Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' (all incarnations) belong to BVE, who are related to Disney. No infringement is intended.
BOND ENFORCEMENT
By Etcetera Kit
Part One: On the Run
Chapter Four: Street Fights
"Mike, we have to get Kendrix, Kira and Cam concealed carry permits and all of them need to go to the shooting range."
Mike looked up mildly as Eric stormed into the front room of the house, effectively the nerve center of their operations. He had been going through the latest bout of paperwork that he had picked up that morning. He hadn't been anticipating a confrontation with Eric before noon, but it looked like he was going to get one.
"None of them can use a normal gun?" he questioned.
Eric looked frustrated beyond belief. "All of them are used to the laser guns that came with their ranger powers and never caused any damage besides a burn mark." There was a distinct note of sarcasm underlying his words. "Not a single one of them is comfortable using a revolver." And even softer, under his breath, "They can't aim with them either."
"Do they have to be?" Mike responded to the first comment.
"I can't get them laser guns from the guardians, because I'm no longer a guardian."
"Can we ask Collins to provide us with some?"
He shook his head. "I doubt it. We're the grunge of the police force. I don't think he's going to fork over mass amounts of money to get five people laser guns, when it doesn't look like we should need them."
"If we proved the need?"
"Look, assuming we prove the need, we won't get them for at least another two weeks. In that time, we have to make do with what we've got." He paused and raked a hand through his black hair. "Besides, I doubt they'll need to use the guns on the skips. I would just feel better if they knew what they were doing."
Mike nodded. He trusted Eric's judgment regarding things of that nature. "So what made you come to this conclusion?"
"You really want to know?"
He probably didn't, so he decided a change of subject would be a good idea. "You know, not everyone was in the military." Both he and Eric had spent time in the military, so weapons training had been an integral part of their work. The pair of them were used to all kinds of guns, grenades, rockets and anything else that the military used. It was never as sophisticated as things that organizations like the GSA used though.
Eric's hard expression softened. "I don't want them getting hurt."
There was the softer side of Eric that he had been waiting to come out all week. He also had a point. It was necessary that they all be trained on the weapons that Collins provided. It also wouldn't hurt for them to know those things, even if he was able to convince Collins that they needed the laser guns.
"So did you guys get the skips?"
"Piece of cake," Eric replied, reaching into his jacket pocket and handing the body receipts over to Mike. They had got the people that Eric had said they would. Both were pretty easy in the overall terms of what they could be facing.
He started to file the receipts away for the reports they filed with Collins, but didn't get a chance. Kendrix stomped into the front room, an almost exact duplicate of what Eric had done. Mike had forgotten that she got intimidating when she was mad… and Kendrix Morgan was not a happy camper right now.
"Hi, Kendrix," he said in the same mild tone. "I hear you guys got the skips."
Cam came in a few seconds after Kendrix, took the receipts from him and began to start on the necessary paperwork.
Kendrix's glare was enough to rival Eric's. "I am tired of being treated like a stupid woman!" she growled.
It was on the tip of his tongue to remind her that she was a woman, but he refrained from saying that. "Who's treating you like a stupid woman?" he asked, instead. She was a woman, but she wasn't stupid, far from it.
Her pointed glare at Eric was answer enough.
Mike stood up and gently cupped her elbow, guiding her out of the room. "Excuse us," he said to Eric and Cam. The latter didn't even look up while the expression of the former didn't change at all. He steered Kendrix through the living room and into the kitchen. There, he sat her down on one of the stools. "What has got you so upset?" he asked.
"Eric," she spat.
"Kendrix," he replied gently. "Eric knows what he's doing. I know he can be a little impatient and hard to get along with-"
"It's beyond that!" Kendrix cried. "It's like he hates us."
Mike was starting to feel like an elementary school teacher. "He doesn't hate you. You've worked with Eric before. You know how he is."
Kendrix remained silent. There were times that Mike thought he knew her too well for her own good. She just needed a minute to calm down and then she would start to think rationally again. It was difficult to get Kendrix this worked up, though, quite frankly, Mike was surprised Eric hadn't managed this sooner.
