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Infinity Verse Spotlights

Knightowl: The Serpent's Kiss


Barbara was not a fan of hot weather, especially when she was in her costume. The leather, latex, and kevlar made the suit nearly unbearable to wear, but she always powered through the irritation in order to carry out her duties as a superhero. Thankfully, though the heat was still annoying for her, Barbara was rather enjoying her time in Saradia. Well, to a certain extent anyway. This wasn't the first time that she had come to the Middle East, but this was the first time she had come to this country in particular. Saradia had an interesting history, to say the least. The Republic of Saradia was once a democratic nation. That was until 1984, when a Saradian agent, under order by one of their many oil companies, went into Tokyo after Godzilla's latest attack on the city to steal the cells of the Kaiju out from under a squad of American mercenaries who had murdered several Japanese scientists in order to steal it from them.

Shortly after securing those cells, the same oil company faked a terrorist bombing attack on of their labs, resulting in the death of a young Japanese scientist, Erika Shiragami, daughter of renowned biochemist, Genichiro Shiragami. After losing his daughter, Dr. Shiragami took his research and some of the Godzilla cells back to Japan, where he conducted a series of experiments that lead to the creation of a new Kaiju in 1989 named Biollante. During this time, the agent, desperate to get his hands on the cells and the doctor's work on his latest creation, Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria, unleashed Godzilla back on Japan, who had been trapped inside Mt. Mihara since 1984. After tearing through the J.S.D.F., Godzilla found his way to his newborn 'sister,' leading to a clash between the two. As the war between Godzilla and Biollante raged on, the Saradian agent continued his attempts to collect the cells and make sure no one could replicate the power of the nuclear bacteria, leading to the death of Dr. Shiragami before the agent was killed.

When news spread of Saradia's hand in not only creating a new monster for the world to fear but the murder of Dr. Shiragami and several agents of Japan back in 1984, it turned into a political typhoon for the country. As inquires and investigations began to look into the country's dealings, they soon discovered that it wasn't just the oil companies who had been behind the attack, but the very Saradian Government itself who had put out the order. Soon, talks of war began to fill the rooms of Japan and other countries who sought revenge for what Saradia had done. In order to prevent what could be World War III, the then president of Saradia resigned along with his entire cabinet. An election was held shortly thereafter, but when the new president was elected, it became clear that the man they had put into power was the wrong choice.

The newly elected president began to exploit his power by having his political rivals arrested with little to no charge. Following that, he began to have the military enforce his rule. It wasn't before long that the people rose up to oppose him. For three months, a civil war waged in Saradia before the president was dragged out of his house and hung by the neck. The people he had long oppressed stabbed him repeatedly while he was strangled to death before publicly executing his entire cabinet via televised firing squads. With their would-be dictator dead, the country fell into anarchy, the military barely being able to keep control. This went on for years until finally, the US stepped in to support a new election and, more importantly, back a candidate who would reopen trade with the United States, who long sought the oil fields that were abundant in the country.

This was where Barbara came in. The heroine had been dispatched by the US Government in order to protect the candidate, Iben Al-Fallha, whom they were bankrolling from any outside threat, for which there were many. Since the fall of Saradia's original government, dark forces had been manipulating the fallen country for years so that they could harvest the oil for their own ends. From Shadaloo to Cobra and the Decepticons, they all coveted the resources of Saradia, and they would not be stopped from getting what they wanted. Currently, Barbara had been standing on the balcony of some building she had forgotten the name of as a party for her government's puppet president went on inside. She wasn't just staying out here just to get away from the drunken fools who lustfully wanted their escorts for the night, but to also keep a close eye on the surrounding area in case of an ambush. And though she wasn't in her Knightowl costume, she still kept her guard up, knowing that anything could happen at the drop of a hat.

"Ah! There you are, Mrs. Keynes!" Iben said in a slur as he stumbled out onto the balcony. "Come inside, my friend. I'm sure that we can find a woman that will suit your taste."

