Josh Reynolds was scared.
He hated to admit that. Someone like him shouldn't be scared. He was a Power Ranger, for God's sake.
But lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling of his darkened quarters, thinking about the threat lurking off the California coast, how could he not be scared?
Even worse than being scared, he started questioning himself. Did he deserve to be a Power Rangers? Why had the Keepers of the Light chosen him? What made him so special? He was just a wide receiver for his high school football team, not even the best one on the roster. Oh sure, he loved action movies and adventure novels, enjoyed imagining himself as Bruce Willis in Die Hard or Han Solo from Star Wars or Dirk Pitt from Clive Cussler's novels. Heck, his first few missions with the Rangers unfolded like some action movie. The Kraan would land commandos or send some big ugly monster – they loved big ugly monsters – to some city on the West Coast to stir up trouble, and he, Niyati, Leslie, Randy and Swede would go kick their butts back into the Pacific. No sweat.
Then the war got serious.
The Kraan unleashed an organism that ate through two dams, resulting in massive floods that wiped out several communities. That same organism had almost been let loose on a nuclear power plant, but thankfully they stopped it.
Then the Kraan started setting off volcanoes. Up went Mount Rainier in Washington, taking Tacoma with it. Next it was Mount Spurr in Alaska. Good-bye Anchorage. Had the Rangers not intervened at the last minute, Kilauea would have blown its top.
Lots of people died. Lots more would have died had they not stopped the Kraan in Hawaii.
After that, being an action hero stopped being cool.
Josh let out a slow breath, tension squeezing his muscles. Any moment he expected the klaxons to blare throughout their headquarters, for them to strap into their giant battle robot, Paladin, and meet the Kraan in what would no doubt be the biggest battle of the war.
Nausea burned in his stomach. He hadn't thought much of the Kraan commandos they fought in Del Mar two weeks ago. Just another bunch of fish-faced bozos they beat down without much effort.
Then came the news from the Department of Homeland Security. One of the commandos talked during interrogation. They hadn't been a bunch of idiots who came ashore just to give the Power Rangers headaches. They'd been scouting the beaches between Los Angeles and San Diego for an invasion.
A big invasion.
Somewhere out there were five hundred Kraan dreadnaughts, a combination battleship and troop transport. Each dreadnaught could carry two thousand troops. That meant a grand total of one million Kraan warriors.
The invasion force also included lots of big ugly monsters.
The Kraan did like big ugly monsters.
"Get some rest," their leader Leslie Berenguer, Red Ranger, ordered a few hours ago. "I want you all fresh for when the Kraan land."
Rest. Yeah, right. How the hell could he rest with a million Kraan headed toward the U.S. with one goal in mind?
The extermination of mankind.
Josh groaned and sat up in bed. "Lights."
Athena, the HQ's computer system, activated the lights in his quarters. He got to his feet and trudged toward the door, catching his reflection in the mirror on his dresser. His brown hair was mussed. His round face sagged with worry. He quickly scanned his lean, athletic frame. Had he lost some weight? Probably. His appetite gone to hell since he learned of the Kraan invasion force.
He wandered down the dimly lit corridors until he came to the HQ's main lounge. He scanned the overstuffed chairs and sofas arranged in a circle. The place was deserted, except for . . .
His heart skipped a beat when he spotted the short, slender girl with long dark hair and light brown, regal features sitting on a sofa to his left. She didn't see him. Instead she stared at her folded hands resting on her lap.
He froze, a nervous quiver going through his stomach. Part of him felt stupid. How could he be nervous around her? She was his teammate. They'd fought side-by-side for the past year.
The girl raised her head and softly gasped in surprise. "Oh, Josh. I didn't even see you there."
"That's okay." He forced himself to head toward the coach where Niyati Mahamuni, the Yellow Ranger, sat. "You couldn't sleep either, huh?" He sat next to her, his heart speeding up.
