First Impressions
Chapter 2
Sky could feel Bridge watching him as he left. Once he was out of sight, he let out a small sigh. 'I know I shouldn't be so short with him,' Sky thought unhappily. 'But he's new and he's just so... not Dru.'
The admission was easier than he thought it would be. 'He's not terrible, I guess, but Dru would have been a better squad member in every way.'
Sky chose a bench against the wall of one of the atriums, and sat down. Even though he was only on D-squad, no one bothered him. Occasionally, a new trainee would give him a nervous look. Sky ignored them, and instead twirled his friendship bracelet around his wrist. 'I thought we were friends, best friends. And then this happened.' Sky put his head in his hands. 'I don't know why, but people I care about have a way of leaving.'
He thought of his dad, the former red ranger who was never far from his thoughts. Of his powers, and how his former friends had shunned him because of them. It hurt to care about people.
Sky knew that better than anyone.
Bridge ate dinner in the mess hall. He ate alone – he wasn't really in the mood to be answering curious questions and fending off envious remarks from his classmates. Using his fork, he sculpted a mountain of mashed potatoes on his plate before impulsively destroyed it, crushing it until it was spread in uneven clumps.
Boom sat down next to him, carrying a tray heaped high with food. "How're things going?"
"Good," Bridge replied, giving a forced smile.
Boom shook his head. "I know you, and that doesn't look good. What's wrong?"
"Sky... I mean, Cadet Tate... he thinks I'm not good enough for his squad." Bridge shrugged. "It doesn't really matter what I do, I can't seem to please him. I think he really doesn't like me."
"Everybody likes you," Boom said. "Sky just doesn't know you very well. You've been on his squad for three days – even if you messed up a couple times, he doesn't have any good reason to dislike you."
"But Sky does have a reason – I took his friend's place on the squad!"
"You mean Dru Harrington? He never had a chance to get on the squad especially after..." Boom cut off suddenly, like he'd already said too much.
"After what?"
"I'm... I'm not really supposed to talk about it." He gave Bridge an apologetic look before continuing. "But anyhow, Dru was never going to get onto D-squad, and the only ones who didn't know that were Sky and Dru."
Bridge mulled over this new information for a while. "Well, what do you think I should do?" He finally asked.
"I don't know." Boom shoveled a mouthful of food in his mouth. "Go apologize and say you'll try harder. I mean, I do it all the time and it works okay." He fumbled around in his pocket before pulling out a small, round stone. It was dark green and highly polished, with a streak of light blue running through the center. "Take it. It's a good luck stone. It's been in my family for ages – my grandmother fell off a roof once, and she swears this stone saved her life."
Bridge tried to give it back. "I can't take this from you, Boom. I mean, this is a family heirloom."
"It's no big deal. You're my friend, and I want you to have it. Anyhow, I've had it for a long time, but right now I think you need it more than me."
"Thanks, Boom." Bridge said, carefully pocketing the stone. "I'll take good care of it."
Boom smiled brightly. "I know."
Boom was probably right. He should just go and talk to Sky. He had already tried it once, but second time's the charm... or was it the third time? He snagged a trainee by the arm. "Hey, have you seen Cadet Tate anywhere around here?"
The trainee shook his head. "No, sir."
'Sir.' He'd have to get used to that.
He asked a few more passersby before being told that Sky was probably in his room, studying. It was quite a walk, considering that he hadn't quite moved rooms from his old trainee dormitory to the floor where squad members stayed.
Bridge paused as he heard voices coming from a nearby room. "Syd, we've never done that badly in a simulation before." Sky's voice was unmistakable.
"And?"
"Look, I'm just saying that if we had a different teammate..."
"Well, I thought that being on a team is about working together. You haven't even given him a chance," Syd sounded angry. "At least I've taken the time to actually talk to him. He's a nice guy, Sky and I think he'd do well if you'd just lighten up on him."
"He's clumsy, and a lousy fighter. And annoying, too."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"I think you scare him," she finally said.
"Scare him? Why?"
Bridge never heard the answer. Instead, he turned away and left as quietly as he could.
"Something a little different today - an actual assignment," Charlie, the A-squad red ranger, was saying. Bridge felt a strange mixture of excitement and apprehension - this was going to be his first real field assignment.
