Chapter 9
Frustration
Yawning so largely that he almost swallowed his black facemask, Cobra Trooper CT-816 hunched over with boredom. How Crimson Guardsmen stood through their sickeningly long shifts without going insane was a tribute to either their devotion—or their stupidity.
It was CT-816's shift to guard the weapons room today—the loneliest shift on the worklist. He was locked in a small, thin section of hallway with no one to look at or talk to. He couldn't even see his reflection in the aluminum-paneled walls. Thankfully, due to some almost union-like complaining a few years ago, Cobra Troops were allowed to rotate their assignments. Last week CT-816 had kitchen duty, but two weeks ago he had the best: foot patrol.
He did get a break yesterday: he switched with CT-923, who had a snoozer guard duty at the medical room. CT-923 wanted to go on a date with some vixen he met in the nearby village of Aguas Calientes, so he bribed CT-816 to cover his medical room shift, and then paid a big bribe to an off-shift Trooper to cover the weapon's room.
Needless to say, with all that happened yesterday, the shift was worth every minute. Watching the Joes gettting trucked in and out and back into the medical room was about as interesting as guard duty could get.
Boy, was his life getting boring.
"Huh?" Hearing a scuffing sound, the Trooper turned to his left and walked to the wall's corner. Two hands grabbed his shoulders and pulled him forward, then a second set of hands punched in the face. He looked up to see a scruffy red-mustached man, then faded away to sleep.
1.
"That was a little hard, don't you think, Crankcase?"
"I don't care, Chuckles. I'm mad."
"Yeah, but we have to wake this guy up in a couple of minutes." pointed out Grunt.
"I've got his keys." said Chuckles, smiling as he jiggled his catch.
The weapons room door creaked open, and Grunt flipped the light on. Rows and rows of Cobra small and heavy-arms sat stacked along the walls.
"Wow. This stuff could miss a lot of Joes."
"Zip it, Crankcase." Ordered Grunt. "Let's find some goods and get out of here."
2.
Cobra Trooper CT-816 woke up to some light slapping on his now facemask-less cheeks. Batting away the annoyance, he slowly opened his eyes, then jumped in panic
Four heavily-armed G.I. Joes stood over him, looking down upon him like some infant in a crib. The Trooper desperately searched around himself for his AK-47, but stopped when a red-mustached Joe held it out in front of him.
"Looking for this?" asked the Joe.
CT-816 quickly reached out for it, but the Joe pulled it back. "Slow down, there, hotshot."
"Let me go."
"Not gonna happen." said a blond Joe, smiling. "But we'll cut you a deal. Tell us where our two injured friends are, and we'll just leave you locked in the weapons room, without knocking you out again."
The Trooper thought for a moment. "Not a chance, slime-balls."
Nodding, the blond Joe kept his smile. "Okay. Well, sorry we couldn't do business. Crankcase, he's all yours."
The red-mustached Joe pulled the Cobra off of the floor and leaned back into a punching stance. "Sorry if this breaks your jaw. I'm aiming for your nose."
Cringing in fear, the Cobra Trooper ducked his head. "Wait! Wait! I'll talk! Don't punch!"
Patting the Cobra's shoulder, the blond Joe grinned even more obnoxioiusly. "See? We can be friends after all. Now, where are those injured Joes?"
3.
The power cable felt ridiculously light in Destro's hands. It was only one-third the weight of the monstrous snake that he had attached to the Matrix Cannon in Libya, but it was perfect for the upgraded device, now—at least Cobra Commander thought so. The Commander had assured him that it was of superior quality, but he had no engineering skill, and Destro was anxious to humiliate the Head Snake yet again. This time…this time it carried a secret purpose. Still, Destro hated to see one of his creations fail, and there was also something almost—gothic—about having an obscenely large power cable on one of your weapons…and the manufacturer missed it.
"Is there a problem, my love?" asked the Baroness.
Destro smiled and began attaching the cable to the Matrix Cannon. "No, my dear. Of course not. I was merely…daydreaming."
"About me, I hope."
"Absolutely, my dear Baroness, absolutely." Destro tightened the cable attachment and stood up, looking at his amazing small, yet incredibly destructive creation. The Baroness' fingers crawled across his body, and her head lied on his shoulder.
"Is it complete?"
"Yes. It is ready for testing."
"It is magnificent."
Growling Destro placed his hands on the cannon, now sitting upon its mount. "Yes, but is my device. I grow tired of the Commander taking control of all of my weapons."
