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Metal Gear Solid:Dark Horizon is a fanon written by Jim Logan. It is an alternate ending to Metal Gear Solid:Ghosts of War, and takes place in 2015. The protagonist is Solid Snake. The second half takes place in 2020 and the main protagonist is Catherine Pliskin.
Characters[]
- Solid Snake - A Soldier Who Seeks An Escape.
- Meryl Silverburgh - A Flower On A Scorched Battlefield.
- Catherine Pliskin - A Child With Demons.
- Katnis Rowe - An Imaginieer with Dreams.
- Patrick Ryder - A Mastermind With The Voice Of The People.
- The Angels of Wars - A Mercenary unit looking for their Final Battle.
- Viper - A Rival looking for a Challenge
Prologue[]
Snake unlocked the door and entered the darkened apartment with Meryl behind him, who was holding the slumbering Catherine in her arms. Catherine was drooling on Meryl's shoulder but she didn't seem to mind. Once inside Catherine giggled "Hey...hey Jack...guess what?" Snake asked "What?" Catherine said "I can't feel my stomach! Is that bad?" Snake asked "Why is she..." Meryl said "She's on enough painkillers to drop a horse." Snake nodded "I see." Catherine let out a squeak of pain and mumbled "Ouch..." Meryl asked "What's wrong?" Catherine said "It hurts to laugh..." Meryl said "Then don't laugh honey." Catherine said "O-Oh kay..." Meryl said "Come on sweetie, let's get you to bed." Catherine asked "Can I get...ki-cat?" Snake asked "What does she want?" Meryl said "Her stuffed cat I guess." Snake asked "She has a stuffed cat?" Meryl nodded "She is a kid."
Snake sat down on the couch while Meryl put Catherine down in her room. Once she was finished she quietly shut the door behind her, and moved to sit down next to Snake. Ten minutes of awkward silence passed before Meryl asked "Well, now what?" Snake looked at her but didn't say anything. Meryl asked "What do we do now, Dave?" That last word caught his attention. The only time she called him by his true name, was when she needed his attention. Snake said "I don't know Meryl." Meryl said "FOXHOUND was wiped out...the only survivors are you, Raiden,me and Cat-" Snake said "I know." Meryl said "We need to figure out what to do from here..." Snake nodded "I know." He wanted nothing more than to wait for Catherine to recover, then he just wanted to vanish, go off the grid, but he knew someone would find him.
Meryl said "Hey...we'll figure something out. We always do." Snake let his head rest against the wall and rested his eyes. A few minutes passed and Meryl curled up against him resting her head on his shoulder. For a brief moment, all thoughts of doubt, anger, regret were forgotten. He felt at peace. Then a small, shrill, pained voice interrupted "Hey, Jack? Meryl?" Snake opened his eyes to see Catherine sitting on her knees in front of them. Meryl asked "Catherine, what are you doing up?" Catherine rubbed her eyes and said "Kat is gone." Snake said "You're holding the doll in your hand." Catherine shook her head "No, Katnis." Meryl looked at Snake and said "Oh, she meant her friend." Snake said "Yeah, I put that together." Meryl turned back to Catherine and said "I'll call her mother."
Meryl took out her phone and walked out into the kitchen. Catherine looked up at Snake with puppy-dog like eyes. Snake asked "What do you need rookie?" Catherine asked "Can I sit with you?" Snake nodded "Sure." Catherine went to stand but he noticed her legs wouldn't hold her weight. Snake sighed and lifted the girl up by her armpits and placed her down next to him, to which she slouched next to him. Snake patted her on the head and said "How you feeling rookie?" Catherine said 'I can't feel an-anything under my shoulders." Snake said "Yeah...painkillers tend to do that." Catherine said "You kn-know..for a while there...I didn'-didn't think I-I was going to make it." Snake looked at her with concern "What?" Catherine said "I thought I was going to die there...I didn't think I was going to see you or Meryl or Katnis or Sunny again." Snake wrapped an arm around the girl and said "It's-uh it's okay kid, you're alright." Catherine nodded "I know..."
Meryl walked back into the living room and said "Sorry Cat, Katnis can't come over, they're over in Florida for the weekend." Catherine said "Okay...tell her to take pictures..." Meryl said "She'll be over as soon as they get back, okay?" Catherine nodded "Uh huh..." As soon as Meryl hung up her phone she noticed that Catherine had started rubbing her stomach at an alarming rate. Meryl asked "Hey are you okay?" Catherine said "It feels itchy." Meryl sighed "The painkillers are wearing off. Can you help get her into the kitchen?" Snake nodded "Sure" Catherine extended her arms and allowed Snake to cradle carry her into the kitchen where he set her down in one of the chairs. Meryl poured a glass of milk and handed Catherine a white pill the size of Catherine's thumb nail and said "Drink up honey." Catherine took a deep breath and forced the pill down and said "Could they make 'em any bigger?" Meryl petted her head and said "Why don't you sleep with us tonight?" Catherine, who was already rocking back and forth, nodded "Ye-yeah sure." Meryl picked the girl up and said "Well come on then."
Chapter 1[]
Otacon was on the phone with a high-ranking member of the army for at least four hours denying the existence of his creation, his AI army. Otacon said in as calm tone as possible "I'm sorry sir, I cannot just give you the specs to something that could easily go south fast. No I did not admit it's exis-No!" Snake asked "What does he want?" Otacon replied "He wants the specs for the AI's." Snake asked "Didn't half of them malfunction and fire wildly at the PMC's?" Otacon nodded "I can't just say Oh hey I have an army at my disposal!" Snake said "Don't you have like ten left after Mexico?" Otacon pushed up his glasses "Yeah." Snake turned back to Catherine who was poking her now-unbandaged stomach. Snake slapped her hand away and said "Stop it kid." Catherine sighed "Fine." Otacon forced the phone into Snake's hand and said "I'm done." Snake asked "What the hell do you want me to do?!" Otacon said "I don't care anymore!" Catherine asked "Can I try something?" She went to grab the phone but Snake snatched it away and said "You're still high on drugs." Catherine shouted "I am not!" Snake said "What do you want?" The voice on the other line asked "Who am I talking to now?" Snake said "Jack Pliskin." The man said "Ah I see, hello Mr. Solid Snake or should I say Big Boss." Snake wasn't surprised that someone knew either of those codenames, as Campbell was a talkative person ever since they reformed FOXHOUND together.
Snake asked "What do you want?" The man said "Well I should introduce myself, my name is Patrick Ryder, I am the head of a private military company funded by Thee United States of America!" Snake asked "Why'd you say thee?" Patrick laughed "It sounds much more... proper, if you know what I mean." Snake said "Just get on with it before I hang up the phone." Patrick said "You see...I have a need for your friend's AI soldiers that were demonstrated in battle a mere week ago. However...I think the Legendary Solid Snake might just be the man for the job." Snake said "You're getting neither. I'm retired, find someone else to do your dirty work." Snake went to hang up when Patrick shouted "It's about Metal Gear!" Snake froze, let what he said sink in before putting the phone back up to his ear and said "I'm listening..."
Snake, now dressed in a fancy suit, entered the skyscraper, protected by two heavily armed security guards, both of which looked like they were itching to pull the trigger into a group of people just to see how many they could drop. Snake walked up to the front desk and said "I'm here to meet uh...Ryder." The woman behind the desk said "Ah, yes just head to the elevator, the attendant has been informed already. Just go on in!" Snake nodded "Thanks." Snake made his way to the elevator, stepped inside and the attendant inside hit in a seventeen digit code and he was taken to the top floor where, once the door was opened he was escorted by four guards to a room marked with the letters "PR". Snake opened the door and found Patrick smoking a cigar while relaxing on a body sofa.
The man looked up at Snake with his deceiving, calculating hazel eyes, his black hair buzzed down, and he was dressed in a fancy gray power suit. Patrick stood up, revealing himself to be at least a full foot shorter than Snake himself. Patrick asked in a gentlemanly tone "Would you like a light Mr. FOXHOUND?" Snake shook his head "I'm trying to quit." The man spread his hands and asked in a cocky tone "What's the fun in that?" Snake said "What do you want?" Patrick pointed his index finger at Snake and said "Right to the point...I like that...I like that in a business partner." Snake sneered "I haven't agreed to anything." Snake mentally punched himself, as every time he said that line the past he always did whatever job he was given.
Patrick rubbed the burnt out cigar in his ash tray, poured a couple glasses of liquor and said "Well, you see. By the order the United Nation up in the NP, I was to have my Private Militia protect their top secret Black Ops project on the Russian-China border. However, last week we lost all communication and all satellite images of the base only provide a burning wreck. The UN wants me to send in a suicide squad to see what's wrong." Snake asked "And what does this have to do with me?" Patrick said "Well, you see since your brother Otacon has that marvelous android army at his disposal, what better than to use them then to possibly waste precious human life?" Snake said "I still don't see what any of this has to do with me." Patrick tapped his head as if he'd forgotten something and said "That's it! I want you to investigate the wreckage!" Snake asked "And why the hell would I do that? I have better things to do." Patrick grabbed a manila folder from his desk and tossed it to Snake and said "If you don't I will leak every. Tiny. Piece. Of info on you and your bastard family to every major newspaper in the world, and for good measure, to the world wide web." Snake opened the folder and found various pictures of The Boss, Ocelot, Big Boss during his youth, himself just before his first mission for FOXHOUND, Meryl and Catherine.
Snake sighed "You're a real bastard, you know that?" Patrick took a gulp of alcohol and said "My dear friend, I am just the voice of the people."
Chapter 2[]
Snake, now dressed in a Marine Corps field uniform, an M4 at his hip, his trusty old SOCOM in his holster, a pair of headphones graced around his neck. Since Otacon couldn't get him a new Solid Eye due to the last one being too damaged, he had to go into the mission with a video watch that would sync with his Codec calls. Snake was sitting in the helicopter, head against the wall with five other strike team personnel assigned to the mission, most of which didn't give Snake even a glance of attention, which he welcomed. His Codec started going off, Snake raised his right hand to his ear and an image of Catherine appeared on his watch. The girl had obviously just woken up, due to her facial expressions and drowsy glare.
Snake asked "What do you need rookie?" The girl yawned "Just calling to say good morning, dad." From his perspective it still looked darkened in the girl's room. Snake asked "What time is it there for you?" Catherine said "Oh..uh midnight I think...mom just went to bed." Snake said "Well, try to get some sleep kid." Catherine blew a kiss to him and said "Night daddy." Snake nodded, signed off the Codec and looked to his left to see one of the other mercenaries trying to hide a smile. Snake asked "What?" The man nodded to Snake's watch and asked "That your kid?" Snake rolled his eyes "Yeah, why?" The man shrugged "She's cute man." Snake said "Thanks...I guess." The man said "The name's Jake, Jake Johnson." Snake asked "Was your father the-" Jake cut him off "President during the Manhattan Incident? Yeah." Snake said "Sorry about your father." Jake shook his head "Don't be, he was a selfish bastard, he only cared about his political career." Jake withdrew from the conversation and started cleaning his rifle. Snake thought back just before he left for the mission how Meryl had started looking for a "better" house. She claimed that her father Roy could help them get whatever house they wanted, wherever the wanted. Snake didn't want to move, he thought that where they were was fine, but Meryl claimed the apartment was too small. Just before he left he caught a glance of the location of where she wanted to go, and was surprised to see California on the screen, although she always did say she hated the cold.
Jake asked "So what unit you from?" Snake raised an eyebrow "Unit?" Jake waved to the other people in the helicopter and said "We're part of the Private Military Company unit, DeathStrike. What about you?" Snake said "I work alone." Jake laughed "Then you're gonna have fun with us bro. That girl over there armed with the assault rifle? That's Rachel, don't try to hit on her, you'll be sent to the morgue, that guy with the sniper, that's-" Snake cut him off "I don't need to know your names, once this mission is over I'm never going to see you again." Jake seemed offended and said "Well aren't you fun at parties?" Snake said 'I don't go to parties." Jake smirked "Exactly man." Snake said "You know...you remind me of a a guy I worked with back in 2007." Jake nodded "I get that a lot."
