Chapter 23:
Isabella was shaken out of her appreciative thoughts for Snake Eyes when she felt the toned arm of Ripcord slide itself around her waist before the man started to pull Isabella away from the two ninja now engaged in some serious combat.
"Come Bella..." Ripcord encouraged, "...let's go girl; we gotta get that case back."
Case?
Isabella gasped, her eyes widening in remembrance, "The Warheads!" she exclaimed softly.
How could she have forgotten about that?
Eyes searching for a lead as to where or who had the case, Isabella spotted the Baroness moving across the upper deck, on the other side room. Ducking out from underneath her comrades arm, Isabella took off in fast pursuit of the retreating woman.
"Bella!' Ripcord called after her.
But Isabella only quickened her pace; swiftly crossing the room before she leaped up onto a metal incline that would take her up to where the Baroness was heading.
The catwalk she was on was narrow, but sturdy. Glancing down below, the raging battle of Joes versus Cobra's continued; multiple explosions went off in all directions, small fires glowed around the room, and the main sounds one could hear were the sounds of guns going off and the screams of pain when someone got shot.
The disastrous sight formed a tight knot in Isabella's stomach. How she prayed that the Joes were going to be okay.
Veering to the left, taking a sharp turn down another plank, Isabella saw that she was quickly approaching the Baroness who had stopped just up ahead.
But why had she stopped?
Well, she looked to be standing on something separate from the catwalks Isabella was on.
As Isabella analyzed just where exactly the Baroness had run to, she felt her heart stop in her throat.
"Oh no!" she declared as she willed her legs, even the one injured to move even faster.
The Baroness must've heard her coming for she spun about to see Isabella charging. In response, the dark haired woman smiled before she softly shook her head at Isabella.
At that same moment, the place where the Baroness had been standing started moving beneath her; slowly.
"Damn it, no!' Isabella cried as she skidded to stop and could do nothing but stare up as the Baroness rode the elevator up to an even higher location.
She had not been fast enough. And now the Baroness was at least another 15 feet or so above. She of course looked down on Isabella with a smug look of triumph; and that simply made Isabella's blood boil.
Isabella wanted nothing more but to rub her pretty little face all over the concrete floor of the Pit.
However, sudden movement from behind the Baroness averted Isabella's attention. Isabella caught sight of a flaming red head before the Baroness and another female figure tumbled off the elevator together; landing on top of what looked to be a setup of all kinds of materials from nets, to mats.
The two then rolled off the top and fell back down to the ground below. Isabella hurried over to the side of the catwalk to look down and see what had become of them.
Scarlet, already recovered from her fall, stood poised and ready for a fight; the Baroness looked the same.
Isabella sighed in relief. "Good timing, Scarlet." she breathed out in approval with a soft nod of her head.
Now, seeing that Scarlet had everything under control with the Baroness, Isabella turned away and once again set her course for the battle below.
It was time she finally got back into this fight.
Backtracking her steps till she came across the steep incline that had brought her up to the catwalks in the first place, Isabella carefully but swiftly made her way back down to the ground where all the action was taking place.
Upon setting foot upon the cement flooring of the room, a brief, womanly cry reached Isabella's ears and she in response, snapped her head in the direction of the sound and saw that the Baroness had somehow gotten a metal chain around Scarlet's neck.
"Scarlet!" Isabella's mind screamed.
Without a moment's hesitation, Isabella took off to help aid the fiery redhead. But before she could get close enough, a jet of blue light intercepted her path.
The light had come from one of the Cobra's high tech guns. And the shot left a small crater in the solid pavement while the shockwaves hit Isabella like a ton of bricks.
Isabella cried out at the force as she felt herself get thrown back a few yards before striking the floor; skidding back into a wall. Her head took most of the blow; she knew this by the sickening cracking sound that came when the right side of her head met the solid barrier of the wall. Then there was a flash of pain behind her eyes before her vision went white, and her body numb.
Instinctively, she brought a hand up to the throbbing spot on her head with had taken the impact of her fall, and found herself unsurprised when she felt it go wet with blood; a lot of blood.
Isabella cringed, gritting her teeth against the pain for a few moments; then after much struggling, she willed herself to get up off the ground once again.
It seemed at first, that her body was going to be cooperating. Her legs started shaking when she began putting weight on them, and her vision was still fuzzy from hitting her head. But Isabella's was determined to get back up and continue fighting like everyone else.
"So damn it..." she swore out loud, "...Move!"
