Here's my first submission. It's a G.I. Joe/CSI crossover that takes place after the events of the cartoon episode Cobrathon.
Standard disclaimers apply. I don't own the characters of G.I. Joe nor CSI, and I'm not making any money off of this, just having some fun.
Sin City
"So was the day off as terrible as you thought it would be?" Lady Jaye asked over the phone.
"No, it really wasn't" Flint answered as he looked around his hotel room. "I had a few things to get done in the morning, but then I took a trip out to the Hoover Dam. It was fun being a tourist for a few hours."
"Good for you. You need to give yourself a break more often. So, did your band of merry men stay out of trouble too?" She asked.
"As far as I know. I haven't heard anything, so no news is good news. I still don't understand Hawk's reasoning behind sending Shipwreck out here with Beachhead and Mainframe."
She laughed, "Hawk's not a stupid man. He wanted Shipwreck out of his hair. He thought this Cobrathon damage control mission would be a good way to keep Shipwreck entertained."
Flint grumbled at that. "I hate when he sticks me with babysitting duties. So anything exciting happen on base today?"
"Not really. I thought with Beachhead gone, we would catch a break with the PT sessions, but Sgt. Slaughter was more than happy to pick up the slack. The only other semi-exciting piece of news was that Roadblock cooked..."
The rest of her sentence was cut off by the call waiting on the cell phone. He looked at the caller ID. "Allie, hang on a sec. Beach is on the other line." He hit the flash button and was treated to a standard Beachhead tirade on the other end.
"And listen you sorry sons of bitches, this is not over by a long shot. As soon as we get out of here y'all are gonna have to deal with me."
"Hey, Beachhead. What's up?" Flint said into the phone.
Beachhead was in no mood for pleasantries, "Flint, we've got quite a situation here."
Flint sighed; he knew the day was too good to be true. "What's going on?"
"I don't want to discuss it over the phone, you better come down here."
"Alright, where are you at?"
"Police Station. Downtown."
Flint went silent. 'Shit!' He thought to himself and then wondered what the hell happened.
"Flint? Did you hear me?" Beachhead asked.
"Yeah, I heard you. I'll be right there. I take it this is not going to be a pleasant night after all."
Beachhead snorted, "You don't even know the half of it yet." He then hung up.
Flint forgot Lady Jaye was on the other line until his phone beeped. "Allie, it looks like I spoke too soon. Beachhead just called me from the police station."
She suppressed a laugh, "Who is it this time?"
"Don't know. He wants me to come down there to get the story. I'll call you back when I know more."
"Okay, do you want me to give a heads-up to Hawk or Duke?"
"No, not until I find out what happened." He then hung up on her and left for the police station.
Fifteen minutes later he had reached the station. Beachhead was waiting outside for him. He saw Lifeline, Mainframe, Dial-Tone and Sci-Fi standing in a group behind him. Lowlight was off by himself, smoking a cigarette under an obvious No Smoking sign. Beachhead walked over to him, "Shipwreck's locked up inside." He explained as he pointed his thumb to the station.
"I figured that out by process of elimination. What's the charge?"
"Murder." Beachhead replied.
Flint had prepared himself for many different possibilities, but this was not one of them. "Murder? Are you fucking kidding me?"
Beachhead glared at him, "Do I look like the type to pull a joke like this? I don't know any of the details. There's a Captain Brass in there who will only talk to Shipwreck's CO, and we all know that's you and not me." Beachhead said with bitterness.
Flint ignored Beachhead's jab. "Were they involved too?" Flint asked while gesturing towards the Joes who were all doing their best to avoid eye contact with him.
"They claim they weren't, although they said they were all at the same club together." Beachhead replied.
Flint nodded, "Okay, let's go inside and find out just what the hell happened." He then instructed the others to stay put until he got back.
A few minutes later they were in the office of Captain Brass. He was seated at his desk. Standing next to him was an older bearded man. "Good evening gentlemen. My name is Captain Brass and this man to my right is Gil Grissom, head of the CSI graveyard shift. So you're the sailor's Commanding Officer?" Brass directed his question towards Flint.
"Yes, sir. For this mission at least. There are two other higher-ups still at base, if they need to be contacted."
