The man walked into the room where his young daughter lay sleeping. He walked over to her bed and gently touched her shoulder, and she woke up. Her tiny fists rubbed her brilliant blue eyes as she said, "g'morning, daddy." The man responded by smiling and signing the words,
"Good morning, Audrey. Come on, your mom's making pancakes."
"Yay, pancakes!" Audrey squealed and hopped out of bed, running ahead of her father.
Audrey sat at the dining room table, waiting as her mom cut up her pancakes, when the phone rang.
"I'll get it!" Audrey shouted, a little too loudly. Her pale fingers, long and nimble for her age, stood out against the black of the telephone receiver as she picked it up.
"Hello?" The man on the other end asked. His voice was high, screechy, and cold.
"Hi! Who are you?"
"That is none of your business, child. I wish to speak to your mother, since your father cannot talk." Audrey couldn't be sure, but she thought she could hear the mysterious caller snicker.
"M'kay. Mom, It's for you!" She held the receiver out to her mother, who took it and pushed Audrey's pancakes toward her.
"Hello?"
"My my, Scarlet, you sound quite lovely when your voice isn't clouded with hate."
"YOU!"
"There it goes. Ah, well, I knew it wouldn't last. I do believe that was the first-and last- time I'll ever hear your voice devoid of pure hatred towards me."
"What do you want? There's no way you called me just to tell me that you like my voice, so spill it!"
"Fine then. I will tell you what you really want to hear, and I'm only going to say it once, so listen carefully. I have surrounded your house as I would a G. I. Joe base: Helicopters, B.A.T.s, snipers, grunts, the whole nine yards." Scarlet gasped as she looked out the window. "I will give you five minutes to prepare for battle before I release my troops on you."
"But why are you telling me this? Wouldn't you rather just watch Snake-Eyes and me die unprepared?"
"No, that would take all the fun out of it."
"You—"
"I what?"
"I can't say."
"Oooh, cutting back on the swearing, eh? Trying not to sound like such a bum?"
"My daughter's in the room!" Scarlet replied through gritted teeth.
"Oh, right, her. Well, to show you how nice I can be," he snickered, "I won't give my troops orders to kill her. In fact, I might even tell them not to kill her."
"Oh, gee, you're such a nice guy." The sarcasm dripped off Scarlet's voice in huge gobs and ruined the carpet.
"Anyway, like I said. Five minutes…. Starting now." Click. Scarlet dropped the receiver.
Snake eyes, battle gear, NOW!"
Minutes later, the husband-wife duo were standing at strategic points in the house when the first B.A.T. broke through a window. Before it could take a single step, however, a shuriken zipped through the air and sliced its head off, and the B.A.T. fell backwards and hit two Cobra troops.
Audrey sat in her closet, listening to the sounds outside and crying. There was a whole lot of yelling, and even more gunfire. Then, all of a sudden, the noises stopped. She sat still for what seemed like an eternity before walking into the living room, being careful not to tread on the broken glass that littered the floor. There was carnage everywhere.
The bodies of dead Cobra troops lay all over the carpet, and there were pieces of machinery strewn about. The wires that led out of the torso of a B.A.T . as the decapitated and legless android attempted to crawl aimlessly across the floor with only one functioning arm. And there, in the middle of the room was Scarlet and Snake-Eyes, both dead. Audrey gasped and was about to run over to them when she saw a man in the entryway to the room. He was wearing a blue uniform with a red Cobra symbol on it and appeared to be swaying slightly. His left hand was clutching his right shoulder, which was bleeding profusely. He locked eyes with Audrey, then spoke in a thick Jersey accent.
"Uh, the commander told me to take you with me. I'm supposed to take care of you until we can find you a new home."
All of this seemed to fly in one of Audrey's ears and out the other. Her parents were dead, and this complete stranger was standing in her house saying that he was gonna take her to a new home! It was all too much for Audrey. So, she did the one thing any sensible girl of her age would do: she cried.
"Ahh, no, kid, don't cry, oh please, I can't stand it when little kids cry, come on, get up, I've gotta get you outta here, look, please stop crying, I've got a sucker here somewhere…. I think….." The grunt began to frantically search the many pockets of his cargo pants for the sucker while Audrey studied him through tear-filled eyes. He seemed nice enough, so she walked silently over to him and hugged him. "What the-? Oh. It's you. Does this mean you're done crying?" Audrey nodded. The trooper looked at his bleeding arm and swayed a little more. "Ugh. Um, do you have any bandages?"
B.A.T.- Battle Android Trooper