CHAPTER EIGHT: Something Bad
"You've been rather quiet lately."
"Logan's selling paintings so he's been making trips, and Hideki's doing some carving so the two of them have been going back and forth. I've been doing other stuff and yeah."
"Everything alright? Sleeping well?"
"Nope. They've been going at it to spite me. I'm still mad about them leaving."
"It's been, what, six months?"
"I was scared, Snake Eyes, scared. You and that damn ninja weren't helping."
Theresa cursed, throwing her latest beer can into a stacked up tower of other cans on the kitchen counter top. It missed and crashed into the floor spectacularly, startling Taiga in the process. Theresa stared at the screen and rubbed her eyes, choosing to ignore the open door to her brother's studio – the paintings off their easels in large torn up pieces.
Storm Shadow had been terrorizing her for at least four months now.
"Have you seen him?" Snake Eyes asked minutes later, Theresa groaned and cracked open another can.
"No. What am I to some jumped up little shit anyway?" Theresa grinned stupidly, that wouldn't pass at all.
"Theresa."
Theresa took a long drink and covered her eyes, tears gathering in them. A series of knocks sounded on the window behind her.
"What Hayabusa?"
"Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, fine. Didn't sleep." Theresa dragged an arm across her face and took a deep breath. "Look, the boys and I are making a trip to see family, I'm not bringing my laptop but I'll talk to you again…later."
She heaved a sigh and tipped her head against the glass, the incessant knocking continued and she waited for Snake Eyes to answer back, her eyes falling on Taiga.
"…Understood. Try and get some sleep. I'm worried about you."
"Don't be. Logan and Hideki are bad enough. Bye."
"Stay safe."
Theresa shut off her computer and yanked the device Breaker had stuck into the electrical socket out of the wall. She brought both things into Logan's studio and grabbed a hammer; Taiga jumped when his master brought the hammer down upon on her laptop. Once she was satisfied, she took it apart as best as she could, dumping the remains into a bucket and then lighting paper on fire. She smashed Breaker's clever little device into pieces and shoved its remains into the burning bucket as well, grabbing a sledge hammer and driving it into the mini inferno.
Earlier in the day, she burned the paper holding the website name and password Snake Eyes had left her, washing the ashes down the drain…Theresa moved back into the living room, there were knocks on her door and the woman turned to look at Taiga, she knelt down and patted his head.
"You're not going to like this." She muttered, commanding Taiga to follow her down into the generator room. She pushed aside a large stack of boxes and revealed a small door that opened into a long tunnel where a tiny light glowed at the end. Theresa turned to Taiga and the husky howled, lying on his belly and refusing to move.
"Come on, Taiga, go." She ordered, pushing him inside. "Please, for me?"
"Arooooo," Taiga argued and Theresa shook her head.
"You know what? I think Snake Eye is down there, don't wanna keep him waiting, do you?"
Taiga's ears perked up and his tail started wagging.
"Snake Eyes? You wanna see Snake Eyes? Then go!"
Theresa shoved Taiga inside and shut the door behind him, locking it tight and pushing the boxes back in place. She pulled other heavy equipment around the boxes and then bolted the door to the generators shut. Storm Shadow was still beating on the front entrance and Theresa grabbed one of Logan's sweaters, the sleeves were long enough to hide the knife she was carrying. When she opened the door, Storm Shadow smiled pleasantly and stepped into the cabin.
Theresa had gone to stand in the kitchen as Storm Shadow went through the building and tore apart anything that wasn't previously destroyed. He jogged upstairs and Theresa flinched at the sounds of objects crashing to the floor; the snow globe from her father, a couple of picture frames, and the sound of beds being flipped over. After a while, he slid down the railing and spun right into the studio, eyeing the ripped up paintings before his eyes fell on the smouldering bucket in the middle of the room. It was almost an abstract piece of art, the bright red fox Logan failed to get right just continued staring off into the distance with sallow eyes.
"Clever," he remarked as he examined the melted hardware.
"I guessed you still didn't have the resources."
Storm Shadow made a face caught between annoyance and pride before he spun onto his feet and grabbed her arm.
"Well done but while I won't be able to gather information, I do have something that will surely entertain us until I find the Commander."
