Flint and Lady Jaye were surrounded by a bunch of men brought to Cobra Island by Cobra, survived by Cobra, and were constantly surrounded by Cobra and it's propaganda while wielding Cobra energy weapons. It was somewhat surprising that they were as amicable as they turned out to be leading them back to their village.
"You Joe!" a Chinese man cried waving his fist with a half bitter smile.
"Flint, we're you aware that we had a fan club here on Cobra Island?" Lady Jaye asked.
"Maybe if you give them an autograph they'll put away the guns." Flint muttered, under his breath.
"It's alright. My friends here don't speak much English, but they have the general idea your members of G.I. Joe, which is supposed to be an extremely dirty word around here. But only is to members of the Coil Crime syndicate which passes for Cobra. Though from the looks of things it appears that whoever is waving that banner today isn't too happy with their calling themselves that." The leader of the group, a tall muscular black man with an assault rifle, said with a half smile.
"And who exactly are your friends, and you for that matter?" Flint questioned as he noticed the grass hut village had been turned into something of a fortress with heavy trenches dug, barbed wire laid-out and everyone, including the women, holding guns.
"Me? I'm with the CIA. I've been down here so long I was pretty damn sure that everyone here had forgotten I even existed. It appears, since nobody bothered to inform me there was a massive assault on the island coming up, I was right." The man said pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up. "My brothers here are mostly the members of the resistance that tried to overthrow Serpentor about twelve years ago after Cobra lost the Terror-Drome and about half it's numbers, but same as Cuba, it was crushed and we had to lie low. However, given everything is suddenly lit up like the Fourth of July, me and my amigos decided to take out the local Cobra barracks and see what we could do for you." The man then offered his hand to Flint, who blinked just the slightest bit before shaking his head. Lady Jaye was on the verge of laughing her head off at her husband's confusion.
"Abraham Rook." The man said while the rest behind them repeated their own names, they were a motley bunch and quite a few of them were over the hill.
"Just call me Flint." Flint shook the man's hand before looking at Lady Jaye.
"Yeah I've heard of you, though I'd have thought you'd be way past combat age by this point." Abe gave a look that told Flint he was only teasing but it was obvious the Colonel didn't much care for it.
Lady Jaye then looked around and saw that children were being huddled, along with the elderly, into the center of the village where holes had been dug to hide in. "Where exactly did all these people come from?" Cobra Island had been the creation of a volcano that had barely stopped erupting before Cobra Commander had bribed his way into getting accepted as a nation.
"The Slave trade mostly. Xamot and Tomax are heavy hitters in the Drug, Weapons, and Mercenary rackets, given they can't do much legitimate business anymore. Still in order to grow the heroine and cocaine they need farmers so whether kidnapped from their homes or lured here on false promises before having a gun pointed at their heads, they all ended up here more or less unwillingly. As you can imagine it did not endear them to the organization as a whole." Abraham then handed Flint a cigarette before Jaye refused, it was a disgusting filthy habit. Flint put away his as well and Lady Jaye was grateful, she had spent years beating it out of him and he wasn't going to start again.
"Well, we're part of a joint effort to take Serpentor out with a few of our allies, but it's proving a little harder than we originally thought." Flint shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the wound on his arm.
"Well, it's about to get a whole lot harder." Abe smiled as he reloaded his pistol.
"How's that?" Lady Jaye asked.
"Well, Miss Jaye…forgive me, it's the javelins." Abraham said, pointing at what was a rather large signal to her identity on her back.
"Mrs. Jaye, now." Flint corrected.
"Not for long if you keep throwing grenades at your feet." LJ said, looking very cross at her husband.
"Mrs. Jaye, well we've got a little radar commandeered from the recently departed in the bunkers and well a group of those new Cobras with the shiny toys are about to march into this here village. It ain't going to be pretty." Abraham smiled.
"So let me get this straight…" Flint pointed a gloved finger at Thomas then began counting the number of armed people who looked like they could remotely fight and that wasn't many. "You want us to…"
Lady Jaye cut in, "Work some Joe magic."
"On these here folks and more or less hold an entire invading force at bay until they give up and leave your village here alone?" Flint said blinking and biting down hard.
Abraham shrugged his shoulders then gave a thoroughly evil smile "Absolutely. Do you think that's going to be a problem for the mighty G.I. Joe organization's best soldiers?" The man then began wrapping a package of grenades around a bullet proof vest while the rest of the soldiers put on bandoliers and other suits that made them heavily armed(,) but still undernourished and ill-trained it seemed.
Flint gave a half smile and Lady Jaye a full one before she patted her husband on the back. "It shouldn't be a problem at all." Flint said as he took a new power pack for his rifle.
***
Snake Eyes moved silently through the Cobra forces with exceptional stealth, speed, and dexterity for the operation he only had a scant amount of time to perform. Cart wheeling and jumping from tank to jeep, Snake Eyes set the charges as the seconds he had left whittled slowly down to zero and he leapt on top of the largest most visible point in the area. The Cobras were still preparing for their attack on Serpentor's armory and the leader of the group had turned it into an impromptu interrogation session, heavy on the slapping and pointed guns, but no torture. If Snake Eyes had said it once he'd say it again, the Cobras were never heavy on the Geneva Convention.
"What is the size of your force, Colonel? What are your objectives?" the woman slapped the British commander repeatedly before he, rather nobly, but stupidly, spit in her face.
Snake Eyes was shocked that he didn't have to wait very long for the Cobra forces to notice him, as the woman immediately fired her pistol, which was followed by the tell tale blue laser lights of her troops. The bolts were uncomfortably close and with his pistols drawn and arms crossed he found they didn't manage to penetrate Cobra body armor either.
'Oh well if good old fashioned Kreagan-seven energy bolts won't get a Cobra…' Snake eyes ducked into a roll as the time bombs detonated behind him and sent the snakes spiraling into the ground with their hands over their heads.
"YO JOE!" the battle-cry was sounded by Falcon, as the air above Snake Eyes filled with red laser blasts. Unfortunately, some nearly took his head off and Snake Eyes was reminded that Colonel Falcon wasn't the most sensible Joe to begin with and a decade out of combat or so probably hadn't helped his shooting in real time. The new rawhides weren't exactly the best the Joes had to offer either, one was actually shooting something that looked like fire-extinguisher fluid but froze better than liquid nitrogen.
