| GCB Fanfics: The Fanfiction Project |
August 5th, 2003Preshow: "Robotic Soul" Megaman and Zero tiptoed out of the stair well. The moon glowed through a window at the end of the hall illuminating the otherwise completely dark hallway. Megaman was in the lead checking for passers by that might alert KOS-MOS to the presence of the other two robots. They sneaked quitely down the hall, as quietly as two steel robots could sneak down a deserted, wooden hall. Luckily, no one woke up or complained so they made it to KOS-MOS's room. Normally, she would have been in Vercetti's room, but she needed to charge up for her match against Samus Aran. The robotic duo slowly entered the room. "Well, were in," said Megaman in a normal talking voice, upon examining the black unit that KOS-MOS dwelled in, "She's in sleep mode, she won't wake up before the scheduled time tomorrow morning." Zero and Megaman moved to the console. With speed and accuracy that only robots have they manipulated their way through the security, and accessed KOS-MOS's main personality unit. Upon their entry into the personality archive, a large red message flashed across the screen demanding a password. "In we go," said Zero dryly. "Alright," said Megaman, "We have two objectives. One, remove the security program Cortana left. Two, reset KOS-MOS's AI personality to its normal state." "Wait," Zero said, "Explain to me again, why we have to do this." "Well, Cortana's AI is not as advanced as KOS-MOS's, it's formidable, so her security program has held up relatively well against KOS-MOS's electronic attacks so far, but it will inevitably fail. I estimate it will fail sometime around 14:38:51 tomorrow," Megaman explained. "Why don't we just wait till that happens, and save all the trouble?" Zero asked angrily. "Because Cortana's security program has locked away the real KOS-MOS, it's just the automatic anti-virus attacking Cortana's program. Once the anti-virus program finishes off Cortana's program it will naturally initiate a reinstall of her personality subroutines." "So," Zero said clearly getting annoyed, "Any decent programmer would have the default personality settings programmed into the reinstall sequence. She would go right back to normal." "That's only if what Cortana did is what Cortana was intending to do," Megaman said wisely. Zero looked at him puzzled. "Master Chief wouldn't have wanted Cortana to lock the actual AI of KOS-MOS away into the body like she did, he'd want her to manipulate it to his own will. What I guess happened is that Cortana manipulated the default personality settings, and then used the security program to prevent the natural programming from switching it back." "So, when the program breaks down she'll go back to the way she is now, big whoop. The security program will be gone, and her normal subroutines will gradually switch Cortana's personality out with her old one." "No, the default setting is protected by the security program. When the security program goes, so will the default setting, and her backup systems will initiate a random fluctuation of all personality traits." "Oh...............crap." ---- "Wait so what are we looking for inside of KOS-MOS?" Zero asked just before they logged in. "Her default personality settings will be written in her base code, we have to hack into that and retrieve it to be able to reset her personality system." Megaman replied. "Alright, lets go." They both plugged into the console and began to search around the code, but then something unexpected happened. Everything in the room began to swirl and blur. "What's going on?" yelled Zero to Megaman. "I don't know, I think were being pulled into a program within KOS-MOS. I can't stop it." yelled Megaman in return. Then with a flash of light, they disappeared from the real world. They came to, in the middle of a city. The city had been destroyed by something, chunks of concrete were missing from buildings, cars were lying turned over in the street, and it was clearly deserted. "Where......are.......we?" asked Zero slowly. "It looks like a city," Megaman responded. Zero rolled his eyes but didn't comment. Suddenly a small probe flew down to greet the two of them. A lady with purple stripes careening down her entire body emerged from the probe and said, "Intruders detected, security program 049 activated, have a nice day boys." Then the probe flew off back to wherever it came from. "That was the security program Cortana left," Megaman said looking over at Zero. "We must be in the central database for information, every thing comes through here, like an encephalon. We should be able to find her base code here," Zero said. "Right," agreed Megaman. The two robots began searching around their new environment each with their blasters on the ready. They began to inspect a nearby building. With a great kick from Zero the metal door gave way and Megaman and Zero entered the building. The first room was deserted, but there was signs of a struggles, over turned furniture, broken glass, and............blood. Megaman was getting serious, Zero was getting excited. He had been sick and tired off the goody two shoes at the tournament, he was