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CHAPTER 10
This time, Duke didn't need to summon Beachhead, the Ranger stormed into his office shouting at the top of his lungs. By the time Duke worked out what had happened and had gone to look at the sticky office covered with a fine spray of what appeared to be perfectly good blueberry pie filling, Beachhead had almost wound down enough to keep his volume below a 'low roar' level.
Stormshadow was summoned via the intercom and showed up within minutes, leading to loud accusations from Beachhead about how he 'must have been close by' which proved his guilt, at least in the Ranger's eyes.
After listening to the wild accusations from Beachhead and the annoyed explanation from Duke, Stormshadow resolutely shook his head. "It was not me." Beachhead drew breath to yell but Stormshadow cut him off. "No, it was not! I wouldn't use a noisy explosive nor would I use perfectly good food, especially right after the chastisement from you, Duke. If I pulled some sort of juvenile prank like a cherry bomb in a pie right after you yelled at me over pranks, it would just be stupid. I'm not stupid."
Duke looked around the office for a second to give himself time to think. Stormshadow's argument made sense, but then ninja were slippery in every way. "Who else would..." He paused and thought about it a minute. Pranks on Beachhead were not unheard of in the Pitt. Especially pranks that involved pies, which Stormshadow might not have even heard of yet.
There was a soft clearing of a throat and he turned around to see Jinx standing only two feet behind him. "Holy! Jinx, stop sneaking up on me!"
"Sorry Duke, but I thought you should know, Clutch and Wetsuit came back to base earlier today with two pie boxes. I wouldn't think it was relevant or anything to report except for..." Her hand wave indicated the mess. "Thought you might want to know."
Duke frowned and headed for the lower levels that held most of the Joe bunkrooms. He ignored Shipwreck who tried to waylay him in a hallway with jokes and nervous smiles. A quick search of his room found nothing incriminating and Duke moved quickly to the room Wetsuit shared and found a half crumpled pair of pie boxes with the local bakery's name on them stuffed under the bunk.
Beachhead had followed him and grumbled under his breath. Wetsuit and Shipwreck were sent to Duke's office to wait for him to get there to yell at them. Beachhead was shouted at immediately about blaming his favorite villain instead of finding the evidence first.
A very grumpy Beachhead corralled a few greenshirts and sent them to clean his office while he took himself off to do other things. 'Other things' ended up consisting of yelling at even slightly errant greenshirts and patrolling around the entire base looking for anyone misbehaving or slacking or doing anything he might be able to squint and call misbehaving or slacking. He didn't find many to yell at. Most of the Pitt had already heard about the exploding pie and made themselves scarce.
By dinnertime, he was grunting in monosyllables to anyone who even tried to talk to him. Covergirl tried chatting and then punched him in the arm when she got the same treatment. "Hey you, I didn't blow up any pies so stop being a dickhead to me."
He puffed a breath out at her and pointed at meatloaf for the cook to dish up while they moved through the messhall line. "I ain't being a dickhead to you."
She snorted back at him. "Oh yeah? Well you must be practicing being undercover as a dickhead because you're sure acting like one." She peered carefully at the vegetable selection. "I hate squash and yams, isn't there.. oh. Great, yeah. Give me limas. That's way better." Her resignation was clear as she made a face at the limas.
Beachhead snorted at her but it sounded more amused than angry. "Limas is good for you. Put some meat on those skinny bones." He headed for the utensils and handed her a fork and knife before following her to a table.
"Yeah well, I'd prefer to have cupcakes to put weight on if I want to gain weight." She poked at her food.
"Cupcakes is empty calories." He stuffed loaded forkfuls of his food into his mouth.
"Mmm, delicious empty calories though." She glanced slyly at him then relented a little bit. "I won't mention that pie is probably empty calories too... since the incident today probably would make any mention of pie a 'bad thing'." Her innocent expression didn't stop Beachhead from scowling at her.
"For not mentioning it, you sure mentioned it a lot." He grumbled under his breath. "It could still have been him!" Before she could protest, he continued. "He could have stolen the pie, rigged it and left the boxes in their rooms to frame them!"
"Oh yes, and then he could have enlisted Jinx to cover for him by getting her to show up and say she saw them with the boxes and all that without anyone seeing anything except for Wetsuit carrying a pie like it was a live rabid cat all the way down to your office and Shipwreck snickering for half an hour until you got to your office? Yes, Wayne, you're right, your theory makes much more sense." She waited for him to grumble to himself. "You should just admit that this time it really wasn't Stormshadow."
"Fine. This time it probably wasn't Stormshadow." That was as far as he would relent. "But it still ain't impossible." Although the mechanic rolled her eyes, she gave up and turned the conversation to other things. Chatting about the motor she'd worked on all day bored her favorite Ranger but bored/Beachhead was not annoyed/Beachhead and that was an improvement.
They were just wandering slowly down to the rec rooms when a klaxon sounded. Beachhead twisted on his heel to take off at top speed for the situation room as announcements of the main team on duty to assemble topside began sounding throughout the base. Covergirl headed for the garages so she could either prep her own Wolverine or other vehicles if she wasn't one of the Joes selected for the mission.
Less than half an hour passed before the team of about thirty Joes with an equal number of greenshirts and support crew were loaded onto transports. Covergirl wrenched the chains securing her tank to the platform in the back of the plane and watched a squad of greenshirts in full battle gear trotting up to the jump seats.
"Got it tied down?" Clutch came by and tugged at one chain anyway. "Okay, get in a jumpseat and strap in." He continued down the line of vehicles on their platforms. They would go out with parachutes to land and be used on the battlefield. It was one of the most nerve wracking ways to deploy but it was efficient and fast which was best. Covergirl didn't like the drop but she had to admit to the thrill of gunning the Wolverine towards the enemy without them having any prior warning.
Beachhead passed by her seat. Even though he didn't spare even a glance towards her, his hand reached out to trail along her arm even as he yelled at Tunnelrat to secure the explosives properly in the heavy bins. "Mr Grenade don't belong in yer danged pocket on board the plane!" His hand lifted away and he was gone but she smiled a little to herself.
Looking up to the forward section, she spotted Stormshadow next to Stalker and couldn't help the little shiver of worry. This would be the first battle against Cobra since he'd joined and she felt like it would finally show which side he'd chosen. From the nervous glances from many other Joes, she wasn't the only one wondering about his loyalties. At least it wouldn't be long before he showed his true colors, one way or the other.
End chapter
Believe it or not, this is getting close to the end. Sorry I'm not really writing Joe anymore. Not really. But I hope you enjoy this.