'Not so fast.' Snake Eyes thought, kicking a Cobra trooper, who had been playing dead, in the face and knocking the gun from the viper's hands. The ninja then punched the man out cold onto the ground. Snake Eyes wished he could scream at the top of his lungs that they had to get the prisoners and get the hell out of there before they were cut to ribbons by Cobra reinforcements, but he had long since learned to stop trying. Snake Eyes would never be a leader of men, so he just tried to be the nastiest, most cunning fighter that had ever been born or trained. Throwing a pair of sais from his knee wraps, they landed into the side of Cobra laser rifles which exploded in the troop's hands. To their credit, the prisoners grabbed what Cobra weapons they could from the fallen and tried to aid in their own rescue, but in the crossfire three were already dead.
"JOES RETREAT! WE'VE GOT WHAT WE CAME FOR!" Falcon said, pointing a pistol at the eyepiece of one of the armored Cobra Commandoes and actually hitting it point blank. The Green Beret was better than it seemed when it came to fighting and Snake Eyes gave him credit where credit was due.
'Finally! Took you long enough, Falcon. A surprise attack only is a surprise for the first second that someone's shooting at you.' Snake Eyes thought, throwing a grenade toward the oncoming troops as he was shot through the shoulder and screamed silently.
"Let's get out of here!" Punch Card yelled, echoing the obvious sentiment as he gave covering fire with his assault rifle.
Snake Eyes stumbled then to the forest as he fired still with his good arm.
***
Anya Dilsynian fell to the ground in a roll as the G.I. Joe forces emerged from their attacking point and proceeded to fight with her stunned troops. Anya had never fought with Cobra during the time they were mortal foes with the American fighting force, but in her six years with Cobra, she had fought in enough private battles and personal campaigns that she could recognize skill where she saw it. It annoyed her that they weren't having better reaction time, but she accepted the responsibility herself, she should have made sure the area was more secure than she had assumed before interrogating the commander of the invading army they had captured.
"DON'T JUST STAND THERE! KILL THEM!" Anya said, tumbling into a battle formation and landing a laser bolt shot into the shoulder of the soldier, Snake Eyes, whom she recognized from data docs. It was a great pity because she had been aiming for his head with that particular shot, but she had the unfortunate problem of having to make an effort to move out of the way of the G.I. Joe energy bolts. She had little difficulty doing so, she was Cobra's Fallen Angel, which was a title that meant to her deception, skill, beauty, and great power.
'You.' Fallen Angel thought, catching the eyes of one of the new G.I. Joes, whom she recognized from the training regiment of the Death-Vipers. The agent had shown spectacular skill and she had recommended the agent for counter-intelligence and espionage duties among the reformed military force. It was almost enough to conduce her to laughter that the very person she had trained would be involved in her first mission against her. Breaking eye contact, the Crimson Guards woman knew the agent would deliberately miss all shots against living Cobra and with a smile watched the traitor move away to give her true commander a perfect shot at one of the G.I. Joes, which Anya took with relish.
***
Thomas Seraphim clutched his chest as the laser bolt penetrated the armor he was wearing and struck him in his stomach. The thirty three year old former preacher was only glad that he had taken it pushing away that annoying punk, Playboy.
"CREED!" Playboy shouted, grabbing the man as he fired with his other arm into the Cobras coming forward. They'd recovered eleven of the POW's the Cobras had captured and he didn't want to lose anyone else.
"Oh, just leave me here, you stupid young pup! This is war and I'm not going to waste my life just so you can blow yours." Creed shouted through the immense pain that was wracking his body.
"Oh be quiet, old man. I never was one for taking orders." Playboy said, dragging the man back into the woods as he wondered whether or not they could stop the blood flow from the wound soon enough to make it worth it. "Nobody has ever given me anything before, Creed, that I didn't deserve and nobody is going to start now." Kyle shouted as a laser bolt slammed into the tree just beside him while cover fire from Falcon allowed him to move into the forest again with a few smoke grenades from Snake Eyes covering their way.
'So help me God, if we end up getting caught by Cobra because that stupid silent ninja can't think of an escape plan in a pinch I'm going to make sure I'm the one who kills him.' Playboy murmured as the dark foliage of Cobra Island filled with more smoke and laser blasts over his head and beside his feet.
***
"Can you not feel the power of my will overwhelming you, foul dog?" Serpentor screamed, slamming himself upward as he brought the serpent staff on the ground of the Terror Palace's floor, which cracked like stone glass before the Cobra Emperor's strength. The battle between the Reborn Cobra and the Cobra mercenaries was dying down as the G.I. Joe tanks began to roll through the brush and pounded the palace with explosives. The Reborn Cobra troops had managed to eliminate enough of the defenses and murder many of the troops inside that the American fighting force had free reign to reduce it rubble.
"All I feel is the imminent taste of victory, Serpentor." The new Commander smiled as he brought his staff toward the Emperors skull only to find himself locked in another test of strength. It did not matter if the Terror Palace was brought down around either warrior's ears in his mind, he would gladly go to perdition with Serpentor's throat in his hands but he intended to win this battle cleanly without cowardly leaving the clone to his death.
"It is a pity I never knew you, young warrior, in my rule over Cobra. Despite your shameful stealing of my moniker, you fight well and would have made an excellent general in my war to bring order to the galaxy." Serpentor laughed and kneed the son of the original Commander in the gut before tossing him in a roll against the wall behind him.
"STEALING? The ultimate bandit dares speak of theft before the rightful heir to the kingdom he stole? Look upon me and know that I am the Hamlet to your Claudius. The princes in the tower to your Richard. The…" Serpentor took advantage of his opponent's sputtering to slam his snake-staff into the man's chest before ramming onto the back of his neck and throwing it in a strangle hold as the Cobra bit down.
"You talk much and did little. That is your epitaph." Serepentor smiled, slamming his foot on the man's chest.
***
The village of El Ray was now so sufficiently rigged that Flint was absolutely sure if Cobra attacked they'd at least be able to put up a fairly good fight before they went down. That is, of course, unless the forces of Cobra were packing enough firepower that the small defenses they had would be completely overwhelmed and they'd be crushed in a few seconds.
"I really hate situations like this." Flint said frowning. He had never had a problem, personally, with firepower but always had preferred to take on superior stuff with his own hands. It had probably been the reason he had been passed over for a Generalship. The command didn't like the idea of a solution that depended on one man's expertise on the field as opposed to dozens.
