Mekaneck was laughing so hard he nearly dropped the bomb in his hand. "You're kidding me!"
"No, I'm serious," Cover Girl chuckled. "There Cobra Commander was, with the most powerful laser ever constructed, and he uses it to draw cosmic graffiti."
"Destro's right," Mekaneck said, "the man is a buffoon."
Cover Girl laughed flashing her dimpled smile at him again. Mekaneck couldn't believe how beautiful she was.
"Thanks," he said.
"For what?"
"Taking my mind off our troubles. I'd be a complete wreck right now otherwise." He paused trying to find the right words. "I'm glad you're here."
Cover Girl blushed slightly and said, "I wish it could have been under different circumstances, but I'm glad I got to meet you."
The two looked into each other's eyes and their expressions delivered the message that their rather poorly worded dialogue failed to. Slowly their faces moved towards one another. Their lips were mere fractions of an inch apart when suddenly Mekaneck paused.
"Umm, did you set the timer on one of the bombs?"
"The bombs are remote detonated," she said. "They don't have timers."
"Then what's that rhythmic ticking sound?"
"You're right. This is not something we should be hearing."
Cover Girl drew her sidearm and slowly moved down the corridor towards the sound. Mekaneck picked up his battle mace and followed her.
"What the hell is that?" she asked.
"I don't know," said Mekaneck, "but it's making me nervous."
Just then the noise suddenly stopped. Cover Girl peered around the corner into the darkness but saw nothing. She turned back to Mekaneck and the ticking resumed.
If you've ever had the feeling that someone was directly behind you then you know how Cover Girl felt at this moment. She turned her head just in time to see a large robotic hand, right before it clamped onto her neck and lifted her off the ground. Mekaneck started forward to help her when a voice drew him to a stop.
"Stay where you are, drop the weapon, and don't make any sudden moves. Oh and watch what you say too. My partner here is a real time bomb and the wrong words could have rather nasty results for your friend."
As the two came into the light, Mekaneck saw that the speaker was being quite literal. Cover Girl was being held fast by none other than Blast Attak. With him was a Cobra agent that Mekaneck hadn't seen before, but that Cover Girl clearly recognized all too well.
"Firefly," she coughed. "I should have known you'd be here. If anyone carried the Mark of the Serpent it's you."
The man known only as Firefly was a mercenary for hire with a reputation for being "the Rembrandt of plastic explosives". He had been blowing up things for Cobra ever since Cobra Commander first donned his hood and opened up for business.
Firefly constructed bombs protected by cross-wired, anti-tampering switches so complex that they were impossible to defuse. In addition to his expertise with weapons and explosives, Firefly also had highly developed reflexes and expertise in hand-to-hand martial arts combat as he had at one time studied with the Arashikage ninjas. Though few had ever seen the face beneath his mask, his reputation preceded him as one of the most evil men alive.
"Now then," Firefly said to Mekaneck, "unless you want to see her pretty little guts splattered all over the walls, I suggest you hand over the Crest of Infinity."
Mekaneck thought fast. Okay, so the bad guys haven't found the crest yet. I've got to play my cards just right here. As long as he thinks I've got it, I've got an ace up my sleeve.
"You're bluffing," he said aloud. "You're not about to risk destroying the crest. Besides, if bomb boy there detonates you'll be killed too."
Firefly gestured to the side tunnel next to him. "I can easily jump clear in time. Your girlfriend isn't going anywhere though. Anyway, there's more than one way to kill a Joe. I could just have B.A. snap her neck like a pencil."
Mekaneck looked at Cover Girl and panicked. "Look, I don't have the crest all right? If your guys don't have it, then it hasn't been located yet."
Firefly turned to Blast Attak. "You think he's telling the truth?"
"Tick … tick… may be… tick. He's not smart enough to bluff… tick."
Mekaneck ground his teeth in anger. To have one's intelligence belittled by someone as brainless as Blast Attak was very difficult to take in stride.
"I think you're right," Firefly said. "Unfortunately for you two, that means you're of no use to us. Blast Attak, arm yourself!"
Blast Attak began ticking rapidly, poised to go off at any second. Firefly slowly backed away down the side corridor, making sure to get out of the blast range. Mekaneck didn't know what to do. He could probably get clear in time, but Cover Girl was helpless and if he tried to help her Blast Attak might go off early.
"If you were bluffing," Firefly called out, "now would be the time to come clean. Or does she mean nothing to you?"
"Mekaneck, run!" Cover Girl shouted as loud as she could. "Save yourself!"
"No, both of you run!" Before anyone knew what happened, Short-Fuze appeared out of nowhere and jumped Blast Attak from behind. The robot dropped Cover Girl and began flailing about madly trying to shake the Joe off of his back.
