Love Amongst the Ruins: Chapter Two
Rating/Disclaimer: See first chapter.
Author's note: Sorry this took so long, but I lost my notebook and had the little matter of my eighteenth birthday to attend to. Hopefully I'll be back on a regular posting schedule before too long. In the meantime, enjoy! *****
Observing the information laid out before him, Billy sighed. Information about Rita and Zedd's henchmen always fascinated him, but today there was no time to discover more inane facts about them. Knowing that Finster had been suspected to be a relative of the ancient Greek royal family, however interesting, would not help them now. He decided to share his frustrations with the rest of the group. "This isn't working. Even though I'm only skimming quickly through the descriptions of these things, it's taking too long."
"And you're 100% positive that there's no search facility on the disc that we can use to track this thing down?" Adam asked. Billy closed his eyes and asked whatever higher being there was up there to give him strength. He responded in clipped tones.
"As sure as I can be, and I really don't think we can waste any more time looking for one."
Trini realised Billy was nearing the end of his metaphorical tether, and intervened. "Besides, even if there was a search facility, what would we use for criteria? Tall, evil and ugly? We can't necessarily rely on the witness statements, knowing as we do that Angel Grove citizens are not exactly reliable under pressure. It'll surely be easier to check through the images and see whether anything matches."
Although Billy and Trini weren't as close friends as they had been, due to time and distance constraints, both were gratified to realise that the bond of understanding between them still existed, and knew it was likely to come in useful in the near future.
"At least we can be thankful that Zordon and Alpha kept a detailed inventory of possible opponents. No wonder that they always knew exactly which opponents we were facing, and it never took them too long to work out a way of defeating them."
"Do the summary descriptions give any ideas as to how you can defeat them?" Adam asked curiously. If they did, the disc was worth more than pure gold - to whoever it possessed, and to whoever wanted it.
"Not per se. They mention weak spots of each enemy, but Zordon and Alpha must have worked out how to defeat each monster as they came," Billy told him, his momentary irritation with Adam dissipated. "Maybe it was on another disc, or they just used superior intelligence, but they always knew."
Adam and Trini discussed anything at all they could use or do to speed up the search, while Billy went back to his task of viewing the full contents of the disc as quickly as possible, and tried as best he could to keep his growing worries at bay.
He had two main concerns, that he wasn't searching quickly enough to make the task worthwhile, and that Adam and Trini were left on the sidelines after he had given them a basic lesson on how to manouevre their way around the disc. Any worries he had about the actual capabilities of the monster and how they could even attempt to defeat it were placed determinedly to the back of his head, to be dealt with when he had the time.
Tuning into Adam and Trini's conversation, he realised they were no longer discussing the task at hand, but whether Yahoo or Alta Vista were the better search engine.
"Guys, make yourself useful and see what ideas you can come up with for defeating this thing," Billy suggested. "Although I can't help but think we could outwit the thing by words alone, Tommy and Jason are bound to think physical combat's the way forward. We could at least give them a helping hand by discussing possible weapons."
"What's making you think we could talk it out of killing us all?" Trini asked curiously, and Billy couldn't come up with an answer to her question straight away. He once again diverted his attention, and swiveled on his chair to face two of his oldest friends.
"I can't put my finger on it, to be perfectly honest. I just think that anything that looks so impenetratable has to have a weak point somewhere. There's no sign of one anywhere on his body that I could see when watching the news report, so my mind automatically turned to psychological pressure."
Adam nodded. "It makes sense, but so does fighting him, to be honest."
"If we did fight him, at the moment we have no viable weapons to use," Billy reminded him. "I can't help but feel that a saucepan and a hammer are going to do much good, which are the only things we can use as weapons in this house. This 'Cubatron' looks as though a ten foot chisel wouldn't even begin to cut through his armour."
"I take your point, Billy, but what is there to use?" Trini asked him.
"There's nothing left of our Zords at the Command Centre or the old holding site," Adam informed them. "I was the last of us to go up there, as far as I know, and when I got there the whole area was cordoned off by police barriers, so I couldn't go inside. When I've been there before though, there's been nothing left of them. There may be some discs or documents remaining, but I wouldn't place my life on it."
"The Command Centre was cordoned off? Why?" Billy demanded.
"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Trini said simultaneously.
"It was only about three weeks ago, I guess. I went up there to think - it's always been the best place to get my head straight, but you guys would know that as well as I do." Billy and Trini nodded, though they'd never thought to explore the remains of the site, they had both been up there more than once when the pressures of everyday life became too much for them. "Anyway. I parked my car about one hundred metres away, and walked there. I couldn't see it from my car, but when I got nearer I saw there were a couple of police cars parked there, and police markers all around. None of the police would say anything about what they were doing there, except that 'an incident had occured' " Adam made the quotation marks with his fingers. "I meant to tell someone, but I've been so busy at work that I hadn't seen anyone since this morning. I kept a lookout in the local papers but nothing's been mentioned about it."
Billy sighed, and rubbed his temples. "Now we know this, we could conclude from this that someone knew what was going to happen today, how our train of thought would work, and got to the Command Centre before we could, to get whatever we could have used to defeat Cubatron."
