Disclaimers: Characters are owned not be writer of this particular fan fiction. Please do not sue me for I'm definitely not making any money off of this story and this is for amusement only.
Warning: Rated NC-17 for content and language.
Note: The former rangers have moved on in their lives but are pulled back into the game by a little gift left behind from an old "friend." While they fight for their lives yet again, they learn more about each other.
Age check: Billy, Tommy, Jason, Zack-27. Adam, Aisha, Rocky, Trini, Kimberly-26. Katherine, Tonya-25.
Acknowledgements: This one is for Shawn (Ozmandayus), for all the encouragements he has given me and for inspiring me to do this story with all this great writing. Thanks! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter One – Threats & Secret Lives
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April 16, 2002 – 8:12 p.m. PST
Tommy Oliver's Apartment
Angel Grove, California
"Dow Jones is down by 89.6 points today while Nasdaq is up by 22. In the international news, earthquakes ranging from mild 3.6's to devastating 7.3's have been reported all over Europe. Germany, Italy, and Russia have sealed off cities and counties calling them national disaster areas. Switzerland is asking for the United Nations to declare this a world disaster. While the British Isles and France has taken the least damage, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic have reported several thousands missing or presumed dead. In local news, The Tech-Hi Dojo enjoyed victory as they took first place in the national martial arts competition this week…."
Thomas Oliver paid little attention to the news broadcast in the background as he read the letter from his best friend.
Tommy,
By the time you are reading this, I will hopefully be over the U.S. and on my way back to Angel Grove. I'm currently in the process of consolidating my assets and moving my architectural company to California. Chicago was great and all, but I know that I belong in Angel Grove. My parents are excited and I hope you are too. Can't wait to see your dojo, you finally achieved your dreams. I'm glad we've both come so far in our lives. I just heard from Billy a while back, NASA has him pretty busy especially with the recent world disasters. He says that Florida is not his ideal location to be working and he is looking into a transfer. Here to crossing fingers and hoping for the best. I'll catch up with you when I get back, hopefully by Friday. I'll talk to you then.
Your pal,
Jason Lee Scott
Tommy shook his head with exasperation. It was so like Jason to rattle on about nothing through a letter to tell him that he was coming home as last. Jason had spent the pass three years establishing a reputation in Chicago as the up and coming new architect of the millennium. Now he could move his company anywhere in the world and still get plenty of clients. His traveling bills must be killing his wallet. But then, if he was making a couple of million dollars a job he could afford to be jetting off to anywhere he wanted to.
It would be good to have Jason back in town. He could use his old sparring partner around. Rocky and Adam were great, but they are no match for Tommy. And he felt rather unfair to ask them to willingly put bruises on themselves when he needed a real workout. Jason wouldn't mind, plus there's always the added benefit that Jason can actually beat him from time to time. They were way too evenly matched that it was scary.
The news on Billy was interesting though. Billy's recent works for NASA had been top secret and so they hear very little from him these days. The few times the genius was around, he could only talk about his communications with Zordan through the National Space Communication Station that he had help develop. Billy, above all others, took Zordan's death the hardest. It was about time that Billy came home to roost.
Getting up from the dinning room table, he took a moment to try to remember where the rest of his "family" was. Rocky and Adam were newly promoted police detectives on the Angel Grove Police force. Those two took real pride in giving back to the community and policing only came natural. Katherine is an elementary school teacher. No one ever saw that one coming though she seems happier than she's been in a long time. Aisha works as a legal aid in Boston. Biggest law firm company that handled child abuse cases, though Tommy suspects that Aisha is taking each case to heart a little more than she should. If she kept that up, she's going to burn out soon. Tanya is currently working on project with the Habitat for Humanity foundation. Or was it Peace Corp? She jumps from one humanitarian organization to the next so often that it was hard for him to keep up. The last time Tommy heard, Trini was in England doing research for her newest book. Most of them were surprised that Trini chose to leave the field of virology after she received a Nobel Prize in Science two years ago. Now a globetrotting author, she's making millions on her best selling detective novels. What a strange change! Zack is in New York with the Alex Haley Dance Company. Tommy went to visit last year and caught a performance that took his breath away. Zack was sensational as lead dancer for the improvisational dance company. And it was obvious that he loved what he did. And Kimberly is…..
