Disclaimer: The characters are mine.

Chapter Four: Hero, Complex

Landon Ketterling was up before anyone else in the house the next morning. He made his way into the kitchen, on the hunt for coffee. Outside, the sky was just turning pink on the horizon, and the waves lapped gently onto the beach below the house.

What a change from last night, he thought to himself, finally spotting a Keurig tucked away in a corner of the counter. He searched the cupboards for the cups, finding one for a regular blend. While he waited for it to brew, the night before replayed back in his mind.

"This is a terrible plan!"

"You got any others, oh Fearless Leader?"

"I'm not your Fearless Leader."

The coffee maker beeped at him, and he pulled the mug out, slid the deck doors open, and stepped out into the morning air. I'm not the leader…right? He thought about the attack on the beach, about Diamond Head. I mean, we were pretty much all making decisions together, right?

"Please tell me there's more of that."

Landon blinked and turned to see Emily in a pair of pajama shorts and her ever-present University of Hawaii sweatshirt. "Hey Em. Yeah, in the cupboard above the sink. Depends on the flavor you want though."

"Black," Emily said blearily. "Like my soul." She disappeared into the kitchen as Landon chuckled, returning about five minutes later with a mug of her own. "So," she said, after a few moments of drinking in silence. "Last night…that really happened, huh?"

Landon nodded once. "Yeah." He gestured out over the lawn. "Hard to believe."

Emily leaned on the railing. "Think there'll be more?"

"I hope not," Landon told her. "Hey, Em? When you were growing up in California…the Rangers you saw. What was that like?"

The younger woman took a long sip before answering. "Well. I mean, I only saw them a couple times. After the first few attacks, the city I lived in implemented warning systems. Kind of like the earthquake drills we already had, except this was for alien attacks. So I never got to see them, mostly just saw whatever was left afterwards. But," she added, seeing that Landon was waiting for more, "they were incredible. Like something out of a kung fu movie. Cool uniforms, martial arts. They worked together really well," she continued. "Like…it was like they all moved as one sometimes. Or like, they could tell what the other was thinking."

"So it was more of a team effort?" Landon asked. "There wasn't like, one person in charge?"

Emily shook her head. "I wouldn't say that. Traditionally, based on what I'd heard anyway, the Red Ranger is like the head of the team." She grinned. "Kind of like you, yesterday."

"Me?" Landon sputtered. "When was…I mean, how did-"

She laughed. "Well, I mean, you showed up on the beach with these shells. You told me and Nakoa how to use them. And then before we went to Diamond Head last night…" Emily looked up at him. "Well, you were very determined that we had to be the ones to go do something."

"So were you," Landon pointed out.

Emily shrugged. "Yeah, but…I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone alone." She returned her gaze to the ocean. "Where I think you might've." She shivered. "I need pants." She disappeared into the house, leaving Landon alone.

Marianas Trench

Syrena was fuming. Her creatures were returning, defeated, to the Trench. None had been victorious. They told her of four humans in colored armor, who fought like warriors and bested them on the land.

They will not defeat me, Syrena hissed in the darkness. They will pay for what they've done to my ocean. As she swam through the darkness, contemplating her next move, bright lights split the darkness.

They have returned? She would have rolled her eyes if she had the capability. She flitted just out of range, watching as a silver machine floated through the inky blackness of the Challenger Deep. Did they not learn from our last encounter? She knew she'd hurt one of them, and she wasn't sorry about it.

A thought brought her up short. Perhaps it is I who needs to learn from them, she decided. She sidled up alongside the submersible, staying out of range of the portholes, and listened. Voices echoed inside the metal machine.

"…wife tells me they're something to see," one man was saying.

"When will she be here?" another voice asked.

"She's gettin' on a flight this morning," the first one said. "She's left AMRI in good hands. The kid in charge is a good guy."

"Is he, you know, one of them?"

"No idea, but he'd be a good one. I should know, I hired him to work at AMRI."

Syrena recalled the letters on the yellow box. AMRI. Perhaps I should be putting my focus on this place, Syrena thought.

AMRI
Honolulu, Hawaii

Landon was still pondering his Red Ranger role a few days later as he absentmindedly washed some lettuce in the industrial sink at AMRI. Dr. Johnson was on a flight to the Philippines to meet up with Dr. McCoy, leaving Landon as the most senior-ranking member of AMRI in the building. He didn't always like being in charge; he was more than happy to be the person who made the leader look good, but he had been there the longest and Dr. Johnson had put him in charge for the next few days while she and Dr. McCoy tried to figure out what was going on in the Trench. "You're the most qualified person I've got, Landon," she'd told him. "You'll be fine."

Landon had gotten his degree in Marine Biology in record time, and had been around water for most of his life. His father, a mechanic for a big petroleum company, had worked on rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. He turned the sink off, shaking out the strainer and headed for the lagoon. Outside, the weather was bright and sunny, promising to be another day in paradise. He knew he was qualified to be in charge...he just didn't feel like it.

