July 7th, 2001
Snakes slithered beside Cobra Commander as the Troop transport continued humming across the oceans of the Atlantic. The Phantom-Choppers had managed to carry off the majority of the world's leaders up to Cobra Station and they were already being processed. The Commander looked down from a walk platform to an acre of Cobra plasma tanks, his elite rocket pack Cobra Commandoes, and a small contingent of BATS Mark V which would prove extremely useful once activated. The development teams had managed to somewhat mitigate their gross stupidity. Still the Commander despised the machines, they separated a warrior from the action and felt no affection for the cause but merely mindless fanaticism.
"So what's your great plan Cobra Commander? Do you intend to just try and ransom the world's leaders or just try and get them to sign over control of the planet to you now?" The Baroness asked and her words were getting increasingly annoying. Still the woman knew her business and already he could feel several divisions in his military were benefiting from her expertise.
"Hardly, Baroness. I am not so stupid as to think the ransoms of elected leaders would be worth the cost to acquire them nor idiotic to believe the non-elected's countries would want them back. The power to control lies in the hearts of the people and it is they're minds I must win." The Cobra Commander smiled as Snakes hissed, the former Commander had never much cared for such sentiments and preferred to view the planet as a chessboard of powerful kings ruling mindless slaves. "This is merely a way of sewing confusion among the world's populous and government until stage two of my plan can be put into effect."
"And that would be Commander?" the Baroness asked with a slight arch of her eyebrow which showed she had her interest piqued.
"Nothing of your concccccern." Snakes whispered with his eyes glaring at the Baroness in a distinctly hungry look. It had taken nearly six years to fully restore his intellect to that of a man along with extensive psychological counseling and neural-surgery. Still Snakes was a human intellect in a snake's body and it gave pause to the Cobra Commander the thought what it must be like to be denied all the pleasures of a man and the thrill of battle, it was most disturbing.
"All in good time, Baroness." The Commander smiled "First we shall see to the finality of the First Stage of my plan. I must attain legitimacy in my reign over the spiritual foundations of Cobra, to that end I must destroy my only rival for such ruler ship." The Commander said with a smile as he noticed with his serpentine eyes that the Baroness found the entire sentence he had just said idiotic. The woman did not understand the holy mission that was Cobra nor the ideals that it stood for were ingrained into his heart. The Commander also had the honesty to himself that it was also a private matter of revenge.
"Ssssserpentor." Snakes hissed as the Cobra Commander looked at his father and nodded. The genetic bastard of a thousand dictators, rapists, and bandits had been created by the heathen Globulous and the Deranged dentist for the purposes of taking away from his family the rightful mantle of ruler ship of Cobra. The creature for nearly thirteen years had lied in decadent luxury after his defeat at Cobra-la and wasted away the resources that should have gone to rebuilding.
"You intend to attack Cobra Island?" the Baroness asked. The island had been taken by the G.I. Joe force briefly but bizarre laws and corruption had allowed what little had not been sold out by traitors to fester like a rotting boil on the sovereign state that the original commander had once ruled as an iron fisted god.
"Indeed and soon for the march of history waits for no man and if he does not keep up…" the Cobra Commander repeated one of his favorite axioms but his father down at his side completed it for him.
"He is treaded over." Snakes murmured.
The Baroness smiled and it occurred to the Commander and even Snakes likely that it had been the testimony of the two Corsican twins, Xamot and Tomax, whom had placed the Baroness in a United States penal institution for the last decade. It had probably reached her as well that the treacherous members of the Crimson Guard were still thus free and running an extremely profitable criminal empire from Cobra Island with Serpentor as it's figurehead. The thought made the Commander sick that Cobra's image was branded next to poisons sold to children, the festering slavery which had always been his private pain, and other institutions that fed on society like a cancer rather than strengthening it like pain.
"I will begin making preparations for the attack immediately Cobra-Commander." The Baroness smiled before walking off, no doubt to join her lover, Destro, in sharing the news.
"I want her dead and ssssssoon." Snakes murmured and looked up at the Commander who merely gazed with his dark eyes to the attackers. It was sometimes shameful the way his father pursued vengeance.
"Find forgiveness in your heart, Father, until the time she reveals whether or not she has learned the lessons of loyalty, decency, and courage. She has spent a great time in the flames of adversity and it is still possible that she is to become tempered steel and the firmest of allies." The Commander dearly hoped this was so for the destruction of the old order pained him dearly.
"And if she should prove as treacherousssssss as I think she will be, My Sson?" Snakes murmured, taunting him with the acts necessary to be a proper ruler. Sun-Tzu in the Art of War had known if one's troops did not take their mission seriously then one had to resort to extreme measures to enforce discipline.
