[fontsize][b]Chapter 3: Freedom to Decide[/b][/fontsize]

Tracking the trail had taken some time, detours and the like, but it seemed they had found their preferred location. A large, wooden warehouse, surrounded by the usual stone walls and close to the Vista Mansion where the mercenaries were based, though not a primary target, it seemed. Especially since the two Assassins didn't exactly... use the front door.

Azumi scanned the area. From a few flashes of her VISR interface, she could see targets in the distance, but nobody hostile, at least except that one guy, but he was dead in a few seconds anyway. She did watch over, the same entryway. Speaking to Ezio, she didn't even look this time. "Anything we can use? Any way in that's not covered? See her?"

She could hear shouting and gunfire coming toward the research laboratory they were near, the location of this "Naomi." A swear on her lips. "And a way to make sure we can get in and out without being caught in a gunfight. Or get a good position for one."

"I see an opening on the warehouse roof, scaling the building should not be a problem. Though we will need to take care to avoid detection. Disabling patrolling soldiers around the area is out of the question however, we cannot risk anyone finding a body and raising the alarm." Said Ezio, who briefly tuned into Eagle Sense. In the distance, he could make several red silhouettes with the bodies of a human female, although their armor made it difficult to distinguish between the two genders initially.

"It seems we have another complication..." Ezio muttered, keeping an eye on the soldiers. They were obviously different from the common grunts they'd seen so far, the question lay in their capabilities.

Azumi tilted her head, looking back the way they had come. She did see the black silhouettes, yes. Raising her gun, she looked down the sights to get a better look... and they jumped, jumped higher than seemed humanly possible, up into the atmosphere...and down, landing on the ground and halving the distance. "Well crap."

[url=http://images.wikia.com/metalgear/images/d/dd/Haven_TrooperMGS4.jpg]They[/url] were indeed female, as she could see, their armor fitted to a woman's body, with Belgian P90 bullpup submachine gun held in their right hands. Machetes in sheathes along their right legs. Seven of the women, fully outfitted, with black masks that seemed to have enlarged filters for gas attacks and red eyepieces. "FROGs", as Drebin had called them. If they were here, it was serious.

Azumi ducked behind a nearby drum can of gasoline, motioning Ezio over. It was best not to engage them, given their capabilities. Especially as they jumped once more...

Ezio was astounded that a human being could jump that high and land unscathed, though his amazement gave way to caution as he ducked behind a drum can nearest to Azumi. While he did not put stock into odds being a major factor in a battle, he had a feeling that a fight between seven of those soldiers would not end well. Luck does not seem to favor us today.

Again the landed, and again they lunged. Five landed on the opposite side of the wall. One landed on the wall. A seventh landed on the outside, surveying the area...and looked their way.

The InterAssassin Mentor swore as she dove away from a hail of bullets from the gun, rolling like a log to get away as she jumped up to her feet, sprinting at the one outside the wall. She didn't say a word, but the reason was clear. Split the difference, take them both down, and they could finish this quietly.

She drew her standard combat knife, putting back the pistol, and slid, trying to take her out quickly. Unfortunately, the FROG saw her, and stepped aside, putting away her own gun on her back in favor of her machete. Azumi stood, just barely backing away from a backhanded stab as she grabbed the arm, trying to break the wrist with a sharp twist, but felt the other arm yank her close, back to front, a garrote pulled around her neck before she could react. She gasped, trying to get air... Wrench, wrench.... Elbow straight into her abs, forcing the grip to loosen, and she felt the garrote drop suddenly as the woman gasped for breath. A left arm reached back, grabbed the arm with the machete as the right arm hooked under. She yanked the arm across her body, using her right leg to add leverage. The Hane Goshi throw sent the FROG on her back without much incident, surprising her. She readied herself for a throat chop when the machete came up, aiming for a backhanded slash that was blocked with the smaller combat knife.

The FROG backflipped, rising high into the air before landing again. She grabbed at under her arm with her free hand, throwing something at Azumi, who only barely dodged to the side, wincing at a throwing knife that almost stabbed through her arm entirely. She had to back up, only just enough to dodge another wild swing of the machete.

