Trevor started to slowly come to, not really sure what had happened. He didn't even really know how much time had passed, all he knew was when he opened his eyes, he was no longer in Grace's office. He was cold, and he felt uncomfortable, looking to the side he saw he was lying next to a car. As his vision started to return to normal, he recognised his surroundings. He was in the parking lot of the police station, but he had no idea how he had gotten there.
Lifting himself off the concrete, he rubbed his arms, which felt ice cold, and his fingers were numb. Not a good sign, it meant he had been lying on the cold concrete for some time at least. He was about to check his watch when he heard some noise a little way off. He shook some cobwebs clear and made his way towards the noise to try and figure out what it was.
He found two kids standing by a car, one that looked really familiar. It took a few moments for him to realise it was his car! What was worse was as he approached, he could see one of them with a tool in his hand, working at the side of the car. He could recognise a Slim Jim a mile away, even as groggy as he was.
"Come on dude, hurry up!" The other kid beckoned him. "Hurry up!"
"Dude, this isn't as easy as it looks, especially on the newer models." The other protested. Trevor couldn't believe the sheer audacity of the whole scene. Two kids were literally trying to break into a car in the middle of a police station parking lot! He let out a cough to bring the kids' attention to the fact he was there. They both turned and stared at him with the look of rabbits in headlights.
"Seriously guys?" Trevor asked. The one that didn't have the Slim Jim was the fastest to respond, taking to heel and running as fast as he could. The other took just a little too long to do anything and so Trevor caught up to him long before he had even started running.
"Come on man, what are you even doing here?" The kid protested.
"The uniform doesn't give it away?" Trevor asked as he pulled out his handcuffs, forcing the kid over the hood and started to cuff his hands behind his back. "You have to either be pretty ballsy, or a special kind of stupid to try and rip off cars in a police station parking lot!"
"Are you kidding? This structure's cut off from the street, no one can see in from the street." The kid explained. "We learned the shift rotations. Once the morning shift comes in pretty much no one comes in or out for like ten hours." Trevor got a little smirk on his face as he paused to think about that.
"You know, it's actually kind of hard to argue that logic." He chuckled. "That's actually strangely clever. Too bad it won't help you once I call your parents."
"Dude, come on, this is the first time I swear!" The kid protested. "I won't do it again, I've learned my lesson just please, let this one slide."
"Yeah, you literally just said you learned the shift patterns of the precinct. That doesn't sound like a one-off score." Trevor answered.
"Come on man, just…weren't you ever a kid?" He asked.
"Yeah, and when I was I didn't rip off cars." Trevor answered. "Now, if you just tell me your name and…"
He moved with incredible speed, swinging around and ducking low, whipping out his night stick and sweeping the legs from under the other kid who was returning to the scene, seemingly to rescue his friend. A steel pipe clattered to the ground as the kid grabbed the back of his head.
"You saw that right? You hit my head on the concrete!" He protested. "I'm calling brutality…"
"Kid, you just tried to stave a cop's skull in with a pipe! If I were you I'd shut the hell up and cut my losses!" Trevor told him, grabbing him and hauling him to his feet. "Now, if the two of you are quite done, we can go and get you checked in."
"Yeah, about that, I'd suggest you let us go!" The one in handcuffs said with a little smirk. Trevor just gave him a disbelieving look.
"Really?" He asked. "What makes you think I'd do that?"
Trevor turned around, seeing another five guys, significantly older approaching him. He just sighed.
"Well, I guess this makes more sense than you two being the brains behind this." Trevor commented. "OK guys, just remember where we are. I've not seen you do anything so if you walk out of here I'll leave it at that."
"What about the kids?" One of the older guys said. Trevor shook his head.
"I DID see them try to break into my car." Trevor told him.
"You're going to let them go pig." One of them said. Trevor just put a hand over his chest.
"Such a hurtful thing to say." He replied sarcastically. "Sorry, but if I see a crime I have to report it."
"Oh, you're going to see a crime alright!" One of them replied, rushing towards him. Trevor held up his nightstick to block the first attack, but was knocked down by the force of the blow, rolling backwards. He saw the guy was almost on top of him as he came to rest, and lashed out, kicking him back. The guy flew backwards almost fifteen feet, slamming into the side of another car, which buckled under the impact. Shattered glass fell to the floor as the guy fell to the ground, rolling around in agony.
"TAKE HIM!" One of them screamed, at which they all rushed him. Trevor covered up as much as he could as kicks rained in on him. Once again, everything faded to black.
Back at the school, the Rangers were in the paint room to get a little bit of peace and quiet during their lunch break. Calvin was taking the time to have a closer look at the damage done to his engine by his mom's attempt to make a working version of his new fuel injection system.
