Onward to Darkness
Disclaimer: Same as always.
~ ~ ~ ~
The briefing room contained everyone, the Joes not in the Infirmary, the Gamma unit, the Misfits, and the X-men. "What's the status?" Hawk asked.
"Sir, A large contingent of COBRAs and Heartless have taken over the Infirmary." Law reported.
"Rescue team assembled and ready to go." Flint said.
"Flint, don't rush into it just yet." Hawk said.
"We're ready sir." Fetterman reported.
"Stand by." Hawk replied.
Cover Girl had updated Hawk on how the COBRA/Heartless taskforce had gotten onto the base.
"I knew she was a traitor." Beach Head grumbled.
"Take that back." Bilby said coldly.
"What's the matter Bilby, afraid to face that fact that your girlfriend betrayed us all." Beach Head replied.
"Beach Head, lay off him!" Cover Girl shouted.
"If he can't accept the truth, he shouldn't be here." Beach Head said bluntly.
"I'm warning you fuck head, if you bad mouth Akima one more time I'll make you regret it." Bilby replied in a flash of barely controlled rage.
"Bilby, I'm afraid that based on Cover Girl's report it could be a possibility." Scarlet added.
"Possibility. This poor dumb bastard thinks Akima's a traitor right off the bat." Bilby replied.
"Well look at the evidence, dumb ass," Beach Head groaned, "She provided COBRA a route into the base, gave them vital information, knocked out and restrained Cover Girl...She's a traitor. T-R-A-I-T...." That was as far as Beach Head got before a left handed punch tagged him in the face. Beach Head staggered, surprised, Bilby was right handed so the punch didn't knock Beach Head off his feet. However, Bilby only tagged him with his left hand. His right immediately followed, striking Beach Head full in the mouth. A dark splotch of red appeared where Beach Head's mouth was obscured by his ski mask.
Beach Head recovered and threw Bilby to the top of a table where he started elbowing him in the midsection. Bilby used his legs like a pair of scissors and grappled Beach Head by his skull and threw him to the floor. With a running start, Bilby landed a savage kick into Beach Head's genitals at the same moment Beach Head's devastating kick struck him in the same area.
At this time, Sergeant Slaughter, Leatherneck and Wetsuit all grabbed Beach Head and Roadblock, Gung Ho, and Flint held onto Bilby. Both combatants pulled toward each other.
"He's not worth it! Turn loose soldier!" Flint said.
The authority had its effect, "Yes sir." Bilby replied.
"Throw that sonofabitch into the brig!" Beach Head snapped angrily, "Assaulting a superior officer!"
"Beach Head, shut the hell up!" Hawk said, in a rare display of anger, "Now you instigated Bilby, already in an emotional state because of this incident."
"Yes sir." Beach Head replied.
"You need to work on not being so judgmental, bigoted, and abrasive. These Gamma soldiers are our allies, not our enemies." Hawk replied.
He turned his full fury on Bilby just then, "And you, Mister, should better control your anger. Was it not you that said that hate and rage will destroy a sniper quickest on the battlefield when you trained the Misfits?"
"Yes sir." Bilby replied.
"Well you're not practicing what you preach." Hawk replied. He was about to say something more when the large monitor attached to the communications relay blinked on.
"Sir," Mainframe said, "It's Mindbender."
"Greetings GI Joe. As you have already surmised, a large contingent of COBRA and Heartless troops now own the building you know as the Infirmary. We also have a good number of your personnel as hostages. We wish to speak to Corporal Bilby."
"He's right here." Hawk replied.
"Sir? With all due respect, I'm not a negotiator, I'm a soldier." Bilby replied.
"We may just be able to stall them long enough to mount some sort of rescue operation." Hawk said off camera.
"We wish you to send Bilby alone to the Infirmary." Mindbender replied, "Failure to comply in five minutes means that you must watch Lifeline die."
Blindfolded and handcuffed in the middle of the floor was Lifeline. The camera showed a Heartless with an AK-47 aimed at the back of his head. Hawk knew he had no choice, if only to buy the rescue units that much more time.
"Bilby, you're up." Hawk said.
