Disclaimer: 'Power Rangers' (all incarnations) belong to BVE, who are related to Disney. No infringement is intended.

BOND ENFORCEMENT

By Etcetera Kit

Part Two: On the Money
Chapter Seven: Thunder Power

The four Time Force Rangers were looking around the lab with great interest. Cam frowned and crossed his arms over his chest, wanting to know what this was all about. Eric, Kira and Kendrix had arrived dragging the four rangers from the future. The explanation had been that they wanted all five of them present. What could rangers from the future possibly need to tell the five of them? None of them had anything to do with Time Force… not anymore at any rate…

"What is going on?"

Kendrix's loud question got the attention of everyone crowded in a room not meant to hold so many people. Cam glanced to the guy with green hair, trying to keep him from doing something to the computer that was irreversible. It had taken him too long to set up the computer to have someone—even a person from the future—change something.

Jen, the leader of that bunch, stood up. Cam tried to refrain from raising an eyebrow. Something about her gave him a bad vibe. Maybe it was just because she had a domineering attitude that reminded him of Eric and there didn't need to be two of him running around.

"The five of you need a find a uniform power source."

Stunned silence met that pronouncement. If they had been anything other than a group of former rangers, then no one would have had a clue what she was talking about. The five of them needed to get a uniform power source, as in, all of them became one kind of ranger rather than the scattered types they were. That didn't make sense.

"How?" Eric replied, his tone cool.

"You five are rangers," Jen said.

"We used to be rangers," Mike corrected. "Three of us no longer have our power source. The power is gone."

"But you need to be rangers again."

"Why?" Cam spoke up. "Our job doesn't require us to be rangers."

"It's not about your job," Jen snapped.

"We're tracing a mutant fugitive in this time," Trip explained. "We can't normally do something to alter the time line, but if the five of you don't find a uniform power source, then the time line will alter drastically from the original."

"Why us?" Kira asked. "Why not another team of former rangers who are still together?"

Trip stood up. "The odds of five former rangers being brought together for a random team are astronomical." His voice was fast and excited as he gesticulated wildly. "Fate had a hand in bringing you five together!"

"Fate?" Eric snorted.

"Yes, fate!" Jen retorted at him.

"But I don't see how we can get a uniform power source." Kendrix looked almost distressed. It didn't go unnoticed that Eric had moved closer to her.

The room fell silent. Cam thought back to the library at the Wind Ninja Academy. He had read and catalogued most of them. He had seen the scroll of destiny and the scroll of time and had read all the legends. There had to be something. Hunter had asked him to help reorganize the library at the Thunder Ninja Academy. A scroll there had been about the thunder ninja ranger powers…

"There might be a way," Cam said softly. Everyone in the room was staring at him, giving him their undivided attention. "The wind morphers were purely man-made, tapping into the ninja powers to enhance them. But the thunder morphers… those were tapping into a power source that was vast. No one quite knows the extent of the thunder powers."

"What are you saying?" Mike questioned.

"I'm saying that one of the scrolls talks about the source of the thunder powers being in the Mountain of Lost Ninjas. If we could find it, then we'd all have a uniform power source."

"That can't be it," Kira said.

"No. It's not it. The quest to get the powers is dangerous. The ninjas designed it to be reminiscent of the quest for the Holy Grail. No one has ever survived trying to get to the power source."

"Then how did Blake and Hunter get their powers?"

"Sensei Omino built those morphers like the wind morphers, but instead of tapping into the ninja's powers, it tapped into that thunder power source."

The room was silent after that. Cam knew that the others were thinking the same thing that he was—did they have another choice? Was there something else they could try, some other source that could be tapped? The answer was no… anything else would take more time and more obstacles in the form of government agencies and ancient prophecies.

"Today was better when I thought I was going to live to see Monday," Eric said under his breath.

"We don't have a choice," Mike replied. He turned to Cam. "You know where all of these things will be?"

He nodded. "We'd have to camp near the mountain, since there's nothing around for miles and a commute would consume time. I'm not sure how long it would take us to find and get the actual power source."

"Assuming we don't die."

