Rasslemania #2: Operation Saint Eater

[Smash INC]

Previously on...
Metal Gear Keaton: Saint Eater

The Asylum Mission ended in failure and the Saint was left to reel with the shock of both that and the Lightning Bat attack.

We now return to our hero, still torn between the events of the past and the future that awaits him.

THE HERALD
------5:12 AM March 19, 2013. Outside MTS Centre, Winnipeg


For Saint to escape took something more than luck but it allowed him to stay out of sight from Volgin's squad. Saint continued to the arena under the assumption that he was unseen, an illusion broken by the time he made it to the arena and a spotlight fixated itself upon him.

"You must be the one they sent." A woman's voice echoed through the night, that was a sign that the voice wasn't part of Volgin's squad. They would have attacked on sight.

"Are you Adam?" Saint asked. "I thought you were supposed to be a man."

"Adam was unable to make it."

"Right, say the password." Saint faced the light directly. "Who are the Knights?"

"Hmm."

"Who are the Knights?" Saint continued. "Answer me."

The response was broken off by the arrival of Volgin's squad. Saint felt an alarming amount of eyes watching him now before the spotlight that had served to illuminate him had been moved to show those who were aiming to deliver him to Volgin. Each of the squad only had a second in the light before they were dispatched. Saint was astounded and motionless until he heard the female voice once more.

"That was your answer." The woman said as she finished defeating the last of Volgin's men.

"Good job."

"As for my name, that is Eva Serra."

"I thought your name was just Eva."

"Let us just say I like to herald my arrival." Eva finished. "There is a lot more at stake here than just the fate of Asylum."

"You're not wh--urgh." Saint keeled over in exhaustion, failing to realise just how much impact recent events had taken out on him.

"This is not ideal, you need rest."

"I can't afford to." Saint tried to speak but his body was not working in unison with his mind.

"Come with me." Eva finally said as she supported Saint's weight with her shoulder.


K-UNIT
------7:46 AM March 19, 2013. MTS Centre, Winnipeg


"Wake up." Eva was insistent, the tone of her voice was akin to a shout although it did not contain the sheer volume of one.

"What?"

"The K-Unit are here. They must have been called in check on Volgin's squad."

"K-Unit?" Saint had cleared the cobwebs out of his head as he asked the question.

"The Kadolot Unit, trained elites." Eva continued to monitor the situation as Saint became more alive. "They are not like the ones you saw a few hours ago."

"I can handle myself."

"Not against these numbers. You need a distraction and I need to return to my post."

"You infiltrated Volgin's squad?"

"I cannot go into detail, all I ask is that you use the path I open for you." Eva bounded into action, Saint was surprised by this even in spite of her earlier performance. What happened next sounded like something exploded in order to make a path. The K-Unit were already on alert, they would be on extreme alert after that.

Kadolot was one of the unseen elements that nearly deterred the Asylum Mission before Volgin proved just how strong his Lightning Bat was. Kadolot's unit were not as accomplished as the man in charge and that gave Saint the advantage he needed. They charged through the door but Saint was hidden and as they continued to examine the surrounding area Saint began to perform his own version of what he had seen just a few short hours ago. A K-Unit member would be highlighted and then he would strike. Saint would overcome the obstacle and then he would continue towards the truth.

And then it took Saint a moment too long to realise that Kadolot had been watching him all along.

"Very impressive!" Kadolot called out to Saint. "But I've got your buddy right here."

"I work alo--" Saint stumbled mid-sentence as he realised that Kadolot was holding Eva hostage.

"I guess you're the bigger man of the two, Naked Saint!"

"I'm the only man here."

"Taunts won't work on me." Kadolot announced as Eva continued to struggle, in a swift movement Kadolot pushed Eva back to himself and then his hand jolted away as he came to his own sudden realisation. "A female?!"

"Ha!" Saint's laugh provided enough distraction for Eva to free herself and attempt an escape. It was just Saint and Kadolot left.

"Damn it!"

"Those special engravings do nothing, but you're missing out on the main issue."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't have what it takes to beat me."

"Big words coming from someone who is EXACTLY where I want them to b--" Kadolot then understood his true error, the day had not been kind to him. His endeavours to attain the Naked Saint had failed and he was a fallen soldier by the outcome of this. Kadolot looked towards the exit that both Eva and Saint had taken and he knew then that perhaps he wasn't destined for the abyss after all.


