A gift, from me, to my dear namuanmu (The Secret Santa post =D)
NAMU! MY LOVE!
I got your prompt, as you predicted! Isn't that awesome? You are the best clairvoyant, EVER *giggles*
Anyways, it was so ridiculously fun to work with the whole kid!Meryl + Roy "happy family bonding" concept =D Strangely enough, the idea I used here is something that I was thinking about for a while, but never got myself to write it. Your prompt fitted just like a glove <3
That said, here, have your gift. I don't know if it's good or bad, but you better believe that I put my heart into it, specially considering that it was for you <3 <3
Title: Of Ninjas and Spies (this is a rushed title)
Rating: G
Words: 3,408 (I worked extra hard for you honey <3)
Summary: Little Meryl gets the chance to spend her first weekend with her beloved uncle, and he tells her about the people he met and the things that happened to him, in a not so distant past. Narrated by Meryl's PoV.
Warnings: This is a story narrated, more or less, by a nine, eight years old Meryl. Be afraid *never wrote anything with a kid's PoV before*
That was the first time ever that I was going to stay at my uncle’s house and I was more excited than ever. I liked him a lot but never had the opportunity to really get to know him and the things he did when he was young.
When my dad told me that I was going to spend a whole weekend with him, I opened my biggest smile. He had this meeting with some guys from the military about something I didn’t really bother much and my mother had to go with him.
But that was far from bad. My uncle was cool and spending two days with him would be one big adventure for me.
“Behave yourself, would you Meryl?” were the last words that my dad said to me before leaving. I was going to behave. I always did. But since my uncle would give me plenty of ‘freedom’, I just couldn’t guarantee that I was going to be the angel my dad knew and loved.
As soon as dad was gone, my uncle went to the kitchen to prepare some lunch for us. He decided to make some pancakes. I never had the chance to eat those out of breakfast time, so I was quite eager for those. I could taste the sweet maple melting on my tongue already.
Putting my bag to the side - the bag where I was keeping all the stuff I needed to go though that weekend - I started to take a look around the small living room of his house. It was clear that he wasn’t the most organized person in the world. The shelves were all crammed with books with thorn edges and everything was rather dusty.
While scanning through the dusty books, all of them with old fashioned covers, I came across a quite large photo album. It seemed worn out, but not as much as the other books and it wasn’t that dusty. It looked like he took care of that thing a little bit better than the rest of the stuff inside that room.
I grabbed the album with both hands and took it from the shelf. It was quite heavy and the borders of the pages were all yellow.
“Uncle Roy,” I called from the living room as I walked to the kitchen. “What is this?”
He turned to me and, for a second, I could swear that he turned pale. He gave me a weird smile and switched his attention back at the stove.
“I-it’s nothing, really. Just old photos,” he said, pouring some batter on the pan.
“Oh…” I muttered as I put the album on the table, sitting on one of the chairs. I opened up the album just a little and took a peek at the first page. There was a large picture of some people next to a small truck and my uncle was among them.
I couldn’t help but open up the album completely and stare at the picture for a while.
“Who are these people?” I asked, turning to him as he let the spatula on his hand fall to the floor.
“Yo-you opened it up, hm?” He looked at me as he grabbed the spatula from the floor. He seemed slightly nervous.
“Yes. Did I do anything wrong?” I asked when I saw how nervous he was.
“No, no you didn’t,” he seemed to relax a little, throwing the spatula into the sink and getting a new one from a drawer. “They were… Part of FOXHOUND.”
“Really? Cool!” I knew some vague things about my uncle and how he worked for that unit, but he never really told me about the people that he met back then. “Can you tell about them? Please!” I was really curious to know everything about that. I knew all my dad’s war stories and I definitely could use new ones.
He stayed in silence for a moment, back turned to me as he looked at the pan. For a moment, I thought I made him angry or something, but then he finally answered to my question.
“Alright. I’ll tell you about them as we eat.”
My face lit up with a smile, as I started flipping through the pages of the album, just to see what else was there. There were a couple of individual shots of the people from the first picture and some other group shots. The pictures looked way older than they should be. I wondered if my uncle was taking proper care of his ‘memories’.
