A/N: OK, fair warning, in about six weeks I'll be attending a certain convention in Anaheim, and I'll be away for a week, so I won't be writing during that time.
Secondly, I will not be finished with the Ninja Steel section of my stories by then, but I certainly hope to be a good way through it, including an original storyline to replace the "Adventures of Redbot" episode which I was not a huge fan of.
I hope to finish THIS story before I go, but no promises. Enjoy the chapter.
The ride back to the office was a long one for Marcus. He had now been caught up in a very difficult position, one that he had no intention of getting himself into. His investment, his new resort was meant to be a major crowning jewel in his portfolio, one that would ensure the legacy and prosperity of the Tien name, likely until Preston's grandchildren became adults!
He played with his wedding ring, which he still wore even all these years after his wife had been taken from him. He was never the best with people, he always knew that much. He was a shark in the board room and when it came to negotiation he was a master, but when it came to dealing with people, sadly he had a habit of reducing things to a very simple case of people who would do what he wanted and people who were in his way. His wife had been the one to curb him whenever he was about to take things too far. He was starting to wonder what she would say if she could see him now, what she would say to him.
When he had heard that Al was the one behind the law suit his labourers were filing, he had initially been incensed. As much as he always knew his relationship with Al was a difficult one and that they were never likely destined to be friends, he did feel badly about the way Al had ended up leaving his employ, and he had been more than happy to deal with his medical expenses as a way to try and make things right with him. His son was good friends with Al's daughter, and while a part of him had thought that things would be a lot less complicated if they weren't friends, he didn't really want to start telling Preston who he was and wasn't allowed to be friends with. Preston was 17, and already becoming a man. Pretty soon, he would be making his own decisions in life.
Marcus hadn't intended to bring the others into this issue with Al. He had hoped to resolve it himself, dare he say in an amicable manner whereby they would walk away from each other without either of them ending up any worse off, but Windsor it seemed had already done his own research and finding out who Al was. Before he could do much about it, he had quite literally turned up with the wolves on his doorstep.
As they got to the office building, Marcus marched in with the others, while his attendants took their cars to park up.
"I'm having an urgent meeting in my office. No one is to disturb us!" Marcus snapped at the first member of staff he saw, before getting into the elevator and heading up. When they got there, he walked past, reiterating the same message to his receptionist while his investors all went into the office. Marcus shut the doors behind him and locked them.
"Gentlemen, allow me to pour..."
"It better be the good stuff Marcus!" Mr Russel, the American investor yelled at him. Marcus was not at all used to being talked to in this way, especially in his own building, but right now so much of his finances were tied to these men and vice versa that he could see the tensions getting frayed. "That was a COMPLETE waste of time!"
"Gentlemen, I beg you calm down, it's not like we haven't had setbacks before..."
"I trusted you Marcus! I sank forty percent of my holdings into this because you assured me you had this in the bag!" Russel continued as Marcus started pouring them all some brandy.
"Gentlemen, why fight among ourselves?" Mr Yoshida, the Japanese investor asked them as he pulled out a cigar and started searching for a match. "It is clear what the problem is."
"Al is stubborn, but he isn't stupid." Marcus told them. "I'm sure we can..."
"I'm through playing nice Marcus." Russel told him. "We've tried talking to him, we've tried buying him off, and he told us he wasn't interested. Well, if he wants to play with the big boys, he can learn the hard way we play rough!"
"Gentlemen, please, Al is...idealistic, but he's a nobody." Marcus said, trying to reason with them as he saw this quickly spinning beyond even his control. He didn't want a full on war with a former employee, and the father of one of his son's best friends. He had wanted this to just slide away, but it looked like that was no longer on the books. "We should just..."
"Marcus, the man wanted this fight, he's going to get it. It's not our fault if he gets hurt!" Russel replied as he dialled his cell phone.
"Who...who are you phoning?" Marcus asked him.
"Oh, this isn't a phone call. This is an atom bomb!" Russell assured him. "By the time we're done, Thompson's going to know what fire and fury is all about!"
Lunch time came, and Sarah quickly stuffed her bag into her locker. Preston had told her that he and Hayley were going to be holding a rally at lunch time, and she really didn't have any interest in sticking around for that. Not only did she not want to risk something else happening when they were all on a final warning by Hastings for the food fight, but she also had agreed to meet Levi by the gym.
She still didn't want to believe that Hayley might have started the food fight, but Levi assured her he had proof. If that was the case, she wanted to see it before she accused her best friend of taking the High School election way too seriously.
She wasn't even sure what she would say to Hayley if she did have the proof. She knew that this was something important to Hayley, but was it really important enough for her to risk her relationship with Calvin or her friends? She grabbed her hover board and headed for the door, brushing past Principal Hastings as she did so. Hastings was just doing her rounds to make sure her presence was felt, especially in the wake of the food fight.