"I'll pass, sir," Barbara refused simply. "I already have a wife."

"Why does that matter?" Iben inquired. "You're already in a heathen relationship with a woman. Why not continue to sate your unnatural lust? I don't judge."

'Except that you are,' the heroine thought coldly to herself. 'Pig-headed bastard.'

When Barbara was given this mission, she did not question it, even if she despised it. Iben was a balding, overweight, womanizing, party-going, cocaine-snorting oil investor who had no love for the middle class. What he did love the idea of trade with the US, which was more than enough to gain favor with the White House. Just then, one of Iben's friends walked out to the balcony to see the superheroine in person.

"So, this is your personal superhero, eh?" his friend observed. "She's not bad to look at."

"Careful, Amir, she's not your type," Iben joked to his friend.

"Barbara Keynes," the superheroine introduced in a firm yet still slightly irritated voice.

"So, tell me, Mrs. Keynes," Amir began. "Are you a member of the Infinity League?"

"No, I'm not," Barbara sternly denied, trying to hide her offense. "I'm with the United Heroes."

Knightowl despised the idea of being mistaken as a member of her team's rival group of superheroes. The Infinity League, in Barbara's opinion, was nothing more than a gang of young metahumans with no thought of their actions or the consequences that followed. While the Infinity League worked to defend the entire world, the United Heroes were solely loyal to America and its interest, so they often opted out in the rest of the world's problems. The leaders of the League, while most in their 20's, were still too young to be handling matters as serious as guarding the planet, and the best evidence of that was this matter with Phoenix.

As one would expect, the GJN had been keeping the world leaders in the loop of the approaching cosmic force, and while several members of the United Heroes, Barbara's wife included, wanted to be on the frontlines when it arrived, the President ordered that the American based team remain in their home country, saying that they were meant to guard America and America only. Though Barbara suspected that the President was more interested in protecting himself while he watched the Phoenix scorch a country whose leader had spoken ill of him from the safety of his soon to be former home. The United Heroes had wanted to start working with the President-Elect on this matter, but again, the current President forbid them from making contact with him.

However, it soon became clear that the Infinity League was not prepared for a crisis this massive. The perfect example of this was the recent disaster in Tokyo. For no apparent reason, seven members of the League, all of whom had been benched, along with an unknown metahuman, launched an attack on the city. [1] Thankfully, it was thwarted when the Infinity League had sent other heroes to subdue them, along with a squad of monsters dispatched by the GJN who were being led by its new deputy director, David Xanatos, whom the President had no love for after the billionaire gave his support to the now President-Elect's campaign. It was still unclear as to why several members of the League had gone rogue, but one thing was certain: They couldn't be trusted.

"My apologies, Mrs. Keynes," Amir replied. "But if you are a hero, then where is your costume?"

"Probably being cleaned by her wife," Iben mentioned with a chuckle. "These homosexuals are obsessed with being clean."

Barbra clenched her fist as she glowered fiercely at the man she had been ordered to protect. The United Heroes had the option of revealing their identities to the public. While Olympia revealed herself as Majestia, Barbara kept her real identity as Knightowl a secret in order to preserve the myth that the dynamic duo of Knightowl and Sparrow were immortal. But after a battle in New York several months back that involved Ladybug and Cat Noir, her daughter, Jessica, gained the power of a Miraculous and took on the new superhero identity of Eagle. The legend came to an end and lead to Knightowl revealing herself to the world as a woman.

When she had done so, Barbara had assumed that most people would be open-minded to her marriage to Majestia. Sadly, as she expected, that was not the case. Many people saw Knightowl and Majestia's relationship as a sick perversion, and some even demanded that they be removed from the United Heroes. Thankfully, it paid to have a wife who could push a planet out of orbit. A simply flaring of her eyes with her heat vision and the naysayers instantly shut up, lest they feel the wrath of their mightiest protector. Still, that didn't mean that the heroine was free of such insults anymore.