“Uncle, who took those pictures?” I asked, looking at him.
“Hm? Oh, I took most them. While we were all in the unit, I got a camera from this soldier and decided to take some pictures of the people I knew and admired in the unit at the time, so then I wouldn’t forget them.”
“Nice,” I said, changing my attention back at the album.
When the pancakes were done, my uncle put two plates on the table along with two forks by the side of them, and put a third plate there, with layer after layer of pancakes. My mouth was watering just thinking about those and it just got ‘worst’ when he put the small bottle of maple syrup on the table.
Excitedly, I closed the album and put it aside for a moment and reached out for the plate with the pancakes and put two on my plate, quickly pouring the maple all over them.
“They are still hot. Careful,” he told me as he sat down at the table.
I stopped on my tracks for a moment. It was such a torture having to wait for those to cool down, with their smell right under my nose like that, but I didn’t want to destroy that moment with a burn on my tongue.
After putting his own pancakes on his plate and covering them with the syrup, my uncle reached for the album and opened it up at the second page.
“Now, where do I begin…”
I moved my chair a little so then I could get closer to them, bringing my plate along. That second page had two large individual pictures of a young boy sitting in the back of a truck and another one of a woman with reddish brown-hair wrapping someone’s leg with bandages.
“This boy looks so young. Who is he?”
“His name is Frank Jaeger and he was the youngest member of the whole unit, but he was certainly the strongest.”
“What did he do?” I asked, as I finally started munching on my pancakes.
“Well, he knew how to use a sword, something that none of us could. At least, not that I know. And more than that: he could jump really high and run faster than anyone I ever met.”
“Wow... Was he a ninja?”
“Well, I guess he could be one alright,” my uncle smiled.
“That’s so incredible that you got to fight alongside ninjas!”
“Hey, don’t exaggerate things!” he said, after eating a piece of pancake. “He was the only one in the whole unit that could do that.”
“And where is he now?” I asked, eager to know that ninja’s ‘destiny’.
“He was still young, so he parted ways with the unit and went to do his own thing. I must admit that I don’t know where he is now…”
My uncle sounded worried all of sudden, but I had no idea why, but I didn’t ask him anything. Maybe something bad happened between them?
“That’s bad… I wish I could meet him…” I’ve never met a ninja and, if I did, I could tell all my friends about it. He definitely sounded awesome and looked so serious in that picture.
“Hey, who knows? The world is so small I guess you could meet him someday,” my uncle said, patting me on the head.
“You think so? That would be incredible!” I smiled back at my uncle, thinking about how it would be to meet someone so different. “Now tell me uncle, who’s that?” I pointed at the woman’s picture, quickly changing the subject. I would have to think about the cool ninja guy later on. At that moment, I wanted to know everything I could about the people my uncle met.
“That’s Para-medic. I mean, that was her codename. Some people used to call her Dr. Clark.”
“… Para-medic?” I never heard anything like that.
“Yes. You see, she built a group of doctors fit for emergencies that could jump out of a plane, by parachutes, in the middle of a battlefield.”
“Ah, I get it. Did she ever jump out of a plane?”
“Are you kidding? Countless times! She was really dedicated doctor and was quite fearless when it came to help the others.”
“She sounds so talented. And she is really pretty too.”
“Yes… She was a beauty,” my uncle said with a dreamy gaze on his eyes. I don’t remember seeing my uncle look at someone like that.
“Uncle, was she your girlfriend?” I asked. That was probably the only reason why he looked so dazed.
My uncle froze for a moment and started to laugh nervously. “N-no! We were just friends, really. I just think she’s beautiful, that’s all,” he put the album down on the table and started eating another piece of pancake, still looking rather nervous.
I got the album myself and flipped the page, only to find more pictures of that pretty doctor doing all sorts of things or just standing around.
“Are you sure she wasn’t your girlfriend? You have so many pictures of her.”
My uncle almost choked on his pancake and looked at me with an odd smile.
“I-I just liked taking pictures of people you see. It’s nothing like that,” he scratched the back of his head, like he didn’t know what to say. I found that really weird because I never saw my uncle that nervous or jumpy.