Eric had a point. Cam had heard horror stories about the Mountain of Lost Ninjas. It might take them a long time to get to the actual mountain, especially if they had to face the ghosts of the dead ninjas that the other ninja rangers had. This was not looking good, but from the grim expressions on the Time Force Rangers' faces, he knew that the situation had to be desperate for them to come to the past and tell them what to do.

"Let's start packing," Mike said. "The skips we have right now can wait until Monday."

"We'll monitor for the mutants here," Trip added, ever the cheerful one. "We'll keep the situation under control until you get back."

"And we need to contact Wes," Jen added.

"He's at the Silver Guardians' headquarters," Eric said blandly.

Sensing an argument about the break loose, Cam watched as Kira and Kendrix stepped out of the lab. Mike grabbed Eric's arm and dragged him out of the room, while Cam followed him, wondering if they had camping gear.

"What is your problem?" Mike hissed at Eric. "I thought they were on your team!"

Eric shook his head and glared. "Hey! I was being nice!"

Mike sighed. Cam moved around Eric and headed up the stairs. "Does anyone happen to have a tent on them?" he called.

"You've got to be kidding me," Eric muttered from behind him.


Eric yanked open one of his dresser drawers and grabbed a couple of t-shirts at random. He slammed the drawer shut again and went to his bed, where his duffel bag was open. Shoving the shirts in the bag, he took a quick inventory of the contents. He should have enough clothing for the few days that Cam had made it sound like they were going to be out there, including extra clothes in case of disease or disaster.

He sat on his bed next to the duffel bag and pulled a flat box from underneath the bed. It had various and sundry odds and ends that he had thought might be useful in the grand scheme of things. A three-cell MagLite was in there—that, at least, would be useful. He took the well-used flashlight and shoved it in the duffel bag.

Cam was moving around the room, rummaging through the various piles of clothing that he had strategically all over the place. Most of his clean clothes were in his laundry basket and the dirty clothes were in a pile next to his bed.

"What are you looking for?" Eric asked idly.

"My Notre Dame shirt," he replied.

"It's in your dresser."

The former Green Ranger moved over to his dresser—both dressers were in the closet—and came back with the formerly missing shirt in hand. He didn't bother to ask how Eric knew where his shirt was. If there was one thing about Cam, it was that he knew where everything was except for his clothes, which tended to explain some of the hideous Hawaiian shirts that he wore when he couldn't find anything else.

There was a marked difference between the areas of their room. Cam's bed had been made by pulling the comforter over the tangled sheets, blankets and pillows. Stacks of papers, books and software cluttered his desk and spilled into more stacks on the floor, not to mention the computer and the laptop on the desk. More of the same was all over his nightstand, although the books looked more like pleasure reading than the complicated computer manuals all over the rest of the place. Notably, he had the Harry Potter books on the nightstand. Then there were the clothes that were all over the place.

Eric's stuff was completely the opposite. His bed was neatly made and all of his stuff was either stored under the bed or in the desk drawers. He had a handful of books that were lined up on his desk. Besides the books, he had a laptop on his desk, which he hardly used. He didn't have any of the computer accessories that Cam had. All of their movies were on the nightstand turned TV stand. That tended to stay neat, because neither of them had time to watch movies.

Cam put the shirt in his backpack. He then picked up the laundry basket of clean clothes and went to his dresser, starting the task of putting them away.

"I don't see how you can have three degrees and be such a mess," Eric muttered.

His roommate shrugged. "The bachelor's degrees are because I was a double major. And I graduated from high school when I was sixteen."

Meaning he had been twenty when he graduated from college. Eric found that absolutely incredulous. He had dropped out of prep school and gotten his G.E.D.—and barely managed to do that much. Then he had gone into the Marines and it didn't seem to matter. He could have gone to college, funded by the military, but found nothing that interested him. Besides, the Silver Guardians had hired him for his military experience and not his education.

"How old are you, anyways?"

Cam finished putting his clothes in the dresser and started picking up his dirty laundry from all around the room. "Twenty-seven," he replied.

All right, so he was older than he had originally thought. It also meant that he and Cam were closer in age than he had thought. "We're going to have to have an over-the-hill party for you soon."

