Special thanks to all my readers and reviewers.


Chapter 2: Team

He moved quickly and efficiently though the labyrinthine corridors of Space Patrol Delta, passing startled cadets and officers without any awareness of his surroundings. His movements felt mechanical; he was headed to the Transportation Bay on the Ground Floor, Sector 2, Bay 2.

'Escalator, corridor, elevator, corridor.'

Bridge Carson mentally mapped his route in attempt to calm his own agitated state.

'Almost there. Corridor. Turn. Corridor.'

Once he had timed the entire route from the Command Center to his bike, approximately 5 minutes, 32 seconds walking by himself. Usually this route was done at faster speeds, running alongside his teammates as they moved towards the latest crime scene. But they weren't here now, so he idly wondered if he was breaking his own record.

His friends weren't behind him. No one was going to follow him. Again. Bridge mentally groaned to himself.

'Don't think about it. Almost there. Corridor, avoid technician…avoid plant and d-squad cadet, corridor…turn…ah…turn…Think of something else, Bridge! Turn…'

"Where you going?" Without warning, Sky Tate's earlier question reverberated though his head.

"Dunno. Just out." Bridge had replied. But that wasn't what he had wanted to say.

'Going out to fight the bad guys, without you. Because you still don't trust me. None of you do. None of you believe me. Again.'

Bridge's day had begun horribly and became increasingly worse as the day wore on. His precious (wonderful, blissful, silent) sleep was interrupted by one of the most intense dreams Bridge had ever experienced. He'd dreamt that the Rangers lost horribly to three giant robots that outmaneuvered and outgunned both the Delta Runner Megazord and the Omega Megazord. Ever though the appearance of the dream had been washed out, like a normal dreamscape, Bridge's movements and actions had felt just as though he was experiencing them in real life.

Bridge had felt every jolt and hit to his zord in his dream like a physical blow. At one point in his dream, Bridge remembered cracking his head against the dash of his zord; he'd woken up that morning sure that he had a bump on his head. Throughout the day his left arm and shoulder tingled with phantom pains, as though he really had been violently thrown into the bulkhead of his cockpit.

In addition to the physical pain, a barrage of emotions had appeared in his dream; fear, anger, terror-they were his emotions and his team. They were going to lose-they were facing the end. Then the dream had abruptly stopped and he had jolted awake, confused with a dull ache in his temples. It wasn't a normal dream…

"Dream fighting sir. There was a Cyclops robot, one with a satellite on its head and one with two horns!"

A premonition dream. What else could it be? Whenever he attempted to take a nap, the dream returned with the same violent intensity. He had reported his suspicions to Cruger and was nearly rebuked. He was saved by Kat reporting the attack of the space colony on Alpha Five by three robot invaders matching the description of his dream. Even then, Cruger appeared unconvinced…and then there was Kat. The only one of the team to believe him. Even then, her belief in him was motivated by fact and not by any intrinsic trust in Bridge.

But Commander Cruger and Kat weren't the ones who hurt Bridge. They were his superior officers and it was necessary that they question him. But his teammates…

Bridge's hands curled into two tight fists as he recalled his friends' dismissive reactions. He recalled Syd and Z's dry annoyed response to him, Syd rolling her eyes upwards .

And Z…her condescending expression hurt more than Syd. 'Lets just humor the crazy guy', her eyes seem to say. Its just Bridge rambling on as usual…

Then there was his roommate, Sky, wincing when Bridge explained his theory to Cruger. 'So I'm an embarrassment to you Sky?' Bridge mentally accused his friend. Nothing new there.

And Jack. Jack, the leader, the Red Ranger who Bridge had come to respect and admire…

"Hello?" Jack had reached over to knock his fist against Bridge's forehead.

"Dream Robots? You've got to be kidding me."

'Its not a joke, Jack.' Bridge addressed his absent leader. 'Why couldn't you trust me?'

The team's reaction especially hurt since it came just weeks after their grueling SWAT training with Sergeant Silverback.

"We used to be a team!"

"We still are! Or at least, I still are!"

But maybe he was the only one after all.

'The Fernovan bank robber. SOPHIE. Katana. No one was willing to trust me then-or when they did they made jokes about me!' Bridge brooded.

A part of Bridge knew that he was being unfair to his teammates-there were also plenty of times when they did seem to accept his civilian powers at face value and they trusted his powers more than anyone else had in his life.

But this latest rejection, on top of him being incredibly sleep deprived, physically sore and mentally drained left him at his breaking point. He was angry, frustrated and wildly determined to prove himself.