“But you have just one picture of Frank,” I said, flipping to the next page just to find more pictures of Para-medic.
“Let’s move on, OK?” he got the album from my hands and flipped to the next page. “He-here. This is SIGINT,” he said, pointing at a picture of a somewhat old man.
“SIGINT?”
“Well, this isn’t his real name, of course. His name is Donald. He was the guy that helped us fix everything, from guns to all kinds of apparel” my uncle said, looking way more relaxed now.
“Oh, he sounds like a smart guy.”
“Smart? He wasn’t only smart. He was a genius, that’s what he was. He even invented new things from time to time.”
“Really? Uncle, your unit was so awesome! Inventors, ninjas, parachuting doctors…” I was getting overly excited about all that. I never imagined my uncle knew such impressive people. I even forgot about my pancakes completely.
“Oh, and it gets better!” he said, going to the next page of the album. “This is Major Ocelot.”
“Ocelot?” I wondered why he had the name of an animal. Also, he looked quite young, but not as young as that ninja boy, and he had a gun on each hand.
“Yeah. I guess he choose this name because he identified with ocelots or something.”
“Is that so? Was he really fast?”
“Well, not running wise but, you already saw western movies, right?”
“Yes, I had. But why?”
“Well, do you know those guys who shoot real quickly in the movies or that can aim really well?”
“Oh, was he good at shooting?” I asked. That would explain those guns.
“He wasn’t only good. He was excellent. He could aim at anything and he would hit it, faster than anyone. He also knew some quite fancy revolver tricks.”
“He could hit anything? That’s amazing,” my uncle’s unit looked more and more impressive as the minutes passed. “And who’s this other man here?” I pointed at the picture on the next page. This guy looked a lot older than everyone in that album, but he definitely looked really respectful.
“This is Major Zero.”
“What did he do?”
“Well, he pretty much started FOXHOUNDS’s predecessor.”
“Pre… decessor?” I really didn’t understand that word at first.
“Yes. He had this unit you see, called FOX. He started it as a branch of the CIA so he could do his own thing.”
“Oh, I get it,” I said, finally understand what my uncle meant.
“He was the guy that gave both Para-medic and SIGINT chance. In fact, he would give everyone a chance if they showed that they were capable. He pretty much helped people chase after their dreams.”
“That’s really kind,” I said with a smile. It was pretty hard to find people like that man. Even I, as a child, knew that it isn’t everyone that would give people a chance, without questioning.
My uncle just smiled at me and flipped to the next page of the album, with the picture of a blonde woman in a jumpsuit. She was incredibly gorgeous.
“Wow, uncle, this woman is so beautiful!”
“That’s EVA. She worked as a spy before joining us.”
“Ah spy? Wow, it looks like she came straight out of a movie!” I was somewhat familiar with those spy movies with beautiful girls, guns in disguise and fast cars. My dad would watch them all the time.
“I know. Although, the reason why she joined us is because she wanted to be Big Boss’ side.”
“Big Boss? He was her boyfriend?”
“Well, sort of…” my uncle said, going to the next page of the album. “This is Big Boss,” he pointed at the picture on the next page.
I looked at it for a moment. He looked like a quite serious man. Almost too serious. He also had an eyepatch and was standing in the middle of a field. He definitely looked strong and intimidating.
“This guy looks so tough!”
“Well, he has to be. After all, he saved the world twice and even saved my life.”
“REALLY?” I asked loudly, in surprise. I had no idea my uncle had been in such danger and that someone saved him. “Tell me how it was! TELL ME!”
“Alright, alright,” he said, smiling at me as he put the album down on the table, getting up from his chair. “So, it all started when my old unit went to Colombia with a simple mission: stop a guy from starting a war. But when we got there, we feel into a trap. There were soldiers all around us,” he said, gesticulating as he spoke.
“Then what happened?” I said, eyes fixed on him.
“Then, they looked us on prisons cells and I thought that I was done for. Then, there he was, on the cell across, the greatest soldier that ever walked this land, Big Boss.”
“How did you escape the prison?”
“Two days before meeting him, I was at the exact same cell that he was and I was able to find an escape route, but they put me in another cell before I could use it. Fortunately, Big Boss was able to escape his cell through it.”
