Author's Notes: Huzzah; reviews always motivate me to update sooner no matter the time of day, or night as the case may be... Here you go folks chapter four, not much to say here except hold on to your hats.

"We Now Return to GIJoe."


I was working on the car because I was troubled again; only this time it was because dealing with the Sinister Six had seemed, at least to me, just a little too easy. I suspected that this Darkholme character was trying to keep me preoccupied while he was getting ready for the big push, which meant I could expect more problems and the Vulture would probably try something else soon too if he was under the thrall of this man. As I twisted the new distributor cap in place and double checked the flywheels placement Josie came in; she was wearing a pair of faded black jeans and a grey and red tee with a jean jacket to match her pants, the ladies had scrounged it up for her.

"Can't sleep?" I asked realigning the brakes for the twelfth time.

"No offense, but I've been on my back for six days; I'm a little fed up with the position." She replied watching me mess up for the thirteenth time.

"I don't get it; I'm following the book exactly." I grumbled tossing my wrench aside in disgust; Josie smirked at the comment.

"No book can make you into a mechanic." She countered. "You have to feel it." She closed her eyes and aimed her hand at the Ford; in a flash all of the parts flew across the garage and reassembled themselves flawlessly.

"Hey thanks." I began wiping the excess grease off with a clean rag as I moved to sit in the beat up old leather chair Logan had put out here long ago for his use. "I sincerely doubted I'd be able to fix this puppy before I had to leave." I admitted with a tired sigh.

"What are friends for?" She wondered with a chuckle leaning up against the hood of the Ford; she looked so different in ordinary clothes, my mind only kept seeing the old Circuit Breaker from the Marvel comics, it was hard to picture her in anything else. "So, wanna do something?" She asked.

"No offense, but I've kinda got a lot on my mind." I replied rubbing the bridge of my nose in exhausted thought.

"Anything I can help with?" She asked eyeing me with a strange look of concern; something that was equally alien to me due to my mental picture of the woman.

"I highly doubt it, this kind of problem needs a lot more than the ability to manipulate machines." I replied suddenly my audio sensors detected telltale signs of two humans stealthily approaching the garage; if it weren't for the fact that I could hear their heartbeats they probably would have succeeded.

"Maybe if you told me; you never know a fresh perspective could help." She urged oblivious to the possible danger I was about to reply when the door opened and the lights died. "Al!" Josie cried in surprise and fear, a blade lodged itself in the chair I had been sitting in; I had already leapt aside however. The telltale sound of the Ford starting up deafened me and the flaring headlights forced my optics to recalibrate; Storm Shadow didn't have the luxury however and was caught off guard by Josie who dive-bombed the Cobra Ninja, Suicide was about to drive a knife in the unsuspecting woman's back when twin tendrils ensnared her hauling her up to the ceiling.

"I thought our mutual ally wanted me alive still." I taunted a dark smile on my lips.

"He sends a message." She explained indicating the blade Storm Shadow had lodged a few feet above where my head had rested; a thin scroll was secured to the still wobbling hilt.

"What's wrong with the phone?" I demanded wrapping her wrists a little tighter in my clutches. "Josie; let'em go." I ordered returning Suicide to the ground; Josie climbed off of Storm Shadow and the two Cobra worms vanished as quickly as they'd arrived. Unfurling the parchment as I examined the blade; it was from the Ming dynasty, pretty rare if I wasn't mistaken. My eyes trailed over the words scrawled hastily on a three by five scrap of dirty white paper; the Commander did enjoy his little theatrics I supposed.

"What was that all about?" Josie demanded covering up a large gash in her arm with my oil stained rag; apparently she hadn't had an easy time of keeping Arashikage under control.

"Oh geeze, here let me take a look at that." I insisted ignoring her query for the moment.

"It's just a scratch." She retorted shying away from the odd looking rectangular device I had produced from my pocket, seeing as how things were going to escalate I felt that keeping the Tricorder on my person might not be such a bad idea.

"It's going to get infected that way, relax this little beauty is a marvel of medical technology." I soothed pulling the rag aside and running the tricorders' diagnostic tool over her wound; within moments she was perfectly healed and eyeing me with newfound awe. "Federation tech." I explained with a tiny shrug of dismissal.

"Are you going to talk or do I have to pry it out?" She demanded returning to the matter at hand.

"Oh yes, well… Those were some old acquaintances of mine." I trailed off reclaiming the parchment and re-reading it. "It appears a new mission has just presented itself." I added a wolfish grin playing across my lips, this was indeed going to be a fun way to pass some time until Darkholme made his move; the others could handle Vulture alone I had no doubts about that. So why not help out in other ways; and it would give me a chance to return to the Pit.

