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“I can’t believe we might actually get to meet THE Otacon today!” Meril said for probably the hundredth time since they had arrived at the convention center.
Here’s the thing, Meryl knew the Metal Gear books weren't good. But she’d been a fan of them since the beginning. Before they were published. Back when they were just some dinky webcomic with a convoluted plot that felt more it was just an excuse to have mechs in the cold war than the serious military alternate fiction story that the comic has become. But hell if you wanted alternate history military stories you could look anywhere, but you kept reading Metal Gear because despite no longer being set in the cold war it still has kick ass mechs. And Meryl fucking loved mecs. Her boyfriend, Johnny preferred the military aspects, which obviously made Metal Gear the ideal story for them to read together.
There was a lot of other cool stuff at this convention but Meryl and her friends where there to meet the mysterious author of the Metal Gear comics, Otacon. He was supposed to be doing signings for the books but just like most conventions those signings where ridiculously overpriced and Meryl and her friends where in college and couldn’t be bothered to fork over that much cash. But, they had an even better solution. On the page announcing all the meet ups and cosplay competitions had been an announcement that not only would they be holding a competition just for Metal Gear cosplayers after the Metal Gear panel but it would be judged by Otacon himself and all the winner would get to meet him for free.
The whole group that made up Rat Patrol, which was mostly just a name for their discord server and theoretical twitch/youtube channel, had collectively decided to dress up as their favorite characters from the early days of the comic. The logic had been that by dressing as less popular characters they were bound to have very little competition.
They had decided pretty quickly their best bet for group cosplays was to go as the Cobra Unit. Meryl was obviously The Boss. Johnny was The Sorrow mostly because he was Meryl’s boyfriend, and also because he already owned a turtleneck. Johnathan was cosplaying the Fury. And Ed, well everyone has expected Ed to go as the End since he was actually a sniper but instead Ed had decided to cosplay The Pain. When his friends had asked him why he had shrugged and said simply “Why be only a man when I could just be covered in bees?” and no one had really known what to say to that.
On the floor of the Convention the four friends had been huddled up in a corner sharing a plastic carton of con nachos when they saw him. Meryl gasped and tapped Johnny.
“Okay don’t look now but that guy over there has the perfect Solid Snake cosplay.” Merly announced. And because they were the worst, every member of Rat Patrol turned to look at the man she had spotted.
His cosplay really was perfect. He looked like Solid Snake himself had been ripped right out of the comics and placed into the real world. He had the build and the outfit of Snake spot on. Not to mention having a near perfect face shape and even a mullet so glorious it nearly rivaled that of Snake. Meryl couldn’t imagine loving anything enough that it was worth having a mullet for. But clearly this man loved Metal Gear. Honestly, if Meyl didn’t know better she would probably have been convinced that Snake’s look was based off this man and not the other way around, but that was probably ridiculous.
As soon as the teens spotted him the man he turned to look at them. It was kind of creepy. Like he had some sort of extra scene for when people had noticed him. And even stranger he didn’t look upset that four teens were staring right at him, No, instead he looked oddly relieved. Although Merly couldn’t imagine what about a group of teens would ever be reassuring to man who looked like Solid Snake. Merly blushed and turned back to the nachos, hoping they hadn’t bothered the man too much. But then, she felt Johnny’s hand on her arm.
“Meryl” Johnny whispered. “I think Solid Snake is coming over here.”
Meryl took a deep breath and turned back around, only to realize that the Snake cosplayer was right in front of her. She jumped a bit and tried unsuccessfully to suppress a yelp.
“Are you supposed to be The Boss?” Snake growled.
“Umm…. Yes?” Meryl squeaked.
“Umm Actually, She’s supposed to be The Joy” Johnny corrected like the overdramatic nerd he was. Meryl tried to blush. “We’re supposed to be the Cobra Unit”
“Only we didn’t have enough to be everyone” Ed added, mouth full of chips and queso.
“Oh, those guys are still from Metal Gear though, right?” Snake ased, shifting uncomfortably back and forth.