Niyati shook her head. "I'm too wound up. I close my eyes and all I see are hordes of Kraan marching through San Diego and Los Angeles. All these powers we have, and I can't help but wonder, will it be enough?"
He'd had the same thought more times than he could count. Not that he could mention it to anyone. Especially Niyati.
Instead he shrugged. "Hey, we've beaten these guys before. We can do it again."
"Yeah, or die trying." Niyati frowned.
An image tortured his mind. Niyati laying in the shattered remains of Paladin, covered in blood, her body crushed and burned. He fought to suppress a shiver.
"Heh! That's the spirit." He tacked on a wry grin.
Niyati chuckled briefly. "Come on. A million Kraan poised to invade California. You can't tell me you're not at least a little worried."
Josh was about to respond with a, "No, I'm not worried." The words died on his tongue. At that moment, staring at her smooth, beautiful face, he couldn't bring himself to lie to her.
Yeah, like I can tell her the truth? He was a football player. Football players don't admit to being scared.
Niyati continued to gaze at him, her face tightening, as if demanding an answer.
"Okay," he said. "Well, yeah, I'm nervous. I mean, it's like last year, when we went to the state playoffs."
Niyati's shoulders sagged. She'd always considered sports a waste of time. But she closed her eyes, drew a breath, and refocused on him, as if deciding to humor his train of thought.
Josh continued. "Well, our team hadn't been to State for, like, four years, and the team we were going up against had linemen the size of tanks and a couple tall receivers who were speed demons. Actually, the thing I worried about most was making a mistake. Like, what if I run the wrong route on offense, or what if I let the receiver I'm covering beat me on defense. I was a lot more worried about letting my team down than I was about getting clobbered by some gorilla."
"Well, if you make a mistake on the football field, you might just lose a game. You can come back the next week and try again. Here, if we make a mistake . . . humanity could lose everything."
He emitted a heavy sigh. "I know. That's what has me worried the most."
Josh leaned back into the sofa. Seconds later, so did Niyati. She, too, sighed heavily. "It all seems so unreal. A year ago, my biggest worry was whether my GPA would be high enough to get into a great college, to land me a lot of scholarships. Then some cosmic entity shows up and, for some reason I still can't fathom, picks me to be a Power Ranger."
"Hey, don't short-change yourself. Your brains helped get us out of a bunch of scrapes. Me, if I can't blow it up, beat it up, or fix it with Duct Tape, I ain't much help."
Niyati softly chuckled. "Don't short-change yourself. You've been known to come up with a good idea or two."
He smiled at her. "Wow, praise from you. A year ago I wouldn't think that possible."
"Oh stop." She playfully slapped his arm. Her quick touch sent tingles through his chest.
"Just being honest," Josh told her. "Let's face it, a year ago you thought I was some brainless buffoon of a jock who needed an instruction manual to use a handkerchief."
She shot him a sympathetic smile. "True. I just assumed anyone who spent so much time chasing a ball and getting crushed by three or four big men couldn't have much intelligence. It was pretty judgmental, and unfair, of me. Sorry."
"That's okay. I used to think you were some stuck-up brainiac who looked down her nose at anyone who didn't have straight A's." He paused, glancing up at the ceiling. "Oh, wait a minute. You really are like that."
Niyati's jaw fell open. "Why you . . ." She slapped him on the biceps, hard. Josh just laughed it off. Moments later, Niyati added her laughter to his.
"You know," Josh spoke as he snickered. "If the Kraan weren't trying to kill us all, I'd have to thank them."
An astonished look fell over Niyati's face. "Are you serious?"
"Heck yeah. If they hadn't decided to crawl up from the bottom of the ocean and go to war with us, the Keepers of the Light never would have made us Power Rangers, and we never would have become friends."
"Yeah." Niyati chewed on her lip. "It's a shame it took something like this to make us see one another as an actual person and not a stereotype."