The helicopter pilot shouted "We're landing! Get ready boys!" Jake asked "You ready old man?" Snake picked up his M4 and grumbled "Old man huh?" The helicopter landed and the unit stepped out onto the mountain, the air was thin, almost to the point that Snake had trouble breathing. The pilot said "I'll be back in twenty! Stay alive till then!" The helicopter departed and the unit got their bearings. Snake asked "So where's this compound?" Jake pointed the the shadowed part of the mountain and said "It's over there...come on." Snake followed Jake and his team inside the darkened, facility. Jake said "Night vision goggles." Snake, along with the rest of the team equipped their night vision goggles, revealing most of the facility to be covered in blood and bullet holes. Snake asked "What the hell...?"
Jake said "Pliskin, you and me will go to the command center, check the security feed. The rest of you check the lower levels. Snake heard a "Rodger" and the team split. Jake asked "You ready to go?" Snake nodded and followed the man into the security room but not to either of their surprise, the power wasn't working. Snake asked "What now kid?" Jake withdrew a flash drive and stuck it into the computer. Snake said "Kid, the power isn't working." Jake said "Give it a second." The lights flickered on from their forced slumber. Snake asked "How the hell did you?" Jake said "State-of-the-art tech from AT." Jake went to log into the console but a pair of screams interrupted them, followed by a barrage of deafening gunfire.
Snake asked "You ready for a fight kid?" Jake picked up his rifle, loaded the grenade extension and asked "Are you, old man?"
Chapter 3[]
Snake and Jake, their rifles aimed at the door. Snake felt the sweat drip down from his forehead and into his eyes, standing in wait for the unseen threat. Jake had taken the flash drive out of it's port, and the duo had equipped their night vision goggles. Jake talked into his mic "DeathStrike. Come in! Anyone respond!" Snake mumbled "Don't try it kid, they're gone." Jake said "They can't be..." Snake shook his head "Denial never gets you anywhere." The door creaked open, and both Snake and Jake raised their weapons to the unknown force. A figure stepped into their vision, it appeared to be female, long flowing black hair, it was wearing only a skin-tight white dress, it's finger nails looked like talons, it looked like it was covered in blood and it appeared to be muttering something to itself. Jake said "Hold!" The figure chuckled at his threat and continued it's advance. Jake shouted "Hold it there or I will shoot!" The figure ignored his order and continued advancing. Jake said "Fine." and raised his gun to the figure. Snake shouted "Jake no!" As soon as Jake opened fire, the figure flew to it's right, and got up-close-and-personal with Jake before stabbing him in the chest, and ripping out his beating heart. Snake was stunned, he had no idea what to do as his comrade's body collapsed to the floor.
The figure took a bite from the still-beating heart before discarding it to the floor. Snake, not wanting to meet the same fate lowered his gun and raised his hands. The figure made a few circles around him before asking in a monotone voice "You two...looking for end?" Snake asked "What do you mean?" The figure said "My comrades and I...we long for death, we long for an escape from war...are you the one who can finally end our misery?" Snake replied "Who are you?" The figure chuckled "I am exactly who I am not." Snake turned, but the figure had vanished. Snake thought about checking on Jake for a moment, but remembered he was dead no matter what. Snake grabbed the mic from Jake's corpse and called the pilot. Within minutes he was sitting in the seat, trying to collect his thoughts about what happened, when he heard his codec going off. He checked it and saw Patrick's image on his watch.
Patrick asked "Well, was the mission a success?" Snake shouted "What the hell did you send me into?!" Patrick looked confused "What are you talking about? It was a simple retrieval mission." Snake shook his head "Your little PMC unit just got wiped out." Patrick asked "Did you get the flash drive?!" Snake said "No, and I am not going back for it." Patrick smirked "Unfortunate..." Snake asked "Wait what do you mean?" But he had already signed off.
Snake arrived home after reporting to Patrick, telling him exactly what happened with Jake and the mysterious figure. Patrick told him he would call Snake within the next few days for his next mission, much to Snake chagrin. Snake, now dressed in his normal black t-shirt and blue jeans walked out into the living room, still exhausted from what he'd been through, where he found Meryl finishing up making what appeared to be a breakfast consisting of toast, a banana and orange juice. Snake asked in a joking tone "You do this all for me?" Meryl winked at him "No, you're next, but this is for Catherine, can you bring this into her?" Snake asked "Why?" Meryl said "She's got that doctor coming today for her checkup." Snake said "Oh...yeah." Meryl said "You forgot." Snake said "Not denying that." Meryl said "Just bring it into her will ya?" Snake nodded "Yeah, yeah." He grabbed the tray and walked to Catherine's room. Without thinking, he opened the door to see Catherine and Katnis kissing lightly. Katnis noticed this, and gasped causing Catherine to turn in fear. Catherine shouted "Dad! What the hell! Don't you knock?!" Snake chuckled "Relax kid." He put the tray on her bed and said "I was never here."
Snake walked back out into the kitchen, a light smile on his face. Meryl asked "What was she screaming about?" Snake said "Oh I just walked in on those two kissing." Meryl said "Oh, I forgot Katnis was her- Did you just say they were kissing?" Snake nodded "Yeah, so?" Meryl sighed "They're twelve!" Snake corrected her "Thirteen." Meryl asked "What are you talking about?" Snake nodded toward the fridge, pointing out the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" note and said "It's her birthday." Meryl whispered "I forgot the cake." Snake rolled his eyes "Get it after the doctor leaves." Meryl said to herself "How is it that I forgot it was her birthday?" Snake shrugged "Can't remember everything."
Catherine stepped out into the kitchen, following Katnis as if she was her shadow. Meryl smiled "Hey sweetie. Happy birthday!" Catherine nodded "Thanks." Snake asked "You eat that whole plate already?" Catherine shook her head "Kat helped..." Meryl asked "Ready for the doctor?" Catherine said "I guess." Snake could tell she had conflicted feelings. Just from her facial expressions she was afraid of meeting someone new, but she also looked like she had a lot she wanted to get out. A knock at the door, and Meryl said "You do as the doctor tells you, alright?" Catherine nodded sadly "Yes mom." Meryl gave her a hug and said "We'll be right here." Snake opened the door to see Rosemary and Raiden awaiting. Snake asked in shock "Rose, Ja-Raiden?" Rose was dressed in her normal gray dress and shirt, while Raiden was wearing a black suit, gray gloves and a pair of sunglasses. Rose smiled "Didn't Meryl tell you? I was contacted to give little Catherine her evaluation." Snake said "I see, come on in." Rose walked past Snake and Meryl and looked between Catherine and Katnis and asked "Uh...which one am I evaluating" Catherine raised her hand "I am, ma'am." Rose smiled "Well hello there Catherine, I'm Rosemary, you can call me Rose." Rose went to offer a handshake, but Catherine flinched. Catherine said "Sorry ma'am." Rose said "Nothing to apologize about." Rose pulled a couple chairs to the center of the room. Rose asked "Can you sit down right here Catherine?" She nodded and sat down in the chair as formally as possible. Rosemary asked "Raiden, can you hand me my notepad?" Raiden nodded and handed her the yellow notepad. Rose surfed through the pages until she found a blank one and asked "Alright Catherine...you mind if I ask you a few questions?" Catherine shrugged "I guess." Rose asked "Okay, have you been suffering from nightmares lately?" Catherine shook her head "No ma'am." Rose gave a polite smile and said "That's good." Catherine said "You mind if I ask you a question?" Rose looked at Catherine with a concerned stare and said "Uh sure." Catherine asked "Am I crazy?" Snake and Meryl exchanged a glance before Rose said in a soothing tone "No you're not." Rose asked "Okay...Snake, do you have a gun on-hand?" Meryl said "Yeah, I do." She dug inside the drawer in the nightstand next to her and pulled out one of her desert eagles and asked "Why?" Rose asked "Is it unloaded?" Meryl nodded "Yeah." Rose took it from Meryl's hand and pointed it directly at Catherine's head, causing her to nearly jump back in her seat. Snake, in response, quickly grabbed the gun from Rose's hand and shouted "What the thell do you think you're doing?!" Rose said "I was testing her reaction to firearms." Snake said "If you point it directly at her face, then she's going to react like that!" Rose nodded "I know." Snake asked "Then what the hell were you doing?!" Rose said "Try handing it to her." Snake turned it in his hand and tried handing it to her, but she just shook her head with tears rolling down her face. Rose wrote down on her notepad "Interesting..." Snake had the urge to hit Rose in the head, but decided against it. Rose said "Just one more question, okay Catherine?" Catherine wiped the tears from her eyes and said "Oh-okay." Rose asked "Have you been contemplating suicide?"
Chapter 4[]
Days past, and Snake was almost begging for Patrick's call. Meryl had started to intensify her search for a house out in California, despite his protests, and one night just before bed he noticed Meryl was now searching through wedding dresses, which raised some red flags for him. Finally, a week after he returned home did Patrick call, and he asked Snake in. He said he would and decided to bring Raiden along since he seemed to be going through a mid-life crisis of sorts and really needed the money for his family. Snake walked into Ryder's office with Raiden following close behind him, still distraught over the guards confiscating his sword, when a blond haired man bumped them on the way out. He seemed a little young to be working in a place like this. Ryder shouted "Come in! Come in! How was your little vacatio-Who the hell is that behind you?" Snake said "Oh, this is Raiden, he's just an apprentice of sorts." Ryder waved his hand "Whatever, if you swing that way I could care less. I have another job for you." Snake said "I figured." Patrick said "You see, since I'm in charge of keeping China and Russia from nuking the shit out of each other, my jurisdiction spreads pretty damn far, so-" Snake said "Get to the point." Patrick said "I need you to head over to Afghanistan. We're getting massive activity near the oil fields." Snake said "And why should we do this? Why not send in another PMC army?" Patrick said 'That would cause too much commotion compared to just two men." Raiden said "Just accept it Snake, it'll be easy." Snake asked "Committing mass murder?" Patrick said "In the name of peace, Mr. FOXHOUND." Snake looked at the man and said "Listen, and listen good. After I'm done being your little errand boy, I am done. No more fighting, no more anything. I am retiring, I am going to live with my family." Patrick smirked "If you want an out so bad, why not just put a gun in your mouth and pull the trigger- Oh wait, your daddy stopped you from doing that about a year and a half ago."
Snake went to punch the man in the throat, but he was held back by Raiden. Raiden whispered "He's not worth it, Snake." Patrick put down his whiskey and said "And what baggage do you have Mr. Lightning Bolt? Oh yes...you killed five hundred people before you were ten. You became a member of a fake FOXHOUND, killed so many people during the Big Shell Incident, and Snake here still had to save your ass and kill President George Sears." Snake went to correct him, but thought it best not to. Snake said "We do this, and we're done. You got that?" Patrick picked up the manila folder and said "The second you get back from your mission, this folder burns." Snake said "And you stop the production of your anti-war Metal Gear?" Patrick nodded "Yup." Snake said "And if you don't-" Patrick rolled his eyes "Yeah, yeah you'll kill me."
Seven hours later
Snake was ducking below a pile of stacked bags from gunfire. He heard several Gekko fall in agony as the sound of a clashing HF Blade tore through their skin like a knife through butter. A female's voice broke through the hellfire "Will you be the one to finally end our pain!?" Raiden went to swing at the woman, but she effortlessly dodged his attack, and with a mere tap on his shoulder, he flew through a building. Snake remembered watching her walk through the near endless horde of Afghan soldiers, shouting "I am the Angel of Death! My power knows no bounds!" He couldn't count how many times he's heard something similar to that in his life. Snake tossed a flashbang grenade, which exploded it's contents at the figure, causing a loud pain filled screech, using the advantage, Snake opened fire at the woman but she still dodged the bullets as if she was from a cyberpunk movie. The woman shouted "It will take more than that!" Snake went to fire again, but the woman, with her blazing fast speed grabbed the gun from him, and broke it over her knee. Snake in a state of shock, pulled out a CQC knife, and went to grab her but she in turn kicked him through the wall behind him. When Snake's vision cleared he saw the woman coughing up blood. He asked himself "What the hell?" When he stood up, he saw Raiden's sword sticking through her chest. The woman said "You...set me...free!" And her body burst into a greenish flame.