“Oh yeah totally. Well I mean technically The Joy is The Boss but we decided to use the costume variants from the prequel comics that take place during world war two rather than during the Snake Eater ark since while The Boss was on the Virtuous Mission…”
“Oh my god Johnny he doesn’t care.” Merly cut him off. And then to Snake she said “Yeah, we’re from Metal Gear.”
“Thank god.” The imposing figure of the Snake Cosplayer seemed to deflate a little making him look like just some normal guy rather than the great Solid Snake. He ran his hand through his hair before looking around nervously.
“Look” he said. “I lost my daughter. She’s finally old enough to come to one of these things and I told her she could go off to Artist Alley alone to try and find my husband’s booth. Well, turns out he doesn't have booth and well, I forgot to set up a backup meeting place with her. If you could help me keep an eye out for her that would be pretty helpful.”
Merly frowned at the man. It was kind of strange to see the spitting image of Solid Snake as nothing more than a frantic father.
“Yeah, I mean I’m not really sure how we would be your best bet but we can keep an eye out for her.” Merly said wearily, “I’m not really sure what we can do since we’re you know, kind of just a group of teens.”
“No.” The Snake said in a gruff tone. “You’re perfect. Sunny’s a smart girl. Doesn’t trust authority though. But she knows all the Metal Gear so she’ll probably just find you.”
“Oh, Alright.” Meryl agreed. “What does she look like?”
“Uh, she’s pretty small. Blond Hair, wearing a green jumpsuit with a big coat over top.”
“Oh! Is she supposed to be Liquid Snake?” Johnny exclaimed.
“Yeah.” Snake chuckled. “Originally she wanted me to Big Boss but Hal thought it would be more fitting for me to be Solid Snake since..” He motioned to his body with a smile that seemed to imply some sort of humor in the statement.
“You said her name was Sunny right?” Merly clarified.
“Oh yeah right.She’s Sunny. And I’m David by the way” David stuck his hand out to Merly and she shook it tenatatively.
“I’m Meryl. This is Johnny. And the other two are Johnathan and Ed.”
“And together we’re Rat Patrol” Johnny announced excitedly.
“Oh my god Johnny shut up. He doesn't need to know that!” Meryl said elbowing her boyfriend in the side. And then schooling her face into something as close to what she was pretty sure adults acted like she added: “Well David. We’ll see what we can do to help you find your kid”
“Thanks so much. You don’t need to worry about finding me, I can be pretty hard to spot sometimes.But if you see her make sure she gets to Metal Gear Panel at one.” David said this a smile. “I’m glad to have Rat Patrol on the case.”
And with that David turned disappearing back into the throng of con gowers, surprisingly sneaky for a man of his build and stature.
“Did you see that?” Johnny asked. “He used our group name!”
Meryl shook her head, sighing at her loser nerd of a boyfriend.
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About half an hour later the Rat Patrol crew found themselves in one of the convention center bathrooms. Of course, they weren’t all together. Ed and Jonathna where outside the restrooms while Johnny used the Men’s room and Merly fixed her scar in the Woman’s. One of the reasons she had chosen The Boss was because it didn’t require as much makeup or showing as much cleavage as most of the female characters from the Metal Gear comics. It also meant that Meryl got to do some kick ass scar makeup. But the scar makeup wasn’t hold up great in con conditions and they needed to win the costume contest.
Not long after Meryl had started her process a young girl existed of the stalls. She had light hair and an army green outfit on. Absently Meryl wondered if the girl was supposed to be Liquid Snake. The young girl washed her hands, staring at Meryl with large brown eyes. Once she had washed and dried her hands she walked over the Meryl and pointed forcefully.
“T-the B-b-boss!” She announced, sounding very proud of herself.
“That’s me.” Meryl agreed with a smile.
“I’m S-sunny” The girl announced.
Well, that confirmed Meryl’s suspicions.
“Hey Sunny.” Meryl said, crouching down to be on the young girl’s level. “I think your dad’s looking for you.”