Brass nodded at that. "If this goes any further, they probably will be. For now, I'll tell you where we're at right now. At a little after 9 PM we got a call of a 419 in the alley behind Girls of Glitter Gulch, one of Vegas's more upscale entertainment clubs." He said the last part with dripping sarcasm. "We came upon the scene and found a deceased male and your boy passed out a few feet away from him. We determined that the vic had been stabbed several times, and the possible murder weapon was found next to our suspect. We brought him in for questioning, but he was extremely uncooperative. The only thing we were able to establish was that he was about three times over the legal limit." Flint dropped his head into his hands while Beachhead's glare intensified. Brass continued, "We threw him into the holding cell to wait for him to sober up. He hasn't been officially charged with anything yet, but for everyone's safety we're keeping him here until we can properly complete our evidence collection."
Flint looked up at Brass, "I've known Shipwreck for years, and he wouldn't have done this."
Brass shrugged, "You very well could be right. That's why I have Grissom and his team working on the case."
Grissom looked down at Flint, "We don't make any pre-conceived judgments here. We let the evidence tell the story."
Brass nodded "Once we learn that story we will call you. There's nothing else for you to do now. Leave me the numbers of where you are staying, and I will contact you."
Flint and Beachhead stood up. They thanked him for keeping them informed and the two left his office. Once out in the hallway, Beach turned to Flint and said, "Can I now remind you that I thought it was a bad idea to let these guys loose in this town?"
"Shut up Beachhead." Flint replied.
Once outside, they collected the others and returned to their hotel. The seven of them went into Flint's room. Everyone took a seat. Flint sat on the desk in his room and folded his arms across his chest. He then glared at the five of them for a moment before asking, "Will someone tell me what the fuck happened tonight?"
At first no one said anything. Low-Light got up and one again separated himself from the group. He proceeded to look out the window. Flint cleared his throat and the four still seated started speaking at the same time. Flint gave an exasperated look at Beachhead, who just shrugged and said, "Hey, you're the one in charge."
Flint stood up and ordered the four to be quiet, "This is obviously not going to work. Beach take Sci-Fi and Mainframe to your room and talk to them. I'll deal with these three."
Beach did as instructed and led the two out the door. Once the door was closed Flint said to the sniper "Low-Light, do you mind joining our discussion?" Low-Light shrugged and took a seat again. Flint knew he wasn't going to get much out of him so he turned his attention to Lifeline and Dial-Tone. "Now can the two of you string together a coherent story, or do I need to separate you further?"
They both said, "No, sir." Then Lifeline began speaking. "The day started out fine. Most everyone slept in, so we didn't even leave the hotel until close to lunchtime. We spent the afternoon just wandering the strip, going from casino to casino. We decided to have dinner at one of the Sports Bars. While there Shipwreck announced that it was time to do some serious drinking. He started buying rounds of drinks. The rest of us aren't exactly the biggest partiers, so we were lagging behind him. He then attached himself to another group that was more at his level. Which was fine for everyone, until Shipwreck's group announced they were going to go out looking for girls. We knew we had to stay with Ship, to make sure he stayed out of trouble, so we decided to go with them. It was still early, and we went to a few different places until Shipwreck and his new buds were satisfied with the entertainment level. After an hour there, we knew that Shipwreck was highly intoxicated. We tried to get him out of there, but you know how Shipwreck gets. We then decided that he would be all right. He was acting a little more obnoxious than usual, but the group he was with seemed to be taking it okay." Lifeline paused.
Flint stared at him, "Does this story get to the point any time soon? How did he end up in the alley next to a dead guy?"
Dial-Tone answered, "Well, sir, we're not totally sure."
Flint removed his beret and ran his hand through his hair. "And why is that?"
Lifeline shifted uncomfortably "We sort of got distracted."
Flint raised his eyebrows in a questioning look, "Distracted? By what? The entertainment?"
Dial-Tone answered, "No, sir. By the girls." Flint gave him another questioning look. "A bachelorette party came in. I don't know why they would come to a strip club, at least a female strip club, but they did. And they set their sights on us. Remember earlier when the girls came on to us during the mission? It was like that again. You had told us to find dates on our own time. Well, we took your advice." Flint looked disgusted. Before he could say anything, Dial-Tone continued, "Flint, listen. I'm not like you. I don't have someone like Lady Jaye waiting for me back home. In fact, I've never had someone like her, so when this group of hot girls came over to our table, I lost my head."
