Part 3:
"The Influence Of Insanity"
Inside the Crimson Twins's office, Snake Eyes and Scarlet prepared for a reception.
Snake Eyes knew if Scarface had found them this quickly then the others weren't far behind. No doubt, he thought, Tomax and Xomat would know where he would go, since Scarlet was not only his partner on this mission but also in life. Love was a very powerful incentive.
Scarlet picked up the control box that controlled he sensor net and examined it.
Snake Eyes picked up Scarface's laser. The power cell wasn't empty, it had just been overheated when Scarface tried to use it against Snake Eyes too many times.
"You're injured," Scarlet said, finally noticing Snake Eyes shoulder. Blood oozed through his white shirt. Snake Eyes waved her off, but Scarlet wouldn't have it. "Take it off, let me see."
Snake Eyes cocked a blonde eyebrow and Scarlet smirked. "None of those thoughts here," she said playfully. "If it were any other time…" She winked. Snake Eyes removed his shirt and she examined the bullet wound. "Through and through, the bullet made a clean exit."
Snake Eyes gave her a smile.
He then turned his attention towards the door, his acute senses taking over. He pointed.
"What is it, are they coming?" Scarlet asked. Snake Eyes nodded. "Behind the desks, hurry!"
Scarlet threw him the control box for the sensor net and he activated it once they were hidden.
It didn't take long for the twins and their troops to find them. A contingent of six red Crimson Guards came storming into the office, ignore the sensor net.
"Wait!" Tomax shouted, stopping short of entering.
"The net—" Xomat began, pushed down by Tomax, out of the line of fire.
The death cries were deafening as the gun turrets in the walls quickly ejected and open-fired on the unsuspecting guardsmen, ripping their bodies into a bloody mess. The men dropped to the floor in heap of smouldering burnt flesh. The smell was sickening. The turrets returned back into the wall when all movement ceased within the office.
Scarlet and Snake Eyes looked up from behind the desks, saw the twins on the ground in the outer reception area, shocked, by the awesome power their security system had just employed.
"Nice defence system you have," Scarlet said. "It did our work for us."
Tomax and Xamot unholstered their pistols and began to fire into the office after they stood.
"The sensor net may be up…" Tomax began.
"But we can still kill you from out here," Xamot concluded.
As the laser bolts shot through the sensor net, the gun torrents ejected out from the wall and started targeting them, detecting each heat source, and eliminating the threat. Then, suddenly they located another heat source and started to fire on Snake Eyes and Scarlet. The duo ducked behind the desks as the laser blasts bounced off the tops.
The Crimson Twins laughed.
"Who's in trouble now?" Tomax said.
"Now we have the last laugh," Xamot said.
A laser blast came within an inch from Snake Eyes ear, but he didn't jerk away. He wasn't afraid of them, but Scarlet was concerned. "We've got to do something about those lasers," she said. "They've homed in on us and they won't stop until they kill us!"
Another blast ricocheted off the top of the desk Snake Eyes was hiding behind. Scarlet tried to deactivate the turrets by way of the control box she had, but the system seemed to be on automatic now with the detection of both further movement and a new heat source.
Snake Eyes saw Scarface was still laying on the floor, out cold. He was lucky not subjected to the lasers' barrage. He would survive unlike the guardsmen.
Then he had an idea. Snake Eyes indicated Scarface's gun in his hand.
Scarlet smiled, nodded, and knew exactly what he wanted he was thinking. Snake Eyes slid it along the floor and Scarlet picked it up and examined it.
Lasers had power cells and they could be programmed to detonate.
Once she completed her task, with a three-second delay, she threw it over the desk and Snake Eyes jumped across to her desk and smothered her with his body.
The lasers followed the movement of the weapon. The power cell erupted in a huge explosion, overloading the sensor net, and caused all the lasers to explode in a series of self-destructive blasts, causing massive damage to the walls, and to the office.
When it was over, Snake Eyes lifted his head and peaked over the desk. Scarlet also took a look. "They better have a good insurance agent," she said.
The Crimson Twins fled the immediate area before the explosion occurred and Scarface was surprisingly gone, Snake Eyes noticed. Had he suddenly awakened and scurried away like a rat avoiding the lasers? But the bodies of the six dead Crimson Guards remained, now more charred and dismantled then they were before when the lasers had done their work on them.
