I have been in trouble with the law all of once, and that was over a car accident. I don't know how the system handles gangs and street racers. That, and I can't remember what year either of the movies came out, but as of now it was before the Turbo Season happened. I'm taking a lot of creative license here; bear with me.
Also, I highly recommend the movie Surf Ninjas. It's absolutely hilarious.
The Story
"Favorite color."
"Blue. You?"
"Red and Blue. Favorite food?"
"Grilled cheese sandwiches. With real cheese, not that processed crap." A smile flickered across his face. "It was one of the few things my mom could actually make." He shook his head and glanced over at the person laying beside him in the grass.
Rocky considered. "It's hard to pick." he confessed. "I love food. I guess...peas."
He sat up on his elbows to stare at him. "Peas?" he repeated incredulously.
Rocky grinned. "I'm totally serious. Put peas in just about anything and I'll eat it."
He shook his head. "Weirdo."
"I try."
They'd come to the park after they managed to escape from the Shelter-especially hard when Kat and Tanya were there today. It had begun out of the blue, when he'd pointed out that they didn't really know that much about each other. So Rocky had retaliated by asking what his favorite animal was. The answer-wolf-had gotten him an odd look, but the questions hadn't stopped.
"Favorite movie."
He considered. "Stargate."
Rocky blinked at him. "Seriously?"
He shrugged. "I like science, and Daniel Jackson had a lot of valid points. It questions what everyone else considers to be reality and forces them to look at it in a new way." After a moment, he glanced at Rocky expectantly.
"Surf Ninjas." he responded immediately.
He raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"
Rocky flashed him another grin. "It's about two surfer brothers and their friend. The brothers find out they're actually princes of a foreign kingdom, and have to go back to save it. One of them gets the strength of a warrior, and his younger brother turns out to be a prophet. Their friend spends the entire time thinking he's the real psychic king and his friends are just the decoys. It's hilarious."
"I'll take your word for it."
"I'll lend it to you sometime. Favorite book?"
He blinked, frowning. "I don't know. Maybe...Sleepers. Or Firestarter-not the movie. I like Net Force, too-Tom Clancy."
"You're a Steven King fan?" Rocky seemed surprised.
"Yeah. Why?"
"No reason." Rocky thought for a moment. "It's hard to decide." He admitted finally, laughing at himself. Then he paused, a soft smile coming to his face. "Enchanted Isles." he said finally.
"What's that?"
"It's a children's book I got from a library sale when I was younger. I used to read it to my baby sister all the time." His eyes were distant in memory, and it took a moment for his smile to fade. After a few minutes he should his head. "Did you and Nathan ever have anything you did just the two of you?"
He was silent for awhile. "Everything." he said eventually, his voice quiet. "We started taking karate together. We worked on cars. Whenever we got into a fight we always stayed back to back, no matter what. He's not just my brother. He's my best friend." He looked away abruptly, embarrassed by the tears that had welled up.
Rocky stayed quiet for a few minutes. "How did it happen?" he asked at last.
"What?" He still wasn't looking in his direction, trying discreetly to blink his eyes clear.
"How did you two get involved in the gang? Gangs don't just happen."
He paused, looking over at him strangely. "You know, no one's ever actually asked that."
Rocky shrugged. "I'm asking now."
He sighed. "It wasn't anyone's fault, really. Dad moved us out to Jackson for some new job he had. He was hardly ever home, and even when he was he was still off in his office doing something for work. So we were on our own a lot." He shrugged. "Nothing new. We'd gotten used to it by then; Nate was even starting to prefer it. He always said he didn't trust anyone else to look out for me." He rolled his eyes even as a faint, almost smile slipped over his features.
The smile faded after a moment. "It wasn't a great neighborhood. Not that bad, but it sure as hell wasn't Angel Grove. One of the local gangs saw us hanging out once, just sparring. We weren't really fighting or anything, but it was sort of an argument. I knocked him on his ass." He grinned suddenly, the look in his eyes triumphant. "Believe me, Nate is not a pushover. It was pure dumb luck." Then his eyes dimmed as his thoughts moved on, and once again the smile was gone. "We went home, and I didn't really think anything of it. Then Nate started being late coming home. Whenever I asked him about it, he'd get pissed off and say it was nothing. So I followed him one night."
He swallowed hard. "The gang that saw us fighting wanted us to join them; they were having trouble with a rival gang, and they needed all the help they could get no matter how young we were. They cornered Nate about it and tried to bully him into joining. He agreed on the condition that they'd leave me alone. When I found them..." He closed his eyes. "Nate was breaking into a warehouse for them. He set off some alarms and they freaked. He's not stupid, but he's no techno-geek like I am. They were about to tie him up and leave him for security to find." His fist clenched. "Warren, the jackass they called a leader, said it was an initiation ceremony." He turned to look at Rocky suddenly, his eyes lost and frightened. "I couldn't...I couldn't let him...I couldn't just leave my brother like that! I had to help him!"
