"MacDestro" Chapter 4
By: Cadet Deming
I don't own the rights to GI Joe (or Shakespeare), so please don't sue. This is Shakespeare's play Macbeth, retooled for Cobra's High Command. I'm going more along with the plot twists and scene structure of the play than with the language of it. Some scenes condensed or eliminated for brevity. Based on a blending of cartoon and comic canon. Rated PG-13 for violence, murder, adult language and situations. Thanks to the people that are enjoying it. Reviews are very welcome.
Author's note: I apologize for the long delay. (Especially to Lady Destro) I got a little writer's block on this. Some of these chapters will be more serious.
Setting: Scotland
Starring: Destro................Macbeth The Baroness...........Lady Macbeth Serpentor............. King Duncan Storm-Shadow..............Banquo Billy..................Fleance Major Bludd...........Thane of Cawdor Zartan................MacDuff Dr. Mindbender..............Donalbain Torch, Buzzer, Ripper.......The Weird Sisters Scrap-Iron (when applicable).....The Weird Sisters Tomax/Xamot ..............Lennox Cobra Commander............Malcolm
The Baroness walked down stairs to the grand foyer that marked the entrance to Destro's castle. The room was paneled in luxurious wood, and decorated with elaborate tapestries and paintings of nobility. Yet an air of mustiness seemed to fill it, as if the carvings and weavings were a façade for mold and decay.
A group of men were gathered at the base of the stairway. Serpentor stood in the middle, with Storm-shadow, Dr. Mindbender, Cobra Commander and several soldiers.
Anastasia ignored them all in favor of the Emperor, and gushed: "Oh great Serpentor, it's such an honor for you to stay at my home," as she and he began to walk down the hallway, leaving the other men in the background.
"As if I had a choice about where to stay. It's not like the heaths and moors of Scotland have any decent hotels worthy of my radiance. And what's that ugly painting over there? Was that woman in a leper's colony?" asked Serpentor.
"That happens to be my mother."
"Take it down. My surroundings must please me! Especially since there's a delay in Zartan and the Twins not being able to arrive until tomorrow. You know how I hate to wait. What's that horrible floral stench?"
"It happens to be my Chanel #5. Or would you like me to change my perfume as well? What scent would you prefer? I'd do anything you ask," said the Baroness, flipping her mane suggestively.
Serpentor took a long look at her, drinking her in for a moment. A beat passed between them. Then he said: "BLOOD".
"Only if it's from our enemies the Joes, oh great Serpentor. But I'm sure under your fine leadership, and Destro's aid, victory will be Cobra's soon."
"Yes, where is Destro?"
"Oh, he's very eager to see you my lord. We've both been waiting for your arrival. Badly."
SEVERAL HOURS LATER
Destro sat in front of a computer console. The lights on the screen reflected on the battlemask he wore, as he typed the following:
"I may as well get this over with, before my doubts cloud my mind again. Over the course of my life, I have strived to balance ruthlessness with honor, criminality with a moral code. But the valor of soldiers, the code of decorum of war, all depends upon loyalty. Do I really wish to betray my allegiance to my emperor, tip the delicate balance of my being towards immorality from my own ambition? The man is an unsuspecting guest in my own home. He holds the memories of history's greatest conquerors, men I studied and revered. Who am I to end his..."
"Writing in a journal Destro? You may as well be talking to yourself in a room that's bugged for the risk of getting caught," hissed the Baroness who had crept up behind him.
Destro quickly pressed "delete" and turned and faced her.
"I must express myself freely you know, and MY CHAMBERS ARE BUGGED?"
"They're not bugged. Believe me, I checked. And am I not supposed to be your greatest confidant. Oh, wait a moment," said Baroness, as she ran her fingertips along Destro's shoulder. "I'm your ONLY confidant."
"Has Serpentor asked for me?"
"But of course, Darling Destro. You are his...generous host," she said winking.
"We will proceed no farther in this business. I've thought things through, and it's too risky. If Serpentor died in my ancestral home, I would take the blame anyhow, and be held accountable for failing to protect him. It would be a sign of weakness on my part."
"A sign of weakness? Like pouring out your cowardice to a computer, and failing to seize power when it's finally mine-----ours for the taking?"
"I think we should wait for a more opportune time. Strategy requires patience, and not impulse."
"Wait? You want to wait again? Like how we both kept waiting for the right time to have a child, remember? You kept saying, 'Not now Anastasia, in a few years'. We waited until I had 3 miscarriages and went through menopause. You weren't even man enough to give me a son or daughter, you could at least be enough of a man to make me an Empress."
Destro winced through her words. Even under his mask his eyes betrayed how hurt he was.
"You could be Empress if we succeed. But what if we fail?"
"We fail? Hardly. We'll make the 2 Vipers that guard Serpentor the patsies. I'll drug them, and frame them as CIA agents, since the Joes are too goody-goody to try something like this."
"Sometimes, Anastasia. I think if you were a man you would have taken over Cobra yourself long ago. I will go through with this."
"Thank you. I'm happy living vicariously through you in the meantime." She squeezed his shoulder and said: "I'll do the acting work and pretend to be grieved when the body is found."
Destro pulled out a gun and placed a silencer on it. "I'll go now. I suppose my battle-mask won't be the only false front here tomorrow."
The sound of the silencer clicking on the chamber echoed in the room.