"Oh, be quiet, Flint. We've been in far worse than this." Lady Jaye said honestly, preparing her javelin as they heard the sounds of moving vehicles, which signaled the dawning arrival of Cobra.
"Yeah but I wasn't exactly too keen on those other times, either." Flint murmured as the BATS Mark 5 emerged with their lasers moving at assault weapon's rates and tearing through everything in their path.
"FLINT, PUNCH IT!" Jaye shouted as Flint jumped back with a ripcord in hands, triggering the first of the traps they'd set up.
The Bats Mark V took aim and ticked off their names as a net of wire-mesh wrapped them up with mines tied to them and the machines exploded in a deafening blast. The air then filled with more laser bolts as the Cobra troops proper and a tank started rolling into the village.
"Okay part one worked out fairly well." Lady Jaye said, throwing her net javelin on a group of Cobra soldiers even as the resistance covered her.
"It's not the first part that I'm worried about. It's getting to part two!" Flint said falling back as the laser fire grew more intense. The Cobra force sent to crush this village's garrison was small but it was intense and well trained.
***
"Do you have any idea of what's exactly going on, Bob?" Cobra Coil guardsman Samuel Prescott said. The man didn't do much in the way of fighting and truth be told couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, but if you were willing to accept a paycheck from Xamot and Tomax and wear a uniform in front of Serpentor with a gun, you could go far in the organization.
"No idea in hell. As near as I can tell, the governments cracking down on us and we're all about to die." Robert Samson sighed. He was, unlike Samuel, a cold-blooded killer and was still wanted in the United States and Europe for five shooting deaths and a series of bank robberies. Absolutely nothing phased the man.
"Uh huh. Shouldn't we be getting out of the Terror Palace then?" Samuel suggested, moving his shoulders uneasily as they guarded the inner corridor and the sounds outside took on a whole entirely different and dark meaning to the man's inexperienced ears.
"Nah. It'd take a nuke to pry us out of this place and you know the drill. They surround us…call for our surrender. U.N. types debate endlessly and, unless a bunch of Jedi get sent, nothing gets done. We're in the safest place in the Terror-Palace, don't worry." Bob sighed, twirling his rifle.
"Yeah I guess your right. I'd personally rather be here than take my chances outside after all." Samuel smirked before he found a rope wrapping around his neck and Bob's. A second later they're heads were bashed together and both fell onto the ground, out cold.
"A wise ninja master once said to me that the man who is weakest is the man who is safest." Scarlet smirked, stepping over the two fallen Cobras as she went through the ventilation shaft and watched Tunnel Rat, Demolition Derby, and the rest of her picked team come down.
"Man, I thought it was only in movies you could go through those things without someone hearing and shooting you." Demolition Derby blinked banging on it a bit before Scarlet smacked him in the back of the head.
"They will come and shoot you if they hear us. Now let's get a move on." Scarlet ordered, lifting up her crossbow and beginning a run.
"It's all about air conditioning. The Cobras like central air so they have the entire place lined with ventilation shafts that go right to the generators for this place." Tunnel Rat got an evil look on his face and he checked his watch as he ran "Twenty minutes. My boys have already got the charges planted to make sure your little tank division is the most completely useless assault force on the planet."
Scarlet sighed. "If you're not busy enough bragging about what sorts of troops you've been producing, Major, I'd like you to go that way." She pointed down the left side of a three way hall as the air filled with Cobra blasts and she ducked into a roll while Demolition Derby and Tunnel Rat returned fire at the Cobra mercs. Scarlet herself followed the directions of the controller they'd taken out and headed right.
"Where are you going?" Demolition Derby shouted, firing repeatedly at the Cobras, who broke into a full retreat as alarms started blaring throughout the Terror Palace of Serpentor.
"Where else? Where a woman's touch is needed! You just make sure your able to cover me!" Scarlet cried back as she picked up her crossbow and shot smoke arrows down at oncoming troops that immediately had them gagging and clutching their eyes. The paralyzing gas dissipated a second later and she broke not a single step running over them toward the rooftop of the Terror Palace where the Emperor of Cobra was waiting for her.
"Oh great." Scarlet saw two silver armored Cobra troopers standing over about eight dead Coil mercenaries.
"A G.I. Joe!" one shouted, lifting a X-25B repeating laser rifle.
"She's come for the Commander!" the other said lifting his own.
Then they spoke in unison, "KILL HER!"
"Oh geez." Scarlet jumped up and grabbed the lighting system as the energy blasts sailed under her and she breathed heavily.
'What can get worse?' Scarlet thought to herself as she swung into them feet first before grabbing one's dropped rifle and dispatching both.
'I guess I'll find out.' Scarlet mused as she opened the door to the roof Serpentor was awaiting her on. The sounds of her cover fire were not far behind but she defiantly needed to make sure Serpentor was taken down or at least get a good look at what sort of opposition was guarding him.
***
Serpentor's laughter echoed through the Terror Palace as the rain forest and swamp land that covered his island burned in gigantic fires that were sweeping most of the island. Every last plane at his airport bases had been destroyed and all four of Serpentor's ports were captured. His defeat was absolutely certain and Serpentor had no desire but to die fighting this day but he would go to meet the great lord of evil with a smile knowing that the impudent dolt that had tried to replace him as Lord of Cobra was dead at his hands.
"The poison you feel right now should be entering your heart and unlike normal Cobra venom will cause it to explode quite painfully I can assure." Serpentor said down to the man whose chest breathed slower under his boot. Cobra Commander then grabbed Serpentor by the leg and slammed him against the wall of the Terror Palace's roof entrance with such force that several teeth were knocked from the dictator's mouth.
"My father's race evolved from cold blooded reptilian beings and while coincidence or divine plan…" The Cobra Commander did not stop beating Serpentor's face in with inhuman blows as he carried on, "they evolved along a similar enough path that they're race could interbreed with their cousins the humans, you should have known a child of Cobra -la would not die with the bite of a serpent."
Weakened, scarred, beaten and bloody the man called Jonathan Sharp put Serpentor's throat in a vice like grip as he forced the Cobra Emperor's left arm behind him with force enough to break it. "ARRGHHHHHHH!" Serpentor screeched as he suffered pain for the first time in many years and found it good.
"I misjudged your cowardice, Serpentor, and your fighting spirit. While I will never forgive you for what you did to my father…the true Cobra Commander….I will send you to whatever gods you worship with the only gift I can. I give you a warrior's death." The Commander cried then snapped the neck of Serpentor before dropping his dead body onto the ground with a thud.
