Fan Fiction / Crossover Fan Fiction / Magic Knight Rayearth Fan Fiction ❯ Tragic Heroes ❯ Payback's a Bitch ( Chapter 11 )

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

Tragic Heroes
a Magic Knight Rayearth/Metal Gear crossover
Chapter 11: Payback's a Bitch
12-18-2003
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.

*****

"Trudy was probably the best friend I ever had in this pitiful life, and I'll make sure the two of you suffer for killing her!!" shrieked Piranha from within her armored suit. Snake frantically looked about, and quickly saw that the situation was not good. There was no cover like last time - no large, solid rocks to hide behind; only a few fairly large trees, which hardly afforded the same level of protection. And if what Piranha said about her armor suit was true, they couldn't do a thing to stop her. A point which she was all too happy to reiterate. "And with this suit, there's no way you can hurt me! Not even the little girl's so-called magic can damage it!"

"We'll see about that!" Hikaru shot back defiantly. "FLAME ARROW!" Hikaru threw the blazing fireball straight at Piranha and it hit her dead-center. But soon the flames dissipated and Piranha was still standing, and there wasn't even the slightest burnmark on her armor.

"Ha! You see?!" chided Piranha triumphantly, her voice dripping with vindictive malice. "You can't hurt me, but I can sure hurt you two, which I'll be happy to demonstrate!!"

With that, Piranha readied her trademark water cannon and fired a wide burst of water. The attack was easily avoided; Snake deftly rolled to the left and Hikaru to the right. But unless they found a way to breach Piranha's armored suit and take her down, it would only be a matter of time before she scored a direct hit. Hikaru was well aware of this. "Get out of here Snake! Go on without me and let me handle her!" she ordered, gripping her sword with both hands and charging at Piranha.

Snake got a sense of deja vu; this was a lot like when he and Hikaru had encountered that Metal Gear Gustav hours before. It would be useless for him to fight - not with the weapons he currently had anyway. *Damnit, if I only still had that missile launcher, or some C4!!* Snake angrily thought to himself.

Hikaru came at Piranha head-on, running as fast as she could, sword at the ready. Of course, this only made her an easy target for Piranha, who fired off another wide burst at her incoming adversary. But, with unmatched grace and agility, Hikaru leaped high into the air, avoided the deadly stream of water altogether, and then came down right in front of Piranha, striking Piranha's helmet with a downward thrust with her sword. A loud metallic clang resounded throughout the forest, and although Hikaru's blow failed to crack the armor, it caused Piranha to stagger and back away slightly. And that was exactly what Hikaru had counted on; while she was dazed, Hikaru walked right up to her and placed her left hand on her chest plate.

"RUBY LIGHTNING!!!"

Piranha's entire body shot backward with the speed of a missile, crashing into the base of a tree with a loud crunch. Hikaru had never used her magic at such close range before; she hoped that using her Ruby Lightning spell at point-blank range would be enough to get through the armor. As Piranha struggled to get up, Hikaru could see the front part of her armor was slightly disfigured and there were plenty of nasty burnmarks. Plus, she had managed to really shake her up. It was a start at least.

It didn't take Piranha long to recover and start shooting at Hikaru again. But she still had no luck actually HITTING Hikaru, who was just too fast and too nimble for her. Hikaru then counterattacked, cutting loose with an intense Flame Arrow spell. She had focused so much power into her blast, the tree near Piranha caught on fire despite the damp weather, brightly lighting up the moonlit night even more.

It then dawned on Hikaru that while that armored suit protected Piranha, it slowed her down quite considerably. *She's lost one advantage she had last time, so maybe I can just keep avoiding her while hammering her with my magic,* she thought as she let loose another Flame Arrow spll at Piranha. Hikaru was certain she was willing so much power into her fire spells, all the moisture in the muddy ground was being evaporated from all the heat.

*Heat....* Hikaru thought to herself she dodged another one of Piranha's shots, the stream of water whizzing harmlessly past her. *My new powers.... time to shake things up and see what I can really do.* She then stood still and concentrated, calling upon her reserves of stored thermal energy. Piranha had no idea just what Hikaru was up to, nor did she really care; she just pointed her water cannon at the red-headed Japanese schoolgirl and fired. But Hikaru had other plans; she stuck out her left hand and focused. Before the jet of water could reach her, it vanished, turning into a wispy plume of water vapor. Piranha just stood there for a few seconds, dumbfounded.

