Stalker
| F Rm 30 |
A Ex 20 |
S Ty 6 |
E Ex 20 |
R Gd 10 |
I Ex 20 |
P Ex 20 |
Res Gd 10 |
Pop Fe +2 |
| Health: Karma: |
76 50 |
Origin:
Like the rest of the GiJoe force (save for one or two exceptions), Lonzo is a normal human, albeit one with terrifying combat training and the ability to function well in virtually any environment. After all, that's his specialty.
Known Powers:
(none)
Equipment:
Backpack: Lonzo typically has one of these handy while on the job, in order to carry maps, flashlights, rations, spare clips, and other mission essentials. He'll most often store his vital, yet not directly combat related items here, unless he feels the need to access them immediately in a pinch.
Fragmentary Grenade: Lonzo always has one of these handy, should he need to blow something up in a jiffy. This explosive can detonate to inflict Remarkable (30) Edged Attack damage to everything and everyone within the area it is utilized, unless they are suitably shielded.
the Joe-Com: this is a new device given to all Joes since the group's reactivation. This high-tech wristband functions as an audio/video transceiver with various other goodies built in to help a soldier on the go, and is described in greater detail in its own equipment entry.
Knife: in all of his various roles and with each of his uniforms, Lonzo carried at least one blade - usually a small cutting instrument, but a few held more... menace. These blades, in Lonzo's hands, can be used to inflict Typical (6) Edged Attack damage per deadly strike, and are of Remarkable (30) m.s.
Laser Pistol: for a short time, Lonzo took to using a small, experimental laser pistol while on the job, possibly as a test for Flash or other Joe weapons developers. This weapon can be used to inflict Good (10) Armor Piercing Energy damage per blast, and can fire six shots before requiring a recharge.
M-19, .30 Cal. Machine Gun: this heavy duty machine gun is used by Lonzo when his ordinary firepower just isn't up to task. In battle, he can fire this device to inflict Excellent (20) Shooting damage in a semi-auto burst, Remarkable (30) if he uses it to produce a full auto spread.
Quirks:
(none)
Talents:
Aerial Combat: one facet of Lonzo's airman training has involved his acquiring the ability to effectively fight while in the air - preferably when flying some vehicle or another. When flying helicopters, hang gliders, parachutes, and even J.U.M.P. jets, Lonzo makes combat rolls at a +1 CS.
Demolitions: a recent addition to Lonzo's already impressive skill set is his newly-acquired explosive ordnance disposal (E.O.D.) training. Thanks to this handy talent, Lonzo can easily disarm most any explosive device he encounters in the field, and can even rig them up in a pinch!
First Aid: one of Lonzo's secondary military specialties involves his having the ability to patch troopers under his command back together if necessary. With his help, a wounded fellow will immediately cease any untoward endurance loss due to serious wounds, and is more likely to recover fully.
Guns: essential military training gives one the ability to use guns in combat, and Lonzo is no exception to this rule. As such, when holding any standard, semi-automatic or full auto rifle or handgun, Lonzo makes attacks with such as though his agility score were +1 CS in rank.
Languages / Arabic, French, English, Spanish, and Swahili: one of Lonzo's second military specialties is his role as an interpreter. In order to facilitate this, he has naturally been trained in the use of several languages wielded in the world's hot spots, and only lacks one from the Asian continent.
Martial Arts type B: in the event that he finds himself unarmed while on a mission, Lonzo can nonetheless defend himself - he could before his military life, and still can now. In unarmed melee, Lonzo makes attacks (such as punches, kicks, elbow-smashes, head-butts, etc...) at his fighting rank +1 CS.
Military / United States: having been in the military for over twenty years, Lonzo has this talent as a general matter of course. As such, he knows military protocols and procedures almost instinctually, and can readily lead a body of fighting men and women into conflict if necessary.
Pilot / Air: before he ever became a Joe, Lonzo was trained in the basics of how to operate any aircraft, though specifically in the use of a helicopter. If behind the stick of one of these vehicles, he can make any required agility or control FEAT rolls at +1 CS higher than would otherwise be the case.
Skill / Knives: as a ranger, it is imperative that Lonzo be able to take an opponent down silently, should that become necessary; advance recon missions are hairy that way. In melee, Lonzo can wield a knife of any variety as though his fighting rank were +1 CS higher than is listed.
Survival: another facet of Lonzo's ranger training is that he can scrounge up the food, water, and shelter required to survive in almost any climate. Having had specific training in arctic, jungle, and urban survival, he can get along just fine almost anywhere on earth - starting from scratch!
Contacts:
It goes without saying that, as one of the original Joes, Lonzo can rely on the GiJoe team (and the military in general) as a reliable contact. However, the man is exceptionally close to his pals Grunt, Snake-Eyes, Scarlett, and Rock 'n Roll, as these guys have simply gone through too much together.
They'd do pretty much anything to help each other should the need arise.
Costume:
Lonzo's ninth, Tiger Force uniform was similar to his third, save for the coloration. It includes orange trousers with a black 'tiger stripe' pattern, a black military leather jacket, blue gloves, black boots, black and blue belts and webbing, and a black beret with blue trim.
Personality:
Lonzo is one tough cookie, a product of the mean streets of Detroit and the 'Nam. However, he hasn't let this get him down, and has used his experiences to forge his mind and body into a deadly weapon in the service of his country, a weapon that is used time and again against the forces of Cobra.
While a quite personable guy when in the 'real world', Lonzo transforms while out in the field into a veritable fighting machine, his keen mind acting to determine what an enemy is up to before the enemy knows, and doing whatever it takes to get him and his guys home - to live and fight another day!
