Friendship Is Half the Battle

It was nighttime in a desert, a Black Hawk helicopter was flying through the night air, and its destination was known only to its passengers. The helicopter flew past a few large rock formations and landed on the sandy ground behind them. A passenger stepped out of the copter, the person was dressed in dark colored desert gear that covered the person’s entire body. The mysterious individual walked over to what looked like a large cactus standing near the copter, opened a secret compartment door on the fake cactus revealing a set of buttons and switches, pressed a few buttons, and closed the secret door of the fake cactus. Suddenly, the ground started shaking, and then the ground beneath the mysterious person and the copter started sinking into the ground. Turns out the ground was a secret elevator leading into a secret underground base.

As the elevator went deeper and deeper into the base, the mysterious individual started removing the protective desert gear. The person was revealed to be Scarlett, the woman who had posed as a cop, her new outfit consisted of a gray bodysuit, a tan leotard over that with a red shoulder pad on her right shoulder, and tan boots and gloves. Turns out Scarlett, aka Shana M. O’Hara, was actually a counter intelligence agent for G.I. Joe, a top secret elite covert special mission unit operating under the command of the United States Military.

When the elevator finally reached the bottom of the base, Scarlett was greeted by two men. One had dark skin and was dressed as a HALO jumper (Rip Cord, aka Wallace A. Weems, airborne infantry). The other had lighter skin, brown hair and beard, dressed in high-tech communications equipment, and chewing bubble gum (Breaker, aka Alvin R. Kibbey, communications officer).

“Welcome back Agent Scarlett.” Rip Cord said greeting his fellow teammate. “How did your assignment go?”

“It went well, Rip Cord.” Scarlett replied. “I’ve gathered some vital information that I believe all the other Joes would like to see.”

“Then I’ll notify the commanding officers and we’ll all gather in the briefing room.” Breaker said after popping a bubble from his gum. Then the three went off to inform everyone in the base.

A few minutes later, military personnel were scrambling to make their way to the briefing room. One personnel member knocked on a door he almost passed by. When there was no answer, he opened it anyway. The room was almost completely dark with just a few candles lit. In the middle of the room was a man sitting in a meditative posture. The poor lighting of the room made it really hard to make out a lot of the man’s physical features; his entire face was covered in shadow. But from what could be made out, he was wearing a dark skintight bodysuit. Sitting on the floor in front of him was a black face mask with a visor and a katana sword.

“Um, just to let you know, all G.I. Joe personnel are being called to the briefing room.” the personnel member said to the shadowy man before closing the door and leaving.

Although he made no verbal acknowledgement of what the guy said, anyone who knew this man knew he had good hearing. The shadowy man broke out of his meditative trance, put on his mask and sheathed his sword.

The briefing room was filled with a lot of very unique-looking military personnel. A tall, dark-skinned man with a black mustache and goatee wearing a green, sleeveless camouflage vest, light grey pants, and black boots and gloves (Roadblock, aka Marvin F. Hinton, heavy weapons trooper) was having a friendly conversation with a short, light-skinned younger-looking man wearing a dark green bandanna, a green short-sleeved shirt, black pants, boots, and gloves (Tunnel Rat, aka Nicky Lee, explosives expert) when the mysterious man from the dark room suddenly appeared before them. He was covered from head to toe in a black skintight suit, belts of grenades and knives on his arms and legs, a grey grill visor over his eyes, and a katana hung over his back (Snake-Eyes, silent ninja master from the Arashikage clan, has a personal grudge against Storm Shadow).

“Snake-Eyes, you scared us there for a second.” Tunnel Rat said to his silent comrade who bowed his head respectfully.

“Did you hear?” Roadblock asked the dark ninja. “Scarlett’s returned and she has some intel that’ll probably give us the means to take those rotten Cobras down.”

