What the hell is going on! I just had to change my rating to M! I just had to change my genre to Horror! Where have the evil plot spirits of Halloween taken me?! I swear it wasn't me it wasn't…gack!…Blue November isn't in right now if you could please leave a message after the scream she will return your reviews as soon as possible…Thank you…(Muahahahahahah!AHHHHHHHH!!!! Somebody help me!

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Disclaimer: If Disney owns everything, I therefore (according the world of mathematics) own nothing. Especially (but not limited to) the Power Rangers. Hell not even my OC from the last chapter really belongs to me…

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The room fell deathly silent (which seemed appropriate under the circumstances).

The five rangers abandoned their activities and dashed to the frazzled cadets side bombarding her with questions, none of which were getting answered in the confusion. Finally Jack stuck two of his fingers in his mouth and blew a loud shrill whistle that again hushed the room.

"Okay one thing at a time." He said more calmly than he knew he was. But he had to remain calm if it was true that Cruger really was dead that meant that as Red Ranger he was now in charge of the entire academy. Turning to the frantic cadet he gently questioned her.

"How do you know that the commander is dead?"

"Because I…walked into his office…I mean I didn't mean to just walk in but I knocked and there was no answer but when I tried the door was already open so I just walked in…and I called out so that he would know that I was there…and I was just there to ask him if I could put the refreshments for tonight's party on the expense report for the D squad…but there was no answer.." She told her story through enormous sobs that gradually decreased the farther in she got but then became more intense the closer she got to the end.

"So I walked into his study and there he was face down in a bowl of kibble!….I ran to his side but there was no pulse…and he wasn't breathing…and his body was so cold!…and I knew he must be dead! He's dead! Commander Cruger is dead!" Her hysterics went back into full swing.

"I didn't know the commander ate kibble."

"BRIDGE! This is really not the time!"

"Sorry, you want me to check her for you?"

"Well that would be closer to helpful!" Jack snapped at him.

"No need to be so hostile." Bridge mumbled while taking off his glove. Waving his right hand between him and the overly distraught cadet Bridge saw what he had been desperately hoping was some kind of Halloween prank.

"It's true." Was all he could say. The room erupted into more hysterics while the Rangers ran to Cruger's study. There he was just as the girl had said; Face down in a bowl of kibble.

"There's no way." Z couldn't believe it, didn't want to believe it.

"But he was the Shadow Ranger!" Sky just couldn't process how someone so strong could be brought down so silently in his own room.

"Who would do such a thing?" Syd asked dumbfounded.

"No I think the question here is who wouldn't?" Jack reasoned. "I'm sure that in all of his dog years Cruger had made lots of enemies."

"Yes but Jack you forget that no one gets in or out of this base without clearance." Sky reminded him.

"So that means the killer is one of us." Jack agreed.

"But guys we've all been at the party!"

"No not one of us Bridge I meant one of us as in somebody at the academy."

"Oh."

"Bridge can you tell me how it happened?" Bridge nodded and again took off his glove. Sweeping the room he found no suspicious aura trail Just Cruger and then the cadet who found him.

"There's not much to go on," He watched the fading psychic energy that represented Anubis Cruger's final moments

"He came in…with a dinner from the cafeteria, looks left, now right. Coast is clear. Dumps the food on his plate and pours the kibble…huh well I guess he was a dog. Okay before he eats he gets up and…OH MAN! I did not need to see that!"

"What?" morbid curiosity took hold of Z.

"Let's just say he uh 'cleaned up' before dinner."

"Oh! EEWWWW!"

"Okay that's enough let's stick to the important things Bridge."

"Important, right…he sits down, sniffs at the kibble, makes a face like maybe there was something wrong with it, shrugs his shoulders eats it anyway aaaaannnnd…drops dead."

"A stroke?" asks Syd.

"Heart attack maybe?" suggests Jack. "He did always seem a little too wound up."

"Nope. Poison."

"And how do you know that Bridge?" Sky looked over at him skeptically.

"Because his kibble is made from chocolate covered in meat, and everyone knows that chocolate is poisonous to dogs." Bridge stated.

"How do you know that his kibble was made from choco…you didn't just eat some did you?" Jack gave him a disgusted look. Bridge just shrugged his shoulders.

"I purpose we put the base on lockdown." Sky suggested before that conversation could go any further. "Nobody gets in or out of their rooms without notifying us first."

"Good idea Sky, I'll go get our morphers from Boom, hopefully him and Kat will have been done with them by now."

Just then Boom came bursting into the office.

"Is it true? The commanders dead?" he asked frantically.

"It is, look Boom we think it was someone in the base. We need our morphers back so that we can split up and begin our search."

"I wish I could Jack but I was just going down to the party to let you know that your morphers had been stolen from your rooms before I could get to them."

"Stolen!"

