The man known as David Smith looked at John narrowly, chewing on his cigarette.
"Yanno? I'm not sure Big Boss ever means to give us a proper codename..."
And he nodded toward the hospital lawn in front of them.
"See that git in the wheelchair? That's the last holder of the fabled Snake codename, and look what happened to him."
There were two young men on the lawn, one browned haired young man in a wheelchair, and another short blond young man with a big bulky laptop, talking avidly to each other. They both had semi identical faces.
"And you know, from what I hear...The short little pup there is actually the Commanders son. Which makes him his son too. I have no idea how he got away with that, but..."
And then, David Smith looked at John again, and watches the smoke from his cigarette curl up into the air.
"Big Boss has so many secrets that it's not funny. At all.
Why, I honestly wonder who's side he's on, sometimes..."
"He knows what he is doing." John replies unemotionally, never having been used to doubt of missions. Only completing his objectives. "Our job has always been to fulfill our mission."
David Smith shook his head.
"I know that. You abide to the laws of war like the Bible or the FM-7-8." He shook his cigarette around before knocking it over a hard surface to get rid of the ash. He puffed a cloud of smoke before continuing. "But we are Fox Hounds. We have a long leash because we're a haven for veterans and mercenaries. We won't be expected to survive to make a commission. They did for Big Boss. But they didn't for him."
He nodded to the young man in a wheelchair. John turned as soon as he saw another youngster moving towards the pair in front of them, announcing herself with the whistling of a bird -- a call they had trained themselves to use. This one was a girl with long brown-gold hair that hugged the blond brother from behind, and joined the chat.
"Having a hidden kid would have gotten a Colonel busted down to a butterbar. Killed his chances of becoming a General." David turned to John. "Does it tell you anything about the man thinking of giving your codename to send you to the battlefield?"
He stood silent, but kept looking straight forward.
"We have to trust him." He simply speaks. "The organization collapses when you lose discipline. Your task will still be to fight to save as many lives as possible. When they don't risk you, your team, or the innocent."
Marie seemed to laugh around them. The trio were too far for John and David to listen.
"That's the problem."
After speaking with the two of them, Marie holds their hands with a grin, then approaches her mentors while holding on to that smile. "They're deciding codenames now, right?"
...Juggler, was in now? Oh, well, it did fit what that damn chihuahua was trying to do, he supposed.
...And only the chihuahua would call him the Cookie Monster of all things, anyway.
"Fine, fine. What do you want?"
There was a small sigh from the other side.
"That depends on what you want, Cookie Monster. I mean, you can huff and puff and threaten to blow the house down, and maybe even succeed in burning the whole city to a cinders, who knows - Or you can just decide to move the cookie shop. Which are you going to choose?"
Big Boss stared at the computer, and reminded himself that he wasn't supposed to throw delicate equipment.
"...Of course we're evacuating, you moron."
He whispered, his hands shaking slightly. Lose your people once, shame on you. Lose them twice...
Outer Heaven couldn't fight off an actual large scale first world modern army without using the Metal Gear's nuke capacities, or threatening to, anyway, and once he did that...
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No thank you, Ma'am.
And on the other side of the planet, James sighed and wiped his face.
"Oh, good - Cause we're sending people to help you do just that. Our priorities are getting our and our allies research teams out, of course, but I'll quite willing to help you get your other people to, if we have the time for that. That OK with you, Sir?"
Big Boss nodded, wondering just how the shrimp had gotten the neccesary resources, but decided to think about that later, if at all.
"Fine. You do that. But you'd better not get in my way...Or else."
And then he sniggered.
"Cookie Monster...Signing off."
He then leaned back against his chair, thinking.
It had all been over the moment the fact that there was a Metal Gear being built at Outer Heaven had gone semi-public - Never mind that he knew for a fact that Metal Gears were being developed all over the world now, including in the USA, the old Soviet Union, and elsewhere.
And then he bit his lip - If only they had had a couple of more years...
But if wishes were Kalenishikovs, the price of guns would be halved, and then what would the weapon merchants do?
So now...
The only thing he could do was try to buy some more time, and starve off that damn air strike until his people managed to evacuate Outer Heaven.
Big Boss, Commander of Foxhound, had been ordered to deal with the threat of Outer Heaven - Or more to the point, it's Metal Gear, and it's nuke slinging capacities.
The problem here was that Outer Heaven actually was owned by Big Boss himself, lock, stock and barrow - Not that that was exactly common knowldge.
And Father Dearest was not happy at all at the notion of losing yet another large group of his people.
James sighed - Well, at least it didn't look like Father was ready to do something that would spark off WW3 or something right now, anyway. He'd been worried about that for a bit, quite frankly.
But if they couldn't evacuate the Base properly for any reason, and Father ended up with his back against the wall...
James bit his lip. He'd deal with that if and when he had to, though he'd have to plan for that too, of course.
The air strike was already being readied, and it didn't look like even Father's connections could get that one called off. Father was doing everything in his power to buy them more time, but the clock was ticking...
And then, David came over and plonked him on the shoulder.
"So you're "Juggler"?"
James looked up at him, rubbed his eyes, and smiled. The plane they were on was surprisingly roomy, but he'd better get some sleep, he thought - Who knew when he'd get another chance to?
"Yeah, why not - If the name fits..."
And then he looked up at his brother.
"Hey, David. You've put it off long enough - Choose, all right?"
And his brother smiled. James sighed a bit - His brother looked good in his new sneaking suit, but he hadn't want to see him like that again, frankly...
"Alright."
And then, David grinned. James sighed again - He hadn't particularly wanted to see that grin again, either.
The walls thundered with gunshots. Kotomi heard the cries for help and for engaging the enemy.
She couldn't understand. For all her knowledge she couldn't know why did they want to hunt them as she desperately sought for logic in what was happening.
No training prepared her for this. No firearm use lessons told her it would be like this. She didn't want to use her pistol and seek for a way to escape. She just hid. She tucked her knees close to her chest and hoped it would all stop somehow. She didn't hear her professor. She needed him now. She wanted some way to escape.
Dozens of boots moved around telling everyone to evacuate. They came away as they fired -- suppressive fire, she heard. She just stayed.
More boots come close. They are looking for her. Kotomi's blood turns cold when one turns to her and she hears 'there's one'--
Two shots stop the intruder on his tracks followed by another on the forehead. A Mozambique drill. She turns to the person whose own fire was forcing the enemy into cover. Just as soon she and her important discs are forcefully pulled away from her desk and from the violence as the sandy-haired girl moved her forward, running faster than she had ever done so in her life. Marie pushed her ear to enable communications. Kotomi still heard the panic in her voice.
"This is Zofie. I got Ichinose, one of the students. Where are you, guys? Where is the professor? Over."
There was a brief delay. Kotomi barely got to remember they had all reunited for something.
"This is Hei-Long. Move on to the helipad several roofs up, do not take the elevators. Contact with them has been severed. We'll get Armored Snake your way soon, but hurry. We're preparing an airstrike over the installation, over--"
"Marie-chan..." She gasped for air as her heart beat too close to her throat. "Where is James... where is David... Where is John?"
The taller girl only slowed down when she realized they weren't being followed. She allowed Kotomi to lay on her knees to catch her breath, and let her shrunken irises return to her size as adrenaline kept pumping at full speed inside of her. Marie held her shoulders, at first inspecting her to see if she got hurt.
"We're getting out of here soon, Kotomi. We're waiting for the rest of them, but we also need what you and your mentor worked on." She looked to Kotomi's bags. "Do you still have them?"
With a delay noticeable in her hyperventilation, Kotomi took a shaking hand inside, moving up discs and folders she had worked on... what she could recover from what happened.
[And then, Ichinose Kotomi almost screamed as she fell out of her small, cramped bed.]
...Wha...
[She looked around her, shuddering. No gunshots, no smell of gunpowder or blood in the air...]
[...And no Marie-chan, either, of course. Never mind David-san or James-chan - No, no, she shouldn't call James-san that, that was ridiculous, he was a grown up man who was older then she was, even though he was so short. Not to mention childish, sometimes.]
