G.I. Joe: Renegades facts for kids

A team of five soldiers—Duke, Ripcord, Tunnel Rat, Roadblock and Scarlett (with Snake Eyes helping from the shadows)—are sent to investigate Cobra Pharmaceuticals. They discover Cobra's new top secret weapon, Bio-Vipers, but are discovered and are forced to blow the facility to save themselves; though seemingly at the cost of Ripcord's life.

After surviving the Cobra Pharmaceuticals explosion, the team are framed for it and become known as the "Renegades" by the media. They then go after a surviving Bio-Viper that's heading to Springfield. While Baroness and Doctor Mindbender oversee the "quarantine," General Abernathy sends Flint to get Lady Jaye to help him bring in Duke's team.

Posing as a preacher that helps veterans, Scrap-Iron kidnaps Tunnel Rat and uses him to test a weaponized "exo-armor" suit for James McCullen and M.A.R.S. Industries. He meets Ralph Pulaski (a.k.a. Steeler) in another suit and they must battle each other to survive. Roadblock then attempts a rescue by allowing himself to be captured, but he is forced into an exo-suit as well. Now the rest of the Joes have to save him too.

The Joes make a pit stop in a small town in Kansas and quickly find themselves tangling with the Dreadnoks, their leader Zartan, and a cowardly local sheriff. Now they must race against time to help the locals free themselves from the biker gang's reign of terror, give the sheriff his courage back, put the whole gang behind bars, and get out of dodge before Flint arrives to arrest them.

The Baroness contacts mercenary, Major Bludd, to track down and assassinate a target—-a former Cobra employee turned internet blogger-—who they believed stole one of their data scanners, only to learn he's under the Joes' protection.

The Joes take refuge at Snake Eyes' dojo where they train with him and meet his first apprentice, Jinx. They also learn about his connection to Jinx's cousin Storm Shadow and their connected past to the Arashikage ninja clan.

Duke is wrongfully imprisoned when he gets caught up in a chop shop while looking for a replacement part for their vehicle. The rest of G.I. Joe must break him out of prison by having Roadblock get arrested. They soon discover that the prison warden is making prisoners fight each other for his amusement. Now the Joes must get Duke and Roadblock out and expose the illegal activities in the prison.

Adam DeCobray, head of Cobra Industries, hires James McCullen of M.A.R.S. Industries to work on a project to combine Dr. Mindbender's Bio-Vipers with his failed exo-armor suits. Meanwhile, the Joes infiltrate a Cobra stronghold after receiving information of DeCobray's plans from someone they thought was Breaker's masked whistleblower. During the attempt, Mindbender reveals a deadly secret, leading DeCobray to reveal himself as Cobra Commander. James McCullen becomes a "Destro" (estranged/alienated one) as he is forced to wear an iron mask as a symbol of his attempted betrayal and a mark of his servitude to Cobra.

When the town of Green Ridge is issues a court order to halt the construction of a dam built by Cobra Industries, Baroness and Doctor Mindbender send Firefly to burn this former resort town to the ground, leaving it up to G.I. Joe and a local firefighter to stop him.

Duke heads home to Missouri to protect his family from a Cobra attack while the Joes infiltrate Cobra's Christmas party in Washington D.C. to find Adam DeCobray. All the while, Duke's adolescent past with Flint during a high school football state championship game is revealed.

With the Joes in Flint's military custody, the Baroness tries to regain control of the hard drive holding Cobra's secrets from their military transport. The Joes' identities are compromised in the process, leading to them being called the "Springfield Four". After losing a battle with Snake Eyes atop a moving train, Storm Shadow approaches the Baroness to form an alliance with Cobra.

Disguising themselves as spiritual healers, Tomax and Xamot entrance most of the Joes and trap them in their cult-like commune called the Brothers of Light after they return Sister Leia, one of their disciples, to them. Meanwhile, Doctor Mindbender is seeking a psychic in order to learn the secrets to mind control, leading to him capturing the twins in order to use their psych abilities to adapt a control system enhancement for his Bio-Vipers.

Introducing Characters: Tomax and Xamot, Crimson Guard

Flint and Lady Jaye get Zartan out of prison to help them track down the Joes. Meanwhile, the Baroness tries to transport a camouflage suit—-technology that can duplicate anyone's appearance—-to Cobra Commander, but Zartan steals the suit and uses it to get revenge. The Joes and the Falcons, along with warrant officer/helicopter pilot William "Wild Bill" Hardy, must capture Zartan and retrieve the camo suit before it ends up in the hands of Cobra.

