Thank you Adrianna Agray and StyxxsOmega for reviewing!
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Part of Bridge could not believe what he was doing, but the other part thought he was making a difference. The Green Ranger marched into the bar that Basta owned and made his way to the table the alien was occupying. He put both hands on the table and looked Basta in the eyes.
"S.P.D., to what do I owe this pleasure? Come to accuse me of something I didn't do again?"
"There was a break-in at the base last night. Weapons were stolen, and this." Bridge slid the red crystal across the table.
"What is this?"
Bridge took off his gloves and continued looking Basta in the eye. "You took this. You sent one of your guys into S.P.D. to steal some weapons, this crystal included, but you won't let this out of your sight. You need to sell it, so you'll be looking for a buyer as soon as possible."
Basta stared at the Green Ranger, he said nothing as he reached over and took the crystal. Bridge knew what he was doing worked. He was making Basta believe everything he was saying to be true. Part one of his plan was complete, now he just needed to lead the others there. He knew the rest of the team was surveying the area looking for any leads to the break-in, so Bridge made his way back to S.P.D. where he saw Syd talking to citizens near the base. Bridge knew there was a homeless woman named Yara who normally stuck close to the academy. She would be the perfect person for what he needed. Just as Bridge thought, Yara was just down the street from the base. Bridge made his way up to her.
"Hey Yara, how are you today?"
The woman smiled at Bridge, he had always been kind to her. "Oh I'm doing just fine. Weather is nice today."
Bridge smiled back, but took his glove off and held two fingers up to his temple. He planted a memory in Yara's mind, and once he was done he continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.
"We are having nice weather, have a good day Yara."
"Thanks dear, you too."
He left, making sure no one at S.P.D. saw him. Now all Bridge needed to do was wait for the pieces to fall together.
"My, that was impressive."
Bridge groaned at the voice getting louder in his head. "Shut up."
"But look at what you are accomplishing. You are using powers like you never had before."
"I'm only doing it to fix what you started. I would never do this if it weren't for what you pulled."
It did not take long for everything to fall into place. Not even ten minutes after Bridge spoke to Yara did Syd call over the com-links to get everyone back to the Command Center. They all gathered together to hear what lead Syd had gotten, and Bridge hoped that everything that was about to happen would not put any suspicion onto him.
"What'd you find out Syd?" Jack stood at the center computer of the room facing the others who were also stood around it.
"You know that homeless woman that usually hangs out around S.P.D.?"
Z nodded. "Yeah, her name is Yara right?"
"Yeah, that's the one. She says last night she was by one of the fountains when she saw someone waiting out front. Then she said not long after another man came out with a bag, but handed him something red."
"Did she get a good look at these guys?" Sky was hoping this would turn out to be enough information for what they needed.
"She didn't get a great look at the guy with the bag, said he had a hood up, but he looked human. The other man though, she said looked like he was part alien because he had a slight greenish tint to his skin, and yellow eyes, tall with dark hair and wearing a suit. Does that description sound familiar to anyone?"
"Basta, the mob boss?" Jack could not believe what he was hearing.
"But why here?" Sky was not sure he was buying it either.
Z thought for a moment. "Well he is an arms dealer and weapons were stolen, but why now? We haven't been able to pin anything on him before."
Syd looked at Kat. "Do we know what that red thing could have been that Yara saw?"
Kat looked at the tablet in her hand. "Yes, in fact it is a Rovarion crystal that can be weaponized. It's extremely rare, very powerful, and was confiscated by A Squad just before their disappearance."
"That could explain why now. I bet that crystal would get him a hefty amount if he sold it." Jack became worried.
"We have to figure out when this buy is going down, if this crystal gets in the hands of Gruumm we could all be doomed." Sky too worried about what would happen if they did not catch Basta.
"Okay, we have to figure out who the buyer is, and where this will go down. Bridge and Z, stay here and see if you can find anything out on the computers, while Sky, Syd, and I go survey the city and look for anything out of the ordinary." Jack gave the orders and the others rushed to try and stop the buy from going down.
Bridge hopped over to a computer and began looking for a place Basta could go to sell the crystal. "You really thought of everything on this didn't you?"
"I'm disappointed in you Carson. I thought you would have known that about me by now. I think of everything…well almost everything. I could outsmart everyone that came into my path, all except for you."
"I don't like this. Basta shouldn't be going down this way, we should catch him at something he really did, not something I did."
"You changed what happened. He thinks he did do it, so why not let him stay thinking that? You will catch him, and no one will know what we did."
Bridge continued typing on the computer, trying not to show signs of the conversation going on in his head. "I'm still not sure exactly what you did, and you won't tell me, if you are going to be in my head, then I deserve to know what you are planning."
"In time, Green, now go find your man."
Eventually Jack, Sky, and Syd caught wind of a possible buy going on. They knew what sector of the city it was going to be happening, so now all Bridge and Z needed to do was find a location that it would probably happen in.
"Here!" Bridge pulled up a site, and Z came over to look.
"The iron factory?"
"It's undergoing construction right now so the entire back half of the building is closed off. No one would be suspicious of people being around there since the other half of the building is functioning, and it's secluded enough that no one should walk in on them. It would be a perfect place to sell this crystal off to someone, or someones."
"Nice job Bridge, let's go meet up with the others."