"Then perhaps you should be the one firing it, Destro." said a voice from behind the pair of lovers.
The duo turned around to see Cobra Commander standing in the doorway to the top floor chamber with the Crimson Twins standing behind him.
"C-Commander, I never meant—."
"I know what you meant, Destro. If this stupid gun is so important to you than by all means, climb onto the seat and take the shot yourself. I am not so shallow a man as you like to believe."
Destro looked back at the Commander for a moment, then decided that silence was the best choice at this time. Bowing his respect, the weapons manufacturer stepped to the rear of the Matrix Cannon's mount and sat onto the seat provided for the cannon's operator.
The Matrix Cannon itself was only about three-feet long, but it was mounted onto a stand that increased its length another three feet by providing a computer-control-station at the cannon's rear. A leather, high-backed seat was hooked behind the control station to provide the operator a sitting-space. The mount could raise about twenty feet high and rotate one-hundred-thirty-five-degrees. Standing in front of the Matrix Cannon were the top floor chamber's massive eighty-foot-wide sliding sky-doors. They needed to be opened in order for the cannon to have its shot to the East—towards the Brazilian Rain Forest.
A loud hum echoed throughout the chamber as Destro activated the cannon and it raised off of the ground. It was short-lived however, for only a couple seconds later the main doors were activated and the roar of their openings drowned out the little hum of the Matrix Cannon's elevation.
Once the doors began to open, wind and rain blasted into the chamber, and Destro called down to the Commander, "We can't afford to have the Matrix Cannon get damaged from rainfall! Let's hurry up with the test!"
"Fine! Tomax, Xamot! What are our targeting coordinates?"
"Latitude: ten-degrees-south." started Tomax.
"Longitude: sixty-degrees-west." finished Xamot.
"There, Destro! You see? Easy coordinates!" teased Cobra Commander. "Now, fire!"
"As you wish!" As he pressed in the numbers on the control-station's little square buttons, Destro came to the realization that he was getting a chill down his spine—that he was actually getting excited. His Matrix Cannon, for all the trouble it was to get it here, was complete, and amidst the gusting wind and rain, he was about to fire the weapon that would seal his place in history as one of the greatest minds of all time!
4.
"What the hell did I just do?" yelled out Range-Viper-98 as the secret south entrance door shut behind him.
The moment he had opened the door, the entire Cobra Incan Temple Outpost was cast into darkness. Screaming and crashing noises echoed through the hallways as panic-stricken Vipers tumbled into each other, searching for safety.
RV-98 leaned over and dropped the body of the G.I. Joe he was carrying. It slammed hard to the floor, but the Range-Viper paid it no attention. Pulling out his flashlight, RV-98 lit up the hall. After a few steps a H.I.S.S.-Driver and a Crimson Guardsman came running towards the Viper and crashed into him.
After shoving the hysterical klutzes off of him, RV-98 stood up. "What are you idiots doing? What is going on here?"
The H.I.S.S.-Driver stood up first. "It's Destro! His new weapon screwed up and blew out the main and back-up power generators! The whole Temple is powerless!"
RV-98 started laughing. He was a Wilderness Trooper not because he needed tools or weapons to provide him power—he was power. Destro and Cobra Commander could take all their fancy weapons and stick them in their rich little ears.
"Then get outside. It's wet, but it's still mid-day."
The two Cobras charged towards the door, but crashed again, tripping over Snake Eyes' body. "You idiots!" barked RV-98, "Don't hurt my Joe prisoner!"
"How were we supposed to know he was here?" snapped back the Crimson Guardsman as the duo pushed their way out the door.
Finally taking an interest in the Joe's condition, Range-Viper-98 walked over to him and knelt down. "It's gonna be a helluva chore to get you to the prison, but it's obvious I can't leave you here." Pulling the limp Joe up to his feet, the Viper prepared to heft him back onto his shoulder, but he cringed with pain and let go of his prisoner. Stepping back, RV-98 shone his flashlight down at his stomach; a Crimson Guardsman knife was sticking deep and twisted into his torso.
"You…you…took it from the C.G…when he…fell…you son-of-a-…" The Range-Viper reached for the scar-faced Joe who punched him, knocking the big, cocky Cobra Viper flat on his back.
The Joe stumbled over to the sliding flashlight, picked it up, and began a slow trek through the Temple.
5.