"My suit is in my hotel suite," Barbara answered, still retaining a venire of calm as she spoke.

"Can you put it on?" Amir requested. "My children would love it if I got a picture with y-"

Amir's words were cut off when the sudden crack of a rifle shot broke through the night. In that very same moment as the rifle shot, Amir's head exploded into a mass of bone and brain matter, like a piñata being broken open by a bat-wielding child. Moving swiftly, Barbara dashed over to Iben and tackled him to the ground to keep him from being the next one to be shot. It was obvious that her asset was the intended target for the sniper's bullet, so why did they kill Amir and not Iben? Barbra's best guess was that the shooter mistook Amir as their intended target. As panic soon ensued from the resulting killing, Iben's personal security team rushed onto the scene.

"Get him to safety!" Barbra ordered.

As Iben's bodyguards quickly moved him away from the ensuing chaos, the superheroine got back to her feet and began to carefully scan the surrounding buildings with her eyes. Soon, she caught the faintest gleam of a sniper scope from the window of a building that was across from theirs. Not wasting time to change into her costume, Barbra took out her grappling hook and fired it to the other building before swinging over to the room that housed the shooter. Barbra smashed through the window, ready to fight the assassin within the room, but instead only found a sniper rifle that was attached to a strange mounted robotic system with treads.

At first, she was confused by the sight before her until she realized that the gun was being controlled via remote control, meaning that the shooter was miles away. It would also explain why the killer shot Amir instead of Iben. Maybe their equipment malfunctioned and hence caused the misplaced killing. As Barbra began to inspect the machine for any clues, she instantly laid eyes upon an insignia on the side of the sniper robot that told her everything that she needed to know.

Cobra.

Cobra was a name that was not unknown to the United Heroes. Though the team of heroes had not yet encountered them like G.I. Joe and the Infinity League had, there were protocols in place in case of such an event where they would have to face the terrorist organization. It made sense that Cobra Commander would want to disrupt the election, considering that after the fall of the previous president, Cobra had been coming into the country to harvest oil for their war effort and convert it into Energon for their partners, the Decepticons.

Now knowing who was behind the shooting, Barbra now had to figure out which agent Cobra had dispatched to carry out this assassination. Zartan was the prime suspect, and attacking from a distance was certainly his M.O., but something was telling Barbra that there was more to this attack than she was seeing before her. It was then that something caught her eye. It was a small blinking red light. Upon closer inspection, she saw that the light was coming from a camera that was sitting atop a laptop. Curious, Barbra moved the mouse slightly to wake the computer up. As the screen came on, Barbra found herself looking back at herself on the screen.

None of this made sense to her. Why would the shooter record their weapon at all? Then it hit her: They weren't recording the weapon, they were recording HER! The shooting wasn't a mistake. It was a way to bring Barbra here, get her away from Iben, and for her to walk right into a trap. Acting on instinct alone, she took out her grappling hook and fired out of the window she came in through and out into the neighboring building before repelling out of the room. Moments after she had repelled out of the window, the laptop exploded, engulfing the entire room in fire from the resulting blast. The shock wave from the blast knocked Barbra off-balance mid-grapple and sent her flying into the side of the building that she slammed into before falling onto a fire escape.

Barbra could feel that her ribs were bruised, but thankfully not broken. But she had bigger problems right now outside of her wounds. Whoever was hunting Iben now had a head start, and if she was to face this assassin properly, then she'd need a quick costume change.


Iben's mind was so clouded by fear and panic that barely anything registered to him as his security team moved him from the party back to his private penthouse. One second, he was making jokes with Amir, a man he had known since high school. The next, he watched as his best friend's head exploded into a mass of brains and blood. His mind was spiraling so bad at what he just witnessed that it took it a moment to realize that he was back in his private home with his guards taking up posts to protect him until Knightowl arrived. There was only one way in and out of the penthouse, and that was an elevator at the end of the building's hallway just outside his penthouse, meaning that was the only way the would-be assassin could enter to finish the job.

