Chapter One: Mantis' Hymn
“Following Dr. Emmerich – or Otacon, as he calls himself –‘s advice, I headed to find Meryl, who had disguised herself as a guard. As you know, she had one of the PAL override keys which I would need to override Metal Gear REX.”
It had been two days since Solid Snake had managed to successfully stop the terrorist cell FOXHOUND from using Metal Gear REX to launch a nuclear strike against the United States, in what was quickly becoming known as the Shadow Moses Incident. Although Snake had planned on going off into the Alaskan wilderness with Colonel Campbell’s daughter, Meryl, he had been tracked down by the government using his codec as a tracer, and brought in for a debriefing. Now, he was facing Colonel Campbell himself, and explaining first-hand what he had experienced in the darkness of Shadow Moses.
“How did you find Meryl?” Campbell asked. Although he had kept some secrets from Snake during the Shadow Moses Incident, he nevertheless respected Snake, and vice versa.
“Well….” Snake chuckled gruffly. “Let’s just say that she has a distinctive walk.” Snake lit a cigarette (the fourth during this debriefing), before continuing with his tale.
“After I managed to find her, I revealed myself to her without the other guards in the room noticing. She then went away to a nearby bathroom, where we regrouped.”
“Was this when Meryl gave you the card?”
“Yeah.” Snake took another puff of his cigarette, not caring about the damage it was doing to his lungs. Although Campbell didn’t realise it, he was purposely stalling the next part of the debriefing. “We met up in the bathroom, and Meryl gave me one of the three cards I would need to override REX.”
Although he didn’t say anything, Campbell inwardly sighed. He never understood why Snake would repeat himself so much during conversations – that is, whenever he wasn’t making puzzled grunts. Campbell was considering looking into the possibility of Snake’s codec affecting his hearing, but wasn’t sure whether he could think of a decent enough excuse for it, nor whether Snake would even allow it.
“And at this point, you were in the nuclear warhead storage building, weren’t you? The same one where you had found Dr. Emmerich and fought that… Cyborg Ninja?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I had fought the Cyborg Ninja to protect Otacon, before heading upstairs to find Meryl. This was all in the nuclear warhead storage building,” Snake continued, either not hearing Campbell’s quiet groan, or not caring. He took a look at his cigarette, disappointed when he saw how little of it was left, before continuing.
“Colonel… let me tell you, this next part of the mission… it was… strange.”
“Strange?” Campbell asked, missing the irony of his question.
“Yeah, strange. You knew about FOXHOUND’s resident psychic, Psycho Mantis?”
“Yes… we had doubted whether he really existed or not, or whether his supposed abilities were real, but from all of the evidence we had, it seemed as though he was a true psychic,” Campbell mused.
“Well, keep that in mind, because the next part of this debriefing is going to sound a bit… odd.
After leaving the bathroom, Meryl and I headed up a corridor to a previously locked door. Based on the information we had on Shadow Moses, I was fairly sure that it would lead towards the communication towers, which we would need to pass through on our way to REX’s lair. We were outside it, about to use a key Meryl had acquired for it to enter when… everything suddenly went silent. I hadn’t realised it before, but all throughout my mission, there had been at least some sort of music playing. But now… that music had suddenly stopped.
As I pointed this out to Meryl, she suddenly fell to her knees, shouting out that her head was hurting. From the way she was clutching her head, I could see that it was serious. I looked around, panicking. I hadn’t been in a situation like this before. Was this an illness? An attack? I asked her directly – “What’s wrong?” The reply I got was nothing short of incoherent – “Don’t come here, Snake!” What on Earth was happening? This all came out of nowhere!
And then, as suddenly as it had happened, it was over. Meryl stood up. “Are you okay? What happened?” I asked. If this was an attack of some sort, it was the weirdest that I had encountered yet.
