fought the mini-Metal Gear earlier. Snake looked around frantically trying to spot her. Then he heard an car engine being started up - the second truck! The truck took off and headed toward a worn road into the woods. Snake took out his handgun and tried to hit the tires, but it was too dark to aim properly, and he was far too late. "Damn!" he shouted. But a sudden cry of pain from Hikaru shifted his attention away from the escaped enemy. He turned to see Hikaru on her knees, clutching her head with both hands. "What is it, what's wrong?" demanded Snake.
"Nothing...nothing to worry about," replied Hikaru in a quivering voice. "Just another headache. Must be from when she tried to strangle me."
"I hope so. Anyway, let's go after her. She might lead us to where they're keeping Metal Gear," he said as he ran back into the forest. Hikaru followed close behind, still holding a hand to her head.
******
I hate when I let my fics sit for too long. Hopefully I'll be more timely with Chapter 6.
So long,
Grey Fox
a Magic Knight Rayearth/Metal Gear crossover
Chapter 5: Two-On-Two
6-25-2003
by Grey Fox
Disclaimer: Solid Snake and Metal Gear are the creation of the gaming genius Hideo Kojima and the property of Konami. Hikaru Shidou and Magic Knight Rayearth are the creation and property of the talented ladies of CLAMP studios.
*****
Snake wasted no time. Upon jumping out from behind the cover of the crate, he immediately opened fire on their assailants. Unfortunately, whoever they were, they were too quick; they easily rolled to the side. Then Snake heard the click from his rifle that told him the clip was out of ammo, far sooner than it should have. *Damn!* Snake thought angrily. Apparently, he hadn't bothered to check if the ammo clip that was in the rifle was full when he took it from that guard.
"Well well well, out of ammo already? Didn't bother to check the clip?" came the taunting voice of one of the attackers as he stepped out from behind the crate, giving Snake and Hikaru a good look at him.
"And he didn't even nail us? He must be losing his touch, huh Johnny?" came the voice of the other, who also stepped out into view.
"Sure looks that way, Joey," replied the first man.
Now Hikaru and Snake could see who it was they were facing, and that they certainly weren't any normal soldiers. For one thing, it was now obvious why their voices sounded so similar: they were twins. Both were black men, very tall and extremely muscular, around 6'3", and were wearing the same standard camouflage uniforms worn by the rest of the soldiers they had encountered. They had bald and had angular faces that had looks of hatred and contempt etched into their features. But what really made them different was what appeared to be mechanical devices attached to their bodies. Both had a strange eyepiece attached to one of their eyes that looked similar to the eyepieces on the night-vision goggles they had acquired earlier, and both had a device that looked like a weapon on one of their arms. To Snake, it looked like a machine gun, grenade launcher and nikita missile launcher all combined into one menacing-looking device. To one who had been referred to as Johnny had the eyepiece attached to his right eye and the weapon attached to his left arm, while the one referred to as Joey had the eyepiece on his left eye and the weapon attached to his right arm. And both had their weapon arms pointed right at Hikaru and Snake.
"Cyborgs, huh?" Snake thought aloud as he reloaded his assault rifle with a fresh clip of ammunition.
"No shit, Sherlock," Joey blasted vehemently. "We're known as the Cyborg Twins."
"Oh, that's an original name," said Snake, rolling his eyes.
"What do you want with us?" demanded Hikaru harshly.
"Nothin' much, kid. We just want you dead," spat Johnny, leering menacingly at Hikaru. Then he turned his attemtion to Snake and said, "We know all about you, Snake, and that you must've somehow found out about Metal Gear. We can't let you and your little playmate here go any further."
"'We'?" said Snake in a questioning voice. "I wonder, just what do you mean by 'we'? Do you just mean the two of you, or are you part of some organization here?"
"It's true we're not workin' on this Metal Gear project alone," replied Joey in a hateful tone. "But there's no way in hell we're tellin' you about it. You'll have to beat it out of us."
