Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Tragic Heroes ❯ Out Of Control ( Chapter 8 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Tragic Heroes
a Magic Knight Rayearth/Metal Gear crossover
Chapter 8: Out Of Control
9-7-2003
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.

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Hikaru waited patiently, her back flat against the large rock she was using as cover. In just a few more seconds, Snake would be in position, and then Hikaru could act. She peered around the side of the rock, putting back on her thermal goggles - there he was, the guard that was their only obstacle to getting out of the rocky terrain and heading west. Hikaru darted back behind cover, ready to put their plan into action. But all of a sudden, some instinct, some sixth sense, SOMETHING told Hikaru that someone else was coming. Then she heard the sound of approaching footsteps, confirming her suspicions. She peeked out from behind the rock again to see something walking up to the guard.

"Alright, I'm here to relieve you Jack," she heard the new guard say.

"Finally. I'm getting nervous patrolling this area. I was told those two intruders would be heading through here for the research facility," replied the first guard. Hikaru's lips curled into a wry smirk. "I even heard they did in the Twins and beat the livin' hell out of Piranha," he continued.

"That they did," said the relieving guard. "But the funny thing is, they thought this place is still being run by the U.S. Army," he continued, his voice betraying a profound sense of amusement.

"You mean, they don't KNOW?!" exclaimed the first guard. "Totally clueless.... whoever's the one giving them orders obviously didn't tell them everything." Hikaru frowned at hearing this. He had a point - it was looking like Future hadn't exactly told her and Snake everything about what was going on here. "Well, I'm outta here. Keep an eye out for those two dopes," he said as he walked away down the ravine that led west. The ravine that only the new guard was blocking.

*You think they'd put more personnel along this path if they know we'll be coming this way, especially after seeing what we can do,* thought Hikaru. *Well, their mistake!* Now that the first guard was gone, it was time to take out his relief. She pulled her Escudo sword out of her glove ornament and loudly rapped the side of the rock with it.

She then heard the guard say "Huh? What was that noise?" and start walking toward her position. But that didn't worry her in the slightest, for she knew Snake was lying in wait. And sure enough, she soon heard "Urrgh!", the sounds of a brief scuffle, and the sound of a body dropping to the ground. Hikaru walked out from behind cover to see Snake standing over the unconscious guard.

"That's over with," said Snake. "Now we can finally move on. By the way, did you hear what they said?" he asked.

"Every single word. And they were right. It seems we were thrown into this mess without knowing all the details," replied Hikaru. *Just like last time,* she added silently.

"Well, when Future briefed me about this mission, she made it sound like I had to hurry up and destroy Metal Gear before it fell into the wrong hands," stated Snake. "Guess she neglected to mention that it already has."

"Then we had better get moving," said Hikaru, taking off down the ravine. Snake sighed, and quickly followed his spunky little partner.

It wasn't long before the two found themselves once again in the middle of a densely forested area. And once again, it was crawling with guards keeping a lookout for them. *Looks like they're taking us more seriously than I first thought,* Hikaru mused silently as she layed flat on the ground beside Snake in a patch of tall grass, hidden from the view of the guard who was passing them by. Once he was gone, they got up and ran in the opposite direction the guard had came from, only to stop abruptly once they heard the sound of leaves and twigs being crunched underfoot from up ahead. Snake and Hikaru dashed behind a large tree and waited for this guard to pass by as well before continuing. Eventually, she did, completely oblivious to the deadly duo of spies hiding behind the tree she absent-mindedly walked past.

"Piranha was anxious for us to get to this research facility, yet these people seem to be hell-bent on making sure we don't make it there," said Snake, commenting on the insane amount of guards patrolling the area. Hikaru had to agree with him. This forest had way more guards than the one they had trekked through earlier. It was enough to make Hikaru doubt that they'd me able to make it through unnoticed. She had already blundered once before - making noise and getting spotted by the enemy - and was extremely worried about making another costly mistake. Again, she was starting to think that she was becoming a liability, slowing Snake down. What if?...

