A/N: This is based slightly onthe real-life experiences of me and a couple of my mates on our recent school trip to New York. Brilliant trip with some amusing anticdotes so... viola! A story! This is going to be very light-hearted and not serious in any way. Well, I'll try. Anyone familiar with my work will know that I have a nasty habit of complicating things but I willnot this time!

Summery: The B-Squad cadets have to attend a conference in New York City, so decided to use it as an excuse for a vacation… with surprising results.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything SPD related... all of it belongs to Disney, lucky thing!

Enough babble from me... on with the story! Read, review and enjoy!

Day One

SPD Headquarters. New Tech City. California. 8:00am

"Guys get up, we're late. We've got ten minutes to get to the airport!" Syd and Z sat bolt upright in their beds, staring in horror at Sky and Bridge who had just burst into their room.

"What?" Syd shrieked and the two of them leapt up out of bed. Z got her foot tangled in her yellow bedcover as panic set in and she tumbled ungracefully onto the floor. Bridge began to giggle and Syd shot him a filthy look from where she was hurriedly stuffing her clothes into her suitcase, "Do you mind?"

Just then the door opened and a half-asleep Jack wandered in, rubbing his eyes. "What's all the racket?" he yawned. "It's 8'o'clock in the morning."

"We're late!" Z said as she finally untangled herself from her bedding, but then something Jack had said registered in her brain, "Wait… 8'o'clock?" She rounded on the other two male rangers, "You said we were late! We don't have to be at the airport until 10!"

Bridge collapsed in a heap of giggles at the horrified looks on the two girls faces and Sky had a huge grin on his face as he replied calmly, "Well you're up now so we're not going to be late are we?" Jack began to laugh as he realized what had happened; Z and Syd were infamous for being late for everything so to make sure they were on time this morning, the blue and green rangers had decided to take matters into their own hands.

Syd and Z however remained un-amused. "Get. Out. Now!" Syd said in a dangerous tone of voice. The effect was ruined though by the fact that she was standing there in pink pajamas, hair looking like she had been dragged through a bush backwards and was clutching Peanuts, her stuffed elephant.

Still laughing, the three boys headed for the common room and left the girls to get dressed and finish packing. Jack flung himself onto a chair and yawned, "So remind me, what is this seminar we're going to again?"

Sky sighed as he grabbed some orange juice from the food-synthesizer. "It's a public relations talk. Y'know, working with civilians to get results."

"Sounds fascinating," Jack said, without enthusiasm.

Bridge bounded up to them, a piece of toast in hand, "But we're going to New York! I've never been to New York before," he said excitedly as he eagerly spread liberal amounts of butter onto his toast. Jack and Sky stared at him as he took a huge bite. Seeing the looks on their faces, he hurriedly chewed and swallowed, "What? You want some? It's buttery."

"We can see," Sky replied with raised eyebrows.

"No thanks Bridge." Jack declined the offer.

Bridge shrugged, "Suit yourselves. I gotta go finish packing. See you in an hour." And he virtually ran out of the common room.

Jack groaned, "How the hell can he be that wide-awake in the morning?"

Sky shook his head and went back to his orange juice, "Must be some sort of curse."

xxx

New Tech Airport. 10:10am

"Five of us for the 12'o'clock flight to New York," Jack said as they finally made it to check-in.

"Passports please," the assistant behind the desk said, looking bored.

Four of them handed their passports over. "Umm… Jack, please don't say you've forgot your passport," Z whispered to the red ranger as he frantically searched his bag.

"I know I had it. I'm positive I did."

"Is there a problem?" the check-in lady asked, peering over her desk.

Z flashed a grin at her, "No, sorry, he's just mislaid his passport."

Suddenly Jack stood up and triumphantly pulled the elusive passport out of his pocket, "Knew I'd put it somewhere safe!"

Z groaned, but soon they were all checked in and their bags safely sent off. They decided to head straight for the duty-free area, but first they had to negotiate security, which proved a bit of a problem for Syd.

"I've got to take my belt off?" she hissed anxiously to Sky.

"Of course." He caught the look on her face. "What's wrong?"

"These pants are too big for me. They'll fall down if I have to take it off!" she almost wailed.

Sky grinned, "Hold them up as you go though. You'll be fine."

Syd didn't look too convinced, but removed her belt and kept a tight hold of the top of her pants as she walked through the scanner. Much to her dismay the red light flashed up and the woman beckoned her forward.

