Title: I Turn to You [G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra]
Title: I Turn to You
Word Count: 10,683
Challenge: smallfandombang Round 3
Rating: R
Genre: Action
Characters/Pairings: Duke, Rex, Ripcord the Joes
Summary: Duke’s doing things he doesn’t understand, Rex is loose and the Joe’s may have a traitor among them.
Author's Notes: So I’ve had this idea since I first watch the movie. I wrote a small bit of it then forgot about it for like three years. Then along came smallfandombang. I have as yet not seen the new movie so I have no idea how well this goes with that one.
***Prolog***
“Security Check: Section Seven.”
“Section Seven, you wake out there?” Lieutenant Miller asked again as he hit the radio again looking up from the report he was reading.
“Fitz, Michaels report,” Miller ordered again looking around the control room of the mountain prison.
The prison was one of the most advanced and secure prisons in the world, buried far below a mountain, and only known to a few. It held some of the most dangerous men and women in the world. And right now, something was wrong.
“I want a visual of Section Seven now,” Lieutenant Miller ordered as he brought up the security logs.
“Sir,” Sergeant Alexander called from his station looking up at the static filled plasma screen, “All the cameras are down.”
“Check the other station now,” Miller ordered as he hit the all call button, “Security Check: all Sections, report now!”
Lieutenant Miller was cut off by a rumble that sent a shudder through the whole room and sent alarms screaming.
“What was that?” yelled Lieutenant Miller as he pulled the key from his neck and unlocked the armory.
“Explosion in Section Seven, the only ones there are-“
“The Joe’s prisoners,” Lieutenant Miller said cutting Sergeant Alexander off, “We are not losing them!” he ordered as he pulled out one of the MM-1 semi-auto grenade launchers, “Send out an alert. Call the Joes’!”
“Already trying sir, call communications are down, not just internal but external too. I’m locking down all exits.”
“Lock it all down, I’ve got my key, slow them down,” Lieutenant Miller said giving his last order before cocking his gun and walking out the door.
“Sir,” he had made it two steps before he was stopped by Sergeant Alexander, “take this, Channel Three,” Alexander said throwing a radio to Lieutenant Miller, “I’ll keep calling to all points Sir.”
Lieutenant Miller gave his sergeant a nod before continuing down the hall. Using his override code he bypassed the blast doors making his way to Section Seven. Once there he found Fitz and Michaels, both dead from multiple wounds. The doors to the ward were forced open, charred and burnt.
Once inside Lieutenant Miller could see that both of the prisoners were gone. Their laser enforced steel prisons were breached by tunnels, the floors of both cells ruptured but whoever or whatever had done it was gone with two of the most dangerous men alive.
“Alexander, tell me you have sometime, some way of tracking them, the prisoners are gone and my men are dead,” Lieutenant Miller barked into the radio.
“Sir I’m getting some odd readings from the reactor I think they’re doing something.”
“They’re trying to cover their track. Lock down that room and activate nuclear protocols now,” Lieutenant Miller ordered as he took off running toward the reactor room. After the second blast door Lieutenant Miller no longer needed to override them as they had been forced open, something had punched through them.
He was half way to the reactor when he saw them, back tracking away from the reactor. Trying to leave. Lieutenant Miller pressed himself against the wall shielded behind the remains of one of the blast door, and took stock of the intruders.
There were three of them, two were the prisoners, and the third was in a large metal suit, his face covered, he had the lead and with that suit had to be the one forcing open the blast door but there they alone or did they have more support?
Hoping for the best Lieutenant Miller turned and leveled his gun at the armored form and fired a sabot round at near point blank range. It caught the metal man off guard and sent it crashing into the blast doors and wall behind him.
Lieutenant Miller only had time to recover from the massive recoil and bring his gun level before the metal man was back up and charging, he got off another round glancing off the metal shoulder before he had the gun ripped from has hands.
Miller’s life flashed before his eyes when with a tremendous sound the metal man went flying sideways, Miller turned to see Sergeant Alexander tossing a M-72 LAW anti-tank weapon aside before ducking, and Miller didn’t even have time to bring up his hands before the shockwave and fire of the explosion slammed into him.
Lieutenant Miller didn’t know if he was screaming in pain or if it was just the ringing in his ears but he was sure he was on fire until Alexander started patting him down. The feeling of the coarse shirt on his burns was excruciating, but it was not as bad as when Alexander suddenly started jerking him over one of the forced open blast doors and that was when his body had finally said enough was enough and he passed out. The last thing he saw was the metal man rising from the debris, pulling a metal shard out of its shoulder as it started marching toward them.
***
Duke bit down on the roll of napkins in his mouth again as he finished stitching up his upper arm before checking it in his bathroom mirror. The five stitches were almost perfectly in line. Duke let out a breath as he used the napkin to wipe away the extra blood before he pressed a patch over it and taped it in place.
Duke took a deep breath before turning on the water and letting it pool in his hand before splashing it on his face as he looked at himself in the mirror.
“What am I doing?”
***Chapter One***
“What’s wrong with you today man. You’re half asleep and is that really all you’re going to bench?” Ripcord asked as he strutted over to Duke who was at the incline bench, his fingers barely hanging from a bar with only a hundred pounds on it.
Duke let out a breath before looking over at Ripcord, “Don’t know, I’m just out of it today. Didn’t get much sleep last night,” he added as he rose from the beach.
“See if I didn’t know you were holding out for a certain Baroness I’d think you spent all night getting some. But that can’t be right….can it?” Ripcord trailed off suggestively as he eyed Duke, his own grin getting larger and larger the longer it took for Duke to respond.
Duke just shook his head and turned toward the door, “you never change.”
“You don’t mess with perfection man, you just don’t.”
“Yeah, guess not, I’m going to shower, later,” Duke said back as he made his way out of the gym and forward his quarter.
Ripcord just watched him leave, not sure why Duke wasn’t hitting the gym shower like normal.
“Aren’t the showers that way,” Scarlet asked Ripcord pointing to a door on the other side of the room.
“He’s just under the weather. Wants to really soak in his own shower. But if you want to join me in those shower I do believe they’re empty,” Ripcord suggested as he pulled Scarlet in for a kiss.
***
Duke was double checking his shirt making sure it covered the patch on his shoulder when the call came for Alpha team to report to Command and Control on the double.
Duke entered Command and Control moments before Ripcord and Scarlet but after Heavy Duty, Breaker and Snake Eyes who were standing at the central display with General Hawk. “Did we find another of Cobra’s bases?”
“No, something worse, someone broke Lewis and McCullen out. We need to find out who it was and get them back, fast,” General Hawk told his Alpha team.
“I thought this prison was secure, sir,” Heavy Duty asked looking at the footage.
“When was this taken?” Breaker asked as he took a closer look at the date.
“The prison break was almost 8 hours ago. This film is about 4 hours old. We were just notified,” Hawk said as he looked at the group.
“I thought they were improving communication,” Ripcord said shaking his head. “After what we went through to get them, how did they lose them?”
“I’d hold off on blaming them. They didn’t just give them up,” Scarlet said as she looked over the report. “They were hit hard, of the 35 men on site only two have been found alive and one of them may not make it…the reactor went critical. The whole base was destroyed. The 15 remaining prisoners are believed dead along with the rest of the guards. They were hit hard.”
“And we don’t know what kind of force did this,” Breaker said looking up from his computer pad. “None of the external system saw anything. And the internal system…well a nuclear blast isn’t very good for computers but we’ll see what I can do after they pull the main frame,” Break said as he popped his gum.
“We’ve had Cobra on the run ever since we took out the arctic base almost a year ago. How did they pull the resources together for this,” Ripcord asked as he looked at the central display.
“That’s what I want you, Snake-eyes and Scarlet are going to find out Ripcord,” General Hawk ordered. “Heavy Duty, Breaker, Duke I want you onsite, find out what happened. You will check in every 6 hours, clear.”
***
“So which one are we hitting first the prison or the hospital?” Duke asked as the group’s halo left from the U.S.S Flagg.
“We’re going to the hospital, the prison is still being decontaminated. One of the survivors is awake the other might be soon…if he wakes up at all,” Heavy Duty answered.
“How long will it take to get there? I know we’re close but how far away are we,” Duke asked looking down at the water as they flew over it.
“Less than an hour. The Flagg was right off the coast,” Breaker said looked up from his PDA. “It’s like they were taunting us.”
“No one knows were the Flagg is at any given moment,” Heavy Duty said, “We just happened to be close.”
Duke just looked back in at Heavy Duty before looking back at the water below them, “Yeah just happened to be close.”
The water flowed into a beach that became a green field that in turn gave way to a mountain forest with a small outcropping of buildings, one with a Helo pad. “Target at two o’clock.” Duke said as he shifted before standing.
“Then let’s find out what happened and get those Cobra rats back behind bars,” Heavy Duty said as he stood as well.
“We’re only going to be able to talk to Sergeant Alexander. He’s awake unlike Lieutenant Miller…” Breaker was saying as he read off his PDA pausing as he scrolled down. ”Miller is still in critical condition, stable but critical.”
“Then let’s find out that Sergeant Alexander has to say then,” Duke said.
***
“Nothing,” Scarlet said in frustration as she pushed the keyboard away from her.
“It’s only been a couple hours, if they weren’t good you would have found them before they hit babe,” Ripcord said as he walked over from his computer and toward Scarlet.
“Are you trying to flatter me?” the red head said as she leaned back and looked at Ripcord.
“Would I flatter you?” he asked as he started massaging Scarlet’s shoulders.
“If you know what’s good for you,” Scarlet said. “Okay, what am I missing.”
“You checked any know Cobra operative-“
“Yes.”
“And you’ve checked any one that came to the city-“
“Every plane, train, and car rental. Within five hundred miles, so far nothing. But it’ll be a few more hours before it’s done.”
“I guess I’m just one step behind you-“
“I wish I was only one step behind Cobra.”
“We’ll find them. We’ll have more to work with when the other’s get on site,” Ripcord said as he started compiling a list of all shipments into the three cities around the prison.
***
“The first notice we had that something was wrong was when no one responded to their Security Check, Sir,” Sergeant Alexander answered, trying to sit up straighter in his bed. His right arm was broken and he has cuts all over, the largest sliced across his left chest not far from his heart while another had almost taken a leg.
“Take it easy there, you pop any stitches and that nurse will kick us out of here, priority clearance or no priority clearance,” Heavy Duty said with a chuckle giving the older nurse a look, she was still glaring at then all, clearly upset that she hadn’t been able to stop them from interrupting her charges recovery.
“Yes sir,” the Sergeant responded as he let himself drop back down into the bed. “As I was saying that’s when we realized that all the internal cameras were down and then all communication, internal and external, also went down, all we had left were the independent hand held radios.” He explained.
“And that’s when the Lieutenant when out to investigate?” Heavy Duty asked the younger man, his arms crossed.
“Yes Sir. He radioed back from Section Seven that Lewis and McCullen had been freed and ordered all blast doors closed,” Sergeant Alexander went on, pausing to swallow some water with Breaker’s help. “Thanks,” he added uncomfortably, “that’s when I informed him about the reactor.”
“There wasn’t anything you could do, I looked at the raw data, no, not anything you could have done it must have been ripped apart,” Breaker explained, trying to reassure the wounded man.
“Yeah,” Alexander said in a whisper, clearing his throat before going on, “when I realized there was nothing I could do from the control room I headed out, I grabbed the biggest weapon I could find because anything that could get through the blast door had to be big…but I thought it would be a vehicle not a accelerator suit.”
“An accelerator suit! They had an accelerator suit?” Heavy Duty demanded to know, his voice booming in surprise at the information.
“The third person was in an accelerator suit, Sir. He took the anti-tank missile at near point blank range and got back up,” Sergeant Alexander confirmed, shuttering slightly at the memory.
“What if it wasn’t an accelerator suit but one of Cobra’s bio-suits. They look similar enough,” Duke said turning away from the window and speaking for the first time since they had entered the room.
Heavy Duty started to nod, conceding the point about the suits when Alexander refuted it. “With all due respect I’m better trained than that. I know the different between a Joe accelerator suit and a Cobra bio-suit,” he side heatedly pushing himself up straighter in the bed. “And it was one of yours,” he added glaring at Duke.
“I’m sorry about…I need some air,” Duke said after a tense beat before leaving the room.
Heavy Duty and Breaker exchanged looks before turning back to Alexander, “An anti-tank missile would only slow an accelerator suit down, how’d you get away with the Lieutenant,” Heavy Duty.
“I didn’t think we would, it was coming right at us until Lewis called out, he’d been hurt or trapped in the blast. After that we didn’t seem to matter to him, he went right past us,” Alexander finished softly.
“Good, we needed the intel,” Heavy Duty replied, “You did good,” he added with a pat on the man’s uninjured leg.
“Yes now do you know what path they took, in and out?” Breaker asked, bringing his computer toward Alexander with the blueprints of the mountain prison on the display.