"Like he's not gonna try, Joey," hissed Johnny. "This is the Legend, after all, and he's legendary for killing everyone who gets in his way, slaughtering anyone on the order of his masters back in Washington." A wicked smile formed on his lips. "Well, this time, it'll be the Legend who dies."
"That's not true! You're wrong about him!" cried out Hikaru, her hands gripping her sword tightly.
"His track record says otherwise, kid," retorted Joey disdainfully. "I don't know what he's told you, but he's killed a lot of people in cold blood, and even let people who were supposed to be his friends die." Hikaru turned to look at Snake, who had his eyes shut tightly and was shaking his head.
"You're right about all that, I won't deny it," said Snake. "But it's not like I wanted to. I never wanted any of that."
"He's right!" shouted Hikaru. "Snake never wanted to kill anyone, and we don't want to fight you now!"
"Well too bad kid. We sure as hell want to fight you," sneered Johnny. With that, both Johnny and Joey fired a cylindrical-shaped device out of their weapon arms.
"Grenades! Look out!" screamed Snake as he rolled to the side; Hikaru did the same. But they were both a few seconds too late. One of the grenades was a stun grenade, and it unleashed its flash-bang combo that temporarily blinded Hikaru and Snake. The other grenade released a cloud of semi-opaque gas, so that their vision was still impaired even after the effects of the stun grenade wore off.
Hikaru glanced around nervously, hoping to be able to see something, anything, through the smoke, but had no luck; all she could see were the outlines of the stacks of cargo crates. She briefly considered shooting off a fire spell blindly, hoping she might hit one of the Cyborg Twins. But there was also a good chance she would accidently hit Snake, and she couldn't take that risk.
Hikaru then heard someone creeping up behind her, undoubtedly it was one of the Cyborg Twins. She turned around to face him, but again, she was a few seconds too late. Through the thick smoke, a large, powerful hand reached out and grabbed her by the throat. Again, her attacker acted before she could do anything, and she was thrown through the air, going through the doorway that led to the other large storage room.
At this point the gas was starting to clear up and Snake saw one of the Cyborg Twins hurl Hikaru into the other room. He watched helplessly as he followed Hikaru into the room and seal the door shut behind him. "Hikaru!" he cried out desperately.
"Don't bother worrying about the little girl," came a sardonic voice from behind him. "You've got enough problems of your own." Snake quickly turned around to see Johnny glaring menacingly at him, cybernetic weapon arm at the ready. Johnny shot off another volley of machine gun fire at Snake, who barely managed to dodge the attack and find cover behind another stack of cargo containers.
"Damn," muttered Snake. "This is not my day." Standing up and turning around, he readied his assault rifle and fired, but Johnny also managed to find cover behind some metal crates. After a while, Johnny came out from behind the crates and fired at Snake, who barely managed to duck for cover in time, and then retreated again behind the crate. *I'm getting nowhere with this guerrilla fighting. I have to find a way to draw him out,* Snake thought. But his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of another weapon, a sound that he recognized instantly: the approach of a Nikita remote-controlled missile.
Snake deftly rolled away, hearing the explosion from the missile behind him. Snake stood up and looked back, seeing Johnny was quite a long distance away from him. He lifted his weapon arm and fired off another missile, and despite the distance between the two, it was closing on him fast. Snake fired his rifle at it, and it exploded. However, the missile had gotten so close to him that Snake could feel the searing heat of the explosion, and had to shield his face and turn away. Then he heard the sound of yet another weapon: a grenade launcher.
*Damnit, he just doesn't let up!* thought Snake bitterly as he quickly ran to the left to avoid the grenades. *I'll have to be just as relentless.* Pulling two grenades out, he pulled out the pins and tossed them at Johnny, then and dashed to the side of the storage room behind yet another wall of metal containers. Judging from the "Urgh!" sound he heard along with his grenades going off, he had done some damage, but there was no telling how badly he had managed to injure Johnny.