"Arms out to the side please," she said.

Syd blushed and said in a low voice, "Umm, can I do it… one arm at a time please?" The woman gave her a strange look and Syd went an even deeper shade of red as she explained, "My pants are too big for me and if I don't hold them up…"

Realization dawned on the security woman and she smiled kindly at Syd, "Don't worry sweetie, of course." She ran the hand-held scanner quickly over the pink ranger and determined that the cause of red light was her belly button piercing. "All done dear. You can put your belt back on now."

Relief was apparent on Syd's face, but the blush quickly returned when the male security guard turned around to her with a smirk and said, quite loudly, "But we wouldn't complain if your pants did fall down."

Face still red, she collected her bag and belt and almost ran to where Z, Jack and Bridge were waiting. The first thing she proceeded to do was to replace her belt to its former position of securely around her waist. Sky got through with no troubles and the five of them made their way through the busy terminal to some seats. Dumping their bags, all they had to do now was wait until their flight was called.

xxx

On the plane. 12:00pm

"Flight number 197 to New York now boarding at Gate 9."

"That's us," Sky said as they heard the announcement. The rangers gathered their belongings together and headed for their gate. They boarded the plane without any difficulty and found their seats.

Bridge was ecstatic when he discovered he had a window seat and proceeded to bounce up and down gleefully, "I love flying," he babbled, "But I love it even better when I'm by a window. I mean, I like to see where I'm going. I don't think I'd like flying so much if I couldn't see out. I think I'd hate it if I was in the middle and couldn't see…"

"Shut up Bridge," Z said, sitting down next to him. She looked unnaturally pale. Jack sat down next to her and Sky sat across the aisle from him. Syd sat on the other side of Sky, pulled out a pink eye-mask from her bag and leaned back in the seat.

"Not as nice as first class," she sniffed as she wriggled to get comfortable.

Sky rolled his eyes at her before putting on his seatbelt. They listened to the safety demonstration and then settled down for take-off. As the plane began to speed down the runway, Z couldn't help let out a little whimper.

"Z?" Both Jack and Bridge turned to see her looking more than slightly panicked. "What is it?"

"I don't really like flying," she muttered.

"But you're fine in the S.W.A.T. flyers," Jack said, puzzled.

"But they're different. I'm the one doing the flying. Here I'm just…"

"Not in control?" Bridge supplied. Z nodded. "Don't worry, I'll look after you," he said with a reassuring smile at her and she clutched his hand gratefully. But even so, she couldn't help let out a small cry as they suddenly took off and soared up into the air.

"How long is this flight?" Syd mumbled from under her eye-mask to Sky.

"About four hours," he replied.

"That's ages."

"At least we're not in 2006; it would have taken us twice as long," he told her.

"Thank goodness for modern technology," she replied, before trying to fall asleep.

The airhostess' brought around bags for the flight, much to Bridge's excitement as he received a green one. Z smiled shakily as the airhostess handed her a yellow one, and then handed Jack a blue one. Sky got a red one.

"Want to swap?" Jack asked, and, before Sky could respond, leaned over the aisle and swiped the red bag.

"Hey, that's my bag," Sky said indignantly and made a move to snatch it back.

"You're blue, have the blue one," Jack said, throwing the blue bag at Sky. He ducked it and it hit Sydney.

"Ouch!" she exclaimed, pulling up her eye-mask and giving the two boys an evil look.

"Sorry Syd," they chorused and then went back to squabbling over the bag.

"Is there a problem here?" Another airhostess appeared and stood between them.

"Not exactly…"

"Do you have another red bag?" Syd suddenly asked. "These two children can't share nicely."

The airhostess looked a little taken back but nodded and returned with another red bag for Jack.

"Happy now?" Syd said in seriously annoyed tones. With a mutter of "Boys," she pulled her eye-mask back down and went back to sleep.

Jack and Sky grinned sheepishly at one another and then turned their attentions to the movie that was playing and settled down for the rest of the flight.

xxx

JFK Airport. New York. 8.00pm

"Did anyone ask if we wanted to lose four hours?" Jack grumbled as they passed through security and into the baggage collection area. They had landed at 4pm Californian time, but now they were on New York time, four hours ahead. Z patted him on the shoulder as she walked past, but no one cared to answer his question.

"Our bags should come from there." Sky pointed after studying the information screen for a second.

