Live Fast And Die Hard

by Tower of Babel

GIJOE is overwhelmed at the UN and has to fallback. Cobra Commander advances his forces, only to be attacked by Destro, who has his own agenda. Storm Shadow then seizes an opportunity and enters the fray from the shadows and attempts to enact revenge on Cobra Commander for the death of his uncle. But with Cobra Commander's new 'Battle Armour', he seems unstoppable!

1. Part 1

"Live Fast And Die Hard"

Part 1:

"Attack On The United Nations"

"Get those civilians out of the line of fire!" Duke hollered. "If we don't stop Cobra here, there'll be no stopping them!"

Cobra Commander sat in the gunner's pod of a stationary HISS tank. If he was smiling behind his Battle Armour metal mask was unknown, but he was extremely pleased with how the battle was going. "Yesss!" The word came out like the slithering of a serpent's tongue. "Bring that building down! COBRAA!"

Half an hour before, the United Nations Building in New York City was bustling with political activity preparing for a peace conference. Then a cry of "COBRAA!" bellowed out, and all hell broke loose. But it was lucky for the delegates that GIJOE was safeguarding the conference or their worse fears may have been realized. But despite a well-fortified defence perimeter around the building, COBRA was still doing a lot of damage.

"Perfect!" Cobra Commander laughed. "With the United Nations Building under fire and soon to be destroyed, COBRA will rule with an iron fist! The UN will falter and then there'll be chaos. COBRA will be there to pick up the pieces with a new world order!"

Battle Armoured (robotic) Troopers, BATS, with newly designed guidance systems and weapons upgrades, blasted away portions of the United Nations Building with pin pointed accuracy, and Alley Vipers, Cobra's Urban Assault Troops, dressed head to toe in red and black uniforms, surrounded the building, and fired both on the building and at GIJOE, shielded by heavy armour plating.

"Fast Draw, right flank! Push those Alley Vipers and BATS back!" Duke snapped an order to the heavily armed man beside him.

"Right!" Fast Draw used his weapons guidance system and calculated the coordinates instantly, then fired an assault on the nearest COBRA troops, launching radio guided missiles into their numbers, the impact looking like a scene from a Fourth of July celebration. But single-minded programmable clones, supplementary troops, immediately took their place as if their fallen brethren meant nothing more than a nuisance and an obstacle to manoeuvre over. Cannon fodder.

"Man, that's really cold." Fast Draw fired off another barrage of missiles at the marching troops. Once again there was destruction, but reinforcements followed, and ignored the fallen. "There's just too many of them, Duke, and I'm almost out of ammo!"

"We can't let these serpents win, Fast Draw, the world, and the fate of the United Nations, depends on us defeating COBRA," Duke said, sending out laser fire. Other GIJOE members followed suit, standing their ground. "Fight them hand to hand if you have to, but keep them away from the interior of the building."

"Gotcha, but it ain't gonna be easy."

"Battles like these aren't, but it's people like us who are the hope for the future."

"When did you become the idealistic philosopher?"

"Always was."

Fast Draw smirked.

"I think it's time we end this little game," Cobra Commander said, and jumped down from the gunner's pod of the COBRA tank. Once he landed, he turned around, and a man dressed totally in black, but from head-to-toe decked for a small war, approached him wearing a menacing smile on his face. "Scrap Iron, my loyal and subordinate comrade, is our little toy ready?"

"Just say the word, Commander, and all will be your," Scrap Iron said.

"Then the word is given. Destroy that building and GIJOE with it. COBRAA!"

"With pleasure, Commander."

Scrap Iron plunked a device from his bullet vest pocket. It was a control box and in the middle was a little red button; he pushed it. All of a sudden, the ground began to shake as if an earthquake choose that moment to strike. But it wasn't an earthquake. Instead it gave raise to the birth of a new weapon.

Raising like a bullet, a smooth metal cylinder called the Sonic Pulse Generator, ejected to a height of nearly fifty meters. Once it reached its maximum height, a diamond studded sonic dish unravelled from the top, and aimed itself directly at the United Nations Building. With a sinister smirk, Scrap Iron activated the weapon and a sonic pulse, so strong, shot from the dish that it rocked the foundation of the building violently to its very core. The building began to crumble and break apart under the enormous strain. People ran for their lives as the building began to crash down.

"The United Nations Building will be destroyed and COBRA shall become the new rulers of the world," Cobra Commander declared. "No one will be able to stop us this time with the Sonic Pulse Generator—not even GIJOE!"