Kimberly Ann Hart. It was a little more difficult to keep track of her since their break up so many years before. It's left a scar in his heart that he wasn't sure ever truly healed. He had tried to keep track of her happenings from the Pan Global Championships to the Olympics two years later. After the US team took second place, Kimberly seemed to have disappeared from the public eye. Through Trini, he's learned that Kimberly is currently working as an interior designer in New York. She must be so proud. He was glad that she was happy in what she did. He won't have wanted any less for her.
Getting dinner from the frig, he wondered when he's ever going to find peace where Kimberly was concerned. And if he really wanted to.
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April 16, 2002 – 10:32 p.m. EST
NASA Base – Main Viewing Room
Miami, Florida
William James Cranston was not the most handsome man, nor was he the most athletic; what he is and always will be, is the most brilliant man on earth. It was NASA's luck that Billy even decided to take the consulting job they offered when he could have easily started his own computer company and be making thousands more a year. But Billy was not a greedy man, or even a vain one. He liked his job, the freedom it gave him, and he did it well. This new seismology project was giving him a headache though. It was not because it was not interesting, but simply that it made no sense.
The areas where the earthquakes are the most intense are nowhere near detected fault lines. Even with the tremors at the most intense, they could not find any reason why there was an earthquake in the area. Nothing geological, seismological, or even volcanic about it. It was as if these earthquake were…….
Billy stared at the charts in front of him with wonder. Lord, please don't let him be right!
"Hey Darren," Billy called to his friend and colleague. "Can you pull up on the computer all the quakes in the most intense areas by chronological dates?"
"Sure, hang on a second. I'm going to give you the stuff on Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic. They've got the worse of it."
The other scientist looked up from their work. It was well known around here that when Billy looks at something, it usually has some heavy bearing on the projects.
"Damn it," Billy muttered as he stared at the dates and times. The areas have all been hit consistently over the pass two weeks, slowly increasing from 2.5's to 7.3's. In the past twenty-four hours, three earthquakes have hit the area, ranging from 7.1's to 7.24's. And they've all been spaced in six-hour intervals. "God damn it."
Billy didn't loose his temper, have never lost his temper in public, but now he was angrier than his ever been in his life, even against the injustice of Zordan's ultimate sacrifice.
"Billy, what's up?" Justin asked from his post at one of the main super computers.
"Why the hell didn't anyone see this?" Billy raged and threw his copy of seismology report across the room. "Why the hell didn't anyone catch it?"
"WHAT?!?" It was frightening to see the usually calm and collected Billy Cranston lose it.
"Look at the dates guys!" Billy pointed to the large view scene overhead. "Look at the times! They're too even space out to be natural. These aren't seismological earthquakes. These are man-made ones."
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April 17, 2002 – 1:03 a.m. EST
ISS Private Jet
Somewhere Over the Atlantic
Dr. Trini Kwan sat with her back against the cushions trying to relax. But she couldn't. Her vacation had been cut abruptly short and she didn't like the sound of that. Very little is known about her activities since the Nobel Prize Award ceremony two years before, and that's just the way she liked it. Contrary to what the public understood, her work had been out of necessity and not because she enjoyed working with untested strains of viruses.
The KPE-378 strain had been deadly, killing off a million people in the space of six months in central Asia. She had been in London at the time finishing her Ph.D. degree when Zordan via Alpha-5 contacted her. Knowing that Trini was working on her doctrine in virology and toxicology, Zordan had informed her that someone, his enemies, had let loose a strain of incurable virus on earth. Pass through skin-to-skin contact; the densely populated area of India and Indonesia had been severe victims of it. The international policing had quarantined entire countries in fear of allowing the virus to spread over the world. No one would take the case, it was simply too dangerous to work on a strain of untested virus they knew nothing about.