"Then like iron full of impurities she will be consumed." The Commander sighed disgusted, knowing his father would take great pleasure in the literal application of such.
***
Shipwreck utterly hated Bermuda. He wasn't exactly sure how he'd gotten here after his tenure in the service mercifully ended, once the G.I. Joe team was done the Navy had just shuffled him under one jackass after the other and he had to admit even the Joes had their share of jackasses. Unfortunately he also had to admit being paid to have someone fire a laser pistol at your head was better and more consistent work than the number of schemes he'd ended up going after. He'd tried tuna fishing, whale hunting which just got a bunch of wacko's after him, and now his latest venture into the wonderful world of tourism had just made him want to plunge his ship into a cruise ship's propeller.
"Dry-rotted piece of pppsssit." Polly the Third whistled on his shoulder and Shipwreck had to admit he missed Polly the third's mother a great deal. Polly the Second had been very short lived and he was tempted on occasion to remind her sister that when you claw Shipwreck's date even close friends can be given the heave hoe off the plank.
"Yeah tell me about it." Shipwreck murmured and took the time to kick his ship in the side of it's paneling. The blasted thing had betrayed him just like it seemed everybody else from sea to shining sea had. It was then that his cell-phone rang and Shipwreck was tempted to toss the damn thing into the ocean. It was a hundred to one odds that it was anyone other than one of his creditors, some one who was threatening to kill him with a harpoon, or a tourist whom wanted the standard three-hour tour.
"Shipwreck's Tourism Service, we're ship shape and ready to sail!" Shipwreck smiled so hard his jaw hurt as he gave up all self-respect to give that incredibly stupid line. Shipwreck turned five shades of purple when he heard Duke's voice on the other line. The last he had heard the Sergeant-Major had gotten a commission somehow from the Army for saving some brass during a field exercise gone wrong.
"Yeah I know it sounds corny but it brings in the cash. Bucket loads. Now I'm a busy man Duke so could you cut with the chatter and cut to the point…" Shipwreck looked around the deserted dock and figured everyone but him was at a party somewhere this night. "I've got three beautiful blondes here waiting to also take me out to see what a real sailors all about so make it snappy."
Polly the Third then whistled, "You're a pig squawk!" as Shipwreck snapped her beak shut with his two front fingers, the bird was picking up all the wrong things she heard. Duke however obviously wasn't buying it and worse was yammering on about what had been on the radio all day, which Shipwreck admitted had him a little up in arms as well.
"Yeah you should have bombed Cobra Island when you had the chance, gutted the survivors, and let me sell them as genuine ex-terrorist bait. I imagine I would have finally made a profit. So what's the deal?" Shipwreck sighed listening. The President, as much as he loved the big, stupid guy, was probably already dead and any other yahoos the snakes had managed to bag.
Shipwreck ran his tongue over his mouth as he heard Brigadier General Duke's offer. "Uh huh, so let me get this straight. Ol' Big ears was having the meeting Cobra kidnapped him from to announce he was reforming the Joes? How's that for irony. Uh huh, consultant work….need the troops to be beaten into shape, huh?" Shipwreck considered for a moment that frankly being an enlisted man had been fairly stable but this wasn't probably going to last, still it'd be nice to meet the guys, even for free. "I'll do it for five thousand dollars."
At Duke's sputter Shipwreck knew he should have asked for fifteen. The warrant officer of the Joes would crumble though. The military bought hammers for fifty dollars after all. "Okay it's a deal. I'll make my way up to the Pit A.S.A.P with the bill footed to Uncle Sam." Shipwreck then punched the end button on his cell-phone and put it up before Duke could say anything else.
"Pig!" Polly the third said as Shipwreck smiled and said "Polly we're going to do our country a great service…it's mister Pig to you now."
***
Lieutenant-Colonel Falcon whistled as he walked from the army jeep, which he had driven down practically deserted roads in Utah. The entire country was in shock, it seemed, due to the World Leaders' kidnapping and the assassinations of military personnel all across the board. Throwing his duffel bag over his shoulder he looked at the G.I. Joe Pit. The base had been abandoned for nearly a decade as a militarily liability and though it seemed like it was now in working condition, he doubted it really had been kept ready for reactivation at any point.
"So this is what I'm here for." Vincent Falcone-Albernathy couldn't help but feel a sense of pride welling in him. The fighter-jets of the team were currently getting a good scrub down and he knew even if he was just here for a little while, it would be glorious. He actually was personally hoping as an officer still in good combat condition that he'd have a place in the command structure as well, but that was fairly hard to believe. Aside from a brief stint in the Gulf War serving as a field commander he hadn't done much to be proud of.
