From the rooftop of a tall apartment building several blocks away, Scarlett carefully peered through her binoculars. The situation of the Cobra fortress had not changed much since Scarlett and Mainframe had scouted the area the day before. Now, the five Joes, Scarlett, Mainframe, Snake Eyes, Lifeline, and Jinx, huddled together on the rooftop, keeping low to avoid detection.
They would act under cover of darkness. It was nearly midnight. Scarlett handed the binoculars to Jinx.
"That's the transmission antenna," Scarlett said to Jinx as she pointed to the roof of the concrete Cobra building.
"You know the plan," Scarlett said. "You and Lifeline are to take out the antenna."
Jinx put down the binoculars. She and Lifeline nodded.
"The rest of us," Scarlett said, looking to Snake Eyes and Mainframe, "are going to penetrate the complex and destroy the rest of their communications equipment."
Everyone nodded. They were all dressed in stolen Viper uniforms. The Joes donned their Viper helmets and face plates, one by one.
Scarlett was the last to put on her helmet.
"This is it," she said.
"What do we do once we achieve our objectives?" Lifeline asked.
"Simple," Jinx answered. "Run like hell."
"Everyone knows the rendezvous point in case we get separated during our escape, assuming we're successful in our mission."
"Scarlett--" Mainframe said nervously, "what if we don't succeed?"
"We must succeed," Scarlett said grimly.
* * *
The five Joes in disguise walked through the street barriers without any problems. One block away from the Cobra base, Scarlett paused near a Cobra HISS tank. She looked around.
"Do it, you're clear," Jinx said.
Scarlett reached into her vest and produced an explosive device that consisted of a wad of dynamite connected to a timer. Looking at her watch, Scarlett set the timer for fifteen minutes, activated the bomb, and hurriedly placed it beneath the HISS vehicle's fuel tank.
Now that the bomb was in place, the five Joes approached the fortress straight on. The structure was about ten stories high. As they walked among the other Cobra Vipers passing in and out of the headquarters, Scarlett looked up and noticed the flight pods patrolling the city skies above. The search lamps of the flight pods moved swiftly and efficiently along the ground and the walls of the building, looking for intruders. Scarlett felt beads of sweat forming on her forehead. These helmets were so stuffy. How did these Vipers ever tolerate wearing these things all day long? She looked to her left and right and observed that no alarm had been sounded. Yet she felt so out in the open, so exposed. Scarlett shook her head and tried to clear her mind of such thoughts.
To one side of the Cobra building, there was a large warehouse, which apparently had been set up as a motor pool. Scarlett saw a large number of STUNs and HISS tanks parked nearby. Cobra soldiers continued to file in and out of the base in a steady stream. Two Crimson Guards, standing on either side of the main entrance, nodded to the disguised Joes as they passed through.
What the Joes saw immediately upon entering the building took them by surprise, and it was all Scarlett could do to keep from gasping in shock.
There were a large number of American soldiers moving about the ground floor, carrying boxes of equipment, food, and supplies. The soldiers were dressed in their combat uniforms. Scarlett could see members from all four major services. Scarlett counted around a hundred American soldiers.
"Falcon," Jinx said softly as she recognized Lieutenant Falcon unloading a box of food off a truck, which had come into the ground floor of the building through a side gate.
Scarlett spotted Falcon, Cover Girl, Lady Jaye, and Stalker. Snake Eyes tensed upon seeing Stalker slapped in the face by the Baroness.
"No slacking!" the Baroness said peremptorily.
As Scarlett stood next to Snake Eyes, she felt for his hand and squeezed it.
"Remember our mission," she said calmly before letting go of his hand.
"Hey, you Vipers," a Crimson Guardsman said as he approached them. "Don't you have something better to do than stand around gawking at our slave labor?"
Scarlett turned to the Crimson Guardsman and was about to utter a phony apology when the bomb exploded beneath the HISS tank outside, obliterating the tank in a massive fireball. Even from where Scarlett was standing, she could see the tremendous light emitted from the explosion and the way it splashed over the buildings, lighting up the entire block.
"What the hell?" the Crimson Guardsman said, completely forgetting about Scarlett and the other disguised Joes, "Sound the alert!"
The alarm sounded, and Cobra soldiers began rushing outside of the building in droves to meet the sudden threat.
"Let's move, people, we don't have much time," Scarlett said to her teammates. Amidst the Cobras running back and forth, the Joes made their way to the stairwell, threw the door open, and raced up the stairs.
Scarlett and Snake Eyes led the way up the stairwell. Halfway up the building, a half dozen Vipers on the way down met up with them.
"Where do you think you're going?" the lead Viper demanded.
Scarlett and Snake Eyes answered by mowing down the Vipers with their silenced semiautomatic handguns.
"Come on, we're almost there," Scarlett urged her teammates as they neared the top floor.
"What we're looking for is right here," Mainframe informed Scarlett, stopping her at the seventh floor.
"All right, this is where we split up," Scarlett said. "Jinx?"
"I got it," Jinx said. She grabbed Lifeline by the arm and led him up the rest of the stairwell to the top.
On the seventh floor, in the main communications room, a Televiper cried out, "Intruders in the stairwell!"
Scarlett and Snake Eyes busted down the stairwell door at that moment and found themselves in a long hallway, which led to the communications room. A group of Vipers appeared in the hallway to intercept them, and Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Mainframe gunned them down on sight.
