Drip. Drip. That, accumulated with the constant sloshing of the murky water, were the only sounds Solid Snake heard as he meticulously made his way through the Canterlot Sewer system. This solitary time wasn’t so bad, as he let his mind wander to current events, more specifically his teammates.
Sam seems like he’s in the same boat as me and looks like he can handle this. But Bond? He’s not cut out for this; we’re dealing with terrorists, not some opulent idiot who built a space station.
He let this thought stay in his mind until he came across a fork in the road. He walked ahead and glanced at both entryways. The left yielded a dead end, and the right seemed to go on. He started to go through the right, though if it too led to a dead end, he would have to backtrack to a previous fork in the road, and he might be too late.
Snake got on the concrete walkway the moment it sprouted up. Luckily for him the right way was, well, the right way. This proved to be another desolate corridor. He was wondering if he was ever going to find these terrorists.
Until he spotted four shadows, two looking like they were working together in holding some sort of thing, that is. Snake advanced a little further and pressed himself against a wall jutting out, ready to listen to the four passing by him.
“Where are we taking this?” One of the object carriers wheezed.
“To all the other shit.” One of the rifle wielding terrorist responded, “When this bad boy goes off, goodbye to the Elements of Harmony and the Princess and hello to a new regime!” The four began to laugh as they marched on.
So this is part of the bomb The Director talked about. I’d better follow them so I can take down this whole group. If I just took these guys down, they’ll send more goons to collect this bomb part. Better safe than sorry.
Slowly but surely Snake stalked the terrorists, making sure to stick to what little shadows he had. Every once and a while one of the bomb carriers would almost see the ex-FOXHOUND agent, but he’ll just chalk it up to his eyes playing tricks on him. When they reached their destination, Snake couldn’t help but marvel.
Almost a dozen humans scurried along the water and concrete like a bunch of worker ants. Snake now just stood there, thinking. He came to the conclusion that watching them from the ceiling was his safest bet. It would allow him to see and hear them, and also allow him to get the drop in. He began to climb the concrete wall.
The only thing the griffon by the name of Briggs could do was smile. The Phantom Regiment’s plan was going off without a hitch. The easiest part was going into to sewers, as they looked like run of the mill construction workers carrying what seemed like supplies to fix a “leaky pipe.” Now, after four of his soldiers returned, the bomb was complete. When the train was in position, their reign of terror will begin.
“Sir!” Briggs turned to see a soldier running toward him. It was one of their scouts sent to keep the train on close supervision.
“What is it?” He demanded.
“By the looks of it, the train will be arriving in six minutes.” The scout reported.
“All right men!” Briggs yelled, “Get packed up! We’re priming the bomb for six minutes and getting the hell out of here!”
The soldiers saluted him and began grabbing what they needed. At this point, nothing could go wrong. That is, until he looked up and saw a human staring at him and descended on him.
Solid Snake jumped down from his ceiling hiding place, elbowing the griffon in the throat and punching him for good measure. Pulling out his SOCOM, he made his gun cough a bullet, taking out the scout with a new hole to breath out of.
He saw the other terrorists scramble for their weapons, which gave him time to pick up the fallen scout’s AK-74u. Quickly he hid behind a pillar and checked the clip. After seeing he was fully stocked, he pulled his head away and opened fire on the pseudo construction workers, taking out a good amount of them before they retaliated. As his pillar began to be chipped away he felt his ear vibrate. Now’s not the time!
Nonetheless he answered with a hint of urgency, “Hello?”
A british voice answered. “Snake, this is Bond. How are you with the bomb?”
He let out a slight sigh of annoyance. Why couldn’t it have been Sam? “I found it. It’s right under the railroad,” He answered quickly. “Problem is I ran into some trouble and it’s going to take a while for me to take out these goons.”
“Well, hurry up. It’s set to go off in a short time. We found our informant and now we need to take out the assassin and maybe learn who’s responsible. Bond out.”
Knowing that this pillar wouldn’t protect him for long, Snake rolled out and fired the rest of his clip, turing one of the last terrorists to swiss cheese. Seeing the last one drop his weapon and run, Snake pulled out his Socom and fired twice, hitting the grunt’s legs and causing him to collapse in the shallow water. Walking to the man and putting the suppressed muzzle to his head and pulling him up, Snake growled, “How do I stop the bomb?”
“You have to pull the green wire.” The grunt stammered.
Slowly Snake walked to the bomb, keeping his weapon set on his new buddy’s head. He looked at the bomb and let out a breath of awe. The thing was hulking and silver. In fact, it looked like a cryo pod in one of those sci-fi movies he watched with Otacon. Gingerly removing the main plate, he looked at the large collection of wires clustered together. When he found the green wire, he quickly pulled it and looked at the timer.
It didn’t stop. Why the hell didn’t it stop?! He saw the timer go from three minutes to one minute. He turned to the terrorist and guided his finger to the trigger. The terrorist began to laugh. “Long live the Phantom Regiment!”
The grunt picked up his pistol and held it to his head. It spoke once.
Snake pressed his hand to his ear and yelled, “Director! The bomb is going to go off in one minute! How the hell do I diffuse it?”
“Hold on, I’ll bring our bomb expert on the line.” The Director spoke calmly, almost not phased by this news.
In a millisecond, the silence was filled with a sweet female voice, “Snake, my name is Shrapnel. I’m the bomb expert of the CSA. What does the bomb look like?”
“It’s a big one, shaped like a cylinder.” Snake explained, “And the inside’s packed with wires in four different colors. The green one’s pulled, the others are red, blue, and yellow.”
“Pull the yellow one.” She said calmly. Snake did as she said, and the timer disappeared. “How much time was left?” She asked.
“You don’t wanna know.” Snake replied.
“Well, whatever time was left, you still need to head back. We have two griffons ready for interrogation brought in by 007. We’ll bring a clean up crew to fix what damages were caused in the sewers.” He paused for a moment. “Are you alright, Snake?”
“Yeah,” Snake replied, “Just had to deal with some people with explosive personalities.”