Bridge put his sunglasses on before going outside, he was doing better, but still a little sensitive to the light. After he and Z met up with the others they headed to the factory, and sure enough they saw Basta's men at the back entrance. The team got out their surveillance equipment and scanned the building. There was a high amount of Rovarian energy, which must have been from the crystal. The team found another entrance and made their way to the back of the factory where the buy was taking place. Basta and another alien stood in the center of a room, each having four guards behind them. The Rangers knew they would be able to take them out, so they made their presence known.
"Freeze! S.P.D.!" Jack yelled, and the team aimed their blasters at the group before them.
The guards ran at the rangers and they fought them. Sky noticed that Basta and the other alien were trying to get away, so he ran after Basta and yelled for Jack to go after the other alien. Sky jumped over a table and leapt onto Basta dragging him down to the ground, while Jack shot the other alien in the leg causing him to fall. Both rangers put handcuffs on the criminal they had just caught and looked to see how the others were doing. Bridge, Syd, and Z had each taken down a guard on their own, and were now all fighting the other five together. Syd used her powers to have iron firsts that knocked a rafter onto two of the men, while Z had replicated to make the fight a little more even and took down two more, and Bridge was using all his will not to use his abilities in the fight, and instead used his arms and legs. He swooped the last guard with his leg and pinned the man down so Z and Syd could come cuff him. Everything began and ended quickly, and soon Jack was holding the crystal the alien had in his possession. Just before they carded Basta he stared at Bridge as if he wanted to say something to him, but could not get the words out. The exchanged look was not enough for anyone to question so, the team carded everyone involved and headed back to S.P.D. to relay the events to Commander Crueger.
"This is a triumphant day Rangers. The criminal Basta was arrested and charged with breaking into S.P.D., theft, and the illegal selling of weapons. You all did an admiral job in keeping the city safe, but we must remember that there are still weapons missing from S.P.D. that have yet to be discovered. We believe that Basta left the weapons with the man who broke in and entrusted him with the selling of these items. Please continue to be on a lookout for this, but again job well done Rangers. Dismissed." Crueger nodded proudly at his team.
The Rangers were all excited that they had finally caught Basta. They knew they still had a lot of work to do, but for now they had triumphed over a large criminal in New Tech City. Each Ranger saluted and left the Command Center to take a break after a long and exciting day.
Bridge could not share in the joy of the other Rangers not after what he had done. Instead he faked a small smile and made his way to the cafeteria where he began making a large stack of buttery toast. The more overwhelming things got for Bridge, the more he tended to eat. As Bridge began to make progress with his toast, Sky walked by the cafeteria and noticed the Green Ranger alone. He walked in the room and sat down across from his friend.
"Hey Sky, want any toast?"
Sky shook his head. "No, I'm good, thanks."
Bridge continued eating.
"How are you?" Sky's voice was soft.
"I feel like that's all you ask me anymore."
"Sorry, just we took down one of the most notorious criminals in our database today and you don't seem that thrilled about it."
Bridge shrugged. "I guess I'm just still having a tough time. I'm feeling better, but…"
"Don't even think about it Greenie."
"But?"
Bridge stared at Sky for a moment. "Just, not getting back to my old self fast enough."
Sky tapped the table a little bit. "You, uh, still sensing everyone with your gloves on?"
Bridge looked at his hands. "It's not happening all at once anymore, but if I concentrate then yeah I can still feel and hear almost everything that's going on. It's not a bad thing though, it's just different. Going to take some adapting."
"Bridge you made me promise you that if you started acting weird, not like yourself, I would do something about it. And honestly, Bridge, you've been off for a while. At first I just thought you needed time to recover after everything. I thought that if something was wrong you would tell us, but the more I've been watching you, the more I realized that if something really is wrong, maybe you wouldn't say anything, because maybe you can't help it. I want to believe that you are going to be okay, but something isn't right, so I want to ask you first, is there anything going on that you want to tell me?"
"Damn he's good." Bridge ignored Edward's comments and tried to think of something to say.
"I'm not keeping anything from you. I'm just feeling a little lost after everything. I have a lot on my mind right now, with new abilities and what I did…" Bridge knew Sky would think he was talking about killing Edward, but actually he was thinking about more recent events.
Sky did not look satisfied, but accepted the answer. "Okay, but if you need to talk about anything, absolutely anything, then you can talk to me. Even if you just want to ramble my head off, I'll be there. Remember who your friends are Bridge."
"I will, thanks."
Sky got up and left the cafeteria. Bridge looked down at his toast, knowing Edward would not keep his mouth shut for long.
"He's onto us. He's going to ruin everything, We need to take care of him."
"I'm not hurting Sky. I'm not hurting anyone. Whatever you are planning you can forget it. I'm not doing anything else your way. I'm done."
Bridge got up knowing that he could not walk away from Edward, but hoped the gesture would get his point across. Unfortunately for Bridge, Edwards mind had been working its way deep into his own, and as soon as Bridge turned down an empty corridor bright lights flashed across his eyes. Bridge fell to the ground and shut his eyes, but the light did not go away.
"What are you doing?" Bridge spoke aloud not caring if anyone heard.
"Taking control."
Bridge was getting trapped in his own subconscious; back in the contraption he had been tortured in. Back to the bright lights and buzzing. Bridge was losing control of his mind, and Edward's thoughts were taking over. Soon Bridge would have no control over himself, and Edward would have access to all of his power.
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AN: Thanks for reading!