Although the hallway was pitch-black, the light around the door's edges informed the Joes that they were in the right place. Taking a stance, Grunt pulled his thigh back against his stomach, stomped sideways…and bounced back, crashing into Chuckles, who was standing right behind him.
"Whoa! You okay, Grunt?"
"Dammit! Yeah, I'm okay, Chuckles. They've got the door bolted shut. Looks like security is pretty tight."
Crankcase stepped in front of the door, aiming his newly-acquired AK-47 at the lock. "Let's do it my way, then."
"No, wait!" cried Grunt.
But it was too late. After a short burst of fire, the Joe Vehicle Driver kicked the door, and this time, it swung in hard. Unfortunately, thanks to Grunt's "early warning," there were Cobra Vipers in the room, crouched in firing positions, waiting for the Joes to come in. Jumping out of the way of the oncoming barrage of bullets, the Joe team landed on the hard, metallic floor of the hallway and tried to regain their wits in the dark.
"Well that's just great, team-leader Grunt." snarled Crankcase. "We've totally lost the element of surprise, and now there's a pair of Vipers waiting to pump us full of lead."
"I counted three of them." replied Grunt. "Well, if you had waited, like I ordered, maybe we wouldn't be in this predicament."
A grenade rolled out of the door. Crankcase grabbed it and hurled it down the hall. It could be heard bounce off of a wall twenty feet away, then hit the floor and explode.
The Joes cursed as loud as they could as a red flash hit them with a concussive force and shrapnel, leaving them with horribly ringing ears. Crankcase rolled over with his hands on his ears, and Chuckles and Alpine grabbed some cuts and scrapes on their bodies. Despite his own pain, Grunt cursed again, cocked his AK-47 and stood up. Spinning around, he swung his gun into the doorway.
The room was about twice as large as the prison room, with two beds attached to each wall. It was a fairly clean and organized room, but that was most likely due to the fact that the outpost was so new. Four gas lamps were spread around the room, providing the emergency light.
The three Vipers were all walking towards the door—apparently believing the grenade had finished the job for them; seeing Grunt totally caught them off guard. He immediately opened fire, shooting up their legs, since aiming for their bullet-proof vests would be a waste of time. As the Vipers fell, the Joe Infantryman ran up to each of them and pulled their helmets off. Using the butt of his rifle, he knocked each one into unconsciousness.
There were a couple of medics standing in the corner of the room, and Grunt stared harshly at them. "Where are my friends?"
One shaking medic pointed to a door marked "Restricted."
"Open it."
Nodding, the medic walked over and pulled out some keys, then stuck one in the door handle. Grunt picked up a gas lamp, and pushing the medic ahead of him, he walked into the room.
6.
"Destro!" Cobra Commander screamed so loud, it hurt. "When I get my hands on you…!" Looking up, the Head Snake could only see the Matrix Cannon sitting twenty-feet up on its mount, blowing black smoke out of its sides—smoke that had flooded the top-floor chamber, and was spiraling up and out, thanks to the heavy wind.
But Cobra Commander was drenched in black, as if he were a character in a classic cartoon that had just held an exploding bomb. Each one of his suits cost over ten-thousand dollars, they were works of art—would a Picasso be treated like this?
Tomax came walking out of the smoke to his right. "Commander, are you…"
"…all right?" the Commander turned his head to see Xamot emerge from the smoke on his left side.
"Huh? That is a stupid question. Look at this place! My wonderful Incan Temple Outpost! Do you realize how much this base cost me?"
"Actually…"
"We do."
Cobra Commander blinked. He forgot that he was talking to his accountants.
Some groaning could be heard, about fifteen feet away. "Go!" ordered the Commander. "Find out who that is!"
The twins walked back into the black, and in a minute they returned holding the Baroness. "Where…where is Destro?"
"I am trying to figure that out myself, Baroness."
"I am right behind you, Commander."
Spinning around, the Head Snake shrieked when he saw the Lord of Castle Destro standing to his rear, but holding giant wire cutters.
"Get back, you traitorous buffoon! I can have you killed in a heartbeat!" threatened the whimpering snake.
Destro laughed. "Don't flatter yourself, Cobra Commander. I intend to repair the Matrix Cannon, not the weak-link in Cobra Command's hierarchy."
As the Head Snake growled, the weapon's manufacturer walked over to the smoking Matrix Cannon—or more specifically, the power-cable hanging from its rear—and snipped it off. Slowly cooling down, the Matrix Cannon finally reached a point where it no longer emitted any smoke. The hard winds and rain quickly disposed of the black cloud that was funneling out of the mountaintop.
