G. I. Joe: Renegades:
Darkest Heart
(Yes, I know it's G.I. Joe, but my stepbrother started me on it.)
-CHAPTER 1-
Drip.
Drip.
Plonk.
The rhythmic splashing sounds reach my ears so distorted and out of shape that I barely recognize them as running water. What am I doing here? I should be… should be what, exactly? Blearily, I open my eyes and squint as they become adjusted to the eerie light emanating from two towers in the corners. Where am I? I sit up. I'm in some sort of cage, made entirely out of bones. It resembles a birdcage, but it's way too disturbing to describe it like that. The lock, of course, is a skull, and it grins the whole time I'm there. I don't get the joke.
A chain suspends the cage I'm in far enough from the floor that if I were stupid enough to jump, I would be crippled for life. And that's after I figured out how to unlock the creepy skull.
Suddenly, I'm jerked off my feet, tossed like a rag doll. The cage is lowered so that it's level with a balcony on the second floor. A tall, thin, hawk-like man wearing a trench coat is standing there.
"So. You, girl, have caused me a great many sleepless nights. But I have you now. Here you sit, locked away in the bones of your predecessors, just as they did before you." I stay stock-still. I have no idea what he means.
"You may not know what I'm talking about. You may be wondering who I am. Well, then, I shall tell you that I am your worst nightmare," he announces pompously. "However, you and I both know that you know who I am." OK, whatever, nutso. Just then, there's a shocking flash and I'm awake.
I sat up in bed. This is only that stupid painkiller messing with me. Come to think of it, I'd rather deal with the pain. Whatever. I ran my hands lightly over my scabbed and burned face. I glanced at the clock, then my daily schedule. I did a double take. There was an official notice attached to the door, written on expensive paper, next to the schedule. Ugh. New medicines always make me sick. I groaned and slid off the hospital bed, bare feet pulling back at the touch of cold, hard floor. I felt a cool breeze lift the torn side of my hospital gown. I hate this place. I hate the freezing cold temperatures, I hate being an experiment, the pain, the fear… but I especially loathe the Mindbender. I call him Toad. The hole in my clothes finally bothered me enough that I braved the cold floor to rummage around under my bed for the needle and thread I'd smuggled in.
Tap tap tap.
Footsteps echoed around the hall outside the door of my room. Grimacing, lay on my side to hide the thread. A nurse walked in. She must have been new, because I would have remembered her fiery hair and hard, sad eyes.
When she walked in, I got the impression she wasn't a nurse. She saw me and gasped and dropped a small pile of bandages to the floor. "Oh, no! Duke, forget that, come here." Her face showed a mix of fear, stress and anger.
A tall, fair-haired man entered the room and pointed a gun at me. Oh. Just great. I sure hope he isn't trigger happy, I thought. Outside, there was the murmur of worried voices. I caught phrases like, "knows too much about COBRA," "The arcane arts," and "She's only fourteen," Someday, I'm going to wake up in a normal world… just not today. "What are you doing here? Who are you?" I wasn't entirely sure that I could trust these crazy people who barge in on a sleeping girl. The man with the gun powered it down and told me quietly, "We're new here, just looking for an empty room." He shot a momentary inquiring look at the lady, who was unmistakably in charge.
I shook my head and told him, "You are a really bad liar. That's absolutely horrible."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, if you're a nurse, then why do you have guns? At least come up with something interesting, like you're an engineer, or she's an esteemed interior decorator, because this place really needs it." As they gaped, I stepped lightly down from the bed and padded to the door. Sticking my head out, I saw three more disguised nurses. "Come on, in you go," I told them. They all seemed confused as I ushered the group in. The man that tried to kill me admitted, "No, we aren't nurses. We're just ordinary Joes."
"Aha! Then I want to come with you."
They burst into a chorus of "Absolutely not! No way. Nuh-uh. Negative. No, its too dangerous!" The tallest of them said, "You aren't more than fourteen, so you can't come with us, you're a minor!" He was huge, filling the doorway, black and bald, with a beard that was trimmed to the sides of his face. The woman that had first found me said, "Just a second," and dragged one, the tall blond man, roughly by the elbow out of the room, followed by the rest of the group, leaving me alone.
I took the opportunity to lock the door and change into more sensible clothes: a russet tunic, belted at the waist and a pair of soft leggings. After that I unbolted the door again, but left it shut, and packed up my possessions. All the things I needed fit into a small bag: extra clothes and food, my cloak, blankets, and sword.