Cover Girl instinctively ran towards Mekaneck, but then stopped and looked back at her comrade. Firefly meanwhile had pulled his gun and was trying to get a bead on Short-Fuze. Blast Attak's mad thrashing made the task rather difficult.
"Hold still so I can pick him off, you stupid rust bucket!" he growled.
Cover Girl overheard Firefly and attempted to warn her fellow Joe. "Look out, Short-Fuze!"
Blast Attak turned his head in her direction. "Tick… tick.. short fuse?.. Ok.."
"OH SHIT!" Firefly shouted and took a running leap down the tunnel. Mekaneck too realized what this meant, grabbed Cover Girl, pulled her into a side tunnel, and threw himself on top of her to shield her from the inevitable blast. There was a brief last cry of pain coupled with the sound of the explosion, clearly indicating that Short-Fuze was no more. A series of blasts that followed told Mekaneck that Blast Attak's detonation had caused some of the planted explosives to go off as well.
Finally the rumblings stopped. Mekaneck stood up and pulled Cover Girl to her feet, dusting off the debris that had covered them both.
"Oh God," she said. "Short-Fuze! What have I done?"
"It wasn't your fault," Mekaneck said, trying to comfort her. "Blast Attak was about to go off anyway. There was nothing you could have done to prevent it. Come on, we've got to get out of here."
Cover Girl's eyes were full of tears but she managed to nod. "After an explosion like that the whole fortress definitely knows we're here now."
"Not only that, Blast Attak can pull himself back together after detonating." He pointed down at what appeared to be a piece of the robot's arm inching its way across the ground. Mekaneck brought his mace down on the arm several times, smashing it into more, and even smaller, pieces.
"I don't know how much time we have," he said finally. "We've got to find the others. They're probably in more danger than us now."
Elsewhere, Firefly snarled half in pain at his broken leg and half in frustration at being sealed inside a dead end tunnel.
"How long is this going to take?" he called out.
"Tick.. estimated time for self repair… thirty minutes… Estimated time for excavation of tunnel… unknown."
Firefly sighed. "How did I get talked into working with you?"
Jinx stared slack jawed at Scare Glow. She had dealt with tricky opponents before, but frankly she had no idea what to do against someone who could still function after being decapitated.
"What the hell are you?" she gasped.
Scare Glow cricked his neck from side to side, adjusting his head firmly back into place. "I told you that you couldn't kill me," he grinned.
Apparently Man-E-Faces had regained enough of his senses because he suddenly shouted, "Jinx, he's a specter, but he has a solid body form! You can't kill him, but he can be rendered unconscious!"
"Your tri-faced friend is only partially correct," Scare Glow scoffed. "I could be knocked out if you could over power me, but you'd have to overcome the power of my glow first."
Suddenly Jinx's eyes shot open. "Your glow? That's the source of your little mind tricks isn't it?"
"Of course," Scare Glow replied in seeming exasperation over having to answer such an obvious question. "And since I can make it fill the whole room, there's no way you can hide from it!"
"Well now, I wouldn't say that," Jinx grinned. Quickly she flipped over the specter's head and began a furious attack. Scare Glow poured out his fear-inducing light to nearly blinding intensity but Jinx continued to slash and kick at him, as though she were completely unaffected. Finally the ninja succeeded in disarming him and began pounding on his head and chest with a berserk rage.
Dree Elle stared in awe. She wanted to help her friend, but Scare Glow's power had overcome her, freezing her in her tracks. Nevertheless, it now appeared that Jinx needed no help whatsoever.
"How?" Scare Glow spat in between blows to his jaw. "How are you doing this? No one is without fear! No one!"
Jinx didn't answer him. Instead she jumped up and brought her full body weight crashing down on Scare Glow's skull. The evil warrior slunk to the floor and laid motionless. Then slowly the light from his body faded to nothing.
Jinx stood over her fallen foe breathing hard. Obviously the fight had left her more exhausted than she had let on till now. Just then the sound of slow moving footsteps came up behind them. All the heroes turned, ready for another battle. However the newcomer turned out to be Saurod, who had only now made it to them due to his wounded leg. Seeing Jinx standing over Scare Glow's fallen form he gasped in shock, struggling to find the right words.
"Is he dead?"
"I don't think he was alive in the first place," Jinx said. "but he's definitely down for the count."
Dree Elle gasped in disbelief. "Jinx, how did you escape Scare Glow's power?"
"Simple," Jinx said. "I just kept my eyes closed."
"YOU WHAT?!" everyone shouted at once.
Jinx laughed and explained. "The only way to counteract the affect of the glow was to not look at it. Before I became Storm Shadow's student I trained under a man called The Blind Master. He was one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, even though he really was blind. He taught me how to fight without relying on my eyes."
"You never cease to amaze me," Dree Elle said hugging Jinx with the affection of someone embracing their idol.
