Disclaimers: in part 1
Another Time and Placeby Smittysgirl
Reefside had begun its life as part of a vast farming community in northern California. The town had gradually become more and more industrialized over the decades, eventually earning a title as Blue Bay Harbor's sister city. Though agriculture was no longer their main source of revenue, vast farms and ranches dotted the nearby landscape.
It was here, surrounded by wheat up to his shoulders, that Terrance Smith found himself in desperate search of the White Dino Thunder Ranger.
Of course, Trent's ability didn't help, either, though Terrence sometimes wondered if his teammate's powers had expanded to emulating the abilities of the other Rangers.
It would explain his proficiency in hiding from detection so ably. A low rustling two rows away alerted Terrance to something, and he quietly crept towards the next intersection.
"Trent?" he asked quietly, trying to not alarm the unhinged Ranger.
"Get AWAY!" the younger man cried. "You don't understand, it's not safe for any of you! Just like it wasn't safe for him!"
"Trent," Terrance said evenly, "you came to see me. I know you want help; someone to talk to."
"I was out of my mind!" Trent said, his voice coming out of seemingly nowhere. "I ran. It's not safe for you to be near me. Leave me alone." The wheat rustled again.
Terrance hung near the edge of his row, waiting for a familiar footfall. He and Conner had practiced this in Terrance's own fields as a means of incapacitating the boy should he ever use his civilian powers to harm others. The breeze kissed the tactile sensors wiring the helmet to his central nervous system, and Terrance's arm shot out, nabbbing Trent across the midsection. Trent stumbled out of super speed.
Terrance caught the boy and held him tight. "It's okay, Trent. Let me take you home. You look like you haven't eaten in a week." He paused. "And you could use a bath."
"I smell bad. Shouldn't that be a clue?"
An eruption of light split the sky above them, leaving in its place a figure in familiar black and turquoise armor.
"Zeltrax!" Trent cried, jerking out of Terrance's arms and toppling backwards into the crops.
Terrance sighed. "Let me handle this, Trent."
Terrance spun, finding himself face to face with the warrior's fearsome visage. His hand inched towards the Brachiostaff. "It doesn't have to be this way, Eddie."
The cyborg turned lazily from the boy to the Black Ranger. "There is no Eddie here. Destroying the both of you is but a prelude to my ultimate revenge!"
Terrance raised his eyebrows inside his helmet. "Look, you're Edward Payne. You were killed by Mesogog when you were testing a new device...."
Zeltrax's sword coalesced in his hand. "You are a fool to believe your friend could be saved, Smith. There are so many others in need of your attention that you have callously left to hang."
The cyborg chuckled. "Besides, I believe Trent knows quite well why Edward Payne won't be coming back."
Trent screamed.
"Trent?" Terrance asked, half to make sure the other was still there.
There was no answer. Against his every instinct, Terrance turned to look for the White Ranger. In an instant, a flash of light erupted from Zeltrax's visor, leaving him awash in agony. The Black Ranger armor shattered around him.
"Shit!" he muttered defensively, backing away and activating his own civilian power.
"Impressive." Zeltrax said dryly. A hand waved across his visor, and its color changed from black to red. "Scanning."
Terrance blanched and tried to lift Trent's limp form before he was detected. A bolt of energy sent him flying and the field ablaze. Terrance coughed.
Zeltrax laughed. "This is going better than I could have imagined."
He strode towards Terrance purposefully, his blade rhythmically slapping against his right palm. "Now you will pay, Smith. For those wrongs done to me and my other."
"Never!" Terrance cried, regaining his balance and hauling Trent bodily away.
"Trent!" he called into the boy's ear as the two struggled through the crops. "You have to cloak! Zeltrax has to take a little longer searching for us that way!"
"No," the White Ranger whimpered. "It can't be him. It can't be."
"Trent. Cloak! Imitate me! Worry about telling me later!"
"I..." Trent swallowed hard, and dissolved into nothingness like Terrance as he pulled himself back up. The older man made sure they had a firm grip on one another as they continued to move.
"Good boy," Terrance muttered quietly, hoping they'd get back to his Raptor Rider so that they could make a fast escape... then he could learn what was going on. The sooner, the better.
Another invisiportal opened at the far end of their row, depositing Elsa and a squadron of Triptoids and Tyrannodrones.