~ ~ ~ ~
Quite some time later, Bilby walked into the Infirmary where he was searched for weapons by the COBRA guards. He was then admitted into one of the waiting rooms near the intensive care unit. Doc, Bree, and Lifeline were all trapped in small locked rooms in the mental patient wing.
Bilby felt the blindfold being yanked away from his eyes and what he saw next cause his knees to turn to water and his blood turn to ice. "Akima?"
Akima sat in a wooden chair. Leather straps bound her wrists to the chair and electrodes were attached to her forehead and temples. Bilby turned red with fury and shouted, "Get those straps of her wrists! Get those electrodes off of her head!"
He was struck in the guts by a rifle butt and dropped to one knee, "This can't be real. This is a trick. Akima didn't betray us, you kidnapped her...."
"Maybe we did, and maybe we didn't." Mindbender said.
MajorBludd appeared just then and said, "I do seem to recall chasing you and two of your friends across the desert. You ran us quite a chase."
"What's the matter, angry it took you at least two companies worth of troops to chase us down." Bilby replied.
"I took a major cut in pay because of that whole episode." Major Bludd replied. He casually twisted Akima's earlobe. She screamed in pain as he continued, "So why shouldn't I take it out on your little girl friend?"
"You take your hands of her, or you'll wish you hadn't touched her." Bilby said, glowering.
"You're hardly in the position to make demands." Major Bludd replied.
"Wait Major." Mindbender said, "Let's give Mr. Bilby a demonstration of our good faith. You have ten minutes to determine whether this lovely girl is truly the one you love."
"Fine." Bilby replied, "But this must be under the condition that I can speak to her alone, with complete privacy. I'm not about to make her another exhibit in this human zoo you've created degenerate."
"Very well." Mindbender ordered and left the room with his minions.
As soon as he was gone, Bilby went up to Akima, "Oh my God, are you alright?"
"I think so." Akima replied.
"What do you remember?" Bilby asked.
"Only falling asleep last night and waking up here in the Infirmary under armed guard." Akima replied.
'Time for the question only we would remember.' Bilby thought.
"Do you remember our first kiss?" Bilby asked.
"The time you comforted me about the Resistance's cause." Akima smiled, weakly.
"I'm sorry about that question Akima." Bilby replied, "I only needed proof which they refused to give me."
Akima noticed how Bilby put a special accent on the fuse syllable of refused. "I realize that they do have advanced scientific power. Well I'd better make this brief before they cut us off..."
Bilby again accentuated the word power as well as the words cut off. To Akima it was obvious, Bilby had some kind of plan to come to her rescue.
The COBRA's were back again. "Well Mr. Bilby, are you satisfied?" Mindbender asked.
Bilby had been slowly inching his way to the nearby fuse box just then. He had been calculating this for a while now. Through his two way wire tap, which Dial Tone had expertly concealed, his message had gotten through and the rescue teams were in position. The Joes would storm the front entrances while the Misfits came in through the basement with half the Gamma team and the X-men came through the roof with the other Gammas. They were just waiting for those lights to go out.
He gave them another minute with his next statement, "Suppose you were in love with a queen. And the king being very angry sent you to the arena. And in this arena are two doors. Opening one would lead you to the most lovely young woman you had yet laid eyes upon. Opening the other leads to certain death at the hands of a slathering, ferocious tiger. The queen points towards a door. The question herein lies, do you trust her enough that she won't be consumed with the jealousy of seeing you in the arms of another?"
"What?" Major Bludd demanded.
"You heard me, the lady or the tiger?" Bilby asked, taking the last sideways step in which he shut the power off to every electrical system in the building.
Bilby let his eyes adjust, and grabbed a scalpel from a nearby table. With speed he rammed it into the neck of a COBRA viper as he cut Akima's bonds free and yanked her out of the nearest door and ran through the darkened hospital.
Bilby half pushed Akima into the ventilation ducts, "I'll lead them away from here, and when they've passed by, get out of the building as soon as possible."
"OK." Akima said.
Already a lot of shooting was sounding and Akima felt it wisest to stay where she was. Several pairs of boots sounded as several Heartless and COBRAs chased after Bilby. Akima waited in the vents for a long time before she heard what she wanted to hear. A single pair of boots sounding.