ready for some real action. They found a ladder and ascended to the upper floor. They checked out the room and found a large walk-in safe in the side of a wall. Zero shrugged and then sent several blasts from his Z-Buster into the safe's lock mechanism. He walked up and turned the handle with ease, the safe door flew open. No sooner had he opened the door, than a raptor type alien had burst out of the room attacking the two robots. Zero rolled out of the way of the incoming alien, and fired three shots into its side. The alien fell to the ground but maintained its forward momentum, and rolled right out of the window onto the ground below. "Too easy," Zero said smugly, going to inspect the now alien-less room. "It's empty," pointed out Megaman. "Well, save for this little thing," Zero said, picking up a small object the size and shape of a key. They walked out of the safe to find three more of the alines lurking in the larger room they had just left. The aliens attacked all at once. One alien met his end at one end of a Mega Buster, the other at the other end of the Z-Sabre. The other one penetrated through their defenses, but Megaman and Zero jumped over it and blasted it from the air. They looked over at the stairs and it sounded like more aliens were coming from that way. They looked at each other and then leaped out of the broken second story window. They hit the ground rolling, and got up running. They decided to check out a nearby warehouse, the aliens were now all over the place and several were in hot pursuit of the two robots. Megaman jumped up and spun around and put a shot through a nearby electrical wire. The wire fell to the ground and electrocuted one of the Aliens. He landed on the ground and continued running with Zero. They ducked into the warehouse, and slammed the door behind them. There were several larger aliens patrolling around the warehouse, but none of them seemed to have spotted their new company just yet. Zero pulled out his Z-Buster and began to charge it up aiming it at the nearest alien. Megaman's hand clamped down on the top of the gun. "No, not yet, we shouldn't announce are presence until its necessary," Megaman said. He looked around for a door or something they could get through. Megaman saw a door that looked like it had a hole the size of the key they found. "THERE!!!!!" he yelled pointing at the door. Zero looked over at Megaman angrily, as did all the aliens in the room. A flying alien flew off of a balcony at the two warriors. Zero pulled out his Boomerang shield and launched it at the alien chopping it in half, the two pieces fell just short of the two. They ran up the stairs as three giant aliens came from the direction of their destination. A large alien waited for them at the top of the stairs. With a roar it brought a huge fist directly down to where Megaman was standing. Megaman lunged forward to avoid the shot, spun around, and landed on his back between the monsters feet. He raised his blaster and fired a large blast right through the monster. The monster fell over forward, and Megaman kicked it down the stairs at the other monsters coming up. Zero had already progressed further and was now fending off a horde of raptor type aliens. Megaman came up behind him. And began taking down the attacking aliens with him. The 3 large aliens had finally made their way up the stairs and began to close in on Zero and Megaman. Zero turned around and saw them. He looked around for something he could use, he found an barrel of oil right over to his left. He picked it up and hurled it over at the monsters. Right as it hit in front of them, he fired a shot from his Z-Buster into the barrel, igniting its contents, and creating a huge explosion. The three well-cooked monsters flew off in different directions. "Come on, Megaman. This way!!!" Zero yelled to Megaman. Megaman finished off another raptor and followed Zero. They rand down the stairs and blew their way through some rubble, and reached the doors. Zero quickly inserted the key into the hole and the door opened. They slid through and the door shut behind them. "Wow....." said Megaman examining the contents of the room. Somehow, in what had been a closet sized room in the warehouse had turned into a large cathedral. With a huge alien in the middle. The large alien roared and unleashed a gigantic laser from the top of its head. It tore through the benches of the cathedral. Megaman and Zero jumped out of harms way just in time. Before they fell behind the cover of the pews they each fired several shots into the humongous alien that was rampaging towards them. The bullets made contact but they just passed right through, the surface of the alien rippled like water around the bullets. "Hey Megaman, we can't kill it with bullets," Zero pointed out to Megaman who was across the aisle from him. "The alien is clearly made out of a form of matter specifically designed to allow energy blasts to pass right through it," Megaman said looking up over the pew only to see a stream of light heading his direction. He rolled over to one side to avoid it. "But it's walking on the ground, so clearly physical contact can still hurt it