Chapter 3

Birds of a Feather Can Cause Stormy Weather Part I

As Sky made his way to the records room, he saw a group of paying D-squad cadets knock several rolls of paper towels and trash bags from a janitor's cart. Making a mental note of their names, he bent over to retrieve a roll of paper from next to his foot.

"Well, whaddya know? Schyuler, it's good to see you!" Joe Jones, the janitor, chuckled as he noticed his helper. "Not doing too bad for yourself, huh? Looking pretty nice in that red. Haven't seen you since you were in D-squad."

Broken out of his funk, Sky grinned. "Good to see you too, and thanks. How've you been?"

The elder man scooped up a few wads of paper from the floor and deposited them in his trash bin. "Eh . . . not bad, not bad. Heard you're gonna be doing the C-squad reviews."

"Yah. It should be interesting." Sky lied, but then fessed up. "We're supposed to find a new green ranger too. Have you got anything to say about Camila Jones?"

"Heh . . . I could give you that girl's life story. She's my daughter." Joe laughed as he saw the surprise on Sky's face. "Didn't know, huh? Yup . . . she comes home every night, ranting on about something that she learned, but as soon as she gets into her room, the music comes on, and you don't get anything else out of her. Basically the same every night. Why do you ask?

"Well, it helps to know what a candidate is like based on other sources than test scores and video footage." Sky shrugged. "Between the two of us, I have to say that the selection is really slim as far as ranger material."

"Hmm . . . you don't say. Well, speak of the little devil!" Joe's deep brown eyes lit up with child-like excitement. "Cammy, c'mere!" He waved over the red-head who'd just entered the corridor. "Have you ever met Schuller Tate before?"

"No. Not really." Camila's voice held a guarded note of suspicion as she was put between her father and a stranger. "You're B-squad, red ranger, right?"

"That's right." Sky shifted uncomfortably. Camila's hazel eyes were dangerous, frightening. "Are you ready for reviews?"

"Yes." Camila nodded. "Not to be rude, but I really need to get something to eat. See you later, Dad." And with that, she slipped past the two men and continued into the staff living quarters.

"Heh . . . never realized how much that look could startle someone. I guess she even got you, huh?" Joe scratched the back of his head. There was still a fair amount of dark brown hair that hadn't started graying or falling out, yet. "She's always like that when others are around, cold and steely, like one of my friends from when I was younger. I don't know what caused her to get that way."

"After seeing her class, it's probably the same reason that I used to act like that." Sky looked down the hallway. "Would you mind if I tried to talk to her?"

"Go ahead, but you might want to protect all vital organs." Joe chuckled as he began to push his cart off in the other direction. "I don't want my apartment to become the scene of a murder."

Pausing, Sky knocked lightly on the door marked 'Jones'. He was about to knock again, when the door slid open. The red-head stood in the doorway, holding a meat cleaver. "Yes?" Camila asked with the same vacant, icy tone.

Suddenly, all of the nerve that he'd had as the blue ranger fighting against Grumm vanished. Sky was left as confident as a wet kitten on a doorstep. "I was wondering . . . if you'd like to talk a bit." Congrats, Sky . . . that was about the equivalent of a seventh-grader asking his crush out for the first time. The red ranger kicked himself mentally.

A slightly amused twinkle forced its way into Camila's eyes. "No." Was the curt reply, and the door shut.

Feeling like a total idiot, Sky knocked again. When there was no answer, he glanced around to make sure that no one else was within earshot. "I know how it feels. Being treated differently just because your parents work here, getting called a free-rider, teachers not giving you a fair chance . . . it hurts."

"At least your dad was a ranger, someone others looked up to." Camila's voice was coming from the other side of the door. "My dad is just the one who just called when someone gets sick in the lab. He doesn't even know about how I get treated . . . I could never tell him." She opened the door a crack, looking out with one eye.

"Give me a chance, I don't think we're as different as you might want to think." Sky surprised himself with how warm his voice sounded.

"Why? What difference do I make?" Camila's words were bitter. "I'm just an extra body standing outside, sweating for however little everyone thinks I'm worth."

Next Day
"Bridge . . . can we come in?" Z and Syd asked anxiously from an inch outside of the door that led to the guys' room.

"I suppose. What's going on?" Bridge questioned.

"Blackmail material. Watch." Z replied as she booted up Bridge's computer and proceeded to hack into the base's security cameras that were placed around the city.

"Wait! Don't do that!" The blue ranger cried. "I'll get in trouble if they find out my computer was used to access that!"

"No you won't. Kat taught me to do this as a precaution that the main computer would crash, so we'd still have surveillance, and I was ordered to practice on different models of computers in different locations." Z smiled. "I'm just following orders."

"And we found something great." Syd giggled. "Take a look.

Reluctantly, he turned to look, and then laughed in spite of himself. "What is Sky doing?"

"Are you sure this is okay?" Camila wondered. The loose white gi felt strange compared to her SPD uniform. She'd let Sky talk her into going to the local gym so that he could help her train for the review if she wasn't ready.

"Don't worry about it, besides, I don't think you can hurt me." Sky chuckled as Camila gave her bamboo staff a doubtful glance. He was also wearing a gi. "Besides, I am able to make force fields."

"Is he out on a date?" Bridge made a strange sound that was a cross between a snort and laugh.

"Don't know, but I do know that the girl is Camila Jones." Syd giggled in glee.

With a mischievous grin, Z turned to face her fellow spies. "I wonder if I could crash their little party."

"Sky'd kill you." The duo objected.

"But what if I could?" Turning back, Z's eyes flashed gold, and a replicate appeared behind Camila on the screen.

Sky's eyes widened as he saw Z appear, wave, and then disappeared. Glaring, Sky turned and saw the small black camera in the corner of the room. "Those guys are going to get it." He picked up a roll of athletic tape and covered the lens with several strips.

"What?" Camila looked around the empty room. "There's no one here."

"It was Z Delgado . . . yellow ranger . . . she can make duplicates of herself." Sky checked to make sure that no other clones had appeared. "Bridge and Syd also have powers. Even Jack had powers, but he quit SPD."

"Really? That's . . . strange." Camila commented in a relieved voice.

Sky shook his head. "Not really. There was a mishap when our parents were trying to create the ranger powers that SPD uses today. Ironic that we were all rangers and came together on the same team. Well, I thought you were going to show me what you're able to do."

"Okay . . ." Camila took a deep breath and rushed forwards.