CHASM
------11:56 AM March 19, 2013. Disraeli Bridge, Winnipeg


"The truth is hidden in the lies." Saint whispered to himself. He wanted to believe that the operation was simple but words such as those from Eva Serra made him think about the situation more than he should have. Her influence was a calming one but it was also frightening,

"Ah, you're here at last."

"How?" Saint began to grind his teeth as he saw a figure emerge from the distance.

"It looks like the Boss was right." Kadolot spoke. "You really can be predictable at times."

"Just like you can be beaten."

"You'd like to think so, but it will be YOU who falls here."

"Just like last time?" Saint replied with a query as some of the K-Unit began to surround him.

"Wait there!" Kadolot called out to his comrades. "This is between us, now draw!"

"Here we go." Saint prepared himself but a buzzing sound made him move awkwardly. "What the hell was that?

"Damn he's found us!" Kadolot spat at the floor in disgust.

"Hornets..." Saint understood what this meant as he looked over the bridge. He would have to choose flight once more, because the other option meant being stung by the many-needled oppressors.

The chasm below held no safe invitation, but it was a piece of hope. Saint knew what had to be done so he took his chance to avoid the onslaught of the hornets. The chasm awaited him, cold and overflowing with a darkness only he would witness.


PAIN
------12:23 PM March 19, 2013. Somewhere, Winnipeg


Jumping into the darkness was a choice, leaving it was an obligation. Saint didn't know what he found himself going into, but it had to be a better option than trying to survive the hornets.

"PAIN!" The end of the darkness and the light ir brought were considered to bring respite, but that voice could boom across the world and everyone would hear it. Out of the tunnel there was only one obstacle for Saint to overcome. The barrier of the man known as The Pain.

"I think I remember you."

"As well you should, I am the strongest image any man should ever witness."

"There's something more." Saint kept his sights set on the man, questioning himself as to where he had seen him before. The Pain was surely one of Volgin's men but beneath that facade was something more.

"And you shall know PAIN!" Pain spoke with a force reserved for only the most powerful of speakers. "You shall experience all of the PAIN you can endure because of my Raa-Bees."

"Your what?"

"My Raa-Bees!" Pain shouted again.

"I KNEW I recognised you from somewhere." Saint smirked as he pulled out a small round object and threw it towards Pain before it popped with the most muted sound imaginable from an object shaped like a grenade.

"You wish to show party tricks?" Pain laughed with the same booming voice.

"No, but I would draw your attention to what I just threw." Saint continued to smirk. "That's the best thing to come out of the Pillar Unit, they call it the TJ grenade."

"Because it's total junk." Pain continued to laugh but this began to become interspersed with loud coughing.

"No, because it's the most potent KNOCKOUT gas known to man." Saint walked past Pain and put on a gas mask. "The only thing that'll clear your senses now will be a hurricane."

"B--" Pain tried to speak but began to cough so much that soon he was knocked out cold. Saint had won, but the rest of the Action Unit remained.


FACING FEAR OF THE END
------2:13 PM March 18 2013. Winnipeg


"What do you fear?" A solitary voice echoed amongst Saint's surroundings, Eva's description of the path he was meant to take seemed both correct and yet fraught with danger. Perhaps it was necessary that Saint had to fight his way through the entire Action unit.

"Do you fear that which you cannot see?" The voice continued, movements followed it and Saint was painfully aware that he was the hunted one in this scenario.

"Do you fear that which you cannot feel? Tell me what you fear!"

"I fear that which I cannot uncover." Saint closed his eyes. "You're over by those bushes."

"FEAR!" A shout came out of the direction that Saint pointed in. "You're good, maybe just good enough to succeed."

"I have no other options." Saint responded.

"Then your road takes you beyond a ladder to your next destination." Fear finished his sentence and proceeded to leave. Perhaps because fear was his ultimate weapon, it was his only one.

Saint passed a stationary old man on his way to the next trial, it took some time for Saint to realise that the man must have been the End. Perhaps his actions prior to seeing the old man had become enough of a reason to pass with no battle.

Perhaps the End had already met his...

Saint didn't want to think about that for another moment.