Raiden helped Snake to his feet and said "Well...that happened." Snake brushed the dust from his outfit and said "Well, now for some answers."
Chapter 5[]
A filthy kitchen, cluttered with present boxes, wedding cake. An unsigned school registration letter sat idly on the edge. Snake braced himself against the sink. He curled his fingers and found an absence. When he looked down he noticed his wedding ring gracing his right finger. Snake smirked as the memories of the past week came flooding back. He reunited with Nastasha Romanenko for the first time in nine years, he remembered listening in on her conversation with Catherine and how they got into a "da" fight. Snake looked out the window to be graced by the rising sun breaking over the skyline hitting him in the eyes. He tried rubbing the sleep from them, but it refused to abandon him. He was tempted to go lie back down with Meryl but fought the urge with all his being.
A pair of arms gently wrapped themselves around his stomach. On instinct, he almost turned to defend himself and hit the intrusion, but noticed it was Meryl. Snake turned around to meet her eyes, and he was met with a tired expression, almost inviting him back to bed. Meryl planted a kiss on his unsuspecting lips and whispered "Morning." Snake nodded "Morning." Meryl asked "Hey..can we talk for a minute?" Snake said "Before the succubus wakes up?" Meryl smirked "Yes." Snake wrapped his arms around her waist and said "You better make it quick." She nodded and said "You know how I told you to hold off on signing that school registration?" Snake said "Yeah? So?" Meryl said "I wanted to talk to you..about moving." Snake asked "Why would you want to do that?" Meryl said "David. Come on. This place is hardly big enough for you and me, let alone Catherine and Katnis." Snake said "The other one doesn't live here." Meryl said "She practically does."
Snake shook his head "Alright, let's say we move somewhere. Where were you hoping to go?" Meryl said "Somewhere warm, somewhere I can walk around in shorts everyday." Snake asked "Don't you do that already?" Meryl said "Without getting chilled." Snake smirked "I'm not complaining." Meryl rolled her eyes and said "Shut up." Snake asked "So, what were you thinking?" Meryl said "I was thinking...LA...maybe..." Snake said "That's seven states away." Meryl nodded "I know, but it'd be better to grow up in a house than in an apartment this small." Snake noticed in the corner of his eye, a lock of golden blonde hair floating from behind the doorway to the kitchen. Snake whispered "Meryl...you might want to-." Meryl said "Come on Snake, you know as well as I do this place is too small, we're constantly crashing into each other. We're bumping heads every day. We need some place bigger, someplace safer!" Snake said "Meryl!" Meryl shouted "What?!" Snake inclined his head, and Meryl turned to see Catherine, dressed in her gray sweat pants and white tank top, with two waterfalls running down her cheeks.
Meryl asked "What's wrong honey?" Catherine said "Y-Y-You want us to move away! You want us to leave home? You want me to leave Katnis behind?! I'll never see her again if we move!" Meryl said "Oh no no sweetie. We haven't decided if we're going to move there." Catherine shouted "You were just saying we're moving!" Meryl grabbed the girl's shoulders and said "I promise you, we're just saying this place is too small." Catherine said "I. Am not. Leaving. Katnis!" Meryl wiped the tears away from Catherine's eyes and said "I know you wouldn't." Catherine brushed her hands away and walked back into her room before slamming the door.
Snake said "You want me to sign that registration now?" Meryl nodded "Yeah I guess so."
Snake was sitting on the couch, a newspaper in one hand, a computer on his lap, a cup of steaming coffee to his right, resting on the coffee table. Meryl in the kitchen making something, when Catherine crept into the living room like a frightened animal, careful not to catch Meryl's sight. Catherine took a seat and stared at Snake for a few minutes. "Need something rookie?" asked Snake in a tired tone "Is Meryl mad at me?" Catherine asked with a frightened expression on her face. Snake looked at the girl, smirked and petted her on the head with his free hand. "Well, is she?!" Catherine asked, now getting frantic. "Nah, she understood why you were mad. Now she's making you an apology breakfast or something." Snake replied. With her fears now washed away, Catherine looked at what Snake was doing. "What are you looking at?" asked Catherine wish as much curiosity as she could muster.
"We're looking at places in the city." Snake said without diverting his attention from the task. "Wait, we're really moving?!" Catherine asked with fear returning to her voice. "Relax kid, we're only moving if we find a place within the city." Snake said with a grin starting to form on his lips. "Wait, what about that one?" Catherine asked while pointing to a picture of what appeared to be a two-floored mansion, that included a garage, a pool and other luxury items normal people would only dream of. "Why'd this one catch your eye, rookie?" Snake asked. "It's freaking huge!" Catherine replied with a smile. Snake looked at the address, and it was within not only walking distance of the school, and as a bonus it was only a few blocks from Katnis's house. Snake took the highlighter off his coffee table and put a question mark through it. "What's that for?" Catherine asked "It means we'll consider it." Snake replied, keeping his eyes on the paper. "What's that one you got marked?" Catherine asked pointing to a picture of the Japanese style home. "That's the one your mother wants, I think it's too damn big, it can fit ten families and still have room left over." Snake said in an annoyed tone.
"And it's a beautiful home, Snake, you can't deny that!" Meryl shouted from the kitchen. "It would take forever to clean though!" Catherine shouted back. "Best not to make it dirty then." Meryl replied with a wink. "Oh! what about this one! It looks roomy, and it's really close to the school!" Catherine said with glee. Snake looked at the photo she was talking about, and it did look nice, but it was too pricey for their budget and from the description it would take far too much work to make it comfortable to live in. "Well, what do you think?" Catherine asked with intent "Uh...not for us kid." Snake replied trying to keep his voice low.
Meryl walked into the living room and handed Catherine a plate of pancakes. "What are these for?" Catherine asked with a hint of suspicion "It's your breakfast, but if you don't want it..." Meryl said in a mocking tone "No no...I'll love them, thank you." Catherine said, taking the plate and started digging in. "So, how many houses did you mark?" Meryl asked with a raised eyebrow "Including the one Catherine picked out? Two." Snake replied in an embarrassed tone "Jesus Snake...alright, we can meet the dealers tomorrow." Meryl said in a stressed tone. "Uh, the kid and I are meeting Otacon tomorrow, remember?" Snake said "You're gonna make me meet these soul suckers alone?!" Meryl said in an enraged tone. "Yup." Snake said. "I hate you so much right now." Meryl said while rolling her eyes. "I know, I know." Snake said while planting a kiss on Meryl's lips.
Chapter 6[]
A light gasp awoke her from her dreamless sleep. She opened her eyes to a darkened ceiling, she silently crawled out of bed, quickly made something in the microwave and made her way up to the roof. She looked out over the city, it's bright lights either coming from the cars speeding down the sleepy roads, or from the buildings powering up for the day. Catherine took a drink from her cup, letting the steaming-hot chocolate burn her lips. Catherine let out a small sigh, and memories of the past five years started flooding back to her. She remembered her father Jack picking her up from school every day on his motorcycle until her sixteenth birthday, when he tossed her the keys and told her it was hers, which pleased her to no end.
The next set of memories that flooded her psyche was that of her birth mother Holly White coming into her life, albeit awkward having two mothers constantly hovering over her to complete her school work, she got used to it quickly. She then remembered graduating High school with high honors and one night, while she was typing away on her laptop, Jack brought home another person. Her name was Naomi, he revealed she was a clone of someone he knew from his past, and she would be staying with them. Catherine smiled to herself as she remembered all the times Naomi chastised Catherine for staring at her breasts.
Catherine liked Naomi as an Aunt or big-sister figure, so much so that when Catherine got into a wreck, Naomi offered to pay for the repairs out-of-pocket, but after much protests, she only paid half and asked for nothing in return. Naomi continued to be Catherine's peso-benefactor, and helped her pay for expenses while in community college. Catherine couldn't thank the woman enough for her help, even though she could've easily asked her mother or father for the money, she was far too embarrassed to tell them she lost her then-job because she shot her alarm clock.
The door to the roof opened, and on instinct, Catherine aimed her specially-made M9 at the intrusion. She lowered the gun when the figure moved into her light, and she saw it was MG Mark 4, she codenamed him Mark for short. He was an invention of Otacon, and he was different from the other Metal Gear Mark II's because he had a built in AI that made him able to have full conversations with it's owners. This particular model was programmed to call Katnis "Princess", and neither of them could figure out how to change it, even with Sunny's help.
"Miss Catherine, are you alright?" Mark asked in his regular monotone voice. "Yeah Mark, just can't sleep, why?" Catherine replied, taking a sip from her hot chocolate. "Princess Katnis sent me to investigate you in case something was wrong." Mark said. "Oh that's just like her, uh..tell her I'll be down in a couple minutes." Catherine said, trying to hide a smile behind her cup. Mark "nodded" and went to go back downstairs when Catherine cleared her throat, stopping the machine in it's tracks. "Can you get breakfast ready?" Catherine asked "Certainly, would you like me to keep your dietary restrictions in mind?" Mark asked "Yeah Mark, just some bacon and eggs should work fine." Catherine said with a disgusted sigh. "Will do ma'am." Mark said as it started down the stairs.
Catherine finished off her hot chocolate when her Codec started going off. Catherine stiffeled a yawn and asked "Yeah, Catherine here. What do you want?" The voice on the other end was a familiar one, Patrick Ryder. "Hey kid, I got a job for you." Ryder said in a distressed tone. "I'll be there in a few hours Pat." Catherine said behind signing off.
Catherine, now dressed in her common black tanktop, and leather jacket with the FOXHOUND logo on the back, dark blue jeans and combat boots walked into the Ryder Corps building, when a mountain of a man walked past her. "Do-Don is that you?!" Catherine said, trying to hide the glee in her voice. The man looked down at her, the sunlight bouncing off his stubbled cheek and balding head. "Kit-Cat! No way that can be you!" Don said trying to not show his age. Catherine smiled "What you been up to old man? Still kicking ass?" "'n taking names!" Don replied messing up Catherine's hair. "Where you headin' off to this time?" Catherine asked with curiosity taking over her voice "Oh just a border dispute over in Iraq. See ya later kid. Stay outta trouble!" Don said, waving as he walked out the door. Catherine walked up to the front desk and rang the doorbell, prompting the receptionist to walk in. "Hey Abbie." Catherine said with a cheery tone. "Hello Miss Pliskin," Abigail replied with a nod. Catherine closed her eyes in embarrassment, she hated being called "Miss." it made her feel old. "Patie wants to see me." Catherine said with a rushed tone. Abigail said "Alright, but first...you need a-." "Yeah yeah I know weapons check." Catherine said, cutting Abigail off. Abigail called a guard who checked over Catherine's M9, and her Stun knife and placed them in a tray. The guard asked "Anything else?" Catherine glared at the man who raised his hands in defense. "You may see him now Miss Pliskin." Abigail said in an obviously practiced tone. Catherine made her way up to the top floor, which was guarded by two heavily armed soldiers. Catherine gave them a mock salute and entered the office to find Patrick Ryder, now dressed in an all-white sand colored suit, his tie undone, his hair messy, wrinkles littered his face and there were black bags under his eyes. In short, he looked ten years older than what she expected. "Hey Peter Cushing." Catherine said in a mocking tone. Ryder looked up at Catherine with blank, expressionless eyes and said "Well look at you, all grown up." Ryder said in a tired tone. "Yup! So what cha need old man?" Catherine said with a wink. "I've got a mission for you child." Ryder said motioning to the door to her right. "Uh..alright." Catherine nodded and walked into the room, finding what appeared to be a nurses office.
Catherine was approached by the nurse, who to Catherine's shock was Naomi Hunter. "Please remove your clothing and sit down on the bed." Naomi said in an automated tone. "Uh...I usually go out to dinner first babe." Catherine replied in a mocking tone. Catherine looked at Naomi's face but only received a stone-cold stare in return. Catherine knew this was serious, and complied. She stripped down to her bra and panties and sat down on the bed as she was told. Naomi started poking and prodding. While listening to her heartbeat, Naomi asked "So how many packs you go through in a week?" "What?" Catherine asked "Don't play dumb, how many packs of cigarettes do you smoke in a week?" Naomi asked in a serious tone "One a week." Catherine said in a defeated tone.
