(no subject)
Title: Metal Gear Liquid (working title because I AM LAZY)
Pairing: eventual Liquid/Otacon...no, really.
Summary: 'Your son will bring the world to ruin--your son will save the world!'
Chapter 1: The Best is Yet to Come
The scent of blood met the soldier only a moment after the stinging and burning pain in his side woke him. Vision slightly blurred by pain, he glanced around the dimly lit room with its flickering security monitors--one of which was dark and yet sparking electricity from the bullet hole in its screen.
How did I get here?
The blond pulled himself to a sitting position, finding his brown leather trenchcoat to be covered in blood. This was...Shadow Moses Island. Of course, he'd been stationed here for the past week.
But how did I get here?
That was a better question. It was amazing how much difference a small inflection could make. His memory was unusually hazy, though he blamed blood loss for that. He stood on shaking legs, body shrieking various protests at him as he did, but he needed to stop the bleeding from the bullet wound straight through his back before he could get any answers.
...A revolver bullet. Of course.
Liquid Snake, commander of black ops squadron FOXHOUND, had been shot by one of his own subordinates.
Why? He didn't at all understand the reasoning here. Had he not been an exemplary commander? As Liquid bandaged his injury, he focused on the events that had led him here, searching for some form of a hint as to the reasons behind this betrayal.
-------
A week before, Liquid had arrived on Shadow Moses Island with a small group of elite FOXHOUND soldiers and a fleet of lower-class special forces. Their purpose was to oversee the development of the revolutionary new weapon known as Metal Gear REX and guard it against anyone that might sabotage or steal it. A simple task for a perfect soldier like Liquid...too simple, really. He had been created as a clone of the greatest soldier ever to live, and such a mission was far below his capabilities.
He'd have been lying if he claimed to not want a look at this top-secret weapon, of course. Ultimately, that was the only real reason he went along with the whole thing.
At any rate, the soldier found himself walking through the halls of the nuclear disposal facility to memorize its layout. He'd be here for a while, and it only made sense that the highest-ranking soldier on the island should know where everything was. Eventally the soldier found himself wandering into a relatively empty section of the complex. Which was strange; the rest of the building was swarming with foot soldiers of the Next-Generation Special Forces. Upon closer inspection Liquid realized the floor in front of him was comprised of panels--in fact, it almost looked as if the floor could be electrified with the flip of a switch.
"Strange..." the blond murmured under his breath, sparing the floor a passing glance as he walked over it. On his right was empty office space, on his left another hallway. The alternatives to exploring a little more were going back and a) doing actual paperwork or b) dealing with the rest of FOXHOUND, particularly Ocelot. Neither sounded what Liquid would call interesting; not with the aversion to Ocelot he was rapidly developing. The Russian that fancied himself a cowboy had been a friend of Liquid's so-called father, and that was a way to get right to the top of the Brit's long list of hated people.
And then there was Psycho Mantis: soldier by trade, psychic by nature, and incredibly creepy by choice. Skeptical as Liquid had been in the beginning Liquid found himself subject to Mantis's abilities when the gas mask-wearing Russian vanished into thin air, teleported behind him, and started throwing fireballs from nowhere. Though Liquid had tried to give alternate explanations for how Mantis could have done those things--which was damned near impossible--any other disbelief had been thrown out the window when Mantis said one word and one word only to his commander.
His name. The name Liquid Snake had been assigned at birth and had never used again; the weak civilian name that marked him as something less than perfect. Something flawed, something...human.
No one used that name, and Liquid had threatened Mantis with a horrible death should he ever dare to speak it again. Needless to say, he believed in Mantis's psychic power from that day forward, but that hadn't won him any points with his commander.
The rest of his team was comprised of Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, and Decoy Octopus. Wolf was the greatest sharpshooter FOXHOUND had ever seen, with the unique ability to wait for a target days or weeks on end without benefit of rest, food, or even water. And she wasn't exactly bad to look at, if Liquid said so himself. Raven was something of a walking tank, a massive Inuit shaman that carried a Vulcan cannon in battle as if it was light as a rifle. And then there was Octopus. A master of disguise that could impersonate anyone to absolute perfection--the drawback was that Octopus was completely insane and insisted on draining every drop of his target's blood beforehand. Liquid....really didn't want to know what he did with it.
Now that he was thinking about it, the fact that Octopus was even on this mission was strange. The entire team was strange, and not just because they were a psychiatrist's nightmare. Who exactly were they expecting to come after Metal Gear, the entire world's forces at once? FOXHOUND's best and a fleet of foot soldiers seemed like a bit much; Liquid would have simply sent Raven and the lower-ranks if it had been up to him.
But if the president was overprotective of his secret little project, that was fine as well. Just meant Liquid would get an in-depth look at this delightful little weapon. It must have been magnificent, after all.
