Heroes of Their Time – New Beginnings
Hunston Valley, California
Sitting just off the Pacific coast in northern California is the city of Hunston Valley. A relatively small city, almost everything was situated on the central boulevard that ran through the city. During the last decade Hunston Valley had become a hub for computing and telecommunication, leading to boom in the size of the town. On the outskirts of the city were the suburbs where the majority of the population lived. In the hills that overlooked the city sat a number of ranches, a few of which were owned by the extremely wealthy.
In the city center sat a traditional 1950s diner with a gas station attached. Parked up in the gas station was a vintage red pick-up truck, fully loaded with cardboard boxes. Inside the truck were two people, a man in his late thirties and a teenage girl. The man was powerfully built with short dark hair and a five o'clock shadow. He wore a red t-shirt, blue jeans and a battered black leather jacket. The girl was on the short side, no more than five foot four. She had long light brown hair and wore black jeans and a purple vest top. She was idly playing with her tablet as the man thanked the station attendant before driving away, "So how much further Kiera", the man asked the girl.
Kiera brought up her sat nav app on her tablet, "Not much further Uncle Jason", she replied, "another ten minutes". Jason Lee Scott nodded and settled down for the last leg of the journey. After giving up the gold ranger powers, Jason had embarked on a career as an EMT in the city of Angel Grove. He had lived through Astronema's invasion and seen more death on that day than he had witnessed in the following seventeen years. He had settled down with his long term girlfriend Emily in 2004, however, after co-leading the legendary rangers in Harwood County last year, their relationship had soured. The divorce had only been finalised a few days ago and the move to Hunston Valley was a new start for him.
His marriage to Emily hadn't produced any children but even though Kiera called him Uncle Jason, technically she was his adopted daughter. Not long after the red ranger mission to the Moon her parents asked him to adopt her. She was an extremely bright child, unfortunately she wasn't a social person, to the point that she would actually hide from large groups of people. Her education was a constant source of argument for Jason and Emily, his ex-wife wanted her to go to school but Jason had rejected that idea. The public school system wasn't suitable for someone with her IQ so they opted to home school Kiera. In hindsight, that hadn't helped with her confidence amongst kids her own age. Jason hoped the fresh start would help the seventeen year old finally come out of her shell.
"Alright this looks the place", Jason said as he turned his truck onto a residential street. Their new three storey house was constructed from red bricks with white windows and door frames. A curved section stuck out of the middle of the property and extended into the front garden.
"This place looks expensive", Kiera commented, "how could you afford this?"
"It was surprisingly cheap", Jason replied, "maybe someone was murdered here", he joked.
"Seriously don't joke about that", Kiera shuddered. The pair began unloading the contents of the pickup and placed the various boxes onto the grass. Jason came across a large metal flight case with a strange logo printed on top. It was grey with yellow patch in the middle, the top right hand corner of the logo had a red triangle. After looking at it for a few seconds, Jason realised it looked like the head of a dinosaur.
"Kiera what did I say about messing around with these things", he said as he placed the case on the floor with a thud.
"Be careful with those", Kiera exclaimed, "you told me to be careful with them and I have been". Jason sighed, the girl had an unhealthy interest in science and engineering. He just hoped that it didn't get her into trouble one day. As Kiera pushed her flight case up the driveway, Jason found the keys under the doormat. Unlocking the door the pair was greeted with a musty smell together with loads of dust. Clearly the property hadn't been lived in for a while.
The entranceway was dominated by a central staircase that led to the upper levels. Directly in front of them was the kitchen, to their left was the main living room and to their right was another large receiving room. "I'm going to pick out my bedroom", Kiera stated before heading upstairs. Jason placed the boxes on the floor before moving into the kitchen. It needed a little bit of modernisation but everything still appeared to be functional. He then looked out the window and into the garden. It was overgrown and full of weeds but it was nothing a day's hard work wouldn't fix. He was impressed by the overall size and also the view of a forest that was at the end of the garden.
