Disclaimer: Saban owns everything Power Rangers related. I only own the plot and things you don't recognize from TV.
A/N: Sorry about the wait. Updates should be coming more regularly from now on for this and my other story as well. Thanks for reading, reviewing, etc. Enjoy!
In Transit
Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA
July 11, 2012
10:30 AM
"Face it, Jason: like it or not, this is your only chance."
"OK, so remember, when we get there try not to ask too many questions, let me do the talking, and for the love of god don't touch anything." Billy motioned with one hand as he spoke, holding the steering wheel tightly at one o'clock with the other. He and Jason were driving down the long, painfully monotonous stretch of highway through the desert between Angel Grove and ERECA headquarters, the landscape outside changing so little it seemed at times like they were driving on a treadmill. Hearing no response to his admonition, Billy turned to Jason. "Jase, are you even lis-" he stopped and groaned, turning his eyes back to the road. "You know, that's not exactly the safest way to sit."
Jason cocked his head toward Billy and raised an eyebrow beneath his sunglasses. The former Red Ranger had reclined the passenger seat of Billy's car as far back as it would go and kicked his legs up onto the dashboard; his seatbelt dangled, forgotten, from the wall. "For Christ's sake, Bill," he grunted, running a hand over his face. "You've said that every five minutes for the last half hour. Who do you think I am, Rocky? And don't tell me how to sit in a car, you sound like my mother." Despite his words, Jason raised the seat, lowered his legs and reached for the seatbelt. As his hand found the strap, he hesitated and stared out the window into the distant, jagged hills that sliced into the deep blue of the sky as they passed like the edge of a serrated knife. Billy opened his mouth to retort but the words died on his tongue; he could tell from the look on Jason's face that he wouldn't respond to whatever he said. Finally Jason blinked, licked his lips, and tore his eyes from the window. As he clicked his seatbelt fastened, he glanced up at Billy.
"It's still out there, isn't it?"
Billy knew exactly what he meant. "Yeah. The ruins of the old Command Center have been basically left untouched since Divatox left." He turned to Jason. "I've been by to visit a couple of times." Jason whipped his head around and stared Billy right in the face. Even through the sunglasses, Billy could feel the incredulous stare. "I'm not the only one, either. Every time I've been there, someone's left flowers or something behind. Once I found a picture of our original team in a white gold frame propped up against a broken piece of rebar."
Jason whistled softly. "Wow. After Zordon I did everything short of actually promising not to go back there. I never would've thought anyone from his time would've been able to take that feeling…I can only imagine what it must be like to see that place in pieces."
Billy paused for a long moment, digging through his brain for a proper comparison, before speaking. "Trini told me you guys went to Germany during the Peace Conference once and saw the trenches from World War 1." Jason grimaced and nodded.
"Yeah. I remember telling her it felt like I was standing in a place where present and past blurred together, where you could sense the number of corpses that had probably bled onto the ground you were standing on. The whole time we were there I had this weird tickle at the base of my neck; the hairs on my arms were standing up and the muscles in my thighs kept twitching, it was like something was triggering my fight-or-flight response even when there wasn't a threat."
Billy nodded. "Yeah, that about sums it up. I'd never really thought about it that way, but I guess your background provides a perspective from outside my range of experience."
"I'm gonna choose to take that as a compliment," Jason muttered.
"Good, you were supposed to," Billy replied. The car came over the top of a hill and the facility became visible in the distance, a sprawling metallic structure that twinkled in the blazing sunlight. The place was surrounded by a triple layer of fences and walls; Jason even thought he could make out sniper towers at every corner. His eyes widened in surprise.
"This is your scientific research facility? Looks a lot more like a military installation." Billy chuckled softly at the unspoken question in Jason's words.
"Before you go all Mulder on me, no, this isn't Area 51," he said cheerfully. When Jason didn't laugh, Billy's smile quickly faded.
"Billy," Jason said softly, his gaze locked on the approaching structure. "That background of mine you were talking about earlier is screaming at me in five different languages that this place is bad news, and we aren't even in the parking lot yet. What do you do here, anyway?"
"I already told you, Jason," Billy said insistently, putting his other hand on the steering wheel. "If we're going to do this you can't ask any questions."