There was a security room that one of the guards was using to watch every camera in the building, searching for any trace of the killer. They knew that the assassin wouldn't give up so easily and that they would no doubt be on their way right now to try to finish what they started. Suddenly, the camera feeds began to be cut, leaving only blurs of static on the screen. In a matter of seconds, all but one screen was cut off. The last remaining feed was that of the outside hallway camera, meaning that the assassin was on their way at this very moment. Iben's guards quickly gathered up their weapons and rushed out into the hallway, ready to face whoever was about to come their way. Four guards remained in the penthouse as a last line of defense for their employer while the other ten went out with their SIG MPX submachine guns at the ready.

As the squad took up defensive positions, they could hear the sound of the elevator at the end of the hall moving up through the levels of the building, no doubt carrying their enemy within it as it did. Many of these men had faced danger before, be it in the service of protecting businessmen or fighting as soldiers on the frontline. However, today, they collectively felt a tinge of terror creeping through very souls, as if something was trying to tell them to flee while they still had the chance to do so. Finally, the elevator came to a stop, making a 'ding' to signify that it had reached its destination. The squad aimed their weapons at the elevator as its door slowly opened. But when the door opened, the only thing that stepped out of the elevator was a dense cloud of smoke. Thinking that the killer was hiding within, the squad's leader silently motioned for two of his squad members to go in to search for their enemy.

With a collective nod, the two squad members went forward to check out the scene, all the while the rest of the team kept them covered. The two men entered the smoke-filled elevator with their guns drawn but found nothing. Then, just as they prepared to exit the elevator, the cables were cut from above it, sending the two men screaming down the shaft straight to their deaths. As the rest of the squad were reeling from the shock of what they just saw, their enemy swung from the elevator shaft and into the hallway to reveal himself to the security team. The assassin was dressed head to toe in blue and red body armor, with a helmet with green lenses covering his eyes. He was covered in a vast array of weapons, all of which he knew how to use to their most lethal form. One of the guards looked upon this armored man with nothing but fear in his eyes.

"Oh my god..." he gasped in horror. "That's Krake!"

"Who?" one of his squadmates questioned.

"Cobra Commander's top assassin," the first man answered fearfully. "He's killed over 800 people in the years of serving Cobra, and that's only from the known records. He once murdered the entire crew of a destroyer in under an hour before taking over the ship and ramming it into the aircraft carrier that it was escorting. He's a monster!"

"How the hell do you know so much about him?" another guard demanded.

"Because I was on the carrier he destroyed!" the guard answered. "I was a part of a SEAL team unit that was stationed on it when he sank the boat and took my entire squad down with it!"

"How do we stop him?" another guard questioned.

"You don't," Krake suddenly answered in a voice cold as stone. "You just die."

No sooner had he said that did the armor-clad assassin draw a pair of submachine guns and immediately gun down the two guards in the front before anyone could react fast enough. However, rather than continuing to fire upon them, Krake instead stopped his attack and threw down a smoke grenade, quickly filling the hallway with a dense cloud that soon blinded the remaining security while Krake's helmet allowed him to seem perfectly through the smoke. Drawing his combat knife, the Cobra assassin made his move. As the guards shot blindly through the smoke, Krake moved in on his prey.

With one swipe of his blade, he slit the throat of one guard before throwing his knife into the arm of another. As now wounded guard cried out in pain, he alerted the others that their enemy was still here. One of the guards saw the brief glimpse of a figure through the smoke. Thinking that it was Krake, the guard opened fire, but instead of killing the Cobra agent, he instead gunned down the wounded guardsman. However, unknown to the guard who had just killed his teammate, Krake had snuck up behind him, snapping his neck with one swift motion. The Cobra assassin then moved to take his knife back before slicing open another man's arm right down to the bone. After swatting the gun out of his now limp hand, Krake reached out and ripped the man's bone out of his arm before impaling it through the side of his head. He then picked up the dropped machine gun and singled a single burst into the head of another guard.