It took her a bit longer to get going, but by her fierce determination, Isabella moved back out to the heat of the battle.
Now, first things first...
"Who the hell shot at me?" she asked out loud as her turquoise eyes narrowed into two, unforgiving slits as they scanned the room for a possible suspect.
"That would be me, girlie." A low, almost robotic voice answered from behind Isabella.
Slowly, unafraid, Isabella turned around and sure enough, a Viper Soldier stood poised with his gun aimed at her center.
The young woman straightened up while her eyes flashed angrily.
"Bastard..." she spat venomously.
No one shoots at Isabella Wright and gets away with it.
With great speed that surprised both herself and the Viper, Isabella threw herself at the man's weapon, taking hold of it with one hand and jerking his arm up till the gun was pointed at the ceiling. During their struggle, the gun went off; its blue laser shot up and struck the ceiling right above Isabella's and the Viper's head.
"You bitch!" the Viper hissed at her as he fought for control over his weapon again. But Isabella was not giving him any slack.
He jerked her around, tugged, but the woman would not let go. Instead, she closed off as much of the distance she could between her body and Viper's while keeping out of the weapon's range as it got pointed this way and that.
Then with the Viper distracted with the positioning of his weapon, Isabella rammed her knee up and into the man's groin. The move was what Isabella referred to as a 'low below' and she normally would go and hit 'below the belt' like that, but seeing how things were, she decided to make an exception.
The Viper howled in pain, instantly loosening up his grip on his gun so that Isabella was able to pry it away from him and take a few steps back while he hunched over to try and recover.
Taking the high tech gun up as her own, Isabella messed around with it controls for a second before she took aim at the Viper in front.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" she rhetorically asked without any sympathy in her icy tone before her finger found the trigger and pulled.
The blue light shot out and struck the Viper right in his center and the force knocked him away a few, great feet before he fell to the ground limply and remained unmoving.
Isabella blew a huffed sigh out in response before she lowered the gun down to her side.
Well looks like things were starting to get a bit better here.
A sharp crack from above however had to disagree.
Hearing the sound, Isabella's head threw itself back to look up. Her eyes widened when she saw a whole bunch of falling debris coming right down upon her. They must've come dislodged when, during the struggles with the Viper, the gun went off.
Chunks of solid concrete from the ceiling were raining down now; chunks bigger then footballs.
"Oh god..." Isabella breathed out in horror; there was no way she would be able to get out of the rocks' range before they fell upon her. She wouldn't be quick enough.
Thank her lucky star however that she didn't have to be...
As Isabella braced herself for the impact of the falling debris, a powerful form threw itself at Isabella, its pair of incredibly strong arms wrapping themselves about her waist from behind before cleanly knocking them both out of the way of the falling debris.
Naturally, Isabella had not been expecting this. So when she suddenly found herself flat on her back, all the breath left her body in a single 'whoosh' which forced her to also squeeze her eyes shut in response.
A few feet away, the loud smacking of the debris hitting the ground reached her ears; dust from the broken concrete filled the air while some tinier remains of the debris sprinkled over Isabella's form.
When things had finally calmed down once again, Isabella drew in a shaky breath to help calm her racing heart and it was then that she grew aware of the arms that were still wrapped around her body protectively.
Slowly, Isabella let her eyes sweep back open. At once, her heart stopped in her chest.
Crouching over her body, with his legs on either side of her own so that she lied safely beneath his well muscled form, was that all too familiar Black Clad ninja, Snake Eyes.
Staring up into his masked face, Isabella felt her throat go dry when she saw that he was staring back too.
He then gave her a slow nod of his head in acknowledgement before he carefully unwound his arms from around her waist and slowly rose to his feet.
Isabella laid there frozen for a few seconds longer before she followed his lead.
Sitting up, Isabella shifted softly so that she could brace a leg up to help assist her to her feet; but when that certain leg was the one that still contained that blasted throwing star, Isabella cried out in pain before collapsing back down.
Her hands instantly found the wounded spot; touching the jagged metal that was still in her calve.
"Shit..." she swore out loud, "...forgot about this..."
In one swift movement, Snake Eyes was back down kneeling right next to her. His black, gloved hands lightly examining the injury himself before he turned his black head upon Isabella.
He didn't have to say anything for her to be able to tell what the intensity of his gaze meant.
She shrugged in response, "...It's not so bad..." she lied, "...could've been worse."
At least that much was true.
Snake Eyes softly sighed and shook his head before he reached out with one hand and gently touched the bleeding gash on her head.