"Oh Snake, why don't you come on out and play?!" came Johnny's mocking voice. Snake muttered a curse as he reloaded his rifle with a full clip, his back flattened against the wall of containers. Now knowing that Johnny had too much heavy weaponry at his disposal, another frontal attack wouldn't be wise. Snake knew he would have to try coming at him from behind. But before he could put his plan into action, Johnny called out again. "Okay then, I guess you're fine with playing hide and seek!" And then the sound of yet another Nikita missile being fired off. Snake looked around frantically, trying to spot the guided missile. Eventually, he saw it round a corner and come straight for him. He immediately fired upon it, and it exploded harmlessly a safe distance away from him. But then Snake heard yet another missile approach behind him. He turned and fired, hitting it dead-on but this one had gotten so close that Snake was knocked flat on his back. "Now I know where you've holed yourself up. OK Snake, now it's time to play catch!" taunted Johnny.
Snake then heard the grenade launcher again. He quickly scrambled to his feet, and saw a grenade come over the wall of containers. It landed too far away from him to hurt him, but he knew that sooner or later one would manage to hit him, unless he fought back. *At least he seems to be out of those damn missiles,* he mused as he reached into his pouch for another grenade and pulled the pin. He tossed it over the side, but no cry of agony accompanied the explosion this time.
"Oh C'MON Snake! I know you can do better than that!" bellowed Johnny haughtily as he launched another grenade over the stack of crates. This one got closer to the last one - too close for comfort. Snake pulled out three more grenades and quickly tossed them over at Johnny. Maybe now there'd be a good chance he'd hit his attacker. This time, he did hear another muffled cry of pain, but immediately following it was another one of Johnny's snide remarks. "Oh yeah, NOW we're getting somewhere! I'm sure you know what I'm talking about Snake. That feeling you only get when you're fighting for your life on the battlefield."
Johnny was right about that - he was indeed very familiar with that feeling he had felt numerous times on the battlefield, the feeling that made him feel more alive than anything else. The exhilarating thrill of battle, the rush of adrenaline, and the feeling of raw fighting instinct taking over - it was all coming back.......
*No,* thought Snake, a wave of disgust sweeping over him for almost submitting to those snesations again. *No, I'm not gonna give in. I'm not gonna play it his way.* He looked down at his grenade pouch. He had only one grenade left. Suddenly, an idea came to him. If he managed to pull this off, that one grenade would be enough to take down Johnny, possibly without having to kill him.
"Hey Snakey, what's the holdup?" questioned Johnny imperiously about why Snake had ceased throwing grenades back at him. He fired two more grenades over the crate wall, but still no signs of retaliation. "Guess I got 'im," muttered Johnny.
"Oh please, it'll take much more than you've got to kill me," cried Snake loudly as he climbed atop the stack of crates he had taken cover behind, grenade in hand. Johnny looked up and saw him, and rasied his weapon arm to fire, but he was too slow this time. He leapt down and tackled him, sending them both crashing down onto the floor. Wasting no time, Snake put his plan into action and lodged his last grenade into Johnny's weapon arm, where the Nikita missiles had been fired from. Pulling the pin, he quickly rolled away, leaving Johnny wondering just what he had been up to.
He learned what Snake's plan was soon enough, and in a very unpleasant manner.
The grenade detonated, sending bits of shrapnel flying everywhere and completely disfiguring the end of his weapon arm. Now none of his weapons would function, giving Snake the chance to take him alive and get information out of him. Snake ran toward Johnny, who retaliated by using his weapon arm the only way he could - by trying to bludgeon Snake with it. But once again, he was too slow. Snake ducked out of harm's way, and came back with a vicious uppercut straight to Johnny's jaw, followed up by a brutal right to his face. A swift kick to the midsection ended Snake's assault, and Johnny collapsed onto the ground. He scrambled to get up and attack again, but Snake had pulled out his pistol and aimed it right at his head. "It's over," he muttered.
"Goddamnit," cursed Johnny as he wiped away the blood oozing from his mouth. "So, I guess I'm another feather in your cap, huh?"
"Shut up," spat Snake, having had enough of Johnny's taunts and accusations. "I could've tried to finish this the easy way, but I went ahead and took you alive."