[And then, she went to the next room, and looked at her sleeping professor, just in case.]
[See, Kotomi? It was just a dream - Nothing had happened! Everything was perfectly all right...]
[And it was at that exact instant that somebody coughed behind her.]
[She froze like a rabbit, and then slooowly turned behind her as whoever it was coughed again, slightly irritably.]
[The man behind her was big. Massively so, in fact - How could she have not realized that he was there to just this moment?]
[And then he came under the light from the flickering light bulb in the corridors, and she blinked up at him, owlishly. Sooo biiiggg...]
...Ahh...You're the...Commander-san?
[And the man with the eyepatch blinked, and sighed. Good grief - So she was one of those kinds of geniuses...]
- Indeed I am.
[Big Boss sighed, and looked at her.]
And if you are Ichinose Kotomi...There is something I must ask you to do, even if you're not one of my people...
[About 20 minutes later, Kotomi was staring blindedly at a large stake of disks and paper.]
[The mysterious Commander of this place wanted her to do what?]
[And what did he mean, "by sundown tommorow at the latest???"]
Kotomi Ichinose was a brilliant intern, and few thought that she'd take long to earn her doctorate by how quickly had she been absorbing information and applying it to her general field of knowledge. It was one of the reasons she was picked for this job, even for the nights she'd overspend in study and research, that would sometimes give her these nightmares.
Putting literal piles of disks and documents is arguably what she was being prepared for, but that didn't stop her from thinking that her employer was mean. However, being an obedient intern, she slowly nods. Nervous, pretty sure that her evening spent in light reading regarding will have to wait.
Her eyes slowly drooped in a show of resigned acceptance, not even sighing, in realization that this would be expected. Unbeknown to her and what could have served as comfort, medical interns had it a lot rougher than even Big Boss' own workers. Unless you were in basic, and Kotomi Ichinose can attest to that.
Upon accepting her duty in a tired manner, the imposing man put a hand over her shoulder, in apology, thanks, or as a simple gesture, she wasn't very sure.
Focus was, fortunately, one of her fortes. When she began with the first document which she read at a supernatural speed, she was only slowed down when she needed to write and compare notes, and -nothing- would break her concentration unless one spoke the words 'Kotomi-chan'.
That being said, she didn't like discs and digital files as much, and they were the only few occasions in which she had to slow down, more by the (lack of) power of the computer, not to mention reading on the computer strained her eyes unlike natural books. However, she kept on at that speed, and it was clear that if BB didn't think she would accomplish this pile, he wouldn't have sent it to her.
Kotomi blinked. The realization of the files she was analyzing almost broke her concentration. She opened and revised the previous file in a rare act of re-reading an old page.
Kotomi.
But in the midst of processing and analyzing information with even more power than the computer she was working on, she began to notice a strange pattern in these files. Some of them weren't the usual things she was given to work on. This was more... professional? This sort of thing was given to her mentors much more than to interns.
Kotomi.
Normally, she would do this without a second thought, but some of these files, of the old race... they were recent. In the next time Big Boss comes for a report, she decides to add it to her list of things to remark on her duties to have clarification about--
"Kotomi-chan."
The intern raises her head, looks around, and she sees Marie beside her pile of work. She smiles.
"Marie-chan. Hello." She bows in courtesy. Kotomi notices Marie tries to imitate the custom a little via a small nod when she rises. "How are you?"
"Same old. Same old." Marie glanced to the piles below her. "You're... early. Big Boss put you up with this?"
[Marie Zoffie sighed a bit, remembering how she'd ended up here in the first place.]
[Let's see - One day, she'd been eating lunch with Professor Emmerich's family, and then the Attack of the School Bullies from Hell had happened, but that had been dealt with soon enough - Julie Dangizer Emmerich, Hal's stepmother, and started out by throwing a bottle of brandy at those crazy bullies who dared make her stepson Hal and daughter Emma cry, and soon enough, the bullies had ended up running away screaming that they were going to tell their parents. Marie herself hadn't had done much more then hold one of them in a choke hold when they tried to set fire to the house, so she'd considered it a day well spent, but then - ]
[Marie sighed. Not one, not even two, but three groups of heavily armed people had attacked the Emmerich residence not at all long after that - And now she was someplace in Africa, in some kind of highly fortified military base that probably wasn't even supposed to officially exist in the first place. And Professor Emmerich...]
[And that was when Hal Emmerich came into the room shyly.]
...Hi, Marie, Miss Ichinose - Are you still awake?
[The teenager whispered.]
Are you all right? I wanted to talk to Papa, but he's still too busy being Darth Emmerich, it seems, and...
[Darth Emmerich? Marie almost groaned, remembering what had happened when they first arrived here.]
[Huey Emmerich had whispered, slowly wheeling his wheelchair about.]
I am very glad to see that you hadn't lost your gripe of sanity entirely, John, but - What did you bring us here for, anyway, pray?
[Julie had sighed, and taken another swig out of her brandy bottle, while the tall imposing one eyed man had facepalmmed.]
- I didn't order anything, and I have no idea why the Three Idiots brought you here, anyway!
[The two men and one woman looked at each other, quizzically.]
But we just told you, sir! It was too dangerous, we had no idea who was working for what in the end, and it was easier just to bring them here...
And you wouldn't like it at all if he ended up dead, sir, we thought...Right?
[The third one only nodded, wordlessly.]
[Huey shook his head.]
Oh, never mind, it's not like you could ever keep control of everything your people were doing, anyway - If they actually were your people in the first place, that is.
[And then he looked around him, and up at the very, very big robot, and grimanced.]
...So this is your Dr Madner's baby? ...You know, John, if this is actually the very best you could come up with...
[Big Boss sighed, and shook his head.]
- No, it isn't, actually - But one can actually replicate that thing, and have it work properly. Unlike what you made.
[Huey Emmerich glared at him, then.]
...Why do you keep acting like what I do is some kind of - voodoo! I'm a engineer, not a magic worker, all right!? It isn't even just you - So many people keep complaining that...
[Julie sighed, and walked over to Big Boss, waving her bottle.]
...You know, Huey - If so many people keep acting like what you do is some kind of voodoo...
[Big Boss looked at her, and shook his head.]
...You're drinking too much, Julie.
[And that was when Hal Emmerich had coughed, and stood up tall, though he was still quaking in his boots.]
...Um...Sir? I'm sorry to interupt this little reunion, but...
[And then he pointed to a burlap bag.]
Could you get Miss Zoffie out of there? Please?
[The "Three Idiots" looked at him, eyes wide.]
...But Big Boss - She'd dangerous!
...Seriously! She broke my nose! Barehandedly!
...!!!
[Big Boss looked at Huey, and rolled his eyes.]
...I thought you said she was just a student?
...She is, damn it!
[Huey said, and then looked around him, thinking.]
...So you're evacuating, right? And nobody really knows what to do, how to set priorities, or anything else.
[And then he took a deep breath.]
- Fine. I'm taking over - For this part of the research team, anyway.
[Big Boss stared at him.]
...Do I get any say in those proceedings? At all?
[Huey sniggered at him.]
Of course you do, it's your base, after all. - But I wouldn't say no, if I was you!
[And Julie had sniggered right along with him, while Big Boss had facepalmed again.]
- Very well. I'm putting you in charge of teams A-2, A-5, and A-8 - Do as you will.
[And Marie had sighed, inside the burlap bag. Now what?]
John stood still, looking at Big Boss as Huey was assigned a new team. With all of the paranoia running in right now, he knew his CO would be averse to having more into the team -- but even there were reasons to add members, more often than not knowing more than usual, such as was the case with their intern.
"I gathered all of you in light of your recent mission." He began, with an eerily angry tone as if they had all failed a mission by a lack of discipline. "You acted to defend Dr. Emmerich, to the point you had to transport him from two points of the world in an improvised manner."
Meaning, they stuffed people in potato bags, jumped onto the first air evac, and called it a day.
"What you failed to mention in the middle of the action were the appropriate factions involved."
Then, almost suddenly, he lifts the burlap gag and drops a teenager out of it with a loud thump!
"Ow!"
