A third chapter! Already! Wow, this story is really rolling for me. The creative flow can't be stopped!
emoprincess3587: Thank you! I'm sure everything will work out eventually.. I have some rather intesting things planned!
Ms. Fairweather: Eee, I'm glad you like it! I'm also quite relieved to know I've managed to get it right.
Without further ado, let's get going..
-
Bridge arrived very, very late. As he got to the door and leaned on the door frame, giving a sloppy salute with the wrong arm, everyone simply turned to stare. With his fingers bare, he could feel the mixed feelings. Cruger's disapproval, Kat's surprise and his friends mixture of disbelief and worry. Bridge shuffled to his place in the link, holding his arm and attempting an alert expression.
No one said anything.
Cruger then drew a breath and continued. "The criminal was last see here." He indicated an industrial estate on the screen next to him. Bridge zoned out after this. There was much more being said but he couldn't bring himself to put it in the 'important' section of his mind. His arm felt funny. After a moment, the green ranger sunk to the floor, ending cross legged and vacant.
It must have been a few minutes later as the Commander said,
"Dismissed." The others seemed to know what was going on and Bridge received more then one pat of comfort or support to his good shoulder. He was left with Cruger frowning down on him. Bridge looked up at him with a puzzled expression.
"Cadet, you are to stay in the med bay. I don't know what you were trying to prove by coming here, but there is no shame in letting yourself heal."
Trust Cruger to get the wrong end of the stick… Bridge squinted slightly. Blue dog. Oh. Wait a second. Blue!
"Blue!" He all but shouted, alarming both Kat and Cruger. He scrambled to his feet clumsily and threw himself out of the door as if he were perfectly fine.
Kat looked to Cruger who looked back. "What was...?" He started and Kat just smiled.
"That's Bridge being… Bridge." She replied and set off after the green ranger.
-
Bridge went straight to the med bay room and started looking. He found all sorts of interesting things and continued to get momentarily distracted by each of them, his one able arm slowing him down considerably. He'd pushed the headache to the 'unimportant' place in his thoughts, rifling everywhere for what he needed and generally making a mess.
"This what you're looking for?"
He turned sharply to find Kat standing behind him, at the room door, Banshu's feather in her hand, safely wrapped in a specimen bag.
"Yes." He went over to her. Kat took it carefully form the bag, making a point not to cut herself on the sharp edges. Bridge touched the middle of the quill lightly with his bare fingers.
"Blue." He said.
Yes. Blue.
"I know, I just said that."
"What?" Kat looked at him in confusion.
"Sorry... You didn't say anything?" Bridge shook his head after a moment, feeling as though his brain was squishing around loose inside his skull. "But yes. Blue. But that bird had," He waved his good arm around as he looked for a word. "Red. Or orange."
Kat frown slightly at this. "Can't someone have more then one colour?"
Bridge paused, carefully pulling his hand away from the feather. "Yes. But not like this. For example." He carefully flicked his exposed fingers towards Kat. "Yours is pinky orange." He said carefully, not wanting to look intrusive. "I've never really looked properly before now but I'm sure I've never seen any bright other colours like blue or green in it."
Kat tried to get her head around the green ranger's powers. "I'll run a scan on the feather." She decided after a moment, turning away with it. "And Bridge, do get some rest, okay?" Her concern was appreciated for the moment but Bridge decided now was a time for toast and not for rest.
-
The others were in the rec-room. Syd was sitting with a handful of beads and strings, making a bracelet. Sky flicked through a datapad. Z was talking to Jack quietly, both of them sitting on the sofa. All of them looked up as he entered the room. There was a silence and four question expressions.
Bridge made a gesture towards the kitchen-y bit of the room. "Toast?" He said, walking slowly towards the toaster, almost drawn by a magnetic force. Sky got up to help him and Bridge gave him such a long suffering look, he sat back down again. He could feel all four pairs of eyes boring into his back as he found bread and put it in the toaster. Jack broke the silence.
"You should be in bed. We could have brought you toast." Jack had a feeling this was about something other then toast. Bridge had never been any good at sitting still anyway and he doubted now was an exception. Bridge turned to look at him distantly, thinking to himself.
"Blue can't be orange, right?" The green ranger sighed. Z covered Jack's confused expression by replying.
"No. A colour can't be another colour, right?"
Bridge nodded, mostly to himself, "But with that guy it was. Maybe I imagined it. Or maybe he imagined me and I don't exist and I'm not saying what I'm saying right now." The toast popped from the toaster and Bridge picked it out, realising that buttering it might be a challenge with one hand. "Uhm…" He poked at the toast doubtfully. "Butter?" He asked, putting on his best pleeeeeeaaassseee voice.
Z got up to help him and he smiled gratefully. "I never really thought how useful two hands are."
There was quiet for a few moments until Sky looked up from his datapad. "You're saying this crook wasn't what he seemed, Bridge?"
"When are they ever?" Syd put in with a pout, tying off a pink bracelet.
Z finished up with the toast ad piled it onto a plate. Bridge picked a slice up, munching on the corner gratefully. Mm, buttery. His damaged hand twitched at the thought and he winced.
"Just… we can't take him at face value." Bridge summed up lamely before picking up his toast plate and staggering towards the door. "Med bay." He confirmed to the second lot of puzzled glances thrown his way.