A massive, agonizing headache struck Hikaru yet again, causing her to fall down to her knees, clutching her head with both hands. It took every bit of effort she could muster to not let loose a scream. This headache... was the worst one yet! The pain was so intense, she couldn't move or even think. "Hikaru, what's wrong?" asked Snake worriedly.

"I-It's another headache... th-the w-worst yet!" Hikaru managed to splutter out. She was no good to Snake this way. As far as she was concerned, he had no choice but to leave her behind. "Snake, l-leave me," she got out in choked gasps. "I-I'll slow you down...."

Snake cut her off. "Hell. No." He then reached down and effortlessly picked up Hikaru and slung her over his left shoulder. Then with his right hand, he drew his silenced pistol, and then continued on towards the research facility.

"S-Snake... why?" asked Hikaru wanly, still in severe pain.

"Because there's no way I'm letting history repeat itself, that's why," he answered silently. Snake had a quick flashback, seeing Natasha Marcova and Jimmy Harks die right before his eyes and how he couldn't do anything to prevent their deaths. No chance in hell he'd let Hikaru suffer at the hands of the enemy. Not on his watch. He'd get Hikaru out of here alive, no matter what.

Hikaru struggled with the severe, burning pain, trying not to pass out entirely as Snake carried her through the forest. She couldn't believe it - she had once again become a hindrance, slowing Snake down and fouling up their mission. Hikaru knew how important it was that Metal Gear was destroyed, and how badly Snake wanted that mechanical abomination wiped out of existence. And now her weakness could be keeping them from achieving their goal....

And then, it happened again. That energy from before, booming clangorously within her, trying to burst free again. This time, however, it was much more powerful than the last time this energy came bubbling to the surface. It felt as if she was going to explode.

Snake soon became aware of the fact that something was terribly wrong with Hikaru. He could feel her body beginning to heat up, and could feel the intense heat even through his insulated suit. "What the?!" he exclaimed, lifting Hikaru's limp body off his shoulder and setting her down at the base of a tree. Now Snake could see that something was obviously wrong. Hikaru body seemed to be glowing! Snake took off his night-vision goggles and looked at Hikaru again - there was no mistake, Hikaru's body was in a state of incandescence, giving off intense heat and light. The very air around her seemed to crackle with power. "Hikaru, what the hell is going on?!" demanded Snake.

"It's h-happening again, Snake," she replied in a strained, frightened voice as she fought to keep this energy under control and contained within her. But it was a futile battle, and Hikaru knew it. "It's that new power. I-I can't control it!!" she screamed as tears began to run down her cheeks. Tears that soon evaporated right off her skin from the intense heat her body was giving off.

Snake just stood there, dumbfounded. Yet again, here he was right in front of his would-be comrade-in-arms, and totally powerless to do anything to help. "Hikaru..." he muttered under his breath unable to think of anything he could do.

Meanwhile, Hikaru still laid against the base of the tree, trying to contain this boundless energy that had been unlocked within her. But no matter how hard she tried to keep her power under control, it still managed to get closer to breaking free, despite her efforts. Eventually, it reached a point where she knew it was inevitable. "S-Snake, get away from me," Hikaru stammered. "I'm-I'm going t-to.....YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!"

Hikaru's entire body seemed to explode with pure energy. A brilliant flash of white light filled Snake's entire vision, and then he felt his body being knocked backwards several meters, as if he had been struck by some invisible force. When Snake got up and looked back at Hikaru, his jaw dropped from the shock of what he saw. Hikaru had managed to stand up again, but her body was again glowing with white light, far brighter than she had been previously. Not only that, but tendrils of fire and energy seemed to lash out from her body, engulfing whatever they touched into flames. The tree she had been leaning on was now ablaze, and just about everything within a five-foot radius of her was also on fire. The light from her body and the fire was so great, the entire area was illuminated as if it was the middle of the day, rather than the dead of night.