A single COBRA viper walked down the hallway, its eyes adjusting to the emergency lighting. As soon as it was close enough, Akima sprang on him, knocking the Viper's head against the wall. She hijacked the holstered pistol it carried. Briefly she debated shooting him, but shedding blood unnecessarily always made her a little queasy so she handcuffed him to a pipe and took off down the hallway. She had a score to settle with Dr. Mindbender, for messing with her head the way he had been doing when she had been in his captivity.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bilby cut several electrical and communications wires. This was isolating the COBRAs on various floors, and frustrating their efforts to restore power. He had killed another Heartless with the scalpel and hijacked its rifle and ammunition. Despite being armed he wanted to avoid a firefight if possible. All Gamma unit troops were trained to operate enemy weapons for just this sort of situation.
'The further I lead them from Akima, the better chance she has of surviving.' Bilby thought. He didn't care if he lived or died at this point. Saving Akima was all that mattered to him right now.
He sent a short burst of full auto fire downrange at a trio of Heartless that appeared, two fell instantly, the third dragged himself away, it's lower body shot up. Bilby caught up to it and butt stroked it in the back of the head. Quickly he searched their bodies for ammunition, turning up two more pouches of AKM-47 ammunition and a hand grenade. He grabbed the ammunition and disappeared around a corner when he heard another patrol approaching.
He pulled the pin from the grenade and put it under the body of the nearest Heartless. The patrol stopped when they saw the corpses of three of their brethren lying killed on the floor. One of the soldier Heartless turned the corpse over and got a big surprise in the form of an exploding hand grenade. Bilby fired off several bursts of gunfire into the mob of Heartless and ran pell mell down the staircase.
~ ~ ~ ~
Stoney turned a corpse over with his MP-5. "Jesus, looks like someone was retreating, shooting them with their own guns."
"Sounds like the kind of sick thing a certain Australian sniper would dream up." Cyclops said, as he checked other corpses.
There was a trail of Heartless corpses leading down the hallway, most killed with one or two shots. "Definitely Bilby's work." Link concluded.
Overhead the rest of the X-men were securing spaces in the roof. Wolverine impaled another Heartless through the chest with his claws as Jean Grey flung another one out of a window with her telekinesis. Jose Hedaya, walking the point, signaled the rest of the team to follow the trail of killed Heartless to try and find Bilby before the enemy did.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bilby stayed hidden as a patrol of COBRAs, at least twenty of them, way too many to attack with his limited ammunition, crept by. He had crept back to where he had left Akima only to find a knocked out COBRA viper handcuffed to a post.
"Damn." Bilby whispered, "That means Akima could be anywhere."
He decided to follow the tiger tail patrol method. This was a classic Gamma patrol strategy, called the tiger tail because it entailed patrolling around an area where an enemy was suspected to be until you literally bumped into him. 'Except I'm looking for a friendly in this scenario.' Bilby thought.
He peered into Doc's office and something about it looked suspicious. He decided to set up a lay up point across the hall, melding with the shadows until he could get a better look. As a sniper, this was no major difficulty. He was used to lying in wait for long periods of time. At one point he spent nearly forty-eight hours holed up in an abandoned room trying to ferret out a Heartless gunman that was wreaking havoc on the civilians in the city of Peking, China.
He saw a slim figure creeping by in the darkness. 'Akima,' his mind screamed. Bilby fought it down with every bit of learning he had as a sniper. Exposing oneself in a hurry usually meant a sniper had gotten lax and careless and that had been a fatal mistake for many a novice sniper. He stealthily crept down the hall, staying well back behind Akima and waited as she entered a room.
Akima didn't notice Bilby's silent approach, a true testament to his skill as a sniper. Indeed, she had found Dr. Mindbender and chambered the round into the pistol. "Mindbender!" she shouted.
"Ah, Akima." Mindbender said, turning around in a swiveling office chair. His calm smile had mirth but no warmth, it was the smile of a crocodile about to enjoy a meal.
