Disclaimer: Power Rangers Time Force, Power Rangers Ninja Storm and all related logos are property of Disney and/or Saban Entertainment. I am using them without permission. KJ Sheldon, Lt. James Emery, Trinity Oliver, Camille Summers, Amanda "Mandy" Scott, Mr. & Mrs. Mathew Scott, Leo Claw and the "Omega Project" are property of yours truly. Sierra Crane appears courtesy of… well, Sierra.
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A/N: This fic takes place before Cam became the GSR.
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*
"I hate the midnight shift," Lt. Emery mumbled to himself as he sat in front of the control panel in the science lab.
Although most of the officers had been off duty for several hours now, he was still on duty, reviewing sensor logs and monitoring the Slipstream for any signs of temporal incursions. The only other personnel on duty were the janitors and a few people in the Temporal Investigations. No one liked the midnight shift, but he knew that if he hadn't volunteered for it, he wouldn't get much time in the science lab.
'This isn't the way it was suppose to be. I thought when I became a ranger, I'd be going on missions, doing my part to save the world,' he thought to himself, but he couldn't have been more wrong.
During his seven months or so as the silver ranger, he'd gone on less than a dozen missions. When there were missions, he was always overlooked when teams were put together. Tommy always seemed to pick Jen, or if Jen was in command, she always picked Katie. It was expected that either Trip or Camille would go. 'They're the smart ones, they have to go,' he thought. Obviously, Katie was chosen because of her strength, but he was convinced that he had something useless to contribute if he was selected to go on a mission. Even now that both Tommy and Jen were no longer rangers, and Alex had resumed his role as red ranger, he was never chosen to go on missions.
'One of these days they'll need me, and then I'll show them that…' his thoughts were interrupted when one of the panels began to flash. His turned his attention to it, going over the readings.
"Holy shit," he quickly reached for his Morpher to call the other rangers, but paused. 'Alex is probably sleeping. I can handle this one on my own,' he told himself. "Computer, pinpoint the location of the temporal incursion," he said.
'Working,' the computer quickly analyzed the readings. 'Temporal incursion emanates from coordinates 60641.3,'
"The 21st century, I should have known," he sighed to himself. "Computer, activate the Slipstream, temporal coordinates 60641.3," he said.
'Working,'
A few moments later, the Slipstream portal activated. The blue swirling vortex appeared, and with a look of determination on his face, Lt. Emery stood up and stepped through the portal, disappearing…
~~
The vortex opened, and as Lt. Emery stepped through, he fell to the ground. He hit the ground with a thud, and after rolling over, realized that the vortex opened about 15 feet in the air. "I gotta learn how to work the targeting sensors," he mumbled as he stood up, dusting himself off.
He quickly glanced around, trying to get an idea of exactly where he was. There were trees as far as the eye could see, and the sky was a perfect color blue without a cloud in sight. After the portal closed, he wandered through the woods, coming to what appeared to be a waterfall of some kind. 'Based on the temporal coordinates, I'd guess this is the year 2003. If I know my history, that means the Ninja Storm rangers have their powers now,' he thought to himself.
To avoid being detected by their scanning equipment, Lt. Emery reached for his Morpher, turning it off, slipping it into his back pocket, then headed back into the woods.
~~
Lt. Emery found himself in front of a store of some kind. "Storm Chargers," he said to himself with a chuckle, recalling that several of the Ninja Storm rangers worked in the store. He headed inside, where a young woman with redish-blonde hair greeted him.
"Hey, can I help you?" she asked him.
Trying to be as inconspicuous as he could, he glanced down at her wrist, only to discover she wasn't wearing a Morpher. "Um, yeah. Do you have an ATM machine here?" he replied.
"Yeah, its in the back," she paused. "A remember a few people wearing the same uniform you have on coming in here not too long ago. Are you in the armed forces?" she inquired.
"You could say that," he said as politely as he could, heading towards the ATM machine.
He made it to the machine, first making sure there was no one around, and then reached for his Morpher. He passed it over a sensor on the front of the machine, then inputting a series of numbers. Moments later, a light flashed, and the slot opened. Lt. Emery quickly reached for the money, stuffing it in his pocket, then headed back to the front of the store.
