Disclaimer: The usual. Don't own anything you recognize.
BEHIND THE CLOUDS
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Eight: Good Intentions IV
"We had such a nice vacation from training yesterday."
"Give it up, Paris. We have to run this simulator course."
Ethan James gave his teammate a pointed glance. The simulator logged which teams used it and then was able to playback performances. In other words, it was more obvious that they skipped simulator trainings than it was if they skipped the obstacle courses or mud run. He didn't want to be here early in the morning doing this – none of them did. But that didn't stop them from doing it. Secretly, he wasn't going to crack down on people without Conner here – that wasn't in his job description. Besides, there were some good movies on TV later that they could watch…
The trio was dressed in workout clothes. Most of the simulator trainings were run in full uniform because it was meant to imitate a real life situation – and no one went on patrol in workout clothes. However, exceptions were made for programs that honed their powers. It was next to impossible to hone their powers in a normal environment. Therefore, simulator training was the next best thing.
He had designed this particular program for the A-Squad. It consisted of a series of large walls, placed in a staggered formation. Paris started the program by running through each of the walls – and she had to pay attention to where the wall was. Each wall was a different material, giving Trent an opportunity to blend in with each. He would get through each wall with his armored skin. If Conner had been here, he'd be running around the walls and Kira would be knocking them down with her sonic scream.
"We do have a production crew meeting tonight after the rough read through."
"I'm aware," Ethan replied shortly.
The room around them suddenly became the roof top with the walls. Trent had his arms crossed over his chest and was staring at Paris as she sighed dramatically. "Shouldn't you go first, Fernandez?" she asked him. "So you can hide in one of the walls and we can find you?"
"This isn't hide and seek," Ethan reminded her.
"Besides, you'd phase through me," Trent added.
"Oh – I'd phase through you all right." Paris winked.
That was an innuendo, Ethan thought. For some reason, it was much more interesting watching Trent and Paris play cat and mouse, rather than concentrating on improving anyone's powers. From his outsider's point of view, the attraction was mutual, yet neither of them seemed to be inclined to make a first move outside of goading each other during training. Perhaps they were just close friends and Ethan was imagining things – but, if there was one thing he had noticed about Paris, it was that she didn't throw innuendoes at just anyone.
Trent's arms fell to his side as he strode out of sight across the roof top – disappearing in the maze of walls. Paris watched for a minute before she took off running, neatly passing through each wall. Ethan shook his head. You guys are so lucky this isn't timed. He was on Paris' heels, matching her pace as he pounded his way through the walls.
He burst through one of the walls – and that is when things began to happen in slow-motion.
Paris was approaching the next wall she needed to phase through. At the last possible moment, Trent materialized from the wall, taking a step forward. If either of them had been paying attention, they would have noticed the faint outline on the wall. While Trent had chameleon powers, he wasn't invisible. As the texture and color of the wall faded, revealing Trent in his civilian form, Paris turned towards him, gaping.
The resounding 'thud' made Ethan wince. She hit the wall full-on, rather than phasing through it like she was supposed to. Flying backwards, she landed on her backside, blood gushing from her nose and her left wrist cradled to her chest. He froze for a second, meeting Trent's gaze, before the pair rushed towards her.
"Oh my God! I didn't mean to scare you!"
"Can you move your wrist?"
"Did you break anything?"
"Shut-up!" Paris yelled, her voice muffled from the hand she had clutched to her nose. Blood dripped down her wrist, making the situation look more horrific than it actually was. That along with the wrist she wasn't moving – Ethan wasn't reassured by her yelling.
"Come on," he said. "We need to get you to the infirmary." He paused. "Can you walk?"
"Of course I can walk! I'm just in pain – there's nothing wrong with my feet you ignorant, chauvinistic, sexist pig!"
Trent rolled his eyes at Ethan. In one smooth motion, he picked Paris up from where she had been sitting on the ground. One arm was under her knees and the other around her shoulders. Paris had lost her angry edge from a moment ago and looked disgruntled. Pain etched her face and she fell silent as Ethan stopped the simulator program and the three of them made their way to the infirmary.