'Damn Akima, don't move.' Bilby said, Akima's constant movement made it hard for him to target Mindbender and this was one shot Martin Bilby definitely did not want to screw up. He pulled the hell tab, an emergency beacon on his wire tap that was connected to every team that was assaulting the COBRA position.
"What did you do to me you bastard?!" Akima demanded, the barrel of the pistol shaking with unsteadiness.
"If you're referring to your recent acts of espionage, the dreams you've been having, waking in cold sweats, and any host of symptoms you can think of I can explain it all." Mindbender said, calmly, "And my dear, please lose the gun, I know you won't shoot me."
"But I will Mindbender." Bilby replied, "If you don't reverse whatever damage you've done."
"I'm afraid it's not that simple. 'Akima' is not who she appears to be." Mindbender said.
Akima was close to tears at that moment, "No more tricks Mindbender? What have you done to me!"
"Don't worry my dear, this is a classic reaction to my subliminal conditioning." Mindbender replied.
"What are you talking about?" Bilby demanded, weapon aimed squarely at Mindbender's brain.
"You're starting to remember now, in brief snatches. The implanted memories, the voice conditioning, the teaching of how to properly imitate this woman." Mindbender began.
"You're lying!" Akima shouted through clenched teeth, "You're lying!"
"Another classic reaction. You don't know who you truly are my dear, do you." Mindbender continued.
"You better shut up before I put a round right into your big mouth!" Bilby replied coldly.
"Don't you know." Mindbender said, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, "The woman known as Akima Kunimoto was killed on what you remember as the Titan mission."
"Do you really think that's gonna work, Mindbender, she's standing right here." Bilby replied, with a contemptuous laugh.
"Bite your tongue, Australian, for whether this woman is who you claim she is or not, is irrelevant, for if I do not reverse my procedures, she will gradually sink into an irreversible insanity followed by a catatonic and comatose state." Mindbender replied.
"You monster!" Akima demanded, "What did you do to me!"
"You see, your entire identity, your memories, everything that you know now is all an illusion. The real Akima Kunimoto was executed before the eyes of Corporal Martin Bilby in cold blood one year ago." Mindbender said, "You see my dear, we needed a way to break into the Gamma Unit and GI Joe alliance. We found a young nineteen year old university student built similarly to Akima, we surgically altered her appearance and implanted her with your memories."
Mindbender held up a CD, "On this CD are the memories of one Sally O'Connor. If I do not restore her memories into you, the circumstances I mentioned previously will occur."
Just then the X-men, Misfits, and GI Joe together with Bilby's team mates broke in. "So in conclusion, you are not Akima Kunimoto."
"Akima?" Bilby asked.
"Get away from me!" Akima shouted, leveling the weapon at Bilby.
"Do you really want to harm me?" Bilby asked.
Akima wavered as Bilby walked closer to her. Her legs felt frozen in place as she fell, sobbing into his arms. Mindbender inserted a tape into a nearby VCR, "Evidence that I am not lying."
The tape showed a young woman about to be anesthetized for surgery. The proceeding footage showed more of her conditioning right up to the point where the Gamma team rescued who they thought was Akima.
"Sally O'Connor, Aeronautical Engineering major at the University of Southern California. Nineteen years old, from a stable family home." Mindbender mocked.
"I wish I could remember." Akima said, vulnerable as anything as Mindbender was lead away.
Bilby held her, the ferocious warrior within now restrained and the gentle soul that was Martin Bilby emerged again. "We'll take care of you. We'll sort this out in the morning, but in the mean time, get some rest. You'll need it."
Akima lay in a bed in the Infirmary, once more in the hands of GI Joe. "Martin?" she asked as he walked out of the room, "Could you stay with me tonight. I can't fall asleep."
Martin smiled sadly, he knew for certain now that his beloved Akima was dead and that this woman, Sally O'Connor, deserved to return to her family and her old life. Dial Tone ran a check and confirmed that Sally had been missing for nearly three months, the last month and a half of which she spent with Bilby and his team mates. "I'll stay." Bilby said, gripping her hand, "We'll sort all of this out in the morning..."
~ ~ ~ ~
Next some deep angst, a promotion ceremony, and another prophesy.
Disclaimer: Same as always.
