Chapter Seven:

Life as a Ranger

The days blew by in the first couple of weeks after the Gas Mask's attack and Kenny's first fight as the Green Ranger. Security was tight for the first few days as everyone had to get their backgrounds rechecked purely to make sure there weren't any other Cecil Carlins hiding out within the project. Kenny figured that the fact no one else tried to make a move during the ceremony was strong proof in and of itself, but nevertheless neither he nor any of the other major team members were allowed outside the base until the check was finished. They'd ended up having to watch Dr. Watanabe's funeral via broadcast.

Regardless, Kenny found that he enjoyed his new life as a Power Ranger. Having his own room was amazing after his six months of only having a cot to call his own space. The suit was awesome. Every single time he put it on, it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of his young life. He kept training, day by day, learning more and more how to use it and how to work as a team with his fellow rangers.

"Way to go, Austin," Captain Cage said, complimenting Kenny as he pulled off a complex flight maneuver they'd been practicing. He and the other rangers raced around an enormous gym, flying in tight formation, Kenny packed in between Dayton and Madison.

"Now, let's try the Tendo maneuver," Captain Cage said.

Just like they'd practiced, Kenny tilted his body to one side and veered with his comrades. A small screen popped up on his visor and the temporary head of the tech support division appeared. "Austin, you're putting a little too much strain on your left birdie," she said. "Try to balance between them a little."

Kenny re-balanced himself. "Sorry, Doc."

The doctor checked her readouts for a second. "That should do it. Keep flying more like that."

"Will do," Kenny said. He tried to keep his mind on his task and not think about how it would have been Watanabe giving him those instructions.

Over the weeks, Kenny started getting to know his fellow rangers and building a rapport with each of them. Captain Cage was stern but fair, a strong leader with an eye for strategy and a good teacher, patient and understanding as he helped Kenny through his problem areas. He spent most of his free time with Lieutenant Young. Kenny could tell immediately that they both liked each other, but both seemed unwilling to even acknowledge, much less act upon, it. Both seemed perfectly content just to enjoy each other's company.

Then there was Dayton Owens, Kenny's current favorite of the four. He always wore a bright smile and filled every room with light, fun energy, always quick with a joke to ease the tension. He, Kenny, Doug, and Harriet spent most of their lunches together, watching in amazement as he blew through bowls and bowls of curry and cracked every riddle they sent his way.

Sean Cassidy didn't talk much, mostly content to sit back and listen to everyone else talk, but he was always kind and had a sort of big brother quality to him, playing on his guitar for them every night before turning in to bed. The only person he did seem to talk to a lot was Tammy Hayes, who Kenny soon learned were both actively dating and very into one another.

Finally, there was Peggy Madison. Despite her comforting words to him on the day of the attack, she still maintained a cold and serious disposition, not engaging with Kenny on any kind of personal level, their every interaction strictly professional.

One morning, the five rangers were called in to the command center where Kenpachi filled them in on a new assignment. "We just got word of an attack on the pyramids at Giza," he said. "The insurgence happened in the middle of the night. The two EAGLE teams who were stationed there were completely wiped out."

He explained how Sean and Dayton had been investigating activity in the area a couple of months back, and how eyewitness reports put the Volcano Mask, second-in-command to Fuhrer himself and one of the most notoriously brutal Masks known to the public, as having led the charge. Apparently, they had smashed a hole in one of the pyramids' walls and set up camp there. All support forces had tried and failed to get through their defenses.

"As we don't entirely know everything that's going on yet, I don't want the full team to go," General Kenpachi said. "Captain Cage, pick those you wish to go with you, and the others will stay behind to monitor the situation and come in for backup if need be."

Captain Cage nodded. "Alright," he said. He looked around the room at Kenny and the other three rangers. Kenny could see the gears working in his head. "I'll take Sean and Dayton," he said. "They know the most about the current situation out there. Madison and Austin, you two stay here."

"Yes, sir," Madison said immediately.

Kenny tried his best to hide his disappointment that he wouldn't be joining them on his first real assignment. "Yes, sir," he said.

Within the hour, Captain Cage, Sean, and Dayton were ready to go. Kenny and Madison saw them off, watching as they started up their birdies and took off up through the tunnel and out into the open sky over Angel Grove. On the viewscreen nearby, the view from each of the three's visors popped, showing their progress as they headed west over the Pacific Ocean.

Kenny looked over at Madison, who's eyes were still on the small patch of sky high above. "I guess it's just you and me now," he said.

Agent Madison dropped her gaze, her face hardening once again. "Yep," she said simply before stepping away to watch the viewscreen with General Kenpachi. Kenny chewed the inside of his cheek, watching the back of her head and trying to figure her out.

Later that day, Kenny sat in the cafeteria, eating his lunch. Madison sat at another table across the room, eating alone and not talking to anyone. Katie Young and Tammy Hayes had headed out in the Ranger Tank to follow the rangers, while Doug and Harriet were still working at the moment. Kenny watched his fellow ranger as she took a bite of a chicken sandwich, her eyes fixed firmly on her food. He hesitated for only a moment before getting up and crossing the room to join her.

