Who He Was, Who He Is
Cobra Commander sat in his private quarters looking through an old police file. The file always reminded him…of so many things.
The file was about a boy, Jacob Serpent, who had gone missing several years ago. His father, Arthur Serpent, was a scientist who worked on many questionable experiments. Arthur and his wife divorced three years before Jacob went missing.
No one knew exactly how he had managed to get custody over his son, but he had.
When Jacob went missing, the police looked for him for a number of years before finally giving up and moving his case to the cold files.
Cobra Commander snorted. They hadn't looked hard enough for the boy, or they would've found him. There was a picture of Jacob in the file. He pulled it out and stared at it.
In the picture, Jacob was about eighteen years old, fresh out of high school. He had a mess of dark brown hair that hung down in his face. His skin had a tan from spending several hours outside in the sun. And his eyes were butterscotch brown. He was a handsome young man.
Cobra Commander sighed. No one had any idea what truly happened to Jacob Serpent…Other than Arthur Serpent….and him.
He pushed the file away, got up and walked toward his bathroom. He looked in the mirror and smirked under his mask. This was all anyone ever saw. A blue helmet with a white stripe at the top, a silver faceplate, and a blue uniform that concealed every part of his body.
No one had any idea what he was hiding.
He took off the black gloves to reveal what was so carefully concealed. His hands had dark, tan brown scales with razor sharp claws at the tips of his fingers.
This was the reason that everyone but him at Cobra had finger prints to be ID'ed.
He brought his hands to his helmet and removed it. The silver faceplate soon followed. Cobra Commander took in his true face. Everyone outside his quarters thought he was disfigured under the mask.
That wasn't true; he had made that up to make sure they never asked what he was hiding under it.
His face, like his hands, was covered with dark tan brown scales. His ears were pointed and he had no hair to speak of. His face, despite the scales, was fairly handsome. He opened his mouth a little to see his teeth. His upper and lower canine teeth were sharpened and curved. Inside each fang was venom that paralyzed his opponents for several hours.
He unbuttoned the jacket of his uniform, then his shirt before tossing them to the side. The scales continued from his head and face down his neck and his torso. His shoulders and chest were broad, he had nice abs, and he was leanly muscled. His gaze returned to his face and focused on his eyes. The pupils were slits but the color…The color reminded him of everything he used to be.
A normal person free to live his life. His eyes were butterscotch brown…
He was none other than Jacob Serpent.
He was a perfect example of what happened when snake and human D.N.A. were merged together. He was originally created to be a weapon for the government. But when the experiment was gone, the government thought he would be too powerful and tried to destroy him.
The scientists conducting the experiment were killed in a lab accident and he was nearly killed as well. But Arthur saved him. However, it wasn't because of fatherly love. It was because he got greedy.
Arthur forced Jacob to start the Cobra organization and to provide him with money and supplies for his experiments. And the way he continued to force Jacob to continue the organization was the threat of telling the government that he wasn't killed. It was true that Arthur would most likely be put to death and killed in a few weeks. But his pain would be quick. Jacob would spend the rest of his days running for his life.
Little did Arthur know his son was doing everything he could to make sure he didn't get what he wanted. Whenever he could, he gave G. tip offs of Cobra's latest plans and schemes. Sometimes he would sabotage a plan himself. Others, he let the Joes do all the work.
And ever since Serpentor was brought into Cobra and had "taken" leadership from him, things had become a little easier. But it also made things a little more complicated.
Serpentor, for some very odd reason, had become curious about what Cobra Commander looked like under the mask. He had found out by quite literally cornering the man and ripping the mask off when he had refused to.
Serpentor was shocked to see his true face. After he demanded an explanation, he learned of how Cobra Commander came to be in his current situation and of the Cobra organization's true purpose. He didn't figure out anything about Cobra Commander tipping off the Joes, thankfully.
Cobra Commander had no idea why, but Serpentor had promised to keep his secret. He suspected that he would eventually want something in return.
A knock at his door brought him out of his reverie. He snarled and barked, "What?"
On the other side of the door, Baroness jumped at hearing Cobra Commander's real voice. She had heard it a handful of times, but it still surprised her.
With the mask on, his voice was loud and screechy. But with it off, it was deep and smooth. He probably designed his mask to disguise his voice.
Baroness, when she found her voice again, answered, "Commander, you are needed in the control room." She heard a deep growl that sounded more animal than human, then an answer, "I'll be there in a few minutes. Now leave."
Baroness did as ordered. Back inside his room, Cobra Commander put the top half of his uniform back on, followed by his gloves, then he replaced his helmet and mask.
When he was satisfied that none of his scales were showing, he walked out.
As he left his room, he thought about several things.
Mainly about who he was.
Who he is.
And what he wanted to be.
Free.
One day, he would break away from the bonds Arthur Serpent had on him. He would be free. One way or another.
And when he was, he would make his father regret the day he did this to him.
END