~ ~ ~ ~
The briefing room contained everyone, the Joes not in the Infirmary, the Gamma unit, the Misfits, and the X-men. "What's the status?" Hawk asked.
"Sir, A large contingent of COBRAs and Heartless have taken over the Infirmary." Law reported.
"Rescue team assembled and ready to go." Flint said.
"Flint, don't rush into it just yet." Hawk said.
"We're ready sir." Fetterman reported.
"Stand by." Hawk replied.
Cover Girl had updated Hawk on how the COBRA/Heartless taskforce had gotten onto the base.
"I knew she was a traitor." Beach Head grumbled.
"Take that back." Bilby said coldly.
"What's the matter Bilby, afraid to face that fact that your girlfriend betrayed us all." Beach Head replied.
"Beach Head, lay off him!" Cover Girl shouted.
"If he can't accept the truth, he shouldn't be here." Beach Head said bluntly.
"I'm warning you fuck head, if you bad mouth Akima one more time I'll make you regret it." Bilby replied in a flash of barely controlled rage.
"Bilby, I'm afraid that based on Cover Girl's report it could be a possibility." Scarlet added.
"Possibility. This poor dumb bastard thinks Akima's a traitor right off the bat." Bilby replied.
"Well look at the evidence, dumb ass," Beach Head groaned, "She provided COBRA a route into the base, gave them vital information, knocked out and restrained Cover Girl...She's a traitor. T-R-A-I-T...." That was as far as Beach Head got before a left handed punch tagged him in the face. Beach Head staggered, surprised, Bilby was right handed so the punch didn't knock Beach Head off his feet. However, Bilby only tagged him with his left hand. His right immediately followed, striking Beach Head full in the mouth. A dark splotch of red appeared where Beach Head's mouth was obscured by his ski mask.
Beach Head recovered and threw Bilby to the top of a table where he started elbowing him in the midsection. Bilby used his legs like a pair of scissors and grappled Beach Head by his skull and threw him to the floor. With a running start, Bilby landed a savage kick into Beach Head's genitals at the same moment Beach Head's devastating kick struck him in the same area.
At this time, Sergeant Slaughter, Leatherneck and Wetsuit all grabbed Beach Head and Roadblock, Gung Ho, and Flint held onto Bilby. Both combatants pulled toward each other.
"He's not worth it! Turn loose soldier!" Flint said.
The authority had its effect, "Yes sir." Bilby replied.
"Throw that sonofabitch into the brig!" Beach Head snapped angrily, "Assaulting a superior officer!"
"Beach Head, shut the hell up!" Hawk said, in a rare display of anger, "Now you instigated Bilby, already in an emotional state because of this incident."
"Yes sir." Beach Head replied.
"You need to work on not being so judgmental, bigoted, and abrasive. These Gamma soldiers are our allies, not our enemies." Hawk replied.
He turned his full fury on Bilby just then, "And you, Mister, should better control your anger. Was it not you that said that hate and rage will destroy a sniper quickest on the battlefield when you trained the Misfits?"
"Yes sir." Bilby replied.
"Well you're not practicing what you preach." Hawk replied. He was about to say something more when the large monitor attached to the communications relay blinked on.
"Sir," Mainframe said, "It's Mindbender."
"Greetings GI Joe. As you have already surmised, a large contingent of COBRA and Heartless troops now own the building you know as the Infirmary. We also have a good number of your personnel as hostages. We wish to speak to Corporal Bilby."
"He's right here." Hawk replied.
"Sir? With all due respect, I'm not a negotiator, I'm a soldier." Bilby replied.
"We may just be able to stall them long enough to mount some sort of rescue operation." Hawk said off camera.
"We wish you to send Bilby alone to the Infirmary." Mindbender replied, "Failure to comply in five minutes means that you must watch Lifeline die."
Blindfolded and handcuffed in the middle of the floor was Lifeline. The camera showed a Heartless with an AK-47 aimed at the back of his head. Hawk knew he had no choice, if only to buy the rescue units that much more time.
"Bilby, you're up." Hawk said.