“I’m fine. Let’s go,” Meryl replied. I didn’t say anything, but compared to before, she sounded… different. As though she wasn’t in control of herself. But what was I to do? She said that she was fine, and we still had a mission to complete. Warily, I stepped through the now unlocked door, with Meryl following me from behind.
As we passed through the door, we found ourselves in a well-furnished room. It felt somewhat out of place – almost like the office of a corporate head, with its fancy couches, paintings, and plants. Unfortunately, it seemed as though our information on Shadow Moses was incomplete after all - there seemed to be no way out of the room other than the way in which he had come. How could we get to the communications towers now?
“Ah!” I spun around at this noise, to notice Meryl acting strangely once more. Only this time, she was moving jerkily, as if being controlled by another, unseen person. She slowly raised her gun at me, and moved in my direction. What was going on here?!
“Snake…do you…like me?” she asked. Just as with her movements, her voice was nothing like it should have been naturally, instead sounding both forced and being spoken in a monotone. I was starting to get really worried now, not knowing what I should do as Meryl made advances towards me, both physically and romantically. As I struggled with how to react, I suddenly noticed the man behind Meryl, who hadn’t been there a moment ago.
“Who’s that?!” I exclaimed, half-sure of the answer already.
“Huh? You don’t like girls?” he taunted arrogantly, sure that I couldn’t match him. Before I could think of the best way to attack him, I received a call on my codec.
“Snake. Meryl’s not herself. Don’t use your weapon,” Campbell said, worried for his niece’s safety. Well, obviously, I thought to myself, wondering what sort of idiot would attack Meryl in my position.
“It’s Psycho Mantis,” Naomi Hunter added in, confirming my suspicion that FOXHOUND’s psychic had elected to confront me and Meryl. “He’s controlling Meryl. That tune is his mind control music.” Huh? I thought, wondering what music she was talking about, and why exactly a psychic would use music to control someone. I brushed the thought away, deciding that I had bigger things to worry about at the moment.
“Don’t use your weapon,” Campbell repeated, somehow thinking that I hadn’t gotten the message the first time he told me. “Try to knock her out.” For a moment I was tempted to repeat his statement back to him as a question, but again, I realised that this was no time for joking around.
I exited the codec conversation. Luckily, Psycho Mantis hadn’t taken advantage of my vulnerability during said conversation. I had noticed a similar thing earlier in Shadow Moses whilst facing the other members of FOXHOUND, and I couldn’t fathom a reason why they were ignoring me whilst I engaged in codec conversations. Had Liquid given them orders not to attack me if I were too vulnerable? Did they all have some uncannily common shared sense of honour? Whatever the reason, I wasn’t going to question it.
Meryl was still advancing towards me with the gun aimed. At this point, with her actions controlled by Mantis, there was no telling what she could do. Remembering Campbell’s (rather obvious) advice, I did the only thing I could – I retrieved a stun grenade from my supplies, and pulled the pin. If this didn’t stop her, I’d have to resort to hand-to-hand combat – much riskier, as I could potentially be vulnerable to Mantis himself during this time. Fortunately, my idea had pulled off, and Meryl was knocked out by the grenade.
“Useless woman!” Mantis raged. I was calming down a bit now that Meryl was safe from Mantis, and I got a better look at him. He appeared bald, and was wearing a gas mask with large, orange lenses. Most of his body was made up of… some sort of bondage-like suit, I would have said. From what I could see of his tall, thin body, he was very pale. And I had thought that Ocelot was weird….
Looking over him, I realised why Mantis hadn’t been visible when Meryl and I had entered the room – he had been wearing stealth camouflage, similar to the type Otacon had mentioned to me. Although I felt prepared to fight him, I decided to try and unnerve him a bit.
“Optic camouflage, huh? I hope that's not your only trick,” I said with a hint of smugness. As I had hoped, this increased the anger he was feeling from my stopping of Meryl.