"This girl... Is my niece."
........
The room turns silent, staring all at the pair. Marie herself rubs her blond head, looks up... and her eyes widen as well.
...John? You know, the last time I checked, you didn't seem to have any blood family left at all, on the record or not.
- Except for the clo - the You Know Whos, I mean.
...Not that I have your resources in the data gathering department , but...
[Big Boss grimaced at that.]
- I didn't actually says she was related to me by blood, did I now?
[Dr Emmerich turned his wheelchair Big Bosses way and looked at him, thinking. Well, he hadn't actually said that Miss Zofie was related to him by blood, but he hadn't said she wasn't, either, now that he thought about it...]
[Ho, ho, ho. This was interesting, indeed.]
[And putting all that talk he'd heard being swung about in certain circles about Big Boss and his "supersoldier genes" and the like into consideration...]
[OK, then, everybody had parents, and their parents had parents, and their parents had parents too. Even if one was a clone, they still had parents, just at a remove.]
[And those all those ancesters probably did have more then one offspring, more often then that.]
[So everybody most probably did have blood relatives, whether they knew about them or not, and...]
[He looked at Miss Marie, thinking. Alright, which "supersoldier genes", and in what combinations? Well, he couldn't really be sure she had any of them unless he checked, to be sure, but it sure would explain some of her...stranger traits, he felt.]
...Alright, I get it - She's something like your adopted niece, then?
[Dr Emmerich said, cheerfully. Big Boss made a face, but then nodded.]
- Something like that.
[And then he turned toward Marie, sighing.]
- Come to my room, Marie. Please.
[And then, he turned to the rest of his people.]
- Dismissed. Go attend your duties, and...
[He sighed, looking at the "Three Idiots". Telling those fools not to be idiotic was like telling the sea not to be wet.]
[They were, however, very, very good at keeping themselves alive, and in one piece. Which was important in and of itself, he felt.]
Just go. And do listen to Dr Emmerich, since he's been kind enough to volunteer his services and all...
[And then he started to walk away, while the "Three Idiots" grinned at each other, relieved to have gotten away with just a tongue lashing. Marie gingerly nodded, rubbing her head, and followed him into his room.]
[Big Boss looked at her, making sure she was all right.]
...Just a couple of bruises. You'll be fine by tomorrow, I warrent.
[Marie looked up at him.]
...Uncle John? What's going on?
[Big Boss sighed, and patted her on the head.]
- Oh, the usual. The higher-ups fuck up, and we run around trying to pick up the pieces.
[Marie looked at him.]
...Is it classified?
[Big Boss sighed again, and decided to tell her a highly modified version of the whole truth.]
Oh, it's supposed to be classified up the wazzo, but I'll have to tell you part of it anyway. You're a smart girl, and I'm sure you'll figure out a lot of it on your own soon enough.
- This place is called the Outer Heaven Base, and it's actually sort of a - subsidiary of ours. A secret one. We own it, or most of it, but it isn't officially a part of our forces.
We were primarily using it as a research and development base, but then, somebody caught wind that we were developing big combat robots here, and the shit hit the fan.
[Marie stared at him, then, her mouth dropping open.]
...You were making Gundams, Uncle John? For real?
[Big Boss sighed, and rubbed his head, the gesture looking oddly like Marie's gesture just a couple of minutes before.]
...You've been talking much to much with Dr Emmerich's boy, I see.
No, they're not really Gundams, but they are the wave of the future - Or so that's what all the scientist types tell me anyway, and I think they're right.
And in five, ten years, most countries in the world would be lining up to buy them, or so the plan goes - But right now, the timing is all wrong, wrong, wrong.
[Big Boss sighed again, and poared himself some coffee. He offered Marie a cup, too. She sipped it, barely noticing how horrible it was.]
Somebody went and blew the whistle, and even the newsies have wind of it now - I wouldn't be surprised if the they were running special programs about this shadowy base in the middle of nowhere develeping real life gundams within a month or so, at this rate.
- So now, I have two sets of orders. One of them is ordering me, as the Commander of Foxhound, to get rid of this secret base with it's dangerous and scary combat robots right now soonest, since it's an menance to international stability, whatever that means.
[Big Boss took a sip of his coffee again.]
The other one, from even higher up, basically says that I should evacuate the base and save whatever I can of it's research, no matter what.
- We can't afford to lose the Metal Gear Program, or most of the other research programs taking place either, for that matter.
[Big Boss puts his coffee cup down, and looks right at Marie.]
- So now, my real mission is to, No.1, evacuate the base, while No.2, pretending to take it down and No.3, run some kind of cover up afterward.
[Marie stared at him.]
But Uncle John! How in the world are you supposed to evacuate a whole base while pretending to take it down, all at the same time?
[Big Boss sighed, and reached for his canteen.]
...Well, that's where the complicated part starts...
Marie grinned, bending down to put her eyes over the little child, offering a finger for her to focus on instead of her mother's hair. It came with satisfaction to both Julie and Marie when the girl did so, happily chewing on her finger, nibbling it. Another hand came to play with the child.
"It went... decently." She muttered, trying to keep a smile. "I can't say much - some of it is classified," and it would turn things to hell if she spoke of some things - such as the pseudo-Gundams. "It was mostly things that everyone in here already knew."
Dr. Emerich looked above him, realizing the girl had something else to say. There was a reason big Boss called her personally, after all that happened, instead of simply shipping her home.
"But from now on... I think I'll be working here."
"What?"
Emerich's hands gripped his handles as he almost forcibly lifted himself, unable to believe the course of action. Julie herself turned to them, retreating with her child, who cried when Marie's finger left her mouth.
"As it turns out... it's not something I can just go home without raising suspicions. There are skills Uncle John needs of me, and I'll have to stay here." She stood her ground. Her red eyes turned straight to him. "I'm young. I know it. But Big Boss wants me here. I know it."
Emma calmed down as soon as she grabbed again onto her mother's hair, as everything calmed down.
"A teenager." His electric chair whirred back to life as he moved past, muttering to himself. "How many more skeletons does Big Boss have...?"
[Professor Emmerich glared at her, and then in the general direction of Big Bosses office.]
- Well, you'll probably have to stay here until the evacuation is done, but after that - I'll have to give him a piece of my mind, again, it seems!
[And then he wheeled off toward Big Bosses office, cold determination in his eyes.]
[Hal stared after him, and sighed.]
...You know, Marie, Papa was always scary, but... I never thought he actually had a "Darth Vader Mode", before.
[Marie wasn't quite sure to make of the cold look in Professor Emmerich's eyes, either, but she decided not to worry about it for now. Life was too short, after all...]
[And less then an hour later...]
[Marie sighed, as Uncle John - No, Big Boss told her, no ifs or buts, that she needed to go home once this was all over, and though he wasn't really sure of the value of a University education, personally, he really wasn't going to fight Professor Emmerich about that, either way.]
...So what are you actually be supposed to be doing, anyway?
[Marie said, looking at Kotomi's laptop.]
I'm afraid Unc - Big Boss didn't really explain the details...
[Kotomi smiled at her.]
Oh, um - I'm supposed to be translating something, and then doing something with the translation, except that it's a partial translation of a partial translation, and trying to figure out what it originally said is pretty hard!
But hmmm...Say, Marie-chan, what level of clearence do you have, anyway?
[Marie blinked.]
I have no idea, actually, but - Whatever it is, it should be high enough, I think? Since I'm supposed to be helping you do your "special project", among other things, after all...
[Kotomi nodded, then.]
Alright, then - Follow me!
[And then she grinned again.]
I'm going to show you something...Special.
[15 minutes, later, Marie in someplace that looked like a very big storeroom, looking up at a massive something, halfway covered in a blue sheet.]
- This is Artifact A-17. It doesn't look like much, but it's almost as heavy as one of those not really gundams they're making in the upper labs - It took usdays to figure out how to get it in here in one piece...
[Marie sweatdropped, then.]
...Does everybody here know about those robot things?
[Kotomi laughed, then.]
- Oh, the robot things aren't even really a secret at all, well, not in this Base, at least - Everybody's saying that they're probably be on sale all over the world in about 5 years, anyway!