Liquid continued down the empty hallway with a smirk coming to his face at the prospect of seeing this weapon--if there was one thing that made Liquid something resembling 'happy', it was heavy artillery. The secuirity level-6 door slid open on Liquid's approach, and the soldier found himself in an empty laboratory.
Or was it empty after all? Off to the side was a single gray-haired scientist in a winter coat typing rapid-fire at a computer and completely unaware that Liquid was standing there at all.
That must be the chief engineer, then. Liquid thought, approaching silently. What was his name again? Started with an E, didn't it?
"Emmerich?"
"GAH--!" Shooting out of his chair and turning so fast he nearly fell on the floor, Emmerich had very clearly not expected anyone to speak to him. He was a few inches shorter than Liquid and looked relatively young despite his hair color. Startled green eyes stared at the blond souldier from behind a round pair of wire-framed glasses.
"Calm down." Liquid spoke flatly, though he regarded Emmerich with a midly amused look on his face. "That was right, was it not?"
"A-ah...yeah, I'm Doctor Hal Emmerich." Liquid was used to his presence being intimidating; soldiers many times greater than a simple engineer had gotten cold chills at the more mention of his name. But the blond honestly wasn't even trying to intimidate him; at least, not yet.
"Where exactly is everyone? You can't honestly expect me to believe you're working on this REX alone."
"Well...th-there were more of us, but I guess most of them quit or something. I'm the only one working here." Though he would not outright state it, the soldier was sort of impressed by this; one scientist alone working on the greatest weapon in existence, and yet Liquid had heard nothing about its progress having slowed whatsoever.
"Tell me, if that should be the case, how long until REX is completed?" Liquid asked; at this point, he really just wanted to go home. Shadow Moses and this entire ridiculous assignment was grating on his nerves. Emmerich sat down again, turning to his computer screen.
"All I have left is to clean up some coding errors and fine-tune a few things, so...uh...a week? A week and a half at the most."
Well wasn't that just excellent news. Liquid was stuck on this frigid little hellhole for another week at least. Just fantastic.
"...Carry on, then." he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, turning to leave. "And do try to make it quick--I don't want to be here any more than you do."
If Liquid had known at that moment just what danger lurked around the base, he might not have been so calm. If he had known that hell would soon be unleashed upon that small cold island...even a man without fear might have been a bit more eager to leave.
Pairing: eventual Liquid/Otacon...no, really.
Summary: 'Your son will bring the world to ruin--your son will save the world!'
Chapter 1: The Best is Yet to Come
The scent of blood met the soldier only a moment after the stinging and burning pain in his side woke him. Vision slightly blurred by pain, he glanced around the dimly lit room with its flickering security monitors--one of which was dark and yet sparking electricity from the bullet hole in its screen.
How did I get here?
The blond pulled himself to a sitting position, finding his brown leather trenchcoat to be covered in blood. This was...Shadow Moses Island. Of course, he'd been stationed here for the past week.
But how did I get here?
That was a better question. It was amazing how much difference a small inflection could make. His memory was unusually hazy, though he blamed blood loss for that. He stood on shaking legs, body shrieking various protests at him as he did, but he needed to stop the bleeding from the bullet wound straight through his back before he could get any answers.
...A revolver bullet. Of course.
Liquid Snake, commander of black ops squadron FOXHOUND, had been shot by one of his own subordinates.
Why? He didn't at all understand the reasoning here. Had he not been an exemplary commander? As Liquid bandaged his injury, he focused on the events that had led him here, searching for some form of a hint as to the reasons behind this betrayal.
-------
A week before, Liquid had arrived on Shadow Moses Island with a small group of elite FOXHOUND soldiers and a fleet of lower-class special forces. Their purpose was to oversee the development of the revolutionary new weapon known as Metal Gear REX and guard it against anyone that might sabotage or steal it. A simple task for a perfect soldier like Liquid...too simple, really. He had been created as a clone of the greatest soldier ever to live, and such a mission was far below his capabilities.
He'd have been lying if he claimed to not want a look at this top-secret weapon, of course. Ultimately, that was the only real reason he went along with the whole thing.
At any rate, the soldier found himself walking through the halls of the nuclear disposal facility to memorize its layout. He'd be here for a while, and it only made sense that the highest-ranking soldier on the island should know where everything was. Eventally the soldier found himself wandering into a relatively empty section of the complex. Which was strange; the rest of the building was swarming with foot soldiers of the Next-Generation Special Forces. Upon closer inspection Liquid realized the floor in front of him was comprised of panels--in fact, it almost looked as if the floor could be electrified with the flip of a switch.