"Stop them!" a Viper shouted from inside the communications room. Vipers took cover on either side of the entrance to the communications room and began firing on the Joes, who took cover in a small side corridor.
"Snake Eyes, your grenades," Scarlett said, and Snake Eyes nodded. He had already removed a grenade from his chest belt. He pulled the pin, held it tightly in his hand for a few moments, and then turned to hurl the grenade around the corner, down the hallway. It bounced and skittered down the floor, straight into the communications room.
"Grenade!" a Viper cried before the explosion hit.
"Let's move, move, move!" Scarlett cried as she led her teammates forward. Snake Eyes hurled another grenade through into the communications room amidst the cries and groans of the Cobra soldiers, and the second explosion rocked the floor, sending a plume of smoke into the hallway.
A group of Vipers appeared behind them, coming in through the stairwell door, but Mainframe spotted them, turned, and fired on them, driving them back.
The Joes had reached the communications room. Scarlett carefully stuck her head through the entrance to take a look and quickly jerked her head back as bullets flew at her, missing her head and hitting the wall.
Scarlett turned to Snake Eyes. Mainframe was firing at the enemy behind them, trying to keep them at bay. He hurled a grenade at them, and the explosion blasted through the Vipers in the stairwell. After an outburst of pained cries, the stairwell was silent.
Scarlett showed Snake Eyes three fingers, signifying the number of remaining Vipers in the room.
"You shoot high, I'll shoot low," Scarlett whispered. Snake Eyes nodded, and he quickly stuck an Uzi through the door and began firing blindly at the enemies to the side of the door. Scarlett took advantage of the cover fire and dove through the entrance, firing at the Vipers with pistols in both hands. She rolled along the floor and fired at them all the way, killing all three of the enemies.
When she came to a stop, Scarlett stood up. "The room is clear," she said as she tore off her Viper helmet and breathed in fresh air for the first time in what felt like ages.
Snake Eyes and Mainframe came into the room, yanking off their helmets as well. The communications room was now littered with a dozen bodies of the enemy. Blood, bullet shells, and shrapnel were all over the place.
An entire wall consisted of nothing but a series of computer consoles and flat screen monitors. Another wall was lined with shelves of compact discs, enclosed in a protective glass casing, which had been pierced with numerous bullets. The bodies of the three Vipers Scarlett had just taken out were splayed out along this side of the room.
"Mainframe?" Scarlett asked, wanting confirmation that this was indeed their target.
Mainframe sat down in front of one of the consoles, shoving the dead body of a Televiper out of the way. The keyboard was stained with the Televiper's blood. With a few rapid keystrokes, Mainframe entered Cobra's main network and took a look. He looked around the room at the other computers and walked over to the shelf of CDs. Smashing the glass casing with the butt of his rifle, Mainframe pulled out a couple of discs and loaded them into one of the computers. Endless lines of computer code filled the screen. Mainframe nodded.
"This is it. Let's blow it up," Mainframe said, reaching into his knapsack for their plastic explosives.
After carefully placing the explosives inside the computer hard drives, the rack of discs holding the brainwashing algorithms, and the network cables that lined the walls, Scarlett hooked the explosives up to a common detonator cord.
"Are we clear?" she asked Snake Eyes and Mainframe, who were peering out into the open corridor.
"Yeah," Mainframe said.
Scarlett lit the fuse.
"It's lit, let's get out of here!"
* * *
Elsewhere, on the rooftop, Jinx and Lifeline had taken out the squad of Vipers guarding the transmission antenna.
"Did you have to kill that guy?" Lifeline said to Jinx, who had just hurled a ninja star into a Viper's throat.
"Seeing as how he was trying to kill me, I'd say, yeah," Jinx said sarcastically to Lifeline. The two of them discarded their Viper helmets.
All five of the Vipers who were guarding the antenna lay wounded or dying. They were no match for Jinx's combat skills.
"I just don't want too many people to die."
"Wait a minute. Didn't you kill a guy when you went on that raid with Scarlett and Mainframe?"
Jinx placed a wad of plastic explosives on the antenna and prepared to light the fuse.
"Yes, I did. But it's not something I want to do again."
"Fair enough," Jinx said as she lit the fuse.
"Come on, get away from the antenna," Jinx shouted as she turned to Lifeline.
Suddenly, a flight pod appeared above them and lit them up with its search lamp. Lifeline turned his head away, momentarily blinded. The enemy flight pod opened fire, cutting down Jinx with shots to her shoulder and arm.
"Jinx!" Lifeline cried. Amidst enemy fire, he raced to Jinx's side and attempted to drag her away, his eyes focused on the lit fuse.
"Come on, it's gonna blow!" Lifeline shouted. Jinx managed to snap to attention and got up, just as Lifeline was hit in one of his arms.
"Arghh!"
Jinx pulled up an Uzi and unloaded a clip at the flight pod, causing it to take evasive action. The two wounded Joes ran together, away from the antenna. They supported each other with their good arms as they attempted to clear the antenna.
The explosion knocked them both off their feet and hurled them clear toward the other side of the roof.
Both Lifeline and Jinx were knocked out cold from the shock of the blast. Seconds later, a second explosion rocked the seventh floor, where Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Mainframe had just taken care of their part of the mission.
