Eric stood off to the side, watching as local police, investigators and various Silver Guardians examined the crime scene. The yellow tape around the scene prevented the media from getting through, but it didn't stop them from trying to get interviews with anyone they could get their hands on. After all, the death of a CEO of a company is one thing, but the apparent death of a power ranger was huge news for their city. It would be the scoop of the year for anyone, but all the Guardians were under strict orders not to disclose any information.
Part of him didn't want to believe it; he couldn't bring himself to believe that his best friend was dead. It wasn't a mutant attack, or a battle; it was a senseless car bomb. For someone who'd risked his life time and time again, it almost seemed inhumane that Wes would have such a pointless death.
'There were so many things I should have told him before he died, things he deserved to know,' he thought to himself. Wes had always been his closest friend, but because of his foolish pride, or his ego, or perhaps a little bit of both, he couldn't bring himself to tell Wes how he felt. Wes, in the truest sense of the word, was like a brother to him. And now, he would never get the chance to tell him exactly how much his friendship and support had meant over the years.
Then it occurred to him…
'Wes' mother died in a car explosion just like this one almost seventeen years ago, and they were never able to determine what went wrong with the car,' he recalled. Wes had explained to him the details of his mother's death, and the mystery that surrounded it. He didn't like to talk about it much, but Eric didn't blame him. 'That means whoever did this may have been the person who killed Wes' mom too,' he concluded.
And that was even more reason for him to suspect Andrew of foul play. He was the only one who could have had contact with Wes, his mother and his father all those years ago.
"Commander Myers," a voice said, breaking his train of thought.
He glanced up as a detective made her way over to him. "Sir, I'm detective Butler, lead investigator on this case. I must say, it's an honor to be working with you," she said, extending her hand to him.
"What can you tell me?" he asked her, ignoring her hand.
She quickly put her hand down. "From what I can tell, it was a standard car bomb set near the gas tank, and rigged to explode when the engine was started. Pretty basic stuff," she said.
"Basic? So how do you explain this?" he asked, reaching in his pocket and pulled out a small wad of putty, handing it to her.
"Its putty, used to hold small explosives. Nothing unusual."
"Don't you find it strange that I was able to pull this from the gas tank and it wasn't burned to a crisp?" he asked.
"What are you getting at?"
"I think this was placed after the car exploded, and that someone wanted me to find it," Eric told her.
"But why? What would anyone have to gain from that?"
"I don't know yet, but I intend to find out. You can tell your unit that this is now officially a Silver Guardian matter, and I'll be heading this investigation myself," he said.
"With all due respect sir, I don't think…" she was cut short.
"I didn't ask you what you thought, detective. You have two minutes to clear your people out of here or I'll do it for you," he warned.
"Have it your way, Commander, but the mayor will hear about this," she said, walking towards her team.
Within minutes, each of them gathered their belongings and left the crime scene, leaving Eric alone to examine it on his own. The car itself had been burned to a crisp, and it had been dusted for fingerprints several times. None of their tests had been able to lead them to a suspect, but Eric was already convinced he knew who was behind it.
"Andrew," he mumbled under his breath with a tone of contempt. With both Wes and Mr. Collins out the way, Andrew would be named the new CEO of the company, and he'd be able to manufacture the bio-chemical agents. 'And if that happens, we'll have an even bigger problem on our hands,' he thought to himself.
Eric sat in what was left of the car, hoping he would find something he'd overlooked, something that would confirm what he already knew: Andrew was guilty of murder. The seats were charred, and the smell of smoke was still in the car. He glanced over at the steering wheel, and that's when he saw…
"Keys?" he mumbled, quickly turning his attention to them, or at least where they should have been. "Mr. Collins never even started the car," he sighed.
Now it was more than apparent that someone had gone out of their way to give it the appearance that there was a car bomb, but now he had enough proof to conclude that it wasn't. Granted, there was an explosion of some kind, but not from the typical car bomb. 'Now I have to find a way to prove it was that bastard Andrew,' he thought.
"Eric!" he heard a voice call out.
He glanced up towards the barricades, where he saw Cassie trying to force her way through, but being held back by the Silver Guardians. He got out of the car, making his way over to her. "She's okay, let her through," he said.
The Guardians stepped aside, allowing her through, and she quickly wrapped her arms around him. "Tell me where he is," she cried.
Eric backed away. "Cassie, what are you talking about? Wes is dead," he told her.
"No, I don't care what they're saying on the news. He isn't dead, I talked to him last night," she mentioned.
"So did I, just before Taylor and I went out,"
She shook her head. "No, I mean I was on the phone with him when the explosion went off. He wasn't in the car," she told him.
"What?"
"He was in his office when the explosion went off, he hung up with me to see what happened," she said.
