Chapter 7
Billy puts his hands up in the air. Feeling the gun on the back of head, he is very careful not to make any sudden moves. He begins to speak, slowly.
"What makes you think I'm a ranger?" Billy asks.
"I saw everything during that last fight." The man says. "I didn't think finding a ranger would be this easy. Now hold still." The man grabs Billy wrists and handcuffs them together.
"Who are you?" Billy asks.
"I ask the questions around here." The man says. He grabs Billy and forces him to walk forward. "Let's find somewhere a little more private to talk, shall we?"
"How to you plan on getting away with this?" Billy asks. "I mean, you already played your ace in the hole. Letting me know that you know I'm a ranger just gives me the freedom to…"
"Shut up." the man says.
"Shutting up." Billy says. The man opens a door into a nearby building a throws Billy inside. Billy finally sees the face of his kidnapper.
"You?" Billy asks. "You were leading the troops when we got attacked my the Minotaur monster."
"That's right." The man says. "I'm Colonel James Freeman."
"Now, I'm really confused." Billy says. "What do you want with me?"
"I want you, and your friends to come with me." Freeman says. Billy's eyes widen.
"What now?" Billy asks.
"There is a secret government organization known as the Department of Extra Terrestrial Activities." Freeman explains. "The commander of that organization, John Harrison, finds it a little too convenient that you and your buddies just show up, out the blue, right when the aliens attacked. He wants to know everything you know about the aliens, and everything about your powers."
"What if we refuse?" Billy asks.
"You won't." Freeman says. "Harrison promised me it would just be a simple questioning, and then you would be free to go. If you try to refuse, D.E.T.A. will make your lives a living hell until you come in."
"You've got me." Billy says. "How do you plan on getting the others?"
"You are going to call them." Freeman says.
"What makes you think I'd do that?" Billy says.
"Please, don't make this more difficult then this has to be." Freeman says. "Look, kid. I'm not the bad guy here."
"Neither are we!" Billy shouts. "Besides, you kidnapped me. Why should I believe a word you're saying?"
"Because you really don't have another choice." Freeman says. "Your hands are handcuffed together, and I've got a gun. You make one move to escape, and it will be the last move you make. Now call your friends, and tell them to come back to the park."
Billy glares at Freeman. "How do you expect me to call my friends while my hands are handcuffed together?" He asks.
"Fine." Freeman says, walking over to Billy. He removes the handcuff from one of Billy's right wrist. He takes that part of the handcuffs and cuffs it to a pipe on the wall.
"Thanks. This is so much better." Billy says sarcastically.
"You didn't think I'd remove the handcuffs entirely, did you?" Freeman says. "Can't risk you running away. Now call your friends and tell them to come back to the park."
Billy reluctantly pulls his arm behind his back. He removes his communicator from his wrist and holds it in his open hand. He pulls that arm forward and presses the side of the communicator. He waits a few seconds, then he heres this.
"Jason here. What's going on?" Jason says through the communicator.
"Hey Jason, it's Billy." Billy says. "Can you and the others come back to the park? There's something here I really think you need to see."
"What is it?" Jason asks.
"Just come back." Billy says. "I'm going to need your help on this."
"We're on our way." Jason says.
Billy looks at Freeman, who is smiling. "Good, good." Freeman says. "You'll remain here, until I return with your friends."
"You won't get away with this." Billy says.
Freeman turns to him. "You say that like I'm a villain." Freeman says. "I'm just the messenger for someone who wants to ask you a few questions." He walks over to Billy and grabs the communicator out of his hand. "You won't be needing this while I'm gone." Freeman says.
Billy struggles to get out of the handcuffs, but is unable to. Freeman walks over to the door, and looks back at Billy. "See you soon, Blue Ranger." Freeman turns off the light and shuts the door, leaving Billy sitting there in total darkness.
Jason, Zack, Trini, and Kim return to the park. They look around for Billy where they were earlier.
"Does anyone see Billy, or anything out of the ordinary?" Jason asks.
"Not at all." Trini says.
"Me either." Kim says.
"That's odd." Jason says. "We better find him."
They start walking around. "Billy!" Trini shouts.
"Where are you, man?" Zack shouts.
The group of teens walk down a hill. They glance around a couple trees.
