(no subject)

[icequeen-aran.livejournal.com]

Who: icequeen_aran, things_go_boom, pedaltothemetal, pkmachomega, noheroesinwar
What: TIME TO FIND METAL GEAR REX but what else will be found?
Where: ALASKA
When: DATE FLEXIBLE; let's say December 21st for now.
Warnings: Lash, Bounty Hunters, Alaskan Wolf Dogs and so forth.


Samus had had it. She was frustrated. She was aggravated. After months of searching, she still couldn't find Metal Gear REX. Granted, several of those months were riddled with interruptions like tiki island curses and the usual teaching job grind, but I digress.

REX was easily not the biggest threat out there, but at this point it had become a war of attrition on her patience and perhaps her pride too. What kind of bounty hunter could she call herself if she couldn't hunt down walking tank armed with nuclear weapons? Even the slippery local murder had somehow still eluded everyone's sights, including hers. REX was easily four stories tall--something like that shouldn't be too hard to miss. It was once somewhere very close to the Smash Academy, so where could it of possibly gone?

Otacon knew. Or... the old Otacon knew. Samus had been stubbornly resisting going to Otacon for help but was running out of options and clues.

Her recent spat with Falcon, (while currently resolved... for the most...) had her favoring less friendly and lawful methods of information retrieval. Falcon wanted her to stay away from Otacon? Fine. Sure. She wouldn't go directly to Otacon, even if the scientist was her best and only lead.

Samus hunkered down at her computer, fingers swiftly typing away. She was going to hack into Otacon's computer and take what she needed instead.

With any luck, he'd never know about it either.

Comments

[thewunderkind]

Unbeknownst to one(1) Samus Aran, Lash had been installing a series of sniffers over the network ever since their spats with Capcom High had ended. Oh sure, now they had the whole exchange student thing going on, but it didn't mean someone from there wouldn't try to get into the network.

Which was her first guess, when something in her series of computers beeped loudly to announce to her that one of the computers on campus was being hacked. No one hacked into the network! No one but her.

"Nuh uh! Nice try, whoever you are, but I'm gonna be waaay better than you!" Commence furious typing action.

[icequeen-aran.livejournal.com]

Hacking into Otacon's computer proved to be no easy task. In fact, Samus wasn't sure she was even half-way close when someone picked up her trail.

Shit.

Who was this hacker hacking her hacking? Hopefully not Otacon.

You won't stop me.

Samus began her own symphony of furious typing--dodging and evading this very determined sniffer in a virtual equivalent of a dogfight while pressing onwards for any old data on Otacon's computer relating to REX. She wasn't going to pull out of this so soon.

[thewunderkind]

This person was good. Really good.

"But I'm still better," she told no one but herself, glad neither Kumatora or Skarmory was there to see her. They might have accidentally gotten her out of this concentrated groove. "I'll give them something they'll really regret!" she added, pushing a few more things in.

Hey weirdo! Keep rummaging and I'll give you a real reason to start hacking!



Gee I wonder who this could be.

[icequeen-aran.livejournal.com]

Similarly, Samus was glad Falcon wasn't around--though she wouldn't count on that blessing for too long.

She would have preferred him to not see an skull-and-cross-bones with an afro pop up on her computer screen. What few people Samus suspected of trailing her were now quickly narrowed down to just one.

[thewunderkind]

OH they knew who she was. That only made it better.

Ha! I knew someone from Capcom High would still try to hack in anyway. Game's over, Tron Bonne.

[icequeen-aran.livejournal.com]

If she could keep Lash busy with that menial task, she might be able to extract more data from Otacon's computer.

[thewunderkind]

Right. Tron would have been boasting about this. She looked at a few more readings.

I've narrowed you down inside the city. So either from this network hmm....Jeff? Nah Jeff doesn't go hacking around that much, I think...

[icequeen-aran.livejournal.com]

While Lash was being the bestest girlfriend ever and totally not doing the opposite of what Samus asked, Samus finished packing the essentials and plotting out a course.

Her initial plan was of course to fly the gunship over; it was fast, it had weapons that could probably take out REX with minimal collateral damage, or worst-off, she use the grapple-beam on the ship to move it somewhere else. ...But with Lash involved she was rethinking this for several reasons.