***
“I want a full innovatory of all the accelerator suit we have, here and at all our back up locations,” General Hawk ordered the moment the video call with Heavy Duty ended scanning Command and Control until his eyes landed on Sergeant Stone, “I want eyes, physical eye, on every suit we have, and make it someone you trust. We just might have a traitor in our midst,” he added giving the room another look even as Sergeant Stone saluted and departed to initiate the checks.
***
“Nothing,” Scarlet all but yelled in frustration three minutes after her computer’s beeps had alerted her that the searches she’d be running where done. “Nothing at all! Again!”
“Nothing what?” Ripcord asked, looking up from the screen of Interpol notices he was trying to wade through to see Scarlet glaring at her computer.
“My transportation search, no hits, not a single known Cobra agent was anywhere near the area. Just nothing,” Scarlet ranted about her failure to find a lead.
“Then they weren’t there. Simple as that,” Ripcord said plainly with a shrug of his shoulders.
“But if they weren’t there when who busted into the prison?” Scarlet asked frowning at her lover.
“We’ve taken out so many of their guys; maybe they had to hire out?” Ripcord suggested, “It’d be new for them but, desperate time and all right Red,” he added.
“Don’t call me that,” Scarlet griped then paused, “they got help…” she whispered before turning back to her computer and typing fast, her smile growing.
“What? What did I say?” Ripcord asked confused by the rapid change in the Joe’s Intelligence Officer.
***
“Now this is some heavy duty destruction,” Heavy Duty said gruffly as he looked at the scene before the three Joes.
The explosion of the reactor had brought down half the mountain side and blown out blow out the other half scattering the surrounding area with rocks larger then any of them mixed in with mounds of earth and parts of trees and other debris. Filling the air was dust and concrete that had been powdered and was still falling, and covering everything with a thickening gray layer.
Among all of it were dozens of people, some working under tents, other digging and a few seeming to just be walking about, while others pulled stuff out of the remains out the mountain.
“If they’re able to find anything for you to work on I’ll be very impressed,” Duke said turning toward Breaker with a frown before looking back at the former prison.
“Well you won’t be impressed standing around here; let’s find someone in charge of this mad house,” Heavy Duty ordered before marching toward the largest of the tents, people scattering everything to kept out of his, and the other’s, path until they were at the white topped tent, “Whoever was in change, now answers to me, so who was in command?” Heavy Duty demanded to know as he crossed his arms, sweeping the collected men and women with his eyes.
“You can’t just barge in here. Just who do you think you-” A tall women in a formal skirt suit and heels rapidly walked toward the three yelling as she came. Until Duke started stepping toward her, he was stopped by Heavy Duty’s arm.
“I’m a Joe,” Heavy Duty answered as he looked down at the women before turning toward a handful of people around a table with a few bits of computer parts on it, “Show him what you have,” he ordered thumbing toward Breaker before looking back at the women, “What do you have on what did this?” he questioned before walking past her and to a large white board with writing all over it, “Someone walk me through what you have.”
Duke just smirked as he walked by the sputtering women to join Heavy Duty to listen to the review of what was known, which turned out to be almost nothing beyond the prison being attacked and Lewis and McCullen were broken out and the reactor blown..
Breaker, luckily, had better luck as within moments he was calling them over.
“It’s still intact; the data core is still intact and wasn’t wiped,” Breaker said happily as he grinned up from where he was working on a large chuck of metal and concrete that had clearly been blown from the mount, “It’s going to take hours to clean up and organize the raw data but it’s useable,” he added with a frown toward his own computer. “It’s just going to take time…a lot of time…”
“We don’t have that much time Breaker, every minute is another minute those two freaks can be starting trouble,” Heavy Duty reminded him.
“And I’m working, I’m working!” Breaker snapped back at the comment.
“Whoa, there,” Duke said cutting between them, “what if we took it back to the base, would it go faster if we take it there?” he asked pointing to the computer core.
At the question Breaker paused and looked over the computer core and its case of cement, “Maybe…I would have the Flagg’s mainframe to work with,” he mused aloud tapping at his computer.
“Moving this to the Flagg will be a bitch,” Heavy Duty said giving the core a studied look before feeling it and partly lifting it. “Grab that side,” he ordered Duke while he lifted one side.
“Yes, Sir,” Duke answered as he moved to the other side and grabbed it and lifting it as well, the two marching it toward the Helo that had dropped them off.
“Wait, slow down, Warn someone,” Breaker complained as he rushed to collect all his gear while keeping in range of the cords linking them with the computer core
“What you can’t just take that! Get back here!” the women in charge yelled as she tried to march after them and ranted while they got into the copter and took off toward the Flagg.
***Chapter 2***
“Why are you helping us? You made your choice,” Lewis demanded to know after watching Duke rip open his prison.
“I have to help you Rex. Now we need to move. Now,” Duke ordered as he pointed toward the hall with his accelerator suit covered arm.
“Release Destro as well Duke,” Lewis ordered, still looking at Duke suspiciously.
“I’m not freeing McCullen Rex. He can stay where he is,” Duke answered back starting to head to the remains of the doors.
“I have no intention of leaving here with just you. Open his cell,” Rex ordered once more.
“Rex, fine, if it will get you moving,” Duke complained as he ripped open Destro’s cell before once more turning toward the exit. “Now let’s go.”
“Now now, Duke, we shouldn’t rush,” Lewis said turning a different direction than Duke was trying to lead him, “I want to replay this place for it’s…hospitality. Will you be joining us?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at Duke.
“Rex,” Duke whispered, looking toward the exit then toward Rex and the corridor leading deeper into the mountain prison. But once Rex started moving, he followed.
“That’s a good Duke,” Lewis said, his smile clear in his eyes, “Yes very good Duke-Duke…DUKE
“Huh, what?” Duke said snapping awake, his eyes immediately looking around for a threat but finding they were still in the Helo crossing open water, nearing the Flagg. “Sir?” he asked Heavy Duty still looking around.
“We land in five,” Heavy Duty informed the other man with a raised eye brow.
“And really you should get more sleep at night. You look like you need it. You were out the minute we hit the water,” Breaker commented as he looked up from his tablet.
“Yeah, sure,” Duke answered back, still trying to shake the dream, memory, of the night before as he ignored Breaker rattle on about sleep related combat stats. He was still trying to shake it even after they’d landed and had taken the computer core to Breaker’s lab and made their reports to General Hawk. But he couldn’t.
“They truly thought they could defeat me. They will learn they can never stop Cobra,” Lewis declared as he worked on the reactor, setting it to becoming critical and destroy the base. “Tell me how many others have escaped the Joe’s attacks Duke,” he requested to know as he turned toward his former friend.
“I’m not telling you that. And I’m not helping you meet up with them and if you try I will stop you,” Duke told Rex bluntly.
“You’ve already sided with Cobra why-” Lewis started to question before he was cut off.
“I’m a Joe,” Duke yelled, slamming his fist into, and through, the reactor’s computer inches to the left of Rex’s head, “I’ll never join Cobra and don’t forget that, ever.”
“I see,” Lewis said, holding up a hand to stop McCullen from intervening when Duke threw his punch as he studied Duke for a long moment, he stopped only when the reactor’s computers beeped and started flashing warning on the other screens. “Well it’s done. This place will never hold me again,” Lewis added with a smear.
“Then let’s get out of here Rex, and get you somewhere safe,” Duke ordered as he turned toward the corridor leading out of the prison.
Lewis followed, eyeing the Joe as he did, “Yes…Safe, Safe.
“What?!” Duke said with a start, waking confused for the second time that day as he looked around his room, seeing Ripcord standing in the doorway only after the other man had cleared his throat.
“I said, is it safe to come in,” Ripcord repeated, entering the room regardless of the answer, “Rumor is you almost bit the head off one of the privates for trying to talk with you, even under the General’s order,” he commented before taking a seat at Duke’s desk while the other man remained on his bed, “what’s up?” he asked his best friend.
Duke didn’t answer at first, just let himself fall back against the pillow and stare at the ceiling before he couldn’t keep it in any longer, “Rex is out,” he said with a rush.
“Yeah, I had a feeling that was it,” Ripcord said nodding his head.
“What?” Duke asked sharply as he stared at his friend.
“After everything we went through and did to put him there and now he’s out. He’s not your responsibly anymore Duke,” Ripcord tried to tell his fellow Joe, “We did the best we could and we got him. And we’ll get him again but whatever he does, and whatever it takes, it isn’t on you Duke. Got it,” Ripcord added with a playful slug to his friends arm.
“Maybe, maybe not. If it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t even be Cobra Commander in the first place, or out and able to…” Duke stopped himself, running his hands over his face. “There’s just no good answer Rip, there just isn’t this time,” Duke answered, “I’ll see you at chow later,” he added.
Ripcord slowly put down the paperweight he’d been tossing between his hands, giving Duke another once over as he stood up knowing a dismissal when he heard one, “Yeah man, I hear it’s steaks tonight, how much you want to bet they’re either raw or burnt to a crisp?” he tried to joke only for it to be ignored. “Later,” he gave up, slipping out the door without Duke even glancing at him as he did so.
***
“Are you sure?” Sergeant Stone asked again as he spoke to his subordinate over his communicator, “All of them?”
“Yes, sir. All accelerator suits and all backup parts are accounted for. I personally laid eyes on and even handled every part to make sure Sir,” Sergeant Stone’s Pit II subordinate answered for the second time.
“Check again,” Sergeant Stone ordered again before terminating the call and looked around the Flagg’s storage room, “I want everything out, every box and bag is to be on the gym floor right this minute,” he ordered eyeing everyone that was hauling the Joe’s weapon gear from the room into the main gymnasium.
The gymnasium floor had been cleared by pushing all the weight equipment so the sides and rolling up the mats and it was how covered with boxes of ammo, accelerator suits- full and in parts- weapons ranging from swords to guns and any other tool any Joe might find themselves in need of on a mission.
“You have them all turned out, what did you find a spot of rust somewhere?” Ripcord joked when he poked his head through the doors into the gym to see Stone watching his men pour over the gear. But his smile fell when Stone didn’t even look his way at the joke. “What’s wrong with this ship, first Scarlet, then Duke and now you? Did all of you have the life sucked out of you?” he asked, walking up to stand next to the Sergeant.
“You shouldn’t be in here Sergeant. This room is under lockdown,” Stone finally said, turning to glare at Ripcord, his normal playful tone absent from his voice.
“I know I had to get Hawk to clear me. Scarlet needs that accelerator suit data for one of her search program and you’ve locked down the system so she can’t get it. She’s pissed its holding her up so be glad I was there to run interference,” Ripcord explained to the operations specialist.
“Everything about those suits is under lockdown and will stay that way until after I’ve given my report to the General. She’s just going to have to wait,” Stone said bluntly.
“What’s up with you? You’re usually way more cool than this?” Ripcord questioned pointing at the man in question. “I know it sucks to know one of your off sight bases got breached but it happens. You find out who slacked off and you let them have it.”
“It was me Ripcord,” Stone said turning on the dark skinned man, “I’m the one. It was one of my suits. It was taken right out from under my nose, MINE,” he barked as he pushed Ripcord away from him. “Someone is going to god damn pay. Now clear off,” he ordered with another shove, this one toward the guarded exit.
“Alright man, I’ll let Scarlett know it’s going to be a few hours,” Ripcord said holding up his hands as he forced himself to back away.
“I didn’t tell you to stop, get your asses back to work. I what to know exactly what’s gone right this minute,” Stone snapped at his men when some of them had stopped to watch the exchange between the two men.
They got back to work.
***
“Rex, are you okay?!” Duke said in a new panic as he pulled the debris created by Sergeant Alexander anti-tank rocket off of Rex.
“Get this off me then kill him, kill them all,” Lewis hissed as he helped shove a piece of wall off himself, “Kill him now,” he ordered again.
Duke pulled off the last of the large pieces of debris before turning to look back toward the two men who had trying to stop him. One looked mostly dead and the other was struggling to carry him out, neither had any effective weapons on them, “No,” he told Rex as he picked up the other man and started racing toward the exit with McCullen having to run to keep up.
Right past where the two other men were hiding
Duke turned over in his bed. That act was the one thing about the night before he didn’t regret. It was also the only act he understood, why he had acted the way he had the rest of the night? Why had he let Rex out. Why had he been doing the things he’d been doing? He just didn’t understand it. And why couldn’t he get any sleep.
***
“What do you mean his accelerator suit? Like his personal one? Does he even have one?” Scarlett asked and thought aloud after Ripcord had told her about his visit to Sergeant Stone.
“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Ripcord answered with a frown, “But someone on the-I just can’t believe it.”
“But if one of the Flagg’s suits was the one used…I’m going to add the Joe’s database to my search,” Scarlett said, turning back to her computer. “But why would one of our own…”
“Maybe they didn’t, maybe it was a full break in, maybe…hell maybe it was those damned nanos doing something. No Joe would ever help Cobra, right?” Ripcord repeated, sounding unsure.