"You know it's harmful to you." Naomi asked in a just-so-you-know attitude "Yeah so? Everything can kill you in the world." Catherine replied with a shrug. "Yeah well, besides your constant smoking you seem to be in good shape. Katnis keeping you on track?" Naomi asked, now in a motherly tone. "Oh yeah...bitch hid all the sugary stuff." Catherine said with a slight smile. "Working out often?" Naomi asked "Uh...if you count..." Catherine said with a blush "What will I do with you?" Naomi said shaking her head. "Will she be fit for the mission?" Ryder said, staring at the television monitor on the wall. "Uh, I don't remember ever agreeing to the mission in the first place, Ryder." Catherine said in a rebellious tone. "You're here aren't you?" Ryder said in a monotone voice. "Whatever man, tell me what you want." Catherine said, getting annoyed. Ryder turned on the TV showing a military base. "This is Camp Sovern near the China-Russian border. Last week it was taken over by a lone soldier... the last member of the Angels of War." Ryder said in an announcer voice "Wait, I thought Jack-." Catherine asked "Well it seems he missed one." Ryder said as he cut Catherine off. The video cut to a woman, possibly in her mid forties, average height, muscular build snap a man's neck, and her clothing "transformed" and morphed from a normal military uniform to a trenchcoat. "Wait a minute did that just..." Catherine asked, stunned by what she saw. "That's correct, it's a form of OctoCamo developed from the camouflage used by Laughing Octopus." Naomi said "Man I wish you guys had something like that." Catherine said in a disappointed tone. "About that..We might have something like it," Naomi said "No way!" Catherine said, trying to contain her excitement. "Before we give it to you, we need something from you." Ryder said "And that is?" Catherine replied "We need you to eliminate Raven, also known as the Angel of Death." Ryder said waving to the TV monitor. "Yeah, sure whatever." Catherine said looking at Naomi. "First..." Naomi said drawing a needle. "What's that?" Catherine asked trying to contain her fear. "A needle." Naomi said in a mocking tone, keeping her eyes on the tip. "What's in it?!" Catherine said trying to inch off the bed. "Just some nano's." Naomi said grabbing Catherine's arm. "Why are you injecting me with that shit?" Catherine asked as the needle got closer to her bare arm. "Well since most PMC's and the Russian and Chinese army use a modified Sons of the Patriots System, these nanomachines will allow you to use their weapons without having to get Drebin 893 to unlock them for you." Naomi said. The needle plunged into her arm, forcing it's contents into her bloodstream. Once the vial was empty Naomi removed the syringe, tapped Catherine's arm and asked "That so bad?" "Screw off." Catherine whispered. Naomi retrieved a briefcase and said "Put this on." Catherine took the briefcase and opened it, revealing a black body suit. When she put it on, she found it to be skin-tight, but what was most interesting was that it felt like she was wearing nothing at all. "That it?" Catherine asked skeptically. "You're right handed?" Naomi asked "Yeah, why?" Catherine replied Naomi tapped Catherine's left wrist, forcing a holographic image display to appear in front of her eye. "You see the display?" Naomi asked "You don't?!" Catherine replied trying to keep her voice down. "Nope, only you can see it." Naomi replied "Wow..." Catherine mumbled under her breath "You see an option that says "OUTFITS"?" Naomi asked Catherine nodded "Scroll over to it, and see what you can use." Naomi finished.
Catherine scrolled through the options and saw listings that stated SM, TI, and LOI. When she tried using them, her outfit morphed into the sneaking suit used by her father during the Shadow Moses, Tanker Incidents and Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection.
Catherine frowned in disgust and switched it off. "What's wrong?" Naomi asked in a concerned tone "I don't want to just use what my dad did..I feel like I'm stealing." Catherine said in a depressed tone. Naomi tapped Catherine on the cheek and said "I can help you and the nerds make something." Naomi showed Catherine how to sort out her outfits and change clothing with the options before shutting down. "Any questions, kid?" Ryder asked "Yeah." Catherine asked Ryder met her eyes and asked 'What?" "When do I start?" Catherine smirked
Chapter 7[]
Catherine was lying down on the box seat in the crowded train racing through Germany as little rain droplets pelted the machine. With her hands behind her head, Catherine remembered the reports of what was going on since World War III had started. It was declared on June 7, 2016 and by New Years day, the death toll was estimated to be two million soldiers, civilians and prisoners had been killed. The finality of the number struck her heart once more. Two million people lost their lives within six months. She cringed when she thought what the number could be four and a half years later. She was told the reason so many soldiers were killed was due to the fact the militarizes of the world had been trying to re-implement the SOP system, which caused many of the guns to lock, jam and in many cases; explode in soldiers' hands, causing shrapnel to embed itself in their carriers. Catherine remembered that, although a majority of the countries are involved in the war, the ones that have suffered the most are in fact the neutral countries like France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Germany itself suffers from frequent bombings and raids. Ryder estimated that at least half the country has been damaged by the war, which left a sour taste in many of the citizens. There were rumors of a possibly civil war going to break out around four months prior, with the resistance wanting to split and join China, while the other half wanted to join Russia. She was snapped out of her trance by a knock at the door. Catherine looked up to see a woman in her early twenties, light brown hair, white trenchcoat, and she was carrying an umbrella. "Can I help you?" Catherine asked, giving the woman a respectful stare. "Yes, you see the train is pretty full...and I was wondering if-" the woman started trying to keep embarrassment out of her voice. "Go on sit down, take a load off. I don't mind." Catherine said waving at the empty seat across from her. Catherine noted the woman's light French accent, but for all she knew, she could've just imagined it, she had been awake for three days without any sleep. "So, mind if I ask your name?" the woman asked as she took her seat. "Oh uh..Catherine, Catherine Pliskin." Catherine said to the woman. "What's yours?" "Jessica." the woman replied with a smile. "What are you doing in the military section of the train?" Catherine asked "Oh well the pedestrian section is full and...yeah." Jessica said as she looked out the window. "So are you a soldier?" Jessica asked. "You could say I'm a military adviser." Catherine said "I'm an artist..well I'd like to be, I'm spending the summer traveling Europe trying to find some inspiration." Jessica said with hope in her voice. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but there ain't a lot left to look at here in Europe that ain't blown to hell or on fire." Catherine said "A girl can dream, can she not?" Jessica said, throwing a grin at Catherine.
An explosion outside their window drew their attention. "What was that?!" Jessica shouted as she looked outside to see a burning building whiz past. "Anarchists I guess." Catherine said, sounding bored. "That kind of violence, it doesn't bother you?" Jessica asked with disbelief. "War...war never changes Jessica. When you get down to it, it happens because of opinion, point of view, a misunderstanding, agenda, religion or money." Catherine said, still staring at the ceiling. "What do you mean?" Jessica asked. "The way I see it...the first Great War happened because of secret alliances that showed their ugly faces. The second great war happened because politics, and differing opinions. This war...it's basically every nation trying to see who's got the biggest package." Catherine said "Oh surely it can't be that simple." Jessica said with a chuckle. "Believe what you want to believe." Catherine said as she drew her hood over her eyes. "Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Jessica asked "I don't see why not." Catherine said "Have you lost any friends or family in the war?" Jessica asked. "No, not yet at least." Catherine said.
A small explosion outside the door caught their attention. Catherine withdrew her SOCOM, opened the door and crept to the conjoining door where she saw seven armed solders pointing their weapons at the pedestrians. An insignia caught Catherine's eye on one of the soldiers. It was that of the Chinese army. Catherine looked at Jessica and asked "Are you armed?" Jessica shook her head "No, why?" Catherine said "We're gonna need some more guns..."
Catherine took a deep breath, burst around the corner, thwap thwap thwap thwap, four shots, four bodies went down before Catherine took cover behind another seat. To her surprise there was no return fire, when she took a peak around the corner and saw the guards, still standing in their spots, with happy grins on their faces. She cautiously raised her gun and crept forward toward them.
"Put your weapons on the ground!" Catherine said with anger. None of the soldiers listened, not to her shock. One of them started laughing lightly. "What's so funny?" Catherine said pointing the gun at his skull. "You might want to turn around." The man said Catherine turned to see another form smack her pistol out of her hand, knee her in the gut and flipped her onto the floor. Catherine started coughing violently when another body dropped to the floor, covered head to toe in blood, with a large cut in the stomach. It was Jessica. Catherine went to grab her gun, but the figure kicked it away, and proceeded to kick her in the stomach again, causing her to cough up more blood. "Don't even try it you little bitch." The voice hissed into her ear. "Vi-Viper!" Catherine coughed. Catherine looked up into the women's red eyes and saw nothing but hate in return. "I owe you for London, girl...you know what they say, eye for an eye!" Catherine was assigned to London six months prior when a terrorist group tried to bomb Big Ben, but Catherine helped stop them when she injured one of the members, who coincidentally turned out to be Viper. "I didn't do shit to you!" Catherine spat Viper grabbed Catherine's neck and hissed "You, shot me. In. The eye." "You were going to kill thousands of innocents." Catherine said trying to catch her breath. Viper laughed "Innocents? They're ungrateful people, squandering away their riches while the rest of Europe is being reduced to ash! They deserved the fear!" Viper shouted as she tossed Catherine to the ground.
"Why don't you just kill me, get it over with?" Catherine said rubbing her neck. "Oh. I intend to, but first I think you'd like to know something about your CO, Ryder." Viper said as she withdrew her knife and started licking it. "What about that fossil?" Catherine said as she eyed her gun. "You know that Metal Gear he told your father he'd decommission?" Viper said as she stepped on Catherine's gun "Yeah, what about it?" Catherine asked Viper tossed Catherine a manila folder, and upon opening it, Catherine saw a model of Metal Gear REX in what appeared to be a military facility. "That was taken two weeks ago in Africa." Viper said as she chuckled at Catherine's expression.
"Why show me this if you're going to kill me?" Catherine asked tossing the folder to the side. "I'd like to offer my services..." Viper said with a grin. "What?" Catherine asked, confused at her offer. "You want to be just like your father, blowing up Metal Gears, causing world peace, all that shit. I want to get back at Ryder for what he did to my family. The way I see it, we have the same goal." Viper said pointing her knife at Catherine.
Catherine chuckled "You want me to help you blow this thing up...in return for what?". "Well you see, my little army here is only competent enough to serve as meat shields. I'd need someone like you, to help me get into the facility and blow it up." Viper said. Catherine sneered, she didn't want to work with the woman, especially after what she just did, but if what she says is true, she needs to destroy the Metal Gear.
"You have two weeks to reply. Call me on Codec, my number is 666.66" Viper said as she kicked Catherine's gun back to her and left the cabin.
Chapter 8[]
Catherine's eyes widened in fear and shock as Katnis fell into her arms, blood oozing out of her chest, Catherine wrapped her lover's body with a tight hold and shouted "Come on! Don't do this to me! Please! Sta-Stay with me- Come on! You're gonna make it! Please!"
Katnis coughed up blood and whispered "Don't want to close my eyes I don't want to fall asleep 'Cause I'd miss you baby And I don't want to miss a thing."
Catherine gripped the other woman's hand, found it covered with her own blood, but there was no pulse, it was cold as ice and the woman below her had stopped breathing. "Kat...? Kat! Wake up dammit! Please! No! Wake up come on! Don't leave me!" Catherine shouted with tears ebbing from her eyes like twin waterfalls.
Catherine nearly jumped out of her seat in the helicopter, coming within mere inches from the roof, her skin glistening with sweat, tears running down her face. A voice to her left asked with a yawn "Hey Cat, you alright?"
Catherine looked to see Katnis, alive and well sitting beside her. "Ye-yeah just..."
"You had that dream again, didn't you?" Katnis asked with sincere curiosity.
"Yeah...I did." Catherine said as she took her seat while she wiped the last of her sweat from her forehead.
