AUTHORS NOTE: I believe this might be the best chapter to date, especially if you are a true blue Snake-Eyes fan. Let me know what you think…
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: INFILTRATION (aka THE WRAITH)
There were only three members of Echo Team remaining in position to accomplish the current mission: Snake-Eyes, Barbecue, and Blowtorch. The extraction team had the odds stacked against them now that they were down to three men out of the original five. Cautiously and with weapons up, moving forward like a highly trained cohesive unit, they entered inside the dark walls of Wolken Prison.
Due to the chaos from the initial attack and…thankfully, the return of the Flagg and its nightmare shells, enemy forces had dispersed like scattering ants. As a result, Echo Team had been able to navigate through the prison with greater stealth and without much opposition. Any time an enemy guard had surfaced within their vision, one of the three was able to quickly disperse of the opponent. If they had the opportunity to avoid direct combat, they would duck out of sight.
Each team member had memorized the prison inside and out, at least according to the blue prints forwarded from Jinx. They pressed forward towards the coordinates where they had been told to most likely expect Whiskey Team. They were getting closer... only a few rooms away.
The strike team entered a long, empty room with jail cells on both sides of the room. They carefully scanned the area with their weapons held high as they prepared to pass through. The cells, each a small run down concrete room with a single row of iron bars for a narrow door centered in the concrete wall, appeared to be abandoned. All of the jail cell doors were wide open. Nonetheless, the angle of visibility wasn't good and each cell had to be checked thoroughly.
Snake-Eyes stopped, holding up his fist. Could have sworn I heard something… He strained his ears as he and his silent team listened intently. But all he could hear was, occasionally, the distant noise of gunfire (most likely panic shots from jumpy Borovians outside Wolken Prison) and the sound of his own heartbeat.
Snake-Eyes continued extra cautiously, leading the way and moving towards the right side of the room. A cautious soldier never went down the middle when he didn't know what was there. Stepping around the corner of the first cell, his M-16 drawn… the cell was empty. So far so good.
Barbecue covered Snake by watching the left side of the room, including the empty cells, and remained only a few steps behind Snake while Blowtorch took the rear flank. Snake-Eyes moved forward to verify the next cell was empty.
But before he could turn the corner, an enemy soldier lurched out of the cell, shoving the bayonet of his rifle forward towards Snake-Eyes. Slightly surprised… but far from off guard, Snake did a quick side-step to the left, dropping his own rifle in order to grab the oppositions, and used his own momentum to toss him in front of Barbecue.
Before Barbecue could react, Snake-Eyes grabbed the weapon of the fallen enemy soldier and stabbed him with the bayonet on the end… the same weapon he tried to kill him with.
Still, as quickly as it happened, other hiding enemy soldiers popped out of their jail cells. It was a textbook ambush.
Blowtorch fired off his flamethrower; its range could only reach the first enemy, but he also knew it might distract the others just enough for them to drop their guard. And with Snake and Barbecue, the slightest distraction to the enemy was enough to take advantage of the situation and take them out.
Barbecue fired away with his M-16, ducking as low as he could to make himself a small target. Instantly he killed one, but the return fire was also dangerously close to him. He slowly started to back up towards the first cell but remained engaged in the firefight.
Realizing the trap that was sprung, and with his back to the enemies, Snake-Eyes quickly jumped inside the second cell that the soldier he killed was previously hiding in to buy a little time. His own M-16 was already on the ground and just out of his reach; the enemy fire was too heavy for him to run out and grab it… even for a soldier as fast as himself. The best he could do was draw a pair of throwing knives until he could reach his rifle, or at least get them within range for hand-to-hand combat.
"Behind us!" Blowtorch shouted, trying to turn around to face the new threat.
A tall man wearing some kind of gray body armor, wearing a grey helmet… but with glowing blue eye holes staring out… stood in the doorway, taking aim. Before Blowtorch had a chance to move, the armored man fired.
Nailing the fuel tank of the flamethrower on Blowtorches back, the force of the bullet dropped him to the side. Oh thank the Lord, he initially thought, I'm alive. If this fuel didn't have such a high flashpoint we'd all be blown sky high… But Blowtorch knew that he wasn't out of it just yet. The flamethrower was destroyed. It didn't explode…but was destroyed. His pride and joy was out of commission. I bet Barbecue would be happy to see that, …assuming we make it out of here alive, that is.
The presence of the armored warrior appeared to lift the morale of the opposition. One of the soldiers cried, "Wraith, we have them pinned dow…" but before he could finish his sentence, two knives came hurling across the room, striking the soldier in the chest and dropping him to the ground before he knew what hit him. That gave Snake-Eyes enough time to lurch forward, bend down, and grab his M-16.
Barbecue turned to fire at The Wraith. Bullet after bullet slammed into him, and satisfaction flashed across Barbecues face for just a split second, initially unaware of how powerful the armor was. The armor of The Wraith had not only stopped the bullets, but it hardly knocked him off balance. Barbecue was bewildered. That stopped an M-16? Are you kid…
Leaping forward with outstanding speed, as quick as a flash… faster than possible by any human, The Wraith in a single motion pulled out his sword and cut down Barbecue, slashing him apart diagonally. Barbecue had tried to block the sword attack with his weapon, but The Wraith was too quick.