~ ~ ~ ~
Quite some time later, Bilby walked into the Infirmary where he was searched for weapons by the COBRA guards. He was then admitted into one of the waiting rooms near the intensive care unit. Doc, Bree, and Lifeline were all trapped in small locked rooms in the mental patient wing.
Bilby felt the blindfold being yanked away from his eyes and what he saw next cause his knees to turn to water and his blood turn to ice. "Akima?"
Akima sat in a wooden chair. Leather straps bound her wrists to the chair and electrodes were attached to her forehead and temples. Bilby turned red with fury and shouted, "Get those straps of her wrists! Get those electrodes off of her head!"
He was struck in the guts by a rifle butt and dropped to one knee, "This can't be real. This is a trick. Akima didn't betray us, you kidnapped her...."
"Maybe we did, and maybe we didn't." Mindbender said.
MajorBludd appeared just then and said, "I do seem to recall chasing you and two of your friends across the desert. You ran us quite a chase."
"What's the matter, angry it took you at least two companies worth of troops to chase us down." Bilby replied.
"I took a major cut in pay because of that whole episode." Major Bludd replied. He casually twisted Akima's earlobe. She screamed in pain as he continued, "So why shouldn't I take it out on your little girl friend?"
"You take your hands of her, or you'll wish you hadn't touched her." Bilby said, glowering.
"You're hardly in the position to make demands." Major Bludd replied.
"Wait Major." Mindbender said, "Let's give Mr. Bilby a demonstration of our good faith. You have ten minutes to determine whether this lovely girl is truly the one you love."
"Fine." Bilby replied, "But this must be under the condition that I can speak to her alone, with complete privacy. I'm not about to make her another exhibit in this human zoo you've created degenerate."
"Very well." Mindbender ordered and left the room with his minions.
As soon as he was gone, Bilby went up to Akima, "Oh my God, are you alright?"
"I think so." Akima replied.
"What do you remember?" Bilby asked.
"Only falling asleep last night and waking up here in the Infirmary under armed guard." Akima replied.
'Time for the question only we would remember.' Bilby thought.
"Do you remember our first kiss?" Bilby asked.
"The time you comforted me about the Resistance's cause." Akima smiled, weakly.
"I'm sorry about that question Akima." Bilby replied, "I only needed proof which they refused to give me."
Akima noticed how Bilby put a special accent on the fuse syllable of refused. "I realize that they do have advanced scientific power. Well I'd better make this brief before they cut us off..."
Bilby again accentuated the word power as well as the words cut off. To Akima it was obvious, Bilby had some kind of plan to come to her rescue.
The COBRA's were back again. "Well Mr. Bilby, are you satisfied?" Mindbender asked.
Bilby had been slowly inching his way to the nearby fuse box just then. He had been calculating this for a while now. Through his two way wire tap, which Dial Tone had expertly concealed, his message had gotten through and the rescue teams were in position. The Joes would storm the front entrances while the Misfits came in through the basement with half the Gamma team and the X-men came through the roof with the other Gammas. They were just waiting for those lights to go out.
He gave them another minute with his next statement, "Suppose you were in love with a queen. And the king being very angry sent you to the arena. And in this arena are two doors. Opening one would lead you to the most lovely young woman you had yet laid eyes upon. Opening the other leads to certain death at the hands of a slathering, ferocious tiger. The queen points towards a door. The question herein lies, do you trust her enough that she won't be consumed with the jealousy of seeing you in the arms of another?"
"What?" Major Bludd demanded.
"You heard me, the lady or the tiger?" Bilby asked, taking the last sideways step in which he shut the power off to every electrical system in the building.
Bilby let his eyes adjust, and grabbed a scalpel from a nearby table. With speed he rammed it into the neck of a COBRA viper as he cut Akima's bonds free and yanked her out of the nearest door and ran through the darkened hospital.
Bilby half pushed Akima into the ventilation ducts, "I'll lead them away from here, and when they've passed by, get out of the building as soon as possible."
"OK." Akima said.
Already a lot of shooting was sounding and Akima felt it wisest to stay where she was. Several pairs of boots sounded as several Heartless and COBRAs chased after Bilby. Akima waited in the vents for a long time before she heard what she wanted to hear. A single pair of boots sounding.
