METAL GEAR: INNTER HEAVEN (PART II)

By James R. Homer

CHAPTER III – THE WHITE MAMBA

"Pretty? Good?!" Eli replied, offended. "You realise that I can kill you right here, right now?"

"Yes." Ocelot started as he casually turned around to face the boy that was half his size. "But you won't."

Eli scoffed. "What makes you think that?"

"Because you would have shot me by now."

Nostrils flared, Eli contemplates his next move, as he strengthens his grip on the hilt of his Colt. All that work to escape Mother Base, to escape his "father", and now he has Revolver Ocelot HIMSELF in grasp yet he wouldn't pull the trigger.

"Why?!", that word rung throughout his head. Then he realised. His "friend" was doing it.

"Where's the psychic?" Ocelot said, eventually.

As soon as the words exited his mouth, the boy appeared behind Eli, floating, legs dangling. Eli turned around, angry. "Why won't you let me kill him?!".

Ocelot wanted to smile, however kept his contentment at bay. "Do not forget, your friend can read minds. Just because you have a gun doesn't make you a snake-"

Swiftly and angrily, Eli interrupted, "Can't you see what I did to those men?" he said, taking a quick peek at his handiwork.

The moustachioed man straightened his back and looked down at the armed boy. "Ah, yes, you took out some soldiers of fortune. That's the least you can do as a clone of the man himself. But if you want to reach your true potential, if you want to settle the score with your father… Then I'll turn you into the man that can do it."

After a moment of consideration, Eli slowly put down his weapon. He was tired, weak, covered in dirt and blood, none of which was his own. He knew the man with the moustache was right, which made him ever angrier. Thankfully, his floating friend kept him on a leash.

"What makes you able to train me?" Eli replied, stubbornly holding onto whatever pride he had left.

"Twenty years ago, I was just like you. I had a gun and wanted to prove myself. Until I met a man named Naked Snake. I fought that man, tried to kill him. Yet he let me live. Why? Because I was still young. If I can change, so can you, Eli." He put his hand out and opened his palm.

Cursing his predicament, Eli shook it, and betrayed everything he previously believed in the process.

CHAPTER IV – PUNISHED

On the same continent, yet miles away, was Punished "Venom" Snake, walking through the forests of Africa with his comrade "Pequod", a man that took Snake to his destination, however was now denoted to a passenger.

Even when holding the title of Big Boss and having the burdens of which bearing down on his shoulders and mind, Venom Snake still strode strong. He could whine and moan about his current situation, about how a man he revered has a legend had stolen his life, his identity, his past and now his future, yet where would that get him? He replaced his first feeling of hate and rage by letting it subside and be taken by dire curiosity and longing to know what his place was in Big Boss' convoluted game of chess.

Pequod was merely insurance to Venom, a deterrent. If Kazuhira came for him or tried to interrupt his meeting with the real Big Boss by sending the Diamond Dogs, he would use Pequod either as a hostage or a bargaining chip.

"Boss?" Pequod inquired, sounding weak.

"I told you not to call me that," Venom replied bluntly.

"Sorry – sir, where are we going?"

"The less you know the better."

"I won't say anything, I promise!"

"I meant for your sake, not mine." After that, the two fell into a lasting silence. The way Venom was used to working.

CHAPTER V – THE PERFECT SOLDIERS

Sat around a campfire however no less on-guard was Revolver Ocelot and Eli. Night had taken Africa, plunging them both in darkness, only illuminated by the dancing orange light between them.

Ocelot was busy wiping down one of his prized revolvers as Eli just stared at him in contempt. The white-haired man didn't let it show on his countenance, but he knew that this was the beginning of it all. Fate was beginning to take its course, his plan for the future becoming more and more bright. All he had to do for now was play his part.

Eli took it upon himself to break the over-bearing silence. "Where are we going to go?"

"I'm taking you to Britain."

"Britain?!"

"Yes," Ocelot carried on, disregarding Eli's concern, "you'll be safest there."

Eli scoffed, "I don't need to be safe."

Now Ocelot looked up from his revolver. "Do you have any idea what you are?" Eli didn't reply, just looked at the man with an icy stare. "You don't, do you?"

Ocelot holstered his revolver and stood up. "You are the result of the Les Enfants Terribles project. A child created out of cursed genes. To some, you a threat. To others, you are a commodity. Don't forget that".

"Then what am I to you?" Eli said in his usual sharp tone.

"Potential." Ocelot replied bluntly.

Eli got up and began to speak when suddenly –

The sound of guns cocking around them, their source hidden by the cover of night, but they were there, definitely there. Dread seeped into the minds of Ocelot and the boy.

Then, sounds of footsteps.

Soon, the guns and their owners came into vision thanks to the campfire's warm light. They were all wearing CFA uniforms.

And they were pissed.

"What is the meaning of this?" Ocelot said in Afrikaans, keeping his posture straight and gaze steady.

"Hand over the child!" The leader replied in the same tongue, pointing his gun at Eli and then at Ocelot.

"Why should I do that?"

Then, shocking the soldiers and putting a dent in Ocelot's posture, The Third Boy appeared, floating.

In response, the soldiers shouted and began opening fire on the floating boy – Ocelot and Eli dropped down as Rebenok vanished and reappeared over and over again, the soldiers wasting their precious ammo.

Ocelot drew one of his revolvers and began opening fire on the CFA soldiers. He wasn't about to let some soldiers of fortune destroy his plans for the future in front of him. With perfect accuracy, he took down SIX of them, however three of their comrades remained.

He began to reload, when out of nowhere two of the soldiers were shot down. The third, shaking with fear and pointing his rifle at whatever was moving was frantic.

Emerging from the blanket of night, a white-haired man appeared and slit the throat of the third with a silver machete, that was now covered in rose-red blood.

The man with white hair turned to Ocelot, who was on the ground and completely taken aback by the man's appearance. He felt powerless, something he hadn't felt in a very long time.

Whoever or whatever was in front of him had short, pearly white hair, eyes that could cut any man who stared into them and wore combat gear with a mask that covered only half of his face.

An enigma, a completely unknown variable. Which made Ocelot, for the first time in years, feel that dreaded feeling: fear.

After a few moments of both parties trying to recollect their calm, the man pulled down his mask.

"My name is Frank Jaeger."

END OF PART TWO