Reefside: The "AAR" Chronicles – Part 11
Turbo Charged
By Justin Jack
August 25, 2023
Oliver Residence-The Cave
Reefside, California 8:30 P.M.
"Ugh!!!" Hayley yelled in disgust after spending hours upon hours trying to find the two missing Rangers.
Hayley pounded the keyboard and pushed away from the terminal rubbing her temples. Billy came down the trapdoor steps and saw his wife distraught from the lack of sleep. He walked over and sat the Starbucks cups he brought with him on the console.
"Any luck Hayley?"
She looked up at her husband with rings under her eyes and on the verge of crying. Billy was at her side in a second.
"I take that as a negative," he spoke as he smoothed back the hair out of her face.
"I feel like I failed them," she stated trying to hold back the tears.
"You haven't failed them Hayley."
"How do you know?"
"Because failure is not the Cranston way," he assured her.
Hayley let out a small chuckle as she looked back at the computer screen and saw her reflection.
"Oh God...I look like a piece of shit!" she exclaimed as she tried to fix her hair.
"Yes, but you're my piece of shit," he joked as he placed a kiss on her forehead. She couldn't help but smile at the comment...no matter how vulgar it was.
"Go take a shower sweetie, I'll try my hand at locating our missing comrades."
She nodded and headed for the trapdoor entrance. Hayley spun back around to see her loving husband standing in front of her holding her Starbucks cup.
"Thanks Bill, by the way...where are the kids?"
"Will is calling around to anybody who have seen Tommy or Kim in the last 24 hours. Elizabeth is upstairs in her room...meditating."
"Meditating?" she asked.
"I think she's trying to do one of those 'vision quest' things," he answered.
Billy's memories of Tommy going on his own quest all those years ago to find out his brother David was alive came flooding back to him. When all other avenues of finding Beth's parents had failed, she turned inward towards her soul to search for them. Hopefully, this trait passed on to her from her father would lead her to them.
"With all the technology we have, I still haven't been able to narrow down anything or anywhere that they might be. Whoever has them is one smart mother--," Hayley cuts herself off before she says the one thing that not even Billy has heard her say. She sighs and rubs her eyes. "I'm sorry."
Billy approaches his wife, tilts her chin up and looks into her deep tear filled eyes.
"Don't be," he told her as he wiped away the tears running down her cheeks. "We're only human Hayley, everyone has their limits."
"But my limits could get Kim and Tommy killed...if they're not dead already!"
Hayley's emotions had went the gauntlet over the past day and a half, and the reason she was still sane was because of her loving husband.
"We'll find away to get around whatever is concealing their location, but first you need to go take a shower and get some sleep. I'll see what I can come up with," he told her as he leaned in to plant a soft kiss on her lips.
"Okay, you convinced me, but you should have someone at least down here with you just in case you conk out too. You've been at this just as long as I have," she whispered between sniffles.
"I'll be fine Sweetheart," he answered back.
"You know if Ethan was here, he would have cracked the database, found out where they were and got them home by now...no offense honey," she added.
"None taken, I would take his assistance in a second, but he's headlining an important "Newtech" convention in Japan and can't get away..otherwise he'd be here."
"Should we call in other reinforcements?" Hayley asked.
"Not until we have hard evidence of where they are," Billy answered.
"How do we do that with the system being blocked by whoever is behind this?"
"Call in the N.S.A.!"
The couple were startled out of their embrace by a voice coming from the stairwell. As they gazed at the young man standing atop the steps, the question as to who this person is was answered by the dark blue trench coat, light blue muscle shirt and the morpher on his wrist.
They both cracked huge smiles as he walked down to greet them. The last time they saw him was in Tommy's video diary.
"Justin!" Hayley squealed as she rushed to hug the now fully grown retired Blue Turbo Ranger.
Justin Stewart, the youngest Power Ranger ever on any team. He first gained his powers when Rocky, former Blue Zeo Ranger 3 was injured during a training session for a karate tournament. He was picked by Zordon as the new bearer of the Blue Mountain Blaster Turbo power. Justin served with the Rangers until their mission to space to rescue their kidnapped mentor. He joined the Space Rangers for one mission to rescue the remaining Turbo Zords from Divatox.
Fast forward six years. At the age of 19, Justin was the youngest person ever recruited by the Government for a mission for the N.S.A. His Ranger history was classified by Lightspeed Rescue at the request of the N.S.A to protect his identity, he was so deep undercover on his mission that not even his former teammates knew of his whereabouts. Before embarking on his mission, Justin returned his Turbo morpher to it's original owner Rocky. Rocky donned the Turbo powers for the first time in a rescue mission to save the kidnapped future Mrs. Hart-Oliver from Mesogog. After it was all said and done, Rocky returned the morpher to Justin and retired for good...and married Aisha.
Now in his late 30's, Justin is the top computer hacker in his field for the Government. The scrawny little 12 year old had grown into a mountain of a man at 6'2" and was all muscle. His shaggy haircut was gone, replaced with a slicked back 'do and a goatee. Hayley's happiness overrode her sleepiness, at least for the moment. She released the hug as Billy shook his fellow Blue Ranger's hand.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"I was just driving through Reefside hoping to catch up with "The Big Red One" Tommy Oliver and Company, when I got a call about their kidnapping so I came running," he answered back.
"Who called you?" Billy cut in.
"I made the call." They looked back at the stairs and saw Will making his way down through the passage way.
"Well, we're glad you're here. Someone's been smart enough to jam our sensor relays, and we can't locate Tommy or Kim without it." Billy told the government agent.
"Hey, it's me. There hasn't been a database I can't hack through yet. Just let me work my magic." he assured the veteran Blue Ranger.
Billy showed Justin over to the console followed by Will. He sat in the swivel chair, cracked his knuckles and began typing at a rapid pace. "Come out, come out wherever you are," Justin sang to himself.
Billy had escorted Hayley upstairs to the shower leaving the cyber hacker and his young counterpart to search for the back door and undo whatever was causing the interference.
"Hey, aren't government agents supposed to wear suits?" Will asked jokingly out of the blue.
"It was casual week. Besides I left the Neuralizer and the talking pug back at the office," Justin joked back.
"How long is this gonna take?"
"Minutes...hours...days, something like that."
Justin could feel the cold stare of Will without even looking at him.
"It's a joke man, lighten up. I'll try to narrow it down to five minutes."
Will patted him on the shoulder and headed for the trap door exit.
"Do your best, I'm gonna go check on B."
Justin looked over at the young Cranston. "Oh yeah, how is she? I haven't seen her in a few years."
"How much time you got?" Will questioned.
"Hey, until they're safe at home, I'm here to stay," he assured the young genius.
"I'll go tell her you're here, maybe that'll perk her up."
With that, Will scaled the steps up through the passage and made a beeline for Beth's room passing the bathroom where he could hear the water running...probably his mom in the shower. He strolled by the guest room where he saw his father fast asleep on the bed. He reached Beth's door and knocked...no answer.
"B, you in there?"
No answer. He turned the door knob and peeked in. Beth was sitting Indian style on her bed, her eyes closed and breathing slowly as if in a trance. Then Will remembered Beth's plan to try to reach her parents spiritually. So he wouldn't disturb her, he quietly backed out of the room. "Good luck B," he whispered as he shut the door behind him.
End of Part 11
TBC