"Man, this is too weird." Jason says. "It's like he just disappeared."
The teen look at each other, with a worried look on their faces. "Looking for your friend, the Blue Ranger?" They hear a deep voice from behind them say.
The teens turn in shock. "What did you just say?" Zack says.
"I asked if you were looking for you friend, the Blue Ranger." The man says. "I'm Colonel James Freeman. At the moment, I am a representative of the Department of Extra Terrestrial Activities, but just call us D.E.T.A."
"What have you done with him?" Trini asks charging at the man. Jason and Zack grab her arms and hold her back.
"Easy now." Freeman says. "Your friend is safe… For now."
"Where is he, and how do you know he's the Blue Ranger?" Jason asks.
"I saw everything after your last fight." Freeman says.
"What do you want from us? Kim asks.
"Me? Oh, it's not what I want." Freeman says. "Commander Harrison of D.E.T.A. simply wants to ask you all a few questions."
"Like that'll happen." Zack says. "Come on guys let's find Billy."
"You won't find him… At least not without me." Freeman says.
"We have ways of finding him." Trini says. The teens turn and begin to walk away from him. Freeman shakes his head.
"I hope you weren't planning on tracking through his communication device." Freeman says. He pulls out Billy's communicator. "Because if you were, it will just bring you right back to me."
"He's got Billy's communicator." Zack says to Jason.
"That's right." Freeman says. "I'd be happy to show you where he is, if you agree to come with me for some questioning."
"How do we know we can trust you?" Jason shouts. "For all we know, you want us dead."
"I can assure you that's not what we want at all, but if the 4 of you don't cooperate, I'd rather not say what might happen to your friend."
"You would kill him?" Kim says, in shock.
"Well, I do prefer not to kill anyone, but if the situation called for it..." Freeman says.
Jason motions to the others and they quickly form a huddle. Freeman smiles.
"Look, what are we going to do?" Jason asks.
"I say we kick this guy's ass!" Zack says.
"We can't do that." Kim says.
"Kim's right." Jason says. "He's the only one who knows where Billy is."
"We have to save Billy." Trini says. "No matter what. Let's do what this guy wants."
They turn back to Freeman. "We'll answer your questions. Just take us to Billy." Jason says.
"I wish I could trust you, based solely on your words, but I don't." Freeman says.
"What!?" Zack shouts.
"Now, I will take you to your friend, but I need some insurance you will hold up your end of the deal." Freeman says. "Hand over the devices that allow you to change into Power Rangers."
"Our Morphers?" Trini says.
"You're out of your mind." Zack says.
"Well, then, I guess I don't you want to see your friend ever again." Freeman responds.
The rangers step back. "You're bluffing." Jason says.
"Am I?" Freeman says. "I might be, I might not be. You have to ask yourself if that is a chance you are willing to take. You can hand over your… 'morphers', and your friend will be sparred. If not…" Freeman shrugs. "It's your choice."
Jason steps towards Freeman. He reaches into his bag and pulls out his morpher. "Jase, what are you doing?" Kim asks.
Jason turns to his friends. "We don't have a choice. It's Billy. Besides, if we cooperate, maybe they'll leave us alone."
"Zordon trusted us." Trini says. "You're really going to give up your morpher that easy?"
Jason slams his foot on the ground. "I'm not giving up anything." He says defiantly. "Right now, we have 2 options. 1 potentially loses Billy. The other, no one gets hurt right now. I'm not giving up my morpher. I'm just handing it over temporarily, and I think you guys should do the same."
Jason walks over to Freeman and hands him the morpher. Freeman smiles. One by one, the other rangers reluctantly hand over their morphers as well. First Trini, then Kim, and finally Zack. As Zack hands Freeman his morpher Jason shouts at him.
"You have our morphers, now take us to Billy!" he screams.
Freeman nods. "You made a wise a decision." He puts the morphers in a bag, and pulls out a radio. "Send the chopper in." Freeman says into the radio. A large helicopter flies around some buildings and hovers over the rangers and Freeman.
"What?" Jason says. "What's going on?"
The helicopter lands behind the rangers. A bunch of soldiers rush out of the helicopter. The soldiers grab the rangers from behind. The rangers struggle to get free, but the soldiers are too strong for them. The rangers are thrown to their knees. The soldiers strap handcuffs on the rangers.