UNMASKED FURY
------5:42 PM March 19, 2013. Volgin's Warehouse, Winnipeg


"FURY!" Another booming voice, the Action Unit seemed to excel in making themselves heard. Saint had travelled through high and low to get to this point. His ears were assaulted more than the rest of him, it was becoming the true lasting impression of the events that had led to this point.

The Fury stepped out from the shadows, a man who looked as though he could speak twice as loud as he just did. Saint didn't want to test the theory out.

"I have seen this planet covered in flames, it's a dream I wish to manifest." Fury pointed to the soot that adorned the warehouse. "For me, this is a haven where I can express it."

"You intend to cook me?"

"Perhaps you've heard about the horsemeat scandal." Fury spoke with a strange calmness. "Since they dropped that from the menu I've ran out of asses to fry, but you will do nicely in a cottage pie!"

"You're a bloody cannibal!"

"I'm a chef, but I take pride in my WORK!" Fury shouted as he turned up the heat to blast Saint into a crispy oblivion. Saint ducked into the shadows to avoid the glare of the crazed firestarter. The warehouse may have housed the most maniacal member of the Action Unit but it provided saint with a chance to succeed where he would have failed if his surroundings were bright.

"Donkey PUNCH!" Saint exclaimed with the one idea that felt like it could work against the man who would burn him to ashes if he remained in his line of sight. The technique that none could see coming wasn't one of Saint's own but the strength of it was enough that ever an amateur could unlock the furious power of it.

"Grrgah!" Fury was hurt by the unseen attack and began to frantically try to find the Naked Saint. Instead he found emptiness in his wake until another Donkey Punch hit him, followed by another and another.

Saint pulled at the cables connected the Fury's equipment, right to the mask that gave him the freedom to express his anger. As Saint pulled it off he began to scream with the same furious sound that he had heard as he entered this arena. The Fury had failed in his dream but he begun unlocking something in Saint. It was only when Saint bent down to speak to Fury that the truth arose.

"I don't need to mask my fury, I live with it every day." Saint said softly. "But what I can do is TURN IT UP WHEN I BLOODY WELL LIKE!"

"Aiyeeee!" Fury exclaimed as the sound from Saint began to conduct a siege on his brain, Fury almost spasmed to avoid it and in so started a fire around himself. Saint moved clear of the fire and continued to Volgin's base, Fury was beaten, but he was still angry.



REAL SORROW
------7:35 PM March 19, 2013. Unknown Location, Winnipeg


"I've heard of this." Saint spoke to himself, verbalising his thoughts as the rain continued. "Isolated rainfall that comes in short bursts , a sign of the silent sorrow."

"Silent?" A voice echoed behind Saint.

"Who?" He turned around to face the voice, but there was nobody to greet him.

"Saint?"

"I swear that was something." Saint turned around even faster, still seeing nothing when he arrived. "Must be my mind playing tricks on me."

"No tricks, you're just scum." The voice came into view, attributing itself to a man whose face was hidden. But there was something more sinister at work, Saint knew the voice from somewhere.

"Anyone who ever called me that has been proven wrong time and time again. Is this the truth of the silent sorrow?"

"The silent sorrow? Just a lie to keep you from seeing the reality of it." He continued. "I'm the REAL Sorrow, the voice of the dead that you have hidden and you will feel every ounce of it again!"

"But you can't be him." Saint began to stammer. "You can't be Terry."

"Deceive yourself no longer, face the REAL SHOW!"

"NO!"

"You're nothing! Everything you've ever fought for stands for nothing compared to the sorrow you feel."

"No! I know what I fight for!"

"But you still lose, underwhelming Saint." Sorrow smirked. "You lie to yourself every day that you're worth something, but you fail constantly."

"I strive for the best, to be it and to provoke it in everyone I see. I'm still carrying on."

"No, you just ignore the truth because it suits you."

"I still have the faith that drives me, the SAME faith that you LOST when you embraced the existence you have now. I can go further, the world just wants you to end!"

"Pretty words from someone who can't even breathe!"

"I--" Saint barely opened his mouth before he felt a choking sensation fill him inside and out.

"Want my advice? Wake up!" Sorrow laughed as he seemed to fade away into the distance. Something replaced it, something cold and wet. Saint felt the death grip around him as he begun to fight whatever was holding him down. It was then he woke to the water filling his body, it was then he pushed himself up and it was then he drew the breath that felt like his first.

