When Wrench and Fury finally delivered their news to Sledge the bounty hunter took it surprisingly well.
Meaning he only left three dents in the wall and only smashed a single console.
Anger and panic swirled into a chaotic mess inside his green scaly body. Taking this job was turning out to be a grave mistake.
Normally he stuck to smaller gigs with easily persuadable clientele. So even if things went south he could still strongarm his way into a profit. This wasn't that kind of client. This was the type of client that would take more than their deposit if he failed to retrieve what they were after.
He shuddered.
"Oh, Sledgums…" his beautiful pink fiance said as she wrapped herself around his armored arm. "Why don't you just take a little break? You're so tense. Remember what the doctor said about your blood pressure."
"Oh Posey, I would love to. But I can't right now," Sledge said gently.
"It's always work first!" Posendra exclaimed. "I'm never your first priority."
"Oh baby, you know you're always first for me," Sledge said and grabbed his fiancee by the waist. "But if we don't catch that stupid bird we're all gonna get vaporized."
"Not before our wedding!" Poisandra cried. "I'm too beautiful to die unwed."
"And I wholeheartedly agree," Sledge said. "That's why I'm going to do everything in my power to get this job done."
Sledge let go of Poisandra and turned around towards a massive reinforced steel door. With a heavy hiss, the door rolled open, revealing a long dingy-lit hallway lined with dozens of cells.
Each cell contained one of Sledge's prisoners. They ranged from thieves, and murderers to politicians and online scalpers. Any sort of vile monstrosity that somebody would pay high dollar for. Many of them had gone insane and growled with a primal fury as they tried to claw at him through their cells. Some just did it because they were bored or were doing their best just to fit in.
"Too deranged," Sledge muttered as he passed the cell of a prisoner who had spent the last hundred years banging his head into the wall.
"Too psychotic," He said as he glanced at the creature devouring the arm of another prisoner.
"Too much of a loser," He said as he passed a prisoner who now only possessed one arm.
Finally, Sledge stopped in front of a cell that held a white and blue creature with large claws and an alligator snout who froze his meal of mush into a popsicle and crushed it with sharp teeth.
"I've always hated people that chew ice," Sledge said. "But your powers would definitely come in handy."
"I prefer the texture, and it keeps my fangs sharp." the creature said with a shrug, " But tell me, why should I offer my powers to you?"
"Simple," Sledge replied, "if you can bring me my little birdie I'll set you free."
Shelby and Tyler left the Bulkmier estate and hopped into the red jeep with a newfound enthusiasm. Finally, they had a course of action. Finally, they were heading somewhere to get answers. Shelby knew that to an outsider it might seem weird that she was so invested in the exploits of a stranger but his energy was contagious and she was helplessly infected.
He was so excited he was practically vibrating as he cruised down the street. He even began to sing along to the latest Kira Ford song.
Shelby nodded her head to his off-key performance, a nearly delirious smile plastered on her face. If this ride lasted forever, she wouldn't have cared.
Then her phone started to ring, and as she looked down at her screen her smile instantly faded.
She quickly paused the music and brought her smartphone to her ear.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Where the hell are you?" Dakoda demanded.
"Uh… Taking an extended lunch…" She said sheepishly.
"For two hours?"
"Shit, I'm sorry. Something really important came up."
"And you didn't bother to let anyone know? Poor Kaylee was all alone."
No thanks to you and Chastity. Shelby wanted to say but knew better.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," Shelby said.
"Don't bother. Clearly, we're surviving without you. Have a good day."
Before she could get another syllable in Dakoda hung up.
"What was that about?" Tyler asked.
"Nothing, " Shelby snapped, "Don't worry about it."
"It doesn't seem like nothing," Tyler said.
Shelby just sighed, "It's just my manager. I'm pretty sure I'm in big trouble."
"Wanna head over there and talk to him?" Tyler offered.
"No need to put this on hold, it's way more important than me getting chewed out," Shelby said half because she believed it and half because she wasn't ready to deal with Dakoda.