One; it was Lash, two; Falcon would no doubt question her about it/disapprove Lash's involvement, and three; a quick peak at the weather proved rather foreboding for flying craft, even one as advanced as her ship. A monster of a storm swirled around the Archipelago with thick clouds and dangerously high winds. At the calmer center was predictably Shadow Moses Island... but everywhere around it was perilous. Stakes were a little high in this one, and the absolute last thing Samus needed was a crash landing with a passenger on board, leaving them stranded in the middle of cold, barren Alaska. So that left ground travel; Samus' bike, while fast, was at just as much at risk of weather calamities, if not moreso. She would need to go obscenely fast with it to break through the high-winds of the snow storm. Lash had her Neotank, but strong, independent Samus didn't particularly want to me left at the whim of Lash's control, much less she wasn't sure if that thing could make it to Alaska and back fast enough.

You know, before Falcon noticed. (Samus was the best girlfriend ever.)

Then what do I do? Tempted to risk fate and take the gunship as she typically would, Samus was then struck with the brilliant idea to go under the weather, if she couldn't go through it or over it. If it worked, anyway. She was reminded of the shortcut through the green, underground pipes her, Lash and Jeff used to infiltrate Capcom High. It was kind of a crap-shoot, but as quick as she could, Samus was researching into these mysterious, near-instantaneous traveling pipe networks. Lo and behold, they did seem to run everywhere, including Alaska. The downside was they weren't completely mapped out... so she might be doing some guesswork in her travels. She could always remotely call Falcon and cry in shame the gunship if something went wrong and hope for the best.

At least she wouldn't be alone in that.

In just as much of a hurry, Samus snuck out the door, hopped on her bike and drove to the school to meet Lash.

[thewunderkind]

Lash on the other hand, had a pretty quiet preparation, post sending things out to be taken care of when she was gone and messages to boyfriends that totally didn't mean he should follow her (and she totally didn't have a canned, surprise face if he did. "Wow. How did he do that. I am sooo surprised.")

The method was transport was actually in her mind as well; part of her really hoped Samus was going to let her go into the gunship but she had a feeling that after this hacking episode she'd probably be afraid of letting her neat her more important stuff (sadly). They could take her transforming vehicle, but that was something mostly kept secret to only a few - an ace she most certainly didn't want to give in. Better let her fellow teacher drive (so to speak) as to what they'd be doing and with what vehicles they'd use.

When Samus got there, she would find one(1) afro wunderkind sitting with an oversize backpack, and dressed up in a wintercoat that looked to be itchy from the way she kept scratching her neck.

[icequeen-aran.livejournal.com]

Driving so to speak, yes. Samus pulled up to Lash and motioned for her to get on.

At least she packed... well. And itchy. Samus had chosen to go with the leather jacket with the collar popped up and long sleeves under that. And Zero Suit under all that... just in case.

[thewunderkind]

Didn't have to tell Lash twice! With one swift motion, she jumped behind and...awkwardly held on to Samus.

Yeaaaaah.

"Okay I'm ready!" Scratch, scratch, scratch. "So...what are we doing exactly? Unless this bike can fly..."

[icequeen-aran.livejournal.com]

Lash stop all that itching or Samus will start to get itchy...

"Hovering a few feet off the ground isn't the same as flying, so no."

Samus put said hovering into action and drove off as soon as Lash was securely aboard. The bike speed by, leaving snow-covered grass and trees as blurs as she took a beaten path through the woods. "Do you remember the pipes we took to get to Capcom high?" She yelled over the cold, biting wind.

It was almost hard to tell with the snow covering everything but, eventually Samus ended up in part of the woods where with many trees amazingly still toppled over from when Lash first cleared the path.

"It's actually part of a huge underground network--they lead all over the place, and some travel instantaneously to certain locations. There's just one downside..."

[thewunderkind]

The downside was that Lash jumped down from the motorcycle almost instantaneously and looked the pipes, giggling. You could smell the trouble from a mile away.

"Lemme guess! We don't know which leads to what and we might end up in many strange and bizarre worlds?" She dangerously let herself tether over one of them, her legs sticking out and distorting her voice. "Cause I'm game for that!"

[icequeen_aran]

"You got it." Samus replied, slightly deadpan. She was pretty game for that, but also didn't want to waste time. No time would be wasted in finding the pipe at least, as Samus blazed forth on her bike.

In no time at all, they reached the pipe.

"Here goes nothing." TO ADVENTURE.

[raced_god]

MEANWHILE, Falcon had most certainly heard the other bounty hunter come home, shuffle around for a short while, and then just as suddenly disappear again without so much as saying hello.

He waited until the bike engine was out of earshot before sneaking downstairs, and doing what any trusting boyfriend would do.

That is, searching Samus' computer (the two of them really needed to lock those things down properly). What he found was both confusing and frustrating. Warp pipe maps to...Alaska? Messages to Lash?

The Captain was kind of sick of all this.

There was only one thing he could do. He picked up his phone and called...

Claus.