Trini had asked for grants to set up a quarantined laboratory to work on the virus herself. It took her almost two months to talk the United Nations into approving the project and another six weeks for the International Scientific Foundation to set up the lab. Through it all, her friends and family had tried to discourage her into abandoning this dangerous and possibly suicidal attempt. Kimberly had flown in from Sydney Australia to plead with her in vain. Billy had argued that she should not risk her life, that there would be others, yet she ignored him. Tommy had yelled at her for her foolishness over the phone for nearly two hours until she finally got sick of listening to him and simply hung up. Her parents had cried and beseeched her to change her mind repeatedly, but she held steadfast. Tanya, Aisha, Katherine had all called to give her a hundred reasons why she should not lock herself away to do the research; she hung up on them after politely listening to all their arguments. Rocky, Adam and Zack had arrived in London to try to physically restrain her from going; she had to call the police on them just to make them leave. Only Jason did nothing.
Jason had arrived at her flat the night before she was to go into the containment unit and she had been completely prepared to throw him out as she had done with Zack, Adam and Rocky. But he hadn't say a word of opposition or even try to plead with her. Instead, he brought a bottle of red wine and two glasses. He toasted her for her courage through a face full of tears. He understood her decision, understood her reasons for doing it, and voiced it better than she could possibly have. They drank the wine and he made her laugh with jokes though they were both on the verge of breaking down. The night was spent talking about the good old days and their journey from childhood to adulthood since the Power Rangers. It was beautiful; she would not have chosen to spend her last night in any other manner or with anyone else. In the morning, he escorted her to the quarantined containment unit and hugged her so tight that she had feared he would crack a rib. They said their good-byes through a veil of tears and he promised to have champagne and strawberries for her when she came out again, alive and with a cure.
It took Trini almost eight months of non-stop work to create an inoculum, which had the international scientific world talking though she refused to come out of the containment unit and allow the others to continue the work. She wasn't ready to give up with just an inoculum; she wanted a cure. Another two months passed when she found a small strain of KPE-398 similar in nature to KPE-378 that she used as a catalyst in a cure. She came out of the containment unit exhausted but hopeful. True to his word, Jason had been there, waiting for her with a biggest bottle of champagne she'd ever seen. The front page of every major newspaper had featured two pictures, one of her staggering out the doors of the containment unit and another of her and Jason in a bone-breaking hug.
The world celebrated, the cure was duplicated, and all while Dr. Trini Kwan slept in a hotel room after having several glasses of champagne and a big bowl of strawberries with her family and friends. She slept like the dead for two days. Billions had been saved, a million people in Asia died, and thousands were cured. The Nobel Prize was hers though she didn't want it, didn't need it. And while the international world cheered her accomplishments, she cried alone in the dark for being too late to save those million people that died cause she couldn't work fast enough.
She disappeared from the public eyes after that, only to have detective novels featuring her name appear once in a while. Everyone had just naturally assumed that she was through with virology after that horrifying experience and decided to go into writing. She certainly had the talent for it. And money was not an issue for her; she could easily live in style even if she decided never to work again. No, the novel was merely a cover story and something to do between her real job. She has been an agent for International Security System, a branch agency of the Interpol and the US military so secretive that the population in general didn't know of its existence, for almost two years now.
Following the Nobel Prize, she hid from the world, even her friends and family. She needed time to deal with her own life. She had been content to write her little novels and talk to her friends via phone conversations every once in while. Every thing was peaceful and good until the night Kimberly showed up at her hotel room in Hungry where she was doing research for her next book covered in blood and a bullet lodged in her shoulder. It was then she found out what Kimberly had really been up to since the Olympics two years before.
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April 17, 2002 – 6:48 a.m. EST
Kimberly Hart's Apartment
Albany, New York
The shrilling ring of the phone shattered the peace of morning. Kimberly cursed herself for having put the phone next to the bed. Glancing briefly at the clock, she became blindingly awake when it was clear that it was too early for the news to be good.
"Hello?"
"Agent Hart. You are needed in the field office by o eight hundred."
"I'll be there."
