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At the sound of her name, Lady-Jaye looks skyward. "Can you be-would you... if i..."

"Of course not. Would you want me to move on? Would you do so if i did?" He asks her, and brushes her cheek. "Even if i did... I could never love that woman more than you, Alison Fai-" He says, but she turns away.

"Not here." She whispers. "I love you too... but not so loud, they might find out."

Flashback.

The two were in the backyard of the Burnett residence after going through the family record.

"So it's true; what should i do now, Flint?" She asked while clinging to the awning post.

"It was 200 years ago, just put it aside." He replied while sitting on a bench.

"Put it aside?, How can you expect me to ignore having an enemy arms dealer in my family tree?"

"Well... you don't have to shower with Armor All?"

After a few seconds to catch up to the subject change, she didn't stop laughing until he stood and slipped his left hand's fingers amongst those of her right hand. "And you could be a Faireborn instead." He offered softly while taking a small black square out of a pocket with his right.

She stepped back while covering her mouth once she saw it, trying to figure out how it could be more frightening than anything Cobra's done, yet also making her want to rip it open at the same time. "You mean you-you want... but Flint, we can't; not after we've broken the regs so many times already." She told him, thinking back to the each time they gave in to their lust.

"But we're the only Joes for miles, Lady-Jaye; nobody will find-" He was saying until the box was taken out of his hand. Flint instinctively pulled Lady-Jaye towards him before noticing that Snake-Eyes was only yards away.

"When did... Duke sent you, didn't he?" She asked their ninja friend, who turned to face them and nodded.

"How much did you hear?" Flint asked while going for his pistol, only to find that Snake-Eyes took that as well, which he guessed was more for his safety than anything else.

Snake-Eyes looked at the two before dropping a smoke bomb. A few seconds later, Aunt Rhona, Cousin Fergus, and two others showed up. While Lady-Jaye was explaining, Flint found the ring box on the bench's armrest next to his sidearm, and a kunai pinning a note to the wall. After reading it, he shook his head before handing it to Lady-Jaye.

Nothing to report. Treat her well or I'm telling Gungster*.

Half a day later, the two were in the living room infront to a priest cousin of hers. "By th' power inveasted in me, i now pronounce ye..."

End flashback.


At the same time, Col. Sharp is in the monitoring room speaking with defense minister Pope, Maldivan president Gayoom, and Top Notch; belatedly informing the former and latter of Ripcord's death, and all three of Stalker and General Abernathy's findings.

"Concerning the former, the British government offers it's condolences, Colonel."/"As does mine; your subordinate will be remembered by my people."/"And by all the Joes here in Japan; i am willing to transfer one of my operatives to compensate." They tell him; the latter via interpreter. "However, the idea that Cobra has a new high speed A.T.V. is something i find distressing." Mr. Pope adds.

"I agree; air patrols of the eastern most Soviet, Korean, and Australian forces have reported sighting vehicles matching the images Gen. Abernathy shared of these "Stuns" near suspected Cobra locations; and what of the "black jet" your ship commanders mentioned?" Top Notch said.


21 hours after Stalker's, Beachhead's, and Duke's teams return, Airtight hears his novelty apple-shaped phone ringing. "Airtight, what can you tell me about those samples you recovered?" Col. Sharp asks him.

"I've done all i can to prove otherwise; but there's no mistaking it." The Joe chemist tells him.

"An organic synthoid. It's a damn miracle that one containment vessel survived all those explosions." The Colonel says aloud.

"Absolutely sir, the amount we recovered is more than enough to create a method to track any clones that Cobra have abroad; though they may just end up recalling them anyway." Airtight replies.

The Colonel raised a brow at the middle part. "How long would it take to come up with that?"

"How long? Well... with that new guy with the whiskers, I'd say two or three days, and that's if we don't need to requisition parts from off-base."


After sending a letter to Mara informing her that he would be skipping a few of their monthly meetings and days of avoiding his friends and teammates, Shipwreck is in Dr. Rich's office again. This time, though, he watches Rich and an orderly wheel in a microwave sized machine. "And that is?"

"A little something I've been working on with Doc, Mainframe, and Dial-Tone whenever they had the time; it'll emit an inaudible signal to the part of your-"

"Get that shit out of here! The snakes spent two days playing psyche-out with my brains; no way in hell I'm... gonna... gonna-" Shipwreck yells before collapsing.

Dr. Rich turned the machine off before taking some earplugs out and headed to his phone to inform Doc that it worked.


3 days later, the Joes are in the assembly room watching Flash walk up on stage with some device on his wrist. Dial-Tone gives an explanation. "What we have here is equipment designed to identify and expose anyone replaced by Cobra's upgraded synthoids, which we will demonstrate by finding a jar of some of the un-solidified mass hidden in the base... the search will be visible on the projector screen behind me." He says while Beachhead pulls the screen down. "Thank you, sir."/"Don't call me thet!"/"R-right; won't happen again, Beachhead. Turn the scanner on, Flash." He said next, and they watch Flash go into the hallway.

Only to see Dial-Tone scratch his head before talking into his radio headset. "Uh, Flash? You missed a turn."

"You sure?; I'm following the arrow on it."

"But the sample's to the... Breaker, widen the base's cross-section by 10%, please... make it 40%." Dial-Tone instructed, and everyone saw a man-shaped icon and two dots of different sizes. "Colonel; the big one?"

"That's the stockade." Sharp answered. "Deep Six is a sythoid."


Out on the Australian coast.

After finding out that Capt. Clay Moore's outpost was also destroyed with no survivors, Cobra Commander was overseeing a mass of air and sea transports being loaded with troops, jets, and armor. "Soon, G.I. Joe; soon you will know the true meaning of suffering."


Chapter thirty.

*Gung-Ho.