"Yes! But then I heard that the commander was dead so I came running up here right away! I knew you guys would probably want to start searching so I brought you these." Boom un-slung a bag from his shoulder and pulled out 5 walkie-talkies.

"Thanks Boom." Z gave him a friendly pat on the back as she took hers.

"No problem, you guys are like family to me, there's nothing I wouldn't do to help."

"Appreciate the offer Boom but I think it would be safer for you to go on lockdown with every one else. Whoever this is has killed Cruger and now has our morphers as well, who knows what they might be plotting to do next. If you see Kat tell her what happened ok? And have her hail us on the walkies." Jack turned from Boom to his team. "Ok guys, I say we split up and start searching the base, Bridge. Z. You start at the lower levels, Sky? Will you be okay on your own?" Sky nodded. "Alright then I want you to start by getting the lower cadets to their rooms and then meet up with Syd and I on the upper levels. We'll search until we meet up in the middle okay? Anyone finds anything call it in got it?" The Rangers nodded solemnly and then divided into their groups and headed out.

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Sky ran back down to the cafeteria and found Monica first. It turned out that Syd wasn't so bad at picking blind dates. Before the incident (murder?) Sky had actually been having a great time, they had talked and laughed and she had even gotten him out onto the dance floor for a few songs. It had been awhile since Sky had felt comfortable enough with someone to let his guard down and have fun. Actually it hadn't happened since Syd and him had made a go of it a few years back, and he had still managed to botch that up royally by not giving her all of the attention that she deserved, instead focusing on his progression within SPD. He made a mental note that now that he was a Ranger he was going to do his best not to let that happen again. Unfortunately this time SPD had to come first.

"Hey Monica, I'm really sorry." He apologized "But it's all true. Cruger really is dead so we need to put the base on lockdown and I've got to go…"

"Do your whole Blue Ranger thing. Don't worry I understand." She gave him a sympathetic smile.

"I'd still like to get to know you better though, what do you say to dinner on Saturday?" he offered.

"I'd say that sounds great, now go," she shooed him. "And be careful!" Sky turned and got a few steps away but then had a second thought. Turning back around he swiftly bent down and placed a quick kiss on her lips catching her completely off guard.

"You too." He whispered before turning again to the crowd bellowing out that all cadets must return to their rooms and under no circumstance leave until the killer had been caught or until they could sufficiently say that they were no longer in the base. Not wanting to incur the legendary Tate wrath the cafeteria emptied out quickly. Sky pulled out his walkie and gave the all clear for the others to start searching. He then made his way upstairs to Jack and Syd.

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Normally the hallways were bustling with activity. With so many cadets at the academy it was hard not to find at least ten people walking down any of the bases numerous corridors at any given time. But now there was just two, and the eerie silence had them both more than a little freaked out.

"I still can't believe that Cruger is really dead." Syd whispered mostly to herself.

"Yeah I know, I thought for sure nothing could kill that old dog." Jack was still reeling.

Before they had started their search they had tried to hail Supreme Commander Birdie but the communications tower had mysteriously been damaged. Boom had said that it was in the last robot fight, Sky had flown to close to the base and clipped the top of the tower, but Sky was the best pilot Jack knew (even though he would never admit that to Sky). The chances of Sky doing that were slim. However the chances of him doing that and not telling anyone were the kind of Vegas odds that you bet on. His stubborn pride would have kept the Blue Ranger from admitting that he had made a mistake so maybe that was why they hadn't known about it. Jack made a mental note to ask Sky when they met up.

"So what exactly are we looking for anyway?" the Pink Ranger turned to the man who was now in charge of everything.

The problem was that Jack didn't know. Cruger had been poisoned which meant that the killer didn't have to be in the room to do it, which meant no psychic trail for the Green Ranger to follow. So short of having Bridge go around to every cadet and personnel in the entire base, which may have numbered in the hundreds maybe thousand Jack didn't really have a clue. The base was huge and there was so much that he still didn't know about its inner workings. All he knew is that after every fight his zord went in dirty and sometimes broken, and by the next fight it was clean and fixed. He had no idea how many people it actually took to pull all that off. And even not actually fully understanding the way Bridges power worked, he was fairly certain that having him scan that many people would probably send him into a coma or something, in other words not an option he was willing to go with until he had exhausted all others.

"I think maybe we're looking for anything suspicious." Jack raised his fingers in little 'air quotes' with the word suspicious hoping to at least get a smile out of Sydney. He hated to see her so stressed out and worried. It was that thought that made Jack think maybe there was something more there than just him wanting to get some. In fact Jack was pretty sure that there was something more there, at least for him there was. He had no clue where she stood on the situation.

"Well if we're looking for anything suspicious, I think I just found it." Syd smiled returning to their usual sexually charged banter. It was a good way not to think about everything that was now going on.

"Oh yeah and what's that?" he smiled mischievously.

