Part 2:
"Prelude And Deception"
The mission entitled Snake Eyes to infiltrate Extensive Enterprises and to locate and rescue the missing CIA operative with a partner in secret. Scarlet was a back-up in case something went wrong, a precaution. And the news of her capture angered him. He pulled at his chains.
His cool demeanour immediately ruptured with a fury he could not keep leashed. And he pulled hard, and with the strength of ten men, he ripped one of the chains loose from the wall bracket, then the other one, and lunged at the Crimson Twins.
The accompanying red uniformed Crimson Guard immediately jumped into action and fired a shot at Snake Eyes feet. This halted Snake Eyes for the moment.
"How the hell did he do that?" Tomax said shocked, staggering back a few feet.
"Those chains are supposed to be unbreakable!" Xamot did the same, finishing with a gasp.
Snake Eyes let his anger swell, and he be damned his own safety, and swung one of the chains around in the air, wrapping it around the Crimson Guard's throat. The result was less than pleasant, even gruesome. The guard's head came off his shoulders with a pop like a champagne cork. The guard's body dropped like a stone. Using it as a soccer ball, Snake Eyes then kicked the head at the twins—who ducked in utter shock and disgust.
Both twins pulled out their laser pistols. This made Snake Eyes stop his attack, but only for a moment. He quickly analyzed the situation and found a tactical error in the twins position. He knew he was faster with the chains than the twins were with their lasers. So he swung both at the same time and disarmed the men. Their lasers landed on either side of the room.
One landed next to the CIA agent, who tried to reach it with his feet, but it was just out of range, he himself chained to the wall. The twins held their hands, feeling the same pain.
"You'll pay…"
"For that!"
The twins threatened.
But Snake Eyes didn't wait. He ran at them and closed-lined them both. They landed with a hard thud to the ground, out cold. Snake Eyes dusted off his hands like he had just taken out the trash. In fact, he smiled. He had had wanted to do that to the twins for years, after all the trouble that had caused he and his GIJOE comrades. But his next thought was for Scarlet.
"Nice work," the CIA agent said. "But now what?"
But the danger wasn't over yet.
Another guard heard the commotion and barged in, rifle in hand. He gasped after seeing the carnage in the room and the disembodied head of his brethren.
Snake Eyes was ready for him, and used the chains again, gutting the guard in the stomach. The chain ripped through fabric, skin, and intestine, like a hot knife through butter. The guard was dead before he hit the floor, blood began to flow like a river from his still warm corpse.
"You're a handy guy to have around," the CIA agent said to Snake Eyes. He freed the CIA agent. "Let's get moving before more of these creeps in red uniforms come." They ran out of the jail cell, down the corridor. "I learned of Extensive Enterprise's connection with Cobra while I was searching through some computer files one late night, and that's when they grabbed me, no doubt detecting by unauthorized access; they brought me down here." They ran to an elevator and Snake Eyes pressed the button. "What's your story? You don't say much."
When the elevator reached their level Snake Eyes heard a rustling of voices on the other side.
He quickly grabbed the CIA agent and ran back down the corridor.
"Hey! What's going on?" The reason soon become apparent when they were fired upon at by more creeps in red uniforms.
Snake Eyes dragged the CIA agent back into the cell and then returned fire with one of the dead CG rifles. This held the Crimson Guard troops at bay, but it would be only a temporary measure.
He backed into the room all the way and barricaded the door.
With a quick glance around he found an air shaft, big enough for an average person. He pointed. "You want me to go in there? Are you nuts? I won't be able to fit in there." Snake Eyes was insistent. "All right, all right! I suppose you want me to climb through the vent for a way out and then bring back help?" Snake Eyes nodded. "Gimme a boost!" The agent climbed up on Snake Eyes shoulders and removed the vent cover, then climbed inside.
The Crimson Guards soon broke through, but all they found was Snake Eyes.
"Freeze!" the front Crimson Guard said.
Snake Eyes attacked. He gave the CG a roundhouse kick. He then gave another a punch to the face. And barrelled through the last two in the corridor. All but one of the them were rendered unconscious. Snake Eyes fled, as this one fired off a blast, hitting him in the right shoulder blade. He cringed, but kept running.
He reached the elevator. He entered and pressed the button going up in Extensive Enterprises Tower 1. His shoulder ached, burned from the laser blast, but he chose to ignore it. He had had a lot worse. Right now, he had to get to Scarlet.
Knowing the twins, she was being kept in the top offices. It would make sense, considering she was a very valuable prisoner.
Meanwhile, Tomax and Xamot were helped back to an awakened state by a Crimson Guard with smelling sauce and told what had happened.
"Sirs," the CG addressed both of them, voice reverberating behind his mask. "Are you all right?"
Tomax felt his head. Snake Eyes had closed-lined them. "Of course we're not all right," he said, clenching an angry fist, then pushed the guard away.
Xamot instinctively felt the same.
Both got to their feet embarrassed but ready for action.
"Implement security procedures," Xamot ordered.
"Make sure nothing gets out!" Tomax finished the order.
"Right away, sir," the Crimson Guard obeyed, and then ran out of the room to see to the order.
The twins looked around the cell. Two dead guards and three others were unconscious, all from one man, and this infuriated them to the point that both slammed a fist against the wall.
"He won't get away…"
"From us!"
They both smiled sinister-like, knowing this was just a prelude to come. And bolted out of the room.