Only Sky noticed he was heading the opposite direction and the blue ranger stood to follow his friend.
-
Bridge headed for his and Sky's shared room. He needed another glove. Even brushing his fingers along the walls made him flinch. He felt dizzy again too and barely kept his old on his toast.
Reaching his room, he shuffled in and dumped the toast on Sky's overly clean desk. Dropping down to a small box, he pulled out a spare glove. Bridge began to pull off as much of the bandaging on his hand as possible, but the gauze was stuck to his wound with clotted blood and he winced. So deeply concentrating was he that he didn't notice or sense the shielded Sky until he was next to him.
Sky had even noticed the toast on his desk and hadn't said anything. That spoke volumes to Bridge.
"Bridge, you should leave that on." He said, a touch of uncertainty in his voice. Bridge didn't look up.
"I need the gloves, Sky." Was the response, unusually serious. "And one of my long sleeve shirts." He'd picked the last of the bandage free. 6 stitches held the back of his hand together. He didn't bother to hide the wince as he pulled his replacement glove on over the wound.
Sky was poking through Bridge's piles of clutter in search of a shirt, having little success. The green ranger located one immediately and fumbled it on over his green t shirt, leaving it open at the front.
"The med bay is full of horrible memories." He said quietly, the truth also making a perfect excuse. "And I need to be able to think about that feather in peace."
Sky nodded. "Know anything about the criminal we don't?"
"Called 'Banshu'." And suddenly, the serious attitude just dropped away. "Imagine Syd's face if they banned shoes.."
"I'll look it up." Sky said and walked out the room. Bridge slowly made his own way back to the med bay.
-
Kat was waiting when he got back. She raised an eyebrow disapprovingly then smiled at the toast in his hand, now reduced to two bits left. Bridge abandoned the plate again, on top of some important medical documents, before going over to Kat.
"Want some toast? It's real buttery." Again, the fingers twitched on his damaged hand but were unable to move properly.
"Maybe later, Bridge.. But I've got back the preliminaries from that feather. It's got three different DNA traces. Yours, what we're assuming is the aliens and an unidentifiable third." Bridge nodded and Kat continued.
"Secondary tests on the inside of the feather are still being carried out." She stood from where she'd been sitting on a short chair and went to the door. "I'll be back later with what we find."
Bridge frowned. This was not going very fast, was it? Perhaps it was time he did his own investigating. It took him a while to put on his boots. He left his jacket and edged to the door, then headed for the base entrance, trying to look as stable on his feet as possible.
-
Sky was in the control room searching the criminal's name. It took a lot of searching but the guy was a wanted bird on over a dozen planets, each of them beyond SPD jurisdiction. Earth would be his 14th hit. He'd broken laws on every planet, offences ranging from theft, to murder to criminal damage.
The blue ranger glanced up to the security screen and looked away before double taking. Was that Bridge in the foyer? With a sigh, he recorded his findings to his datapad and followed after him.
-
Gruumm was angry. He looked down from his throne at Banshu with utter disgust on his face.
"You could have destroyed him! Playing petty games cost us a victory!" He shouted, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"Forgive me, emperor!" Banshu cawed, almost grovelling.
Kill him.
No. He's the one paying us.
Kill him.
"You're not being paid to fail!" Gruumm said on cue, standing and generally looming over the bird, looking ready to reek painful punishment on the bowing creature.
Broodwing stepped forwards from the shadows. "Emperor, let me have a chance to finish what he started. Perhaps between us we could do well out of this situation."
Gruumm looked at him. "You're scum, Broodwing, but it appears I have little choice but to agree."
"Excellent emperor, I'll add the fee to your next bill." He nodded to himself. Time to go and see Piggy.
-
"Wow, you look worse then usual." Pigy leaned on the counter of his restaurant, eyeing Bridge. The green ranger was leaning against the side of the counter, glancing around himself. He was receiving suspicious looks from the clientele yet none of them had fled as usual. Maybe it was because there was only one of him and he was battered looking. Not a comforting thought.
"Piggy, have you seen a bird guy around? Like, this tall…" Bridge gestured. "Name's Banshu." Several of the café customers edged their chairs away from him but a couple were eyeing the ranger with curiosity. "You must have heard something."
"No, nothing. Can't say I've heard anything. Now go away, you're putting of my customers!" he shooed with his hands. Bridge frowned and gingerly took the glove off his damaged hand. It was easier then trying to remove his other glove with his stiff fingers. Piggy was nervous and he was also lying. Bridge stared at him vacantly.
"You sure Piggy?" He said with a small smile, eyes flicking towards the ones watching him.
"Yes, very sure. Now, uh, go bother someone else. Huh, try Gorrek in the docks. He watches who comes in and out of this city." He scowled. "Now will you go away?!"
"Thanks!" Bridge grinned and sauntered away. The two that had been watching him got up to follow, smiling nastily.
After Bridge had left, Broodwing leered from the darkness, stepping over to Piggy.
"Interesting, Piggy, you've been more help then I expected."
Piggy quailed. "Broodwing! Okay, fine. Good for me. Go away."
Broodwing did just that, taking flight towards the docks.
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Odd place to end, I realise, but this chapter got looooooooooong! More coming soon please R&R!