Hikaru took full advantage of that lapse of attention, focusing her heat energy at the ground. This created a shockwave that traveled along the ground and eventually struck her, knocking her down instantly. Hikaru didn't let up for a second and again focused her energy, sending out blasts of pure heat at the downed Piranha. Orange-red bursts of super-charged plasma fired out of her hand again and again, striking her armored foe. *This has got to get through that armor of hers. It's got to.*

Her vicious assault was kicking up a lot of dirt and spewing mist and vapor everywhere, obstructing her vision, but Hikaru was certain that Piranha was staying down. But then, she sensed moverment, or more specifically, she sensed the metal in Piranha's armor was on the move, and moving toward her. Hikaru tried to move out of the way, but Piranha was too quick, despite the added burden of her thick armor. She slammed right into Hikaru with a linebacker charge, flooring her in an instant. Hikaru's head was pounding with the sound of ringing bells, but she knew that if she didn't get up and fast, Piranha would strike her down. Picking herself up off the ground, she turned to face Piranha, who was a few meters away, and saw the muzzle of her cannon pointed directly at her.

Hikaru readied another burst of her stored heat energy to knock her back, but soon it would be unnecessary. An object hit Piranha's backside and exploded. Hikaru immediately knew what it was: one of Snake's grenades. Hikaru smiled to herself. *I should've known he wouldn't just run and leave me here. Not after what he went through to get me out of the research facility.*

"Hikaru, rest for a while. Let me have a shot at her now," said Snake as he fished out another grenade and tossed it Piranha's way. The explosion caused her to stumble backward slightly, but didn't seem to hurt her in the least. Snake hadn't counted on his grenades hurting her though. He just hoped she would get angry enough to come after him.

His plan worked beautifully.

"Bad move Snake!" taunted Piranha as she took off after him, continuously firing her water cannon. Snake turned and ran, easily dodging Piranha's clumsy shots. Just a little further, and.... "GYYYAARGGHH!" screeched Piranha as explosions went off all around her.

Snake grinned; he had suckered Piranha into walking right into a mine yet again - or in this case, a whole bunch of mines. *She's definitely not the brightest mercenary I've fought,* he thought wryly. *Now on to phase two.* Snake picked up a large, jagged rock he had found lying around earlier and ran back toward the downed mercenary. He turned Piranha onto her side, then he bbegan to hammer away at the big visor of her helmet with the rock. *If I can just shatter the glass, then maybe....*

Snake didn't even get the chance to finish that thought; as he was bringing his rock down for another blow, Piranha lashed out with her hand and grabbed him tightly by the throat. "Close, but no cigarette, Snake," she said mockingly as she got back on her feet. Piranha jostled Snake around in the air effortlessly, enjoying the panicky expression on his face. She then raised her water cannon and pointed it directly at Snake's head, planning to blow his head clean off his shoulders. "I will give the two of you some credit. Like true warriors, you're determined to go out fighting," she said in a sardonic tone. "But your time is now up."

"I DON'T THINK SO!!!" suddenly rang a sharp cry through the night. Exactly a second afterwards, Hikaru jumped onto Piranha's shoulders, as if Piranha was giving the sprightly little girl a piggyback ride. Placing her both her hands on Piranha's helmet, she focused her energy again - right into that helmet. Piranha dropped Snake and let out a raucous howl as some of her thermal energy seeped through her helmet, thanks in part to how Snake had put a few cracks in her visor. She thrashed about wildly, trying to shake Hikaru off. But Hikaru refused to let go, determined to hang on and continue pumping out heat until Piranha fell.

Eventually though, Piranha was able to gather her wits. She grabbed hold of Hikaru's leg, and with one mighty jerk, pulled her off her shoulders and slammed her onto the ground. White-hot pain that cut into the very marrow of her bones threatened to overwhelm Hikaru. Piranha laughed evilly again. "Again, nice try. But it was all useless. Now, where was I?" She turned back to face Snake, who was standing on wobbly legs and nursing his aching neck. She slowly began to approach Snake, clearly enjoying his helpless situation. And Snake knew he was helpless. He was out of grenades and claymore mines, and none of his other weapons would be of any use.