* * *
"Jinx, come in," Scarlett said into her walkie talkie. The other end was ominously silent. Scarlett knew that Jinx and Lifeline had accomplished their mission, after she had heard the explosion on the rooftop.
"Something's wrong," Scarlett said to Snake Eyes and Mainframe.
"The enemy could be here any second now," Mainframe warned.
"We have to check out the roof. I won't leave Jinx and Lifeline behind!"
Scarlett led her teammates back up the stairwell toward the roof. They passed by more bodies of dead Vipers on the way. The door to the roof had been broken down. Five more dead Vipers lay in various positions on the roof, and the antenna had been completely obliterated. Scarlett saw the motionless forms of Jinx and Lifeline and ran toward them.
"They're wounded," Mainframe said.
"I need bandages," Scarlett said. She held out her hand, and Snake Eyes placed a wad of wrapping in her hand.
"Thanks," Scarlett said as she dressed Jinx's and Lifeline's wounds.
Two flight pods appeared in the night sky above them. Their search lights illuminated the entire rooftop.
"We've got you surrounded. Don't move or you're dead," one of the enemy pilots said through a loudspeaker.
Snake Eyes wanted to shoot at them, but Scarlett stayed his hand.
"Don't," Scarlett ordered. Snake Eyes reluctantly assented as he, Scarlett, and Mainframe threw their weapons to the floor. Scarlett felt satisfaction at having accomplished her mission, but sadness in having failed to escape. Below them, Scarlett could see Cobra soldiers converging on the headquarters. Everyone in Cobra was now aware of what had just taken place, and there would be no escape. There was no question of trying to escape now, with Jinx and Lifeline incapacitated.
"I wanted the pleasure of killing you all personally," a voice came from the stairwell.
The Joes turned to face Serpentor as he walked through the stairwell door. Behind him strode Destro, the Baroness, Zartan, Zarana, Buzzer, Ripper, Torch, and a pair of Crimson Guards.
"So," Serpentor said as he stood in front of Scarlett and glared at her maliciously, "G.I. JOE returns once again. You have always been a thorn in my side. You never give up, do you? Don't you know when you're conquered?"
Serpentor gestured toward the ruined antenna.
"Do you honestly think you have beaten us? Look around. You might break the brainwashing of this country, but you have not broken Cobra. The five of you will all be summarily executed. Cobra will disappear and wait for our next opportunity. We ruled this country for many months. We know all of your secrets. We know your most intimate weaknesses. Do not think that we will hesitate to exploit them. You have won the battle, but we will be the ultimate victors."
Serpentor called the Crimson Guardsmen over to his side.
"Kill them all," he ordered. The Crimson Guardsmen raised their rifles at Scarlett and Mainframe.
Zarana gasped in horror and threw herself in front of Scarlett and Mainframe. She held out her arms.
"No," she cried. "Don't shoot."
"What is this treachery?" Serpentor howled, infuriated. The Dreadnoks chuckled in amusement.
"Sister," Zartan said. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Look," Zarana pleaded, "The antenna's destroyed. All the transmission equipment... demolished. Killing them won't do us any good. I say we leave them."
"I'll take care of this," Zartan whispered to Serpentor as he stepped forward and pushed the two Crimson Guards aside. He stood face to face with Zarana.
"Zarana, get out of the way. These Joes must die."
"No," Zarana insisted, "I just don't want any more people killed."
She turned to glance at Mainframe, who looked back at her with an anxious expression.
"Don't you think enough people have died over this?" Zarana said.
"Why, Zarana," Zartan said sarcastically, "if I didn't know better, I'd say it looks to me like you suddenly grew a heart."
Zarana only blushed and stared back in silence.
"Are you in love with him?" Zartan directed a scornful glance at Mainframe.
"Please, spare him," Zarana begged, "spare him and his friends."
Destro's walkie talkie came to life, and a frantic voice came on the radio.
"My Lord Destro, we've got a problem here. The slave soldiers are rioting. They've seized weapons and--"
The voice was abruptly cut off. Destro looked at the Baroness impassively. The Dreadnoks all looked at each other, disturbed.
"Enough of this," Zartan said angrily.
Zartan did not hesitate for another moment. He pulled out his pistol and fired a single shot into Zarana's stomach. Everyone stared in shock as Zarana crumpled to the floor in agony, shot by her own brother. Mainframe stepped forward to catch her as she fell.
Before Zartan and the Crimson Guards could shoot the Joes, Snake Eyes pulled out two knives strapped to his back and hurled them at Zartan and one of the Crimson Guards. One knife landed square in the Crimson Guard's chest, killing him. Zartan saw the other knife coming and ducked quickly. The knife flew past Zartan and landed in the neck of the other Crimson Guard. Scarlett quickly grabbed the rifle lying at her feet and opened fire on the Cobras standing before her, at point blank range. All of the Cobras dove out of the way, trying to avoid getting hit, while reaching for their own guns. Zartan was shot in the chest and killed. Several slugs hit Destro in the head, bouncing off his mask, but knocking him off his feet and sending him flying backward. Ripper was killed with a shot to the head. The rest of the Cobras went scrambling for cover behind the chunks of metallic debris and the large pipes that lined parts of the rooftop. Snake Eyes and Mainframe joined the
firefight, having picked up their weapons and started shooting. Snake Eyes remembered the two flight pods circling above them and fired on both of them, killing the pilot of one of them and sending the other flight pod fleeing after bullets pierced its engine. The flight pod belonging to the dead pilot crashed onto the roof between the Joes and the Cobras.