"This is a big property for just the two of us", Kiera said as she entered the kitchen. She had managed to find an apple in one of the boxes and took a large bite out of the fruit.
"Well I have a plan", Jason replied, "I was thinking about converting this into a several properties. We can live in one and charge people rent to live in the others".
"Sounds lame", Kiera stated before taking another bite out of her apple.
"And I suppose you would turn this place into a giant lab", Jason asked and the teen nodded, "you're not fitting a lab in this house".
"Why not I've got the space now", Kiera whined.
Jason pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration, "Kiera you're nearly an adult, you need to find a job sooner or later. Get out into the big wide world and meet some actual people. Talking to someone on a forum in China doesn't count".
"Yeah yeah", Kiera replied, it was an argument she had heard from her adopted father many times. "I'll start tomorrow, right now I'm hungry. How about we visit that 50's diner we passed a few minutes ago". She tossed the apple core at Jason who caught it in his hand, "I'm driving", she called out as she left the kitchen. Jason sighed, clearly more of his ex-wife had rubbed off on Kiera that he wished.
Finchey's Diner
The diner Kiera referred to was called Finchey's Diner, named after its owner and manager, Artie Finch. He was a man in his mid fifties with thinning black hair and a protruding stomach. To keep with the theme of the diner, he was dressed as a stereotypical 'greaser', white t-shirt, leather jacket and tight blue jeans.
In the kitchen he was interviewing a potential candidate for the vacant position of head chef. He looked over the young man in front of him with suspicion, the interviewee couldn't be any older than 21 but he claimed to have visited and worked in several prominent restaurants around the world. The Hispanic man didn't look much like a chef either, he was skinny with shoulder length black hair. He was dressed casually in a red hooded top and a pair of beige three quarter length shorts, "Alright then Mr Navarro", Artie began.
"Tyler, please", the man replied.
Artie sighed, "Alright Tyler, I'll be honest with you, I'm not convinced by your resume. Either you're a massive liar or vastly overqualified to work as a burger flipper".
Tyler grumbled at the bluntness of the man before he grabbed a large knife, "Perhaps a demonstration is in order". He grabbed a lettuce off the counter before tossing it into air. Using the knife he sliced the vegetable several times in midair. Finely chopped pieces of lettuce landed on some open burger buns that were nearby.
When Artie had regained use of his jaw, he began to speak again, "That was amazing kid". He sighed audibly, "Fine the job's yours, no one else has applied in the last two weeks anyway".
"Thank you Mr Finch", Tyler replied and shook the man vigorously by the hand, "you won't regret this".
"Yeah sure", Artie grumbled, "I'll introduce you to our main waitress. Hey Shelby", he called out. An African American teen turned her head before approaching the kitchen, her black hair bouncing with every step. Her uniform consisted of a pink 1950's style dress, complete with white belt and apron, "This is Tyler, our new head chef", Artie added.
"Pleased to meet you", Shelby replied with a smile at the new chef.
"I'm going to show him around the kitchen", Artie began before looking out into the diner, "looks like we've got some regulars back and a couple of new arrivals".
Shelby turned her head, sighing as she caught sight of one of the regulars. He was a Caucasian male with dark hair held very firmly in place with a significant amount of hair gel. He had his feet up on the seat opposite from him, showing off his black boots and black skinny jeans. To top off his look, he wore a grey t-shirt with a black leather jacket over the top. He smiled when he caught sight of the waitress, Shelby merely rolled her eyes and strolled over, "Hello Chase, what can I get you today?"
"A date with the prettiest waitress in this cafe", Chase replied smoothly and produced a solitary red rose. In response Shelby sighed and swatted Chase's legs off the seat.
"I'll go on a date with you when hell freeze over", she replied with a sweet smile, "that's the answer I've given for the last six months and it's the same one I'll give for the rest of eternity"
Chase though wasn't giving up, he merely smiled and responded, "You should know that once I set my sights on something, I always hit my target".