Hikaru, still lying on the ground and struggling to cope with the pain, had turned her head to see what was happening. She too knew how desperate Snake's predictament was. And here she was, totally powerless to help him. After all Snake went through, putting his life on the line to try and rescue her, and now she was unable to return the favor. Oh, it was so frustrating! Back in Cephiro, she had always managed to come through for Umi and Fuu....

Back in Cephiro. Back in the world where your will was the ultimate power. Because of her refusal to give in, she had always managed to pull through for Umi and Fuu in Cephiro; she would come through for Snake now too! But how.... there was no way to get through that armor of hers.... No, she wouldn't accept that. No matter how strong that weird metal was, she would be stronger! Pushing herself up off the ground, Hikaru once again began to call up her new powers, and concentrated with all her might - concentrated on the frontal chest plate of Piranha's armored suit. Back in her holding cell, Hikaru had failed to get through that strange metal, but not this time. This time she would smash that metal to pieces - even if it took everything she had!!

It was Snake who first noticed the fruits of Hikaru's efforts. As Piranha continued to advance, he noticed her chest place began to slightly change color, and steam started to rise from it. Soon, Piranha began to notice that something was amiss; it was suddenly very hot, and getting even hotter by the second. "What the...." Piranha began, but stopped abruptly as the heat reached unbearable levels. Then the whole forest was filled with the sound of splintering metal as Piranha's chest plate loudly cracked and flew apart.

Snake instantly knew what had just happened; he wasn't sure how Hikaru did it, but he knew she had just blown off a part of Piranha's suit, leaving her exposed and wide open to attack. Acting on pure instinct, Snake whipped out his pistol and emptied half a dozen rounds right into Piranha's midsection. Piranha fell to the ground instantly, clutching her midesction and too badly hurt to even scream in pain.

Snake then ran over to his downed foe and disconnected the hose to her water cannon, rendering her deadly weapon completely useless. Pressurized water spewed out everywhere and wetted the ground yet again. Some of the water splashed onto Hikaru, who had lapsed into unconsciousness yet again. The blast of cold water to her head immediately woke her up though. Snake saw this and quickly rushed to her side, helping her get on her feet. "Did I... d-do it?!" she muttered incoherently. "Did I break it... her armor... did she?"

"Yes, Hikaru, you did it," Snake answered, trying to reassure her. "You got her."

After hearing those words, Hikaru sluggished turned to look at Piranha's crumpled form, laying unmoving on the wet, cold ground. She knew that if she succeeded, it would have come to this. She aimed to blow off her chest plate so Snake could deliver the finishing blow. She knew it was either her or them. But that didn't mean she had to like it.

The two of them walked over to her unmoving body. Snake reached down and propped her up so that she was in a sitting position. Then he noticed her bullet wounds. The blood oozing out of her midsection was inky black; Snake knew that meant he must've hit her liver. If that was the case, then there was no saving her now. Snake shuddered inwardly; once again, he had been forced to kill.

Piranha slowly lifted up her left arm. Hikaru stiffened, thinking she might try something else. But all she did was press a switch near her helmet, and then it popped off, revealing her exhausted, contorted face. There was no hatred in her expression now, only the sorrowful face of someone who had tasted the bitterness of defeat. She knew she had been beaten, and that soon, she would be dead. "You win," she uttered weakly. "That's another one for the Legend."

"Do you think I *WANTED* this?!!" Snake spat angrily. Hikaru turned to look at Snake and immediately saw his doleful expression.

Piranha noticed this to, and said, "Don't worry about it. You know damn well this is the way it is for mercenaries like us. But now, at least, maybe I can see my family again, once I cross over...."

"Your family?" Hikaru cut in, curious. "What do you mean?"

For a moment Piranha was silent. But after a while, she said, "I might as well tell you, since I'm not going to live much longer. As I told you during our first meeting, I was born of the native tribes in Brazil, growing up in their villages. But that was until I was four years old, before my entire village was destroyed."

"Destroyed? Who did it?" asked Snake, now curious as well.

"No one did. It was an act of God, not man," replied Piranha, her voice becoming weaker and more strained. "There was a bit of a drought that year, and conditions were drier than normal. A deadly fire raged out of control, and my entire village was burned to the ground. I was the only one who managed to make it out alive, but just barely. I was badly burned, my leg hurt, but I was able to get away. But I'll never forget the screams of the dying, the smell of charred flesh....