"You think you could show me something in silver?" he asked, walking towards the woman that helped him earlier.
Without answering, she turned her head. "Dustin, can you come out here please?" she called out.
Before he could say anything, he walked out the back room. "Yeah what's up Kelly?"
"Could you show this young man something in silver? I have to finish the inventory in the back," she said.
"Sure, no problem," as Kelly walked away, Dustin walked towards him. "So, silver huh?" he inquired.
"Its my favorite color,"
"Come with me,"
~~
"There it is again dad," Cam said, going over the readings on his computer in Ninja Opts. "An energy reading not too far from the entrance to Ninja Opts. It's the same configuration that we detected about a week ago,"
"Contact Shane and the others, have them investigate,"
"No dad, I can do it this time," he said.
"No Cam, you should leave this investigation to the rangers. If there is a serious thread, I'm afraid the rangers will be needed for this,"
"Dad, I can handle it," he said.
"I insist Cam, contact the rangers,"
*
The door opened, and Camille walked in, quickly heading to her workstation. She found it ironic that it was the same workstation where she and Leo developed the schematics for the Omega morpher so many years ago.
She remembered the long hours she use to put in with him, working on the project with him. She recalled how they did their best to keep it a secret, and for months they did. It wasn't until Time Force found out about it that both of them were put under investigation. Instead of both of them being released for it, she chose to take the blame herself. She figured it was the best way to ensure that Leo would be able to continue working on the project in secret.
Months later, she was rehired into Time Force and was put to work on the Slipstream Project. She never forgot about the work she and Leo did, but as things began to develop between she and Trip, not to mention Time Force seeing fit to make her a ranger, she simply didn't have the time to continue her work with Leo.
Her thoughts were broken as Lt. Montgomery walked over to her. "Good morning Ms. Summers. You're up pretty late. No one usually comes down to special projects during the graveyard shift," he mentioned, passing her by as he continued his work.
"I know, I just have a few tests I need to run on the morpher," she said.
"Well, I'm just wrapping up. I'll get out of your way," he said.
"So," she paused. "What have you guys been down here working on?" Camille asked him.
"Actually, Ensign Clark and I have come up with an excellent new concept. You know how the memory adaptation process erases long term memories of officers who go on classified missions?" he walked over to a small box on the table, opening it and pulled out a small device. "Normally, the theta waves generated by the memory adaptation modules can cause serious brain damage under prolonged exposure, but with this, we can erase short term memories without the risk of any damage," he explained.
"Kinda like Men in Black?"
"Like what?"
"You know, the movie. It's from the 21st century. Men in Black. They had the flashy things," she said.
"I think these are a little more complex than flashy things, but I suppose the same principles apply. Right now, its still in the testing phase. It'll take a few more tests before we present this to Counsel Member Collins," he said.
"I'd be happy to take one out in the field and test it," she paused. "If you want,"
"Really?" he asked eagerly.
"Yeah, sure. I'm pretty sure we could find a good use for one of those down in the Slipstream division," she said.
"That would be great," he handed her the device. "Remember, its still in the testing phase, but try to keep a log of its effectiveness. Just get it back to me as soon as you can," he said. "Well, goodnight Ms. Summers," he said, walking out the room.
*
"So, what do you think?" Lt. Emery asked, staring at himself in front of a mirror.
He had on a pair of black jean shorts, a silver colored t-shirt and a black button down shirt, which he left open. To top it off, he had on a pair of mirror colored sunglasses. 'I see why Alex likes these so much,' he thought to himself.
"Dude, you look… kinda shiny," Dustin told him.
"Well, I like it," he said proudly.
Just then, there was a beep of some sort. Lt. Emery tried not to look as though he was staring as Dustin glanced down at a Morpher on his wrist. "Dude, I have to go, but if you go to the front counter Kelly can take care of you from here," he said, rushing away.
Lt. Emery glanced around, making sure that there was no one around, then pulled the Morpher out his pocket, putting it back on his wrist and activated his cloaking device. Without a thought, he followed behind Dustin.