"Well perhaps you should use your talents on your actual date", Shelby said and pointed her pen at a girl approaching Chase's booth. Deciding that Chase would have his usual 'first date' order, Shelby made her way to the next booth where a blonde haired teenager was sitting by himself. He was dressed in a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a green long sleeved training top. This was one of her trickier regular customers as he was very hard to read, "Afternoon Riley", she greeted cheerily, "the usual banana shake?"
"Yeah please", Riley responded vaguely as he fumbled with his kit bag, inside were a number of fencing foils.
"How'd you get on?" Shelby asked, "did your win".
"Yeah by a huge margin", the teen responded in a monotone voice. Shelby sighed, one day she would get a smile out of that boy. The door opened and in walked someone that never seemed to be miserable. The man was in his mid twenties and was carrying a tool box. He was dressed in black jeans, a white t-shirt and a blue denim jacket with a company logo on the breast pocket.
"Koda Yamamoto", Shelby greeted, "I wish all repairmen responded to a call out as quickly as you do".
"Well no one comes as quickly as I do", he replied proudly before realising what he had said.
Chase snorted loudly behind them, "That's not something to be proud of buddy", he called out.
Shelby shook her head, "Don't listen to him", she replied, "the lights have gone out in the toilets, reckon you could take a look?"
"I'll get on it straight away", Koda said with a broad smile before making his way to the back.
Finally Shelby reached the newcomers, a man with a teenage girl. When the waitress approached the table, she gasped when she realised who the man was, "Sensei Scott", she began with reverence, "I'm not sure if you remember me, I was only twelve at the time..."
"I remember all my students", Jason smiled, "fancy meeting you here Shelby Watkins". As a sideline to his day job, Jason used to teach a few classes at a dojo belonging to his old team mate, Adam Park. Jason usually taught a few of the most promising students some advanced techniques and Shelby had been one of the finest he had seen, "I hope you're still working on everything I showed you".
"Oh almost every day", she replied.
"It's a shame I never got to meet your parents", Jason began, "I would've loved to have told them how well their daughter was doing".
Shelby's smile dropped at the mention of her parents and she became a little more guarded, "Yeah they never found the time sadly. So what can I get you?"
"I'll have the cheeseburger and Kiera", he looked over at his adopted daughter but she hid her face behind a menu, "she'll have the same". Shelby smiled before heading off the kitchen to process the order.
"She wasn't going to bite", Jason whispered to Kiera.
"Sorry I just froze", she replied and lowered the menu, "what are the odds of meeting an ex-student here?"
"Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember that Shelby lived in Hunston. Always struck me as a little strange that she would travel down to Angel Grove for lessons", Jason mused.
"Well Adam's dojo is pretty famous in California", Kiera replied, "wouldn't be the first time someone travelled across the state to learn from him".
Suddenly their conversion was interrupted by several blasts that rocked the cafe. Most of the patrons ran out screaming or hid under the tables but Jason was immediately on his feet. Stepping outside with Kiera close behind him, he saw legions of white suited creatures. Their suits had patches of green and their grey heads were expressionless expect for specks of orange. They had green and black hair that looked like dreadlocks. Jason and Kiera were soon joined outside by Tyler and Shelby, "What the hell are they?" Tyler asked.
Jason didn't know exactly but he had seen enough footsoldiers over the years to know what they represented, "I'm not sure but everyone stay inside", he replied as the group ducked a blast of laser fire.
"Are you kidding old man", Tyler exclaimed excitedly, "they need to be stopped", with that he sprinted towards the oncoming soldiers. He was closely followed by Shelby and Riley, who had retrieved a training sword his bag.
Kiera laughed, "Old man".
Jason rolled his eyes, "Great and I thought this would be a monster free city", he mumbled before running after the others.
TO BE CONTINUED
A/N - Welcome everyone to my take on Power Rangers Dino Charge. First thing to point out is that this story takes place about a year after The Armada's invasion. Secondly I've played around with the ranger's ages a little bit in comparison with their rumoured ages in the series (so they're not all teenagers). Finally I've adjusted the black and blue ranger's personalities so they're a little closer their Sentai counterparts. Hope you've enjoyed the first chapter.