11:21
Outside the convention center, Philippine International Convention centre
Naomi got out through the back door and met up with a few SNA soldiers standing outside. It was then that she noticed the commotion going on outside. There were sounds of firing and loud thudding noises.
Naomi asked one of the soldiers, "What's going on here?"
The soldier replied, "We're being attacked."
"Huh? Then take care of the attackers. How many are they?"
The soldier hesitated before answering, "One. It's just one man."
Naomi was shocked at this and said, "OK. I'll go."
Naomi aimed her MP5 forward and quickly made her way through the hallways, towards the sounds.
************
As Naoki tried to enter the convention centre, a few SNA soldiers stopped him. Naoki asked, "Is Dr. Ito here? I'm here to meet him."
A soldier replied, "Yes, he is. But I'm gonna have to see an ID to let you in."
Naoki replied, "No, you don't."
Before the soldiers could even be surprised at Naoki's weird answer, Naoki quickly threw an uppercut, aiming at one of their jaws. The soldier stumbled back at Naoki's punch. Before the other soldier could get ready, he quickly took out a Glock-19 from his hips and hit that guy on the head with the handle of the pistol. The soldier lost consciousness because of the heat and started falling forward. Naoki caught the soldier's unconscious body and threw it on the other soldier. The soldier tumbled and fell down. Naoki took the chance and got inside. As he got in, the conscious soldier informed about Naoki in his comms.
Naoki made his way through the corridors and reached the lift. He took the elevator, and just as he was about to get out on the 5th floor, where the hall was, he found himself looking at at least 20 SNA soldiers aiming at him. He quickly hid behind the doorshaft just before a barrage of 5.56mm bullets almost deleted the backwall of the elevator from existence.
A few seconds later, the bullets stopped. Naoki took out the magazine of lethal 9mm bullets that was loaded in the pistol and loaded another magazine. He pulled back on the lever, took a deep breath, and got out of the elevator.
Just as he got out, he fired 5 bullets in quick succession, taking out the 5 soldiers closest to him. He took the guard closest to him and started moving forward, using that guard's body as a human shield. The SNA soldiers were helpless as they couldn't get a clear shot at Naoki as Naoki kept moving forward and taking out the guards one by one, shooting each and every bullet in the middle of their forehead without fail. He took out 14 more soldiers this way and threw the soldier he was using as a human shield on the last remaining soldier. As the last soldier fell down under the other soldier, Naoki got to him before he could do anything and hit him at the back of his neck with the handle of his Glock, making him lose consciousness.
Naoki stood straight up and went to reload his pistol, but just as he took out the empty magazine, Naomi's voice came from the end of the corridor: "Hands where I can see them. Drop the gun and move away from it. I won't ask twice."
Naoki froze for just a second before abiding by Naomi's orders. He threw away the empty pistol and moved back away from it. As he finally looked at Naomi, she got a clear look of his face.
Naomi was so shocked to see Naoki that he started shivering. She started blindly firing her MP5 towards Naoki out of pure rage. But her lack of marksmanship, combined with her shaking cause of rage, meant Naoki could easily dodge all of the bullets as he ran towards Naomi.
As Naomi's bullet on her MP5 ended, instead of reloading, she threw the MP5 towards Naoki and took out her knife from the knife holster tied to her belt. Naoki ducked down as the MP5 flew towards him and dodged the SMG. He then quickly got close to Naomi and dodged Naomi's knife thrust aimed at his stomach as he punched straight into Naomi's helmet.
The punch sent Naomi flying towards the backwall as her helmet broke. She hit the wall and sat down. But without losing any moment, she stood back up and took off her helmet. This time, it was Naoki's turn to get shocked. Naoki said, "Mimi? Look at you, all grown up now? Are you still afraid of spiders?"
Naoki didn't reply as she lunged towards Naoki at full speed. She got close to him and this time tried to thrust the knife through his neck. But Naoki easily moved to a side. Naomi noticed it and tried to roll around and hit him again in the stomach. This time Naoki didn't dodge but instead sent a small chop in her right soldier. The moment Naoki hit the chop, Naomi lost all senses in her right hand and dropped the knife. Naoki then kneed Naomi in the stomach, which made her kneel. Naoki kneeled before her and said, "You shouldn't hurt family, Mimi. That's bad manners."
Naomi was grunting in pain and anger and said, "You have no right talking about family when you're the one who broke it. Why did you kill dad and mom? Why did you join NWO? Why?"