“And how did he free you?”
“Well, after getting in contact with his old-friend Para-medic, he came back to my cell and opened u using a key he got from a soldier. I told him to leave me there, because I had a broken leg and I was terribly sick, but he wouldn’t accept ‘no’ for an answer,” my uncle smiled as he told me the story.
“Then what? What?” I wanted to know everything.
“We unveiled the terrible plot behind that war and how the guy there, Gene, was willing to destroy the US to make his point ‘clear’ to everyone, but Big Boss was able to defeat all his minions, before getting to him.”
“He defeated all soldiers all by himself?” I was definitely impressed.
“Not exactly. We started getting soldiers from Gene’s side to join us, because not all of them were happy with his policies you see. Big Boss’ old friends also appeared to join us.”
“You mean the people from the other photos?”
“Yes. Well, except for Frank. He was working for Gene at the time, completely against his own will. He was pretty much ‘brainwashed’.”
“Oh, and how did you change his mind?”
“Well, to our luck, Big Boss knew Frank long ago and he was able to bring the boy back to what he was. But, if it wasn’t for his time under gene’s guidance, he wouldn’t be so strong and fast, so something good actually came out of it.”
“And did Big Boss defeat Gene?”
“Of course he did! He stopped him and the destruction of the whole country.”
“Now I know why you said that he was the greatest!” I opened up a large smile. I never imagined a man could do all that. “But, what happened after that?”
“The both of us started FOXHOUND based on the things we believed but… My friendship with Big Boss ended up not going so well after that and he left the unit along with all the other people on this album,” the smile on my uncle’s face disappeared for a moment as he sat at the table again.
“But, why did you fight?”
“Is just that, we didn’t think the same way you see. We had really different opinions.”
“You know,” I started, remembering a similar thing that happened at school not long ago. “Some weeks ago two boys were fighting at school because they just wouldn’t agree with something, and the teacher stopped the fight and told them to apologize to each other. Did you try to do that?”
My uncle looked at me with a small smile and sighed softly. “I guess that our fight needed a lot more than a ‘sorry’.”
“But you try it?” I insisted. I knew that the two boys didn’t fight anymore after that.
“I… Didn’t really have the chance to do that.”
“So you have to do it!” I couldn’t believe that my uncle didn’t try something as simple as apologizing and started to frown. “Maybe that’s all you two need, and then you can have an awesome unit again!” After all, I wanted to meet them all and listen to their incredible stories.
He looked at me with a somewhat surprised look upon his face, like he didn’t expect me to ‘scold’ him like that.
“Perhaps you are right,” he said, looking down.
“So, are you going to try and apologize to him?” I wanted to be sure that he was going to follow what I said.
“Yes,” he looked at me, smiling again. “If I find him, that’s the first thing I’m doing and I’ll tell him that it was you who told me to do so.”
I smiled again. It was nice to know that my uncle was going to try that. I was sure that was going to work.
“Damn, the pancakes are all cold now…” He said, getting a piece of it and eating it.
“You know uncle? This was way better than pancakes!” I said, getting the album and looking at the other pages, filled with group shots.
“I’m glad to hear that,” my uncle said, getting up from his chair and getting the plate where the pancakes were staked. “But I believe you want me to heat up those, don’t you?”
I shifted my attention from the album to him and said: “Of course!”
“OK, so put this album back on the shelf while I heat those, alright?”
“Right!” I got up from my chair, closing the album. Before I went to the other room to put it away, I turned to my uncle and asked: “Are you really sure that Para-medic wasn’t your girlfriend?”
“Me-Meryl, how many times…” he looked at me, getting nervous again.
“I’m kidding!” I laughed lightly, hoping to the other room to put the album away. Although, I hoped that, if he ever got to work with Big Boss and his friends again, that he would start dating the nice doctor. It was obvious that he liked her.
But I had other things to worry about than that. I had to worry about nice hot pancakes filling my belly and the nice little weekend I had ahead of me.
I would have time to my uncle’s ‘love life’ another day.