"Serpentor!" Scarlett cried as she charged the Cobra emperor's position, firing on him as she did so. Serpentor tried to shoot as Scarlett rapidly covered the short distance between them, but the gun was knocked out of his hand as a bullet penetrated his shoulder. Scarlett, out of ammo, dove at him and smashed his face with a blow with the butt of her rifle.
Scarlett forgot about the rest of the combatants as she wrestled with Serpentor. Together, they rolled along the floor, punching and clawing at each other. All of Scarlett's rage and anger focused now on Serpentor, this man who had caused the deaths of so many of her friends, as well as hundreds of innocents. She had not forgotten Shipwreck's story of how Serpentor had led an attack on G.I. JOE headquarters and gloated in front of Roadblock before cutting his throat. Desperately fighting for their lives, they rolled toward the edge of the roof, near where the antenna had been destroyed. The iron fence surrounding the roof had been destroyed in this area by the explosion. Scarlett sensed herself precariously nearing the edge. Below her, an equally intense battle was being fought as the American soldiers, freed from their brainwashing, fought with the Cobra soldiers both inside and outside the complex. Serpentor held a knife at her throat.
Blood dripped down from the corners of Serpentor's mouth as he grinned maliciously at Scarlett. He was trying with all his strength to shove the knife through her throat as he lay on top of her.
"Farewell, worm," he cried as Scarlett resisted Serpentor's stabbing motion with both of her hands.
Suddenly, Scarlett shifted her weight beneath Serpentor and pushed him toward the edge with all of her strength. Serpentor gave an unholy shriek of terror as he flew off the edge of the roof.
"Serpentor!" the Baroness cried as she watched the emperor go over the edge.
Destro joined the Baroness behind the large pipe that she was using for cover.
"I suggest we leave this place now," Destro said.
Below them, on the ground level, everyone watched as Serpentor fell the ten stories to his death. He landed in front of the main entrance to the building. Until this moment, the Cobras had held the advantage. They had shot nearly half of the revolting American soldiers, while suffering huge losses themselves. Still, the Cobra forces outnumbered and outgunned their opponents. They believed in what they were fighting for. They believed in their leader, who had inspired them all with a grand vision of world conquest. Now, as their emperor lay in a pool of blood on the ground, the Cobras were stunned. Their leader was suddenly gone. They had lost their belief in their impending victory. The tables turned, the upper hand now passed to the American rebels.
Destro knew that Serpentor could have recovered from the loss of this fortress. He knew that Serpentor, who possessed the genius of the greatest leaders of history, could have snatched a victory out from the clutches of defeat. Serpentor would have found a way to fight back and emerge victorious.
But he, Destro, was not Serpentor.
"Come with me, Baroness," Destro said. "We'll start over again. Together."
The Baroness, who had been shot in her left arm and clutched it tightly with her good arm, nodded in pain. Destro fired a few shots at Snake Eyes and Mainframe, forcing them to duck behind the pipes they were using as cover, as he led the Baroness to the stairwell exit.
Scarlett, still lying on her stomach, peered over the edge of the roof. The Cobra forces were in full retreat. Demoralized by the loss of their emperor and the destruction of their brainwashing facility, the Cobra forces now fled in a disorderly fashion. The American forces fired on them as they fled. Everywhere Scarlett looked, she could see destroyed HISS tanks and burning STUNs, as well as innumerable dead bodies, most of them Cobra.
The battle on the rooftop was over. Buzzer and Torch had both followed the lead of Destro and the Baroness, fleeing for their lives. Snake Eyes walked over to Scarlett and offered his hand. Smiling, Scarlett reached out to him and Snake Eyes pulled her to her feet. Together, they walked over to Mainframe, who was kneeling next to Zarana, cradling her in his arms.
"Mainframe," Zarana said weakly, "is it over?"
"It's over, we won," Mainframe said, tears rolling down his face, "thanks to you. You're going to be okay. We'll get you to a hospital."
"My life with Cobra is over," Zarana said, "my brothers are gone. There's nothing left for me."
"Please," Zarana went on, "wherever you go, take me with you."
"We're together now. We always will be," Mainframe said. "I love you."
Zarana gently reached out with an arm and with it, she pulled down Mainframe's head toward hers. They shared a tender kiss, oblivious to the fact that Scarlett and Snake Eyes were standing nearby, watching them.
Mainframe picked up Zarana and walked toward the stairwell with her in his arms. Scarlett heard Lifeline groan as he came to. Lifeline surveyed his surroundings with shock.
"Wow," he said, "I'm not sure I want to know what just happened."
Lifeline looked to Jinx, who was still unconscious. Snake Eyes walked over to Jinx and gingerly picked her up. Together, Scarlett and Lifeline walked toward the stairwell, followed by Mainframe, who carried Zarana, and Snake Eyes, who carried Jinx. Down below, perhaps Lady Jaye, Falcon, Cover Girl, and Stalker were alive and well. Scarlett felt happy that she would soon see her lost friends once again. But she knew that nothing would ever be the same. G.I. JOE would be forever changed, she knew it. And now Cobra had been broken. Cobra's rule over this country would soon be overthrown, if it hadn't been already. Their nation was once again free...
