Chapter Thirty-Six: Manhattan
The Tiger fell back to watch over the rooftop, but four Black Hawk helicopters - relative to the Navy's Sea Hawk - ascended around Tower One, encircling the Tiger. Dante's eyes were darting back and forth, as were everyone else's. Snake could see Desperado smiling behind a pile of tresses with a look of triumph, and when he inspected them closer he noticed that they were harboring Army Rangers. Snake whipped back toward Big Boss and Ocelot as the Tiger was forced to pull away at higher altitudes, all of the Black Hawks ignoring his avail.
Suddenly, the doors slid aside and ropes fell down over Desperado and Snake. "Otacon, are you out?" Snake asked through the Codec. There was no answer. "Otacon? You don't have much time. Hurry!" Snake took a hold of the rope and the Rangers within the hull began to pull him up in conjunction with his own climbing. Desperado was doing the same, and as they looked down on Big Boss and Ocelot they noticed no fear, shame, or hopelessness. Ocelot was grinning and Big Boss was holding his Marker and Beretta at the Black Hawks.
"We always have a way out," Ocelot proclaimed, but only Big Boss heard it. Then, with plainness in his face, Snake muttered, "Now."
The earth began to rumble, and a terrible wall of fire and steel blasted out the windows of the third, fourth, and fifth floors. But, another sound had alerted Snake, and it came from the edge of the island. He twisted around the side of the helicopter and watched as the warehouse in the distance was engulfed in flames. With the touch of that button, Klaymore had silenced the entire Patriot network.
But, Snake had to turn back to the tower. And as he watched, the rooftop falling away, he could see the two men bracing the floor they stumbled upon. And then he saw Tower Two.its walls nearer than he thought. And as Tower One continued to descend upon Embassy Square, gray smoke billowing up from the growing plain of destruction, it fell askew and the higher floors crashed into Tower Two, disappearing through its walls and being hidden by what windows remained.
"Damn!" Snake exclaimed, a Ranger's arm extended for him to grab. He looked over to Desperado, who was also deep in thought, and then yelled up to the Rangers aboard the helicopter, "Take me to Tower Two!" Desperado saw the helicopter shift toward Tower Two and repeated Snake's request to the Rangers in his own helicopter.
In moments, both of them were dangling just feet over Embassy Square, the other two Black Hawks circling the rooftop of Tower Two. Snake and Desperado both dropped from the ropes and landed safely on the paved ground, Snake still grinding his teeth in pain and grabbing his thigh in frustration. He couldn't be as mobile as he wanted with the injury he had endured, but he couldn't simply watch from the sidelines and hope for the best. It was his job to see that Ocelot and Big Boss were gone.his job to see that the threat on Manhattan was eliminated.
Desperado came over to him quickly, and helped him to stand. Snake looked at him, estranged. There were words he wanted to speak, but he couldn't. With Desperado he wasn't the legend any longer, but instead he was the apprentice, and with the wound he was even more of a hassle it seemed.
"Thanks," Snake grunted. Desperado smiled a weak smile and slipped his Desert Eagles from their holsters at his hips. Letting the spent clips clatter against the pavement, he pulled one from the side of each gun and slipped it in. Then, he taped two more to their sides and holstered just one. Snake pulled his SOCOM from his holster and let his own clip fall to the ground, filling it with another and holding his hand out. Desperado pulled out a different roll of tape, its color red, and set it in Snake's hand. He quickly spun the tape around two more spare clips, and mounted them to the sides of his SOCOM. Folding the end of the tape under itself to make an easily handled slip of non-sticking tape to grip with its next use, he held it out in tribute to Desperado. He waved it off, closed it in Snake's hand, and then guided it to a pocket in Snake's sneaking suit. "It's yours," Desperado breathed, and then turned to the remains of Tower One. Snake did the same.
The scent of fire was intense, burning under their noses, and a blinding plume of smoke was moving over them. Tower Two - just meters away - became hard to see through the shroud. Then, Snake remembered. "Otacon!"
There was no answer.only silence, and the crack of the smoldering concrete in the heart of the wreckage.
He holstered his SOCOM and took a number of steps toward the giant mound of steel and concrete, making a circle with his hands and setting them around his mouth as he yelled again, "Otacon!" The smoke was burning his wound, as well as his eyes. "Otacon.where are you?!" Now, he was walking aimlessly through the smoke, stumbling over the rubble and cracks in the cement floor of Embassy Square, now scorched black.
Faultering, he dropped onto his knees, stopping himself with his hands, and kneeled before the fires. Desperado was close behind, walking slowly over to where Snake was kneeling and then standing apprehensively behind him. "Dammit, Otacon," Snake breathed. Where was he? Dead? Alive? Injured? In that aspect, Snake was forced to watch from the sidelines and hope for the best, but he couldn't do that. "Dammit, where are you?!"
Desperado took another step forward and laid his hand on Snake's shoulder. Snake didn't shrug it off, but just knelt there for a moment, eyes closed, heart beating, hands flexing, body resting. And then, he stood and Desperado backed away, giving him the space he required.
Snake stood idle for a time, looking into the burning concrete. The breeze toyed with his bandana - its other half in Otacon's possession - and the flames that ate away at the wreckage glimmered against him, illuminating his figure and sparkling against a drop of salty moisture that had accumulated at the corner of his eye. The smoke still pushing by him, he blinked, and the tear slid over his cheekbone before making the trip down his cheek and past the corner of his lips to the smooth point of his chin. It sat poised on his chin for a moment, grasping at his skin but being wrenched away by another force. But, it could not hold on.
So it fell like a sparkling crystal through the air, purifying what it touched, and when it came near the smoldering wreckage before it, it flashed and disappeared with the lick of a tall flame. Snake shifted his weight onto his wounded leg and turned to face Desperado, his bandana still waving in the wind. Pulling his SOCOM from its holster yet again, he held it at his side and Desperado nodded in silent acknowledgement.
Then, the two started off for Tower Two, the sky above no longer black but a navy. It was a wonder seeing such a pure sky on an island like Manhattan where artificial light always poisoned it. Desperado reached into his pant pocket and checked his pocket watch up close to his face. Snake noticed it, could see how similar it was to Ocelot's. He sighed heavily and pocketed it before coming to the doors of Tower Two. The left side of the building had been torn apart by Tower One, but they could not trek over the burning rubble to enter through the gap.
Desperado opened the glass doors, his Desert Eagle in hand, and let Snake pass inside before him. Snake took a few steps inside and then stood relaxed for a moment after Desperado let the door close behind them. It was the silent type of door. It didn't click shut like wooden doors.
Desperado was about to say something, but Snake put his index finger up in contest. Then, slowly, he stepped to the left and moved around the wall of the lobby area. Through another set of doors he and Desperado passed, finding themselves in a giant room. Past the lobby there were no offices, just one giant room - its ceiling thirteen stories high.
He could see only some of the room, the flames of the wreckage outside shining inside, but where the windows remained, no light passed through. The windows were tinted.to the inside and the out.
He could hear something moving high above, and could see a small hump of wreckage invading the room. But then, there was a loud clap and a moment passed before two clusters of ground lights flashed on, shining up on three figures at the right side of the room, and four at the left. Besides those two areas, everything was black but what shined in the light of the wreckage.
"Otacon!" Snake yelled. There, standing on the right side of the room was Otacon, Jack.and Fox, who Snake figured had saved the two at some point. Otacon looked at Snake with all the joy he could muster, but then Snake noticed the situation on the left side of the room. Standing together was Mei Ling, Naomi, and the Colonel, and with two guns pointed on them was Wordsworth. Her magnificent green eyes sparkled.
"Wordsworth!" Desperado called out, taking a few steps forward. She turned one of her guns at him and he stopped. "What you have done can never be excused." She simply smiled back at him, then holstering both of her guns and stepping forward. Naomi, Mei Ling, and the Colonel knew what she could do, and weren't about to retaliate, even with her back turned.
"It is your own fault," she replied. "You were too stupid to realize my treachery. Too stupid and too old. You and your ninja friend have always been too old, too stupid, too slow. You're behind the times." Snake turned to Fox and saw him perfectly content. 'Why are the just standing there?' Snake thought, and then he remembered something Ocelot had said. He remembered it just as Fox dropped down behind him and pulled his sword from its sheath and cried, "Wordsworth! Traitor!"
Snake turned around and looked at Fox, then turned and looked at the other Fox who stood beside Otacon and Raiden. 'Esher,' Snake thought. 'Esher.a mimic!'
"Put your hands up!" Snake cried, raising his SOCOM and aiming it at the second Fox. He did not move. "I know it's you! You're Esher!" Then, in the middle of everything, another voice entered the fray, only this was one Snake thought he wouldn't ever have to hear again.
"Snake.you are turning out to be quite the detective."
"Ocelot!" Snake growled, and then a series of blue lights - all positioned along the outside of Tower Two - shot into the room, piercing the tinted windows and bearing witness to a haunting figure. Grasping the earlier invisible catwalks that lined the walls of Tower Two, was Alpha Gear, its eyes gleaming a blazing blue, and its body shining a metallic blue-gray. "It's a good catch!" Ocelot announced from its cockpit, and Snake saw how it had happened. Alpha Gear had caught the two as they fell in through the walls of Tower Two with the thirteenth floor of Tower One.
"Big Boss?" Snake said quizzically.
"Hello, son," he bellowed from the cockpit. Snake didn't understand, and Big Boss knew exactly how he felt. "You can't understand why we still fight by each other," he began, "but that is because you don't understand power. Alpha Gear requires two pilots, and our goals are stronger than our consciences. We can be enemies another time."
Then, with the helicopters' rotors still echoing inside the cavernous room, Alpha Gear let go its grip on the catwalks and fell to the floor, crashing violently in the center of the room and shaking several catwalks from their positions.
"You're crazy!" Snake hollered. Ocelot's maniacal cackle was all that followed. Fox, Desperado, and Snake were all three moving into the room - slowly but surely. Wordsworth had stepped back and was again holding two guns on Mei Ling, Naomi, and the Colonel, and Esher was sliding a blade from her sheath. Snake didn't understand the way that she mimicked.the clothing must be part of her body.like another layer of skin. But the blade.where could that have come from?