[pkmachomega.livejournal.com]

Well, there was a phone number Claus wasn't used to seeing pop up on his phone. Unfortunately he had missed it because he was checking his voicemail and didn't know how to switch over to call waiting. He called him back, though.

"Coach Falcon?"

[raced_god]

Well, this was awkward. There was definitely a reason why Falcon didn't make personal phone calls to students.

"Uh. Yes. Hello."

Pause.

"You're not in trouble. Did Lash tell you about a trip? Possibly to Alaska?"

[pkmach]

WOAH that was weird Falcon were you psychic too. Claus had just gotten off of his voice mail, where Lash had left a very mysterious message indeed.

"Um. Actually, I just heard that Lash took off for a couple days, but she didn't say where. I was actually going to find out after I got some lunch."

It wasn't that the suspense wasn't killing him, it was just that his stomach had been growling very loudly, and he was just going to grab a sandwich and take it to Lash's room, honest.

[raced_god]

"It's Alaska. She went to Alaska."

Falcon was halfway out the door, cell phone wedged between shoulder and ear. He knew exactly what he was going to do and he knew exactly how he was going to do it.

"How soon can you be ready? To go to Alaska."

It was mostly a rhetorical question. He was already in his car.

[pkmach]

What the hell was even... Claus' stomach growled again, and he looked towards the door forlornly, at the same time moving an arm out to grab his bomber jacket off his desk chair.

"... How long are we going for?"

[powersuit_aran]

[[Hop Hop]]

Samus and Lash ventured down the elevator and left a similarly relatively-easy-to-follow trail of destruction in their exploration of the facility: doors were pried open, kicked in or simply exploded. Metal scraps, debris and decaying, overturned furniture was treated with the same disregard. It was simply in the way.

Samus might of been slightly (and only slightly) more cautious about making the mess (and noise) they did if she didn't feel this place was completely deserted. But she was wrong. They weren't alone.

Deep down in the belly of Shadow Moses, in a mammoth hangar there was the one thing--the one thing she had been spending literally months hunting down with the same, single-minded determination...

"...Metal Gear..." She breathed. Her personal mission was near completion, but she couldn't reveal in any satisfaction; not yet.

Before them was the mighty beast itself, Metal Gear REX, looking as inglorious and banged up as Snake last left it. A thin coat of dust covered nearly everything in here. This was, admittedly, not exactly how she remembered it...

"It looks completely ruined..." Samus walked up to the machine, running her hand across one of it's thick legs. She recalled them at least before she blew them off that first time and it, being more... lively looking.

[thewunderkind]

"What, you serious? THAT IT?!" Lash remembered REX from when Otacon had asked to stash it in the factories during the war. Before Samus could protest, she was already climbing up it like a monkey and ignoring gravity thanks to her Commanding Officer powers until she got to the cockpit.

There was a loud clang as she hit parts of it to test out if the thing still held together.

"What kind of decomposition goes on around here?! What happened to the nukes?" Lash loved the nukes on it, okay. Nukes went boom. "THIS THING'S LAAAAAME!"

This thing was really lame - Lash, December 2011

"Anyway, controls are intact, for all god that will do. It can still probably fight off a few things but without the nuke it's kinda pointless. I mean, rockets are cool and all that, but NUKES, that's an entire explosive science altogether!"

[powersuit_aran]

"No nukes...?" Samus echoed. Nukes were her main concern. Without them, REX looked no more intimidating than a rusty old robot collecting dust in a corner. Just to confirm, Samus brought a hand up to her visor and gave REX a good scan. Indeed, no nukes, but something looked amiss where they might have been. The anti-tank missiles were still plentiful but... Something isn't right here...

Samus followed Lash's footsteps, proceeding a little awkwardly since she wasn't in spider ball form still wasn't quite used to Lash's CO powers at work--a literal vertical incline up REX's leg must have looked ridiculous to anyone.

"Look at this." Samus pointed out, "Wasn't this where the railgun and nukes were kept? It looks like it was ripped clean out..."

[thewunderkind]

And lo, she did, before her face turned into a sour pout. She gave the old machine an angry kick.

"We've been beaten to the punch!" she said somewhat angrily. And by somewhat I mean she was pretty pissed off that they now had this lame robot and not an awesome nuke-filled one. "Someone else came here before us. No way a nuke just magically whisked itself away!"

[powersuit_aran]

No, no way that could happen. Samus gave a snarl from behind the visor, tempted to kick the old machine herself.

"I will hunt them down." She announced with a clenched palm. Anyone with a nuke could be dangerous... anyone with a nuke who might have a connection to the Academy doubly so. She'd have to start her search all over again.

All was not lost, however. They did find REX...

"What a waste."