"Do you want me to send you and Kira out tomorrow?"
That got a mournful laugh out of her. "Our take-downs tend to be like Laurel and Hardy gone wrong."
"At least it's amusing to write up."
"Don't give us anyone who throws food."
"Yeah!" Kira appeared from the side door that led to the garage. "The last time that happened, the guy threw eggs and now I've got a shirt that has eggshells glued to it."
Mike tried not to laugh. It amazed him how many ridiculous situations Kendrix and Kira had managed to get themselves into in the space of a week. He was also glad that Kira was working out as a member of the group. She might not have the martial arts or combat training that the others had, but she could hold her own in a fight and she had speed. He had been with her yesterday and watched her chase down a skip in the amount of time it would have taken the rest of them to get out of the car.
"Just try to get along with Eric," he told Kendrix. He would have offered to talk to Eric, but he had a feeling that there were overreactions to what had happened on all parties.
Kendrix and Kira disappeared upstairs. Mike propped his chin on the palm of his hand, still sitting at the island in the kitchen. He had known that the working dynamic between them was going to be explosive, but he hadn't counted on just how explosive. It made him wonder how Cam was handling rooming with Eric. He stood up and went into the front room to warn Eric to be a little more understanding with the girls.
Cam frowned to himself. This stake-out was getting them nowhere. Wherever this guy was, it wasn't in his house. He brought up the files on his computer. When the paperwork on a new FTA came in, he logged it into the mainframe computer and put it in the shared documents. The theory was that everyone on the network would be able to see the FTAs at large anytime they wanted. It was more efficient than trying to share the paper files.
He sighed. They had a skip who was a first timer. He had apparently gotten drunk with his buddies and, with his father's gun, shot up a bunch of cars. His mother had posted the bond, meaning she probably knew where he was. He worked in the hot dog stand in the mall. Cam closed the file. The van was within walking distance of the mall.
The townhouse complex was quiet. "Mike, I'm going to walk over to the mall and see about the first timer."
Mike nodded. "Go ahead. Things are quiet here."
"Call me if something comes up."
"Ditto."
Cam nodded, put his laptop under the passenger seat and climbed out of the van. It was hard to believe that they had been doing this a little over a week. Collins idea of a small bond agency did not coincide with anyone else's. He had no idea how the Silver Guardians had managed normal police work and this. They were barely handling this. Between working on the computer and modifying the training simulations, he barely had time to think, let alone have some free time.
The air was cool and a slight breeze made it a pleasant day. It gave him some time to organize his thoughts. Their working dynamic was odd, at best. He found it better to do what he had done so many times in Ninja Ops—ignore the activity around him unless he felt that his two cents worth was absolutely necessary. Normally, it wasn't. Between Eric and Mike going after the dangerous skips and Kendrix and Kira handling the more complacent ones, he had almost found himself lost in the pull. Of course, there was that group outing to the shooting range that evening.
Kendrix and Kira didn't see how he shared a room with Eric and had moderately no problems. That was simply because he was the bad roommate, not Eric. To the public, Cam had a persona of being neat and organized. In private, he was a mess. His work was always neat and orderly and he knew where everything was. It was almost like he needed an area of contained chaos, just so that the order and routine didn't turn him into a robot. When he had been in college or back at the ninja academy that chaos had been the state of his bedroom. To a lesser degree, it was happening here, but he hadn't been here long enough for that chaos to take over. That was something he could do when they got back from the shooting range that night—do some cleaning maintenance on his side of the room.
Eric didn't bother him, like he tended to bother Kendrix and Kira. The pair of them had a mutual understanding. Eric wouldn't encroach on his territory of computers and technology and Cam wouldn't question his methods for the actual field work. Kendrix and Kira were both more than capable of handling the field work, but tended to resent Eric's 'my way or the highway' attitude.