The Crimson Twins returned to the office, escaped to the outer reception before the devastation began, and the expressions on their faces were priceless.
"You Joe's…are so destructive!" Tomax said, sneering.
"And we just had this office refurbished," Xamot remarked, also sneering.
"Frankly, it needed a woman's touch," Scarlet said, smiling back.
More Crimson Guards arrived and they stormed the office, climbing over their fallen comrades to secure the room. They aimed their guns at the desks.
Snake Eyes and Scarlet ducked. "Any ideas how we're going to get out of this?" she asked him, and he only shrugged his shoulders. "Thought so."
The Guards surrounded and took Snake Eyes and Scarlet into custody.
Tomax and Xamot entered the office fully, stepping over debris and mangled bodies. They looked around as the guards secured Snake Eyes and Scarlet and brought them forward.
"Animals!" Tomax said, looking around the office.
"You've cost us a lot of money today," Xamot said, pointing at the pair.
"Sue us," Scarlet said with sarcasm.
"Oh, we'll do more than that, dear Scarlet," Xamot said.
"Take the blond hero to the lower labs so our associate can work on him," Tomax ordered the guards, "as originally planned."
"And impress the matter that our associate is to take every available precaution," Xamot added.
Snake Eyes took one last glance at Scarlet as he was pushed without care out of the office at gun point, accompanied by four Crimson Guards, while Scarlet was kept with the twins.
Tomax reached down and picked up off the floor next to his desk what was once a lady statue balancing two scales, known as the Scale of Justice. The gold was now charred and melted, and due to the heat of the blast, somewhat mangled.
He and his brother had gone into Corporal Law after a stint in the French Foreign Legion, a stupid and costly mistake, and this scale symbolized that balance. They both had the same scale on their respected desks, but this one seemed to have been the only one that had survived the blast. He didn't see the other one anywhere.
While he and his brother were similar in many ways, identical to most, there were some differences between them, one of which was the scar on Xamot's cheek that Xamot received in a battle that went horribly wrong in their regiment, hot shrapnel doing the damage. Due to this fact, he often felt a sense of self-consciousness from Xamot. And Tomax often had more influence over decision-making, resulting with stronger confidence.
A Crimson Guard handcuffed Scarlet to another chair brought out from a new location. Just beyond the main office was a conference room that survived the blast undamaged. It was surrounded with reinforced steel and contained anti-surveillance devices, because it was often used to communicate with their allies in Cobra when not used for normal corporate affairs.
Tomax threw away the scales, it was beyond use anyway. He shared his fury with his brother, the damage to the office was a complete write-off. Even the priceless paintings on the wall. It was good thing they were fully insured, but their historical and aesthetic value were lost forever.
"You've had your fun, dear Scarlet," Tomax said, "but we'll soon get our pound of flesh." And as he said this, other guardsmen entered the office with bodybags, picking at the bloody remains of their brethren and bagging them for whatever came next.
Tomax winched at the smell.
Xamot also winched, watching, as body parts were picked up and placed in body bags. The guards chosen for this task had strong stomachs.
Xamot looked at his brother, Tomax felt his brother's attention before he spoke. "Our associate has been waiting for Snake Eyes," he said, "and soon he'll have his prize."
"Indeed, brother," Tomax replied. "I'm sure he can 'push' things along nicely."
And they both laughed, as if it were an inside joke.
In a secret lab deep inside Extensive Enterprises Tower 1, Snake Eyes wrists and ankles were bound with clamps to the metal platform attached to a device better known as the Brain Wave Scanner. He had seen a version of it before when Cobra attempted to use it on him, but failed. It was a machine that tapped into the recesses of the human brain. Wireless neuro-devices were attached to his temples and they would be used to condition his mind to inputted stimuli.
Snake Eyes fought, but to no avail.
The guards stood in front of the device, rifles at the ready, when the man stepped through a set of double metal doors that secured the lab. His profile had him as an insane individual with a strange ability. With merely the tone of his modulated voice through his helmet, he could sooth the "savage beast" in anyone. It was almost a psychic level ability.