"So maybe the buzz about what happened in Galuade was true after all. Maybe you really are getting soft in your old age," retorted Johnny.
"Think whatever you want. I don't give a damn," said Snake. "Right now, all I care about is destroying Metal Gear so I can get the hell out of here. Now where is it?"
"And if I don't tell you, you'll what? Kill me?" asked Johnny mockingly.
"Don't push me. I am NOT in the mood for games," Snake replied threateningly as he tightened his grip on his gun. Truthfully, he didn't want to kill him, but better if he thought he might. He'd be more likely to spill his guts that way.
Johnny hesitated for a long while, but eventually he spoke. "Alright, I'll toss you a bone. We've got it hidden deep underground. If you want the gritty details about this place, I'm sure you can radio Campbell or whoever the hell you're taking orders from this time."
"I'm taking orders from no one," said Snake. "Except for that girl, I alone here...." Snake stopped abruptly, realizing he'd just told him more than he should have. *I'm supposed to be getting information out of him, not the other way around!* he thought acidly to himself.
"Oh really? So you're all alone here huh?" said Johnny with mock curiosity. He then turned his head to look behind Snake. "Well, me and my buddies sure as hell aren't. Did you get that little girl Joey?"
"What?!" exclaimed Snake as he spun around to face whoever Johnny was talking to. No one was there. It was a ruse, and he fell for it! He quickly turned back to face Johnny, who had drawn a pistol of his own and was ready to fire at him. Acting on battle reflexes, Snake shot at him before he had a chance to fire. The bullet tore through his cybernetic eyepiece, sending sparks spewing everywhere. Johnny dropped down again, completely motionless. He had been killed instantly.
For a few seconds, Snake just stood there, staring at Johnny's lifeless body. Why did things always have to turn out this way? Even now, when he went out of his way to take his enemy alive, he was still forced to kill. But soon enough, Snake came to his senses, remembering Hikaru. If she was still fighting the other one, she might need his help. He quickly ran to the door Joey had thrown Hikaru through and slid his ID card in the electronic lock. The door hissed open, and he walked through, assault rifle at the ready.
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Hikaru landed hard on her butt, and skidded backwards for a while on the smooth metal floor. But she immediately got back up, ready to face her attacker, who she saw closing the door behind him as he entered the room with her. *Fine, if he wants to take me on by himself, I'll be more than happy to accomodate him,* she thought tersely as she drew her sword. "YAAAHHH!" she screamed as she charged toward Joey, sword at the ready to strike him down. However, he quickly blocked her sword with his weapon arm. *What, it didn't cut throught it?* thought Hikaru, who had figured an Escudo weapon was capable of easily slicing through any metal from Earth. *What's this thing made out of?*
"The old witch was right. You are fast," said Joey as he got right in Hikaru's face. "But you'll have to do better!" With that, he pushed his weapon arm forward, shoving Hikaru away from him. Then he lunged forward with his weapon arm, attempting to clobber her. But Hikaru managed to avoid his attack by jumping backwards, and the only thing he managed to hit was the metal floor.
"Alright, time to show you what I can really do!" yelled Hikaru. "Flame Arrow!" Hikaru shot her fire spell right at Joey, who just managed to leap aside and avoid getting scorched.
"Yow, hot stuff!" Joey shot back bitterly, holding up his weapon arm. "Now try this!" he cried as he launched grenades at her. Hikaru turned heel and ran, feeling the heat of the explosions on her back, which were way too close for comfort. Straight ahead of her was another large stack of metal boxes which almost reached the ceiling. Hikaru deftly leapted from box to box until she reached the top of the stack. She quickly turned around to face Joey again.
"Ruby Lightning!" she screamed, firing off her deadly energy blast. But once again, Joey managed to jump out of the way just in time, and all her spell managed to do was leave a smoldering impact crater in the floor.
"Nyah nyah, missed me again!" taunted Joey. "But this next one won't miss!" Hikaru then saw him fire off some sort of missile, which was barreling right towards her. Hikaru jumped down from the stack of crates in an attempt to avoid it, but she saw the missile suddenly changed direction and head straight for her! In desperation, she used her Flame Arrow spell to destroy it, but it had gotten too close, and the explosion knocked her down.