"Falcon!" a voice called and the distinctive sound of a jeep driving up led him to turn to face General Duke himself. Giving a salute, the Colonel stood at attention and did his best to look proud. He'd resented Conrad's attempts to protect his career just like he'd resented his father Clayton's influencing the system for his benefit but he'd learned to respect the man for everything he'd accomplished and was grateful he had gotten as far as he had thanks to his advice and second chance. It still burned him how much damage he'd done to the team due to his inability to man a guard post.
Driving the jeep was a man Falcon didn't recognize but was obviously a private of the Joes with the distinctive patch sewn in his uniform already. The man's face was covered in scars and he had the oddest-looking sunglasses on, they weren't very distinct but for the fact they had red lenses.
"At ease. It's good you' made it. The entire place is being activated ahead of schedule thanks to the attacks by Cobra and I wanted to make sure you were aboard when it happened." Duke walked with a slight swagger as they moved and Falcone almost thought he looked like his father and Duke's stepfather when they were younger as he did it.
"I can imagine. There hasn't been any music on the radio for the last few days and only more news reports on the extent of the kidnappings and attacks. I stopped trying to get an accurate account of what happened hours ago." Falcon said buckling himself in the back.
"Well unfortunately we do have an account. Demolition-Derby get to it." The General said to the private and Falcon blinked, getting an idea of the man from his code-name. Once they were off Conrad started again "2,035 have been reported missing or killed during the recent Cobra attacks and the majority are high ranking political, economic, and military leaders from all across the globe. What few big-shots are left don't want it to get out just how paralyzed the government's become in recent events but they were able to agree we needed G.I. Joe back and yesterday."
Lt. Colonel Falcon would have whistled the number with an open mouth had he not been in the presence of a private. "Sir, that's….amazing. How exactly did the sn…Cobra do it? Last I heard the organization was practically extinct and with good reason."
Conrad Hauser bristled and it was obvious he hadn't a clue and it was annoying him a great deal. "That's what we intend to find out. We've got our best people working on it with everything from running fine tooth combs over the television footage retrieved from the Presidents kidnapping to looking over the bomb fragments they hit the Pentagon with to tracking down dirty informants on the street. We suspect it's some dissident element of the original organization that's found backing somehow. In any case your going to need to get to it if your going to whip the troops into some form of fighting order before your first combat mission and I'm talking in days. These are the best the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air force have to offer but they're as green as you when you first arrived."
Duke slapped his chest over his heart and made a frown that was meant to reminded Falcon that his brother while he'd forgiven him, never intended to let his brother forget the lesson Serpentor's attack had given him. Vincent however was more concerned about exactly what he'd said.
"My troops?" Falcon asked.
"We're not exactly at the top of our game leadership wise and we need a man who knows his way around G.I. Joe procedure but can still run a combat mission if necessary. Thus I recommended you for field command and more or less general command of the Joes until I can get back here full time." Conrad said as the jeep arrived at the front base doors. "Then you'll still be field command." Duke chewed his lip like he was swallowing something unpleasant.
"I'll be everything you need Duke and more." Falcon said, more than a little angry his brother wasn't sure he was up to the job.
"You'd better." Duke said as the jeep pulled to a halt and they both got out.
"Ah there you are." Falcon was surprised to see the familiar uniform of the ninja, Snake Eyes, and hear the voice of his father who was wearing a suit that looked like it had seen better days and had his arm in a sling and a splint over one of his legs. Despite the fact his hair had gone rather gray and he had spent most of the last decade behind a desk, he looked extremely fit.
"What the.." Falcon began to ask his dad, what the hell had happened to him before he remembered the man was both his and Duke's superior officer. It sometimes got very annoying in the army to have family above you. "Sir!"
"At ease. Duke it's good to see you, Falcon. I decided to take a tour of the base to make sure you got everything you needed and also pass along your orders. After the snakes tried to put me in the morgue I managed to get away to find that I'd been promoted. For the duration of this emergency I'm now General of the Army and as high as you can go." General Hawk then handed them both manila envelopes.
Falcon shifted uncomfortably and shrugged as he took the information and saw satellite photos of Cobra Island.
"We're not directly sure that Cobra Island is the origin of the attack but we're certain that Cobra has, at least, contact with the parties responsible. So we're heading up an all out reprisal assault on the island along with teams from volunteer nations. With any luck we can find out exactly where the missing leaders are and rescue them or at least pay back Cobra in full for what they have done." General Hawk sighed as he looked at Duke and Falcon.