"Tell your Techno-Vipers to re-set the power generators." ordered Destro. "They should work; now that the Matrix Cannon is no longer draining them."
With a doubtful look on his face, Cobra Commander ushered away the Crimson Twins. "Do it."
As the brothers left the room, the Commander prepared to unleash his anger, "You said that your device was ready, Destro! What went wrong?"
Holding up the power cable that the Head Snake had provided for him, Destro growled. "This went wrong! You and your damn interference with my project! If you want things to work for you, my dear Cobra Commander, then stay out of my affairs!"
The Commander studied the weapon's manufacturer, and asked, "What do you really want, Destro?"
Slamming the broken cable to the floor, Destro stood closer to Cobra Commander. "Either give me a respectable share of this mission's profits, or you will see nothing."
Although he was a moronic engineer, Cobra Commander was a brilliant businessman. Destro smiled. "I want seventy-percent."
Laughing, the Commander looked away, then stepped in a puddle. "Fourty."
"Sixty."
Growling, Destro said, "Fifty."
Growling, Cobra Commander replied, "Fine."
After the terrorists shook hands, the Baroness took his arm, and the two of them left the room, leaving the Commander alone in the top-floor chamber to rage over what had just happened.
7.
"Cobra must be really stupid." said Breaker as he lowered Dukes binoculars, then handed them back to the G.I. Joe Master Sergeant.
Busy helping to set the M.M.S., Duke asked, "What makes you say that?"
"What made them think that they could hide a twenty-by-forty-foot-long steel wall in the middle of the Andes Mountains?"
"They've gotten away with it for over a year so far. My guess is that they're bribing the right people. Hand me that wrench."
Slapping the tool in Duke's hand, Breaker then took a swig of his water canteen. "Well, considering that they've got a big tower of smoke rising out of their little hidden base now, all the bribes in the world couldn't save them."
Duke stopped to look at the black gas snaking out of the top of the hollowed-out mountain that Cobra called its "Incan Temple." Something big had happened in there, but he had too few Joes with too little firepower to just charge into the base. His team had destroyed four Flight Pods and captured over thirty Troopers and Vipers that had fled the outpost in the last couple of hours, but the Joe Master Sergeant knew that he had to wait for reinforcements. He wasn't ready to strike. Now that his scout team had found the strike-point, he could bring in the rest of the team from Cusco, but it would still be almost a half-hour before they arrived.
8.
The light of the gas lamp cast its green glow across the bodies of the two unconscious Joes lying on the beds. In a room not much larger than a walk-in closet, there wasn't enough space for Grunt to comfortably maneuver. Worst of all, with his ears still ringing in pain from the grenade blast, it hurt him to try to listen for any kind of sound from his injured friends.
"Mainframe! Bazooka! Can you hear me? It's Grunt!" He shook Mainframe's arm, but got no response. There were numerous tubes hooked into his friends' arms, with straps wrapping multiple spots throughout their bodies and appendages.
Looking to the Cobra, Grunt was ready to explode with anger. Aiming a .357 Magnum at the medic, he barked, "Get these guys unhooked and pull out these intra-venous lines!"
The room's door opened, and Grunt turned, ready to fire, but Chuckles stood in the doorway waving his hands.
"Whoa! It's just me!"
Grunt pulled back his pistol and let out a sigh of relief. As he hunched over, the overhead lights turned back on, and everyone looked up.
"Looks like Cobra got the power back on." said Chuckles.
"We need to hurry up, then. How are the others?" Grunt looked back at the Cobra Medic working on Bazooka.
"Alpine is pretty bad, and Crankcase got really shook up. I hate to say it, but those guys absorbed the blast for the two of us."
"You and I are carrying Mainframe and Bazooka, and Crankcase is going to have to drag Alpine or something."
The medic walked up to Grunt. "The Joes are free to go."
"Good. Your fellow medic can stay here to work on the injured Vipers, but you're coming with us to show us the quickest way out of here."
The medic started shaking with a panicked-look in his eyes. "N-no. I don't think so." He reached up to a cabinet, opened it, and pulled out a syringe. Before the Joes realized what was happening, he injected the needle's contents into his arm.
"Dammit!" cursed Grunt as he grabbed the medic, who started shaking and slumped down in the Joe's arms. "Chuckles, make sure that other medic doesn't kill himself!"
