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the Baroness
Known Powers:
Equipment: High-Density Laser Rifle: her primary armament (though she's utilized a whole lot more ordinance in her day), this weapon can be used to lethal effect by Anastasia. Equipped with a scope for a +1 to hit, this weapon can inflict damage as would a +6 weapon with each blast. Padded Leather Armor: all of Anastasia's costumes have incorporated a modicum of protection from injury. While this originally just consisted of a body-molded, bullet-proof vest, this protection eventually expanded when Anastasia adopted a padded leather body suit while working in the field. This outfit is an enhancement to the protection that is provided by her bullet-proof vest. This thick, layered leather outfit, while rather skin-tight, nonetheless offers Anastasia +1 protection from attack, as long as said attack does not strike her in the head or chest; the latter has extra defense. Semi-Automatic Pistol: a back-up weapon should her laser rifle fail her, Anastasia also wields this gun in more... quiet situations, mostly where subtlety is paramount. She can fire this weapon to inflict damage per a +4 weapon with a single shot, +5 in a semi-automatic hail of lead.
Hindrances:
Skills: Boxing: in addition to all her other, considerable martial prowess, Anastasia is quite good where mixing it up hand-to-hand is concerned. When fighting unarmed, Anastasia may divide her pre-cardplay action score between two attacks, the last of which will occur as a contingent action. Disguise: while not in the same class as Zartan, Anastasia is nonetheless rather good at disguising her true appearance to confuse her enemies; and she lacks Zartan's 'easy out' holography, at that. With the appropriate gear, she can disguise herself as almost any female she wishes. Espionage: her personal specialty, Anastasia has become a master of shady dealings in her battle against the 'imperialist running-dogs' of America. She's highly proficient in surveillance, information gathering, and the planting of misinformation to confound her many foes. Marksmanship: a self-taught marksman, Anastasia has learned how to wield most any standard firearms to focus her rage against the machine, as it were. When wielding any standard, semi-automatic, or fully automatic rifles or pistols, or even her laser rifle, she may do so at a reduced difficulty level. Military: though not a member of any formal military, Anastasia has learned quasi-military techniques and received true military education from the likes of Cobra Commander and other less-than-scrupulous folks. This gives her a rather sound tactical mind, and lets her lead combatants into battle effectively. Piloting: over the years, Anastasia has demonstrated competence behind the 'stick' of aircraft, whether they be fixed-wing or V.T.O.L. planes like the Rattler or helicopters such as the F.A.N.G. When flying aircraft of any stripe, Anastasia may make aerial maneuvers at a reduced difficulty level.
Calling:
Costume: After her reconstructive surgery, Anastasia upgraded her outfit significantly. She donned black leather pants, a black leather, long sleeved shirt under a black, bullet-proof vest with a red Cobra emblem on the front, black leather boots and gloves, a black leather belt, and a black holster for her sidearm. Upon rejoining the Cobra organization, she adopted a new look. This one consists of blue leather pants, a blue leather, long-sleeved shirt under a blue, bullet-proof vest with a Cobra emblem on it, blue arm guards, black leather boots and gloves, and a black leather belt with a Cobra belt buckle. A few years later, though, Anastasia returned to her trademark black leather look. Her fourth costume includes padded black leather pants, and a padded black leather shirt, both with small armor plating and raised patterns in places. This outfit is complemented by black leather pants and black leather gloves. * Note: this uniform is one that Anastasia wore in the G.I. Joe comic book long before an actual action figure was made of her character.