Naoki replied, "It's better for you to not know the answers to those questions." He caressed Naomi's head as he said, "Be a good girl now and let me take care of that bastard Ito. I'll see you later... maybe."
Just as Naoki got up, Naomi punched Naoki's shin with all the might she had on her left hand. The punch made Naoki kneel again, and just as he kneeled, Naomi tried to push her down on the ground but failed as Naoki held her wrist before she could push him, and Naoki pushed her instead. He said, "Don't try. You're not better than your big brother."
Just then suddenly Annabelle's voice came from a little far: "Major Shadow? And… Medusa?"
Naomi got surprised for the second time today as she heard Annabelle call her brother, Major Shadow. She said, "Ann? What are you doing here? And Who's Major Shadow?"
Annabelle replied as she was trying to not freak out, "That's a long story. I'll tell you about it later. And Major Shadow is the man you're being deadlocked by."
Naoki let go of Naomi and got up. He looked at Annabelle as he fixed his coat and said, "You two even followed me in here? I told Ghost to stop twice. You're a stubborn bunch."
Naomi said frantically as she got up, "No, it can't be. He's an NWO agent. I saw him... Look around you; he even killed all these soldiers just now in cold blood."
Annabelle made a small disappointed face as she picked up a bullet shell and showed it to Naomi. Naomi couldn't reply as she saw that the bullet casing was red, meaning a non-lethal round.
Annabelle said, "I'll debunk anything else about him; you got later. But right now. You two need to get to the conference room. Captain and Blast are in danger."
Naoki asked, "What happened?"
"To be brief, Ito and Kuroshima have declared a war upon all the countries, and that conference hall is filled with 20 men of the Pheonix company. Ito's calling them his research results."
Naoki started running towards the conference hall in full speed as he clicked his tongue and murmured, "Shit. I was too late."
11:40
Inside the conference Hall
The whole room suddenly got filled with white smoke. Sohel jumped and tried to go towards the stage. But he couldn't see anything because of the smoke. Suddenly he heard gunfire. The muzzle flashes from the guns were visible. So, he started going towards the flashes. He quickly got close enough to see the person holding the gun, and as he realised that the gunmen were Pheonix Company soldiers, he quickly started shooting. He empied his magazine on 16 of them before reloading and taking out the last four. He then noticed some windows on one topside of the hall and quickly fired 6 bullets at them and created a vent.
Soon the smoke dissipated through the vents. As the room cleared, Sohel found the room filled with dead bodies. Bodies of SNA soldiers and Phoenix Company soldiers. Sohel ran to the stage and found Jacob hiding behind the podium. Sohel asked, "You okay?"
Jacob was panting as he replied, "Yeah." Jacob got surprised as he asked, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
Sohel said as he was looking around for something, "Long story. Did you see where Ito and Kuroshima went?"
Jacob nodded and replied, "Through that door. They left as the smoke bombs went off."
Sohel helped Jacob get up and ran towards the door as he said, "Come on. We gotta stop him."
Jacob nodded and ran behind Sohel. As they were going through the door, Naoki and Naomi reached the room and started following behind.
Through the door, they found a staircase. Without a second thought, Sohel started climbing up and got to the roof. As he entered through the door of the roof, he found Ito and Kuroshima standing on the roof with 15 more Phoenix Company soldiers. But surprisingly, they were unarmed. Sohel quickly aimed his pistol towards Ito and Kuroshima as he yelled, "Hands in the air, both of you."
Both of them turned around, and Kuroshima said in a calm voice, "No. No, I won't. You can't hurt me."
By that time, Jacob, Naoki, and Naomi reached the roof, and three of them aimed their weapons towards Ito and Kuroshima. Naoki couldn't, as he had just realised that he forgot to pick up his pistol. Ito saw Naoki and Naomi and said, "Ohh. Isn't that 01 and 19?"
The moment Naomi heard the number 19. She started feeling dizzy. Ito added, "How've been you two doing? You know 19, if the boss didn't grow affectionate with you and pulled you out of the project, you might've been the best product of Project Spectre."
Naomi was feeling more and more dizzy while Naoki yelled, "Shut the fuck up."
Ito kept talking, "Oh. Looks like you don't remember what happened. Let me jog your memory.
Nine... purple... fifteen... two... red... huston... cobra... thirteen... eleven... snake... nineteen."
The moment Ito finished, Naomi was already on her knees, panting and shaking her head. Naoki lunged towards Ito as that happened, but he found a wall of Phoenix Company soldiers blocking his way. As he was getting ready to fight his way through, all of them heard a whirring sound coming from a distance.