This soldier was indeed good. She had to prove better. On the fifth swing, she jumped forward, aiming for the woman's blade arm to disarm. It was blocked, but the purpose was met regardless as she hooked an arm around the woman's chest and threw her to the ground, landing on her. The force finally broke her arm, making her cry out in pain, but she didn't let up, picking her up and bashing her head against the stone wall. Once, twice... And she was out. Alive, but out. Hard fight.

While Azumi had just ended the battle on her end, Ezio was utilizing every tactic he knew to survive against a technologically and agilely superior foe.

Initially, he had the element of surprise. Splitting up with Azumi, he sprinted for the other lone FROG with his crossbow raised. A hastily aimed was fired, though the distinct sound of rushing air seemed to have caught the FROG's attention, as she had leaped off the wall, machete raised, and cut the bolt in half with a slash of her machete. The Master Assassin would have no time to think on this extraordinary maneuver as he was forced to strafe around the FROG, who was firing several shots off of her pistol, which he all but barely dodged. I am getting too old for thi- A grunt of pain, and a reddening section of his upper left arm was enough of an indication that Ezio had taken a bullet. As the FROG back flipped onto the wall, Ezio used the opportunity given by the sound of a clip being ejected to sprint towards her. Running up the wall as the click of the clip sliding into place reached his ear, the Master Assassin swung in an arc that caught the FROG by surprise, and the resulting punch to the side of her head sent her falling from the wall. Ezio landed with a grunt, the pain in his wounded arm flaring briefly. Though he drew his long sword, which he was fortunate to favor with a right hand and raised the blade over his head horizontally. The FROG, drawing her machete, slowly paced around him.

Ezio stared the FROG down, before lowering his sword. A preemptive strike on her end would not happen. After proving himself a suitable threat, the woman would be far more cautious for the duration of this fight. Then, without warning, the Frog turned on a heel. Barely ducking under a backhand punch, Ezio raised his blade to deflect a downwards slash. Seizing the window of opportunity, he aimed a kick intended for her stomach, though the attack had been unmeasured, and hit the her lower, in area Ezio had not intended. The FROG looked down, then at Ezio, and he could almost hear a snarl of irritation. "You men are all the same!" She shouted, before swinging her machete at a speed to which made every deflection a split second affair.

Ezio smirked, it seemed that he had found his edge. Ducking under another swing of the machete, Ezio rolled past the FROG, rising to his feet in time to swing his blade across her back, "I apologize, bella dona." He said, smirking to himself as the FROG leaped away and spun midair, reaching for her arm and flinging a throwing knife in his direction, which he only just dodged. While her helmet hid any sign of emotion, Ezio could imagine that he was getting under her skin. Good, angry opponents were prone to making mistakes.

The FROG surprised him, however, when she leaped onto the wall, then kicked off at an angle that would make her land behind him. Before he could turn, the FROG's garrote caught on his neck, threatening to swiftly choke his life out. Elbowing the FROG in her gut, Ezio gasped for much needed air once her garrote loosened. His hands moving to her arm, he ducked low and put his force into pulling on the FROG's arm, which sent her sailing over his shoulder and landing with a thud on the ground. Without a second's hesitation, Ezio let his knee drop onto her helmeted face, before delivering a punch with the metal cestus gloved fist on his left hand (an attack that send another surge of pain through his arm), the combined attacks rendered the FROG limp.

"Easily the most exciting encounter so far, no?" Said Ezio, chuckling between his heavy breathing.

Azumi just panted a bit, giving a half-hearted thumbs-up as she sheathed her knife, turning to the wall. "Think he's in there? Gunfire and FROGs..." She looked to the wall. They could probably vault over.

Then came the laughter, the insane hysterics that came from within the facility. That voice could be heard, the masculine one. "Come on! Laugh, while you can! There's no escape from here! Laugh yourself to death!"

A sigh as she saw black ink like smoke rising up from the opening in the ceiling. "Well, there's our answer."

She ran, scrambling up the wall before grabbing it, and grunted, pulling herself over. The rest of the process was a relatively simple one, as there were no FROGs here. Some inside probably, most likely fighting the protagonist within, but they didn't' seem to notice the woman climbing the outside of the facility as they fired on him, him firing back and taking them down one by one.

Finally, the gunfire was getting less frequent, though from the groans it was apparent that the FROGs were, by and large, not dying. There was one death, but she had disintegrated into blue flames for some reason.

