Saving Solid Snake

The Author had been waiting alone in the lair for most of the day before one of the com links that he was monitoring started beeping.

He has now deployed his talented assistants in various stories throughout fiction. They were now equipped with small communicators. In Deadpool and Jared's cases the communicators were worn on the wrists like watches. In Sephiroth's case it was a button under his coat, against his chest. 

For Cassandra it was a small device in her utility belt. She had opted for the sleek Ninja outfit for this mission. Earlier that day the Author had asked her to infiltrate a top secret military lab and to find something called "Foxdie".

The Author had no idea how the container would look, but knew that it was to find its way to a special operative that was soon going to be on a mission on Shadow Moses Island. Apparently Foxdie was a virus that was going to get injected into the soldier known as Solid Snake along with the nanomachines that formed part of mission gear.

After hours of patiently moving around in the ceiling of the building, peering through air grates and whatever openings she could find and carefully listening to every conversation that she could pick up she was able to learn that the nanomachines were kept in vials that were in a locked cold storage container. The vial that was meant for Snake, however, was kept in a small cold storage case in the office of Dr Naomi Hunter. This vial was to accompany Dr Hunter and Col. Roy Campbell to Alaska the next morning.

The Author had told Cassandra not to engage anyone and also not to make her presence known in any way. As soon as she has found out what she needed to know she was to press the button on the communicator to alert the Author.

Shortly after the button was pushed a portal, just big enough for Cassandra to crawl into, opened up right next to her.

The Author helped Cassandra up when her body had fully entered the lair.

"Okay." he said, anxious to hear the intel that she had gathered. "What have you found out?"

Cassandra took out a tablet and activated a drawing app. Drawing with her finger across the screen she sketched a crude schematic of the facility in which she had been just a moment ago. Then- she pointed out the cold storage unit for the nanomachines and Dr Hunter's office.

"So- the virus is not there..." the Author concluded and sank back into his chair. His fingertips were now resting against each other as he considered the situation.

"I reckon that it would look suspicious if Snake got given two shots instead of just one. So- the nanomachines and the virus should already be mixed by the time they get to Snake..."

"But-" Cassandra replied..."Won't Dr Hunter maybe add the virus at the last moment...?"

The Author sighed. This mission was not going to be as easy as he thought...

David was outside his cabin chopping wood when a Caucasian man and and Asian woman came walking up to him from out of nowhere. They were dressed in U.S. Army uniforms. That just did not add up, though. As far as the Army were concerned, he did not exist at all. And- the unit that would know that he existed had a fox emblem on their uniforms.

That unit also happened to have six members whom David happened to remember really well and these two were not among them...

 

David made an effort not to seem alarmed and rested the axe head in his palm.

"What does the U.S. Army want out here?" he asked.

"Good afternoon, Solid Snake." the Author greeted. "We are not here for you, but rather for the lady that is soon going to arrive with that helicopter..."

As the Author spoke Snake heard the sound of a chopper approaching and soon he and his two visitors were receiving the icy wind from the helicopter's rotor blades as it landed near them. 

Snake recognised the man who got out to greet him...

"Colonel..." he greeted.

"Snake! It has been too long..." Roy Campbell greeted and the two men grabbed each other by the arm as they shook hands.

"Err... Colonel..." the Author interrupted them. "I am sure that you have noticed that we are here, but you may be wondering why..."

"Yes. I am wondering what the Army is doing here..." Campbell replied. Besides the President, Dr Hunter, Mei Ling and himself nobody else knew about the Shadow Moses mission.

"Well..." the Author explained. "I am afraid that the batch of nanomachines that was meant for your man here got tampered with. We are to confiscate it immediately and take it to the lab for testing."

"That's ridiculous!" Dr Hunter exclaimed. "I have checked these nanomachines myself!" 

"I am sure you have..." the Author calmly replied."You are under arrest." 

Before Naomi could say anything else Cassandra was at her side in an instant and grabbed her by the arm. She was cuffed before she knew what had hit her...

The Author took out a vial of nanomachines that he had taken out of the cold storage unit at the lab a while before he had teleported Cassandra and himself to Snake's home. "I am sure you do not want any delays on your mission, Colonel. These are clean. You can use them." Then, suddenly remembering something, he also took out the syringe gun from his pocket. It was designed to have the vial fitted to it.

"What's all this about?" Snake asked.

"Not to worry." the Author cheerfully replied. "The Colonel will explain it all to you. We just came to intercept the sabotage..."

Cassandra saluted the Colonel and added: "We have also pulled your niece from the island. She is waiting for you at HQ with Mei Ling."

Cassandra then took out a card key from her uniform's chest pocket and handed it to Snake.

"You will need this." she said and stepped back.

"Who has sent you people?" Roy asked in disbelief. He could see that they were helping, but he was not comfortable with them knowing so much. Damn! They even knew about Meryl...

The Author smiled. "We are nobody, Colonel." the Author answered before adding- "You might want to know who the Lalelulelo is, however..."

The Author and Cassandra then saluted the Colonel and Snake and walked off into the distance.