Disclaimer: I don't own them. I don't own McDonald's either, although I hear it's only 3000 to get a Starbucks franchise...
Warning: I gave this in the last chapter, but it was not posted when the chapter was initially posted due to an error in my neural synapses. So here it is again. I am fudging the time line here. Just pretend that SPD happens the year following Dino Thunder (like things normally pan out). As to the fact that there are more SPD yellow rangers, the B squad (the squad Z is on) are the primary defenders of Earth. Since they do not have secret identities, it seems to me that the B squad would be common knowledge on Earth as would the identities of the rangers. To my mind, it would not be that difficult for Maya to obtain that particular piece of information and choose to include the current primary yellow ranger, but not others that are running around the SPD Academy.
RESTLESS WARRIORS
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Fourteen: Torn Apart
Taylor frowned and slowed to a halt. She had kept up running while they had been out here, part of her reasoning being that they were probably headed for a battle and she needed to keep in shape. Well, she did have her powers again… but what good were ranger powers if one did not know how to use them? The morning air was cool and crisp, the sun high and warm. It was the perfect morning to be out running, which was more than she could say for the others.
Their exercise habits tended to be lacking, if nothing else. Although, Dustin did tend to do katas at sunset and, more recently, was teaching one of the water katas to Kelsey and a thunder one to Kira. What his reasoning for that was she had not been told. And she had no idea what Maya did only that she seemed to be constantly either wandering around the woods or making more of her insane amulets and webs. She glanced down to the protection amulet around her neck. Mostly, she wore it to appease Maya, but, the more she studied it, the more she felt something elusive surrounding it. Whatever this thing was, it was good.
Some braches off of the path began to rustle again. She turned and peered into the thick foliage. It was probably nothing—just a squirrel or a raccoon or something.
Then, without warning, a strange little creature tumbled down from a tree and landed on the ground right in front of her. Instinctively, she launched into a defensive stance. The thing looked like a muddy potato on legs. It climbed to its feet.
"Oi!" it called up into the tree. "I found her!"
Four more of the potatoes on legs fell down from the tree, forming a line in front of her and blocking the path. Each of them was wearing rusty armor and carrying what appeared to be butter knives. Great—some powerful demon sends the Mr. Potato Head squad to knock her off.
"Who are you?" she growled.
One of the potatoes squeaked. Their leader—the one who fell from the tree first—stepped forward and puffed out his little chest importantly. She fought the urge to roll her eyes. Who knew that walking potatoes were such… narcissists.
"We bring a message from King Jareth and Lord Owling." Owling… he was the missing brother of that snot Arval… and hadn't Kelsey and Kira said that Jareth was the one Vypra was working with? "He requests a trade."
"What sort of trade?" she asked warily, her fingers reaching into the pocket of her hooded sweatshirt for her morpher.
"He will call off the ceremony if you bring him one of the yellow rangers."
Taylor gave the potato a level look. That trade was completely ridiculous. What could Jareth gain from having one of them? Nothing. There was no way he would call off that ceremony for one of them. He would probably just nab one of them for whatever reason and then carry on like he had intended. Well… it was always good to know what your enemy was after. It couldn't hurt to see what—or who—these potatoes wanted.
"A yellow ranger?" she kept her tone neutral.
"The Wind Ranger," the potato answered.
All right. Time to play this fungus' game. "Why the Wind Ranger?" she responded, showing careful indifference, like she didn't know who the Wind Ranger was.
"He holds the most residual power," the potato continued. "He has his ranger powers along with his ninja powers. While his ranger powers can be taken, his ninja powers are a part of who he is. My master wants him for those powers."
"And what would your master do with him?"
The potato smiled gleefully. "Kill him… eventually."
"Why should I agree to a bargain like that?"
"He'll call off the ceremony. You won't have to worry about it anymore." The potato rubbed his stubby hands together. "You must admit, it's a fair trade."
"It's not fair," she snapped. "It favors me."
"Bring the Wind Ranger here at sunset."
The potato squad disappeared with a faint pop and wisps of vapor. Taylor rolled here eyes. What the hell did these potatoes take her for? She didn't for a minute believe that Jareth would call off the ceremony just because she managed to get Dustin to trust her enough to come with her. And there was no way that the potato team could subdue him enough to take him anywhere that he didn't want to go. He did have that interesting trick of disappearing into the earth… she shook her head. This was crazy.
