Disclaimer: I don't own them.
A/N: Happy April Fool's Day! For your pranking pleasure, I present...Damon Henderson.
When Damon checked into work in the Engineering section, he found himself assigned to the least favorite duty in the crew. Troubleshooting. That meant that he was supposed to run around Terra Venture in response to calls for help. As he glared at the schedule, Damon heard someone come up behind him and he tensed, "I'm sorry, Damon."
Damon relaxed; it was his boss, Adrian McKinley, "What about? Everyone has to take time for troubleshooting, sir."
"Well, it was decided that you'll be doing a lot more of it, so that you don't have to leave projects unfinished to be a Ranger," Adrian replied. "Andrew thinks that there will be fewer calls because no one wants to look stupid in front of a Ranger and I think there will be more, so that people can meet a Ranger."
Damon nodded, "Good point. I think, however, the thrill will go away faster than you'd think. Especially if I can be rude and sarcastic to the stupid ones; I may be a superhero, but I'm also a blue-collar man with a job to do."
Adrian chuckled, "Go right ahead, if they complain, I'll just tell them you're a Power Ranger, what can I do to stop you, right?"
Damon nodded and turned to get his things ready. "I'll just hang out on the Megaship, then. If there's any trouble, DECA and I finally fixed the teleporter, I can get there instantly."
"Better not advertise that," Adrian said, "people are lazy enough."
"Right, but do you mind if I start there? The shields were fluctuating more than I liked last time we took her out." Damon replied as he put together his kit.
"Go right ahead," Adrian replied, "I'll know where to call you if we need you down here."
Damon grinned, "Thanks, Adrian." He glanced around to make sure that there wasn't anyone but Adrian around and lifted his morpher to his wrist, "DECA, this is Damon."
"Damon, how can I assist you?" DECA asked.
"I thought we could test the teleportation system this morning," Damon replied, slinging his tool bag over a shoulder, "What do you say?"
"It will be no hardship to teleport you at this time," DECA replied.
"All right, let's go," Damon replied.
Green sparkles incased him and Damon blinked, only to find himself on the Megaship, "Welcome, Damon."
"Thanks, DECA. I'm troubleshooting today, so I thought I'd do some shield recalibrations while I wait for something to do."
"If you feel you must," DECA said.
Damon laughed, unlike others on the team, he liked DECA's attitude, under the battleship training, the AI was another engineer at heart, and the Megaship was HER playground. "I just think the diodes are misaligned on the port side, easy fix."
"As you say," DECA said, "however, Shift Supervisor McKinley is hailing the Megaship."
Damon nodded and walked down the hall into the Bridge, "On screen, please," he said.
"Damon, got a pair for you," McKinley said, "Command wants an engineer, and then drop by SMART on your way back."
"Certainly, Adrian," Damon replied.
The screen went blank and Damon rolled his eyes, "I'm on my way, then, DECA, I'll see you later."
"I could teleport you," DECA offered, "it will be a fitting test."
"Sounds good," Damon said.
"Teleporting now."
The familiar green swept over him and Damon blinked, only to find himself before the command tower that housed the military, or Command, and the science, or SMART, divisions. He walked up to the building and let himself in and took the elevator to the Command helm. Commander Stanton and Kai were near the door talking quietly when the elevator opened and as Damon stepped out onto the floor; Kai saluted the Commander and walked over to him. "Damon," he said in a crisp tone.
"Kai," Damon replied, "you called for an engineer?"
"Yes," Kai said, "the auxiliary comm. station has lost power again. Care to take a look?"
"Lead the way," Damon replied. The auxiliary comm. station was off to one side of the room, and the only one not lit up. "I'll see what I can do, Kai," Damon said, kneeling to look under the console. Sure enough, the electrical panel was open, so getting to the wires wouldn't be a problem, opening his bag up and setting it in arms length, Damon strapped a light to his head and got to work.
It took a while, but Damon fixed the problem, wondering who on Earth had thought that was an acceptable way to run wires. He took a deep breath and started too slide out from under the consol when someone tripped over him with a yell. Damon yelped at the connection of the military boot with his ankle and slid out from under the consol, "Hey, I'm working here," he snapped, rubbing his ankle for a moment.