...But at what cost?
To be concluded...
They would act under cover of darkness. It was nearly midnight. Scarlett handed the binoculars to Jinx.
"That's the transmission antenna," Scarlett said to Jinx as she pointed to the roof of the concrete Cobra building.
"You know the plan," Scarlett said. "You and Lifeline are to take out the antenna."
Jinx put down the binoculars. She and Lifeline nodded.
"The rest of us," Scarlett said, looking to Snake Eyes and Mainframe, "are going to penetrate the complex and destroy the rest of their communications equipment."
Everyone nodded. They were all dressed in stolen Viper uniforms. The Joes donned their Viper helmets and face plates, one by one.
Scarlett was the last to put on her helmet.
"This is it," she said.
"What do we do once we achieve our objectives?" Lifeline asked.
"Simple," Jinx answered. "Run like hell."
"Everyone knows the rendezvous point in case we get separated during our escape, assuming we're successful in our mission."
"Scarlett--" Mainframe said nervously, "what if we don't succeed?"
"We must succeed," Scarlett said grimly.
* * *
The five Joes in disguise walked through the street barriers without any problems. One block away from the Cobra base, Scarlett paused near a Cobra HISS tank. She looked around.
"Do it, you're clear," Jinx said.
Scarlett reached into her vest and produced an explosive device that consisted of a wad of dynamite connected to a timer. Looking at her watch, Scarlett set the timer for fifteen minutes, activated the bomb, and hurriedly placed it beneath the HISS vehicle's fuel tank.
Now that the bomb was in place, the five Joes approached the fortress straight on. The structure was about ten stories high. As they walked among the other Cobra Vipers passing in and out of the headquarters, Scarlett looked up and noticed the flight pods patrolling the city skies above. The search lamps of the flight pods moved swiftly and efficiently along the ground and the walls of the building, looking for intruders. Scarlett felt beads of sweat forming on her forehead. These helmets were so stuffy. How did these Vipers ever tolerate wearing these things all day long? She looked to her left and right and observed that no alarm had been sounded. Yet she felt so out in the open, so exposed. Scarlett shook her head and tried to clear her mind of such thoughts.
To one side of the Cobra building, there was a large warehouse, which apparently had been set up as a motor pool. Scarlett saw a large number of STUNs and HISS tanks parked nearby. Cobra soldiers continued to file in and out of the base in a steady stream. Two Crimson Guards, standing on either side of the main entrance, nodded to the disguised Joes as they passed through.
What the Joes saw immediately upon entering the building took them by surprise, and it was all Scarlett could do to keep from gasping in shock.
There were a large number of American soldiers moving about the ground floor, carrying boxes of equipment, food, and supplies. The soldiers were dressed in their combat uniforms. Scarlett could see members from all four major services. Scarlett counted around a hundred American soldiers.
"Falcon," Jinx said softly as she recognized Lieutenant Falcon unloading a box of food off a truck, which had come into the ground floor of the building through a side gate.
Scarlett spotted Falcon, Cover Girl, Lady Jaye, and Stalker. Snake Eyes tensed upon seeing Stalker slapped in the face by the Baroness.
"No slacking!" the Baroness said peremptorily.
As Scarlett stood next to Snake Eyes, she felt for his hand and squeezed it.
"Remember our mission," she said calmly before letting go of his hand.
"Hey, you Vipers," a Crimson Guardsman said as he approached them. "Don't you have something better to do than stand around gawking at our slave labor?"
Scarlett turned to the Crimson Guardsman and was about to utter a phony apology when the bomb exploded beneath the HISS tank outside, obliterating the tank in a massive fireball. Even from where Scarlett was standing, she could see the tremendous light emitted from the explosion and the way it splashed over the buildings, lighting up the entire block.
"What the hell?" the Crimson Guardsman said, completely forgetting about Scarlett and the other disguised Joes, "Sound the alert!"
The alarm sounded, and Cobra soldiers began rushing outside of the building in droves to meet the sudden threat.
"Let's move, people, we don't have much time," Scarlett said to her teammates. Amidst the Cobras running back and forth, the Joes made their way to the stairwell, threw the door open, and raced up the stairs.
Scarlett and Snake Eyes led the way up the stairwell. Halfway up the building, a half dozen Vipers on the way down met up with them.
"Where do you think you're going?" the lead Viper demanded.
Scarlett and Snake Eyes answered by mowing down the Vipers with their silenced semiautomatic handguns.
"Come on, we're almost there," Scarlett urged her teammates as they neared the top floor.
"What we're looking for is right here," Mainframe informed Scarlett, stopping her at the seventh floor.
"All right, this is where we split up," Scarlett said. "Jinx?"
"I got it," Jinx said. She grabbed Lifeline by the arm and led him up the rest of the stairwell to the top.
On the seventh floor, in the main communications room, a Televiper cried out, "Intruders in the stairwell!"
Scarlett and Snake Eyes busted down the stairwell door at that moment and found themselves in a long hallway, which led to the communications room. A group of Vipers appeared in the hallway to intercept them, and Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Mainframe gunned them down on sight.
"Stop them!" a Viper shouted from inside the communications room. Vipers took cover on either side of the entrance to the communications room and began firing on the Joes, who took cover in a small side corridor.