"Roger!" The Joe Undercover agent ran back into the medical room, but found the Cobra-medic lifting the injured Vipers onto the beds. "You aren't planning on killing yourself, are you?"
"Not anytime soon. I need to stop the bleeding in these Vipers' legs, first."
Chuckles didn't know what to say. Concern for others was not a trait often found in agents of Cobra. "Well, good luck to you, then. You need anything?"
"Yes, hand me that scalpel."
"Chuckles!" called Grunt, "Get into the room and grab Bazooka, we're getting out of here."
9.
The Tele-Viper cursed his "newbie" status. Just because he was the newest fish in the pond, the rest of the group kept sending him to tell Cobra Commander about the bad news that kept popping up. First, it was the report about the lost Stun, which Cobra Commander threw a mild fit about, but now it was going to be much, much worse.
Frantically scrambling down the hall, the Tele-Viper reached the top-floor chamber and attempted to come to a stop at the room's entrance, but slid across the rain-covered metal floor and smashed into the wall.
Cobra Commander, who was watching the sky-doors slowly groan shut, jumped in shock and drew his pistol, "What the hell are you doing?"
Standing back up, the Tele-Viper nervously wiped himself off and stumbled into the room. "For-forgive me, your excellency. I have important news to report."
Sighing, the Commander waved his hand.
Nodding the Tele-Viper reported, "There is a unit of Joes setting themselves up on the ridge opposite our main entrance!"
Cast into panic-stricken hysteria, the Head Snake shrieked and charged forward. "What? Why didn't we see them coming? Why wasn't I told about this until now?"
Taking a step back and raising his arms in defense, the Tele-Viper whimpered back, "B-because our power was knocked out. We could not process the surveillance reports from our Flight-Pods until now."
Screaming in rage, Cobra Commander stormed towards the exit of the top-floor chamber. The Tele-Viper sighed relief and hunched over.
"And you, you stupid Tele-Viper," barked the Commander.
Turning around, the newbie Tele-Viper saw the Head Snake pointing his pistol back at him. "Next time, use the damn intercom!"
After three gunshots into his chest, the Viper collapsed to the sopping-wet floor and whispered, "But the power only just came back on…sir…"
With that, the hardest working Viper at the Cobra Incan Temple Outpost signed off the roster.
10.
"The fifty feet of cable on this cart will do. At least better than the cable Cobra Commander had provided for me." Destro pushed the cart over to a Techno-Viper that was in the research-lab with the weapon's manufacturer and the Baroness. "Take this up to the top-floor chamber and await my arrival."
"Yes Lord Destro."
As the Viper pushed the heavy cart out of the room, Destro began picking up some tools, then looked over to the Baroness. "Are you all right, my dear? You seem lost in thought."
Cautiously taking her eyes off of the supply room door in the back of the lab, she turned around to face her lover. "Yes, yes, I am fine, Destro. I am just…concerned…about our situation with the Commander, that is all."
Destro re-focused his attention to picking up his tools. "Do not concern yourself with that fool. I have shown him that I am not just another asset to be used at his will, and that the Matrix Cannon is too complex for his small mind to process. Most important of all, he no longer controls all the money." He stopped at the exit. "Are you going to join me in the chamber, my dear?"
The Baroness was once again looking at the door, but half-answered Destro's question. "No, no, I'll be fine. You go on. I'll join you in a little while."
Frowning, the Lord of Castle Destro left the room, and the Baroness walked over to the lab door and shut it. Sliding open a drawer near the exit, she pulled out an Uzi sub-machine-gun and an ammo clip. Slapping the clip in place, she walked closer to the supply room door and aimed the gun at it.
"When Destro and I last left this room, the supply door was wide open. I know, because I was the last to walk in it." Looking at the door handle, she frowned. "And I certainly didn't have bloody hands. Whoever is in there: I have an Uzi aimed at the door, and will fire it in five seconds. You have that long to surrender yourself."
She cocked the Uzi, then began counting.
"Five." Silence.
"Four." Silence.
"Three." Some rustling sounds.
"Two." The door handle jiggled.
"One." The door swung in, and the intruder stumbled out.
"My god, Snake Eyes. What did Storm Shadow do to you?"
The Joe commando, wearing a Cobra Trooper facemask, weakly raised his hands in surrender.
