Joe

Chapter 1

Miles underneath the Pentagon, under a layer of lead, concrete, steel and titanium, lays a room. It has no other name to the four men who know its existence; they have always simply called it the room. One of those four steps up to the door leading into that room now. Standing military straight, with graying brown hair and a steelish set of eyes, General Clayton Abernathy, code-name “Hawk” U.S. Army, keys his access code and submits himself to the retina and brain wave scans. Nodding in satisfaction as the mechanized locks disengage and the door slides open, he steps into the room. As the door whispers shut behind him he allows himself to relax. Here, under seven miles of protection, he can drop his military bearing for a while without fear of unwanted attention. Running his hands over his face, he breathed deeply and finally looked up. The room always dazed him a bit with its size. Taking several deep breaths to clear his mind, Hawk thought of the room's creation long ago.

The room had been built twenty years ago, a secret operation completed by some of the U.S. military’s brightest and highest ranking officers. The records and events surrounded its construction were buried in the first databanks brought online. For that was the room’s purpose: to house the vast supercomputers and data storage facility of the planet Earth. Every recorded event, person, automobile, building, discovery, etc were documented and stored in the data files. The fear of nuclear holocaust had made the government extremely paranoid, so the room and its equipment were installed to keep a complete human database, in the event their civilization had to be rebuilt. Once the mainframe was brought online, only four men knew the existence of it: the President, his personal bodyguard, the Defense Minister and the commander of the G.I. Joe combined military Special Forces division. The Cold War was definitely a contributing factor to its creation, but the main reason for the extreme precautions taken was the maniacal group of terrorists on Cobra Island. Led by the insane genius known only as Cobra Commander, they had committed every act of terrorism possible. Assassinations, extortion, espionage, kidnapping and hijacking were just a few of the crimes committed by Cobra. After the United States military suffered a humiliating defeat in the deserts of Egypt to Cobra forces, the president put his emergency plan into action. Stage one was the room. Stage two consisted of the creation of G.I. Joe, a highly trained special mission’s force with personnel from every branch of service. Placed under the command of General Flagg, their only directive was to engage and defeat Cobra. The war began then and raged for the next twenty years.

Hawk stood up, still musing over the history of the room. He had taken command of the Joes in the 80’s when Flagg was killed in combat. He won the Silver Star when he defeated Cobra in their European campaign and won his Medal of Honor when he and his men captured Cobra Island, destroying most of the Cobra forces in the process. The capture of top Cobra personnel had given them access to the Cobra information network and the secret personnel profiles that the team had searched years for. James Destro had fled to Scotland and avoided capture for a few months until a secret Joe ops team captured him in Glasgow. Vanessa DeCobray, aka The Baroness, and Julius McCormick, aka Dr Mindbender were taken to CIA headquarters and unmercifully interrogated. Top Cobras like Scrap-Iron, Zandar and Zarana, the Romanov twins and Firefly were imprisoned without trial in a secret underground federal stockade in Nevada. Cobra’s technology was taken by the military and their remaining weapons and vehicles taken for study. The few soldiers and officers left were shipped to Devil’s Island to await trial for crimes against humanity. Joe operatives in Switzerland wired the Cobra fortune into an unmarked Treasury account in Brazil, and then the money was removed and dispersed to the American people as a “tax-break.” However, the man the U.S. government wanted desperately was missing. The elusive Cobra Commander was never found during the battle or the year long clean up operation on Cobra Island. Few clues were found. The blue and gray battle armor was found abandoned under a pier on the south end. Raiding his quarters in the Terror Drome only uncovered his helmet and a few uniforms. Everything else was gone. Missing along with him was Zartan, an unstable mercenary who was responsible for dozens of murders. Although the ensuing months were uneventful, the President and the military were worried that the madmen would return. Finding them became Hawk’s mission. Up until today, that had been a problem. The Cobra files were so heavily encrypted that military intelligence had been able to do nothing with the files. Hawk had top CIA interrogators question both DeCobray and Mindbender for days, but the two Cobras weren't talking, no matter what the CIA guys did.

Hawk read over the past two watch reports, finding nothing of significant value. The President was really on his case about the Cobra situation, pressuring Hawk for results that he wasn't able to provide. He mentally went through the facts again, looking for even a small glimmer of help. Hawk knew that Mindbender had ceased to be part of the solution. Mindbender was fully aware that as long as he resisted the interrogations and refused to cooperate, he would continue to live. He had nothing to lose and everything to gain. McCormick was not loyal to Cobra or even to Cobra Commander; he was loyal only to himself and his twisted research projects. The Serpentor fiasco proved that, if nothing else. McCormick's totally amoral approach to scientific research had allowed him to create life, and the insane doctor now had an enormous god complex.

McCormick's value to Hawk and the government of the United States was decreasing at a rapid rate since they had The Baroness. Serpentor was found in his uniform, burned beyond recognition in the throne room on Cobra Island. His corpse was now being autopsied by CIA doctors to determine if they could find the secrets that only Mindbender possessed on human creation. Hawk reached for the medical reports to see if there were any updates. Finding none, he returned to the problem at hand. Even though he was becoming worthless to the government, Mindbender's research and utter brilliance made them reluctant to execute him. His research, used properly, could provide historic medical breakthroughs that could prolong human life. But the mad doctor proved to be an impossible problem to solve, and so far he was winning.