"Ocelot?" Katnis asked
"No." Catherine mumbled
"Oh the one where I-" Katnis started
"Yeah...I don't wanna think about it." Catherine said trying to fall back asleep.
"Maybe this will help." Katnis said with a smile.
"What?" Catherine asked
"I could stay awake just to hear you breathing.Watch you smile while you are sleeping. While you're far away dreaming. I could spend my life in this sweet surrender. I could stay lost in this moment forever. Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure. Don't want to close my eyes. I don't want to fall asleep. 'Cause I'd miss you baby. And I don't want to miss a thing. 'Cause even when I dream of you.The sweetest dream will never do. I'd still miss you baby. And I don't want to miss a thing." Katnis sang with that always-angelic voice she possessed. The song in question was their favorite and always seemed to calm her down in any situation, but at that moment she was petrified.
Catherine and Katnis stepped off the helicopter to be greeted by a well-dressed blond headed man, accompanied by two armed guards.
"Welcome to your special Motherbase. Paid entirely in full by the CIA." The man said with a smile.
"And who the hell are you?" Catherine asked with a sneer
"My name is Jericho, sugar tits." Jericho said
"What's the point of this, why am I here?" Catherine asked with an annoyed frown
"Let me give you a run down. This is your new base..these are your soldiers...your brothers in arms. You'll lead, they will follow. You walk into a firefight underarmed, outnumbered, they will die for you. How they're lead? Well that's up to you. The CIA and UN have no control over what goes on here. Officially, you're going to be operating as a rouge nation." Jericho continued
"What are you talking about...my mission is to kill one person..not bring down an entire nation." Catherine asked, shocked at what he said
"After your failure in Germany, which lead to the deaths of thousands of innocents..You need to restore Ryder's faith in you." Jericho said with a sigh
"And how do I go about doing that genius?" Catherine said with an eyeroll
"Following orders like a good little soldier." Jericho smirked
"Fucking A...who are my commanders?" Catherine asked
"Well sugar tits...that's up to you. You've got all the dossiers on that iDroid of yours. The best and brightest the CIA has to offer..black market to black ops. Hire them if you want, just remember it costs you money you don't have." Jericho said slouching against a shipping container
"Tell Ryder I have two special requests he's going to give me." Catherine said as she got a good view of the ocean
"Who?" Jericho asked, in confusion
"Why do you give a shit? You're just Ryders little bitch." Catherine said turning to the man
"I prefer lapdog." Jericho said with a joking smile
"Just tell him to get me those two." Catherine ordered, not interested in playing his games
"Need anything else? A bottle of milk, chips? Strippers?" Jericho asked
"Just get out of here before I put a bullet in your head." Catherine threatened
"Aye aye queen sugartits." Jericho said with a laugh
"What are your orders, Boss?" A soldier asked with a salute
"Call me Snake." Catherine said with an understanding nod
"Yes...Boss Snake." the soldier said
"For God's sake..." Catherine said with an annoyed sigh.
Sweat running down her face, Catherine's fist went through another static dummy in the VR room. She turned to block another attack from one behind her and countered it with a knee to it's crotch area and snapped it's neck. Catherine turned to see four more dummies armed with AR-15's aim their guns at her. Time seemed to flow to a near stop and instinct took over, Catherine took shots that were just random, not even aimed, seemingly from nowhere and they found their marks surprisingly in her aggressors' faces.
Catherine exited the VR room and found two people awaiting her, the one on her left was Naomi Hunter while the one on the right was someone she didn't recognize.
"Well that was impressive. How'd you react that fast?" The woman asked
"Well-" Catherine started
"It's just a combination of adrenaline, and her honed reflexes." Naomi said with a sneer
Catherine shot Naomi a look and said "Yes...so who are you?"
"Teliko Friedman. Special Ops agent." Teliko said "But you can call me Bravo."
Catherine's eyes raised "Wait..Blonde Bravo? FOXHOUND?"
"Yeah, how'd you know that?" Teliko asked in astonishment
"You and my old man solved the Lobito Island Incident in 2015." Catherine said with a smile.
"Wait...you're Catherine? Little Catherine? God damn you were barely to my hip last time I saw you, look how you've grown!" Teliko said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, I hope you serve just as good for me as you did my father." Catherine said putting on a serious face.
Teliko saluted "Definitely."
Catherine took out her IDroid and placed the woman in the Combat Unit. "You'll be heading out on a mission on Monday to Tibet..if that's not too much trouble."
"I'll go get ready." Teliko said with a salute and darted out the door toward the hanger.
"She does know it's Thursday, right?" Naomi mumbled
"She always was keen for preparation." Catherine said.
"Oh that reminds me, the other woman you wanted couldn't make it, she was contracted by another PMC. Instead we had to contract a French sniper." Naomi said in a happy tone.
"Oh god, who'd you hire, some super model?" Catherine asked
"Hey kid." A male voice said from the door way.
Catherine looked up to see Pierre Leclerc a man in his late thirties or early forties staring at her, a goatee on his chin and his black hair ery messy and unkept.
"Hey Pierre, been a while." Catherine said
"Ten years, hasn't it?" Pierre asked
"About seven, but nice try man." Catherine said locking the man in a hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Well Big Chief, when I was offered to work for you, I just had to accept. I kinda owe your dad a favor." Pierre said with an embarrassed face.
"Oh god, what'd you do?" Catherine asked with concern
"Las Vegas." Pierre said as if it explained everything.
"Again?" Catherine said with an exasperated sigh.
"Yeah." Pierre said
"How much this time, three hundred? Three fifty?" Catherine asked
"Five hundred." Pierre said hiding his face in shame
"Jesus, on what?" Catherine asked
"Darts." Pierre smirked
"You idiot." Catherine said with a playful slap to the man's cheek
Catherine again took out her iDroid and placed Pierre in the Scouting unit.
"You'll be heading out on a mission to Nepal in the morning, you gonna be sober or am I going to need to re-assign you to Mess Hall?" Catherine asked
"Oh I'll be more than ready." Pierre smirked
"Excellent, you'll be helpful." Catherine said
"Wait what?" Pierre asked
"You and me are teaming up for this one. We'll be heading into a war zone.
Chapter 9[]
Rocketing through the scorched streets, walls full of bullet holes and blood. Some of the buildings still on fire from the raids from the PMCS. Catherine sat across from Pierre, both suffering greatly from jetlag. Catherine was dressed in her new Sneaking Suit with a hooded cloak over it. While Pierre was dressed in the common garb of her unit, which was the basic green button-up shirt and pants with the old FOXHOUND logo on the left side. Slung around her was a shoulder holster, with two slots on each side. On her left held a Desert Eagle while on the right was a Colt Python .357 Magnum. On the back she could carry a larger weapon like a rifle or a rocket launcher, though she chose not to carry one into the mission as she figured it wouldn't be of much use to her since any potential enemies wouldn't require such firepower. Pierre on the other hand was armed with a silenced .45, a Single Action Army and his infamous custom made PSG-1. The entire helicopter ride they discussed what had happened since the mission in Mexico in which Pierre himself assisted in her rescue from Ocelot. While he was good at keeping a conversation going, what he had been doing since she had last seen him wasn't very interesting as he had mainly only been hired to perform contract kills. He claimed he loved taking someone's life, watching it ebb away through the view of a scope. Catherine had told him that she didn't enjoy taking one's life whether it be from a war monger, a faceless drone just following orders or a civilian. She only wanted to kill if it was absolutely necessary.
"Hey Cap!" Pierre shouted over the loud engine of the jeep.
"What is it?" Catherine shouted back, feeling disoriented in the extreme heat.
"After you know...Ocelot almost killed you. Did you suffer anything? Nightmares? Fear of guns? Anything?" Pierre asked
"Oh hell yeah..first...maybe three weeks all I could see was him pointing that gun at me. But the night terrors eventually stopped, and yeah I couldn't even look at a revolver without crying. It wasn't until a couple years ago when dear old dad started actually training me did I get over my fear." Catherine said as she drew her hidden revolver. "The feeling, the power these gun types have is just...astounding. The speed at which the bullets go through muscle and bone...ripping them apart..." Catherine said as she trailed off.
"I think we should be calling you something different eh? Revolver Boss?" Pierre said with his trademark chuckle.
Catherine put her revolver away and took a drink of water from her canteen and felt a wave of satisfaction rush over her as the ice cold water clashed with the external waves of heat from the sandy desert sun.
"So what is it we're looking for exactly, hot stuff?" Pierre asked
Catherine withdrew her iDroid turned it on and shifted through the near endless data to find the [Mission] hub, cleared her throat and said in a loud clear voice; "We are to exterminate a potential income source for Raven and Viper who is hiding out here in Nepal. He will have a briefcase on him with all the transaction information of both parties and will be heavily guarded by PMC troopers..shit."
"What, what is it?" Pierre asked
"They got a tank." Catherine said in bewilderment.
"Well..this is gonna be fun, eh Boss?" Pierre said with a smirk
"Oh yeah." Catherine said with a nod as she put the iDroid away.
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of an explosion directly in front of their car, nearly causing them to capsize. The driver swerved into a nearby building and darted into the street, his gun raised.
"Ready to go?" Pierre asked
"Let's go." Catherine said with a nod, withdrawing her Colt.
The two darted into the cover under a fruit stand as seven heavily armored PMC's raced around the corner, quickly gunning down their former driver.
"What you wanna do Boss? It's your call." Pierre whispered into her ear
Catherine looked at each individual guard, each one hard armor powerful enough to take a grenade point-blank and he'd still be able to continue fighting with only a few bruises.
"We don't have enough ammo to take them all out." Catherine mumbled
Pierre slumped down and said "Aye aye, Cap."
"Just shut up." Catherine said with a glare.
Not a few seconds later a group of Nepal Militia men, at least a dozen of them started opening fire on the PMC's. Before they could even react the Militiamen were surrounding the PMCs, gunning them down. After only a minute they were all dead on the ground, bloody pulps of their former selves.
Catherine leaned in toward Pierre and whispered "See that ladder in the alleyway? I need you to climb up and try and get a shot on the head honcho."
"Why?" Pierre asked
"Because I'm not the best when it comes to negotiations...last VR session ended with England and Spain nuking each other." Catherine mumbled
"Alright, it'll take me at least ten seconds to get up there and get a shot ready." Pierre mumbled
"When you get up there, just tell me on Codec." Catherine mumbled
Pierre saluted as he darted around the corner, away from the eyes of the Militiamen. Catherine sighed, pulled back her hood, hopped over the fruit stand and shouted "म शान्ति आउने!"
The militiamen all raised their guns in her direction, all shouting words she couldn't understand. She recognized Halt and Show your hands but everything else was like Chinese to her. The Codec beeped and Pierre said "I got a perfect shot, with my skill I can take at least three out."
Catherine cleared her throat "Anyone speak English?"
The leader lowered his Uzi and said "Yes, I do."
Catherine breathed a sigh of relief "Thank God. I don't mean any trouble, I'm just trying to make my way to the marketplace."
"And who are you aligned with, American?" The leader asked with a skeptical glare.
"Neither an enemy...nor a friend." Catherine said in as tough tone as she could muster with a dozen rifles pointed at her face.
"Why are you here?" The leader asked
"That's classified." Catherine said
"What's your name?" The leader shot at her
"Snake." Catherine said
"Ah, you're the one who let Berlin burn to a crisp?" The leader asked with a chuckle.
"A comedian...a rarity in this part of the world. Tell me, how's it feel having your own hometown constantly on fire? How does it feel to have your civilians gunned down in front of you? Hmm?"
The leader raised his gun and went to fire, however, Pierre fired first, planting a bullet into his forehead.Catherine withdrew her revolver and desert eagle, and time seemed to flow to a near stop and instinct took over, Catherine took shots that were just random, not even aimed, seemingly from nowhere and they found their marks surprisingly into the militiamen's faces.
Catherine picked up one of the Militiamen's AK-47's and placed it on the back of her shoulder shoulder holster.
"Well that could've gone better." Pierre mumbled.