Sky made his way under a series of low ropes, turning as he cleared them to pull Bridge the rest of the way through. This was part of the second obstacle course – one that could be run individually or as a team. He had been released from the infirmary that morning, right before breakfast, with the news that the B-Squad had a normal routine. Currently, he was on anti-inflammatory drugs from his right elbow, that he had wrenched pretty hard holding the force field around Bridge. It wasn't bothering him too much, but no one wanted to take a chance.
He and Bridge stood up, watching as Austin pulled Z out of the ropes. Syd was further behind, but someone would be waiting to drag her out of the ropes.
The B-Squad Red Ranger narrowed his eyes, looking almost tense.
"What's wrong?" Bridge asked him.
"I think Paris has done something stupid," he muttered, before turning to Sky. "I'm going to run to the infirmary – be back in twenty minutes. Keep an eye on this."
With that, he took off, weaving through the sea of cadets and officers out on the training fields. Sky looked after him, watching the red shirt disappear into all the neutral colors of people that weren't rangers. He turned back just in time to pull Syd from underneath the ropes.
"Where's Austin?" she asked.
"He went to go check on Paris."
Syd didn't look at all surprised by that information. "Figures. He lost it this one time when we were kids – Paris was at this boot camp thing for kids with behavior problems and got hurt. No one believed him when he said she was in pain."
As hard as it was to imagine Austin losing it over anything, Sky also knew that he and Paris were extremely close. The close bond that the three Grayson siblings shared shone through more often than not. It almost made him wish that he had siblings he grew up with – not the little sister that was twenty-one and a half years younger than him.
His morpher beeped. Sky pulled it from the waistband of his workout pants. "Collins," he said into it.
"Sky," came Doctor Oliver's voice. "Your father is here – Jen just went into labor."
"I'll be right there." He closed his morpher and clipped it back to his pants. The others were looking a little lost. "Finish the course – then its lunchtime." He paused. "And let Austin know that I'm gone for the rest of today."
As he took off towards the building, he vaguely heard someone comment, "So if Paris is hurt and Sky is in Silver Hills, who's going to be in charge of the read-through tonight?"
Ethan leaned against a wall in the infirmary. The medics had patched Paris up in a matter of minutes, quickly ascertaining that she hadn't broken her nose and had only sprained her wrist. However, she had a black eye from where she hit the wall at an angle, a bandage over the bridge of her nose and her wrist in a temporary brace. The medic had also said she was going to be in pain – the doctor would be in soon to prescribe some painkillers.
Well – the A-Squad had just managed to put themselves out of commission for another day. Paris was supposed to be on patrol later that afternoon with Z and Ethan was going to fill in for her. He had been on command center duty and Trent had a drawing class for the cadets. The drawing class got cancelled and Trent was taking the command center duty.
His cell phone rang. Ethan started for a moment, before remembering that someone had brought their belongings from the simulator – including cell phones and morphers. He pulled it out of his pocket and glanced at the caller. It was Conner.
"Hello?" he asked, answering the call.
"How's it going?" Conner shot back, sounding way too relaxed. Ethan fought the urge to make a snide comment. Conner and Kira hadn't been planning on going on a honeymoon, but Doctor Oliver insisted upon giving them the time off.
"Oh – fine. Paris ran into a wall."
"How did she manage that? Did she forget about her powers?"
Ethan stifled a laugh. "No – it's more like she was distracted."
"By what?"
"The question is not 'what', but 'who'."
There was a pause. "Trent?"
"You guessed it."
"Well, lock them in a closet for a couple of hours, so they can sort it out and no one will get hurt in training because of distraction."
"That's not a bad idea."
He and Conner exchanged small talk for a few more minutes – getting the details on how the honeymoon in New York was going. Ethan had never been much of one to prefer city life to rural living, but Conner seemed to really love being in the city. Newtech was smallish and still had a small-town feel. It was very much still the SPD town – that being the only thing that it was known for.
He disconnected the call with Conner just in time to see Austin enter the infirmary, going to Paris who was still sitting on the examining table in one of the rooms. Between the black eye, the nose bandage and her wrist brace, she looked worse than she actually was.
"What happened to you?" Austin asked.
"I broke my face." Paris paused. "On a wall."
"Are you sure this is going to work?"