Azumi crouched, looking through the opening as he took out the remainder through alternating hiding and combat, including some sneaking up behind with close combat. What was it with one hero taking out a million while more couldn't? She really didn't bother asking.

Ezio, however, found no surprise in the fact that Snake emerge victorious despite the odds. He had noticed throughout his life that a single assassin was always enough to change the odds in a desperate struggle, and that assassin was always alone. While he would have boasted about his role being similar to his predecessors in his youth, the Master Assassin acted as if his one man successes were anything more than the product of his skill and determination, and not some outside force tipping the odds in his favor.

As he crouched beside Azumi, he turned into his Eagle Sense, sure enough, he saw the golden trail inside the building. "We are close." He said, reloading his crossbow in preparation.

She nodded, finally turning on her VISR fully. Green highlighted Old Snake inside, holding out his Operator pistol now, looking around, at the ceiling... She dropped in, grabbing a rafter up on top before dropping down fully. Ezio followed suit, landing beside her. As he raised the gun, she spoke. "Hey, hey!"

The gun was lowered slightly at last...and the laughter picked up again. Sick laughter, the sound of something metal moving on wood, and she was visible.

"Look out!" Azumi shouted, raising her knife as Snake turned around and aimed his gun.

[url=http://images.wikia.com/metalgear/images/d/d3/LaughingOctopusMGS4.jpg]She[/url] wore a green, form-fitted bodysuit of that OctoCamo material, with a helmet of the same material over her head. Something attached a four-tentacle exoskeleton of metal to her head, each of them seeming to be controlled psychically with a harness under her groin to connect her to it. Each tentacle seemed to have three prongs on it, like a claw of some sort. The tentacles loosened...and she dropped, falling on her back, still laughing hysterically as she rose from being splayed out.

"What a riot," the mechanical, masculine voice laughed, the tentacles, splayed on the ground after her fall, righting her of their own accord, wrapping around her like a cocoon as she curled into a fetal position.

A tune in to Eagle Sense, this woman's body was glowing a golden light. She was their target? Somehow, somebody like this woman didn't seem to fit the standard opposition he had hunted back home. "This is who we've come for?" He said, skeptical still. He was too used to egotistical tyrants to realize that dangerous individuals come in all forms.

Snake shook his head. "Laughing Octopus... Naomi..." He looked to the door out over a few rooms. Apparently she had been taken away.

Azumi nodded, keeping her knife aimed. "Everyone ready..." She didn't want to hurt someone who was just broken inside, though. "Stand down, or we will fire."

More mad laughter. "People suffering..." More laughs as the tentacles moved a bit, Snake and Azumi trained on it. Ezio drew his crossbow, though he didn't train it just yet. "People hurting..." The laughter was calming just a bit. "People... dying..."

"Good... now stay there..." the heroine said.

No dice. The tentacles all moved out in one motion, bringing her up to hovering, suspended on them. "It's all so f***ing hysterical!" Disturbed to no end, Azumi aimed, ready to attack as she took out another P90 gun like the FROGs. "Laugh..." More chuckling. "Laugh with me!" She threw her head back, though still held up, and cracked up once more as a tentacle lashed out, trying to grab Azumi, only barely missing as she ducked.

The battle had begun.

"Of course this could not be easy!" Said Ezio, irritation filling his tone. He was careful to quickly strafe around Laughing Octopus as he took aim with his crossbow. A trigger pull, and the bolt flew through the air, only to bounce off of one of the mechanical tentacles harmlessly.

"Cazzo..." Ezio cursed, holstering his crossbow and unsheathing his sword. A close range fight was something he wanted to avoid, but it seemed that worse had come to worse.

"A bomb!" Azumi shouted to the Italian Assassin Mentor as a hail of gunfire came from the rifle, aiming at both of the men.

Snake flattened himself to the ground, rolling like a log under a nearby bed and taking out a sniper rifle, a Russian Mosin-Nagant armed with tranquilizer rounds. Ezio dived over another bed and planted his back against it, glancing as high as he dared raise his head. Meanwhile, Snake fired, once, twice, three times into her chest, each round making her stagger a bit, depleting her focus, but not a lot. Trying to retreat, she slithered a bit, going through to another room... but a stab took her in the back of her left leg, from Azumi's knife. She grunted, a tentacle stabbing out, trying to impale her...

She flattened herself on her back, only barely dodging, though it did scrape her face mask, make it a little cracked. She would get that fixed later.