Vanessa DeCobray until today had been just as difficult as Mindbender to break, but Hawk knew now how he could crack her. The capture of James Destro was the key to his new strategy. Decobray and Destro's love affair was no secret, and DeCobray had defied even Serpentor on numerous occasions on Destro's behalf. The CIA interrogators had threatened her life repeatedly, but she had just laughed at them. Hawk leaned back in his chair, making sure he was ready to do this. Sighing heavily, he rose to leave. It's for the good of my country, he reminded himself. I wouldn't do this under any other circumstances. Exiting the room, he headed for the elevator to give the order for James Destro to be brought to the CIA building.

Meanwhile

Seven thousand miles away, the main object of Hawk’s mission stepped off of a plane and looked at his surroundings. Tokyo was one of his favorite cities in the world, a technological wonderland surrounded by a seething mass of humanity. To the man known to his friends (and enemies) as Cobra Commander, Tokyo was the key to his new plan. It was here he would meet a long time associate, someone who was secretly loyal to him and to his vision of world domination. He strolled through the airport like any other tourist, eyes on security and customs personnel. They treated him like everyone else, politely hurrying him along and out into the terminal. This was not surprising, since only one other living person had ever seen his face, knowing who he really was. But, caution was always the smart approach. When you were head of an organization of maniacs and psychopathic criminals who were loyal only to your money, caution was necessary for survival. Destro had called him a paranoid fool, but Cobra Commander was skeptical of any man who slept with The Baroness. Vanessa was much like the lions a former colleague of his father’s had kept as pets. The idiot had let them live in his house for years, treating them like dogs or other regular pets. One day the man went to correct one of them for shitting on his floor. The lion had mauled him, causing the others to join in the attack and eat the dumb bastard. He remembered his father telling him about it, a look of amused disgust on his face. “President of a billion dollar empire, yet he was a fool. Never trust an animal, boy. They are ruled by their instincts.” Cobra Commander had taken the instruction to heart. It had helped to save his life during the invasion of Cobra Island.

He left the airport and headed for downtown, where he would link with his contact. As he walked, he thought again of The Baroness. She had been a useful tool, especially when he had her seduce and have an affair with a corrupt senator. After getting what Cobra Commander needed, she shot the man in the head and returned to Cobra Island. Vanessa did not want Destro knowing about these escapades; she slept with many powerful men in her intelligence work for Cobra to gain vital knowledge. Destro was unaware and Cobra Commander exploited the situation. Although he had no concept of it himself, he knew that Vanessa and Destro were deeply in love, and Vanessa was willing to do anything to keep that love. Although he used the Baroness ruthlessly because of this, Cobra Commander did not trust her. She was an animal, and he had no intentions of being eaten by the lioness Vanessa.

Finding the Rising Sun, the designated rendezvous, Cobra Commander sat at a table and ordered a cup of tea. He let his mind wander again, something that he often did when he was alone. It was his mind that had kept him alive all these years and he trusted it completely. He had known Cobra Island was going to fall. His spies in the government had found evidence of this and forwarded it to him. Cobra Commander had made his escape plans well in advance and was gone long before the Joe team landed. The loss of the island was a blow to be sure, but it had served a purpose. Serpentor, despite his haughtiness and certainty of easy victory, had lead Cobra to failure. The Cobras on the island had been trounced, and key personnel were seized. Cobra was beaten, by the United States’ reasoning, except they knew they didn’t have Cobra Commander. He smiled at the thought, and also gloated over the fact that they had no clue as to what was in store for them. The G.I. Joes, he had often said, were often ignorant of treachery. They took everything at face value. So, he would gleefully show them the error of their stupidity, as he had always hoped.

The waiter brought his tea and left with a bow. Taking a sip, Cobra Commander saw his contact. Walking steadily towards him, the slim figure glided easily to his table and sat down. He signaled for a cup of tea and sat silently until it arrived. Taking a drink, he locked his cold blue eyes on Cobra Commander. “Are you well, Commander?” he asked quietly. Smiling, Cobra Commander set his cup on the table. “Very well, Firefly, thank you. How has your return to Japan been?” Firefly smiled back. “It has been as I hoped. Things go as you wish.” Cobra Commander nodded approvingly; touching quickly on another thing he slipped by the hapless Joes. They thought Firefly was their prisoner, but such was their foolishness. A loyal Crimson Guard Commander, a fifth degree black belt, had been given Firefly’s costume and replicas of his equipment. The Guardsman was a very effective substitute, as reports Cobra spies had returned hinted to the fact it had taken both Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow to subdue him. That the other two ninjas would know that it was not Firefly himself was unimportant; ninjas shared some strange bond with each other that was almost supernatural. But Snake Eyes was mute and Storm Shadow still not entirely trusted, so their protests would be ignored. Besides, neither he nor Firefly would ever allow each other to be captured. To do so would be a disaster. Cobra Commander reveled in his triumph for a moment, and then turned back to Firefly. “Let us go to the lab. I would see what you have accomplished here.” Both men stood swiftly, walking towards the small, nondescript car that Firefly kept here in Japan. Once inside, away from the noise, the two faced each other. “Soon, David, we will have our revenge on your brother. And on mine. When we do, the world will be ours,” Cobra Commander whispered fiercely to his partner. Firefly, or David as he was long ago and to Cobra Commander now only in private, replied. “Yes, Sebastian. We will be revenged. You will rule and I will enforce your will.” Turning into traffic, the two men drove away.