SKILLS
DISCLAIMER
One-shot that takes place in the same reality as "What Wes Had To Fight For" and "Interrupted Sleep" and inspired by the scene in "The End Of Time Part 1" where Katie asked Wes how he knew what their time-ship's computer buttons did. Takes place a little after "Jen's Revenge". I only own the plot and the Silver Guardian at the end.
Wes looked over the computer's firewall that Trip had set up, running programs. Okay, he's done pretty good. But let's add the personal Wes touch, he thought to himself. He ran some programs and set up some firewalls.
"What are you doing?" Surprised at the voice, Wes turned his head.
"Oh, hey, Katie," he greeted.
"Hey," she acknowledged. "What are you doing?" she repeated.
"Putting some added protection on our equipment," Wes replied. "Don't get me wrong, Trip did great, but when I'm working with a system, I like to have my own personal touch on it," he continued.
"So you know computers?" Katie queried.
"Yep," Wes confirmed. "By the time I'm done with this, no one from this time will be able to hack our computer," he continued.
"You're that good?" she asked in disbelief.
"Hey, after breaking firewalls, creating them is a snap," he chuckled.
"You? A computer hacker?" she queried in the same tone.
"You'd be amazed at what I can do," he stated.
"Well, as long as we can access the Time Force files that we need, that's all I care about," she commented. Wes chuckled.
"Don't worry about a thing. Just leave it to me," he told her. Katie shook her head and left him working at the machine. Presently, Jen, Lucas, and Trip came in.
"What's going on?" Jen wondered.
"Wes is putting his own "personal touch" on our computer system," Katie replied.
"But I already put up a firewall system," Trip protested. Does he think I'm too young to do a good job? he wondered. Almost as if he knew what the other boy was thinking, Wes looked at Trip.
"This has nothing to do with your skills, Trip. You did great," he assured. "This is just for my own piece of mind," he continued. Lucas glanced at the screen.
"Wait. I don't even recognize what you're doing," he commented.
"That's because it's my own configuration. Drove the cops nuts," came the reply. Jen, Katie, Lucas, Circuit, and Trip looked at each other as Wes laughed at the memory.
"Cops?" Lucas repeated. "Are you telling me our rich boy has bad streak in him?" he queried teasingly.
"Hey, I ain't a true Richie," Wes defended.
"Huh?" the others asked.
"Just give me a few more minutes," he requested.
"Okay, man," Lucas said. They fell silent as the boy continued to work. Despite themselves, they couldn't help but watch. Jen's mouth dropped when she saw how fast the boy's fingers were moving over the computer as well as the types of configurations he was putting in. When Wes was finally done, he scooted his chair back and grinned.
"Wow. That all seemed hardcore," Trip noted.
"It is," Wes confirmed.
"Well, I'll be impressed…if it really works," Jen stated. Wes just shot her a look. Then, Circuit got wind of a mutant attack and they all morphed and ran out of the clock tower.
A FEW WEEKS LATER
The Rangers were all fast asleep when a harsh jangling roused them.
"Oh, what is that?" Trip wondered.
"Shut it off!" Lucas moaned, covering his head with a pillow. Katie, Circuit, and Jen made similar statements as Wes merely jumped from his bed and to the computer.
"Trying to hack me, are you?" he queried, as he started punching in his codes. At the word 'hack', the rest of the Time Force Team was instantly wide awake and they crowded around the computer.
"Wes, we can't let anyone find our files," Jen urgently reminded.
"Don't worry. I've got it covered," Wes responded. They watched as he quickly punched in some codes. Then, there was a small 'ding!' sound.
"We're good," he assured.
"Are you positive?" Lucas queried.
"Oh, yeah," Wes confirmed with a proud grin.
"Then we should all get back to bed," Jen stated.
"Be right there," Wes said, as the others went to do so. He typed in a message, pressed the 'send' key, and then smiled. In an office across town, a member of the Silver Guardians stared at the screen in shock. That's not possible. There's no way I could've been kicked out. Our system's the best, he thought to himself. So how could he have been detected like that? Whoever had stopped him from finding the Rangers' files was obviously good. The man moaned and let his head fall onto his desk with a thunk. He had promised Mr. Collins that he'd get information of the Rangers' technology and he had totally failed. He wasn't sure how it had happened, but he had been detected and bounced out a lot quicker than it had taken him to even get into the files. I'm so sunk, he thought, not relishing facing his boss. Then, the computer made a buzzing sound and he looked up to the see the following message.
"Don't mess with the best," he read and with another groan, let his head slam on the desk once again.
THE END