Jinx smiled. "Let's get back to Grayskull. You've still got a lot of training to do."
"What about him?" Orko asked, indicating Saurod. "Are we taking him with us?"
"You go on," Saurod said. "I'll stay to make sure Scare Glow doesn't wake up before you're safely away."
"What about Twistoid?" Man-E-Faces asked.
Saurod snickered. "He won't be causing any more trouble."
Mekaneck worked his way through the corridors of Snake Mountain, leading Cover Girl behind him. He was proceeding quickly but with extreme caution, obviously concerned that any moment they were going to be discovered.
"We've got to move quickly," Cover Girl was saying. "The others have been compromised now and they have no idea."
"Let's just hope we can catch up with them before anyone else does," Mekaneck said.
Cover Girl let Mekaneck lead, assuming he knew the layout and had a good idea where they were going, but then the sound of voices made her stop. She gestured to him and they slowly crept towards the sounds which were moving and gradually being drowned out by the sound of machines.
The two peeked out from their vantage point which overlooked what appeared to be a hanger bay. Skeletor's flying tank, The Collector, a fierce skull shaped ship, sat fueling for takeoff. The Collector's cargo bay doors were open and dozens of shiny humanoid figures were marching inside in perfect formation.
"I've never seen robot knights like those before," Mekaneck said. "Are they Cobra's?"
Cover Girl nodded and whispered in dismay. "B.A.T.s."
"Bats?"
"Battle Android Troopers," she said. "This is not good." There was surprise and fear in her voice and with good reason. Cobra B.A.T.s were totally artificial robotic troopers with extremely primitive logic circuits and very sophisticated targeting sensors. They would attack any biological target with deadly accuracy. The B.A.T. was essentially a machine gun with legs. Worse than that, they were capable of absorbing huge amounts of damage and could still continue their missions as long as their weapons held out. When these things were sent into battle, death almost always followed.
"Looks like their setting up an attack force," Mekaneck observed.
They continued to watch the androids for a time, taking in the scene, counting the numbers of robots that filled the craft, taking careful measure of the force's size.
"You're right," Cover Girl said finally, 'they're getting ready for an attack. Only question is, what's the target? Grayskull, Eternos, or something else."
"We'd better get on the communicator and warn everybody then."
Cover Girl nodded and whispered, "But not here. The B.A.T.s would detect any radio disturbance and be on us before we could get a word out."
"Right then," Mekneck said, "let's go before we're discovered."
"Wait, look!" Cover Girl hissed, pointing down to where Cobra Commander had entered talking to Skeletor.
"Have all the B.A.T.s been fitted?"
"All except the leader," Skeletor snarled. "It won't let us near its circuitry."
Cobra Commander scoffed. "Let him be then. It won't make any difference. So, explain to me exactly how this works."
"Quite simple," Skeletor grinned. "The nano-mites we've installed in your robots will allow them to instantly pull themselves back together and self repair whenever they take damage. In essence we'll have an immortal army."
"Unless the mites' controller is destroyed of course," Cobra Commander growled. "Must we send it into the battlefield with them?"
"The signal has to be within a certain range to work," Skeletor sighed. "But no matter. The controller will be aboard The Collector. Even if those heroic fools figure that out, they won't be able to get close enough to do anything!"
"The plan's hardly fail-safe," the commander shot, "but at least the B.A.T.s are expendable. And besides, this is merely a diversion anyway."
"A waste of my android's talents," came a robotic voice from the darkness. With the clanking and whirring of gears another android entered the chamber. Cover Girl placed her hand over her mouth to muffle her inevitable gasp of shock and horror as she beheld the golden sinister looking robot warrior.
"Overkill!"
Overkill was the most advanced Battle Android Trooper ever constructed. Originally he had been meant as the prototype for the third generation of B.A.T.s. Unlike the other models, this one had a highly advanced artificial intelligence making it capable of decision-making and strategic attacks. Cobra Commander quickly realized however that having an army of super smart killing machines might backfire on him. So rather than mass-produce this warrior he dubbed the prototype Overkill and placed him in command of the B.A.T. forces.
"Oh man," Cover Girl whispered. "I thought we had destroyed him!"
"Apparently they rebuilt him," Mekaneck sighed.
"An army of B.A.T.s is bad enough," she moaned. "Indestructible B.A.T.s are even worse, but indestructible B.A.T.s lead by Overkill? We are in deep shit here!"
"If we take out The Collector they'll be helpless though," Mekaneck said.
Cover Girl glared at him. "How exactly do you propose we do that now?"
Mekaneck looked down at the dozens of B.A.T.s below and frowned. "You're right, there's nothing we can do now. Let's get out of here and warn the others."
As the two slowly stood and crept out they failed to notice Overkill turn his head in their direction.
"Something wrong Overkill?" Cobra Commander asked.
"We are not alone," the android said.