"Hey, Francis," he said aloud, crouching down next to a green sea turtle with its nose poking out of the water. He fished a piece of lettuce out of the strainer and handed it down to the turtle. Francis chomped down on it, and Landon swore he saw the turtle smile. "Ah yes, the delectable leaf of lettuce," he said aloud in his best Gordon Ramsay impression. "Very impressive." The turtle waited expectantly and Landon handed over another piece of lettuce. "I can see we've got a winner," he grinned.

"You didn't use soap on that, did you?" The voice startled Landon, and he looked up to see a striking, tanned woman with straight red hair, standing with her arms crossed over by the entrance to the lagoon. She was sporting a pair of sunglasses, so he couldn't see her eyes, but he was willing to bet that she wasn't giving him a friendly look.

Landon frowned. "Um…no. We have a special wash we use to sanitize all of our produce here," he said. He glanced down at the lettuce in his hand. Right? I didn't…. He shook his head. Knock it off, man, you've done this a million times on your own. You know how it works. "I'm sorry, can I help you?"

"Angelique," the woman said, striding forward in a pair of heels. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Landon countered.

"Health inspector," she said, raising an eyebrow. "Were you not aware that Dr. Johnson had scheduled an inspection for today?"

"I-" Landon racked his brain, trying to recall if Dr. Johnson had said anything about an inspection while she was out. "I'm sorry, she must have forgotten to tell me," he said finally. "Can I show you around?"

"I don't know, can you?" Angelique fired back. She looked disdainfully at the lettuce in his hands. "These turtles should be fed their natural prey."

Landon frowned. "Unfortunately, we don't have access to a large crop of sea grass here in Honolulu," he told her. "Lettuce is the best substitute."

The inspector looked down her nose at him. "Is it, now." Her tone said otherwise.

Geez…what a witch. He wondered what had happened to their usual guy. "Should we start with the lagoon, here, or would you prefer to inspect the interior of the building first?" Landon asked finally.

She spread her arms. "Since we're out here," she said pointedly, as though it was completely obvious.

Later that afternoon, Landon flopped into a chair in the employee break room, mentally and physically exhausted. Angelique, the inspector, had made him move desks, lift chairs, all the while sounding less and less impressed with the facility, and more importantly, with him. She'd finally declared she'd had enough, and left for a lunch break, promising she'd be back for another round.

Joy.

There was a knock on the door, and Landon looked up to see Kealey Shepard, in denim shorts and a pink Storm Chargers tank top, in the doorway. "Hey," she said. "Mind if I…."

Landon gestured wearily to the chair across from him. "Be my guest," he shrugged. "Hopefully, that chair doesn't have any loose bolts and sits evenly on all four legs."

Kealey raised an eyebrow. "Uh…'kay. I don't think sitting in this chair's gonna kill me."

Landon rubbed a hand over his face. "Sorry, Kealey. It's been a day. We're under a health inspection right now, I'm a little paranoid."

"Yuck," Kealey said. "I know a little bit about your whole life being under the microscope…figuratively speaking of course."

"She's making me feel totally incompetent at my job," Landon complained. "Which is stupid-I know I'm good at my job."

"Maybe she's one of those alpha female types who's trying to overcompensate," Kealey offered. "Seen a few of those in my line of work." She leaned back in her chair, and couldn't help but tense a bit as her back rested against the back of the chair, but she leaned back without incident.

Landon noticed her hesitation, though. Great. "Anyway, um, what brings you here?" he asked, trying not to let her see how miserable he really was.

Kealey studied her fingernails for a second before replying, "I wanted to apologize. For, you know, being kind of a bitch lately. I'm not usually like that."

"I know," Landon said, and Kealey narrowed her eyes. "What I mean is, Nakoa's a fan of yours. He's told me and Emily both that you're acting a little out of character." He gave her a tired smile. "It's completely fair, considering what's happened in the past couple days. We all went from mild mannered average Joes and…Joettes?...to fighting off giant sea creatures from the Black Lagoon."

"Doesn't seem to bother you much," Kealey offered.

Landon snorted. "Then I'm good at hiding it. It's actually really freaking me out."

"You have an odd way of showing it, Fearless Leader."

"Yeah, well," Landon said bitterly, "I sure as hell don't feel like it. Maybe Nakoa wants the job, or Emily. Hell, you could probably do a better job. As I recall, you guys had to come save my ass at Diamond Head."

"Okay, I've only known you a couple days," Kealey began, slowly leaning forward to face him. "But I'm usually a pretty good judge of character-" she stressed the word, throwing it back in his face, "-and you….you seem kinda off today. What the hell is wrong?"

Landon sighed. "I…look, here's the thing. Me and my dad, when I was a kid, we moved around a lot. Dad was a mechanic for a big oil company. Wherever they had something that needed fixing, my dad was their go-to guy." He ran a hand through his hair. "We moved a lot. Florida, Alaska, North Dakota, Louisiana…I changed schools a lot, I didn't have time to make friends. When I went off to college, I graduated early, simply because I didn't do anything other than go to classes."

Kealey gave a low whistle. "Landon…that sucks. I'm sorry. That's…that's not the ideal childhood or college experience for anyone."

Landon shrugged. "It's okay. When I got the job at AMRI, I finally had a place that I felt like I belonged to. I have a purpose here. But she-she's making me rethink everything, like I'm not good at my job. Like Dr. Johnson made the wrong call leaving me in charge."