"Johnathan!" A voice said behind him, like a ghost from the past, immediately cut off the triumphant Commander's ability to breath.
"Shana." Sharp said, turning his gaze toward her.
Her look of horror and shock was enough that Sharp was able to take his eyes off from her. She was looking at his uniform and she looked at the eyes which were not human, but had been grown in Doctor Mindbender's laboratory. Shana O'Hara was still wearing the uniform of a G.I. Joe and though it had been decades she still enchanted with the elegant poise of a killer, as she was lifting up her crossbow to no doubt order his surrender. Johnathan Sharp could not judge her reaction; horror, fear, betrayal, shock, affection for an old lover or some strange mixture of all of them at once?
"SURRENDER NOW YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Scarlet shouted then lifted up her crossbow as her eyes flashed and her finger began to squeeze harder around the trigger for emphasis and sheer lack of control.
"I think not." Jonathan leapt down even as the arrow came sailing at him with a sharp movement.
"COBRA! WE HAVE WHAT WE CAME FOR! RETREAT!" Jonathan cried into his personal com as his jetpack shot him into the air away from the Terror Palace. It was true that Serpentor had been slain and from the looks of things his troops had proven more than a match for G.I. Joe and her allies let alone the pathetic defenses Serpentor had erected.
'Yet on some level I am certain I have lost something very precious.'
***
Abraham Rook, codenamed: Infiltrator, watched men he'd known for more than a decade, gunned down by the Cobra forces once they breached the traps Lady Jaye and Flint had made for his little party. It was kind of funny in a way, that the most elite terrorist organization in the world would have quite of a few of their number tossed a dozen yards into some big oak by the old snare trick but there it was.
"Well, I'm all out of ideas, how about you?" Lady Jaye said as the last of the defense ditches erected around the village of El Ray were crossed and it was now forty seven or so Cobras versus two G.I. Joe and a man who definitely should have been in Black Ops as opposed to this hellhole. Lady Jaye briefly thought about her daughters and looked at Flint who had the same look in his eye, they'd come a long way to die at Cobra's hands and leaving them would be their biggest regret.
"Well, we could all sing." Abraham offered as he thought about "Swing Low sweet Chariot" as he pulled the pin of a grenade and saw the absolute weirdest thing.
"What the…." Flint watched in shock from behind a water barrel, pistol in hand.
The Cobras were retreating en masse, in an orderly fashion with a bunch of cover shots being fired behind them, but no real attempt to hit anybody. While Abraham was the first to admit that the Joes were very talented, he was rather reluctant to believe they were shaking in terror at the realization they were facing Lady Jaye and Flint.
"Their Commander must have ordered a retreat." Jaye explained. "I've seen it happen quite a lot before…though usually it involves a lot less property damage and a lot more screaming like children by them." Lady Jaye couldn't stop from bursting out laughing in relief.
"Whatever it is I'm going to get a hold of Duke and make sure it's going to keep happening. You go tell the villagers in the back, Abraham, to keep tight. Just because they're leaving now doesn't mean they won't return in a few minutes or come back around the other way." Flint gestured as he went to the radio in the village.
"You got it and by the way. Since my current job is pretty much over. You think I could put you two down for some kind of reference?" Abe smiled at Lady Jaye who frowned with her arms crossed back at him.
***
Shana O'Hara barely managed to make it out of the Terror Palace before it's generators exploded and it had collapsed on itself. The destruction of the fortress signaled the end of Cobra's reign over the island and from the reports she could barely hear over the shouts and cheering, the rest of Serpentor's army was surrendering as the other Cobra force was retreating in full force.
'Jonathan Sharp.' Shana blinked and found herself needing to sit down even as the victory felt like a distant reality, like something on television. Jonathan had been there before her and while it had been…she couldn't even count the years…she recognized the man's face and bearing anywhere. His voice was burned into her memory but instead of poetry and loyalty, words like Cobra Commander's son and a warrior's death before the crack of Serpentor's neck were in her head.
'I've known traitors before. I shouldn't take it hard.' Scarlet shrugged her shoulders as she tried to shake away the thoughts that included, to her surprise, relief that he hadn't died all those years ago. She also knew he was the leader of the new Cobras and that was shocking enough to snap her back into reality.
"Scarlet. You've got a call on the radio from General Duke." One of her privates said and she managed to get the call despite her confusion.
"Scarlet. The Cobras are gone and we're finishing our sweep of the area. I'm just doing a check to see what the state of everyone's forces is." Conrad Hauser's words were reassuring as Scarlet did a brief once over her forces.
"We're mostly intact though from looks of things we've lost about five armor and about twenty in men. Listen, Duke, I've got something I'm going to need to talk to you about…"
Scarlet had dealt with a lot of emotional angst in her life from having a person she deeply admired permanently destroy his voice box and face to save her, to losing friends and loved one's in war, to the betrayal of her husband whom she personally hoped was rotting somewhere in a ditch currently. However, Sharp was an old wound that felt like it had been ripped open with gigantic fists and it left her shaking. Had he spent the past twenty years in the service of Cobra? If so, why? Was he really the son of that madman? She had then been a good judge of character and remembered him as a man of strong moral convictions and a very anachronistic sense of propriety and duty. It had been that very passion she had considered leaving the service to marry him years before she actually would for a man who hadn't been worth it. It wasn't right or fair that someone she had been that close to and whom had shared in her most intimate secrets would fighting for the enemy!
'I've missed something here. I have to have.' Scarlet thought. Going over the battle from the attack on the guards to those last seconds before Sharp took off in her head over and over again. It took her a second to come back to reality to realize Duke had been silent for some time. "Duke?"
"I'm sorry, Scarlet, but I was occupied. We're getting the casualty estimates now from Falcon for the U.N. troops and they're enormous. Cobra really did a number on them. Listen I don't want to talk about this here on a public line. If you have anything to say you should probably tell it to me personally. The Patriot should be docked with the island in an hour, meet me there." Duke said over the Comm. System and she smiled.
"You got it. Your not going to believe it anyway." Scarlet said before handing it back to her communications officer. She didn't honestly believe it all herself, truth be told. The memories she had were very precious to her and they were now stinging against her soul rather than giving her comfort, that was an attack she had never wanted to experience again.
'I'm going to find you Jonathan and I'm going to find out what exactly your doing and then I'm….' she didn't know what she was going to do and merely got up from the radio and went back to commanding the attack group, she couldn't think about it now or she'd go mad she was certain.
"You Joe!" a Chinese man cried waving his fist with a half bitter smile.
"Flint, we're you aware that we had a fan club here on Cobra Island?" Lady Jaye asked.
"Maybe if you give them an autograph they'll put away the guns." Flint muttered, under his breath.
"It's alright. My friends here don't speak much English, but they have the general idea your members of G.I. Joe, which is supposed to be an extremely dirty word around here. But only is to members of the Coil Crime syndicate which passes for Cobra. Though from the looks of things it appears that whoever is waving that banner today isn't too happy with their calling themselves that." The leader of the group, a tall muscular black man with an assault rifle, said with a half smile.
"And who exactly are your friends, and you for that matter?" Flint questioned as he noticed the grass hut village had been turned into something of a fortress with heavy trenches dug, barbed wire laid-out and everyone, including the women, holding guns.
"Me? I'm with the CIA. I've been down here so long I was pretty damn sure that everyone here had forgotten I even existed. It appears, since nobody bothered to inform me there was a massive assault on the island coming up, I was right." The man said pulling out a cigarette and lighting it up. "My brothers here are mostly the members of the resistance that tried to overthrow Serpentor about twelve years ago after Cobra lost the Terror-Drome and about half it's numbers, but same as Cuba, it was crushed and we had to lie low. However, given everything is suddenly lit up like the Fourth of July, me and my amigos decided to take out the local Cobra barracks and see what we could do for you." The man then offered his hand to Flint, who blinked just the slightest bit before shaking his head. Lady Jaye was on the verge of laughing her head off at her husband's confusion.
"Abraham Rook." The man said while the rest behind them repeated their own names, they were a motley bunch and quite a few of them were over the hill.
"Just call me Flint." Flint shook the man's hand before looking at Lady Jaye.
"Yeah I've heard of you, though I'd have thought you'd be way past combat age by this point." Abe gave a look that told Flint he was only teasing but it was obvious the Colonel didn't much care for it.
Lady Jaye then looked around and saw that children were being huddled, along with the elderly, into the center of the village where holes had been dug to hide in. "Where exactly did all these people come from?" Cobra Island had been the creation of a volcano that had barely stopped erupting before Cobra Commander had bribed his way into getting accepted as a nation.
"The Slave trade mostly. Xamot and Tomax are heavy hitters in the Drug, Weapons, and Mercenary rackets, given they can't do much legitimate business anymore. Still in order to grow the heroine and cocaine they need farmers so whether kidnapped from their homes or lured here on false promises before having a gun pointed at their heads, they all ended up here more or less unwillingly. As you can imagine it did not endear them to the organization as a whole." Abraham then handed Flint a cigarette before Jaye refused, it was a disgusting filthy habit. Flint put away his as well and Lady Jaye was grateful, she had spent years beating it out of him and he wasn't going to start again.
"Well, we're part of a joint effort to take Serpentor out with a few of our allies, but it's proving a little harder than we originally thought." Flint shrugged his shoulders as he looked at the wound on his arm.
"Well, it's about to get a whole lot harder." Abe smiled as he reloaded his pistol.
"How's that?" Lady Jaye asked.
"Well, Miss Jaye…forgive me, it's the javelins." Abraham said, pointing at what was a rather large signal to her identity on her back.
"Mrs. Jaye, now." Flint corrected.
"Not for long if you keep throwing grenades at your feet." LJ said, looking very cross at her husband.
"Mrs. Jaye, well we've got a little radar commandeered from the recently departed in the bunkers and well a group of those new Cobras with the shiny toys are about to march into this here village. It ain't going to be pretty." Abraham smiled.
"So let me get this straight…" Flint pointed a gloved finger at Thomas then began counting the number of armed people who looked like they could remotely fight and that wasn't many. "You want us to…"
Lady Jaye cut in, "Work some Joe magic."
"On these here folks and more or less hold an entire invading force at bay until they give up and leave your village here alone?" Flint said blinking and biting down hard.
Abraham shrugged his shoulders then gave a thoroughly evil smile "Absolutely. Do you think that's going to be a problem for the mighty G.I. Joe organization's best soldiers?" The man then began wrapping a package of grenades around a bullet proof vest while the rest of the soldiers put on bandoliers and other suits that made them heavily armed(,) but still undernourished and ill-trained it seemed.
Flint gave a half smile and Lady Jaye a full one before she patted her husband on the back. "It shouldn't be a problem at all." Flint said as he took a new power pack for his rifle.
***
Snake Eyes moved silently through the Cobra forces with exceptional stealth, speed, and dexterity for the operation he only had a scant amount of time to perform. Cart wheeling and jumping from tank to jeep, Snake Eyes set the charges as the seconds he had left whittled slowly down to zero and he leapt on top of the largest most visible point in the area. The Cobras were still preparing for their attack on Serpentor's armory and the leader of the group had turned it into an impromptu interrogation session, heavy on the slapping and pointed guns, but no torture. If Snake Eyes had said it once he'd say it again, the Cobras were never heavy on the Geneva Convention.
"What is the size of your force, Colonel? What are your objectives?" the woman slapped the British commander repeatedly before he, rather nobly, but stupidly, spit in her face.
Snake Eyes was shocked that he didn't have to wait very long for the Cobra forces to notice him, as the woman immediately fired her pistol, which was followed by the tell tale blue laser lights of her troops. The bolts were uncomfortably close and with his pistols drawn and arms crossed he found they didn't manage to penetrate Cobra body armor either.
'Oh well if good old fashioned Kreagan-seven energy bolts won't get a Cobra…' Snake eyes ducked into a roll as the time bombs detonated behind him and sent the snakes spiraling into the ground with their hands over their heads.
"YO JOE!" the battle-cry was sounded by Falcon, as the air above Snake Eyes filled with red laser blasts. Unfortunately, some nearly took his head off and Snake Eyes was reminded that Colonel Falcon wasn't the most sensible Joe to begin with and a decade out of combat or so probably hadn't helped his shooting in real time. The new rawhides weren't exactly the best the Joes had to offer either, one was actually shooting something that looked like fire-extinguisher fluid but froze better than liquid nitrogen.