"What's got you so cheered up?" She wondered moving to read over my shoulder.

"Nothing." I hastily replied shoving the parchment into my pocket and claiming the sword as my own. "You said you wanted something to do?" I repeated; she eyed me uncertainly and I smiled softly. "Relax; I just thought maybe you'd care to help me spar." I elaborated.

"Well, I'm not really good with that style of fighting." She admitted knowing I was keeping something from her; I shrugged.

"Let me teach you then." I said; she smiled mischievously, and suddenly I didn't like the way that had sounded, but it was too late to retract the statement. Together we left the garage and headed to the backyard; the moon was barely visible in the night sky, but that wouldn't bother me; I'd have to be careful with her though.


The following morning at breakfast I approached Mystique unsure how she would respond to my request, but unfortunately Roma had all of my mobile emitters so I would have to rely on the talents of others for this particular deception.

"I wonder if you could do me a small favor." I began; she eyed me with those strangely hypnotic eyes before swallowing her bite, for the first time she was just plain old Mystique so I was privy to the fact that in this reality she looked a lot more like her movie version… In fact they were practically identical; and she wasn't wearing any clothes as far as I could tell, which doubled the discomfort levels I was experiencing.

"That depends on what it is." She stated; I leaned in close not wanting everyone to know what I was playing at and whispered the details, her eyes lit up with her smile and she simply nodded in acceptance.

"You gonna share wit' the rest of us mon ami?" Remy wondered eyeing both of us with a harshness that surprised me.

"Sorry Cajun; I highly doubt you guys would approve of these new developments." I replied moving over to the kitchen sink and rinsing my plate off.

"Try us." Bobby remarked, I sighed dejectedly.

"Even though I am an honorary X-Man that does not entitle you all to know everything going on in my life like some parental figure hood." I retorted; Jubilee looked up in stunned silence at my inappropriate tone.

"I tink dat' one has spent too much time enjoyin' manipulatin'." Remy stated coldly.

"That is hardly the case LeBeau." I scoffed heading out the back door without so much as a backward glance; this time things could get ugly and I wasn't about to have them tagging along, I'd already discussed it with Rogue last night and she was ok with my decision, she wasn't down yet though so she couldn't defend my actions.

"Professor." Scott began slightly concerned for the safety of the team.

"Al has a point." Hank interjected. "And he also has knowledge about those of this world which we are not privy to; I trust him to avoid getting involved with anything that would hurt one of us." He finished sagely.

"As do I, still I fear he may take his role for Roma far too seriously at times." Xavier observed with pursed lips as he lost himself in thought.

"You judge him too harshly." Josie snapped. "But if you're so afraid of his actions then I'll stick with him." She added heading off after Al as quickly as she could; the X-Men unnerved her slightly, she'd been lacking in social grace for quite some time and so the transition back to a normal lifestyle was a tad jarring to say the least.


Josie found me outside swinging both the blade Aja had given me and the one I'd laid claim to from Storm Shadow; dual blade techniques were not unknown to me, but I had rarely employed them save perhaps for when I was fighting Callopias. My intent was not one of sinister covert manipulations; not this time, in fact I was currently playing a very dangerous game indeed. If old cloth face knew precisely what was happening I'd lose my limited pull within the Cobra organization; on the other hand many would question my desires for maintaining said pull, I myself knew that my desire stemmed from foolish childhood fantasies. But in all honesty what fellow fan of the franchise wouldn't want to play the part I was playing now; fighting for both Cobra and GIJoe, with neither the other aware of it… Although in truth I'd never officially fought for Cobra.
Evil was a lot more fun to play around with than good even when your motivations had the best intentions in mind; in the long run evil and temptation were powerful forces to fight against, and currently I was walking within that grey area of both. Of course there were occasional perks being part of the spy game, but this wasn't a James Bond movie and I wasn't interested in making love to every suggestively named woman Hollywood could dish out. In all honesty I was just trying to prolong the inevitable; remain here with Rogue for as long as possible, which wouldn't be much longer either way you looked at it now that I knew Darkholme by name.

"I didn't tell anyone about your visitors." Josie stated cutting into my thoughts. "Now are you going to talk or do I go back and let them in on where you got that fancy new knife?" She demanded her hands placed firmly on her hips, I regarded her as I cleaved both blades through the air; finally curiosity overcame common sense.

"Why?" I asked.

"I don't owe anything to them, but you…" She paused obviously collecting her thoughts before plunging onward. "You're the first guy I met since the incident that truly wanted to help me heal my shattered soul. I think that deserves some kind of loyalty don't you?" She wondered coyly; I shrugged at that and broke into a wide smirk.

