Despite the best efforts of the teachers, word spread quickly at the school about what happened in the office. The one benefit of this was that very quickly the school was cleared as students scrambled to go home and process the news of what had happened in whatever way they needed to. Most of Ace's customers went home, likely to destroy or dispose of their supplies before Ace could talk, well aware that because his birthday was early in the year he was now 18 and could be criminally charged meaning there was likely soon going to be a lot of pressure put on him to talk about where he got his supply, and more importantly to them, where it went after that!
Kids were rushing to Social Media to post what they had heard and the discussion was blowing up about the fact that there had been dealing going on within the school, which thanks to everyone rushing to make the story as juicy as possible ranged from Ace being a dealer to him being actively involved in the South American Cartels long before anyone even had any idea how large his operation really was, and people were scrambling over themselves to either brag about never losing faith in Victor or to indicate how they only thought that Victor MIGHT have bought some drugs and never REALLY wanted him to be expelled. The point was, for now the school was no longer at risk of turning into a crowd control nightmare, but they were certain the headaches from the entire situation were likely only beginning.
Ace was taken to the precinct after his arrest, and taken straight into an interview room. Although not a detective, as the arresting officer, Trevor was invited to sit in on the interview. Ace was sitting in the interview room, slouching in his chair as the detective finally arrived.
"Detective Holt." He introduced himself as he sat down, opening up a file. "So, Gary…mind if I call you Gary?"
"It's Ace!" Ace corrected him. "Everyone calls me Ace."
"I'm not so sure that'll be the case for long." Trevor told him.
"Please, it's a little HGH, it's no big deal." Ace snorted. "I'll get a slap on the wrist, no doubt have to watch some lame video on the dangers of drugs and then go right back to…
"I hate to break it to you, but it's not that cut and dried." Detective Holt told him. "We found twenty vials in your bag, that puts you into the realms of being a dealer…"
"So, I'm a dealer! Bit freaking whoop!" Ace stated arrogantly. "I don't even mind admitting it! What about it?"
"I was going to say that it gives us probable cause to get a warrant to search your house." Detective Holt told them. "With what we've already found, we can already put a case together to make a felony case against you!"
"Wait, felony?" Ace asked. "You're not serious, this is just…"
"You've got quantities on you that make you a major dealer! What we found in your bag alone is enough to put you in prison for…"
"PRISON?" Ace screamed. "No, you're just trying to scare me! You can't…"
"Wake up Gary, you turned 18 in February! That makes you an adult!" Trevor informed him. "You can forget Juvie, if the DA decides to make an example you're going up state!"
"All we want to know is where do you get it?" Detective Holt asked him. "We've got no doubt that you're not the brains behind everything."
"What makes you think I'm not…?"
"Ace, how dumb are you really?" Trevor asked him. "We just told you that you could go to jail and you're now trying to tell us you want us to think you're the mastermind behind this?"
"I…I…" Ace started to stammer. Trevor just held up a hand.
"You know what? We could continue this, but I think there's someone who wants to talk to you first." He told him. He opened the door, at which he saw Victor on the other side. Ace just looked to him as he saw Victor coming in.
"We'll be right outside." Trevor told him, before putting a hand on Ace's shoulder. "Remember what we discussed."
Victor just nodded and took a seat as Detective Holt and Trevor left the room. Ace couldn't look at his cousin as he sat opposite him.
"Well?" Victor asked him. "What's this about?"
"You're the smart one." Ace stated. "Why don't you figure it out?"
"Ace, I knew you were using, at least…I suspected, but dealing?" Victor asked him. "What were you thinking?"
"It's a living." Ace told him.
"Do you know what else is a living? A real job!" Victor said in response. "This isn't about making a living, this is about taking an easy way out Ace, it's what you always did!"
"Well, that's easy for you to say! Everything always comes so easy to you!" Ace stated. "Victor the sports star. Victor the school president, Victor the honour student…"
"You think all of that is EASY?" Victor asked him. "I work hard for all of that Ace! I study for those grades! I work out and I watch what I eat! I train all the time in all those sports that I'm part of! I got all those trophies because I know that one day all of that will be what I take into a job interview where I'm competing against guys with exactly the same grades, maybe even better to show an employer what I can do that they can't!"
"Yeah, I forgot, you turned around and became Mr Suck up!" Ace said dismissively. "I remember when you got it! I remember when you didn't let anyone tell you what to do! I remember when…"
"You know what I remember? I remember we were a couple of losers!" Victor interrupted him. "We were a couple of time-wasting nobodies that thought we were cool because we made other people miserable. I remember we were nobodies going nowhere!"