Then, out of the silence, came a terrible screech of metal followed by the loud clap like thunder that was an usher to the event that followed. After just a few seconds, the roof of Tower Two busted inward and the concrete began to plummet to the floor aside the burning remains of a Black Hawk.
Snake watched it, flames curling into the air behind it and its rotors still slightly spinning against the air. Nearly ten Rangers had been within it before it was struck by what he imagined was a missile born of the Tiger, and when it hit.they all were silenced. 'How have I been alive so long?' Snake thought to himself. 'Other soldiers die at my side, but I always make it through with a twisted ankle or a gunshot in the arm or leg. Why don't I die?'
And then, the helicopter crashed against the floor and sputtered loudly before Alpha Gear. The navy sky appeared over their heads, as did three Black Hawks still circling what used to be the rooftop. And as the whole congregation turned toward the scorching Black Hawk, Snake's SOCOM fired a bullet. He watched as Esher turned swiftly around and deflected the shot with her blade. Snake stood, stunned. She could not only duplicate looks, clothes, and accessories.but also the skills, the agility, the strength, the personality, the attitude. Everything.
But then, with Snake's first shot and Esher's first deflection, Desperado fired off his Desert Eagle at Wordsworth and Fox sprung toward Esher in a fit of rage. And Alpha Gear turned up its head toward Snake who now stood motionless before it. It was like that for a time.silent. Big Boss and Ocelot both looked upon Snake, and Snake looked upon the two of them. Besides them, there was no world. Everything else was independent.besides the fact. That's how it seemed.
He actually came to admire it in an odd way. Its legs bent backward like past Metal Gear models, but built into them were several independent turrets. Metal Gear CELL had harbored a main cache system in its chest, and from that spot ammunition and fuel was transported throughout the body. Alpha Gear had learned from that model's vulnerability and had individual caches built around all of the weaponry systems.
On its left shoulder there was mounted a giant cannon capable of firing LM2 rockets, and on its left shoulder there was a chain gun. Its arms were fixed with one laser each and several HOT missiles. And mounted on its back was the Rail Gun made famous by Metal Gear Rex. Stored in a compartment closed off from the rest of Alpha Gear's workings were three nuclear missiles capable of long-distance launches. Its neck was long, its head like the crunched face of a lizard, and its two eyes glowed an eerie blue, while remaining somewhat transparent to give Snake a pale sight of Ocelot and Big Boss both sitting in the cockpit. Ocelot sneered at him.
And then.
"Catch me if you can."
Snake was the only one to hear it, and before he could act on it Alpha Gear had pushed off on its legs and bounded into the air like it had at the tanker so many years ago. And then it stretched over the lip of the building and dropped onto the streets, crashing through them a few feet and then picking its legs out of them before beginning its tour of the city.
Snake ran then. He went back out the doors in the lobby room and hustled around the right side of the building, leaving the others to their own troubles. And when he had found the street on which Alpha Gear was walking, a Black Hawk descended at his side, blowing dust into the air and forcing him away even as he walked toward it.
The Rangers quickly hopped out of the hull, huddling in front of Snake with faces of question. "What do you ask of us, sir?" one of them said, and Snake looked at them, his face contorted. He'd never given orders in such a fashion. "Sir?" They stood ready, guns in hand. How had they known to come to him?
"Inside," Snake said. "There is a man named Desperado inside. He'll tell you what to do." They all seemed relieved to hear the name Desperado mentioned, and with Snake's request they performed a group salute. Snake surveyed them for a moment and then raised his hand to his brow. Then, dropping it to his side, they all did the same.
"Thank you, sir," one of them said, and they hurried around the side of Tower Two and quickly into the building. The pilot of the Black Hawk looked over the back of his seat and waved Snake inside. "Come on! We'll catch up!" the man said, and Snake bound hastily into the hull. He shot a look back through the walls of Tower Two, pierced by the blue lights positioned around the building, and saw the Rangers enter the room. It was nearly ten on two.
"Good luck, Otacon," Snake breathed, and the helicopter lifted off of the ground. In just a few moments he was soaring over apartments and office buildings, restaurants and florists shops. Ahead were two bright, gleaming eyes, staring at Snake from nearly ten stories high. And in the Black Hawk's own lights, and with the assistance of a fairly large spotlight on its right 'wing' Alpha Gear shone like a crown jewel amidst the darkness of the city.
"Take me down!" Snake ordered. He could see the hunger in Alpha Gear's eyes, and his heart was filled with nothing but the same. The pilot turned his head and looked over the back of his seat. Snake saw his wariness but nodded his head. "Take me down." The pilot sighed and then turned his head again.
There was uneasiness in Snake's stomach, but it was overpowered by a strong sense of anxiousness. He'd been waiting for this day for so long, and as he looked back at Tower Two and the remains of Tower One, and then out to the warehouse that was still smoldering in the distance, he saw his entire trail. He could see the harbor in the pale moonlight and he could faintly make out the demolished coffee shop.Battery Park.Tribeca and the bridge, both hit by Klaymore's rage.it was everything he'd been through.
And then, standing before him as the Black Hawk touched down, as the pilot wished him good luck and told him to watch for the Tiger, and as he stepped out on the cleared road, he saw not Alpha Gear.but Big Boss and Ocelot. He didn't see a giant robot, he saw two foolishly brilliant, insanely sane, powerfully weak, terribly wonderful, boys of men. They were held up with the aspirations of childhood, and were no more powerful than himself.
He grasped his SOCOM at his side, looked up from his feet, and let all expression fade. And they stood there, facing each other in silence through two blue screens. The breeze was dying now - coming in short gusts and then going for minutes. It was when it stopped completely, inspiring a sense of uneasiness, that Alpha Gear slouched and stretched its neck out toward Snake putting its head level with his and just a number of meters away.
"How's the leg?" Ocelot joked. Snake did not answer. He waited no more than a second and jerked his SOCOM upward, aimed it directly into the right eye, and fired three shots. Sparks ran through the blue glow and then it shorted out as Alpha Gear whipped its head back and forced out its arms. Snake jumped back a few feet as two red streams of light seared the road beneath him. They had come from the arms of Alpha Gear. They were the lasers.
Snake was quick to the right when they fell toward him again. He ran a contorted track of the street, sending the lasers through each other at several points to make them fire off in another direction - sometimes hitting a car, a fire escape, or a trash can.
"On Shadow Moses," Ocelot began, still sending the lasers after Snake who was still running ahead of them, "you challenged Metal Gear Rex. Today, you challenge Rex, Ray, Arsenal, CELL, and all that were before it." Ocelot sneered, though Snake could not see his face. "You have come a long way. I wonder if tradition will suit you here?"
Suddenly, the lasers receded into the arms of Alpha Gear and the machine took several steps back, pushing dents and breaking cracks in the street as it moved. Snake could see the cannon on its right shoulder.the chain gun on its left.and could barely make out that there was an abstract form on its back, but besides those three weapons he was only left to guess.
And then, the chain gun began to shell out its power sending a wave of heavy gunfire. Snake had no way to counter this besides running. And he did just that. Left. Right. Left. Back. Forward. Back. Right. Forward. The chain gun's aim was precise and its speed was amazing. Snake was hardly a meter ahead when the bullets thrashed down at him, and they only grew closer as time wore on.
But it all stopped then. The chain gun began to cool and the wind began to pick up. Snake's wound was bleeding more than before and the pain was shooting up like waves though his entire leg. His breathing was growing heavy and painfully sound, while his face was slowly coated with a thin layer of perspiration.
The breeze was a blessing. Even as worn and tired he had become, he felt cool and refreshed when the wind graced his skin, curled up around his face, and massaged his cheeks. He put his wrist on his forehead and slowly wiped the sweat away. Looking up at Alpha Gear with a grim smirk on his face and seeing only one blue light staring intently back at him, he said: "How's the eye?"
Alpha Gear's right arm burst forward, but just as Snake was about to jump aside he noticed that the wind had never stopped. There was a quick surge of red light gathering at the tip of Alpha Gear's arm - built similar to Ray's - but before it had broken free, a well-placed HOT missile flashed into view, landing in Alpha Gear's right shoulder.
A terrible cry escaped its mouth as fire ran across its shoulder and as a black smoke lifted from its new wound. But beneath the black was the faint glow of green, and when the smoke had eventually cleared Snake could see the shoulder in tact and unscathed. "The Perfect Cell," Snake muttered.
"Dante!" Big Boss exclaimed as the Tiger whipped over Alpha Gear and turned swiftly around. Dante laughed, his voice amplified like Big Boss' and Ocelot's over the city. The right arm lifted again, aiming into the sky, and sent a line of red light past the Tiger's cockpit. Dante pulled instinctively away and sought higher altitude to stall.
But, as the two machines waited each other out, a sound - originating in Embassy Square - was growing. Snake had turned, his eyes searching through the night, trying to grab onto something. And then, the sound became more defined, and white and red spots of light shot through the darkness revealing the tail and nose of three Black Hawks flying nearly five stories into the air.
Alpha Gear detected their presence, but was unable to act against them - Dante piloting the Tiger wildly above and firing rounds of gunfire to the earth. Snake watched as the Black Hawks fell in altitude and hovered for a moment above the street before setting down and unloading the passengers - Army Rangers.
They rushed hurriedly past Snake, saluting as if part of a routine, and continuing on toward Alpha Gear. They weaved out of the streets and found shelter behind buildings and other things, Alpha Gear still preoccupied with the Tiger.
"Snake!" Otacon called, and Snake turned an anxious eye to the Black Hawks that lay behind him now. Rushing out of the second Black Hawk was Otacon, his white lab coat dancing in the wind and his glasses shaking with his footsteps. About his forehead, strung under his hair, was a ragged piece of cloth. Snake smiled when he saw it.
"Otacon," he muttered, noting the half of his bandana around his friend's head, and hugged him firmly. Snake hadn't felt to oppose the act, and when it happened it happened easily and expectedly. Otacon and he smiled over each other's shoulders, their hands clapping each other's backs in a jovial manner.
Then, they parted and Snake looked Otacon over. "You're still in good shape," he joked, and Otacon nodded.
