Everyone in the Command Center was pretty bored. They had not received many alerts in the past few days, so when two small alerts bleeped on the computer they all perked up from what they were doing. The excitement turned to disappointment when they saw what the alerts were for.
"Okay, traffic jam in Sector 2 and a noise complaint in Sector 8." The enthusiasm was lacking in Jack's voice.
"Come on, any job no matter how small is important." Sky tried to pep the team up a little.
"You're right, so you won't mind checking out the noise complaint then." Jack smiled at him.
Sky rolled his eyes and groaned. "Whatever."
"Bridge why don't you go with him, and the rest of us will go direct the traffic."
Bridge smiled and nodded and Jack. "Okay, let's go!"
Bridge was already out of the Command Center before Sky could say anything else. He just sighed and followed his friend out of the building. Once they got to the building they entered with caution. The place was an old office building that had not been used in a while, and at the moment it seemed empty. There were stairs near the door, so the two decided to go up and check the place out better.
"Bridge, what do you notice about this place?" Sky was keeping his eyes out.
"It's silent…maybe whoever was making so much noise, left?" Bridge was beginning to get a bad feeling.
"Or maybe there wasn't any noise to begin with."
Bridge decided it was time to scan the area; he took off his glove and waved his hand in front of himself. His whole body tensed after what he saw, but before he could warn Sky, a bunch of men come out of the office doors and attacked them. Bridge had no time to fight before a needle was plunged into his neck, causing him to falter back and then fall to the ground.
"Bridge!" Sky began to fight his way to the Green Ranger, but someone came from behind and hit him in the back of the head with the end of their laser. Sky too fell to the ground and watched the men gather Bridge up and take him away before blacking out.
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Jack, Syd, and Z were finishing up with directing traffic when Crueger came over the radio.
"You are needed back at S.P.D. please report at once."
"We're on our way." Jack radioed back, and the rangers rushed back to the base to find out what was going on.
Once in the Command Center, Commander Crueger stood in front of them. "Rangers, we have a hostage situation taking place in Sector 8."
Jack perked up when he heard where the hostage situation was taking place. He knew something was not right. "Sir, I sent Sky and Bridge to Sector 8 to check out a noise complaint."
"Yes, I fear our fellow rangers were set up." He motioned to the security camera footage of the area. "Earlier today a large group of people went into that building, and a few hours later Sky and Bridge went inside. Not long after that eight men began taking civilians off the street. This is a delicate situation and these criminals have not made contact yet. You must go and try to find out what these people want while making sure all the hostages make it out safe. Good luck Rangers."
The rangers were worried, but saluted and got ready to try and handle the situation stirring up before them.
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When Sky woke up he found himself tied tightly to a metal chair in an almost empty room. Three guards stood by the door facing him. The only light was coming from the boarded up window to his side. The guard's grips tightened on their lasers when he woke up, making Sky think they might know about their abilities.
"Where's my partner?"
The men said nothing.
Sky tugged on the ropes binding him. "I saw them inject him with something, but not me. What'd they give him?"
Still silence.
Sky growled in anger. "I want answers!"
The guards stepped aside as a taller man came into the room. He had short brown hair and a nice suit. "I see you're finding your quarters quite comfortable. Now what's all this fuss about?"
"My friend, what'd you do with him?"
The man smiled and clapped his hand together. "You didn't think we would keep you two together did you? No, that's not how this works. On this end of the building we get to beat you for information, although you don't seem like the type to respond to that. Still might be fun though…As for your friend, we gave him something to slowly kill him. He might talk, you might talk, or maybe neither of you will, but then we'll get to kill two rangers and five people off the streets, so no matter the outcome it's looking up."
"What are you after?" Sky worried about how much time Bridge had.
"Weapons, codes, anything really. Personally I think Bridge? Is more likely to talk, considering those abilities of his." The man noticed the curious look in Sky's eyes. "That's right, I know about you two, and the others as well, but that one, he's an interesting type isn't he? Has to wear gloves to keep things out, right? So without those, on top of what we have coursing through his system, well that should just right down confuse him enough to start babbling I think."
The man walked up to Sky and knelt down in front of him. "And then there's you. Sky, the shield maker. Sounds so valiant doesn't it? You're the strong one, hence the extra security and the ropes. You care too much about the people around you, so on the Green Ranger's impending doom, you may just tell us anything to get him the antidote. That's you're light at the end of the tunnel."