'Not so fast.' Snake Eyes thought, kicking a Cobra trooper, who had been playing dead, in the face and knocking the gun from the viper's hands. The ninja then punched the man out cold onto the ground. Snake Eyes wished he could scream at the top of his lungs that they had to get the prisoners and get the hell out of there before they were cut to ribbons by Cobra reinforcements, but he had long since learned to stop trying. Snake Eyes would never be a leader of men, so he just tried to be the nastiest, most cunning fighter that had ever been born or trained. Throwing a pair of sais from his knee wraps, they landed into the side of Cobra laser rifles which exploded in the troop's hands. To their credit, the prisoners grabbed what Cobra weapons they could from the fallen and tried to aid in their own rescue, but in the crossfire three were already dead.
"JOES RETREAT! WE'VE GOT WHAT WE CAME FOR!" Falcon said, pointing a pistol at the eyepiece of one of the armored Cobra Commandoes and actually hitting it point blank. The Green Beret was better than it seemed when it came to fighting and Snake Eyes gave him credit where credit was due.
'Finally! Took you long enough, Falcon. A surprise attack only is a surprise for the first second that someone's shooting at you.' Snake Eyes thought, throwing a grenade toward the oncoming troops as he was shot through the shoulder and screamed silently.
"Let's get out of here!" Punch Card yelled, echoing the obvious sentiment as he gave covering fire with his assault rifle.
Snake Eyes stumbled then to the forest as he fired still with his good arm.
***
Anya Dilsynian fell to the ground in a roll as the G.I. Joe forces emerged from their attacking point and proceeded to fight with her stunned troops. Anya had never fought with Cobra during the time they were mortal foes with the American fighting force, but in her six years with Cobra, she had fought in enough private battles and personal campaigns that she could recognize skill where she saw it. It annoyed her that they weren't having better reaction time, but she accepted the responsibility herself, she should have made sure the area was more secure than she had assumed before interrogating the commander of the invading army they had captured.
"DON'T JUST STAND THERE! KILL THEM!" Anya said, tumbling into a battle formation and landing a laser bolt shot into the shoulder of the soldier, Snake Eyes, whom she recognized from data docs. It was a great pity because she had been aiming for his head with that particular shot, but she had the unfortunate problem of having to make an effort to move out of the way of the G.I. Joe energy bolts. She had little difficulty doing so, she was Cobra's Fallen Angel, which was a title that meant to her deception, skill, beauty, and great power.
'You.' Fallen Angel thought, catching the eyes of one of the new G.I. Joes, whom she recognized from the training regiment of the Death-Vipers. The agent had shown spectacular skill and she had recommended the agent for counter-intelligence and espionage duties among the reformed military force. It was almost enough to conduce her to laughter that the very person she had trained would be involved in her first mission against her. Breaking eye contact, the Crimson Guards woman knew the agent would deliberately miss all shots against living Cobra and with a smile watched the traitor move away to give her true commander a perfect shot at one of the G.I. Joes, which Anya took with relish.
***
Thomas Seraphim clutched his chest as the laser bolt penetrated the armor he was wearing and struck him in his stomach. The thirty three year old former preacher was only glad that he had taken it pushing away that annoying punk, Playboy.
"CREED!" Playboy shouted, grabbing the man as he fired with his other arm into the Cobras coming forward. They'd recovered eleven of the POW's the Cobras had captured and he didn't want to lose anyone else.
"Oh, just leave me here, you stupid young pup! This is war and I'm not going to waste my life just so you can blow yours." Creed shouted through the immense pain that was wracking his body.
"Oh be quiet, old man. I never was one for taking orders." Playboy said, dragging the man back into the woods as he wondered whether or not they could stop the blood flow from the wound soon enough to make it worth it. "Nobody has ever given me anything before, Creed, that I didn't deserve and nobody is going to start now." Kyle shouted as a laser bolt slammed into the tree just beside him while cover fire from Falcon allowed him to move into the forest again with a few smoke grenades from Snake Eyes covering their way.
'So help me God, if we end up getting caught by Cobra because that stupid silent ninja can't think of an escape plan in a pinch I'm going to make sure I'm the one who kills him.' Playboy murmured as the dark foliage of Cobra Island filled with more smoke and laser blasts over his head and beside his feet.
***
"Can you not feel the power of my will overwhelming you, foul dog?" Serpentor screamed, slamming himself upward as he brought the serpent staff on the ground of the Terror Palace's floor, which cracked like stone glass before the Cobra Emperor's strength. The battle between the Reborn Cobra and the Cobra mercenaries was dying down as the G.I. Joe tanks began to roll through the brush and pounded the palace with explosives. The Reborn Cobra troops had managed to eliminate enough of the defenses and murder many of the troops inside that the American fighting force had free reign to reduce it rubble.
"All I feel is the imminent taste of victory, Serpentor." The new Commander smiled as he brought his staff toward the Emperors skull only to find himself locked in another test of strength. It did not matter if the Terror Palace was brought down around either warrior's ears in his mind, he would gladly go to perdition with Serpentor's throat in his hands but he intended to win this battle cleanly without cowardly leaving the clone to his death.
"It is a pity I never knew you, young warrior, in my rule over Cobra. Despite your shameful stealing of my moniker, you fight well and would have made an excellent general in my war to bring order to the galaxy." Serpentor laughed and kneed the son of the original Commander in the gut before tossing him in a roll against the wall behind him.
"STEALING? The ultimate bandit dares speak of theft before the rightful heir to the kingdom he stole? Look upon me and know that I am the Hamlet to your Claudius. The princes in the tower to your Richard. The…" Serpentor took advantage of his opponent's sputtering to slam his snake-staff into the man's chest before ramming onto the back of his neck and throwing it in a strangle hold as the Cobra bit down.
"You talk much and did little. That is your epitaph." Serepentor smiled, slamming his foot on the man's chest.
***
The village of El Ray was now so sufficiently rigged that Flint was absolutely sure if Cobra attacked they'd at least be able to put up a fairly good fight before they went down. That is, of course, unless the forces of Cobra were packing enough firepower that the small defenses they had would be completely overwhelmed and they'd be crushed in a few seconds.
"I really hate situations like this." Flint said frowning. He had never had a problem, personally, with firepower but always had preferred to take on superior stuff with his own hands. It had probably been the reason he had been passed over for a Generalship. The command didn't like the idea of a solution that depended on one man's expertise on the field as opposed to dozens.
"Oh, be quiet, Flint. We've been in far worse than this." Lady Jaye said honestly, preparing her javelin as they heard the sounds of moving vehicles, which signaled the dawning arrival of Cobra.