"Billy, it could have been something completely different. It could have been anything! A fight between two animals and someone reported spilled blood, or the discovery of a stolen purse," Trini said quickly, trying to bring Billy's spirits back up.
"That doesn't explain why there was such a high police presense," Adam said reluctantly. "There were at least six of them there. Why don't we get in touch with Tommy's team and see if they've noticed anything untoward?"
"None of their cell phones will work in the mountains," Billy pointed out. He thought for a moment, a desperate expression on his tired face. "Why don't you keep on as you were, or were about to be? Keep thinking about what we could use as weapons. I'll try and gain access to the AGPD website and see if there's anything relevant to what Adam's just said that they're deliberately keeping from the general public."
Trini and Adam nodded in agreement, neither of them able to think of anything they could do which would be better, and the three who had remained behind returned to their tasks, all feeling increasingly as though what they were doing would have been of no use at all.
*****
Tommy, Aisha, Kim and Tanya all piled silently into Aisha's decrepid station wagon, ready for their trip into the mountainous areas surrounding Angel Grove.
"What should we be prepared to see when - when we get there?" Aisha asked hesitantly as she started the engine. Although she lived nearby, she had never quite summoned enough - courage? strength? - to make the journey to the ruins of the Command Centre. She had hoped it would never be necessary.
Tommy shook his head. "I'm not sure, I haven't had a look around in any depth. From what I've seen in driving past, there's no large debris left, not that we would expect any to remain this long without causing suspicions. We may come across a couple of discs or documents that could be of some use, but I'm not hopeful of finding anything more."
"So everything was destroyed?" Kim asked, turning her head away from the window where she was watching the streets of Angel Grove race by.
"As far as we know, yeah. Billy's disc is probably the only source of information we'll get, but it won't tell us if there were any holding areas outside the vicinity that we didn't know about," Tanya said.
A silence fell over the vehicle as they all contemplated what had gone on during their times as Rangers and the changes after they had served their duty. Without noticing it, the car soon left the suburbs of Angel Grove behind and followed the dusty road up into the mountains.
Tanya, from her vantage point in the backseat and conveniently placed so she could see all her friend's expressions, whether from turning her head to see reflections in the rear-view mirror or to look at Kim sitting beside her, decided after a good few minutes of silence that something had to be done to break the ice. Although the situation they were facing was undoubtedly a serious one, she had a feeling that they would not be of use unless at ease with each other, and for whichever reason, that was not the case at the moment. A little light-hearted teasing may not go amiss...
"So, Aisha. How have things been going with you?" Tanya asked innocently, while catching Kim's eye and winking to let her know this conversation would not necessarily be a serious one.
Aisha sighed, not yet realising that something was amiss. "Almost out of vet school, although I'm missing an important assessment today to do this. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job locally, I'm sick of being away at school."
"Any, ah... romantic attachments that might keep you at school?" Kim asked nonchalantly, staring out of her side window once again, so if Aisha happened to take her eyes off the road she wouldn't notice the smile that played about her lips.
"No... don't think I don't know what you two are doing here!" Aisha protested as she realised what her two friends were trying to do to her. "This is all an elaborate ploy to get me to 'fess up to some imaginary crush on Zack, isn't it!" she said indignantly.
"You said it, we didn't," Tanya murmured. "Although I must question you on your use of the word 'imaginary' in that sentence. Anyone with eyes can see you have the hots for each other."
"There's really nothing going on!" she protested feebly, blushing to the roots of her hair. She'd really hoped their flirtation would have gone unnoticed, but apparently not. Even Kim had somehow gotten wind of it, and she hadn't been there when the worst of the flirting had taken place...
"Oh, come on Aisha. I'm a guy, and even I noticed what was going on at the last group dinner," Tommy pointed out. "There's no use in pretending nothing's going on."
"This is so unfair. I can't even hide my blush from you guys or I'll run the car off the road," Aisha mumbled to herself, realising that with Tanya and Kim to answer to, she'd have no other way out but to tell the truth. Still, there could be no harm in delaying the inevitable... "There's nothing going on! How many more times do I have to tell you people?"
"About as many times as it takes for it to become true?" Kim suggested. "We're not blind, you know. We're your friends, and I for one would not tell anything to anyone else - you know, should you decide to get anything off your chest."
"Me too."
"Me three," Tanya confirmed. "God knows we could all use a little gossip right now, and I command you to provide it."
"Oh, you command me?" Aisha giggled. "I'm the driver of this car..."
"Okay, then as ex-leader and general tallest person in this car, I command you," Tommy said. "Please just get it over with."
"There's nothing even to tell!" Aisha wailed. "It was flirting, nothing more interesting than that, and we were going to go for dinner, but our schedules didn't match. It's so awkward, especially now we're meeting up with all our friends around, pointing and laughing."
"We may have laughed, but we've never pointed," Tanya said solemnly.
"It doesn't help that all I really know about him is he's a good dancer! I could be falling for a guy who's my complete opposite in every way."
"Let's remedy that, shall we?" Kim asked, leaning forward so Aisha could hear her better. "Did you ever hear about the birthday party that we threw for him at the Youth Centre?"
Aisha shook her head. "Go on..."
