G I JOE - BACK TO REALITY - CH18
Serpentor, Cobra's supreme leader, snarled at the latest news delivered to him by a messenger. Cobra has invaded Washington DC, but it had not gone well.
It had come to his attention someone had sabotaged his entire campaign from the beginning, and now his men were retreating, using the Anacostia River, that snaked through Washington, to ferry themselves into open waters, and back to Cobra Island into the Atlantic Ocean in utter disgrace.
And he could only think of one individual who dared defy him. A man who had never accepted his superiority!
Serpentor was cloned with the genetic markers and traits from dozens of past leaders from all around the world. From Julius Caesar, the first pre-Emperor of Rome; to the Mongolian warrior and conqueror, Genghis Khan; to the Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, and to other remarked and noteworthy leaders. With this, he became the ultimate warrior, strategist, and thinker. But when the final preparations were being done, he learned afterwards, something has gone wrong and an essential piece of DNA had failed to blend within his own DNA, and lacked subtly and patience. And the man in question that continuously defied his authority sought to forever mock this failing, professing Cobra deserved a leader with an overall suitability for leadership. And the man questioned Serpentor at every turn, even speaking outwardly about Serpentor's ineptness.
But Serpentor didn't care. He was born a leader, figuratively and literately, and regardless of his character traits, genetically predisposed, his or another's, he demanded to be revered, feared, and his orders to be followed without question!
"For this I command!" Were his words to drive his orders into his troops with boom and godliness.
Serpentor stood gallantry on the front deck of a Hydrofoil speeding forward towards its destination beyond the edge of the Anacostia River's waterway edge to the Atlantic Ocean. His personal flyer destroyed by his enemies, his uniform caked with black soot and grim from batting collective G I Joe forces unified with US forces, his cape also ripped after needing to fight hand-to-hand, he didn't want to talk to anyone, wanting to be alone; to think.
Serpentor hated failure. But it wasn't he who had failed, it was his men...and someone was going to pay. Yes, punishment will be dished out in numbers for this disaster.
His strategists had planned for everything: theories, enemy movements, reasonability's, but no one could have planned for betrayal. Which they should've planned for, he thought in retrospect. That's what he paid them for! But his strategists weren't psychics, so their punishment wouldn't be as severe as some other people Serpentor had in mind, he decided.
But that would have to wait.
A messenger came to stand by Serpentor's side. He wore a simple blue trooper uniform. "Sorry to intrude, my lord, but there is a video call for you. It's Major Bludd." He handed Serpentor a hand held device with a tiny monitor and a speaker.
Serpentor snatched it out of the trooper's hand and pushed the small man back. In size, Serpentor was twice muscular and a foot taller than the man. He didn't thank the man. The Major's face was on the handheld device screen. "Major Bludd, explain to me this mess?"
"I don't have an answer, my lord, other than the belief that someone betrayed us," Bludd replied. Serpentor agreed. "This person gave away our entire strategy, troop movements, and locations. I don't know who. Those who have managed to escape are fleeing back to Cobra Island. I'm sorry for this failure, although it's not my fault."
Serpentor narrowed his eyes, then threw the device into the river, not wanting excuses.
Yet this person who cost him everything will be sorry for this failure. Yes, very sorry indeed.
He looked back at the same trooper he shoved a minute earlier. The man hadn't left. "Get me Cobra Commander, now!"
"Yes, sir!" The trooper turned, but then stopped suddenly. He turned back, as if recalling something. "Cobra Commander is missing, my lord. He disappeared in the midst of the battle. Efforts to find him have failed."
"Then find him! Now!"
"Yes, my lord, Serpentor!"
"On second thought..." Serpentor pulled out a pistol from a holster on his hip. "I can't stand incompetence!" And shot and killed the man, blasting a hole in his chest. The man dropped like a stone to the deck plating. He thought this simple kill would make him feel better, but it only added to the emptiness he felt when murdering another human being.
Another trooper witnessed the murder, stood shocked. Serpentor replaced the pistol in its holster. "Get rid of that garbage! And find Cobra Commander for me! Now!"
The trooper gave a sharp salute, dumped the dead trooper overboard, and then commenced with the task his leader gave him, and entered the hold.
Serpentor turned around to muse, as the Hydrofoil raced/glided out of the Anacostia River waterway and out into the open ocean. And as his troops made their escape, several craft following in his wake, it was then he received good news.
