Chapter 17
The doctor gets the door and the Cobra Commander steps in. He's wearing his trademark metal mask and blue uniform, complete with the red Cobra logo. I'm so awed by his arrival that for one precious moment, what I just found out takes the backstage in my mind... only for guilt to jerk me back to Earth and to more worthy concerns than celebrity gawking.
"Yes, Commander," the doctor says, "as you can see, he's awake. It seems like we interrupted the treatments towards the end of the first phase."
The Commander nods curtly and turns towards me.
"Has the doctor told you what you were and how you ended up here? I'm assuming you don't actually remember."
It takes a conscious effort to keep my expression calm. Neither of them seems to have much sympathy to waste on me. I suppose I wouldn't either if I remembered everything I must have witnessed the Order do.
"He's told me I was a member of a ninja clan, the Arashikage, who were wiped out by the Order. I remember the name as mine, and I remember bits and pieces of the attack, but I don't actually remember any…" my throat closes up and I have to stop.
"I'm sorry," he says mechanically.
"I don't remember anyone," I finish.
"I'm sure it still hurts."
This last comment pushes me over the edge. He doesn't understand: I've lost them completely, I can't even honour their memory, and he thinks that makes it hurt less. I'm on my feet, holding him by the front of his shirt one inch from the floor before I even realize what I'm doing. I release him and back up, shaking in anger.
"It's the worst part of it," I snarl. "I can't even miss them. I just found out my whole family is dead, but they're just a blank to me! I should be devastated, but I'm just angry! Don't you have any idea how insulting this must be to them? And just to top things off, the Order tried to turn me into their slave!" My tone has been creeping up, and I'm yelling by the time he interrupts me.
"Speaking of which, you DO realize you were lucky, do you not? If we hadn't managed to rescue you, you'd probably not even remember you ever HAD a family, and the Order would be using you to commit the exact same kind of atrocities on their other opponents, or even on innocents."
The only response that comes to mind is to break everything in sight, including anybody stupid enough not to get out of the way. I don't remember ever being this angry – but of course, I wouldn't. I clench my fists, close my eyes and concentrate on my breathing. As cold as they seem, these people rescued me: they deserve gratitude, not my throwing a fit.
"Join us," the Commander says when I look at him again. "Help us stop them."
The offer helps me focus and think of where I should go from here. The answer presents itself almost automatically: I need to avenge my family. Nothing must distract me from that until it's done, until I've killed every last one of the Joes and whoever sent them. Doing that would be a lot easier as a member of Cobra than on my own: they have the resources to help me hunt down the Joes. I don't want to join under false pretences, however, and I don't actually care about saving the world from the Order right now.
"You don't want me. I would only be joining for my own selfish reasons," I say. "GI Joe slaughtered my family, and the Order killed them again by making me forget them. I MUST avenge them."
He actually laughs. My eyes narrow and the doctor elbows him to get him to be serious again.
"I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at your motivations, it's just… how many genuine heroes do you think the world holds? How many of them aren't happily extinguishing fires or some such, blissfully unaware of the Order? Most people here aren't selfless souls dedicating their lives to save the world. They all have their own reasons for helping me, and for several of them, that reason is nothing more than money. I don't care: I can't afford to pick and choose, and even if I could, I'd be quite happy to have you. I see nothing wrong with wanting justice. However, just because I don't care what your motivations are doesn't mean I don't care what you do. If you do join, you will have to obey me, in everything. Absolute discipline is the only way for me to have any control over this organization."
I take a moment to think about it. I'm not sure how I feel about placing myself under anyone's authority, but I couldn't ask for a better employer to help me achieve my goal than the most powerful anti-Order organization in the world.
"Promise me you will never fail to give me every opportunity to face the Joes, and in exchange, I will be your most loyal subject."
"It's a deal," he says, sounding perfectly delighted. "Now, Arashikage-san, let's see if I've hired a ninja. Come to the gymnasium: I'll get you to spar with a few other men, shoot a few arrows or those little ninja stars or something, and we'll see if your skills are indeed intact."
His addressing me by my family name reminds me that it's all I know of my actual identity. The doctor seems to read my expression correctly.
"I don't think I got around to telling you your name yet, have I? According to our files, it's Thomas S. You are usually referred to as Tommy, and we have records of Tomisaburo being used by some of your Japanese relatives, so we figure your middle name is Saburo."
I nod. It doesn't ring a bell, but at least it doesn't feel wrong, either.
"Speaking of names," the Commander pipes in, turning his head around from the doorway to look at me, "I imagine you wouldn't want the name Arashikage to stop being used altogether, but I must warn you we mostly have English speakers here. It WILL get mangled quite horribly."
I nod again. He's pronouncing it wrong himself.
"Most of my higher rankings associates use an English code name. It helps with our image, so I would prefer you do as well – maybe a translation of your own name? Does it have one? I mean, does it mean anything?"
"Arashi means storm, kage means shadow," I answer. "It could mean many things."