The mall wasn't crowded as it was the middle of the week in the middle of the day. He walked quickly to the food court—with the hot dog stand in the middle. The kid he was after was at work. Pretend it didn't happen and it would all go away? Real life never worked that way. The kid's mother had posted his bond—why didn't she make sure he showed up in court?
He waited until there was no one in line at the hog dog stand.
The two kids at the counter looked at him expectantly as he approached. "Can I help you?" the skip asked.
"Fugitive apprehension agent," he said. "I represent your bond agency. You failed to appear in court."
The kid paled. "Oh… uh… I forgot."
"You'll need to come with me and reschedule." And then sit in jail until the new court date rolled around.
"I can't go now! I'm at work."
"I'm sure your co-worker can handle things by himself for today." If there was one thing he had learned in the past week, it was not to take excuses from the people they had to bring in.
"It's not a good idea…"
"Now," Cam said in a firm voice that left no room for argument. He had pulled that voice out more than once on Dustin and Shane when they were doing something particularly dumb. It was enough to silence their antics and it was more than enough for this kid, because he left the hot dog stand, looking nervous.
Cam pulled the cuffs from his jacket pocket and cuffed the kid before placing one hand on his shoulder and guiding him out of the mall. With the other hand, he called Mike. "Meet me at the north entrance to the mall," he said simply.
"I'll be there in a few minutes."
Mike showed up in less than two minutes. Cam put the kid in the back of the van and Mike locked all the doors before heading for the Silver Guardians' headquarters. Half an hour later, the kid was locked up and they had their body receipt.
"He came in without a fuss," Mike commented.
Cam shrugged. "He was scared." Never mind the fact that Cam didn't have a gun or pepper spray on him when telling the kid to come with him. However, he knew that it wasn't always this easy.
Mike steered the van back towards the townhouse.
"Are you guys going to the shooting range tonight?"
"Yeah." Cam let out a long breath. Kendrix and Kira had been going after their final drunk of the week, while Eric was supposed to be asking around about someone charged with grand auto theft.
"That stake-out was a bust. I'll go around later tonight and talk to all the neighbors."
He nodded. That gave him sometime to work on cleaning the starting mess that his room was becoming. Then he needed to finish the changes to the simulations and eat something before getting dragged off places.
This was the weirdest job he had ever had… or thought he would have.
"I'll do the paperwork," Mike said as they pulled into the garage.
"All right." Cam trailed behind him, wondering how he was going to finish all the things that he needed to do.
"That was below average."
Kendrix sighed as the simulation gave way to the 'lab' as the front room of the house had been dubbed. The simulation had been one modified from the ninja training. It was obvious that it had been meant for the ninja rangers, but had FTA elements added to it. However, it worked out well enough for them. The point of the exercise was to apprehend a person. Eric had loaded the guns with blanks before the simulation started.
Cam was sitting at a table in the corner and had been monitoring the simulation from his laptop. Eric had been with him, a frown firmly in place on his face. Mike was supposed to be going down the Silver Guardian's headquarters to get more paperwork. She exchanged a glance with Kira, not sure who would start lecturing first—the ninja or the cop.
"You know why he got away?" Eric asked.
"Why?" Kira retorted, sarcasm dripping from the word.
Eric ignored the unspoken barb. "You need to split up. One of you takes the back of the house and the other takes the front."
"What if it takes both of us to apprehend the guy?"
"Make enough noise and the person at the front or back of the house can be there in a few seconds."
"And the winner is not necessarily the stronger opponent," Cam added.
"This isn't ninja school, Cam," Kira snapped.
"No," the samurai agreed. "It's not. But you don't have to be stronger than someone to best them in a fight."
"Prove it."
Kendrix let out a long breath as Cam gave Kira a bored look and stood up. He motioned to Eric and the pair of them moved into the center of the room. She wasn't sure what happened next, but Eric had moved at Cam and, a second later, was on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the room. And Eric was stronger than Cam. Kendrix frowned because that looked like it hurt.
"See?" Cam said, holding out a hand to help Eric up.