---------------------------
Btw honey, I was going to throw an extra fanart for this, but I failed miserably at it (at least, at the idea I had in mind). I might try this later XD
I got your prompt, as you predicted! Isn't that awesome? You are the best clairvoyant, EVER *giggles*
Anyways, it was so ridiculously fun to work with the whole kid!Meryl + Roy "happy family bonding" concept =D Strangely enough, the idea I used here is something that I was thinking about for a while, but never got myself to write it. Your prompt fitted just like a glove <3
That said, here, have your gift. I don't know if it's good or bad, but you better believe that I put my heart into it, specially considering that it was for you <3 <3
Title: Of Ninjas and Spies (this is a rushed title)
Rating: G
Words: 3,408 (I worked extra hard for you honey <3)
Summary: Little Meryl gets the chance to spend her first weekend with her beloved uncle, and he tells her about the people he met and the things that happened to him, in a not so distant past. Narrated by Meryl's PoV.
Warnings: This is a story narrated, more or less, by a nine, eight years old Meryl. Be afraid *never wrote anything with a kid's PoV before*
That was the first time ever that I was going to stay at my uncle’s house and I was more excited than ever. I liked him a lot but never had the opportunity to really get to know him and the things he did when he was young.
When my dad told me that I was going to spend a whole weekend with him, I opened my biggest smile. He had this meeting with some guys from the military about something I didn’t really bother much and my mother had to go with him.
But that was far from bad. My uncle was cool and spending two days with him would be one big adventure for me.
“Behave yourself, would you Meryl?” were the last words that my dad said to me before leaving. I was going to behave. I always did. But since my uncle would give me plenty of ‘freedom’, I just couldn’t guarantee that I was going to be the angel my dad knew and loved.
As soon as dad was gone, my uncle went to the kitchen to prepare some lunch for us. He decided to make some pancakes. I never had the chance to eat those out of breakfast time, so I was quite eager for those. I could taste the sweet maple melting on my tongue already.
Putting my bag to the side - the bag where I was keeping all the stuff I needed to go though that weekend - I started to take a look around the small living room of his house. It was clear that he wasn’t the most organized person in the world. The shelves were all crammed with books with thorn edges and everything was rather dusty.
While scanning through the dusty books, all of them with old fashioned covers, I came across a quite large photo album. It seemed worn out, but not as much as the other books and it wasn’t that dusty. It looked like he took care of that thing a little bit better than the rest of the stuff inside that room.
I grabbed the album with both hands and took it from the shelf. It was quite heavy and the borders of the pages were all yellow.
“Uncle Roy,” I called from the living room as I walked to the kitchen. “What is this?”
He turned to me and, for a second, I could swear that he turned pale. He gave me a weird smile and switched his attention back at the stove.
“I-it’s nothing, really. Just old photos,” he said, pouring some batter on the pan.
“Oh…” I muttered as I put the album on the table, sitting on one of the chairs. I opened up the album just a little and took a peek at the first page. There was a large picture of some people next to a small truck and my uncle was among them.
I couldn’t help but open up the album completely and stare at the picture for a while.
“Who are these people?” I asked, turning to him as he let the spatula on his hand fall to the floor.
“Yo-you opened it up, hm?” He looked at me as he grabbed the spatula from the floor. He seemed slightly nervous.
“Yes. Did I do anything wrong?” I asked when I saw how nervous he was.
“No, no you didn’t,” he seemed to relax a little, throwing the spatula into the sink and getting a new one from a drawer. “They were… Part of FOXHOUND.”
“Really? Cool!” I knew some vague things about my uncle and how he worked for that unit, but he never really told me about the people that he met back then. “Can you tell about them? Please!” I was really curious to know everything about that. I knew all my dad’s war stories and I definitely could use new ones.
He stayed in silence for a moment, back turned to me as he looked at the pan. For a moment, I thought I made him angry or something, but then he finally answered to my question.
“Alright. I’ll tell you about them as we eat.”
My face lit up with a smile, as I started flipping through the pages of the album, just to see what else was there. There were a couple of individual shots of the people from the first picture and some other group shots. The pictures looked way older than they should be. I wondered if my uncle was taking proper care of his ‘memories’.
“Uncle, who took those pictures?” I asked, looking at him.