The final guard, who had already survived Krake in the past, knew that trying to fight him blindly was only going to get him killed. So, hoping to get back-up, he ran back down the hallway in an attempt to reach the penthouse. But just as he found his way out of the smoke, he felt a sudden pain in the back of his head, making him stop dead in his track. Curious as to why he was starting to feel so weightless, he slowly reached for the back of his head and felt the cold steel of a blade jammed into it. Three seconds later, he collapsed to the ground as Krake walked over him, removing his knife from his skull as he did.

Back within the penthouse, Iben had been escorted by two of his guards to his bedroom where they took up defensive positions within the room. The other two guards readied themselves for the coming fight within the living room, waiting for their opponent to come through the door. However, while they could hear the sounds of battle outside the penthouse slowly die down, their would-be killer never came through the door. As the guards became curious about the lack of an attack, the ceiling exploded from above one of the guards. As Krake went through the hole, he shot down the guard with two drawn pistols. The second he touched the floor, he gunned down the second guard as he tried to raise his rifle to take aim.

Hearing the battle outside their wall, the remaining guards burst onto the scene, opening fire on Krake as his armor protected him from the bullets, allowing him to fire back, killing them both. As the last of the guards fell to the floor in a lifeless heap, Krake let out a defeated sigh as if he had lost a simple bet at a bar. He had hoped that these men would put up more of a fight than what he had gotten. Ever since he was a child, all he wanted was worthy foes to kill. For Krake, the drive to conquer and kill had been in his mind since the day he was born. Despite this disappointment, there was still a job to be done. And besides, there was still a chance that he would face a worthy victim.

As Krake entered Iben's bedroom, he found the would-be leader huddled in the corner, weeping like a frightened child. Cobra's top killer wasn't known for feeling things like pity, and tonight was no different. Only disgust ran through his mind. This man who wanted to be a leader to his people could not stand and face his death without fear. It reminded him of his parents. They too wept and begged for their son to spare them from his wrath, only to die screaming as he de-boned them both like freshly caught fish. A tactic he planned to do to his intended target.

"Please, don't kill me!" Iben pleaded. "I can give you whatever you want!"

"All I was is for you to die," Krake answered simply.

Krake drew his knife and approaching the cowering politician, but before he could peel the skin from Iben's body, Knightowl crashed through the bedroom window, tackling the assassin as she slammed into him. Krake kicked the costumed guardian off of his person as Knightowl quickly corrected herself, putting herself between the Cobra agent and his target.

"Finally," Krake said. "I was beginning to worry that I killed you too soon."

"It's going to take a lot more than a bomb to stop me," Knightowl stated.

"I certainly hope so," her opponent agreed.

Barbra stood her ground, but on the inside, she felt something she had rarely felt before: Dread. She had encountered a wide variety of villains alongside the United Heroes, but this man made her feel as though no one she had fought compared to the sheer malice that seemed to project from the Cobra agent. But if she was to keep Iben safe, then she would have to unleash everything that she had to stop Krake.

"Run!" she ordered to Iben as she leaped at her enemy.

As Knightowl was in mid-leap, Krake delivered a high kick to her chest that knocked Barbra backward, but rather than falling to the ground, Knightowl instead turned herself around in midair and backflipped away from her attacker. The moment she landed back on her feet, Knightowl quickly drew several razor-tipped boomerangs in between her fingers before throwing them directly at her opponent. As the bladed boomerang came at him, Krake drew his pistols and obliterated the oncoming objects, shattering them with pin-point precision. No sooner had he finished shooting the boomerangs did he open fired on Knightowl, who dove out of the way and into the nearby bathroom.