"I know, but if we weren't thrown into this craziness, if we were still just normal high school students, would we be friends?"
The corners of Niyati's mouth twisted. "The sad fact is, probably not. And it shouldn't be that way. It shouldn't take some ocean-dwelling race that wants to wipe out humankind to make two people realize they should be friends instead of clinging to stupid misconceptions about each other."
"I feel the same way, too, Niyati."
Her smile widened. Their gazes locked. Josh found it hard to breathe. My God, she was so beautiful. More than beautiful. Her Indian features made her . . . exotic.
He managed to draw a staggered breath. "I'm, uh, I'm really glad I got to know you, Niyati. You're . . . you're an awesome girl."
Niyati lowered her eyes. Did she just blush? He couldn't tell in the room's dim lighting.
She looked back up at him. "I'm glad I got to know you, too, Josh." She reached out, gently grasping his arm.
He swallowed, unable to take his eyes off that beautiful face. Voices whispered in the back of his mind, about the coming Kraan invasion, the battle that lay ahead. A million Kraan. What if this was one battle they couldn't win? What if . . .
He kept staring at Niyati, his heart thumping furiously.
He leaned forward.
Niyati didn't back away.
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.
The gap between them closed.
"Don't mind me."
Both Josh and Niyati jumped back from one another, their heads whipping in the direction of the voice.
A thin boy with pale skin, an eternally morose look and jet black hair shuffled into the lounge, a small laptop in his hand.
"Randy, so good to see you." Josh's voice dripped with sarcasm as he eyed Randy Powell, the Black Ranger.
"Couldn't sleep," he replied in his usual flat voice. "Figured I'd brush up on the specs of the Kraan's dreadnaughts. See if there might be any weak spots we overlooked." He perched himself on the armrest of the sofa Josh and Niyati sat on. "Niyati, take a look at this." Randy handed her his computer without so much as a please. "Maybe you can help out with these calculations. I'm trying to see how long a dreadnaught can sustain a single burst from their electrical weapons before they have to shut it off. That could give us an advantage when we fight them."
"Um, sure, Randy." Niyati turned to Josh with an apologetic look, then focused on Randy's computer.
Josh groaned to himself, his face scrunching in anger. He wished for something, anything, that he could throw at Goth Boy.
Another few seconds and me and Niyati . . . dammit!
He glared at Randy, but the boy's attention was focused on the computer screen.
Josh frowned. He didn't have it in him to stay mad at Randy for long. A year ago that wouldn't have been the case. A year ago, he wouldn't have anything to do with Randy. The guy had been self-absorbed, constantly complained how the world was against him, and that his parents couldn't understand him.
Then his parents, along with hundreds of other people, died on a cruise ship fifty miles off the coast of San Diego in one of the first attacks on mankind by the Kraan. Since then, Randy's focus switched from himself to doing everything possible to defeat the Kraan.
Josh sat quietly on the sofa, barely hearing Niyati and Randy and they discussed all sorts of mathematical equations that went completely over his head. Out the corner of his eye, he glanced at Niyati. So close. Could he try again once Randy went back to his quarters, or had the moment come and gone?
Please don't let that be the case.
"Wow. I didn't think I'd have company this late at night."
The three of them turned to find a stocky black boy enter the lounge. He wore a small pair of earphones connected to an iPod, and clutched a big plastic tub of Swedish Fish with his left arm.
"Well so much for Leslie wanting us to get some sleep," Josh said.
"Who can sleep wondering when the Kraan are going to invade?" David Upshaw, the Green Ranger, nibbled on the head of a Swedish Fish, his favorite candy, and the reason for his nickname "Swede."
Josh frowned. That was a bad sign. If Swede gobbled Swedish Fish with gusto, then all was right with the world. If he just nibbled on them, that meant he was nervous.
Swede sat on the armrest opposite from Randy, shaking his head. "I swear, I musta listened to the softest soft jazz numbers I've got in my iPod. Thought they might help me sleep."
