Snake ventured back outside towards the sound of the thud as he kept his M9 readied to fire. As he snuck around the corner where the two henchmen talked about the injured guard, he saw a sight of unimaginable belief. One of the guards laid dormant across the steel flooring asleep, and the other was held against a wall with one hand by a tall, dark figure. As Snake looked on from the corner, he could hear the nearby interrogation.

“Gah…Batman, let me go!”

“I want names. Who is Sionis working with, and what is he searching for?”

“I…don’t…know….we just met him like four days ago coming out here….please….I don’t know anymore.”

“Not the answer I want.” as Batman readied his fist to connect with the henchman again

“Oh..wait…he’s downstairs on the 3rd floor….that keycard will get you….down there.”

“You better hope it does.” grumbles Batman as he slams the henchman onto the steel flooring, putting him instantly to sleep.

Batman then taps one of his pointy ears and begins to speak into the air, “Alfred, I’ve located Sionis’s secret barge and am making the descent further down. Communications can be jarring from this point on.”

Snake, not being on this comm channel, could not hear the rebuttals of the other occupant. Just Batman’s answers and replies.

“I’ll see what he knows about an “Otacon.” Whatever call latched on to your comm, it’s sharing a signal on this same ship too. This breach will not go unanswered.”

As Batman headed towards the barge basement doors, he stopped and turned around to where Snake was initially latched and saw nobody there. Batman then turned back around and opened the doors with the keycard, dropped it, and disappeared into the darkness behind the doors. Snake was still present the entire time, having found solstice under one of the nearby cardboard boxes that littered the ship’s surface. He emerged and made a codec call to Otacon.

“Otacon, I just made contact with Batman! He’s cleared out the first main deck of guards and has ventured deeper into the ship.”

“I didn’t get any comm chatter on my end. How did he do it so fast?!”

“Beats me. He has some type of barbaric interrogation maneuver skill that seems unlikely helpful. I’ll have to be careful to be unseen by him from this point on.”

“So we can rule out him being an ally?”

“Still not sure. He seems adamant about finding Black Mask as much as I am looking for Ocelot. However, I don’t know why.”

Right then, Snake realizes the keycard lying on the floor.

“Looks like he did drop the card on his way down. I’m heading down now.”