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 Two – Revelations & Recruitment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 20, 2002 – 10:38 a.m. PST
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles, California
Billy glanced impatiently at his watch again, it was the third time in the past ten minutes. The six-hour trip from Florida had not been a good one. He was nervous, tried, and most of all, he was scared. The past three days had been spent in conference with the heads of Pentagon, Interpol and UN ambassadors. Conference calls had been non-stop and everything felt like it was going to hell in a hand basket. And the worse was yet to come.
"Billy!" Tommy and Jason ran toward their friend happily. It had been too long since they've seen the genius.
Summoning a smile, Billy felt simultaneously relieved and guilty. Things were about to come out today that he's been trying to keep a secret for some time now. And he wasn't sure how his friends were going to react. "Well, don't you two look good."
"You, on the other hand, look like death on a trescit." Jason said as he grabbed Billy's bag. "The government boys been keeping you busy?"
"Like you won't believe." Billy said with a weak smile. It was good to be home, he just wish it wasn't under these circumstances. "Did you get my message?"
"Yes," Tommy said as he got into the driver seat of his 4X4. "What's up? Why do you need everyone here?"
"I'll explain it to you guys all together." He frowned as he picked up his cell phone and dialed the now very familiar number. He has been dialing it every hour on the hour for the past three days. Unfortunately, there was still no answer but the machine. "It's Billy again. I'm in Angel Grove now. Cell phone is on. Call me as soon as you get this."
"Who's that?" Jason asked with a concern. He's never seen Billy so agitated.
Sighing with heavy weariness, Billy shook his head. "Someone that may be in trouble. I'll tell you all about it later with the others."
"You all right, Billy?" Tommy asked as he looked at his friend from the rearview mirror. "I haven't seen you this tired since…… I've never seen you this tired."
Billy rubbed his face with his hand. "It's been a rough couple of days."
"Anything we can do?" Jason asked with concern.
"Funny you should ask that." Billy smiled genuinely for the first time in days. "But we'll talk about that later. Tell me about yourselves. I haven't heard anything in weeks, living like a monk that I am."
The others laughed. Jason sat back in his seat and relaxed. "I'm back in California for good. Just bought a nice little place in Angel Grove that you are going to kill me over. Reminds me kind of like a small castle, got a little tower and everything. I've set up an office in town, bigger than I had intended but it works and I'm finishing up three of my projects and getting ready for a vacation before I get to the proposals sitting on my office now."
"Your clients willing to wait?"
Tommy laughed. "Oh course they are. Who won't wait an extra month or two for an original Jason Lee Scott designed house."
Jason laughed easily. "Oh man, that just sounds awful."
They laughed as Tommy talked about the Dojo and the championship his kids just won. After a little while, Jason and Tommy realized that somewhere along the way, Billy had fallen asleep in the two-hour drive back to Angel Grove.
Jason frowned as he gazed at Billy's tired form. "What do you think is really going on, Tommy?"
"I don't know," Tommy answered as he calmly changed lanes to get away from the tailgater behind him. "But I don't like the way Billy sounded."
"Me either. And for him to want us to call Aisha, Tanya and Zack back to Angel Grove, that got me worrying."
Tommy frowned as he coasted along the freeway. "What's got me really worried is why Billy didn't ask us to call Trini and Kimberly."
"Yeah, there's another mystery to solve." Jason sat back in his sat. "Where are those two anyways? I kind of lost track during my move."
"Trini could be anywhere around the globe right now. Kimberly is supposed to be in Albany, New York." Tommy kept his voice neutral as he said her name but Jason picked it up anyways.
"You tried to call her?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"Nothing but a machine."
"Worried?"
"Yeah."
Jason frowned out the window. "I called Trini the other day, before Billy called. Left the voice mail like I always do. She's usually real good about answering her voice mails but I haven't heard from her yet." He didn't need to say how disappointed he was not to hear from her. Tommy knew.
"Worried?"
Nodding his head, Jason looked at his best friend. "Not until Billy called and didn't ask for Trini as well."
Tommy nodded his understanding. They both knew that Trini could easily take care of herself but this was serious business. "You think this has to do with the girls?"
"Maybe," Jason turned in his seat to look at his tired friend again. "I just don't like this."
Tommy sighed and nodded his head again. "Me either, bro. Me either."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 20, 2002 – 11:56 a.m.
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles, California
"Agent Hart, this way please."