"I must get you to the medical room, immediately. I have more respect for you than to just watch you bleed to death in this third-rate research-lab. Come."
11.
"Duke, come here!" cried Breaker.
The Joe Master Sergeant ran over from the H.A.L. and looked down to where his long-time teammate was pointing. He didn't even need his binoculars to recognize what was happening.
"This is it, guys! Cobra is opening up their main doors! Take your positions on your vehicles and weapons and prepare for hell!" Duke ran back to the Armadillo, stomping across the little mud puddles overflowing with the rain water still falling from the thick, gray clouds. Sliding into the mini-tank's cockpit and splashing onto the seat, Duke asked Breaker, "How much longer until the reinforcements get here?"
"About five more minutes. We won't have any heavy air support for another ten."
Duke's curse was muffled by the ignition of the Armadillo's engine. Switching to radio, the master sergeant called to his team, "Okay, guys, we've got two little vehicles, two artillery and a couple of bikes. But you know what? Right now they're the most powerful damn machines on the planet, because they've got G.I. Joes operating them. So let's stay sharp, and stay strong. Screwing up is not an option. We've got five minutes to be gods among men, and you know what? I say we can do it, right?"
The entire team cried out, "Yo Joe!"
12.
"Damn!" cursed Grunt as he swung back around the corner.
"Who the hell was that?" said sommeone down the hall.
"I don't know. Let's check it out."
Chuckles set Bazooka down and pulled up his AK-47. "What happened? Are there guards down there?"
Grunt nodded, set Mainframe down and grabbed his assault rifle as well. Whispering a quick prayer, the Joe infantryman jumped around the corner and opened fire. Screaming could be heard, but after a moment, it was quiet again.
"You get 'em?" asked Chuckles.
"Yeah. I hate doing that."
As Grunt slung the rifle back over his shoulder, a door at the end of the hall was kicked open, and two more Vipers ran out shooting.
"Crap!" cried Grunt as he jumped towards Chuckles, who pulled him to safety.
"Come out, Joes!" taunted the Vipers.
"Yeah, we need the target practice!"
Crankcase handed Grunt a grenade.
"No way, Crankcase, I am not that brutal."
"Chill out, man! It's just a stun grenade. It'll only hurt the hell out of them, and us, too, but it might be our only chance to get out of here."
Grunt looked at the little black tube, about the size of a soda can and covered in large holes. "Fine. Let's get ready to go."
After the Joes were picked back up, the Joe infrantryman pulled the grenade's pin and tossed the smoking can around the corner.
"What the hell?"
"They tossed a grenade! Ru--!" Before the Viper could complete his sentence, the bomb blasted, using only a bright flash and a deafening bang to agonize the Vipers.
The Joe team walked around the corner and unmasked the Cobra troops, then completely knocked them out with the butt of their guns.
Grunt pushed open the door and led the Joes through into another long, narrow hallway. He planned to plod on down the tunnel without even looking up, when Chuckles called to him.
"Grunt! Stop!"
Not intending to slow down, the mission leader came to a standstill when he looked up and saw Snake Eyes standing in front of him, with the Baroness holding an Uzi at his back.
"Well now, this is interesting," smiled the Queen of Cobra, "You Joes just keep popping up, and looking worse and worse. I'm sorry to say it, but it's back to the medical room for you, darlings. Every one of you boys really, really need it."
"Let us go, Baroness." demanded Grunt.
"You must be joking."
"Let us go, now." emphasized the Infantry Trooper, even louder.
Baroness wiped all emotion from her face, adjusted her glasses, and pressed the Uzi against the back of Snake Eyes' head. "Go back to the medical room, or he dies."
Grunt and Chuckles set down Mainframe and Bazooka yet again, and aimed their AK-47s. "Then he dies."
"What?" gasped the Baroness; but as she did so, Snake Eyes bent forward and kicked back, swiping the Cobra Queen's legs. She collapsed to the floor shooting Uzi bullets into the ceiling. Grunt ran forward and pinned the Baroness to the ground, disarmed her, then knocked her out.
"Sorry, Baroness, but Snake Eyes was just holding back until he found us."
"Yeah, but Big-B was right about one thing, Snake is hurt." said Crankcase. The team looked to the Joe commando to see him crouched on one knee and breathing heavily.
"Should we get him back to the medic?" asked Chuckles.
"No." said a voice behind the Joes. They turned around to see Storm Shadow standing in the doorway behind them. "If you value your lives, you all must leave."