[And then she grinned again, and then pointed at a slab of something that looked like slab of rock, covered with strange writing and what seemed to be pictures and symbols.]
Oh, and that's Artifact A-23 - It's almost as important as A-17 is, I think...
[And then Kotomi took a deep breath, and touched the slab.]
[Marie started as the slab started to humm, and then glowed a faint pink.]
[Kotomi took her hand away, eventually, and then the thing just looked like a rock slab again.]
Some people can make it glow, some can't. Professor Mizuki can't make it react at all, and he was really bummed out when he realized that...
[Hal Emmerich was sighing, and patting his stepsister's head.]
...You know, Emma? I have no idea what's going on here, at all. Why did we end up here, anyway?
[Emma smiled up at him, angelically.]
Me neither! Maybe we should go ask Mommy? She knows more stuff then she pretends to, most of the time, I think!
[Hal sweatdropped.] Emma, Emma, I know you're supposed to be a genius, but you scare even me sometimes, you know?
[But Emma, in the meanwhile, had gone off and asked Julie anyway. Julie put her coffee down, and sighed.]
Oh, OK, OK, I'll explain things, then -
[And then she took out a teddy bear out of seemingly nowhere, and put an eye patch on it. Hal stared - Where had the stuffed animal come from, never mind an eye patch?]
[Julie didn't seem to notice his staring, however.]
Alright, dears - This is Big Bear. Big Bear was very strong, and was a pretty charismatic leader, too, so eventually, a lot of people became his fans!
And lo, the Big Bear Fan Club was born! Well OK, it wasn't really like that, but that's close enough, I think...
[And more stuffed animals. Hal sighed, and decided to stop wondering where they had all come from.]
But eventually, the Big Bear Fan Club made many enemies, and one day, some of them tried to attack them outright! They were being sneaky about this, though - First, they set a trap, so Big Bear himself would be stuck in a base in the middle of nowhere, and then they attacked his friends!
[And then she grinned.] However, the Fan Club was much tougher then their enemies had thought they were, and they mostly managed to beat back the enemies by themselves, even though Big Bear wasn't there to help them directly.
[Hal stared at her.] So Papa was...
[Julie grinned.] Well, he was more like a former Fan Club member, but he still was a friend, I suppose. Sort of. And a good thing, too - I don't think we could have gotten away from 3 sets of enemies all by ourselves, anyway...
[And then, Emma waved her hand.]
But what now? The enemies aren't going to just give up and slink away now, right?
"You said you think you outrank me, Marie-chan. If you are close to Big Boss, then I think you can. It's why I asked."
It was what she assumed her Uncle would allow her to do. However... touching some alien, ancient piece of history that reacted supernaturally didn't completely sit right with her. Radiation, unknown effects, among other things. Kotomi Ichinose, in spite of being an intern, was quickly catching up, but she didn't know if her ease to be around those slabs was either the product of her advanced learning and constant thirst for knowledge, or her common air-headedness.
... But still, gathering valor, Marie sighed. And moved a hand over the second slab.
Her hand felt warm... and the stone glowed green. It seemed to split in three irregular pieces still in the same size as if an invisible knife had cut it, and rearranged it into another form, consistent with the glyph it carried... and after forming another shape, the stone stops glowing.
The girl slowly retreated her hand, unnerved, much in the way a cat would face something it didn't understand.
"What... was that?"
Kotomi turned, understanding and yet at the same time intrigued.
"It is another of the functions of the slabs we found. The first one I touched has the property of displaying outward radiation which can--"
"It's radiation!?"
Kotomi put her hands on her chest upon being intimidated.
"I--It's not ionizing radiation or anything we've found before! It's harmless! It's just that it's a form of non-ionizing radiation much akin to radio or microwaves that seems to form some sort of link with a few of the other slabs!"
Marie blinked.. and stared again.
"So... something like a radio?"
... Kotomi slowly nodded.
"Hn. And what you touched was one that hard reconstruction and rearrangement properties. Both slabs are just two out of many that could be used for this project. Immediate unhampered and complete communication along with a self-reconstruction mechanism would be important assents in the field."
This time, Marie looked impressed, looking at the other slabs, but no less distrustful of what she was seeing. She steps towards a few others, but more akin to a trainer knowing the dangers of the lion inside the bars.
"Is... there another one that forms some sort of... energy field?"
[A great amount of shouting started outside one of the doors in the room they were in.]
- Dr Emmerich! Where the fuck is Dr Emmerich, we have an emergency -
[Marie and Kotomi stared at each other, and then, Marie slowly went toward the door and opened it, gun in hand.]
[An old nurse who looked like she might be in her 60s was clinging to a teenager who was carrying around a rifle that was longer then he was tall. She had a blood stained bandage on her head, which the boy looked at worriedly.]
...What in the world is going on, here!
[And there was Huey Emmerich in the flesh, wheeling down the corridors, several armed men following him closely.]
[The nurse glared at him.]
- We have a situation, Dr Emmerich - About six out of ten of the trucks and vans which were supposed to take the children under my care to safety - Well, relative safety - Have disappeared. Vamoosed. Or more to the point, some fucking idiots thought it would be a good idea to hijack them outright!
[Dr Emmerich stared at her.]
Calm down, Nurse Hudson, and give me a proper report!
[And then he looked at the boy.]
- And you are?
[The boy stood at attention.]
I was part of the team getting the hospital complex ready, Sir, and that's going as well as expected up to this point, but without 6 trucks worth of supplies -
[Huey Emmerich groaned. One problem after another...]
[Marie stared at what was going on - And that was when Kotomi poked her sleeve.]
...I'm not really sure what's happening, but I heard they were going to try and evacutate the young orphans and sick and injured people to a hospital in one of the nearby towns, first. Just in case.
The Commander was making some kind of big charity hospital and school kind of thing there, I think, and it hadn't started operations yet, but we do own the place, so...
[And that was when a tall man in a white lab coat who looked like he might be Japanese came rushing onto the scene.]
...What in the world is going on here!?
[And then he turns toward Dr Emmerich.]
Professor Emmerich - Can't you do something!?!? My research is much more important then a pack of orphans and some sick men who probably wouldn't be useful for anything anymore anyway!
When I'm saying that the Artifacts in here can quite possible change the future of the entire world, I'm not kidding at all, sir...
[The nurse and young man glared at him, while Kotomi sighed, and bit her lip.]
...P-Professor Mizuki, please calm down, OK?
[The man called Mizuki glared at her.]
Oh, shut up, young miss - They haven't even set up any plans to evacuate Artifact-17 yet, I know that for a fact!
[And that was when the old nurse cut in -]
...As if we actually could evacuate that thing in time! It took almost a month to get it inside the base and put it where it is now, or have you forgotten that already?
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timeasmymeasure
1995 Outer Heaven
Date: 2013-08-27 05:37 am (UTC)1/2
Date: 2013-08-27 05:38 am (UTC)James woke up with a groan, shaking his head.
What had just happened, and why did he feel like somebody had thrown him into a pool or something from a rather high place?
And then he blinked, as David came over and slowly lifted a canteen to his lips.
"All the Universities are safe now. We think."
James nodded tightly, and swallowed some fo the water.
"Thank goodness. How's Zero?"
David shrugged.
"The last time we heard, he was safe. So is Dr Clark - She's with Team Alpha, now. I'm not too sure about Dr Peter Clark, though..."
James nodded - He didn't care overmuch about Dr Jane Clark's ex- husband, otherwise known as He Who Steals Our Funding, to be honest.
And then David grimaced.
"'George' seems to have dropped off the rader, though - Nobody seems to have caught a whiff of him for at least three days."
James groaned - He didn't like thinking about that particular clonesib, frankly. What if insanity was actually genetic? Perish the thought.
James nodded, and bit his lip.
"So now - The only problem we have left is Outer Heaven."
David nodded again.
"It seems like it, yeah."
2/2
Date: 2013-08-27 05:39 am (UTC)The man known as David Smith looked at John narrowly, chewing on his cigarette.