The GSA soldier looked at him for a moment from where he was standing and then walked off. Damon felt his eyebrows go up, because he had surely just been dismissed, and by a soldier! He was a Power Ranger. Honestly, just because he worked for a living…Damon shook off his anger and turned to see if he could spot Kai, but the Blue Ranger had vanished. Damon sighed and reached under the consol to flip on the power. There was a faint hum in his fingers and then he stood up and was able to see the screen come on. He grinned, slapped the panel shut and stood. Commander Stanton was standing towards the center of the Bridge and Damon walked over, "Commander Stanton," he said, respectful.
"Yes?" Stanton replied.
"Auxiliary comm. should be back on-line, sir." Damon replied.
"Thank you," Stanton said.
"You're welcome," Damon said, and, after detouring for his bag, headed for the lift.
"Damon!" Damon turned, and smiled as Kendrix hurried over, "I'm glad I caught you, can you spare me a bit of time?"
Damon checked his watch, "Well; only if you can feed me, it's nearly lunch time."
"Sure," Kendrix said and linked arms with him. "It's nothing big, just some of the others want to ask questions about the engines. They're a bit upset, so don't expect them to be too friendly."
"No problem," Damon said, "unfriendly seems to be a bit of a theme lately."
Damon shortly found himself in a conference room with four scientists and Kendrix, all of whom looked a bit tense. "So, Kendrix said you wanted to know about the engines," Damon said, "where do you want to begin?"
"Well," one of the four, an older man with a pinched expression on his face, "we should start with how many engines are running on a regular basis?"
Damon wondered if this was some sort of joke as he answered, "All four engines work, sir; all the time. Especially now during our run up to cruising speed, and they'll continue when we get there to help maneuver as needed."
The questions came steadily, all of them just within the bounds of stupidity, and all of them making Damon wish he could just leave. Honestly, this information was available to anyone who cared to ask, it was even on the computer, why was he here?
Finally, they were done, and now very hungry, Damon went to eat. He was just in the middle of a very good sandwich when he was called to go to one of the fountains in the shopping area. He got there and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing.
Someone had dumped bubbles in the fountain, and instead of water, it was now flowing multi-colored bubbles, Damon distinctly noticed green, blue, red, and purple in the colors before he was distracted.
"Thank god you're here!" A man in maintenance garb declared, "We've tried everything we could."
"What's going on?" Damon asked, "Why do you need an engineer?"
"We can't clear the fountain," the man said.
"Turn the water off," Damon replied, "it's not that hard."
"We can't get the knob to turn, sir. The water won't shut off," the man said, his voice nearly a wail.
"Easy," Damon said, "I'm sure we can do something. Show me where the shut off valve is for the fountain and we'll start there."
Unfortunately, that particular valve was hidden under the bubbles, so Damon asked for a leaf blower, which cleared the bubbles admirable. What the bubbles concealed, however, was some sort of dying agent, because when Damon pulled his hand out of the fountain after trying to turn the valve, his hand was a rather attractive shade of purple. Damon mentally cursed and then adjusted his stance before reaching into the fountain again. The valve began to turn, but Damon could feel the Power flowing though him, strengthening his arm and making it easier for the valve to turn. When it did stop turning, the water stopped as well, with a gurgle. Damon stood, "Well, that should do it," he said, "Call…" a hard shove sent Damon stumbling forward into the maintenance guy. He grabbed the man's shoulders and threw himself to the ground, dragging the other guy with him. Then he looked behind him, expecting to see a monster, or at the least stingwingers standing there.
The fountain, instead of being shut off, was now emitting jets of water at terrific force. Damon growled and rolled out from under the jet that had struck him and headed for the nearest computer terminal. He took his ranger id tag from his pocket and slammed it into the reader. "Ranger Henderson, how may I be of service?" The AI asked.
"Shut off the water to this section, all of it. Tell them it's on Ranger orders," Damon replied. "Then restore water pipe by pipe until you know which pipes feed that fountain, and keep those shut down. Send a request to engineering for a few guys to come up and look at that thing; it's a hazard, especially with the location of the shut off valve."
"As you ordered, Ranger Henderson," the AI replied.
Damon turned, and found the maintenance guy staring at him. "Yes," he said bluntly, "I am the Green Ranger, yes, I work in engineering. You have a job to do." His personal communicator rang, "As do I." He walked away from the site while he read his next order. Damon rolled his eyes but found an available car and headed across the dome.