Cobra Commander laughed. It looked like his declaration was about to become a reality, but something began to happen to put a sudden wrench in his plan. Without warning, each and every one of the Battle Android Troopers began to malfunction, shook with electronic confusion, and then exploded. Cobra Commander watched in shock as an unseen force obliterated his robotic army.

He growled angrily, and turned to Scrap Iron. "You idiot! I thought you fixed that problem with the sonic pulse affecting the BATS?"

"I thought I did. But I warned you this might happen," Scarp Iron replied.

"No matter; as I said before, the BATS are nothing more than high-tech designer dollies, they can be spared for my glorious conquest upon the UN; they're a dime a dozen. I still have enough troops to wipe out GIJOE. Advance, COBRA!" he told his forces through his helmet communications system. "Set this city a blaze with the sound of war! Destroy everything! Burn this city to the ground." He looked back at the Sonic Pulse Generator. "Once I do away with the United Nations Building, I will then begin to consulate my forces in crushing all military and civilian forces, then financial installations who dare to defy me in my new world order. Once they are crushed, GIJOE will be no more. The United States Military will be out of resources and have no other choice but to surrender to COBRA." He laughed heartedly, and advanced upon the United Nations Building with the HISS as his shield.

Duke fired his rifle until the power pack became drained, then he began to fight hand-to-hand as if his life depended on it against the urban forces Others followed in suit as their weapons drained with continuous use. With very few resources open to him, Duke— with orders from General Hawk—ordered a fallback. It wasn't a retreat, rather a regrouping and a consolidation of their forces.

"I can't believe this, COBRA has never been so strong before," he said, falling back with others.

"This may be one battle GIJOE may not win," General Hawk remarked.

All of a sudden as GIJOE fell back, an unexpected ally swooped in.

Destro came flying down in his Despoiler and dropped missiles upon advancing Cobra troops. Then from the rooftops of other buildings, came an army of flying soldiers, Annihilators and TARGETS, Destro's elite flying fighting troops, and they fired upon COBRA troops. Explosions erupted on the ground as legions of Cobra troops were slaughtered without mercy.

Duke and General Hawk were astounded.

Destro landed his Despoiler, which was basically a flying throne with gun pod, near their position.

"Destro, I'm shocked," General Hawk said, breathing a little heavy, his uniform stained with dirt and even some blood. "You've come to assist us?"

"Only temporarily," Destro said, his voice reverberated behind his golden mask. A mask forcefully placed upon every MCCullen ancestor—at first worn as a curse and as punishment, but then as a badge of honour. Destroy hopped out and stood next to the pair. "I still want what I am due, but I refuse to live under the tyranny of COBRA. And I can't stand that annoying serpent of a dote!"

Since Destro separated himself from COBRA, his vision for the future had changed. Most recently, he aided GIJOE in their battles against COBRA, but only up to a certain point. His philosophy was once COBRA was out of the way, then he and his Iron Grenadiers troops would be the only power worthy to rule the world. GIJOE knew this and they had tangled with Destro and his Iron Grenadiers at times when they were in the sole entanglement. But more often than naught, the two forces had become allies against COBRA. And this time, it looked like GIJOE needed his help once again.

Destro gazed around. "What's the situation, General Hawk?" the megalomaniacal, sinister villain-turned-momentary-ally, asked.

"We're almost out of ammo, and we have twenty percent causalities, none fatal, thank God," Hawk answered. "All civilians have been evacuated from the area, but as you can see the building may not last much longer."

"What is that vibration I feel?"

Hawk pointed to the tall, slick, metallic, cylinder device near the UN Building. "COBRA is using some sort of sonic device to shake the foundation of the building to bring it down," he said. "We have to knock that thing down and save what's left of the building. I have a plan. If you can fly close enough to destroy that thing, Destro, we'll give you all the cover we can muster."

"Consider it done," Destro said. "But this will relinquish that favour I owe you—for saving the Baroness from Cobra Island during its Civil War." He hopped into his Despoiler and it lifted into the air using a form of anti-gravity propulsion technology. It flew off into the heart of battle and Destro flew close to the Sonic Pulse Generator, but as he was heavily fired on. He couldn't get a clean shot of the device to do any real damage and had to continuously avoid enemy fire or get shot down.