She hung up the phone and dialed another number, waiting for the machine to pick up. "Ginger, it's Kim. I won't be coming to the studio today. Mrs. Johnson has an appointment with me this afternoon, please take care of it. That woman wants everything in her house done with a pink, white and gold scheme. Her file is in the current active project drawer. Read it over before you meet with her. I may have to go out of town again so don't be surprised if you hear from me sometime later today. Make sure Michael does not talk any of our clients into doing their house in black and blue again. I do not want to have to deal with another one of those cases. I'll see you whenever I see you. Thanks." Ginger had gotten use to her long stunts away from the office in the past two years. She never asked questions, just did as she was told.
Getting out of bed has become harder and harder whenever she thought of going back into the field. Almost five years in International Security System has taught her that everything in this world sucks like hell. With her Olympic dreams fulfilled, she had wondered what she was going to do with the rest of her life when she decided to step into a bar. In retrospect, she wished she had never gone out that night.
Just turned twenty-one, she had been alone without any friends or family to help her celebrate her big birthday. Tired of the hotel, she had gone to a bar in hopes of having her first drink, even knowing her coach would probably kill her for it but she didn't particularly cared anymore. Fate had decided her future for her that night. It was fate, and possibly her years with the Power Rangers, that had her deflecting the knife that was meant for another's heart. And fate had decided to embroil her in the grim game of international espionage.
Agent Charles O'Connor had grabbed her hand to get the hell out of there after she had just saved his life. Charles had been there to trap an international arms dealer when everything went down hills. Had it not been for Kimberly's instinctive nature to protect and save people, he could have found that knife buried to the hilt in his heart. He hadn't recognized her until after six blocks of high tailing it out of there. He had needed to contact his superiors over the debacle and the fact that he just involved an innocent bystander in their case, an innocent Olympic champion to be exact. The young girl didn't seem even a little fazed by all the happenings. He had been impressed and told his superiors that.
After returning to the States with the Olympic team, Kimberly had been surprised to find a bouquet of flowers waiting for her and an invitation as well as a job offer. The first two-year had been fun, full of danger and interesting places to see. She had kept her activities to herself and used ISS's international trading company cover as a way to explain her frequent trips across the world. Kim had felt like she was back with the Rangers again, working to save the world.
But that soon changed when a mission in Hungry had gone terribly wrong. They were supposed to trap a man dealing in biochemical weaponry but instead; they walked right into a trap themselves. Glen had been killed, a knife in the back and three bullets in his stomach. She barely got out of there with her life. Realizing that she couldn't return to her hotel, Kimberly found herself in a bind until she remembered Trini mentioning something about being in Hungary for her research in one of her most recent letters. It took her three tries to find her best friend, who instinctively knew to cover for her. The bullet Trini took out of her shoulder had been painful, but she will forever be grateful to Trini for her ever resourcefulness. The biochemical weaponry was easy for Trini to defuse given her expertise in toxicology and virology. Like herself, Trini couldn't walk away from protecting innocents. And Kimberly will forever regret allowing her superiors to talk her into talking Trini into joining ISS.
Setting down her coffee, Kim looked at the pictures that took up the space by the window. Pictures of her, her family, her friends, they were all she could keep of them. She used alias when she did her work. She's dyed her hair so many times now she sometimes forgets what the natural color looked like. This apartment had been Trini's idea when she noticed that Kimberly was beginning to lose a sense of herself after being uncover for too long. It was a way to Kim for remembered who Kimberly Ann Hart was and why she was doing what she was doing.
With a sigh, she went into her bedroom to get dressed. She had a feeling this was going to be a long day.
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April 17, 2002 – 1:32 p.m. EST
NASA Base – Director's Office
Miami, Florida
"What the hell do you mean you suspected?" Billy asked, his eyes narrowing in anger. "You're telling me that you knew, all along, that these earthquakes aren't earthquake?"
"Yes." The director said there with his fingers steeped. "We suspected though hoped that that wasn't the truth."
"So our research was just a cover story?" He was use to that. More than one of his projects had cover stories to them, like the substations he was developing had the name of projectile satellites to them instead. He understood the covers and even accepted them. But he didn't like being made to feel like a fool. "Why the hell are we even wasting our time here then?"