Krake, now fully focused on Knightowl, approached the bathroom, only to be greeted by the oncoming sink that Barbra had ripped out and thrown at him, smashing into his helmeted face before he had time to react. As the armored assassin stumbled back from the surprise hit, Knightowl unleashed a flurry of blows that kept him off balance. However, Krake soon managed to get a proper footing, thus allowing him to block another oncoming punch with one arm while pulling out his knife with his free hand. The second he saw an opening, the Cobra agent swiped his blade at Knightowl across her torso, cutting through her body armor and into her flesh. Barbara let out a cry of pain as she lost her focus for a second from the surprise rush of pain, and sadly for her, that was more than enough time for Krake to turn the tables on her.

Knightowl barely had time to block the oncoming knife, but Krake dropped the knife with the hand that was blocked and caught it with the other. He struck again, this time cutting into Barbra's arm. Fighting through the pain, Barbara kicked Krake in the face, making him stumble backward, but he instantly recovered and charged at her. Once he was close enough, he tackled his rival back into the bathroom, slamming her up against the wall as he did. Knightowl then punched Krake across the face before grabbing the shower bar and lifting herself for a double kick at Krake's chest that sent him through the wall of the bathroom and into the living room.

As Cobra Commander's protégé got back to his feet, his opponent took out her grappling gun and fired it, catching Krake by the wrist. But before she could yank him back to her, the armored assassin instead pulled her forward into a fist that set her back first to the floor. But Knightowl did not remain on the floor for long, for she launched herself upwards feet-first and delivered a kick directly into Krake's chin, which knocked him into the air for several seconds before tumbling back down to the floor. As Knightowl darted towards her downed enemy, Krake pulled out his pistol and fired several rounds at the night time heroine, forcing her to take cover. It was lucky that her kevlar held up against small-arm bullets, or things would've been vastly different.

As Krake jumped back to his feet, he aimed Knightowl once more just as she had drawn another boomerang. Before he could get another shot off, Barbara threw her weapon, plunging the barrel with perfect accuracy. As he threw down his gun, Knightowl fired her grappling gun again, but instead of trying to entangle her enemy, she instead took up a nearby ottoman that was behind Krake. Once it grabbed onto a leg of the furniture, she yanked it forward, hitting him in the back. But the armored assassin quickly recovered from the hit, only to see Knightowl charging toward him. With a flying kick, the two combatants went flying out the window of the top level of the building, sending them both falling to the streets below.

However, rather than falling to their deaths, Knightowl shot out her grapple and grabbed Krake, but it was not out of mercy, for she used him as a guard as the two of them smashed through a window and into the building next door. Barbara was heaving for breath at this point. She had never been taken to this limit before, and it was terrifying for her. Krake, on the other hand, seemed unfazed by the ongoing battle, though it was hard to tell underneath his body armor. Barbara had to fight through the pain she was in, for if she faltered for even a second, then not only would she die, but everyone in between the Cobra agent and Iben would as well.

"I'm almost impressed," Krake said. "You fight with nothing held back."

Knightowl let out an almost animalistic cry as she threw a punch at Krake, who grabbed her by the arm and twisted it.

"Admirable, but foolish," the assassin added before punching her in the stomach.

Even through her body armor, Barbara could feel the impact of Krake's fist. It was like being struck by a cannonball. From beneath her mask, the heroine vomited out a handful of blood that seeped through her mask's mouthguard. Krake then took Knightowl by the neck and lifted her off the ground. But before he could try anything else, Knight Owl quickly pulled out a smoke bomb and flung it directly into her opponent's face. The smoke went deep into his mask, making him cough and wheeze, giving Barbara the chance to kick him in the face and thereby get free of his grip. As Krake was still disoriented from the smoke he had inhaled, Knightowl unleashed a roundhouse kick that knocked the armored assassin to the floor.