Flint looked at Lifeline who was nodding his head in agreement. "Guys, I understand. I know how easy it is to lose your head over a girl. However, I still don't understand how this ties into Shipwreck ending up in the alley."
Lifeline answered, "We stopped paying attention to him. We were busy with the girls, and after some time, Mainframe, I think, wondered what happened to Shipwreck. We noticed that he and his group were gone. We went outside and saw the police activity and found Shipwreck and the victim."
"Did you recognize the victim?" Flint asked.
Lifeline nodded, "Yes. It was one of the guys in his group."
Flint winced at that revelation. "Did you talk to the cops?"
Lifeline nodded again, "Yes. We told them that we knew Shipwreck; that we had all gone out together. We told them we had seen no sign of trouble, but had noticed our friend was missing so we came to look for him. We then admitted that we had also seen the victim in the club earlier in the evening; that he had been with another group of guys. They asked us if Shipwreck knew him, and we told him that he had just met him tonight. They stopped the questions and told us they had to take him in custody. That's when we called Beach-Head."
"So that's it? No one saw Shipwreck again?" Flint asked.
Lowlight finally spoke up, "I did, Sir. I saw him pass out in the alley. I couldn't take the club anymore so shortly after these guys found their friends, I left to take a walk. I saw Shipwreck come stumbling outside. He took a piss, and went to walk back in, but never made it back to the door. He collapsed in a heap. I walked over to make sure he was okay. I tried to get him to walk back to the hotel, but he kept fighting me. So I left him."
Flint looked incredulous, "You just left him passed out in the alley?"
Lowlight got angry "I've spent most of my life dealing with drunk assholes. When they get into the fighting stage, the best bet is to leave them be and let them sleep off the alcohol."
Flint frowned. "Tell me you at least stayed in the area and saw what happened."
Lowlight shook his head, "I finished my cigarette and took my walk. By the time I got back the police was there."
Flint smacked his forehead. Before he could comment there was a knock on the door and Beachhead had returned with the other two Joes. By the look on all of their faces, Beachhead was just as frustrated as Flint. "A group of top Joe agents are sitting in a club. Their only responsibility is to make sure none of their teammates get into trouble. And what happens? A gaggle of pussy comes walking in, and suddenly these guys can't see anything but visions of T and A in their heads. Un-fucking-believable."
Lifeline started to speak but Beachhead roughly told him to shut up. Flint overruled him and told him to speak his peace. "There's no way that Shipwreck could have murdered anybody. With as much as he had to drink, he was lucky to have the capacity to go to the bathroom by himself, never mind stab to death another human being."
Lowlight scoffed at that statement, "You'd be amazed at how coordinated a pissed off drunk can be."
"But Shipwreck wasn't pissed off at anyone. He was just having fun. Why would he want to attack anyone?" Mainframe asked.
Flint let out a yawn. "I don't know. And there's not much we can do now, so everyone go back to your rooms and get some sleep. I've got to call Hawk and tell him about this."
Two Hours Later – Las Vegas Police Station
Shipwreck was starting to come to. He felt like he had been hit by a truck. His head was pounding, and his stomach was lurching violently. Without opening his eyes, he sat up and promptly banged his head on something hard and metallic. The pain in his head increased tremendously and he let out a string of curses.
He heard someone whistle and a gravely female voice said, "Well, sailor boy, you're doing a good job of staying true to your stereotype."
He reluctantly opened his eyes. What he saw sobered him up a bit. He realized he was in a jail cell. He had banged his head on the bunk bed cot above him. He also noticed a young and relatively attractive brunette women smirking at him from the other side of the bars. "How did I end up here?" He asked.
"The usual way – via a police car." She replied. She then called down to the guard to unlock his cell door.
Shipwreck ignored her sarcasm, "But why am I here?"
She had entered his cell at that point. She put down the metal case she was carrying. She opened one section and removed a pair of latex gloves, "It's standard procedure to lock up all murder suspects."