“Only one way to find out,” Scarlett said in return, and with a last key stroke started a search to see if any Joe’s had been spotted around the Mountain Prison.
Ripcord slumped down into his chair, shaking his head.
***
“Well, what have you found?”
“Sir?! General, I’m-what?” Breaker said rapidly jerking up from his computer display to look at the General that had just entered his lab.
“I’ve requested reports twice and since I haven’t received any I have to believe it’s due to you finding something so important you put it before a direct order from your commanding officer,” General Hawk explained, coming around to look at Breaker’s screen.
“No-well yes, but-Look at this, Sir,” Breaker said at last as the tech expert brought up a window showing a single partial frame of a person in a powered suit, “It’s him,” Breaker said pointing to the figure.
“How? They reported all the cameras were down before anyone breached the facility?” Hawk inquired looking back at his technical expert.
“They did, this came from one of the external feeds just moments before the network was taken down by some kind of hacker tool. Still haven’t worked that out,” Breaker added with a grimace.
“But who is it,” Hawk asked, leaning closer to the screen, “can you make it any clearer, so we can tell who this traitor is?” he questioned.
“That’s what I’m working on right now, I’m limited by pixel count but if I can run it through my filters and smoothing packs I should be able to magnify the image and construct what the missing data should hold so to turn out a more complete picture,” Breaker answered with a grin, “by tomorrow this time we’ll have him, maybe even before.”
“I can’t say I know what you just said but don’t let that, or me, stop you. Get back to work,” Hawk said as he left the room, ordering a three person guard on the door at all times as he did.
***
“You should be safe here,” Duke told his former friend, looking over the basic furnished home to make sure everything was good.
Set back in the woods with a large sliding back door Duke had been able to sneak them in even with his accelerator suit on. The home itself was furnished with off the shelf IKEA products with only a handful of personally touches which only served to make those changes stand out even more.
“Of all the places…Cobra Commander in a G.I. Joe safe house, and one that is so…plain” Lewis sneered as he flicked his hand at the plastic flowers on the kitchen table.
“Plain is good Rex, plain will keep anyone from looking for you here. The Joe’s are the only ones who know about it and we don’t have any plans to use it. No one will think to look for you here,” Duke explained his reasoning while he started to remove his accelerator suit, “I’m going to stock the place with some fresh supplies then I need to get back to the Flagg Rex, and you need to stay here,” Duke ordered while rotating his hurt shoulder a few times.
“Stay here? You expect me to trade one jail for another. No Duke, that will not be happening,” Lewis told the larger man, “I think it’s time I retook command of Cobra and it will not just be Destro that aids me. You will be helping me do it as well Duke,” he went on, finishing with Duke’s name like it’s an insult.
“I already told you I’m not joining Cobra and I’m not helping you to-” Duke asserted again as he glared at the masked man.
“Yes you will. Do you even know why you’ve helped me tonight Duke? I know but I don’t think you do. I think you just felt you had to help me, free me. It’s been building for months now hasn’t it Duke,” Lewis said, growing more and more confidant with each word as Duke looked less and less sure of himself.
“Rex,” Duke warned, but his tone didn’t carry any of the threat it had carried before. No longer defiant it came out more pleading then not as he couldn’t help himself from glancing at McCullen. Standing tall and quiet he hadn’t done anything without Lewis’s orders.
“No, Duke. You will help me; you don’t have a choice,” Lewis said darkly as he smiled beneath his mask, “not anymore.”
Duke turned over and pulled his arms and legs tight into himself as he kept replaying the moment, and the moment that followed, in his head.
The moments his whole world and life changed.
***
“Are you telling me it was taken off this ship? That one of my hand selected men-” General Hawk cut himself off as he turned about, slamming his fist into one of the computer consoles with a curse. “Who?” The General demanded after he had pulled himself together enough to stare down his subordinate.
Sergeant Stone swallowed hard and straighten his already text book stance before responding, “I don’t know yet-” he began to answer, until he was cut off.
“God-damn-it Sergeant! How does someone take out an accelerator suit without it being logged and reported? Just how badly have you botched your job?” Hawk yelled thrusting himself into Sergeant Stone face, “Incredibly botched that’s how botched,” he added, yelling over the Sergeant’s attempt to respond. “How long,” Hawk asked, finally walking away from Stone.
“I have not been able to completely check the records but the first piece appears to have becoming missing two months ago, Sir," Stone answered, not moving his eyes as he gave his report.
“Piece? What do you mean piece?” Hawk asked suspiciously as he returned his glare toward Stone.
“The reason it was missed was because none of the suits were taken. It was replacement parts that were taken, We have no less then three spares of each part of the accelerator suit. Enough were taken to form a more or less full suit, Sir,” Sergeant Stone explained. “I’ve already seen to it that it can not happen again, Sir. Full inventory will confirm all spare parts better from now on General,” he finished.
“You’d better have Sergeant,” Hawk stated before asking more from his Sergeant, “What else was taken?”
“We’ve haven’t finished the rest-” Stone began until he was once more cut off.
“Find out, and I want to know who took them, now,” Hawk ordered, dismissing the man.
“Sir, Yes, Sir,” Sergeant Stone answered before pivoting and double timing it out the door.
***
Breaker was smiling as he hit the last few keys and watched as the image, already expanded to the size of the screen, became clearer and clearer with each passing moment.
Slowly the metal suit began to take on more and more details so that he could not only tell it was an accelerator suit but which model it was, Delta 5 with both Phase One and Phase Two parts.
But then after what seemed like hours the face itself only started to clear up, the chin, nose, and jaw, the whole face becoming more detailed and comprehensible. Making it plain just who it was, only it still didn’t make sense.
“Impossible,” Breaker whispered, leaning closer to the computer, hoping the image would somehow change.
***
“That’s it. Yes, yes, yes,” Scarlett cheered as her computer began to beep alert after alert.
“What’s that? What’s wrong?” Ripcord asked in concern as he watched images after image pop up on her screen.
“Nothings wrong, it’s something right,” Scarlett said with a smile, “I refined the search with the accelerator suit data from Stone. And found this,” she added, bring up one of the photos and pointing at the figure in it.
“Is that?” Ripcord asked looking from the photo to Scarlett and back again.
“That’s someone in one of our accelerator suits being spotted by a Key Bank security camera, our traitor isn’t as good as he thinks he is. And I am good,” Scarlett smirked as she started flipping through the photos.
“That’s a lot of photos, your good,” Ripcord said watching as his girlfriend poured through them, “A shitload of phone, there must be over a hundred…” his voice trailing off.
“Yes well…maybe I’m too good,” Scarlett admitted as she looked at each photo, working to clear up each image in turn. “This is going to take all night,” she said with a sigh.
“What can I do for help?” Ripcord asked, starting to massage the intelligence agent’s shoulders.
***
“It has to be a mistake,” General Hawk stated in disbelieve as he looked over the file Breaker had handed him, unable to look away from the photo of one of his Joe’s in a stolen accelerator suit just outside the mountain prison.
“I checked five different times. I ran it thought every filter and scan I have, it’s not fake, not as far are I can tell. It really is him,” Breaker answered, shacking his own head in disbelieve as well at the idea of his friend being a traitor.
“Then someone better then you created this fake, which is a very scary in itself,” Hawk commented as he handed the file back to Breaker.
“Maybe,” Breaker responded, his pride at his skilled being questioned and his desire to be wrong clearly at war on his face while he took the file, checking it again for anything he could have missed.
“General, a moment? Now,” Sergeant Stone requested, all but running into Command and Control, pushing past the two guards standing at the door.
“What? Let him in,” Hawk ordered the guards before turning his gaze on Sergeant Stone, “You had better have a very good reason for bursting in here Sergeant,” the General demanded to know.
“Sir, it’s about the missing equipment, I have a name,” Stone answered, flicking his eyes at Breaker before looking back at Hawk, “Privately?” he offered.
“No, Breaker is working on the same problem. And he could use the help of another lead, the one he had didn’t pan out,” Hawk stated, glaring at the file in Breaker’s hand which the tech had snapped shut, his pride beginning to win out on his face as the Moroccan all but slammed his file on the table between them. Hawk ignored it, “Who is it.” he ordered.
“With the records and video we have we were able to narrow down times when the items were taken and only one person not on my staff accessed the supply rooms within every window. And every single one of my men can be confirmed as on the Flagg during the hours of the Prison assault. The other person can not be Sir,” Stone explained first, reluctant to give the name.
“Fine so you’re sure you have the right man, now give me his name,” Hawk ordered bluntly, staring down Stone.
“It was Duke,” Stone blurted out,” Sir,” he added belatedly. “And I wouldn’t be telling you this if everything I had wasn’t pointing at him. I don’t believe it but…everything says it’s him, Sir,” he added regretfully.
“It seems I may just own you an apology after all Breaker,” Hawk, said slowly, reaching over and flipping opening the file, looking at the photo, “but why…Where’s Ripcord and Scarlett? I want to know what they have,” Hawk demanded, marching from the room with the others following.
***
Duke splashed himself with water again, trying to keep himself alert as he reached for the gauze on his shoulder, taking a deep breath before pulling it away. Slowly he peeled it back to expose his smooth and healed skin, “Damn.”
”What are you talking about Rex?” Duke demanded to know, taking a step back from the other man.
“The loyal Joe freeing the enemy, hiding him. Have you thought to ask yourself why yet Duke? Why you’re helping me?” Lewis questioned the Joe, smirking under his mask.
“Rex, I…you’re my friend,” Duke answered, but even to himself it sounded hollow.
“No Duke,” Lewis informed him, “If that was the truth you would never have put me in prison to begin with. No, that’s not it.”
“Then what?” Duke asked, once more his eyes glancing at McCullen.
“You already know,” Rex said laughing when he saw Duke looking at McCullen. “I’m not sure how but you’ve becoming infected with my nanites. But unlike the others you aren’t shielded from my influence. You will help me take down the Joe.”
“No,” Duke said, still fighting.
“Fight me for as long as you can, it will make your surrender all the sweeter,” Lewis answered, “Now return to your ship and bring me all the files on remaining Cobra bases you have,” he ordered.
“Rex…”
Duke just took a breath and looked himself in the eye as calm settled over him.
He knew what he had to do.
***
“And I’m telling you it can’t be him, something’s wrong,” Ripcord all but yelled at his lover.
The two were standing chest the chest in the center of Scarlett’s workspace, glaring at each other and clearly in the middle of a heated argument.
“You saw the images. I didn’t make them up Ripcord,” Scarlett snapped back jabbing her finger at her boyfriend’s chest.
“They’re wrong, Duke would never. They’re wrong, it’s a frame job. It has to be,” Ripcord shouted again, “He couldn’t have, not even for- Duke wouldn’t,” he finished, his conviction clear in his voice.
“Duke wouldn’t what Soldier?” Hawk requested to know as he marched into Scarlett’s office with Stone and Breaker flanking him, interrupting the quarrel between the other two.
“Just working through the information, Sir,” Scarlett answered promptly turning to face the General.
“Nothing, Sir. We haven’t had time to verify the information enough to report,” Ripcord added, starting before Scarlett had even finished, keeping her from adding anything else.
“Is that right Scarlett?” General Hawk asked, standing before the women, “You haven’t found anything, not even enough for a preliminary report?” he inquired directly.
“Sir, it-" Ripcord began.
“Very preliminary, Sir,” Scarlett said, cutting off Ripcord then pausing, her eyes darting over to her boyfriend before turning to Hawk and going on, “It would be very preliminary and not everything has been checked out. If I could have more time-“
“Before that let me make a couple of guesses about your report, Scarlett,” Hawk suggested, looking at Ripcord for the first time before returning his eyes to his information specialist.
“Yes, Sir,” Scarlett answered, not having any other choice while Ripcord reminded silent.
“You were able to find information implicating one of us. A Joe, but not just any Joe. No, a senior one, and a friend,” Hawk said slowly looking between the two, watching as both Ripcord and Scarlett started to fidget and react in their own ways. “You found out it was Duke,” he said almost finished, “Didn’t you.”
“Duke would never,” Ripcord started, only to be stopped by the General’s hand.
“Stone, Breaker, show them your files,” Hawk ordered, his regret clear in his tone.
The other two men presented their findings.
***
“And all this checks out,” Heavy Duty asked, closing the file he had been looking through from the moment he’s been handed it to look up at the others.
Almost all of the senior stuff had been gathered in one of the conferences rooms and handed the file with everything that had been collected about the traitor that had broken into the Mountain Prison, Duke.
The room filled with silence for a long moment until Ripcord finally spoke up, “It’s Duke, it can’t check out because it’s not him,” he started definitely.
At the statement Snake Eyes looked up from his copy of the file and toward Ripcord, he held up the file, his meaning clear.