"Then you turned around and became the sell-out…"
"I got my act together when I saw where that leads!" Victor yelled at him. "That shit that went down in Middle-school was a wake-up call Ace! I saw what we were doing to other people every day and what it could drive people to do! I did what I could to change and you…"
"That little shit tried to kill me and I'M the one that's being threatened with jail?" Ace protested. "He should be locked up!"
"He WAS locked up Ace! He was in an institution for months!" Victor reminded him. "I should know, I visited him, I saw what that place was like, I saw what we did to him and it made me look at who I was becoming. REALLY look, and it made me wake up to the fact that I was becoming the kind of thing my dad always hated, the kind of thing he fought against!"
"Yeah, your dad the war hero." Ace replied. "The regular real-life Captain America! Instead what do I get? I'll tell you what I get, I get a guy that hasn't even been seen since I was six months old and he went out for some beer and never came back! Everything's so great for you Victor! You have colleges throwing themselves at your feet to take a scholarship! Hell, that guy from Cal Tech wanted to take you to a steak dinner in a freaking Limo!"
"Is that what this is about Ace? You're sore that things are going well for me?" Victor asked him.
"I did this because I don't want to be a loser all my life! I don't want to be working some dead-end job for shit pay all my life!" Ace stated.
"Ace, you could have…"
"You've seen my grades; no college will give me the time of day!" Ace told him. "This gave me a chance of getting out of this shit hole town!"
"But why bring me into it?" Victor asked him. "Why turn on me?"
"YOU WERE THE ONE THAT TURNED ON ME!" Ace screamed as he finally looked at his cousin. "You sided with that freak in the glasses and you turned into someone with a future. What about me?"
"You tried to sabotage my life because you were lonely? Because you thought I'd leave you behind?" Victor asked him, before getting up from his chair. "Ace, we're done."
"What else is new?" Ace asked him.
"No, I mean…we're done done!" Victor answered. "You tried to ruin my life because you felt bad about yourself? If you can't see how messed up that is, I don't even know what to tell you! But I have a feeling you'll have plenty of time to figure it out. You'll just do so without me."
With that, he knocked on the door. Trevor opened it up, looking to Victor.
"Everything alright?" He asked him. He just shook his head.
"I tried." Victor told him. "You're on your own Ace. What happens now is all on you."
As Victor left and Trevor and Detective Holt came into the room and took their seats once more, Ace wiped a few tears away as they sat down.
"So, what do you say Ace?" Trevor asked. "You want to give us something better than you?"
"Better than me?" He asked. "Yeah, that's what everyone thinks. Call a lawyer. Do your worst."
"If that's what you really want." Detective Holt sighed. Trevor left the room with him, feeling no better about the situation than he did. He didn't see any more value in potentially sending a teenager to prison than Detective Holt did, but when all was said and done, it wasn't possible to help someone that didn't want to be helped.
The following day, the school was still closed. Principal Hastings didn't really see any point in opening the school for only one day, and opted instead to re-open the school on the Monday, hoping that by then the hubbub surrounding Ace's sudden downfall would have lost some of its lustre and people would be willing to get back to work and the discussion would turn to other matters. Hastings had already sent word to Victor that his suspension had been overturned and had issued an official apology from the school as well as a personal one from her.
As the Rangers were in the yard, working on some training, Hayley heard her phone buzzing and broke off from her sparring session with Brody to answer it.
"What is it?" Sarah asked.
"It's from Hastings." Hayley told them. "She said that Victor has asked to have a re-match on Monday."
"He still wants to play?" Calvin asked. Hayley just shrugged.
"I guess since neither of us won technically the title would be vacant if we didn't." She replied. "I'm a little surprised Victor wanted to do it. I wouldn't have been surprised if he had wanted to lay low for a little while."
"Lying low isn't really Victor's style." Sarah said with a little smile. "I mean, he's annoying but you have to admit, the guy has the guts to follow through on what he starts."
"So, what are you going to say?" Brody asked her. Hayley just smiled.
"What else?" She asked, tapping her phone. "If he's willing to give this another shot, then so am I!"
"Yeah, and Hayley and Victor aren't the only ones with follow-through." Brody stated, looking to Preston.
"Yeah, well what can I say? You really inspired me." Preston said to Hayley. "I couldn't have done it if you hadn't taught me about hard work."
They heard a cough from the corner, causing them all to look at Viera, who adopted a rather obvious 'what the hell?' pose.
"Uh…not to mention…none of this would have happened if I'd just listened to you in the first place Viera." Preston replied. "You were trying to look out for me and I didn't listen. I'm really sorry. Will you forgive me?"
"Well, it did give me an opportunity to help Victor while you were figuring that out for yourself." She conceded. "I guess…apology accepted. But try listening in future!"
"Oh, don't worry about that!" Preston assured her. "I have learned my lesson about playing with forces I'm not ready for the hard way!"