"Murder?!? I didn't kill anybody!" Shipwreck shouted as he jumped off his cot. This time he caught the top of his shoulder blades against the edge of the top cot. He let off another set of colorful phrases.
The woman rolled her eyes. "Like I haven't heard that before." She watched him rub his shoulders, "However, in your case I'm starting to think you don't have the brains or the skills to pull off a murder. But like Grissom always says let the evidence do the talking. So, I'm going to need you to strip down and let me examine your clothes."
Despite the situation, Shipwreck grinned, "Shouldn't I at least get your name before I show you my goodies?"
She glared at him. "Sara Sidle, CSI. I should also inform you that if you feel more comfortable having a male officer perform the search, you are entitled to one." She said professionally.
He grinned even bigger, "No. I would definitely prefer it if you stripped me."
"NICK!" She yelled out as she turned towards the bars. Within moments a tall dark haired man appeared at the bars.
"Something wrong, Sara?" He asked.
"I think it would be better if you performed the evidence collection."
Nick's eyes narrowed at Shipwreck, "Did he threaten you?"
Sara shook her head. "It's not like that. I just refuse to add fuel to his demented fantasies." She turned towards Shipwreck, "This is Nick Stokes, my colleague. He'll take good care of you." Turning her attention back to Nick, "I'm heading back to the lab to work on the other items we collected. Come find me when you're done here."
Nick watched her leave and then turned towards Shipwreck with a glare. "Alright, Popeye it's time to drop trou."
Forty five minutes later Shipwreck was led into the interrogation room. He saw Sara and a man in a suit sitting at the table. "Hello, Mr. Delgado, I'm Captain Brass, and from what I hear you already know Ms. Sidle here." Shipwreck grinned at the title Ms. "If I were you, I'd wipe that grin off your face. You're in a boatload of trouble."
"But I didn't do anything!" Shipwreck emphasized again.
"Okay then, why don't you tell us your version of the events of last night?" Brass asked.
"Me and a few of my buds were hitting the town, letting off some steam. I found some other guys to hang out with and then we ended up at Glitter Gulch." Shipwreck frowned. "To tell you the truth, things start to get a little hazy after that."
Brass looked at Sara. "Well color me shocked. That would have nothing to do with your blood alcohol level being at .28 now does it?"
"Holy shit, was it really that high?" Shipwreck asked. He got another glare for an answer. "Like I said, my buds and I were blowing off some steam. The military life is hard on a guy. I just finished up saving this town from Cobra's clutches and thought I owed myself a few celebratory drinks."
"Well let me ask you this. How does a fun-loving guy like you end up in the alley behind the strip club passed out next to a dead guy? A guy who was apparently drinking with you just a few minutes before he ended up deceased."
Shipwreck rubbed at his beard. "I told you things got hazy. I vaguely remember going outside. I think I needed to cool down. I don't remember seeing anyone else out there. I must have passed out."
Brass looked at Sara again, "Do you have anything to ask?"
She shook her head, "Not right now. Maybe after Nick finishes going through his things."
"Okay, I think we're done here. Take him back to the cell." Brass said as he stood up.
"Wait!" Shipwreck cried out, "I still have to stay here? What about my teammates? Does anyone know I'm here?" His questions went unanswered as he was escorted back to his cell.
An hour later- Grissom's office.
"Well?" Grissom asked while keeping his eyes on the textbook he was reading.
Nick and Sara looked at each other. Nick motioned for Sara to speak first, "We got nothing useful out of the interview. The suspect has a vague recollection of the alley at best and claimed that he passed out without seeing anyone."
"Hmmm..." Grissom replied while continuing to read, "Nick what do you have?"
"Nothing that connects the suspect to the crime. He has no defensive wounds, or any cuts or bruises on his hands typically found in a knife attack. He did have blood spatter on the uniform, but the pattern suggests that he was lying down a few feet away when the murder was taking place. I'm starting to think that the suspect is telling the truth; that he was passed out at the time."
Grissom looked up at that statement, "So we have an eyewitness on the scene, however he was in a drunken coma at the time?"
Nick nodded, "That's what it's looking like Gris."
