The King of Fighters '94 Rebirth

Chapter 10: Rating

"Die." The man spoke already having his hand immobilized by Clark which also was not bad, both knew how to fight and had a lot of combat and war experience. A right kick for him to let go of his hand was stopped by his left hand but the gun triggered missing the target making that Clark let go completely and Ralf was hit by a kick on his belly by the right side. More three consecutive punches were directed to Clark which guarded with his arms, Ralf got ready to shoot but a smokescreen blocked his sight, this time made by the enemy that was not being seen by the two any longer. "Don't let your guard down" Clark spoke coughing and already taking the pistol that dropped and that triggered near him. When the smoke went down, three men in black entered the tent heavily armed looking for the gun dealers. "Clear!" One of them said checking the entire place. "You two survived, where are the other mercenaries?" The guard already recognized the two by the uniform. "You didn't find them?" Asked Ralf cleaning his face and eyes, the third one ran to confiscate the guns and one more man, a tall one entered the place with a green uniform, a beret and a black eye patch on his right eye. "It seems that the operation was a success, unfortunately we had a lot of loss, but two survivors? It is already a good sign." Said the high-ranking man with his hands back, using black gloves; the other two saluted him. "Clark Still sir!" The soldier in black decided to let the three know each other and leave the general there. "Ralf Jones sir." Said Ralf throwing away his cigarette before talking. "You can call me general Heidern, what happened to both of you?" Heidern was referring to their last state and about how they survived on this enemy area which they just infiltrated now with success. "The dealers' boss, a man with a scar on his face and a coat, where is him?" Ralf asked worried and angry for being 'defeated' by certain way. "He surrendered himself out there, they are interrogating him at this exact moment." Heidern said taking the two outside where were the remainder of men from Ikari Village sent to this mission and the leader of the traffic handcuffed. "Leave the questioning to me now." Heidern said approaching himself from the criminal kneeling and handcuffed. "Well, well, if by any chance it isn't general Heidern..." The criminal started to laugh letting a sentence of debauchery. "How do you know my name? What do you know about me?" Heidern asked approaching himself to the man, Ralf and Clark just watched. "I'm a mobster, even being a small fish, I know a bit about the redoubtable Rugal Bernstein, should you not be dead? There are some rumors that he decimated your entire mercenaries' troop, left you blind from an eye and another things, that's why I recognized you, the general Heidern..." when he finished talking, Heidern was starting to lose his mind and hold his shirt collar with his right hand almost lifting him. "Take him from here to the base, let's have some patience and first keep him on prison." Heidern said releasing him on the ground and walking forward with Ralf and Clark following him, two men stayed one on each side of the prisoner lifting him to take him to the base. "By the way Heidern, you can call me Tom." The criminal identified himself with his real name. "Stop calling me by the name." Heidern replied calmly walking to one of his choppers, but on the way, he saw the other one which was to be on the ground falling down. "Damn, but what is that?" Heidern took quickly a binocular with one of his men and looked on the distance. The fall caused an explosion and when the three looked behind they noticed that the prisoner ran away alongside the two men from Ikari. "Where are the two officers and the prisoner?!" The general gave back the binoculars to the man on his left and threatened to run towards the tents when Ralf stopped him holding him. "Sir, there was a chopper which Tom had landed, it appeared it was armed with an RPG." After Ralf told Heidern what he had not mentioned before, Clark approached himself to say his plan. "Please sir, I'm already used to work alongside Ralf, let us go back and see if you can take down the chopper and find any survivors from the one that have fell now." The two's boldness seemed too much but they were right, maybe it was just not right to act the way they wanted now. "Your plan is good, but I can't give myself the luxury to let you two resolves by your way, I'm going together and another team goes to the fallen chopper. Let's just the three of us go." After making a decision, the three separate themselves from the rest of the squad.

Ralf, Clark and Heidern just separated from the rest of the squad and already saw an official body on the ground. "There's a man down!" Ralf shouted before approaching "Don't approach without caution!" Heidern said and Ralf started to crouch to go to the soldier, Clark stopped both. "Before you go look at that." Clark whispered to the two pointing towards a tree that was on the way, there was a big bullet hole in the trunk, and looking by the right angle they could know from where the shot came, since a projectile was on the ground in the middle of some small stones not much far away from the body. "There's a projectile down, but what's wrong with the tree?" Ralf asked amazed not seeing too well as Clark. "See this projectile on my hand, aren't they not from the same caliber?" Clark asked with one hand holding the Sniper M24 and on the other hand the ammunition that was the bullet from caliber 7,62mm. "You're right, we are very far from the enemy base and too near from where we were on the time of the explosion for someone to use another type of gun, it was a Sniper that shot down it with a suppressor, but the shooter missed this shot, I wonder if it was on purpose." Heidern said until everyone understood. "I'm going to use the Sniper's scope to give you cover, try to stay more or less between that tree and the body." Clark said and Heidern kept silence acting just like he was a mere soldier, he knew that he best time to rate his men was that, trying not to take the leadership and seeing how those two mercenaries worked.