A\N: Oh, it's not drugs, my brain is just batsh*t. Good to know.
A\N II: Whoops, Adam's call sign is not Black Ranger II. It's Ninjetti Black. Sorry about that-reuploading to fix the error.
Location: Redwood forests between Reefside and Fortuna, CA
Date: September 11, 2003
They were...a pack.
Conner\Kira\Ethan were one being now, as they had been for hours, running, running wild through first Reefside and then into the woods. On any other day the redwood forests would have been their playground, but they had been in too much pain, too far gone, and had run until finally they had worn themselves out.
Now it was morning.
They woke slowly, one body at a time of the trio hivemind. The forests were like a fairy-tale palace, cloaked in mist and woven with endless beauty. Conner\Kira\Ethan stayed where they were, warm, safe, together.
Vague memories began to stir. Memories of Black, of language, of beds and walls. The memories were senseless, fading away like mist with the emotions they evoked. Conner\Kira\Ethan shrugged and relaxed, content for now to simply be.
There was a sound of sniffling.
They sat up and began looking.
The noise was a boy. Dark-skinned and dark-haired. They reached, instinctively, for his mind, the only way they could recognize people anymore-
They drew back, hissing. His mind was scarred, destroyed, ruined.
The boy looked up. He said something, but they had no language. But they were curious now, Kira especially, drawing nearer, reaching out. The boy took the body's hands-Ethan's-and whispered something.
They smiled.
Conner\Kira\Ethan were hungry. They would go find food, and bring the boy with them. A new packmate.
The boy's mind reached out, slowly, painfully. Conner\Kira\Ethan welcomed their new packmate, coming to curl around him, mentally and physically. Name? Conner asked, with what little language he remembered. Your name what?
...Trent, the boy whispered. Name Trent.
They froze.
*PR*PR*PR*
Location: Reefside Police Headquarters, Reefside
Date: September 11, 2003
Captain Vasquez saw the Black Ranger.
Well, Tommy Oliver. Presumably he was hanging around the police station in civilian form to avoid being recognized, but Vasquez had already figured out the identities of the Rangers anyway.
Vasqeuz sighed and headed over to the bench where Oliver was sitting. "Mind?"
Oliver shook his head. Vasquez sat.
There was silence, and then Vasquez glanced at the door to the war room. "Lots of characters in there." He murmured. "Don't know how many you recognized. The suits, I didn't know them, but I'd bet Homeland Security. General McKnight...well, he's already nearly caused international incidents three times with the Daemon down in Mariner Bay. And god knows we all appreciated that idiot from the civilian review board yapping about how long we can keep this place locked down..."
Oliver didn't move.
"Your kids took off, didn't they."
Vasquez wasn't expecting Oliver's head to whip around, eyes glowing green. To his credit, he didn't flinch. "Police get unfiltered information. I was the one who took our networks down and told the tech crews to call it static." He grinned. "You're welcome."
There was a pause, and Oliver sighed. Vasquez glanced at his coffee, then handed it to Oliver. He needed it more than Vasquez did.
"They're good kids." Oliver said quietly.
"I know." Vasquez reassured him. "Who was the white one?"
"Trent."
Vasquez nodded and made a mental note to add either child neglect or abuse to the list of Things He Wanted to Charge Anton Mercer With. (It was a long list. Mercer, in his human form, rubbed Vasquez the wrong way; as Mesegog, Vasquez considered it a sacred duty to prosecute the bastard to the full extent of the law.)
"The kids..." Oliver sighed. "If I give you Ranger intel, can you keep it out of the loop?"
"Sure." If only because Oliver clearly needed to talk.
Oliver gave Vasquez a long, searching look. Apparently, he liked what he saw. As did most people, to be honest; it was why Vasquez was the go-to man for tough confessions. "Mesegog captured them...years ago. Forget how many." Oliver chuckled. "Too early in the morning."
"Amen."
"He put a lot of stuff in their heads. Bad stuff. I think he's just a sadist, but some of it was actual programming." Oliver drank the coffee like another man would take a shot of alcohol, an air of desperation around him. "They thought Trent was dead. Haley didn't...she told me you wanted to look for some stray kid, couldn't remember his name. I didn't know..."
"You were friends?"
Oliver chuckled. "He tagged along on digs. I guess so." Oliver shook his head. "There were a lot of dead. I didn't think to look for a body. And the kids, they'd seen so much..."
"But he's back."
Oliver shut his eyes.
Vasquez reached out, rubbing the man's shoulder, every inch sympathetic, pieces of a puzzle slotting into place as his mind raced. "What happened to your kids?"
Oliver chuckled. "They saw Trent." He shook his head, opening his eyes, and Vasquez saw a dark, angry pain in them. It was the sort of pain that had been on Vasquez's face, once upon a time. The pain that Vasquez had become an officer to end. "They...what happened, it broke part of them. And when they saw Trent..."
Vasquez waited.
"They're feral." Oliver said finally. "That's the best way to explain it. Feral, but a hivemind, with all the training and ability of adult Rangers. They're not bad, but they've never gotten this far before. And even partway into this state, they..." Oliver glared at the ground. "I didn't ask if they killed. Sometimes, I knew, but..."
Vasquez nodded. "Killers."
Oliver sighed. "No. Only if they feel the need." He nodded at the war room door. "And we have three parties that would love nothing more than to give them a very bad situation right about now."