"I've checked with the receptionist, and Mr. Collins checked out exactly 9:57 pm. That would give him exactly three minutes to get down here to his car, but Wes never checked out. If what you're saying is true, whoever killed Mr. Collins was here when it happened, and when Wes showed up, kidnapped him," he said.
"But that doesn't make sense. They said they found two bodies in the car and identified them as Wes and his dad," she pointed out.
"I think it's time we have a talk with the coroner," he paused. "But first, I have a call to make," Eric said.
New Silvers Hills, California 3000 AD
Trip had been sitting in front of the control panel most of the morning, going over systems checks. Once they returned from their mission to capture the mutorgs, all of them had been assigned to street patrol, except for Trip, who settled for a job as a repair technician. It wasn't the fast paced life of a power ranger he'd gotten used to, but it was still something he loved to do.
Since then, Time Force had seen fit to take their morphers from them, and assign a new group of rangers to defend the city. Though lately, there wasn't much of a mutant problem, especially since Ransik was no longer a mutant. The last remaining mutants had been captured and sentenced, and the future was finally safe.
Just then, he heard a beeping sound. Trip glanced over at the controls to investigate, only to find a light blinking. 'It's a priority channel,' he thought. His first thought was to answer it, but now he no longer had clearance to answer priority messages. He turned around; glancing around the room, and soon realized he was the only one there.
After further investigation, he realized where the message was coming from. "It's Wes," he sighed.
He paused again, weighing the consequences of answering the message. 'Oh what the hell,' he thought, making his way over to the controls. He turned on the view screen, opening a channel. The screen blinked on, and instead of Wes, it was Eric. Behind Eric was a young woman, and though Trip recognized her, he couldn't put his finger on who she was.
"Eric, it's good to see you," Trip said eagerly.
"Hey Trip, we need your help," Eric told him.
"What can I do for you?"
"Someone is going out of their way to make us think that Wes and his father are dead. We're heading to the coroner's office in a minute, but whoever this is, we're going to need some help figuring everything out. I need you and the other rangers to lend us a hand," he said.
"I'd love to, Eric, but we're not rangers anymore. They took our morphers, and we don't have access to them," he said.
"Still, we can use the help. Can you come…" he was cut short.
"We can't. We're field police now, and we don't have access to a time ship. We'd be arrested the moment we stepped into the docking area," he told him.
"If we don't do something now, Andrew Collins will start working on bio-chemical weapons, and there's no telling how much damage he'll do. The time line could change, and the future will be affected," he pointed out. "Where is Alex? Maybe I should talk to him."
"Alex has been on assignment for a while, and we have no way to contact him."
"Damn it, Trip, we have to do something,"
He paused. He hadn't been a ranger in a while, so long in fact that he'd almost forgotten what it was like. Even so, he remembered Wes and what his friendship meant to him. He also knew that he wouldn't be the only one willing to risk their careers to help Wes and Eric.
"I haven't been in touch with the others in a while. I'll contact them,
and we'll be there. You have my word," Trip said.
"Thanks Trip," Eric said, nodding.
Silver Hills 2004
"You know you could have waited in the car, Cassie," Eric mentioned as the two of them walked into the coroner's office. The room itself was rather dim, with several examining tables scattered around the room. Against the wall were several cabinets, each of them with different names on them.
"No, I have to do this. I have to know," she insisted.
"Okay, just stay by the door and stand guard. Let me know if anyone's coming," he said, heading over to the end of the room.
"Couldn't you have just told the coroner you were conducting an investigation? They would have cooperated," she said.
"Someone is going through a lot of trouble to hide something, and we have no way of knowing who else is in on this little conspiracy. I'm not sure who we can trust, so I decided to have a look at the files for myself," he told her, making his way over to a file cabinet up against the wall.
"What do you think you'll find?"
"Actually, it's what I won't find that interests me," he pulled a folder out of the cabinet, skimming through it. "These are the files on Wes and Mr. Collins, but they're both empty," he told her.
"What does that mean?"
"I'm willing to bet that both of them are still alive, and someone just wants them out of the way," he said.
"But who?"
"Andrew Collins," he said coldly.
"Andrew? You mean Wes' uncle? Why would he want his own brother and nephew out of the way?" she asked him.
"With Mr. Collins and Wes out of the picture, he'll be able to take control of Bio-Lab. When he does, he'll start working on the bio-chemical agents, and then it'll only be a matter of time before something goes wrong and the entire city is affected," he told her.
"What can we do?"
"Right now, nothing. Once the other rangers get here, we'll be able to come up with a plan. As for now, I can't prove anything, so it's best that neither of us say a word," he said.
"Okay."
"Just go home. I promise I'll find Wes and have him home in time for dinner," Eric assured her.