“Hm? Oh, I took most them. While we were all in the unit, I got a camera from this soldier and decided to take some pictures of the people I knew and admired in the unit at the time, so then I wouldn’t forget them.”
“Nice,” I said, changing my attention back at the album.
When the pancakes were done, my uncle put two plates on the table along with two forks by the side of them, and put a third plate there, with layer after layer of pancakes. My mouth was watering just thinking about those and it just got ‘worst’ when he put the small bottle of maple syrup on the table.
Excitedly, I closed the album and put it aside for a moment and reached out for the plate with the pancakes and put two on my plate, quickly pouring the maple all over them.
“They are still hot. Careful,” he told me as he sat down at the table.
I stopped on my tracks for a moment. It was such a torture having to wait for those to cool down, with their smell right under my nose like that, but I didn’t want to destroy that moment with a burn on my tongue.
After putting his own pancakes on his plate and covering them with the syrup, my uncle reached for the album and opened it up at the second page.
“Now, where do I begin…”
I moved my chair a little so then I could get closer to them, bringing my plate along. That second page had two large individual pictures of a young boy sitting in the back of a truck and another one of a woman with reddish brown-hair wrapping someone’s leg with bandages.
“This boy looks so young. Who is he?”
“His name is Frank Jaeger and he was the youngest member of the whole unit, but he was certainly the strongest.”
“What did he do?” I asked, as I finally started munching on my pancakes.
“Well, he knew how to use a sword, something that none of us could. At least, not that I know. And more than that: he could jump really high and run faster than anyone I ever met.”
“Wow... Was he a ninja?”
“Well, I guess he could be one alright,” my uncle smiled.
“That’s so incredible that you got to fight alongside ninjas!”
“Hey, don’t exaggerate things!” he said, after eating a piece of pancake. “He was the only one in the whole unit that could do that.”
“And where is he now?” I asked, eager to know that ninja’s ‘destiny’.
“He was still young, so he parted ways with the unit and went to do his own thing. I must admit that I don’t know where he is now…”
My uncle sounded worried all of sudden, but I had no idea why, but I didn’t ask him anything. Maybe something bad happened between them?
“That’s bad… I wish I could meet him…” I’ve never met a ninja and, if I did, I could tell all my friends about it. He definitely sounded awesome and looked so serious in that picture.
“Hey, who knows? The world is so small I guess you could meet him someday,” my uncle said, patting me on the head.
“You think so? That would be incredible!” I smiled back at my uncle, thinking about how it would be to meet someone so different. “Now tell me uncle, who’s that?” I pointed at the woman’s picture, quickly changing the subject. I would have to think about the cool ninja guy later on. At that moment, I wanted to know everything I could about the people my uncle met.
“That’s Para-medic. I mean, that was her codename. Some people used to call her Dr. Clark.”
“… Para-medic?” I never heard anything like that.
“Yes. You see, she built a group of doctors fit for emergencies that could jump out of a plane, by parachutes, in the middle of a battlefield.”
“Ah, I get it. Did she ever jump out of a plane?”
“Are you kidding? Countless times! She was really dedicated doctor and was quite fearless when it came to help the others.”
“She sounds so talented. And she is really pretty too.”
“Yes… She was a beauty,” my uncle said with a dreamy gaze on his eyes. I don’t remember seeing my uncle look at someone like that.
“Uncle, was she your girlfriend?” I asked. That was probably the only reason why he looked so dazed.
My uncle froze for a moment and started to laugh nervously. “N-no! We were just friends, really. I just think she’s beautiful, that’s all,” he put the album down on the table and started eating another piece of pancake, still looking rather nervous.
I got the album myself and flipped the page, only to find more pictures of that pretty doctor doing all sorts of things or just standing around.
“Are you sure she wasn’t your girlfriend? You have so many pictures of her.”
My uncle almost choked on his pancake and looked at me with an odd smile.
“I-I just liked taking pictures of people you see. It’s nothing like that,” he scratched the back of his head, like he didn’t know what to say. I found that really weird because I never saw my uncle that nervous or jumpy.
“But you have just one picture of Frank,” I said, flipping to the next page just to find more pictures of Para-medic.