*Oh great, he's got some sort of guided missiles,* she thought bitterly as she stood back up, her back searing with pain from the impact. But she didn't have much time before Joey was on the move again, running towards her and firing his machine gun. Hikaru flipped to the side, feeling the deadly barrage of bullets whizzing past her. *Got to keep him on the defensive so he can't use his weapons,* Hikaru thought. With that, she shot her Ruby Lightning spell at Joey again, this one more powerful than last time. Joey jumped backwards slightly to avoid it. Hikaru had missed Joey himself, but had hit the floor right in front of him, sending up a big plume of smoke and debris, which served to temporarily blind Joey, much like how he and his brother had done to her with their smoke grenades. Suddenly, an idea came to Hikaru about how she could use that to her advantage. It was time to take a page out of Snake's book.
Eventually the smoke cleared and Joey could see clearly again, only to clearly see what Hikaru was gone. "What the hell?" he exclaimed as he walked up to the big stack of crates where Hikaru had been standing before. He even walked behind it to see if she was there. Nothing. Perplexed, he walked back in front of the crate stack. "Where the hell did she go?" he thought aloud, scratching his head.
"Right under your nose!" came Hikaru's reply. Joey looked around desperately trying to locate her, but still could not find any trace of the fiery little girl. Then the top of one of the crates flew off, and out leapt Hikaru. She landed a good ten meters away from Joey and then cried out, "Flame Arrow!" Her blast of fire magic went right past Joey and plowed right through the crate stack.
"That's four times you missed me!" shouted Joey.
"Who said you were the target?" questioned Hikaru with a smirk.
"Huh?!" said Joey. All of a sudden, a low rumbling sound was heard behind him. He looked back to see that since Hikaru had destroyed a good number of the crates, the rest were threatening to topple over. As in fall forward right onto him. Joey tried to run and get out of harm's way, but it was too late. Numerous crates fell right onto him, knocking him to the floor and pinning him down, with only his upper body sticking out. Joey writhed in pain as he struggled to raise his weapon arm, but Hikaru walked up to him and with her sword gripped in both hands, pointing downwards, she thrust the tip of her sword down onto the middle of Joey's cybernetic arm. This time, her sword tore right through it, noisily snapping it in half and causing sparks to fly out.
"It's over," said Hikaru as she withdrew her sword into her glove ormament. Joey just spat out a string of hideous profanities in response. Hikaru simply ignored him, feeling incredibly relieved that the she had won the battle, and that she didn't have to resort to killing him to do it. What's more, maybe she could get some information out of him. But before she could ask him any questions, she heard the electronic door separating the two storage rooms slide open. She spun around nervously to see who it was, but calmed down once she saw it was Snake instead of the other Cyborg Twin. "Snake, you're alright!" she exclaimed happily with a smile.
"Yeah, I'm fine," replied Snake in an impassive manner.
"What about the other guy?" asked Hikaru.
Snake just stared at the ground for a moment. "Taken care of," he said morosely.
"So, you killed him," snapped Joey. "Struck down, just like the rest of my family."
"Huh?" asked Hikaru curiously, turning back to face her defeated foe. "What are you talking about."
"I'm talking about how the rest of my family died because of senseless slaughter," replied Joey hatefully. "Back in the 60's, during the Civil Rights Movement, our mother and father were actively involved in making sure we blacks got a fair shake. They were lynched by Ku Klux Klan members, and later it turned out some of 'em were police officers."
Hikaru just stared at Joey, nonplussed. "T-that's... horrible...." she said in a low whisper.
"But that's only half the story," continued Joey. "After that, we were sent to live with our grandma over in Los Angeles. Things were better there, and we lived happily. The murder of our parents still hurt bad, though, and then, years later...."
"Don't tell me... the L.A. riots?" said Snake, who had walked up behind Hikaru. "Are you saying your grandmother was killed because of racial violence too?" he asked.