Bridge tried to fight the tremor in his voice as he followed Ryan Mitchell down the halls towards his room. Sky was still in Silver Hills – the last he had heard, the baby's birth was imminent and Sky would make it back in time for the read-through. Paris was now wigged out on painkillers, although Bridge suspected that wouldn't keep her away from rehearsal.
During all the commotion yesterday with getting Sky out of the force field, Bridge had almost forgotten about the brief conversation he had with Syd and Paris' uncle. Ryan had wanted to know what had happened – and anything he could describe from the relatively brief encounter. After taking copious notes, he had promised to come back the next day with some information for them. At the time, Bridge had been too spaced out to recall what Ryan said he did for a living, but now, it surprised him. He hadn't known that demon anthropologists existed.
"Sure it'll work," Ryan promised. "This is routine."
That didn't sound reassuring, but Bridge didn't say that. When Ryan arrived today, he had checked on Paris (at the request of her parents) and proceeded to explain to Bridge what he had found about what happened to them.
The research findings started with Ryan explaining that he thought Bridge was a hypersensitive person – someone more open to invasions and visitations from the supernatural realm. With most people, it tended to be an unknown aspect of their personalities, but with Bridge, he hypothesized that it was because of his powers. It would make invasions easier, since Bridge was already used to receiving and comprehending emotions and images. However, according to Ryan, their 'friend' must not have counted on him fighting back and doubly on Sky jumping into the fray.
"Demons exist," he had said. "Whether you guys want to believe in them or not."
The strange thing was that, throughout all of this explanation, he hadn't gotten the idea that Ryan was particularly religious. He definitely believed in demons and a dark side to humanity – and in the paranormal. Ryan seemed to have reached the conclusion that, if this dark side exists, then a light side must exist too. Simply put, it was only logical.
One of the only stipulations Ryan had given him before going back to Mariner Bay to do research was to stay out of his room. Last night, Sky had been sleeping in the infirmary. Z had offered to let him sleep in the girls' room – and Syd had been all right with it. However, Doctor Oliver found out and, rather than setting a potentially bad example, he had slept on an air mattress on the floor of Austin's room.
All too soon, they arrived at Bridge's room. Ryan stepped inside without hesitation. Almost immediately, something flew at him. Like he had been anticipating it, Ryan flung the thing aside and it crashed into the nightstands. Wide-eyed, Bridge edged into the room, bumping into his dresser.
"Show yourself," Ryan said calmly.
Some muffled growling was the only reply they got.
"Show yourself," Ryan repeated. Never once did he lose that calm, composed look. Just thinking about the panic they had felt over this, it was surprising.
With a faint 'pop', a woman appeared sitting on the headboard of Bridge's bed. He gaped at her – she had reptilian armor on and sported an impressive wingspan. Her features were vaguely Asian and her hair was a cocoa brown. She gave Ryan an unpleasant smile, revealing faintly pointed canines – that looked too pointed to be natural. Her expression was amused as Ryan stared at her with that same impassive expression.
"If it isn't the traitor." Her voice was like poisoned honey. Bridge shuddered.
"Vypra," Ryan replied, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
A thousand questions plagued Bridge – how did Ryan know this woman? Why were they acting like old friends? But he couldn't articulate anything as he pressed against his dresser, still staring at the scene before him.
"Who summoned you to bother these kids?"
Inwardly, Bridge bristled at being called a kid.
Vypra looked almost bored. "You didn't summon me – I don't have to tell you anything."
"True," Ryan took a step towards her. "But if you don't, I will banish you into oblivion and I know that you enjoy being an irritating poltergeist too much for that."
The woman shrieked and stood up on the bed. "I am Vypra!" she hissed. "I am the princess of all demons! I once served under Diabolico and Queen Bansheera!"
"I don't see either one of them leaving the Shadow Realm to annoy people."
Vypra ignored Ryan and focused on Bridge. He swallowed. "She told me that he was hypersensitive," she said. "She told me that it wouldn't be a problem to get into here and finish him off." Vypra's lips quirked into a smile. "Sick… remember all those times when you were in junior high when you were sick? She couldn't bring herself to do it herself, so she summoned me."
"Who?" Ryan asked.