"With our luck anyone will think these two groups just killed each other." Catherine said
"Well now what?" Pierre asked
"Now we visit the investor." Catherine said with a smirk
Chapter 10[]
Catherine and Pierre stood in the line of seven assault rifles aiming at their head, all of them belonging to the Nepal resistance.
"Why did you say it was a good idea to walk into their main base?" Pierre asked with his hands raised.
"Shut up your French asshole." Catherine shot back as two guards took away their guns.
"तपाईं चाहनुहुन्छ के, अमेरिकी?!" One of the guards
"हामी एक सम्झौता गर्ने आषा थियो। हामी तपाईंलाई ब्याज को केहि छ जस्तो।" Pierre said.
"You can speak Nepali?!" Catherine whispered
"Shut up Snake." Pierre replied.
"तपाईं संभवतः हामीलाई चासो थियो के हुन सक्छ?" The guard asked
"आफ्नो देश पिरोलिरहेका छन् कि निष्ठुर को नेता। तपाईं हामीलाई उहाँको मदद गर्न को लागि भने, हामी उहाँलाई तपाईं होस् हुनेछ।" Pierre replied
The guards murmured for a minute "जब सम्म तिमी आफ्नो वचन पूरा रहन्छौं, हामी तपाईंको सहायता गर्नेछ।."
The two guards nearest Catherine handed back her weapons, forcing her revolver into her holster.
"How the hell did you do that?" Catherine asked in astonishment
"Unlike you, I'm good in politics." Pierre said with a smirk.
Catherine gave him the bird and said "We ready to move out?"
"Yeah Boss." Pierre said
Catherine took out her iDroid and showed the location of the investor on the holographic map. The leader nodded to the rest of the troops to which they charged out the back door to the sounds of blazing gunfire and explosions.
"Is there anything else you wish to tell us?" The leader asked
"You speak Englis-Never mind...they have a tank if that's something." Catherine said
"We are aware of their armament, that explosion you just heard? That was their Abrams going down to meet the Devil." The leader said
Catherine cocked her AK "Let's get moving."
Catherine and Pierre made their way to the surface to find the street filled with bodies.
"Pierre, you see that building?" Catherine asked
"Across from the hotel the target's in?" Pierre replied holding a hand up to his eyes to keep the sun out of his eyes
"Yeah. Take up position there, keep an eye on the target in case I need cover fire. I'll sneak my way in and try and get as much info from him as possible." Catherine said
"Aye Aye, Boss." Pierre said as he started darting through the back alleys and up the fire escape to the roof. Catherine made her way to the destroyed door, pulled out her silenced Desert Eagle and checked the run-down hotel for guards and found nothing. She ran through the building and up to the second floor where she found two dead guards by the window.
"That your work, Pierre?" Catherine asked
"No. Why?" Pierre said
"Think about it..." Catherine said with a sigh
"Proceed with caution, Chief." Pierre said
Catherine cautiously advanced toward the window just before she got to the ledge, she passed a door way a pair of hands grabbed her and pulled her in. On instinct Catherine grabbed a hold of her attacker's arm and slammed it into the wall. Just before she pumped a couple rounds into the person's head she stopped when she saw it was Katnis, donned in a similar Sneaking Suit as hers.
"What in blue hell are you doing here?" Catherine said with fear and concern in her voice "This place is a god damn war zone!"
Katnis smirked 'Naomi sent me in, when you two didn't answer your Codec she thought something was wrong. Since you guys are almost done, I guess I can't hurt the mission."
"Just...follow my lead alright? You got a weapon?" Catherine said looking her friend over.
Katnis protruded a .45 equipped with a silencer "Yup, I'm locked and loaded Snake."
'Let's go then." Catherine said.
Catherine, with Katnis in tow snuck around the corner and found two guards talking over a cigarette. Catherine let a thought slip of how badly she wanted a cigarette but pushed it out when the women braced themselves against a couple of pillars.
"I got the one on the right." Katnis whispered.
Catherine raised her DE, lined up the sight with the man's head, exhaled, felt the gun recoil as the target went down. Before the other had any time to react, a shot went through his neck.
"Jesus you need to work on your aim." Catherine mumbled
"Who says I wasn't aiming for his neck?" Katnis asked
"Those trembling hands." Catherine shot back at her.
The duo continued past the corpses and found the main room, seemingly untouched by the decay of the warzone outside. Catherine slowly opened the door and she spotted two guards around the pompus older gentlemen sweating in his seat.
"You got a line on his head?" Catherine asked
"Yeah Boss, whenever you're ready." Pierre said
Catherine burst into the room and planted two shots into the guard on her left while Katnis took out the man on the right. Before the investor could move Catherine pulled her gun on him.
"Sit down. I just want to talk. And before you think you can get out of this, I have two more guns on your head so...it'd be in your best interest to listen and cooperate." Catherine said with a smile
"What...do you want?" The investor said quivering in his chair.
"I just want the information on Raven and Viper. All their assets, all their transactions." Catherine said
"It's all in the briefcase! Everything! Just take it and let me be!" Catherine opened the briefcase with her left hand, coaxed Katnis over and motioned for her to keep her gun on the old man in the seat. Catherine put her gun away and proceeded to scan every scrap of paper in the briefcase with her iDroid and sent it to Motherbase before putting the papers back in the briefcase,lighting it with a match and tossed it outside.
"Now...Mr...I don't give a crap what your name is. You're going to follow the briefcase to the ground." Catherine smirked
"No please! Anything! I'll give you as much money as you can imagine!" The man shouted
"Sorry...I have a promise to keep." Catherine said as she grabbed the man by the collar and tossed him out the window. When she looked down at the man she only caught a glimpse of the man cower in fear as the Nepal resistance pumped him full of bullets.
Catherine and Katnis shared a laugh before another gunshot rocked her ear drums, but it wasn't from the ground below...it was from her back. Catherine turned to find Katnis holding a hand over her stomach, blood oozing slowly out of a wound. Catherine froze in fear, her veins frozen from shock.
"N-N-No!" Catherine shouted as she caught Katnis's falling body "Don't worry you're going to be okay.
Before she could react a wounded guard that had shot Katnis stood up, holding the gun to her head. However before he could shoot Catherine too, a bullet pierced his skull.
"You alright in there?!" Pierre shouted as if he was awaiting a thumbs up.
"Don't...don't leave me! Come on breathe! You're going to be fine, don't do this to me!" Catherine shouted as Katnis's eyes fluttered shut.
I could stay awake just to hear you breathing. Watch you smile while you are sleeping. Well you're far away dreaming. I could spend my life in this sweet surrender. And just stay here lost in this moment forever. Well, every moment spent with you. Is a moment I treasure. I don't wanna close my eyes. I don't wanna fall asleep. 'Cause I'd miss you, babe. And I don't wanna miss a thing.
Chapter 11[]
Catherine paced around the waiting room, hands firmly grasped around the rings that graced her neck awaiting the doctor's verdict. The tension, the doubt and despair was killing her, it felt as if a bullet was slowly carving it's way through her chest. Catherine's eyes darted to the door when Naomi walked in, tossing away blood-covered gloves.
"Is she-?" Catherine started to ask but was cut off when Naomi raised her hand
"I got relived by the back-up doctor. Just before I left they said she should be fine as long as the last stage goes well." Naomi said
Catherine let out a sigh of relief as she finally took a seat
"How long have you been awake?" Naomi asked as she examined Catherine's eyes
"Two days." Catherine said while stretching her arms
"You should get some rest, we can call if something happens." Naomi said
"No, I want to be here when it's done, I want to be here when she wakes up...it's what she did for me." Catherine said
"That maybe but it will be day before she wakes up." Naomi said
"Then...I'll wait here for another day." Catherine shot back, defiantly
"Look, I know you love her and you want to be there for her for everything. But she'll understand you catching a few hours of sleep." Naomi said turning to the door.
Catherine shifted her weight on the couch and took out a cigarette, however when she went to light it, Naomi cleared her throat causing her to pause.
"It's one cigarette." Catherine said
"But it away, it can harm the equipment." Naomi shot back
"Through a locked ten inch steel door..?" Catherine asked with a smirk
"Just put it away." Naomi said
When she didn't get a response, she turned to yell at the woman but found her to be snoozing with the cigarette half-hanging out of her mouth. The sight brought a slight smile to Naomi's face seeing the girl she watched grow up, no matter how tough or invincible she tried to make herself seem truly had a few weakspots. Naomi patted the woman's head and thought to herself "Sweet dreams."
A several passed when Naomi walked into the waiting room with a couple cups of steaming coffee to see Catherine still sleeping, but she had somehow flipped over onto her stomach.
"Dr. Hunter! She's awake!" A voice on her earpiece shouted
Naomi put the cups down and put her finger up to her ear "Alright I'm on my way in."
Naomi looked up to see Catherine already awake and ready to walk into the room. However Naomi stopped her by putting her hand on Catherine's stomach.
"What?" Catherine hissed
"Where do you think you're going? She's still on anesthetics, she probably can't even talk right now." Naomi said
"I'm going to see her." Catherine said with a threatening tone.
Naomi, unfazed by Catherine's attempt at intimidation grabbed her shoulder and whispered "Look...she maybe awake, but she more than likely can't comprehend anything at the moment. I'll let you say hello, and have a few minutes to chat, but then you're out of there. Got it?"
"Yeah yeah..." Catherine mumbled
"Doctor's. Orders." Naomi said
"Alright, just move." Catherine ordered
Catherine pushed Naomi out of the way and entered the medical wing to see Katnis with a drowsy smile acting loopy.
Catherine grabbed her hand and "Hey Kat..."
"H-Hey babe...I hope I didn't give you too much of a scare." Katnis said
"Nah...I knew Naomi would save your ass." Catherine said trying to keep tears from welling up in her eyes again
"Alright...rank it." Katnis said
"R-Rank it?" Catherine asked
"One through ten. How scared were you that I was going to die?" Katnis asked
"Uh..seven." Catherine said quickly
Katnis let out a laugh "Bull...I was at least a nine, you were crying...you couldn't stop."
Catherine wanted to slap her for laughing about how she very nearly died in her arms not thirty eight hours earlier.
"But we're okay now..." Katnis said shifting her weight slightly so more pressure would be on her left.
Naomi said "Hey. It's time for you to leave, Catherine. Katnis needs to get some rest."
"But-" Katnis started to complain but Catherine silenced her with a finger to her lips
"I'll visit as much as I can. Alright?" Catherine asked
"Just like when you were in the hospital after Ocelot...eh?" Katnis asked
"Yeah..." Catherine said with Naomi trying to physically drag her out of the hospital wing.
Once out, Naomi said "The new head of the Weapons Division wants a word with you."
Catherine took out her iDroid to see which structure the weapons division was located in, nodded to Naomi and said "I want a guard posted here as much as possible. Got it?"
"I got it, I got it." Naomi said waving her hand at Catherine
"I don't mean you, Naomi." Catherine said
"Oh come on, you and your dad taught me how to use a gun." Naomi said with an offended stare
"I know, but I'd feel better if someone who has actual training was at the post." Catherine said
"Alright, alright I'll get on it as soon as my shift ends." Naomi said
"So who's the new Weapons Division head?" Catherine asked
"You'll see." Naomi said.
Catherine stepped out of the Shell to find it pouring. She shrugged and trekked through it to the second Shell where she was greeted with a towel by one of the recruits. She accepted it with a thanks and was guided to the newly-stocked, still clean weapons lap and found a blonde-haired girl, at least five years her junior, ear defenders graced her neck.
"Hey there, stranger!" Sunny said with a smile
"Su-Sunny, where the-How the..." Catherine lost for words
"Naomi hired me, she said you guys were short staffed and needed a Weapons Designer." Sunny said tapping her heels together.
"I thought you were a Tech Engineer." Catherine asked
"Oh I am, but unlike you, I can multi-task without wrecking something." Sunny said with a wink
"You're never gonna let that go, are you?" Catherine asked with a sigh
"Nope." Sunny said "Anyway, Boss. I've got some things I need approval for."