Turning around on the path, she headed back for their camp site. The peaceful jogging mood had been disrupted.
People were just getting up when she came upon their site. For the most part, the camp site was fairly neat. All the dishes were washed and put away. The food was stored in plastic boxes or coolers in the back of Kelsey's station wagon—more to prevent animal theft of the food than anything else. Their trash bags were on the hooks provided by the park. The inside of the girls' tent was as neat as it could be. Dustin's tent was surprisingly neater than theirs—probably because he didn't have anyone else in there with him. The debris from Maya's earlier art projects had been cleaned up and stored.
Kelsey came out of their tent, tying her hair back into a ponytail. "Morning!" she said cheerfully in Taylor's direction. Perhaps that was what bothered her most about the others, their insistence on being cheerful. No one was happy all the time.
"Morning," she replied, just short of being rude.
The Lightspeed Ranger didn't seem to take any notice of her tone as she went to her car and began to pull out food for breakfast. Hopefully, it would be something other than Pop-Tarts and cereal. Dustin came out of his tent, raking his fingers through his hair, which seemed to always be in a perpetual state of chaos. She resisted the urge to snap at him. Her mind went back to the potato squad that wanted her to hand over Dustin… if that bargain hadn't obviously been fake, she might have been seriously tempted.
"Do you own a comb?" she growled as he passed her on his way to help Kelsey.
"Yeah," he replied nonchalantly. "But it's not much help out here."
"If your hair represents your intelligence then we're all in trouble," she muttered.
He whirled around. Shit. He wasn't supposed to be able to hear that. "What is that supposed to mean?" he countered hotly.
"You know what it means," she snapped.
"At least I'm not being a bitch around everything," he hissed. He looked so completely angry that Taylor was almost afraid of him. She hadn't know he had it in him to be this angry. But she wasn't going to back down, not now. If she wasn't going to hand him over to potatoes, then she was going to put him in his place.
"Maybe, if the rest of you would stop thinking this is a camping trip and start being serious, we could have stopped the ceremony already!"
"We are working on that!"
"I don't see any evidence of that."
"Well, you wouldn't, because everything we do is crap!"
"At least, I have a job."
That froze Dustin in his tracks. This was obviously a sore spot with him—being reminded that he didn't have a real job and had yet to go to college. It wasn't until that moment either that she realized Kelsey had stepped away from her car and was standing next to Dustin; her blue eyes giving Taylor a horrified look. She swung around. Kira and Maya had come out of the tent and were gaping at her.
Shit.
Kelsey stared at Taylor. They were all frustrated. They were all tired of being out here, of never being properly clean and of sustaining life functions on less-than appealing meals that could be cooked on a portable grill or over a fire. However, that did not give her an excuse to lash out at the first person she saw. No one was sure what to do, how to infiltrate the ceremony—her comment on them stopping it by now made no sense. She didn't have the faintest idea how to stop that thing. None of them did.
"That's enough," she said softly. She stepped forward, next to Dustin, and laid a hand on his arm, guiding him away from Taylor. Going to the back of her car, she pulled out the cooler and the box of food, setting them on the picnic table. "Dustin and I are going to town for some things."
Kira and Maya nodded. Taylor's face remained blank. "But I-" Dustin started.
"Get in the car," she countered. He didn't look good—his face was pale with slight pink smudges on his cheekbones. His eyes were bright with unshed tears. If he was going to have a meltdown, she didn't want it to be in front of everyone. He probably didn't want it to be in front of everyone.
Dustin got in the car without further protest. She got behind the wheel, started the dormant engine and took off in the familiar direction of downtown Mariner Bay. She wasn't entirely sure where they were going, but it was as far away from that camp site and Taylor as humanly possible. Dustin was silent as they drove towards town. She gave him a worried sidelong glance. He was gazing out the window and his cheeks were damp.
