Operation: Flanks for nothing.

Note: This will be AU.

In the Netherlands, G.I. Joe is conducting a wargame against N.A.T.O. forces, where Dial-Tone gets a radio message from Rock n' Roll. "We got heavy fire blocking us on the bridge, and close enough they can spit on me; any help'd be real nice right now!"

"We see it, Rock n' Roll. It's on the way." Flint says as he watches it through a camera on a Tomahawk over the field. "Dial-Tone, divert mortar team 10 to the bridge on the left flank for supporting fire."

"You got it, Flint. Mike 10, proceed left to the bridge to reinforce foxtrot tango 4."

At a mortar position inside what was left of a windmill, Leatherneck is instructing a pair of Greenshirts when they get the message. "I hear ya, Dial-Tone...Stratton, Double-tap; we're packing up to cover a fireteam on the bridge. Yo Joe!" He tells them, getting an annoyed look from the latter as they abandon their position. At the new site, he looks back to notice one of them is missing. "Stratton, where the hell did that other kid go?" He asks, and is pointed to the stray as he makes his way behind one of the N.A.T.O. squads.

Before he gets close enough, however, he is spotted by one of them while reloading.

At the Joe's command tent, Beachhead points out the Greenshirt's mistakes. "Y'awl best be glad we're only usin' blanks owt here, soldieh, cuz dat's da kind'a stunt only gets everybody dead as a doorknob."

While Doc and Crash-Cart are treating Leatherneck, a Spanish navy ship is searching for any Morays that got past the British, when the captain is notified of debris found by their divers. "Is it from them, sailor?"

"Aye, sir, a Cobra B.A.T.; but it's too discolored to be part of what the Americans and the Dutch reported."

The captain orders it brought to the flightdeck. Once done examining it, he has the men dismantle it, and heads back to the bridge. "What's our position?"

"170 nautical miles north-west of the Azores, captain."

"Even more proof it didn't swim there; Radio-room, contact Madrid. I want proof that any Cobra ships or planes went down in this area."

A few days later, retired Admiral Ledger is out in his backyard mowing when a young woman waves at him. "Can't you see I'm kinda busy, Paige?"

"Sorry, grandpa, but you got a phonecall from Washington." She says.

"I'm here, i was just sprucing up outside, and...Do you mean it?...Yahoo!" He says as he drop the handset and rushes to his closet.

"Gra-Granpad, slow down or you'll break your hip again."

'No time for that, dear; the Sec-Nav says a Spanish destroyer found one of Cobra's robots from the same airship that sunk the Flagg."

After being placed in a decompression chamber just in time, Zarana turns toward Zartan. "That screwball frenchy said he was alone down there, didn't he?"

"Don't remind me...what about it?" He asks in return, and is told of something that happened during the "tremors".

"When that Joey with the green vest lit the match, i could have sworn i saw a second man wearing camo standing next to the one with the backpack."

The two men glance at each other before Zartan responds. "There were only two in G.I. Joe that had fullbody forest camo; but it couldn't have been either of them."

"What makes you say that, brother?" Zandar asks.

At the same time, the Norfolk base commander is with Shipwreck watching the work on the Flagg. "You certain you want to go aboard?" He asks the first one. "I may be just as navy as you are, but from what i read, even i wouldn't want to re-live trauma like that."

"Eh, no problem at all." Shipwreck says while looking at the Flagg's island, where Ripcord and a dozen other crewmen are looking back. "I ain't boarding alone."

Chapter twenty-one.