“Let’s move on, OK?” he got the album from my hands and flipped to the next page. “He-here. This is SIGINT,” he said, pointing at a picture of a somewhat old man.
“SIGINT?”
“Well, this isn’t his real name, of course. His name is Donald. He was the guy that helped us fix everything, from guns to all kinds of apparel” my uncle said, looking way more relaxed now.
“Oh, he sounds like a smart guy.”
“Smart? He wasn’t only smart. He was a genius, that’s what he was. He even invented new things from time to time.”
“Really? Uncle, your unit was so awesome! Inventors, ninjas, parachuting doctors…” I was getting overly excited about all that. I never imagined my uncle knew such impressive people. I even forgot about my pancakes completely.
“Oh, and it gets better!” he said, going to the next page of the album. “This is Major Ocelot.”
“Ocelot?” I wondered why he had the name of an animal. Also, he looked quite young, but not as young as that ninja boy, and he had a gun on each hand.
“Yeah. I guess he choose this name because he identified with ocelots or something.”
“Is that so? Was he really fast?”
“Well, not running wise but, you already saw western movies, right?”
“Yes, I had. But why?”
“Well, do you know those guys who shoot real quickly in the movies or that can aim really well?”
“Oh, was he good at shooting?” I asked. That would explain those guns.
“He wasn’t only good. He was excellent. He could aim at anything and he would hit it, faster than anyone. He also knew some quite fancy revolver tricks.”
“He could hit anything? That’s amazing,” my uncle’s unit looked more and more impressive as the minutes passed. “And who’s this other man here?” I pointed at the picture on the next page. This guy looked a lot older than everyone in that album, but he definitely looked really respectful.
“This is Major Zero.”
“What did he do?”
“Well, he pretty much started FOXHOUNDS’s predecessor.”
“Pre… decessor?” I really didn’t understand that word at first.
“Yes. He had this unit you see, called FOX. He started it as a branch of the CIA so he could do his own thing.”
“Oh, I get it,” I said, finally understand what my uncle meant.
“He was the guy that gave both Para-medic and SIGINT chance. In fact, he would give everyone a chance if they showed that they were capable. He pretty much helped people chase after their dreams.”
“That’s really kind,” I said with a smile. It was pretty hard to find people like that man. Even I, as a child, knew that it isn’t everyone that would give people a chance, without questioning.
My uncle just smiled at me and flipped to the next page of the album, with the picture of a blonde woman in a jumpsuit. She was incredibly gorgeous.
“Wow, uncle, this woman is so beautiful!”
“That’s EVA. She worked as a spy before joining us.”
“Ah spy? Wow, it looks like she came straight out of a movie!” I was somewhat familiar with those spy movies with beautiful girls, guns in disguise and fast cars. My dad would watch them all the time.
“I know. Although, the reason why she joined us is because she wanted to be Big Boss’ side.”
“Big Boss? He was her boyfriend?”
“Well, sort of…” my uncle said, going to the next page of the album. “This is Big Boss,” he pointed at the picture on the next page.
I looked at it for a moment. He looked like a quite serious man. Almost too serious. He also had an eyepatch and was standing in the middle of a field. He definitely looked strong and intimidating.
“This guy looks so tough!”
“Well, he has to be. After all, he saved the world twice and even saved my life.”
“REALLY?” I asked loudly, in surprise. I had no idea my uncle had been in such danger and that someone saved him. “Tell me how it was! TELL ME!”
“Alright, alright,” he said, smiling at me as he put the album down on the table, getting up from his chair. “So, it all started when my old unit went to Colombia with a simple mission: stop a guy from starting a war. But when we got there, we feel into a trap. There were soldiers all around us,” he said, gesticulating as he spoke.
“Then what happened?” I said, eyes fixed on him.
“Then, they looked us on prisons cells and I thought that I was done for. Then, there he was, on the cell across, the greatest soldier that ever walked this land, Big Boss.”
“How did you escape the prison?”
“Two days before meeting him, I was at the exact same cell that he was and I was able to find an escape route, but they put me in another cell before I could use it. Fortunately, Big Boss was able to escape his cell through it.”