Just then, there was an alarm. Mick ran out in a panic.
"Guys, Abrakadanger is back!" He rushed out. "He's in Oakhill Plaza!"
"He must have repaired his staff!" Preston gulped. Brody just smiled.
"Well, just as well we have our own wizard as back-up." He replied. "You ready for this Preston?"
"I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" He assured them, presenting his wand.
"Then let's make this guy disappear!" Calvin stated. Everyone just face-palmed. "What? Someone had to say it!"
"No Cal, they really didn't." Hayley said wearily as they all pulled out their morphers. "NINJA SPIN!"
Meanwhile, in his cruiser a little way from the Plaza, Trevor got the call about the attack.
"Calling all cars, monster attack at Oakhill Plaza." The radio crackled into life as he finished giving directions to one of the citizens on his patrol route. "All cars in the area to report for urgent evacuation and damage control!"
Trevor reached into the car and turned the radio onto another frequency, just as he had discussed with his followers. He found the right channel.
"Anyone broadcasting?" He asked.
"We got the message." One of his followers said. "We're bringing The Hammer."
"Alright, we don't know how often we'll get a chance like this." Trevor told them, going to the back of his car and pulling out military grade body armour and beginning to strap it on as he grabbed his weapons. "Remember, just like we talked about. First priority is to clear the area of collateral damage. After that…then we bring the pain!"
At the plaza, Abrakadanger had shown up with some Basher Bots and some Kudabots as back-up. Cosmo had sent down the Buzz-Cams ready to capture the action. Eager to make sure that he made sure the audience got their subscription fees' worth, Abrakadanger was already throwing around powerful spells to demonstrate his power. He turned a statue of the town founder that had stood for close to a century into butter, allowing it to melt into the ground just to get the reaction.
"Now that my wand is repaired, it's better than ever!" Abrakadanger declared. "Now the Blue Ranger will never be able to stop me!"
"Do you want to place a bet on that?" Preston asked as a smoke bomb went off, and the Rangers emerged from the cloud of smoke, beginning to attack the robots that had come to assist him. Abrakadanger was a little taken aback seeing the team reassembled. Only the Gold Ranger was missing, but since he had been sent to the other side of the country, he was sure that it would still take him a little while to get back, but everyone else was there.
"Wait, this is impossible! How could you have turned them all back?" Abrakadanger demanded. "Only a Master Magician could have done that!"
"Well, I don't claim to be a Master Magician yet, but with a lot of hard work, I figured out how to undo your spells!" Preston told him. "Do yourself a favour and leave now before we have to take you down HARD!"
"Does anyone EVER take you up on that offer?" Abrakadanger taunted him.
"No." Preston replied. "But that doesn't mean we don't give you the chance. If we can avoid a fight that leads to people getting hurt, we like to take it!"
"Sounds like weakness to me!" He responded, powering up his staff. "Do you think I ASKED for a title match with Galvanax? Those with true power don't ASK! They TAKE!"
"Then let's see how that ends for you!" Preston replied as he ran for Abrakadanger, dodging the first of his strikes as he closed the distance to attack, readying his ninja sword for action.
Meanwhile outside the Plaza, civilians were fleeing where they could. Explosions and blasts could already be heard from outside as Trevor arrived, putting on his helmet as he approached one of the fleeing citizens who was helping an injured victim out of the area.
"How is he?" Trevor asked as he approached, looking to the civilian. He did have some limited experience with battlefield trauma, but the biggest challenge was being able to assess how serious wounds were under heavy fire. Sometimes horrific looking wounds that left people covered in blood and looking like their survival was either a miracle or a cruelty of suffering turned out to have relatively minor wounds, while others who seemed to have what looked like reasonably small injuries would keel over dead moments later.
"It looks bad, but my dad's still breathing." The civilian responded.
"It looks like this man needs an ambulance. They should be arriving shortly!" Trevor told him. "Until then get him as far from the battle zone as you can carry him!"
"Can you help…?"
"I am helping!" Trevor replied, cradling his shotgun. He ran to where a truck rolled up and a SWAT unit was disembarking in full body armour and carrying heavy weapons. "Circle around! Secure the exits and entrances! Our first priority is the evacuation. I don't want a single casualty within a hundred yards of here!"
As the unit ran into the nearest entrance, beginning to fan out, and other trucks arrived with more units, the survivor and his father both stared at the arrivals.
"Is it just me or do they look like they're tooled up for a lot more than an evacuation?" He asked. The man just passed off his father to a paramedic as he saw an ambulance arriving, before heading back in. "WAIT! Where the hell are you going?"
"I need to see what's going on!" He called back.
"It's not your…it's too dangerous…DEVIN GET BACK HERE! DEVIN!"