Jason took his sunglasses off, folded them up and hung them from the collar of his T-shirt. "Stop the car."
Billy frowned. "What?"
"I said stop the fucking car, right now." Jason's voice was so low it was almost a growl; Billy felt a tingle run down his back between his shoulder blades.
"What happened to trusting me with your life?"
"What happened to you being the rational one?" Jason retorted. "Now pull over before I make you."
"Jason-" Billy started to protest further, but Jason shot him a deadly glare and the scientist sighed, let his foot off the gas and brought the car to a stop on the empty asphalt shoulder. "What do you want me to say?" He asked as he shifted into Park. "I already told you, if I say too much about what I do here I could lose my job."
"I'm becoming less and less sure this is a job you should want to keep," Jason countered. "They don't let you talk to your own friends about your work, they operate out of what looks like a military prison with triple fences and goddamn sniper towers, and worst of all, they're less than five miles from the old Command Center and you have ten tons of Aquitian technology stored inside. You're the genius; you tell me how that equates to a good situation."
"If it weren't for my situation," Billy said indignantly. "There would be no way for us to help you. Have you forgotten what I said last night? 'Psychotic killing machine, destroy everything you care for, torn apart from the inside out?' Any of that ringing any bells? If not for my unique position, your circumstances would be hopelessly dire."
Jason blew a breath out through his nose. "We would've found a way," he said slowly. "We always have."
"And how long would that have taken?" Billy asked, adjusting his weight so he faced Jason more directly. "How much valuable time would we have wasted scrambling desperately to use our vastly inadequate resources to discover some infinitesimal hope of a solution to your problem? More pertinently, how far gone would you have been by the time we finally found something? Face it, Jason: like it or not, this is your only chance."
Jason made eye contact with Billy again and held it this time. "Which one of us are you trying to convince, man?" At Billy's bewildered look, he plowed ahead. "I've done enough interrogations to know when someone's getting overly defensive of something. You're torn about this, Billy, it's written all over your face; not to mention the fact that you haven't loosened your grip on the steering wheel since we started this conversation."
Billy's eyes went to his hands. His knuckles had turned the color of paper, and as he slowly tried to uncurl his fingers from the wheel, he felt several sharp, painful pops as his joints began to loosen. "Look, Jason; I don't like this any more than you do, but this is how it has to be. We don't have time to find an alternative and I won't risk the consequences of letting this thing run its course on you. If there's a way to help you, I'm obligated to take it."
"And I'm obligated as an investigator to be skeptical," Jason shot back. "If we do this, I'm gonna need more than just your promise that there's nothing shady going on here. I'm not going into this blind."
"OK, how about I let you talk to my boss and the techs that'll be operating the machines before we get started. You can ask them anything you want. How's that sound?"
Jason didn't answer right away. "It's a start," he grumbled quietly, propping his head on the windowsill with his elbow.
"All right then." Billy put the car back in drive and accelerated toward the facility again. He breathed an inward sigh of relief. That was easier than I thought. I was worried there for a minute that he might actually make me sedate him ahead of schedule. The former Blue Ranger's gaze was drawn momentarily to the glove compartment, where two syringes full of powerful tranquilizer had been hidden. One way or another, though, Jase, I'm helping you fix this; whether you like it or not.
ERECA Headquarters – Front Gate
Somewhere Outside Angel Grove, CA
July 11, 2012
11:15 AM
Billy slowed the car to a halt a few hundred yards in front of the gate to the enormous compound. Squinting in the sunlight, Jason took a quick inventory of his surroundings. The place was massive, a twinkling stainless steel and chrome behemoth that rose up from the sand like a manmade volcano. The entrance they were approaching was the only passage through the triple-layered barrier that surrounded the facility; topped with barbed wire and punctuated at regular intervals by sniper towers, it was an imposing barricade against the outside world. Jason shook his head and chuckled humorlessly.
"Christ, all that's missing is a moat."
Billy didn't seem to be listening. He reached down between his legs and pulled a piece of black cloth out from under his seat. Turning to Jason, he unfolded the cloth and held it out to him. "Put this on."
Jason glanced from the cloth to Billy. He let out a disbelieving snort. "A blindfold? Are you fucking kidding me?"