New Silver Hills 3000
Trip walked into the interrogation area, where Katie was standing in front of a window, simply watching. On the other side of the window was Jen, interrogating what appeared to be a mutant.
It had been almost three months since the last time he'd seen Katie, and she was noticeably different. Her hair was a little longer, and had been straightened. She also had an extra bar on her uniform, suggesting she may have been promoted since the last time he saw her.
"Hello Katie," he said.
She turned around, getting a good look at him. "Trip, its so good to see you!" She wrapped her arms around him, squeezing him tightly. "What brings you all the way down to the interrogation room?"
"I just got a call from Eric, Wes is in trouble," he said.
She paused. "What do you expect us to do? We're not rangers anymore," she mentioned.
"I know, but Eric could really use our help."
"And how are we supposed to get there? Time Force isn't going to let us borrow a time ship. The last time we had one, we blew it up," she pointed out.
"I know, but…"
Finally, Jen walked out of the room, leaving the mutant alone. "He'll be ready to talk in a minute. When he goes, we'll nail him!" She noticed Trip. "Hey stranger, it's been a while," she said cheerfully. She walked over to give him a hug, but noticed the look of concern on his face. "Trip, what is it? What's wrong?"
"Its Wes. He's…" He let his sentence trail off.
"What? How?"
"We don't know. Eric is investigating what happened, but he asked for our help," he told her. "Do you think you could get Alex to loan us a time ship?"
"I don't have any way to contact Alex, and the last time I tried, Captain Logan brushed me off. If we're going to do this, we're going to do it on our own," she said.
"If we do this, it'll be the end of our careers," Katie mentioned.
"My career was over when we came back from the year 2002. After we destroyed the mutorgs and came home, they've had us reduced to fieldwork. The last time I talked to Lucas, he said he was giving out parking tickets for a living. I don't know about the rest of us, but if helping Eric means we can't come back to our lives here, I'm willing to take the chance," Jen explained. "Now, who's with me?"
"Count me in," Trip said firmly.
"Me too," Katie agreed.
"Good. Katie, go find Lucas and tell him what's going on. I'll find a way to get us a time ship. When you have him, meet me in the loading area," she said.
"You got it Jen," Katie said, rushing off.
"What about me?" Trip asked.
"You and I are going to the loading area to convince someone to let us borrow a time ship," she told him.
Silver Hills 2004
Eric walked into Bio-Lab with a look of determination on his face. Completely ignoring everyone he passed in the hallway, he made his way to Andrew Collins' office. 'If that son of a bitch even looks at me wrong, I'm going to…' he paused slightly, trying to control his anger. There was no proof that Andrew had anything to do with the incident, but something in his gut told him Andrew was guilty.
He quickly kicked open the door, storming into Andrew's office. "You've got some explaining to…" he paused, noticing that Andrew was putting the last of his belongings into a box sitting on the desk. "Going somewhere?" he snapped.
Andrew glanced up at him, and Eric noticed the tears in his eyes. "Alan and Wes are gone, there's no need for me to be here. I'm quitting," he told him.
"What?"
"I know I didn't see eye to eye with my brother all the time, but he was still my brother, and I miss him already. I can't be here, everything reminds me of him," he mentioned.
It was then that it hit Eric like a ton of bricks. 'Maybe I jumped to conclusions, maybe I was wrong about him,' he thought to himself. "You really didn't have anything to do with this, did you?" he asked.
"Of course not. How dare you storm in here and even insinuate that I had something to do with my brother's murder! I loved him, and I loved my nephew!" he snapped.
"I didn't mean to…"
"I know what you thought, you thought that with them out of the way, I'd have control of the entire company, and I'd start working on the bio-chemical agents, didn't you? Do you think I'd stoop that low to make a profit? That I'd kill my own brother and kidnap my nephew to make money?" he snapped.
Suddenly, the look of regret on Eric's face was gone, and replaced by determination and malice. "Sorry to have bothered you," he groaned, turning around and walking out of the office.
As he headed toward his car, Taylor hurried over to him, wrapping her arms around him. "I came as soon as I could. Are you okay?" she asked him.
"I'm fine, and I know who's responsible for all of this," he said dryly. "Andrew Collins."
"But how do you know?"
"When I was in his office, he told me he'd never have his brother killed or his nephew kidnapped. According to police reports, Wes was in that car when it exploded. The only way he could have known Wes was kidnapped is if he had something to do with it," he said, getting in the car.
"What can I do? How can I help?" Taylor asked him.
"There's nothing you can do now, but I might need a favor from you later," he mentioned.
"Anything, you know that."
"I'll be in touch," he said, driving away.
Taylor simply watched as Eric's car got further and further away…
… then exploded.