Cam smirked. "I bet you've already had one."

Eric thought for a minute. "I didn't have a party for my thirtieth birthday."

"Too bad." He paused. "When is your birthday, anyways?"

"That is classified information."

His roommate shrugged and looked around for more of his dirty laundry. Finding none, he started going through his backpack, making sure he had everything. No one knew when his birthday was or was going to find out, unless they stole his driver's license. That was information that Wes had tried to get out of him—and failed. It had contributed to their eventual falling out.

Things had been great for a while. The four Time Force Rangers from the future had gone back to the year 3000. He and Wes had managed to peacefully co-exist as partners. They had almost been friends. Then they inadvertently stumbled across the team of rangers that came after them—the Wild Force Rangers. That had led to a brief team reunion and that ill-fated relationship with Taylor. Nothing but sex—and arguments tended to spawn the best sex of the relationship. It wasn't healthy and he broke it off before one or both of them got hurt.

Not long after, he had Wes had their falling out. Clinically depressed and drinking just a little too much, Wes had become almost unbearable to work with. Eric knew that he was depressed over Jen leaving a second time, but it didn't excuse his inattention to his work. There was a reason he knew Kendrix, while Wes didn't. Wes had started ignoring the meticulous forensic details that were integral to their cases. He couldn't focus. Mr. Collins saw the problem as well and might have moved Eric to prevent another knock-down, screaming battle. Eric didn't know. All he knew was that Jen was back and pouring salt into open wounds.

"I have ways of finding out."

He snapped back to attention. Cam was half-lying on his bed, his foot in the air as he tied his shoe. For all the calm and poise that Cam exuded in public, he was a raving lunatic in his private life. Of course, Cam knew his true reasons for leaving the guardians, while he knew things about Cam that the others could never guess at.

"How?"

"You have an e-mail account, correct?"

Cam rolled over and started shuffling around under his bed for his other shoe. "Yeah," he replied warily. "But I haven't checked it in so long that they probably shut it down."

"I can hack into it and find out."

"Goddammit, Cam," he muttered. "Just leave it alone."

"You don't like birthdays?" Cam's head reappeared and he was holding his missing shoe.

"Not anymore."

"Come on! You don't have to tell us how old you are. You just need to tell us when your birthday is, so we can have a party."

"I don't want a party."

Cam shrugged. "Suit yourself." He paused. "We need to start loading the car before too much longer." He paused again. "Mike should be back soon."

Eric let out a long breath and picked up his bag. Mike had gone to Academy to get the rest of the camping gear they needed. This was going to be a long trip.


"Are you sure this is entirely necessary, Cam?" Kira asked as she hauled a box of paper goods out of the back of the SUV. "I mean we passed a hotel on the way up here and I'm sure it would take any time at all to commute."

Kendrix inwardly seconded the sentiment. This entire camping trip seemed like overkill. The mountain that Cam had told them about wasn't that far out of the way. It would take some time to hike to it, but still leaving plenty of time to look around.

"I don't mind riding in the car," Kira continued. "I had to ride around in all kinds of cars when I was on tour."

"Your opinion has been noted," Cam replied, his tone waspish. He looked and sounded extremely tired.

"Quit whining and make the best of it," Eric added as he swung the cooler out of the car and down next to the growing pile of gear.

"You can talk," Kira retorted.

"Go set up a tent or something," the Quantum Ranger countered hotly.

Tempers were flaring and people's patience was wearing thin. Kendrix let out a long breath and went to assist Kira with the tents. There was one larger tent for the males and a smaller tent for her and Kira. She located the tarps in one of the boxes, while Kira started to unfold the tents. No one was speaking, mostly because it would start a fight and that was the last thing they needed.

She laid the tarp down and took one end of the pole that Kira had just finished putting together. Putting the poles through the nylon was the easy part. The hard part was getting the things to snap into place and make a tent rather than a deflated parachute. Soon enough, they had something resembling a tent.

"Here."

Kendrix started as someone touched her shoulder. She turned to see Eric handing her a small mallet and the stakes that came with the tent. They did need to nail the tent down so that it didn't go flying away during the day. She smiled, took the tools from him and began to hammer them into the ground.