"Yanno? I'm not sure Big Boss ever means to give us a proper codename..."
And he nodded toward the hospital lawn in front of them.
"See that git in the wheelchair? That's the last holder of the fabled Snake codename, and look what happened to him."
There were two young men on the lawn, one browned haired young man in a wheelchair, and another short blond young man with a big bulky laptop, talking avidly to each other. They both had semi identical faces.
"And you know, from what I hear...The short little pup there is actually the Commanders son. Which makes him his son too. I have no idea how he got away with that, but..."
And then, David Smith looked at John again, and watches the smoke from his cigarette curl up into the air.
"Big Boss has so many secrets that it's not funny. At all.
Why, I honestly wonder who's side he's on, sometimes..."
no subject
Date: 2013-08-31 07:53 am (UTC)David Smith shook his head.
"I know that. You abide to the laws of war like the Bible or the FM-7-8." He shook his cigarette around before knocking it over a hard surface to get rid of the ash. He puffed a cloud of smoke before continuing. "But we are Fox Hounds. We have a long leash because we're a haven for veterans and mercenaries. We won't be expected to survive to make a commission. They did for Big Boss. But they didn't for him."
He nodded to the young man in a wheelchair. John turned as soon as he saw another youngster moving towards the pair in front of them, announcing herself with the whistling of a bird -- a call they had trained themselves to use. This one was a girl with long brown-gold hair that hugged the blond brother from behind, and joined the chat.
"Having a hidden kid would have gotten a Colonel busted down to a butterbar. Killed his chances of becoming a General." David turned to John. "Does it tell you anything about the man thinking of giving your codename to send you to the battlefield?"
He stood silent, but kept looking straight forward.
"We have to trust him." He simply speaks. "The organization collapses when you lose discipline. Your task will still be to fight to save as many lives as possible. When they don't risk you, your team, or the innocent."
Marie seemed to laugh around them. The trio were too far for John and David to listen.
"That's the problem."
After speaking with the two of them, Marie holds their hands with a grin, then approaches her mentors while holding on to that smile. "They're deciding codenames now, right?"
1/2
Date: 2013-09-01 07:07 am (UTC)He's been known as Big Boss for far too long, the man thought.
The Mutt was MIA presumed dead, and then he wasn't, and then...
And now it was time to choose code names, again.
Oh, what the hell. His lips twiched a bit, and then settled down into a firm line again.
He'd let them choose their codenames themselves.
It wasn't like he really cared, as long as the word "Solid", or heavens forbid "Liquid" weren't in there, anyway.
2/2
Date: 2013-09-01 07:09 am (UTC)Big Boss stared at the little computer and the little comm unit, and facepalmed mightily.
"Juggler calling Cookie Monster, Juggler calling Cookie Monster...Do you acknowlege, Cookie Monster?"
...Juggler, was in now? Oh, well, it did fit what that damn chihuahua was trying to do, he supposed.
...And only the chihuahua would call him the Cookie Monster of all things, anyway.
"Fine, fine. What do you want?"
There was a small sigh from the other side.
"That depends on what you want, Cookie Monster. I mean, you can huff and puff and threaten to blow the house down, and maybe even succeed in burning the whole city to a cinders, who knows - Or you can just decide to move the cookie shop. Which are you going to choose?"
Big Boss stared at the computer, and reminded himself that he wasn't supposed to throw delicate equipment.
"...Of course we're evacuating, you moron."
He whispered, his hands shaking slightly. Lose your people once, shame on you. Lose them twice...
Outer Heaven couldn't fight off an actual large scale first world modern army without using the Metal Gear's nuke capacities, or threatening to, anyway, and once he did that...
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. No thank you, Ma'am.
And on the other side of the planet, James sighed and wiped his face.
"Oh, good - Cause we're sending people to help you do just that. Our priorities are getting our and our allies research teams out, of course, but I'll quite willing to help you get your other people to, if we have the time for that. That OK with you, Sir?"
Big Boss nodded, wondering just how the shrimp had gotten the neccesary resources, but decided to think about that later, if at all.
"Fine. You do that. But you'd better not get in my way...Or else."
And then he sniggered.
"Cookie Monster...Signing off."
He then leaned back against his chair, thinking.
It had all been over the moment the fact that there was a Metal Gear being built at Outer Heaven had gone semi-public - Never mind that he knew for a fact that Metal Gears were being developed all over the world now, including in the USA, the old Soviet Union, and elsewhere.
And then he bit his lip - If only they had had a couple of more years...
But if wishes were Kalenishikovs, the price of guns would be halved, and then what would the weapon merchants do?
So now...
The only thing he could do was try to buy some more time, and starve off that damn air strike until his people managed to evacuate Outer Heaven.
- Or else.
3/3
Date: 2013-09-01 07:55 am (UTC)Big Boss, Commander of Foxhound, had been ordered to deal with the threat of Outer Heaven - Or more to the point, it's Metal Gear, and it's nuke slinging capacities.
The problem here was that Outer Heaven actually was owned by Big Boss himself, lock, stock and barrow - Not that that was exactly common knowldge.
And Father Dearest was not happy at all at the notion of losing yet another large group of his people.
James sighed - Well, at least it didn't look like Father was ready to do something that would spark off WW3 or something right now, anyway. He'd been worried about that for a bit, quite frankly.
But if they couldn't evacuate the Base properly for any reason, and Father ended up with his back against the wall...
James bit his lip. He'd deal with that if and when he had to, though he'd have to plan for that too, of course.
The air strike was already being readied, and it didn't look like even Father's connections could get that one called off. Father was doing everything in his power to buy them more time, but the clock was ticking...
And then, David came over and plonked him on the shoulder.
"So you're "Juggler"?"
James looked up at him, rubbed his eyes, and smiled. The plane they were on was surprisingly roomy, but he'd better get some sleep, he thought - Who knew when he'd get another chance to?
"Yeah, why not - If the name fits..."
And then he looked up at his brother.
"Hey, David. You've put it off long enough - Choose, all right?"
And his brother smiled. James sighed a bit - His brother looked good in his new sneaking suit, but he hadn't want to see him like that again, frankly...
"Alright."
And then, David grinned. James sighed again - He hadn't particularly wanted to see that grin again, either.
"Call me "Hei-Long"."
1995
Date: 2013-09-06 06:59 am (UTC)She couldn't understand. For all her knowledge she couldn't know why did they want to hunt them as she desperately sought for logic in what was happening.
No training prepared her for this. No firearm use lessons told her it would be like this. She didn't want to use her pistol and seek for a way to escape. She just hid. She tucked her knees close to her chest and hoped it would all stop somehow. She didn't hear her professor. She needed him now. She wanted some way to escape.
Dozens of boots moved around telling everyone to evacuate. They came away as they fired -- suppressive fire, she heard. She just stayed.
More boots come close. They are looking for her. Kotomi's blood turns cold when one turns to her and she hears 'there's one'--
Two shots stop the intruder on his tracks followed by another on the forehead. A Mozambique drill. She turns to the person whose own fire was forcing the enemy into cover. Just as soon she and her important discs are forcefully pulled away from her desk and from the violence as the sandy-haired girl moved her forward, running faster than she had ever done so in her life. Marie pushed her ear to enable communications. Kotomi still heard the panic in her voice.
"This is Zofie. I got Ichinose, one of the students. Where are you, guys? Where is the professor? Over."
There was a brief delay. Kotomi barely got to remember they had all reunited for something.
"This is Hei-Long. Move on to the helipad several roofs up, do not take the elevators. Contact with them has been severed. We'll get Armored Snake your way soon, but hurry. We're preparing an airstrike over the installation, over--"
"Marie-chan..." She gasped for air as her heart beat too close to her throat. "Where is James... where is David... Where is John?"
The taller girl only slowed down when she realized they weren't being followed. She allowed Kotomi to lay on her knees to catch her breath, and let her shrunken irises return to her size as adrenaline kept pumping at full speed inside of her. Marie held her shoulders, at first inspecting her to see if she got hurt.
"We're getting out of here soon, Kotomi. We're waiting for the rest of them, but we also need what you and your mentor worked on." She looked to Kotomi's bags. "Do you still have them?"
