#and they hear us very clearly. the walls are not very soundproof aha and once they were right inside. how fun

[astrxealis]

got another person into granblue fantasy, an old friend B)

[fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction]

The Story of Sidewinder Part 12

(I was asked to submit this on her behalf. I did not write this. Full credit goes to @fnafpowerhouse)

Sidewinder circles a bound Panther, his eyes glance over his bloodied, beaten form. He smiles and raises a thick, metal bat. Panther is panting, struggling to stay conscious as he bleeds and strains against the chains keeping him in place. He tries to stand and fails, falling pathetically to the floor, all his energy being put to staying alive.

The bat is raised, seconds tick by like hours, and soon, it swings and hits Panther harshly across his head. He lets out a sharp gasp of pain and falls to the side. The air is cold and dark. There is no escape. He is doomed.

Sidewinder holds Panther against the wall with his foot, the limb firmly pressing against his throat. He opens his mouth to speak.

“Wake up, Router!”

Router jolted awake, his vision blurred and wetness falling down his pale face. Mainframe was stood above him, looking down at him with a slightly worried look. The younger hacker mumbled a greeting and shakily wiped his tears away.

“You’re crying. You had a nightmare.”

“Shut up. Only little kids have nightmares. I’m not a kid.” Router snarled at him, leaning back against the wall, facing away from him.

“You are compared to me. Clearly you’re defensive about what you fear. I get it, signs of weakness, right? Scared you’ll be taken advantage of? Or just simply scared of showing your true colours? I-”

“Oh my God, shut the fuck up! At this rate you’ll put me to fucking sleep again!” He roared at the other man, covering his ears.

“Ah, I see. Were you dreaming of Panther? You two sounded close.”

“No. Now shut up!”

“So you were?” Mainframe thought for a moment. “Aha! That just confirms it!” A sly smirk crossed his face. “You two are buddies. You’re a best friend to him, aren’t you?”

“I said shut up, Mainframe.” He said firmly, glaring daggers at him.

“That confirms it. Earlier you said you were partners with him. As in, you work with him. That’s basically code for ‘I’m his best friend but I don’t want to admit it.’ That’s cute.”

“Wh-What?! No! Shut your fucking mouth!”

“Well, it is in my eyes. I come from a place where it was basically guaranteed that people survive, and where we worked closely as a community, so a lot of close friends and whatnot. But this is just fun to watch, don’t you agree? Like a big soap opera!

"Shut the fuck up!” Router lashed out, slapping Mainframe harshly. “You don’t know shit about me so shut your fucking mouth before I fucking sew it shut!”

There was a silence for a mere moment. Mainframe and Router’s eyes were locked, the former’s wide and the latter’s narrowed into a toxic glare. He rubbed his cheek sheepishly, giving a small smile. “Nice slap. Stronger than I thought it’d be. You gave me a real strong case of the Sidewinders there.”

Router raised an eyebrow and frowned. “The what now?”

“The Sidewinders. When someone reminds you a little of Sidewinder.”

“You…. You’re an idiot.” An exasperated look crossed Router’s face, and he sighed in mild frustration, putting his head in his hands.

Mainframe shook off the gesture with a friendly smile. “We’re all idiots deep down. It’s only when we feel comfortable with someone that we show it.”

“You feel comfortable with us?”

A soft hum escaped the taller man as he pondered. “Well, you haven’t stabbed or shot me yet. You’ve both got that going for you. Let’s just try to be productive before the big lug downstairs wakes up and starts barking us around like he owns the place,” he joked, chuckling softly.

Router let a small smile cross his face. “Big case of the Sidewinders with him?”

“Major case of the Sidewinders. Biggest case since I met Sidewinder himself. As in��� I’m about 62.7% sure that he’s actually just Sidewinder in disguise.” The escapee once again joked, leaning slightly against the decrepit wall.

Router frowned, looking up at Mainframe with furrowed brows. “That’s… a pretty precise percentage. Did you spend half the night calculating it or something?”

“I did it whilst his snoring kept me up.” He said sarcastically, going back over to his mattress and sitting down with his legs crossed. “Hey, it isn’t as bad as Sidewinder’s snoring. Back in the golden days of the Network, before the soundproofing was properly installed, you could hear his snoring from all the way down the corridor.”

The younger hacker burst out into laughter, snorting slightly. “Sidewinder snores? Are you serious?”

“Like. A. Foghorn. Cross my heart.” An amused smirk was stuck firmly on Mainframe’s face. “Used to keep us all up. No wonder he stuck soundproofing on his room first!”

The two talked like this for a while, mostly Mainframe keeping conversation whilst Router sat and listened intently, wanting to see if he could find out anything about the Network other than what he knew - it was dangerous and he was most likely going to die.

After about half an hour, Tiger’s voice could be heard below the two hackers. “Are you two up yet?” He yelled.