"YOU are late," Zeltrax cried from the opposite end. Terrance swore under his breath, pulling the two of them as close to the crops as possible and trying not to move.
"Are you roughing up the merchandise, new meat?" Elsa yelled back. "You know Lord Mesogog's instructions. The doctor and the boy are not to be harmed."
"I am merely making them cower," Zeltrax said. "As well they should."
"Idiot! If you harm the boy, Mesogog will have our heads!"
Zeltrax snorted. "I fail to see you providing any assistance, Elsa. Perhaps your ability to anticipate what Mesogog needs has ended. As well as your usefulness."
"Ha! At least I didn't ask to be turned into a armored freak!"
"Yes." Zeltrax crossed his arms. "It seems you had no choice in the matter at all. That is the difference between a peer and a subordinate."
He snapped his fingers, and the footsoldiers stood at attention. "Minions! Circle the parameter and close in. We'll draw the net in on them." He stared Elsa in the eye, daring her to rebuke his command.
Elsa snorted. "There's hope for you yet. Just remember how displeased Lord Mesogog will be if you injure the boy before we can put him in... safekeeping."
"All that matters to me is my revenge. Once I have that, my life is Mesogog's to do with as he wishes."
Elsa rolled her eyes as the creatures fanned out all around her. "Yes, yes, and you shall have it. Smith's capture will ensure that if nothing else."
"Excellent," Zeltrax said.
"Safekeeping?" Trent whimpered quietly.
Terrance patted the other reassuringly. "Won't happen," he murmured. "I've been in tighter jams."
"It occurs to me," Zeltrax asked suddenly. "What kept you? Mesogog led me to believe you were ordinarily quite punctual."
"I was busy securing our other target," Elsa said testily. "The one I didn't have to be gentle on."
"Ah," Zeltrax replied knowingly. "Smith's woman. A wise decision. The Rangers have no idea how compromised their civilian lives are - and are rapidly becoming."
Terrance froze. How had Elsa gotten her hands on Hayley?
Trent struggled against him. "There's going to be a gap between the Tyrannodrone and the triptoid off to Elsa's left," he whispered.
Terrance swallowed, whispering an affirmative. Trent activated his speed, holding onto Terrance firmly. The two bolted for it, unable to avoid rustling the crops arround them.
Conner filtered out of PolSci with the rest of the class. His concentration had been spotty for the entire quiz, and he knew he'd be lucky if he made it out alive with a C-average.
Today had been rough, and not only because of the day before. His body felt clunky and cumbersome. His fingers were unresponsive some of the time.
Inwardly, he cursed Mesogog once more. That armored freak was going to pay for turning Conner into a monster.
A hand fell on his shoulder, and Conner's temper surged. He spun around, relaxing visibly when he realized the hand's owner was Marianne, one of the girls from Eric's old dojo.
"Marianne, what's up?" he asked, calming his racy heart and ignoring her smell.
Her nose wrinkled and her brow tightened. "Conner, are you doing all right? You've been spacing out all day, and I thought you were going to try and eat Becky Holstram's science project last week."
"I'm just distracted," he said. "And... no, I wasn't."
The edges of her mouth creased. "You were smelling it, anyway."
Conner's fingers twitched. He could feel another episode in the near future, and he needed to be clear of the others when it happened. A bathroom stall, a padded cell, it didn't matter. There was no time -
" - guess I just wanted to know you were hanging in there," she finished (had she even started?). "You're all Eric talks about when we're dating."
The impending transformation sputtered for a second as Conner realized his brother had a girlfriend. One presumably even Mom and Dad weren't aware of.
"Oh," he managed. "Thanks. See you!"
He tore off down the hall as his fingers slowly bonded together, bone and sinew stretching and contorting as a dinosaur hand began to materialize for the first time. He jammed his hand into his pocket and barreled into the janitor's closet.
He breathed in relief as the door slammed and locked behind him. "Shit," he muttered, before collapsing into a shelf full of stuff he didn't care about but the janitor maybe did.
"Earth to Cass," Devin said. Cassidy looked up in confusion, and Devin gestured to the station editing equipment. "We've got to get this stuff ready for presentation on Friday. I thought a work print might help us figure out what coverage we still need."
Cassidy nodded, still distracted. "Right."
Devin wrinkled his nose. "Cass, are you okay? You and Kira didn't get attacked, did you?"