"And what about the old team?" Duke said with arms crossed.
"I'm not comfortable with the idea of sending these untested soldiers against Cobras, even with allies. I approve of your bringing on as many as you can as consultants and as trainers, but if you want carte blanche to bring in any as commissioned officers…be my guest. Anyone wrangling for a promotion for the past few years will have a hissy fit for this but if they have a problem with it they can take it up with the current Commander in Chief which in absentee of a president, I think we're currently settling on the Minister of Agriculture, is me." General Hawk sighed, clearly not liking this one bit. Hawk didn't thrive under combat but endured it.
"Well I'm glad to see your on board Snake eyes." Duke said offering his hand to the silent ninja who nodded back to him.
"Well if you won't be needing me generals I'll guess I'll head down and inspect the troops to see what they're made of." Falcon said, already wondering what it would be like to coordinate strategy with the navy, air force, and marines. Taking Cobra Island would be a monumental task and a lot men, were going to die.
Both Hawk and Duke made funny faces "About your troops, Son." The General of the Army said putting his hand around his son's shoulder.
***
Kessily Cooper, aka Icicle, smiled as she stacked the ice cubes in a pyramid in the middle of the rec room. The Alaskan woman was an athletic, small build redhead who was quite pretty but was dressed in a heavy winter outfit despite it being the middle of summer in a hot military base.
"Okay, just try and knock it down." Kessily smiled at Christopher Gurnee, codenamed: Punch Card, the man who was sitting with a laptop on the billiard table and twitching his eyes from Kess to the computer screen rapidly as if doing math problems in his head.
"This is ridiculous." Punch Card murmured as he threw a computer tech manual at the pyramid of ice cubes that didn't budge an inch from their location as the heavy book bounced off it. "What the?"
"It's the ice melted perfectly. All I need is a little more time and someone to take me seriously and I will have the U.S. Army using ice as building material in every arctic mission they go on from here on out." Icicle smiled.
"Hopefully that will be well after my time in the service is over. Hello Dad, hi I just called to check to see there was anyway again I could get out of this thing. I know you think I need it….yes I know I'm good at it! I'm good at everything…eh f." Kyle Wilson, alias Playboy, said to Kessily and then the rec room phone before hanging it up with a crash. A classically good-looking man with New England looks his face barely betrayed just how much he hated this place.
"You should be proud of the service we are honored to perform for our country, young man. It's not many who are selected for the honor of serving in G.I. Joe." A man in his thirties with an intense look in his face fingered the gold cross around his neck even as he looked over his rifle, Thomas Seraphim whose moniker was Creed.
"Would you mind not pointing that thing at me?" Kessily said, moving away from the general direction of the rifle's sight with more than a little grit to her teeth.
"Yeah, Yeah, G.I. Joe real American heroes, God, Country, Apple Pie." Playboy murmured. "It's not like I dislike my country, I love it but I have better things to do with my time than spend the next few years trudging through back country and hoops trying to make a man out of me when I am already am, thank you."
Creed adjusted the rifle's point of fire and put his gold cross back under his shirt as he said simply "No one knows whether or not they're a man until they've faced death in the face young man. I suspect you have yet to touch that particular rite of passage."
"I see Obi-Wan. I will try and adjust my behavior." Playboy said with a sarcastic sigh.
Creed opened his mouth to say something smart but was cut off by the arrival of yet another new G.I. recruit. Demolition Derby whose civilian name was James Patterson. He was in his mid twenties and very tall. The man was trained in virtually every type of vehicle the military was known to use but also had more than mild training in explosives. The man was definitely Joe material. "Hey guys, I've got some interesting news."
Icicle gave him a sweet look and Creed smiled back. "So what is it?" she asked smiling in a flirt they knew wouldn't go into a relationship. The Alaskan and Demolition Derby had done some special training together and taken a liking to each other. Still one couldn't date someone in one's unit without going up on fraternization charges. Conrad Hauser had the decency to explain this to him in no uncertain terms. He'd once been involved with some member of the Joes himself but had decided that his love of the service was too strong to ignore and that was how he'd met his wife or something, he wasn't sure exactly how it had all went. Especially when his best friend, Flint, was seemingly involved for years with a fellow Joe before marrying his sweetheart.
"Well I'm not too sure on the details but the head honcho said we may be attacking some place called Cobra Island fairly soon. Apparently it's either not classified or they didn't notice a private walking by." Demolition Derby said smiling, though looking close one could see the worried look that was in his eyes. He'd never been in a hostile fire situation before.