'Its just like the bank robber case!' Bridge thought to himself.

'Only without the shape shifting criminal and the bounty hunter…or the strange clues like the water on the ground or the balloons and-ah yea. I figured it out that time without Sky or Jack or Z or Syd. Or Sam or Shadow! I can do it again!'

So he was heading to his bike to take on the three aliens from his dream-but even as he rapidly approached the transportation bay, Bridge felt his heart drop into his stomach in dread.

'But if I dreamed that the Megazords couldn't defeat them and we lost…' Bridge's left arm began to throb again in the remembrance of pain.

Suddenly, he was facing two locked doors, alone in the lowest regions of the academy. Bridge mechanically imputed his security code and watched impassive, as the doors swung open on the massive garage.

The bay was eerily silent as Bridge entered and his eyes were forced to quickly adjust to the low lighting. As he rapidly approached the smallest of the Rangers' vehicles, he immediately noticed that there was something missing from the group. There was his green bike, sitting in its usual spot next to Jac-to the red bike…but where was his helmet?

"Looking for something?"

Bridge jumped at a voice directly behind him, just inches from his ear. He whirled around into a fighting position, even as his eyes registered…

Jack. Standing with Bridge's green helmet suspended from one finger by its wide brim, swinging back and forth in a low arch. The movement of the helmet was playful but Jack's face was serious; more solemn than Bridge could remember.

"Jack! And my helmet! Ah..thanks?" Bridge was overwhelmed.

Er I mean…What are you doing here?"

"More to the point, what are you doing here?"

The sharp rebuttal/question came from the right of Bridge. Startled, Bridge turned to see Sky and Z appear from out of the shadows. Unlike Jack, the look on Sky's face was one Bridge knew well-an appearance of self righteous anger, with a touch of concern in the arch of one elegant eyebrow. Z's expression was one of distress and maybe even remorse. She had a hard time meeting Bridge's eyes.

"Well...I work here-"

"Don't want that much detail Bridge." Sky interrupted. "You know what I mean."

"I…"

"Tell me you weren't about to take on three dangerous wanted criminals by yourself!"

Sky barked, interrogation style. His anger was visible even without Bridge's powers.

Tell us that you weren't planning on what accounts to a suicide mission to fight three criminals responsible for the decimation of an entire colony, a group of criminals who you repeatedly warned us were extremely dangerous and a group that beat us in your dreams multiple times?"

It was the most Bridge had heard Sky say in a while and its frank assessment had the green ranger visibly shaken.

"Ok. So you were going to go fight the robot criminals by yourself." Jack's voice brought the group's attention back to their leader. "For once I'll agree with Sky and state that it was a stupid idea. Actually, it was one of the most idiotic ideas you've ever come up with."

"Jack!" Z protested.

Anger flashed in Bridge's eyes, both at the accusation and the flippant tone of Jack's voice. But before Bridge could defend himself, a fourth voice abruptly entered the conversation.

"But we were pretty stupid too,"

Syd said appearing to the left of Bridge. She held in her hands Jack's red helmet. Behind her at the farthest distance from the team was Sam in his light form, unobtrusively hovering in the air.

"We were too quick to judge you, and all of us," Syd made a wide gesture from herself and Sam to the Sky, Jack and Z, "are very sorry."

Jack resumed control of the conversation.

"DC had a little chat with us. Turns out that after the last battle you spent two hours telling Kat everything about your dream so if it was a real premonition, SPD could be ready to defend against it."

"Even though you were clearly exhausted." Sky continued. "You put SPD first. That's highly admirable."

"You have to admit Bridge, that dream fighting…that seems a little hard to believe." Z reasoned. "But that doesn't mean we were right to throw out what you said in the way that we did."

Bridge carefully considered the tense faces of his friends in front of him. "How did you know where I was?"

"Your roommate's a pretty good detective." Z explained, relaxing slightly. "He contacted us the minute you left your room without explaining where you were going."

"And Sam followed you in his light form from Deck 4 all the way to the bay," Syd added.

"You seemed a little preoccupied," Sam noted from his position above the group. Bridge blushed slightly, remembering his rambling attempts at mapping his route.

"Plus, we figured you might try something like this." Syd stated. "We're all kind of famous for taking the stoic loner hero routine. At least the boys are. And Z."

"What! Hello? RIC and the bottles of green goo comes to mind, Princess." Z responded, incredulous. "What did I do?"

