Xamot Paoli
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Raised by the Unione Corse to be a peerless soldier, Xamot finds no joy in playing politics in the boardroom, and his heart years for the battlefields of Chad and Libya that he fought on in his youth, where success could be measured in destruction, not just profit. He is miserable growing the empire of Extensive Enterprises, and would rather be fighting alongside the Crimson Guard than selling their services.
Now, Xamot sees Cobra for what it is: slavery, and he wants no part of it. Trapped in the system, when he finally cuts loose, he has the potential to cause huge trouble for the organisation...
Fiction[edit | edit source]
Brothers in arms[edit | edit source]
The Paoli twins, Xamot and Tomax, were born on Corsica. According to Tomax's account, the twins' father died when they were toddlers, and their mother sold them to the Unione Corse — a highly secretive and deadly international organisation centred in Corsica — after she took up with another man, one who didn't want to raise somebody else's children. Heart to Heart Inseparable from a young age, the brothers were raised to be soldiers, businessmen and slave traders without peer, and came to believe that man could only be at peace when they answered to others. Lives Evil When they grew older, the twins had the man that had sent them away killed, and condemned their mother to a lifetime of poverty. Heart to Heart As young men, they fought in the Chadian-Libyan war as soldiers in the French Foreign Legion, under al-Gaddafi; there, they learned that victory in such conflicts comes from profiting, rather than destroying.
The twins went on to build Extensive Enterprises from the businesses of the Unione Corse's contraband network, selling the Crimson Guard as private security forces. As they grew in power and influence, they were approached by Cobra, opening them up to power on a scale they had never imagined. Lives Evil When the Croc Master disrupted Extensive Enterprises operations in the area around his home, Xamot was sent to recruit him into Cobra, though he would have rather seen him dead; his attitude and occupation, however, meant that Croc Master refused, though he ended up being brought into the Coil by Venomous Maximus. Green Dreams Shortly after Cobra first engaged with G.I. Joe, the Paoli twins met with Colonel Shtern to supply him with information on the unit; while there, they were introduced to Daina Janack, Nico Tchitcherine, and Peter Danko, three soldiers who Shtern intended to form part of his own answer to G.I. Joe. Oktober Guard, Part 2
As the heads of the Crimson Guard, Xamot and his brother were known to their underlings, who believed them to be a single man, as "Mr. X". When Lieutenant Skelton recruited the man known as Chuckles into Cobra, Xamot was there to welcome him after he was kidnapped by Cobra agents. Charmer "Mr. X" used Chuckles as a driver and bodyguard while in the Balkans.
Wanting to replace Skelton as their lieutenant, and to test Chuckles' worth as a replacement, the brothers set up an ambush attempt on the car the two were using; while Skelton was killed, Chuckles managed to survive and take out his attackers, resulting in his promotion. Xamot congratulated Chuckles, and had him attend an upper class dinner party that evening, accompanying Tomax. In the Grass
The next day, Xamot and Tomax were contacted by their adjunct Erika Le Tene; having slept with Chuckles, she had discovered through the vibrations of his skeletal resonance reciever that he was an undercover member of the United States special forces group G.I. Joe. From that point onwards, the brothers only provided Chuckles with misinformation about the nature and organization of Cobra. Eyes
After Chuckles was injured in an explosion while trying to retrieve Anatoly Naryshkin from a prisoner transport, Xamot asked him to suggest ways to solve the security leaks, but Chuckles pointed out that he had so little knowledge of the workings of Cobra that he couldn't possibly help in any way. Accepting this, Xamot arranged for him to be transferred to the Crimson Guard's headquarters in Dubai, along with Erika. When Jinx was discovered to be following Chuckles between countries, the brothers decided to play a sadistic game, forcing Chuckles to kill her to avoid breaking his cover, which he believed to still be intact. Oil
When "Mr. X" visited the Dubai headquarters, Chuckles took it as his opportunity to bring down Cobra, taking Xamot at gunpoint and forcing him to take him to the "commander". Xamot cautioned him that the consequences would be dire if the Joe went through with it, but the two entered the commander's office regardless... and there it was revealed that Tomax was, in fact, the "commander", the two brothers having been trading in and out of the position. When the undercover Joe detonated explosives that destroyed the Cobra refinery and the Crimson Guard's base, they revealed that they had known Chuckles' true allegiance all along, and that he had only destroyed the smallest fraction of Cobra that G.I. Joe already knew about. When the Joe activated the BATs that he had set to destroy the building, the twins went to evacuate; unable to shoot Tomax as his gun had been loaded with blanks, Chuckles settled for using it to give Xamot a scar to the face. Though injured, Xamot and his brother escaped with Erika to their rooftop helicopter while Semyon fought Chuckles. Eyes
Growing apart[edit | edit source]
The helicopter rushed Xamot to a hospital, where he was treated for his injuries; but in the aftermath of Chuckles' attack, he found his worldview shaken by the vulnerability he had been made to feel. Powerless and weak, he felt no connection to his brother as he recovered; and even after being released from hospital, he found himself gaining no satisfaction from the life that had once enriched him, seeking more and more time away from his brother. Finding no adventure in the constants of his life, Xamot came to wish for the years that he had spent as a soldier, rather than a businessman, and began to ignore his brother's summons. Eventually, he shaved his head as the ideologically driven youths of Corsica had, making him no longer a mirror of his twin. Lives Evil