Snake didn't understand how this had happened, or what he could do about it. The only thought that was in his head was that he had to get to Hikaru. He carefully walked toward her, calling her name, trying to reassure her, but it wasn't doing any good. Hikaru kept motioning for him to move back, and kept screaming "Get away! Get away!"

But Snake ignored her, determined to do something, to not just sit back and let this disaster just happen. "Hikaru, try and contain it! You have to try!" he shouted at her.

"NO!!! I CAN'T!!" she shrilled as everything around her continued to burn, fueled by the energy pouring out of her. She felt as if her bones had been replaced with white-hot iron, and like her muscles would going to pop clear out of her skin. And worse, she felt another surge of power coming, this one ever greater than the last. "NO!!! SNAKE, GET AWAY!! ANOTHER ONE IS C--AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" That was all she got out before a second explosion of energy issued forth from her body, once again blinding Snake and sending him flying through the air even farther back, slamming his backside against a tree.

"Ow. That hurt," said Snake, rubbing his aching back as he waited for the stars swirling around his eyes to go away. "Now what the hell do I do?" he then asked out loud to no one in particular.

As if to answer his question, he heard the cries of approaching guards. "What the hell is going on over there!" and "It must be that little red-headed bitch!" and "We better get hold of our special new gimmick!" were some of the things he was able to make out.

*Oh crap,* Snake thought to himself. He had been so focused on helping Hikaru, that he neglected to realize that Hikaru's outbreak of power would have most definitely attracted the attention of everyone else in the woods. He looked back to where Hikaru still stood. Her body was still resonating with that strange energy, and the radius around her in which everything was ablaze had become even greater. There was absolutely no way he could get to Hikaru, and he couldn't fight off all the guards that would be here in mere seconds. He had only one option: fall back. If the enemy got to him too, then there'd be no one left to take out Metal Gear. It was cold, yes, but still, Snake knew he had no choice. *Hikaru, forgive me,* he thought bitterly as he retreated further into the forest, away from Hikaru's blast zone.

Soon Snake found a large, tall tree that would serve as excellent cover. He quickly climbed it to get a good view of what was happening. After hearing that guard bragging about their 'special new gimmick', he decided he should see what these guards planned to do, especially since he had a suspicion what it was. Soon enough, he saw several guards closing in on Hikaru's position, wearing apparatuses that looked a lot like Piranha's water pump backpack. Once they had surrounded her, they opened fire. Foam sprayed out from their hoses, completely engulfing Hikaru. *Just as I thought,* thought Snake glumly, *flame-retardant foam.* Snake continued to watch helplessly as they continued to bombard Hikaru with the foam, snuffing out the flames surrounding her body and all the fire she had caused. He watched as Hikaru writhed powerlessly from within the foam, and slump unconscious to the ground. Listening attentively, he was able to hear one of the guards say, "YES! We got her! Let's take her to the research facility! Trudy'll have a ball dissecting this bitch!"

*So, they're going to take her to the research facility we were heading for, huh?* thought Snake, still mad at himself about how he hadn't been able to do anything. Fueled by his rage, he resolved to follow Hikaru's captors to the research facility and rescue his partner. Jumping down from his hiding place, he took off after them, determined not to fail.

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When Hikaru finally regained consciousness, she found herself lying down on a cold metal floor. She quickly recalled losing control of her mysterious new ability and how enemy troops came and bombarded her with some sort of foam. She had no idea how long she had been out or where she was now, but she resolved to immediately get back to work and finish the mission. Slowly, gingerly, she opened her eyes and carefully stood up.

Surprisingly, it wasn't too difficult to do so. She quickly glanced around her, taking in her surroundings, and again receiving a bit of a surprise. After being captured by the enemy, she assumed she would have been thrown into some sort of prison cell. Yet she now found herself in some sort of hallway - a dark and dreary one at that. The walls were of a dark, navy blue color and it was dimly lit, thanks to the sparse fluorescent lighting in the ceiling. Instinctively, Hikaru reached for the infrared goggles on her head, only to find they were not there. Then she remembered the outburst of intense heat, and reasoned her googles and every other piece of equipment she had been carrying must have been vaporized.