"Don't you wish you knew?"
"Vypra – get out of here and leave these kids alone." He paused. "You know that messing with Power Rangers is a dangerous game."
Vypra lunged at him. Ryan pulled a small blaster from the pocket of his jacket and fired it. She froze mid-step and disappeared. Bridge clutched the top of his dresser, desperately trying to regain some focus. Who had Vypra been talking about? And how had she known that he had been sick a lot in junior high? Too many questions…
"Is she gone?"
Ryan nodded. "She's back in the Shadow World and whoever summoned her no longer has a hold over her." He motioned to the blaster. "Handy invention from Lightspeed." He paused. "She won't be bothering you guys anymore."
The time was nearing lights-out. Sky knew that Austin would go around in a few minutes and turn out all the lights in the halls and rooms – leaving only the emergency lights. Their room had been de-demonized and Bridge was out like a light. He was sprawled on his stomach and snoring softly. The door to their room was open and light from the hall spilled in.
Someone knocked on their door. He looked up from his book to see Z peering into their darkened room – the only light still on was the lamp on his nightstand.
"How long has he been passed out?" she whispered, indicating Bridge.
"Couple of hours," Sky replied. "I don't think he slept when he had to bunk in with Austin." He placed a bookmark in his book, setting it aside.
Z shook her head. "Typical." She came into their room and set Bridge's cell phone on his night stand. "He left this in my room – his mother was trying to get a hold of him earlier."
"What's going on?"
"She wouldn't say – just told me to have Bridge call her back as soon as possible."
"Well – he's out of commission until tomorrow morning."
Z just smiled. She leaned down and kissed Bridge's temple. Sky picked up his book again. It didn't surprise him that Bridge left his stuff in Z's room – Lords knows that he had enough odd things of Syd's around here.
"Night, Sky," she called softly as she left the room.
"Night, Z."
Sky's alarm had already gone off and he was in the shower, meaning that Bridge still had about half an hour to sleep before he absolutely had to get up and do something. Friday morning… tomorrow he didn't have a shift or rehearsal or anything… What in the world had possessed Paris and Sky to give him the male lead in the play? His blanket was over his head and Z's baby blanket was draped over his pillow. He inhaled the lingering scent of her perfume, wishing he didn't have to get out of bed and wishing that she were here…
His own alarm went off. Reaching out an arm, he slammed the snooze button. Someone was still in the shower and he wasn't sure if it was Sky or Austin. The one incentive to get up earlier would be to actually have a hot shower in the morning and not a lukewarm one. But that would require beating Sky – who got up early to get work done – and Austin – who decided he needed to be up in case the rest of the squad needed something from him.
"Bridge?"
"Five more minutes, Sky," he grumbled.
Someone was tugging his blanket away from his head. Sky never did that – he would give up after a while and claim that he wouldn't be responsible if Bridge was late. One time Sky threw a shoe at him – but that had been a long time ago.
"Bridge, don't you have a patrol shift at nine?"
Wait – that wasn't even Sky's voice. Bridge threw the blanket off his head and rolled over so he could see who was talking to him. "Wait—what… Dad?"
Mike Corbett was standing over his son's bed, smiling. "I shouldn't be surprised that you're waiting until the last moment to get out of bed."
Bridge sat up. "What's going on? What are you doing here? I thought that you guys weren't going to be here until Thanksgiving!"
"We moved here."
"Huh?"
His father sat down on the edge of his bed. "I got transferred to the LA GSA headquarters. We got here last night, but couldn't get a hold of you."
Now that he was fully awake, Bridge could begin to comprehend what was going on. "Where are you guys living? I thought Mom wanted to stay on Mirinoi."
"She's lived on Earth before – we'll survive." He paused. "We found a house in Newtech City – not far from here."
Bridge's mind was racing and he had a million questions, mainly why no one had told him about this move sooner. However, he could only fully think of and articulate one question.
"Can I see the new house?"To Be Continued...
Author's Note: Well - the normal thanks to all my reviewers! You guys are completely cool - I enjoy reading the comments muchly. And I just realized that the section of this that includes a Halloween party is most probably going to be posted after Halloween. Oh well! So it goes. Once more, lots of thanks and cookies!