*****
"So the little dude ended up as a DJ at Zack's dance competition? Classic!" Tanya laughed as the car made its final twists and turns toward the remains of the Command Centre. Throughout the remainder of the car journey Kim and Tommy had kept Aisha well regaled with tales of Zack's youth and the early days of the Rangers, and had just concluded the saga of the Island of Illusion.
"Yeah, but I still don't think he liked me," Kim reflected ruefully. "Maybe he'd heard I was smaller than I was, and was bitterly disappointed he still didn't have anyone to look down upon."
"I don't think it helped that you called him Quasimodo instead of Quagmire on more than one occasion," Tommy pointed out. The initial tension between the two of them had all but disappeared sometime in the period of reminiscence, when they remembered the days when being a Ranger had been equally balanced between hard work and fun.
These days - or to be more precise, this day - fun was hard to come by, and it was necessary to make the most of any lightheartedness that came their way.
"I'm going to pull the car in over here," Aisha mumbled. "There isn't exactly going to be much traffic in this area."
She steered the car over to the side of the road, and killed the engine. The four of them sat in silence, wondering which words needed to be said, if any. Tommy finally took the plunge, and delivered them their traditional pep talk.
"I know...I know that none of us ever expected to be in this position again," he said haltingly. "But if we're going to help Angel Grove one more time, and whoever else may be under threat from this monster, then we're going to have to search this place properly. It's doubtful that we'll find anything we can use, I know that as much as you guys do, but we have to try. Any kind of information we find could be what we need, so we have to cover the site quickly, but thoroughly. And try to look as though we all want to be here."
Three heads nodded in agreement to Tommy's speech. They knew as well as he did that none of them wanted to be doing this again, but they were all the citizens of Angel Grove had. The FBI had never intervened in alien business before, what could make them think this was any different? All the other groups of Rangers, ex or otherwise, were unreachable or unknown to them.
It was up to them.
No more words were spoken as the four of them got out of the car and walked the short distance to their targeted area. They silently moved to seperate vicinities and began combing through the surface dirt, hoping they would come across something they could use to help them find any answers. Anything at all that might dispell their fears that 'Cubatron' was invincible.
Aisha was the first to discover anything at all of use - the discarded police cordon that had worried Billy, Trini and Adam so badly. "Look what I found!" she yelled, holding a portion of the yellow and black tape over her head so that her friends would see.
Tommy, Tanya and Kim all turned excitedly towards Aisha when hearing her speak, hoping for part of a weapon, a crumpled computer printout, anything of use. Initial disappointment upon seeing the tape was replaced by curiosity as they realised exactly what Aisha held in her hand, and they made their way from their own unfruitful searches to join her.
She had found the cordon not far from where the Command Centre had stood, but tangled next to a boulder about ten metres away from the outskirts of the site.
"Why would someone want to cordon off the site?" Kim muttered to herself as she picked up another fragment of yellow tape.
Tommy tried to ignore the sickening feeling growing in the pit of his stomach, but it refused to go away. He couldn't ignore his instinct, and it forced him to put his fears into words. "I guess the police could have found something incriminating, so they secured the site. But..."
"What?" Tanya pressed when the pause in his speech grew bigger. Tommy sighed, and took Kim's portion of tape to examine it.
"The way this has been taken down... It doesn't look like a human could have done it. The ends almost look as though they've been clawed at, not cut, to be broken."
"So you're saying Cubatron could have gotten here first, and taken anything that could have given us a clue as to his identity before we got here?" Tanya surmised.
Tommy sighed, and rubbed his temples. "In a nutshell, exactly."
"But why was the tape put up in the first place?" Aisha wondered aloud. "It wouldn't just be there for no reason. Something has to have happened here before Monster-Man came along."
Kim pulled her cellphone from her pocket, and swore under her breath when she remembered no signal would reach the phone in these conditions. "Should we go back and let the others know what's happened? Maybe Billy and Trini could work on it."
"We could pay a visit to the police station on the way back ourselves," Aisha suggested. "Let's face it, we've been here for twenty-five minutes and found nothing of note. No matter who was here before us, they did a pretty good job of clearing the place. Now we know what we know - "
"There's still a chance whoever was here may have missed something," Tommy intervened. "Why don't we stay for twenty minutes or so, then we head back to Billy's and give them the heads-up on this cordon and anything else we may find. Is that okay?"
A grunt, a nod of the head, and an "I guess" followed the compromise, and they returned to searching through dusty debris, hoping whatever they were looking for had not already been found by the enemy.
*****
"What are we going to do if we stumble across this Scale-Man, Cubatron thing? Shake his hand, and say 'Good day to you, we be the rangers of power from Earth?' " Rocky complained as the four of them aimlessly wandered down another Angel Grove street.
"We only say that if we've stepped into a time hole and become comrades of Robin Hood," Zack decided. "In this universe, we scream and run, just like our good Angel Grove citizens did earlier today."
"What time is it now?" Kat asked, as she turned to check the opening of a narrow side street. Satisfied that no monster resided there, she rejoined Rocky, Jason and Zack on their patrol.
Jason checked his watch. "Just gone noon, by my watch. We've been doing this for twenty minutes, and it's as though this thing's already wreaked havoc on the city."