Hikaru then noticed that her clothes and armor were still intact. "How the?!" she thought out loud. "How come my clothes didn't burn up?!" She considered it for a minute, and then remembered how Future had said she would help prepare her for this job 'in subtler ways'. "Well, I guess if she can transport me through time and hotwire my brain so I can speak English, she can also make my clothes fireproof."

Deciding not to dwell on it, Hikaru figured it was best to get moving. It was still unnerving how they seemed to have left lying around in some hallway instead of locking her up. They must have had some reason, but she had no idea what it could be, and that's what made her nervous. Still, she wouldn't get anything done by just standing there. Drawing her sword out of her glove ornament, Hikaru began to walk down the dark, dreary hallway.

From her previous experiences on this base, Hikaru had learned very quickly that she needed to move around carefully to stay alive. She peeked around every hallway corner, crawled over floor gratings so she wouldn't make noise, and took other precautions, but as she continued on, it all seemed to be unnecessary. The winding, mazelike hallways were completely devoid of any activity; no guards patrolling the halls, no infrared beams coming out of the walls, not even a single surveillance camera. Something was definitely not right here, and it was making Hikaru more and more apprehensive by the minute.

Hikaru had come across several doors, but all of them had an electronic lock, and she didn't have any keycards. Eventually, though, she found a door that opened automatically as she stepped near it. Deciding that it was worth a look, Hikaru slowly stepped inside, ready to act in case there were some nasty surprises waiting for her. But there were no drone guns on the wall or soldiers lying in ambush or anything like that, so Hikaru relaxed a little and took a good look around her. It was a pretty large room, around twenty by thirty meters, Hikaru guessed, and there were few rows of black, long horizontal tables, with sinks installed in them. It sort of reminded her of the chemistry and biology labs back at her junior high school. *Could this be the research facility?* she wondered.

Just then, she heard the door behind her slide open, and someone walk in. Hikaru whirled around to face whoever it was, but she wasn't quick enough. She didn't even have enough time to get a look at whoever it was - the next thing she knew, she got the wind knocked out of her and was flying backward. She slid a few feet along the metal flooring and soon skidded painfully to a halt, then got up and finally got a look at her attacker. She couldn't make out too much because of the dingy lighting, but she could see it was a very tall and muscular blond-haired man, who was clad in a some sort of black combat suit. "Who are you?!" she demanded, gripping her sword tightly with both hands and ready for action.

The man didn't reply. He just lifted his right arm, and then Hikaru felt herself knocked back again by some invisible force, as if the man had hit her with some sort of sonic wave. She quickly got up and resumed a battle-ready stance, but this time she noticed someone else was now in the room. A big, hulking man with white hair and moustache, and some sort of cannon attached to some sort of backpack apparatus. And that weapon was aimed right at her. *Uh-oh,* thought Hikaru as she immediately leapt to the side as the other man fired his weapon. A searing jet of chemical flame narrowly missed hitting Hikaru dead-on.

"What?! A flamethrower?!" Hikaru thought aloud. *Wait a minute, didn't Snake say Pyro Bison used a flamethrower? He looks an awful lot like the guy Snake described. And could that other guy be Black Arts Viper? But Snake killed them about a year ago - well, in this time. What's going on?!*

It wasn't long before Hikaru's mystery guests took the offensive again. Both the Viper-lookalike and the Bison-lookalike fired their weapons at her. Hikaru deftly jumped and backflipped over one of the tables, and they hit the table instead, Viper's sonic wave smashing part of it to splinters and Bison's flamethrower burst singing it. Hikaru realized she'd have to fight fire with fire. "Flame Arrow!" she yelled, shooting her spell at them.