Billy lowered the cloth into his lap and sighed. "Jason…"
Jason leveraged himself toward Billy and jammed a finger into his face. "Don't try to talk your way out of this, Billy," he practically shouted, his eyes shining with anger. "Did you listen to a word I said? I told you there was no way in hell I was going into this blind, and now you're asking me to do literally the exact opposite. Do you honestly expect me to go along with this?"
Surprisingly, Billy shrugged dejectedly and immediately backed off. "Yeah, OK. Worth a try, I guess." He tossed the cloth to Jason and started searching around his pockets. "Damn it. My ID card's in the box on the backseat. Can you get it for me? I can't reach it from here."
Jason eyed Billy warily. "Sure." He took the blindfold from Billy, turned, tossed it onto the seat and reached for the plastic toolbox that sat behind the driver's seat.
Billy moved so fast that even if Jason had seen what was coming he wouldn't have had time to react. Lunging across the center console, the former Blue Ranger's fingers found the glove compartment latch, and for a few terrifying nanoseconds fumbled with it, scrabbled for a purchase. But then they found home, the door fell open, and Billy yanked out one of the syringes of sedative, sending papers and receipts flying as he brought it toward himself, ripped the cap off, spun it in his hand and drove it into Jason's right arm. The former Red Ranger grunted in surprise and slumped forward almost instantly, crumpling onto the console, his outstretched arms landing in Billy's lap as his seatbelt pulled him back into the front.
"Sorry, Jase," Billy murmured softly, retrieving the blindfold and affixing it to his companion's face. "This is the only way." He put the car back in gear and drove the remaining few yards to the front gate, slowing to a stop where the motorized gate blocked his way. As the guard exited the nearby booth and made his way around to the driver's side window, he heaved Jason's limp form upright in the seat beside him and pulled his ID from his shirt pocket.
The guard withdrew a baton as he approached and tapped gently on the window with it. "Sir," he called out. "Roll 'er down, please."
Billy rolled down the window and thrust his ID into the guard's hand. Before the man even had a chance to look at it, Billy stuck his head out through the open space. "Billings, it's me, open the damn gate."
The guard was unfazed. "Sorry, Mr. Cranston. Just following protocol." He returned the ID badge and leaned forward to see into the car. "Who's your friend?"
"He's with me," Billy said with all the authority he could muster. He started putting his ID back in his pocket and kept talking as he did so, keeping his tone even yet forceful. "Get in touch with Medical, tell them I need a gurney and an IV with a saline drip and have them prepare an MRI machine for us. I need you to tell R&D to prep the neural scanners, tell them I'm reappropriating some of the materials from the Manchurian Project. If anybody gives you any shit, get Blaylock on the phone and have him call me. As soon as my friend here is taken care of, I'll be in my office. You got all that?"
Billings frowned and straightened. "Mr. Cranston-"
"Doctor, god damn it!" Billy snapped, digging his fingers into his eyes. "Doctor."
Billings closed his eyes and sighed exasperatedly. "Sorry, Dr. Cranston, this is highly unusual, you're not supposed to be here today, there was no advance notice of this…"
"Oh, for fuck's sake," Billy groaned. He opened the door and swung his feet out onto the ground as though he was about to stand up. "If you don't get this gate open and start calling people in the next ten seconds I will personally see to it that the only guard duty you get is the kid's table at the next company Christmas party. Now get back in there and press the fucking button!"
Billings hesitated for a moment, staring Billy down, searching his face for his intentions; finally, grumbling under his breath, the soldier returned to the booth and flipped the switch to open the gate. Billy put his feet back into the car and closed the door. As he drove into the compound proper, he glanced into the rearview mirror and saw Billings pick up the phone on the counter in front of him.
Suddenly, there was a blast of music from the seat beside him; Kurt Cobain's voice pierced the air so abruptly that Billy had to stop himself from swerving to the left. He glanced over at Jason's unconscious form and saw the cell phone poking out of the front pocket of his jeans. The screen was lit up, and over the top of the pocket Billy thought he could read the name "Adam."