"Snake Eyes, your grenades," Scarlett said, and Snake Eyes nodded. He had already removed a grenade from his chest belt. He pulled the pin, held it tightly in his hand for a few moments, and then turned to hurl the grenade around the corner, down the hallway. It bounced and skittered down the floor, straight into the communications room.
"Grenade!" a Viper cried before the explosion hit.
"Let's move, move, move!" Scarlett cried as she led her teammates forward. Snake Eyes hurled another grenade through into the communications room amidst the cries and groans of the Cobra soldiers, and the second explosion rocked the floor, sending a plume of smoke into the hallway.
A group of Vipers appeared behind them, coming in through the stairwell door, but Mainframe spotted them, turned, and fired on them, driving them back.
The Joes had reached the communications room. Scarlett carefully stuck her head through the entrance to take a look and quickly jerked her head back as bullets flew at her, missing her head and hitting the wall.
Scarlett turned to Snake Eyes. Mainframe was firing at the enemy behind them, trying to keep them at bay. He hurled a grenade at them, and the explosion blasted through the Vipers in the stairwell. After an outburst of pained cries, the stairwell was silent.
Scarlett showed Snake Eyes three fingers, signifying the number of remaining Vipers in the room.
"You shoot high, I'll shoot low," Scarlett whispered. Snake Eyes nodded, and he quickly stuck an Uzi through the door and began firing blindly at the enemies to the side of the door. Scarlett took advantage of the cover fire and dove through the entrance, firing at the Vipers with pistols in both hands. She rolled along the floor and fired at them all the way, killing all three of the enemies.
When she came to a stop, Scarlett stood up. "The room is clear," she said as she tore off her Viper helmet and breathed in fresh air for the first time in what felt like ages.
Snake Eyes and Mainframe came into the room, yanking off their helmets as well. The communications room was now littered with a dozen bodies of the enemy. Blood, bullet shells, and shrapnel were all over the place.
An entire wall consisted of nothing but a series of computer consoles and flat screen monitors. Another wall was lined with shelves of compact discs, enclosed in a protective glass casing, which had been pierced with numerous bullets. The bodies of the three Vipers Scarlett had just taken out were splayed out along this side of the room.
"Mainframe?" Scarlett asked, wanting confirmation that this was indeed their target.
Mainframe sat down in front of one of the consoles, shoving the dead body of a Televiper out of the way. The keyboard was stained with the Televiper's blood. With a few rapid keystrokes, Mainframe entered Cobra's main network and took a look. He looked around the room at the other computers and walked over to the shelf of CDs. Smashing the glass casing with the butt of his rifle, Mainframe pulled out a couple of discs and loaded them into one of the computers. Endless lines of computer code filled the screen. Mainframe nodded.
"This is it. Let's blow it up," Mainframe said, reaching into his knapsack for their plastic explosives.
After carefully placing the explosives inside the computer hard drives, the rack of discs holding the brainwashing algorithms, and the network cables that lined the walls, Scarlett hooked the explosives up to a common detonator cord.
"Are we clear?" she asked Snake Eyes and Mainframe, who were peering out into the open corridor.
"Yeah," Mainframe said.
Scarlett lit the fuse.
"It's lit, let's get out of here!"
* * *
Elsewhere, on the rooftop, Jinx and Lifeline had taken out the squad of Vipers guarding the transmission antenna.
"Did you have to kill that guy?" Lifeline said to Jinx, who had just hurled a ninja star into a Viper's throat.
"Seeing as how he was trying to kill me, I'd say, yeah," Jinx said sarcastically to Lifeline. The two of them discarded their Viper helmets.
All five of the Vipers who were guarding the antenna lay wounded or dying. They were no match for Jinx's combat skills.
"I just don't want too many people to die."
"Wait a minute. Didn't you kill a guy when you went on that raid with Scarlett and Mainframe?"
Jinx placed a wad of plastic explosives on the antenna and prepared to light the fuse.
"Yes, I did. But it's not something I want to do again."
"Fair enough," Jinx said as she lit the fuse.
"Come on, get away from the antenna," Jinx shouted as she turned to Lifeline.
Suddenly, a flight pod appeared above them and lit them up with its search lamp. Lifeline turned his head away, momentarily blinded. The enemy flight pod opened fire, cutting down Jinx with shots to her shoulder and arm.
"Jinx!" Lifeline cried. Amidst enemy fire, he raced to Jinx's side and attempted to drag her away, his eyes focused on the lit fuse.
"Come on, it's gonna blow!" Lifeline shouted. Jinx managed to snap to attention and got up, just as Lifeline was hit in one of his arms.
"Arghh!"
Jinx pulled up an Uzi and unloaded a clip at the flight pod, causing it to take evasive action. The two wounded Joes ran together, away from the antenna. They supported each other with their good arms as they attempted to clear the antenna.
The explosion knocked them both off their feet and hurled them clear toward the other side of the roof.
Both Lifeline and Jinx were knocked out cold from the shock of the blast. Seconds later, a second explosion rocked the seventh floor, where Scarlett, Snake Eyes, and Mainframe had just taken care of their part of the mission.
* * *
"Jinx, come in," Scarlett said into her walkie talkie. The other end was ominously silent. Scarlett knew that Jinx and Lifeline had accomplished their mission, after she had heard the explosion on the rooftop.