The Viper-lookalike dodged by jumping to the right and the Bison-lookalike jumped the left. There was a sudden, blinding flash of light. Hikaru instinctively shielded her eyes with her free arm. But then, she sensed someone approaching her from left. She quickly turned to the left, but once again, she was too slow. The Viper-lookalike unleashed yet another sonic wave, this one the most powerful yet. Hikaru screamed as the force of the energy wave floored her and caused her to drop her sword. Every muscle in her body ached and see was seeing stars floating around in front of her eyes. She simply could not muster the strength to get up. Then she heard the footsteps of the Bison-lookalike behind her, getting closer. If she couldn't get up and soon, he'd undoubtedly use his flamethrower on her and burn her to a crisp. But at she was, there was no way she could even move without extreme pain shooting throughout her body. "I-It can't end like this," she said softly under her breath. Then she heard Bison fire his weapon and felt the flames surround her.

Hikaru expected to be incinerated on the spot, but instead, the flames seemed to touch her without doing any damage whatsoever. She could feel the intense heat, but the fire wasn't burning her at all. Her clothes couldn't possibly protect her like this, could they. No, wait, something was definitely happening. The pain from the Viper-lookalike's attack had faded away, and the exhaustion she had felt earlier was gone. And the flames, instead of killing her, felt soothing and invigorating. It was as if the flames were recharging her entire body!

Soon Hikaru found the strength to stand up again. She could feel that same energy from before, that feeling of containing raw, explosive power. But unlike the last time, she felt as if she could keep a lid on it, calling it forth only when she desired.

Hikaru looked from one lookalike to another; both had expressions that betrayed utter confusion. Hikaru decided to take advantage of that and take them out now before they could strike again. She lifted both her arms up, and tapped into that strange new power. White-hot bolts of energy shot out of both her hands, striking both lookalikes dead center. Her blasts caused the Bison-lookalike's fuel tank to explode, killing him instantly, and she saw the Viper-lookalike crumple to the floor as well.

She stood there for a moment, shocked at realizing she still couldn't control this new ability very well - she had meant to incapacitate them, not kill them. Gathering her wits, Hikaru walked over to the felled Viper-lookalike. There was a large burnmark on his chest where her energy blast had burned clear through his combat suit. The wound looked ghastly, but not fatal. Hikaru understood why her blast could have ruptured the Bison-lookalike's fuel tank and killed him, but the Viper-lookalike's wound didn't seem that serious. "Just what is going on here?!" Hikaru thought out loud.

Hikaru didn't receive any answers. Instead, she heard a loud thump behind her, as if someone had dropped down from the ceiling. *Oh great, someone else who wants a piece of me,* she thought as she turned around to face whoever it was. But for the third time in a row, she wasn't fast enough. But instead of getting hit with a sonic wave, all she was greeted with was the blackness and silence of unconsciousness.

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The guard standing outside the back entrance of the base's research facility shifted nervously. What was that sound he had just heard? Probably just some small animal. Or his imagination playing tricks on him. It couldn't be.... him. Dismissing the noise, he returned his attention to his patrolling duties.

But before he could take a single step, he felt a powerful hand clasp over his mouth and another hand clamp down on his throat, preventing him from making any sound. In the next instant, he felt his head get jerked sideways and heard the grisly snap of his own neck. Then everything went black.

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Snake dragged the guard's lifeless body into the woods where it wouldn't be found for quite some time, then ran back to the facility's back door and took out the level 3 security card he obtained from Piranha. He slid the blood-stained card through the electronic lock and it flashed the green light, and noisily slid open. Snake took one last look around him to make sure no guards had tailed him, then took a quick peek through the door before rushing in.

The enemy troops sure hadn't made it easy to follow their trail back to the research facility, sending reserves to fan out and search for him, drastically slowing him down. It had taken over an hour to get past them all, but he had finally reached his goal. And now he was going to rescue Hikaru, no matter what!

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Stick around for Chapter 9! Snake's gonna bust Hikaru out of the research facility, or die trying!

So long,
Grey Fox