There was relief, but the sorrow was all around him. The face of a ghost that Saint had believed he had overcome was still there, still taunting him. Saint knew it was never truly gone, but he carried on to his goal. If there was only one real factor to take in from the events of the last few weeks for the Naked Saint, it was that he still marched. Eventually that meant he had to find Volgin and withstand his thunder.


CLEANSING THUNDER
------10:07 PM March 19, 2013. Volgin's Base, Winnipeg


Eva had been providing advice since the first meeting but even that was paling in comparison to the trials that Saint was facing. The memories he was taking on board were those of the Action Unit rather than the rank-and-file of Volgin's force. It felt like time had skipped from one moment to the next and yet hours had passed since he landed in Winnipeg again.

Even now, with Mikhail Callahan Volgin standing before him with the widest smile he had ever seen there was still a sense of time standing still to record this moment. Operation Saint Eater was about retrieving the legacy that Volgin took at the apex of the Asylum Mission. It had never been explained why Volgin took it, but the face he showed seemed to want to reveal everything.

"I see you want to know why." Volgin began, Saint was correct in his assumption.

"I know you seek to take over the Asylum for your own twisted pleasures." Saint responded with the belief he had held since the beginning.

"Pleasures?" Volgin laughed. "Is that what you really think, someone with such strength being so stupid inside makes me feel empty."

"So you're saying I'm wrong."

"Of course!" Volgin screamed. "Do you want to know why I took this? Just look in the mirror and tell yourself you're not cursed."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"International superstar, that's what they called you. But even that was built on a foundation of lies, you're a curse on everything you touch. I know more about your past than you'd care to mention, you've killed more than I ever could!"

"Atkenolov was a curse as well?" Saint responded. "Was he a blight on your vision of a new Asylum? Was that it? You had to take the legacy because you couldn't handle someone else taking control of their own destiny!"

"You want the legacy?" Volgin laughed once again. "You'll have to fight me for it, fight me and know that you cannot deny the inevitable. You're a blight on everything, I am the one SAVING the Asylum from YOU!"

"I'll fight you, but I refuse your inevitable." Saint moved in closer as he prepared to fight. "The journey that got me here is the most important I have ever taken, but the destination has always been the same. I must win."

Kadolot looked on as the two titans of their respective beliefs collided, in the end only he could recall with perfect accuracy how the fight happened and what consumed both men during it. For Saint it didn't matter, the memory he took away from this was that he won. He defied the man filled with lightning, he defied the impossible.

Only the Boss remained.


BOSS
------11:00 PM March 19, 2013. Winnipeg


"Look how far you've come." Boss stated, she was setting the scene just by saying that but her words were a truth that Saint had to acknowledge.

"I've only done what's necessary."

"You still can't beat me, James."

"Call me whatever you want to, I've spent too long out here to need a name."

"Perhaps you are the sort of champion you hope to be."

"No, a champion strives to defend and maintain an existing scenario." Saint paused, his mission to these depths had given him a new sense of self. He had begun to learn what it meant to be a legacy holder and a champion. "I am still a challenger, I challenge the status quo you set outfor me, I change the standard and set new ones."

"You think you're so important after beating the rest of them, hmm?"

"I know who I am now." Saint smiled. "It's why you cannot defeat me, I have become something far greater."

"We'll see." Boss spoke with murderous intent. "Don't hold back James, I won't be letting you live this time."

"You won't get the chance."

"Keaton, you--" Something called out to Saint as he stood to face the Boss. She faded away and reality began to fade in.


TRUTH
------8:37 PM March 23, 2013. Toronto


"Keaton, you've been shouting in your sleep." John shook Keaton's shoulder with an alarming amount of force.

"I've what?" Keaton shook his head as he took in the words of his friend.

"What the hell is a lightning bat anyhow?"

"I don't know." Keaton lied, the dream image of Callahan as a lightning god was still embedded in his mind.

"You should have taken the medical."

"I can't, you know that."

"Why?"

"Because I have to carry on, Callahan is inches away from justifying his actions."

"But you've been off-centre for weeks!"

"I know! But as damaged as I might be, I can't walk away from the biggest moment of my life."

"But what if you can't walk out of it."

"Then I'll know I gave it my all." Keaton replied, he couldn't put it into words but he knew how big this was. In the end, that was what mattered.

Fade to Rasslemania