Before they could react, the stealth operative curled into a ball again, smoke spilling out of its form, filling the area. Azumi did not cough, for she was protected, and Snake was still getting out from under the bed, but Ezio might have had some coughing, though no more effects. But the true reason was there when it dissipated.

She was gone. Hiding somewhere. Waiting for them to slip up.

Ezio covered his mouth with his free arm. Stifling his coughs, he tuned into Eagle Sense. It didn't make his vision through the fog the least bit clear, but the glow of his allies' bodies were distinguishable in the smoke, the same would go for Laughing Octopus, if she so decided to use the fog as an ambush point.

He wouldn't have to worry about being surprised, however, when he caught sight of the familiar golden glow of Laughing Octopus' Eagle Sense glow. She was across the room from him, on a wall. Though he avoided meeting her eye, intending to keep the ruse of him not knowing where she is up.

Azumi nodded, looking to Snake. "Do you have a nonlethal weapon I can use?"

The Mk. II appeared suddenly, and Otacon's device sent out its mechanical arm, a [url=http://images.wikia.com/metalgear/images/a/a7/RugerMK.2.jpg]Ruger Mk. 2[/url] pistol there. There were tranquilizer darts loaded in, and though it was a single shot, it was also silent, and had a laser sight on it for precision shots. She took it, putting her knife away, and looked around in VISR mode. She saw her. Saw the outline of the woman and her apparatus, and raised the gun, aiming at her throat, trying for a quick takedown...

[i]Pwip[/i]. The shot made her shudder, go visible again as another Mosin-Nagant attack made her stagger a bit and fall to the ground. As she rose, she raised the gun again, and opened fire on Azumi and the rest. While the ODST winced at a bullet that hit her in the shoulder, she did manage to take cover next to the door, reloading a shot. Ezio and Snake could take the rest of this round and get her to retreat if necessary.

Ezio wasted no time in moving to the edge of the bed, glancing out of cover, he sheathed his longsword and pulled a smoke bomb from a pouch. Swerving out of cover, he tossed the bomb at Octopus. His aim was true, as the bomb hit her chest, and the force of the British gunpowder loaded in caused a concussive impact that sent her staggering backward, with the smoke disorienting her. By then, Ezio had already moved behind her and readied his hidden gun. Pulling the trigger, a loud [b]BANG[/b] resounded through the room as a bullet ripped through one of Octopus' four tentacles.

A shout of pain descended into laughter once more as she curled up again, the smoke coming over her. She wasn't harmed by his last strike, but was tired a bit, and the inky smoke came out once more, masking her escape.

This time, Azumi watched, seeing as she escaped to elsewhere, forcing them back with tentacles before the smoke was done. She followed the trail, passing a cardboard box on the way, a few mannequins for medical research... and heard him.

[i]"Over here! I think I found her!"[/i] Otacon's voice sounded around a corner, and she followed it, seeing the Mk. II. She scanned still, turning her VISR on... wait.

That wasn't the Mk. II.

The cardboard box hadn't been there before. The Mk. II now wasn't really the Mk. II. Those blinking lights on the ground...

She aimed at the space just above the robot, firing her shot. Fizzing out of cloak again, Laughing Octopus snapped out with a tentacle, catching her in the chest before she could even react.

She screamed as the electricity coursed through her system, as the tentacle raised her up, another wrapped around her waist, a third grabbed at her head.

The laughter. The hideous, insane laughter. It wasn't stopping, but the pain, so much pain...

Boom! The Mosin-Nagant caught her in the chest, forcing her to drop her current prey, who coughed a bit before standing. Another round was loaded with a fumbling hand, and raises without looking, fired. Another tranquilizer into the Laughing Octopus, and she backed off a bit, firing her gun once more.

Ezio, to put it simply, was immensely frustrated. Almost every weapon in his arsenal was proving ineffective. The fact that his gun had only proved a minor irritation only infuriated him even more. Though when he saw his apprentice viciously shocked by Octopus' tentacles, the fight had become a more personal ordeal. She had harmed his sister in arms, and he could do nothing, that was about to change.