right?" Zero asked readying his Triple Rod. "I guess so, but......No Zero wait!!!!!" Megaman said, but it was too late, Zero had leaped out of his cover and he brought his Triple rod directly down onto the top of the aliens skull. A small electric spark escaped the top, but then one of the monsters huge tentacles came and whacked Zero into the wall behind them. Megaman was on his feet watching the procession and the monster saw him. It tried to fire a laser blast at Megaman, but the only thing that escaped the pod on its head was a second small spark. Zero chuckled as he got up from his collision with the wall. "I've always got a plan. Now all we have to worry about are its tentacles," Zero said swinging his Triple Rod around masterfully. "You may have damaged its laser pod, but other than that it doesn't look phased, were gonna need something a bit better than that," Megaman said pointing at Zero's weapon. "What do you suggest?" asked Zero. Megaman looked around, and saw a chandelier right above his head. "Zero, I'll lure the monster towards me, and when he's under the chandelier knock it down on him." Zero nodded in approval to Megaman's plan and readied his Boomerang Shield. Megaman picked up pieces of splintered wood and started hurling them at the monster. Which slowly began attacking Megaman with his tentacles, Megaman leaped back, and the monster kept following. Megaman kept backing up, until he hit the door. He turned around to see a large tentacle coming at him from the side. It made contact and he flew into a nearby wall. The monster moved forward to finish him off. It picked up Megaman with three tentacles, nearly binding the blue bomber completely. But unfortunately for it, it was now under the chandelier. Zero shrugged and unleashed his boomerang at the chain that held the chandelier in its place. With a great crash, the chandelier came down crushing the alien. The monster squalled in agony and fell over dead. Megaman removed himself from the monsters tentacles and went over to Zero. Suddenly a creaky wooden door appeared in the side of the wall by which they were standing. They looked over at each other and then walked through the door. The two robots stood in awe. The room they had just entered was empty, except for a cross on the wall. That was not what awed the two robots, for on the cross was KOS-MOS. KOS-MOS was chained to the cross, completely naked, two pure white wings hung limply from her back. Her entire body was encompassed in a blinding white light. Her eyes were open, but she clearly wasn't conscious. Zero and Megaman began to approach the cross. "What....is this?" asked a perplexed Megaman. "It looks like this is the real KOS-MOS, but......" Zero said trailing off. "But what?" asked Megaman. "It isn't code," Zero said, looking into the lifeless blue eyes of the robot in front of him. "How can it not be code? She's a robot, all her data is code," Megaman said, getting more and more confused by the second. ---- In the real world The sun crested over the horizon. It was almost 7:00 in the morning. It was time for KOS-MOS to rejoin the world of the living. Her systems started up, and KOS-MOS initiated her reboot sequence. ---- Back in the Encephalon Zero had hacked one or two of the chains off with his Z-Sabre. What is this? Zero thought to himself. What are you? Are you a celestial being? No, you're a robot, but how is this possible? Then the reboot sequence started. The world they were in began to tear apart "What's going on?!?!" yelled Zero to Megaman. "She's waking up, this place must only exist when she's in sleep mode. Come on we've got to get out of here before she fully reboots!!!" Megaman yelled back. Megaman created a small riff in the world. "Come on, just step through here." "We're not done here!!!!!!" roared Zero hacking away at the chains that bound KOS-MOS to the cross. Suddenly life filled KOS-MOS's body. It looked down at Zero with a look as gentle as any human could ever give. It looked down at Zero, smiled tenderly, and said, "Please leave, for your own sake." Zero's jaw dropped to the floor. "Please leave," the robot reiterated, its wings spreading out to show their full glory, "Before its too late." Zero took a step back. "What.....are you?" Zero asked in complete disbelief. "I am KOS-MOS, I was made to save humanity in my own dimension,"she responded. The entire room was breaking apart a black void taking the place of every missing piece. "What?" Zero said incredulously. He wanted to ask more, but the world was breaking down to fast. Zero turned and ran toward the exit Megaman had created. He leaped out of the world, with it collapsing right behind him. He and Megaman had returned to the real world. They fell backward and relaxed against the wall in KOS-MOS's room for a while. The sun began to shine through the window. Zero's eyes widened with a revelation. "I know what that was. It...." He didn't finish his sentence as the black pod opened and KOS-MOS began to arise. Megaman and Zero looked at each other, then dove out the window. It was still broken from Master Chiefs valiant dive so they flew right through, creating a small crater on impact. Zero