"I probably wouldn't have survived very long in the rain forest however, being so young and weak. But fortune smiled upon me, for a man and his wife who were exploring the wilderness stumbled upon me about two days after the fire. His wife was barren and desperately wanted a child, so they decided to take me in and raise me. I was hardly what they would have considered an ideal daughter though. I was never the brightest in school, and my giantism was apparent at an early age. But still, they loved me and nurtured me as if I was their own blood....

"They were an extremely wealthy family by Brazilian standards in the day, for my adoptive father was a brilliant businessman. And he used his wealth to help his fellow countrymen, donating huge amounts of money to charities, building homes, providing jobs for the people. And after the changes wrought in 1985, he got into politics, and extended his reach further, for the betterment of all of Brazil....

"But my father went too far. One thing he always detested was the underworld drug ring. Once he was in the government, he worked tirelessly to break it up. The corruption of the drug cartel extended much further than he thought, even up to fellow members in the government who were connected to the crime ring."

"Wait a minute," Hikaru cut in. "I thought it was only Columbia that was part of the drug cartels."

Piranha had to stifle a laugh. "Naive little girl," she retorted icily. "No, the countries neighboring Columbia were part of it too. And the politicians who were actually part of it, no doubt it was them, who staged the hit.... who killed the family that had taken me in!!"

"You mean they murdered them because they were causing so much trouble?!" cried Hikaru, sickened by Piranha's sad tale.

"Exactly," replied Piranha. "Do you have any idea what it's like to lose your family, everyone you care about, twice?"

*No,* thought Snake, *but I know what it's like to kill the man claiming to be father twice.*

"Anyway, after that, I learned just what a terrible place the world really is. I was filled with bitterness and rage, and became the ruthless mercenary you see now. I took part in many rebel and revolutionary movements around the world, aided several so-called terrorist groups, basically helping anyone who were being preyed upon by those in power....

"But then, about a year ago, I met.... him. The leader of a new movement, run by people who had suffered as I had. People like Trudy and the Cyborg Twins. People sick of all the war and injustice and corruption in the world today, and were determined to finally do something about it."

"New Way," muttered Hikaru, remembering what Trudy Nolan had told her.

"Exactly. And we took over this base, because we knew with the Metal Gears under our control, we could put our plans into action at last."

"Metal GEARS?!!! You mean there's MORE THAN ONE?!" Snake demanded vehemently.

"Heh. If you find out where the others are hiding, you'll see what I mean," was all Piranha said in reply. "Get out of here. I have nothing more to say to either of you. Let me die in peace." With that, Piranha's eyes slowly closed and her body slouched even more. Snake knew that it wouldn't be much longer before she was dead. He slowly turned away from the dying mercenary and began continue the trek through the forest. Hikaru continued to stare at Piranha's lifeless body a little while longer, then ran back up to Snake.

"I-I can't believe it," stammered Hikaru, who was on the verge of crying. "That was so sad.... her family was murdered! How could she.... no one should go through that!!!"

You're right, no one should," said Snake. For a while there was silence, but eventually it was broken by an angry outburst from Snake. "I'm sick of this. I'm tired of all the killing, having to hear all their tragic life stories right before they die. Why is it I'm always forced to kill?!!"

Hikaru didn't know how to answer Snake. She really didn't even have an answer for herself, about why she had been forced into killing Zagato and Emeraude. So she just kept silent. But after a while, she couldn't help but blurt out, "The worst part is that nothing good came out of that. We still have no idea just where Metal Gear is being kept, and I doubt she would've told us if we asked."

This seemed to grab Snake's attention and shake him out of his sorrowful thoughts. "Well, I have an idea where it is."

"Huh? Where?!" asked Hikaru queurulously.

"Well, in the room where I fought Geneticist, there was a huge level 8 door. Big enough to let tanks and cargo trucks srive through. That door probably led to a deep underground area. My guess is that it's being kept where it's always been kept: in a deep underground base," explained Snake. "The only problem is that we have no idea where it is, and have no idea where any possible entrances are. The only one I've seen was that level 8 door, but my card couldn't get me through, and besides, it's buried under tons of rubble now."

Hikaru took it all in. "Well, at least we now have some clue where Metal Gear is. Maybe we'll come across a soldier and can get some info out of him, or maybe we'll find another building and that'll lead us to...."