“Nope!” Sunny replied quickly.
“Really?” Meryl said slightly concerned. Who else could David have been? He had said she was his daughter hadn’t she? “Because he asked us to keep an eye out for you”
“W-what did he look like?” Sunny asked hyper seriously.
“Umm.. Solid Snake?” Meryl responded.
Sunny nodded, again she looked so serious. Not like a young child at all.
“He’s not my dad.” She said before her face broke out into a wide smile and she added: “He’s my papa.”
Meryl let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“I’m glad was Papa was looking, not Dad. Papa said we were here as surprise. He takes espionage very seriously.” Sunny continued. It struck Merly at that moment she really wasn’t sure how only the girl was. Sure, she looked around 6 but she had clearly Metal Gear and seemed comfortable using words like espionage in casual conversation.
“Oh, umm well your Papa was looking for you then” Meryl corrected. “He said to meet him at the Metal Gear panel?”
Sunny nodded again. Then she quirked her head to the side as if to imply she had just come up with a very intelligent plan before announcing to Meryl: “If you’re The Boss than Big Boss was your Son and since I’m Liquid Snake that makes you my Grandma so you have to watch me now.”
“Really Sunny?” Meryl asked tentatively.
The young girl nodded. “Normally Joy would be my Great Grandma but I’m being Uncle Eli today so she’s my Grandma instead!” Sunny Smilled.
Meryl was unsure of how to respond to that but she didn’t see any reason this small child couldn't hang out with her and her friends. Once she agreed that Sunny could join her group she was able to herd the small girl out of the bathrooms and over too where Ed and Jonathan stood off to the side. Johnny joined them shorty after and the rag tag group of five spend the remaining time until the Panel wandering Artist alley.
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The teens in Rat Patrol had so much fun spending time with Sunny that they barely noticed how much time had passed, but next time they looked at the clock they found it was already time for the Metal Gear panel. They were able to find it quickly, being well acquainted with all the strange passageways and other eccentricities of their local convention center. Thankfully they didn’t have to look to hard to find David once they got to the room where the panel was being held. He was standing across from the entrance to the conference room speaking to someone on a cellphone.
“Yeah, Hal. We’re all good.” David smiled at the response he received from the other end of the line. “Sunny’s fine. I promised you I’d keep her safe didn’t I?”
Meryl kind of wanted to scoff at that given how David has just let the girl to wander alone but she didn’t have time too as Sunny peeled away from the group and went rocketing towards David.
“Papa!” She squealed as he picked her up and swung her around. He smiled softly at her and kissed her forehead.
“See, there she is Hal.” David said into the phone. “Say hi to your Dad Sunny.”
“Hi Dad!” She squealed into device, And right into David’s ear. Meryl cringed sympathy but the large man didn’t seem to mind.
“Now Hal, you have to go. You’re going to be great. They’ll love you. They always do.” David said with a bright smile and then he hung up the phone.
“You kids ready to go in?” David asked.
Meryl finally tore her eyes away from the reunion of father and daughter to notice line filtering people slowly into the panel room. It looked like the line stretched all the way down the hall. Plus most of the people in the line where doing some sort of Metal Gear cosplay. They would probably never get into the Panel now, let alone get to meet Otacon. Meryl sighed.
“I don’t know, the line looks really long. I’m not even sure we can get in at this point.” Meryl said dejectedly.
David frowned slightly but the frown quickly morphed into a smirk.
“Leave it to me” He said before walking off.
Meryl turned to the rest of Rat Patrol who had also noticed the length of the line. She was almost tempted to ask them if they just wanted to leave now but before she could David returned with one of the convention volunteers and they were all being whisked in past the line.
For a second it seemed like they were going to be led to the front of the room but with a quiet whisper to the Con volunteer David diverted the group to a number of seats in the back. The teens chatted excitedly speculating about what secret lore they might learn about the books from the panel. And soon the lights dimmed letting everyone know it was about to begin