"May I sit here?" he asked, approaching her.

Madison glanced up for only a second before shrugging and saying, "I don't care."

Kenny slid into the seat across from her and took another bite of his food. "Hey, um," he started. "I hope I didn't offend you somehow when I first got here. If I did, I apologize."

Madison kept her eyes on her food, but shook her head. "You didn't," she said.

"Are you sure?" Kenny asked. "Because it kinda feels like you've been avoiding me, even though we're supposed to be teammates now."

"I haven't," she said quickly. Almost as if having to force herself, she raised her eyes to meet his for a second before dropping them back down. She took another bite of her chicken sandwich. "It's just who I am," she said. "Don't take it personal."

Kenny shook his head. "I can't do that," he said. Madison looked up at him and Kenny met her eyes again. "What I mean is, we're supposed to be a team. And I want to be the best ranger I possibly can. And I can't do that if I can't connect with one of my teammates."

Madison scowled, glaring daggers at the sandwich in her hand. "Will you just leave me alone," she said, tossing it down. "I don't want to connect, okay?"

Kenny opened his mouth to argue, but Madison cut him off. "Look, when we're out there in the field, I'll have your back. If there's something you need to know, I'll tell it to you. I'll be a team player. I'll fulfill the mission. I'm good at that. But that's it."

Kenny stared at her, slightly taken aback with his mouth open. Madison glared up at him. "I see you over there, interacting with everyone and being super-friendly all the time. And I'm glad for you. Really, I am. But I'm not here to make friends. That's not my job. I frankly don't want to make friends. I am here to take down the Black Cross. That's what I care about, and that's all I care about. Do you understand?"

Kenny looked down, feeling a little embarrassed. He nodded. Madison picked up her sandwich to take another bite, but seemed to have lost her appetite. "I'll be in my quarters," she said, throwing it back down onto the tray and getting up. She turned to walk away when Kenny spoke up.

"I want to take them down too," he said.

Madison stopped and glanced back. Kenny fiddled with his fingers for a second. "I've watched them, for more than five years now. All those attacks on the news. All those people dying. It's why I joined EAGLE in the first place." He took a breath. "And now they've killed my friend."

Kenny slowly rose to his feet. "I'm trying to make friends, but I am still taking this seriously," he said.

Madison looked at the ground, a hard look in her eyes. "You have no idea," she said.

Kenny crossed his arms. "Excuse me?"

Peggy glared up at him, her eyes like daggers. "You have no idea," she said. "The news. One friend. Try watching them reduce your parents to mindless vegetables with no idea who you are. Try living on the street for twelve years, starving and scrounging for food wherever you could get it. Try having only one person in the entire world you could count on, someone who was your best friend, someone you loved with all of your being, only to find out that that person had been working for them all along. That he'd been lying to you the whole time. That he knew what they had done . . . and then try watching them kill him when he turned on them to protect you. And you couldn't do anything about it, even while wearing a super suit. Go through all of that, and tell me you hate them then."

Kenny gaped, his mouth open. When Dayton said she'd been through a lot, he hadn't quite imagined all of that. "I—I'm sorry. I . . ."

"Do you get it now," she said. "I am here to take them down. I don't want to connect. I don't want to make friends. Especially not with someone who—"

She cut herself off and turned away. Kenny raised an eyebrow. "Who what?"

Madison squeezed her mouth shut, looking like she was cursing herself. She looked back up at Kenny. "You have his smile," she said.

Kenny looked at her in confusion. "His smile?" he said.

Madison gestured to her mouth. "My friend," she said. "The one who betrayed me. He used to have this funny little smirk he did. Yours is exactly the same."

"Oh," Kenny said, realizing. He suddenly became very self-conscious about his mouth and covered it. "I'm . . . sorry."

Madison shook her head. "It's not your fault," she said. "You just caught me off-guard that first day." She took another breath and Kenny could see that her shoulders were visibly shaking. "Just leave me alone," she said. She turned and marched off to put her tray away just as Harriet came racing into the room.

"Peggy, Kenny," she said breathlessly. "You're needed in headquarters."

Madison set her tray down and looked at Harriet with concern. "What's going on?"

"We've got trouble, with the other rangers. General Kenpachi's waiting in command."

Kenny and Madison looked at each other, both their faces turning serious. "Let's go," they said.

The pair raced past Harriet, the young cadet turning to follow them out. They hurried out of the cafeteria and down the corridor, following the now familiar route. Once they reached the door, they tapped themselves inside to find General Kenpachi and Doug there, both looking with concern at the viewscreen, where the three rangers' visors had gone dark.

"Rangers," Kenpachi said. "Welcome."

"What's going on?" Peggy said.