Jason's words were certainly true. Even on a Tuesday morning, Angel Grove should have been busier that this, but their voices seemed to be echoing in the quiet expances of the streets. The few people who were walking from road to road seemed more hurried than usual, their gazes darted from side to side and they soon disappeared from the main thoroughfare of the business district. Whenever a person passed them by, all four pairs of eyes followed them until they passed from sight.
"You would think they'd be used to this kind of thing by now," Kat commented quietly. "It's as though it's the first time the city's been attacked."
"Even the first time it happened, there was a hell of a lot more panic than this," Jason remembered. "I guess it's brought back memories; people are more scared now than they were then because they know what can happen."
"And nobody ever answered my question of what we should do if we come across this regurgiated fish," Rocky reminded them once again. "I hardly think our powers will magically come back if we call for them, or our Zords can reassemble from the ashes."
There was an awkward pause following Rocky's words, as they realised they had absolutely no idea of what they could do or say should they come into contact with this pesky foe.
"Run straight back to Billy's and barriade the doorways?" Zack suggested. "That's the most feasible option I can come up with."
"If we make any attempt to attack it will only draw attention to ourselves, and that can't be a good thing," Jason mused.
"We don't have to go as far as barricading the doorways, but if we do see the Cubatron, we'd be better off heading back to Billy's," Kat conceded. "To paraphrase the well-known saying, eleven heads are better than one, and we really shouldn't make any decisions without the others."
"And the voice of reason speaks again," Rocky concluded.
Kat was about to retort with a remark about sarcasm being the lowest form of wit, when Jason held up a hand, signalling for the banter to stop. His gaze was fastened onto an unconspicious teenager, who was looking back at him with no trace of fear or apprehension in his eyes. He stood about fifty metres away from them, a baseball cap shading his facial features so none of them could tell what he looked like. Jason spoke softly.
"That guy has been one step ahead of us for a while now."
"You think he knows something?" Kat replied in the same hushed tones. Jason nodded his head, and Zack interjected.
"What about the possibility that he's been bribed to follow us? Either the thing's working along and has scared the kid into submission, or there are higher powers at work."
"We've got nothing to lose by going up to him and asking what's going on," Rocky hissed and jerked his thumb towards the subject of their uneasiness. "Look at him! He hasn't moved while we've been stood here. If that's not the worst display of guilt, I don't know what is."
"I'll go talk to him," Jason proposed. "Give me two minutes and then follow. He shouldn't be too difficult to overpower if needs be, but I may need some backup."
He moved away from Zack, Rocky and Kat, and strode purposefully towards the gangly teenager. Once the kid realised Jason had the intention of speaking to him, and had come to terms with his bulky frame, he remained rooted to the spot, as though there were no point in fleeing.
As Jason moved closer, he worked out silently what he wanted to say. There was no point in beating around the bush, neither was there any point in being overly aggressive with him. All they wanted from this seemingly inexperienced kid was information - if he had any to give.
"Excuse me," he called, once he was close enough to be heard without having to shout. The boy's head turned into the light, and Jason could see his clearly pained and frightened expression. "What's going on? This place is deserted."
"There's, um..." The boy shuffled his feet from side to side and blew a stray hair out of his face. "Do you know a guy called Jason Scott? You look like the description I got given but I wasn't sure... there's something I gotta give him but there's no address or anything."
"I know him," Jason said, then decided there was nothing left to lose. "I am him. Jason Scott, I mean. I can show you ID - "
"No, that's not necessary. I've been walking Angel Grove all morning looking for tall guys with brown hair - did you know there are more of them here than you'd think?" He took off his baseball cap to rub his forehead, and Jason felt oddly comforted to see he bore more than a passing resemblance to Skull. "Anyway, I've spent longer than I should. I need to be at home, hiding from this monster-thing." He pulled an envelope from the tattered rucksack he'd been carrying, and handed it to Jason, before turning to walk away.
"Wait a minute. Who gave this envelope to you?" Jason asked, turning the brown envelope over to see if there was any indication as to where it came from. There were none.
"I've been told not to say... Let's just make it clear that if I say anything, I'm toast. You get my meaning?" The boy's eyes darted nervously down the street, and he jammed the faded baseball vap back onto his head, hiding his features once more. "Later. And... good luck."
Before Jason had the chance to stop the teenager and try to get further information from him, he had turned the street corner and disappeared from view. Rather than chase him, Jason walked to meet Kat, Rocky and Zack, who were walking up to him now that the boy had gone.
"What did he give you?" Kat asked curiously, eyeing the envelope in Jason's grasp with caution.
"It could only be a letter, but I'm not sure whether it's safe to open," Jason admitted to the others. He normally wouldn't reveal such insecurities, but these weren't normal times.
"I suggest going back to Billy's, maybe he'd be able to check for us whether there's anything untoward about it before we open it," Zack said firmly. "I'm sure he'll know what to do."
Jason nodded, and looked to Kat and Rocky for their agreement.
"There's not really anything we can do here, what with not seeing him around and all. But come to think of it, Cubatron or some accomplice must have seen us at some point during the day, probably after he was all over the news."
"What makes you say that?" Kat asked.
"How else would whoever it was have known to address the envelope to Jason Scott?" Rocky demanded.
No-one had an answer to that.