"My bag!" Bridge suddenly yelled and darted through the crowds to grab his green holdall off the conveyor belt.

The others followed him and one by one collected their bags as they appeared, until it was only Z's that they were waiting for.

Finally Bridge tugged on her sleeve and said, "Z are you sure it's not that pale yellow one on there?"

Z bit her lip and looked at the bag that had been going around the carousel for the past twenty minutes, "I don't recognized it…"

She trailed off as Jack went over and checked the label. With a sigh he picked it up and chucked it at her, "It was yours all along."

They all groaned as Z, her face going red, picked up her bag and then, ready at last, the five of them left the airport. They hailed a cab and at last left JFK and headed for Manhattan.

xxx

Cadets' Hotel. Manhattan. 9:30pm

The cab pulled up outside the hotel on 10th Avenue that the cadets' were staying in and they went to book in. The woman behind the desk smiled and took down their names and then, "I'll have someone show you to your room," she said.

"Don't you mean rooms?" Syd asked.

The woman looked surprised, "Didn't your commanding officer tell you?" It was clear from the blank looks on their faces that Cruger had not. "There are so many people coming for this seminar we could only fit you in one room. Your Commander assured me you would all cope… Ah, here comes Ben. He'll get you settled in." It was clear that they were being dismissed.

"Doggie failed to mention that part to us," Z muttered to Syd as they made their way up in the elevator to the second floor.

"Here you are," the man called Ben said, unlocking one of the doors. "Here's your keys and if you have any problems please don't hesitate to phone the concierge desk." With that he left them.

Apprehensively, the five of them peered into the hotel room where they would be spending the next three nights together. It wasn't as bad as they had feared. There were two big double beds, one single bed, a television and bathroom.

There was a chorus of "I want the single bed!" and the five of them rushed for it.

"Hold it!" Jack bellowed. "I'm the red ranger and I'm pulling rank… I'll have the single bed, Bridge and Sky can share one double and Syd and Z the other. No arguments."

There was some muttered grumbling, but no one thought to argue it further, mainly because they were all quite tired after the long journey. "Who's for pizza?" Bridge suddenly asked as they went about unpacking. "What? I'm hungry," he explained, seeing the looks on their faces. "It's only 5:30 at home. I want pizza."

"Fair enough," Jack said. "Let's go get pizza."

They left the hotel and walked one block to 9th Avenue and found a small pizza place. Bridge was first in line and ordered a huge slice of pepperoni pizza, which he proceeded to wolf down. The other four each ordered their slice of pizza and sat down next to the green ranger, who went back for another slice.

All of them except Syd tucked in happily and there was a comfortable silence until, "Not hungry?" Sky asked the pink ranger, eyeing her uneaten slice.

Syd wrinkled her nose, "I thought when you said pizza place we were going to a restaurant. Where is the cutlery?"

Z rolled her eyes, "Syd, it's a two-dollar slice of pizza. You don't eat it with cutlery; you pick it up and eat it with your fingers."

Syd sighed and, delicately, as if it was something horrible from the trash, she picked up her pizza and began to nibble at it. Stifling giggles, the other rangers had soon finished their food and waited patiently for Syd to finish hers.

Finally, "All done Princess?" Sky asked her, teasingly, but still handed her a serviette to wipe her fingers with. She gave him a grateful smile in return.

They left the pizza place and had a slow walk back to their hotel. Bridge turned to Z and gave a startled yelp. "Z are you feeling ok?" he asked the yellow ranger, as the others turned around to see what the matter was.

"I'm fine, just a little tired. Why?" Z asked, puzzled at the looks she was getting from everyone.

"You've gone very pale," Bridge told her.

Syd looked worried, "Pale is a bit of an understatement," she said. It was true; Z had turned an almost luminous white.

"She always does this when she's very tired," Jack reassured them. "Although you've turned quite a spectacular color this time 'sis'," he added.

"I just need some sleep," she muttered, but was very glad when Bridge gave her his arm to lean on to get her back to the hotel.

Once back in their room, there was a small squabble over who got the bathroom first, but they were all too tired to properly fight it out. Soon everyone was in their beds, Jack happy in his single, and the girls and guys sharing, the guys both attempting to sleep as far away from each other as the bed, and covers, would allow them to. The lights were switched out and peace fell in the room as the cadets drifted off to sleep, waiting to see what tomorrow would bring them in New York City.