"Snake! Good to see you," another voice came. Stepping forward from the third Black Hawk, followed by others who were ducking out of the other two as well - all familiar faces to Snake - was Desperado. His shotgun was tapping the street as he walked, a UMP 450 dangling oddly from his belt, and a Marker in his other free hand.
"You too," Snake admitted, shaking Desperado's hand and scanning the growing crowd, subtly taking in every face. The Colonel stood bleeding from the arm in the back, Otacon was standing beside Desperado, Mei Ling and Naomi were huddled together beside Jack - who stood appearing bored with the pleasantries - and Fox was poised on the edge of the second black Hawk's doorway, his toes sitting upon a thin metal strip, his knees pointed outward, and his torso standing straight and steady.
Desperado still wore his black trench coat, but Fox had discarded his somewhere along the way, and wore only his ninja suit - now equipped with the mask and that red-gleaming eye. Snake felt a wave of comfort wash over him, born of his friends and companions. The situation he had earlier faced alone, had become bearable with their presence.
"Wordsworth and Esher?" he asked.
"Gone," Desperado answered, balancing his shotgun skillfully against his leg and jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "They weren't able enough to take all of us at once, but they weren't so weak as to fall with a single bullet. There'll be no coming out of this without a bruise or a break, if there'll be any coming out of it at all, which I strongly hope there will be."
"No need for prayers," Snake waved his hand. "We have this now. The Rangers are attacking from the ground. We'll strike from the air." He examined the Black Hawks, pointing out rope ladders wound up in each one's hull. "These," he said, hopping inside one of the Black Hawks and finding the end of the ladder. He quickly strung the rope about the edge of the helicopter and motioned for the pilot to take off.
Stepping away, Snake watched. The helicopter drifted into the air, Fox looking up at it as it went, and the rope ladder unraveled toward the ground. Snake turned to the others. "Set 'em up and saddle up."
Snake grappled the ladder as the helicopter lifted higher into the sky, followed by Mei Ling and Naomi - all three climbing to the brink of the helicopter and climbing inside. They watched, from where they hovered, the other two Black Hawks being boarded and modified with the rope ladders, then waited for them to glide into the air.
The rotors whipped about loudly, but Snake managed to find a radio sitting between the pilot's seats. He brought it up in his hand and held down the side button with his thumb. "Hilo 2," he began, "is this coming through?" He waited a moment. "Hilo 2?"
"Read you loud and clear, Snake," the Colonel answered. Snake took a moment to process the voice before continuing.
"What kind of arsenal are you carrying?" Snake asked, and waited for the Colonel to check the hull of the second helicopter.
"We have a Stinger, no more than six rockets.three M4's.and a load of grenades," the Colonel returned.
"Whose with you?"
"Jack and Otacon are both here."
"Have Otacon handle the radio from here. Have Jack handle the Stinger. Throw grenades at Alpha Gear's head, and fire away with the M4's immediately after."
"Roger that, Snake."
"And Colonel," Snake paused, "good luck." The Colonel nodded and smiled, and then passed the radio to Otacon, who listened as Snake contacted the third Black Hawk.
"Hilo 3? Come in, Hilo 3."
Silence.
"Desperado, you hearing me?"
Silence.
"Fox?"
Silence.
"What's going on over there?"
Finally, a terrible scream of gunfire scorches the air, and a Black Hawk - Hilo 3 - swings by, narrowing avoiding a collision with Hilo 1. There's a yell from the hull of Hilo 3, that belonging to Desperado, and then a procession of shotgun rounds being fired and Nikita missiles being discharged into the night, aimed at the Tiger that was darting through the air like a humming bird.
"Damn!" Snake huffed, retracting into the helicopter and pressing hard on the side button of the radio. "Otacon?"
"Yea, Snake, I hear you," Otacon answered, calmly.
"Tell Jack to target the Tiger," Snake rattled off in a hurried fashion. "We need it out of the sky. Don't worry about Alpha Gear now. The Rangers should keep it occupied." He quickly recoiled into the depths of the Black Hawk, searching in the night for something to use against the enemies about.
The Rangers were, indeed, handling Alpha Gear. They had armed themselves with a fabulous array of weaponry, ranging from Beretta pistols to Stinger rocket launchers. They moved through the streets skillfully, as if they had developed a deep knowledge of that area of Manhattan. It was no trouble for them to find barriers and blockades or walls of shattered cement behind which to reload their weapons and compose their thoughts.
Alpha Gear, though, was not sustaining enough damage to falter in the battle. It continued to send out waves of HOT missiles and hails of gunfire, and the damage it did take was quickly repaired through use of the Cell Drive. It was indeed a machine to marvel at.
The Tiger continued to rage through the skies, its speed and power great but its agility giving it a certain grace. It disturbed the winds, sending gusts throughout the sky and sending the Black Hawks into uncontrolled spins and follies - all which the pilots were able to maneuver their ways out of. But still, the Tiger and Alpha Gear posed a great threat against the company and its comrades of Army Rangers.
Snake came out of the darkness with a Stinger over his shoulder. Naomi had found a number of missiles deeper in the hull of the helicopter, and kept them nearby as he lowered himself on the rope ladder, wrapping his left arm around one of the rungs and supporting his lower body with his right leg - his left still pained from the bullet that remained deep within his thigh.
Wincing, he worked to seek out the Tiger flying tauntingly above Hilo 2. He could see Otacon yelling things to Hilo 3, not far away, but none of the messages were reaching Fox or Desperado. Jack, though, had managed to step down on the rope ladder and was aiming frantically for the Tiger that he and Snake both knew was far too near to fire upon.
Snake disregarded it, turning an eye to Alpha Gear and taking aim at the cockpit. Waiting for a time, assessing the way that Ocelot and Big Boss piloted it, he saw it fire HOT missiles and its laser into tall apartment building bringing fire escapes down to scorch the streets and to topple over crowds of Army Rangers.
There was a hiss, sending Snake backward a ways, and a rocket launched away from the Stinger supported over his shoulder. The sky seemed to shake, the rocket continuing a smooth, perfect path toward Alpha Gear's cockpit, but in the last moment it turned its glowing eye at the rocket and as if part of instinct a laser shot up from its arm and met with the spire of iron and explosives, and produced a cloud of red and orange before it.
When the debris cleared, falling through the air and drifting like grains of sand over the streets, the glowing eye shot its terrible glare at Snake and he looked plainly into it, knowing that Ocelot and Big Boss sat patiently behind it. Hoisting the Stinger into the hull of the Black Hawk, Naomi loaded a rocket into it, and lowered it back down to him. He set it on his shoulder, his expression unchanging, and steadied it on his target.
Then, another hiss, and the rocket was set loose.
But, when this one was obliterated before that terrible glowing eye, another, in flight just a second after Snake's and hissing onward from Hilo 2, impacted against the right of Alpha Gear's neck and made it shudder sideways, its 'feet' digging into the street and pushing against the force of the explosion.
Snake's Stinger was reloaded now, and he raised it up to his shoulder again, waiting for the Rangers to draw the attention of Alpha Gear away. And then, only seconds after the first rocket had struck the neck of the machine Snake sent out another.
The neck was glowing an eerie green, the Cell Drive working laboriously to repair the fissure. But, even when Alpha Gear turned and destroyed Snake's second rocket, another came bursting forward from Hilo 2, hardly missing the fissure, but its explosion still breaking through the neck and tearing the partly repaired fissure deeper. Sparks burst from the wound, and the green glow stopped glowing, the head turning much slower now.
Snake turned from Alpha Gear to Hilo 2, holding his thumb up to Otacon and smiling. But, as Otacon worked to return the gesture, the Tiger sent a wail of gunfire down upon Hilo 2 and broke a tear in its hull and damaging the rotors. The whole thing shook, smoke rising up from the rotors and Otacon tipping out of the helicopter - barely catching a low rung of the ladder.
Snake climbed up into the hull of the helicopter and waved the pilot toward Hilo 2, grabbing the radio in his hand and raising it to his lips.
"Hilo 2!" he cried, but there was no response.
"Snake," Desperado began, hurried but calm. "Snake, Hilo 2 is hit."
"Aim for the Tiger!" Snake cried again. "Knock the Tiger out of the air!" Throwing the radio aside, he peered out of the helicopter and watched as they came closer to Hilo 2. It was losing altitude - losing it fast. "Damn you, Dante," he muttered to himself, and watched as Otacon climbed direly up the ladder, his arms weakening and his glasses sliding off his face and being swept up through the skies as the Tiger bolted past, churning the air and pushing Hilo 2 through its currents like a rag doll in a tornado.
The descent was inevitable. Unstoppable. And even as Snake came nearer, it was impaired by another wave of gunfire - biting through it like a mouth of razor teeth and tearing at it with the jaws of a ferocious beast. The rotors spun apart, torn through the turbulent winds and thrown to the ground, and the hull began to split, spewing smoke and flame throughout the sky.
Everything seemed to stop then. Hilo 3 had fired two Stinger rockets at the Tiger, pinning it in its tail and sending it into an uncontrollable spinout. Alpha Gear's right leg had been crippled by the Rangers. The Rangers had taken cover from falling debris. Hilo 1 watched the sights in awe, their eyes filling with fear and surprise. And Hilo 2 pulled itself apart as it came to the streets, its body spinning in several different directions.
The rotors had struck a florist shop, the front half had fallen in flames to the streets and had been completely obliterated on impact, the back half had caught an unusual updraft of air and had skidded along the streets sparks flying and a fire still burning inside it, and the rope ladder tore loose from hull and fell like a dead stick to the street - a 15 foot fall.
Snake saw the wreckage, the disaster. Desperado was watching from Hilo 3, his eyes stinging. But, Snake couldn't see them all dying. He couldn't see it, couldn't accept it. The Colonel, Jack, Otacon.no. No, they couldn't be lost.
The Tiger, its spin continuing to the ground, let out a soft hiss and the two cockpit areas sprung into the air, leaving the helicopter to burn across the streets. The cockpits spun, too, flipping and twisting in the sky, and when the parachutes shot out their tops they worked to right themselves but there was hardly any hope for recovery.