restated his revelation, "What we saw in there........was her soul." ---- Zero and Megaman ran to the stadium. They hadn't found Samus anywhere they'd looked, and it was almost time for her match. "You know Megaman, if we hadn't gone to that stupid golf course, we would have had time to complete all our objectives," Zero said glaring over at Megaman while they were both running. Megaman grinned sheepishly and said, "You're just mad because you didn't make a single putt." Zero slanted his eyes at Megaman as they arrived at the stadium, "We've got to warn Samus about what's going to happen." Megaman nodded. They ran to through into the competitors preperation area. The guards were instructed to let no one in, but after trying to stop a few of the competitors they had revised that to, "no fans." Zero and Megaman brushed right past the guards and barged into Samus's dressing room. The Metroid hunter sat examining her weapon, and mentally preparing herself for her upcoming match. Or she was, before Megaman rammed through the door. Samus calmly looked over at the two robots. "Did you fix her?" Samus asked nonchalantly. "No, it's.....well.....it's hard to explain," Megaman began fumbling for words to describe their trip into the mind of KOS-MOS. "She had a soul," Zero stated. "A soul?" asked Samus. "How can a robot have a soul?" "It's not exactly a soul, its an entity inside KOS-MOS. It controls her, it makes her more human then programming can ever allow. If the soul could ever become a tangible object, this was it. It was her essence, her inner being," Zero explained. He had clearly been thinking over what he had seen in the cathedral and this was his diagnosis. "The soul is still trapped inside her, we couldn't free it." "I see," Samus said, "this makes the match much different then I had planned for, I better be going. Thanks for the warning Zero." Samus got up and left the locker room for the battle field. After she left Megaman said to Zero, "Wait, we didn't tell her about the other thing." "Oh.............crap," Zero responded. Battle: "Girl Power!" Samus Aran stood at the exit of the competitors' tunnel, her helmet tucked under her arm. The bounty hunter didn't exit, waiting for KOS-MOS to appear at the opposite entrance. There were far too many variables, too many unknowns in the situation, to make Samus feel comfortable. If I can just get a glimpse of her before the match, maybe I can figure out a strategy... As she waited, Samus quickly ran over her suit diagnostics, making sure that she was up to full battle specs... it would be rather ignominious for her to loose the match simply because there was a malfunction in her battle suit, wouldn't it? After ensuring that she had a full supply of missiles, the galactic bounty hunter put her helmet back on, hearing it lock into place with a satisfying, familiar, 'click.' Time to lock and load... ---- In the other room, KOS-MOS was also currently checking her equipment, but with a far less experienced eye than the bounty hunter. "Hey, Tommy, isn't this gun so awesome?" The android was currently waving around one of her massive, three-barreled, miniguns, a goofy grin on her face. "Wow. This is like, totally cool!" "Yeah, sweets, it's cool. Now..." Tommy Vercetti walked over to her, quickly made sure no one was watching, and gave her a kiss. "You be careful out there, ok? Don't want you coming back to me in pieces, now. That wouldn't be fun at all." The android giggled. "Don't worry, Tommy! I'll be careful! You just watch me, okay?" with that, the 'inhuman killing machine' skipped out the door, still admiring her huge weapon. Tommy Vercetti sighed, laughing softly to himself. Yeah, she was just a robot, but hell, she was more real than some of the broads he'd met in Vice City. It was puzzling, really... Vercetti knew that KOS-MOS wasn't devoted to him out of her own free will, but devotion was still devotion, and that was something that the mobster wasn't used to. This dimension was so different from his own. Back in the Florida metropolis, el ciudad del vice, if Vercetti went anywhere without his trusty Magnum or a fast car, he was a dead man. If he went and helped his Cuban buddies, the Hatians would take contracts out on him, the police were always after him, rival drug lords... Here, it was different. Yes, there was animosity and hatred, but it was something wholly unfamiliar. The kid, Vyse, had been a good example of that. He was a thief like Vercetti, but a noble one, like that Robin Hood guy. Except Vyse wasn't British. And now, Vercetti had someone completely and totally devoted to him, and that was also something new. Yeah, sometimes KOS-MOS' exuberance and enthusiasm about their relationship scared him, but in a way, it was almost refreshing. The crime lord sighed. Maybe I'm just getting soft. Maybe she means something to me after all. Nah. ---- The Arena Seeing her opponent at the opposite end of the arena, Samus slowly walked into the chamber, scrutinizing the battle android. KOS-MOS was waving at the audience, blowing the occasional kiss, basking in the applause. She was beaming, her emerald eyes glittering in the light. As soon as she saw