NOTE: I do not own Power Rangers or any of its characters!
Syd took a moment to smooth her uniform before she entered the cafeteria to join her team. She spotted them at a table off to the side of the large room.
"Well good morning sunshine," Jack teased, "Nice of you to join us." Syd rolled her eyes.
"Some of us need our beauty sleep." She replied. She chose a meager meal and sat down between Sky and Bridge.
"Looks like you might need a few more hours then." Sky smirked.
Z raised her eyebrows.
"Well Sky, you're living proof that some is better than none." Z shot back. A burst of laughter followed her comment from Bridge, Syd, and Jack.
"Hey Jack, what's on the docket for today?" Z asked after the laughter subsided.
"Response training. Cruger wants to shorten the time between an alert and the arrival," Jack shrugged, "Should be an interesting day."
"Jack," Bridge said, stuffing a piece of buttered toast into his mouth. "What if we did some sort of time hopping to get from one place to the next. I've heard rumors that SPD has been working on a prototype. I mean, not that I don't trust you or Cruger's judgement or anything. But I guess even if we did have a prototype, I don't know if we could get it working for within a single city instead of completely different times-"
"Bridge," Sky interrupted, "We should just stick to vehicles for now."
A series of beeps sounded around the table. Each ranger pulled out their morpher.
"Rangers," Cruger's voice sounded over the morphers. "Report to the Command Center immediately."
"Change of plans," Jack said, "Let's go."
The five hustled down to the Command Center where Cruger and Kat were looking over data on the central computer.
They stood in a line and saluted when Cruger looked in their direction.
"Rangers, I have a special assignment for you today, I want you to investigate a series of noise complaints in the lower city."
"Sir?" Sky said, incredulous, "Noise complaints? Really? I thought those were the job of the other teams."
Cruger stared down at Sky.
"No mission is above or below any team Cadet Tate," Cruger rumbled. "Is that clear?" Cruger asked.
Sky nodded stiffly.
"Yes sir."
Cruger turned back to the the central computer and brought up a hologram of the city.
"While no mission is below the station of a team, there is something odd about this one." Cruger tapped a button and several dozen red blips appeared on the hologram. "These are the locations of noise complaints called in the last three months." Cruger motioned for the team to join him around the hologram.
"Sir, this has to be over double the average number of noise complaints we get in a year." Sky blurted out.
Cruger nodded.
"Over triple actually," he corrected. "Anything else you notice?"
Z stepped closer to examine the dots.
"Yes, actually. Sir, aren't most of these buildings abandoned?" She asked.
This time, Kat spoke answered.
"All of them have been abandoned for at least eight months. At first, we suspected some sort of underground clubbing, but everytime our operatives arrived on scene, there was no sign of life anywhere. There weren't even any clubbers running away."
"What about other ways out of the building? Tunnels maybe?" Syd asked.
"We looked into that." Cruger answered. "But we had to rule it out as only about half are connected to old tunnels. Besides, everytime the operatives get to the scene, the area they search looks like it hasn't been touched in months."
"What about someone using these calls as cover ups for other crimes?" Jack asked.
"That's possible," Cruger admitted, "but we haven't found any pattern in crimes that correlate to the calls. However, these calls always come in batches of three. Every night there is a call, two more are called in within minutes."
"Do you have anything on the phone calls themselves?" Bridge piped up. "Like maybe they were hijacked to look like prank calls, but they weren't, and in actuality, they were prank calls that were disguised as not prank calls disguised as prank calls."
Kat shook her head in confusion at the tumble of words that fell out of Bridge's mouth.
"Er- we've tried to track the phone calls. The caller usually doesn't stay on the line long enough for a full trace. The one we did trace was a pay phone here." Kat entered a coordinate and a blue blip appeared in the inner city. "By the time we got there, they were long gone."
"What about the callers themselves?" Jack asked.
"We record the calls." Cruger brought up a series of audio files that all began playing at once. "But the exact wording and voice change. So far, no voice has called twice."
The room fell into silence.
"So what's changed?" Z asked. "You wouldn't have brought us in if something weren't different."
Cruger acknowledged Z's question with a nod.
"There was a rally and protest in the City Center and a riot broke out. The other teams have already been dispatched to help control the crowd and prevent damage to life or property." He said. "So that leaves you to be on alert in case there are calls tonight which is highly likely according to our prediction algorithms."
The team nodded among themselves.
"What do you want us to do in the meantime Commander?" Jack asked.
Cruger looked over the rangers.
"I want you to look over this case from top to bottom and be ready. Other than that, all we can do is wait." An SPD messenger scurried into the room and whispered something in the commander's ear. Cruger thanked her and turned to the team. "For right now, the Dision Chamber needs my attention, but I'll be back to check on your progress later today." With that, Cruger swiftly exited the room and left the rangers with Kat.
Without hesitation, they set straight to work. They checked all noise complaints dating back six months to see if there were any related calls that were not yet on their radar. They double checked any security cameras in the area. They listened to the calls again and again.
