Chapter 3
Not even aware that he was being followed by DekaBreak, Brendan crept through the rebuilding site: the second in as many days. Just like the other one, he was recording everything. His other training had taught him that there was always a pattern to things like this. Even if it wasn't obvious, a motive would show itself sooner or later.
"What would a bunch of Aliens want with building material?" He'd asked that question, both to himself and to anyone else who would listen, more than enough time to give him a headache. "It's not like they're real big on building their own mechs."
As just another cog in the wheel that was called Special Police Dekaranger, Space Patrol Delta, or whatever else you wanted SPD to stand for, he had access to many of the other branches' case files. (His personal favorite was Send Pizza, dammit!) He knew about Agent Abrella, and his whole cadre of operatives.
"Nowhere in the files on Kaijuki does it mention bricks and mortar." He mumbled "So unless what's left of Abrella's syndicate has run out of money, then this doesn't make any fucking sense at all… and stop sneaking up on me."
Tetsu stopped in his tracks. "How did you…"
"We've covered that before. Now get down unless you want to blow my entire cover."
Tetsu squatted down beside DekaBlack. That wasn't his official designation as far as he knew. But the one time he'd seen him transform, the only parts of his suit that weren't dark was his belt and what looked like a sideways number eight that ran right to left diagonally down his torso.
Brendan filmed in mostly silence, only occasionally broken with whispered mentions of time or other minor details.
Ten minutes turned into fifteen which quickly became half an hour. They were now absolutely late for their assigned patrol. Tetsu tapped his wrist impatiently.
Brendan pointed back to the entrance with his thumb. "Go then." He said wordlessly.
Tetsu was split. He wanted to get somewhere to at least update everyone. But that would mean leaving the other Ranger alone in an unknown situation.
Brendan obviously sensed this because he repeated the gesture, but with a lot more emphasis on the 'go' part. Tetsu nodded, cautiously backing away.
Pausing the recording just long enough to transform, he settled in for what he expected to be a long night. Not that it mattered; he'd done marathon surveillance missions back in New Tech city before.
…
"Boss, what should I do?" Tetsu had called Kruger the second he was back in Machine Husky.
"Hmm." Kruger replied "Did he give you any information?"
"Nonsense. He pretty much told me to leave." Tetsu answered
"Stay close, then. He may be new, but he does have experience in this sort of thing."
"Yes, boss."
Kruger looked at his license with semi-disgust after closing communications. "Grrr… Jasmine, I will be there to relieve you myself shortly."
"Boss? Is there something wrong?"
Kruger could hear Hoji cursing in the background. "I don't know… yet. Kruger out."
…
Returning to the scene of the ?future? crime, Tetsu looked around for his comrade. He was pretty sure where he'd left Bren-san, but when he got to that spot it was deserted.
"Bren-san? Where are you?" He gut-whispered just in case he was nearby. No reply and not even a hint of movement anywhere.
Oh shit…
"Boss? I've lost him." He said
Kruger's ears perked up. "Repeat that please." He said, half-in the car.
"I went back and he's gone." Tetsu answered, sounding more confused than anything else.
"Change of plans. Dekarangers, meet at Tetsu's location. We have a missing officer."
In less than ten minutes, the entire team including Kruger had arrived. Sen-Chan and Umeko didn't look happy to be awakened.
Tetsu quickly explained the situation.
Hoji had a look that could kill. "I told you that…" He muttered
"Not now. You know what to do."
They transformed and entered; following Tetsu to the last known whereabouts.
"He was right here." He pointed to two boot-sized depressions.
Jasmine removed one of her gloves and touched one of them. Her ESP abilities would give them all the information they needed, she hoped.
"He went…"
"I thought I told you to go back, not bring the whole damn team here."
"Bren-san? You're alright!"
"Of course I am." Brendan emerged from a nearby dark corner. "You think I'd be stupid enough to get captured?"
"Unbelievable!" Hoji blurted
Brendan made a cutting motion across his throat and frantically pointed in the direction he'd come from. "You want to say that a little louder? I'm sure there are one or two Igaroids that probably didn't hear you."
Kruger nodded at the team.
"Let's go!" Hoji prepared to lead.