"Yeah but I wasn't exactly too keen on those other times, either." Flint murmured as the BATS Mark 5 emerged with their lasers moving at assault weapon's rates and tearing through everything in their path.
"FLINT, PUNCH IT!" Jaye shouted as Flint jumped back with a ripcord in hands, triggering the first of the traps they'd set up.
The Bats Mark V took aim and ticked off their names as a net of wire-mesh wrapped them up with mines tied to them and the machines exploded in a deafening blast. The air then filled with more laser bolts as the Cobra troops proper and a tank started rolling into the village.
"Okay part one worked out fairly well." Lady Jaye said, throwing her net javelin on a group of Cobra soldiers even as the resistance covered her.
"It's not the first part that I'm worried about. It's getting to part two!" Flint said falling back as the laser fire grew more intense. The Cobra force sent to crush this village's garrison was small but it was intense and well trained.
***
"Do you have any idea of what's exactly going on, Bob?" Cobra Coil guardsman Samuel Prescott said. The man didn't do much in the way of fighting and truth be told couldn't hit the broadside of a barn, but if you were willing to accept a paycheck from Xamot and Tomax and wear a uniform in front of Serpentor with a gun, you could go far in the organization.
"No idea in hell. As near as I can tell, the governments cracking down on us and we're all about to die." Robert Samson sighed. He was, unlike Samuel, a cold-blooded killer and was still wanted in the United States and Europe for five shooting deaths and a series of bank robberies. Absolutely nothing phased the man.
"Uh huh. Shouldn't we be getting out of the Terror Palace then?" Samuel suggested, moving his shoulders uneasily as they guarded the inner corridor and the sounds outside took on a whole entirely different and dark meaning to the man's inexperienced ears.
"Nah. It'd take a nuke to pry us out of this place and you know the drill. They surround us…call for our surrender. U.N. types debate endlessly and, unless a bunch of Jedi get sent, nothing gets done. We're in the safest place in the Terror-Palace, don't worry." Bob sighed, twirling his rifle.
"Yeah I guess your right. I'd personally rather be here than take my chances outside after all." Samuel smirked before he found a rope wrapping around his neck and Bob's. A second later they're heads were bashed together and both fell onto the ground, out cold.
"A wise ninja master once said to me that the man who is weakest is the man who is safest." Scarlet smirked, stepping over the two fallen Cobras as she went through the ventilation shaft and watched Tunnel Rat, Demolition Derby, and the rest of her picked team come down.
"Man, I thought it was only in movies you could go through those things without someone hearing and shooting you." Demolition Derby blinked banging on it a bit before Scarlet smacked him in the back of the head.
"They will come and shoot you if they hear us. Now let's get a move on." Scarlet ordered, lifting up her crossbow and beginning a run.
"It's all about air conditioning. The Cobras like central air so they have the entire place lined with ventilation shafts that go right to the generators for this place." Tunnel Rat got an evil look on his face and he checked his watch as he ran "Twenty minutes. My boys have already got the charges planted to make sure your little tank division is the most completely useless assault force on the planet."
Scarlet sighed. "If you're not busy enough bragging about what sorts of troops you've been producing, Major, I'd like you to go that way." She pointed down the left side of a three way hall as the air filled with Cobra blasts and she ducked into a roll while Demolition Derby and Tunnel Rat returned fire at the Cobra mercs. Scarlet herself followed the directions of the controller they'd taken out and headed right.
"Where are you going?" Demolition Derby shouted, firing repeatedly at the Cobras, who broke into a full retreat as alarms started blaring throughout the Terror Palace of Serpentor.
"Where else? Where a woman's touch is needed! You just make sure your able to cover me!" Scarlet cried back as she picked up her crossbow and shot smoke arrows down at oncoming troops that immediately had them gagging and clutching their eyes. The paralyzing gas dissipated a second later and she broke not a single step running over them toward the rooftop of the Terror Palace where the Emperor of Cobra was waiting for her.
"Oh great." Scarlet saw two silver armored Cobra troopers standing over about eight dead Coil mercenaries.
"A G.I. Joe!" one shouted, lifting a X-25B repeating laser rifle.
"She's come for the Commander!" the other said lifting his own.
Then they spoke in unison, "KILL HER!"
"Oh geez." Scarlet jumped up and grabbed the lighting system as the energy blasts sailed under her and she breathed heavily.
'What can get worse?' Scarlet thought to herself as she swung into them feet first before grabbing one's dropped rifle and dispatching both.
'I guess I'll find out.' Scarlet mused as she opened the door to the roof Serpentor was awaiting her on. The sounds of her cover fire were not far behind but she defiantly needed to make sure Serpentor was taken down or at least get a good look at what sort of opposition was guarding him.
***
Serpentor's laughter echoed through the Terror Palace as the rain forest and swamp land that covered his island burned in gigantic fires that were sweeping most of the island. Every last plane at his airport bases had been destroyed and all four of Serpentor's ports were captured. His defeat was absolutely certain and Serpentor had no desire but to die fighting this day but he would go to meet the great lord of evil with a smile knowing that the impudent dolt that had tried to replace him as Lord of Cobra was dead at his hands.
"The poison you feel right now should be entering your heart and unlike normal Cobra venom will cause it to explode quite painfully I can assure." Serpentor said down to the man whose chest breathed slower under his boot. Cobra Commander then grabbed Serpentor by the leg and slammed him against the wall of the Terror Palace's roof entrance with such force that several teeth were knocked from the dictator's mouth.
"My father's race evolved from cold blooded reptilian beings and while coincidence or divine plan…" The Cobra Commander did not stop beating Serpentor's face in with inhuman blows as he carried on, "they evolved along a similar enough path that they're race could interbreed with their cousins the humans, you should have known a child of Cobra -la would not die with the bite of a serpent."
Weakened, scarred, beaten and bloody the man called Jonathan Sharp put Serpentor's throat in a vice like grip as he forced the Cobra Emperor's left arm behind him with force enough to break it. "ARRGHHHHHHH!" Serpentor screeched as he suffered pain for the first time in many years and found it good.
"I misjudged your cowardice, Serpentor, and your fighting spirit. While I will never forgive you for what you did to my father…the true Cobra Commander….I will send you to whatever gods you worship with the only gift I can. I give you a warrior's death." The Commander cried then snapped the neck of Serpentor before dropping his dead body onto the ground with a thud.