Real Name: Lonzo R. Wilkinson, Grade E-5 (later E-6, then E7, and finally E-8)
Occupation: GiJoe ranger
Legal Status: American citizen with a possible criminal record
Marital Status: married
Alias(es), if any: Ranger
Group Affiliation: GiJoe
Height: 6' 1"
Hair: black
Eyes: brown
Weight: 170 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: Lonzo usually wears a small, pencil-thin moustache, though occasionally he'll grow that out into a full goatee.
Story:
Lonzo grew up on the mean, dirty streets of Detroit, where he eventually rose to power as the warlord of a local gang. Lonzo was under the assumption that this was as far as he'd ever get in life, until two of his brothers were killed on the streets; seeing the horrible effect this had on his mother, Lonzo decided that he would leave his destructive life and do some good for a change.
As such, he enlisted in the Army, excelling in Basic and Advanced Infantry Training, and was then put through Intelligence school at Fort Holabird and the Language school in Monterey. Lonzo also picked up basic flight and first aid skills along the way, skills that would become absolutely vital to him during his first real assignment: Lonzo was shipped off to the 'Nam after all this schooling.
Not wanting his mother to think that he was in any real danger, Lonzo convinced her that he was, in fact, stationed in Germany, and thanks to the help of his cousin, he relayed mail to her from Army bases in that country, letters made up with the aid of his long range recon patrol buddies, Snake-Eyes, Tommy Arashikage (Storm Shadow), Wade Collins, Ramon Escobedo and Dick Saperstein.
This changed, though, after Lonzo and his pals ran afoul of an N.V.A. encampment while on patrol, and three of their number were cut down (though Wade eventually came back as one of the Fred series of Cobra's Crimson Guardsmen). While waiting for their extraction, further casualties arose when Snake-Eyes was shot down by enemy gunfire, and Lonzo made the difficult decision to leave him.
His best buddy, Tommy, didn't like this idea, though, and went after Snakes as he bled in the grass, and despite all probability, managed to bring him out of the firefight even though about twenty enemy soldiers were firing upon him - he just managed to dodge the bullets as though he knew where they were headed. After this, Lonzo's group was broke up, with Snake-Eyes heading home thanks to his injuries.
Lonzo never forgot that decision, though, and would feel guilty about it for the rest of his days. He had some means of making up for it, however, when Colonel Abernathy approached him to be the first member of the GiJoe team he was putting together. Knowing that Snake-Eyes had been tucked away in his mountain cabin after the death of his family, Lonzo recommended him for the team.
He figured the action would snap him out of his inner desolation. As such, he and Abernathy (later known by his code-name, Hawk) went and recruited the man back into the military, and the trio then went about assembling the Joe team proper. Once the team of thirteen (including Hawk himself) was ready, they went about their first mission - the rescue of one George Strawhacker!
The man had been captured by Islamic extremists, and the Joe team had a unique opportunity to rescue him and prove their worth to a skeptical Pentagon. An unfortunate accident almost scrubbed the mission, however, when the transport choppers carrying Lonzo's team crashed and burned, taking Snake-Eyes' face with it and seriously injuring Scarlett.
Though seriously wounded himself, Snake-Eyes continued the mission, and he, Rock 'n Roll, and Grunt met up with Lonzo as he surveilled the building where Strawhacker was being held. Upon making their move, the Joes found out that these 'Islamic extremists' were in fact Cobra agents, and set upon them hard core - of course, Lonzo himself got shot up in the conflagration.
Though severely undermanned, the group managed to rescue Strawhacker after all, thus giving the Joe team enough clout to go on in their mission over the years, primarily doing battle with the insidious terrorist organization / state known as Cobra. Lonzo led many of the early battles the Joe team waged against that outfit, and did so quite well - though not all of them went quite as planned.
He went on to serve with distinction on the Joe team for years, through the team's ups and downs, including the battles waged on Cobra Island and the Battle of Springfield. The worst mission he served on, however, found him getting locked up in a Eastern Bloc gulag for months, his mission failing utterly due to a lack of proper intelligence and interference from other government agencies.
He survived this, though, as well as all the other challenges that being a leader of the GiJoe team has to offer. However, times changed in the early nineties, and as such, the government decided that the Joe team was no longer necessary. To this end, they mothballed the whole operation and returned its operatives to regular service - those that didn't retire, that is.
Being an outdoorsman by heart, Lonzo simply took this as an opportunity to catch up on his hobbies (hiking, nature photography), and the break allowed him to set up a gang intervention unit in Detroit. Times changed again several years later when the Pentagon decided that, since the threat Cobra represented was growing in leaps and bounds with no opposition, they reactivated the Joe team anew.
Naturally, Lonzo was one of the very first Joes to return to the fold, and stayed with the team throughout both its second and third incarnations, directly facing down some of Cobra's most deadly operatives when it instigated World War III. Though those villains almost took over the entire world, they ultimately failed thanks to Lonzo and his fellows in the Gi Joe team, who were victorious at long last.
With Cobra Commander captured and his minions scattered to the four winds, the Gi Joe team stayed active to round up those who got away while at the same time they kept the whole planet in one piece while various governments rebuilt the infrastructures destroyed by Cobra's villainy. Once things are 'back to normal', Lonzo may stay on with the Joes to maintain world peace or return to his important work in Detroit.
It just depends on how tricky those Cobra hold-outs wind up being...
Extra Goodies:
Return to the Tiger Force main page!
Gi Joe directories featuring a version of Stalker:
| 1982 | 1989 | 1991 | 1993 | 1994 | 1997 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 |
| 2006 |
* Note: 2002 saw two versions of Stalker (Versions 7 and 8), as did 2004 (Versions 10 and 11).