By: Cadet Deming
I don't own the rights to GI Joe (or Shakespeare), so please don't sue. This is Shakespeare's play Macbeth, retooled for Cobra's High Command. I'm going more along with the plot twists and scene structure of the play than with the language of it. Some scenes condensed or eliminated for brevity. Based on a blending of cartoon and comic canon. Rated PG-13 for violence, murder, adult language and situations. Thanks to the people that are enjoying it. Reviews are very welcome.
Author's note: I apologize for the long delay. (Especially to Lady Destro) I got a little writer's block on this. Some of these chapters will be more serious.
Setting: Scotland
Starring: Destro................Macbeth The Baroness...........Lady Macbeth Serpentor............. King Duncan Storm-Shadow..............Banquo Billy..................Fleance Major Bludd...........Thane of Cawdor Zartan................MacDuff Dr. Mindbender..............Donalbain Torch, Buzzer, Ripper.......The Weird Sisters Scrap-Iron (when applicable).....The Weird Sisters Tomax/Xamot ..............Lennox Cobra Commander............Malcolm
The Baroness walked down stairs to the grand foyer that marked the entrance to Destro's castle. The room was paneled in luxurious wood, and decorated with elaborate tapestries and paintings of nobility. Yet an air of mustiness seemed to fill it, as if the carvings and weavings were a façade for mold and decay.
A group of men were gathered at the base of the stairway. Serpentor stood in the middle, with Storm-shadow, Dr. Mindbender, Cobra Commander and several soldiers.
Anastasia ignored them all in favor of the Emperor, and gushed: "Oh great Serpentor, it's such an honor for you to stay at my home," as she and he began to walk down the hallway, leaving the other men in the background.
"As if I had a choice about where to stay. It's not like the heaths and moors of Scotland have any decent hotels worthy of my radiance. And what's that ugly painting over there? Was that woman in a leper's colony?" asked Serpentor.
"That happens to be my mother."
"Take it down. My surroundings must please me! Especially since there's a delay in Zartan and the Twins not being able to arrive until tomorrow. You know how I hate to wait. What's that horrible floral stench?"
"It happens to be my Chanel #5. Or would you like me to change my perfume as well? What scent would you prefer? I'd do anything you ask," said the Baroness, flipping her mane suggestively.
Serpentor took a long look at her, drinking her in for a moment. A beat passed between them. Then he said: "BLOOD".
"Only if it's from our enemies the Joes, oh great Serpentor. But I'm sure under your fine leadership, and Destro's aid, victory will be Cobra's soon."
"Yes, where is Destro?"
"Oh, he's very eager to see you my lord. We've both been waiting for your arrival. Badly."
SEVERAL HOURS LATER
Destro sat in front of a computer console. The lights on the screen reflected on the battlemask he wore, as he typed the following:
"I may as well get this over with, before my doubts cloud my mind again. Over the course of my life, I have strived to balance ruthlessness with honor, criminality with a moral code. But the valor of soldiers, the code of decorum of war, all depends upon loyalty. Do I really wish to betray my allegiance to my emperor, tip the delicate balance of my being towards immorality from my own ambition? The man is an unsuspecting guest in my own home. He holds the memories of history's greatest conquerors, men I studied and revered. Who am I to end his..."
"Writing in a journal Destro? You may as well be talking to yourself in a room that's bugged for the risk of getting caught," hissed the Baroness who had crept up behind him.
Destro quickly pressed "delete" and turned and faced her.
"I must express myself freely you know, and MY CHAMBERS ARE BUGGED?"
"They're not bugged. Believe me, I checked. And am I not supposed to be your greatest confidant. Oh, wait a moment," said Baroness, as she ran her fingertips along Destro's shoulder. "I'm your ONLY confidant."
"Has Serpentor asked for me?"
"But of course, Darling Destro. You are his...generous host," she said winking.
"We will proceed no farther in this business. I've thought things through, and it's too risky. If Serpentor died in my ancestral home, I would take the blame anyhow, and be held accountable for failing to protect him. It would be a sign of weakness on my part."
"A sign of weakness? Like pouring out your cowardice to a computer, and failing to seize power when it's finally mine-----ours for the taking?"
"I think we should wait for a more opportune time. Strategy requires patience, and not impulse."
"Wait? You want to wait again? Like how we both kept waiting for the right time to have a child, remember? You kept saying, 'Not now Anastasia, in a few years'. We waited until I had 3 miscarriages and went through menopause. You weren't even man enough to give me a son or daughter, you could at least be enough of a man to make me an Empress."
Destro winced through her words. Even under his mask his eyes betrayed how hurt he was.
"You could be Empress if we succeed. But what if we fail?"
"We fail? Hardly. We'll make the 2 Vipers that guard Serpentor the patsies. I'll drug them, and frame them as CIA agents, since the Joes are too goody-goody to try something like this."
"Sometimes, Anastasia. I think if you were a man you would have taken over Cobra yourself long ago. I will go through with this."
"Thank you. I'm happy living vicariously through you in the meantime." She squeezed his shoulder and said: "I'll do the acting work and pretend to be grieved when the body is found."
Destro pulled out a gun and placed a silencer on it. "I'll go now. I suppose my battle-mask won't be the only false front here tomorrow."
The sound of the silencer clicking on the chamber echoed in the room.