Personality:
Real Name: the Baroness Anastasia DeCobray
Height: 5' 6"
Story: The man meant to only help these folk in a humanitarian fashion, you see, and reacted rather negatively when he found out that his contacts in Vietnam traded the items he sold them to buy weapons. In order to deal with this problem, his buyers simply killed him off. Immediately afterwards, an American G.I. busted into the now-dead Baron's warehouse, and shot these two men dead. Having journeyed to Vietnam with her brother, Eugen, the young girl walked in just in time to see that G.I. standing over all the dead bodies, gun smoking, and assumed he killed everybody present. Freaking out, Anastasia ran out before the truth could be determined. Mad with rage towards this soldier, not to mention the nation that created him, the young Baroness descended into a life of international terrorism, wanting nothing more than to destroy all that America represents. To this end, she eventually fell in with a charismatic shyster who was in command of an organization that he called Cobra. This group, originally based in America itself, was working to corrode the nation from within, and relied on the lazy and disenfranchised among the American workplace to do its bidding. A background in espionage that she'd picked up over the years allowed her to become the Cobra Commander's confidante, and she quickly learned many, many combat skills under his tutelage. Of course, her own ambition was nothing to be taken lightly, and Anastasia wanted Cobra for her own. When Cobra Commander eventually brought in the man known as Destro to be his field commander, Anastasia saw her opportunity to seize power. You see, she'd known (and loved) Destro since she met him on that fateful trip to Vietnam, and knew that she could rely on him to help her seize control. She was critically injured before she could make her move, however, for she fell victim to Cobra Commander's paranoia; once he learned that Anastasia knew Destro from before her time with his group, he (correctly) assumed that they would try to take power from him. That's why he hired Major Bludd. A mercenary and assassin by trade, Bludd was perfect for the Commander's needs, and he had no problem with the task of taking out Destro. However, he had bad timing, and made his move while Cobra was in the process of assaulting Washington D.C., and Anastasia 'made' him in time. Knowing that Bludd was going to kill Destro, Anastasia prevented Bludd from making his shot at the last second, though this caused her to be seriously burned in the process. Unconscious for weeks, Anastasia woke up in the Bern Institute for Reconstructive Surgery in Switzerland. She was rescued from the G.I. Joe team by Major Bludd during a Cobra assault on their headquarters, and having grown fond of her, Major Bludd decided to have her 'patched up' as best as he could. It took some time for her to recover from the process, but she was back on her feet in no time flat. After Bludd explained that the Commander put him up to killing Destro, Anastasia went along with his plan to ransom her back to the man for a whole lot of money. This plan failed, of course, but the Commander was captured by the G.I. Joe team in the process, thus giving her the opportunity she needed. Returning to Cobra headquarters, she assumed command of Cobra alongside both Destro and Major Bludd, but after the Commander was rescued from captivity by Storm Shadow, he displaced Anastasia's plans once more, and threw Bludd in one of his dungeons for quite a while. Anastasia sprung him, though, when she hatched a plan to kill the Commander - with his own son, Billy, as the trigger man! This plot failed as well, though, for when Destro figured out just who she had chosen to kill the Commander, he had to stop it; he couldn't tolerate patricide, after all. Once this blew over, Anastasia chose to keep her cool for a time, and did so for several years. During this time, Cobra Commander and Destro were apparently killed in another assault on the G.I. Joe headquarters, and Serpentor rose to power on Cobra Island - with her as his right hand 'man'. This state of affairs couldn't last, however. When an armored man claiming to be Cobra Commander returned to the island some time later, she chose to use this fool as her proxy, and verified that he was the real Commander (since she's the only Cobra operative that knows what he looked like) in order to be the power behind the throne, so to speak. Serpentor and this new Cobra Commander shared control of Cobra Island until the two blew up at each other, thus starting the Cobra Island Civil War. Anastasia sided with the fake Commander during this fight, and was captured as a result; she was Serpentor's 'trophy' until she was rescued by Destro. Having escaped death during his last fight after all, Destro was virtually reborn, and now had his own army, the Iron Grenadiers, at his beck and call. Within a year, Destro took command of Cobra as well, and put Anastasia in charge of Cobra's New York City operations at the Cobra Island Consulate. She was working with Zarana in this, though, and the two simply couldn't get along. They fought and schemed against each other constantly, a situation which came to a head