"The other rangers are in trouble," the general said, tapping at the console before him. On the three visors, images started flashing in reverse, going back to just before the rangers arrived at the pyramids. Kenny and Peggy watched as they approached at lightning speed, plowing through the Black Cross soldiers that littered the valley around the ancient structures. They blazed in through the hole the Black Cross had made in the wall, quickly entering what did not look like the inside of a pyramid. Liquid metal seemed to be creeping through the sandstone bricks, turning it from a desolate tomb to some sort of high-tech facility full of strange twisting architecture unlike anything seen on Earth.

"What the heck?" Kenny asked.

"Keep watching," General Kenpachi said.

Captain Cage, Sean, and Dayton blazed into the center of the compound, coming face to face with two Masks waiting for them there. One was clearly the Volcano Mask, with a face looking like it was made of solid stone, and his companion looked like some kind of mascot Kenny would see at a baseball game. Despite the rangers' appearance, both looked surprisingly calm.

Then something struck Sean from behind, causing his visor to go dark. Captain Cage and Dayton turned to see a strange figure in a hooded red cloak coming at them.

Madison sat forward, her eyes wide. "Is that—?"

General Kenpachi looked serious. "I'm afraid so," he said.

Kenny wasn't quite sure what they were talking about, but whatever that hooded figure was on the screen, it certainly didn't move like a human being. Within a matter of seconds, both Captain Cage's and Dayton's visors had gone dead as well.

General Kenpachi switched off the visors. "As you can see, things are a lot more serious in Giza than we initially thought. It's not just the Volcano Mask and other lesser Masks out there right now. Whatever it is, the Fuhrer is personally overseeing it."

Madison sat forward, her eyes more serious than Kenny had ever seen them. "What do we need to do?"

General Kenpachi looked up at her for a second and took a breath. He brought up some readouts on the other three rangers' current conditions. "As far as we can tell," he said, "Captain Cage and the others are still alive, but their suits and their communicators are completely offline. Young and Hayes are still free, but they're keeping their distance for now, keeping us updated on the situation from the tank."

Agent Madison pushed back her seat and got to her feet. "I'll go," she said.

Kenny got up too. "So will I," he said.

Madison scowled at him. "No," she said. "It would do us no good if we were both captured too. You should stay here."

Kenny shook his head. "That guy took down all three of the other rangers. You don't stand a chance going in alone."

"I'll be fine," Madison said. "I've fought him before."

"We are a team," Kenny said. "We should be doing these things together. We're stronger that way."

"That's enough, both of you," General Kenpachi said, getting in between them. He took a breath and looked at both of them. "Miss Madison, you're right. It does us no good for all of our rangers to get captured. But if you go in there alone, you're sure to get yourself captured, and then I'm sure Austin would be following you not too long after. Your only hope is working together." He took another breath and looked down. "Now that we know the Fuhrer is there, that should give us a better chance. He took down the others largely by surprise. If we are smart, you should be able to manage it if you're stealthy. If you can manage to get into the other rangers' vicinity, the Five-Star system should be able to reactivate their suits through yours. But you have to get there first, and neither of you are going to do that alone."

"But sir," Madison started to argue.

"That is my order, Agent Madison," Kenpachi said, cutting her off. "You are going together. Is that a problem?"

Madison closed her mouth. "No, sir."

"Good. Cummins and Nixon will stay with me, and we'll monitor the situation from here. You should get going."

Madison chewed her lip but let it go. "Alright," she said. "Where are our morphers?"

"I've got them," Harriet said, running up with the morphers' containment unit in her hands. She held it open for Madison, and the agent took it, strapping it around her wrist. Kenny took his own when Harriet hurried over to him.

"Hey, sir," Doug said, approaching General Kenpachi. "Do you think those might be ready for use? I mean, we only have three of them, but . . ."

Kenpachi stared at him for a second before realizing what he was talking about. Then he quickly went to the nearest console and typed something in. "Ready enough," he said. He punched in a command and a small containment unit slid open, Kenpachi withdrawing three strange keys that looked like they could plug into Kenny's morpher. He held them up for Agent Madison.

"These should help you out when you get in trouble," he said. "There are only three finished right now, but each is programmed to extend a gunner's station from their side, so all five of you should be able to ride them easily."

Madison accepted the keys and clenched them in her fist. "Thank you, sir," she said.

She turned to Kenny, and Kenny nodded back at her. "Let's do this."

Both raised their wrists and punched their activation buttons. Bright light filled the room as nanites spilled out across their bodies, forming into their power suits and hardening into solid shapes. After a few seconds, the light dissipated, and Kenny found himself standing as the green ranger once again.

Agent Madison's face popped up on his visor. "Are you ready, Austin?" she said.

"Ready, Miss Madison," Kenny said.

"Good. Then let's go."

She and he started up their birdies as General Kenpachi, Doug, and Harriet stepped back before jetting up into the air and out through the shaft into the afternoon sky.