The following morning at precisely 0704 hours, four of the five members of B Squad were dressed in their training gear and had assembled in the outdoor training facility. Z, Syd and JJ were busy going through a stretching routine, although the green ranger's consisted of a handstand against a nearby tree. Bridge, Commander Tate and Kat on the other hand looked annoyed. The head of SPD's Earth branch checked his watch every few seconds, lowering his arm several times with an increasingly loud grumble. Bridge stood with his arms folded across his chest with a look of mild satisfaction, "Not a great first day back", he commented, "four minutes late".
"Thank you Bridge we can tell the time", Kat sighed, "according to the security systems Lina clocked out the building an hour ago", the feline added after consulting her datapad.
"I'm beginning to regret these orders already", Sky grumbled.
"Just beginning Sir", Kat snorted, "I knew this was a bad idea the moment she stepped through the door".
"Someone talking about me?" the trio jumped at the sound of Lina's voice, "I thought my ears were burning". The newest addition to the team untied her hair briefly to free up some strands that were sticking to her forehead before securing it back with a hair tie. The command team noted the thin sheen of sweat across her forehead.
Commander Tate let out low growl, "You're late", he stated.
"Sorry my ten mile run time must've slipped in the last few months", Lina replied with a raised eyebrow, "I used to be able to do that in under an hour, really must work on that".
Sky, Bridge and Kat glanced at each other quickly, "You've been out running since 0600?" Kat asked, drawing a snort of derision from the red ranger.
Lina shrugged, "I used to get my team out running laps even earlier than that". The new blue ranger stood on one leg and stretched out her quad muscle, "We can began whatever you've got planned now", she added blankly.
The other three members of B Squad couldn't help but overhear exchange between Lina and the command team. Sometime they forgot that Lina was a former ranger and not just a criminal that had been plucked out of containment. The reality of having someone on their team probably more experienced than Bridge was still sinking in, however, they knew there would be a huge blow out between Lina and the red ranger sooner rather than later. "Now that you've graced us with your presence", Sky began with an acidic tone, "we will be going through the basic firearms exercise on the shooting range".
"Not that", Bridge groaned, still standing on his head, "I never do very well at that one".
Lina eyes flittered over to her Squad leader and then back to Sky, "Is he always like this?" The rest of B Squad nodded vigorously, drawing a groan from the blue ranger, "Don't worry Space Ace, there's not many people who can match my record score".
"Don't get too cocky", Tate interjected himself into the exchange, "you'll find the program has changed since the last time you were here".
There was a brief staring match between Lina and Commander Tate before the new B Squad member smirked and added, "How hard can it be?" She held out her right hand in anticipation of receiving a blaster, "I believe I'll need some kind of weapon to take this test", she added when no weapon was forthcoming.
Reluctantly Kat pulled out a blaster that she had stored in a holster, "I trust you remember how this works", the scientist stated and handed over the plasma cartridge that was separate to the actual weapon. Lina snatched the blaster and clip out of Kat's hand and in less than a couple of seconds had inserted the clip, cocked it and removed the safety, "I'll take that as a yes", Doctor Manx said dryly.
"We're using Lightspeed's range today", Tate began, "the goal is to secure the safe release of all the hostages whilst disabling as many captors as possible". The Command then turned to the others, "Officer Carson and Doctor Manx will be in the control room, the rest of you can watch from observation and wait your turn". Lina didn't need a second invitation and confidently strode towards the firing range but not before giving Z and Syd a confident smile. The two girls looked back in annoyance and walked away with Bridge towards the observation room.
Upon entering the firing range, Lina found the set up very similar to what she remembered. The room was mocked up like a typical Mariner Bay street with several parked cars and other objects to provide cover. The buildings either side were close together to give the set up a very claustrophobic feel. Lina tightened her grip on her weapon, knowing Sky it was highly unlikely that she would get a warning before the simulation began.
Suddenly she heard some rustling from the doorway of the nearest building. Her combat training instantly kicked in and her weapon was trained on the door, "SPD hands up", she cried. A red humanoid shape stepped into the street with a smaller green shape pulled close to its body, "Hostage simulation number four", Lina smirked and dived to her right. Seconds later a blast of laser fire impacted the spot where she had just been.
Taking shelter behind a dumpster, Lina saw that the attack had come from the roof of the building nearest to her. She could only see the faint outline of her assailant but that was enough. Squeezing the trigger she took out the sniper with a direct hit to the head. Another flash of red from a window opposite caught her attention and Lina unleashed another two shots, taking out those potential attackers.
