Lilah breathed in and out. She was officially freaking out. Everything was out of her control, and nothing was working right. Forget that there was a damn ninja barely ten paces behind her! She put in the code, attempting to get into her own armory. She looked at the device, and growled. She was locked from her own damn armory in her own damn house! As she turned back around, something stung in her neck as the world turned very, very dark.
Three hours earlier, Lilah was back in her cabin hidden deep in the backwoods of Louisiana. It was a change of scenery from the polar cap HQ of Cobra, but she chose not to let it bother her, instead volunteering to dress in her most casual clothes and chill around her house. She briefly considered calling her sister, but decided that she wouldn't. Her sister didn't need to know where Lilah was.
Lilah had dropped off the soldiers at an army base since the location of the Joes' base was highly classified. When she did, General Joe thanked her kindly. "I'm surprised you even got all of them out."
"I'm me, General," Lilah said, looking around the base. "If you want a job done, especially involving soldiers, all you have to do is call me. I was a military brat, so I know how important it is to get these guys back home. My only question is what they had that Cobra wanted so badly." This was the time when Lilah got some secrets out in the open. She did the job. This was the least that they owed her.
Joe recognized it too. "There was a weapon there that would scare you to death and back. I have seen many things that Cobra has done, but the nanomites seem like nothing compared to this." Lilah nodded for him to go on. "Do you know Captain America? The comics or the movies?" The blonde gave him a strange look, but nodded anyway. "Imagine people like him in the hands of Cobra." Lilah winced. "Now imagine them like the Neo-Vipers."
"Jesus," Lilah murmured. "So, they had one with them. Why not kill the Joes and take it back?" This was the most crucial part. She didn't know if any of them had been taken away during their time there, if maybe she'd been too late. It was hard to discern this from other variables in the operation, in any operation involving Cobra really.
Joe seemed genuine when he replied, "We have no idea." The conversation was over, and Lilah felt oddly disturbed. Just hearing something like that was weird, but to know that it was quite true was an entirely different ball game. Lilah didn't want to know how far Cobra would go to take the world and name it their own, especially since the world was still recovering from the summit.
Lilah had the whole place rigged within a seventeen miles radius. A bird didn't peck at the wood or pull a worm without Lilah being able to tell you when and where. She felt safe in her own little cabin, a piece of the world all to herself. Anyone who wanted to find her was taken out quickly and quietly, so long as they were hostile. Better yet, her family couldn't find her and tell her how much of a fuck up she was.
Another reason Lilah felt so safe was because she managed to get a bunker under the cabin. Everything of importance, even her armory, was in that bunker. No one could get to it, even with a rocket launcher. It was tested before she actually put it in the cabin. So if someone were to find her, she had a secondary location that was undetected and unknown. No one besides her could get in.
Lilah had to admit that sometimes she felt a bit lonely. But it was either lonely or risk her family and friends. Lilah didn't know any other way to be anyway. Her sister had it great, but Lilah was given all of the hardships. She didn't claim to have the best life, but her life expectancy had been five years with the pathetic excuse of a family she got. No one else lived much longer than that or went to another family before then.
But Lilah made it through ten years of it. She didn't hate who she became, but she sure as hell didn't love her either.
Something seemed off to Lilah about five minutes into a book she picked up before going to the cabin. There was a crack outside her window, too heavy to be an animal. She heard a soft whish, moving quickly as a knife landed where her head was just moments before. Lilah pulled the pistol from under the coffee table, dragging her dagger from under the floor board. She clicked her belt around her waist as there was a beeping outside the cabin entrance.
Lilah rolled and was hiding under the kitchen counter as the door blasted open. It hit the other side of the room as a whole squad of soldiers entered her living room. Lilah grabbed the throwing knives from her belt, standing up. She counted fourteen as they all seemed to pause for a second upon seeing her. "Miss me?" She threw threw knives, hitting three soldiers easily.
Nine to go. Lilah put her gun to use, shooting down two of them as she ran forward with the dagger, slitting one's throat before jamming it into the chest of a fourth. Five were left, and all of them were quivering as the shot at her. Lilah took two bullets to the arm before she behind the couch, and another in her ankle before she could pull it with her. She gritted her teeth, green eyes clenched tight. When they stopped to reload, she made another move.
There were only three bullets left, so she used them up quickly. The problem was that two were left, and the dagger she had earlier was hit deep in the chest of a dead man. The duo came toward the couch, and Lilah grabbed the grenade from her belly, pulling the pin and throwing it in their general direction.
She waited a full minute for the silence to have an interruption. When she found that nothing was going to do so, she stood up from behind the couch. There was one trying to move, and so she kicked him in the side. "Where did you come from?" The question didn't need an answer. She found it when she saw the insignia on his uniform. Her expression went from mildly annoyed to fear.
"Cobra sees all," he said with his dying breath. Lilah grabbed her jacket, pulling her dagger out with a great deal of effort and gathering her throwing knives. She made her way to her room to get to her armory for more ammunition and to get a few more guns to get the hell out of dodge. Lilah pulled her golden hair back, the curls perfect. Lilah decided that her hair was perfect when she didn't need it to be bloody perfect.
Lilah looked through all of her security measures, trying to decide what went wrong with the alarm system. Her green eyes examined each and every camera, going back as far as the day before. Nothing. Lilah felt panic stir in her chest as the power went out, the generator keeping only a few things alive. "Son of a fuckin' bitch."
Lilah wasn't safe in her own damned house anymore. Her territory was no longer her own. She felt like a rabbit caught in the cunning fox's trap, preparing for the swipe that would come and would aim for the kill. She had to get out of there. Lilah went back up to the surface of the cabin area. She saw something white staring at the dead bodies littering her floor.
"Shit." Lilah barely dodged the shuriken thrown her way. Another cut her cheek, and the warm blood slid down her cheek. Lilah felt for the extra clip under the desk as he came towards her, a katana blade at the ready. Lilah held her dagger in a defensive position, continuing her search. He held something in his other hand, showing it Lilah in a very taunting way. "Okay, that's just being a dick. Like, for real." She rolled to the side as the katana came down.
Standing on her own feet, Lilah moved out of the way of the ninja's strikes. She was hesitant to attack, and that hesitance became vital in keeping out of his reach. Vases were smashed, slashes in the walls of wood, and everything was destroyed. Lilah finally had enough and blocked his strike with her blade, drawing a dagger just a bit shorter than the one she already had.
Lilah lashed out with the other dagger, a hair's breath away from him. He was obviously caught off guard. Lilah used it to her advantage, holding the dagger in a way that exposed her knuckles to his chin as the blonde performed an uppercut. He caught her wrist easily though, and Lilah saw a needle in his hand where her spare clip had been. In an act of desperation, she twisted her wrist around, cutting his arm.
Lilah was out of the room in a second. Soon, she stood in front of the armory.
Lilah breathed in and out. She was officially freaking out. Everything was out of her control, and nothing was working right. Forget that there was a damn ninja barely ten paces behind her! She put in the code, attempting to get into her own armory. She looked at the device, and growled. She was locked from her own damn armory in her own damn house! As she turned back around, something stung in her neck as the world turned very, very dark.