"What the hell?" Brendan shouted hoarsely.
"They will deal with the problem. You are coming with me." Kruger transformed back and strode back to the vehicles. "Now."
He didn't wait. As soon as they had cleared the area, Kruger laid into the newest member. "I don't know what they let you get away with at your last job, but that isn't how we work here."
"But…"
"I give the orders and you follow them. Am I clear about that?"
"If you'd just…"
"Am I clear about that?"
Barely holding back his famous temper; you can ask anyone back home about it, Brendan nodded. "Crystal, Sir."
"Take the rest of the night off."
"What about…?"
"I said they will deal with the problem." Kruger repeated "We'll finish this later once you've had a chance to cool off."
"Not gonna happen." Brendan answered
"What was that, detective?" Kruger barked
"Nothing, Boss." Brendan replied with as much sarcasm as he could.
"Go, before I change my mind."
Brendan almost asked about what, but he decided that he really didn't care. If they wanted to make a mess of things, that was perfectly fine with him.
Not bothering to drive back, he took the long way back to the Dekabase. Even at that pace, he still beat the rest of the team back and was safely tucked away in his quarters when they all returned, except for DekaBreak. Discovering alien stormtroopers didn't qualify as important enough to change his standing patrol orders.
"Whatever. They're just going to fuck it up more." He finished downloading all the surveillance footage to his personal computer and was preparing for bed when his license went off.
"What?" He really should've checked who was calling before answering the way he did.
"Dekaroom. NOW!" It was Kruger.
Two minutes later, he was in front of Kruger's desk being read the riot act. Kruger ranted at him for five minutes straight about anything and everything he could think of.
"…our own. Do I make myself understood?"
Brendan nodded. In honesty, he'd tuned Kruger out and only heard bits and pieces of what he'd said.
"Anything you want to say?" Kruger asked
"What would be the point of that?" Brendan replied "If there's nothing more, I'm going to get some sleep."
Kruger nodded, surprised that his newest had seemed to take everything well. Show's what he knew, right?
Brendan returned to his quarters. To his surprise, there was a message from the other side of the world. He downloaded it while getting ready for bed with every intention of reading it once he'd had some sleep. That changed when a series of numbers caught his attention.
"They couldn't have figured it out that quickly, could they?"
The numbers were coordinates within Megalopolis. Six different locations, each within the rebuilding zone. He went back and re-read the entire message.
"Fascinating." He said, grabbing his license and entering the coordinates, making each one appear to be a simple contact number. Once that was done, he erased the message. Just in time, as someone else decided to interrupt him.
"It better not be that dog again." Brendan hid the paper under his laptop before answering the door. It was Hoji.
"What do you want?"
"We need to talk." He answered
"Furball already tore me a new asshole." Brendan replied "So if that was your plan, you're a little late."
"May I enter?"
"I get the feeling you won't leave until we talk, so come in. Let's get this over with."
Hoji entered and looked around the room, pausing at the pile of clothes on the floor.
"I'm not getting dressed, if that's what you're getting at." Brendan folded his arms across his muscular chest. "So talk so I can get some sleep."
"What's really going on? Are you seriously trying to destroy the Dekarangers?"
"If I say no, will you leave?"
Hoji said nothing; fixing Brendan with a blank stare.
"I really don't feel the need to justify anything to you." Brendan replied "You've treated me like crap since the moment you met me."
"Oh my God! Is that what you think this is about?" Hoji shouted "Unbelievable!"
"Then what? Enlighten me, Oh Great One!" Brendan replied
"I am the senior on the field…"
"If this is about you still thinking that I'm trying to take your spot, then just stop. At the risk of repeating myself, I am NOT here for that. I'm here to do a job and that's it. Regardless of what you think about how I'm doing that job…"
Hoji shook his head. "That's not what I was going to say. You really are…"
"What, unbelievable?" Brendan interrupted
"Yes." Hoji stated "But you are also one of the best Undercover cops in SPD. I read your file. You broke up a black market drug ring all by yourself."
"And look where that got me." Brendan replied "But thanks for stroking my ego."
"If there's something like that going on in Megalopolis, don't you think it's a good idea to let us know?"