Sohel noticed a helicopter coming towards them. He realised that the helicopter was coming to get Ito and Kuroshima.
Naoki was about to fight the first Phoenix Company soldier, but he didn't have to, as Sohel quickly created a hole in the side of that soldier's head. He yelled, "Major, go. I'll cover you."
Naoki looked at him, nodded, and started running towards him as Sohel kept creating holes in the heads of the soldiers trying to stop him.
But Sohel's bullets soon ended, but he saw eight more soldiers still standing. He took a small glance at Naomi and saw her still screaming on her knees while holding her head. He said, "Jacob, take care of Medusa."
He dropped the empty pistol and ran towards the soldiers. As he ran, he said, "ARIA, generate me an optimal combat simulation. Do it fast; override the safety protocols."
"Yes, Captain."
Soon ARIA presented him with a simulation. Sohel yelled, "Major, I got them. You take care of Ito and Kuroshima."
Sohel reached the first soldier, and before the soldier could try anything, he sent a punch from his left hand, aimed straight at the soldier's liver. The soldier groaned and bent left. Sohel grabbed the injured soldier and threw him towards another soldier, and just as they collided, Sohel again sent a punch with his left hand, this time aimed straight towards the man's chest. The first soldier fell down as he coughed blood, and the second soldier was tumbling too. Sohel dropped that soldier too with a high kick straight to his head.
As the first two soldiers fell, Sohel saw the other six coming at him at the same time. Sohel got ready to fight. He dodged two punches thrown at him at the same time by two soldiers but couldn't escape the third punch. It hit him in the stomach, and he stumbled backwards. He quickly regained his stance, but he was constantly kept in a defensive state as the six versus one situation was overwhelming him.
As Sohel was constantly dodging and blocking punches and kicks coming from all angles, he suddenly felt a punch coming from his back, aimed straight towards his head, and he felt helpless as he realised he wouldn't be able to block that punch.
But he didn't have to suffer a fatal blow as Naoki got the attacker in a chokehold just before he could hit Sohel. He quickly and cleanly snapped the neck of the soldier before pulling him out of the middle of the other five soldiers.
Sohel was panting as he said, "I told you, I got this."
Naoki replied in a smug tone, "Didn't seem like that to me. Here they come, get ready."
Sohel and Naoki got into a fighting stance with their backs against each other. Two soldiers attacked Sohel while the other three attacked Naoki.
Sohel noticed one soldier trying to throw a left hook on him while the other one was ready to hit him if he dodged the punch. Sohel quickly hit the second soldier on the solar plexus and grabbed the first one's punching fist as he got closer. The second soldier was trying to breathe as Sohel got the first soldier in a chokehold and with a powerful twist, broke his neck. Sohel dropped the dead body of the first soldier and went to finish off the second soldier. He took him down too with a powerful punch from his left arm on the soldier's head.
As Sohel turned back to help Naoki, he realised Naoki didn't actually need any help, as was already done with the other three.
Both of them looked at Ito and Kuroshima and saw them boarding the same helicopter from before. They ran to get to the helicopter, but before they could reach it, the helicopter flew a bit up, out of their reach. Sohel yelled, "What did you do to our comrade?"
Ito replied with a small grin on his face, "Nothing. I just let her remember what she had been made to forget."
"What?"
Sohel didn't get an answer as the helicopter flew away. As Sohel felt helpless, he saw Naoki run for Sohel's dropped pistol. Naoki grabbed the pistol and took out a single bullet from his coat pocket. He put the bullet in the chamber and fired at the helicopter.
Sohel felt like it did nothing. He asked, "What did you do?"
Naoki replied, "You'll find out soon."
Both of them ran to Jacob and Naomi. Naomi was panting still now, but it looked like she didn't hurt anymore. Sohel put a hand on Naomi's soldier and asked, "Naomi, are you okay?"
Naomi replied, "No."
"No?"
Naomi quickly replied, "No, I'm okay. It's… It's just that…"
Sohel looked confusedly at Naomi as Naomi said, "I'm not Naomi."
Before Sohel could react, Jacob yelled, "What? Are you really ok?"
Sohel added, "Yeah. You're Lt. Naomi Kobayashi. What are you talking about?"
Naomi didn't reply. But Naoki did. He said in a really calm voice, "It's exactly as she said. She isn't Naomi Kobayashi. There is no Naomi Kobayashi. She's... Mei Watanabe."