Author's Notes

I'm sure you'd figure it out on your own, but just to save you the trouble of noticing the pattern right away, I've used section breaks to break things up when the point of view changes. It's all third person, but it will move from looking at things the way my Sue sees them to reflecting the perceptions of the other characters.

Oh, and another note… this is set in my usual AU, after Apprentices.

Thanks for reading!

Chapter 1: Pirate Boy and Mr. Ninja Make the Scene

- Fifteen years earlier -

"Close the door behind you and sit down," Hawk instructed the two young men who had just come into his office.

Kamakura, who had entered last, dutifully closed the door and locked it. He then took a chair next to Billy, who was already sitting down and leaning forward, looking like he was ready to bounce like a spring on whatever it was Hawk had for them to do. He could hardly blame him: there hadn't been much going on recently and he was rather eager to find out about their assignment too.

He sat down straight and waited patiently, barely allowing himself to look at Hawk. Billy held back a snort at his sword brother's desperate attempt to look cool and composed, then quickly sat straighter himself.

"Bored, are we?" Hawk asked with a knowing smirk. "Well then, you'll be happy to know you're going to a high school Halloween party."

The two ninja apprentices blinked at him. The General continued before they had a chance to voice a response. "This is Miss Heliksa Hauser," he said, passing a picture to them.

Billy let out a quickly stifled appreciative whistle. Kamakura shot him a glare and elbowed him, but his own eyes widened slightly when he caught sight of the picture as well: the girl really was very pretty, with thick dark auburn hair, a face that could net her a modeling career, and sparkling green eyes. Enough of her body was included in the frame to show a rather revealing top and the young man immediately looked away when his eyes started sliding down from the young woman's face.

"Sorry. Hauser, is it?" Billy asked, tearing his eye away from the picture with some difficulty. "Is she related to Duke?"

Hawk made a so-so motion with his hand. "Seventh degree cousin," he said. "They don't so much as know about each other. Her English teacher is Mainframe's aunt, as well. She is also a neighbor of an old friend of Barbecue's, and… well, to make a long story short, she is vaguely linked to ten different members of GI Joe. The ones I just gave you are the closest relationships. The trouble is that her uncle is a high ranking general and he's recently found out about all these relationships. He's afraid they make her a target, and he wants us to offer her some discrete protection while she attends this party. You two are still young enough to pass as high school students, so you're it. Billy, we don't want to draw any attention, so you will dress as a pirate. Do you still have that Blue Corsair costume?"

Billy nodded, smiling. "I think I'll skip the blue hair, though."

"Definitely. A wig and a bit of facial hair wouldn't hurt, either, just to make you harder to recognize. Kamakura, you have more options; in fact I don't really care what you dress up as, but no body paint… you'd stand out far too much. You'll have to find a new costume."

"Dressing as a ninja would allow me to carry weapons while pretending they're fake," Kamakura suggested.

Hawk nodded. "Fine, but something that doesn't look like any Joe's actual uniform. Here's your rendez vous point," he said, handing them an envelope. "She will be expecting you."

Heliksa paid as much attention as she could to her teacher, Sensei Johnson, but she was admittedly distracted; she could see, right outside the window, the two boys her uncle had described to her, the ones who were soldiers posing as teenagers and who were to accompany her to the school's Halloween party after her class. Exactly as her uncle had told her, one was dressed as a pirate and the other as a ninja, of all things.

She didn't agree with her uncle at all about her needing protection. With everything life had already thrown at her in a mere 18 years, it should have been obvious that she could handle herself. Besides, she was among the best students here at Sensei Johnson's ninjitsu school, which meant she was, for all intents and purposes, a real ninja. It made the fact that a fake one was meant to protect her rather ironic.

She had no doubt that by the time these two soldiers went back to their unit, they'd realize that she belonged with them and beg her to join them. That was the only reason she was putting up with their escorting her tonight; it would have been terribly selfish on her part to deny the elite anti-terrorists unit the chance to discover her potential.

"Miss Heliksa!"

Her sensei's voice tore her away from her thoughts. She quickly bowed. "I'm awfully sorry, Sensei," she said, thinking quickly to find a cover story. "I was… distracted. By my two… friends. Outside."

She waited for his reaction, satisfied by her improvisation. She didn't like lying, of course, but she didn't want her teacher involved in the newest troubles that had befallen her.

He seemed to mull that over for a moment, then nodded. "Go tell them to come inside and wait by the bench. They won't be as distracting behind my students, and maybe they will learn something by watching the class."

She bowed and ran to the door. She waved the two over. "My sensei noticed you," she whispered urgently. "I told him that you were my friends, but he has requested that you wait inside. Honestly, can't you two keep your cover? I shouldn't have to bail you out!"