But Tyler quickly pulled into the nearest parking lot and turned around.
"What are you doing?" Shelby asked.
"We're going to go talk to your manager," He said.
"I already said no," Shebly protested, then flashed a confused expression. "Wait… we?"
"Yeah, I got you into this mess so I wanna help get you out of it."
"Tyler, no. That's insane," Shelby said. "What could you even say that would fix things?"
Tyler shrugged. "Dunno. But I'll think of something."
"So you're telling me you kidnapped her?" Dakoda asked the young man who accompanied his MIA employee.
The man nodded quite seriously. "Yes sir. And it was incredibly irresponsible of me. I'm so very sorry that it negatively impacted your business."
"Uh, right…" the shift lead replied. He cast a sideways look towards Shelby who couldn't help but cringe. "And you brought her back because…?"
"While kidnapping her she told me how much this job means to her. And there was so much raw passion in her voice. It gave me a complete change of heart. You have no idea how lucky you are to have such a devoted employee."
Dakoda blinked and took a second to try to digest everything. Before they'd arrived he'd been ready to fire her as soon as he could get the proper paperwork filed. Now he was at a total loss for how to navigate this conversation, let alone the situation as a whole. "O…kay…" He said finally. "Well, I suppose I can let you off the hook this time. But next time you get-erm… kidnapped… just let somebody know."
"Yes. Absolutely." Shelby quickly replied. "And since I'm here I can get right back to work."
"Right," Her apparent kidnapper said. "And I'll go turn myself in. But not before giving you my phone number, Shelby. So that you can contact me about suing me for the emotional trauma I brought upon you by making you so worried about your job." He winked and scribbled his number down on a napkin. "Now off to the police station for me." He said and rushed off.
"Who the hell was that?" Dakoda asked as the man disappeared from sight.
"Honestly, I have no idea," Shelby replied.
"Okay well… get back to work," Dakoda said, "I'm sure that Kaylee could use a break."
"Yes sir," Shelby said and rushed back to the kitchen.
Dakoda sighed, so far the day was turning out to be an absolute shit show. Feeling a bit burnt out, and knowing that the restaurant was staffed enough, he decided to sneak away.
Dakoda headed towards the nearest elevator, and once he verified it was empty he stepped inside and hit the buttons for the 8th, 2nd, and 8th floor again. The elevator shuttered and descended further than the lowest basement. After a few moments, the elevator shuttered again and he was in a large cavernous room filled with high-tech equipment.
"Dakoda what are you doing here?" Kendall Morgan asked as she worked on a morpher.
"I needed a breather," he admitted, then looked down at the revolver. "Is that mine?"
"No it's mine," Kendall replied. It was then that Dakoda noticed the pink Dino Charger.
"I didn't know you were working on one for yourself," he admitted. "I kinda figured you preferred being the one behind the scenes."
"I do," replied. "But Director Hart feels we need more Rangers on the field and we're rather short on candidates."
"Isn't that why they're going to bring in that other guy."
"Yes but Riley won't be field ready for a year at least, and now we know for sure that we can't afford to wait that long for allies."
"But are you sure that you're ready?" Dakoda asked with a frown.
"If my sister Kendrix could do it, so can I," Kendall snapped. Then she quickly shifted gears. "So the breather you requested, why do you need it?"
Dakoda sighed. "Just one of our coworkers at the museum…"
"Is it that Truman girl?" asked suddenly.
"Yeah," Dakoda said, more than a little surprised. "How'd you know?"
"Honestly, I think hiring her was a mistake," she replied. "I only did it to get in her dad's good graces. Just to find out HE doesn't even want her here."
"So why keep her?"
"We're too understaffed to lose her," Kendall grumbled.
"Ouch, good point. Good thing I didn't fire her when she showed back up with her boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" Kendall asked, actually looking up from her work for a moment.
"Yeah, I think that's what he was. That or a fling or something. Either way, he was a real weirdo. He tried to cover for her ditching work."