As I finished, the door opened again and I heard a new voice say forcefully, "… but even if she did, what happens when we leave? She can't stay with us!" The first to enter was the speaker. He was of some Asian decent, wearing a red cap, short, with an earthy smell. Next in was the lady I first saw, and she waited until the other three were inside to inform me, "We decided that you can stay with us until further notice. Like Roadblock said, you're a minor, so we have to make sure you're safe until you aren't our responsibility."
"Thank you." She nodded slowly, a perplexed look on her face. Something told me that this was unusual. "Call me Whisper. I'm not stupid enough to think you'll tell me your real names, but I do want to be able to call you something at least." She introduced everyone, describing them briefly. "The one that smells is Tunnel Rat, Roadblock is our chef, Duke is the blond, the one who nicknamed us all is Ripcord, over in the corner, and Snakeyes isn't here, you'll meet him eventually. I'm Scarlett." I felt very formal, like I'd just signed some sort of contract. I told them about the official note, and Tunnel Rat went over to read it. They decided to dress as COBRA guards to escape, with me as their prisoner. Tunnel Rat gave a shocked exclamation. "This isn't a new prescription! Listen-
The patient X2 research project is no longer funded by COBRA Industries. The subject is no longer essential. Eradication is to be in effect as soon as one with authority sees this notice. –Mindbender
I bit my lip. After nearly six months of being their guinea pig, they were just going to toss me away? Fine then, I can play dirty too. I turned to Ripcord and asked him to wire the elevator doors so that when someone moved to this floor, we would know. Then, everyone pulled on COBRA- issued uniforms and helmets, so that just as Tunnel Rat finished complaining, (and the alarm went off) we were ready. I dismantled the alarm from this end and cuffed my wrists together.
Duke picked up his pulsar and shoved me forward with it. He let me lead the way, and I chose a clear route to the outside, while the rest of the group acted as sentries. We made it all the way to the courtyard without interference, but about halfway across, someone shouted, "Hey! What are you doing with X2? I told you to kill her, not let her go free!"
It was the Toad. I couldn't believe our bad luck. I had to think of something!
Quickly, I put words in someone's mouth, and the result was, "We don't have the authority to override a direct order from the doctor, and she said rather than compromise the lab's sterile environment, we were to take the subject off grounds and dispose of her there. We also discovered that she had been hoarding things she had stolen." (Being a magician has its perks).
The Toad nodded thoughtfully. "That doctor is pretty smart. All right, go ahead. I see you have an escort already. Goodbye, little one!" I stuck my tongue out at him, and he muttered cheerfully, "Cheeky little thing," and sauntered off. As soon as we were out of sight of the security cameras, I made the handcuffs explode, but I stopped the shrapnel from getting any farther than a few inches away from me. It fell to the ground with a short pattering sound. "Hooray! I'm free! I don't believe it! I'm still alive! No more poking or prodding; nosy, stupid doctors trying to splice my DNA; no more blood tests; no more sickening drugs! Freedom! Ha-ha! Oh, it feels good to be outdoors again!" I couldn't stop myself from celebrating.
We reached the Joes' truck, and Roadblock introduced it to me. "Whisper, this is our faithful Coyote. She's my girl." All of a sudden, an alarm started wailing in my head. I pushed the nearest Joe—Duke—out of the way and felt something slam into me, catching on one or two ribs and shattering them. I nearly blacked out from the initial shock, then realized that it hadn't been just anything that was… in my… side…
It was a nine-inch long knife, buried to the hilt. I felt my body hit the ground.
CHAPTER 2
"She looks bad, but I think she'll live. How do you think she knew about the knife? I never even saw it coming." The voice was distant and vague and belonged to someone I knew, but my thoughts were hazy and flew around my head like confused birds. I knew that I was in an enclosed space, lying on a hard, flat surface.
A different voice, this one female said, "I don't know, but I hope she wakes up soon. She's starting to make me nervous." This was one I knew, too, but I couldn't understand what they were talking about. I opened my eyes to dim, dusty light. Two men and one woman were next to me, and we were inside the Coyote, I assumed.
I tried to sit up, but the one that smelled like earth—Tunnel Rat, I remembered—pushed me back down. "Oh, no you don't. I didn't stay up till four in the morning to let you start running around again. You just about died last night, Whisper. You are going to stay here." I gave up. He left.
The other man was dressed in a skin- tight suit, over which he wore black cargo pants, a utility belt and crossed scabbards on his back. He stood with his arms crossed. I assumed this was Snakeyes. He nodded at me, but said nothing. Scarlet was sitting opposite me, on a bench. I opened my mouth to say something, but Scarlet shoved a spoonful of a vile-tasting concoction in my mouth and I nearly choked. Swallowing, I made a face and asked, "What the heck was that?" Scarlett merely said, "Medication." Tunnel Rat chose that moment to come back, this time with a bucket full of sloshing liquid. I automatically flinched away from the slopping motion of it, so I didn't get wet.
