BACK TO REALITY - CHAPTER 16

Cobra Commander scowled furious behind his mask.

The leader of Cobra clenched his fists at his side as he glared at Storm Shadow on screen. The unmasked ninja appeared to be looking straight at him glaring into the camera lens that focused onto a set of hardened eyes.

After years of experience, Cobra Commander knew pissing off a ninja was one of the worse mistakes a man could make. Storm Shadow was a man of honor and if his honor was chipped away at, ninjas had a strict code of payback. When Zartan killed Storm Shadow's uncle - the Blind Master - the ninja spent years gathering intelligence to learn his uncle's murderer, servicing Cobra. But when it came to actually seeking revenge, Storm Shadow went soft.

But now, after years of brainwashing from the Brain Wave Scanner, no doubt Storm Shadow's mind was warped to an extent that he will not renege on revenge this time. "I was the one who initially sent you to kill Snake Eyes, Firefly," Cobra Commander said straightening. "But you failed to get the job done."

"Zartan accidentally killed the wrong man," he said in response. "You know my reasons for disengaging in the assassination and sending him. I need not have to repeat myself."

Cobra Commander turned to the explosive's expert, engaging Firefly's eyes behind his camouflage mask. Firefly's eyes were cold, and Cobra Commander saw no regret in them. Firefly was a psychopath. But he was also a man Cobra Commander could trust, to a certain extent. "Blame is irrelevant at this stage in the game. But ninjas, as you know, are a serious, troublesome lot. I will not have everything I've worked for here ruined by a man with the intelligence of a peacock!"

Slice.

Cobra Commander looked away from Firefly for a moment in thought, his mind was racing with a plan. His eyes narrowed in a sinister look.

"My original plan was to lull both ninja's into a false security of reality, then crush their spirits, destroying their minds," he said in contemplation. "But the game isn't over yet. Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes are still trapped within my new and improved Brain Wave Scanner. And I still have control."

"Then what's the plan?" demanded Firefly. "Fry their brains?"

"Overloading their neuron receptors with electronic impulses will kill them, but it will do it too quickly. I want them to suffer, as I have. I want Snake Eyes to die slowly for killing my brother in a car crash, and Storm Shadow for stealing my son and turning him against me."

"I don't care how them die. Let's just kill them already."

"Patience Firefly. This is my game. And I set the rules." Cobra Commander sinisterly chuckled. "The true game has yet to begin. I doesn't matter now if both Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes have regained their memories, it will make my revenge ever sweeter."

Cobra Commander picked up the chair he had thrown down and sat down at the computer console.

"The original perimeters may have been changed due to Slice's incompetence, but. . ." And his fingers began to dance across the keyboard in a speed that Firefly thought impressive. Cobra Commander reprogrammed the environment, turning its subtleness into a new world. "Now, let's see what our ninja friends will do. I will pull out both men's deepest, darkest fears and use them against them. Every man has a breaking point, even a ninja."

"I like how you think, Cobra Commander," Firefly said, with a small laugh.

"That's why I'm leader, and you're not."

To be continued…