Disclaimer: I don't own G.I. Joe or Murphy's Laws...
Author's opening notes: Bonus points if you can guess what character from one of my other fandoms gets a semi-cameo...
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A Greenshirt's Guide To G.I. Joe Life
By J.T. Magnus, Turbo
Part Eight: Drawing Fire
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Combat. Everyone deals with it in their own way, prepares for it in their own way. Ghostrider and Zandar practice stealth, Fix-It usually deals with his nervousness by working in the Motor Pool, Sabre runs through some of his old football warm-ups...
My brother and me, we usually have some kind of banter going to distract us, sometimes including one or two of the others, in this case, Turbo.
"What's that you're listening to?" Rev asked.
Without looking up from his Wristcom, Turbo answered, "Jascz."
I cocked my head to one side and gave a small huh-sound, "It doesn't sound like jazz to me."
"Ha-ha," Turbo half-laughed - how anyone can only give half a laugh I don't know, but he did it - before continuing, "Yes, the pronunciation is the same, but no, it's not jazz, it's Jascz, J-A-S-C-Z. You know what his big thing was?"
I shook my head, how could I?
"I don't even know who he was," my brother added.
"He believed that music genres were outdated ideas that just served to segregate something that should be universal," Turbo explained, "He was... I won't say BIG in the eighties, but he had a following."
"Sounds interesting."
Turbo nodded, "Drowns out the bullets."
And that was what Turbo does to stay loose, he listens to music, all kinds. Before battle, during battle, he listens to music.
'Drowns out the bullets,' he said. I don't know where he gets that from, even at it's softest, you can still hear the music from his Wristcom and it draws attention to him. The bullets he says it drowns out probably wouldn't even be coming towards him if it wasn't for him playing the music in the first place. I can understand that the music gives him something to consciously focus on when he's in combat, going on automatic, but I think it's more than that...
I'm not a psychologist, but I come from the streets of Detroit, you learn to read people...
He takes point whenever possible and draws fire toward himself. Anyone else might say he's got a death wish, but in the short time I've been under his command I realized something - he's a mutant, his power is a healing factor, so he has a better chance of surviving being shot. He takes bullets so the rest of us don't have to.
Doesn't say much for his common sense, but it's a level of loyalty that I can like. Havoc and Blaze are his brothers by birth, but as far as he's concerned, we're all family.
My thoughts were interrupted when Beachhead knocked on the frame of the Rec-Room door, "Time, Major... Corporals."
Turbo turned the volume up on his Wristcom and then brought it back down, testing it before the fight.
"Let's go, boys."
I nodded as I stood up. He'd take a bullet for me, for my brother, for any of us, that's enough for me, to hell with his quirks.
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Murphy's Law of Warfare: Don't be conspicuous, it attracts fire.
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Review Responses:
MariaShadow: Thanks, I try.
Tirya King: You're right there. Can you imagine how annoying it must be to have to pretend to be less skilled than you really are?
trecebo: I'm sorry, did you say - Hey, was that someone opening a pack of Reese's Cups?