"It's a rumor. There is no way in hell they are going to be sending us into combat." Playboy murmured.
"If you're in the Army at some point there's the risk of entering a battle…or so I've heard." Punch Card said dryly as he continued typing in something.
"We aren't trained yet. Whenever you enter a new branch you have to go through a new indoctrination in all the equipment, teamwork, blah, blah, blah. We just got here yesterday." Playboy sighed and started calling someone else, probably another girlfriend.
"Stranger things are known to happen, young man." Creed sighed and got up before heading out the door with not another words.
***
It was like a G.I. Joe reunion at the Pit's main computer room. Most of the equipment was being replaced with much more efficient ones but that would take several days of heavy lifting and setting up to be in full operating condition. Still most everyone wasn't concerned about that and was enjoying the company of their fellow Joes.
"Well leaving the military was hard but I managed to take over my parent's company and add my own stint to it. I'm actually considering running for the United States Senate just to give Flint a heart attack." Lady Jaye smirked, the woman still as lovely as ever and dressed in a power suit save for the black leather glove on her hand.
"That's great news, Jaye. I'd make it a point to vote for you but we aren't in the same state." Scarlet smirked as she drank her coffee, it was fairly early in the morning and it had been a while since she'd traveled extensively or lived by an army schedule. Still the Joe base felt almost like home even after all this time. She just wished it wasn't under these circumstances that they were meeting again.
"So how are Conrad and Dashiell?" Lady Jaye smirked as she looked like she could toss a javelin at any second still. Scarlet had asked her to be godmother and to this day she hadn't regretted the decision, even if they hardly saw each other.
"Good. I left them with my cousin. I almost feel not right about leaving them at a time like this but they gave me a call to come down here and anything I can do to help…" Scarlet shrugged, Lady Jaye knew the drill.
"Yeah. Flint was having a conniption fit the moment he found out about this. He had his pistol ready all day waiting for Cobra to break down the doors so he could get a crack at them. I haven't seen him this angry since they gave Duke a promotion to General." Lady Jaye smirked. Scarlet smiled at that one, Flint was still a Colonel, and a high one, but he hated it. Currently he was talking with Roadblock whom she overheard something about football training and Gung Ho who apparently ran a restaurant now.
"Alright people, it's time to give you a summary of why you were all called down here." Scarlet watched then Duke and Snake Eyes both walk in and a large amount of memories poured in that always did when she was around him. She'd never really loved Duke but he was still one of the great presences of her life. Snake-Eyes she'd thought she'd love for a long time, but the man would never abandon his anger at the world and still thought of her like a sister in some ways, which wasn't healthy for a relationship. Oh well, either was better than the jerk she'd been with, but she could think of only maybe one other man whom she would have been happy to spend the rest of her life with. The rest Scarlet just wished she had her crossbow to fight off. She was still an attractive woman. It then occurred to her she could probably get another one issued.
"Yeah it's about time. I've still got a phone company to run you know…Sir." Dial-Tone said smiling as he looked sheepish at the General.
"Yeah, I understand we've all got lives to live and we'd much rather be doing them then coming back to this old place." Duke said as a slight ripple around the Joe's indicated that quite a few disagreed with that station, something the man was smiling about. "However you all know about Cobra's recent resurrection…."
"The Snake in the grass came back with a blast." Roadblock said. Still having not learned grammar apparently, Scarlet smirked.
"Right. The U.S. Military is doing it's best to adjust and prepare for retaliation but I haven't told you the worst that Cobra's attacks were also specifically aimed at crippling our ability to combat the threat. The kidnappings and attacks overshadow someone deliberately destroying all records of Cobra in the U.S. Military at several installations along with freeing numerous prisoners that were former members of the organization including Destro, the Baroness, Major Blood, and Zarana." Duke said feeling his chin and Scarlet wondered why Zartan wasn't among those rescued. She'd had watched the man get a life sentence herself. "Evidence points to the fact while Cobra suffered quite a few causalities in this encounters they were mainly successful and point to the existence of traitors in the United States government along with their new ability to seemingly appear and disappear out of thin air. Given these circumstances we need all the help we can get in planning our enemies next move and people we can trust battle plan wise. I'd like your help in doing this in bringing Cobra down again and this time for good. Some of you I'd like as strictly advisors, such as Ship-Wreck and Lifeline, while others I'd very much like to return to a position in combat such as Snake-Eyes. You are all free to refuse, of course, but this is the sign of a major power-play by Cobra and unless we stop it there is no telling what will happen to the world at large."
Everyone was silent and to her surprise Scarlet spoke first. "Okay where do I get my crossbow back?" she said smiling