Over the months that followed, Xamot's behavior became increasingly erratic. At a meeting of Cobra's command the next year, he arrived late, travelling separately to Tomax; when Erika Le Tene provided him with his itinerary for the meeting, he was more interested in flirting with her, to her disgust. Forked Tongue When Erika got out of her shower, he was — much to her discomfort — waiting there for her, to inform her that they, along with Tomax, had been summoned to answer to high command over the disaster of Chuckles. The meeting, with Crystal Ball, saw the inquisitor general conclude that Le Tene had not helped Chuckles in his sabotage of Cobra, but that she was weak and that it was up to the twins to decide what to do with her. As Erika left the meeting, Xamot gave her a gesture of approval. Scales During the next three days, Xamot reassured a worried Erika that Max and Crystal Ball weren't talking about her, explaining that Max was Crystal Ball's son. On the day of the final ceremonies, Erika was informed by Tomax that rather than attending them, she would accompany a Viper team to kill Chuckles as a "second chance"; however, before the team left, Xamot arrived to give her "alternative orders": a request to help him kill Crystal Ball, the Baroness, and Tomax. Erika refused, and fled the house through the building's sewers. Fangs Heart to Heart
After Chuckles was recovered by Cobra forces, having succumbed to his injuries, Xamot was there with Crystal Ball and Cobra Commander when he awoke. Cold-Blooded Some time later, in Section Twenty, Xamot and Tomax were involved in a debate over what should be done with the captured Chuckles; while Tomax was adamant that he be killed, Xamot believed that that was "no fun", pointing out that his extreme resilience and determination made him a potential asset, and that he would "keep them on their toes". Though Tomax was frustrated by his brother's contrarianism, the Commander broke up the argument, siding with keeping Chuckles alive; as he subsequently revealed to Chuckles, he wanted the Joe to join Cobra, offering him Xamot and Tomax to punish for their failures and the torments they had subjected him to; an offer that Chuckles accepted. Sidewinder
Going too far[edit | edit source]
Xamot's instability continued to be disruptive, not even bothering to attend Cobra's meetings any more in favor of dalliances with the base's female staff. Though Tomax begged his brother to stop his embarrassing, dangerous behavior, Xamot was unconcerned with the Commander's growing favoritism of Chuckles and didn't fear him, seeing the politics of Cobra as a game. Constrictor He brushed off Tomax's warnings, believing Cobra to still need them due to their control of the Crimson Guard; however, his behavior led him to be locked out of Cobra's fingerprint scanning system and excluded from their meetings, due to the organisation's growing distrust of him. Discovering this, he decided to attempt an elaborate scheme to kill the Commander and regain his position in Cobra.
Encountering Chuckles in Big Boa's dojo, Xamot taunted Chuckles over Jinx's deaths, provoking the ex-Joe into attacking him; though thrown out of the dojo by Boa, he managed to steal Chuckles' identity card during the fight. Confined to his quarters for the altercation, Xamot was visited by Tomax... who he knocked out, using a spare suit, wig and makeup to disguise himself as his brother. Xamot contacted the Section Twenty kitchens, notifying them to step up their timetable for high command's lunch, before using Chuckles' card to enter the armory and murder a team of Vipers within. Having the base's Vipers, including the Commander's security detail, lock down the facility to search for Chuckles, he then ordered one of the Crimson Guard lieutenants to start fires by the reactor core and north entrance in order to cause chaos and evacuate the base, as well as taking care of the poisoned, incapacitated Cobra high command.
Entering the Commander's office, he told the Cobra leader that Chuckles had betrayed Cobra, killed the Viper unit, and incapacitated the rest of high command by poisoning their lunch... or so he had set things up to seem, intending to kill Cobra Commander himself and frame Chuckles for it. But the Commander was unimpressed with Xamot's ruse, as he hadn't taken note of the fact that it was infeasible for Chuckles to have poisoned high command — he didn't eat with them, and had been with the Commander the whole time! The Commander ordered the ex-Joe, disguised in a Crimson Guard uniform, to kill Xamot... but Chuckles, having been biding his time, instead shot Cobra Commander through the head, killing him. Chuckles tried to shoot Xamot, too, but the gun had only been loaded with one bullet, and the Paoli brother was able to escape. Rattler
When Chuckles arrived at Section Twenty's nuclear submarine dock, Xamot was there waiting for him. Believing that he and Chuckles were brothers in spirit, Xamot thanked the Joe for freeing him from his "slavery" to Cobra, but Chuckles beat him into the ground, dismissing him as nothing but another enemy grunt. Xamot believed that Chuckles still needed him to operate the submarine, but Chuckles hadn't been planning to pilot it; instead, he used the sub's nuclear missiles to destroy the Section Twenty base, killing himself, Xamot, and countless Cobras. As high command's helicopter flew away from the base, Tomax screamed in horror at the realisation of his brother's death. King Cobra
External links[edit | edit source]
- Tomax and Xamot at the TFWiki
- Xamot at YoJoe.com
