Chapter 1: An Unexpected Find

Samantha P.O.V.

"I can't believe you actually wanted to do this. You know that that part of your fur will never grow back right?" Lifeline fussed as he observed the final details of my tattoo on my shoulder were completed. My tattoo was the G.I. Joe symbol with a symbol that meant I was ninja. We had to use chemicals to make sure the fur never grew back to hide the tattoo.

"I know Lifeline. I knew that before we began and I knew it the pass twenty times you asked me." I said as anger crept into my voice. The overprotective medic had asked me the question twenty times already and my answer had been almost exactly the same every time. "Lifeline, I know I've been your patient several times, including a few life or death situations, but I am not your patient right now!"

Lifeline looked a little startled at my ferocity, but he quickly recovered and slunk out of the room.

"Thanks." I told Gung-Ho after he finished my tattoo.

"No problem." He responded back as I left.

Lifeline wasn't the only one who was being overprotective. Due to some information I found out when hacking into Cobra's database. Cobra had decided that as long I was alive that they couldn't start their super soldier program because I had this nasty habit of destroying their plans. Now one of their objectives was to kill me. I had guards that would surround me everywhere I went. They would crowd me in the halls, stand at attention outside my bedroom door, and when I went to the bathroom, the females would find me inside and guard the stall door while the males waited outside and guarded the bathroom door. And all that was what happened inside the base. I had to have authorization to put one foot outside. The only time I didn't feel suffocated was when Snake Eyes was on guard. He would remain hidden until we were in a closed off room, then he would simply sit down on the floor in front of the door and meditate. I was only able to detect him when he was on guard because of my heightened senses.

My family and friends had been returned to their homes partly due to the fact that Cobra would no longer use them as experiments. The main reason was the fact that the school year was coming up soon and my parents wanted Jason to continue public school, and they wanted the same for Stacy and Mark. Plus, Mark's parents were probably starting to get worried despite the Joes reassurances that he was fine. Stacy's parents were out on yet another business trip, but they had registered her for senior year all the same. I wanted to go, but with my deformity, I couldn't. My family may have been released, but that didn't mean that they weren't under constant guard. There still was the threat that Cobra would try to use them against me.

I sighed as I started towards my computer lab for my weekly hack into Cobra's database. When I got there, I slid the door closed and locked it before plopping down into my plush office chair that was in front of 10 computer screens. Snake Eyes did his usual thing and appeared in front of the locked door to meditate. I quickly hacked into the database and started searching through files. I no longer left a virus to destroy files after I was done doing that manually, so Cobra never knew when and if I was in their database, and whenever I delete a file I make it look like a soldier did it.

I enjoyed these little hacks. Not only was I assisting the Joes while they would not let on field missions, the Cobra database was a great source of gossip. Hmm…. Destro and Baroness broke up again. That's like the third break up this month. They'll probably be back together before my next weekly hack. A new piece of information popped up. Oh, they just made up. I give it about a week. I mentally laughed. Reading Cobra gossip was hilarious. I honestly can't wait to embarrass Destro and Baroness the next time we meet on the battlefield. Ooo, Cobra Commander still sleeps with a stuffed toy and a night light? The toy is a snake named Serpento and the night light only gives off the color red. Red is sort of menacing, and at least he's trying to keep stuff snake themed.

I opened another file and forgot all about the juicy pieces of gossip I had just read. I was serious now, deadly serious. The file had been labeled "List of Dangerous Chemicals" but the information wasn't that. It was something that I had thought I would never believe possible, especially since Cobra Commander himself had said it was impossible to do, that if I even tried that I would end up dead within minutes. I looked over it and decided that it had to be real. They wouldn't have given it a fake file name otherwise. They didn't think that I checked every file, just the ones that looked important.

The information in the file was the cure and a plan to administer it to me. There was a twist though; the cure was laced with a mind control serum that would allow Cobra Commander to control me. There was a bright side to it though, if I could get rid of the mind control I could change from Katana and Samantha at will. That meant I could still fulfill my duties as a Joe and be an average teenager. The stuff in the cure looked pretty expensive and some of the ingredients were stuff that the Joes couldn't get legally. That meant I would have to be out in the field so I could shot by the dart that would carry the cure, but I would have to either edit the file so it didn't include the ingredients for the mind control serum or create an antidote for it. Or I could do both. A plan popped up in my head, and it came with a plan B.

I quickly edited the formula and dashed out of the room so fast that I ran Snake Eyes over. "Sorry Snake Eyes." I yelled as I ran with him following me. "Could you grab Duke and a few of the other Joes in charge and have them meet me in board room 3A? Oh, and could you grab Airtight too?" He gave me a quick thumbs up before darting out of sight.

I had my computer up to a projector and was hacking into the Cobra database when Duke, Airtight, Beach Head, General Hawk, and Sergeant Slaughter came in. "Alright missy, you have three seconds to explain before I-", Sergeant Slaughter started.

"Before you what? End up out cold on the table because you wouldn't give a ninja a chance to say her part before you started making threats?" I retorted.

He promptly shut his mouth, knowing full well that I could easily take him out and fulfill my threat.

"I may not agree with his method, Samantha, but he does have a point. We need to know why you called us all here. Why do you need four superior officers and a toxin/chemical expert?" Duke asked.

"Because I may have found a way of getting my original body back."

Duke P.O.V.

"Because I may have found a way of getting my original body back."

I hadn't expected that reply. I had expected her to have called us in to make a complaint about having guards and never being sent on any missions anymore. We all leaned forward in our seat.

"How?" General Hawk asked, voicing everyone's question.

"I'm going to tell you the plan, but I will need your authorization and cooperation if this is to work." She began. "Today when I was doing my weekly hack, I found this." She projected an image onto the white screen. It was a file labeled "List of Dangerous Chemicals" and it was obvious that she was currently hacked into the Cobra database.

"Why is that important? Almost every organization like ours or Cobra's has that kind of list." Airtight asked. "And what does this all have to do with me?"

Samantha let out a warning growl and a hiss. "I can tell you that if I get no interruptions." She opened the file to reveal that it wasn't what it had appeared to be. "Cobra has found the cure, not only for the super soldier serum, but for the toxin that will be activated once the cure is injected. The cure is not something that we can make, but it is something that Cobra wants to use on me due to the fact that there is mind control serum in it. Now, I deleted the mind control serum part in hopes that they would overlook it and that I could receive the injection without ending up under their control, but there is a chance that they will discover that the mind control serum has been deleted and out of belief that I was the one to delete it that I know their plans and will only let them continue with their evil deeds because I believe that I will be cured. In order for their plan to work they need to kidnap my brother, and we're going to let them."