They looked at her with wide eyes, then at each other.

"Come along, now!" she urged. She didn't think she needed protectors at all, but she was still rather annoyed at how useless these two were turning out to be. She turned her back on them and went back inside herself, plastering a smile on her face, making it appear to her teacher and fellow students that all was well.

Billy and Kamakura followed the girl in after a quick shrug to each other; they needed to stick to their characters, so educating the girl on how to actually protect or save a cover (it involved NOT constantly staring at your accomplices as if you'd never seen anything more interesting in your life) would have to wait.

"Yeah, so… err… can we wait on the bench or what?" Billy asked in a bored, drawling voice.

Kamakura didn't wait for an answer and sprawled himself on the bench, displaying remarkable acting abilities by acting less than perfectly polite and respectful.

"You are disturbing my class," the sensei growled at them. "Sit down straight and be quiet."

Billy sat down meekly on the bench and Kamakura straightened up. The lesson started again.

Within minutes, both ninja apprentices were making valiant efforts not to roll their eyes, cry out or laugh. They had heard of ninjitsu schools before, and knew that as was the case with most martial arts, there were good teachers and bad ones.

Sensei Johnson was worse than they could possibly have expected; the man looked like he had learned everything he knew from watching old ninja movies. Perhaps inspired by his pirate costume, Billy amused himself by thinking that Polly with a headband would make a more convincing ninja and probably win a duel against Miss Hauser's teacher. Kamakura was staring in disbelief, holding his head very stiffly to avoid shaking it.

They both lost their battle not to react when Sensei Johnson demonstrated a particularly inefficient hold that was in fact more dangerous for the person performing it than for their opponent. The sensei heard their low groans, stopped what he was doing and turned to them with a fierce scowl that was at least more impressive than his technique.

A glance between the two ninja apprentices was enough to confirm they'd stay the course and act as unimpressed as they were; it wasn't like teenagers being a bit rude and trying to look cooler than everyone else around would look particularly suspicious.

Heliksa gritted her teeth, mortified, as Sensei Johnson glared at her two pretend friends.

"It seems our two guests find what I am teaching you to be scorn-worthy," Sensei Johnson said. "I'd hate for them to leave with the wrong impression of this school… perhaps they'd agree to a more direct demonstration of the skills I teach my students? Since you," he pointed to Kamakura, "are impersonating a ninja today, maybe you'd like to see whether your skills compare to that of…" he paused and looked at his students, seeking a volunteer.

Heliksa thrust her hand up into the air. Her teacher cocked her head at her questioningly.

"I'm simply horrified by their attitude," she said honestly. She bit back her other reason for volunteering: to show the soldiers that she did not actually need them, that she could protect herself better than they possibly could.

Her teacher smiled and nodded. "Very well." He turned back to the soldier dressed as a ninja. "What will it be, young man? Will you be brave enough to show us your doubtlessly amazing ninja skills?" He chuckled a bit at that.

The young man pulled himself up to a slouching position. "Sure," he said with a snicker. "'Bout time she found out her fancy karate stuff doesn't work for real." He turned to face her. "I won't hurt ya," he said smugly.

She scowled at him; he had nerve, she'd give him that. It was a shame that in this case, being brave was exactly the same as being stupid. She got into the lion position, a signature of the school.

"Dude, you're totally going to get your ass kicked by Hel," Pirate Boy snickered.

"Whatever, man," Mr. Ninja answered. "So, err… should I try to punch you or something?" he asked Heliksa.

She answered by rushing him. She naturally had him pinned on the floor in short order.

"What were you saying doesn't work?" she asked, smiling sweetly down at him, her rich, thick hair tickling his face.

Kamakura turned red and looked away without answering. He was itching to throw the sneering, over-confident girl off of him and to show the whole class what he could really do, but the urge was of course ridiculous. As humiliating as it was to pretend he'd been defeated by the most flawed attack he'd ever seen, showing off was out of the question while they were posing as average teenagers.

It was still infuriating, especially with Billy laughing his head off on the bench. In Billy's defense, it was fully appropriate for his role to be laughing at him, but then, Kamakura reasoned that being angry about it was perfectly in character for him, too, so he didn't hold back a scowl directed at his sword brother.

"I say, how shameless of you to laugh at your friend's defeat!" Heliksa exclaimed indignantly, glaring at Billy. "Do you want a turn?"

The subject of her ire put his hands up in a gesture of surrender, smirking. He had no intention to fight Heliksa, or anyone else in the dojo for that matter; it made no sense to take the chance that someone might kick his metal leg or knock his eye patch loose. "No thanks," he said with a chuckle. "This is one pirate who knows better than to take on a ninja."