"Sam. And also that fight out in the woods with Morgana."

"Morgana wasn't my fault! Whatever, don't even start with me, Sky, or we'll be here all day, Mr. Lone Blue Ranger!"

"Seriously!"

Well yea, what about Syd, Ms. me me me…"

"-blah blah blah, Sky!"

"-At least I don't go preaching about SPD rules and then breaking them every other mission!"

"What?"

"Anyways!" Jack shouted over the other three to regain control of the conversation.

"The point is, Bridge, is that we're supposed to be a team-heck we were supposed to have gotten this all figured out when we were training with Silverback!"

Jack punctuated this statement by glaring at each of his bickering companions-luckily, the other three rangers had enough humility to look guilty. Syd gave Bridge a weak smile and a 'what can you do?' shoulder shrug.

"And as leader, I should have set an example for the rest of the team." Jack ignored the snort of disbelief from his 2IC.

"I should have listened to you…and… I shouldn't have been so hard on you this morning…and this afternoon…Look. I owe you another apology Bridge. I'm sorry."

Although Jack's voice sounded similar to his usual tone, a slight frown above his passionate brown eyes assured Bridge of the Red Ranger's sincerity. More than anyone else on the team, Jack was always quick to mock Bridge's abilities…yet he was also the one who offered the most sincere apology after Bridge proved T-Tops' innocence.

But Jack's sincerity didn't solve the fact that even after SWAT training, their team dynamics still needed a lot of work. The entire group seemed to pick up on this thought as the rangers fell into a thoughtful silence.

After a few moments inspiration seem to strike Z, and she leaned forward to address the group.

"Its like what Cruger said before we went off for SWAT training." Z's voice took on a deep tone.

" 'Until you learn to accept and embrace each other as teammates and as people, you won't be strong enough to defeat Grumm…or anyone else for that matter.'

In battle we seem to be ok on the team part. But our people skills…that could use a little work."

Sky nodded at Z's words. "Maybe that's why we lost in your dream, Bridge."

"Going off alone won't solve anything." Syd concluded.

Bridge thought for a long moment. When he had stomped out of his and Sky's dorm room without explaining to his roommate his feelings of frustration at the team, Bridge hadn't stopped to consider the potential danger of fighting alone.

'I could have been killed.' Bridge realized, 'Or put the team in danger because I didn't tell them where I was going…'

A cold chill went up and down Bridge's spine. In the back of his mind, Bridge also realized that in his intention to fight in anger he would have forgotten one of the cardinal rules of Rangerhood-never escalate a battle. Why had he forgotten that?

"Cruger's right. We're supposed to be a team." Bridge finally stated after a moment of reflection.

"I hate it when you guys stop listening to me. Yea, I mean I know I'm a little weird and everything…but sometimes you guys should just listen.

But I'm sorry too. I just realized that rushing off to battle without the team was stupid. I mean think of what Silverback would say! Or grunt. Or make those weird ape noises."

Bridge pursed his lips together in a comical attempt to copy the SWAT Sergeant's voice. "Ook ka ka!"

Syd giggled. "I think we get it Bridge."

"Oh ok," Bridge frowned. "I guess what I'm trying to say, is that I should have just told you I was angry."

"You should be more assertive when you have something to say, Bridge." Jack reasoned.

"It is hard for us to wade through the rambling, Bridgey." Syd smiled.

"Take pity on your teammates once and a while!" Z joked.

"I still think you're a moron for trying to sneak off," Sky complained. "But its probably something I would have done. So no more loner missions. For all of us."

"No more being alone. I like that." Bridge beamed. His heart leaped at the sight of his teammates smiling at each other. But something still bugged him…oh of course!

"Ah guys, I hate to ruin the moment and everything, cause its really great to be feeling all …teamy again…but right now, those three weird aliens from my dream are at the west docks planning something…I'm not sure what, but its probably really bad like attacking the city with the huge robots like on Alpha five with great big miss-"

"BRIDGE!" The collected voices of the team echoed through the empty transport bay.

Jack smiled as he moved to grip the green ranger in a gentle headlock before handing Bridge's green helmet back.

"We get it Bridge. Time to go to work! You guys heard the man. Move out B squad!"

As he heard the revving of engines behind him, Bridge relaxed, positive that the outcome of the battle was going to be different this time, even without knowing how. All that mattered was that he had his team behind him, backing him in battle. He wasn't alone.

END

Next Chapter: More angst, some Bridge/Z action and of course, some Buttery.