She looked to Sarah as she headed out the door, thinking this seemed odd. She couldn't remember Sarah leaving the school during the day other than for attacks. She usually spent her time in the workshop or in the canteen with her friends.
"That's odd." She commented, before heading to her office. Mick was in there, watching her television as he was waiting for her. His face was scrunched up in confusion.
"What are you doing?" She asked him.
"Oh, the universe I come from lives under a dictatorship so I thought I'd watch some of the political news to see if I could figure out what this democracy thing is all about." Mick told her. "I don't get it, this guy just screams 'fake news' every time someone criticises him for something. Is that how it works?"
"It depends who you ask." She sighed. "I'd suggest picking another channel though, that network is about as useful for getting accurate political information as Cartoon Network."
Mick just shrugged and turned off the TV.
"I just figured that with this election thing going on and the teachers supposedly meant to moderate things I should learn a little bit about it." He continued.
"Well, try going to the library and checking out Machiavelli." She chuckled. Mick just stared at her blankly.
"What's Machiavelli?" He asked her. "I heard the words Congress and Senate and Legislature but what's the Machiavelli?"
"Just...never mind, it was a bad joke." She replied. "I swear this time of year is always trying but this year? This year it's turned into a bloodbath."
"Someone got hurt?" Mick shrieked.
"It's just an expression...damn it, sometimes I keep forgetting you're not from Earth." She grumbled. "There was a food fight in the canteen at morning break. I had to give Calvin and Hayley an official warning for misconduct."
"Wait...that was Calvin and Hayley?" Mick asked her.
"It shocked the hell out of me too!" She answered. "Hayley's always been a model student, it's the reason I wanted her to run, and Calvin...I've never so much as needed to send him to detention!"
"Why would they do that?" Mick asked her.
"I don't know...politics just has this way of turning reasonable people into bloodthirsty savages!" Principal Hastings answered. "Sometimes I wonder if we really have progressed from the days where leaders were decided by a sword."
"As someone who grew up somewhere that was the case, believe me this is still way better!" Mick assured her. "Cream and frosting cleans up a lot more easily than corpses and severed body parts."
"I'll just be glad when this is all over." She told him. "I just saw Sarah heading out of the school grounds. Sarah never leaves during the day unless some hundred foot bug or set of bagpipes or something is stomping all over the city!"
"That's...that's weird, because I thought I saw Brody leaving too." Mick answered. "Excuse me."
"Wait, where are you going?" Jennifer asked him. "I thought we were going to have lunch!"
"Um...rain check?" Mick asked her. "Sorry Jennifer."
With that, he ran out. Jennifer just sighed and got her lunch out of her mini fridge.
"As if I needed another reason to hate politics." She mumbled.
Calvin got to the gym, finding that he was all alone. Preston had phoned him in class to tell him that he was going to be there with proof Hayley had started the food fight.
"Preston?" He called out. "Preston! Where are you?"
"I'm over here." He heard a voice answering from behind some dumpsters. Calvin approached, looking a little confused by this.
"Preston?" He asked. "Are you hiding in the trash?"
"I don't want Hayley to catch us!" Preston told him. "Come here! You've got to see this!"
Calvin made his way over, and he could see a pair of legs sticking out from behind the dumpster. He started to laugh.
"You know, for being both a magician AND a ninja, you really need to learn to hide better." Calvin teased him as he got closer. He started to think it was a little odd though that the legs didn't seem to be moving. "Preston, is everything alright?"
He rounded the edge of the dumpster, but instead of Preston, he found Sarah lying on the floor. It was pretty clear she had been in a fight from the bruises and a nasty looking gash across her forehead. More troublingly, her hands seemed to be tied behind her back, and she was gagged.
"SARAH!" Calvin called out, rushing to her side. He started shaking her, but she was out for the count. "Sarah, what happened?"
"You're about to find out!" He heard Hayley's voice saying. He turned to look for her, only to see the monster he'd seen earlier in the week standing before him. "SONIC BOOM!"
Before Calvin could get his Power Star out, he was blasted into the wall and slid down unconscious. Phonepanzee started cackling as some Basher Bots showed up.
"Hurry up! We need to set up again! The Red Ranger will be here any minute!" He told them as one of them threw him Calvin's Power Star. "Two down, four to go!"
He looked up as he heard someone coming and started waving wildly.
"Here, he's coming!" He told them. "Everyone, back into your hiding places!"
With that, he dove back into some nearby bushes just as Brody arrived.
"Hmm...that's strange." Brody remarked. "I was sure this is where Sarah told me to meet her. Sarah? Sarah!"
"This is almost TOO easy!" Phonepanzee cackled as he prepared to spring his trap.
Meanwhile, in the school, Hayley was standing on a table in the canteen, delivering a speech to the student body. She could see them all looking at her, and was smiling to think that they were listening. He didn't know if they were more receptive to her, or the tater tots that were that day's option from the canteen, but she was pleased at least to have the audience.
