[fontsize][b]Chapter 2: Colosseo[/b][/fotnsize]

[i]Halfway to the Vista Mansion[/i]

The vegetation was higher here, with some trees to offer more cover, more of the PMC troopers around, in addition to the Slicer unmanned aircraft with their infrared sensors and machine guns, but no more prisoners. Luckily, they hadn't run into much trouble from the Slicers, nor from many opposing Strykers. The one they had seen they were able to pass by without notice. That wasn't to say there was no combat. Rebels were pushing forward, with their own trucks and guns, in higher numbers. More talk of an "old man in a bodysuit" as they went. Also, talk of "jumping women in black" and "walking tanks", what there was of it she could basically understand through a language barrier that she had only very luckily passed with that one pair, perhaps due to stress caused by her. On the whole, the mercenaries spoke French, the rebels Spanish.

Hours had passed on, the duo having been dropped off a ways away, Azumi left with Drebin's radio frequency of "148.93" for her to talk still if they found any weapons.

Soldiers had passed out, normally by Azumi's haphazard handling of her new blade, bashing them on the side of the head with the blunt of it, or choking them until they were down for the count, distracted by the rebels. It was, indeed, a wakizashi, curved and silver in color with a black hilt and hand guard and an easily press-able switch on the side of the hilt for the electric charge. It was vibrating constantly, yes, from some unknown power source. Perhaps solar? No matter.

Ezio, meanwhile, had chosen to avoid conflict as he followed Azumi. She needed whatever training with her new weapon that she could get. Besides, it wasn't likely that the master assassin would ever lose his talent for killing any time soon.

Azumi looked to Ezio as they went, finally ducking behind a tree, lowering the sword in favor of her handgun, putting the weapon in the awkwardly-placed sheath on her back parallel with where her other gun would go. She had to get that fixed. "How'm I doing? Not really used to a blade like this, no training."

"Decent for one without proper training for the weapon. You will get better though, I am sure." Said Ezio after ducking behind a tree with Azumi.

"Yeah, we'll s--" She heard a whirr above, as well as stomping... and flattened against the tree, holding her breath, motioning for Ezio to hide.

Up above, four Slider unmanned aircraft flew overhead, scanning the area with their infrared sensors. They hovered for a few moments....then went off, continuing as if they hadn't been.

Azumi heard the stomping coming closer. GEKKOs, two of them by the sounds of the falling feet. Presumably the Sliders had sent their heat signature for others to take out, since it was just two people.

The soldier looked to the Assassin, whispering. "Do you see them? We have to move."

Ezio, ducking behind a tree near Azumi, nodded, "Yes, but they seem to know where we are. Would a preemptive attack do anything useful against them, or should we find a suitable hiding spot?" He said, peeking out from behind the tree to eye the GEKKOs. He didn't worry about being outmatched, thoughts like that would have gotten him killed in his line of work, for seemingly insurmountable odds were never a deciding factor in his life as an Assassin. The current situation was no different.

Azumi waited for a few moments, looking as the GEKKO units walked toward their position, their machine guns killing several of the rebels that lagged behind in running away in the process. She hardened herself to the deaths, as there was nothing she could do at present, but came to a decision. "We have to find a hiding spot." She looked around, but swore under her breath. "According to Drebin's data and my HUD, we're half a mile from the nearest building, and it's in the direction the rebels are going. I don't have the firepower to take down those things unless I use a lot of frags, and unless you have grenades, I don't know if you do either."

She looked. They were coming closer... "Screw it, we have to fight." Quickly, she turned, drawing her universe's fragmentation grenade, the green and yellow one with a black and red switch, the M9 High-Explosive Dual-Purpose grenade. "Go get the one on the left. I got the one on the--"

[b]Boom![/b] An explosion took her GEKKO from the back of the head, causing it to stagger. It called out in its cow-like voice, and turned to the source. It looked like they had some allies at last.

"...well, that was unexpected. Go, Ezio. I'll back you up if you need it." She threw the grenade then with all of her might, watching it sail through the air.... the explosive force again made the same one stagger, near death, and she could see the weapon behind it, the one that was wielded by someone she could barely see, though she could see the old face, the white hair from here. An RPG-7, a shoulder-mounted anti-tank rocket propelled grenade launcher.