“As much as Ripcord might wish otherwise yes it has been vetted, as best as can be, and everything has checked out,” General Hawk told them assembled group. “Everything we have points to it being Duke.”
“General,” Ripcord tried to interrupt.
“That isn’t the question we face right now,” Hawk kept going, silencing Ripcord with a glare. “No, we need to deal with what it means.”
“He knows our systems, has passwords into everything, even if we change the coding we’ll never know what he’s already taken. What Lewis may have already told him to plant in the systems? It’ll take months,” Breaker complained, frowning at the notes he’d been making, “months and months…”
“We won’t have a full innovatory of all the locations he’s been at for another two week; he spent at least two weeks at the main depot for training last year. Doing eyes on check of everything will take at least that long,” Sergeant Stone said stepping in with his own frown, glancing at his own notes, adding something.
“He knows our long range plans, for moving against Cobra. He knows all of our Intel on them. We all knew it was personal but I thought it was because he wanted to clean up Lewis and McCullen’s mess not help them,” Scarlett through in shaking her head. “We’re going to have to remap out our whole strategy for fighting them,” she added, brushing her red locks from her face.
“Those are all long term; I’m talking about right now. How do we deal with Duke right now? That is what we need to addresses,” Hawk said as looked at each one of them in turn.
“We can’t let him leave this ship. We can’t let him give anything else to Cobra and we have to find out why. And then I want to punch the bastard like he deserves,” Stone said angrily, pounding his fist into his other palm.
“That’s the last thing we should do,” Scarlett cut in, “we can feed false information to Cobra. As long as they don’t know we can use Duke against them,” he suggested.
“That would be a good plan, we should do that,” Breaker supported, already tapping away at something. “They won’t be able to trust anything he’s given them, yes.”
“Whoa, hold on, it’s not him. Duke would never knowing or willingly help Cobra. Why don’t you all get that?” Ripcord said for that seemed liked the millionth time that day. “He’s the one that helped take down M.A.R.S. to begin with, and he’s been with us every step of the way chasing down Cobra. And now you think he’s working for them? Passing information, freeing Lewis and McCullen. Does any of this sound like the Duke we know?” he added, glaring down the table.
***
“Sir, can I help you with anything?” the server room guard asked when Duke approached him.
“Yes, corporal, as a matter of fact there is,” Duke replied, standing close to the man.
“Anything, Sir.”
“You can not make a sound,” Duke said, slamming his fist into the other man’s solar plexus when slamming his head into the wall behind him. “Thank you corporal.” He added when the guard slumped into his arms, unconscious.
Duke then quickly punched in his code and entered the room, pulling the corporal after him.
***
The room was quiet for a few minutes after Ripcord’s rant as everyone looked at one another, until Breaker broke the silence.
“He may not be, willing I mean. Lewis is a master of nanites, and he did have Duke in his device…we only know what Duke told us about most of what happened when he was held at M.A.R.S.’s polar base. If he was already compromised…”
“Or infective afterwards. He has been leading the charge on most of our assaults,” Heavy Duty added to the conversation.
“Like the Baroness,” Ripcord said, nodding, “that could explain it. But then we need to help him, help him break free,” he demanded.
“We can’t know if he’s turned or being controlled, and we can’t know without him finding out we know,” Hawk asked, looking at Breaker who nodded, “then we take him, being able to send false information to Cobra is tempting but I won’t let one of our own be stripped of his free will by Cobra a minutes longer then he has to be. We lock him down and find out. Now,” the General ordered the room.
“He was in his room we can lock that from-” Ripcord begin until Breaker interrupted him.
“He’s in the main server room. I’m tracking his pass codes,” Breaker added holding up his computer at the puzzled looks he was getting.
“Then we don’t have any time to lose, get a move on Joes!” Hawk told them.
***
Duke pulled out the second server out of its casing. He had just completed transferring everything that the Joes had on Cobra onto the two drives and was ready to leave; giving the corporal shoved into the corner another look.
He knew he should do something so the corporal wouldn’t raise the alarm the moment he woke up but…Duke was unwilling to.
Slipping the servers into carrying cases Duke forced himself to walk past the corporal and out of the room, heading toward the flight deck.
***
“Duke’s already gone; Ripcord and Snake Eyes are searching for him. He’s taken out two of the servers, we don’t know what was on them yet,” Heavy Duty relayed to the General over his com while Breaker slide into a chair and started tapping away on the computer.
“What about the guard, he didn’t…” Hawk stopped, not saying the last words.
“The man on duty is alive, but he’s going to have one hell of a headache,” Heavy Duty informed the commander, watching as Scarlett and Stone were giving the corporal basic first aid, waiting for the medical team to arrive.
“All of Cobra data. That’s what he took,” Breaker cried out, spinning to face the Joe’s Field Commander, “He’s put it all on those servers and deleted the backups…how did he…he’s locked the servers down. I can’t access anything.”
“We can’t let Cobra have that information,” Scarlett stated urgently, “we have to get it back.”
“He has to be controlled by nanites. No way Duke was able to do this kind of coding. He doesn’t do computers,” Breaker explained as he typed rapidly.
“Keep working on it,” Heavy Duty ordered the computer tech before turning toward Scarlett and Stone, “Scarlett, help Ripcord and Snake Eyes, Stone you’re staying here with me, make sure he doesn’t double back,” he told them all before giving the red head another look just as a loud piercing alarm cut through the room, and the ship.
*Emergency protocols activated. Evacuate flight deck. All personal must evacuate the flight deck. Emergency protocols activated* the emergency system droned over and over.
“Well, am I the only one who thinks he’s heading to the flight deck? Get moving,” Heavy Duty reordered Scarlett over the computers endless loop.
***
“Duke, stop.
Ripcord’s voice seemed to carry even over the wind and other noises of the top deck of the U.S.S. Flagg making Duke pause and turn toward the other man for a moment before returning to his task of warming up one of the Joe’s helicopter.
“Duke, I know this isn’t you, just come out here and we can talk about this,” Ripcord yelled again, reaching the side of the helicopter about the same time Scarlett appeared on deck.
“I’m with Cobra now, we have nothing to talk about,” Duke stated flatly, never turning away from the control panel.
“Bullshit, Duke. And we both know it. I don’t know how he did it but this is Lewis, not you,” Ripcord yelled back, marching toward Duke.
Duke ignored Ripcord until the moment he reached the doorway and was about to enter the helicopter, within a blink he leveled his handgun at Ripcord, staring him in the eyes, “I don’t want to have to shoot you, back up and let me leave and no one has to get hurt,” he said, his voice changing from flat and toneless to almost pleading.
“I can’t do that Duke, and you know it,” Ripcord answered, moving neither closer nor farther away.
“You aren’t getting in this copter.”
“That was never the plan,” Ripcord answered back.
“What-“ Duke barely had time to form the word before he was being pulled from behind, and out of the helicopter, by Snake Eyes while Ripcord dived out of the way of the bullet that fired from Duke’s gun as the man was jerked back.
“You won’t stop me,” Duke as he and Snake Eyes fought. The ninja blocking almost all of Duke’s strikes but having a difficult time landing any non-lethal strikes of his own.
“We have to do something,” Scarlett shouted as she finished running across the deck to join the others.
“And get in the middle of that mess, I don’t think do,” Ripcord said back, his eyes trying to track it all as he held his dark gun at the ready. “And there is no way I’m getting a clear shot.”
“We have to do something,” Scarlett answered, trying to come up with a plan.
“Yes you can let me go,” Duke yelled, managing to land a kick, pushing Snake Eyes away enough to give him time to bring out his second side arm, “anyone moves and I fire.” He stated, the gun leveled at Ripcord.
Both Scarlett and Snake Eyes froze as Ripcord slowly brought up his hands, “No you won’t. You won’t shoot me. You’re not Cobra, Duke, you’re a Joe, it’s the nanite programming not you.”
“I shot at you less then five minutes ago, or did you forget that,” Duke reminded the dark skinned man, his hand starting to quiver slightly.
“No you didn’t. Your hand jerked on the trigger when you were yanked back, but you never choose to shoot at me and you won’t now,” Ripcord stated, taking a step forward.
“STOP,” Duke yelled in a near panic, “Don’t make me, just stop. I don’t want…”
“We know it’s the nanites that are making you do this. We know it’s not you. We can help you just like we’re helping Ana,” Scarlett told Duke finally taking her own step forward.
“Rip…” Duke whispered, his hand trembling as it lowered an inch.
“We’ll help you Duke,” Ripcord said, distracting Duke once more as Snake Eye’s chopped Duke on the back of the neck, knocking him out. “We’ve got you,” Ripcord added as he caught the falling Joe.
***
“Can you deactivate them?” Hawk asked Dr. Greer. “Or even remove them?” he added, turning toward Duke.
Duke looks unnaturally still, heavily sedated and strapped to the medical bed his body was unmoving, not even his eyelids flickered.
“We’ve already deactivated them. After everything we’ve learned from the Baroness and her Nanomites that was fairly simple and straight forward. It’s removing them that will be more of a challenge,” Dr. Greer explained while she looked over Duke’s chart.
“But can you do it?” Hawk repeated his question.
“Maybe, his Nanomites level and control are much lower than those in the Baroness. Whatever method was used to infect him is not as quick or complete. That gives us a chance to flush them out, Sir,” The Doctor answered, “but if you’ll excuse me I need to get everything ready for the procedure.” She added, motioning toward the door.
“Yes, of course doctor, inform me once it’s done,” Hawk answered, leaving the doctor to her work.
***
“I told you Duke wasn’t a traitor,” Ripcord said smugly as he looked around the mess hall table at his fellow Joes.
“True but…” Breaker started but stopped when Ripcord narrowed his eyes at the North African.
“But at the same time it was Duke, his body if not his mind,” Scarlett went on when it became clear Breaker wasn’t going to.
“Yeah but he didn’t have control of that,” Ripcord countered.
“Which is why he’s not a traitor, just someone with a body that’s going to get an ass kicking in the next training session,” Stone said with a glint in his eye.
“Come on, you can’t hold what Lewis did against the guy,” Ripcord said trying to defend his friend.
“Watch me,” Stone shot back, “and I won’t be the only one,” the Sergeant added with a nod to Scarlett and Breaker.
“It really wasn’t his fault,” Ripcord went on only to stop when one of the General’s aids arrived at the table.
“Who does the General want?” Heavy Duty asked giving the aid a look over.
“All of you Sir, Duke is awake,” the aid answered.
The table went from full to empty in 5 seconds.
***
“How is he?” Heavy Duty asked General Hawk outside the medical room that currently held Duke, Ripcord and Scarlett.
“They got them out. Oh the docs want to keep him here for at least a week to make sure but it looks like they did it. He’s himself,” Hawk told his team leader.
“And Lewis and McCullen? He remembers where they went?” Heavy Duty followed up.
“He stashed him in one of our own safe houses. I’ve sent Bravo Team,” Hawk continued, talking over Heavy Duty when the other man tried to abject, “Your team has a higher priority right now.”
The two men and most of the rest of Alpha Team were waiting outside Duke’s room, watching; waiting for their time to see for themselves that one of their own was safe and back to normal.
*** Epilog: One month later***
“Lieutenant Miller?”
“Sir,” Lieutenant Miller said as he looked up from the weight machine he was using to straighten his legs and giving Duke a salute, “How can I help you?”
“How is your therapy going, they told me you’re expected to recover but the Doctors wouldn’t say much else,” Duke asked after he returned to salute and stood next to the wheelchair bound man.
“They’re not sure. I’ll never return to full duty but I might be able to stay in at least,” Miller said with a grin.
“Good, that’s good. I’m glad to hear…has anyone explained to you…told you what happened,” Duke asked slowly, shifted from foot to foot until he pulled himself to attention to stop his fidgeting.
“Yes, they told me a Joe had been compromised, controlled against his will but they wouldn’t say anymore. Not that they seem willing to explain how that could happens,” Miller added, finishing his workout and leaning back and downing some water.
Duke waited until the Lieutenant was done before he went on, “That’s true, the how is classified but he didn’t have a choice, he didn’t want to do any of it. Harm them, kill your men, or hurt you. It wasn’t his choice,” Duke tried to explain.
“Look, Sir, I respect the Joe’s enough to know they aren’t just telling me something to keep me quiet but you don’t need to defend this guy, clearly he was your friend but controlled or not he killed 37 of my men and it was only thanks to Sergeant Alexander that I’m not 38, so no, I don’t want to see him and I’m not going to forgive him if that is what this is leading up to,” Miller said, glaring at Duke, his voice and tone growing louder and angrier as he went on. “Sir,” he added, clearly an after thought.
“I…I understand. I should be going,” Duke said backing away, “I do hope you are able to stay in,” he said before turning to leave.
Once out of sight of Miller and everyone else Duke slammed his fist into a wall with a cures, “Damn you Rex, Damn you. You’re dead this time.”