"Point taken," Kira muttered.
"But we're not all ninjas, Cam," Kendrix told him.
"Maybe you should be," he replied, moving back to his laptop.
"We don't have time for ninja training on top of everything else."
"Make time," Eric said in an even tone.
"Do it again," Cam told the pair of them, stopping any forthcoming arguments about their time management.
She fought the urge to glare as the front room disappeared and she and Kira were standing on a sidewalk in a nondescript neighborhood. The purpose of this simulation was to apprehend the skip hiding in his house. Ordinarily, the skip would answer the door and then run into the house. However, since Cam was controlling the simulation, she wasn't entirely sure what would happen.
"I'll take the back," Kira muttered.
Kendrix watched as she disappeared around the side of the house. She took a deep breath and walked up to the front door of the house. She rang the doorbell and waited. There was some shuffling from within and the door opened.
"Yeah," a man asked.
This was their skip—named Vernon Rawlings for some unknown reason.
"Mr. Rawlings?" she asked. The man grunted in confirmation. "I represent your bond agency. You failed to appear in court."
"I'm not going to court. It was a bogus charge."
"If you come with me, you can tell that to the court."
"I'm not going anywhere."
Kendrix stepped forward, pulling the cuffs from her jacket pocket. The guy turned and fled into the house. She heard a window smash and ran into the back part of the house in time to see Kira tackle the guy. Kendrix ran forward and managed to cuff him.
The pair of them hauled him to his feet and started to drag him out of the house. The simulation would end successfully when they got him to their fake car. Kira unlocked the car and they pushed the guy into the backseat. Kendrix put the shackles on him to keep him from going anywhere and slammed the car door closed.
"Simulation ended," a voice said.
The fake neighborhood faded away again and they were standing in the front room once more. Cam was nodding in approval.
"That was nice," Eric said. "Just try not to break any more windows."
"What if we came to the house and the window was already broken?" Kira asked.
The Quantum Ranger raised an eyebrow, the ghost of a smile over his lips. "Starting to think like a bounty hunter," he said. "If we don't know how the window got broken, then it would be stupid not use that as an obvious entrance to the house."
Kendrix looked at Eric. His expression had softened. His eyes, normally like cold black stones, had softened as well. They almost looked like… melted chocolate. She shook her head and took over Cam's duties at the laptop while Eric and Cam got ready to take their turn through the simulation.
Kira was laughing to herself as she sat down in the chair formerly occupied by Eric. "I didn't know we could bend the law so much."
"Don't ask, don't tell," Kendrix replied and started the simulation.
The laptop followed heat signatures through the simulation. She watched as one of the guys rounded the back of the house and the other took the front door to do the initial speech to the skip. At the last minute, she had the guy go out a window in the side of the house. The person in the back had him cornered and cuffed in less than a minute.
"How do they do that?" Kira asked.
"Search me."
The skip was put in the car and the simulation ended itself, revealing Eric and Cam standing in the middle of the room.
"How do you guys always manage to finish the simulation faster than us?" Kira asked Cam as he came back to the laptop.
"I'm a ninja," he replied. "It's not that hard to catch people."
"Yeah, well," Kira muttered. "Eric just runs through back allies, A-Team style."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Eric replied.
Mike entered the front room, carrying a stack of file folders. "I turned in all the paperwork and picked up the new stuff." He looked around at the four of them gathered around the laptop with no one arguing or muttering things under their breath. "I see you guys are getting along," he commented.
"You have no idea," Kira responded.
Cam was tapping at the laptop keys. "Kira, run through the alley simulation with Eric."To Be Continued...
Author's Note: It's the crack of dawn... I had to get up for pre-registration for classes. We do nothing on-line at this ridiculous college. So, since I'm up at the crack of dawn, I figured I'd update. (Well, it's not the crack of dawn anymore. I had to go to the registrar's and then I went to Starbucks and then I watched Time Force... but what's the difference?) Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! It means a bunch to me! One more chapter for this part and then we enter part 2... :)