Rating/Disclaimer: See first chapter.
Author's note: Sorry this took so long, but I lost my notebook and had the little matter of my eighteenth birthday to attend to. Hopefully I'll be back on a regular posting schedule before too long. In the meantime, enjoy! *****
Observing the information laid out before him, Billy sighed. Information about Rita and Zedd's henchmen always fascinated him, but today there was no time to discover more inane facts about them. Knowing that Finster had been suspected to be a relative of the ancient Greek royal family, however interesting, would not help them now. He decided to share his frustrations with the rest of the group. "This isn't working. Even though I'm only skimming quickly through the descriptions of these things, it's taking too long."
"And you're 100% positive that there's no search facility on the disc that we can use to track this thing down?" Adam asked. Billy closed his eyes and asked whatever higher being there was up there to give him strength. He responded in clipped tones.
"As sure as I can be, and I really don't think we can waste any more time looking for one."
Trini realised Billy was nearing the end of his metaphorical tether, and intervened. "Besides, even if there was a search facility, what would we use for criteria? Tall, evil and ugly? We can't necessarily rely on the witness statements, knowing as we do that Angel Grove citizens are not exactly reliable under pressure. It'll surely be easier to check through the images and see whether anything matches."
Although Billy and Trini weren't as close friends as they had been, due to time and distance constraints, both were gratified to realise that the bond of understanding between them still existed, and knew it was likely to come in useful in the near future.
"At least we can be thankful that Zordon and Alpha kept a detailed inventory of possible opponents. No wonder that they always knew exactly which opponents we were facing, and it never took them too long to work out a way of defeating them."
"Do the summary descriptions give any ideas as to how you can defeat them?" Adam asked curiously. If they did, the disc was worth more than pure gold - to whoever it possessed, and to whoever wanted it.
"Not per se. They mention weak spots of each enemy, but Zordon and Alpha must have worked out how to defeat each monster as they came," Billy told him, his momentary irritation with Adam dissipated. "Maybe it was on another disc, or they just used superior intelligence, but they always knew."
Adam and Trini discussed anything at all they could use or do to speed up the search, while Billy went back to his task of viewing the full contents of the disc as quickly as possible, and tried as best he could to keep his growing worries at bay.
He had two main concerns, that he wasn't searching quickly enough to make the task worthwhile, and that Adam and Trini were left on the sidelines after he had given them a basic lesson on how to manouevre their way around the disc. Any worries he had about the actual capabilities of the monster and how they could even attempt to defeat it were placed determinedly to the back of his head, to be dealt with when he had the time.
Tuning into Adam and Trini's conversation, he realised they were no longer discussing the task at hand, but whether Yahoo or Alta Vista were the better search engine.
"Guys, make yourself useful and see what ideas you can come up with for defeating this thing," Billy suggested. "Although I can't help but think we could outwit the thing by words alone, Tommy and Jason are bound to think physical combat's the way forward. We could at least give them a helping hand by discussing possible weapons."
"What's making you think we could talk it out of killing us all?" Trini asked curiously, and Billy couldn't come up with an answer to her question straight away. He once again diverted his attention, and swiveled on his chair to face two of his oldest friends.
"I can't put my finger on it, to be perfectly honest. I just think that anything that looks so impenetratable has to have a weak point somewhere. There's no sign of one anywhere on his body that I could see when watching the news report, so my mind automatically turned to psychological pressure."
Adam nodded. "It makes sense, but so does fighting him, to be honest."
"If we did fight him, at the moment we have no viable weapons to use," Billy reminded him. "I can't help but feel that a saucepan and a hammer are going to do much good, which are the only things we can use as weapons in this house. This 'Cubatron' looks as though a ten foot chisel wouldn't even begin to cut through his armour."
"I take your point, Billy, but what is there to use?" Trini asked him.
"There's nothing left of our Zords at the Command Centre or the old holding site," Adam informed them. "I was the last of us to go up there, as far as I know, and when I got there the whole area was cordoned off by police barriers, so I couldn't go inside. When I've been there before though, there's been nothing left of them. There may be some discs or documents remaining, but I wouldn't place my life on it."
"The Command Centre was cordoned off? Why?" Billy demanded.
"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Trini said simultaneously.
"It was only about three weeks ago, I guess. I went up there to think - it's always been the best place to get my head straight, but you guys would know that as well as I do." Billy and Trini nodded, though they'd never thought to explore the remains of the site, they had both been up there more than once when the pressures of everyday life became too much for them. "Anyway. I parked my car about one hundred metres away, and walked there. I couldn't see it from my car, but when I got nearer I saw there were a couple of police cars parked there, and police markers all around. None of the police would say anything about what they were doing there, except that 'an incident had occured' " Adam made the quotation marks with his fingers. "I meant to tell someone, but I've been so busy at work that I hadn't seen anyone since this morning. I kept a lookout in the local papers but nothing's been mentioned about it."
Billy sighed, and rubbed his temples. "Now we know this, we could conclude from this that someone knew what was going to happen today, how our train of thought would work, and got to the Command Centre before we could, to get whatever we could have used to defeat Cubatron."