“And how did he free you?”
“Well, after getting in contact with his old-friend Para-medic, he came back to my cell and opened u using a key he got from a soldier. I told him to leave me there, because I had a broken leg and I was terribly sick, but he wouldn’t accept ‘no’ for an answer,” my uncle smiled as he told me the story.
“Then what? What?” I wanted to know everything.
“We unveiled the terrible plot behind that war and how the guy there, Gene, was willing to destroy the US to make his point ‘clear’ to everyone, but Big Boss was able to defeat all his minions, before getting to him.”
“He defeated all soldiers all by himself?” I was definitely impressed.
“Not exactly. We started getting soldiers from Gene’s side to join us, because not all of them were happy with his policies you see. Big Boss’ old friends also appeared to join us.”
“You mean the people from the other photos?”
“Yes. Well, except for Frank. He was working for Gene at the time, completely against his own will. He was pretty much ‘brainwashed’.”
“Oh, and how did you change his mind?”
“Well, to our luck, Big Boss knew Frank long ago and he was able to bring the boy back to what he was. But, if it wasn’t for his time under gene’s guidance, he wouldn’t be so strong and fast, so something good actually came out of it.”
“And did Big Boss defeat Gene?”
“Of course he did! He stopped him and the destruction of the whole country.”
“Now I know why you said that he was the greatest!” I opened up a large smile. I never imagined a man could do all that. “But, what happened after that?”
“The both of us started FOXHOUND based on the things we believed but… My friendship with Big Boss ended up not going so well after that and he left the unit along with all the other people on this album,” the smile on my uncle’s face disappeared for a moment as he sat at the table again.
“But, why did you fight?”
“Is just that, we didn’t think the same way you see. We had really different opinions.”
“You know,” I started, remembering a similar thing that happened at school not long ago. “Some weeks ago two boys were fighting at school because they just wouldn’t agree with something, and the teacher stopped the fight and told them to apologize to each other. Did you try to do that?”
My uncle looked at me with a small smile and sighed softly. “I guess that our fight needed a lot more than a ‘sorry’.”
“But you try it?” I insisted. I knew that the two boys didn’t fight anymore after that.
“I… Didn’t really have the chance to do that.”
“So you have to do it!” I couldn’t believe that my uncle didn’t try something as simple as apologizing and started to frown. “Maybe that’s all you two need, and then you can have an awesome unit again!” After all, I wanted to meet them all and listen to their incredible stories.
He looked at me with a somewhat surprised look upon his face, like he didn’t expect me to ‘scold’ him like that.
“Perhaps you are right,” he said, looking down.
“So, are you going to try and apologize to him?” I wanted to be sure that he was going to follow what I said.
“Yes,” he looked at me, smiling again. “If I find him, that’s the first thing I’m doing and I’ll tell him that it was you who told me to do so.”
I smiled again. It was nice to know that my uncle was going to try that. I was sure that was going to work.
“Damn, the pancakes are all cold now…” He said, getting a piece of it and eating it.
“You know uncle? This was way better than pancakes!” I said, getting the album and looking at the other pages, filled with group shots.
“I’m glad to hear that,” my uncle said, getting up from his chair and getting the plate where the pancakes were staked. “But I believe you want me to heat up those, don’t you?”
I shifted my attention from the album to him and said: “Of course!”
“OK, so put this album back on the shelf while I heat those, alright?”
“Right!” I got up from my chair, closing the album. Before I went to the other room to put it away, I turned to my uncle and asked: “Are you really sure that Para-medic wasn’t your girlfriend?”
“Me-Meryl, how many times…” he looked at me, getting nervous again.
“I’m kidding!” I laughed lightly, hoping to the other room to put the album away. Although, I hoped that, if he ever got to work with Big Boss and his friends again, that he would start dating the nice doctor. It was obvious that he liked her.
But I had other things to worry about than that. I had to worry about nice hot pancakes filling my belly and the nice little weekend I had ahead of me.
I would have time to my uncle’s ‘love life’ another day.
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Btw honey, I was going to throw an extra fanart for this, but I failed miserably at it (at least, at the idea I had in mind). I might try this later XD