Snake Eyes felt nervous in his presence. He knew little about the man, only by reputation. But what he did know was frightening. The Interrogator was known as a "smooth-talker" in his circles, whereby he could 'talk' someone into doing anything just by his words.
There was a word for that in Japanese, "OSU". It meant "to push".
The Interrogator was dressed in a uniform of dark blues and greys with a black helmet displaying a blood-red faceplate. The cobra emblem on his chest clearly expressed whom he worked for. He leaned over Snake Eyes and appeared to examine him like a medical doctor.
"Greetings, ninja," the Interrogator spoke in a baritone voice, expressed through the mask. "I've been wishing to work with you for a very long time. You're a strongly willed person, therefore more than conventional methods will have to be employed to bring up under my control."
Almost immediately, Snake Eyes had to shield himself from the sound of the other's voice penetrating into his conscious thoughts, 'pushing-in' like a very fine needle. The more he talked, the more Snake Eyes had to defend his mind from being taken over.
Snake Eyes shook his head. He struggled against his binds, but to no avail.
"Struggle all you please, but those clamps are made of Beryllium Steel, and are impossible to break," the Interrogator stated.
Snake Eyes 'pushed back' against the Interrogator's influence.
Interrogator brought over a portable screen on a set of wheels and switched it on.
"First, I'll need to complete a full physical examination," Interrogator said. "You are quite an intriguing specimen. Then, a chemical composition will take place. And finally a snap-shot of your brainwave patterns will conclude my tests. This will all be part and parcel of how much of a 'push' will be needed to bring your mind to bare. Overall, it should only take an hour or two. Three, max. And unlike that buffoon Dr. Mindbender, I deliver undeniable results."
The Interrogator spoke so casually about it that it seemed just like any other day at the office.
A light suddenly flashed before Snake Eyes' eyes and he was temporarily blinded. He couldn't rub his eyes and merely blinked quickly to see again. A red beam emitted from an overhead part of the Brainwave Scanner by horizontal means, passing from head to his feet, then a set of vitals and structural content appeared on the screen. Interrogator looked at it.
"You're very fit, my friend," Interrogator said with admiration. "But the Brain Wave Scanner has nothing to do with physical prowess, it works on the mind. However, as it is said, the body is a temple to the soul. I know all about your personal habits, but don't call me a stalker. I enjoy gathering information, so I can do my job with accuracy—to interrogate my prey."
The villain laughed.
Snake Eyes eyed him, the physical scan had not hurt. But he knew the rest probably would. The 'push' on his mind was levelling out, he was keeping the Interrogator at bay. Whether the villain knew this, the Interrogator was not letting on. But it gave Snake Eyes the opportunity to work out a plan of escape. And there was always an escape to any so-called inescapable trap.
In fact, he felt the clamp around his right ankle was not as tight as the others, and he worked on loosening it further without giving Interrogator an indication of his on-goings.
"This version of the BWS," Interrogator went on, "has been personally modified by me to render a victim completely under my control—less bulky and very effective. Once specific identifiers are instituted within your cortical cortex, you will become Coba's slave." Interrogator laughed again. He looked at the four guardsmen. "Leave us," he ordered. "I wish to work on him alone!"
The guards stood reluctant, even turning and giving each other strange looks—ordered by the Crimson Twins to keep on eye on Snake Eyes. But ultimately Interrogator had the final say. Their minds weak. And Snake Eyes watched them leave.
Interrogator turned back to Snake Eyes.
Snake Eyes could almost sense the villain was smiling with sinister pleasure behind his mask. With his ability to talk gone, his other four sense became even more acute. And he could even smell an adrenaline rush emanating from the pores of the villain.
"Now, let us begin…"
Interrogator adjusted his position and looked at Snake Eyes right forearm, on it was a red tattoo, with three full lines and two broken lines of intermitted slates.
"A-ha, the infamous Arashikage Clan insignia," Interrogator said. "I saw the same on Storm Shadow and the Cobra Commander's son, respectfully, when I helped brainwash them both back into the fold. Their thoughts were easily manipulated. But your associations won't help you here. And once I convert you, I'll send you against your brethren to kill them all!"
And Interrogator laughed mechanically.
Snake Eyes grit his teeth and tightened his muscles, and worked on the loose clamp around his right ankle. He had to break free, or he knew everything he held dear would be lost!
To be continued...