All it was was plot bunnies annoying me.
Happy Anniversary to me! This is my 25th story on this account :-)
There were sometimes he really wondered who he was.
When he was younger he'd never been given that much exposure to the outside world. He was unlike most heirs and could easily walk down the street without being recognized. That was until the ranger business stepped in and decided to make him a celebrity in his own right.
His father had not been happy, but eventually began encouraging public appearances and interviews to allow for younger fans to get to know their heroes. It had been sweet and fun originally, but he found himself with less time to himself and it was uncomfortable.
When he wasn't with the rangers, Spencer or his father was hovering around him, asking if he was okay.
He was of course fine, if he wasn't fine, they would be the first to know.
With the time he had available to him he began hearing things that made him question who he really was. He'd never known his mother, so what if everything was different than it seemed? He'd look at documents and pretended he was looking for clues to the Corona jewels to dodge suspicions.
His birth certificate said he was Mackenzie Thomas Hartford, the only child of Andrew Hartford and Sharon Hartford. It said he was born in San Angeles, California on January 12th 1989 and from that he was eighteen years old. Other than that it didn't tell him much about himself.
There were days he'd get a strange feeling in his stomach. It would hit him sometimes when he was fighting and sometimes when he was just relaxing and playing pool. It had been happening for years.
His father treated him like glass. He was treated like he would shatter if pushed or exposed to the real world. His father had done it constantly from the time he was four so he'd never told him about the feelings.
But there were times he wondered if his father knew something else. He wondered if Spencer and him had more of a reason for the sheltering the only Hartford child than they wanted to admit.
He'd always had exceptional hearing, and some days he'd pick up conversations that were not meant for him to hear. First he thought the words were harmless worrying from his father, but they became more constant and disturbing to him as time went on.
"I had the machine calibrated especially for him."
Spencer had said that once. He wasn't oblivious that he seemed to be getting the highest in quality of genetic manipulation. Super jumping and super strength just aren't in the same category power wise. The others never noticed or complained about him getting special treatment, so he'd let it slide passed him.
His father also gave him more Zords and upgrades; he'd show him projects before they were complete. For someone who wanted his son protected, he was giving him the equipment to charge into battle head on, not sit on the sidelines like he'd previously wished. Ronny had initially objected, but since then had stopped.
His father also started spreading arsenal out more, as if he was worried about something. He'd seen rangers on TV before; they survived without a new Zord every mission.
He attributed it to faulty logic on his father's part and let it slide.
It was getting harder and harder to let things slide when the words and actions became more frequent.
The uneasy feeling was growing in his stomach the more and more he heard of these conversations. He wondered if it was nerves, if the others noticed these things, but if they did they gave no indication.
"He shouldn't have been affected by the bad luck spell, but he was."
"I'll keep an eye on him sir."
What did they know that they weren't telling him? What was he? What was going on? What was coming?
It started to keep him up at nights, sitting and wondering, arms wrapped around his pillow as the conversations played out over and over in his head. It nearly drove him insane wondering.
He'd read some of his family history and tried to figure out what was going on. There was nothing there that led him to believe he was a super being or something. Sometimes he'd force himself to go talk to Rose about his suspicions, but it never came out right.
She believed it was him being paranoid and his father being overprotective.
She'd then tell him stories about a fellow prodigy she'd met at university. His name was Justin and had a similar problem with his father's over protectiveness. When he was ten he'd been put in an orphanage and they hadn't been reunited till a while later, he didn't want to lose his son again.
He'd smile and thanked her and head back to his room. Sometimes the feeling would go away and he would simply go and read, but more often than not he'd curl up in a ball beside his dresser and listen to his radio. Once in a while his phone would ring and it would be someone from the media who he would briefly talk to.
He threw himself into the "rangering" as much as he could and silently prayed he was being paranoid and that he was Mackenzie Thomas Hartford, no one else and nothing else.
There were days he'd convince himself completely but he'd get nervous when Spencer offered him something or asked him how he was.
Something big was going on. Not only that, but something big was going to happen and soon. Tyzonn didn't know, Ronny didn't, Rose didn't, Dax and Will didn't, but he did. Spencer and his father knew.
He was sure they had their reasons for not saying anything so he'd tried to let it slide along with everything else. The strain on his mental health was too much though for it to just be ignored. It stayed at the forefront of his mind constantly.
The hushed word exchanges about him continued and confirmed to him that he was in the middle of something bigger than just the Overdrive Rangers…
Worst of all, he had no clue what it was.
Please Review