In a violent spin, the parachutes curled themselves around the cockpits and they began to fall like bricks through the air. Alpha Gear's glowing eye watched in hungry anticipation, a grin on Ocelot's face within, and when the cockpits crashed against the street, pieces scattering through the air and shattering windows and walls with unbelievable force, everything seemed to abandon its amazement and return to the battle.
Snake was hunched over, his head out of the helicopter, his eyes tightly shut and his hands grinding at the metal stripped edge. Mei Ling was curled up in the shadows and Naomi waved the pilot toward the wreckage of Hilo 2. They began to descend, Hilo 3 giving them cover fire and hovering over Alpha Gear unloading grenades and rockets and gunfire.
The ground came nearer, Snake's eyes parting only slightly. He could see the trail of debris left from the crash, and he could spot two bodies still latched onto the rope ladder. The rest was a mesh of grays and blacks and fiery oranges.
And then, there was a slight break in the smoothness of the ride, and the helicopter touched down on the street. Snake unacknowledged both Naomi and Mei Ling and, seemingly coming out of his distressing trance, tumbled out of the helicopter and righted himself, standing tall and steady for a moment, watching the flames eat away at the street and crackle in the dark night. There was a current of warm and cold air, mixed about and coming in strides. It brought wetness to his eyes, a wetness that he managed to withhold for a time, stepping slowly forward.
The sounds of war echoed still in his ears and mind, guns still being fired off and explosions still capturing the attention of those attentive few. Snake was far from the battle, though. He was in another land. He was standing in an old battlefield, one of tragedy and death. One where his people had lost, and the enemy and prevailed.
And then he was standing over them. He knelt down beside the crumpled body that was hidden under a white lab coat and the wetness began to fall down his face, etching a trail down his cheeks and slipping into the air and splashing over the street. "Otacon," he murmured, Mei Ling and Naomi watching from a distance.
Snake's head bowed over his friend, and he began to shudder, his arms growing weak and his legs falling under him. He began to take deeper breaths, his tears coming silently and without a whimper of pain. The sight, not the sound, was the captivating thing about it. Both Mei Ling and Naomi could hardly stand as well. And it was not their pain that did so, but Snake's. They could see it in him as he was crouched there, over Otacon, his body weakening and decomposing in the glow of a burning fire.
"You're not lost," Snake said quietly. "You're not lost yet." He set his hand on his friend's side and felt him shudder under it, his lips beginning to part and words coming forth, disconnected.
"Sn - ake," Otacon tried. "You.you're he - re." Snake fought off a face of worry and answered firmly. "Yea, Otacon. I'm here." He looked around, seeing Jack nearby, clutching at the rope ladder still. "Stay here, Otacon. Don't try and move. Just relax." Otacon tried to nod, but just grunted.
Snake stood; turning to Jack who he could see was trying to move. "Don't move!" Snake cried, and Jack fell limp and exhausted. Then, he took sight of the raging inferno of the wreckage and noticed the missing body - the Colonel.
Running urgently to the back half of the helicopter that lay mainly in ruin, its frame still in tact. He bounded over heaps of rubble and stopped before the ruin, the fire glinting in his eyes. His head went around frantically, his eyes searching hungrily for the Colonel, but he saw him nowhere. The flames were eating at the helicopter, nearly engulfing it entirely, and Snake could see a body hunched awkwardly against a pole of iron, only feet from the fires.
Snake jumped forward, stepping over small licks of orange and red, and turning around blocks of wreckage. The Colonel was in the center of the ruin, his right arm cramped strangely against his body and blood spilling down from his shoulder and his stomach. When Snake reached him, the fire igniting the street beneath them, he fell silent and his heart slowed almost suddenly, his sweat turning cold even among the fires.
The face that looked back at him was pale and subdued, the eyes vacant and still. His right arm had been badly broken, the bone pushing out of the shoulder of his army jacket. His left leg was folded under him at an impossible angle, and a spike of metal had impaled him in the stomach. His face, though, was undisturbed and peaceful. There was no terror or horror in it, but a striking sense of honor and completeness.
Snake fell onto his knee before him, no tears falling from his eyes but a great wonder filling his heart. He closed his eyes, a firm sentiment on his face, and knelt for a moment. He realized the courage and the honor that he'd never seen in the Colonel before. He saw, now, sadly when there was no time left to change the happenings, that that Colonel was no cold man dictating lies and pointless missions, but a man who had once been just like Snake. He was honorable, strong-willed, and a compassionate warrior in his own day. And knowing that, Snake stood, lifted him up in his arms, and carried him over the wreckage, laying him back down not far from Jack and Otacon.
Mei Ling was treating to Jack, and Naomi to Otacon. They both looked up at Snake, and seeing his face, looked down to the pavement to note the Colonel's body. They both drooped their heads and said their own prayers and the like before a terrible eruption of flame and debris excited the company from the battlefield.
Snake turned swiftly around and watched as Alpha Gear fired off a blind arsenal of missiles, lasers, and gunfire that sent the Rangers behind their fortifications and Hilo 3 away from the sight. And when the assault had died, Alpha Gear began to slip powerlessly out of control and crashed against an old office building, deep wounds in both its legs and its arms. The head tilted sideways, and Snake saw it open onto the roof of the building, the wind picking up and the moon turning a pale blue, heated ethers rising up in the foreground and painting a stunning picture of the night.
Snake saw two forms moving about on the roof and without another moment's hesitation, he bolted toward Hilo 1, jumping into the hull and pointing the pilot toward the rooftop not far away. The Black Hawk lifted off of the street and streaked through the air, coming up on the building and the crippled alpha Gear that was leaned against it.
Then, the wind blowing about, the Black Hawk lifted over the lip of the office building and two figures, their dressings tossing in the wind, stopped side by side and turned menacingly toward the helicopter. There, standing in the doorway was Snake, his suit battered and bloodstained, and his SOCOM aimed steadily at them. "Stop," he said plainly, and stepped calmly out of the helicopter, dropping onto the lip of the building and standing boldly on the edge.
Ocelot and Big Boss looked both worried, discouraged, and amusingly at him. Neither of them thought to reach for their guns, just stood their and watched Snake as he took another step down to their level, his face stern and expressionless. "Trying to get away," Snake began, slowly walking over to them. They did not change. They did not shift. They stood unwavering there.
"This is the end of the line," Snake said. "You don't have any Navy SEALS do you?" he asked Ocelot with a smile.
"It does not end here," Ocelot proclaimed, but Snake shook his head and waved his index finger, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
"Wrong. The President of the United States has challenged you. He has control over what you once thought was your own. You're power only reaches as far as the mind. It depended on fear, but there is no fear any longer. No power goes undefeated. This is the revolution of our day. This is the end for both of you."
Big Boss nodded with a sarcastic smile, and in a second a gun was in his hand, a twisted grin was on his face, and a hole was in his chest opposite his heart. The gun fell from his hand, clattering against the rooftop, and he lay his body twisted and blood seeking out of his chest. Ocelot looked down on him and his face turned serious and angry.
The sound of a helicopter was coming nearer, and over Snake's shoulder came Hilo 3 - Fox and Desperado leaping out, along with a horde of Army Rangers. Desperado and Fox stopped on Snake's left and the Rangers swarmed Ocelot. Snake looked at Desperado almost disconcertingly, as if the Rangers couldn't take Ocelot, but Desperado laughed and nodded. "I'll handle this."
Stepping forward, he pulled out a pair of handcuffs and to Ocelot's disgust, snapped them over his wrists and read him his rights. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed." Then, walking away from him, his back turned, he muttered: "THAT'S how our country does things."
Snake lowered his SOCOM and pointed to Big Boss, who seemed to still be alive, gripping onto life. Desperado turned an eye over his shoulder and noted the body. He nodded. "We'll take care of it." Snake looked at Desperado with an air of curiosity and confusion. Desperado, sensing his bewilderment, pulled something from his wallet and held it up before his friend - an ID.with the insignia of the United States printed beside his picture.
"I've been with the U-FAC for a long time. But I've been a part of the government for much longer. I was sent into U-FAC to investigate it. The orders I was given from the White House was to do anything to gain the trust of the organization. To reacquaint myself with Ocelot, who I'd known from many years ago, was what I had to do to gain that trust, but because of my fault of allowing myself to be identified by Formal, the organization fell apart."
"I have a friend who is part of the U.S. government," Snake said with a laugh. "I didn't know that sort of thing could happen." Desperado smiled, and the two watched as Ocelot and Big Boss were secured inside the Black Hawk along with the remaining Rangers atop the roof, and flown away - Ocelot's face darker than it had ever been and his mind screaming that it was still not over. For Ocelot, things would never be over.
Another Black Hawk came over the roof, hovering above them and then landing. Otacon and Jack were slumped against its hull, their eyes barely opened and weak smiles on their faces. The Colonel was laying inside, and Mei Ling and Naomi both came bustling out of the helicopter, smiles on their faces. Naomi jumped up, her arms curling around her brother's neck and hugged him tighter than she ever had. Mei Ling blasted against Desperado, an action that caught him by surprise, and squeezed him like he was a stuffed animal she had once loved.
Snake smirked and went over to the helicopter, looking over the Colonel and then up at Otacon and Jack who had hardly managed to scoot to the edge. Otacon's arm was in a sling, and patches of his coat were tied around his legs where blood was spilling forth. Snake winced but Otacon smiled.
"It's.not that bad," he said, and Snake laughed, looking at Jack who was without bandages but bleeding in several locations. 'He's definitely getting to that point,' Snake told himself. 'One of these days he'll be just like you, you old brute,' he poked at himself.
"We aren't making the sunrise this time," Fox said, and Snake grinned, turning his head to the moon that lit the city abroad, and the brilliant night sky, splashed with gray-blue clouds that appeared like water colors on a dark canvas of stars.
"I think this will cut it," Snake said, and the company watched, in awe of the great twilight, from the peak of the great, shining city.