***The End***
Word Count: 10,683
Challenge: smallfandombang Round 3
Rating: R
Genre: Action
Characters/Pairings: Duke, Rex, Ripcord the Joes
Summary: Duke’s doing things he doesn’t understand, Rex is loose and the Joe’s may have a traitor among them.
Author's Notes: So I’ve had this idea since I first watch the movie. I wrote a small bit of it then forgot about it for like three years. Then along came smallfandombang. I have as yet not seen the new movie so I have no idea how well this goes with that one.
***Prolog***
“Security Check: Section Seven.”
“Section Seven, you wake out there?” Lieutenant Miller asked again as he hit the radio again looking up from the report he was reading.
“Fitz, Michaels report,” Miller ordered again looking around the control room of the mountain prison.
The prison was one of the most advanced and secure prisons in the world, buried far below a mountain, and only known to a few. It held some of the most dangerous men and women in the world. And right now, something was wrong.
“I want a visual of Section Seven now,” Lieutenant Miller ordered as he brought up the security logs.
“Sir,” Sergeant Alexander called from his station looking up at the static filled plasma screen, “All the cameras are down.”
“Check the other station now,” Miller ordered as he hit the all call button, “Security Check: all Sections, report now!”
Lieutenant Miller was cut off by a rumble that sent a shudder through the whole room and sent alarms screaming.
“What was that?” yelled Lieutenant Miller as he pulled the key from his neck and unlocked the armory.
“Explosion in Section Seven, the only ones there are-“
“The Joe’s prisoners,” Lieutenant Miller said cutting Sergeant Alexander off, “We are not losing them!” he ordered as he pulled out one of the MM-1 semi-auto grenade launchers, “Send out an alert. Call the Joes’!”
“Already trying sir, call communications are down, not just internal but external too. I’m locking down all exits.”
“Lock it all down, I’ve got my key, slow them down,” Lieutenant Miller said giving his last order before cocking his gun and walking out the door.
“Sir,” he had made it two steps before he was stopped by Sergeant Alexander, “take this, Channel Three,” Alexander said throwing a radio to Lieutenant Miller, “I’ll keep calling to all points Sir.”
Lieutenant Miller gave his sergeant a nod before continuing down the hall. Using his override code he bypassed the blast doors making his way to Section Seven. Once there he found Fitz and Michaels, both dead from multiple wounds. The doors to the ward were forced open, charred and burnt.
Once inside Lieutenant Miller could see that both of the prisoners were gone. Their laser enforced steel prisons were breached by tunnels, the floors of both cells ruptured but whoever or whatever had done it was gone with two of the most dangerous men alive.
“Alexander, tell me you have sometime, some way of tracking them, the prisoners are gone and my men are dead,” Lieutenant Miller barked into the radio.
“Sir I’m getting some odd readings from the reactor I think they’re doing something.”
“They’re trying to cover their track. Lock down that room and activate nuclear protocols now,” Lieutenant Miller ordered as he took off running toward the reactor room. After the second blast door Lieutenant Miller no longer needed to override them as they had been forced open, something had punched through them.
He was half way to the reactor when he saw them, back tracking away from the reactor. Trying to leave. Lieutenant Miller pressed himself against the wall shielded behind the remains of one of the blast door, and took stock of the intruders.
There were three of them, two were the prisoners, and the third was in a large metal suit, his face covered, he had the lead and with that suit had to be the one forcing open the blast door but there they alone or did they have more support?
Hoping for the best Lieutenant Miller turned and leveled his gun at the armored form and fired a sabot round at near point blank range. It caught the metal man off guard and sent it crashing into the blast doors and wall behind him.
Lieutenant Miller only had time to recover from the massive recoil and bring his gun level before the metal man was back up and charging, he got off another round glancing off the metal shoulder before he had the gun ripped from has hands.
Miller’s life flashed before his eyes when with a tremendous sound the metal man went flying sideways, Miller turned to see Sergeant Alexander tossing a M-72 LAW anti-tank weapon aside before ducking, and Miller didn’t even have time to bring up his hands before the shockwave and fire of the explosion slammed into him.
Lieutenant Miller didn’t know if he was screaming in pain or if it was just the ringing in his ears but he was sure he was on fire until Alexander started patting him down. The feeling of the coarse shirt on his burns was excruciating, but it was not as bad as when Alexander suddenly started jerking him over one of the forced open blast doors and that was when his body had finally said enough was enough and he passed out. The last thing he saw was the metal man rising from the debris, pulling a metal shard out of its shoulder as it started marching toward them.
***
Duke bit down on the roll of napkins in his mouth again as he finished stitching up his upper arm before checking it in his bathroom mirror. The five stitches were almost perfectly in line. Duke let out a breath as he used the napkin to wipe away the extra blood before he pressed a patch over it and taped it in place.
Duke took a deep breath before turning on the water and letting it pool in his hand before splashing it on his face as he looked at himself in the mirror.
“What am I doing?”
***Chapter One***
“What’s wrong with you today man. You’re half asleep and is that really all you’re going to bench?” Ripcord asked as he strutted over to Duke who was at the incline bench, his fingers barely hanging from a bar with only a hundred pounds on it.
Duke let out a breath before looking over at Ripcord, “Don’t know, I’m just out of it today. Didn’t get much sleep last night,” he added as he rose from the beach.
“See if I didn’t know you were holding out for a certain Baroness I’d think you spent all night getting some. But that can’t be right….can it?” Ripcord trailed off suggestively as he eyed Duke, his own grin getting larger and larger the longer it took for Duke to respond.
Duke just shook his head and turned toward the door, “you never change.”
“You don’t mess with perfection man, you just don’t.”
“Yeah, guess not, I’m going to shower, later,” Duke said back as he made his way out of the gym and forward his quarter.
Ripcord just watched him leave, not sure why Duke wasn’t hitting the gym shower like normal.
“Aren’t the showers that way,” Scarlet asked Ripcord pointing to a door on the other side of the room.
“He’s just under the weather. Wants to really soak in his own shower. But if you want to join me in those shower I do believe they’re empty,” Ripcord suggested as he pulled Scarlet in for a kiss.
***
Duke was double checking his shirt making sure it covered the patch on his shoulder when the call came for Alpha team to report to Command and Control on the double.
Duke entered Command and Control moments before Ripcord and Scarlet but after Heavy Duty, Breaker and Snake Eyes who were standing at the central display with General Hawk. “Did we find another of Cobra’s bases?”
“No, something worse, someone broke Lewis and McCullen out. We need to find out who it was and get them back, fast,” General Hawk told his Alpha team.
“I thought this prison was secure, sir,” Heavy Duty asked looking at the footage.
“When was this taken?” Breaker asked as he took a closer look at the date.
“The prison break was almost 8 hours ago. This film is about 4 hours old. We were just notified,” Hawk said as he looked at the group.
“I thought they were improving communication,” Ripcord said shaking his head. “After what we went through to get them, how did they lose them?”
“I’d hold off on blaming them. They didn’t just give them up,” Scarlet said as she looked over the report. “They were hit hard, of the 35 men on site only two have been found alive and one of them may not make it…the reactor went critical. The whole base was destroyed. The 15 remaining prisoners are believed dead along with the rest of the guards. They were hit hard.”
“And we don’t know what kind of force did this,” Breaker said looking up from his computer pad. “None of the external system saw anything. And the internal system…well a nuclear blast isn’t very good for computers but we’ll see what I can do after they pull the main frame,” Break said as he popped his gum.
“We’ve had Cobra on the run ever since we took out the arctic base almost a year ago. How did they pull the resources together for this,” Ripcord asked as he looked at the central display.
“That’s what I want you, Snake-eyes and Scarlet are going to find out Ripcord,” General Hawk ordered. “Heavy Duty, Breaker, Duke I want you onsite, find out what happened. You will check in every 6 hours, clear.”
***
“So which one are we hitting first the prison or the hospital?” Duke asked as the group’s halo left from the U.S.S Flagg.
“We’re going to the hospital, the prison is still being decontaminated. One of the survivors is awake the other might be soon…if he wakes up at all,” Heavy Duty answered.
“How long will it take to get there? I know we’re close but how far away are we,” Duke asked looking down at the water as they flew over it.
“Less than an hour. The Flagg was right off the coast,” Breaker said looked up from his PDA. “It’s like they were taunting us.”
“No one knows were the Flagg is at any given moment,” Heavy Duty said, “We just happened to be close.”
Duke just looked back in at Heavy Duty before looking back at the water below them, “Yeah just happened to be close.”
The water flowed into a beach that became a green field that in turn gave way to a mountain forest with a small outcropping of buildings, one with a Helo pad. “Target at two o’clock.” Duke said as he shifted before standing.
“Then let’s find out what happened and get those Cobra rats back behind bars,” Heavy Duty said as he stood as well.
“We’re only going to be able to talk to Sergeant Alexander. He’s awake unlike Lieutenant Miller…” Breaker was saying as he read off his PDA pausing as he scrolled down. ”Miller is still in critical condition, stable but critical.”
“Then let’s find out that Sergeant Alexander has to say then,” Duke said.
***
“Nothing,” Scarlet said in frustration as she pushed the keyboard away from her.
“It’s only been a couple hours, if they weren’t good you would have found them before they hit babe,” Ripcord said as he walked over from his computer and toward Scarlet.
“Are you trying to flatter me?” the red head said as she leaned back and looked at Ripcord.
“Would I flatter you?” he asked as he started massaging Scarlet’s shoulders.
“If you know what’s good for you,” Scarlet said. “Okay, what am I missing.”
“You checked any know Cobra operative-“
“Yes.”
“And you’ve checked any one that came to the city-“
“Every plane, train, and car rental. Within five hundred miles, so far nothing. But it’ll be a few more hours before it’s done.”
“I guess I’m just one step behind you-“
“I wish I was only one step behind Cobra.”
“We’ll find them. We’ll have more to work with when the other’s get on site,” Ripcord said as he started compiling a list of all shipments into the three cities around the prison.
***
“The first notice we had that something was wrong was when no one responded to their Security Check, Sir,” Sergeant Alexander answered, trying to sit up straighter in his bed. His right arm was broken and he has cuts all over, the largest sliced across his left chest not far from his heart while another had almost taken a leg.
“Take it easy there, you pop any stitches and that nurse will kick us out of here, priority clearance or no priority clearance,” Heavy Duty said with a chuckle giving the older nurse a look, she was still glaring at then all, clearly upset that she hadn’t been able to stop them from interrupting her charges recovery.
“Yes sir,” the Sergeant responded as he let himself drop back down into the bed. “As I was saying that’s when we realized that all the internal cameras were down and then all communication, internal and external, also went down, all we had left were the independent hand held radios.” He explained.
“And that’s when the Lieutenant when out to investigate?” Heavy Duty asked the younger man, his arms crossed.
“Yes Sir. He radioed back from Section Seven that Lewis and McCullen had been freed and ordered all blast doors closed,” Sergeant Alexander went on, pausing to swallow some water with Breaker’s help. “Thanks,” he added uncomfortably, “that’s when I informed him about the reactor.”
“There wasn’t anything you could do, I looked at the raw data, no, not anything you could have done it must have been ripped apart,” Breaker explained, trying to reassure the wounded man.
“Yeah,” Alexander said in a whisper, clearing his throat before going on, “when I realized there was nothing I could do from the control room I headed out, I grabbed the biggest weapon I could find because anything that could get through the blast door had to be big…but I thought it would be a vehicle not a accelerator suit.”
“An accelerator suit! They had an accelerator suit?” Heavy Duty demanded to know, his voice booming in surprise at the information.
“The third person was in an accelerator suit, Sir. He took the anti-tank missile at near point blank range and got back up,” Sergeant Alexander confirmed, shuttering slightly at the memory.
“What if it wasn’t an accelerator suit but one of Cobra’s bio-suits. They look similar enough,” Duke said turning away from the window and speaking for the first time since they had entered the room.
Heavy Duty started to nod, conceding the point about the suits when Alexander refuted it. “With all due respect I’m better trained than that. I know the different between a Joe accelerator suit and a Cobra bio-suit,” he side heatedly pushing himself up straighter in the bed. “And it was one of yours,” he added glaring at Duke.
“I’m sorry about…I need some air,” Duke said after a tense beat before leaving the room.
Heavy Duty and Breaker exchanged looks before turning back to Alexander, “An anti-tank missile would only slow an accelerator suit down, how’d you get away with the Lieutenant,” Heavy Duty.
“I didn’t think we would, it was coming right at us until Lewis called out, he’d been hurt or trapped in the blast. After that we didn’t seem to matter to him, he went right past us,” Alexander finished softly.
“Good, we needed the intel,” Heavy Duty replied, “You did good,” he added with a pat on the man’s uninjured leg.
“Yes now do you know what path they took, in and out?” Breaker asked, bringing his computer toward Alexander with the blueprints of the mountain prison on the display.