Kelsey inwardly swore. She knew that this was coming, although she had expected it sooner than this. They had two weeks left before that ceremony and every plan they had come up with seemed more and more unlikely. They didn't have the manpower to storm the temple and stop the ceremony, unless they asked the ninjas for help. However, no one wanted to endanger them unless it was a last resort. Someone had suggested switching out the herbs, but no one knew how to get in there to do it or where Vypra might keep those things when she wasn't in the main room of the underground temple. Dustin had actually suggested they do some research on how to bind a demon to them or banish it back into the spirit realm. That had seemed like a good idea until a book from an occult shop and the occult shop owner told them that they had to be guardians to do that. None of them were.
Everything came back to the simple siege plan. But even with their powers, there was no telling when the battle would weaken someone and they would power down. It was too risky, as was everything else. They needed help and a leader with better interpersonal skills. Maya might be able to weave spells and make protection amulets, but she was still human just like the rest of them. Hell, she was on her own plane of existence half the time.
"You all right?" she ventured as she pulled the car into a parking space at the local McDonald's.
He shook his head, looking more and more miserable.
"Want to talk about it?" she asked.
Dustin half-turned to her, wiping his eyes. "I don't understand why she hates me."
"She doesn't hate you."
"Yes she does. She glares at me and yells at me." He paused. "I don't know why she does it either. I mean I've treated her the same way I've treated you guys or I've tried to." He looked so confused and in so much pain. Kelsey felt sorry for him. Once more, she truly wondered what else was going on in his life besides the prospect of being evicted from his apartment and losing his job. Didn't he have a family he could go to?
"Dustin, she does that to all of us. She just targets you more because she feels like she'll get a response from you. She sees you as the weakest link."
"I'm the weakest link?" he asked in a small voice.
"I don't think you're the weakest link," she reassured him. "If anything, Taylor's being the weakest link right now with her inability to work with any of us."
He let out a shaky breath. "I'm tired of her bringing up my personal life all the time."
"It's just bait. Don't let it get to you."
"Yeah, but I don't remind her about her job all the time." He paused. "What is her job anyways?"
Kelsey shrugged. "She was in the Air Force, although I doubt that is the case anymore since she's taking an unexplained leave of absence."
"You can't tell me she's never worked at a fast food joint or something before."
She grinned. "I used to work at Sonic."
Dustin turned completely towards her, an interested grin on his face. "Really? Was it because you got to roller-skate?"
"Partially. I just liked having a job where I could be up and moving and outside most of the time." She paused. "But I also had a really cool boss."
"I worked at Kroger's before I worked at Storm Chargers."
"Were you a cashier?"
"Sacker and part-time cart boy."
Kelsey smiled. "Come on," she said, opening her door. "I'll buy you breakfast." Dustin grinned and got out of the car. "Don't let Taylor bother you. Just ignore her."
He let out a long breath. "I'll try. She just bugs me."
'She bugs all of us,' Kelsey inwardly seconded. They walked into the McDonald's and people gave them wide berth, probably because they smelt like they'd be out camping and only saw the need to shower once every third or fourth day. They got their food and picked a table near the back of the restaurant in a corner. Kelsey stared as Dustin just drank his coffee black.
"No wonder you're crabby in the mornings," she said as she sipped her orange juice. "We don't have any coffee."
He shrugged. "Years of early Motocross races." He paused and looked thoughtful. "Maybe that's why Taylor's such a bitch in the mornings. She doesn't have her coffee."
Kelsey laughed and they kept up a companionable banter throughout breakfast. She had to admit, she really liked Dustin. He was a neat guy, who seemed like he rarely had an opportunity to deal with people that were interested in the real him. She would have liked to meet him under different circumstances, when she could watch movies or read comic books with him.
"You know," he said as they were finishing eating. "I'd like to have my own comic book store one day. I think that would be cool."
She smiled. Hopefully, he would have his own comic book store some day.
Maya stared at Taylor as Kelsey pulled her car away from the campsite with Dustin loaded inside. She could not believe the exchange she had just heard. She had believed many different things about Taylor, but had also believed she could overcome them in order to work with them. She was wrong. Taylor hadn't been able to change, hadn't been able to put aside her ideal image of a team, hadn't been able to refrain from being a dictator. She had hoped and she had prayed that this work out, that it wouldn't come to this.
Taylor gave her and Kira a level look.