"Billy, it could have been something completely different. It could have been anything! A fight between two animals and someone reported spilled blood, or the discovery of a stolen purse," Trini said quickly, trying to bring Billy's spirits back up.
"That doesn't explain why there was such a high police presense," Adam said reluctantly. "There were at least six of them there. Why don't we get in touch with Tommy's team and see if they've noticed anything untoward?"
"None of their cell phones will work in the mountains," Billy pointed out. He thought for a moment, a desperate expression on his tired face. "Why don't you keep on as you were, or were about to be? Keep thinking about what we could use as weapons. I'll try and gain access to the AGPD website and see if there's anything relevant to what Adam's just said that they're deliberately keeping from the general public."
Trini and Adam nodded in agreement, neither of them able to think of anything they could do which would be better, and the three who had remained behind returned to their tasks, all feeling increasingly as though what they were doing would have been of no use at all.
*****
Tommy, Aisha, Kim and Tanya all piled silently into Aisha's decrepid station wagon, ready for their trip into the mountainous areas surrounding Angel Grove.
"What should we be prepared to see when - when we get there?" Aisha asked hesitantly as she started the engine. Although she lived nearby, she had never quite summoned enough - courage? strength? - to make the journey to the ruins of the Command Centre. She had hoped it would never be necessary.
Tommy shook his head. "I'm not sure, I haven't had a look around in any depth. From what I've seen in driving past, there's no large debris left, not that we would expect any to remain this long without causing suspicions. We may come across a couple of discs or documents that could be of some use, but I'm not hopeful of finding anything more."
"So everything was destroyed?" Kim asked, turning her head away from the window where she was watching the streets of Angel Grove race by.
"As far as we know, yeah. Billy's disc is probably the only source of information we'll get, but it won't tell us if there were any holding areas outside the vicinity that we didn't know about," Tanya said.
A silence fell over the vehicle as they all contemplated what had gone on during their times as Rangers and the changes after they had served their duty. Without noticing it, the car soon left the suburbs of Angel Grove behind and followed the dusty road up into the mountains.
Tanya, from her vantage point in the backseat and conveniently placed so she could see all her friend's expressions, whether from turning her head to see reflections in the rear-view mirror or to look at Kim sitting beside her, decided after a good few minutes of silence that something had to be done to break the ice. Although the situation they were facing was undoubtedly a serious one, she had a feeling that they would not be of use unless at ease with each other, and for whichever reason, that was not the case at the moment. A little light-hearted teasing may not go amiss...
"So, Aisha. How have things been going with you?" Tanya asked innocently, while catching Kim's eye and winking to let her know this conversation would not necessarily be a serious one.
Aisha sighed, not yet realising that something was amiss. "Almost out of vet school, although I'm missing an important assessment today to do this. Hopefully I'll be able to find a job locally, I'm sick of being away at school."
"Any, ah... romantic attachments that might keep you at school?" Kim asked nonchalantly, staring out of her side window once again, so if Aisha happened to take her eyes off the road she wouldn't notice the smile that played about her lips.
"No... don't think I don't know what you two are doing here!" Aisha protested as she realised what her two friends were trying to do to her. "This is all an elaborate ploy to get me to 'fess up to some imaginary crush on Zack, isn't it!" she said indignantly.
"You said it, we didn't," Tanya murmured. "Although I must question you on your use of the word 'imaginary' in that sentence. Anyone with eyes can see you have the hots for each other."
"There's really nothing going on!" she protested feebly, blushing to the roots of her hair. She'd really hoped their flirtation would have gone unnoticed, but apparently not. Even Kim had somehow gotten wind of it, and she hadn't been there when the worst of the flirting had taken place...
"Oh, come on Aisha. I'm a guy, and even I noticed what was going on at the last group dinner," Tommy pointed out. "There's no use in pretending nothing's going on."
"This is so unfair. I can't even hide my blush from you guys or I'll run the car off the road," Aisha mumbled to herself, realising that with Tanya and Kim to answer to, she'd have no other way out but to tell the truth. Still, there could be no harm in delaying the inevitable... "There's nothing going on! How many more times do I have to tell you people?"
"About as many times as it takes for it to become true?" Kim suggested. "We're not blind, you know. We're your friends, and I for one would not tell anything to anyone else - you know, should you decide to get anything off your chest."
"Me too."
"Me three," Tanya confirmed. "God knows we could all use a little gossip right now, and I command you to provide it."
"Oh, you command me?" Aisha giggled. "I'm the driver of this car..."
"Okay, then as ex-leader and general tallest person in this car, I command you," Tommy said. "Please just get it over with."
"There's nothing even to tell!" Aisha wailed. "It was flirting, nothing more interesting than that, and we were going to go for dinner, but our schedules didn't match. It's so awkward, especially now we're meeting up with all our friends around, pointing and laughing."
"We may have laughed, but we've never pointed," Tanya said solemnly.
"It doesn't help that all I really know about him is he's a good dancer! I could be falling for a guy who's my complete opposite in every way."
"Let's remedy that, shall we?" Kim asked, leaning forward so Aisha could hear her better. "Did you ever hear about the birthday party that we threw for him at the Youth Centre?"
Aisha shook her head. "Go on..."