when Anastasia set Zarana up to be captured by the G.I. Joe team while they tried to rescue Clutch and Rock 'n Roll. Immediately after this, she received a call from one Dr. Huntkinder, the Swiss plastic surgeon that repaired her own, burnt body several years back. He let her know that he was treating the one and only Snake-Eyes, in order to repair the man's damage face once and for all. This totally set Anastasia off. This was because she recognized the man not as the G.I. Joe team's bad-to-the-bone commando so much as the man she believed to be responsible for her brother's death way back when. As such, she rushed to Switzerland to exact her revenge on the Joe at long, long last. Though she managed to capture Snake-Eyes in Switzerland, Anastasia had to defeat considerable resistance on the part of his lady-friend, Scarlett, to do so. Having what she wanted, Anastasia simply shot Scarlett in the head to be done with her, and made off with Snake-Eyes. She had the so-called Paine brothers work him over within the Cobra Consulate for a time, but before she could finish the man off himself, Snake-Eyes escaped, and proceeded to tear the building apart. Before he could deal with Anastasia, though, his explosives pretty much demolished the place. Closing on her as the building collapsed, Snake-Eyes, Anastasia, and Storm Shadow (who arrived to rescue his friend) almost fell to their deaths as the consulate's tower toppled. While the Joes were saved by their own Tomahawk, Anastasia was pulled to safety by Destro at the last minute. In the process of doing so, he explained that it wasn't Snake-Eyes that killed her brother so much as his business partners; Snake-Eyes was just avenging the death of one of his comrades, who they had killed right before slaying her beloved Eugen. He knew this because he, too, was there. Anastasia had simply left moments before Destro and his father (since he was a teenager at the time) showed up to exonerate Snake-Eyes for the death of the Baron DeCobray. Realizing that her whole life of international terrorism was for naught, Anastasia no longer wanted to live. Destro saved her anyway, and the two then retired to his Scottish palace for quite some time. As Anastasia came to terms with her misspent life, she and Destro finally had real quality time to spend together, at least while Destro wasn't doing some job or another with his Iron Grenadiers. Time passed, and the two were dragged back into action again when the original Cobra Commander, having returned to retake Cobra for his own, decided to deal with the 'threat' that Destro posed once and for all. He put a contract on Destro's head, and thus placed Destro and Anastasia in considerable peril. After the Commander demolished Destro's Scotland palace, he captured Anastasia and used her as a bargaining chip for a time. When it became apparent that his hired assassins, the Night Creepers, couldn't take Destro out, he just brainwashed Anastasia with his diabolical Brain-Wave Scanner. He programmed Anastasia to maneuver Destro into a secondary Scanner that he'd placed in Destro's Trans-Carpathian palace a long, long time ago, in order to reduce him to a gibbering idiot. This plot failed as well, and after dealing with the Commander's many ninjas, the two retired from action again. This, too, could not last for long. After reviving Doctor Mindbender, Cobra Commander realized that the mad scientist had secreted mind control implants into both Destro and Zartan in the past, and decided to use them to revive his command structure. Since Zartan and his son, Billy, were guesting in Destro's palace, this was very easy. Once he took over these two, the Commander used them to capture Billy and Anastasia, and he used his Brain-Wave Scanner, vastly improved by the revived Mindbender, to totally rewire their personalities. So, once again, all of his old allies were helping him to achieve world domination. Anastasia served the Commander in this capacity until the group was dispersed by a heavy duty assault launched by conventional military forces. What Anastasia did after this time has yet to be revealed, but when the Commander revived his Cobra organization, she was quick to return. This implies that, though it is fated to eventually fail, the Commander's brainwashing is still at full strength. However, this hasn't prevented her from throwing in with Destro's illegitimate son when the villain took Cobra away from the Commander for a short time; she's still true to type, after all. Once the real Destro revived from the paralysis his son put him in, Anastasia returned to him, and even helped him to capture the child, Alexander, and his cohort, the Mistress Armada. She then took some time off with her beloved, though the Cobra Commander eventually came coming for Destro. After a brief scuffle between Destro's Iron Grenadiers and Cobra Commander's Neo-Vipers, the two came to an accord, and began to work together once more. Wanting to be with Destro despite her hatred for the Commander, Anastasia joined him in his return to international terrorism...! Extra Goodies:
Return to the 1984 Cobra main page! Other Cobra directories featuring a version of the Baroness:
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