.of Manhattan.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: That's it!! It's taken me SO long to write this chapter, and SO much concentration to write this story, but more than time and effort - passion. I truly hope that you enjoyed this story, maybe even better than my last, for it is not just the continuation of the legacy of Metal Gear Solid - started by the great Hideo Kojima - but a tale infused with my own love for the series. It was a step I believed the series should take, and a level I am proud of reaching. Thank you, all, for having helped me on this journey. And thank you, all, for reading! THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!! - espresso (
The Tiger fell back to watch over the rooftop, but four Black Hawk helicopters - relative to the Navy's Sea Hawk - ascended around Tower One, encircling the Tiger. Dante's eyes were darting back and forth, as were everyone else's. Snake could see Desperado smiling behind a pile of tresses with a look of triumph, and when he inspected them closer he noticed that they were harboring Army Rangers. Snake whipped back toward Big Boss and Ocelot as the Tiger was forced to pull away at higher altitudes, all of the Black Hawks ignoring his avail.
Suddenly, the doors slid aside and ropes fell down over Desperado and Snake. "Otacon, are you out?" Snake asked through the Codec. There was no answer. "Otacon? You don't have much time. Hurry!" Snake took a hold of the rope and the Rangers within the hull began to pull him up in conjunction with his own climbing. Desperado was doing the same, and as they looked down on Big Boss and Ocelot they noticed no fear, shame, or hopelessness. Ocelot was grinning and Big Boss was holding his Marker and Beretta at the Black Hawks.
"We always have a way out," Ocelot proclaimed, but only Big Boss heard it. Then, with plainness in his face, Snake muttered, "Now."
The earth began to rumble, and a terrible wall of fire and steel blasted out the windows of the third, fourth, and fifth floors. But, another sound had alerted Snake, and it came from the edge of the island. He twisted around the side of the helicopter and watched as the warehouse in the distance was engulfed in flames. With the touch of that button, Klaymore had silenced the entire Patriot network.
But, Snake had to turn back to the tower. And as he watched, the rooftop falling away, he could see the two men bracing the floor they stumbled upon. And then he saw Tower Two.its walls nearer than he thought. And as Tower One continued to descend upon Embassy Square, gray smoke billowing up from the growing plain of destruction, it fell askew and the higher floors crashed into Tower Two, disappearing through its walls and being hidden by what windows remained.
"Damn!" Snake exclaimed, a Ranger's arm extended for him to grab. He looked over to Desperado, who was also deep in thought, and then yelled up to the Rangers aboard the helicopter, "Take me to Tower Two!" Desperado saw the helicopter shift toward Tower Two and repeated Snake's request to the Rangers in his own helicopter.
In moments, both of them were dangling just feet over Embassy Square, the other two Black Hawks circling the rooftop of Tower Two. Snake and Desperado both dropped from the ropes and landed safely on the paved ground, Snake still grinding his teeth in pain and grabbing his thigh in frustration. He couldn't be as mobile as he wanted with the injury he had endured, but he couldn't simply watch from the sidelines and hope for the best. It was his job to see that Ocelot and Big Boss were gone.his job to see that the threat on Manhattan was eliminated.
Desperado came over to him quickly, and helped him to stand. Snake looked at him, estranged. There were words he wanted to speak, but he couldn't. With Desperado he wasn't the legend any longer, but instead he was the apprentice, and with the wound he was even more of a hassle it seemed.
"Thanks," Snake grunted. Desperado smiled a weak smile and slipped his Desert Eagles from their holsters at his hips. Letting the spent clips clatter against the pavement, he pulled one from the side of each gun and slipped it in. Then, he taped two more to their sides and holstered just one. Snake pulled his SOCOM from his holster and let his own clip fall to the ground, filling it with another and holding his hand out. Desperado pulled out a different roll of tape, its color red, and set it in Snake's hand. He quickly spun the tape around two more spare clips, and mounted them to the sides of his SOCOM. Folding the end of the tape under itself to make an easily handled slip of non-sticking tape to grip with its next use, he held it out in tribute to Desperado. He waved it off, closed it in Snake's hand, and then guided it to a pocket in Snake's sneaking suit. "It's yours," Desperado breathed, and then turned to the remains of Tower One. Snake did the same.
The scent of fire was intense, burning under their noses, and a blinding plume of smoke was moving over them. Tower Two - just meters away - became hard to see through the shroud. Then, Snake remembered. "Otacon!"
There was no answer.only silence, and the crack of the smoldering concrete in the heart of the wreckage.
He holstered his SOCOM and took a number of steps toward the giant mound of steel and concrete, making a circle with his hands and setting them around his mouth as he yelled again, "Otacon!" The smoke was burning his wound, as well as his eyes. "Otacon.where are you?!" Now, he was walking aimlessly through the smoke, stumbling over the rubble and cracks in the cement floor of Embassy Square, now scorched black.
Faultering, he dropped onto his knees, stopping himself with his hands, and kneeled before the fires. Desperado was close behind, walking slowly over to where Snake was kneeling and then standing apprehensively behind him. "Dammit, Otacon," Snake breathed. Where was he? Dead? Alive? Injured? In that aspect, Snake was forced to watch from the sidelines and hope for the best, but he couldn't do that. "Dammit, where are you?!"
Desperado took another step forward and laid his hand on Snake's shoulder. Snake didn't shrug it off, but just knelt there for a moment, eyes closed, heart beating, hands flexing, body resting. And then, he stood and Desperado backed away, giving him the space he required.
Snake stood idle for a time, looking into the burning concrete. The breeze toyed with his bandana - its other half in Otacon's possession - and the flames that ate away at the wreckage glimmered against him, illuminating his figure and sparkling against a drop of salty moisture that had accumulated at the corner of his eye. The smoke still pushing by him, he blinked, and the tear slid over his cheekbone before making the trip down his cheek and past the corner of his lips to the smooth point of his chin. It sat poised on his chin for a moment, grasping at his skin but being wrenched away by another force. But, it could not hold on.
So it fell like a sparkling crystal through the air, purifying what it touched, and when it came near the smoldering wreckage before it, it flashed and disappeared with the lick of a tall flame. Snake shifted his weight onto his wounded leg and turned to face Desperado, his bandana still waving in the wind. Pulling his SOCOM from its holster yet again, he held it at his side and Desperado nodded in silent acknowledgement.
Then, the two started off for Tower Two, the sky above no longer black but a navy. It was a wonder seeing such a pure sky on an island like Manhattan where artificial light always poisoned it. Desperado reached into his pant pocket and checked his pocket watch up close to his face. Snake noticed it, could see how similar it was to Ocelot's. He sighed heavily and pocketed it before coming to the doors of Tower Two. The left side of the building had been torn apart by Tower One, but they could not trek over the burning rubble to enter through the gap.
Desperado opened the glass doors, his Desert Eagle in hand, and let Snake pass inside before him. Snake took a few steps inside and then stood relaxed for a moment after Desperado let the door close behind them. It was the silent type of door. It didn't click shut like wooden doors.
Desperado was about to say something, but Snake put his index finger up in contest. Then, slowly, he stepped to the left and moved around the wall of the lobby area. Through another set of doors he and Desperado passed, finding themselves in a giant room. Past the lobby there were no offices, just one giant room - its ceiling thirteen stories high.
He could see only some of the room, the flames of the wreckage outside shining inside, but where the windows remained, no light passed through. The windows were tinted.to the inside and the out.
He could hear something moving high above, and could see a small hump of wreckage invading the room. But then, there was a loud clap and a moment passed before two clusters of ground lights flashed on, shining up on three figures at the right side of the room, and four at the left. Besides those two areas, everything was black but what shined in the light of the wreckage.
"Otacon!" Snake yelled. There, standing on the right side of the room was Otacon, Jack.and Fox, who Snake figured had saved the two at some point. Otacon looked at Snake with all the joy he could muster, but then Snake noticed the situation on the left side of the room. Standing together was Mei Ling, Naomi, and the Colonel, and with two guns pointed on them was Wordsworth. Her magnificent green eyes sparkled.
"Wordsworth!" Desperado called out, taking a few steps forward. She turned one of her guns at him and he stopped. "What you have done can never be excused." She simply smiled back at him, then holstering both of her guns and stepping forward. Naomi, Mei Ling, and the Colonel knew what she could do, and weren't about to retaliate, even with her back turned.
"It is your own fault," she replied. "You were too stupid to realize my treachery. Too stupid and too old. You and your ninja friend have always been too old, too stupid, too slow. You're behind the times." Snake turned to Fox and saw him perfectly content. 'Why are the just standing there?' Snake thought, and then he remembered something Ocelot had said. He remembered it just as Fox dropped down behind him and pulled his sword from its sheath and cried, "Wordsworth! Traitor!"
Snake turned around and looked at Fox, then turned and looked at the other Fox who stood beside Otacon and Raiden. 'Esher,' Snake thought. 'Esher.a mimic!'
"Put your hands up!" Snake cried, raising his SOCOM and aiming it at the second Fox. He did not move. "I know it's you! You're Esher!" Then, in the middle of everything, another voice entered the fray, only this was one Snake thought he wouldn't ever have to hear again.
"Snake.you are turning out to be quite the detective."
"Ocelot!" Snake growled, and then a series of blue lights - all positioned along the outside of Tower Two - shot into the room, piercing the tinted windows and bearing witness to a haunting figure. Grasping the earlier invisible catwalks that lined the walls of Tower Two, was Alpha Gear, its eyes gleaming a blazing blue, and its body shining a metallic blue-gray. "It's a good catch!" Ocelot announced from its cockpit, and Snake saw how it had happened. Alpha Gear had caught the two as they fell in through the walls of Tower Two with the thirteenth floor of Tower One.
"Big Boss?" Snake said quizzically.
"Hello, son," he bellowed from the cockpit. Snake didn't understand, and Big Boss knew exactly how he felt. "You can't understand why we still fight by each other," he began, "but that is because you don't understand power. Alpha Gear requires two pilots, and our goals are stronger than our consciences. We can be enemies another time."
Then, with the helicopters' rotors still echoing inside the cavernous room, Alpha Gear let go its grip on the catwalks and fell to the floor, crashing violently in the center of the room and shaking several catwalks from their positions.
"You're crazy!" Snake hollered. Ocelot's maniacal cackle was all that followed. Fox, Desperado, and Snake were all three moving into the room - slowly but surely. Wordsworth had stepped back and was again holding two guns on Mei Ling, Naomi, and the Colonel, and Esher was sliding a blade from her sheath. Snake didn't understand the way that she mimicked.the clothing must be part of her body.like another layer of skin. But the blade.where could that have come from?