Cobra Commander had been located. A secret locator Serpentor had hidden on the man, somewhere in his armor suit had finally started to function despite numerous attempts to find it. The signal must have been masked somehow, but now rang true loudly on a personal locator beacon. He had decided to plant one on Cobra Commander much like an owner leashed a dog.
The only problem was, despite knowing his precise location, the beacon indicated Cobra Commander was deep inside Washington DC. And Cobra forces were going in the opposite direction.
The Cobra leader swore. Serpentor wanted Cobra Commander. He wanted to strangle the man with his bare hands, to make his eye pop out of their sockets, to see blood gust out of every orifice of the man's blood. But it would have to wait.
And Serpentor hated to do wait.
Kamakura could only watch as his comrades, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, were subjected to the horrors of Cobra Commander's VR world, and now they were at the whim of yet another psychopath inside this world, Firefly. And with the safeties off, there was no telling what Firefly would do to them.
With his wrists chained to the wall, Kamakura felt helpless. All his training and martial arts, and he couldn't even help his friends in their greatest time of need. He struggled, pulled, yanked intensely at his bindings, but to no avail.
"No use, my friend," Slice said. "We're obviously slated to be killed after Cobra Commander has his way with your friends and Firefly. It's hopeless."
Kamakura turned to look at the red clad ninja who was chained next to him, and saw the depression that ravaged him, painfully so expressed by his slacking body language. Slice's head slumped down to his chest; his mask hid his expressions but it wasn't hard to see the man's anguish. He had already given up.
"You're pathetic, you know," Kamakura said. "And you call yourself a ninja? Cobra Commander's son has more backbone than you, and he's a cripple!"
"We can't escape these chains," Slice said. "What hope do we have?"
"There's always a way out! Weren't you listening to Storm Shadow? A ninja must be smarter than his opponent!"
"Cobra Commander's a pretty smart guy. A lot people don't give him enough credit."
"People like Cobra Commander only seem more intelligent to idiots like you!"
"Then do you have a plan of escape?" asked Slice, with a hint of eagerness. "I'd very much like to survive today."
"You and me both," agreed Kamakura. "I have a small knife hidden inside my right boot. If I lift my legs up, do you think you can reach in and grab it?"
"I'll try," Slice said. It was then Kamakura grabbed both chains attached to his wrist cuffs and lifted his entire body upwards so his feet reached his head, then swiveled them to Slice's hands. Slice reached into Kamakura's right boot and slipped out a tiny knife. Kamakura relaxed. "Now what?" Slice asked.
"Try to unlock one of my cuffs," said Kamakura.
Slice attempted the procedure, reaching over and sticking the tiny blade into the hole of the nearest cuff, wiggling it. At first it didn't work, then he heard a click.
"Got it!"
Cobra Commander had given Firefly full control inside the BWS virtual reality world and Firefly intended to use it to his every advantage, including killing the two men standing before him.
Firefly had replaced the image of Billy. Wearing his gray camouflage gear and armed to the teeth with guns, grenades, knifes, and every other assortment of gear and weaponry, and anything else his sordid imagination could summon; he was ready for murderous intent. And there was nothing that could stop him.
He plucked off a grenade and pulled the pin, ready to throw... "Time to die!" Then threw it, sending it soaring through the air towards the two ninja.
It landed, bounced, both ninja jumped out of its blast radius, and...
No explosion happened after a set time when such a blast should have occurred. When a grenade pin is pulled, there is a three second countdown before detonation, whereas the explosive and gunpowder mix to create a volatile mixture.
"What?" Firefly said. "No boom?"
Both his victims looked back at the dud grenade. "Well, aren't we lucky!" Storm Shadow said.
"You won't be so lucky now!" Firefly plucked three grenades off his chest holster, pulled the pins, and threw them. They flew through the air, landed, and again, nothing. They were duds too.
Firefly swore. He pulled out a pistol, but the energy gauge read empty. And so did a rifle he imagined into existence, and other energy related weapons.
"I don't believe this!" Firefly cursed. Other weapons of choice like swords and knifes, their blades fell limp in his grip. "Commander! What the hell is happening here?" He shouted into the sky. "All my weapons are -"
"I'm afraid your services are no longer needed, Firefly. And this is the price of failure!" Cobra Commander spoke godly to him. "You failed to kill Snake Eyes, you've continuously failed any number of tasks given to you. Now this is your punishment. You'll die with them!"
Firefly screamed in aghast horror at the betrayal, and swore at his ex-employer.
To be continued…