*
He stopped in front of the door, placing his hand on the panel. "Recognized Park, Adam Lt," he said.
'Scan accepted. Welcome Adam,' the computer acknowledged as the doors to the science lab slid open.
He headed into the lab, sitting down at the main control panel. Before he could do anything, he found a half empty cup of coffee sitting on the table. 'Its still warm. Someone has been here recently,' he thought to himself as he touched picked up the cup.
He'd come down to the science lab to get some research done, and hoped that no one would bother him on the midnight shift. 'If Alex knew what I was up to, he'd bump me down to Ensign and have me checking parking meters for the rest of my life,' he thought. Although everything went smoothly in the past, and his clone had taken his place in the hospital, he wondered what the history logs had to say about it.
"Computer, display history logs between the years of 1998 and 2000," he said.
'Desired location?' it asked.
"Angel Grove," he said.
'Working,' the computer answered.
Moments later, the information flashed across the screen, and Adam began to read over it. 'He was right, it does say that I died in the hospital one month after being there. According to this, Tanya accepted my death and went on to work for Z-Tech. She married Theodore Johnson, and had a son, Theo,' he read.
His thoughts were broken as the doors to the science lab opened, and she walked in. "Good evening," Nadira said cheerfully, heading over to the control panel.
"Hey Nadira," he quickly deleted the information from the screen. "What are you doing here so early? I thought your duty shift didn't start for another three hours," he brought up.
"It doesn't, but with Tommy gone and Jen teaching at the academy now, I volunteered to come in and review the sensor logs, then file the report," she said.
"I thought James was on the night shift tonight," he brought up.
"How long have you been here?"
"About an hour. I just couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd come down here and get some work done," he told her, hoping she wouldn't pry.
Nadira reached for her Morpher. "Nadira to Lt. Emery, come in," she said.
There was no response.
This time, Adam reached for his Morpher. "Lt. Park to James Emery, respond," he said.
Again, no response.
Nadira turned to the control panels. "Computer, what is the location of Lt. James Emery?" she asked.
'Lt. Emery is not in the building,' the computer answered.
"When did he leave the building?"
'0236 hours,' the computer said.
"Where the hell did he go?" Adam asked.
Nadira glanced over the controls again. "Oh my God," she sighed.
"What?"
"The computer detected a temporal incursion at 0130 hours. The slipstream was activated, and one person went through," she said.
"You think Emery went on a mission by himself?"
"According to this, he's in the 21st century," she paused. "The year 2003 to be exact. Blue Bay Harbor, California,"
"The Ninja Storm rangers?"
"Do you have any idea what the incursion is?" he asked.
"If James had bothered to do a little research, he'd know that an illegal time hole was opened on the outskirts of Blue Bay Harbor. The source of the time hole originated here, in the 31st century," she said.
"So who opened a time hole?"
"From the looks of it, they used a pretty low tech teleportation system. If I had to guess, I'd say it was…"
"Chyro Tech," he groaned.
"But that isn't possible, we shut Chyro Tech down. All their technology was destroyed," she mentioned.
"Well, someone had access to a time hole," Adam said.
"Should I contact Alex and the others?"
He shook his head. "No, there's no need to bring them into this," he glanced up at the clock. "Contact Lucas, see if…" he was cut short as he walked in the room.
"See if he'd be willing to get out his nice, warm bed and go save the world again, right?" Lucas asked as he walked over to them.
"Something like that,"
"Hey, I'm always up for some good old fashioned hero shit," he told him.
"Nadira, I want you to stay here go through Chyro Tech computer files we downloaded from them. Find out if anyone stole some of their technology within the last few weeks, who would want to travel back to the 21st century and why. Get Trip in here if you have to, then check in and tell me what we need to know. Lucas, the two of us have work to do," Adam said.
Nadira turned back to the controls, activating the Slipstream. "I'll give you a call the second I know something," she said.
Lucas nodded, then stepped into the blue swirling vortex. Adam winked at Nadira, and then followed Lucas through.
~~
Preview: Lost Souls pt 2Next time on Parallels II: Adam must come up with a plan to prevent Lord Zedd from joining forces with Lothor in an attempt to resurrect Rita Repulsa.
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