Chapter 3: "Abandoned"

"Sky, you want dinner?"

The words were shouted as Jack flew by the door of his room, and Sky had a moment to frown at the strangeness of it before the Red Ranger doubled back, catching the door frame and leaning in to look at him expectantly. "Well? Come on, put on some real clothes and let's go."

He let his book tip backwards so he could stare at the other Ranger. "It's ten o'clock. Dinner was hours ago."

"Brilliant observation, mastermind," Jack said. "Let's go again."

Sky didn't move. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Because you're hungry," Jack told him. "Because I invited you. Because you're bored with your book; how should I know? We're going to pick up Boom at the airport and I thought you might want to come."

"And why are 'we' picking him up?" Sky asked, lifting his book again. He was going to bed at ten-thirty. It wasn't his job to pick up SPD staff at all hours of the day and night.

"Because Kat doesn't want Cruger to know when he's getting in," Jack said, leaning on the door frame like he wasn't planning to go anywhere for a while. "So she can't send a driver, and she can't go herself because she's in the middle of some big experiment.

"She asked Bridge," he continued, "and of course, being Bridge, he said yes. When Z found out he was going she volunteered to keep him company, and Syd was bored out of her mind so she offered to buy them dinner if they let her tag along.

"When I found out Syd was paying," he added with a grin, "I told them to wait for me. Came back here to change. We're meeting in the garage in a few minutes."

"Have fun," Sky told his book.

He could see Jack shrug without looking up. "Suit yourself."

The room was suddenly empty again, and he frowned at the page he wasn't reading. He actually was kind of hungry. But there was a synthesizer almost within arms' reach, and if he didn't get some sleep he might not be at the top of his game tomorrow morning. It wasn't like they could afford to let their guard down.

On the other hand, Syd did pick the best restaurants.

He was wearing civvies by the time Jack darted by again, obviously in a hurry but not moving fast enough to miss the fact that Sky had changed. His face lit up, an honest grin that made Sky wonder, not for the first time, how old Jack actually was. His denim jacket looked too big on him.

"Coming?" Jack asked hopefully.

"No, Jack," he said, rolling his eyes. "These are my pajamas."

"Yeah, right." Jack smirked at him. "I know you sleep in your SPD uniform."

"That's just practical," Sky said, following him down the hallway. "Emergencies can happen at any hour, and it saves a lot of time to roll out of bed already dressed. You should try it."

"Sky!" Jack exclaimed. "I was kidding!"

Sky raised his eyebrows at him as they rounded the corner. "I wasn't."

There was a van idling by the entrance to the garage when they got down there, Bridge in the driver's seat and Z riding shotgun. "Sky!" Syd exclaimed, as he slid into the seat next to her. "You came!"

"What'd you bribe him with, Jack?" Z asked, craning her neck around the back of her seat as Jack piled in behind him. "Extra training? Another run through the mud swamp?"

"The pleasure of our company," Jack replied, and Z wasn't the only one who laughed. "Really!" he protested. "I'm not kidding; he came all on his own!"

Bridge caught his eye in the mirror, and Sky shrugged. "I heard Syd was picking the restaurant," he said.

"Oh, Sky," Syd said, patting his knee. "Was that a compliment? I think that was a compliment. What do you guys think?"

"I think that was a dig at Piggy's," Jack put in, hanging on the back of Z's seat as the van turned down the street.

Z slapped his hand. "Jack, sit down!" she scolded. "There is a seatbelt law, you know."

He reached back and pulled down the armrest beside Sky, perching on the edge of it while he braced himself against the front seats. "I'm sitting," he teased. "Happy now?"

Sky gave him a disgusted look that Jack utterly failed to notice. "Move."

"I got it." Syd fumbled with her handbag, pulling out her morpher and flipping it open. She leaned around him to aim it at Jack. "Jack Landors, needlessly endangering himself by breaking one of our most basic traffic laws. Guilty or innocent?"

"Aw, come on," he protested, scowling at her judgement scanner.

The bright red "X" lit up, and Syd was practically in Sky's lap as she thrust the verdict in Jack's face. "Gee, what do you know? Guilty!"

"Fine," Jack grumbled, retreating to the seat behind her. There was an audible hiss and a click as his seatbelt locked in place.

"Thank you," Sky told Syd.

"No problem," she said lightly, slipping her morpher back into her bag. "Just doing my job."

"Hey, do you think the freeway's faster?" Bridge asked from up front. "I mean, it should be pretty clear this late, right? On the other hand, we'll get better gas mileage if we stick to the slower roads, and we really should do our part to minimize air pollution. I don't want to be accused of trading convenience for sustainability."