Before Krake could get back up, Knightowl jumped into the air and landed feet first onto the Cobra agent's chest. The resulting impact sent them both tearing through the floor and into the room below. Krake drew his combat knife and stabbed it into Barbra's leg, earning him a scream of pain from the heroine before kicking her off of his person. This wasn't a random stab that her opponent made. This was right in a vital artery, and if she didn't treat it soon, she would bleed out. As Krake got back to his feet, Knightowl, now with what could be a fatal wound, readied herself for another round. However, rather than make another move, Krake instead withdrew his blade and stayed where he was.

"What's your game here, Krake?" Knightowl demanded.

"The only game here is the one I've won," her enemy answered. "You'll understand in a moment."

With that, Krake took out a flash-bag grenade. Barbara tried to make a move to stop him, but the pain in her leg prevented her from moving quickly enough, resulting in the room being consumed in a blinding light and a deafening noise. As Barbara struggled to recover from the blast, she saw that Krake had fled the scene. It didn't make sense to Barbara. Why would Krake, one of the world's most lethal assassins, flee the scene when he could easily kill her while she was wounded? It was at that moment that she thought back to the sniper rifle and made a horrible realization. Krake's objective wasn't killing Iben. It was distracting her!

No sooner had she made that realization did her COMM crack to life with her teammate, the Doorman, on the other end of the line. The failsafe was that if Barbara or Iben's guards were unable to keep him safe, then the Doorman would open a portal to a safehouse in the States. However, Barbara had a feeling that her teammate wasn't going to tell her that the package was safe and sound.

"Doorman, tell me that you have the asset," she said into the COMM.

"Barbara, I'm sorry..." the Doorman replied. "There was a complication..."


With the mission a total failure, Knightowl was sent directly back to the States, receiving medical care along the way. From what Barbara understood when she returned to the United Heroes HQ, Iben had, in fact, managed to escape the penthouse unharmed, but when he stepped outside, he was greeted by a woman in a black unmarked car. The young woman said that she was an undercover GJN agent who had come to a safehouse. Iben, in a full panic, believed the woman's lie and got in the car. The car was found later in a parking lot, Iben's body sitting in the back seat with three bullet holes, one in the head and two in the chest. The car was wiped clean of any evidence before the assassin had left. However, a security camera did spot a young Japanese woman departing from the parking lot roughly the same time as the murder had occurred.

"So, who is she?" Barbara questioned.

"According to files we received from Interpol, her name is Mukuro Ikusaba," the United Heroes' leader, Victory, answered as the heroes watched the screen. "She's a child soldier who was a member of a mercenary group called Fenrir. She has 67 confirmed kills under her belt, most of whom were our own soldiers in the Middle East. She's wanted by 37 agencies across the globe, including our own."

"And now she's working for Cobra," Majestia finished. "She goes by the codename Mamushi."

"The most venomous snake in Japan..." Knightowl said with defeat in her voice. "I should've known Krake was playing me from the start."

"You couldn't have known, Barb," Olympia reasoned gently as she embraced her wife. "Krake is a solo agent. No one could've guessed that he would have back-up with him."

Barbara said nothing in response. She knew that her failure had cost the country she served greatly. With Iben dead, Saradia was now ripe for Cobra to install a puppet dictator who would give anything they needed from the country, thereby barring the US and the rest of the world from its oil. Barbra was not accustomed to failure, and not on this scale either. She swore that she would make Krake pay for this if this was the last thing she did.

"Sadly, with Iben dead, there's nothing we can do," Victory stated. "But now, we have another task at hand."

"What's the mission?" Majestia inquired.

"We just received orders from the top brass, and it's going to take the entire team to do it," the United Heroes' leader continued. "We have an arrest warrant for top priority target."

"What's the target?" Knightowl questioned.

Victory pulled up an image of their target onto the screen, making the other heroes gasp in surprise.

There, on the screen, was an image of Optimus Prime.


[1] - As seen in Ch 8 of The Dark Phoenix