Chapter 2

They are among us...

The old 1971 M151-A2 jeep rambled North on Highway 41/90 headed towards Naples, Shipwreck kept looking in his side mirror for well over an hour before he realized he had made it. That didn't stop him from putting the pedal to the metal the during the entire trip to the small base. What could have taken him well over two hours took him ninety minutes flat. He drove up to the gate which was guarded by two well armed sentries, headlights flashing and horn blaring the two guards rushed to greet him.

"Chief Petty Officer Shipwreck, I have an injured man who needs medical attention now!" Shipwreck shouted and flashed his credentials as the guards now waved him through and radioed for medical to be on stand by.

"Third building on the left" one of the guards yelled as Shipwreck drove threw the gate and down the street towards the medical housing unit.

As Shipwreck pulled up to the building four individuals dressed in scrubs rushed out to meet him hauling a gurney and medical kits. An older African American doctor spoke to Shipwreck. "What do we got Chief?"

"Man's been shot in the stomach and once in the thigh Doc, he's pretty high up on the priority schedule just so you know, General Hawk had me tailing him and he won't be to cheery if he kicks it, if ya get my drift."

"I can take it from here Chief" The Doc responded as they loaded Gambit onto the stretcher, began checking his wounds and wheeled him towards the door." Ya may want to check in with Headquarters Shipwreck, head over to building nine and use the comm. Link, and don't worry I think we can save him doesn't look like the bullets hit any vitals, he's lost a lot of blood but we can patch him up"

"Thanks Doc will do" Shipwreck called to him as he drove off towards building nine.

The base located in Royal Harbor, Naples Florida was a small semi-military covert operations facility. Mainly housing, U.S. special missions personnel temporarily on stand by awaiting to be deployed. Basically a private base that really never saw much action except the coming and goings of small classified troops. It was chosen as the perfect location for this mission, as Intel. had proven Gambit to have been in the vicinity of the Florida swamps and Everglades. Tracking him down however had been proven difficult but not impossible.

Shipwreck only knew of the base because he had been assigned there two days prior by General 'Hawk" Clayton Abernathy his mission was to find the poker playing Gambit and bring him in, alive! He was described as an unknown "friendly". This wasn't to be a kidnapping, or arrest of any kind. Shipwreck was to meet the man and talk him into going along with him and be brought in on his own, under no duress. Unfortunately Shipwreck wasn't planning on getting into a firefight in some hole in the wall dive with two low life bikers so things hadn't gone quite as planned. Little was known to Shipwreck exactly what the nature of the operation or reason for the interest in the Cajun was but in the few hours he had played cards with Gambit he found he had a fondness for him and he wanted him to make it. He was extremely intrigued as to how the man seemed to be able to charge the playing card he had thrown at Thrasher and throw it with such lighting speed exploding on impact. He had never seen anything quite like it. He wondered if this special ability was part of the reason Hawk wanted to meet him.

Shipwreck reached building Nine and parked his old jeep and sauntered threw the door he was greeted by and officer he knew well.

" Shipwreck you old sea dog, I hear you just got in on the fly with the wounded civilian are you ok?" Flint asked as he reached for Shipwrecks hand. Flint, an Air Borne Ranger and Chief warrant Officer was leading this operation when it was decided that Shipwreck was to go in alone and had stayed back at the base waiting for word from his old friend.

Shipwreck shook Flints hand and answered " Yes sir, I am fine just a little sore from grinding it out on my leather ass for hours, playing cards in a run down shitty, bar. I found my target but we got into it with a couple of Dreadnoks before I was able to discuss our proposition with the man. I managed to shoot off one of there fingers, hehe but he had already injured Gambit so I grabbed him and we hi-tailed it out of there. Doc thinks he will make it though.."

"Good work Ship" Flint stated " General Hawk is expecting you to check in with him as soon as you arrive. I was getting worried about you and had radioed him awhile ago if we hadn't heard from you within the hour, we had a squad on stand-by ready to move in but now that won't be necessary. So who's finger did you shoot off.?"

"His name is Monkey Wrench, haha I shot his thumb clean off he better learn how to shoot with his left hand." Shipwreck chided.

"Well I'm just glad you made it out of there and back with the target." Flint added as they walked into a small office room that consisted of a large briefing table, chairs and a large display overhead. Another familiar face was seated at the comm. Link who rose and shook Shipwreck's hand when they entered.

"Hey Chief " Communications specialist Dialtone said to Shipwreck once they greeted.

"Good to see you Dialtone" Shipwreck answered.

"Dialtone can you hail Hawk, Shipwreck needs to give him an update on our assignment?" Flint asked

"Sure thing I'm patching it threw as we speak" came the reply

The display monitor lit up and General hawk could be seen sitting behind his desk back at headquarters. "Shipwreck good to see you made it out of there in one piece" Hawk began " Please bring us up to speed on the mission. Have you found the mutant Gambit? I… I mean the man known as Gambit" Hawk corrected and waited for the reply.

"Well General yes I have but he's pretty badly injured at the moment" Shipwreck answered" Let me breakdown for you what happened."

So Shipwreck filled in the details of the events which led him up to this point giving extra special attention to the way Gambit had (charged) the playing card and thrown it at Thrasher like a missile. He hadn't missed when Hawk called him a mutant and he now was even more intrigued as to the direct nature of this mission and he asked as much.