With a delay noticeable in her hyperventilation, Kotomi took a shaking hand inside, moving up discs and folders she had worked on... what she could recover from what happened.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-06 07:29 am (UTC)...Wha...
[She looked around her, shuddering. No gunshots, no smell of gunpowder or blood in the air...]
[...And no Marie-chan, either, of course. Never mind David-san or James-chan - No, no, she shouldn't call James-san that, that was ridiculous, he was a grown up man who was older then she was, even though he was so short. Not to mention childish, sometimes.]
[And then, she went to the next room, and looked at her sleeping professor, just in case.]
[See, Kotomi? It was just a dream - Nothing had happened! Everything was perfectly all right...]
[And it was at that exact instant that somebody coughed behind her.]
[She froze like a rabbit, and then slooowly turned behind her as whoever it was coughed again, slightly irritably.]
[The man behind her was big. Massively so, in fact - How could she have not realized that he was there to just this moment?]
[And then he came under the light from the flickering light bulb in the corridors, and she blinked up at him, owlishly. Sooo biiiggg...]
...Ahh...You're the...Commander-san?
[And the man with the eyepatch blinked, and sighed. Good grief - So she was one of those kinds of geniuses...]
- Indeed I am.
[Big Boss sighed, and looked at her.]
And if you are Ichinose Kotomi...There is something I must ask you to do, even if you're not one of my people...
[About 20 minutes later, Kotomi was staring blindedly at a large stake of disks and paper.]
[The mysterious Commander of this place wanted her to do what?]
[And what did he mean, "by sundown tommorow at the latest???"]
no subject
Date: 2013-09-15 05:56 pm (UTC)Putting literal piles of disks and documents is arguably what she was being prepared for, but that didn't stop her from thinking that her employer was mean. However, being an obedient intern, she slowly nods. Nervous, pretty sure that her evening spent in light reading regarding will have to wait.
Her eyes slowly drooped in a show of resigned acceptance, not even sighing, in realization that this would be expected. Unbeknown to her and what could have served as comfort, medical interns had it a lot rougher than even Big Boss' own workers. Unless you were in basic, and Kotomi Ichinose can attest to that.
Upon accepting her duty in a tired manner, the imposing man put a hand over her shoulder, in apology, thanks, or as a simple gesture, she wasn't very sure.
Focus was, fortunately, one of her fortes. When she began with the first document which she read at a supernatural speed, she was only slowed down when she needed to write and compare notes, and -nothing- would break her concentration unless one spoke the words 'Kotomi-chan'.
That being said, she didn't like discs and digital files as much, and they were the only few occasions in which she had to slow down, more by the (lack of) power of the computer, not to mention reading on the computer strained her eyes unlike natural books. However, she kept on at that speed, and it was clear that if BB didn't think she would accomplish this pile, he wouldn't have sent it to her.
Kotomi blinked. The realization of the files she was analyzing almost broke her concentration. She opened and revised the previous file in a rare act of re-reading an old page.
Kotomi.
But in the midst of processing and analyzing information with even more power than the computer she was working on, she began to notice a strange pattern in these files. Some of them weren't the usual things she was given to work on. This was more... professional? This sort of thing was given to her mentors much more than to interns.
Kotomi.
Normally, she would do this without a second thought, but some of these files, of the old race... they were recent. In the next time Big Boss comes for a report, she decides to add it to her list of things to remark on her duties to have clarification about--
"Kotomi-chan."
The intern raises her head, looks around, and she sees Marie beside her pile of work. She smiles.
"Marie-chan. Hello." She bows in courtesy. Kotomi notices Marie tries to imitate the custom a little via a small nod when she rises. "How are you?"
"Same old. Same old." Marie glanced to the piles below her. "You're... early. Big Boss put you up with this?"
A beat.
"Yes."
He is a bully.
1/2
Date: 2013-09-17 08:02 am (UTC)[Let's see - One day, she'd been eating lunch with Professor Emmerich's family, and then the Attack of the School Bullies from Hell had happened, but that had been dealt with soon enough - Julie Dangizer Emmerich, Hal's stepmother, and started out by throwing a bottle of brandy at those crazy bullies who dared make her stepson Hal and daughter Emma cry, and soon enough, the bullies had ended up running away screaming that they were going to tell their parents. Marie herself hadn't had done much more then hold one of them in a choke hold when they tried to set fire to the house, so she'd considered it a day well spent, but then - ]
[Marie sighed. Not one, not even two, but three groups of heavily armed people had attacked the Emmerich residence not at all long after that - And now she was someplace in Africa, in some kind of highly fortified military base that probably wasn't even supposed to officially exist in the first place. And Professor Emmerich...]
[And that was when Hal Emmerich came into the room shyly.]
...Hi, Marie, Miss Ichinose - Are you still awake?
[The teenager whispered.]
Are you all right? I wanted to talk to Papa, but he's still too busy being Darth Emmerich, it seems, and...
[Darth Emmerich? Marie almost groaned, remembering what had happened when they first arrived here.]
2/2
Date: 2013-09-17 08:02 am (UTC)[Huey Emmerich had whispered, slowly wheeling his wheelchair about.]
I am very glad to see that you hadn't lost your gripe of sanity entirely, John, but - What did you bring us here for, anyway, pray?
[Julie had sighed, and taken another swig out of her brandy bottle, while the tall imposing one eyed man had facepalmmed.]
- I didn't order anything, and I have no idea why the Three Idiots brought you here, anyway!
[The two men and one woman looked at each other, quizzically.]
But we just told you, sir! It was too dangerous, we had no idea who was working for what in the end, and it was easier just to bring them here...
And you wouldn't like it at all if he ended up dead, sir, we thought...Right?
[The third one only nodded, wordlessly.]
[Huey shook his head.]
Oh, never mind, it's not like you could ever keep control of everything your people were doing, anyway - If they actually were your people in the first place, that is.
[And then he looked around him, and up at the very, very big robot, and grimanced.]
...So this is your Dr Madner's baby? ...You know, John, if this is actually the very best you could come up with...
[Big Boss sighed, and shook his head.]
- No, it isn't, actually - But one can actually replicate that thing, and have it work properly. Unlike what you made.
[Huey Emmerich glared at him, then.]
...Why do you keep acting like what I do is some kind of - voodoo! I'm a engineer, not a magic worker, all right!? It isn't even just you - So many people keep complaining that...
[Julie sighed, and walked over to Big Boss, waving her bottle.]
...You know, Huey - If so many people keep acting like what you do is some kind of voodoo...
[Big Boss looked at her, and shook his head.]
...You're drinking too much, Julie.
[And that was when Hal Emmerich had coughed, and stood up tall, though he was still quaking in his boots.]
...Um...Sir? I'm sorry to interupt this little reunion, but...
[And then he pointed to a burlap bag.]
Could you get Miss Zoffie out of there? Please?
[The "Three Idiots" looked at him, eyes wide.]
...But Big Boss - She'd dangerous!
...Seriously! She broke my nose! Barehandedly!
...!!!
[Big Boss looked at Huey, and rolled his eyes.]
...I thought you said she was just a student?
...She is, damn it!
[Huey said, and then looked around him, thinking.]
...So you're evacuating, right? And nobody really knows what to do, how to set priorities, or anything else.
[And then he took a deep breath.]
- Fine. I'm taking over - For this part of the research team, anyway.
[Big Boss stared at him.]
...Do I get any say in those proceedings? At all?
[Huey sniggered at him.]
Of course you do, it's your base, after all. - But I wouldn't say no, if I was you!
[And Julie had sniggered right along with him, while Big Boss had facepalmed again.]
- Very well. I'm putting you in charge of teams A-2, A-5, and A-8 - Do as you will.
[And Marie had sighed, inside the burlap bag. Now what?]
no subject
Date: 2013-10-01 06:52 am (UTC)"I gathered all of you in light of your recent mission." He began, with an eerily angry tone as if they had all failed a mission by a lack of discipline. "You acted to defend Dr. Emmerich, to the point you had to transport him from two points of the world in an improvised manner."