A single COBRA viper walked down the hallway, its eyes adjusting to the emergency lighting. As soon as it was close enough, Akima sprang on him, knocking the Viper's head against the wall. She hijacked the holstered pistol it carried. Briefly she debated shooting him, but shedding blood unnecessarily always made her a little queasy so she handcuffed him to a pipe and took off down the hallway. She had a score to settle with Dr. Mindbender, for messing with her head the way he had been doing when she had been in his captivity.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bilby cut several electrical and communications wires. This was isolating the COBRAs on various floors, and frustrating their efforts to restore power. He had killed another Heartless with the scalpel and hijacked its rifle and ammunition. Despite being armed he wanted to avoid a firefight if possible. All Gamma unit troops were trained to operate enemy weapons for just this sort of situation.
'The further I lead them from Akima, the better chance she has of surviving.' Bilby thought. He didn't care if he lived or died at this point. Saving Akima was all that mattered to him right now.
He sent a short burst of full auto fire downrange at a trio of Heartless that appeared, two fell instantly, the third dragged himself away, it's lower body shot up. Bilby caught up to it and butt stroked it in the back of the head. Quickly he searched their bodies for ammunition, turning up two more pouches of AKM-47 ammunition and a hand grenade. He grabbed the ammunition and disappeared around a corner when he heard another patrol approaching.
He pulled the pin from the grenade and put it under the body of the nearest Heartless. The patrol stopped when they saw the corpses of three of their brethren lying killed on the floor. One of the soldier Heartless turned the corpse over and got a big surprise in the form of an exploding hand grenade. Bilby fired off several bursts of gunfire into the mob of Heartless and ran pell mell down the staircase.
~ ~ ~ ~
Stoney turned a corpse over with his MP-5. "Jesus, looks like someone was retreating, shooting them with their own guns."
"Sounds like the kind of sick thing a certain Australian sniper would dream up." Cyclops said, as he checked other corpses.
There was a trail of Heartless corpses leading down the hallway, most killed with one or two shots. "Definitely Bilby's work." Link concluded.
Overhead the rest of the X-men were securing spaces in the roof. Wolverine impaled another Heartless through the chest with his claws as Jean Grey flung another one out of a window with her telekinesis. Jose Hedaya, walking the point, signaled the rest of the team to follow the trail of killed Heartless to try and find Bilby before the enemy did.
~ ~ ~ ~
Bilby stayed hidden as a patrol of COBRAs, at least twenty of them, way too many to attack with his limited ammunition, crept by. He had crept back to where he had left Akima only to find a knocked out COBRA viper handcuffed to a post.
"Damn." Bilby whispered, "That means Akima could be anywhere."
He decided to follow the tiger tail patrol method. This was a classic Gamma patrol strategy, called the tiger tail because it entailed patrolling around an area where an enemy was suspected to be until you literally bumped into him. 'Except I'm looking for a friendly in this scenario.' Bilby thought.
He peered into Doc's office and something about it looked suspicious. He decided to set up a lay up point across the hall, melding with the shadows until he could get a better look. As a sniper, this was no major difficulty. He was used to lying in wait for long periods of time. At one point he spent nearly forty-eight hours holed up in an abandoned room trying to ferret out a Heartless gunman that was wreaking havoc on the civilians in the city of Peking, China.
He saw a slim figure creeping by in the darkness. 'Akima,' his mind screamed. Bilby fought it down with every bit of learning he had as a sniper. Exposing oneself in a hurry usually meant a sniper had gotten lax and careless and that had been a fatal mistake for many a novice sniper. He stealthily crept down the hall, staying well back behind Akima and waited as she entered a room.
Akima didn't notice Bilby's silent approach, a true testament to his skill as a sniper. Indeed, she had found Dr. Mindbender and chambered the round into the pistol. "Mindbender!" she shouted.
"Ah, Akima." Mindbender said, turning around in a swiveling office chair. His calm smile had mirth but no warmth, it was the smile of a crocodile about to enjoy a meal.