"I always felt you'd make a better hero than a villain." I admitted with a slight chuckle. "Those writers screwed up your potential though… And that probably confused the hell out of you." I noted swinging both blades back in a clipped arch designed to cleave an opponents head off. "Cobra Commander sent me a warning; the Kingpin of Crime has enlisted the Dreadnoks to eliminate me." I revealed a small smile slowly spreading across my lips. "The over inflated serpent wishes to use me in hopes that I will terminate the Kingpin allowing his organization to take over his operations and reap the economical benefits. I suspect his funds took a big hit when he miscalculated the events of our last encounter and lost half of his precious Terror Drome." I elaborated, she was eyeing me incredulously and for good reason; I sounded like some narrator recapping the events of some horrible soap opera.

"You're involved with Cobra?" She asked eliciting a chuckle.

"Not exactly, I've sort of earned some twisted debt and am having a hard time not getting involved." I replied ceasing my blade practices and regarding Josie as if meeting her for the first time; another idea had just struck me, a means of fulfilling the next phase of this tricky operation. "I think I just had an epiphany."

"Really, do tell." Josie quipped rolling her eyes.

"You can get the sensitive computer files I need, the hard evidence to put the Kingpin behind bars and cut Cobra off at the pass." I stated moving to grab Josie by the wrists and startling her in the process. "Don't you see; I'd be doing exactly what Cobra wants, just not the way they expected." I added; she eyed me skeptically and pulled out of my grip.

"But how would that help?" She wondered uncertainly.

"With Kingpin out of the way and his criminal empire in ruins life would be a lot better in this city." I half-argued, half-pleaded.

"Alright; I'll help, but you'd better be right about this." She accused eliciting a wide smile from me.


Battle Android Trooper serial number Eight Five One would have smiled if he could; the construction was coming along rather nicely thanks to Thundercracker being so close by for a little borrowed bodily needs, now with the re-programmed squadron of BATs working double time and the Cybertronian Technology required to modify the Night Raven soon his new body would be complete. There was just one little snag to this good bit of fortune; Cobra was beginning to notice the missing BATs, ah well soon it wouldn't matter for soon he would be whole once again and then… Revenge!


"Major." A Cobra Officer called out; Major Bludd glanced up from his position his eye clearly telling him to proceed. "We have located evidence that the BAT squadron that vanished has also taken a Cobra Night Raven; we have Jungle Vipers and Pit Vipers combing the island, but so far we have failed to locate them." He reported.

"Why do I have the feeling the Decepticons are behind this secrecy?" Bludd muttered to himself. "Keep searching; contact that foul beast Croc Master and tell him to help unless he wants to be demoted." Bludd ordered aloud; the Cobra Officer saluted and turned to his Troopers.

"You heard the Major, move out you maggots!" He barked; the Troopers marched double time from the mobile command bunker and swiftly began scouring the jungles and swamps in the immediate area.

"Notify the Commander; and alert Mindbender that our Decepticon Allies might not be so beneficent after all." Bludd ordered his personal Tele-Viper; the woman nodded and input the commands to open a channel with the Terror Drome.


The offices of Murdoch and Nelson were easily located, my shadow could not follow me inside the cramped confines of the building, which is what I wanted; Toad was a poor excuse for a spy. Still I had to give him credit for keeping up with Bluestreak and me and not being seen by the pedestrians of New York or Spider-Man, The Punisher or any other happened to be there hero.

"Why hello Mister Rutherford." Janelle greeted from the secretaries desk startling me.

"You aren't working here are you?" I wondered in confusion.

"Oh no, the real secretary just stepped out and this is the softest chair in the place. Can't be too careful in my condition." She replied with a chuckle; it was extremely odd to be speaking with a woman who looked identical to a girl I'd known briefly in life on Earth Prime, and yet familiar comfort seemed to radiate from seeing a face I knew from my home reality… The homesickness wasn't as pronounced.

"Is Matt around?" I asked flipping through the pages of an old magazine on the desk while I waited. "Well what do you know; Reed Richards is planning to test a new space faring vessel of his design." I grinned at the so meticulously preserved pages and returned the magazine to the desk.

"He should be back from the courthouse any minute now." Janelle replied; I sighed the timing had to be perfect if I hoped to shake Toad, which is why when Buster and Bumblebee pulled up I cursed under my breath.

"Give him this and tell him I'll be by another day to explain how I got it." I requested slipping her a tiny diskette just as a three year old girl entered the office looking a tad lost.

