Legal: I do not own Power Rangers or the associated names, characters, places etc. Anything not covered by the above rights should be considered purely the creation of the author.
Rating: T – There will be some adult themes.
It was a dark night in Harwood, and it was far later than any of them were ever used to being out. It was only by virtue of the fact it was now the summer break that Noah could be out so late without his parents really worrying. He had told them he was doing an experiment to document an astrological phenomenon. He didn't need to be too specific, as usual their eyes glazed over the second he mentioned something that sounded vaguely scientific and just told him it was fine and to call them when he got to his friends' place to let them know he was alright. He was currently on top of a tall apartment block, using its elevation for a better signal for his equipment.
Recent weeks had been difficult for him. He wasn't exactly one to concentrate on matters of the heart, but just like any guy, it wasn't like he didn't get feelings. He just wasn't usually ruled by them. When other guys had spent the last couple of years with their hormones over-ruling their brains, causing them to behave like a bunch of goats, head butting each other and prancing to attract the gaze of the girls, he just concentrated on his own thing, his science and his studies.
When he figured out Spider's plan, his only concern was to ensure Emma didn't get caught up in it. He had worked as quickly as possible to figure out where and how his main strike would go down, checking the plant's schematics to find out where he would have to place a bomb that was relatively weak in order to cause an explosion large enough to take out the whole complex. In the battle itself, he had Spider cornered. He knew it wouldn't take too much to take him down. Although he wasn't the most physical of guys, with his Ranger rig, he knew that Spider would be no match for him. However, in his last gambit, he had activated the bomb, forcing Noah to concentrate on that and let him go.
Then, in the moment he knew he couldn't stop the bomb, when he knew that the only thing he could do was to try and stop the blast from the device which he knew wasn't powerful enough to cause structural damage from rupturing the main tank.
He winced as he collected another piece of equipment. While his ribs were healing, they were still tender. It was only his Ranger rig that had saved him. He, more than the others, perhaps even more than Emma, was intent on finding out where Spider was. It was as much a distraction for him as anything else. Although it had been a couple of weeks, it still hurt more than his ribs when he thought about finally plucking up the courage to speak to Emma. He had bought a fake bouquet from the hospital gift shop, knowing she wouldn't appreciate a real one. He had spent a long time in his room rehearsing what he was going to say, and to pluck up the courage to finally tell her what she meant to him.
He took an unnaturally long time to walk from his hospital room to hers. The corridor seemed to go on forever, and he felt ill as he walked towards the room. As he finally got there, and rounded the corner, he was just in time to see her in Troy's arms. They were too busy kissing to even notice he was there. His heart sank in his chest, and he felt incredibly ill. He just walked away, leaving them to it.
Since then, he'd had the joy of sitting on the sidelines for the show. Everywhere he looked, Emma was hugging Troy...Troy was Kissing Emma...Troy was explaining to the others how lucky he was to have found Emma...Emma was talking about how amazing Troy was and how brave it was that he sacrificed himself to save her. He hated feeling this way, but it was all more than a little sickening, and he was starting to resent Troy for his actions. He felt like Troy had stolen the glory somewhat, throwing himself on Emma making it more obvious to her of his actions. Noah was the one who had the foresight to smother the bomb. He was the one that had REALLY saved them all, but Troy was the one she looked to with the admiration that should have been his. He was glad for any task to keep his mind off the happy couple.
Vrak's attack on the Juvenile Detention Centre had been somewhat of a bizarre move, one that had resulted in Gosei calling them in. They didn't know exactly what his objective was, but since there was logically no items there of any value to him, and just short of a dozen of the inmates had not been accounted for, they had to assume that there was some connection. Gia, despite being reprimanded for not answering her morpher while she was at the Brainfreeze, still insisted she needed to work there until Ernie was ready to return. Emma was a little edgy about the idea of Spider still being around, and Troy...well of COURSE Troy just had to jump on the opportunity to play the hero and protect her. Noah volunteered to patrol to search for the missing fugitives, along with Jake and Jordan.
As he checked up on his equipment, surveillance equipment of his own design, he hacked into the police transmissions once more to listen in for new reports. Although a few missing underage offenders were hardly the top of Gosei's list of priorities and not really what he normally wanted the Rangers to concentrate on, since they had gone missing with Vrak, he had insisted that finding them would eliminate the possibility that they were the reason Vrak had attacked. He was listening in for sightings, and more importantly, reports of petty crimes. Being on the run, they would have few means, and need to find food, shelter, possibly even transport if they planned to flee the city.