"Shhh," interrupted Snake. "I hear something...." Hikaru looked around and listened, trying to figure out what Snake was talking about. Then she heard it too: the sound of helicopter blades. And they were getting closer. And right now, they were in a fairly open area, just like during their battle with Piranha. If this was the same helicopter they saw earlier, and if it was coming for them, they were in big trouble.

"Oh crap... Hikaru, move it!" exclaimed Snake, grabbing Hikaru by the arm and breaking into a run. Hikaru looked up and saw the cause for Snake's panic: an approaching Hind D.... no, wait.... TWO approaching Hind D attack helicopters, and they were heading straight for them!

"Looks like Piranha had some backup ready in case she lost," said Hikaru glumly. "Snake, let go. Give me a chance to take 'em out." Snake complied, releasing his tight grip on Hikaru's arm. "Flame Arrow!!" she exclaimed, releasing her fire magic at the offending helicopters. But they quickly broke formation and veered out of harm's way. Then one fired off several missiles that impacted nearly. The force of the explosion knocked both Snake and Hikaru into the air.

Hikaru landed hard on the ground, but she quickly got up and on her feet. She spit out the dirt and bits of grass that had gotten into her mouth as she looks around, trying to find Snake. But the missile blasts kicked up too much dirt and created too much smoke, and she couldn't see clearly.

She heard Snake before she saw him. All she heard though was a loud yelp of surprise. She turned to the direction of the noise. The smoke had dissipated enough now to see clearly, but what Hikaru saw, she couldn't believe. One of the helicopters had used some sort of net launcher to trap Snake and was now flying off, with Snake dangling helplessly underneath it. *Oh no,* she thought, *they've captured him!!! Now what do I do?!!*

Hikaru's thoughts were interrupted by a man's voice blasting over the other Hind D's speaker system. "Your friend Snake is now our prisoner, but I'm afraid I cannot risk doing the same with you," boomed the mysterious voice - a voice that had an accent Hikaru didn't recognize. "It pains me to have to destroy such a fine specimen of a true warrior, but you are simply too powerful to take chances with. Farewell."

The Hind began to close in, its machine gun blasting relentlessly. The machine gun fire was getting dangerously close, and Hikaru turned tail and ran. She soon found cover in the form of a rock, about twice as big as her, which could adequately shield her from the bullets. She quickly ran behind it, and judging from the sheer loudness of the machine gun, she made it just in time.

Hikaru saw the Hind swoop overhead and once it flew a few dozen meters away, it did a 180 turn to face her. This time, instead of machine gun fire, the Hind unleashed a volley of missiles right at her. Without even thinking, Hikaru unleashed another Flame Arrow spell to intercept the missile barrage. Hikaru's magical flame caused every single missile that had been fired at her to detonate.

She had managed to fend off another attack from the Hind, but she doubted she could do it for much longer. *This is nutty,* she thought angrily to herself. *One disaster after another.... it's like one of those American action movies Umi got hooked on in her English class.* Umi always loved to take her and Fuu to theatres to watch subtitled versions of American action movies. Hikaru wasn't particularly fond of them, but now she was glad she had agreed to watch them with Umi - she remembered something she saw in one of them that could help her here.

The Hind was now circling Hikaru like a buzzard, just waiting for another opportunity to attack. That was exactly what Hikaru wanted the pilot to do; its side was now facing Hikaru, and its back blade was wide open for an attack. All that was needed was one well-timed shot....

"FLAME ARROW!!!"

Hikaru unleashed the jet of flame at the Hind, and it smashed directly into its back blade. Sparks and smoke began to sputter out of the back blade, and the Hind began to wobble uncontrollably. *With the back blade disabled, he'll have no choice but to retreat,* Hikaru thought to herself smugly. And retreat he did; knowing it would be foolish to continue fighting Hikaru with a damaged back blade, the pilot began to clumsily veer off. And as the Hind retreated, it left a trail of smoke. Thanks to the light of the full moon, it was very visible. *And thanks to that smoke trail, he'll lead me right back to where he took off from. And maybe that'll lead me to the underground area.* It was a bit of a long shot, but it might finally lead her to the location of Metal Gear.

Not only that, she now had to worry about Snake. The words he had spoken earlier echoed in her head: "I'm sure you'd do the same for me." Snake put his life on the line to try and rescue her, and now she was going to do whatever it took to rescue him.

*****

Well, there's another chapter done. I'm so sick of only getting one done a month. Need to pick up the pace....

So long,
Grey Fox