Sprinting towards Octopus, Ezio winced as she turned towards him and fired. Though the bullet hit his shoulder guard and bounced off. Pulling another bomb from his pouch, he threw it with as much force as he could muster, and the bomb hit her square in the helmet. The bomb exploded, though the blast was all but a concussion. Though the force of such a concussion nearly knocked Octopus off her feet, though she balanced herself on her four tentacles. With one fluid motion, Ezio stabbed his long sword down into her upper thigh, it wasn't intended to kill rather than incapacitate.

The woman fell to her feet, then staggered back, wobbling. One foot, the other, the first, back... and fell, landing with her head to the ground, on her knees, the tentacles splayed randomly. Still, she was not dead. Disoriented, but not dead. The laughter continued, her armor seeming to turn fluid, closer to her body as if an under-armor skin suit of silver, and the apparatus upon her head fell away, as did the mask of OctoCamo. She spoke, her voice now feminine, though still crazed as she laughed.

"I... am an octopus." She looked their way at last. There was a kind of disgusting film over the entirety. "An eight legged beast." More laughter. "These tentacles..." She stepped forward, a wire holding her stopping her for a moment on her way toward them. "are beyond my control..."

Azumi, though weak and in no mood for it, did have to admit that Drebin was right about the beauty of the internal beings. Light, sad eyes, short blonde hair, light skin of a Caucasian. "Beauty and the Beast", he called them? Okay, so this was "Laughing Beauty." But attractive or no, she still wasn't going to let that impose on her ability to fight.

"Their will... is the will of the battlefield." she laughed wildly, stepping again, halted, and arched back in her madness, laughing into the ceiling. Hacking, coughing, choking on her own breath it seemed. Suddenly, she wrenched forward, vomiting a veritable fountain of what appeared to be ink on the ground.

Azumi herself almost vomited at that. What was wrong with her?

"Funny... It's all so... funny," she said, smiling as she ran a hand through her hair.

Ezio's initial anger faded once he saw his ruined foe. Sheathing his sword and pressing a hand over his now bleeding arm wound, he could only stare silently as the demasked Octopus showed even more signs of her insanity. Though the black, ink like substance she vomited registered a look of surprise, then disgust, and then finally pity.

Yes, he pitied her. Drebin was correct, her mental trauma was the product of war and of the monsters that took advantage of a tragedy to make a weapon. "Azumi. Do what you wish." He finally said, before pulling a small silver vial from a pouch and taking a swig. The pain in his arm was dulled, an effective pain killer until he could properly heal himself.

Azumi sighed. She took her knife... and dropped it. Took out the tranquilizer Snake had given her as he himself aimed his Mosin-Nagant.

Suddenly, she could see the horror, what was registered on Laughing Beauty's face. It was subtle, but there. "No... It's not funny." She started to walk, aiming for Snake. "Nothing is funny..." she was straining against the wires on her suit. "I shouldn't be laughing... I...can't..." She snapped the wire on her back at last, stumbling forward unrestrained now, half of the wire still attached to the back of her neck. She was smiling slightly now, almost seductive. "The truth is... " And it turned to fear. "I'm not laughing." She reached for him, trying to get a hold on him with her left hand. "Not laughing at all."

He held his knife backhanded in his right hand now, and shoved her off to his right side with his left hand as he took a step back, trying to keep her away.

Azumi glared. "What the hell?! Just knock her out!"

Finally, she seemed to crack, looking up and out the window as her hands gripped the side of her head. "I shouldn't be laughing!" she said, her body showing she was on the verge of a breakdown, or in the midst of one. "I'm scared! I'm really scared!" She seemed to begin to break down crying, turning toward them.

"Listen," Azumi said, trying to calm her. "You can get better. You have to come with us. It'll be better."

She wasn't listening, though especially not as she saw Snake once more. It was as if she had completely pacified. She fell to her hands and knees. "I'm sorry." With that, she began to crawl toward her target. "I'm sorry. So sorry I laughed! I'm sorry..." She rose again, standing once more. "I won't laugh anymore." She approached them all, backing them into the next room for fear of hurting her on the part of the Interferences at least. "I can't." Despite that, she chuckled a bit. Defiant again. "I don't want to."

And she descended back into insane laughter once more, slowly beginning the approach.

Azumi couldn't do it. She couldn't' just shoot an unarmed, crazed woman right now. It had been hard so far, and in her state she didn't even know if a shot wouldn't just be a killing headshot for her. She forced the gun into Ezio's hands and Snake took up his Mosin-Nagant again. "...end this," she said quietly. "It won't take many shots. Probably five from both of you together."