"So I say, why are we not using the funds that have been saved by the teaching positions that are currently vacant? We still have textbooks that haven't been updated since 1993! We have a map in the geography class that displays countries that don't even exist anymore! I know that the school is feeling the pressure of so many staff vacancies unfilled, but why not take this opportunity to update the learning experience? Enhance the online resources. Update what needs to be updated. Let's make Summer Cove High a school for the future!"
She got a round of applause as she stepped down off the table, Preston helping her down.
"That was a great speech Hayley, you really stayed on message!" Preston encouraged her.
"That's always the way to be, on point and on message." Hayley said, patting her manifesto. "When the votes come in, we'll see whether a bunch of promises to react to crises or an actual plan to deal with them is what people want."
"Not everyone." Preston commented as he looked around. "I don't see the others. I can't believe they didn't show up for your speech. You showed up for theirs."
"Maybe they just can't face the defeat coming their way." Hayley suggested. Just then, her phone started ringing. She answered it, smiling.
"Oh, it's you Sarah! We were just talking about you!" Hayley answered. "What's wrong, can't face being on the losing team?"
"Hayley, you've got to come to the gym, right now!" Sarah told her. "Calvin started that food fight!"
"Calvin started the food fight?" She asked her. "Are you sure? I remember you pointing at me..."
"I was...I was still in shock! Hayley, I swear I saw him pick up a cupcake!" Sarah told her. "I don't know what's going through his head but this election's really brought up something in him that I don't recognise...its kind of scary actually."
"Sarah, calm down." Hayley told her.
"Hayley, I'm not kidding about this, I have proof! I think maybe when you made fun of him he felt threatened or something! He's acting like he's got something to prove!" Sarah told her. "I think we might need to have an intervention or something."
"You want to meet us at the gym?" Hayley asked her. "Alright, I'll be right there."
"That was Sarah?" Preston asked.
"Yeah, she said Calvin started the food fight!" Hayley explained. "Come on Preston."
As they were heading towards the door, they found Mick and Levi coming in. They looked like they were looking for someone.
"Hey, there you guys are." Mick greeted them. "Where are the others?"
"I don't know, but I know I'm going looking for my boyfriend." Hayley told them. "Calvin started that food fight."
"Wait, you think Calvin started that food fight?" Mick asked her. "Does that sound right to you?"
"I know I've never seen Calvin put food anywhere other than in his mouth." Levi chuckled. "I swear, one time I saw him eat a whole box of donuts! There wasn't even any sugar left in the box when he was done!"
"Sarah just called us and told us!" Hayley answered. "She told us she has proof!"
"Now you see, Sarah turning on Calvin that really doesn't sound right." Levi said looking to Mick suspiciously. "Sarah's not in the habit of ratting out her friends...excuse me I need to get this."
Levi stepped away from them as he answered his phone. Mick just looked to both Hayley and Preston.
"Look, I don't claim to know much about Earth politics or how things work, but I'd like to think I have a pretty good idea when it comes to my friends, and something sounds a little off here." Mick stated. "I was listening to this guy on the news who kept on complaining about something called 'fake news', well the thing is I don't claim to be an expert, but I think what he was meaning is not everything you hear is true."
"Uh huh! You don't say!" Levi said, his voice becoming a little louder as he came back towards them. "So you want to meet by the gym? Yeah, sure, I'll be along just shortly. See you in a few."
Levi put his phone away and looked to them.
"Well, I think something is definitely going on." Levi told them. "I just got a call to come to the gym..."
"Yeah, to talk about how Calvin started the food fight!" Hayley replied. "I got the same call!"
"Oh, I don't think you did." Levi replied. "Unless you're in the habit of talking to yourself."
"What do you mean by that?" Preston asked him.
"The voice on the other end was yours Hayley." Levi told them. "And unless you can be in two places at once, I say that's a little suspicious."
Just then, Preston's phone started ringing. Mick gestured to Preston to answer it. Preston put it on speaker phone.
"This is Preston." He answered.
"Preston, its Levi." The Gold Ranger's voice said. "You're not going to believe what I have to tell you!"
"Oh...I think I might." Preston gulped, looking at Levi who was standing only three feet away from him!
"Hayley started that food fight. I saw everything! I even have proof!" Levi's voice said. "Bring her to the gym, I'll get the others. I think we need to talk about this before things go too far."
"Yeah, I'll be right there." Preston answered, hanging up.
"OK, I am freaking out!" Hayley yelled out. "You all heard that right?"
"I'd say this smells a lot like Cosmo." Mick told them. "If he wants us to meet by the gym..."
"It's probably a trap." Preston agreed.
"So what do we do about it?" Hayley asked. Levi just smiled.
"I think I have an idea." He replied. "Come on, I'll explain on the way."