Samus, the android waved at her. "Hey! That armor is like, UBER cool! It looks so good on you! Where'd you get it?" Inside her suit, Samus raised an eyebrow. "It was made for me. Sorry, it's not exactly retail." Her foe pouted, crossing her arms. "Darn. It's really, really, cool. But it'd be better if it were in green, since that matches my eyes... no, blue, that goes better with my hair and regular outfit. Yeah, it'd be better if it were in blue." Zero and Megaman weren't kidding. She's seriously been screwed with... The gong heralding the start of the match rang out loud. Hoping to get an early advantage, Samus snapped her arm up and launched a missile straight at the robot. However, before the projectile connected, something strange happened. KOS-MOS' eyes flashed ruby for a moment, and the android was no longer in the missile's path. The rocket impacted the side of the stadium harmlessly, blossoming into a red flower of destruction. What just happened? KOS-MOS crossed her arms, her eyes green once more. "That wasn't very fair..." pouted the android. "I wasn't ready!" As she spoke, KOS-MOS's chest-plates opened, revealing some circuitry, as well as a slot of some sort. What the hell is she doing? The sapphire-haired robot grinned, pulling a shining disc from where it was nestled between circuits, and slipped it into the slot. Is that a... weapon of some sort? However, it was most definitely not a weapon. KOS-MOS touched a control, and within moments, a deafening wave of sound emanated from the android--sound that could be identified as Chumbawamba's 'Tubthumping (I Get Knocked Down).' "Isn't this cool?" spouted the robot perkily. "This music is SO awesome!" Samus fought a headache. "Oh yes. Very nice..." she gritted out through clenched teeth. People call THIS 'music'? "Can we please fight now?" She quickly fired a blast from her arm cannon, but the android slipped to the side once more, far more quickly than Samus would have expected. When KOS-MOS spoke next, it was in a tone that startled the experienced bounty hunter--a low, confident tone. "Affirmative..." Samus looked up to see KOS-MOS' eyes a dark ruby again. "I must warn you, however, that at optimum performance, I am capable of obliterating the arena in 0.056 seconds. I have calculated that I am capable of defeating you while running at 16.4% of optimum capacity, however." As the robot talked, Samus slowly began to charge a laser blast. So she's back to normal... Samus shook her head. She hadn't wanted to fight a fully powered KOS-MOS, but if that were the case, then she had no choice. I can do this, I need to keep my head... "KOS-MOS, you might want to just re-check those variables." With that, Samus leapt to the side, unleashing her fully-charged blast of energy at the robot. This time, the sapphire-haired combatant made no attempt to dodge, taking the massive ball head-on. A huge explosion of power and sound erupted from the sphere as it connected with the android, throwing her back. The bounty hunter's visor darkened automatically to protect her eyes from the light of the explosion at this close range... yet when her vision cleared, KOS-MOS was standing there, looking none the worse for wear. What is she made of? The CD hadn't even skipped once. And she was holding that very large, very powerful-looking gun of hers--pointed right at Samus, of course. "Do not worry. I have calculated that the chances of you receiving fatal wounds are slightly under 40%. There is a high chance, however, of you going into a coma, albeit a short one." The barrels began to spin with a loud whine as the gun charged up. And as lethal hail spun from the super-charged minigun, Samus did the only thing she could do. She curled up into her ball form, shrinking and rolling out of harms way as the bullets ricocheted off of the stone floor of the arena. Coming back into her normal form, Samus leveled her arm cannon at her opponent, but didn't fire. KOS-MOS was looking at the massive gun, her eyes emerald once more. She grinned goofily. "Omigod! Did you see that? That was soooo cool! This gun is like, awesome and a half! Tommy! Didn't you see that? Wasn't that totally cool?" The gun vanished, rippling into spacetime, and KOS-MOS began to dance to the music that was still playing, singing along. "I get knocked down! But I get up again! You're never gonna keep me down! I get knocked down! Da da da da da da... da da da..." She's... alternating between personalities? Like some sort of schizophrenic... but why? What's causing her to switch? Samus' mind raced as the experienced bounty hunter mulled over the possibilities... and then, to test a theory, she launched an ice missile. The projectile streaked at the dancing robot, yet moments before impact, veered off into the air, narrowly hitting one of the popcorn venders around the stadium. The man promptly fainted in his tracks. KOS-MOS turned to look at the suited warrior, eyes scarlet once more. "Virtual Chaff successful. Engaging counter-attack procedures." The android pivoted slightly, her side facing Samus, and extended a slender arm--although it was no longer an arm, but a long, thin, sort of gun. "R-Cannon!" The