"Something's wrong," Scarlett said to Snake Eyes and Mainframe.
"The enemy could be here any second now," Mainframe warned.
"We have to check out the roof. I won't leave Jinx and Lifeline behind!"
Scarlett led her teammates back up the stairwell toward the roof. They passed by more bodies of dead Vipers on the way. The door to the roof had been broken down. Five more dead Vipers lay in various positions on the roof, and the antenna had been completely obliterated. Scarlett saw the motionless forms of Jinx and Lifeline and ran toward them.
"They're wounded," Mainframe said.
"I need bandages," Scarlett said. She held out her hand, and Snake Eyes placed a wad of wrapping in her hand.
"Thanks," Scarlett said as she dressed Jinx's and Lifeline's wounds.
Two flight pods appeared in the night sky above them. Their search lights illuminated the entire rooftop.
"We've got you surrounded. Don't move or you're dead," one of the enemy pilots said through a loudspeaker.
Snake Eyes wanted to shoot at them, but Scarlett stayed his hand.
"Don't," Scarlett ordered. Snake Eyes reluctantly assented as he, Scarlett, and Mainframe threw their weapons to the floor. Scarlett felt satisfaction at having accomplished her mission, but sadness in having failed to escape. Below them, Scarlett could see Cobra soldiers converging on the headquarters. Everyone in Cobra was now aware of what had just taken place, and there would be no escape. There was no question of trying to escape now, with Jinx and Lifeline incapacitated.
"I wanted the pleasure of killing you all personally," a voice came from the stairwell.
The Joes turned to face Serpentor as he walked through the stairwell door. Behind him strode Destro, the Baroness, Zartan, Zarana, Buzzer, Ripper, Torch, and a pair of Crimson Guards.
"So," Serpentor said as he stood in front of Scarlett and glared at her maliciously, "G.I. JOE returns once again. You have always been a thorn in my side. You never give up, do you? Don't you know when you're conquered?"
Serpentor gestured toward the ruined antenna.
"Do you honestly think you have beaten us? Look around. You might break the brainwashing of this country, but you have not broken Cobra. The five of you will all be summarily executed. Cobra will disappear and wait for our next opportunity. We ruled this country for many months. We know all of your secrets. We know your most intimate weaknesses. Do not think that we will hesitate to exploit them. You have won the battle, but we will be the ultimate victors."
Serpentor called the Crimson Guardsmen over to his side.
"Kill them all," he ordered. The Crimson Guardsmen raised their rifles at Scarlett and Mainframe.
Zarana gasped in horror and threw herself in front of Scarlett and Mainframe. She held out her arms.
"No," she cried. "Don't shoot."
"What is this treachery?" Serpentor howled, infuriated. The Dreadnoks chuckled in amusement.
"Sister," Zartan said. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Look," Zarana pleaded, "The antenna's destroyed. All the transmission equipment... demolished. Killing them won't do us any good. I say we leave them."
"I'll take care of this," Zartan whispered to Serpentor as he stepped forward and pushed the two Crimson Guards aside. He stood face to face with Zarana.
"Zarana, get out of the way. These Joes must die."
"No," Zarana insisted, "I just don't want any more people killed."
She turned to glance at Mainframe, who looked back at her with an anxious expression.
"Don't you think enough people have died over this?" Zarana said.
"Why, Zarana," Zartan said sarcastically, "if I didn't know better, I'd say it looks to me like you suddenly grew a heart."
Zarana only blushed and stared back in silence.
"Are you in love with him?" Zartan directed a scornful glance at Mainframe.
"Please, spare him," Zarana begged, "spare him and his friends."
Destro's walkie talkie came to life, and a frantic voice came on the radio.
"My Lord Destro, we've got a problem here. The slave soldiers are rioting. They've seized weapons and--"
The voice was abruptly cut off. Destro looked at the Baroness impassively. The Dreadnoks all looked at each other, disturbed.
"Enough of this," Zartan said angrily.
Zartan did not hesitate for another moment. He pulled out his pistol and fired a single shot into Zarana's stomach. Everyone stared in shock as Zarana crumpled to the floor in agony, shot by her own brother. Mainframe stepped forward to catch her as she fell.
Before Zartan and the Crimson Guards could shoot the Joes, Snake Eyes pulled out two knives strapped to his back and hurled them at Zartan and one of the Crimson Guards. One knife landed square in the Crimson Guard's chest, killing him. Zartan saw the other knife coming and ducked quickly. The knife flew past Zartan and landed in the neck of the other Crimson Guard. Scarlett quickly grabbed the rifle lying at her feet and opened fire on the Cobras standing before her, at point blank range. All of the Cobras dove out of the way, trying to avoid getting hit, while reaching for their own guns. Zartan was shot in the chest and killed. Several slugs hit Destro in the head, bouncing off his mask, but knocking him off his feet and sending him flying backward. Ripper was killed with a shot to the head. The rest of the Cobras went scrambling for cover behind the chunks of metallic debris and the large pipes that lined parts of the rooftop. Snake Eyes and Mainframe joined the
firefight, having picked up their weapons and started shooting. Snake Eyes remembered the two flight pods circling above them and fired on both of them, killing the pilot of one of them and sending the other flight pod fleeing after bullets pierced its engine. The flight pod belonging to the dead pilot crashed onto the roof between the Joes and the Cobras.