***
“I want a full innovatory of all the accelerator suit we have, here and at all our back up locations,” General Hawk ordered the moment the video call with Heavy Duty ended scanning Command and Control until his eyes landed on Sergeant Stone, “I want eyes, physical eye, on every suit we have, and make it someone you trust. We just might have a traitor in our midst,” he added giving the room another look even as Sergeant Stone saluted and departed to initiate the checks.
***
“Nothing,” Scarlet all but yelled in frustration three minutes after her computer’s beeps had alerted her that the searches she’d be running where done. “Nothing at all! Again!”
“Nothing what?” Ripcord asked, looking up from the screen of Interpol notices he was trying to wade through to see Scarlet glaring at her computer.
“My transportation search, no hits, not a single known Cobra agent was anywhere near the area. Just nothing,” Scarlet ranted about her failure to find a lead.
“Then they weren’t there. Simple as that,” Ripcord said plainly with a shrug of his shoulders.
“But if they weren’t there when who busted into the prison?” Scarlet asked frowning at her lover.
“We’ve taken out so many of their guys; maybe they had to hire out?” Ripcord suggested, “It’d be new for them but, desperate time and all right Red,” he added.
“Don’t call me that,” Scarlet griped then paused, “they got help…” she whispered before turning back to her computer and typing fast, her smile growing.
“What? What did I say?” Ripcord asked confused by the rapid change in the Joe’s Intelligence Officer.
***
“Now this is some heavy duty destruction,” Heavy Duty said gruffly as he looked at the scene before the three Joes.
The explosion of the reactor had brought down half the mountain side and blown out blow out the other half scattering the surrounding area with rocks larger then any of them mixed in with mounds of earth and parts of trees and other debris. Filling the air was dust and concrete that had been powdered and was still falling, and covering everything with a thickening gray layer.
Among all of it were dozens of people, some working under tents, other digging and a few seeming to just be walking about, while others pulled stuff out of the remains out the mountain.
“If they’re able to find anything for you to work on I’ll be very impressed,” Duke said turning toward Breaker with a frown before looking back at the former prison.
“Well you won’t be impressed standing around here; let’s find someone in charge of this mad house,” Heavy Duty ordered before marching toward the largest of the tents, people scattering everything to kept out of his, and the other’s, path until they were at the white topped tent, “Whoever was in change, now answers to me, so who was in command?” Heavy Duty demanded to know as he crossed his arms, sweeping the collected men and women with his eyes.
“You can’t just barge in here. Just who do you think you-” A tall women in a formal skirt suit and heels rapidly walked toward the three yelling as she came. Until Duke started stepping toward her, he was stopped by Heavy Duty’s arm.
“I’m a Joe,” Heavy Duty answered as he looked down at the women before turning toward a handful of people around a table with a few bits of computer parts on it, “Show him what you have,” he ordered thumbing toward Breaker before looking back at the women, “What do you have on what did this?” he questioned before walking past her and to a large white board with writing all over it, “Someone walk me through what you have.”
Duke just smirked as he walked by the sputtering women to join Heavy Duty to listen to the review of what was known, which turned out to be almost nothing beyond the prison being attacked and Lewis and McCullen were broken out and the reactor blown..
Breaker, luckily, had better luck as within moments he was calling them over.
“It’s still intact; the data core is still intact and wasn’t wiped,” Breaker said happily as he grinned up from where he was working on a large chuck of metal and concrete that had clearly been blown from the mount, “It’s going to take hours to clean up and organize the raw data but it’s useable,” he added with a frown toward his own computer. “It’s just going to take time…a lot of time…”
“We don’t have that much time Breaker, every minute is another minute those two freaks can be starting trouble,” Heavy Duty reminded him.
“And I’m working, I’m working!” Breaker snapped back at the comment.
“Whoa, there,” Duke said cutting between them, “what if we took it back to the base, would it go faster if we take it there?” he asked pointing to the computer core.
At the question Breaker paused and looked over the computer core and its case of cement, “Maybe…I would have the Flagg’s mainframe to work with,” he mused aloud tapping at his computer.
“Moving this to the Flagg will be a bitch,” Heavy Duty said giving the core a studied look before feeling it and partly lifting it. “Grab that side,” he ordered Duke while he lifted one side.
“Yes, Sir,” Duke answered as he moved to the other side and grabbed it and lifting it as well, the two marching it toward the Helo that had dropped them off.
“Wait, slow down, Warn someone,” Breaker complained as he rushed to collect all his gear while keeping in range of the cords linking them with the computer core
“What you can’t just take that! Get back here!” the women in charge yelled as she tried to march after them and ranted while they got into the copter and took off toward the Flagg.
***Chapter 2***
“Why are you helping us? You made your choice,” Lewis demanded to know after watching Duke rip open his prison.
“I have to help you Rex. Now we need to move. Now,” Duke ordered as he pointed toward the hall with his accelerator suit covered arm.
“Release Destro as well Duke,” Lewis ordered, still looking at Duke suspiciously.
“I’m not freeing McCullen Rex. He can stay where he is,” Duke answered back starting to head to the remains of the doors.
“I have no intention of leaving here with just you. Open his cell,” Rex ordered once more.
“Rex, fine, if it will get you moving,” Duke complained as he ripped open Destro’s cell before once more turning toward the exit. “Now let’s go.”
“Now now, Duke, we shouldn’t rush,” Lewis said turning a different direction than Duke was trying to lead him, “I want to replay this place for it’s…hospitality. Will you be joining us?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at Duke.
“Rex,” Duke whispered, looking toward the exit then toward Rex and the corridor leading deeper into the mountain prison. But once Rex started moving, he followed.
“That’s a good Duke,” Lewis said, his smile clear in his eyes, “Yes very good Duke-Duke…DUKE
“Huh, what?” Duke said snapping awake, his eyes immediately looking around for a threat but finding they were still in the Helo crossing open water, nearing the Flagg. “Sir?” he asked Heavy Duty still looking around.
“We land in five,” Heavy Duty informed the other man with a raised eye brow.
“And really you should get more sleep at night. You look like you need it. You were out the minute we hit the water,” Breaker commented as he looked up from his tablet.
“Yeah, sure,” Duke answered back, still trying to shake the dream, memory, of the night before as he ignored Breaker rattle on about sleep related combat stats. He was still trying to shake it even after they’d landed and had taken the computer core to Breaker’s lab and made their reports to General Hawk. But he couldn’t.
“They truly thought they could defeat me. They will learn they can never stop Cobra,” Lewis declared as he worked on the reactor, setting it to becoming critical and destroy the base. “Tell me how many others have escaped the Joe’s attacks Duke,” he requested to know as he turned toward his former friend.
“I’m not telling you that. And I’m not helping you meet up with them and if you try I will stop you,” Duke told Rex bluntly.
“You’ve already sided with Cobra why-” Lewis started to question before he was cut off.
“I’m a Joe,” Duke yelled, slamming his fist into, and through, the reactor’s computer inches to the left of Rex’s head, “I’ll never join Cobra and don’t forget that, ever.”
“I see,” Lewis said, holding up a hand to stop McCullen from intervening when Duke threw his punch as he studied Duke for a long moment, he stopped only when the reactor’s computers beeped and started flashing warning on the other screens. “Well it’s done. This place will never hold me again,” Lewis added with a smear.
“Then let’s get out of here Rex, and get you somewhere safe,” Duke ordered as he turned toward the corridor leading out of the prison.
Lewis followed, eyeing the Joe as he did, “Yes…Safe, Safe.
“What?!” Duke said with a start, waking confused for the second time that day as he looked around his room, seeing Ripcord standing in the doorway only after the other man had cleared his throat.
“I said, is it safe to come in,” Ripcord repeated, entering the room regardless of the answer, “Rumor is you almost bit the head off one of the privates for trying to talk with you, even under the General’s order,” he commented before taking a seat at Duke’s desk while the other man remained on his bed, “what’s up?” he asked his best friend.
Duke didn’t answer at first, just let himself fall back against the pillow and stare at the ceiling before he couldn’t keep it in any longer, “Rex is out,” he said with a rush.
“Yeah, I had a feeling that was it,” Ripcord said nodding his head.
“What?” Duke asked sharply as he stared at his friend.
“After everything we went through and did to put him there and now he’s out. He’s not your responsibly anymore Duke,” Ripcord tried to tell his fellow Joe, “We did the best we could and we got him. And we’ll get him again but whatever he does, and whatever it takes, it isn’t on you Duke. Got it,” Ripcord added with a playful slug to his friends arm.
“Maybe, maybe not. If it wasn’t for me he wouldn’t even be Cobra Commander in the first place, or out and able to…” Duke stopped himself, running his hands over his face. “There’s just no good answer Rip, there just isn’t this time,” Duke answered, “I’ll see you at chow later,” he added.
Ripcord slowly put down the paperweight he’d been tossing between his hands, giving Duke another once over as he stood up knowing a dismissal when he heard one, “Yeah man, I hear it’s steaks tonight, how much you want to bet they’re either raw or burnt to a crisp?” he tried to joke only for it to be ignored. “Later,” he gave up, slipping out the door without Duke even glancing at him as he did so.
***
“Are you sure?” Sergeant Stone asked again as he spoke to his subordinate over his communicator, “All of them?”
“Yes, sir. All accelerator suits and all backup parts are accounted for. I personally laid eyes on and even handled every part to make sure Sir,” Sergeant Stone’s Pit II subordinate answered for the second time.
“Check again,” Sergeant Stone ordered again before terminating the call and looked around the Flagg’s storage room, “I want everything out, every box and bag is to be on the gym floor right this minute,” he ordered eyeing everyone that was hauling the Joe’s weapon gear from the room into the main gymnasium.
The gymnasium floor had been cleared by pushing all the weight equipment so the sides and rolling up the mats and it was how covered with boxes of ammo, accelerator suits- full and in parts- weapons ranging from swords to guns and any other tool any Joe might find themselves in need of on a mission.
“You have them all turned out, what did you find a spot of rust somewhere?” Ripcord joked when he poked his head through the doors into the gym to see Stone watching his men pour over the gear. But his smile fell when Stone didn’t even look his way at the joke. “What’s wrong with this ship, first Scarlet, then Duke and now you? Did all of you have the life sucked out of you?” he asked, walking up to stand next to the Sergeant.
“You shouldn’t be in here Sergeant. This room is under lockdown,” Stone finally said, turning to glare at Ripcord, his normal playful tone absent from his voice.
“I know I had to get Hawk to clear me. Scarlet needs that accelerator suit data for one of her search program and you’ve locked down the system so she can’t get it. She’s pissed its holding her up so be glad I was there to run interference,” Ripcord explained to the operations specialist.
“Everything about those suits is under lockdown and will stay that way until after I’ve given my report to the General. She’s just going to have to wait,” Stone said bluntly.
“What’s up with you? You’re usually way more cool than this?” Ripcord questioned pointing at the man in question. “I know it sucks to know one of your off sight bases got breached but it happens. You find out who slacked off and you let them have it.”
“It was me Ripcord,” Stone said turning on the dark skinned man, “I’m the one. It was one of my suits. It was taken right out from under my nose, MINE,” he barked as he pushed Ripcord away from him. “Someone is going to god damn pay. Now clear off,” he ordered with another shove, this one toward the guarded exit.
“Alright man, I’ll let Scarlett know it’s going to be a few hours,” Ripcord said holding up his hands as he forced himself to back away.
“I didn’t tell you to stop, get your asses back to work. I what to know exactly what’s gone right this minute,” Stone snapped at his men when some of them had stopped to watch the exchange between the two men.
They got back to work.
***
“Rex, are you okay?!” Duke said in a new panic as he pulled the debris created by Sergeant Alexander anti-tank rocket off of Rex.
“Get this off me then kill him, kill them all,” Lewis hissed as he helped shove a piece of wall off himself, “Kill him now,” he ordered again.
Duke pulled off the last of the large pieces of debris before turning to look back toward the two men who had trying to stop him. One looked mostly dead and the other was struggling to carry him out, neither had any effective weapons on them, “No,” he told Rex as he picked up the other man and started racing toward the exit with McCullen having to run to keep up.
Right past where the two other men were hiding
Duke turned over in his bed. That act was the one thing about the night before he didn’t regret. It was also the only act he understood, why he had acted the way he had the rest of the night? Why had he let Rex out. Why had he been doing the things he’d been doing? He just didn’t understand it. And why couldn’t he get any sleep.
***
“What do you mean his accelerator suit? Like his personal one? Does he even have one?” Scarlett asked and thought aloud after Ripcord had told her about his visit to Sergeant Stone.
“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Ripcord answered with a frown, “But someone on the-I just can’t believe it.”
“But if one of the Flagg’s suits was the one used…I’m going to add the Joe’s database to my search,” Scarlett said, turning back to her computer. “But why would one of our own…”
“Maybe they didn’t, maybe it was a full break in, maybe…hell maybe it was those damned nanos doing something. No Joe would ever help Cobra, right?” Ripcord repeated, sounding unsure.