Nodding, Ezio quickly broke into a sprint towards the second, uninjured GEKKO. It was fortunate for the Master Assassin that the machine was momentarily distracted in it's attempts to search for it's partner's attacker, it gave him just enough time to take a small, brown bomb from one of the pouches on his belt and toss it at the GEKKO just as it had begun to take notice of him. The bomb exploded in a puff of white smoke upon colliding with the GEKKO's head, and it staggered backwards several steps in surprise. Ezio, keen to take advantage of this window of opportunity, leaped onto the machine's leg and began his climb up to the GEKKO's head.

This was made difficult by the fact that the large machine was all too aware that something was latched onto it, and it put a tremendous amount of effort into thrashing violently in an attempt to throw Ezio off. However, these attempts were futile, as Ezio had soon managed to steady himself atop the GEKKO's head. Pulling another bomb from a belt pouch, he secured it to the machine's head via a glue like substance that coated the bomb's shell. He then leaped off of the GEKKO's head after the bomb's fuse was lit.

As soon as Ezio hit the ground, the sticky bomb exploded with enough force to blow half of the GEKKO's head apart, and it fell the the ground, lifeless.

Ezio had no desire to celebrate this victory, however, and as he got to his feet, he glanced back at Azumi. "Who attacked the other machine, do you see them?" He said, wary as ever.

The soldier's eyes were wide under her helmet as she put back her next grenade. "...not bad," she muttered at how the Master Assassin had dispatched the GEKKO. "Yeah, I--"

The man came toward them, a new gun in his hands, the M4 Custom, an M16 rifle variant. He held them in his sights as he came closer, the dirt and grass texture of his bodysuit switching back to a black, probably OctoCamo. Those blue-gray eyes had seen the horrors of war without the aid of the System, the gray hair and old face showing some enhanced aging. Over his left eye was a black, technologically enhancing eyepatch, a gray headband around his head under a mullet hairstyle. His entire attitude did not show any kind of niceties, though he did seem to understand what he was looking at. He grunted his response to what he had seen.

"Interferences." It seemed that his last encounter with their kind had been less than satisfactory. Maybe they had left him behind for some reason or another? "Gunther or Mantis?"

Azumi, though, drew her new blade, aiming it at him in self defense. "Tell us your name, and we m--"

[url=http://images.wikia.com/metalgear/images/8/8b/Metal_Gear_Mk._II.jpg]A small, motorized terminal in cobalt blue[/url] fizzed into sight, rolling between the armed groups. A smaller screen opened up from the side, the voice of a man coming up, one with short brown hair, brown eyes, and glasses, with a white lab coat, gray undershirt, and black gloves visible from the half-size image projected. He looked to be in his mid thirties. [i]"Wait, Snake! They just helped us! I don't think they would be with Liquid."[/i]

Slowly, the old man lowered the gun, frowning. "Otacon."

[i]"Now, can you two give your names? We need all the help we can get before we go get Naomi."[/i]

The Master Assassin merely crossed his arms in response to the tensions between Azumi and 'Snake'. Although there were plenty of reasons to be cautious around him, there didn't appear to be any indication that they could not become allies, even if it would be temporary.

After a brief period in which he thought over telling the two strangers his name, Ezio decided against lying to them. "My name is Ezio," he said, unfolding his arms, "I assume our meeting is not a coincidence?"

Azumi frowned at the giving of an actual name, but decided to just go with it. She'd follow the Mentor's route here. "Sergeant Azumi Ian."

Snake grunted in annoyance at Ezio's comment. "If you leave like the others without any warning and leave me to Liquid." He paused a moment, then spoke. "Solid Snake."

"Otacon" then looked them over. "What military are you, Sergeant? And who are you two working for in general?"

Azumi shrugged. "Interferences, don't really have any particular bosses." Sure, she was skirting the issue, but still it wasn't necessarily wrong. "Marines."

The scientist looked over her blade. [i]"A high frequency blade? So you're the newest of the cyborg ninja?"[/i]

Azumi froze for a moment. "....do you have any idea what you just said."