"What are you doing?" Trini shouts.
"I'm taking you to D.E.T.A.'s headquarters." Freeman says.
"Is that where Billy is?" Jason asks.
"No." Freeman says. Jason tries to get up and charge at Freeman, but is thrown back to the ground by the soldier. "Relax, you and your friend will be reunited soon enough. I will go get him and then, we will take all five of you to the headquarters." He starts to walk away then turns back and addresses the soldiers. "Put them in the cell in the back of the chopper."
The soldiers nod. They grab the rangers and drag them to the chopper.
"You won't get away with this!" Zack yells.
"Why does everyone treat me like the bad guy?" Freeman asks. "I'm not trying to get away with anything. My intentions are simply to make the Earth a safer place."
The rangers are thrown into the back of the chopper. Freeman looks at his soldiers.
"I will return shortly." Freeman says. "Set the coordinates for the DETA headquarters. We will depart when I am back."
The soldiers again nod. Freeman walks away.
Billy sits in the darkness, struggling to get free. He pulls on the handcuffs, but to no avail. Suddenly, a flood of light rushes into the room as the door is opened. Freeman walks in.
"Did you miss me?" Freeman asks.
"What do you want?" Billy asks. "I'm not betraying my friends again. I shouldn't have done it the first time."
"Oh, I'm not asking you to betray your friends." Freeman explains. "In fact, they have your back, Billy. In order to spare you, they gave me these." Freeman pulls out their morphers.
"Their morphers?!" Billy exclaims. "How did you get those? Are the others OK?"
"They are OK, for now." Freeman says.
"What do you mean 'For Now'?" Billy asks.
"Their fate is in your hands." Freeman says. "They are currently on board a helicopter. I give the order, and the helicopter, but I'm not going to give that order, IF you give me your morpher."
"You're a mad man." Billy says.
"Am I?" Freeman says. "Or am I a visionary."
"No, I'm pretty sure you're a mad mad." Billy says.
"Very well, then." Freeman says, pulling out his radio. "Then I will just give the order to…"
"Wait!" Billy shouts. "I never said I wouldn't give you my morpher. The other did for me, so I will for them. If you promise to take me to them and remove my handcuffs, I will give you it."
"Fine." Freeman walks. He removes Billy's handcuffs. Billy takes out of his morpher and hands it to Freeman. Freeman takes the morpher and puts it in his bag with the other morphers. He then turns back to Billy and puts the handcuffs back on.
"What are you doing?" Billy asks.
"We made no deal about the handcuffs staying off." Freeman says. "I removed them and will take you to your friends. You held up your end of the bargain, and I'm holding up my end."
"It was implied that…" Billy starts to say.
"First rule of bargaining, my boy." Freeman says. "Never imply anything. Now, come with me."
Freeman grabs Billy and they walk out of the warehouse.
Freeman and Billy climb aboard the helicopter. Billy is thrown into the jail cell in the back of the helicopter with the other rangers. Freeman slams it shut behind him.
"Billy!" Trini shouts. "You're OK. I was… We were so worried about you."
"I'm fine, but this guy is a lunatic." Billy says. "I thought you said the helicopter was in the air."
"I never said that." Freeman says. "You made that assumption. Now, sit tight. We'll be arriving at the D.E.T.A headquarters in about an hour. You'll be questioned there, and once you answer our questions you'll be free to go."
"Somehow I doubt that." Jason says. "You kidnap and threaten to kill one of us if we don't do what you say, and now you're just going to let us go after we answer a few questions?"
"Well, now that you're all in custody together, I believe it's time you knew the truth." Freeman says. "None of you were ever in any real danger. I am not a murderer, nor are any of these men. If we were only able to take one of you to the headquarters, we would have."
"What?!" Kim shouts. The other rangers all start to shout at him at once.
"Shut up!" Freeman shouts. "Let me finish. My instructions were to bring in all the rangers, so I did what I had to do to complete those instructions. If I was unable to, one ranger probably would have sufficed. My threats were simply bluffs. Bargaining chips, if you will."
"You really are a mad man." Billy says.