'Damn Akima, don't move.' Bilby said, Akima's constant movement made it hard for him to target Mindbender and this was one shot Martin Bilby definitely did not want to screw up. He pulled the hell tab, an emergency beacon on his wire tap that was connected to every team that was assaulting the COBRA position.
"What did you do to me you bastard?!" Akima demanded, the barrel of the pistol shaking with unsteadiness.
"If you're referring to your recent acts of espionage, the dreams you've been having, waking in cold sweats, and any host of symptoms you can think of I can explain it all." Mindbender said, calmly, "And my dear, please lose the gun, I know you won't shoot me."
"But I will Mindbender." Bilby replied, "If you don't reverse whatever damage you've done."
"I'm afraid it's not that simple. 'Akima' is not who she appears to be." Mindbender said.
Akima was close to tears at that moment, "No more tricks Mindbender? What have you done to me!"
"Don't worry my dear, this is a classic reaction to my subliminal conditioning." Mindbender replied.
"What are you talking about?" Bilby demanded, weapon aimed squarely at Mindbender's brain.
"You're starting to remember now, in brief snatches. The implanted memories, the voice conditioning, the teaching of how to properly imitate this woman." Mindbender began.
"You're lying!" Akima shouted through clenched teeth, "You're lying!"
"Another classic reaction. You don't know who you truly are my dear, do you." Mindbender continued.
"You better shut up before I put a round right into your big mouth!" Bilby replied coldly.
"Don't you know." Mindbender said, grinning like a Cheshire Cat, "The woman known as Akima Kunimoto was killed on what you remember as the Titan mission."
"Do you really think that's gonna work, Mindbender, she's standing right here." Bilby replied, with a contemptuous laugh.
"Bite your tongue, Australian, for whether this woman is who you claim she is or not, is irrelevant, for if I do not reverse my procedures, she will gradually sink into an irreversible insanity followed by a catatonic and comatose state." Mindbender replied.
"You monster!" Akima demanded, "What did you do to me!"
"You see, your entire identity, your memories, everything that you know now is all an illusion. The real Akima Kunimoto was executed before the eyes of Corporal Martin Bilby in cold blood one year ago." Mindbender said, "You see my dear, we needed a way to break into the Gamma Unit and GI Joe alliance. We found a young nineteen year old university student built similarly to Akima, we surgically altered her appearance and implanted her with your memories."
Mindbender held up a CD, "On this CD are the memories of one Sally O'Connor. If I do not restore her memories into you, the circumstances I mentioned previously will occur."
Just then the X-men, Misfits, and GI Joe together with Bilby's team mates broke in. "So in conclusion, you are not Akima Kunimoto."
"Akima?" Bilby asked.
"Get away from me!" Akima shouted, leveling the weapon at Bilby.
"Do you really want to harm me?" Bilby asked.
Akima wavered as Bilby walked closer to her. Her legs felt frozen in place as she fell, sobbing into his arms. Mindbender inserted a tape into a nearby VCR, "Evidence that I am not lying."
The tape showed a young woman about to be anesthetized for surgery. The proceeding footage showed more of her conditioning right up to the point where the Gamma team rescued who they thought was Akima.
"Sally O'Connor, Aeronautical Engineering major at the University of Southern California. Nineteen years old, from a stable family home." Mindbender mocked.
"I wish I could remember." Akima said, vulnerable as anything as Mindbender was lead away.
Bilby held her, the ferocious warrior within now restrained and the gentle soul that was Martin Bilby emerged again. "We'll take care of you. We'll sort this out in the morning, but in the mean time, get some rest. You'll need it."
Akima lay in a bed in the Infirmary, once more in the hands of GI Joe. "Martin?" she asked as he walked out of the room, "Could you stay with me tonight. I can't fall asleep."
Martin smiled sadly, he knew for certain now that his beloved Akima was dead and that this woman, Sally O'Connor, deserved to return to her family and her old life. Dial Tone ran a check and confirmed that Sally had been missing for nearly three months, the last month and a half of which she spent with Bilby and his team mates. "I'll stay." Bilby said, gripping her hand, "We'll sort all of this out in the morning..."
~ ~ ~ ~
Next some deep angst, a promotion ceremony, and another prophesy.
