#hal emerich

Sunny: A KNIFE!

Someone: what about Otacon

Hal didn’t know what to do when his heart started to pound when the spy looked at him with eyes that reflected the water and sky. It was all-consuming. When Snake looked at Hal it was like Hal was the only person worth focusing on. The effort was almost not worth it, not that Hal would say that to Snake.

Forming a group, more so a team of two was easy. Too much of his family history was building weapons, even Hal was guilty of it. Starting Philanthropy was something of a redemption for him. Hal never thought of himself as anything other than less than good. He was connected to too much evil to completely balance it out.

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Blood soaked through his hoodie, ruining it. The nukes were coming to the hideout and someone had to save Snake and the other soldier. His stealth tech was faulty now. It still kept him hidden but the blood gave him away. The knife that stabbed him was dropped somewhere in the last hallway. The man who stabbed him was hit over the head with a fire extinguisher. Hal was running out of time. His side was switching between agony and numbness. His legs were giving out but he made his way to the control room. On the monitors, Hal could see Snake in the jeep fighting off his former boss. And winning. Good for him. He watches them leave the range of the cameras as cold sets into Hal’s bones, not from the Alaska weather from outside. Hal had to sit in a chair to gather strength to hold down the control buttons to the door. Eventually, there were spots in his eyes and Hal had to let go of the button. As the doors closed, the light from the sunset reflecting on the walls had faded as well. One by one the generators failed in the base, being turned off by soldiers deserting. Eventually, the lights and every one of the cameras shut off at once, leaving Hal in complete darkness. Huey Emmerich’s laughter echoed from the abyss of looming unconsciousness.

In the back of the part of his mind not blocked by blood loss, Hal noted that the Nukes were taking a while to get there. Maybe his perception of time was getting wonky. The cold he was feeling was getting hot, boiling. Hal was losing his chances of survival rapidly.

As his eyes started to close, the door to the control room had opened.

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This was supposed to be an easy mission, get in and get out. Hal had to get inside for hacking to get the plans, but it was easy to get what he needed. Snake had started clearing out their exit plan while Hal worked. Hal was focused solely on his job, not watching the door. In hindsight, it was a rookie move.

“How the fuck are you still alive?” A familiar voice said. Hal looked over to see the man who had caused him to nearly bleed out. The scar on his side flashed in pain. His internal radar told him that Dave- Snake was too far away to be of any immediate help but Hal was smart, he could buy them some time. Hal silently activated his Codec, pressing behind his ear to call his partner. The man who had found him out pulled out his pistol, firing one next to his head.

Hal stayed silent, but he could hear Snake grunt and silently curse. His radar showed that Snake spun on his heels and sprinted loudly. The sudden noise surprised the guard, letting Hal get a punch in on the guard. The pistol was dropped with a rattle. Otacon’s knuckles were bruised and his bones crack rendering him to not easily press his codec, causing him to not answer Snake, who had been calling him over and over again. The ringing was loud, but the noise was cut with a blade slicing just under his ribs. It didn’t hurt. Maybe that was because of the shock and such, but his brain focused on the injury. He immediately curled around himself as the blade was pulled out. He was bleeding faster and more heavily than last time. Snake was right outside the door. Hal fought, struggled really to calm down, to keep his heart rate down.

Snake was there, his radar told him that, but he was quiet. Hal could barely hear him breathing. It lived up to the stealthy connotations of his code name. Hal’s vision got blurred, even with his glasses. The gun, which was nothing more than a blocky mess in Hal’s eyes, was picked up and went off. One shot fired after another in the count of two heartbeats between them. Hal had seen two bodies in front of him, both in dark clothes, one by the door and one closer to him. After two shots the one closer to Hal collapsed. The other form, one that smelled of the familiar scent of cigarettes took a step towards the body coolly firing three more.

“Snake…” Otacon took a deep breath. The form standing over the one lying next to Hal fired one more shot before the gun started to click uselessly.

Then it was like the spell was broken. The one left standing walked over to Hal, kneeling right into the hacker’s field of vision. Snake.

His bright gray-blue eyes were bright with worry. He looked over the bloody wound and slipped off the top half of the sneaking suit. In other circumstances, Hal would have blushed but now… Hal didn’t think he had the blood to spare.