"The freeway's faster," Z agreed, unfazed, "but going through the plaza is prettier."

"Wait, why are we going through the plaza to get to the airport?" Sky asked, frowning.

"He's not flying into the jetport," Syd explained. "His flight's coming into New Tech Regional."

Sky stared at her. New Tech Regional wasn't even in the city. "Why?"

She shrugged, but Z reminded them, "This is Boom we're talking about. His original flight was cancelled, and he probably got confused when they put him on standby."

"Guys," Jack said urgently. "Shh."

Sky looked over the back of the seat, and this time they could all hear Jack's morpher say, "Landors, acknowledge."

He gave them all a warning look as he answered, "Go for Jack."

"Cadet, where is your team?" Cruger's voice demanded.

"Team-building exercise, sir," Jack replied smoothly. "Off base."

"Why wasn't I informed of this?" the commander wanted to know. Sky exchanged glances with Syd, who rolled her eyes and made a blah, blah, blah gesture with her hand. He felt his mouth quirk up at the corner.

"With respect, sir, it was a spur of the moment thing," Jack was saying. "Since we're all off duty this evening, I didn't see a problem."

There was a brief pause. "Very well," Cruger allowed at last. "Just make sure your team is in Command an hour early tomorrow morning. The Mirinoan Rangers want to brief you on the search for A Squad before they return home."

"We'll be there," Jack told his morpher.

"Did he say Mirinoi?" Z hissed from the passenger seat. "Isn't that the colony?" Bridge must have nodded, because she said, "I didn't even know they had Rangers."

"This is kind of surreal," Jack remarked, closing his morpher.

"Extraplanetary Rangers wanting to talk to us?" Sky said. "No kidding."

"No," Jack said, surprising him. "The fact that extraplanetary Rangers are still searching. SPD gave up more than a month ago."

"The local teams set up a rotation when SPD called off the search," Bridge offered, glancing back at them in the mirror. "They spend roughly two weeks in the Helix Nebula while their neighbors cover their home turf, then they bounce through SPD Earth on their way home. The next team goes out as soon as they get back. It's really very efficient, when you think about it."

Silence settled over the van after this explanation, until finally Z said, "Wow."

"Rangers don't give up," Sky told them. "And they don't abandon their own."

"Do you think--" Syd hesitated. "I mean, do you think we should be out there with them?"

"We can't," Jack reminded her. "Grumm's at our doorstep. Alandia's gone and we're next on the list. Earth needs us."

"I know, but..." She still looked torn. "Earth needs A Squad too, right? And we have the Shadow Ranger now. He can take on all of us at once and win. Couldn't he defend Earth if we went looking for them?"

"If Cruger thought we could find them," Jack began.

"Cruger's been wrong before," Z interrupted. "He wouldn't even send us after Kat when she was kidnapped."

"Because he was going after her himself," Sky pointed out. "Jack's right. There's no reason to think we can do what A Squad couldn't. The commander has more information about the situation than we do and we're just going to have trust his decision."

"And the other Rangers," Jack added. He didn't bat an eye at Sky's support of an idea he himself had challenged a month ago. "We should trust them too. They're obviously not going to give up until they find our team. Let's just make sure A Squad still has a planet to come back to when they do."

Sky snorted at that. "Inspiring speech, Jack."

Jack grinned, leaning forward to rest his arms on the back of their seat. "I do what I can. Hey," he added, squinting out the front. "Is that construction?"

"Night paving," Bridge confirmed. "This may slow us down a little."

"Well," Syd said with a sigh, "it's not like Boom is going anywhere."

"We should call him and let him know we're on our way," Z suggested.

"On it." Jack apparently hadn't put his morpher away after Cruger called, since it was still in his hand where he'd folded his arms against the back of the seat. It caught on his rolled-up sleeves and he grabbed for it before it could fall down between Sky and Syd.

He missed.

Sky shook his head, picking it up and flipping it open before Jack could protest. "Boom, this is Sky," he told the device. "Kat sent us to pick you up. We should be there by eleven-thirty. Don't take anything apart while you're waiting."

He closed it, cutting off the connection, and handed it back to Jack.

"Real nice, Sky," Syd told him. "Didn't anyone ever teach you how to use a phone?"

"He can't possibly be off the plane yet," Sky pointed out. "He can't use his phone anyway. The message I left was perfectly acceptable."

"You just wanted to use the Red morpher," Jack teased.

"Oh, get over yourself," Sky retorted.

Jack smirked back at him. "When you do."