"Serpentor!" Scarlett cried as she charged the Cobra emperor's position, firing on him as she did so. Serpentor tried to shoot as Scarlett rapidly covered the short distance between them, but the gun was knocked out of his hand as a bullet penetrated his shoulder. Scarlett, out of ammo, dove at him and smashed his face with a blow with the butt of her rifle.
Scarlett forgot about the rest of the combatants as she wrestled with Serpentor. Together, they rolled along the floor, punching and clawing at each other. All of Scarlett's rage and anger focused now on Serpentor, this man who had caused the deaths of so many of her friends, as well as hundreds of innocents. She had not forgotten Shipwreck's story of how Serpentor had led an attack on G.I. JOE headquarters and gloated in front of Roadblock before cutting his throat. Desperately fighting for their lives, they rolled toward the edge of the roof, near where the antenna had been destroyed. The iron fence surrounding the roof had been destroyed in this area by the explosion. Scarlett sensed herself precariously nearing the edge. Below her, an equally intense battle was being fought as the American soldiers, freed from their brainwashing, fought with the Cobra soldiers both inside and outside the complex. Serpentor held a knife at her throat.
Blood dripped down from the corners of Serpentor's mouth as he grinned maliciously at Scarlett. He was trying with all his strength to shove the knife through her throat as he lay on top of her.
"Farewell, worm," he cried as Scarlett resisted Serpentor's stabbing motion with both of her hands.
Suddenly, Scarlett shifted her weight beneath Serpentor and pushed him toward the edge with all of her strength. Serpentor gave an unholy shriek of terror as he flew off the edge of the roof.
"Serpentor!" the Baroness cried as she watched the emperor go over the edge.
Destro joined the Baroness behind the large pipe that she was using for cover.
"I suggest we leave this place now," Destro said.
Below them, on the ground level, everyone watched as Serpentor fell the ten stories to his death. He landed in front of the main entrance to the building. Until this moment, the Cobras had held the advantage. They had shot nearly half of the revolting American soldiers, while suffering huge losses themselves. Still, the Cobra forces outnumbered and outgunned their opponents. They believed in what they were fighting for. They believed in their leader, who had inspired them all with a grand vision of world conquest. Now, as their emperor lay in a pool of blood on the ground, the Cobras were stunned. Their leader was suddenly gone. They had lost their belief in their impending victory. The tables turned, the upper hand now passed to the American rebels.
Destro knew that Serpentor could have recovered from the loss of this fortress. He knew that Serpentor, who possessed the genius of the greatest leaders of history, could have snatched a victory out from the clutches of defeat. Serpentor would have found a way to fight back and emerge victorious.
But he, Destro, was not Serpentor.
"Come with me, Baroness," Destro said. "We'll start over again. Together."
The Baroness, who had been shot in her left arm and clutched it tightly with her good arm, nodded in pain. Destro fired a few shots at Snake Eyes and Mainframe, forcing them to duck behind the pipes they were using as cover, as he led the Baroness to the stairwell exit.
Scarlett, still lying on her stomach, peered over the edge of the roof. The Cobra forces were in full retreat. Demoralized by the loss of their emperor and the destruction of their brainwashing facility, the Cobra forces now fled in a disorderly fashion. The American forces fired on them as they fled. Everywhere Scarlett looked, she could see destroyed HISS tanks and burning STUNs, as well as innumerable dead bodies, most of them Cobra.
The battle on the rooftop was over. Buzzer and Torch had both followed the lead of Destro and the Baroness, fleeing for their lives. Snake Eyes walked over to Scarlett and offered his hand. Smiling, Scarlett reached out to him and Snake Eyes pulled her to her feet. Together, they walked over to Mainframe, who was kneeling next to Zarana, cradling her in his arms.
"Mainframe," Zarana said weakly, "is it over?"
"It's over, we won," Mainframe said, tears rolling down his face, "thanks to you. You're going to be okay. We'll get you to a hospital."
"My life with Cobra is over," Zarana said, "my brothers are gone. There's nothing left for me."
"Please," Zarana went on, "wherever you go, take me with you."
"We're together now. We always will be," Mainframe said. "I love you."
Zarana gently reached out with an arm and with it, she pulled down Mainframe's head toward hers. They shared a tender kiss, oblivious to the fact that Scarlett and Snake Eyes were standing nearby, watching them.
Mainframe picked up Zarana and walked toward the stairwell with her in his arms. Scarlett heard Lifeline groan as he came to. Lifeline surveyed his surroundings with shock.
"Wow," he said, "I'm not sure I want to know what just happened."
Lifeline looked to Jinx, who was still unconscious. Snake Eyes walked over to Jinx and gingerly picked her up. Together, Scarlett and Lifeline walked toward the stairwell, followed by Mainframe, who carried Zarana, and Snake Eyes, who carried Jinx. Down below, perhaps Lady Jaye, Falcon, Cover Girl, and Stalker were alive and well. Scarlett felt happy that she would soon see her lost friends once again. But she knew that nothing would ever be the same. G.I. JOE would be forever changed, she knew it. And now Cobra had been broken. Cobra's rule over this country would soon be overthrown, if it hadn't been already. Their nation was once again free...
...But at what cost?
To be concluded...