Vasquez hesitated, then stood. "Come on, then."
Oliver raised an eyebrow.
"Well," Vasquez said cheerfully, "Someone's gotta find your kids."
Oliver hesitated. Then, slowly, a grin broke out across his face.
*PR*PR*PR*
Location: Reefside, exact location unknown
Date: September 11, 2003
They were one.
Conner\Kira\Ethan\Trent, now, wandered Reefside. They found Conner's car and drove recklessly and laughed and stole food from an abandoned convenience store and found a park and played games and...and were four.
Four. Not three. Four. It had been three years since they had been a whole pack.
They were a pack again.
Somewhere in the afternoon, though, they saw someone in black following them. Dangerous, their minds whispered. They could sense the power shooting from him, the Gem-Power.
They couldn't recognize him.
They jumped into Conner's car and drove, running away with the intent of being unfindable. They were, and after a minute the man was gone, but now they remembered their mission.
They were going to kill the one who had hurt their packmate.
*PR*PR*PR*
Location: Reefside
Date: September 11, 2003
"Shit."
Vasquez caught up with Oliver. And he had to say, that morph was slightly weird-looking up close. "You lost them?"
Oliver didn't reply. Vasqeuz could imagine the expression. "Relax. While you were busy trying to get their attention, I slapped a GPS on their car."
Oliver's head turned. Vasquez really wanted to see this expression. "Come on, Oliver." Vasquez said, slapping him playfully on the back. "Let's go see what those kids are up to." He frowned. "By the way, wouldn't a better option be doughnuts?"
"...I really, really should re-examine my life right about now."
*PR*PR*PR*
Location: Reefside
Date: September 11, 2003
There was a gun store. This time they didn't leave money behind to pay for what they took. None of them could afford a gun.
But they couldn't morph. They would risk losing the mindmeld. And that just...
They hesitated.
Looking at each other, they remembered something. Something simple. They were one. That was written in stone, an unmutable law.
They had been apart so long...
No. No, never, not ever again, no more leaving! They were one and they would always be one, fingers and arms linking, souls as one being. And one of them had been hurt\it was their duty to fight, so they would kill Mesegog\Anton, but they would never leave this place again.
They were one. Now, and forever. They were one.
*PR*PR*PR*
Location: Reefside Police Headquarters, Reefside
Date: September 11, 2003
Tommy really detested meetings. This was no exception.
General McKnight was all but screaming after his briefing, shouting about 'those damn demons' and how this was all...well, hell if Tommy knew, some kind of plot to take over America or something. If Tommy had to hear one more reference to Commies, he was going to ask out loud when McKnight retired. The Homeland Security folks, as well as the CIA and FBI, were vying for jurisdiction, which had no basis in law. The civilian review board's representative was demanding evidence that there was even need for this shutdown, which Tommy could sympathize with, except giving evidence would involve murder charges for at least one of his children.
And Tommy, morphed, waited, while the GPS signal from his kids headed straight for a secret AMI laboratory.
Anton Mercer Industries was a megacorporation, one that used its name roughly never. It had been passed from father to son for generations, changing the name each time, making it insanely difficult to trace. It worked through subsidiary companies, which was what made it so effective-the head management could direct anything from creating a banana republic to funding a local museum, and yet it could never be linked officially back to anyone.
It had a dark side. Weapons development, mostly, but under Anton, it had gone into biowarfare research. It was easiest to sell as 'but we can create something good from this highly illegal research!' if they got caught, and Anton just liked playing with viruses.
As far as Tommy knew, all of the kids had been lab rats for bioweapons. Once they had bonded to the Dino Gems, Mesegog had no use for them, but Anton...well, a test subject that was nearly indestructible? It must have been impossible for Anton to resist.
Tommy wondered, some days, what had happened to the strange, quiet man who had spent hours geeking out over Jurassic Park with him and mentored him through half of college. And how Tommy could have gotten him so wrong.
"...Some idiot civilian dictate military policy!" McKnight bellowed.
Vasquez jumped up, putting himself between the civilian representative and McKnight, who was half out of his chair, and Tommy sighed.
The kids were getting closer to the base, and all he could do was watch.
*PR*PR*PR*
Location: AMI Research And Development Center, Reefside Foothills
Date: September 11, 2003
The lobby was completely deserted.
The four teenagers walked in looking like nightmares, holding guns and with stony faces. They moved as one being, not jerkily or oddly but fluidly, and there was an air about them, as if they had just walked off the battlefield.
They were walking monsters, looking for prey. The telepath listening felt their faint twinge of disappointment that there was no prey in the lobby.
Well, far be it from him to disappoint. Mesegog, shapeshifted into Anton Mercer, stepped out from his hiding place. Any observer would have thought he was insane-a lone man stepping into the dimly-lit lobby while the wind from the rain-threatening clouds outside whirled to announce the arrival of four monsters. Any human would have run away, spurred on by the dramatic scene.
Mesegog loved it.
"Hey, you're all right!" Mesegog said with Anton's mouth. "I was worried about you." He tilted his head. "Did you guys miss me?"
And then he shapeshifted.
*PR*PR*PR*
Location: Reefside Police Headquarters, Reefside
Date: September 11, 2003
"Ninjetti Black."
"Adam, it's me. Code red."
"Details?"
"I'll brief you on the way here. Just get here."
"Yessir. Black out."