Then, out of the silence, came a terrible screech of metal followed by the loud clap like thunder that was an usher to the event that followed. After just a few seconds, the roof of Tower Two busted inward and the concrete began to plummet to the floor aside the burning remains of a Black Hawk.
Snake watched it, flames curling into the air behind it and its rotors still slightly spinning against the air. Nearly ten Rangers had been within it before it was struck by what he imagined was a missile born of the Tiger, and when it hit.they all were silenced. 'How have I been alive so long?' Snake thought to himself. 'Other soldiers die at my side, but I always make it through with a twisted ankle or a gunshot in the arm or leg. Why don't I die?'
And then, the helicopter crashed against the floor and sputtered loudly before Alpha Gear. The navy sky appeared over their heads, as did three Black Hawks still circling what used to be the rooftop. And as the whole congregation turned toward the scorching Black Hawk, Snake's SOCOM fired a bullet. He watched as Esher turned swiftly around and deflected the shot with her blade. Snake stood, stunned. She could not only duplicate looks, clothes, and accessories.but also the skills, the agility, the strength, the personality, the attitude. Everything.
But then, with Snake's first shot and Esher's first deflection, Desperado fired off his Desert Eagle at Wordsworth and Fox sprung toward Esher in a fit of rage. And Alpha Gear turned up its head toward Snake who now stood motionless before it. It was like that for a time.silent. Big Boss and Ocelot both looked upon Snake, and Snake looked upon the two of them. Besides them, there was no world. Everything else was independent.besides the fact. That's how it seemed.
He actually came to admire it in an odd way. Its legs bent backward like past Metal Gear models, but built into them were several independent turrets. Metal Gear CELL had harbored a main cache system in its chest, and from that spot ammunition and fuel was transported throughout the body. Alpha Gear had learned from that model's vulnerability and had individual caches built around all of the weaponry systems.
On its left shoulder there was mounted a giant cannon capable of firing LM2 rockets, and on its left shoulder there was a chain gun. Its arms were fixed with one laser each and several HOT missiles. And mounted on its back was the Rail Gun made famous by Metal Gear Rex. Stored in a compartment closed off from the rest of Alpha Gear's workings were three nuclear missiles capable of long-distance launches. Its neck was long, its head like the crunched face of a lizard, and its two eyes glowed an eerie blue, while remaining somewhat transparent to give Snake a pale sight of Ocelot and Big Boss both sitting in the cockpit. Ocelot sneered at him.
And then.
"Catch me if you can."
Snake was the only one to hear it, and before he could act on it Alpha Gear had pushed off on its legs and bounded into the air like it had at the tanker so many years ago. And then it stretched over the lip of the building and dropped onto the streets, crashing through them a few feet and then picking its legs out of them before beginning its tour of the city.
Snake ran then. He went back out the doors in the lobby room and hustled around the right side of the building, leaving the others to their own troubles. And when he had found the street on which Alpha Gear was walking, a Black Hawk descended at his side, blowing dust into the air and forcing him away even as he walked toward it.
The Rangers quickly hopped out of the hull, huddling in front of Snake with faces of question. "What do you ask of us, sir?" one of them said, and Snake looked at them, his face contorted. He'd never given orders in such a fashion. "Sir?" They stood ready, guns in hand. How had they known to come to him?
"Inside," Snake said. "There is a man named Desperado inside. He'll tell you what to do." They all seemed relieved to hear the name Desperado mentioned, and with Snake's request they performed a group salute. Snake surveyed them for a moment and then raised his hand to his brow. Then, dropping it to his side, they all did the same.
"Thank you, sir," one of them said, and they hurried around the side of Tower Two and quickly into the building. The pilot of the Black Hawk looked over the back of his seat and waved Snake inside. "Come on! We'll catch up!" the man said, and Snake bound hastily into the hull. He shot a look back through the walls of Tower Two, pierced by the blue lights positioned around the building, and saw the Rangers enter the room. It was nearly ten on two.
"Good luck, Otacon," Snake breathed, and the helicopter lifted off of the ground. In just a few moments he was soaring over apartments and office buildings, restaurants and florists shops. Ahead were two bright, gleaming eyes, staring at Snake from nearly ten stories high. And in the Black Hawk's own lights, and with the assistance of a fairly large spotlight on its right 'wing' Alpha Gear shone like a crown jewel amidst the darkness of the city.
"Take me down!" Snake ordered. He could see the hunger in Alpha Gear's eyes, and his heart was filled with nothing but the same. The pilot turned his head and looked over the back of his seat. Snake saw his wariness but nodded his head. "Take me down." The pilot sighed and then turned his head again.
There was uneasiness in Snake's stomach, but it was overpowered by a strong sense of anxiousness. He'd been waiting for this day for so long, and as he looked back at Tower Two and the remains of Tower One, and then out to the warehouse that was still smoldering in the distance, he saw his entire trail. He could see the harbor in the pale moonlight and he could faintly make out the demolished coffee shop.Battery Park.Tribeca and the bridge, both hit by Klaymore's rage.it was everything he'd been through.
And then, standing before him as the Black Hawk touched down, as the pilot wished him good luck and told him to watch for the Tiger, and as he stepped out on the cleared road, he saw not Alpha Gear.but Big Boss and Ocelot. He didn't see a giant robot, he saw two foolishly brilliant, insanely sane, powerfully weak, terribly wonderful, boys of men. They were held up with the aspirations of childhood, and were no more powerful than himself.
He grasped his SOCOM at his side, looked up from his feet, and let all expression fade. And they stood there, facing each other in silence through two blue screens. The breeze was dying now - coming in short gusts and then going for minutes. It was when it stopped completely, inspiring a sense of uneasiness, that Alpha Gear slouched and stretched its neck out toward Snake putting its head level with his and just a number of meters away.
"How's the leg?" Ocelot joked. Snake did not answer. He waited no more than a second and jerked his SOCOM upward, aimed it directly into the right eye, and fired three shots. Sparks ran through the blue glow and then it shorted out as Alpha Gear whipped its head back and forced out its arms. Snake jumped back a few feet as two red streams of light seared the road beneath him. They had come from the arms of Alpha Gear. They were the lasers.
Snake was quick to the right when they fell toward him again. He ran a contorted track of the street, sending the lasers through each other at several points to make them fire off in another direction - sometimes hitting a car, a fire escape, or a trash can.
"On Shadow Moses," Ocelot began, still sending the lasers after Snake who was still running ahead of them, "you challenged Metal Gear Rex. Today, you challenge Rex, Ray, Arsenal, CELL, and all that were before it." Ocelot sneered, though Snake could not see his face. "You have come a long way. I wonder if tradition will suit you here?"
Suddenly, the lasers receded into the arms of Alpha Gear and the machine took several steps back, pushing dents and breaking cracks in the street as it moved. Snake could see the cannon on its right shoulder.the chain gun on its left.and could barely make out that there was an abstract form on its back, but besides those three weapons he was only left to guess.
And then, the chain gun began to shell out its power sending a wave of heavy gunfire. Snake had no way to counter this besides running. And he did just that. Left. Right. Left. Back. Forward. Back. Right. Forward. The chain gun's aim was precise and its speed was amazing. Snake was hardly a meter ahead when the bullets thrashed down at him, and they only grew closer as time wore on.
But it all stopped then. The chain gun began to cool and the wind began to pick up. Snake's wound was bleeding more than before and the pain was shooting up like waves though his entire leg. His breathing was growing heavy and painfully sound, while his face was slowly coated with a thin layer of perspiration.
The breeze was a blessing. Even as worn and tired he had become, he felt cool and refreshed when the wind graced his skin, curled up around his face, and massaged his cheeks. He put his wrist on his forehead and slowly wiped the sweat away. Looking up at Alpha Gear with a grim smirk on his face and seeing only one blue light staring intently back at him, he said: "How's the eye?"
Alpha Gear's right arm burst forward, but just as Snake was about to jump aside he noticed that the wind had never stopped. There was a quick surge of red light gathering at the tip of Alpha Gear's arm - built similar to Ray's - but before it had broken free, a well-placed HOT missile flashed into view, landing in Alpha Gear's right shoulder.
A terrible cry escaped its mouth as fire ran across its shoulder and as a black smoke lifted from its new wound. But beneath the black was the faint glow of green, and when the smoke had eventually cleared Snake could see the shoulder in tact and unscathed. "The Perfect Cell," Snake muttered.
"Dante!" Big Boss exclaimed as the Tiger whipped over Alpha Gear and turned swiftly around. Dante laughed, his voice amplified like Big Boss' and Ocelot's over the city. The right arm lifted again, aiming into the sky, and sent a line of red light past the Tiger's cockpit. Dante pulled instinctively away and sought higher altitude to stall.
But, as the two machines waited each other out, a sound - originating in Embassy Square - was growing. Snake had turned, his eyes searching through the night, trying to grab onto something. And then, the sound became more defined, and white and red spots of light shot through the darkness revealing the tail and nose of three Black Hawks flying nearly five stories into the air.
Alpha Gear detected their presence, but was unable to act against them - Dante piloting the Tiger wildly above and firing rounds of gunfire to the earth. Snake watched as the Black Hawks fell in altitude and hovered for a moment above the street before setting down and unloading the passengers - Army Rangers.
They rushed hurriedly past Snake, saluting as if part of a routine, and continuing on toward Alpha Gear. They weaved out of the streets and found shelter behind buildings and other things, Alpha Gear still preoccupied with the Tiger.
"Snake!" Otacon called, and Snake turned an anxious eye to the Black Hawks that lay behind him now. Rushing out of the second Black Hawk was Otacon, his white lab coat dancing in the wind and his glasses shaking with his footsteps. About his forehead, strung under his hair, was a ragged piece of cloth. Snake smiled when he saw it.
"Otacon," he muttered, noting the half of his bandana around his friend's head, and hugged him firmly. Snake hadn't felt to oppose the act, and when it happened it happened easily and expectedly. Otacon and he smiled over each other's shoulders, their hands clapping each other's backs in a jovial manner.
Then, they parted and Snake looked Otacon over. "You're still in good shape," he joked, and Otacon nodded.