“Only one way to find out,” Scarlett said in return, and with a last key stroke started a search to see if any Joe’s had been spotted around the Mountain Prison.
Ripcord slumped down into his chair, shaking his head.
***
“Well, what have you found?”
“Sir?! General, I’m-what?” Breaker said rapidly jerking up from his computer display to look at the General that had just entered his lab.
“I’ve requested reports twice and since I haven’t received any I have to believe it’s due to you finding something so important you put it before a direct order from your commanding officer,” General Hawk explained, coming around to look at Breaker’s screen.
“No-well yes, but-Look at this, Sir,” Breaker said at last as the tech expert brought up a window showing a single partial frame of a person in a powered suit, “It’s him,” Breaker said pointing to the figure.
“How? They reported all the cameras were down before anyone breached the facility?” Hawk inquired looking back at his technical expert.
“They did, this came from one of the external feeds just moments before the network was taken down by some kind of hacker tool. Still haven’t worked that out,” Breaker added with a grimace.
“But who is it,” Hawk asked, leaning closer to the screen, “can you make it any clearer, so we can tell who this traitor is?” he questioned.
“That’s what I’m working on right now, I’m limited by pixel count but if I can run it through my filters and smoothing packs I should be able to magnify the image and construct what the missing data should hold so to turn out a more complete picture,” Breaker answered with a grin, “by tomorrow this time we’ll have him, maybe even before.”
“I can’t say I know what you just said but don’t let that, or me, stop you. Get back to work,” Hawk said as he left the room, ordering a three person guard on the door at all times as he did.
***
“You should be safe here,” Duke told his former friend, looking over the basic furnished home to make sure everything was good.
Set back in the woods with a large sliding back door Duke had been able to sneak them in even with his accelerator suit on. The home itself was furnished with off the shelf IKEA products with only a handful of personally touches which only served to make those changes stand out even more.
“Of all the places…Cobra Commander in a G.I. Joe safe house, and one that is so…plain” Lewis sneered as he flicked his hand at the plastic flowers on the kitchen table.
“Plain is good Rex, plain will keep anyone from looking for you here. The Joe’s are the only ones who know about it and we don’t have any plans to use it. No one will think to look for you here,” Duke explained his reasoning while he started to remove his accelerator suit, “I’m going to stock the place with some fresh supplies then I need to get back to the Flagg Rex, and you need to stay here,” Duke ordered while rotating his hurt shoulder a few times.
“Stay here? You expect me to trade one jail for another. No Duke, that will not be happening,” Lewis told the larger man, “I think it’s time I retook command of Cobra and it will not just be Destro that aids me. You will be helping me do it as well Duke,” he went on, finishing with Duke’s name like it’s an insult.
“I already told you I’m not joining Cobra and I’m not helping you to-” Duke asserted again as he glared at the masked man.
“Yes you will. Do you even know why you’ve helped me tonight Duke? I know but I don’t think you do. I think you just felt you had to help me, free me. It’s been building for months now hasn’t it Duke,” Lewis said, growing more and more confidant with each word as Duke looked less and less sure of himself.
“Rex,” Duke warned, but his tone didn’t carry any of the threat it had carried before. No longer defiant it came out more pleading then not as he couldn’t help himself from glancing at McCullen. Standing tall and quiet he hadn’t done anything without Lewis’s orders.
“No, Duke. You will help me; you don’t have a choice,” Lewis said darkly as he smiled beneath his mask, “not anymore.”
Duke turned over and pulled his arms and legs tight into himself as he kept replaying the moment, and the moment that followed, in his head.
The moments his whole world and life changed.
***
“Are you telling me it was taken off this ship? That one of my hand selected men-” General Hawk cut himself off as he turned about, slamming his fist into one of the computer consoles with a curse. “Who?” The General demanded after he had pulled himself together enough to stare down his subordinate.
Sergeant Stone swallowed hard and straighten his already text book stance before responding, “I don’t know yet-” he began to answer, until he was cut off.
“God-damn-it Sergeant! How does someone take out an accelerator suit without it being logged and reported? Just how badly have you botched your job?” Hawk yelled thrusting himself into Sergeant Stone face, “Incredibly botched that’s how botched,” he added, yelling over the Sergeant’s attempt to respond. “How long,” Hawk asked, finally walking away from Stone.
“I have not been able to completely check the records but the first piece appears to have becoming missing two months ago, Sir," Stone answered, not moving his eyes as he gave his report.
“Piece? What do you mean piece?” Hawk asked suspiciously as he returned his glare toward Stone.
“The reason it was missed was because none of the suits were taken. It was replacement parts that were taken, We have no less then three spares of each part of the accelerator suit. Enough were taken to form a more or less full suit, Sir,” Sergeant Stone explained. “I’ve already seen to it that it can not happen again, Sir. Full inventory will confirm all spare parts better from now on General,” he finished.
“You’d better have Sergeant,” Hawk stated before asking more from his Sergeant, “What else was taken?”
“We’ve haven’t finished the rest-” Stone began until he was once more cut off.
“Find out, and I want to know who took them, now,” Hawk ordered, dismissing the man.
“Sir, Yes, Sir,” Sergeant Stone answered before pivoting and double timing it out the door.
***
Breaker was smiling as he hit the last few keys and watched as the image, already expanded to the size of the screen, became clearer and clearer with each passing moment.
Slowly the metal suit began to take on more and more details so that he could not only tell it was an accelerator suit but which model it was, Delta 5 with both Phase One and Phase Two parts.
But then after what seemed like hours the face itself only started to clear up, the chin, nose, and jaw, the whole face becoming more detailed and comprehensible. Making it plain just who it was, only it still didn’t make sense.
“Impossible,” Breaker whispered, leaning closer to the computer, hoping the image would somehow change.
***
“That’s it. Yes, yes, yes,” Scarlett cheered as her computer began to beep alert after alert.
“What’s that? What’s wrong?” Ripcord asked in concern as he watched images after image pop up on her screen.
“Nothings wrong, it’s something right,” Scarlett said with a smile, “I refined the search with the accelerator suit data from Stone. And found this,” she added, bring up one of the photos and pointing at the figure in it.
“Is that?” Ripcord asked looking from the photo to Scarlett and back again.
“That’s someone in one of our accelerator suits being spotted by a Key Bank security camera, our traitor isn’t as good as he thinks he is. And I am good,” Scarlett smirked as she started flipping through the photos.
“That’s a lot of photos, your good,” Ripcord said watching as his girlfriend poured through them, “A shitload of phone, there must be over a hundred…” his voice trailing off.
“Yes well…maybe I’m too good,” Scarlett admitted as she looked at each photo, working to clear up each image in turn. “This is going to take all night,” she said with a sigh.
“What can I do for help?” Ripcord asked, starting to massage the intelligence agent’s shoulders.
***
“It has to be a mistake,” General Hawk stated in disbelieve as he looked over the file Breaker had handed him, unable to look away from the photo of one of his Joe’s in a stolen accelerator suit just outside the mountain prison.
“I checked five different times. I ran it thought every filter and scan I have, it’s not fake, not as far are I can tell. It really is him,” Breaker answered, shacking his own head in disbelieve as well at the idea of his friend being a traitor.
“Then someone better then you created this fake, which is a very scary in itself,” Hawk commented as he handed the file back to Breaker.
“Maybe,” Breaker responded, his pride at his skilled being questioned and his desire to be wrong clearly at war on his face while he took the file, checking it again for anything he could have missed.
“General, a moment? Now,” Sergeant Stone requested, all but running into Command and Control, pushing past the two guards standing at the door.
“What? Let him in,” Hawk ordered the guards before turning his gaze on Sergeant Stone, “You had better have a very good reason for bursting in here Sergeant,” the General demanded to know.
“Sir, it’s about the missing equipment, I have a name,” Stone answered, flicking his eyes at Breaker before looking back at Hawk, “Privately?” he offered.
“No, Breaker is working on the same problem. And he could use the help of another lead, the one he had didn’t pan out,” Hawk stated, glaring at the file in Breaker’s hand which the tech had snapped shut, his pride beginning to win out on his face as the Moroccan all but slammed his file on the table between them. Hawk ignored it, “Who is it.” he ordered.
“With the records and video we have we were able to narrow down times when the items were taken and only one person not on my staff accessed the supply rooms within every window. And every single one of my men can be confirmed as on the Flagg during the hours of the Prison assault. The other person can not be Sir,” Stone explained first, reluctant to give the name.
“Fine so you’re sure you have the right man, now give me his name,” Hawk ordered bluntly, staring down Stone.
“It was Duke,” Stone blurted out,” Sir,” he added belatedly. “And I wouldn’t be telling you this if everything I had wasn’t pointing at him. I don’t believe it but…everything says it’s him, Sir,” he added regretfully.
“It seems I may just own you an apology after all Breaker,” Hawk, said slowly, reaching over and flipping opening the file, looking at the photo, “but why…Where’s Ripcord and Scarlett? I want to know what they have,” Hawk demanded, marching from the room with the others following.
***
Duke splashed himself with water again, trying to keep himself alert as he reached for the gauze on his shoulder, taking a deep breath before pulling it away. Slowly he peeled it back to expose his smooth and healed skin, “Damn.”
”What are you talking about Rex?” Duke demanded to know, taking a step back from the other man.
“The loyal Joe freeing the enemy, hiding him. Have you thought to ask yourself why yet Duke? Why you’re helping me?” Lewis questioned the Joe, smirking under his mask.
“Rex, I…you’re my friend,” Duke answered, but even to himself it sounded hollow.
“No Duke,” Lewis informed him, “If that was the truth you would never have put me in prison to begin with. No, that’s not it.”
“Then what?” Duke asked, once more his eyes glancing at McCullen.
“You already know,” Rex said laughing when he saw Duke looking at McCullen. “I’m not sure how but you’ve becoming infected with my nanites. But unlike the others you aren’t shielded from my influence. You will help me take down the Joe.”
“No,” Duke said, still fighting.
“Fight me for as long as you can, it will make your surrender all the sweeter,” Lewis answered, “Now return to your ship and bring me all the files on remaining Cobra bases you have,” he ordered.
“Rex…”
Duke just took a breath and looked himself in the eye as calm settled over him.
He knew what he had to do.
***
“And I’m telling you it can’t be him, something’s wrong,” Ripcord all but yelled at his lover.
The two were standing chest the chest in the center of Scarlett’s workspace, glaring at each other and clearly in the middle of a heated argument.
“You saw the images. I didn’t make them up Ripcord,” Scarlett snapped back jabbing her finger at her boyfriend’s chest.
“They’re wrong, Duke would never. They’re wrong, it’s a frame job. It has to be,” Ripcord shouted again, “He couldn’t have, not even for- Duke wouldn’t,” he finished, his conviction clear in his voice.
“Duke wouldn’t what Soldier?” Hawk requested to know as he marched into Scarlett’s office with Stone and Breaker flanking him, interrupting the quarrel between the other two.
“Just working through the information, Sir,” Scarlett answered promptly turning to face the General.
“Nothing, Sir. We haven’t had time to verify the information enough to report,” Ripcord added, starting before Scarlett had even finished, keeping her from adding anything else.
“Is that right Scarlett?” General Hawk asked, standing before the women, “You haven’t found anything, not even enough for a preliminary report?” he inquired directly.
“Sir, it-" Ripcord began.
“Very preliminary, Sir,” Scarlett said, cutting off Ripcord then pausing, her eyes darting over to her boyfriend before turning to Hawk and going on, “It would be very preliminary and not everything has been checked out. If I could have more time-“
“Before that let me make a couple of guesses about your report, Scarlett,” Hawk suggested, looking at Ripcord for the first time before returning his eyes to his information specialist.
“Yes, Sir,” Scarlett answered, not having any other choice while Ripcord reminded silent.
“You were able to find information implicating one of us. A Joe, but not just any Joe. No, a senior one, and a friend,” Hawk said slowly looking between the two, watching as both Ripcord and Scarlett started to fidget and react in their own ways. “You found out it was Duke,” he said almost finished, “Didn’t you.”
“Duke would never,” Ripcord started, only to be stopped by the General’s hand.
“Stone, Breaker, show them your files,” Hawk ordered, his regret clear in his tone.
The other two men presented their findings.
***
“And all this checks out,” Heavy Duty asked, closing the file he had been looking through from the moment he’s been handed it to look up at the others.
Almost all of the senior stuff had been gathered in one of the conferences rooms and handed the file with everything that had been collected about the traitor that had broken into the Mountain Prison, Duke.
The room filled with silence for a long moment until Ripcord finally spoke up, “It’s Duke, it can’t check out because it’s not him,” he started definitely.
At the statement Snake Eyes looked up from his copy of the file and toward Ripcord, he held up the file, his meaning clear.