Isabella winced at the contact since that was also sensitive but remained silent. It was then that she pulled her gaze away from the ninja kneeling in front of her to get a good look at what else was going on.
The enemy was no longer in sight. In fact, the fighting had finally stopped.
What had Isabella missed?
When the woman turned back to Snake Eyes with the question burning brightly in her eyes, the black ninja couldn't help the tiny curve of his mouth in response.
Then he reached a single hand out and placed it on her shoulder; a gesture that meant, 'don't worry about it, it'll all be explained later.'
Isabella frowned at that. So Snake Eyes gave her shoulder a soft, almost affectionate squeeze.
She sighed, both in acceptance and irritation. Then with a gentle toss of her head, she made another attempt to get back up to her feet.
But before she could stand tall again, Snake Eyes rose up as well, much faster than Isabella did and in one easy movement, he scooped the young woman up into his arms.
Isabella yelped in response, her arms instinctively wrapping themselves about the black ninja's neck.
"Snake Eyes!" she exclaimed in protest as she desperately clung the man. "This isn't necessary."
His response was a slight turn of his head so that he could look the woman he had in the face while an unseen eyebrow raised itself into a high arch of disbelief.
"Please put me down..." she politely asked, "I don't like being carried."
Another smile pulled at Snake Eyes' mouth before he gently shook his head 'no'.
Then with the protesting woman safely in his arms, Snake Eyes turned around and started across the room where a group of medics were attending to some of the wounded Joe Soldiers there.
Snake Eyes brought Isabella over to a high crate before he gently set her down upon it. Then he made a quick gesture with his hand, telling her to stay put before he turned and went over to the medics where he then retrieved some medical equipment that he then brought back over to where Isabella sat with her arms crossed over her chest. He placed his material down next to her on the crate before he moved to stand directly in front of her, leaving less than a foot of space between them.
It took only one glance at the look upon Isabella's face for Snake Eyes to try and resist the urge to smile.
Her eyes were slightly narrowed, her full lips were pursed; almost like a pout. It was an adorable expression.
And sure, her hair which had been tied back had fallen loose in long, wild waves around her face; half of which was covered in blood from the gash on her head, and there were quite a few purplish bruises that colored her skin around her neck as well as the underside of her jaw...
...But despite all of that...
Snake Eyes thought her to be the loveliest thing he has seen in a long time.
Without breaking eye contact, Snake Eyes reached down and picked up a tool that resembled a kind of scalpel. He then looked away from Isabella to kneel down before her so that he could get a better look at the leg that had the throwing star lodged in it.
However, before he could get to work on removing it, Isabella's hand reached down and caught his hand that was holding the tool he was getting ready to use.
"Hold on..." she started as her eyes narrowed even more, this time in uncertainly rather than displeasure. "Are you qualified to do something like this?"
Snake Eyes cocked his head to the side for a brief moment before he nodded his black, masked head 'yes'.
Isabella drew her lower lip into her mouth and lightly bit down on it with her teeth.
Seeing her hesitation, Snake Eyes rotated his hand that she still held so that he could give it a encouraging squeeze.
Isabella lightly gasped at the gesture before she looked back down to see that indeed, they were holding hands; heat came to her cheeks and instantly, she let him go.
"So bashful..." Snake Eyes noted with a tiny smile before he turned his attention back onto the task of getting the throwing star out of Isabella's leg.
Isabella watched the black clad ninja intently as he skillfully cut away some of her pants leg so that he could have better access to the metal star in her calve. Watching him work on her like this, the young woman couldn't help but shake her head in wonder.
"A ninja, a tracker, a master swords fighter..." her thoughts carried off when she saw Snake Eyes reach for a syringe before he started to slowly bring the needle down to her leg; probably to numb the area so that the extracting would be more painless, "...and now a doctor."
Was there anything that this man couldn't do?
"Ooohhh!" Isabella cringed when she felt the needle pierce into her already flesh. The stinging pain lasted only for a second before it was replaced by a numbing sensation that left her leg feeling heavy and thick.
She then closed her eyes to adjust to the strange new feeling which was then followed by a weird kind of pressure on the wound; and then a sense of sudden release.
When Isabella reopened her eyes, she gasped when she saw Snake Eyes kneeling before her with the bloody throwing star between two of his fingers.
"So fast...and hardly without any pain..." she thought quietly in awe as she stared at the jagged weapon that had been in her calve for some time now. When she brought her gaze back to Snake Eye's face, she found herself completely speechless.
Since when were Ninja's ever expert operators?