*****
"So the little dude ended up as a DJ at Zack's dance competition? Classic!" Tanya laughed as the car made its final twists and turns toward the remains of the Command Centre. Throughout the remainder of the car journey Kim and Tommy had kept Aisha well regaled with tales of Zack's youth and the early days of the Rangers, and had just concluded the saga of the Island of Illusion.
"Yeah, but I still don't think he liked me," Kim reflected ruefully. "Maybe he'd heard I was smaller than I was, and was bitterly disappointed he still didn't have anyone to look down upon."
"I don't think it helped that you called him Quasimodo instead of Quagmire on more than one occasion," Tommy pointed out. The initial tension between the two of them had all but disappeared sometime in the period of reminiscence, when they remembered the days when being a Ranger had been equally balanced between hard work and fun.
These days - or to be more precise, this day - fun was hard to come by, and it was necessary to make the most of any lightheartedness that came their way.
"I'm going to pull the car in over here," Aisha mumbled. "There isn't exactly going to be much traffic in this area."
She steered the car over to the side of the road, and killed the engine. The four of them sat in silence, wondering which words needed to be said, if any. Tommy finally took the plunge, and delivered them their traditional pep talk.
"I know...I know that none of us ever expected to be in this position again," he said haltingly. "But if we're going to help Angel Grove one more time, and whoever else may be under threat from this monster, then we're going to have to search this place properly. It's doubtful that we'll find anything we can use, I know that as much as you guys do, but we have to try. Any kind of information we find could be what we need, so we have to cover the site quickly, but thoroughly. And try to look as though we all want to be here."
Three heads nodded in agreement to Tommy's speech. They knew as well as he did that none of them wanted to be doing this again, but they were all the citizens of Angel Grove had. The FBI had never intervened in alien business before, what could make them think this was any different? All the other groups of Rangers, ex or otherwise, were unreachable or unknown to them.
It was up to them.
No more words were spoken as the four of them got out of the car and walked the short distance to their targeted area. They silently moved to seperate vicinities and began combing through the surface dirt, hoping they would come across something they could use to help them find any answers. Anything at all that might dispell their fears that 'Cubatron' was invincible.
Aisha was the first to discover anything at all of use - the discarded police cordon that had worried Billy, Trini and Adam so badly. "Look what I found!" she yelled, holding a portion of the yellow and black tape over her head so that her friends would see.
Tommy, Tanya and Kim all turned excitedly towards Aisha when hearing her speak, hoping for part of a weapon, a crumpled computer printout, anything of use. Initial disappointment upon seeing the tape was replaced by curiosity as they realised exactly what Aisha held in her hand, and they made their way from their own unfruitful searches to join her.
She had found the cordon not far from where the Command Centre had stood, but tangled next to a boulder about ten metres away from the outskirts of the site.
"Why would someone want to cordon off the site?" Kim muttered to herself as she picked up another fragment of yellow tape.
Tommy tried to ignore the sickening feeling growing in the pit of his stomach, but it refused to go away. He couldn't ignore his instinct, and it forced him to put his fears into words. "I guess the police could have found something incriminating, so they secured the site. But..."
"What?" Tanya pressed when the pause in his speech grew bigger. Tommy sighed, and took Kim's portion of tape to examine it.
"The way this has been taken down... It doesn't look like a human could have done it. The ends almost look as though they've been clawed at, not cut, to be broken."
"So you're saying Cubatron could have gotten here first, and taken anything that could have given us a clue as to his identity before we got here?" Tanya surmised.
Tommy sighed, and rubbed his temples. "In a nutshell, exactly."
"But why was the tape put up in the first place?" Aisha wondered aloud. "It wouldn't just be there for no reason. Something has to have happened here before Monster-Man came along."
Kim pulled her cellphone from her pocket, and swore under her breath when she remembered no signal would reach the phone in these conditions. "Should we go back and let the others know what's happened? Maybe Billy and Trini could work on it."
"We could pay a visit to the police station on the way back ourselves," Aisha suggested. "Let's face it, we've been here for twenty-five minutes and found nothing of note. No matter who was here before us, they did a pretty good job of clearing the place. Now we know what we know - "
"There's still a chance whoever was here may have missed something," Tommy intervened. "Why don't we stay for twenty minutes or so, then we head back to Billy's and give them the heads-up on this cordon and anything else we may find. Is that okay?"
A grunt, a nod of the head, and an "I guess" followed the compromise, and they returned to searching through dusty debris, hoping whatever they were looking for had not already been found by the enemy.
*****
"What are we going to do if we stumble across this Scale-Man, Cubatron thing? Shake his hand, and say 'Good day to you, we be the rangers of power from Earth?' " Rocky complained as the four of them aimlessly wandered down another Angel Grove street.
"We only say that if we've stepped into a time hole and become comrades of Robin Hood," Zack decided. "In this universe, we scream and run, just like our good Angel Grove citizens did earlier today."
"What time is it now?" Kat asked, as she turned to check the opening of a narrow side street. Satisfied that no monster resided there, she rejoined Rocky, Jason and Zack on their patrol.
Jason checked his watch. "Just gone noon, by my watch. We've been doing this for twenty minutes, and it's as though this thing's already wreaked havoc on the city."