"You Mr. Landers."

"What did I do that could possibly be construed as suspicious?" he gave her his best innocent, eyelash batting, pouty lip look.

"You have not commented once on my new costume! Not the length of the skirt, not the way you can practically see right through the fabric, or the lack thereof! I'm very disappointed in you." She chastised. "Even Sky told me how good I looked." The expression on his face told her she had pushed just the right button with that. Jack and Sky were in a constant silent competition to one up each other.

Quickly checking the corridor to make sure that said Blue Ranger was not in sight Jack grabbed Syd and pushed her up against the wall pinning her there under his own body.

"Has Sky ever done this?" He snarled before crashing his lips into hers.

There was no resistance only mild shock that quickly turned into an equally matched hunger. Inside her head she answered his question. No. Sky had never done anything like that, and it had always disappointed her. When they dated he was always the perfect gentleman, never really letting himself go. At least not in the way she had wanted him to. He was so caught up in being the best that their relationship had always come second. Don't get her wrong when it was good it was good, but that didn't make up for the times that it was lacking and in the end that's why the decided to just stay friends, not so many expectations.

But Jack was different. Jack was wild and sometimes almost reckless. He didn't hesitate to take what he wanted and he knew how to take time to have fun. And damn…he was a really good kisser!

He worked his lips and tongue against hers in the most pleasurable onslaught she had ever been a part of. His hands came up and cupped her breasts, his thumbs teasing her nipples through the barely there fabric. She let a small moan escape her throat and into his mouth. Tearing his lips away from hers he focused in on her slender neck. Working his way up the sweetly scented skin, he tasted the hint of salt from the heat they were creating. Gently scraping his teeth across her neck he elicited another moan, deeper and fuller this time.

"God Syd you have no idea what you do to me." He said breathlessly into her ear before taking the soft flesh of her lobe and sucking.

"I think I have a pretty good idea." She whispered back as she dragged her nails down his back and dug them into the backside of his tight leather pants, causing him to press his body harder against hers and feel her heart thundering wildly in her chest.

"uuhhhh…I need you…ahh…right now." He growled.

Knowing this was neither the time nor the place Syd huskily replied

"Yes." And allowed herself to be lifted up and carried into the nearest empty classroom, legs clamped around Jacks waist.

It was a good thing that the base was on lockdown otherwise they would have walked right into Professor Tui's money management night course, but instead of shocking a room full of cadets, Jack locked the door, laid Sydney down on top of the Professors desk and proceeded to completely ignore Sky's voice over the radio asking 'what was there location'.

"He's still at least 8 floors down," Jack said in between removing the necessary articles of clothing to do what it was they both wanted. "We got time."

Her only response was to tear at his shirt in order to get her hands on his bare chest.

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Sky checked the battery on his radio again. There was still nothing wrong with it. Putting it back in he tried hailing Jack and Syd for the 23rd time.

"Jack? Syd? Where are you guys? I'm on the 16th floor making my way up. Are you guys okay?" nothing but dead air responded. Sky was becoming slightly ill. Half with worry and half with anger. Pressing the button down again he tried his other teammates.

"Bridge? Do you read me?" A few silent seconds passed.

"If by read, you mean hear you? Then yes. However I've never really been able to read you Sky, I think it has something to do with your force fields, kind of like a mental block, you know since they are created with your mind and all…"

"Bridge!"

"Sorry."

"Have you guys heard anything from Jack and Syd?" This time he heard Z's voice over the small radio in his hands.

"Not recently why?"

"I can't seem to get a hold of them, I was supposed to meet up with them after I got done with the lower cadets but I've been getting no answer."

Some more dead air.

"Sky I hate to be the one to say this but do you think maybe they're, uh…you know…indisposed at the moment?"

His earlier conversation with Jack flared back to the forefront of his mind and he began to yell at the empty hallway loudly cursing his teammates.

"Umm…Sky?" he heard Z's voice crackle timidly through the speaker.

"What!" it came out more like a harsh statement then a question.

"You shouldn't press down on the button unless you want everyone to hear."

"Dammit."

Suddenly over the radios they all heard Jacks voice.

"Hey Sky, sorry we didn't hear you the first few times must have been in a dead spot or something." Sky swore he heard snickering in the background. "But hey we're on the 20th floor okay? We'll wait here for you."

Sky was too pissed off to trust himself to speak. Instead he stomped over to the nearest staircase and made his way up to the 20th. Jack would be lucky if he lived through this one. He thought angrily to himself.

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So Jack and Syd have uh…(complicated hand gestures)…yeah, and someone else has poisoned Cruger! And they're without their morphers! I guess it's a good thing they all have those handy dandy genetic powers right? Hey by the way anyone out there know how many floors SPD actually has? Yeah, me neither. And what about that girl Monica? Pretty rockin' OC huh? He he he…