Cobra Commander hissed angrily when he saw Destro flying above in his Despoiler. Climbing back into the gunner's pod of the HISS, he turned the double cannons, and began to fire at him. Unfortunately, Destro was just too fast in his Despoiler that every blast went astray. Seeing a group of Alley Vipers taking refuge behind the tank, he ordered them to fire at Destro's Despoiler. But a second later, Cobra Commander saw what they were hiding from as legions of Iron Grenadiers began to surround them like Nazi Storm Troopers using not only their hand pistols but also their ceremonial swords.

"Cowards! Stand up and fight! Annihilate them!"

Suddenly, he had to avoid enemy fire and ducked down into the gunner's pod as Destro fired upon his HISS tank. After Destro swopped back over, Cobra Commander jumped out of the pod when the golden masked marauder came around to make another pass. This time, the impact of a missile completely destroyed the tank and killed its driver.

Cobra Commander got up from a protective crouch on the ground after throwing off pieces of debris and fired at Destro with a laser gun he retrieved from a thigh holster. A laser blast struck one of the wings of the Despoiler, but it did no significant damage. Stepping over a dead Alley Viper, Cobra Commander ran for cover as a regiment of Iron Grenadiers fired him upon. Scrap Iron followed suit, firing back at Destro's black armoured legions.

"What's happening to my victory? I was winning! Destro will rue the day he ever made an enemy out of me!"

Destro's Despoiler freed of enemy fire as GIJOE and his Iron Grenadiers halted COBRA's advancing troops, made one last attempt at the Sonic Pulse Generator. It was his last attempt, because a stray shot had managed to hit an element of his anti-gravity drive, and it would not last for very much longer. Encircling the menacing device, he fired a missile at its base and destroyed the Sonic Pulse Generator, bringing it down with an explosion and the sound of twisted metal.

Cobra Commander screamed horrified as he witnessed his hopes for victory come crushing down and explode into a heap of melted rubble.

Destro swooped down like an eagle upon Cobra Commander's position and landed hard. He jumped out of the cockpit as his Despoiler exploded. Unlike someone who would cower from the explosion, Destro stood tall—only his red cape was singed from the blast. He wore bullet-proof black armour all over his body that prevented any damage from any such thing.

"You maniac!" Cobra Commander said, putting down an arm from his face.

"You and I are of the same ideology, Cobra Commander, but I will not be dictated by your tyranny," Destro declared. "We both want the same thing—world domination—but I will not share the throne with a serpent like you. Face me now. Now we finish this!"

"This is unlike you, Destro, and when did you become so reckless?" said Cobra Commander said. "No matter! Today we end our long-standing conflict. Since I have been gone, I've learned a few new tricks. Fred VII may have kept COBRA together in my absence, and he and others paid the price for their betrayal, I am the one true Commander, and will guide the world into a new age. I normally don't demean myself in getting involving in such personal battles, but this time I made an exception. But perhaps it did happen this way, because now I can wreak my revenge on you for your betrayal!"

Cobra Commander pointed his laser at Destro and fired several shots, but with each one, Destro dodged them. "You were never a good shot, Commander," he said. "If only you allowed for better weapons training, you may best me today."

Cobra Commander snarled and then holstered his gun, he ran at Destro. At the last second, Destro grabbed him, and tossed Cobra Commander over his shoulder. Cobra Commander landed with a heavy thud and cried out, but he got back up soon afterwards and punched his fist into a hand. His Battle Armour suit gave him the strength of ten men and he could inflict considerable damage when provoked. It was time to use it.

Cobra Commander calmed himself, but then ran at Destro again.

Destro grabbed him and tossed Cobra Commander to the ground like a rag doll again.

Cobra Commander rolled and got back up like a fighter from the OK Corral with fight still left in him. He felt like he was being played. Now filled with rage, he ran barrelled straight into the muscular man. But when he looked up at Destro's golden masked face, even though he couldn't see it, his own ally looked like he was smiling, as if the impact meant nothing.

"You can't be that strong, no man is," Cobra Commander said stunned. "I don't care how muscular your physique is. The strength of my new Battle Armour should have crushed your chest and bones into powder."

Destro grabbed Cobra Commander's wrists and twisted them outwards, as if trying to break them. Cobra Commander cried out in pain as the strain also forced him to his knees. His battle armour was no match for Destro's brutish strength.

"That is the difference between you and I, my dear Cobra Commander," Destro mocked him by referring to his old manner of addressing him. "I hone my craft, and keep my body and mind in tip-top shape, while you relay on weaponry to demonstrate dominance. But in the end, you're nothing but a coward and a weakling. Now bow to me, Cobra Commander."

To be continued...