The next thirty seconds were a blur as Lina exchanged gunfire with a number of attackers. One by one the simulated assailants fell to direct shots to the chest until there was just the original gunman and his hostage, "Last chance", the blue ranger called out almost as an afterthought. She barely finished her sentence before firing a round directly into the red guy's head. Instantly the virtual gunman dropped the hostage before the simulated humans faded away. Lina ejected her spent magazine and flicked the safety back on with a satisfied smile.
She was in the process of reviewing her hits using the holographic playback when Bridge, Kat and Commander Tate entered, "Not bad, little off of center but it won't take long to get my eye back in", she commented. In response there was nothing but silence which was a concern to the new blue ranger, "Well, tell me how much I passed by?"
"I would", Bridge began with a triumphant smile, "but you failed the exercise".
Lina stood dead silent for a couple of moments in an attempt to process the words that came out the red ranger's mouth. It took her a little bit of time but eventually she was able to mutter, "I'm sorry, What?"
"SPD rules of engagement", Bridge quoted from the rule book, "in the event of a hostage situation, you must attempt to negotiate the safety of the hostages before engaging".
The blue ranger wanted to disagree but technically Bridge was correct. Instead she huffed and shot back, "That wasn't the way we did things in TimeForce and you know that Commander".
"Times have changed Officer Song", Tate began, "things are a lot less volatile that when you were in TimeForce. I expect everyone to follow the standard terms of engagement".
Anger slowly began to build inside Lina and she clenched her fists tightly, "You set me up", she hissed, "you knew I would fall back on my TimeForce training and would open fire, you deliberately engineered my failure". She glowered at Bridge and then the Commander, "No wonder it took you so long to defeat Grumm".
"No that was because we had a group of traitor in our ranks", Bridge shot back. Fury flashed across Lina's eyes and she took a couple of menacing steps towards Bridge. For a brief second it looked like she was going to slug the red ranger but just inches away from him, Lina thought better of it, "Go on swing", Bridge goaded.
"You'd like that wouldn't you", Lina spat, "but you're not getting rid me that easily. She forcefully rammed the blaster and spent cartridge into Bridge's chest. Lina stood back and noticed that Tate and Kat hadn't said a single word in her defence, "Must be nice, being the son of the legendary Officer Tate, clearly it opens doors that anyone can walk through", she hissed venomously.
"I don't think you should be talking about privilege to me girl", Sky retorted, "wasn't the nickname they gave you at the TimeForce Wolf girl?" Lina didn't give him a chance to answer as she turned on her heel and stomped away, "We're not through with the testing yet", he called out.
"Fuck you Tate", Lina bellowed, "write me up for this all you want", she added, anticipating his next comment, "I'm sure the Supreme Commander will love to hear how his senior officers administered an examination without a full briefing". That got the attention of everyone in the room and they allowed Lina to leave, not that they would've had much chance of stopping her. She slammed her hands into the door before shutting it with a massive bang.
The sound of the banging door reverberated around the room and it was still going on when Kat said, "That went well", she snorted, "I hope you two are happy with yourselves".
"If it takes her down a couple of pegs then what harm can it do?" Bridge replied.
Kat sighed, "You do know that the observation rooms are sound proof", Bridge frowned in confusion, "the other members of your squad have no idea what happened in here and by letting Lina walk out, you've given her full reign to be painted as a martyr fighting back against her biased superiors". Sky and Bridge flashed a quick look at each other as the weight of Kat's words sunk in, "Men, you never look more than a few feet in front of your noses". It was Kat's turn to slink away, leaving Sky and Bridge alone to ponder if they had just made a huge error of judgement.
Outside the range, Lina was still fuming. She knew that her appointment to B Squad wouldn't be popular, but that was a low blow. What made the matter all the more frustrating was that Sky had all the information about her release to hand and still allowed Sky to run his little power game.
She heard the sound of someone calling her name. Turning sharply she was surprised to see JJ, Z and Syd standing behind her with the yellow ranger in front, "Come to gloat too", she snorted.
"No we've come to find out what happened", Z stated, "Commander and Bridge just blew us off without an explanation".
Lona snorted, they had simply come to get the gossip rather than check that she was alright. That really was the final straw, "Just piss off ", she pointed at the trio, "go crawl back to your perfect leader and just leave me alone".
Z gaped at the woman before her face hardened, "Fine, we just wanted to check on you but if that's the thanks we get", she finished with a shrug.
"Consider the olive branch withdrawn", Syd added with venom and. Hard slap, before leading the trio away.
Lina cursed herself for allow her temper to dominate her emotions. She had probably just blown any chance she had of getting accepted by B Squad. Lina didn't necessarily care if they liked her but she at least wanted them to respect her. A couple of angry tears fell but she wasn't really sure who she was angry with, herself or the rest of SPD.