Kimberly grabbed her overnight bag and followed the darkly dressed man. Her heels clicked as they made their way through the crowded airport. She had taken a commercial flight simply because it was easier than having them bring a plane in for her. Besides, Trini needed it more than she did.
She had met with the head agent in New York three days before, followed by another meeting with Trini and a couple of conference calls with Interpol agents in Europe. When Trini and Kim saw the pictures retrieved, they had insisted on a new team of their picking. This was where Billy came in. Trini and her had been kept so busy with the details of the upcoming mission that someone else had to call Billy with the news while she and Trini flew down to Washington DC to meet with the big boys in Pentagon.
Deciding that it would be more efficient to split up, Kimberly took the next flight out of New York and headed for home. Angel Grove after years away from it was still home in her mind. It was where her friends and family was. It was where her heart was. Trini had taken the ISS private jet back toward Europe to get what she needed out the of the London office before her next stop, Warsaw Poland.
Kimberly was to get the others, hopefully soon-to-be deputized agents, and take another ISS jet waiting a mile outside of Angel Grove straight to where they are to rendezvous with Trini. Time was of the essence now.
"Billy with them yet?"
"Mr. Cranston was picked up by his friends about an hour ago. I have two agents following them back to Angel Grove now. Agent Delgado will meet them there and help Mr. Cranston brief your friends."
"James?" She looked incredulously at the man before her. "Are you nuts? You sent James and his superior pain-in-the-butt attitude to talk these people into helping us? What's the matter with you?"
The agent in charge of getting Kimberly to Angel Grove sighed. "We didn't have anyone else available."
Kimberly relented as she got into the black unmarked car. "Everyone is scrambling into position?"
"Yeah," he nodded and closed the door for her. "We'll try to get there before Agent Delgado piss them off too badly."
Kim looked doubtfully at him but nodded. "Well, at least Billy's there."
The agent looked amused. It was well know that the independent computer consultant that Agent Hart and Agent Kwan brought in was a genius even if he did lacked certain social skills. "Whatever you say, Agent Hart."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 20, 2002 – 2:18 p.m.
Tech-Hi Dojo
Angel Grove, California
Tommy's eyes narrowed. "You're telling me that the earthquakes are made by something unnatural underground?"
Agent James Delgado looked pleased the civilians appeared to understand the highly classified military intelligence information. "Yes, and for some reason the agents in charge have asked that you be involved in this assignment."
"All of us?" Aisha asked as she played with the drink in her hand. Adam sat down by her and held her badly shaking hands.
"Who are the agents in charge?" Jason asked calmly though judging by who was missing from the roster of the old Power Rangers that are here, he had a pretty good idea who.
"That's classified as of this moment until you have agreed to be deputized into the organization." Delgado said with his nose tilted in the air. This bunch did not impress him. The job did not require new people; he didn't understand why the superiors did not just hand the assignments out to the old agents.
"What's the organization?" Tommy asked though he was fast losing his patience with this guy. So far, he hadn't said anything he didn't already guess.
"That's classified as well."
"No one is joining anything until we get some answers first." Rocky said as he stood up from his position on the mat. He was getting thoroughly pissed off.
"I'm afraid that's not possible." He was secretly hopeful that they would turn down the job. This was his chance to move up through the ranks.
Jason shook his head. "We're not joining an unknown group, working with unknown people, until someone gives us some answers."
"That is not possible, you are…"
"You are making a hash of this is." Billy spoke up for the first time since he arrived. "Let me put it to you this way, I quit if I don't get to talk to someone fast."
The egghead was growing balls, Delgado thought to himself. "Mr. Cranston, you are a computer consultant for the organization. You signed an agreement of confidentiality when you agreed to join."
"If you look at the fine print, it always says that I work at my discretion and I only deal with the two agents that brought me in. So why don't you just shove your attitude up your…."
"Such language, Billy." Kimberly said with a smile. "Is that what they've been teaching you at NASA?"
"Kimberly!" The others all got up as Kim in her fine gray suit walked in with another black suited man.
Kim! Tommy's heart did a flip-flop. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. The years have matured her beauty.
Taking in the scene with one glance, she sized up the situation and avoided looking at Tommy too long. It would hurt too much. "Agent Delgado, you are dismissed."
"But…"
She turned on him with sharp eyes. "Dismissed!"
Outranked, he nodded. "Yes, Madam."
She waited until Agent Delgado left before turning to her escort agent, Agent Floreze. "You can go as well, thank you."