Ezio and Snake shared a glance before training their weapons at Octopus. Ezio was the first to fire. Though he rarely used handguns, his aim was decent enough for the dart to hit her in the neck. With a broken laugh, she pulled the dart from her neck and tossed it aside. She continued her approach, although she had begun to slow down. Though not slow enough to duck under Snake's shot. Pulling out two new darts, Snake tossed his spare to Ezio as he reloaded. It took the assassin a moment to figure out how to load his shot, though he eventually managed to reload as Snake fired. This time the dart hit her in her shoulder.

Pulling the dart out, Octopus' laugh was fainter, until a dart fired by Ezio hit her in the neck once more. It then became close to a faint chuckle. Another two darts into the guns. Ezio aimed once more, his face stony to hide an inner grimace. Octopus acted as if the fourth dart to hit her neck had not even touched her. Though a fifth dart, piercing her lower neck, caused her finally to scream, her head back.

Again the laughter came, as she bent back, cackling into the air... and gasped, a blue light coming off of her, followed immediately after by kinds of "petals," one could call them. White ones, ones that were with her as she fell prone.

Silence for several seconds. Had they accidentally killed her?

Finally, she moved, a laughter still audible, but more a memory than anything. Legs curled in, arms wrapped around them, and those eyes closed.

Azumi was cautious as she approached the unmoving Laughing Beauty, crouching beside her wordlessly. Two fingers touched her neck... okay, good. "Breathing," she said softly. "I think she'll be okay. Thanks, you two."

She could see the helmet of sorts near the body, that one that blended with it, a kind of mesh material akin to Snake's OctoCamo suit. Perhaps why they had trouble finding her? She picked it up, and predictably, it morphed from a wood like texture and look to a black material. Definitely some kind of OctoCamo.

Her left arm glowed with the light of an omnitool as it was summoned, surprising but not overly alarming Snake as she waved her hand up and down it. Scanning, scanning...

She heard a call on her radio and presumably Snake's as she did this. Drebin once more.

[i]"Yo, Snake, outworlders. Lookin' good today."[/i]

Snake was in no mood. "Drebin. What do you want?"

He sounded hurt. [i]"That's cold, man. And here I was about to tell my very best customers about FaceCamo."[/i]

Azumi tilted her head. "FaceCamo? That like a mask-form OctoCamo?" She finished scanning, the light turning off as the schematics were kept in her database, and tossed it to Snake, who caught it and put it in a back pocket... somewhere.

[i]"That's right. That camo skullcap you just picked up from Tentacle's shell. It utilizes the same kind of technology as an OctoCamo suit, but can take in different faces too. Using the two together you can get even better results, Snake. I'd hang on to that if I was you."[/i]

A frown from the protagonist. "Doesn't fit. Its not my size or shape."

[i]Yeah. Looks like it could use a bit of tailoring before you can sport it. Not my line of work, but... Ain't you got a buddy who specializes in that kind of thing?"[/i]

A frown and smirk somehow simultaneously under Azumi's helmet. "Someone's done their homework."

[i]"Hey, that's my job."[/i]

Annoyance from Snake still. "Is that why you injected me with nanomachines? To spy on me?"

[i]"I prefer the term 'customer data management' myself."[/i]

Azumi palmed her faceplate. "Drebin..."

[i]"Relax! It's strictly confidential. I ain't gonna share it with anybody."[/i]

The reason for his irritability came to light then. "Then what'd you mix a virus in with the nanomachines for?"

He didn't seem to get it. [i]"Virus?"[/i]

"A certain virus was detected in my body. Are you saying it wasn't in the nanomachines you injected?"

Annoyance, meet counter annoyance. [i]"Look, you do know there are other folks who could've done this to you. And besides, what would I gain from infecting you? Better for me that you're out there kicking a** on the battlefield. I was watching you, Snake. You're a real piece of work. Never thought I'd meet the man who could take down Laughing Octopus, even with help from two of them. She just kept on laughing. Now why do you suppose that is?"[/i]

Azumi finally changed the volume on her helmet, taking it off. Time for Ezio to hear, who she motioned over. "Do you want to know this?"

"Yes." Said Ezio, approaching Azumi. Crossing his arms, he leaned towards the helmet slightly to hear the conversation in greater clarity. He was curious towards Drebin's motives. He felt it was right to avoid trusting him completely, however.