Several hours passed before Cruger reappeared for a progress report.
"It's slow going Commander, and it doesn't seem like we're getting anywhere." Jack reported.
Cruger opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when the Commander Center's communication phone rang.
Kat answered and spun around to face Cruger.
"Sir, we have a noise complaint. Wait...scratch that, two." She said.
"Where?" Cruger pointed to the hologram.
Still on the phone, Kat quickly input the new coordinates which glowed green and appeared in abandoned buildings on the outskirts of the city.
The room held its breath as they waited to see if a third noise complaint would come through.
Kat nodded as a voice came over the phone.
"Yes. Yes thank you." She hung up and input another coordinate. "That's three Commander."
Cruger grunted.
"Time to suit up Rangers, and be careful out there."
The five nodded.
Soon, they were morphed and out in the city.
"Syd and Z, take the first location. I'll take the second. Sky and Bridge, take the third." Jack spoke into their comms as the lights of the city flew past them on the road."
Z and Syd broke off from the others first and Jack a little while later. Bridge and Sky zoomed through the streets toward an old office building.
The decrepit structure loomed over the two when it came within sight. They parked their motorcycles and held their blasters at the ready.
"Jack, we've reached the location." Sky whispered into the still of the night.
"Copy, approach with caution," came the reply.
"Jack, we're here too," Syd's said.
"Alright, again, extreme caution people. We don't what know what, if anything, we're dealing with." Jack warned.
Sky and Bridge nodded to each other and entered the four-story building. Sky motioned for Bridge to ascend the stairs to the upper floors while Sky cleared the lower floors.
The rotting floorboards creaked under Sky's feet and a layer of dust and grime covered every surface. Sky moved room by room, keeping his breath steady and his heart rate even.
The further into the building Sky moved, the more aware he was of the quiet that blanketed the premises. Sky didn't see a single mouse or a nesting bird and the silence made him stand on edge. The wind whistled eerily through the broken windows and the moonlight cast long shadows into the recesses of the rooms. Rustling fabric swished softly and was the only movement other than Sky in the empty building.
The last room of the bottom floor was a smaller room and as Sky moved through it, he saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. Sky spun to face the movement and flinched as he saw his own reflection in a cracked mirror.
Sky chided himself for flinching, then carefully retraced his steps to the last set of stairs he saw.
"Bridge," he whispered, "I've cleared the first floor and am heading up to the second. What's your status?"
Sky waited for a reply from Bridge, but none came.
Sky crept through the second floor, taking care to avoid the more treacherous looking floorboards.
"Bridge?" Sky tried again. "Bridge, I need you to respond. I just reached the second floor. What is your status?"
Again, no response.
"Bridge, buddy, come on. Where are you?"
Nothing.
"Bridge, if you are in trouble, remember our safe word." Sky's panic began to rise. Sky quickened his steps, no longer caring about the creaks and pops that emanated from his stride.
Sky switched channels.
"Jack? Something's wrong. I can't get ahold of Bridge." He struggled to remain level headed. Jack responded promptly.
"Wait, you mean he isn't with you?"
Sky scowled.
"If he was with me, I wouldn't need to worry about getting ahold of him would I?" He growled.
There was silence on the other end.
"Ok." Jack said finally. "Syd and Z are on their way to you, I'll try to get there as fast as I can, but I'm the furthest away. See if you can get through to Kat and the Commander."
Sky switched channels again.
"Commander? Kat? Are you there?" Sky sped up again, clearing rooms hurriedly.
"Yes Sky, we're here." Kat responded. "But be aware that we'll need to get Bridge back here soon, his morpher seems to be glitching. I can't get a trace on his signal."
Sky's blood ran cold.
"What did you say Kat?"
"I said that Bridge's morpher is dark. I'll need to make some repairs when he gets back," she repeated.
"Kat, Bridge isn't with me and he isn't responding to me over communications." Sky was practically running through the building now and he raced up the stairs. He flew through the third floor, calling out for Bridge.
"Sky, calm down, it's probably just a glitch." Kat tried to console him.
Sky spotted a clear set of footprints in the dust that led to the fourth floor. Sky followed them closely, careful not to destroy them with his own feet. Sky sprinted to the top floor and burst out into the first room. Sky stopped short when he saw something shooting off weak sparks on the floor. There, in the middle of the room, was Bridge's completely destroyed morpher.
"Oh Delta. Kat, I found his morpher, it's been destroyed." Sky breathed into his comms.
"What! Where's Bridge?" Kat asked, frantic.
Sky saw a trail in the dust that looked as if something heavy had been dragged through it.
"He- he's gone…"
Author's Note: Heyo everyone! Thanks for so much for reading my latest story! Just trying to gauge the interest for this story. Please let me know what you guys think of it in the comments below! P.S. Idea credit for this story goes to wrestlechick93. Thanks for the idea! I'm excited to make it come to life!