"Snake! Good to see you," another voice came. Stepping forward from the third Black Hawk, followed by others who were ducking out of the other two as well - all familiar faces to Snake - was Desperado. His shotgun was tapping the street as he walked, a UMP 450 dangling oddly from his belt, and a Marker in his other free hand.
"You too," Snake admitted, shaking Desperado's hand and scanning the growing crowd, subtly taking in every face. The Colonel stood bleeding from the arm in the back, Otacon was standing beside Desperado, Mei Ling and Naomi were huddled together beside Jack - who stood appearing bored with the pleasantries - and Fox was poised on the edge of the second black Hawk's doorway, his toes sitting upon a thin metal strip, his knees pointed outward, and his torso standing straight and steady.
Desperado still wore his black trench coat, but Fox had discarded his somewhere along the way, and wore only his ninja suit - now equipped with the mask and that red-gleaming eye. Snake felt a wave of comfort wash over him, born of his friends and companions. The situation he had earlier faced alone, had become bearable with their presence.
"Wordsworth and Esher?" he asked.
"Gone," Desperado answered, balancing his shotgun skillfully against his leg and jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "They weren't able enough to take all of us at once, but they weren't so weak as to fall with a single bullet. There'll be no coming out of this without a bruise or a break, if there'll be any coming out of it at all, which I strongly hope there will be."
"No need for prayers," Snake waved his hand. "We have this now. The Rangers are attacking from the ground. We'll strike from the air." He examined the Black Hawks, pointing out rope ladders wound up in each one's hull. "These," he said, hopping inside one of the Black Hawks and finding the end of the ladder. He quickly strung the rope about the edge of the helicopter and motioned for the pilot to take off.
Stepping away, Snake watched. The helicopter drifted into the air, Fox looking up at it as it went, and the rope ladder unraveled toward the ground. Snake turned to the others. "Set 'em up and saddle up."
Snake grappled the ladder as the helicopter lifted higher into the sky, followed by Mei Ling and Naomi - all three climbing to the brink of the helicopter and climbing inside. They watched, from where they hovered, the other two Black Hawks being boarded and modified with the rope ladders, then waited for them to glide into the air.
The rotors whipped about loudly, but Snake managed to find a radio sitting between the pilot's seats. He brought it up in his hand and held down the side button with his thumb. "Hilo 2," he began, "is this coming through?" He waited a moment. "Hilo 2?"
"Read you loud and clear, Snake," the Colonel answered. Snake took a moment to process the voice before continuing.
"What kind of arsenal are you carrying?" Snake asked, and waited for the Colonel to check the hull of the second helicopter.
"We have a Stinger, no more than six rockets.three M4's.and a load of grenades," the Colonel returned.
"Whose with you?"
"Jack and Otacon are both here."
"Have Otacon handle the radio from here. Have Jack handle the Stinger. Throw grenades at Alpha Gear's head, and fire away with the M4's immediately after."
"Roger that, Snake."
"And Colonel," Snake paused, "good luck." The Colonel nodded and smiled, and then passed the radio to Otacon, who listened as Snake contacted the third Black Hawk.
"Hilo 3? Come in, Hilo 3."
Silence.
"Desperado, you hearing me?"
Silence.
"Fox?"
Silence.
"What's going on over there?"
Finally, a terrible scream of gunfire scorches the air, and a Black Hawk - Hilo 3 - swings by, narrowing avoiding a collision with Hilo 1. There's a yell from the hull of Hilo 3, that belonging to Desperado, and then a procession of shotgun rounds being fired and Nikita missiles being discharged into the night, aimed at the Tiger that was darting through the air like a humming bird.
"Damn!" Snake huffed, retracting into the helicopter and pressing hard on the side button of the radio. "Otacon?"
"Yea, Snake, I hear you," Otacon answered, calmly.
"Tell Jack to target the Tiger," Snake rattled off in a hurried fashion. "We need it out of the sky. Don't worry about Alpha Gear now. The Rangers should keep it occupied." He quickly recoiled into the depths of the Black Hawk, searching in the night for something to use against the enemies about.
The Rangers were, indeed, handling Alpha Gear. They had armed themselves with a fabulous array of weaponry, ranging from Beretta pistols to Stinger rocket launchers. They moved through the streets skillfully, as if they had developed a deep knowledge of that area of Manhattan. It was no trouble for them to find barriers and blockades or walls of shattered cement behind which to reload their weapons and compose their thoughts.
Alpha Gear, though, was not sustaining enough damage to falter in the battle. It continued to send out waves of HOT missiles and hails of gunfire, and the damage it did take was quickly repaired through use of the Cell Drive. It was indeed a machine to marvel at.
The Tiger continued to rage through the skies, its speed and power great but its agility giving it a certain grace. It disturbed the winds, sending gusts throughout the sky and sending the Black Hawks into uncontrolled spins and follies - all which the pilots were able to maneuver their ways out of. But still, the Tiger and Alpha Gear posed a great threat against the company and its comrades of Army Rangers.
Snake came out of the darkness with a Stinger over his shoulder. Naomi had found a number of missiles deeper in the hull of the helicopter, and kept them nearby as he lowered himself on the rope ladder, wrapping his left arm around one of the rungs and supporting his lower body with his right leg - his left still pained from the bullet that remained deep within his thigh.
Wincing, he worked to seek out the Tiger flying tauntingly above Hilo 2. He could see Otacon yelling things to Hilo 3, not far away, but none of the messages were reaching Fox or Desperado. Jack, though, had managed to step down on the rope ladder and was aiming frantically for the Tiger that he and Snake both knew was far too near to fire upon.
Snake disregarded it, turning an eye to Alpha Gear and taking aim at the cockpit. Waiting for a time, assessing the way that Ocelot and Big Boss piloted it, he saw it fire HOT missiles and its laser into tall apartment building bringing fire escapes down to scorch the streets and to topple over crowds of Army Rangers.
There was a hiss, sending Snake backward a ways, and a rocket launched away from the Stinger supported over his shoulder. The sky seemed to shake, the rocket continuing a smooth, perfect path toward Alpha Gear's cockpit, but in the last moment it turned its glowing eye at the rocket and as if part of instinct a laser shot up from its arm and met with the spire of iron and explosives, and produced a cloud of red and orange before it.
When the debris cleared, falling through the air and drifting like grains of sand over the streets, the glowing eye shot its terrible glare at Snake and he looked plainly into it, knowing that Ocelot and Big Boss sat patiently behind it. Hoisting the Stinger into the hull of the Black Hawk, Naomi loaded a rocket into it, and lowered it back down to him. He set it on his shoulder, his expression unchanging, and steadied it on his target.
Then, another hiss, and the rocket was set loose.
But, when this one was obliterated before that terrible glowing eye, another, in flight just a second after Snake's and hissing onward from Hilo 2, impacted against the right of Alpha Gear's neck and made it shudder sideways, its 'feet' digging into the street and pushing against the force of the explosion.
Snake's Stinger was reloaded now, and he raised it up to his shoulder again, waiting for the Rangers to draw the attention of Alpha Gear away. And then, only seconds after the first rocket had struck the neck of the machine Snake sent out another.
The neck was glowing an eerie green, the Cell Drive working laboriously to repair the fissure. But, even when Alpha Gear turned and destroyed Snake's second rocket, another came bursting forward from Hilo 2, hardly missing the fissure, but its explosion still breaking through the neck and tearing the partly repaired fissure deeper. Sparks burst from the wound, and the green glow stopped glowing, the head turning much slower now.
Snake turned from Alpha Gear to Hilo 2, holding his thumb up to Otacon and smiling. But, as Otacon worked to return the gesture, the Tiger sent a wail of gunfire down upon Hilo 2 and broke a tear in its hull and damaging the rotors. The whole thing shook, smoke rising up from the rotors and Otacon tipping out of the helicopter - barely catching a low rung of the ladder.
Snake climbed up into the hull of the helicopter and waved the pilot toward Hilo 2, grabbing the radio in his hand and raising it to his lips.
"Hilo 2!" he cried, but there was no response.
"Snake," Desperado began, hurried but calm. "Snake, Hilo 2 is hit."
"Aim for the Tiger!" Snake cried again. "Knock the Tiger out of the air!" Throwing the radio aside, he peered out of the helicopter and watched as they came closer to Hilo 2. It was losing altitude - losing it fast. "Damn you, Dante," he muttered to himself, and watched as Otacon climbed direly up the ladder, his arms weakening and his glasses sliding off his face and being swept up through the skies as the Tiger bolted past, churning the air and pushing Hilo 2 through its currents like a rag doll in a tornado.
The descent was inevitable. Unstoppable. And even as Snake came nearer, it was impaired by another wave of gunfire - biting through it like a mouth of razor teeth and tearing at it with the jaws of a ferocious beast. The rotors spun apart, torn through the turbulent winds and thrown to the ground, and the hull began to split, spewing smoke and flame throughout the sky.
Everything seemed to stop then. Hilo 3 had fired two Stinger rockets at the Tiger, pinning it in its tail and sending it into an uncontrollable spinout. Alpha Gear's right leg had been crippled by the Rangers. The Rangers had taken cover from falling debris. Hilo 1 watched the sights in awe, their eyes filling with fear and surprise. And Hilo 2 pulled itself apart as it came to the streets, its body spinning in several different directions.
The rotors had struck a florist shop, the front half had fallen in flames to the streets and had been completely obliterated on impact, the back half had caught an unusual updraft of air and had skidded along the streets sparks flying and a fire still burning inside it, and the rope ladder tore loose from hull and fell like a dead stick to the street - a 15 foot fall.
Snake saw the wreckage, the disaster. Desperado was watching from Hilo 3, his eyes stinging. But, Snake couldn't see them all dying. He couldn't see it, couldn't accept it. The Colonel, Jack, Otacon.no. No, they couldn't be lost.
The Tiger, its spin continuing to the ground, let out a soft hiss and the two cockpit areas sprung into the air, leaving the helicopter to burn across the streets. The cockpits spun, too, flipping and twisting in the sky, and when the parachutes shot out their tops they worked to right themselves but there was hardly any hope for recovery.
In a violent spin, the parachutes curled themselves around the cockpits and they began to fall like bricks through the air. Alpha Gear's glowing eye watched in hungry anticipation, a grin on Ocelot's face within, and when the cockpits crashed against the street, pieces scattering through the air and shattering windows and walls with unbelievable force, everything seemed to abandon its amazement and return to the battle.