He had pulled practically the whole engine out of Nitro, and disassembled it, trying to figure out what, if anything, he could salvage from the explosion. He was fortunate in some respects that being an off-road vehicle, Nitro was built to withstand the abuse and rigours that the terrain could throw at it. Some lighter vehicles like sports cars, while they looked good, were built more for weight and aesthetics and reacted more like tin foil than armour in the event of an accident or malfunction. Nitro was an adapted design from an old military land rover which, while not exactly recommended by the manufacturer, could survive driving over a landmine. Of course, not many engines were designed with the intent of a part literally exploding like a hand-grenade inside it.
"So, what's it look like?" Hayley asked him.
"Once I get the parts I could fix it up in about a week." Calvin sighed.
"Well, your mom said she'd get you the parts, right?" Hayley asked him. "It's not the end of the world."
"Hayley, look at this mess!" Calvin stated. "This oil filter, it's shredded. This intake, blown out. This distributer cap was part of the original engine. It's survived practically everything I've thrown at it and mom's turned it into shrapnel in one afternoon."
"It was an honest mistake." Sarah reassured him. "I know it's a miracle I have a full complement of fingers the number of times something I've made blew up."
"Yeah, an honest mistake she made. UGH!" Calvin groaned. "She should have left it alone!"
"Yeah, I didn't want to say anything earlier, but...don't you think you might have been a little hard on your mom?" Brody asked. Calvin just gave him a withering look and panned his hand over the engine parts.
"You've seen all of this right?" Calvin asked. "She just turned years of work into the world's worst jigsaw puzzle in a matter of minutes."
"Yeah, but it's not like she meant to." Preston chipped in. "I mean, she was only trying to help."
"Did I ask for her help?" Calvin snapped in response. "God, why can't mom just butt out and leave things alone?"
"Wow, OK, sorry for breathing." Preston said sarcastically. "I'll just go retrieve my head."
"Sorry Preston, I'm not mad at you." Calvin sighed. Just then, an alarm sounded. Mick ran to the computers and checked on the scanners.
"I've got a whole lot of Buzz Cams descending on the Industrial District." Mick told them.
"Great." Calvin replied. "Because right now, I really feel like punching stuff!"
In the nurse's office, the nurse was checking on Viera, taking a look at her throat. She tutted a little as she saw the markings from where her collar had been wrenched against her throat by the powerful magnet in the Mega Mag.
"Well, it looks like it's just bruising, but it could have been a lot worse." The nurse told her. "I thought you kids were taught to remove jewellery and stuff like that before you started using tools and things."
"Uh…"
"Well, technically we're only meant to remove things that can interfere with an experiment or a machine." Monty chipped in. "You know, dangly earrings, pendants, watches, rings, stuff like that."
"Well, maybe it'd be a good idea to remove anything metal before you turn that thing on again." The nurse suggested. "You're lucky you didn't get strangled to death! Do you have any idea how many kids each year…?"
"I'll try to be more careful in future." Viera interrupted her. The nurse just sighed.
"Well, take a moment to make sure you've got your breath back then head back to class." She grumbled. "And next time, value your safety over function alright?"
As she left, Monty sat with Viera, holding her hand. He looked to her regretfully.
"I…I'm really sorry about what happened." He told her. "I didn't think you were in the path of the magnetic waves."
"I wasn't at first." She told him.
"I just…I really hate to think that my invention hurt you." He told her.
"It wasn't that, it was this stupid thing." Viera told him, gesturing to the collar. "You couldn't help it if the magnet attracted it."
"I'm just glad it's not damaged." He told her. She just looked at him a little curiously. "Well, it obviously means a lot to you."
"I don't understand." She replied.
"Well, I can't remember a time since you came back you weren't wearing it." Monty told her. "I was…I actually thought…maybe a boyfriend had given it to you."
"No, it's nothing like that." She muttered. She couldn't tell him the truth behind it, that the collar was a restraint, welded in place when she was deposed by the warlord that had taken her prisoner. It was as much a humiliation as it was a way of keeping her as a slave. The Rangers so far hadn't found a way to remove it, and so far, the only solution they had to keep from arousing suspicion was to add a lion's head charm to make it look like a piece of decorative jewellery. "And if it wasn't trying to rip my head off, I'd have been more than happy if your device had broken it."
"Really?" He asked her. "Why?"
"I…I can't really say." She told him. He squeezed her hand gently.
"Viera, we're friends. You know you can tell me anything right?" He asked her.
"Really?" She asked him. He nodded his head.
"Really." He replied. Viera looked into his eyes, reaching out for his face. As they started to draw closer together, the nurse returned to the room.
"Alright, you should be fine now." She stated. "Back to class."
Viera got up off the table, gathering her things and leaving the room in a hurry. Monty just sighed and gathered his things, before following her.
Back at the police precinct, there was a lot of activity in the parking lot. Someone had headed to their car, looking to go out for lunch only to find a scene of destruction that warranted a crime scene to be set up. One of the detectives arrived with a cup of coffee, looking around at the scene.