INEBGdamonINEBGdamonINEBGdamon
Damon ran down the corridors below Terra Venture as fast as he could, having received an emergency call about some type of dangerous machine. Worried that it might be the work of Trahkeena, Damon prepared himself to morph as soon as he got a good look at the situation. He skidded around the last corridor and stopped to take in the scene. Several people, including a group of GSA guards, were on the far side of the machine, all of them were at or beyond the next cross-corridor, the machine sat between them like a humming, sparking monster, spitting sparks and arcs of power in all directions. Damon had barely begun to acknowledge the machine when an arc of power lanced from the machine to strike him full on. Pain shot through his nerves from the electricity, then vanished with an almost audible snap as his Ranger suite came, unbidden, to protect him from the dangerous powers that had been unleashed.
The power shrunk back into the machine and Damon looked down the corridor at the others, feeling his normally dormant temper flare, "Did anyone want to keep this thing for study?" He shouted.
"No, just shut it off!" One of the GSA soldiers replied.
"No problem," Damon replied, "Quasar Saber."
Sword in hand, Damon walked calmly up to the machine, which continued to try to shoot bolts of electricity into him. Lifting the sword, Damon brought it down viciously.
INEBGdamonINEBGdamonINEBGdamonINEBG
Kai had been called from Command to help with the machine, and his arrival was moments after Damon's appearance. Standing amidst the GSA personnel, he watched in shock as Damon proceeded to not only shut off the machine, but to dismantle it in such a fashion as to ensure that it would never be useful again.
As the machine's noise died down, Damon's voice was heard, although his words were unclear, and as the last of the sparks flew, his words became audible. "And then, I get turned purple, purple, trying to help clean up a fountain."
The last large pieces fell and Kai stepped forward, "Good job, Damon," he said, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice, "You killed it."
Damon looked up, his morph fading away, "Kai? When did you get here?"
"Just after you did," Kai said, "although you did seem to have things under control. Bad day?"
"Yeah," Damon said. He glanced at his watch and grinned, "But it's over now, so that's something."
"Mine too," Kai said, "Leo was saying we needed to meet on the Megaship, you ready?"
"Absolutely," Damon replied. "Let other people deal with crazy electricity and bubbly fountains. I'd much rather fight stingwingers."
"You and me both," Kai agreed, walking through the mess.
"Hey, DECA, would you care to teleport Kai and me to the Megaship?" Damon asked into his communicator.
"Of course, Damon," DECA replied. "Prepare to teleport."
Kai nodded at Damon's glance, "We're ready," Damon said.
Green sparkles obscured Damon's vision, and then cleared to show the glider bay. For a moment, Damon wondered if he was still teleporting, then, "SURPRISE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
Damon looked around in awe, there were green balloons and streamers everywhere, and besides his teammates stood a small knot of people, most of whom wore green. "Wow," he said, grinning, "thanks guys."
"Well, we figured that this was the perfect day to meet you," one of the green-clad men said, "I'm Tommy Oliver, and I was the first Earth Green Ranger. When we got the information on you Galaxy Rangers, we saw when your birthday was and decided to come meet you."
"Cool," Damon said.
"But for now," Leo said, "let's have cake!"
INEBGdamonINEBGdamonINEBGdamonINEBG
Damon was chatting with one of the Greens; a man named Adam, when one of the others, a man Damon thought was named TJ, cried out, "Absolutely not! I refuse, and how did you get that anyways? DECA said we'd gotten rid of all the copies on board."
"From the Archives," Tommy replied, "you know, on Eltare, where all the Ranger Traditions store their records? The original is there, we just get to have copies of it."
"Then I'm going to have that file erased," TJ declared.
"Can't," Tommy replied, "the records are non-erasable."
"I'm bored," Carlos commented as he wandered over to join Damon and Adam, "Tommy got to have all the real fun today with the fountain…" Carlos trailed off as Adam shook his head frantically.
"What?" Damon said, "Tommy as in that man right there is responsible for the bubbly fountain?"
Adam and Carlos stood totally still, "Yes?" Adam suggested.
"Thanks," Damon said, he turned, Quasar Saber already appearing in his hand, "Tommy," he declared, "I'm going to kill you, you turned me purple." Chased by the laughter of the rest of the room, Damon chased Tommy from the glider bay.
A/N2: Andros is not at this party, because he's off looking for Zane, who is doing something...Silvery. In 'To The Tenth Power', Leo and Andros had never met, but the other guys were friendly pretty quickly, and why not, they got to meet the Galaxy Rangers for Damon's b-day party. And by the way, if you think Damon was mad about the fountain, you don't want to know what he did when he found out that Adam and Billy built that electrical monstristy. Needless to say, Aquitar will never regard their Human the same way again.