“You! You doubt my power!?” he cried angrily. I readied myself, knowing that he was about to lash out at me. I felt a hint of dread for a moment – what powers did Psycho Mantis have, exactly? Whilst I had the opportunity, I checked on Meryl to see whether she was okay, which she fortunately was.
“Now, I will show you why I am the most powerful practitioner of psychokinesis and telepathy in the world!” Psycho Mantis said as he floated into the air. Okay. I should have prepared myself for it, but still… that was impressive. I was about to say something, when he interrupted me. “No... there's no need for words, Snake. I am Psycho Mantis. That's right... this is no trick. It is true power.”
Now I was starting to feel more threatened than I had at the start of our confrontation. I whipped out my SOCOM, thinking that he probably wouldn’t be able to use his psychic powers with a bullet in his brain!
“It's useless. I told you... I can read your every thought,” Mantis said decisively. My every thought? I wondered. What was he going to do? Read my past? Tell me what video games I liked? “No… that is too simple for the great Psycho Mantis!” he replied, reading my thoughts just as he had claimed. “This… this is the true power of a master psychic!” he declared.
I wanted to shoot the SOCOM… to stop him now, before this fight could get any more dangerous than it already was. But even as I tried to squeeze my trigger finger and fire at him, I found the gun falling out of my hands. A pain had started rising in my head, more excruciating than the worst migraine imaginable. I realised that I had dropped to my knees even as Meryl had before, and that I too was clutching my head in pain. How…? How could Psycho Mantis do this to me? What was he doing to me?
“Yes… yes, that should do nicely,” I heard his soft voice saying. There was a blackness spreading across my vision, but it barely even registered as I fell face forwards into the floor.
…
…
I blinked. The pain in my head was gone. Just like that. What was Psycho Mantis doing to me? Even as I questioned this, I realised that I was still face-down on the floor. Only… it didn’t feel like the floor of the office should have felt. It felt more like… dirt, as strange as that seemed. But how could that be?
I opened my eyes and got up. I found myself blinking in the harsh light, which prevented me from immediately recognising my surroundings. What was happening? Did Psycho Mantis knock me out and transport me to… to some sort of torture room? Was this all part of his psychic powers, and I was imagining this all? All of these questions, and one hundred more, flew through my head as my eyes adjusted to the light.
After a minute or so, I could see the reason why the floor hadn’t felt right – because it wasn’t a floor. It was a dirt path. Looking around, I could see some trees, grass, a decently-sized village up a few hundred metres away… in other words, someplace that was nowhere near Shadow Moses.
I checked my belongings. I had the exact same equipment as I had had prior to fighting Psycho Mantis, down to the last bullet. With that somewhat reassuring knowledge, I did the logical thing, and called Colonel Campbell on the codec.
“… or at least, I tried to call you, but I couldn’t get a response,” Snake admitted.
“You couldn’t get a response when you tried to call us?” Campbell repeated, once again failing to realise the hypocrisy of his repeating Snake’s question back to him.
“No – and the weird thing is that as you know, I managed to call you fine just before I took out Meryl.” By now, Snake had started his fifth cigarette.
“Hmm… that was strange. We just assumed that you didn’t need our help at this stage of your mission, and that’s why you didn’t call us.” Campbell shook his head, speaking more to himself than Snake. “A pity… I had some great advice for how you could defeat Mantis if you couldn’t work it out yourself.”
Snake gave a small grunt at this, before continuing his story.
When I realised that I couldn’t get through to Campbell or Naomi, I tried calling some of my other contacts. But none of them – Otacon, Mei Ling, not even Deep Throat – could get through to me. After fruitlessly trying to work the codec, I looked down to the small village I had noticed before. It looked as though the best plan of action would be to find out where I was first, and what was going on.
Luckily, as I still had all of my equipment, I had kept my most important tool – my cardboard box. Smirking somewhat at how lucky I was to have the box, I pulled it over myself and slowly began crawling towards the village. As I crossed over a small stone bridge, I began to notice how bright some of the town’s colours were in comparison to Shadow Moses. Wherever I was, it was somewhere far, far away from my mission.