He glanced at Sky. 'I'll show him,' Bridge thought, remembering what Sky had said about him earlier. 'I'll show him that I'm not clumsy, or a lousy fighter or even a little annoying. I'll do everything by the book and then he won't have anything to complain about.'
"A shopkeeper at this address has submitted several complaints of vandalism recently," Charlie continued. "You're going to go there and investigate."
All three members of D-squad saluted. "Yes, sir!"
The shop was in the looming shadow of SPD headquarters, down a narrow street with even narrower alleyways branching off from it. Most of the shops and buildings along the street were boarded up with metal grates, or simply abandoned. The entire neighborhood looked like it was scheduled for demolition.
As they passed, people gave them strange, even hostile looks. More than one person hurried down shadowy side streets to get away from them, or slammed the door shut as they passed.
"This is it," Sky finally said, looking up at a corner store. Through the window, Bridge could see a bored looking cashier chewing gum and reading a fashion magazine.
"Syd, Bridge, you go check the perimeter," Sky ordered. "I'll go speak to the shopkeeper, and meet you out here once I'm done." He looked at his notes. "According to the report, they come every day and spray-paint the wall around the back. We're here to do something about it."
Syd went to the right, while Bridge circled around to the left. Something bright on the wall caught his attention, and he noticed the scrawl of graffiti, a few feet off the ground. Kneeling down to investigate, he ran his finger over the paint. It left an orange smudge on his glove.
'It's still wet,' Bridge realized. 'They have to be close by.' Taking off his glove, he scanned the nearby area. Someone was hiding behind the nearest dumpster, and they were afraid – and very, very small. 'A kid?' Bridge wondered, 'Or an alien?'
The vandal was human, albeit a very young one. The instant the kid saw Bridge, his eyes widened in terror, and he backed away – only to find himself trapped between the wall and the edge of the dumpster.
"Hey!" Bridge said, reading his emotions easily. "Take it easy. I'm not going to hurt you." He crouched down to get closer to his suspect's level. "What are you doing here?"
The kid crossed his arms stubbornly. He looked around for any way to escape. "Whadd'ya think I'm doing?"
Bridge caught a glimpse of the top of a spray can, hanging out of a ragged and worn backpack. "It looks to me like you're spray-painting this wall." The kid stared at the ground and fidgeted, refusing to meet his eye.
"How old are you?" Bridge asked.
"I'm nine."
"Shouldn't you be in school or something?"
A shrug. "Can't go home. Might as well go here." A fearful look passed across his face. "Are you... you gonna arrest me now? You're a cop, right?"
Bridge avoided answering the question. "How about we just start by you telling me your name?"
"Michael. My name's Michael."
"Okay, Michael."
Footsteps came around the corner, and Bridge sensed that Sky had returned – and was very annoyed. Bridge put his glove back on. He had enough negative emotions to deal with without adding Sky's to the list. "What's going on?" Sky demanded. "You caught the vandal? Why haven't you brought him in?"
"I just wanted to talk to him."
"You wanted to talk to him?" Sky said incredulously. What was Bridge thinking? They were police, not therapists!
"Sky," Bridge tried to explain, "he's just a kid."
"A kid who committed a crime," the D-squad leader said stubbornly. "You know the regulations as well as I do. Bring him in."
Bridge hesitated and the boy, sensing an opportunity, threw his backpack at the pair. He set off at a run, the two cadets in quick pursuit. They chased him down a street and through another alleyway, until they reached a tall, decrepit building. Kicking aside a stray box, the boy dove into a crawl space too tiny for Sky and Bridge to follow.
"We had him!" Sky exclaimed, turning to face Bridge. "Why didn't you arrest him when you had the chance?"
"He wasn't a bad kid," Bridge said. "I could feel it."
"You could feel it?" Sky held up a hand as Bridge tried to explain. "Never mind. I don't want to hear it."
"I wanted to talk to him first," Bridge said. "I thought..." He swallowed. "I thought I could help."
'But I suppose you wouldn't understand that.' He added silently. Sky said nothing, not during the trip back to SPD headquarters, or even when they gave their mission report to Charlie. He simply ignored Bridge as if he didn't exist.