"I'm not a mad man," Freeman says. "I simply did what I had to do to complete my orders. Now, we are about to take off. I will come get you when we have arrived at D.E.T.A."
The Helicopter takes off and begins flying. The rangers sit around the jail cell waiting.
"Man, this sucks!" Zack shouts.
"I know it does," Jason says. "but what can we do about it? We don't have our morphers."
"We could teleport out." Trini suggests.
"No." Billy says. "They know who we are, and they won't stop until we've answered their questions."
"Besides, what good would we be out there without our morphers?" Jason says. "Rita would win. We're just answer their questions, get our morphers back, and leave."
"Do you really think they're just going to give us our morphers back?" Billy says.
"What do you mean?" Kim asks.
"They're our private property." Zack says. "They can't just take them and not give them back. That would be illegal."
"They are a government organization, that as far as everyone outside of the government and military is concerned, doesn't exist. Do you really think they are going to care about following all the rules?"
"Wow." Jason says. "I hadn't even thought of that."
"I had a lot of time to think about stuff like that." Billy says. "I was mainly thinking my communicator, but it would apply to the morphers as well."
"If you didn't think you'd get it back, why give him your morpher?" Kim asks.
"He threatened to kill you guys." Billy says. "With or without our morphers, we're still a team. You guys did the same for me. I was about to risk losing you guys."
"Thanks, Billy." Trini says. "That means a lot."
Freeman walks back to the cell. "We've arrived at our destination. I hope you enjoyed your flight."
"How could we?" Zack asks. "No snacks, no in flight movie, plus there's that whole thing where we're trapped in a jail cell with our hands handcuffed together."
Freeman opens the doors to the cell, chuckling. "You should talk less." Freeman says to Zack. 5 soldiers come up behind Freeman, each grabbing a ranger. "Transport them to the holding cell while I tell Commander Harrison about their arrival."
"Yes sir." The soldier holding Jason says.
"Holding cell?" Kim asks.
"That's right." Freeman says. "Have fun now."
The rangers are lead off the helicopter and down a dark hallway.
"Don't worry, we'll be fine." Jason says.
"I'm not worried." Trini says. "I know we'll all be fine."
"I was talking to myself, there." Jason says.
After a few twists and turns, as well as traveling down 5 flights of stairs, the rangers come to the holding cell and are thrown in. The guards all walk away.
"This just doesn't make sense." Zack says. "Why would they leave us unguarded?"
"The holding cells in government organizations like this are designed so that not even the best escape artists could get out." Billy says.
"How do you know that?" Kim asks.
"I used to spend a lot of time reading about random stuff online, like government holding facilities." Billy says. "I'd imagine a secret government facility is even harder to escape from."
"We should at least contact Zordon and let him and Alpha know what is going on." Trini says.
"Good idea, Trini." Jason responds. He pulls up his arm and speaks into his communicator. "Zordon come in." There is no response. "Zordon come in, this is Jason, do you copy?"
"You're communication devices won't work down here." a voice says. The rangers turn to see a guard walking towards them. He is holding a tray of food. "We are 3 stories below the ground. Not even the best communication devices work down here."
"Who are you?" Kim asks.
"Just a guard." He says. He sets down the tray of food and gives it to the rangers. "It's dinner time."
He starts to walk away. Zack looks at this. "Hey buddy, you got my order wrong!" He shouts. "I don't know what the hell this is, but I ordered the Steak and Lobster." The other rangers just glare at him. "What? I was just trying to lighten the mood. It was just a joke."
"Was that was that was." Another voice says. They look again and see a man in a suit walking towards them. "You can understand my confusion seeing as it wasn't very funny."
The other rangers chuckle for a second, and Zack shakes his head. Jason looks at the man.
"Who are you?" Jason asks.
"I'm Commander John Harrison. Welcome to D.E.T.A."
END CHAPTER 7
Author's note: Hey guys, first of all, thank you for reading. Secondly, I would really like to apologize for how long this chapter took to get out. I've been really busy the past few weeks and just have not had time for writing. I'm in the middle a few days off, though, so I thought I'd try and get this chapter out. I really am going to try to be more consistent on when I release chapters, but no promises. Also, please review. I'd really like to know what you think of the story so far and the direction I'm taking it.