Sky glared. "You can't get either of us to talk, we'd both rather die than help out a scumbag like you."
"Oooohhhh I can tell you're going to be a fun time." He snapped his fingers and got up as two of the guards came over and began beating Sky.
Sky shut his eyes and took every punch without making much noise. They would get through this, he knew they would.
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When Bridge woke up, he knew something was wrong. He was sweating, and his breath was coming in shorter than normal. His gloves were gone, so the walls he built in his mind were being pounded on, but he still had control. This was something different. He looked around the room; there was not much besides some old office junk. A broken shelf, various papers, and two mostly boarded up windows. He looked out to see he was several floors up, so that escape route would not work. Bridge stumbled to walk away from the wall, he remembered a sharp pain in his neck before passing out. Those men must have given him something. Bridge shuffled to the door and waved his hand in front of it, scanning for energy. There were guards posted outside. Once he got to the door, he was not surprised to find it locked, but he decided to pound on it and get the guards' attention.
"Hey! Let me out of here!" He shook the door knob.
He continued to pound until the door swung open, almost hitting him. A guard came in and hit Bridge in the face with the end of his laser, causing him to fall to the ground. When his eyes focused he saw the guards holding a scared woman by the arm. They shoved her into the room.
"Keep him alive."
"Wait! What's wrong with him?" The guards had shut the door without answering.
Bridge realized in that moment, the woman had a leather bag in her hand.
"Are you a doctor?"
She nodded and knelt down beside him. "I'm Doctor Jackson, those creeps out there took me a while ago. They wanted access to my research, certain chemicals I was working on. I don't know what they are planning, but it can't be good."
"I'm Bridge. Do you happen to know what they gave me?"
She shook her head. "No, but by looking at you, it seems to be something slow acting and painful. Here." She pulled a bottle of pills out of her bag. "Take these, should help the fever, it would be better to give you something directly, but they took all my syringes away after my last escape attempt."
Bridge took the pills and stood up. "What'd you do?"
Dr. Jackson smiled. "Knocked out two guards with tranquilizers and made a run for it. Other guys caught up to me before I could get too far though."
Bridge smiled and looked through the boards in the window. "I came here with someone, have you seen him?"
Dr. Jackson got up and looked out the other window. "No, it was pretty chaotic a while ago. They just took people off the street. They're holding them downstairs. I didn't see anyone else in uniform, but they are probably keeping him in another room. Probably for the best if they didn't have me see him, means they didn't drug him."
"That doesn't necessarily mean that's better."
"No, but these guys are smart, and they'll want information, probably anything they can get their hands on. They'll use you to get to your friend, and use those people downstairs as leverage for you both and whoever comes after you."
Bridge slid down the wall under the window. "Great, so I'm just a pawn."
"I think we all are." The doctor also plopped herself down near the other window.
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Sky was leaning all the way forward in his chair, blood dripping off of him like a leaky sink. He remained conscious throughout the beating he had received, but almost wished he would have been knocked out. Everything hurt.
"Well that was fun." The man in charge smiled as he leaned down to meet Sky's swollen eyes. "Do you have any information you'd like to share with the class?"
Sky spit blood at the man's feet only to receive a laugh.
"No I didn't think so. We could beat you all day and not get a word out of you. You don't care about that, that's what you were trained for, but there is something that sets you apart from people like me. You care, you have compassion, and that my friend is your weakness. You see I pulled five innocent civilians off the street, and I will have no problem getting rid of them. And let's not forgot your little buddy that came here with you. How long do you think he has before the drugs in his system kill him?"
The man began to pace around the room. "I've got this worked out on three different angles. Either greenie tells me what I want to know to protect you and the hostages, or maybe just out of fevered confusion. Or you tell me to save him and the hostages, or your team tells me to save all of you, but the clock is ticking and no one has much time. Your silence only kills the innocent, think about that."
Before he could go on there was a knock at the door and a guard entered, whispering something in his ear.
"Ah yes." He turned to Sky. "Time is running out, your friends have arrived, so now it's time I had a chat with them, but you think on what I said and remember what will happen if you keep your mouth shut. You could save a lot of people today Blue, either I get my information, or I get to watch the blood flow. It's really a win/win on my end, so you make your choice."
He left Sky alone in the room to try and figure out what his next move was. He knew he had to save everyone, but there was no way he could give out classified information to do it. He needed to work out a plan.
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AN: Thanks for reading, I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter!