Operation: Flanks for nothing.
Disclaimer: Skymaster23 has no connection to Miami Vice.
Seven weeks later, Serpentor has ordered an operation for an anti-aging cream he read about. "Have the Baroness dispatched at once, this i...You dare to interrupt me, Major?" He says when he notices the man raise his hand.
"Apologies, Great Serpentor, but none of us have seen her."
Twelve minutes earlier, Zarana is wandering around when she spots Buzzer and Torch next to an unconscious Tele-Viper, the younger one with headphones on. "Just what are you buttheads listening to in 'ere?" She asks them as she nudges the underling's forearm out of her way, but stops walking towards them when she hears someone else talking.
"Imagine if you will, that we got us a fancy new voice changing gizmo." Buzzer tells her.
"Yeah, we gone through 16 more samples in it than the one sleepin' beauty down there was yanking out 'fore you showed up." Torch adds.
Zarana glances at the two, and rolls her eyes. "Just put it away before you break it." She tells them, only hear the Baroness behind her.
"Vat are you three doing in here? That is a very expensive prototype you have there, put it back on the table right now!"
"I was just telling him that, meself."
"Vere you now?" She asks in an unconvinced tone as she fold her arms. "I suggest you find somevhere else to "hang out"."
Zarana makes a gesture at her, then turns to the device, and smirks as she seemingly places the device in a drawer, only to stuff it down her shirt. After a moment, she goes to a room down the hall and picks up a phone. "Baroness, Ssserpentor hasss an assignment for you."
"Yes, commander, vhat are my orders?" She asks "Cobra Commander".
"We have been informed that the Joesss may have found one of our warehouses in Aussstria. Go alone and verify that none of the contents are misssing." "He" tells her.
Back to the present.
"Search the terrordrome, she has to be here somewhere. Until then, this mission will go to you, Dreadnok Zarana. Take off at once, this i command."
A couple of people at ABN-TV are editing a commercial Buffums' department store when one of them notices something. "You want to roll that back about nine frames, Pete?" A brown-haired man asked.
"Why, did you see something?"
"I just might have." He says quietly once he notices two people walking by the store. One seemed to be an actress who was fast becoming a household name, but the man with her had the kind of blue suit he could spot blindfolded. "Pardon me for a second, guys; nature calls." He tells them, only to head outside for a phonebooth.
In a tech-lab of Joe HQ, Breaker is fixing a laser designator when Mutt tells him he has a call. "Hello...Sparks, that you? You think you saw what?"
"That's right, I'm positive Donna Dasher was with one of the Crimson twins over at Long Beach this afternoon."
"...That's not too far from where Flint and Beachhead are, I'll let one of them know when they check in. Thanks."
In the briefing room of Joe HQ, General Hawk begins speaking. "Joes...a little while ago, three Dreadnoks stole a formula for an anti-aging cream from a cosmetics company owner in California. After Dial-Tone went through her personal computer, he found two of her most recent clients. One is an NFL star named Brett Tinker-" He tells them, but is cut-off.
"Ain't he da same one Taputapu says replaced him?" Gung-Ho asks him.
"Whether Cobra was involved with his removal is unverified, but yes, they both have been on the same team." Hawk explained, and continued. "The other name was an actress named Donna Dasher. Fl-" He says, getting cut-off again.
"Actress; then that mean we're off to Hollywood?" Shipwreck asked next. "Yippee...When do i leave, General?!"/"Awk, quiet on the set, quiet on the set!"
"As you were, Shipwreck; Duke told me you and the other five from the Firebat incident are still banned from the premises." Hawk tells him, and the sailor slumps down.
"That's gratitude for ya...ratchin-fradgin bigshot." He says to himself as everyone laughs at him. "Aw, shaddup!"
Recondo stand up next. "It does make me wonder though, is the tip from Landsburg, or Goldplat?"
"The latter was unwilling to return our call, but former did agree to give us backstage passes after i called his office. The person who did contact us wishes to remain anonymous. Only Breaker, Flint, and Lady-Jaye know who it is." Duke tells him.
"Anyway, Flint has sent Dial-Tone n' I back tuh pick volunteers for dis assignment." Beachhead explains, instantly causing all but the previously mentioned six to stand up. "Saw dat coming a mile away." He says under his breath, and looks to the front row. "Dis is gonna be one'a dem low profile missions, so...Mainframe, Gung-Ho, and Sci-Fi; we head owt to San Fransisco bay in one half-hour by different routes. Understood?"
"Yo Joe; Tinseltown, here we come!"
Once the mission parameters have changed, Flint turns to Beachhead. "Before we do that, weren't you headed back to HQ?"
"Ah was, but ah had made a few stowps to check wit' a number of contacts."
"A number of contacts?" Flint asks, raising a brow before holding a hand out. "Hand 'em over, Beachhead."
"Sir, ah am insulted dat yuh'd even thenk ah'd be owf mid-mission foh autographs." He says while turning to the side.
"I don't recall using the word autographs." Flint tells him, and Beachhead sneers under his head-covering, quietly griping as he pulls a small bag out from under his tac-vest. Flint picks one card out. "Who's Don Johnson?"
"...He's a lead actor on dis cop show ah've been into since '85."
After exiting a clothing store in Beverly Hills, the Joes look around. "Any tips on fittin' in?" Gung-Ho asks Lady-Jaye. "Dis here's yeh turf n' all."
"Maybe go back inside for a white jacket so you can pass for a lighthouse!" One passerby in an '87 Nissan says aloud, and drives off.
"Come outta yer tin can and say dat again, ya little smartass!" Gung-Ho yells as he shakes a fist. "Kin yuh believe we risk our lives for dat?"
"That's real-life for you." Lady-Jaye says as she shrugs and looks up. "As for sunny California; i wanted to be here once, but when the Iran hostage crisis started making all the headlines...i knew there were more important things than a young lady's dream."
Once the mission was over, Flint looks over his team while Gung-Ho was off looking for some spare workers clothes for Lady-Jaye to put on. He wondered what he was supposed to say in his report, but more importantly, he wondered what she must have thought when seeing him all shriveled up. Both of them may have sworn to end up like that someday, but the feeling it gave almost made him want to head to the catwalk Mainframe was on and jump off.
A few hours later, Zarana is on a bed at a safehouse with a book labeled: Zandap's jernal, handz off or elss, and starts writing. "Dear diary, today was both lousy and radical. The first part for how that big-mouth baldy (note to self: don't work with him again) could have turned Mainframe into an old man. Fortunately, that leads to the second part. Now i can't tell if i should push Mainframe down and get it on with him...or drug him, pay Scrap-Iron to rebuild the youth-ray, and keep him little forever and ever."
Chapter twenty.