Cassidy shook her head. "No, it's not that. I just never..."
She just never what? Realized how alone Kira must have been all these months? How torn Kira's heart would be after Trent and Conner violated her trust and her patience time and again? How much Kira smelled like honeysuckle?
Devin sighed. "Cass, did you meet someone?"
"What?" her head snapped up. "Don't be silly. I haven't been anywhere since we stopped at the Fords last night. I don't know, maybe I've been humbled. They had it so rough before we joined the team."
Devin nodded understandingly. "Yeah. I can't believe we were so blind to who they were, Cass."
She slumped forward against the console, her mind reeling. All she wanted was to go back to bed. Everything made so much more sense in those fleeting moments of half consciousness before and after sleep.
"Dev?" she asked suddenly. "Why are we even doing this? Cornier doesn't need us. We're part of the world's preeminant team of heroes, and we're punching in at a place built on exploiting people like that."
"Um, Dr. T said we should try to have normal lives."
"Normal life?" Cass asked suddenly. "What's a normal life? We don't have normal lives anymore!"
Devin swallowed. "Cass, this has been your dream since you were five years old. This was - was our dream. Do you want to throw that away?"
She could hear the unspoken addendum to that question. Could she throw it away.
"I don't know," she admitted. "I guess... now I'm hoping we can make things better here."
"Edward Cornier's a powerful man. If we burn him, we're throwing away our careers. We'd be lucky to work for some supermarket tabloid in Circle Pines. But, but if this is what you want..." his smiled broadened. "I'm in all the way."
"Thanks, Dev," she whipered.
"Oh!" he said suddenly, fishing out his cell phone and checking for a signal inside the cavernous sub-basement. "Dr. T was chasing after Trent, I should see how he's doing."
Cass nodded. Devin brought the phone to his ear after punching in the autodial for Dr. Smitty. The phone rang.
Over a minute passed before the automated messenger in Dino Ops began to play. Frowning, Devin tried again. After yielding the same response four times, he was outright panicked.
"Cass, we've got to get to Ops!" he cried.
"What?" she asked, bolting upright.
Devin grabbed his coat and bolted out the door without another word. Cass tore out after him.
Time had begun to lose all meaning. The pain was his only companion. The only presence he knew as intimately as he knew himself. Somehow, though, its presence only made him feel more alone. More tainted.
Conner stank of industrial solvents and various chemicals he couldn't have identified even with all of Dr. Smitty's lab at his disposal.
On his mishappen arm, something began to beep. He swatted it like a fly.
Something clicked and a faint voice emerged from under his claw. "Conner!"
Conner. Yes, he supposed, that was his name. Or at least it was a word he felt reasonably sure he knew. He gurgled in reply.
"Conner?" Devin's voice came from somewhere. "You there, man? Oh, don't tell me we're missing three people now!"
"Aaaaaahhhh... herrrrre..." Conner drawled. The air was too cold in here. Too cold, and the humidity was too low. He could barely breathe, and his extremities kept fluctuating between total numbness and burning like fire.
"Shit!" Devin barked. "Conner, where are you?"
He hissed. Words couldn't form. His tongue felt thick and useless. He could just barely muster the comprehension to understand what Devin was saying.
He hissed again, hoping it was an encouraging sound.
"Shit! Where's Dr. T's tracker, Cass?"
Those three syllables clicked like a tumbler in his brain. Conner could feel the fiery agony as his prominent brow began to recede back into a human skull, and five fingers unknit from three. "Doc... Doctor Smitty?"
"Conner? Where are you?"
"Janitor's closet... the pain, the pain...."
"Oh shit. Conner, stay there. I'm going to get Ethan, he'll -"
"NO!" Conner said, feeling his perception of the visual spectrum shift and fighting back a wave of nausea. "What happened to Dr. Smitty?"
"We don't know," Devin said, sounding worried. "I, like, can't reach him and you're in no state to do anything...."
"Yes," Conner grunted, "I am. Call Ethan and have the both of you meet me at his last location. While you're at it, call Hayley. She was supposed to supervise me receiving my medications in an hour. She's more use to you guys there."
"Right," Devin said, sounding a little calmer. "I'll call her."
Behind Devin, he could hear a voice. "Devin, what does this mean, 'tracker not found'?"
The bracelet clicked off and Conner struggled to stand.
To be continued.