"I'm worried about you." Snake Eyes finished, lifting his eyes from the screen and watching as Ripcord threw an arm around Scarlet's shoulders with a hardy laugh. The lot of them were watching some action movie and something funny happened between the two leads.
"Don't be. Logan and Hideki are bad enough. Bye."
"Stay safe."
The ninja waited for Theresa to reply but a message soon showed she had disconnected. Leaning away from the screen, Snake Eyes sighed and turned off his laptop, getting up and leaving the room quietly. He initially headed towards the dojo for some mediation but anticipated rookies eager to test their skills against him, and while he usually welcomed any sort of challenge his current mindset almost guaranteed his lack of concentration. Of course, no one would bother him in his room but it felt too closed off from everything else, smaller spaces seemed to shrink more whenever he was under pressure and it was already tense enough. Something was wrong, and he could feel it.
The Joes had found no trace of Storm Shadow and while no one would admit it aloud, some doubted the Arashikage ninja survived at all. Of course, no one wanted to claim Snake Eyes was crazy, his self-imposed workload supported the idea that he was overworking himself with training and several missions a month.
The wounds Snake Eyes sustained from his battle with his sword brother had all healed, so he reasoned the General would be more willing to send him back into the field for evidence of Storm Shadow's apparent resurrection. As he walked pass Cover Girl into the General's office, Breaker was just leaving and the look he gave Snake Eyes seemed to confirm his anxiety.
"Breaker came to inform me that he lost communication with one of his bugs."
"When?"
"A few minutes ago. Something happen with Miss Amhel?" General Hawk asked.
"Theresa? She's been acting…strange."
"Being nine hours away from civilization does that, having your family gone for more than a couple days' strains relationships."
General Hawk watched Snake Eyes cross his arms over his chest and heave a sigh, the older man glanced down at a nearly completed form and nodded to himself. He called over Cover Girl and stamped the sheet, passing it along and rising from his seat so he could walk around to Snake Eyes.
"I'm authorizing you to go check things out, try not to cause too much trouble for our Canadian neighbours."
"I don't intend to."
The flight to northern British Columbia took about a little over twelve hours. Snake Eyes travelled on his own and received occasional updates regarding weather or random tidbits about the land from his pilot; something about the pilot gave Snake Eyes the clear impression that he was new to the program.
Once they touched ground, Snake Eyes walked out and stared at a rotting corpse of an elk near the front entrance of the cabin, an arrow was carved into its side. The next thing he noticed was that that the door hung off its hinges and as he pushed his way inside, it fell clean off. He drew his swords and paused at the stairs, they were dented and when he bent down to examine them, bits of dark hair and blood were caught up in the splintered wood. He continued into the cabin and saw a clean stack of beer cans on the kitchen counter, he moved into the studio and found a cold bucket of melted metal. Snake Eyes bent down and pawed the debris but couldn't make out Breaker's bug.
A brief inspection of the first floor bathroom revealed nothing but the stench of vomit and shit, the trek upstairs was littered with feathers and slips of paper the wind had blown about. A smashed snow globe lay in a puddle of shattered glass, the two dancing figures had cracks on their faces. The ninja gazed at the mural painted on the wall and ran a hand down the black tree trunk, glancing over his shoulder at the overturned bed. The brother's room was in equal disarray and Snake Eyes picked up a photo that had been knocked to the ground; a man in military uniform had an arm wrapped around a strikingly beautiful brunette woman who had one hand on a boy about twelve years old. Beside the boy, latched onto his arm while holding her father's hand, was a very young Theresa with long hair.
He carefully pulled the picture out of the frame and slipped it into a pocket, immediately whistling for Taiga. He ran down the stairs and out the front door, zipping around to the back and racing towards the hanger where Logan's plane should've been. It was empty and oddly undisturbed.
Snake Eyes slammed a fist into the wall.
She had lied.
Deliberately.
And the plot thickens! And I updated within ten days, yay!
As far as OC's goes, blackrosewitch1996 has submitted her OC Nightshade (see Rebel Yell by CjtheShort, and Not Completely Crazy by Last-Babylonian), and MustangLover97 has given me the go ahead to use her OC Whisper (read her G I Joe fics, they are vastly superior.) The third OC will be one of mine.
Regardless, thanks for reviewing and reading! See you next time :)