“No shit Sherlock!” Mainframe replied sarcastically, standing up and stretching slightly. Router followed the action, awkwardly climbing down the stepladder to find Tiger - who was already dressed in the usual mercenary attire of a black turtleneck sweater and dark gray pants - tapping his foot impatiently with his arms folded.

Router muttered a greeting and passed Tiger, going downstairs to get sorted out properly. The other hacker followed soon after, hopping down the stepladder and walking by the other man with a formal nod for a greeting.

Tiger turned and began making a mental checklist of everything he needed whilst he ambled down the flight of stairs, beginning to assemble it when he reached the bottom.

Mainframe, meanwhile, was booting up his laptop whilst assembling the documents needed for the mission. “Watch out for Talonclaw - big Japanese guy, brown hair, dark blue eyes, extremely muscular… He packs a fucking punch, not sure if he still does or not. Last I saw of him he knocked up some assassin who was manipulating him.”

The tallest mercenary simply hummed, loading his handgun. “Sucks to be him.” He said flatly. “Anyone else we have to look out for?”

“Hm… Behemoth maybe. Another buff guy, this time from Thailand. Watch out for him, the guy has fought tigers and lived to tell the tale. I’m sure I could make a joke, but… I would prefer to not get slapped, thank you very much.”

Router listened as he slid his knife into his pocket. Deep down, he was nervous about the Network base. It was Raven’s home - and if that wasn’t bad enough, Sidewinder’s too. He wasn’t sure if he could pull it off without surfacing any bad memories.

“Mainframe, don’t do that.”

“Hm?” Mainframe’s voice sounded from behind Router, causing him to whip around, eyes wide in surprise. The former was indeed behind him, hand reached out slightly to touch his shoulder. Grimacing, the latter subtly shuffled away and got back to work.

“Don’t sneak up on him. I don’t need him panicking, especially not now. This is my little brother that’s at stake.”

The escapee scoffed, folding his arms. “God, you make it sound like your brother is fucking five. He can take care of himself, if he’s anything like you. Oh, by the way, I took your alcohol until after the mission.”

Tiger paused and turned slowly towards Mainframe, his eyes blazing. “You did what?” He spoke slowly, with a low, rumbling voice that sent a shiver down both hacker’s spines.

“You heard me,” he said. “I don’t want you getting sloppy on the mission. Like you said,” he took on a mocking tone, “this is your little brother at stake.”

The two glared at each other for a while, until Router stepped in and frowned. “Can we all stop acting like kids, please? I-”

He was cut off by the sharp, echoing noise of a hard slap. Mainframe flinched back, holding his cheek. “Hey! You can’t say I don’t have a point!”

The only reply he got was another slap to the other cheek.

Router groaned and shoved Tiger back, who was completely livid. “For fuck’s sake, both of you fucking stop! You’re both acting like kids, and we all know that isn’t what Panther needs right now! So shut your fucking mouths and get the mission done!” He panted, feeling his throat slightly burn. Rubbing his shoulder - which was slightly aching with sharp stings of mild pain - he huffed. “Now are we all going to play nice or do both of you need to go into the naughty corner?”

Mainframe blinked, his eyes slightly widened. “I vote play nice. I’d prefer to not get slapped, thank you very much!” He sat down at a little table. “I’ll pull up any Network files I can find. We have to know what we’re getting ourselves into. I know very limited information about the punishment cells themselves, only from what I’ve heard. Talonclaw said there was a sensory deprivation tank down there - just one - but I’m not sure if that’s true or not.”

Tiger winced. “Christ. Will Panther even be sane when we find him?”

“Depends, was he sane in the first place? Worst case scenario, Sidewinder’s already killed him, in which case you haul ass out of there and never look back. Best case scenario, he’s badly injured with at best a broken rib, off his face on medication.” Mainframe drawled, not once looking up from his laptop as he typed. “By the by, I happen to have earpieces.” He slid over two plain looking, light earpieces.

Router looked down at his and fitted it in. “So, what happens if we fail?”

“Well, that’s simple. You’ll be captured and dragged down to the punishment cells. There, you’ll be treated like fair game to every merc in the base. Whatever they wanna do, they’ll do. Then, once you’re broken, on your knees, begging for death… He’ll leave you alone. Once you’ve just got back on your feet, once you’ve just found yourself… that’s when he kills you. Sidewinder will wait literal months for it - he doesn’t care. He’s a sick, twisted bastard and he deserves the death you give him. You’re not only doing this for Panther - you’re doing it for me, for everyone who lost someone to him. You’ll be getting rid of a huge competition here, meaning more money and more jobs for everyone else.” A sly smile crossed his face. “So what I’m saying is… do your worst and make him suffer.”

A firm nod from Tiger and a hum of acknowledgement from Router was his reply.

“Move out, soldiers!” Mainframe yelled heartily, spinning around on his chair.

Both Router and Tiger immediately got moving, with Tiger quickly putting his earpiece in.

Now the real mission had begun.