Snake was hunched over, his head out of the helicopter, his eyes tightly shut and his hands grinding at the metal stripped edge. Mei Ling was curled up in the shadows and Naomi waved the pilot toward the wreckage of Hilo 2. They began to descend, Hilo 3 giving them cover fire and hovering over Alpha Gear unloading grenades and rockets and gunfire.
The ground came nearer, Snake's eyes parting only slightly. He could see the trail of debris left from the crash, and he could spot two bodies still latched onto the rope ladder. The rest was a mesh of grays and blacks and fiery oranges.
And then, there was a slight break in the smoothness of the ride, and the helicopter touched down on the street. Snake unacknowledged both Naomi and Mei Ling and, seemingly coming out of his distressing trance, tumbled out of the helicopter and righted himself, standing tall and steady for a moment, watching the flames eat away at the street and crackle in the dark night. There was a current of warm and cold air, mixed about and coming in strides. It brought wetness to his eyes, a wetness that he managed to withhold for a time, stepping slowly forward.
The sounds of war echoed still in his ears and mind, guns still being fired off and explosions still capturing the attention of those attentive few. Snake was far from the battle, though. He was in another land. He was standing in an old battlefield, one of tragedy and death. One where his people had lost, and the enemy and prevailed.
And then he was standing over them. He knelt down beside the crumpled body that was hidden under a white lab coat and the wetness began to fall down his face, etching a trail down his cheeks and slipping into the air and splashing over the street. "Otacon," he murmured, Mei Ling and Naomi watching from a distance.
Snake's head bowed over his friend, and he began to shudder, his arms growing weak and his legs falling under him. He began to take deeper breaths, his tears coming silently and without a whimper of pain. The sight, not the sound, was the captivating thing about it. Both Mei Ling and Naomi could hardly stand as well. And it was not their pain that did so, but Snake's. They could see it in him as he was crouched there, over Otacon, his body weakening and decomposing in the glow of a burning fire.
"You're not lost," Snake said quietly. "You're not lost yet." He set his hand on his friend's side and felt him shudder under it, his lips beginning to part and words coming forth, disconnected.
"Sn - ake," Otacon tried. "You.you're he - re." Snake fought off a face of worry and answered firmly. "Yea, Otacon. I'm here." He looked around, seeing Jack nearby, clutching at the rope ladder still. "Stay here, Otacon. Don't try and move. Just relax." Otacon tried to nod, but just grunted.
Snake stood; turning to Jack who he could see was trying to move. "Don't move!" Snake cried, and Jack fell limp and exhausted. Then, he took sight of the raging inferno of the wreckage and noticed the missing body - the Colonel.
Running urgently to the back half of the helicopter that lay mainly in ruin, its frame still in tact. He bounded over heaps of rubble and stopped before the ruin, the fire glinting in his eyes. His head went around frantically, his eyes searching hungrily for the Colonel, but he saw him nowhere. The flames were eating at the helicopter, nearly engulfing it entirely, and Snake could see a body hunched awkwardly against a pole of iron, only feet from the fires.
Snake jumped forward, stepping over small licks of orange and red, and turning around blocks of wreckage. The Colonel was in the center of the ruin, his right arm cramped strangely against his body and blood spilling down from his shoulder and his stomach. When Snake reached him, the fire igniting the street beneath them, he fell silent and his heart slowed almost suddenly, his sweat turning cold even among the fires.
The face that looked back at him was pale and subdued, the eyes vacant and still. His right arm had been badly broken, the bone pushing out of the shoulder of his army jacket. His left leg was folded under him at an impossible angle, and a spike of metal had impaled him in the stomach. His face, though, was undisturbed and peaceful. There was no terror or horror in it, but a striking sense of honor and completeness.
Snake fell onto his knee before him, no tears falling from his eyes but a great wonder filling his heart. He closed his eyes, a firm sentiment on his face, and knelt for a moment. He realized the courage and the honor that he'd never seen in the Colonel before. He saw, now, sadly when there was no time left to change the happenings, that that Colonel was no cold man dictating lies and pointless missions, but a man who had once been just like Snake. He was honorable, strong-willed, and a compassionate warrior in his own day. And knowing that, Snake stood, lifted him up in his arms, and carried him over the wreckage, laying him back down not far from Jack and Otacon.
Mei Ling was treating to Jack, and Naomi to Otacon. They both looked up at Snake, and seeing his face, looked down to the pavement to note the Colonel's body. They both drooped their heads and said their own prayers and the like before a terrible eruption of flame and debris excited the company from the battlefield.
Snake turned swiftly around and watched as Alpha Gear fired off a blind arsenal of missiles, lasers, and gunfire that sent the Rangers behind their fortifications and Hilo 3 away from the sight. And when the assault had died, Alpha Gear began to slip powerlessly out of control and crashed against an old office building, deep wounds in both its legs and its arms. The head tilted sideways, and Snake saw it open onto the roof of the building, the wind picking up and the moon turning a pale blue, heated ethers rising up in the foreground and painting a stunning picture of the night.
Snake saw two forms moving about on the roof and without another moment's hesitation, he bolted toward Hilo 1, jumping into the hull and pointing the pilot toward the rooftop not far away. The Black Hawk lifted off of the street and streaked through the air, coming up on the building and the crippled alpha Gear that was leaned against it.
Then, the wind blowing about, the Black Hawk lifted over the lip of the office building and two figures, their dressings tossing in the wind, stopped side by side and turned menacingly toward the helicopter. There, standing in the doorway was Snake, his suit battered and bloodstained, and his SOCOM aimed steadily at them. "Stop," he said plainly, and stepped calmly out of the helicopter, dropping onto the lip of the building and standing boldly on the edge.
Ocelot and Big Boss looked both worried, discouraged, and amusingly at him. Neither of them thought to reach for their guns, just stood their and watched Snake as he took another step down to their level, his face stern and expressionless. "Trying to get away," Snake began, slowly walking over to them. They did not change. They did not shift. They stood unwavering there.
"This is the end of the line," Snake said. "You don't have any Navy SEALS do you?" he asked Ocelot with a smile.
"It does not end here," Ocelot proclaimed, but Snake shook his head and waved his index finger, clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
"Wrong. The President of the United States has challenged you. He has control over what you once thought was your own. You're power only reaches as far as the mind. It depended on fear, but there is no fear any longer. No power goes undefeated. This is the revolution of our day. This is the end for both of you."
Big Boss nodded with a sarcastic smile, and in a second a gun was in his hand, a twisted grin was on his face, and a hole was in his chest opposite his heart. The gun fell from his hand, clattering against the rooftop, and he lay his body twisted and blood seeking out of his chest. Ocelot looked down on him and his face turned serious and angry.
The sound of a helicopter was coming nearer, and over Snake's shoulder came Hilo 3 - Fox and Desperado leaping out, along with a horde of Army Rangers. Desperado and Fox stopped on Snake's left and the Rangers swarmed Ocelot. Snake looked at Desperado almost disconcertingly, as if the Rangers couldn't take Ocelot, but Desperado laughed and nodded. "I'll handle this."
Stepping forward, he pulled out a pair of handcuffs and to Ocelot's disgust, snapped them over his wrists and read him his rights. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed." Then, walking away from him, his back turned, he muttered: "THAT'S how our country does things."
Snake lowered his SOCOM and pointed to Big Boss, who seemed to still be alive, gripping onto life. Desperado turned an eye over his shoulder and noted the body. He nodded. "We'll take care of it." Snake looked at Desperado with an air of curiosity and confusion. Desperado, sensing his bewilderment, pulled something from his wallet and held it up before his friend - an ID.with the insignia of the United States printed beside his picture.
"I've been with the U-FAC for a long time. But I've been a part of the government for much longer. I was sent into U-FAC to investigate it. The orders I was given from the White House was to do anything to gain the trust of the organization. To reacquaint myself with Ocelot, who I'd known from many years ago, was what I had to do to gain that trust, but because of my fault of allowing myself to be identified by Formal, the organization fell apart."
"I have a friend who is part of the U.S. government," Snake said with a laugh. "I didn't know that sort of thing could happen." Desperado smiled, and the two watched as Ocelot and Big Boss were secured inside the Black Hawk along with the remaining Rangers atop the roof, and flown away - Ocelot's face darker than it had ever been and his mind screaming that it was still not over. For Ocelot, things would never be over.
Another Black Hawk came over the roof, hovering above them and then landing. Otacon and Jack were slumped against its hull, their eyes barely opened and weak smiles on their faces. The Colonel was laying inside, and Mei Ling and Naomi both came bustling out of the helicopter, smiles on their faces. Naomi jumped up, her arms curling around her brother's neck and hugged him tighter than she ever had. Mei Ling blasted against Desperado, an action that caught him by surprise, and squeezed him like he was a stuffed animal she had once loved.
Snake smirked and went over to the helicopter, looking over the Colonel and then up at Otacon and Jack who had hardly managed to scoot to the edge. Otacon's arm was in a sling, and patches of his coat were tied around his legs where blood was spilling forth. Snake winced but Otacon smiled.
"It's.not that bad," he said, and Snake laughed, looking at Jack who was without bandages but bleeding in several locations. 'He's definitely getting to that point,' Snake told himself. 'One of these days he'll be just like you, you old brute,' he poked at himself.
"We aren't making the sunrise this time," Fox said, and Snake grinned, turning his head to the moon that lit the city abroad, and the brilliant night sky, splashed with gray-blue clouds that appeared like water colors on a dark canvas of stars.
"I think this will cut it," Snake said, and the company watched, in awe of the great twilight, from the peak of the great, shining city.
.of Manhattan.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: That's it!! It's taken me SO long to write this chapter, and SO much concentration to write this story, but more than time and effort - passion. I truly hope that you enjoyed this story, maybe even better than my last, for it is not just the continuation of the legacy of Metal Gear Solid - started by the great Hideo Kojima - but a tale infused with my own love for the series. It was a step I believed the series should take, and a level I am proud of reaching. Thank you, all, for having helped me on this journey. And thank you, all, for reading! THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!! - espresso (