"Johnathan!" A voice said behind him, like a ghost from the past, immediately cut off the triumphant Commander's ability to breath.
"Shana." Sharp said, turning his gaze toward her.
Her look of horror and shock was enough that Sharp was able to take his eyes off from her. She was looking at his uniform and she looked at the eyes which were not human, but had been grown in Doctor Mindbender's laboratory. Shana O'Hara was still wearing the uniform of a G.I. Joe and though it had been decades she still enchanted with the elegant poise of a killer, as she was lifting up her crossbow to no doubt order his surrender. Johnathan Sharp could not judge her reaction; horror, fear, betrayal, shock, affection for an old lover or some strange mixture of all of them at once?
"SURRENDER NOW YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Scarlet shouted then lifted up her crossbow as her eyes flashed and her finger began to squeeze harder around the trigger for emphasis and sheer lack of control.
"I think not." Jonathan leapt down even as the arrow came sailing at him with a sharp movement.
"COBRA! WE HAVE WHAT WE CAME FOR! RETREAT!" Jonathan cried into his personal com as his jetpack shot him into the air away from the Terror Palace. It was true that Serpentor had been slain and from the looks of things his troops had proven more than a match for G.I. Joe and her allies let alone the pathetic defenses Serpentor had erected.
'Yet on some level I am certain I have lost something very precious.'
***
Abraham Rook, codenamed: Infiltrator, watched men he'd known for more than a decade, gunned down by the Cobra forces once they breached the traps Lady Jaye and Flint had made for his little party. It was kind of funny in a way, that the most elite terrorist organization in the world would have quite of a few of their number tossed a dozen yards into some big oak by the old snare trick but there it was.
"Well, I'm all out of ideas, how about you?" Lady Jaye said as the last of the defense ditches erected around the village of El Ray were crossed and it was now forty seven or so Cobras versus two G.I. Joe and a man who definitely should have been in Black Ops as opposed to this hellhole. Lady Jaye briefly thought about her daughters and looked at Flint who had the same look in his eye, they'd come a long way to die at Cobra's hands and leaving them would be their biggest regret.
"Well, we could all sing." Abraham offered as he thought about "Swing Low sweet Chariot" as he pulled the pin of a grenade and saw the absolute weirdest thing.
"What the…." Flint watched in shock from behind a water barrel, pistol in hand.
The Cobras were retreating en masse, in an orderly fashion with a bunch of cover shots being fired behind them, but no real attempt to hit anybody. While Abraham was the first to admit that the Joes were very talented, he was rather reluctant to believe they were shaking in terror at the realization they were facing Lady Jaye and Flint.
"Their Commander must have ordered a retreat." Jaye explained. "I've seen it happen quite a lot before…though usually it involves a lot less property damage and a lot more screaming like children by them." Lady Jaye couldn't stop from bursting out laughing in relief.
"Whatever it is I'm going to get a hold of Duke and make sure it's going to keep happening. You go tell the villagers in the back, Abraham, to keep tight. Just because they're leaving now doesn't mean they won't return in a few minutes or come back around the other way." Flint gestured as he went to the radio in the village.
"You got it and by the way. Since my current job is pretty much over. You think I could put you two down for some kind of reference?" Abe smiled at Lady Jaye who frowned with her arms crossed back at him.
***
Shana O'Hara barely managed to make it out of the Terror Palace before it's generators exploded and it had collapsed on itself. The destruction of the fortress signaled the end of Cobra's reign over the island and from the reports she could barely hear over the shouts and cheering, the rest of Serpentor's army was surrendering as the other Cobra force was retreating in full force.
'Jonathan Sharp.' Shana blinked and found herself needing to sit down even as the victory felt like a distant reality, like something on television. Jonathan had been there before her and while it had been…she couldn't even count the years…she recognized the man's face and bearing anywhere. His voice was burned into her memory but instead of poetry and loyalty, words like Cobra Commander's son and a warrior's death before the crack of Serpentor's neck were in her head.
'I've known traitors before. I shouldn't take it hard.' Scarlet shrugged her shoulders as she tried to shake away the thoughts that included, to her surprise, relief that he hadn't died all those years ago. She also knew he was the leader of the new Cobras and that was shocking enough to snap her back into reality.
"Scarlet. You've got a call on the radio from General Duke." One of her privates said and she managed to get the call despite her confusion.
"Scarlet. The Cobras are gone and we're finishing our sweep of the area. I'm just doing a check to see what the state of everyone's forces is." Conrad Hauser's words were reassuring as Scarlet did a brief once over her forces.
"We're mostly intact though from looks of things we've lost about five armor and about twenty in men. Listen, Duke, I've got something I'm going to need to talk to you about…"
Scarlet had dealt with a lot of emotional angst in her life from having a person she deeply admired permanently destroy his voice box and face to save her, to losing friends and loved one's in war, to the betrayal of her husband whom she personally hoped was rotting somewhere in a ditch currently. However, Sharp was an old wound that felt like it had been ripped open with gigantic fists and it left her shaking. Had he spent the past twenty years in the service of Cobra? If so, why? Was he really the son of that madman? She had then been a good judge of character and remembered him as a man of strong moral convictions and a very anachronistic sense of propriety and duty. It had been that very passion she had considered leaving the service to marry him years before she actually would for a man who hadn't been worth it. It wasn't right or fair that someone she had been that close to and whom had shared in her most intimate secrets would fighting for the enemy!
'I've missed something here. I have to have.' Scarlet thought. Going over the battle from the attack on the guards to those last seconds before Sharp took off in her head over and over again. It took her a second to come back to reality to realize Duke had been silent for some time. "Duke?"
"I'm sorry, Scarlet, but I was occupied. We're getting the casualty estimates now from Falcon for the U.N. troops and they're enormous. Cobra really did a number on them. Listen I don't want to talk about this here on a public line. If you have anything to say you should probably tell it to me personally. The Patriot should be docked with the island in an hour, meet me there." Duke said over the Comm. System and she smiled.
"You got it. Your not going to believe it anyway." Scarlet said before handing it back to her communications officer. She didn't honestly believe it all herself, truth be told. The memories she had were very precious to her and they were now stinging against her soul rather than giving her comfort, that was an attack she had never wanted to experience again.
'I'm going to find you Jonathan and I'm going to find out what exactly your doing and then I'm….' she didn't know what she was going to do and merely got up from the radio and went back to commanding the attack group, she couldn't think about it now or she'd go mad she was certain.