The chattering in the room stopped when a man walked to the front of the briefing screen and stood before them. The man had blonde hair, a beige shirt with rolled-up sleeves and a gold eagle badge on his right chest, green pants, brown boots, and a tiny scar over his left eye (Duke, aka Conrad S. Hauser, first sergeant and second-in-command of G.I. Joe, he was a man that so many Joes trusted and followed loyally).

“All Joes present?” Duke asked the crowd. Everyone in the room called to Duke to let him know they were there. “Good, then let’s begin the briefing. Agent Scarlett has returned from her secret mission and says she has some interesting intel that she would like to present to us. Agent Scarlett.” Duke called Scarlett to take his place and present what she found.

“Thanks Duke.” She said to her commanding officer, then turned to face the crowd. “During my undercover work in an urban town, I uncovered a few things you all might be interested in. Dataframe, if you please.” She called to her technical expert comrade who took a chip out of her cellphone and inserted it into a device attached to a projector that projected an image of an urban town onto the screen behind her. “I’ve heard rumors of strange occurrences happening in this town.” Then the picture of the town changed to a picture of Canterlot High. “Mainly around this high school.” The next image was a picture of Principal Cinch shaking hands with one of two identical-looking men were business suits. The man Cinch was shaking hands with had a scar on his left cheek, the only thing that distinguished him from the other. “I’m pretty sure those two are the Crimson Twins, Xamot and Tomax, which confirms possible Cobra activity in the area. From what I’ve gathered, this woman right here is the principal of Crystal Prep, one of two well-known high schools in that town. Needless to say, the schools are bitter rivals and don’t get along.”

“Why do you think a couple Cobra agents might be interested in some high school that has no big connections to the government?” asked a black-haired man wearing a black beret, a black shirt with belts of ammo running horizontally on both sides, green and brown camouflage pants, black boots, and brown gloves (Flint, aka Dashiell R. Faireborn, warrant officer and third-in-command of G.I. Joe).

“I’m not sure.” Scarlett answered. “But I have a theory that one of the two schools might have something to do with the strange rumors.”

“Well, whatever it is, it’s got Cobra’s interest and that’s not good.” Said a gruff, muscular mustached man wearing a green hat, light green and blue camouflage pants, grey boots, and a light-colored sleeveless open vest that exposed a Marine tattoo on his chest (Gung-Ho, aka Ettienne R. LaFitte, gruff and tough member from the US Marine Corps).

“Indeed.” Duke said stepping back onto the stage. “Thank you, Agent Scarlett.” The red-haired woman gave him a respectful salute and walked off the stage. “Now I know that there somethings that we have to fully understand which will make this operation a lot more difficult. But we do know that something in this town has caught Cobra’s attention and has drawn them there. As the United States’ most top secret counter-terrorist team, the President is counting on us to uphold the peace and stability of the country and the world. Tomorrow, some of you will be assigned to work undercover at that town. Try to gather as much information as you can without drawing any suspicion from the enemy. Remember civilian lives are at stake here, we need to know exactly what we’re dealing with before we can act. Dismissed.”

“Yo Joe!” the people in the room shouted as they saluted him and started clearing out except for Duke and an older man with dark brown hair and wearing a green military uniform decorated with all sorts of medals (General Hawk, aka Clayton M. Abernathy, the current commander-in-chief of the G.I. Joe Team, a very wise and noble decorated officer and one of G.I. Joe’s original members who has recruited so many recruits into the force to uphold national security).

“A stirring speech, Duke.” Hawk complimented. “You’re by far one of G.I. Joe’s and America’s finest soldiers.”

“Thank you, sir.” Duke replied.

“What do you make of this?”

“Well sir, we have definite proof of Cobra activity. I will handpick the Joes who will be going undercover. There are so many innocent lives, young lives, that will be at risk. We need to exercise caution.”

“Is something wrong, Duke?” Hawk asked noticing Duke had a concerned expression on his face.

“Cobra Commander’s up to something. Knowing him, he’s probably hatching something extremely sinister in nature no doubt. But the question is: why would he be interested in a couple high schools in a small American town? What do they have that he wants?”