"And if there isn't?"
"Then you really are unbelievable." Hoji answered
"Okay, fine. Let's just say that based on what I've seen, there might be something similar going on." Brendan answered "But it is way too soon to know for sure."
Hoji nodded.
"Any other questions before I drop off?"
"No. Just promise me you'll keep me informed. The Dekarangers are family…"
"Kruger told me that too. I promise I'll try not to get anyone killed. But you gotta lay off me." Brendan answered
Hoji nodded before leaving.
The door clicked shut. "I hope you know what you're asking for."
…
Two days later, at the morning briefing…
"Everyone, I need your reports on the enemy activity from the past two days. We have been busy, but we can't get behind on things."
Collective groans from almost everyone.
"And, per a request, I am changing the pairings back to what they were originally. Hoji will be working with Bren-san from now on."
The others looked at Hoji. "Thank-you, Boss."
"Where is he anyway?"
On cue, Brendan walked in with a big stack of papers. "Here you are, Sir. Everything I have on the break-ins at the construction sites."
He handed one part of the stack to each of the others.
"The briefing is yours."
"Boss? What is going on?" Umeko asked
"I'll let Bren-san explain."
"Basically what you're looking at is all the data since you defeated Agent Abrella. There have been more than two dozen instances of various materials going missing. Not just building materials, but fuel, vehicles, and almost anything else you can imagine." Brendan stated "You can read it all yourself, but what I thought was a local resale ring is probably much bigger."
"Alienizers?"
"We don't know for sure, although the fact that you fought Igaroids twice would support that." Brendan answered
"Bren-san busted a case like this back in the United States." Kruger replied
"One question." Tetsu asked "This whole time you've been…"
"Following orders." Brendan replied "Well, as best as I could given what I had to work with."
Everyone's heads turned toward Hoji, who smirked.
"I apologize for my actions, but I was supposed to handle this alone until I knew for sure."
"And now you know?" Jasmine asked
"Not as much as I'd like to but, since you got in the way the last two nights, I guess you're all involved now. Whether you want to be or not."
"What do we do now?"
"We have two options. Sen can either stand on his head until he gets an idea or you can all turn to the last page." Brendan replied "And this is where you take over Boss."
Kruger grunted "What you have is a list of six probable locations for their next attacks." The screen behind him lit up, showing the cluster of six dots. "We just don't know for sure which one will be hit."
"That's where things get tricky." Brendan interjected "They seem to be only attacking at night, so we might not be getting a whole lot of sleep for the next while."
Nods.
"If this turns out to be nothing more than some low-level crooks trying to make a buck, and the Igaroids are just a coincidence, we'll shut them down." Kruger added
"If it's bigger?"
"If it turns out to be another batch of Alienizers, then I want them deleted." Kruger answered "Megalopolis has just started to recover from Abrella and I will not have anything get in the way. Understood?"
"Hai!"
Brendan locked eyes with Hoji. "We need to talk."
…
Deka, Deka, Deka, Deka, Dekaranger
*Brendan is standing in front of four doors, looking smug*
As an undercover officer, you must be prepared for anything… or anyone. Whether it's as a geisha… *Opens the first door. Umeko bows*
…or as a sumo!
*Tetsu bursts through the second door* Dosukoi!
The secret is to blend in with your surroundings. One false word and you could end up facing someone like this.
*Opens the third door. Sen, dressed as a 1950's mobster complete with suit and an oversized Tommy-gun, gestures menacingly* "One move sweetheart and you'll be getting up close and personal with my little friend."
Now, if your assignment takes you to say, Gunma Hot Springs, blending in with the crowds will test anyone's detective skills.
*Points to the fourth door, but nothing happens.*
I said, if your assignment…
Hoji: I am NOT doing this!
It's the boss's orders…
*Grumbling*
Let's try this again… if your assignment…
*The door bursts open; Hoji appears to be completely nude, except for a kanji 検閲 (censored) covering his privates. Umeko squeals, and covers her eyes.*
Now that is the sign of a true detective.
*Laughter, while Hoji slowly turns red from embarrassment.*
…
Hoji seems to have had a change of attitude… hmmm? The plot thickens.