"You know, I think this is the first time in thirty-four years on the job I HAVEN'T had to wait for the CSI team." He commented, seeing the technicians in paper suits working over the evidence. "I guess when the crime scene is underneath the building there's no excuse for them to take the scenic route."
"I wouldn't make light of it if I were you." One of the on-scene officers told him. "You should have seen what this place looked like ten minutes ago."
"Why, what happened ten minutes ago?" The detective asked.
"The perps were taken to the hospital." A CSI informed him. "No fatalities…which is a God-damned miracle. I'd say it'll be weeks, maybe months before any of them will be fit to be interviewed."
"Jesus, was it really that bad?" The detective asked.
"Three of them will be eating their meals through a tube for the foreseeable future, one of them was practically folded in half!" He answered. "He'll be lucky if he ever walks again!"
"Anything on the cameras?" The detective asked.
"On this department's budget?" The on-scene officer scoffed. "The cameras down here haven't worked since 2002."
"They only care about the cameras up in the offices where the important people work." The CSI confirmed.
"Any idea what this was about?" The detective asked.
"We found this near one of the perps." The CSI stated, holding up a Slim Jim. "That's why we're referring them to perps and not victims. I'd say they were trying to rip off some of the vehicles and were interrupted."
"Ripping off cops' cars in the police station parking lot? That's ballsy!" The officer replied.
"Who the hell could have done this?" The detective asked.
"I'd be more inclined to the question WHAT could have done this." The CSI replied. He gestured to a large hole in a pillar. "Whatever it was, these guys are lucky to be alive. If it runs into anyone else, we might be cleaning up what's left of them!"
In another part of the city, Trevor started to stir and come to, a familiar scent coming to him. As his eyes opened and his vision came into focus, he saw his wife looking down on him, smiling.
"Hard day?" She asked him.
"Um…yeah…I guess you could say that." Trevor replied, not really sure how to answer. He didn't really know what kind of day it was. He had lost most of it in what could only be termed as blackouts. At least this time he wasn't lying on concrete, this time he was lying on his couch back at home. It was a significantly more comfortable way to wake up than his previous awakening. He rubbed his eyes and his temples as he tried to make sense of it all. The last thing he remembered was being attacked in the parking garage, he was fully expecting to wake up in the infirmary, or maybe the hospital. Yet here he was, waking up on his couch with absolutely no idea how he had gotten home. A thought came to him and he started to check himself for injuries, but found to his surprise he didn't have a scratch on him. He didn't even have any red marks as he'd expect from a beating.
"Trevor, are you alright?" His wife asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied, more because he didn't want to worry her than anything else. He knew she was concerned about the inherent dangers in his job without telling her that he was missing some time from his memory and the last thing he did remember was several men kicking him on the ground.
"It's just…you're acting very strangely." She said, looking a little concerned.
"I'm just tired." He assured her. "Spending a whole shift staring at boxes is surprisingly tiring."
"Well, I'm sure a couple more weeks keeping your head down and you'll be back on the streets where you belong." She answered. "Tell you what, Hayley's going to Calvin's place tonight. How about you go for a shower and get changed and I'll call that Thai place you like."
Trevor made his way up to the bathroom, where he removed his uniform, putting it in the laundry hamper and hanging his belt up on the towel rack. He started to run the shower to get it up to temperature as he tried in vain to remember what had happened to him.
He got a flash of being knocked to the ground, he could even remember the first hits coming in, but after that, there were only flashing images, he could remember lashing out, fighting back to try and defend himself. He could hear screams, and he could feel palpable terror, but it wasn't from him.
He got into the shower and started to wash himself, unable to make sense of any of it. As he started to clean himself off, he thought he saw something reflected in the glass. He could see what looked like a helmet, black and silver, with prominent green accents. He had to do a double-take, only to see his own reflection staring back at him.
"They deserved it." The voice said, returning to him once more. "They'd have done the same to you if they could."
"What…what's going on?" Trevor asked.
"You know." The voice replied.
"This is insane." Trevor whispered. "This isn't happening. There's no one else here, I'm imagining it all."
"Were you imagining what you saw in Afghanistan?" The voice asked him. Trevor felt a chill run through him.
"Who are you?" Trevor asked. "What do you know about…?"
"I know everything!" The voice said. "I've seen inside your mind. That's why I know how far you're willing to go to get the justice I seek."
"I'm losing my mind." Trevor stated. "I have to be…"
"You're not losing anything." The voice told him. Trevor thought he saw the green helmet once more, and with a yell, tried to back away, only to slip and fall in the shower.
"Trevor!" His wife called out. "Trevor, are you alright?"
He looked back to the glass, now only seeing his own reflection.
"It's fine." He called back, his heart racing, struggling to get his breath as he found the voice once again disappearing. "I just slipped."
"That's why we have a bath mat!" She called back. "I've called the Thai place; the food will be here in half an hour. Try not to break your neck in the meantime!"
Trevor just nodded and got back to his feet, getting out of the shower. His neck was the least of his worries.