Dr. Mindbender creates prototype "Shadow-Vipers", synthetic doppelgangers controlled by Storm Shadow's mind, to track down the Joes, who have been spotted in Canada hiding out with Snow Job, Tunnel Rat's old army arctic trooper buddy. But Snow Job doesn't give the team the warm welcome in the cold weather they expected. Meanwhile, Snake Eyes rescues a timber wolf caught in a hunter's trap and winds up needing to be rescued himself.

A sea captain, Hector Delgado, helps the Joes transport a canister containing a prototype Techno-Viper taken from Cobra's lab in the arctic to Washington D.C. in the hopes of giving it to General Abernathy as evidence that would expose Cobra Industries' illegal activities and clear their names. But things go wrong aboard his ship, Courtney, along the journey when the Techno-Viper is freed.

Introducing Characters: Shipwreck, Cover Girl (in a poster as Courtney Kreiger), USS Flagg, Techno-Viper

Tracing the prototype Techno-Viper's signal following its defeat, the Joes end up in Scotland. While there, the Joes become trapped inside Destro’s castle during a recon mission investigating a Cobra weapon called the Bio-Dag, a missile that dispenses Bio-Vipers en-mass.

The Joes plan to crash a communications summit held by the Baroness at her family chateau, where they uncover a mind control scheme involving Cobra Industries' "Black Adder" cellphone; a device capable of taking control of their competition via cerebral manipulation using Doctor Mindbender's mind-control technology siphoned from Tomax and Xamot's psychic ability. However, the Joes soon discover that someone with an axe to grind against the Cisarovna family and their reign has also infiltrated the estate, and they're willing to do whatever it takes.

Introducing Characters: Red Star (of the Oktober Guard)

The Joes uncover a deadly virus called the Anaconda Strain (a mammalian virus engineered from reptile DNA) while searching for a missing biochemist in Mexico. They also learn of Cobra's plan to profit from the sale of its antidote once they've released it onto the unsuspecting populace.

The Joes raid a Cobra medical facility to search for "Patient X" (the originator of the Anaconda Strain) and any other information that would help them prevent an outbreak. They soon discover that Patient X is actually an amnesiac Rip Cord and help to regain his memory. Unbeknownst to them, he has been turned into a Bio-Viper/human hybrid by Doctor Mindbender and he wanted them to find him so he can track their movements now that their interference is out in the open.

Doctor Mindbender's attempt to create another human/Bio-Viper hybrid appears to be a failure at first until it ends up reassembling in the New York City sewer system. When Duke, Roadblock, and Ripcord go along with Tunnel Rat to his hometown of Brooklyn to find a missing child named Reggie, they encounter the Sewer Viper being pursued by Doctor Mindbender. When the mad scientist tries to reclaim Ripcord for Cobra, the Sewer Viper removes the control chip in his head, giving the Joe full control of his Bio-Viper form.

Flint hires Corporal Hershel Dalton (aka: Heavy Duty) to apprehend his estranged cousin Roadblock while he and the team are in his hometown of Biloxi, Mississippi for their grandpa's WWII memorial. Meanwhile, Major Bludd resurfaces and plans his revenge on the Joes for the eye injury he suffered in their last showdown.

After an experience with what appeared to be the ghost of her father, Professor Patrick O'Hara, Scarlett and the Joes go to her hometown of Atlanta, Georgia where she visits her vacant family home. She learns from footage recovered by Snake Eyes that her father invented the Molecular Assembler Scrambler Sender (a.k.a. the MASS Device) for Cobra Industries to use for teleporting troops into battle. Meanwhile, the Baroness commands the Bio-Vipers to attack the Joes when she learns that the stone in Scarlett's locket plays a part in Cobra Commander's plot to use the MASS Device.

Introducing Characters: Professor Patrick O'Hara (Scarlett's father)

As Scarlett's locket is in Baroness and Doctor Mindbender's possession, the Joes decide to take the fight to Cobra Industries by infiltrating their stronghold and stop them from finishing the MASS device. After a climatic fight, the Joes arrive in Washington D.C. in Destro's High Speed Sentry (a.k.a. HISS tank) and are surrounded by General Abernathy and the Falcons. Scarlett shows them the proof they need to clear their names. In the end, Cobra Industries' secrets are revealed and Cobra Commander declares war on the Joes.

Trivia #1: The original broadcast included a trailer segment showcasing the 1980s Sunbow cartoon version of Duke stating the Renegades reality was "just a dream", specifically separating the two interpretations. The other counterparts of the Renegades crew refute the Renegades reality, laughing at the description Real American Duke tells them.

Trivia #2: The H.I.S.S. tank from the old series was introduced along with Destro's signature outfit.