"Alright, what?" Catherine asked, crossing her arms
Sunny took out a larger version of her iDroid, activated it and said "Well, I need more funds for the lab, equipment. Staff. Supplies. A testing chamber. And finally the first few products need legal approval."
"Wait wha-why?" Catherine asked
"Oh nothing just one of them might cause radiation poisoning." Sunny said waving her hand in the air.
"Um...how about we cancel that to avoid radiation." Catherine replied, making a face at Sunny.
"If you say so...how quickly can you approve this stuff?" Sunny asked
"Gimmie a second." Catherine said taking out her own iDroid. She scrolled over what needed approval and checked what Sunny required. Once the total popped up on the screen her heart nearly stopped. "Jesus Christ on a spike, what the hell costs this much?"
Sunny reviewed her request and said "The testing chamber."
"Why not just use the VR room to simulate everything?" Catherine asked
"I guess..but one, that's not nearly as fun and two, virtual simulation isn't as effective as reality." Sunny said with disappointment
"Yeah I know Sun' but we can't afford this right now." Catherine said cutting out the testing chamber from the order list, which nearly cut the total in half.
"So am I going to get the rest of the stuff I need?" Sunny asked with a hint of annoyance
"Yup, you should be getting this in about two days. If you need more staff or want to change them around just tell Naomi, she'll help ya." Catherine said
"Not to be rude Cat, but could you scoot? I've got some stuff to work on, and remember if you want me to change assignments just hit me up on the Codec or send me a message with the iDroid." Sunny said getting ready to put on her ear defenders.
"What's your first...project?" Catherine asked with a hint of concern
"Well you see since you broke Uncle Hal's old storage system,you know the one he based off of Metal Gear Mk. II's storage system?" Sunny asked waiting an answer
"Yeah..but I didn't break it, it took a bull-" Catherine started
"You broke it-anyway looked at the tech, and I think I can make a more durable version that can be combined with the iDroid that will give you full access to the weapons we have here, that when combined with the iDroid, one button press the weapon will be automatically placed in your inventory which you will be able to switch out with the weapons you have equipped." Sunny said
"Can I keep the shoulder holster?" Catherine asked
"You can keep the shoulder holster." Sunny said, sticking her tongue out.
"So what kinda weapons would I have access to?" Catherine asked
Sunny hit a switch, and the holoscreen showed various rifles, pistols, shotguns, grenades, knifes and ammo types. "Everything Drebin 893 can provide...so everything!"
"Awesome. When can you have this thing made?" Catherine asked
"Four days maybe, three if I have that staff I requested." Sunny said giving Catherine a puppy-dog look
"I'll try to speed the process up, alright?" Catherine said
"Alright, now please...get out." Sunny said as nicely as possible.
Chapter 12[]
Catherine fired that last of her pistol's clip into the virtual target in the VR room, emptied the magazine from the gun and let it clatter to the floor. She placed the gun in the arm rest and flipped the screen to show where the bullets landed. Only two hit the target itself and they would've hit non-lethal zones.
With a sigh, Catherine took out her walkie-talkie and said "Yo, Sunny. You there?"
"What cha need Boss?" Sunny asked in her always-chipper tone
"Can you tell Ed the pistols, the AK's and M16's need calibrating? All of their aim is everywhere." Catherine said
"Will do Boss." Sunny said.
Catherine took out her iDroid again, put it into the prototype Sunny gave her and a small holosceen appeared before her eyes. A near seemingly limitless list of potential weapons appeared before her. Some were listed as exclusive to her and Katnis, others were were not. She clicked the exclusive list and three weapons appeared. The Mosin-Nagant, A Type 17 Mauser and The Patriot. It was explained to her the model available was not the one used by The Boss and Big Boss, instead it was one commissioned by the MSF. Out of curiosity, Catherine chose it, and with a small flash of light, the gun appeared in her hand. It was light, almost as if it was a pistol or her custom made revolver but it had the full fire power of an XM16E1. Catherine took aim and opened fire, letting at least ten to twenty shots loose, hitting the various targets. Every single bullet found it's wanted mark. Satisfied, Catherine put the weapon back into it's holder and went to remove the iDroid from the prototype but decided against it. The door opened to Katnis, up and about although Naomi and a guard followed her closely.
"Hey Kat. What are you doing up?" Catherine asked with legitimate concern
"I've been sitting in a hospital bed for nine days, how do you think I feel?" Katnis asked with annoyance
"Bored as all hell, I take it." Catherine said with a grin
"I just needed to stretch my legs. Wanted to see what you were doing." Katnis said staring at the VR shooting range.
"Just testing out this gadget for Sunny. Works pretty good, I can control the Sneaking Suit from this thing, the FaceCamo, my weapons, inventory. Everything." Catherine said almost trailing off
Naomi stepped between them, tapping away at her data pad "Sunny wants to see you in the war room with Pierre and Bravo."
"You came all the way down here just to tell me that?" Catherine asked with a grin
"Yup." Naomi replied
"A call would've sufficed." Catherine said lighting a cigarette.
"She wanted to walk." Naomi said rolling her eyes at Catherine's cigarette.
The trio made their way to the main strut where Bravo and Pierre were waiting along with Sunny.
"Hey guys. What's up?" Catherine asked putting the burnt out cigarette into her portable ash tray.
"I decrypted the information you got from Nepal." Sunny said in a grave tone
"What, what's wrong?" Catherine asked
"Well...you're gonna think I'm crazy." Sunny said
"Sunny...I thought you were crazy the second I met you, nothing is gonna change my opinion on that." Catherine said with a smile
"Well...after sifting through all this information than looking on the internet for similar proxies and data clusters...I found a similar deviation linked to Raven and Viper." Sunny said turning to the screen showing thousands upon thousands of blue numbers and letters
"Uh Sunny...you may be able read this garbage but the rest of us aren't living computers." Catherine said jokingly
"Look, I searched through government databases. It's tied to everything, The Philosophers. La-li-lu-le-lo...the PMCs." Sunny started getting riled up.
"Sunny! Get to the point before I break someone's arm!" Catherine said looking over at Pierre, who in turned took a couple steps back.
"Alright alright. From what I could gather. The group is called The Blue Rose, it was formed sometime in the early seventies as a splinter group for The American Philosophers, the most detail I could get was the original leader was named Adam. The group's main goal was to cripple the Philosophers at all costs, even by providing funds to the Vietcong during the Vietnam War. Not much is detailed about their doings from the 80's until 2015 after the Patriots fell. Sunny said crossing her arms
"Well what have they been doing lately?" Catherine asked
"Well from about July 2014 until about three months ago almost four billion dollars worth of funds went to two separate locations. One in Russia, and one down in Afghanistan." Sunny said
"Any information on what they were doing there?" Catherine asked, almost afraid of the answer
"No idea...however, I think I know a way to find out. While I was sifting through the data I the pad Pierre collected received a message saying they want their data back." Sunny explained
"So what?" Catherine asked
"I can set up a meeting in say...Afghanistan. We can give them dummy data in exchange for the information." Sunny said
"And you think they'll fall for it?" Catherine asked with skepticism.
"Won't know till we try, but from the reports, if we go up against The Blue Rose right now, it'd be light fighting a nuke with a knife." Sunny said
"That doesn't sound too bad..." Catherine mumbled
"A plastic knife." Sunny said
A musty old bar in the middle of the desert. Catherine sat in the darkened corner of the establishment. Using her Facecamo she altered her appearance to make her face more squared, her hair was changed to a firey red and her eyes were changed to an emerald color. Bravo, Pierre and Katnis accompanied her to this in case she needed backup. Bravo stood in the opposite corner posing as a depressed drunk, four empty bottles laid around her. She sold it well in Catherine's eyes. Pierre sat at the bar downing glass after glass of whiskey selling his "I got PTSD, leave me be before I shoot you" persona. Heavy Sniper Rifle at his side. Katnis on the other hand was on a U shaped booth hidden from the rest of the patrons.
Catherine had her iDroid equipped into the prototype Sunny had given her, the false data ready to be taken out so she wouldn't have to un-equip the iDroid and potentially lose her disguise. She was equipped with her Colt Python revolver and sawed-off shotgun. She downed another glass of scotch when a business man accompanied by two guards walked in. He paused in the door way, nodded to the guards who held their position by the door. He made his way to Catherine's booth and stared at her for a moment before clearing his throat.
"What do you want?" Catherine asked
"Are you err... Watch Dogs?" The man asked
Catherine let out a fake, yet clearly annoyed sigh "Yeah, that's the codename given to us. Sit down."
The man did as he was told and said "I've been told you... acquired, some of our information."
"Yeah, we found it in Nepal. One of our agents." Catherine said crossing her fingers
"You're not the boss?" The man asked clearly dumbfounded
"Nah, I've never even seen her. I got the order from the head doctor. The boss is on mission in Russia." Catherine said resisting the urge to grin.
"Well who are you?" The man asked
"You first buddy." Catherine said nodding to his briefcase "You don't look like an executive...you look like some accountant Viper sent out cause she's running out of henchmen."
"Ah, you're familiar with the Lieutenant. My name, to you at least is Jeremiah" Jeremiah said
"Lieutenant? She's not second on command?" Catherine asked
"Heh, sorry babe, that's classified. Now will you return the favor and tell me your name?"
"Black Cat." Catherine said
"Your real name, please?" Jeremiah asked
"Molly. Molly Redgrave." Catherine said casually
"Well Molly, nice to make your acquaintance. Now before we get our... transaction underway, my superiors would like to know who you work for." Jeremiah said.
Catherine let out a sigh "Alright, if you must know. We are a division of the IIA, the official codename for our division is Watch Dogs. I'm just a recon agent, but really I just sit around in the firing range before I get my orders to go on-mission."
"The IIA? Explain." Jeremiah ordered fiddling with the buttons on his cuffs
"The International Intelligence Agency. Basically the CIA, just...global. It's a subdivision created by the UN to perform Spec Ops with as few restrictions as possible." Catherine said
"And Watch Dogs is...?" Jeremiah asked
"We're the...peacekeepers." Catherine said
"Right...now this information, how did your agents come across it?" Jeremiah asked with a smirk
Catherine couldn't tell if he actually knew what happened or he was pretending to know to psyche her out. She couldn't ponder that now and just had to come up with something.
"One of our agents found the briefcase on the corpse of one of your agents. We took it. Simple as that." Catherine said
"Right...of course you did. What will it take to get our information back?" Jeremiah said in an annoyed tone
"Well to be honest with you, we were only able to cipher tidbits of information. There were thousands of passcodes and firewalls. As soon as our data division cracked it, the chip fried itself. Whatever info is on here...I hope it's worth it. Catherine said, lying through her teeth.
"No matter..we cannot let this information falling into the wrong hands, eh? Now what do you want in return." Jeremiah asked
"The information we could recover, we found...billions of dollars being transferred to a facility in Russia..and way out here in Afghanistan. You tell me what was going on here before you ceased funding all together, or we can take this information and sell it to the Americans." Catherine said pretending to get ready to stand up.
"Wait!" Jeremiah said grabbing her arm. "I'll tell you."
"Go on..." Catherine said
"Alright, look. From what I know. There were serious experiments going on, trying to recreate Cyborg Ninjas...but there were never enough volunteers or prisoners...so...they tried cloning." Jeremiah mumbled
"Cloning? Oh god you're nuts." Catherine said with a chuckle
"I'm serious. They cloned so many people...mostly involved in the Shadow Moses and Big Shell Incidents. Most of them died before testing could be complete. There was a Ninety-Nine percent fail rate. Maybe..five succeeded through the procedure but died during training. Eventually the higher ups got annoyed and cut the funding altogether. If any of them are still alive, they're probably insane by now." Jeremiah said
"Thanks, that's all we needed." Catherine said tossing the man the dummy data file.
As Catherine went to leave Jeremiah said "I'm sorry...I cannot let you leave with this information."
"Why don't you try to stop me?" Catherine asked with a cocky smirk
"Guards!" Jeremiah shouted
The two guards at the door charged at Catherine with their guns at the ready, but four more guards concealed by the shadows popped out ready to pump bullets into her. In turn Pierre, and Bravo pulled their guns as well as Catherine raised her shotgun and fired a round into one of the guards, finding it's mark in his face, tearing off half his skull.
