Chapter Forty Seven: Unarmed

Things had calmed somewhat.

North Sydney was still a wreck and there were chunks of metal all over the place, but the area was still accessible on foot and with extremely limited bus services. Miller Street was completely destroyed and the silhouette of the downed Astro Megaship was still hanging on one of the office buildings; Andros having decreed that it would stay there until the Zords were in better condition so it could be lifted up without total destruction of the building and street. Bree walked down the sidewalk, avoiding the sparks that came from barely-functioning scout ships and the oil-based fires that had yet to be extinguished. Strangely, those fires didn't billow out any form of smoke nor did they have any heat emitted from them. The PM had already dispatched several scientific experts to the scene to see if they could somehow replicate the properties in the oil. They only had to wait for it to stop burning and everything would be fine…something that didn't sit right with her at all. Ignoring it, she walked towards the college as her mind turned to much heavier and darker thoughts.

She would have to tell AJ eventually. If Zhane was correct in saying that she was one of the bearers of this 'Sacred Power', she doubted she could keep it a secret for long. Finding out your little sister was a Ranger, or a Ranger Sentinel, after a brutal attack was not the best way to keep their relationship close. Different variations of what she would tell her kept running through her mind and the range of emotions her imagined conversations provoked was both intriguing and would be possibly uncannily accurate. The most difficult thing to deal with would be AJ's sense of guilt as she would have cursed their mother for sending her into the heart of Ranger country. On the other hand, the other destinations at hand were either Blue Bay Harbour or Reefside. Blue Bay Harbour had Rangers of their own and, while it didn't have any Rangers of its own yet, Reefside was home to the vanished Anton Mercer. According to the latest news from Adam and Rocky, it seemed Tommy was looking to set up shop there and terrorise the local kids with his abysmal teaching skills. Knowing Tommy, it would all end with either the creation of a new Ranger team or him stumbling across a strange portal that would fling him years into the future where he would be hailed as the Greatest Ranger of all Time. Maybe the last option was a bit too much of an ego-trip, but she could see it happening to him…even if he had Kim by his side.

Chuckling under her breath at the image that provided, she slowed her pace as three figures loomed in front of her. She slid her left hand into her front pocket to grasp the palm-sized blaster that had been given to her by Andros, her mind raced as she looked for possible avenues of escape. As she came closer, she could easily recognise the slim form of Olivia Vojnovic with the two detectives that had questioned her about…something or other. Releasing the blaster and allowing it to slide back to the bottom of her pocket, she walked up to them just as Olivia's sister finished saying something about 'mutating strands', whatever that was supposed to mean.

"Bree! Are you all right?"

She nodded at the words and stopped next to her. The Australian-Italian woman seemed to be slightly frazzled and there were slight bags under her eyes, like she hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. Bree had absolutely no idea why that was the case, but she was sure it would come back to bite all of them on the ass in the future. Opening her mouth to speak, she looked up at the teacher's face and mentally swore as she saw a flash of…something overlay itself over Olivia's face. If she didn't know any better, she would have said it was a Ranger helmet that mixed several aspects of the Morphin and Turbo Powers. From what she could see, it was mostly coloured red with the top 'windows' being the traditional black or an extremely dark shade of purple. Internally groaning, she wondered if Weihan ever had to deal with random images flashing up on people's heads.

"Olivia, yeah Ah'm fine. Oh, Detectives…is everythin' all right?"

Jessica nodded and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Involving her sister in the case had been a messy affair and something that hadn't gone over well with their supervisors, but they had made leaps and bounds in their investigation since Frank Westron hadn't told them anything new. Zeta Labs had to be involved with the killings, but that didn't make an iota of sense; for one thing, the early victims had been unconnected to the company. Shaking her head slightly, she resolved to look deeper into the backgrounds of the first few people to see if they had any links, no matter how small or insignificant, to the conglomerate. Being in North Sydney yesterday had been a fluke as the plans of the Council had led them to Miller's apartment. Seeing how well that had turned out…she didn't want to dwell on that any more.

"Everything's fine. We've just got a few things we need to look through and then we have an afternoon with the top brass and the joy of meetings. Lots and lots of meetings."

Ben chuckled under his breath at the thread of sarcasm in his partner's voice. He supposed he had to share some of the burden as it was his actions that had gotten both their faces splashed across the airwaves and Hiroto Nowa becoming increasingly pissed off at them. He sometimes got the feeling his old friend was trying to knock some sense into him, but he should have known that wasn't going to work. Lord knows the amount of trouble they had gotten in back in the day…but he was getting off track yet again. Smiling at the redhead, he felt a small stab of envy for the young girl. Olivia, he knew, had her hands full with helping her sister on some of the riskier research into Zeta Labs while trying to cope with the death of her boyfriend. The fact that he was an abusive SOB helped lessen the mourning period slightly but if what Jess was saying was true…he hoped she would keep her head on straight.

"Yeah, yeah; I envy you two. You don't have to make the hard decisions about things but that's neither here nor there. I think we're done here, Jess. See you two around."

Bree allowed a short snort of laughter as the two detectives made their way to a small car that was parked nearby. A small part of her wished she could be in their shoes, working normal hours and having a normal job; something that was away from the chaos and maddening insanity that had become her life since the beginning of the year. Of course, she wouldn't give anything up for the world, but it was nice to dream once in a while. Waiting until the two had gotten inside the car, they began walking towards the college once more. Now that the slightly older woman was nearer to her, she could 'sense' the finer details of the helmet and the shoulders of the armour. Much like the armour of the Crystal Rangers, she could see the top of an armoured vest of sorts. The colouration of the uniform looked to be solid red with patches of purple and grey with gold piping around the neck. Seeking to distance her mind from the images she was 'seeing', she turned around to ask Olivia a question.

"What was all that about?"

The other woman shook her head in dismissal and Bree groaned under her breath. If what she was sensing was true, that Olivia was a part of her team, there would have to be no secrets for the initial period. Of course, she had to think about how the team would work as she didn't think they would see much of each other after the year was out. A trio of wandering heroes was the better option, though that would also have its drawbacks…plus they would be mistaken for lesbian lovers nearly everywhere they went. She had wondered why that hadn't been the case when the media had seen the obvious feminine armour of most of the Ultra Rangers and the Crystal Rangers but, on the other hand, she hadn't gone into the 'deeper and darker' parts of the internet like Justin had. The things he had found there, especially revolving around the Astro Rangers, had made them swear off that part of the 'net. Of course, Andros hadn't gotten much of it until Ashley had explained it to him.

"Nothing you should worry about. Where are the others?"

Her mind raced as she tried to come up with a plausible excuse. She hoped Weihan and the others had at least managed to duplicate themselves before leaving through the Doorway.

"Uh…they should meet us there. With all the detours in place, Ah guess they'd be shuffled all over the place."

The other woman nodded and Bree found herself floundering. All she had to go on was a vague jumble of words Zhane had told her, the ability to flash energy dinosaurs from the palms of her hands and a semi-realistic helmet of a Potential next to her. Plus there was the fact that she didn't know what her Morpher looked like as the book hadn't really given any specifics other then add more to the cryptic atmosphere and her own sense of foreboding. Hell, without a Morpher or a means to easily tap the power within her, she didn't know what she could do to help if a monster was sent down. Opening her mouth to ask a question, she snapped it shut as an insanely-high pitched laugh split the air.

"What do we have here? Two vulnerable allies of the Rangers with no protection make for easy pickings."

She hated being right sometimes.

TBC…