Kira looked livid. She had low tolerance for Taylor as is, but with this added fuel for the fire, she was not happy to say the least. They were all tired and they were all out of ideas. She thought briefly to the fact that Dustin had started teaching ninja katas to Kelsey and Kira—for her, that was teamwork and unity. Taylor had not offered anything of that sort to them and she had to know something from being in the Air Force for so long.
"What the hell was that?" Kira snapped.
Taylor glared at her, thin-lipped. "Taylor," Maya said. "We can't work together if you're going to pick arguments like that."
"Pick arguments?" the Wild Force Ranger spat. "Maybe if everyone around here would be more willing to work and less willing to sit around, we wouldn't be having this conversation!"
"Oh and you have an idea?" Kira retorted. "If you know how to stop this ceremony without risking all our lives in the process, then do share it with the group!"
"We've gone over the possibilities," Maya added softly. "Unless we decide to endanger the ninjas, we can't take action yet."
"But I suppose you don't care about them," Kira continued. "They're just fallen soldiers in your cause!"
"I have never viewed my troops like that," she replied in a deadly soft voice. Venom dripped from her words. "You would do best to not make accusations that you can't prove."
"Why Dustin?" Maya asked, wanting to know the cause of this.
"He's a weak link."
"He's a weak link?" Kira echoed incredulously. "If anyone is a weak link right now, it's you! You're the one that can't work with the rest of us!"
Taylor suddenly looked tired and defeated. "I can't do this," she said softly, some of the edge off her words. "I can't be in charge of you guys. No one trusts me."
"Whose fault is that?" Kira asked.
"I didn't ask to be in charge!" Taylor snapped back. "I didn't even ask to come on this goddamned mission! I lost my job over this!" She suddenly closed her mouth, like she had said something that she shouldn't have.
Maya frowned. Taylor had lost her job? She hadn't seemed particularly worried or broken up about something when they came here. "You lost your job?" she asked.
Taylor glared at her. "Yes. I lost my job. I got a dishonorable discharge from the Air Force. Are all of you happy?"
"That's terrible," Maya whispered. She might not like Taylor, but that was not a good thing to have on anyone's job record. She knew enough from Mike, who had been in the military, that that was never a good thing. Plus, the same thing could happen to GSA recruits and officers if they just left or went on extended leaves of absence without a reason.
"Yeah well, I have another job so don't start crying about it."
"Another job?" Maya was really confused now.
"Eric offered me a job with the Silver Guardians and I'm starting as soon as this madness ends."
"I thought you hated Eric," Kira commented.
"Better working for Eric than being unemployed," was the reply.
Kira gaped at her. "You like him!" she said.
"No," Taylor snapped. "And I am not talking about this, because you don't need to know anything about my personal life."
Maya sighed. "That's where you're wrong, Taylor. We can't work together if we treat this like some kind of sterile mission with strangers. Nothing will be accomplished if we don't get to know each other and eventually become friends."
"That wasn't in the job description."
"There wasn't a job description," Kira reminded her.
"Taylor," Maya said. "Dustin is as important to this team as everyone else. We cannot complete this mission without him."
"What should I do?" Taylor asked softly. She looked lost and confused as her façade of power and aloofness melted away.
"Apologize to him," she replied. "He's not the type of person to hold grudges."
"Apologize?"
"Yeah," Kira added. "Say you're sorry and mean it. Talk to him about comic books and part time jobs in high school—things he knows."
The ghost of a smile tugged on Taylor's lips. "I did used to read comic books, mostly because my mother had forbidden me." She paused. "And I had some horrific part time jobs in high school."
Maya smiled. "See? You can relate to him, if you just try."
"You guys sound like the Care Bears."
"We are," Kira said. "I'm Funshine and Maya's Tenderheart and Dustin is Good Luck Bear and Kelsey is Champ Bear."
"Who am I?"
"Grumpy Bear." Maya fought back a laugh while Taylor pinned Kira with her best glare. "It's a compliment," Kira defended herself. "Grumpy was the only bear with any sense."
"I am the only one here with any sense," Taylor agreed.
Maya did laugh this time. The ice had been broken and, hopefully, it would melt and they would be able to get along.To Be Continued...