General Hawk thought for a few seconds before he began. " Well Chief, it may be time to fill you in on the true nature of our interest in Gambit. Flint you need to hear this too and so does the rest of your squad please assemble them in fifteen minutes and patch threw another call here. Oh and Dialtone make sure we are on a secure channel. Hawk out."

With that the screen went blank and Flint looked at Shipwreck and stated. "Well buddy looks like I need to round up the crew, you hang here it should only take me a few minutes to bring everyone in."

"Will do Flint" Shipwreck answered and sat down in the chair to relax his weary bones. He was relieved to know he was about to learn the mystery of Gambit and why he had risked his neck to bring him in. He couldn't help but wonder where this was going to take there team. They had been relatively inactive for the better part of the last six months and Shipwreck was glad to be back in action. He was roused from his thoughts as his other team mates stepped threw the door.

Flint strode in with Beachhead, Wild Bill, Tunnel Rat, and Leatherneck along with Dialtone their squad was complete.

Everyone greeted Shipwreck and Wild Bill cracked a joke as to the shooting off of one of the Dreadnoks fingers and the group all laughed. Seems Flint had related most of the story to them already. Then Flint called the squad to order and directed Dialtone to patch them into General Hawk.

"Gentlemen " General Hawk's voice was patched through and his face became visible on the display. " Now that we are all gathered together let me get down to the details and what we know. I will also be sending file pictures and dossiers on all known subjects we will be discussing at this time. This information is to be taken as highly classified only your team needs to know what I am about to tell you. Once it becomes clear to you all the nature of this mission I don't think I'll need to explain what impact this knowledge could have on the general public."

Three months ago I was called to a meeting at the Pentagon. Hawk continued. "When I arrived I was greeted by several high ranking officials and a man I wasn't familiar with a Col. William Stryker. Col. Stryker it seems has working knowledge of a new threat posed by what we are now referring to as "mutants." Apparently, these individuals posses some kind of superhuman capabilities. Each has a different power and all mutants at this time are to be considered extremely armed and dangerous. They seem to have been born with these powers but from what Stryker can gather they lay dormant until the adolescent years when they begin to show themselves. For example the way Gambit threw that playing card at Thrasher in the bar, Shipwreck. It seems he has the ability to tap into potential energy contained within an object and transform it into kinetic energy upon touching it. When Gambit thus charges and object and throws it at a target, the object releases this energy and explodes on contact. Most of these so called mutants tend to reach adulthood and have for the most part been able to keep there powers a secret. Stryker for reasons I am not aware of seems to have had many dealings with mutants and as such is reported to be the worlds foremost authoritarian on mutant behavior and diagnosis."

"Which brings me to why we are here." Hawk announced. " It has come to the attention of the C.I.A. that Cobra Commander has been contacted by an extremely powerful mutant. His name is Magneto and as his name implies he is able to bend and manipulate electromagnetic fields to achieve a wide range of effects. The primary application of his powers are control and manipulation of ferrous and non-ferrous metal. Magneto has proven his abilities by once effortlessly elevating a 30,000 ton nuclear sub-marine. He is known to be an extreme radical and harbors a hatred for the human race. We are not sure as of yet what Cobra's involvement is but we do know that both him and Magneto have been organizing some sort of mutant recruiting operation."

The room went silent as the shocked group of Joes each looked at one another barely unable to believe what they had just heard. Hawk allowed that to sink in for a moment then he spoke again. "Any questions so far?"

"Well" Beachhead spoke up. "Is there any way of knowing how many mutants there, or how we are even going to begin battling such a force?"

"Good question Beachhead, General Hawk stated. " First of all no, there is no way of knowing for sure how many mutants are living among us, but Stryker has built quite a few case files on known mutants and at least to whom there alliances have been to in the past. Our first order of business is going to be reaching out to any known "friendly" mutants (for lack of a better term) for help with what can only be described as a growing national threat from Cobra Commander and the mutant Magneto. I have sent you all dossier's on the mutants we are looking into at the present time and also what we have on Magneto. Once Gambit gets out of surgery I will leave it up to you, Shipwreck to reach out to him and see what help he can be with this matter. We would like him to join us and if he knows of any other mutants we may not be aware of that would be invaluable That leaves the rest of you to break up into small teams and hunt out our next targets. Whatever Intel we have on there whereabouts I am also downloading to your personnel devices as we speak.

Team this an operation of the highest importance there is no way of knowing exactly what Cobra has up there sleeve, so we need to find out as much as possible on their involvement and what they have planned. I am to be reporting to the director of the C.I.A. on our progress, he wishes this to be handled as quietly and covertly as possible that along with the fact that Cobra is now involved, is the reason G.I. Joe has been called in. I know this may come as a shock to all of you, as it has for me but the fact is mutants are real they are among us and we are not yet sure which of them we can and can not trust. So be ware Joes. And good luck with this mission. General Hawk out."

With that screen went blank and Flint was the first to speak up. "Ok, guys it sounds like we have our work cut out for us on this one. Let's all go over the information we just received and meet back here in one hour. I will expect you all to study each dossier and be ready to give your input on how we go after finding and recruiting these mutants. We will then decide what teams to break up into and who each of us will be going after."

There wasn't much else to say each member was anxious to look over the new information and gather as much knowledge for this new mission as possible. As Shipwreck typed in his security code on his personal iPad and the Intel was loaded three words came across the screen.

Operation: Mutant Agenda