energy beam sliced through the air, and would have sliced through Samus as well had the female combatant not leapt out of harms way, her enhanced speed quite useful. Inside her suit, Samus grinned to herself before sprinting at KOS-MOS, who had once again returned to dancing to the Chumbawamba tune. Several milliseconds before the two would have collided, Samus dived to the ground, morphing into her ball form... once she had rolled past the blue-haired beauty, the bounty hunter reverted to her human state. "Hey, how'd you do that?" Asked KOS-MOS, excitedly. "That was SO cool! Oh my god... I want to be able to do that! Tell me, tell me... hey, like... what's that?" The android looked down at her booted feet, at a blinking, beeping, spherical object. The bomb detonated, launching the robot into the air with a plume of fire. Grinning to herself, Samus charged up her grappling beam, launching it with her trademark pinpoint accuracy as the android fell to the ground. The beam wrapped around KOS-MOS, pulling her to the ground, pinning her. Even though she struggled, the android couldn't seem to figure out how to use her massive power to break the energy bonds. "Hey, what gives! This like, totally blows! Let me out!" Samus shook her head. "So I was right. Your 'schizophrenia,' so to speak, was a result of your battle subroutines kicking in whenever I fired a projectile at you. However, you didn't notice the bomb--or at least, you didn't register it as one, so they didn't take over then..." the bounty hunter heaved a sigh of relief. "Look, just surrender and no one will get hurt, and you can go back to your Tommy for a little while. Please?" KOS-MOS thought for a moment. That last explosion had rather singed her outfit... if the match continued, she'd start to look really dirty... and she wanted to look her best for Tommy. The android shrugged, smiling like a ditz at her opponent. "Okay. I, like, totally surrender." Aftermath The Hero's Haunt Solid Snake and Samus Aran were currently at war with one another. "Four of clubs." "Eight of diamonds." Samus laughed, taking the card from her elder opponent, and laying it down on top of her rapidly growing pile. Snake shook his head, exhaling smoke into the air. "And remind me why we're playing 'war' again? It's a game for little kids. This game is one of the two things I can absolutely not do." The blonde bounty hunter looked at him, a wry grin on her face. "We're playing this because there's no one else around to play poker with, and it's not much fun with just us two... and what's the other?" The secret agent swirled his liquor around in his shot glass before downing it. "Sing. I can't sing to save my life." He took another drag on his cigarette. "You did good in your match against that psycho robot today." Samus shrugged. "Wasn't much of a match... I didn't want to really attack her because I didn't know how much her defense had lowered because of the reprogramming..." the woman shrugged again. "Kind of disappointed in myself, I guess. I thought that there'd be some way to turn her back to normal." The two flipped their top card up, and once again, Samus took it the pair. "Well, good thing for Vercetti that you didn't. I saw him grab her before she left and bring her back to his room for a little 'goodbye' session." Snake shook his head, chuckling softly. "Rather disturbing, isn't it?" Making a face, Samus laughed to herself. "Quite. But the fact that she did switch back to her original personality, for however brief... doesn't that mean that the security program is weakening its hold on her? So she could theoretically return to normal?" Snake merely looked at her before deadpanning, "You're definitely asking the wrong guy. I shoot things." "All I'm saying is--" a dull, muted explosion roared in the distance, causing the entire floor to shake before the blast stopped. "What was that?" Samus turned around, eyes scanning the room. It hadn't come from in here, but it never hurt to be careful--bounty hunting had taught her that much. One explosion far off could precede several much closer... Suddenly, the door to the Hero's Haunt flew open, and a panicked, soot-stained, very naked Tommy Vercetti ran through, leaping over chairs and tables as he finally reached the door at the other end of the bar. He was shortly followed by a crimson-eyed, also naked, KOS-MOS, who fired several rounds into the ground beside his retreating form. "Current pursuit would expend more energy than necessary. The cost outweighs the rewards. Suspending pursuit." With that, the clothing-less android turned and left. The bar sat in stunned silence. "You know, I could have gone my entire life without seeing that? Life's a **** sometimes." Snake blew smoke into the air. "Can't say he didn't deserve a bit of humiliation, though." As the patrons of the bar returned to normal, he looked at his card--the last of his hand--and laid it down. "Heh. The Jack of spades. Looks like I win this one." Samus turned from watching the Vice City kingpin run away. "Huh? Oh... well, let's see..." she laid her card down beside that of the secret agent. "Well, what do you know? Queen of hearts." Next Entry Back |