"Interpol and the US Military have people in place to find out whatever it is that is causing these quakes. The only problem we have is that no one is claiming credit for these things."
"Excuse me?"
"We had thought terrorists. But terrorist would claim credit for anything they are responsible for. This isn't some bomb in an embassy; it's earthquake devices on the magnitude that we've never seen. Things haven't been this bad since…."
"Since when?" Billy's eyes were narrowed as he could tell that the man was hiding something.
"Since the Power Rangers were battling those aliens!"
Billy sighed. It always came down to problems from outside forces beyond their control. "You think it's alien in nature?"
"I'm not sure." He director was rather surprised the Billy was so unfazed by the revelation. "The Power Rangers have always been careful to keep their battles away from the populated areas as much as they could. We understood that. Since Astronema's defeat, we haven't seen hide nor hair of the Power Rangers or of any threat from alien forces. We had just assumed that it was gone. But now…"
"Now this."
"Yes."
With a nod, Billy stood up. "You took a risk in telling me, sir."
"I trust you Billy."
"Thank you sir. You would please keep me informed?" Billy asked as he made to leave. "I would like to know what's going on."
"Sure." He nodded. "Our task forces are moving toward the center focal point now."
"Let's hope it works." Billy said and left. He prayed it works. His life as a Power Ranger was behind him now. He didn't want to go back to it. It had been a long and hard struggle over the years to get past everything that's happened to him. He wanted to forget about aliens and invasions and just concentrate on having a life of his own. A normal life of his own. Now this…..
Picking up the phone in his office, "Janis, could I get a secured outside line?"
"Just a minute. Patching you through now."
He waited until he heard the dial tone then punched in the number by heart. It rang and rang until the machine picked up. "Hey, you've reached Kim's place. I've decided to ignore the phone so be a dear and leave a message. Talk to you later." The beep was long and shrilling.
"Kimberly, it's Billy. We need to talk. Call me on the private line later tonight."
Hanging up, his hand paused briefly on the dialer. Then he asked for the operator again. "Janis, I need another one."
"Sure thing, patching through."
Punching in the number, he waited for the beeping to stop on the voice mail. "Trini, it's Billy. I need to talk to you. Call me at my Florida number when you get this."
He sighed as he hung up the phone. This was not going to be a good day.
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April 17, 2002 – 9:32 p.m. Berlin Time
Underground Caverns
Cracow, Poland
"Maneuver G-17."
The troops moved out easily through the large cavern, each Interpol agent has a US marine to cover their flank. They moved like one big harmonious group of government soldier. UN had requested the best, and these were the best US and British military had to offer.
"Movement detected."
"Base formation." The men and women moved back and into a tight standardized semi circle rank with three pulling on back up.
"Temp at 273 Kelvin."
"Humidity at 100%?"
"Doesn't make sense Commander."
"Don't question it, soldier."
They moved slowly now, each seeing their breath through the facemask filter they all wore. The trimmers had stopped an hour before, they knew from calculation that it won't start again for another five hours. They all packed C-4's, enough to blow up a small base if necessary. Their mission, blow the earthquake machine to kingdom come.
"Sir, I'm picking something up."
"What?"
"…."
"What is it, soldier?"
"Not sure sir."
"What is it on?"
"Sound vibration."
"Well?"
"It's too steady."
"Meaning?"
The solider hesitated. "Sir, this is going to sound crazy but…."
"What?"
"It sounds like someone breathing."
The others turned to look at the guy now. Cover from head to toe with standard military black operations gear, they could not tell if this guy was kidding, insane or just plain sick.
"Explain, soldier."
"It sounds like…. wait sir. I'm picking something else up."
"Report."
"It's….." the man would have made a face if he could. Everything was so distorted. In all his years of training, nothing had ever sounded like this. "I'm not sure sir."
"Equipment malfunction?" The commander had known this particular soldier for years. No one was better with sound vibration detection than he was. "Report!"
"Sir, I think something is coming this way."
Guns raised, the troops prepared for anything to come through. The best of the best the military forces had to offer was prepared for anything. Anything but what actually happened.