"I'm suppose to stay with you until you leave California, madam." He looked rather apologetic but she understood. Orders were orders.
"Could you wait outside then?"
"Yes, Madam."
Billy waited long enough for the door of the Dojo to closed before losing his temper. "KIMBERLY ANN HART!!! How could you? I've been calling you for the past three days and all I've gotten is your goddamn machine and a summons from your secretary. Do you have any idea what's like not to hear from someone who you know is always going out on dangerous assignments? I thought you were dead in the gutter somewhere! You couldn't have just picked up the phone and punch in a few numbers? All I needed was two words. 'I'm fine.' That's all I needed to keep me from going completely out of my MIND!"
Kimberly stood there completely in control of herself as she listened to him rant and rave. "Are you done?"
"Not by a long shot!" Billy said through clinched teeth.
She raised an eyebrow at him. "From what I've been hearing, you've been pretty busy yourself." She set the laptop computer she had been carrying in the side table before turning to her enraged friend. "Look Billy, you're not the only one getting the blunt end of this assignment. I've been at the Pentagon for three days and I don't really need you to be telling me just how tense this situation is. I haven't slept in more than thirty hours and we're not even going to get into how Trini is doing. She's spent the last three days jetting from Scotland, to New York, to Washington DC, back to New York and is now somewhere over the Atlantic again headed back to the British Isle before taking yet another plane to Warsaw Poland. And you know how she gets when she flies; she hasn't slept in three days. If you think you've had it bad, wait until you see her! Things are capricious and we've barely had time to eat much less sleep or call because our friends are worried. We've had to work out logistics and other problems. And why the hell do you think you're here now?"
Tommy took a deep breath and tried desperately to put thing together in his mind. "Just why are we here?"
Kim looked at him, truly looked at him, for the first time since she walked in. He looked good enough to eat. "You guys know about the earthquakes that's been leveling central Europe?"
"Yeah," Billy looked at her with questioning eyes now. "I've seen the satellite photos. What happened?"
"You know about it being unnatural?"
"Yeah, the director and I have been talking about it extensively."
"I'll bet." Kim sat down on the mat and tucked her legs under her and motioned for the others to sit. "Three days ago a joint effort by British Interpol agents and US marines went in search of the earthquake device. Thirty-six men and women armed with the most sensitive and sophisticated equipment Britain and the US has to offer went in for a recon. At approximately 9:43 p.m. Berlin time on the 17th, the entire team was taken out in less time than it takes for me to brush my teeth."
There was silence. Rocky looked horrified as he asked, "Taken out? As in…."
"Killed." Kimberly got up to get her laptop. "There was only one man that got as far as the outer caverns where he fell into a coma due to severe wounds and massive blood loss. He died this morning at 9:54 a.m. Berlin time. The video cam we got off of him was the reason I wanted this team put together. Looks like it may be a gift leftover from our friends during our trek with Zordan."
"What?" Billy was up a flash as Kimberly turned on the computer and showed them the e-mailed photos from the downed man's video cam. She's seen it enough times to not be shocked by it anymore, though she lost her lunch to it two days before.
"See these tentacles here? Look familiar to anyone?" Kim sat back and allowed the others to look as she quietly studied Tommy from behind. He had not changed much in the past ten years. Every bit as handsome as when she'd last seen him, his matured looks took her breath away. She knew this was not the time to be having these feelings, not when so much is at stake.
"Oh man, that's nasty." Adam said as he moved back from the screen.
Katherine looked slightly ill as she studied the screen with its green lines that covered and choked the life out of military personnel. She could not imagine a worse way to go out.
Tanya looked away from a particular gruesome picture with a man's head nowhere near his body. Not even in her year as Power Ranger did she see anything so horrible.
Aisha looked as if she was ready to faint as another picture popped up on the screen. Adam pulled her away from the computer and hoping to protect her from any more nightmarish pictures.
Zack shook his head and avoided the scene as more pictures came through.
In the end, only Tommy, Jason, and Billy watched all the evidence, frame by frame. None of them knew what to say except that it did appear to be the work of two of their most notorious enemies, Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd. Mutates of some sort, there was no doubt. How it could have survived this long was beyond their comprehension. All they knew is that this was Power Ranger business.
"Agent Hart!" Agent Floreze came through the door with a cell phone in hand. "Agent Kwan for you."
Kimberly grabbed the phone while the others looked on. "Trini, I'm going to hook you up to the speaker on my LT. Hold on a second." She linked the two together and sat back. "Okay, you're on the air."