Meaning, they stuffed people in potato bags, jumped onto the first air evac, and called it a day.
"What you failed to mention in the middle of the action were the appropriate factions involved."
Then, almost suddenly, he lifts the burlap gag and drops a teenager out of it with a loud thump!
"Ow!"
"This girl... Is my niece."
........
The room turns silent, staring all at the pair. Marie herself rubs her blond head, looks up... and her eyes widen as well.
"... John?"
1/3
Date: 2013-10-02 06:25 am (UTC)...John? You know, the last time I checked, you didn't seem to have any blood family left at all, on the record or not.
- Except for the clo - the You Know Whos, I mean.
...Not that I have your resources in the data gathering department , but...
[Big Boss grimaced at that.]
- I didn't actually says she was related to me by blood, did I now?
[Dr Emmerich turned his wheelchair Big Bosses way and looked at him, thinking. Well, he hadn't actually said that Miss Zofie was related to him by blood, but he hadn't said she wasn't, either, now that he thought about it...]
[Ho, ho, ho. This was interesting, indeed.]
[And putting all that talk he'd heard being swung about in certain circles about Big Boss and his "supersoldier genes" and the like into consideration...]
[OK, then, everybody had parents, and their parents had parents, and their parents had parents too. Even if one was a clone, they still had parents, just at a remove.]
[And those all those ancesters probably did have more then one offspring, more often then that.]
[So everybody most probably did have blood relatives, whether they knew about them or not, and...]
[He looked at Miss Marie, thinking. Alright, which "supersoldier genes", and in what combinations? Well, he couldn't really be sure she had any of them unless he checked, to be sure, but it sure would explain some of her...stranger traits, he felt.]
...Alright, I get it - She's something like your adopted niece, then?
[Dr Emmerich said, cheerfully. Big Boss made a face, but then nodded.]
- Something like that.
[And then he turned toward Marie, sighing.]
- Come to my room, Marie. Please.
[And then, he turned to the rest of his people.]
- Dismissed. Go attend your duties, and...
[He sighed, looking at the "Three Idiots". Telling those fools not to be idiotic was like telling the sea not to be wet.]
[They were, however, very, very good at keeping themselves alive, and in one piece. Which was important in and of itself, he felt.]
Just go. And do listen to Dr Emmerich, since he's been kind enough to volunteer his services and all...
[And then he started to walk away, while the "Three Idiots" grinned at each other, relieved to have gotten away with just a tongue lashing. Marie gingerly nodded, rubbing her head, and followed him into his room.]
2/3
Date: 2013-10-02 06:25 am (UTC)...Just a couple of bruises. You'll be fine by tomorrow, I warrent.
[Marie looked up at him.]
...Uncle John? What's going on?
[Big Boss sighed, and patted her on the head.]
- Oh, the usual. The higher-ups fuck up, and we run around trying to pick up the pieces.
[Marie looked at him.]
...Is it classified?
[Big Boss sighed again, and decided to tell her a highly modified version of the whole truth.]
Oh, it's supposed to be classified up the wazzo, but I'll have to tell you part of it anyway. You're a smart girl, and I'm sure you'll figure out a lot of it on your own soon enough.
- This place is called the Outer Heaven Base, and it's actually sort of a - subsidiary of ours. A secret one. We own it, or most of it, but it isn't officially a part of our forces.
We were primarily using it as a research and development base, but then, somebody caught wind that we were developing big combat robots here, and the shit hit the fan.
[Marie stared at him, then, her mouth dropping open.]
...You were making Gundams, Uncle John? For real?
[Big Boss sighed, and rubbed his head, the gesture looking oddly like Marie's gesture just a couple of minutes before.]
...You've been talking much to much with Dr Emmerich's boy, I see.
No, they're not really Gundams, but they are the wave of the future - Or so that's what all the scientist types tell me anyway, and I think they're right.
And in five, ten years, most countries in the world would be lining up to buy them, or so the plan goes - But right now, the timing is all wrong, wrong, wrong.
[Big Boss sighed again, and poared himself some coffee. He offered Marie a cup, too. She sipped it, barely noticing how horrible it was.]
Somebody went and blew the whistle, and even the newsies have wind of it now - I wouldn't be surprised if the they were running special programs about this shadowy base in the middle of nowhere develeping real life gundams within a month or so, at this rate.
- So now, I have two sets of orders. One of them is ordering me, as the Commander of Foxhound, to get rid of this secret base with it's dangerous and scary combat robots right now soonest, since it's an menance to international stability, whatever that means.
[Big Boss took a sip of his coffee again.]
The other one, from even higher up, basically says that I should evacuate the base and save whatever I can of it's research, no matter what.
- We can't afford to lose the Metal Gear Program, or most of the other research programs taking place either, for that matter.
[Big Boss puts his coffee cup down, and looks right at Marie.]
- So now, my real mission is to, No.1, evacuate the base, while No.2, pretending to take it down and No.3, run some kind of cover up afterward.
[Marie stared at him.]
But Uncle John! How in the world are you supposed to evacuate a whole base while pretending to take it down, all at the same time?
[Big Boss sighed, and reached for his canteen.]
...Well, that's where the complicated part starts...
3/3
Date: 2013-10-02 07:27 am (UTC)[Uncle John probably hadn't told her everything by a long shot, of that she was pretty sure, but...]
[And that was when Dr Emmerich caught sight of her.]
- Miss Zofie! Are you all right? How did everything go?
[And then he turned around toward his son.]
...See, Hal? Miss Zofie is quite all right. And Emma darling...Stop chewing on your mother's hair, OK?
[Julie blinked, and drunkenly stared at her daughter, who was indeed chewing on her mother's hair in her sleep.]
...Emma! Stop that!
no subject
Date: 2013-10-23 07:19 am (UTC)"It went... decently." She muttered, trying to keep a smile. "I can't say much - some of it is classified," and it would turn things to hell if she spoke of some things - such as the pseudo-Gundams. "It was mostly things that everyone in here already knew."
Dr. Emerich looked above him, realizing the girl had something else to say. There was a reason big Boss called her personally, after all that happened, instead of simply shipping her home.
"But from now on... I think I'll be working here."
"What?"
Emerich's hands gripped his handles as he almost forcibly lifted himself, unable to believe the course of action. Julie herself turned to them, retreating with her child, who cried when Marie's finger left her mouth.
"As it turns out... it's not something I can just go home without raising suspicions. There are skills Uncle John needs of me, and I'll have to stay here." She stood her ground. Her red eyes turned straight to him. "I'm young. I know it. But Big Boss wants me here. I know it."
Emma calmed down as soon as she grabbed again onto her mother's hair, as everything calmed down.
"A teenager." His electric chair whirred back to life as he moved past, muttering to himself. "How many more skeletons does Big Boss have...?"
1/3
Date: 2013-10-24 05:53 am (UTC)[Professor Emmerich glared at her, and then in the general direction of Big Bosses office.]
- Well, you'll probably have to stay here until the evacuation is done, but after that - I'll have to give him a piece of my mind, again, it seems!
[And then he wheeled off toward Big Bosses office, cold determination in his eyes.]
[Hal stared after him, and sighed.]
...You know, Marie, Papa was always scary, but... I never thought he actually had a "Darth Vader Mode", before.
[Marie wasn't quite sure to make of the cold look in Professor Emmerich's eyes, either, but she decided not to worry about it for now. Life was too short, after all...]
[And less then an hour later...]
[Marie sighed, as Uncle John - No, Big Boss told her, no ifs or buts, that she needed to go home once this was all over, and though he wasn't really sure of the value of a University education, personally, he really wasn't going to fight Professor Emmerich about that, either way.]
[Well, OK, then, buuut...]
2/3
Date: 2013-10-24 05:55 am (UTC)...So what are you actually be supposed to be doing, anyway?
[Marie said, looking at Kotomi's laptop.]
I'm afraid Unc - Big Boss didn't really explain the details...
[Kotomi smiled at her.]
Oh, um - I'm supposed to be translating something, and then doing something with the translation, except that it's a partial translation of a partial translation, and trying to figure out what it originally said is pretty hard!