Rocky's eyes were tortured watching the boy before him. He wanted to hug him, or at least squeeze his shoulder or something. But if he did, Justin would clam up and he'd never hear the whole story. And somehow he knew that it needed to be told. "So what did you do?" he asked softly.
He shrugged, his eyes distant. "I hacked the alarm system, and everybody ran like hell before the cops could get there. Nate was so pissed at me!" He scowled. "I save his stupid ass and he has the nerve to get mad at me for it? What the hell?!" He shook his head. "All he could say was that I should have just stayed out of it. That he didn't go though all that crap just so I could join up anyway." His fist clenched. "That was the first time I ever really hit him. I didn't break his nose, but it sure bled a lot."
"So you joined?"
He shrugged again. "Didn't have a much of choice. After that, there was no way they'd leave me alone. Nate and I didn't talk for weeks. Then one of the guys stole a car and got mad because it wasn't running right. I offered to take a look at it, and Nate went to pass me a wrench..." Another distant smile. "We were both hooked."
"What went wrong? How'd you guys get caught?"
He sighed deeply. "That's pretty much our own fault. We managed to convince the guys to teach us how to drive. They didn't let us do it all that often, but every once in awhile they'd let one of us get behind the wheel. That's what got us into drag racing-man, you have no idea." His eyes lit up at the thought. "Trying to handle a car at that speed, the upkeep to make sure the car can handle it... It's...it's amazing." Then he sighed, slumping back on the ground. "It was my stupid idea to get into a race with another guy; he'd been bragging about how nobody could handle a car like he could, and I told him he was full of shit. Nate offered to be my navigator-told me where to turn and what to avoid so I could concentrate on driving. We were winning right up until we passed the police car camped out on the side of the road.
"It was downhill from there. We got arrested for street racing, under-aged driving, and endangering the public. Stupid cop wouldn't stop saying how he couldn't believe my feet could actually reach the pedals, let alone drive."
Rocky cocked his head. "How did-"
"Platforms." he interrupted. "Well, that and I tweaked the pedals on my favorite car a little. The shoes made me looked like an idiot until I was behind the wheel; people usually shut up after that." He lifted his arms to lean his head back against them. "They traced the rest of the gang through the three of us. The judge decided to split everyone up to make sure we couldn't get into trouble again. Didn't matter that Nate and I were brothers. Not like he couldn't tell, either; how many people walk around with each other's face?" The tears were coming again, and he blinked hard to fight them back. "But Nate..." He clenched a fist. "He convinced the judge that I didn't have anything to do with it. That he bullied me into everything, that I was really a good kid-just look at my grades. A smart kid like me wouldn't do any of that on purpose. And the stupid bastard actually believed him!"
He took a deep breath in a desperate attempt to calm himself, closing his eyes tightly. Rocky wanted to know, and he had started to tell him. He had to finish it now. After a moment, he continued. "Dad showed up at the trial. He never said a god-damn word. About any of it. Just sat there. Let the judge send Nate to juvenile hall. Let him put me on probation. He just fucking sat there!"
He sat up abruptly, scrubbing at his eyes for a moment. His hands were shaking. He never thought it'd be this hard to talk about. It wasn't like he actually liked Rocky, or anything. He was just some stupid shelter volunteer. What the hell did it matter what he thought?
Eventually, he went on. "Dad moved me back to Angel Grove. He took off about two months later and ditched me at the shelter; said something about a great job opportunity or whatever. I don't really remember-he was lying anyway. Nate's in the Jackson City Juvenile Detention Center; he might get out on good behavior in a few more months, if he doesn't get into any more fights. Our parole officers monitor our mail and check up on us every once in awhile. We get supervised phone calls once a month. No visits yet, not until they decide we're allowed."
Rocky stared at the boy laying on the ground beside him. He was a Power Ranger, someone who fought for peace and protected the innocent. It was an experience that had forced him to grow up fast. Justin had grown up just as fast, if not faster, and was more mature than most people he knew-that weren't Rangers at least. He'd matured through a fight for others; Justin had been forced to endure the cruelties and injustice of his own planet's judicial system.
It wasn't fair.
Justin turned slightly to look up at him. "You know thing that bothers me the most?"
"What?" He hoped he didn't sound as choked up as he felt.
"My mom was an advocate for anti-gang violence." He shrugged slightly. "If she knew, she'd be disappointed in us."
Rocky bit his lip, watching Justin with new eyes. -(Somehow I doubt that, Justin.)- he thought to himself. -(And if she is, then she wasn't paying enough attention.)-