No! Snake-Eyes would have shouted as loud as he could have, had he the ability to speak. Disregarding his own M-16 (especially after realizing how ineffective Barbecues ammunition was against him), he drew his blade as quick as lightning.
Which was a good thing, because The Wraith was on top of Snake-Eyes in a flash. Snake barely had enough time to pull it from his scabbard; as is, the moment he drew it, he immediately parried the overhead attack from the man in the incredible grey armor, turning the force of his killing blow to the side.
Regaining his footing, Blowtorch pulled out his assault rifle. The speed of this thing…incredible. Either he's not human, or the technology of that armor is amazing. Even if he was wearing Kevlar, he should have at least recoiled from the hit of Barbecues rounds. Just thinking of Barbecues name snapped Blowtorch back to the reality of what had happened to his brother in arms. With one slash from that animal's sword, Barbecue…
Snake-Eyes and The Wraith were locked into combat, slashing and parrying, ducking and dodging. Blowtorch couldn't get an angle on him with his rifle as quickly as he was moving, but he did manage to shoot and kill the last threat in the room… outside of The Wraith himself. He ran over to Barbecue, to see how badly wounded he was, dragging him inside one of the cells for cover.
"Barbecue! Man, wake up!" Pulling out a small medical kit, he tried to stop the bleeding the best he could. He could see Barbecue, looking upward, barely conscious, but a lot of blood had spilled out. He was in bad, bad shape. Blowtorch was clearly torn between assisting Snake-Eyes in combat and trying to save Barbecue from bleeding to death. He had seen Snake-Eyes fight before and hoped he could stand up to The Wraith while he patched up Barbecue as quickly as he could. "Buy me some time, Snake…" he mumbled to himself as he elevated him and applied pressure to stop the bleeding.
Meanwhile, the two swordsmen kept dueling. Man, he's quick. If this guy were normal speed, it'd still be a tough fight. The strength behind his blade has to come from his armor. It's tremendous. Snake-Eyes felt like he was losing the edge; it was hard to get anything past this guy. Quick, well-trained with a sword, and smart. He'd never fought anyone like this. Well… there was this one guy, a long, long time ago, but…
An opening, Snake-eyes thought, seeing a critical error in The Wraiths defense. As The Wraith stepped forward in a lunge, he stepped a little too far. This allowed Snake to, in one swift motion, parry the sword to the outside, continue his twisting moment to do a full three-sixty spin while maintaining defense, and use his momentum to strike The Wraith right in the neck and decapitate him.
Perfect execution. The only problem was… his sword didn't penetrate the armor. Not only was the armor evidently super-enhanced, but even the neck piece was super strong. There didn't seem to be a chink in his armor at all.
Worse yet, the sword stuck in his armor; Snake-Eyes took both of his hands to the hilt and tried to pry it loose. With a slight twist from The Wraith and a solid backswing with his arm, the sword flung from Snake-Eyes grip, and sailed across the room.
Blowtorch looked up, realizing Snake was losing, and was going to need help. But Barbecue was fading. Still, Blowtorch had done all he could for him given the medical equipment available. Hopefully he'd stabilize.
Blowtorch ran forward; he knew his ammunition was useless against him and didn't see any weak spots, so he did the next best thing; he started to hammer away at The Wraith with the butt of his gun.
His actions probably saved Snake-Eyes; it bought him enough time to back up and keep normal separation between him and The Wraith. The Wraith put an arm up in defense out of habit; when he did that, Blowtorch kept hammering away and unknowingly smashed the gun attached to The Wraiths arm. Still, The Wraith swung his arm backwards… broken gun and all, knocking Blowtorch off his feet and hurtling across the back of the room with tremendous force.
Snake-Eyes also knew the situation was getting desperate. The Wraith was attacking much more fiercely now that he was disarmed, and all Snake could do was duck, dodge, jump, and move back as quickly as he could. His back was… literally… against the wall. Snake's sword was still far from his grasp; The Wraith stood between the warrior and his sword. As the ghastly warrior swung at the man in black, trying to get in the kill blow, Snake… in desperation, lurched forwards to grab his wrist. With both hands, Snake had managed to grab his wrist… the one with the sword, to slow down his powerful swing. With two hands, Snake held his arm back and kicked as hard as he could in The Wraiths ribcage.
His foot practically bounced off of the armor.
Retaliating, The Wraith took a swing at Snake-Eyes with his free hand, barely missing as the speedy ninja ducked the blow that would have otherwise crushed his skull. The force of the punch impacted the concrete wall behind Snake, sending pieces of concrete flying off. Before Snake could counter, The Wraith took another rapid punch. This time the hook swing connected with Snake-Eyes, right along the side of his ribs.
The pain was intense. He had to reposition; a few more blows like that would take him out. Taking one hand off the wrist and pushing against The Wraiths chest, his hand slipped upwards and hit the face mask part of his helmet, actually knocking it upwards, revealing the face of evil behind the mask.
