Operation: Flanks for nothing.
After defeating the entity that Dial-Tone unintentionally freed, Hawk and the other three leaders are deciding who be join in the upcoming "airshow" when Mainframe gets a call from a base in Minnesota. "G.I. Joe H.Q., here; if it hisses, we...You mean it...Give me a sec." He says, and calls the General.
Soon after, Bazooka is at the weapon's range when he gets a visit. "Hey, homme, got a message from yuh ma!"
"What about?" He asks as he is loading a rocket.
"Dey was telling us yer Boo, Taeko, jes' had her water broke." Gung-Ho tells him as he dismounts from an Armadillo, and steps aside as the dimmest of Joes rushes past him to drive off. "Boy, dat was a close one."
"Here." He says as he head back, and tosses his signature weapon at the marine, causing him to fall on his back.
On the airfield, Bazooka gets into the transport jet's cockpit, expecting either Wild Bill or Lift-Ticket to be in the pilots seat. "Attention, this is your super coolest mountaineer buddy speaking; if you look to your right, you will see the happiest Joe on Earth." He hears instead.
"Huh...Alpine!"
"The one n' only. Strap in, Bazook!"
Along the way, Alpine explained how Duke, Scarlett, and several other Joes convinced Hawk to take Bazooka off the roster for the mission involving the mystery plane. "All we know about it so far is that it doesn't appear to be that weird looking bomber Northrop is working on." He adds to pass the time.
The two eventually land and are taken by Huey to the closest hospital to Bazooka's home. They check in at the pad, and follow a nurse to a hall where an older woman is standing with a camcorder on a chair next to her. "David, finally; and you brought one of your friends. I'm afraid you missed the birth by 16 minutes." She tells them, the heightened restrictions Duke made concerning codenames having been lifted a long time ago.
"Nertz! Where's everyone else?"
"Your brother John is...there he is." She tells them as she points past them.
"Good evening, Dave. Did you just arrive?"
"Uh-huh. Is she still awake, ma?" He asks, and heads in after getting a nod.
"Bazooka. You...you're here." She tells him as he and Alpine walk in.
"I came as fast as i could, Taeko. Was it as painful as they show on TV?" He asks her while Alpine gives a mock salute.
"They don't even come close; but if i could make it through a man-made rock slide, then i knew i could make it through this." She tells him while running a hand through her hair. "You should go and see him, David. He may not look like you, but-"
"He's as beautiful as his mom?"
"May~be."
When she's fit enough for a wheelchair, the trio heads to the maternity ward to see the child. "You must be Sgt. Katzenbogen." One M.D. says to them. "I'm the man performed the delivery. I don't mean to offend, but i was more than a little worried when i heard your wife's was Asian."
"Say what?!"
"Ah, no-not like that. It's-it's just that i lost a son in the Tet offensive. I almost passed this on to someone else until i saw how disappointed she was that you weren't going to be able to see the birth in person." He tells them right before a receptionist shows up.
"Are you the guests who came here by helicopter?"
"That's us." Bazooka and Alpine reply, and are told that during the search for Lady-Jaye's test-pilot friend, Slipstream was forced to eject after a mutual shootdown with a Night Raven, and reportedly, he escaped a Cobra bio-weapon along with the enemy jet's pilot by the skin of their teeth.
Final chapter.
No offense to any reader of Asian descent.