"When did this happen?" Kendall asked as she turned to her laptop.
Dakoda was surprised to see how much that seemed to pique her interest. "I don't know, probably around noonish."
Kendall grew serious as she started pecking away at her keyboard.
"No way…" Kendall said in a voice that left Dakoda ravenously curious.
But before he could ask the situation became derailed by a blaring siren.
The monster alarm.
Tyler was about to pull out of the museum parking lot when the object arced across the sky like a shooting star and crashed in front of the building.
Director Hart could wait, he decided as he reversed back towards the chaos.
Tyler expected a meteor, or space junk, maybe even some random airplane part. What he didn't expect was a drop pod that opened up to reveal a reptilian creature with a posse of plant-like mooks.
In a matter of milliseconds, the situation seemed infinitely above his pay grade.
A family who'd been about to make a break for their car ended up in the monster's sight.
"Wow, what's the rush?" He asked. "I think you guys need to cool down!"
A rush of frosty air escapes the creature's mouth and enveloped the family. Once it disappeared they were all frozen in a massive block of ice.
Tyler tried to swallow but his mouth had gone inconceivably dry.
This was a real-life monster attack.
He frantically searched his backseat for anything resembling a weapon. But unless the monster had a spare change allergy or an irrational fear of water bottles he wasn't faring well in that department.
Then, almost reluctantly, Tyler remembered that his dad had bestowed upon him years of martial arts training.
He took a breath, trying to conjure up the courage he desperately needed, then he hopped out of his jeep.
By then the creature had taken to stalking an elderly woman, who if her walker had a turbo setting, would've definitely engaged it.
"Why the cold shoulder, granny?" The monster asked with a giggle. "No need to treat me so coldly."
"Hey creep, why not fight someone in your age bracket," Tyler exclaimed.
The monster turned away from his prey just in time to see Tyler knock the nearest grunt to the floor with a powerful swing.
Tyler was shocked by how quickly everything came back to him. With a swing kick another mook collapsed to the ground and dissolved into moss and black smoke.
"Ah, finally," the monster exclaimed, "some actual excitement!"
One of the grunts lunged for Tyler but a quick duck sent it stumbling forward, accidentally sending it into the cloud of mist the monster had intended for Tyler.
With a grunt of annoyance, the creature swung its torso-sized hand into the frozen trooper, instantly shattering it.
The monster charged toward Tyler, who was woefully unprepared for this type of encounter. The monster was an alligator, a tank, and, in a distant sort of way, the Statue of Liberty all wrapped into one. And it wanted him dead.
Suddenly the words of his father drifted into his mind. When fighting an opponent bigger and tougher than you the best thing to do is to find its weakness.
Weakness? What kind of weakness, outside of global warming, could that brute even have?
As the creature took in a breath to unleash a deadly ice attack a moment of realization dawned on Tyler.
He quickly pulled his arm back and before the creature could exhale and seal his fate Tyler unleashed everything he had.
A deafening sound not unlike broken glass clinked in Tyler's ears as his fist connected with the creature's cold scaley snout.
"Ah, what the heck!" The creature howled as it stumbled back holding its face. "That was cold dude!"
Tyler took no time delivering another spin kick, hitting the monster in the side and causing it to collapse.
He watched in numb disbelief as his heart pounded in his ears. He was actually doing it, he was not only going toe to toe with a monster but he was actually winning!
That is until the grunt sprang up from behind and wrapped its arms around him. Tyler struggled but to no success, leaving him completely open to the creature's ice attack.
But just as the creature pulled in a deep breath, leaving Tyler left to try and cope with the reality of life as an icicle, a spray of sparks erupted from behind the creature.
"What the-" the creature managed to ask as it whipped around just in time to get shot in the face.
"Cool your jets, Iceage," one of the two figures said as they aimed their yellow revolvers toward the monster.
"How'd you know my name?" Iceage asked.
"Honestly," the black-clad woman said. "Lucky guess."
Tyler stared at his saviors in disbelief.
It seemed the Power Rangers had come to him.