While the strength of The Wraith drove Snake-Eyes to his knees, it gave Snake a great resolve to see the face behind the mask. To stare within the eyes of evil. You ARE human, aren't you? Super-power suit or otherwise, you can die just like we can. You're nothing more than flesh and blood, underneath it all. Just an evil version of Iron Man. Snake mustered every ounce of strength he had… but dropped down to one knee, resisting the power behind The Wraith as best he could. Snake wondered how powerful this man would have been without his strength-suit.
The hand that slipped and knocked the facemask off was now blocking The Wraiths non-sword hand. The Wraith was trying to strangle him and almost had his neck. Not like this. No way I'm going out like this, you bastard. While Snake had an incredible intensity about him, he maintained his focus… his discipline. With every muscle in his body flexed as tightly as possible, his head and mind remained calm and relaxed. Rage would only lead him to making a mistake. And, no matter how strong The Wraith was in his super-suit, Snake-Eyes knew that the one who had more will would triumph. Mental will would always triumph over physical strength. Snake fought back… fought back with everything he had, for his life.
"Time to join your dead friends, weakling…" The Wraith said, speaking through clenched teeth…almost hissing.
Taking a deep breath, Snake dropped his free arm, grabbing a knife from his bandoleer. His throat was now unprotected. Seizing the opportunity, The Wraith quickly took advantage of his lack of defense and started choking the warrior in black with his free hand. Snake-Eyes throat was being crushed… even the armored gauntlets of The Wraith had the power of Sampson behind them.
Snake-Eyes felt his body slipping to the floor, with the weight of The Wraith on top of him.
The Wraith almost laughed. "Your sword couldn't hurt me, you really think your kn…"
His sentence was cut short.
You're not armored everywhere, now, are you? Underneath his black mask, Snake-Eyes face was filled with intensity… with strength, despite nearly having his windpipe crushed.
The Wraith dropped to the floor and on top of Snake-Eyes, lifeless. With a burst of force… and maybe a little bit of rage (believing he had earned the right to rage for a moment, now that this particular battle was over), Snake-Eyes kicked him off of him and slowly started to get back to his knees.
I want my knife back. Reaching towards the body of The Wraith, on a bended knee, Snake-Eyes pulled his knife out of his enemies face… the same unprotected face that had been exposed after Snake knocked his visor up.
Leaning over The Wraith's lifeless body, Snake-Eyes mentally told him, Guess you do have a chink in your armor after all, don't you?
XXXXX
With weapons drawn, Low-Light stepped into the room and ready to fire. Instead, they found that this room was already a war zone; bodies were strewn all around. Only one man was standing in this room, and even his black uniform had been torn in more than one spot revealing cuts and bruises on human skin. Snake-Eyes was bent over Blowtorch. "I'm fine, Snake. I'm glad you're ok. Check on Barbecue…" Blowtorch wheezed out as much as he could. While the pain was intense, he meant every word he said; he was truly concerned for Barbecue much more than himself.
"Snake, what went down?" Low-Light said, chewing on a toothpick. "Nevermind," he said, not wanting to take the time to decipher sign language. He was good on the combat signs, but as for holding a conversation Low-Light was a bit rusty.
Low-Light bent down to assist Snake with Barbecue. "We gotta get him out of here, and fast. Man, Snake, he's the one we had closest to a combat medic."
Snake nodded with calmness, though the frustration within him was boiling. Barbecue was patched up as well as he could, but it didn't look good.
Looking at Barbecue, and then at Blowtorch, Low-Light sighed. "Son of a bi… alright, I'll haul Barbecue out of here. Blowtorch looks like his bell is still ringing but can probably walk out of here with us. Man, Snake, I'm getting tired of not being at the center of the action."
*You almost died during our Chicago mission, as I recall. Isn't that close enough?* Snake-Eyes signed, a smile creeping up underneath his mask.
Low-Light chuckled, once he realized what Snake was signing. "Point well taken. Doesn't make me feel any better though, but thanks." Reaching down to get Barbecue, he said, "I'll be back as soon as I can, Snake. Good luck. Stay behind me, Blowtorch."
"No, I'm good. I'm going with Snake. I know he's a helluva wrecking ball flying solo, but I'm not going to stand idly by just because I got banged up. They still got our buddies, and I'm gonna help get them out."
Low-Light smiled, rolling his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. "Ok, then. Get some for me, will ya? I'll get Barbecue out of here." As gently as he could, he took Barbecue with him and headed back to the Flagg.
*One second, Low-Light. I grabbed this off of The Wraith. See if you guys can open it,* Snake signed, tossing a small piece of hardware to Low-Light. *Small, external drive, I think.*
Low-Light caught it, and quickly tucked it away. "You got it. Be careful, watch your six," he told them, quickly slipping away with Barbecue.
Nodding to the corridor to Blowtorch, Snake-Eyes grabbed his M-16, sheathed his sword, and carefully continued down the hallway with his weapon raised. Blowtorch followed, rifle in hand.