I had just entered past the first house, when I froze. A shiver went up my spine. I had felt some anxiety fighting Psycho Mantis, yes, but this new feeling was pure terror. The unimaginable had happened. Something had happened which I thought impossible.
Somehow, someone had gotten inside of my cardboard box with me.
With sweat breaking out on my brow, I looked to the side of the box. Considering that it could barely fit me in it, I wondered how on earth someone else could fit inside. They’d have to have some sort of reality-breaking powers for it to work, I thought confusedly.
In the darkness of the box, two oversized, almost comical blue eyes were staring at me. I felt another shiver go down my spine. Was this Psycho Mantis’ power? Was this the extent of his abilities, that he could cause my worst nightmare to happen, and have someone invade the sanctity of my box? Then, even as I began to shake at this prospect, I heard a noise. The person was speaking! They weren’t threatening me… they weren’t even taunting me.
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! Who are you?!”
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As a big Metal Gear fan, I don't know how friendly this is to anyone that doesn't know the story, but I personally enjoyed it. Snake is perhaps a bit too sarcastic at points (not to mention an incredibly heavy smoker if he's on his fifth one in about twenty minutes), but I've always found him to be a pretty hard guy to keep perfectly in-character. I think you're doing pretty good with him.
Speaking of Snake though, I don't remember seeing a description of him in here. You don't need much, but as the main character, you'd probably want to paint a quick portrait of him anyway.
No spelling or grammar errors were particularly glaring at me. Sometimes the shift from first- and third-person got a little jarring, but I think I see why you're doing it. Not bad, though! I'll follow along with this story for awhile. Snake chilling with ponies is too beautiful to miss.
All I can say about this story:!
Snake? Snake? Snaaaaaake!
1687219
Yeah, I realised that this first chapter could be a bit off-putting to non-Metal Gear fans, but I figured that it would be better to try and take things slowly and build up to it rather than have Snake be like "Meryl and I headed down a corridor... and then I was in Equestria!". My hope is that this first chapter will be engaging enough on its own that new fans to the series will be able to get through it. I can see what you mean by he's a bit too sarcastic though... part of that was me trying to be a bit too humorous, I suppose.
*Facehoofs* Crap, you're right! I'll put in a description next chapter ASAP. (Because really, I hate going back and editing stuff unless it's incredibly glaring).
Thank you for your constructive criticisms and comments - this is my first fic!
It would be good... I stopped reading this chapter because its a wall of text
I just loved this, i cant stop laughing.... the box....i ll writte something longer when i gather myself...stil laughing
Snake's box is his last line of defense against a mental breakdown. It provides him with privacy and tranquility amidst his enemies. And now that defense has crumbled to dust. Keep soldiering on, Snake.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! THEY MANAGED TO DEFEAT THE BOX!!!!!
3209425 Who else but Pinkie Pie?
OH CRAP! HERE COMES PINKIE PIE!
5666128 pinkiepocalypse
Really?
Then again, it was Big Boss that fought The Fear, so I guess that doesn't count. Also, I love how meta the story is.
1688485
I don't know about this first part being too confusing for newcomers to Metal Gear. It does describe the events around Psycho Mantis in a lot of detail. It isn't a proper rundown of the game, but... It's Metal Gear. There'd probably be another chapter where Snake describes it.
I think he was pretty in character. He feels a bit more like Big Boss if he was less professional and a little more playful - almost like a bit of a caricature of Solid Snake.
So far this is kinda okay. The way it's narrated takes some getting used to. It just feel like Snake is saying this.
Still, Metal Gear can't be that easy to write with MLP. At least there is a decent understanding of how Metal Gear and Snake can be.
6329538
Yeah. Metal Gear was pretty self aware and did take the time to joke around. I just kinda wished this happened after MGS2. Eh. I guess Psycho Mantis was probably one of the best ways to get him to Equestria.