Bridge waited until they were dismissed, and then headed for Kat's lab. As he walked, something rattled in his pocket. Bridge pulled it out. It was the lucky stone Boom had given him, but he didn't feel so lucky right now.
"Going somewhere?"
A thick arm which ended in a five short, stubby fingers blocked his path, preventing him from walking any further.
"Leave me alone, Tristan," Bridge said. Why did bullies always pick the worst possible time? "I'm really not in the mood for this today, so how about you just leave me alone, and I'll pretend this never happened."
"Oh, the runt's all brave now that he's a cadet," His tormentor said scornfully, giving Bridge a forceful shove. He tried to catch himself, but in doing so dropped Boom's stone, which rolled across the floor to land at Tristan's feet.
The bully picked it up, tossing it up and down in his hand. Bridge made a grab for it, only to have it held above his head, out of his reach. "Give it back!" Bridge demanded, anger tightening his chest.
"I'm not scared of you and your creepy powers," Tristan said. "Come and take it, freak!"
Most days, which meant every day before today, Bridge would just have let it go. It wasn't worth it, he would tell himself. There was no point sinking to their level. He had hoped that they would leave him alone once he made it onto a squad, but they didn't seem intimated at all.
But today was different. Bridge tackled the bully, knocking him to the ground. He grabbed Tristan's hand, trying to peel his thick fingers away from the stone.
Freeing an arm, Tristan threw a heavy punch at him. Bridge ducked to the side, and returned with a punch of his own. The bully cried out in pain, clutching his nose. The stone clattered to the ground.
Bridge tried to reach it, but then one of Tristan's friends shoved him painfully against the wall. Catching himself, Bridge spun around to face the hostile mob. If they wanted a fight, then that was what they were going to get.
'He let a suspect escape,' one voice argued.
'He was trying to help,' said the other.
Sky grimaced, and tried to block both voices out. He hated things that put him in such a difficult position. What Bridge did was against regulations. End of story. His squad had failed their mission, and it was all Bridge's fault.
As he walked, he heard what sounded like shouting in a nearby hallway. Turning the corner, he saw a cadet that looked suspiciously like Bridge punch a trainee, before being forcibly pulled away.
"What's going on here?" Sky demanded, his voice cutting through the mayhem. Everyone turned to look at him, including Bridge. Sky sighed – his new teammate was incapable of staying out of trouble. D-squad failed an assignment because of him, and now he was involved in a fistfight?
One trainee stumbled forward, blood streaming from between his fingers. He looked accusingly at Bridge. "I wasn't doing anything – we were minding our own business when he started pulling rank. And then he suddenly went psycho and attacked me!"
"That's not true!" Bridge said furiously, only to be silenced by a pointed look from Sky.
Sky looked around the crowd, spotting several familiar faces. "I know you," Sky finally said.
"Yeah," one of them, a tall and slightly chubby alien replied. "We used to hang around Dru sometimes."
Sky nodded. "I remember. Now, unless you want me to report this to Cruger, I think you should leave... now."
Tristan gave Bridge a long look that promised pain and retribution. Bridge simply stared back, and eventually the bully turned away, hurrying to catch up with his friends.
"Sky, It wasn't what it looked like," Bridge said, once they were gone. He reached down to pick the stone off the floor.
"It wasn't?" Sky said sharply. "Because what I saw was you beating that trainee to a pulp."
"He started it. They..."
"It doesn't matter who started it. You're supposed to be a real cadet now, not starting fights like a first year. I should write you up this instant."
"Fine, write me up, then!" Bridge said, tears of injustice forming in his eyes. "You haven't liked me from the very beginning, and you won't even give me a chance to tell my side of the story!"
"That's enough," Sky snapped. "I've seen all I needed to see from you. You're impulsive, stubborn and undisciplined, and clearly not ready to be on a squad."
"I'm trying my best," Bridge said quietly.
"Well, your best just isn't good enough. You don't make the cut." Sky turned to leave, but Bridge grabbed his arm.
"Sky, please..."
"Don't touch me." Sky shook his arm free and left without looking back.
To Be Continued
A/N: Oh, no! Will Sky ever warm up to Bridge? Please review!