The other, smaller tent went up much faster.

The two females stepped back to admire their handy work. Kendrix glanced at the guys. Mike was going through the boxes and organizing them. Eric was in silent mode, working on getting wood for a fire. Cam looked ready to fall asleep on the spot. It made her wonder what was making him so lethargic.

"You know," Kendrix muttered. "When I heard 'camp', I thought of Girl Scout camp with the nice platform tents and cots."

"You were a Girl Scout?" Kira asked.

She nodded. Eric stood up and came over to the pair of them. "You know how to build an A-frame fire?" he asked her. Kendrix nodded. "Good. Go find lots of tinder." In other words, he wanted her to find tiny twigs that would burn quickly, helping ignite the other, larger pieces of wood. He was just lucky she had gone troop camping so often.

"Were you a Boy Scout?" Kendrix called after him.

He turned and gave her an appraising look. "You're looking at an Eagle Scout, cupcake," he replied.

Cupcake… at least he wasn't calling her 'babe' anymore. Kendrix turned away from him and headed towards the edge of the trees, where she was likely to find the wood that she needed to. They weren't going to be able to get much searching done tonight. It was just as well. Everyone was tired and cranky and, if this mission was as dangerous as Cam said it was, then they might all end up dead if something was attempted tonight.

"Kendrix! Wait up!"

She turned back to see Mike jogging to catch up with her. She stayed still for a moment as he fell into step with her as they went into the trees.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

Kendrix shrugged. "I'm fine. We need really small, thin pieces of wood."

"How was the board meeting?"

"Boring. Stock options don't really matter to us."

Mike laughed. "No. We're not the stockholders." He paused and gave her a sidelong glance. Kendrix chose to ignore him and rifled through some fallen branches, to see if the wood was dead and dry enough.

"What?"

"I think Eric likes you."

"I think you need your head examined."

Mike just held up his hands in surrender. Kendrix glared at him and began breaking pieces off the branch. Some of the smaller branches over here would be perfect… Eric liked her. That was one of the most ridiculous things she had heard yet.

She picked up a branch and decided it was dry enough. She had had precisely one date in her entire life and it had been with Leo to the local ice cream stand on Terra Venture, if that could be considered a date. No one wondered why she had wanted to keep up with the acting after she doubled for Carolyn Pickets? When she had been in that movie, she had experienced something she never had before—people appreciating the way she looked. Sure, she got good grades and people acknowledged that she was smart, but no one had ever acknowledged that she was pretty.

Mike wandered away from her to look for some more branches. Kendrix glanced over to where Eric was working on constructing the basic frame for the fire with the wood that they had brought with them. He carefully arranged the pieces, his dark eyes never leaving his work or straying to someone else. He glanced up and their gazes met. His eyes were soft and looking like melted chocolate again… the ghost of a smile grazed his lips.

"Have you found any wood yet?" he called.

"I'm working on it!" she retorted back.

There were times she wondered why Mr. Collins hadn't made Eric their commander. He was certainly qualified and tended to handle things like he was the commander. Mike would have had a better transition back to a squad member. There was more going on there… and she had no idea what it was. Something must have happened between Eric and Mr. Collins in order for it to seem like a falling out.

She dragged a couple of branches over to Eric, breaking off large pieces to form a rough bird's nest of sticks. Kira came by and dropped an armful of kindling near them. Eric set the nest in the center of the frame and used a kitchen match to get it going.

Her smile met his.

Maybe there was something there…

To Be Continued...


Author's Note: Minor spelling corrections to the last chapter - can we tell I don't pay attention to certain things? Although, I will say: I am confused about the laser guns as presented on Power Rangers. The Silver Guardians' laser guns operate the way Eric described to Kira in the last chapter and the SPD blasters also seem to do the same, seeing as Jack talked about reloading his in Idol. So, I am in research mode and will endeavor to get a coherent view of those suckers. In the mean time, thanks for reading, reviewing, commenting etc. I'm still waffling about posting the other story... Keep up the great feedback y'all!