But hmmm...Say, Marie-chan, what level of clearence do you have, anyway?
[Marie blinked.]
I have no idea, actually, but - Whatever it is, it should be high enough, I think? Since I'm supposed to be helping you do your "special project", among other things, after all...
[Kotomi nodded, then.]
Alright, then - Follow me!
[And then she grinned again.]
I'm going to show you something...Special.
[15 minutes, later, Marie in someplace that looked like a very big storeroom, looking up at a massive something, halfway covered in a blue sheet.]
- This is Artifact A-17. It doesn't look like much, but it's almost as heavy as one of those not really gundams they're making in the upper labs - It took usdays to figure out how to get it in here in one piece...
[Marie sweatdropped, then.]
...Does everybody here know about those robot things?
[Kotomi laughed, then.]
- Oh, the robot things aren't even really a secret at all, well, not in this Base, at least - Everybody's saying that they're probably be on sale all over the world in about 5 years, anyway!
[And then she grinned again, and then pointed at a slab of something that looked like slab of rock, covered with strange writing and what seemed to be pictures and symbols.]
Oh, and that's Artifact A-23 - It's almost as important as A-17 is, I think...
[And then Kotomi took a deep breath, and touched the slab.]
[Marie started as the slab started to humm, and then glowed a faint pink.]
[Kotomi took her hand away, eventually, and then the thing just looked like a rock slab again.]
Some people can make it glow, some can't. Professor Mizuki can't make it react at all, and he was really bummed out when he realized that...
[And then she smiled at Marie.]
- Soo - Do you want to try it out?
3/3
Date: 2013-10-24 05:56 am (UTC)[Hal Emmerich was sighing, and patting his stepsister's head.]
...You know, Emma? I have no idea what's going on here, at all. Why did we end up here, anyway?
[Emma smiled up at him, angelically.]
Me neither! Maybe we should go ask Mommy? She knows more stuff then she pretends to, most of the time, I think!
[Hal sweatdropped.] Emma, Emma, I know you're supposed to be a genius, but you scare even me sometimes, you know?
[But Emma, in the meanwhile, had gone off and asked Julie anyway. Julie put her coffee down, and sighed.]
Oh, OK, OK, I'll explain things, then -
[And then she took out a teddy bear out of seemingly nowhere, and put an eye patch on it. Hal stared - Where had the stuffed animal come from, never mind an eye patch?]
[Julie didn't seem to notice his staring, however.]
Alright, dears - This is Big Bear. Big Bear was very strong, and was a pretty charismatic leader, too, so eventually, a lot of people became his fans!
And lo, the Big Bear Fan Club was born! Well OK, it wasn't really like that, but that's close enough, I think...
[And more stuffed animals. Hal sighed, and decided to stop wondering where they had all come from.]
But eventually, the Big Bear Fan Club made many enemies, and one day, some of them tried to attack them outright! They were being sneaky about this, though - First, they set a trap, so Big Bear himself would be stuck in a base in the middle of nowhere, and then they attacked his friends!
[And then she grinned.] However, the Fan Club was much tougher then their enemies had thought they were, and they mostly managed to beat back the enemies by themselves, even though Big Bear wasn't there to help them directly.
[Hal stared at her.] So Papa was...
[Julie grinned.] Well, he was more like a former Fan Club member, but he still was a friend, I suppose. Sort of. And a good thing, too - I don't think we could have gotten away from 3 sets of enemies all by ourselves, anyway...
[And then, Emma waved her hand.]
But what now? The enemies aren't going to just give up and slink away now, right?
[And Julie sighed.]
Yeahhh...That's the sticker, all right...
no subject
Date: 2013-11-01 07:07 am (UTC)"Can I really touch it?"
Kotomi smiled.
"You said you think you outrank me, Marie-chan. If you are close to Big Boss, then I think you can. It's why I asked."
It was what she assumed her Uncle would allow her to do. However... touching some alien, ancient piece of history that reacted supernaturally didn't completely sit right with her. Radiation, unknown effects, among other things. Kotomi Ichinose, in spite of being an intern, was quickly catching up, but she didn't know if her ease to be around those slabs was either the product of her advanced learning and constant thirst for knowledge, or her common air-headedness.
... But still, gathering valor, Marie sighed. And moved a hand over the second slab.
Her hand felt warm... and the stone glowed green. It seemed to split in three irregular pieces still in the same size as if an invisible knife had cut it, and rearranged it into another form, consistent with the glyph it carried... and after forming another shape, the stone stops glowing.
The girl slowly retreated her hand, unnerved, much in the way a cat would face something it didn't understand.
"What... was that?"
Kotomi turned, understanding and yet at the same time intrigued.
"It is another of the functions of the slabs we found. The first one I touched has the property of displaying outward radiation which can--"
"It's radiation!?"
Kotomi put her hands on her chest upon being intimidated.
"I--It's not ionizing radiation or anything we've found before! It's harmless! It's just that it's a form of non-ionizing radiation much akin to radio or microwaves that seems to form some sort of link with a few of the other slabs!"
Marie blinked.. and stared again.
"So... something like a radio?"
... Kotomi slowly nodded.
"Hn. And what you touched was one that hard reconstruction and rearrangement properties. Both slabs are just two out of many that could be used for this project. Immediate unhampered and complete communication along with a self-reconstruction mechanism would be important assents in the field."
This time, Marie looked impressed, looking at the other slabs, but no less distrustful of what she was seeing. She steps towards a few others, but more akin to a trainer knowing the dangers of the lion inside the bars.
"Is... there another one that forms some sort of... energy field?"
...
Kotomi tilted her head.
"That sounds like science fiction."
"Yeah."
no subject
Date: 2013-11-01 07:30 am (UTC)[A great amount of shouting started outside one of the doors in the room they were in.]
- Dr Emmerich! Where the fuck is Dr Emmerich, we have an emergency -
[Marie and Kotomi stared at each other, and then, Marie slowly went toward the door and opened it, gun in hand.]
[An old nurse who looked like she might be in her 60s was clinging to a teenager who was carrying around a rifle that was longer then he was tall. She had a blood stained bandage on her head, which the boy looked at worriedly.]
...What in the world is going on, here!
[And there was Huey Emmerich in the flesh, wheeling down the corridors, several armed men following him closely.]
[The nurse glared at him.]
- We have a situation, Dr Emmerich - About six out of ten of the trucks and vans which were supposed to take the children under my care to safety - Well, relative safety - Have disappeared. Vamoosed. Or more to the point, some fucking idiots thought it would be a good idea to hijack them outright!
[Dr Emmerich stared at her.]
Calm down, Nurse Hudson, and give me a proper report!
[And then he looked at the boy.]
- And you are?
[The boy stood at attention.]
I was part of the team getting the hospital complex ready, Sir, and that's going as well as expected up to this point, but without 6 trucks worth of supplies -
[Huey Emmerich groaned. One problem after another...]
[Marie stared at what was going on - And that was when Kotomi poked her sleeve.]
...I'm not really sure what's happening, but I heard they were going to try and evacutate the young orphans and sick and injured people to a hospital in one of the nearby towns, first. Just in case.
The Commander was making some kind of big charity hospital and school kind of thing there, I think, and it hadn't started operations yet, but we do own the place, so...
2/2
Date: 2013-11-02 06:12 am (UTC)...What in the world is going on here!?
[And then he turns toward Dr Emmerich.]
Professor Emmerich - Can't you do something!?!? My research is much more important then a pack of orphans and some sick men who probably wouldn't be useful for anything anymore anyway!
When I'm saying that the Artifacts in here can quite possible change the future of the entire world, I'm not kidding at all, sir...
[The nurse and young man glared at him, while Kotomi sighed, and bit her lip.]
...P-Professor Mizuki, please calm down, OK?
[The man called Mizuki glared at her.]
Oh, shut up, young miss - They haven't even set up any plans to evacuate Artifact-17 yet, I know that for a fact!
[And that was when the old nurse cut in -]
...As if we actually could evacuate that thing in time! It took almost a month to get it inside the base and put it where it is now, or have you forgotten that already?