Catherine cocked the shotgun as she dove to the ground, aiming for Jeremiah as he sprinted toward the door, however her attempted killshot missed and instead hit an innocent behind him. She swore to herself as she hit the ground hard. Another guard went to shoot her while she cocked her shotgun again. The man raised his gun to her forehead but just as he went to, blood started flowing from his neck, his eyes widened and he raised his hand to his neck trying to stop the bleeding as he collapsed to the ground. She looked up and saw Katnis holding her silenced .45. Catherine and Katnis exchanged a smile before another guard equipped with an AK-47 burst into the door and unloaded a clip into the joint. Catherine in an attempt tackled Katnis back into her hiding spot and took cover while the man reloaded.
"You outta ammo?" Katnis asked nodding to the shotgun.
"Nah I got one left before I gotta order more." Catherine said keeping her attention on the three remaining guards.
Catherine peered around the corner and saw as Pierre used his sniper rifle as a bat and cracked it against one of the guards skulls and Bravo held him to the floor, handcuffing him. Catherine wondered why Bravo chose that route, it wasn't like The Blue Rose wouldn't bail him out or let him live if he was captured. Catherine slithered to the edge, but her eye was nearly taken out by the guard with the AK as two more entered each armed with shotguns.
"Shit.." Catherine mumbled "Okay I got it. I'll fire dive out, fire off a round, hitting the AK guy in the head. You stay here, and Bravo and Pierre can take the opportunity to take the shotgun twins out."
Catherine went to dive, but Katnis stopped her when she put her hand on Catherine's shoulder
"What?" Catherine asked
"I can help!" Katnis shouted
"I know but...I don't want to risk losing you again." Catherine said
"But you're no-MMph!" Katnis was cut off when Catherine planted a kiss on her lips
"I want to ask you something when we get outta here." Catherine said with a wink.
Catherine turned around and nodded to Bravo and Pierre as they got ready to shoot. She took a deep breath and dove out of cover and let off a round, missing the AK guy and instead hit one of shotgun twins. One was better than none at all in her book, but as she was falling she witnessed the other two fall to the floor, bullet holes in their chest and neck.
The fighting stopped, Katnis helped her up from the filthy, blood soaked floor. Catherine nodded to Bravo and Pierre and twirled her finger around, indicating she wanted them to sweep the area make sure they weren't jumped. Once they were gone, Katnis beckoned Catherine over to the bar where she grabbed a bottle of whiskey.
"So what'd you wanna ask me?" Katnis asked pouring a large glass of the alcohol
"Thanks..." Catherine said swallowing the entire glass in one gulp.
"What do you want to ask me?" Katnis asked, now getting annoyed
Catherine got down on one knee, protruded her father's old wedding ring and asked "Katnis Daniel Jane Rowe. Will you marry me?"
"Yes! Yes god damn a million times yes!" Katnis shouted tackling her to the floor.
Chapter 13[]
The helicopter touched down in the sandy desert. Catherine, Raiden and Bravo disembarked with seven AI soldiers following close behind. Catherine waved her finger in a circular motion to the pilot who proceeded to take off and the group made their way to the formerly secret Blue Rose "cloning" facility.
"So.. Boss, what are we looking for exactly?" Raiden asked
Catherine took a sip from her water and replaced her canteen next to her AM MRS-4 Rifle and said "Anything. Data. Survivors. Intel. Anything we can use against Blue Rose."
"If we find survivors?" Bravo asked adjusting the bandanna around her mouth.
"We get intel. If they have none...well we will see how it goes." Catherine replied
The trio came to the main door and found it to be de-powered.
"Looks like the only way in is with C4, do we have an- What the hell is she doing?" Raiden asked as Bravo had already planted several pounds worth of C4 on the door.
Bravo shouted "Clear!" as she detonated the explosives, sending the door sky-high.
"You know I could've cut it open right?" Raiden asked
"This was was more fun" Bravo said taking out her gun.
The group walked into the main room which contained thousands of pods containing everything from fetuses to full-grown adults however with the lack of power the life support had been long cut off leading to their deaths.
"Jesus...why would they do this?" Bravo asked
"Lack of funds..." Catherine mumbled
"I get that but this is just a waste of potential life." Bravo said
"Well... when we're done here we could probably just bomb this place. If any one of these people are still alive they're probably in pain." Raiden said
"Raiden this place's power was cut off three months ago, all of them have drowned by now." Catherine said giving Raiden an angry stare.
They made their way to the main computer and found it covered in a layer of dust.
Catherine keyed her Codec "Yo Sunny, got a Bond gadget to get this thing up and running?"
"Uh no this isn't science fiction. Unless you're hauling a portable generator with you in your pocket." Sunny said with a hint of annoyance
"Would you be able to cipher information say from a flash drive?" Catherine asked
"Unless it has enough charge to last a half hour then no." Sunny said
Their conversation was cut off by the sound of one of the pods breaking open. Catherine nodded to the two to go check it out. Within a minute, Raiden called out for Catherine to come check it out.
Catherine turned a corner and a young man, perhaps in his early teens. Gray hair, gray eyes, white tank top and silver scrubs. He looked petrified and like he hadn't eaten in a week.
Catherine raised her hands to show she wasn't a threat "Hey there...my name's Snake. What's yours little guy?"
"I-uh...they never told me my name...this woman called me Null." The young man said
Sunny's voice chimed in her ear "I did a facial recognition scan. His name is Frank Jaeger. You may know him as G-"
"Gray Fox?" Catherine mumbled
"I-Is that my name?" Null asked
"No. Well..technically it is but, your name is Frank." Catherine said placing a hand on his shoulder "You're safe now buddy. You're with friends."
"Who are you with?" Null asked
"Uh, we don't have an official name but uh..you can call us the Watch Dogs." Catherine said helping the young man up "You know how to use a gun?"
"Yeah, that was programmed into me. I find swords better." Null said
"I like this guy." Raiden said with a smirk
Catherine used Sunny's prototype and chose a .45 Springfield Operator and handed it to the young man. "If you need ammo just tell me or Bravo."
"You got unlimited ammo?" Null asked
"Nah. Trust me that would kill the budget." Catherine said with a chuckle.
"Well...well...well. If it isn't little Catty." A feminine voice
Catherine turned to see Viper armed with a golden Desert Eagle.
"God dammit..." Catherine mumbled
"Why didn't you invite me to the wedding honey? I would'e given you the best present ever!" Viper said mockingly
Catherine, Bravo and even Null raised their guns at Viper and her two bodyguards
"Ah-Ah-Ah. I have the trigger." Viper mumbled
"What?" Bravo asked
"There's an equivalent to a nuke under this facility. Planted by the President to make sure nothing could be traced back to him." Viper said
"Him? I thought your boss was Raven!" Catherine shouted
"Yes, she was. But she was...taken care of." Viper said "She was becoming a problem. She was about to expose the Blue Rose to the world before they're ready."
"So who's your new leader?" Catherine asked
"That's none of your business." Viper said
Raiden was about to move to cut her into pieces when she raised her hand "Kill me, and the nuke goes off."
"Kill us and the information we collected will be revealed." Catherine shot back.
"Hmm, looks like we're at a standoff." Viper said turning around "Ah! Null... I'm going to miss all those warm nights we had together."
Catherine opened fire killing her two body guards and turned to Raiden "Get Null out of here! Cut down any jackasses in your way! Bravo and I got this!"
"We do?" Bravo asked causing Catherine shot her a look "We got his!" Bravo shouted opening fire.
"Viper's mine." Catherine said taking one of her attacker's guns and smashing the butt into the man's face and taking it and opening fire killing three more guards.
Catherine climbed up the ladder to Viper's location. Their eyes met and with the roaring gunfire beneath them their continued stares only made Catherine more angry.
Viper took out her golden gun, ejected a bullet and said "Now this fight here. Isn't fair. If we fight hand-to-hand I'm going to destroy you. We have a gunfight. You're going to destroy me. So.... why don't we make this interesting, eh?"
"Like what?" Catherine asked
"One bullet. One shot. The winner lives. Loser dies. Simple?" Viper asked placing the bullet in the chamber
Catherine followed suit "One shot?"
"One shot." Viper said with a nod. "As soon as this bullet hits the grate, we shoot."
Viper flicked the bullet in the air. As if time slowed they raised their guns to each other. The closer the bullet got to the grate beneath their feet, the faster Catherine's heart beat quickened, the slower time went. Finally after what seemed like an eternity the bullet hit the grate, two more guns fired. Catherine felt no pain, however a few strands of her hair floated from her head. Viper fell backwards to the grate, blood spilling from her chest.
Catherine ran to her and said "My dad always did this with his enemies...I don't see why I can't do this with you."
"What? Tell you my life story? Bah I've known you ever since you were six." Viper said coughing up blood
"Wait, what?" Catherine asked in total shock
"I was leaving that damned hellhole just as you arrived. About two weeks we lived next door to each other. I listened to you cry yourself to sleep everynight for your parents. On my final night before I was to be picked up, I wanted nothing more than to just walk into your room and slap your across the face just to relieve the rest of the children of your constant tears..." Vipers said trailing off
Catherine remained silent as the woman turned her golden gun over and placed it in Catherine's hands.
"What's this for?" Catherine asked examining it's beauty
"The boss told me to give this to you when you ended me." Viper said her eyes fluttering
"Wait! Is there a Metal Gear?" Catherine asked
"Hah..no the boss just said that to get your father invested in this project to kill my family." Viper said
Catherine blinked in confusion "Wait he is...?"
However her question would go unanswered as Viper died in her arms.
"Shit..." Catherine mumbled
"Snake you still alive?" Raiden asked over the codec.
"Yeah why?" Catherine replied
"The place is on fire. It seems Viper was bluffing or the bombs were damaged, but the place is on fire! Get out of there!" Raiden shouted.
Catherine, not wanting to waste any time leaped from the grating, making sure to keep her gun safely in her holster as she crashed to the floor, performing a roll. Lucky for her there wasn't much in her way to the door but just as her figure left the main door frame Bravo had blown out earlier, one of the canisters exploded sending her flying into some steel grating, and unfortunately for her, there was a metal spike sticking out, which she landed on, piercing her side, just above her hip. Although it missed any organs she would bleed out if she didn't get any treatment.
Catherine sat trying to pull herself off the spike but found herself going into shock. Just as her vision started to blur and she was about to lose consciousness another figure stepped into her line of sight. It was Patrick Ryder.
"You see what your family causes, Snake?! Death! Destruction! If your pathetic family had only stayed away, minded their own business instead of getting involved in affairs they have no qualm with, who knows how many lives would've been saved?! Ryder shouted
Ryder had obviously lost his mind from the stress of keeping World War III from breaking out. He pulled out a Defender pistol and pointed it at her head.
"And now...I will end your family's pathetic line right here, and finally the suffering shall end. Any last words, Snake?" Ryder asked chuckling.
However before he pulled the trigger a sword broke through his rib cage killing him as she blacked out.
Epilogue[]
After Ryder was killed, the CIA cancelled the WatchDogs project, however Catherine and Sunny were allowed to keep the projects Sunny had developed and everyone involved was paid handsomely, some enough to go into retirement, however, Pierre almost immediately took a job for a PMC in East Asia, and Bravo was assigned to the fledgling IIA to oversee the "Snatcher Project." Catherine and Katnis retired to LA. Through searching through the US Government's files Sunny found that Ryder had been in command of the European branch of the Blue Rose since 2013 and that they had only killed off a single branch and there were many more.
An open window let in a cool breeze as Catherine slipped on a white button-up shirt, and tucked it into her skinny blue jeans. Her hair tied up in a bun and she picked up a pen and paper and got ready for work. She was about to leave when two arms delicately wrapped themselves around Catherine's hip.
"Hey honey. What do you wanna do today?" Katnis asked kissing Catherine on the cheek
"I got a lead on a certain someone." Catherine said
"You found them?!" Katnis asked with shock
"We got 'em." Catherine said picking up her golden gun.