As Tunnel Rat set it down, I looked out a tinted window just as a large, blue monster reared up- and grabbed hold of the outer shell of the truck! I shrieked and jerked back. Scrambling over to my pack, I reached in and dug around for my sword. The driver stood on the gas and the Coyote leaped forward, but the creature held on. White- hot pain erupted in my side. I was standing, my arm up to the elbow inside my pack when the beast wrenched the door open. "Stop! Stop the truck!" I yelled. The creature roared, flailing its thin arms. We slammed to a halt just as I finally pulled out my sword and charged. It took a swipe at me; ignoring my instincts that told me to run, I ducked and whirled, twisted and slashed at the beast's thick, heavily muscled torso, even though every movement cost me. The sword cut through the flesh like jelly. It fell to the ground, writhing and twitching in pain. I felt like doing the same, but I fought my self-preservation. This wasn't finished.
Then, the two pieces pulled toward each other. Gross, I thought. And totally not fair. There was a horrible sucking sound, and the monster was all in one piece. Oh. Crud. Snakeyes shouldered past me and began methodically hacking it into dozens of flailing parts with his two swords. I couldn't believe I was still standing, and with plasma fire whipping around us, it gave me the strangest sensation that I was falling... oh. I was. The ground rushed up to meet me. My vision went black. That was stupid of me to think that I could take down a monster more than twice my size. I hope Snakeyes knows what he's doing.
The next time I woke, everything had changed. I was lying on earth, and it smelled like fresh rain. I opened my eyes and slowly got up, gingerly touching my bandaged side. It was stiff with dried blood. Smiling grimly, I thought, I must look like some war refugee… I wonder where everyone is. It was almost dark, so they should have been back by now. There was the sound of hesitant footsteps, and I whispered, "H-hello?" Scarlet walked in the clearing, carrying a bucket of water. Always water.
Seeing that I was awake, she suddenly exploded, "What on earth did you think you were doing? We've been worried sick for the past week! You took on a full- blown Bio-Viper more than twice your size without any real weapons! No training, no backup! You'd never even seen one, I'll bet, but you're still breathing. I don't get it, but you must be some sort of magician, or alien, or something!" After her outburst, she seemed to calm herself. "I don't know who or what you are, but you're on your own, the second we reach civilization." I nodded.
"Where are you on that?"
"We found you in Area 51, the place where the government takes alien artifacts. I don't know why you were there, but my guess is that they think you're an alien—" Just then a squad of the Bio-Vipers marched out of the trees to our left. I didn't want to get involved, but Scarlet was all alone, staring and helpless. I felt a surge of anger and raw emotion rush through my body, erasing all apprehension.
I felt myself slipping away, coming disconnected from the fear and pain. I was invincible. The energy rose up through me, healing my injuries and suffusing my thoughts with power, and suddenly—BOOM!
I fell to the ground, but I quickly stood up. There was desolation everywhere except for a small circle around Scarlet and me. The Bio-Vipers were just blue smears on the ground, strewn all around.
Scarlet was staring at me with a mix of fear and awe. She told me shakily, "I think you can stay for a while longer." I nodded cheerfully and began stretching with enthusiasm. It felt good to finally reach into the night, my shadow groping for the far trees. Unexpected intuition told me someone was coming and didn't want to be seen. I glanced around quickly, but someone was hiding himself or herself well. The only person I could see was Scarlet, tending a subdued fire. "Show yourself! I know you're there." Snakeyes stepped silently from between the trees and bowed. "Impressive. I didn't even know you were there." Scarlet said.
"I was talking about the one who remains hidden from us. He is still here, but refuses to show himself." I warned quietly. Snakeyes turned slowly in a circle, taking in the woods around us. Suddenly, he ran and leaped into a tree. The branches rustled and there was a shout of surprise, and a man wrapped in white cloth fell heavily to the ground. As he dusted himself off, he nodded at Snakeyes and bowed to Scarlett. To me, he said simply, "How?" I replied without a word, but merely cast my thoughts out to everyone, saying, I heard you congratulate yourself on your hiding place. Seeing their looks of disbelief, I quickly took control of the newcomer's mind and made him raise his hand and salute me. He then dropped it, looking mutinous.
I love magic. It heals and entertains. And of course, it blows stuff up.