"Ah, see? Even I was pronouncing it wrong." He chuckles. "Let's see… Storm and Shadow…" he muses. "How about Storm Shadow? It's nice and short, and where it's a literal translation, it's almost as good as using the original name, don't you think?"
I shrug; I don't really care what others call me. I would prefer he didn't call me something involving the S sound – he hisses horribly – but it doesn't seem worth protesting about.
"Well, it's settled then: Storm Shadow. Follow me."
I follow him, trying to think, on the way, of any fighting technique I might remember. By the time we make it to the gym, it's clear to me that I remember everything I've ever learned – not only is there no sense of anything missing, I remember an insane amount of katas, fighting techniques, hypnosis methods, self-control exercises and techniques, weapon techniques, and a lot of things on using my hearing - and to a lesser degree, my other senses - over my sight. I feel downright invincible, a feeling helped further by the doctor calling me the best ninja in the world earlier.
The troops snap to standing attention when he enters the gym. The Commander turns towards me and wait. I lean against the wall: I will not follow the same protocols the Order follows.
"You have my loyalty," I whisper, "but I will NOT play soldier. Ever."
He turns back to his troops.
"This is our newest recruit:" he announces, "Storm Shadow. As you can see, he's exempt of certain protocols – I have my reasons for that and will not suffer questions or attempts at skipping protocols from anyone else."
The troops eye me curiously. I straighten up to face them properly and nod at them.
"Storm Shadow is the sole survivor of the Arashikage, and the Order was in the process of flipping him when we rescued him. As a result, he doesn't remember anything about his past."
"Must you give my biography to everyone?" I ask in a whisper.
"Because of this," he continues, ignoring me, "I need to test whether he has retained any of his former skills. Any volunteer? Obviously, this will remain gentle – I don't want any injuries."
I snort: almost everyone took a step back the instant the Commander said the word "volunteer". The Commander is not nearly as amused as I am: he turns to one of several people wearing a different uniform than the standard blue.
"Zartan," he hisses, "don't be such a yellow belly and come here."
Zartan's heart rate immediately triples and he backs up another step.
"My back is injured," he lies.
I roll my eyes at him.
"If you want to test me, Commander, you should put me up against a man, not a mouse. As a matter of fact, you should just tell them all to attack me and be done with it."
The Commander cocks his head at me.
"Oh? Well, if you insist… you heard him people, give him a lesson in humility!"
They try, but every move, every choice of strategy, comes to me automatically, and it feels as though they're moving in slow motion. Even though there are about thirty of them against only one of me, they don't stand a chance.
By the time the last one retreats and surrenders, the Commander is clapping heartily.
"Splendid!" he cackles. "You're even better than I thought!"
He guides me to the target range next and gets me to try a bow. My first arrow not only reaches the center of the first target, but goes straight through it. I smirk at the Commander.
"How much more of your time do you want to waste on tests?" I ask him.
"This is no waste of time," he hisses. "Even if I was as sure as you are that you haven't lost any of your former skills, I'd still need to know just what you can do."
By the end of the day, he's had me try dozens of weapons, run as fast as I could, do some acrobatics – I asked him whether he was going to get me to dance, too, at that point – and finally, fight blind against a dozen armed opponents.
The end result is that he's rightfully impressed, and I'm quite pleased to confirm to myself that I have the power to make GI Joe pay for their crimes.
The following days are much less eventful. The Commander appoints me as one of his bodyguards, but he rarely feels the need for my presence and I'm mostly left to my own devices. I use the time to train: just because I'm already great doesn't mean I can't be better, and the better I am, the more damage I can do to the Order in general and GI Joe in particular.
Doctor Mindbender sees me once a day and tries to jog my memory and to fill in the gaps, but as he admitted himself when I first woke up, all he knows about me is very basic file information. He knows my parents died before the attack on the clan, but doesn't know what they were like. He knows I'm not married, but he doesn't know why. When I asked him about the symbol I have tattooed on my right arm, he told me that Cobra believes it to be a popular ninja symbol. Going against my own guess, he confirmed they are quite certain it has nothing to do with the Arashikage in particular.
This goes on for nearly a month. By the time the Commander finally announces we're crashing the UN convention the following morning, I'm so frantic for action that it's all I can do not to shout for joy.
Author's notes:
Sorry for the short chapter. I've done tons of overtime this week and I don't think I wrote 500 words altogether, so I couldn't afford to make this update bigger. It's a pretty good place to stop, anyway. I still have a bonus for the reviewers, even if it's just the one I was saving for exactly this type of situation.
On the awesomeness of ninjas: I like my ninjas slightly over the top (as you may have noticed). Storm Shadow in particular is among the bests and a specialist of multi-opponents fights, as he demonstrated back in the first few chapters. Between that and the fact Cobra troopers are for the most part not precisely stellar fighters, he can certainly take on thirty unarmed ones, especially in a room crowded with equipment, where they're all in each other's way.
Thank you for reading!