There weren't many left unaccounted for, only about half a dozen. In the panic, many of them had run just to get to safety, but they knew that staying away would only cause them more problems in the long run. Being so young most weren't exactly hardened criminals with the means to go on the run for good, and most of them knew their criminal records would be wiped clean when they turned 18. For most of them, it wasn't worth doing anything other than turning themselves in once the panic died down.
That still left a couple that were taking their chances. As Noah listened in, he heard jets, followed by a loud metallic clang as Jordan landed behind him.
"Caught another one." Jordan informed him.
"Did this one end up going to Juvie, or did he also end up in the ER?" Noah sighed. Jordan, for some reason none of them really understood, was taking this whole mission a little too personally. While he was getting better, he was the first to admit that many of his battles hadn't exactly been master classes in control. He had made his disdain of the inmates of the detention centre pretty clear already, when he wanted to go after Vrak instead of keeping the inmates safe during the attack. Now, two days into their mission to round up the missing inmates, he had just apparently caught his second inmate. While he had said that the guy resisted, Noah and Jake did express concern that when he ended up in hospital with two broken legs that Jordan's use of force was more than a little excessive. It was doubtful anything the kid could have done to Jordan would affect him.
"He's in the detention centre's clinic." Jordan said a little gruffly, almost like this was an acceptable compromise. Noah just shook his head. He didn't know what Jordan's problem was. It wasn't like these guys were Warstar, or Mutants...they weren't even Loogies. Despite what they may or may not have done, they were human, and certainly no match for a Ranger.
"Just...remember we are meant to be the good guys." Noah reminded him. "I'm sure our public image will be better if we return them in one piece."
"They'll live." Jordan replied. Just then, Jake arrived, clipping him across the back of the helmet, with a metallic ring.
"Hey!" Jordan snapped. "My helmet's metal, do you have ANY idea how loud that is in here?"
"Jeez, way to over-react." Jake answered sarcastically. "Dude, it was a joke."
Jordan just muttered something under his breath.
"So, I brought one more back." Jake told him, handing him a note with the name on it. "So, what does that leave us with?"
"By my count, that leaves three unaccounted for." Noah said, scoring the name off the list. "Reece Terrence, Quinton James and..."
His words tailing off told them all they needed to know. Spider was still unaccounted for. Of course, they knew that Noah wasn't really too worried about what happened to Spider, it was more that he didn't want him at large because Emma was worried about him coming back.
"Well, I doubt we're going to get much more done tonight, that's three AM." Jake remarked, de-morphing. "Even crooks need to sleep some time."
"I guess that's hard to argue with." Jordan said, sounding almost disappointed as he recalled his armour into himself. "Same time tomorrow?"
"I guess so." Jake yawned as Noah also de-morphed. Jake and Jordan started to head for the fire-escape. None of them actually lived here; they were just using the rooftop as a convenient location for Noah's surveillance outlook. Noah just started to shut down the equipment when they heard the roof access door rattling. They all looked at each other, uncertain as to what to do. None of them had ever seen anyone out here. It wasn't like there was much to see or do out there; it was another thing that made it an appealing spot to set up. They were unlikely to be disturbed.
Noah started to conceal some of his equipment, while Jordan and Jake got a head start down the fire-escape. He was just getting up to leave when there was a face right in his. There was a shriek, and both of them jumped back in fright, falling onto the roof. Noah scrambled to his feet, and was about to go, when he saw the other person struggling a little.
It was a young girl by the looks of things, quite skinny in build and very pale, with long dark hair. She was wearing a green sweater and white jeans...well...they HAD been white until she fell onto the dirty roof, and a pair of white trainers. Seeing a pair of glasses nearby, he realised she had to be looking for them. All things considered, his eyesight wasn't really that bad, but he still needed them for reading and finer details. Obviously this girl really needed hers.
Picking them up, he took her wrist in his hand, and pressed the glasses into her palm, allowing her to take them.
"Here." He said quietly, allowing her to accept them. She sat up, putting her glasses on her face, and blinking a few times to focus. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm..." She started to say, before looking up at him. It was then that he recognised that she was one of the girls at his school. She took his hand as he helped her up. "I'm...I'm fine."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you." He told her. "Um...I'm just..."
"Noah, what are you doing here?" She asked. Crap! He had been made. It was bad enough that he recognised her as...someone...from his school. He wasn't too good with names, he only really hung out with the guys, but he had a practically eidetic memory when it came to faces, he could always remember who a person was and how he knew them whenever he saw them, even if he didn't remember their name. He could remember seeing her around.