"That's exactly what I'm saying," said Joey with a malicious look on his face. "You have no idea what it's like to lose people you love like that, twice! All just because of the color of our skin, and the almighty high-horsed U.S. government didn't really do a damn thing to stop it, ignoring the so-called ideals the country was based on...."
Hikaru looked fixedly in disbelief at the downed Joey, trying to comprehend how such cruelty could be heaped on people for such trivial reasons. But something just didn't make sense about what he had said to her. "Wait a minute. If you hate America so much, how come you're in the U.S. Army?" she asked him.
Joey just let out a peal of malicious laughter. "The U.S. armed forces?! ME?! Girl, you obviously don't get what's going on here. We're..."
That's all Joey managed to get out, before a bullet from an unseen shooter tore through his skull, killing him immediately.
"What the...?!" shouted a surprised Snake as he spun around to look behind him. Hikaru did the same. All she and Snake saw was the outline of someone holding a gun, standing in the doorway that let back to the mazelike corridors of the building's upper level.
"Who was that?!" asked a baffled Hikaru. "Who would kill off his own comrade?!"
"Someone who didn't want us to hear what Joey was abou to tell us," answered Snake angrily. "C'mon, after him!" he said as he ran towards the door. "I wanna know what all this is about." Hikaru nodded and followed him.
They had had to split up to search the winding hallways of the storage base. Hikaru didn't even bothered trying to evade the surveillance cameras, since anyone here probably already knew that she and Snake were here too. *Thankfully, none of the other guards seem to be around,* she thought to herself as she rounded a corner. And ran smack dab into something solid. Like a brick wall. Hikaru fell down painfully, and then, rubbing her throbbing head, looked up. She hadn't run into something, but SOMEONE. A woman, to be exact, and a very tall and well-muscled one at that, somewhere around the 7 foot range going by American measurements. She silently stared back down at Hikaru with an icy glare, her long, thick black hair obscuring most of her face. Her skin had a slight reddish color to it, and she was wearing camouflage pants, shiny black combat boots, a black ribbed-knit sleeveless turtleneck top, and had a gun holster at her side. Evidently, she was the one she and Snake were after. Too bad she now had her. With speed that belied her immense size, she reached down and grabbed Hikaru's throat with both hands, and effortlessly hoisted her up and slammed her against the wall, slowly choking the life out of her. "Gahhh...gack," Hikaru spat out weakly as the woman continued to strangle her.
"Enough! Let her go!! NOW!!" she heard Snake yell at the woman. They both turned to see Snake with his handgun drawn. It was then that Hikaru's attacker finally spoke.
"You should have killed me when you had the chance," she said in a low voice. And her accent, it was.... Portuguese?! And then, acting again with baffling speed, she twirled around and threw Hikaru at Snake, then turned and ran. She threw her with so much force that Snake got knocked flat on his back, with Hikaru on top of him.
*I could say the same to you,* Snake thought wryly as he untangled himself from Hikaru. "You OK?" he asked her. Hikaru just nodded, her hand nursing her aching neck. "Good, then let's get her before she escapes." With that, the two of them took off in pursuit.
Hikaru and Snake managed to follow her to the outside of the base, back to where they had fought the mini-Metal Gear earlier. Snake looked around frantically trying to spot her. Then he heard an car engine being started up - the second truck! The truck took off and headed toward a worn road into the woods. Snake took out his handgun and tried to hit the tires, but it was too dark to aim properly, and he was far too late. "Damn!" he shouted. But a sudden cry of pain from Hikaru shifted his attention away from the escaped enemy. He turned to see Hikaru on her knees, clutching her head with both hands. "What is it, what's wrong?" demanded Snake.
"Nothing...nothing to worry about," replied Hikaru in a quivering voice. "Just another headache. Must be from when she tried to strangle me."
"I hope so. Anyway, let's go after her. She might lead us to where they're keeping Metal Gear," he said as he ran back into the forest. Hikaru followed close behind, still holding a hand to her head.
******
I hate when I let my fics sit for too long. Hopefully I'll be more timely with Chapter 6.
So long,
Grey Fox