Snake Eyes rode the elevator to the top levels of Extensive Enterprises Tower 1 when it abruptly stopped. He looked at the control panel and noticed that the illumination behind the buttons was dark, so he knew the power had been shut off. The lights were still on, so only the power to the lift mechanism was cut. They were trying to trap him between floors.
He looked up and saw the emergency hatch in the roof. He wasn't tall enough to directly lift it open so he crouched down and then jumped up, punching the hatch open. He dropped down and felt his shoulder and felt blood oozing from the wound. It was the kind of pain that would stop any ordinary man, but it was nothing to a man with his discipline.
He leaped and grabbed onto the edges of the open hatch and lifted himself through the opening and onto the top of the elevator car. He looked up and saw the cable leading all the way to the top. Suddenly the car started to move back down in an attempt to apprehend him, believing he was trapped in the elevator. He grabbed onto the cable and allowed it to haul himself to where he wanted to go, to the top floor of the building.
He pried the metal elevator doors open with his hands and planted his feet on solid ground.
Once here, he quickly recalled the blueprints to the building and took a right down the next corridor, because that was where Tomax and Xamot's main office lay. As it was late in the evening, the secretary and any other workers had gone home. He passed a large empty reception area on his way to two heavy set wooden doors that lead to the Crimson Twins private inner sanctum, a.k.a. their office. This wasn't their only office, they had one in each tower.
He took hold of the handles and pulled back, breaking their hinges. The doors fell to either side within the outer reception area.
And there sitting in the middle of the room was Scarlet in a dark blue dress tied to a chair and gagged, not her usual uniform because she was undercover. But he stopped before he went any further. His instincts told him to be cautious.
Scarlet shook her head and Snake Eyes knew something was wrong. He knew a trap when he saw one. He looked at his feet and thought he saw a red flash of light illuminated in the dust just mere inches from the doors. He then looked around and saw tiny holes on either side of the walls to his left and right. It was a sensor net. Any other person wouldn't have noticed them, but with his keen senses, he saw the trap. But what did it trigger? Or perhaps it was merely an alarm? So, if he triggered it, Tomax and Xamot would immediately know his location.
He collected dust particles from the broken doors, then blew them into the beam to see how many there were and discovered the office was littered with them, half a meter apart, and crisscrossing the office. He easily stepped through them and made his way to Scarlet. He released her, cutting her binds with a letter opener found on one of the two desks in the office.
"Snake Eyes," she said, hugging him, and they embraced in a kiss. They broke away. "I was captured before I could tell you, the CIA agent is a double agent."
Snake Eyes winked. He knew it on instinct. There was just something about this mission that rubbed him the wrong way from the very start. The Crimson Twins were too well prepared. But now with his escape they were in crises mode. He had embarrassed them and they would be out for blood.
"Now why did you have to go and spoil the surprise?" the CIA agent said. He stood at the threshold of the office, beyond the sensor net with a laser pistol in his hand. "Just like a woman, you can never keep a secret." He used a control box to deactivate the net. "It was a clever deception, but nothing lasts forever. You 'ninjas' can't be tricked for long."
Putting a hand to his face, the fake CIA agent pulled off his disguise and revealed he also had a disfigurement like Snake Eyes, a V-shaped scar across his face.
Snake Eyes looked at him with a hint of familiarity. Something about that scar had him thinking about a Cobra Officer with a similar scar on his face that had caused GIJOE a lot of trouble over the years. It also reminded him off an old 1930s gangster: "Scarface", he thought.
"You over there, and you over there," Scarface demanded. "I want you separated. Now!"
Snake Eyes and Scarlet moved to opposite sides of the office.
"I thought it was only a matter of time before I was discovered," Scarface said. "And no, dear Scarlet I was never a double agent. The real CIA was loyal to the last, yet killed, and I took his place. Cobra knew someone would come looking for him. And we wagered they'd send GIJOE."
"You were ready for us," Scarlet said with disdain, hands in the air.
"Indeed," Scarface said. "Pity you won't be able to tell anyone."
Snake Eyes and Scarlet gave each other a glance. Over the years, they had developed a certain sixth sense that gave the other an insight into what the other was thinking, very much like the Crimson Twins and their psychic connection. Instantly, Scarlet ducked behind one of the desks, as Snake Eyes jumped over the other, grabbed the chair, and tossed it at Scarface.
Scarface blasted it, destroying the chair in mid-air, scattering debris everywhere.
Snake Eyes ran around the desk and bolted towards Scarface using the detraction.
Scarface pointed the laser at him, but it failed to fire. And Snake Eyes clobbered Scarface in the face with a right hook. Scarface recoiled and landed hard to the floor. He didn't get up.
"They set a trap for you," Scarlet said. "And if you had triggered those beams, both of us would be swiss cheese. There are gun turrets in the walls."
Snake Eyes nodded.
"I get it, use it to our advantage," she said, unfazed by the appearance of his scarred face. She was used to it, and she didn't care. She was in love with him.
Snake Eyes looked at her. Scarlet approached him and gently touched his face with a hand. "You know, despite the business we're in, you are the sweetest and gentlest man I know."
He smiled, and then mouthed, "I love you."
She gave him a passionate kiss on the lips.
When they broke, Snake Eyes licked his lips, and smiled again.
"We'll finish this later when we have more time to ourselves," Scarlet said. He agreed.
And then they prepared for eventual company.
To be continued...