"Where is he?" She demanded; Janelle looked like she was going to say something, mistaking the question for one about Matt.

"Not here, it doesn't matter time to trick wart boy into following the wrong me." I replied as Mystique transformed before my eyes into a perfect duplicate of myself; Janelle gasped and would have screamed if not for my hand clamping over her mouth. "You know the score, ditch tongue head and make your way to EE for infiltration. I'll be waiting for the call." I stated reviewing the plan for her benefit; she sneered at my thoroughness before heading out and climbing into Bluestreak, the Autobot took off at breakneck speeds into oncoming traffic before skipping back across the divider. I saw Toad take off after myself and I chuckled slightly while Janelle kept glancing up at me in fear and misunderstanding.
"Forgive my effrontery." I began removing my hand from her mouth. "But if you had screamed my plan wouldn't have worked. Say hi to Matt for me, I've got a rendezvous with a general to keep." I waved farewell before heading over to Bumblebee who peeled out in his nervousness at what he was involved with.

"Didn't you just take off in Bluestreak?" Buster queried from the drivers seat; the teen looked equally nervous about this whole ordeal.

"That was what I wanted it to look like." I replied with a smile. "So, can you get me to the Pit on time?" I wondered.

"Can do, this is so cool." Buster remarked eliciting a chuckle from me.

"Remember you promised to introduce us to the Avengers." Bumblebee stated as he took a right nearly clipping a familiar looking Ferrari.

"Sure thing Bumblebee, I always pay my dues." I stated glancing back for an instant to see Scott glaring at the little Volkswagen that scratched his car; Jean was keeping him relatively calm at least, and they hadn't spotted me which was good. "Time to give Uncle Sam another break, so to speak; Yo Joe." I whispered with a grin as we headed out of town and Bumblebee activated some kind of super fast Cybertronian mode of transit or something.


Meanwhile back in the lawyer's office Janelle was eyeing the spot where the man had departed from with uncertainty and a little trepidation; she didn't know what to make of her boyfriends' friend, so to speak. Still he hadn't done anything that seemed villainous to her way of thinking; although if anybody clamped a hand over her mouth again like that she was going to give them a message they wouldn't soon forget, after all she hadn't taken that self defense class for nothing.

"Are you alright Janelle?" Matt asked as he entered the office seeming to pick up on her unease.

"You have an interesting taste in friends' honey." She returned holding up the diskette. "I think that Rutherford character is in the spy game or something; he gave me this to give to you." She added; Matt smirked behind his hand and promptly took the diskette eyeing it, or rather appearing to eye it, critically.

"Well, why don't I take you out for lunch and we can forget the whole mess." He suggested with a smile; Janelle smiled back happily and allowed him to help her up, having a cast on your fanny wasn't very practical at times.


Colonel Clayton Abernathy and Sergeant Lonzo Wilkinson greeted the trio at the entrance to the Pit; Rutherford bid farewell to Buster and Bumblebee as Lonzo took the young man and his Autobot friend to the mess hall for a bite to eat and a recharge. Abernathy escorted Rutherford into the Pit proper where the duo was joined by an honor guard of sorts, of David Katzenbogen and Etienne Lafitte; otherwise known as Bazooka and Gung Ho. The trio led Rutherford swiftly to the office of General Lawrence J. Flagg the commander in chief of special task force Delta alias GIJoe; the man was sitting behind his desk as they entered, Allan looking rather put off by the swift travel time and lack of chances to register any of the sights.

"All right Rutherford." Flagg began chewing on a toothpick briefly. "You wanted this meeting, what's on your mind?" He asked.

"Patience General, we aren't all here yet." Al pointedly reminded assuming a seat across from the General while the twin guards stood at attention inside the doorway and Hawk took a seat nearby; Flagg eyed him incredulously, Rutherford merely smiled knowing full well what to expect as a few minutes later Duke, Flint, Lady Jaye and Scarlett barged in after a polite knock from LJ.

"What's he doing at this briefing sir?" Duke demanded as he offered a salute.

"What briefing, I didn't call a briefing." Flagg stated in confusion as he returned the gesture out of habit.

"I'm afraid I took the opportunity to issue a briefing for this meeting General, cut down on the time and all that. I apologize for my presumptuousness, but we do have a finite window of opportunity to prepare for." The young man informed breaking into the business at hand swiftly.

"How?" Flint demanded.

"Lieutenant Fairborn you will salute a superior officer when speaking to him!" Rutherford exclaimed perfectly mimicking the General's bass undertones; everyone was now staring at him in obvious concern and suspicion, he sighed exasperatedly. "What do you expect from a guy made up with billions of tiny little machines as part of his blood vessels?" He retorted slumping into his seat as he lost the bemused glint in his eye.