Kealey, to his surprise, reached across the table and pounded on the tabletop, right in front of him. "You need to knock it off, Landon. This is not you."

"How would you know, Kealey? You've known me like what, 48 hours?"

"Long enough to know that this wallow in self-pity routine is a bunch of crap!" Kealey burst out. "This is a far cry from the guy who basically told us to get off our ass and fight a bunch of weird sea…things. That it was our job. That none of us asked for this, but we're all in this together."

She blinked, realization dawning. "That's it, isn't it. It's more than just this inspection, isn't it. It's 'cause of what I said the other night." When he didn't say anything, Kealey nodded in satisfaction. "Landon, I didn't mean to put pressure on you like that, okay? You're right, we're in this together. We wouldn't know half of what we know about these weird things that keep happening if it wasn't for you." She smiled. "We seriously need a guy like you around to help us figure all this out. Dr. Johnson wouldn't have picked you for the team if she didn't think you belonged on the team, whether you're the guy calling the shots or not. And I'm sure Emily and Nakoa think so too."

Just then, Angelique threw the breakroom door open, her eyes narrowing as she saw Kealey in the room. "I can see why this facility is in such bad shape," she said. "Perhaps, Landon, you could at least pretend to care about the fact that the fate of the facility rests on my results today?"

"I was just leaving," Kealey cut in smoothly, with a glance at Angelique. She nodded to Landon. "Later." As she let the door close behind her, she heard the inspector say, "Now, where exactly were we?" and frowned. Through the glass on the door, she could see Landon take a deep breath and let it out, some of the confidence she'd seen on his face start to falter. What is this lady's deal?

Outside, she dialed Emily Rice. "Em, it's Kealey. Hey, is Nakoa out of class for the day? Can you guys meet me at AMRI?" She glanced back at the doors. "Something's up."

Landon once again found himself outside, trailing behind Angelique's high heels as she continued to point out flaws in AMRI. He was a mess, emotionally. He was furious that this, this woman was nitpicking every bit of AMRI, something he knew was not as bad and not as much of a mess as Angelique was making it out to be. And part of him…part of him was questioning everything he knew about himself. Kealey's pep talk had been encouraging, but it was hard to believe it as Angelique continued to bash everything around him, and talking down to him like he was a child, and not a 22-year old man.

"Hey!" someone yelled. Landon turned to see who had cut off Angelique mid-tirade. Standing in the doorway were Kealey, Emily, and Nakoa. His teammates looked furious.

"Lay off," Nakoa said, coming forward, his voice low. "There's no need for that kind of talk," he told Angelique.

The woman eyed him warily. "And who are you, exactly?"

"We're his friends," Emily informed her staunchly. "Nobody gets to talk to our friend like that."

Kealey raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "So back off."

"Do you realize who you're dealing with?" Angelique faced the four young people with narrowed eyes.

"I can think of a few ideas," Nakoa offered.

Landon put a hand on his shoulder. "It's okay, Nakoa." He stepped up between his friends and the inspector. "I think you need to leave. You can finish your inspection when our chief scientist returns. And you can bet I will be reporting you to your superior at your office."

The woman's eyes flashed. "That's not likely," she said, her voice becoming a low growl. "My superior is far from here, waiting for the moment to strike. She is superior to you mere humans. As am I."

With that pronunciation, she began to change. The red of her hair and pink in her suit began to meld together. The spikes on her heels began to run up the backs of her legs.

"Ho…ly…" Landon took a step back as Angelique transformed into something…monstrous. Bright pink. Spiky. Monstrous.

"Mr. Marine Biologist?" Emily spoke up. "Um….any ideas?"

Landon's mind was already working, even as the monster continued, "I have seen all I need to see to understand that you are far inferior to us in the Deep," the monster intoned. "And I shall report that weakness to Syrena, and you will be destroyed."

"We'll see who's inferior," Landon responded. To Emily, he said, "Snailfish. Some species have spikes like hers, highly developed sensory pores. They can be really resilient in some cases, especially the ones that live in the pressure of the Trench." His hand was reaching for his nanite shell. "But so are we." His eyes narrowed, and Landon pointed at the monstrous pink fish. "Go back and tell your superior that we are also resilient. And whatever she sends at us, we'll be ready."

Landon turned to see his team take a step up behind him. "Go on," Kealey told him. "You've got this."

Landon looked to Emily and Nakoa, who both nodded at him in turn. He turned to face the monster. "Okay, then. Ho'ololi!" He felt his suit materialize, and he clenched an armored fist with a determined smile.

"This one's mine."

His team had confidence in him, which was all the power Landon would ever need. And that confidence in him would help him make the right calls, and he had a team to ask for help. I can do this.

The cheers of his friends a few moments later proved that theory correct.

Author's Note: Snailfish aren't actually all that scary-looking. (I mean, maybe if there was a 7-foot tall pink spiky one staring you down they might be.) But they do live up to 5 miles underwater and some live in cold enough water that they've developed antifreeze properties. In short, they made the perfect spy to come gather intel. Thanks, National Geographic! ;)