Grissom nodded too, "And that is why the evidence is always more critical than eyewitnesses. It looks like we're going to have to release our sailor. I'll call Brass."
Before he had a chance to make the phone call there was a knock on the door. Warrick Brown, another on Grissom's CSI team walked in holding a piece of paper. "I found a print on the knife found at the scene. It was a bit smudged, but I was able to get a hit off of CODUS. The print belongs to a certain individual by the name of Harry Nod."
Grissom looked at him blankly, "Do we know who that is?"
"Not by that name, no. But I did a little searching and discovered that he goes by another name. Ripper. He's also a member of the motorcycle gang/terrorist group known as the Dreadnoks." Warrick answered.
Grissom picked up the phone again, "I think its time to call those soldiers back in here."
Forty minutes later
Flint and Beachhead were back at Brass's desk. Grissom was once again standing next to him. This time Grissom started the conversation, "Does the name Harry Nod mean anything to you two?"
Flint and Beachhead looked at each other and at the same time replied, "Ripper."
Grissom nodded and gave a small smile. "Well, we found his print on the murder weapon. It looks like your man was telling the truth. The only thing he is guilty of is drinking himself into a near-coma. Brass has agreed to let him go. We were hoping that you would share some information about this Ripper character so we can work on tracking him down."
Flint shook his head. "I'm afraid that's not possible. I appreciate your efforts in clearing Shipwreck's name, but now that it looks like Cobra is involved the Joe team will take over. We'll find Ripper for you."
Grissom became agitated, "This case is still under the Las Vegas jurisdiction. He killed one of our citizens."
"Calm down Gil." Brass instructed, and Grissom obeyed. "I think it might be time to have that little chat with your Commanding Officer."
Shortly later Shipwreck was told he was allowed to go free. As he walked down the hall he saw Sara walking towards him. She was preoccupied with a folder and didn't see him coming. He called out her name and she gazed at him with a look of impatience. "Yes, Mr. Delgado? I'm really busy."
"I know you are, so I'll be quick. I just wanted to say thank you for finding the truth about me. I was wondering if I could pay you back by taking you to dinner."
"First off, I work the night shift, so my dinner time comes at about 4 AM. Secondly, I have a policy that I don't date murder suspects." She replied.
"But I'm not a murder suspect anymore. You cleared..." His words were drowned out by a booming voice down the hall.
"SHIPWRECK!!! You are already in shit up to your eyeballs, so I advise you to stop trying to get into her pants and get your ass over here right now!" Beachhead yelled.
"Charming." Sara replied. "Is your whole unit comprised of winners like the two of you?"
Shipwreck laughed. "Well, there's a sample over there. You can judge for yourself." He replied as he pointed out Mainframe, LowLight Sci-Fi, Life-Line and Dial-Tone who were decked out in their full uniform and gear.
"O-kay. I'm going to have to pass on your dinner invitation. I'm going to go now." She replied and continued the walk down the hall.
Shipwreck joined the others. Ignoring the murderous glare Beachhead was giving him, he grinned and said, "Hey guys! What's going on?"
Shipwreck could see Beachhead's face, or at least the part not hidden by his balaclava, reddening with anger. "What's going on, Shipwreck, is that we're waiting for Flint to finish up with the Captain. Then, Sci-Fi is going to escort you back to base where Duke and Hawk are eagerly awaiting your arrival. The rest of us are going to be here to finish up the Cobrathon clean-up and to assist the local police in the apprehension of Ripper who is apparently the real murderer."
Flint joined the group. He too glared at Shipwreck. "I take it you got caught up to speed on the plan now?" Shipwreck just nodded. Flint looked at his watch and suppressed a yawn. "Good, get the hell out of here, I'm letting Duke and Hawk deal with you. I've got about a half hour before my meeting with the mayor and the casino officials. Beachhead you head up the search for Ripper. Captain Brass pledged the support of the LVPD. I'll join you as soon as I can."
Beachhead nodded, "Yes, Flint. But Ripper could very well be long gone by now."
"I know. However, we are not leaving here until we find him or prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is elsewhere." Flint responded. "I promised Mr. Grissom that we would help close this case for him."
Beachhead replied, "Understood. Let's go men. We've wasted enough time as it is."