Jason's words were certainly true. Even on a Tuesday morning, Angel Grove should have been busier that this, but their voices seemed to be echoing in the quiet expances of the streets. The few people who were walking from road to road seemed more hurried than usual, their gazes darted from side to side and they soon disappeared from the main thoroughfare of the business district. Whenever a person passed them by, all four pairs of eyes followed them until they passed from sight.
"You would think they'd be used to this kind of thing by now," Kat commented quietly. "It's as though it's the first time the city's been attacked."
"Even the first time it happened, there was a hell of a lot more panic than this," Jason remembered. "I guess it's brought back memories; people are more scared now than they were then because they know what can happen."
"And nobody ever answered my question of what we should do if we come across this regurgiated fish," Rocky reminded them once again. "I hardly think our powers will magically come back if we call for them, or our Zords can reassemble from the ashes."
There was an awkward pause following Rocky's words, as they realised they had absolutely no idea of what they could do or say should they come into contact with this pesky foe.
"Run straight back to Billy's and barriade the doorways?" Zack suggested. "That's the most feasible option I can come up with."
"If we make any attempt to attack it will only draw attention to ourselves, and that can't be a good thing," Jason mused.
"We don't have to go as far as barricading the doorways, but if we do see the Cubatron, we'd be better off heading back to Billy's," Kat conceded. "To paraphrase the well-known saying, eleven heads are better than one, and we really shouldn't make any decisions without the others."
"And the voice of reason speaks again," Rocky concluded.
Kat was about to retort with a remark about sarcasm being the lowest form of wit, when Jason held up a hand, signalling for the banter to stop. His gaze was fastened onto an unconspicious teenager, who was looking back at him with no trace of fear or apprehension in his eyes. He stood about fifty metres away from them, a baseball cap shading his facial features so none of them could tell what he looked like. Jason spoke softly.
"That guy has been one step ahead of us for a while now."
"You think he knows something?" Kat replied in the same hushed tones. Jason nodded his head, and Zack interjected.
"What about the possibility that he's been bribed to follow us? Either the thing's working along and has scared the kid into submission, or there are higher powers at work."
"We've got nothing to lose by going up to him and asking what's going on," Rocky hissed and jerked his thumb towards the subject of their uneasiness. "Look at him! He hasn't moved while we've been stood here. If that's not the worst display of guilt, I don't know what is."
"I'll go talk to him," Jason proposed. "Give me two minutes and then follow. He shouldn't be too difficult to overpower if needs be, but I may need some backup."
He moved away from Zack, Rocky and Kat, and strode purposefully towards the gangly teenager. Once the kid realised Jason had the intention of speaking to him, and had come to terms with his bulky frame, he remained rooted to the spot, as though there were no point in fleeing.
As Jason moved closer, he worked out silently what he wanted to say. There was no point in beating around the bush, neither was there any point in being overly aggressive with him. All they wanted from this seemingly inexperienced kid was information - if he had any to give.
"Excuse me," he called, once he was close enough to be heard without having to shout. The boy's head turned into the light, and Jason could see his clearly pained and frightened expression. "What's going on? This place is deserted."
"There's, um..." The boy shuffled his feet from side to side and blew a stray hair out of his face. "Do you know a guy called Jason Scott? You look like the description I got given but I wasn't sure... there's something I gotta give him but there's no address or anything."
"I know him," Jason said, then decided there was nothing left to lose. "I am him. Jason Scott, I mean. I can show you ID - "
"No, that's not necessary. I've been walking Angel Grove all morning looking for tall guys with brown hair - did you know there are more of them here than you'd think?" He took off his baseball cap to rub his forehead, and Jason felt oddly comforted to see he bore more than a passing resemblance to Skull. "Anyway, I've spent longer than I should. I need to be at home, hiding from this monster-thing." He pulled an envelope from the tattered rucksack he'd been carrying, and handed it to Jason, before turning to walk away.
"Wait a minute. Who gave this envelope to you?" Jason asked, turning the brown envelope over to see if there was any indication as to where it came from. There were none.
"I've been told not to say... Let's just make it clear that if I say anything, I'm toast. You get my meaning?" The boy's eyes darted nervously down the street, and he jammed the faded baseball vap back onto his head, hiding his features once more. "Later. And... good luck."
Before Jason had the chance to stop the teenager and try to get further information from him, he had turned the street corner and disappeared from view. Rather than chase him, Jason walked to meet Kat, Rocky and Zack, who were walking up to him now that the boy had gone.
"What did he give you?" Kat asked curiously, eyeing the envelope in Jason's grasp with caution.
"It could only be a letter, but I'm not sure whether it's safe to open," Jason admitted to the others. He normally wouldn't reveal such insecurities, but these weren't normal times.
"I suggest going back to Billy's, maybe he'd be able to check for us whether there's anything untoward about it before we open it," Zack said firmly. "I'm sure he'll know what to do."
Jason nodded, and looked to Kat and Rocky for their agreement.
"There's not really anything we can do here, what with not seeing him around and all. But come to think of it, Cubatron or some accomplice must have seen us at some point during the day, probably after he was all over the news."
"What makes you say that?" Kat asked.
"How else would whoever it was have known to address the envelope to Jason Scott?" Rocky demanded.
No-one had an answer to that.