"Kim?" Trini's voice came through though there was lots of interference from the back.
"Yeah, where are you? You sound like you're in the middle of traffic."
"I'm still on the jet, hundred mile off the coast of Wales. I should be arriving in London within the hour." Trini's voice shook as she spoke which had all the former rangers looking worried. "Kim, is everyone there?"
"Minus you, yes."
They could almost see her smile. Sweet Trini. Sweet, calm, ever reliable Trini. "Good, what do you say guys? I could really use you all right about now."
Jason wished to hell she were right there with them. It's been too long since he's heard from her. Even longer since he's seen her. "What do you think?"
Trini's twinkling laugher came through the air, bringing a smile to the former gold ranger's face. "I never doubted you Jason. But I wasn't sure if everyone would be willing to drop his or her lives and help out on this one. I know you've all moved on and it's not your job to protect the world, you didn't sign up for this. But…"
"Trini," Tommy's voice cut through, his voice was soft but firm. "You don't have to ask. You never have to ask. You know we'd be there."
"Thanks, Tommy." There was a pause as Trini tried to figure things out.
"Something wrong? Trini?" Kim's eyes gazed at the blank screen as if she could actually see her friend. They've known each other too long and too well. Relied on each other many times to watch each other's backs. She knew when there was something wrong.
"Kim, you sitting?"
"No."
"Sit down."
"Trini?"
"Sit down, Kimberly."
Kimberly sat on the ground. "Okay, what is it?"
There was a longer pause. "They sent me some digital photos of the Interpol agent that made it back. The stuff they're having me examine is alien to them and….. and they wanted me to be prepared. The guy died horribly."
"Trini? What aren't you telling me?" Kim's brows wrinkled with concern. It wasn't like Trini to beat around the bush. "What did they send you?"
"Pictures of the officer, Kim." There was a pause as if she was trying to search for a way to say it. "It's Charlie."
Kimberly blinked. "Charlie?"
"Yeah." There was much regret in Trini's voice.
She didn't comprehend. "Charlie who?"
There was a sigh. "Charles O'Connor, Kim. It's Charlie."
Kimberly's mind refused to wrap itself around the truth. "Charlie? M…..My Charlie?"
"I'm so sorry, Kim."
She looked at the screen blankly. "I don't understand."
"Kim, they drafted him back into Interpol for this mission because of his expertise in demolition."
"But…" She didn't understand. She didn't know what was going on. Why would Charles O'Connor, her mentor, be on a mission like this? It was suppose to be profile military. "I….how…."
"Kim, take a deep breath."
"Trini…."
"It's okay. He didn't feel anything in the end."
She looked so lost. Tommy didn't know who this guy was but he obviously meant something to Kimberly. Though he was jealous of the unknown man, he could not sit there and see her in so much pain. "Kimberly," he reached out to her and she instinctively went into his arms. "It's okay."
"Kim…." The others all gathered around except Jason.
Jason stared at the blank screen picturing Trini on the other side of the phone line, a frown on her face in concern for her friend. She was like that, worried about everyone else but herself. His selfless Trini. "You all right Trini?"
"Jason?"
"Yeah, I'm here."
"Take care of Kim, will you? Charlie meant a lot to her."
"Who was he?"
"Her mentor. He brought her into the organization. He was like a second father to her."
"And you?" He dreaded the answer.
"I was brought in by Kim."
He smiled. "No, I meant how you do feel about him?"
"I didn't seem him much. He was always jetting off to some place or other."
Nodding with relief, he turned to watch Tommy with his arms around Kimberly, whispering soothing words to her. "Tommy still loves her."
There was sighing on the other line. "I kind of guessed."
"How are you feeling?" Knowing Trini as well as he did, he could only guess that if what Kimberly said was true, Trini probably hadn't slept in more the sixty hours.
"I'm fine."
"Trini?"
"Yeah?"
"Get some sleep before you land, okay?"
"I can't sleep on planes."
"Try anyways."
"Okay."
There was a pause before Jason asked, "Are you going to be with us?"
"Yeah, I have to go into London for equipment, then I'll catch the next jet out to Warsaw. You guys need to get going if we're going to meet on time."
"We'll be there. And Trini?"
"Yeah?"
He hesitated. "I missed you."
There was a pause as Jason held his breath in anticipation. "I missed you too, Jason. Take care and I'll see you in a few hours." He savored the words and held them close to his heart.
"You too."