[i]"Seen weirder, believe me. Try bisexual dancing vampires."[/i]

"As interesting as that sounds, I am curious as to who this 'Liquid' is." Said Ezio, who wanted the conversation to avoid drifting too far off topic.

Azumi nodded slightly, not really wanting to know the details on that either. She was just silent as the explanation came from Otacon.

[i]"Liquid Ocelot? It's Revolver Ocelot, known double, sometimes triple agent who worked with the high-tech, rogue special operations unit FOXHOUND before it collapsed, then with the Patriots. Got Snake here's clone brother Liquid Ocelot's arm grafted on to his own right as a replacement. We think Liquid Snake's spirit is--"[/i]

"Otacon," Snake grunted.

A nod. [i]"Right, right. Best not to go too much into that. Just know that he's in charge of Outer Haven, the mother company of the mercenary groups like Octopus Armaments. And I'd think of the B&B Corps, if they show up here." The appearance fizzed, the small terminal disappearing. "Probably best if I'm not leaving the Mk. II out in the open too much. I'm Hal Emmerich, better known as Otacon to Snake here. I'll be the closest you have to a mission control, I guess. If you need me, select the Mk. II from the START button menu."[/i] And it disappeared.

Azumi just tilted her head at that. "...what button?"

Snake shrugged, then looked to where the robot was. "Get a grip, Otacon."

[i]"Right, sorry."[/i]

Ezio gave no response to the comment, focusing on other matters would be more important. "Let us continue." He said, before checking his bomb count. Four more sticking bombs, four smoke bombs, and 5 trip wire poison bombs. It would be enough, but they would have to be used sparingly.

Snake nodded, and held out the M4 again as he continued forward. He didn't even speak, trying to make sure of their surroundings. He didn't even pay attention to his allies anymore, trying to find the mercenaries that he would have to face.

Azumi looked to Ezio as this happened, drawing her handgun again, and whispered to him. "See if you can find anyone around with that thing you did to find Drebin. We need to be sure of if there's anyone else hiding around."

Ezio nodded silently and tuned into Eagle Sense, and the world instantly became a shadow. Only the bright blue glow given off of Azumi and Snake's bodies provided any illumination. What caught the Master Assassin's attention the most, however, was the golden line of something metallic, the path most recently took by their target. It was just a matter of following the trail to it's end. "I have her trail." He said, before quickening his pace to where he was even with Snake, "What do you intend to do with Laughing Octopus once we have defeated her? I have agreed to try and spare her life with my apprentice, and I need to know if you intend to do the same." The last thing Ezio wanted was conflicted goals.

Snake ignored him for a few moments. Finally he spoke. "They tend to die anyway," he said gruffly. "If you have a trail, follow it. I'm looking for someone else, and she might not even be here. All of them could be gone, or just Raven."

Azumi just shrugged, letting him keep walking. She looked at the ground, flickering her VISR on and off...and saw nothing. She looked to Ezio, sighing as she saw Snake go. "Wait," she said, making him pause. "What is your frequency?"

Otacon's voice came up from nowhere. "141.12. Be careful out there."

Without another word, the clone of the Legendary Soldier, Old Snake, left, walking on his way with his gun out.

Azumi looked to Ezio. "Lead the way," she said. "I can't track her this way. Are you sure it's her?"

Ezio nodded, "I am sure, watch for ambushes. I have a feeling that we are being expected." He said, keeping his eye on the golden trail, only occasionally looking around for any other signs of activity. The Master Assassin was tense, a clear path to a dangerous target was never quite as simple as it seemed. There was always something that would go wrong.

Azumi nodded, following as he went on his way. She couldn't just use her VISR, not unless she was inside, so she stayed prepared. They would see Snake later.

A soft chuckle could be heard, albeit out of range. The smallest flicker, out of sight of them, high above, on a rooftop. "It's all so funny..." the beastly, masculine voice muttered between chuckles, a feminine form barely visible amongst the four-armed exoskeleton, the P90 gun in her hands.

And she flickered out.

The Devil's Child was prepared.