"Looks like that idea didn't work," commented Josh.
Swede snorted. "I thought about playing my sax. Sometimes that helps me relax. But last time I did that here in the middle of the night, Leslie pitched a fit. That girl definitely has no appreciation for good music."
Josh chuckled to himself. Swede had been the first Power Ranger he really hit it off with. The guy had a friendly, easy-going personality, a wicked sense of humor, and could match Niyati in the brains department. But while he planned to go to college to study engineering, he considered the field, "kinda cool." His true passion lay with music, specifically jazz. Swede could play three instruments - saxophone, piano and trombone – had written some music of his own, and dreamed of starting his own jazz band. As for engineering, Swede once told him, "If my music career doesn't pan out, I can always go build rockets or something."
"Well," Niyati looked around at everyone, "since none of us can get to sleep, what do we do to kill time?"
Josh shrugged. "Movie?"
Swede shook his head. "That would probably wake up Leslie, and we all know how scary she can be when she's barely awake."
"True that." Josh nodded.
"I say we head to the Ops Center." Randy slid off the arm rest and stood. "Look over the specs for the Kraan's dreadnaughts and small arms. We need to be prepared when those scumbags land."
Josh had about four or five wisecracks for that suggestion. He refrained from using any of them. After what happened to Randy's parents, he took the business of fighting the Kraan very, very seriously.
"Um . . ." Niyati bobbed her head from side-to-side. "I guess the Ops Center isn't a bad idea. Randy's right. We should -"
"I thought I told you all to get some sleep."
The four of them turned to find a trim girl with short black hair, and clad in sweatpants and a Santa Maria High School Junior ROTC T-shirt, enter the lounge, looking rather perturbed.
"Um, sorry, Leslie." Swede's eyes flickered from Leslie to the floor. "I just couldn't fall asleep."
"Well you need to try." Leslie folded her arms. "The Pentagon expects the Kraan to land anytime, and I don't want us to be half-asleep when we're fighting them."
"With all due respect, Boss." Josh raised his hand. "How come you're not asleep?"
Niyati and Swede both suppressed their laughter, barely.
Leslie glared at him with her dark liquid eyes, then flashed the briefest of smiles. She had told him more than once that his sarcastic humor helped keep the team loose. On the flip side, she had pointed out on more than one occasion that, at times, his humor went too far.
"All right, Reynolds. You got me there." Leslie fell into the nearest chair. "Just a lot of stuff on my mind. What if we can't repel the Kraan? What do we do if they get too far inland? What if, God forbid, our HQ is compromised? What sort of new monsters or weapons will they throw at us?"
Josh shrugged and smiled. "Well, whatever happens, you'll get us through it. You always do."
Again, Leslie flashed him a grin. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"That goes for all of us, Leslie," Niyati told her.
"Uh-huh," Swede chimed in.
Randy gave a barely perceptible nod.
They weren't butt-kissing, Josh knew. They had every confidence in Leslie as a leader. She had proven herself tough, resourceful and able to think on her feet. If she did have a fault, it had to do with her father, a colonel stationed at nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base. Sometimes Leslie tried too hard to prove herself worthy of the Berenguer family's tradition of military service, especially since she made the mistake, at least in her father's eyes, of being born a girl. Josh found it hard to believe that sort of chauvinism still existed in the 21st Century.
"Thanks." Leslie nodded to them. "But this is a team effort here. That's the only way we're gonna beat those slimebuckets. If we -"
A piercing, nasally klaxon blared through the HQ.
Josh held his breath. His heart almost hammered through his chest.
Leslie shot to her feet, staring up at the ceiling. "Athena, status."
The computer's soothing, female voice filled the air. "We have received an alert from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Kraan invasion fleet has been detected moving toward the Southern California Coast. Projected target area, Oceanside. Estimated time of arrival, fifty-seven minutes."
TO BE CONTINUED