"What is this all about?" Flagg demanded his face reddening with impatient anger; Rutherford leaned forward in his seat.

"Cobra." He hissed a simple response for a simple question. "Specifically the Commander and his manipulative ways." He elaborated ensuring that the current members of GIJoe would be offering their undivided attention now.

"What's that schemin' snake up to now?" Bazooka demanded from beside the door cracking his knuckles in the process.

"His intention was to use me to eliminate the Kingpin of Crime as I did the Red Skull and Serpentor so that he could assume control of the man's business affairs and probably recoup lost finances." Rutherford replied a sneer curling his lip. "Obviously he has failed to realize that I'm not a hit man; Red Skull was purely self-defensive and Serpentor was unavoidable, I couldn't possibly return the amount of firepower with my exhausting abilities accurately enough not to kill anyone." The man added with a chuckle. "Therefore I have… Shall we say; alternated his plans slightly, as of this moment a very good lawyer friend of mine is receiving every pertinent bit of evidence needed to lock up the Kingpin for a long time and… Freeze his assets." Rutherford finished with a bemused smirk.

"That still doesn't explain why you wanted to come here." Duke pointed out as he at last claimed a seat; Rutherford nodded leaning back once more and wetting his lips.

"Simplicity for simplicities sake Hauser, I can't have the Commander or any of his lackeys popping up at every moment old Cloth Face decides I might be of use to him; especially now that the die has been cast and my mission for Roma is picking up speed." Rutherford explained with a tired sigh. "It could cause irreparable damages to my goals for Roma; therefore I have come here to propose my enlistment into the ranks of GIJoe, brief enlistment mind you, just long enough to hurt Cobra's plans in the short term so my own won't be compromised before I face the true enemy behind it all." Rutherford explained further; silence filled the room as the command, or at least most of the command staff of GIJoe shared a few looks, most notably expressions of resent and dismay.

"Son, I appreciate where you're coming from; however we don't let civvies join GIJoe even if they are mutants and more then qualified." Flagg returned; Rutherford shook his head a tiny smirk playing across his lips as he produced a file from somewhere on his person.

"Respectfully sir I am forced to disagree; Allan Rutherford is not requesting to join up… Benjamin Franklin Pierce is reporting for duty as ordered." He returned with a gleeful expression on his face; Flagg took the file and perused it, his eyes widened as he read the contents.

"Where did you get this?" He demanded slapping the file back onto the desk where Hawk picked it up and examined it in turn.

"Well; it pays to be in tight with a so called omnipotent alien, I just had him convince Fury that it was for the best… Besides certain reports from SHIELD operatives have indicated that Cobra called in for Decepticon assistance in a salvage operation, three guesses what they needed them for." Rutherford returned with a brief shrug; Flagg glowered at the young man, Hawk shook his head a smile playing across his face.

"I'm afraid these are legal General; and if Rutherford here is willing to drop all of his mutant abilities and play the part of a soldier we can't exactly stop him." Abernathy returned; Duke shot a glare at the young man who quickly raised his hand in a dismissive gesture.

"I'm not exactly asking for command of the mission once Cobra's current plans are known to us; I should have mentioned that I got Mystique to infiltrate Extensive Enterprises so she could let me know when she finds the location of said salvage operation." Rutherford continued before the others could speak. "But I'm willing to perform any training courses you see fit to command." He finished quieting to await the final decision.

"General you can't be serious; if we let him join what's to stop him from getting some of his so called buddies in too?" Duke demanded. "Have we become a glee club? Allowing every Tom, Dick and Harry to become a full fledged member of GIJoe just because Fury okays it?" He elaborated; Flagg however appeared contemplative.

"If he wants to play soldier so badly I don't see any reason to deny him, provided of course that our man certifies him fit." Flagg stated breaking out into a wide grin. "Gung Ho, escort Captain Pierce here to the training compound." He ordered; the others all grinned now too, if anyone could break the arrogant young man from his desires it would naturally be the GIJoe Team new recruit instructor. Rutherford smirked; he knew what was to come, he just hoped he didn't break Beach Head's spirit too badly when he aced the class with flying colors, and all without the benefit of his unique mutant gifts either.

To Be Continued; Oh ho, looks like our pal Rutherford enjoys a certain television show staring a certain Mister Alda, where else could he get that name? Looks like the newest incognito member of GIJoe is going to be B.F. Pierce; wonder if he'll be cracking wise and drinking gin every night? LOL Anyway...

"GIJoe Will Return After these Messages."