“As much as Ripcord might wish otherwise yes it has been vetted, as best as can be, and everything has checked out,” General Hawk told them assembled group. “Everything we have points to it being Duke.”
“General,” Ripcord tried to interrupt.
“That isn’t the question we face right now,” Hawk kept going, silencing Ripcord with a glare. “No, we need to deal with what it means.”
“He knows our systems, has passwords into everything, even if we change the coding we’ll never know what he’s already taken. What Lewis may have already told him to plant in the systems? It’ll take months,” Breaker complained, frowning at the notes he’d been making, “months and months…”
“We won’t have a full innovatory of all the locations he’s been at for another two week; he spent at least two weeks at the main depot for training last year. Doing eyes on check of everything will take at least that long,” Sergeant Stone said stepping in with his own frown, glancing at his own notes, adding something.
“He knows our long range plans, for moving against Cobra. He knows all of our Intel on them. We all knew it was personal but I thought it was because he wanted to clean up Lewis and McCullen’s mess not help them,” Scarlett through in shaking her head. “We’re going to have to remap out our whole strategy for fighting them,” she added, brushing her red locks from her face.
“Those are all long term; I’m talking about right now. How do we deal with Duke right now? That is what we need to addresses,” Hawk said as looked at each one of them in turn.
“We can’t let him leave this ship. We can’t let him give anything else to Cobra and we have to find out why. And then I want to punch the bastard like he deserves,” Stone said angrily, pounding his fist into his other palm.
“That’s the last thing we should do,” Scarlett cut in, “we can feed false information to Cobra. As long as they don’t know we can use Duke against them,” he suggested.
“That would be a good plan, we should do that,” Breaker supported, already tapping away at something. “They won’t be able to trust anything he’s given them, yes.”
“Whoa, hold on, it’s not him. Duke would never knowing or willingly help Cobra. Why don’t you all get that?” Ripcord said for that seemed liked the millionth time that day. “He’s the one that helped take down M.A.R.S. to begin with, and he’s been with us every step of the way chasing down Cobra. And now you think he’s working for them? Passing information, freeing Lewis and McCullen. Does any of this sound like the Duke we know?” he added, glaring down the table.
***
“Sir, can I help you with anything?” the server room guard asked when Duke approached him.
“Yes, corporal, as a matter of fact there is,” Duke replied, standing close to the man.
“Anything, Sir.”
“You can not make a sound,” Duke said, slamming his fist into the other man’s solar plexus when slamming his head into the wall behind him. “Thank you corporal.” He added when the guard slumped into his arms, unconscious.
Duke then quickly punched in his code and entered the room, pulling the corporal after him.
***
The room was quiet for a few minutes after Ripcord’s rant as everyone looked at one another, until Breaker broke the silence.
“He may not be, willing I mean. Lewis is a master of nanites, and he did have Duke in his device…we only know what Duke told us about most of what happened when he was held at M.A.R.S.’s polar base. If he was already compromised…”
“Or infective afterwards. He has been leading the charge on most of our assaults,” Heavy Duty added to the conversation.
“Like the Baroness,” Ripcord said, nodding, “that could explain it. But then we need to help him, help him break free,” he demanded.
“We can’t know if he’s turned or being controlled, and we can’t know without him finding out we know,” Hawk asked, looking at Breaker who nodded, “then we take him, being able to send false information to Cobra is tempting but I won’t let one of our own be stripped of his free will by Cobra a minutes longer then he has to be. We lock him down and find out. Now,” the General ordered the room.
“He was in his room we can lock that from-” Ripcord begin until Breaker interrupted him.
“He’s in the main server room. I’m tracking his pass codes,” Breaker added holding up his computer at the puzzled looks he was getting.
“Then we don’t have any time to lose, get a move on Joes!” Hawk told them.
***
Duke pulled out the second server out of its casing. He had just completed transferring everything that the Joes had on Cobra onto the two drives and was ready to leave; giving the corporal shoved into the corner another look.
He knew he should do something so the corporal wouldn’t raise the alarm the moment he woke up but…Duke was unwilling to.
Slipping the servers into carrying cases Duke forced himself to walk past the corporal and out of the room, heading toward the flight deck.
***
“Duke’s already gone; Ripcord and Snake Eyes are searching for him. He’s taken out two of the servers, we don’t know what was on them yet,” Heavy Duty relayed to the General over his com while Breaker slide into a chair and started tapping away on the computer.
“What about the guard, he didn’t…” Hawk stopped, not saying the last words.
“The man on duty is alive, but he’s going to have one hell of a headache,” Heavy Duty informed the commander, watching as Scarlett and Stone were giving the corporal basic first aid, waiting for the medical team to arrive.
“All of Cobra data. That’s what he took,” Breaker cried out, spinning to face the Joe’s Field Commander, “He’s put it all on those servers and deleted the backups…how did he…he’s locked the servers down. I can’t access anything.”
“We can’t let Cobra have that information,” Scarlett stated urgently, “we have to get it back.”
“He has to be controlled by nanites. No way Duke was able to do this kind of coding. He doesn’t do computers,” Breaker explained as he typed rapidly.
“Keep working on it,” Heavy Duty ordered the computer tech before turning toward Scarlett and Stone, “Scarlett, help Ripcord and Snake Eyes, Stone you’re staying here with me, make sure he doesn’t double back,” he told them all before giving the red head another look just as a loud piercing alarm cut through the room, and the ship.
*Emergency protocols activated. Evacuate flight deck. All personal must evacuate the flight deck. Emergency protocols activated* the emergency system droned over and over.
“Well, am I the only one who thinks he’s heading to the flight deck? Get moving,” Heavy Duty reordered Scarlett over the computers endless loop.
***
“Duke, stop.
Ripcord’s voice seemed to carry even over the wind and other noises of the top deck of the U.S.S. Flagg making Duke pause and turn toward the other man for a moment before returning to his task of warming up one of the Joe’s helicopter.
“Duke, I know this isn’t you, just come out here and we can talk about this,” Ripcord yelled again, reaching the side of the helicopter about the same time Scarlett appeared on deck.
“I’m with Cobra now, we have nothing to talk about,” Duke stated flatly, never turning away from the control panel.
“Bullshit, Duke. And we both know it. I don’t know how he did it but this is Lewis, not you,” Ripcord yelled back, marching toward Duke.
Duke ignored Ripcord until the moment he reached the doorway and was about to enter the helicopter, within a blink he leveled his handgun at Ripcord, staring him in the eyes, “I don’t want to have to shoot you, back up and let me leave and no one has to get hurt,” he said, his voice changing from flat and toneless to almost pleading.
“I can’t do that Duke, and you know it,” Ripcord answered, moving neither closer nor farther away.
“You aren’t getting in this copter.”
“That was never the plan,” Ripcord answered back.
“What-“ Duke barely had time to form the word before he was being pulled from behind, and out of the helicopter, by Snake Eyes while Ripcord dived out of the way of the bullet that fired from Duke’s gun as the man was jerked back.
“You won’t stop me,” Duke as he and Snake Eyes fought. The ninja blocking almost all of Duke’s strikes but having a difficult time landing any non-lethal strikes of his own.
“We have to do something,” Scarlett shouted as she finished running across the deck to join the others.
“And get in the middle of that mess, I don’t think do,” Ripcord said back, his eyes trying to track it all as he held his dark gun at the ready. “And there is no way I’m getting a clear shot.”
“We have to do something,” Scarlett answered, trying to come up with a plan.
“Yes you can let me go,” Duke yelled, managing to land a kick, pushing Snake Eyes away enough to give him time to bring out his second side arm, “anyone moves and I fire.” He stated, the gun leveled at Ripcord.
Both Scarlett and Snake Eyes froze as Ripcord slowly brought up his hands, “No you won’t. You won’t shoot me. You’re not Cobra, Duke, you’re a Joe, it’s the nanite programming not you.”
“I shot at you less then five minutes ago, or did you forget that,” Duke reminded the dark skinned man, his hand starting to quiver slightly.
“No you didn’t. Your hand jerked on the trigger when you were yanked back, but you never choose to shoot at me and you won’t now,” Ripcord stated, taking a step forward.
“STOP,” Duke yelled in a near panic, “Don’t make me, just stop. I don’t want…”
“We know it’s the nanites that are making you do this. We know it’s not you. We can help you just like we’re helping Ana,” Scarlett told Duke finally taking her own step forward.
“Rip…” Duke whispered, his hand trembling as it lowered an inch.
“We’ll help you Duke,” Ripcord said, distracting Duke once more as Snake Eye’s chopped Duke on the back of the neck, knocking him out. “We’ve got you,” Ripcord added as he caught the falling Joe.
***
“Can you deactivate them?” Hawk asked Dr. Greer. “Or even remove them?” he added, turning toward Duke.
Duke looks unnaturally still, heavily sedated and strapped to the medical bed his body was unmoving, not even his eyelids flickered.
“We’ve already deactivated them. After everything we’ve learned from the Baroness and her Nanomites that was fairly simple and straight forward. It’s removing them that will be more of a challenge,” Dr. Greer explained while she looked over Duke’s chart.
“But can you do it?” Hawk repeated his question.
“Maybe, his Nanomites level and control are much lower than those in the Baroness. Whatever method was used to infect him is not as quick or complete. That gives us a chance to flush them out, Sir,” The Doctor answered, “but if you’ll excuse me I need to get everything ready for the procedure.” She added, motioning toward the door.
“Yes, of course doctor, inform me once it’s done,” Hawk answered, leaving the doctor to her work.
***
“I told you Duke wasn’t a traitor,” Ripcord said smugly as he looked around the mess hall table at his fellow Joes.
“True but…” Breaker started but stopped when Ripcord narrowed his eyes at the North African.
“But at the same time it was Duke, his body if not his mind,” Scarlett went on when it became clear Breaker wasn’t going to.
“Yeah but he didn’t have control of that,” Ripcord countered.
“Which is why he’s not a traitor, just someone with a body that’s going to get an ass kicking in the next training session,” Stone said with a glint in his eye.
“Come on, you can’t hold what Lewis did against the guy,” Ripcord said trying to defend his friend.
“Watch me,” Stone shot back, “and I won’t be the only one,” the Sergeant added with a nod to Scarlett and Breaker.
“It really wasn’t his fault,” Ripcord went on only to stop when one of the General’s aids arrived at the table.
“Who does the General want?” Heavy Duty asked giving the aid a look over.
“All of you Sir, Duke is awake,” the aid answered.
The table went from full to empty in 5 seconds.
***
“How is he?” Heavy Duty asked General Hawk outside the medical room that currently held Duke, Ripcord and Scarlett.
“They got them out. Oh the docs want to keep him here for at least a week to make sure but it looks like they did it. He’s himself,” Hawk told his team leader.
“And Lewis and McCullen? He remembers where they went?” Heavy Duty followed up.
“He stashed him in one of our own safe houses. I’ve sent Bravo Team,” Hawk continued, talking over Heavy Duty when the other man tried to abject, “Your team has a higher priority right now.”
The two men and most of the rest of Alpha Team were waiting outside Duke’s room, watching; waiting for their time to see for themselves that one of their own was safe and back to normal.
*** Epilog: One month later***
“Lieutenant Miller?”
“Sir,” Lieutenant Miller said as he looked up from the weight machine he was using to straighten his legs and giving Duke a salute, “How can I help you?”
“How is your therapy going, they told me you’re expected to recover but the Doctors wouldn’t say much else,” Duke asked after he returned to salute and stood next to the wheelchair bound man.
“They’re not sure. I’ll never return to full duty but I might be able to stay in at least,” Miller said with a grin.
“Good, that’s good. I’m glad to hear…has anyone explained to you…told you what happened,” Duke asked slowly, shifted from foot to foot until he pulled himself to attention to stop his fidgeting.
“Yes, they told me a Joe had been compromised, controlled against his will but they wouldn’t say anymore. Not that they seem willing to explain how that could happens,” Miller added, finishing his workout and leaning back and downing some water.
Duke waited until the Lieutenant was done before he went on, “That’s true, the how is classified but he didn’t have a choice, he didn’t want to do any of it. Harm them, kill your men, or hurt you. It wasn’t his choice,” Duke tried to explain.
“Look, Sir, I respect the Joe’s enough to know they aren’t just telling me something to keep me quiet but you don’t need to defend this guy, clearly he was your friend but controlled or not he killed 37 of my men and it was only thanks to Sergeant Alexander that I’m not 38, so no, I don’t want to see him and I’m not going to forgive him if that is what this is leading up to,” Miller said, glaring at Duke, his voice and tone growing louder and angrier as he went on. “Sir,” he added, clearly an after thought.
“I…I understand. I should be going,” Duke said backing away, “I do hope you are able to stay in,” he said before turning to leave.
Once out of sight of Miller and everyone else Duke slammed his fist into a wall with a cures, “Damn you Rex, Damn you. You’re dead this time.”
***The End***