"Strange..." the blond murmured under his breath, sparing the floor a passing glance as he walked over it. On his right was empty office space, on his left another hallway. The alternatives to exploring a little more were going back and a) doing actual paperwork or b) dealing with the rest of FOXHOUND, particularly Ocelot. Neither sounded what Liquid would call interesting; not with the aversion to Ocelot he was rapidly developing. The Russian that fancied himself a cowboy had been a friend of Liquid's so-called father, and that was a way to get right to the top of the Brit's long list of hated people.
And then there was Psycho Mantis: soldier by trade, psychic by nature, and incredibly creepy by choice. Skeptical as Liquid had been in the beginning Liquid found himself subject to Mantis's abilities when the gas mask-wearing Russian vanished into thin air, teleported behind him, and started throwing fireballs from nowhere. Though Liquid had tried to give alternate explanations for how Mantis could have done those things--which was damned near impossible--any other disbelief had been thrown out the window when Mantis said one word and one word only to his commander.
His name. The name Liquid Snake had been assigned at birth and had never used again; the weak civilian name that marked him as something less than perfect. Something flawed, something...human.
No one used that name, and Liquid had threatened Mantis with a horrible death should he ever dare to speak it again. Needless to say, he believed in Mantis's psychic power from that day forward, but that hadn't won him any points with his commander.
The rest of his team was comprised of Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, and Decoy Octopus. Wolf was the greatest sharpshooter FOXHOUND had ever seen, with the unique ability to wait for a target days or weeks on end without benefit of rest, food, or even water. And she wasn't exactly bad to look at, if Liquid said so himself. Raven was something of a walking tank, a massive Inuit shaman that carried a Vulcan cannon in battle as if it was light as a rifle. And then there was Octopus. A master of disguise that could impersonate anyone to absolute perfection--the drawback was that Octopus was completely insane and insisted on draining every drop of his target's blood beforehand. Liquid....really didn't want to know what he did with it.
Now that he was thinking about it, the fact that Octopus was even on this mission was strange. The entire team was strange, and not just because they were a psychiatrist's nightmare. Who exactly were they expecting to come after Metal Gear, the entire world's forces at once? FOXHOUND's best and a fleet of foot soldiers seemed like a bit much; Liquid would have simply sent Raven and the lower-ranks if it had been up to him.
But if the president was overprotective of his secret little project, that was fine as well. Just meant Liquid would get an in-depth look at this delightful little weapon. It must have been magnificent, after all.
Liquid continued down the empty hallway with a smirk coming to his face at the prospect of seeing this weapon--if there was one thing that made Liquid something resembling 'happy', it was heavy artillery. The secuirity level-6 door slid open on Liquid's approach, and the soldier found himself in an empty laboratory.
Or was it empty after all? Off to the side was a single gray-haired scientist in a winter coat typing rapid-fire at a computer and completely unaware that Liquid was standing there at all.
That must be the chief engineer, then. Liquid thought, approaching silently. What was his name again? Started with an E, didn't it?
"Emmerich?"
"GAH--!" Shooting out of his chair and turning so fast he nearly fell on the floor, Emmerich had very clearly not expected anyone to speak to him. He was a few inches shorter than Liquid and looked relatively young despite his hair color. Startled green eyes stared at the blond souldier from behind a round pair of wire-framed glasses.
"Calm down." Liquid spoke flatly, though he regarded Emmerich with a midly amused look on his face. "That was right, was it not?"
"A-ah...yeah, I'm Doctor Hal Emmerich." Liquid was used to his presence being intimidating; soldiers many times greater than a simple engineer had gotten cold chills at the more mention of his name. But the blond honestly wasn't even trying to intimidate him; at least, not yet.
"Where exactly is everyone? You can't honestly expect me to believe you're working on this REX alone."
"Well...th-there were more of us, but I guess most of them quit or something. I'm the only one working here." Though he would not outright state it, the soldier was sort of impressed by this; one scientist alone working on the greatest weapon in existence, and yet Liquid had heard nothing about its progress having slowed whatsoever.
"Tell me, if that should be the case, how long until REX is completed?" Liquid asked; at this point, he really just wanted to go home. Shadow Moses and this entire ridiculous assignment was grating on his nerves. Emmerich sat down again, turning to his computer screen.
"All I have left is to clean up some coding errors and fine-tune a few things, so...uh...a week? A week and a half at the most."
Well wasn't that just excellent news. Liquid was stuck on this frigid little hellhole for another week at least. Just fantastic.
"...Carry on, then." he replied with a dismissive wave of his hand, turning to leave. "And do try to make it quick--I don't want to be here any more than you do."
If Liquid had known at that moment just what danger lurked around the base, he might not have been so calm. If he had known that hell would soon be unleashed upon that small cold island...even a man without fear might have been a bit more eager to leave.