Azumi nodded, and held it, the voice loud enough to work like a handheld radio. She could turn it down after. "Something in her past?"

Drebin just began. [i]"You got it. She's from a village in Scandinavia - little seaside hamlet known to all the locals as the Devil's Village. Place wasn't known for devils, though. It was known for octopus. See, this was one of the few places in Europe where they ate octopus customarily. Anyway, there's this cult of crazies who for some reason hate the village, with a passion. Then, when she was just a teenager, things get bad. These nutcases get their hands on some weapons and attack the village. Overnight, her sleepy little fishing town becomes a war zone. The round up all the villagers and execute them one by one. Except for that girl."[/i]

Azumi looked over at Laughing Beauty peacefully sleeping, steeling herself for the next piece.

[i]"They had something else planned for her, something a whole lot worse than dying. Calling her the 'Devil's Child', they forced her to do the kind of thing you'd expect from one of Lucifer's own. After they made her torture her family and friends, they made her kill 'em. The whole time they were forcing her to laugh, howl like some sort of demon. Like she was enjoying it. What was she gonna do, say no? They'd kill her, too. So she let fear take control, and did exactly as they told her. She butchered the bodies of the ones she loved, and laughed while she did it. And as she bathed in their blood, it gradually turned from deep red to jet black. To her, it looked like the ink of an octopus. The experience scarred her deep. Ever since then, she hasn't stopped laughing. Only, that ain't really laughter."[/i]

Azumi was shaking by the time it ended. "That... that all?"

[i]"Yeah, that's the tale. Don' worry, them beasts aren't gonna attack your kind."[/i]

She sighed, lowering the volume and putting back on the helmet, polarizing the visor to keep her distraught face hidden once more. "...Understood."

"Why are you telling me this?" Snake asked, however, in no mood as a light of some sort appeared. Apparently he knew about it, perhaps from that "Gunther." "You expect me to feel sorry for her?"

Azumi glared at him through her helmet. "Some sympathy never hurt the mentally disabled."

Drebin's route was different. [i]"Nah. I know you got no room for that stuff in your world. And besides, this is war... Right? In a way, though, I guess it was the right thing to do."[/i]

"What was?" Snake asked.

[i]"Fighting you cleansed her mind. All right, enough chit-chat. There's other beasts out there in them woods. Watch your backs."[/i] And he finally cut out, as both of the soldiers put their hands down.

Azumi was shaken, understandably. She walked back over to the sleeping woman, patting her head. It would be okay. She hoped, at least. She then looked back to Snake. "Go on ahead. I think we have to get moving."

There was one more grunt. "Typical." With that, he walked out the way he had come without another word, tense. Off on his way.

Otacon's Mk II appeared momentarily near the door. [i]"See you around. Sorry about him, he's like that." [/i]And another disappearance as the door closed.

Azumi looked to Ezio, stepping toward the save point. "... I have the schematics for OctoCamo from that. I can get a suit for you or someone. How... how are things? Did I do well? Did I pass your test? Should we go?"

"That should be useful." Said Ezio, glad to have another tool that would make sneaking easier. Though he made a mental note to not rely on it exrensively, lest he lose his natural skill.

He chuckled in response to Azumi's questions, "Your skills are more than satisfactory, and your ability to think and adapt makes you an adept combatant. You are a more than capable leader in my eyes, Azumi." Said Ezio, placing a hand on her shoulder, "I trust you can handle things when I retire from interfering, which will be soon. Now, if we are done here, I think now would be a good time to leave."

True, it wasn't the most extravigant way to acknowledge a Grandmaster, but it was enough. He figured Azumi wouldn't mind either, she seemed to know that she was capable enough for the role.

She nodded briefly, smiling slightly under the helmet as she walked up to the save point, still a slight limp from the shock. She saw it activate, and looked to him. "Thanks for the help. If you have trouble, call. Within reason, of course." And she was up in a beam of light.

Ezio nodded, though internally he knew that he would not ask her to help him. She was needed to manage an Order larger and more diverse than his own. This coupled with the need to avoid temptation to leave his world once more made Azumi's suggestion a simple act of good will to the Master Assassin.

His inner musings complete, Ezio stepped into the save point and promptly vanished.

Another day, another victory.