"I...um..." It was a good question really. He didn't live here. He didn't live anywhere near this building. He couldn't think of a reasonable excuse as she stared at him. She looked past him and saw his equipment and smiled. "You're here for the meteor shower aren't you?"
Noah took a second to think about what she was talking about, before finally realising what she meant. There WAS a meteor shower due that night, that was the excuse he had been using to his parents for all his late nights. It was fortunate that among all the computer equipment he had set up, there was an electronic telescope. He was planning to use it in case there were any sightings reported of the fugitives near enough to the building, but it functioned well now as a reasonable explanation for why he was on the roof of a building he had no business being on at this time of night.
"Uh...yeah, that's right." Noah answered. "I heard it's going to be quite a show. I figured no one would notice if I used this rooftop."
"Probably no one would have." She assured him, bending down and picking up what Noah noticed to be another telescope. "There aren't too many astronomy geeks in this block."
"So...you're not going to call the cops?" Noah asked her. She just looked at him thoughtfully. Technically he was trespassing; he had no reason to be up here. She considered it for a moment.
"Give me a look through that rig and I'll think about it." She said as she handed him her telescope. "It looks like you have a much better set-up."
Noah took the telescope, and heard a distinctive jingle. He sighed, realising some of the lenses had to have broken. Now he felt really lousy. The least he could do is not ruin her night by denying her the chance to see the meteor shower.
"It sounds like some of the lenses are cracked." He informed her, reaching for a small case. "I think I have some spares that'll do the trick."
"Noah, that..." She started to say, but he held up a hand.
"You don't call the cops, and a turn on my set-up and a couple of lenses is a small price to pay." He assured her, taking out a small screwdriver and getting to work. She smiled.
"Thank you." She replied.
"Hey, it's my fault it's broken anyway." He reminded her. "If I wasn't here, you wouldn't have dropped it."
"But then causality isn't always that clear-cut." She stated. "If you weren't here, and I hadn't fallen here, I might have accidentally stepped on that discarded bottle and fallen off the roof to my death, so you might have saved my life."
Noah grinned as he heard her say that. There weren't that many people who were interested enough in the principles of causalities to enter into a discussion like this, certainly not many his age.
"You beat me in the science fair in sophomore year didn't you?" He asked. She giggled and nodded.
"It's the only time you've lost." She stated. Noah really felt awful about what he had to say now.
"So...I'm pretty awful with names..."
"I am too; I only remember them when I hear them connected to accomplishments...like you winning the inter-state engineering contest." She replied. "Erin."
"Pleased to meet you." He answered as he got back to work. "Tell you what, you watch out for those meteors, and I'll get on with repairing my mess."
As she turned her attention to Noah's impressive setup, figuring out how to get it to search the skies for the event to come, she couldn't help grinning.
Meanwhile, at the old plant, Bluefur burst into a chamber Vrak had set up for his experiment. It had now been two days, and he was becoming impatient.
"Vrak!" He thundered, smashing some equipment impatiently with his mace. Vrak just sighed and stood up from where he was working. "When are we going to see some results?"
"Science takes time Bluefur." He assured him.
"This science of yours has already taken two days!" Bluefur reminded him. "You assured us..."
"I assured you that if my science works, you will be able to give birth to more of your kind." Vrak said, appealing to the loneliness that fuelled the Toxic Mutants' rage. They were not creatures of nature. The humans would never accept them, their former animals kept away, not wanting anything to do with them, and not understanding how they came into being, the only members of their race were the ones that had been created by the pollution of the plant. No more were being created which meant that eventually natural selection would take its toll. Every one of them that fell was one closer to extinction. "Just think, no more isolation, not when you can easily make as many of your kind as you could ever want."
"Then why can I not see the one you have already created?" Bluefur asked him. Vrak heard a screech from another chamber and smiled.
"Now that was impeccable timing." He said as he gestured to the chamber. He turned a handle, opening a huge steel door to another lab. Inside, it was dimly lit. Bluefur looked on in awe at what he saw.
"He has to be restrained for now, the results can be unpredictable." Vrak stated. "I give you the newest Toxic Mutant...though I think Spider may be a little...well...he is your subject, I'll let you think of a name."
Bluefur stared at the creature, considering it as he stepped forward. He could sense its power, and knew that it was easily the match of any of his subjects.
"Excellent." He replied, turning back to Vrak. "Let me know when he is ready to turn loose."