"What the hell are they calling him for?" Billy muttered under his breath. The car was approaching an overhang beneath which several drive-up entrances lined the shaded concrete wall. Billy slowed and pulled to one side of the road, outside a brightly lit, open tunnel marked by a sign reading "Medical Bay." He killed the engine, jumped out and ran around to the other side. By the time he'd opened the passenger door and unbuckled Jason's seatbelt, he could hear the clacking of the gurney wheels on the tile floor of the hallway. Billy tugged the cell phone out of Jason's pocket, turned it off and stuffed it in the glove compartment, taking the other syringe while he was in there.
While the medical technicians loaded Jason onto a gurney and strapped a mask over his face, Billy took a moment to catch his breath. The air that day was warm but fresh, a slight breeze from the north helping to keep the temperature down. Billy closed his eyes and let the moving air soothe the heat of his anxiety, the gentle fingers of wind whisking beads of nervous sweat off his neck and the exposed skin of his arms. The only thing visible from the facility in any direction was desert and more desert, stretching endlessly away to the rough peaks beyond; Billy scanned the horizon as far as he could, gazing out at the sand-covered monotony. As the ERECA doctors wheeled the stretcher back into the compound, Billy let his eyes settle on the unmistakable divot in the mountains beyond which he knew the remains of the Command Center lay. He lowered his head and sighed.
"Zordon, wherever you are, I hope you understand," he whispered, letting the wind carry his words away. As he followed Jason and the medics into the facility proper, the young genius imagined them floating back over the mountains, to the place just beyond the peaks where so much of who he was had been realized. He liked to think that somewhere, in some distant dimension, his mentor knew he was doing the right thing.
Campbell/DeSantos Residence
Angel Grove, CA
July 11, 2012
11:10 AM
"Damn it." Adam thrust his phone away from his face and glared angrily at the screen. "Jason's not answering and Billy's phone is turned off. Why the hell didn't they tell us when they were leaving?"
"Probably because they were afraid you'd try and stop them," Aisha said pointedly. She, Adam, Rocky, Trini and Kim had been sitting in her and Rocky's living room for the last few hours after Adam and Trini had been unable to get in touch with Jason or Billy. Tommy had gone in early to finish some paperwork and Kat, Zack and Tanya would be at the studio for the rest of the day. Trini snorted and rose to her feet, moving across the open space toward the kitchen as she spoke.
"They would've been right," she said, her voice oozing exasperation. "I told them, I fucking told them this was a bad idea as soon as they brought it up last night and then what do they do? They ignore me and just do whatever the hell they want."
"Welcome to my life," Kim grumbled from the ottoman. "I can count on one hand the number of times I've been able to actually change Jason's mind about anything."
"Wait a minute," Rocky interjected, leaning forward. He held up a finger and glanced inquisitively at Kim. "He didn't wake you up when he left? Kiss you goodbye, ask you to wish him luck, promise he'd be careful, anything?"
"For the umpteenth god damn time, Rocky, no," Kim replied. "We went to bed almost as soon as we got home from Tommy and Kat's place last night and when I woke up at 9 AM he was gone. No note, no kiss goodbye, I didn't even smell coffee in the kitchen. He could've left the house at four in the morning for all I know."
"Son of a bitch," Adam growled with a frustrated sigh. He tossed his phone onto the table in front of him and let it clatter to rest. He lifted his head and looked over at Trini, who stood leaning on a counter near where the carpeted floor gave way to smooth grey tile. "I knew we should've called them last night, the second we thought there might be something wrong."
"Well you picked a hell of a time to speak up about it," Trini retorted, pushing herself off the counter. Adam glared at her.
"This coming from the woman who waited over a year and ignored an entire novel's worth of pants-shittingly creepy emails before finally deciding it was something worth telling her friends about."
Kim, Rocky and Aisha glanced up in bewilderment at this. Aisha was the first of them to find her voice. "Um…did we miss something?"
"Yeah," Rocky said, nodding. "I thought you guys were just worried because you couldn't get a hold of Jason and Billy." He looked from Adam's face to Trini's, searching them for answers. "There's more to it than that, isn't there? God, you get one good night's sleep and suddenly all the important shit goes down without you."
Kim's eyes widened as something seemed to dawn on her. "Wait a minute. Trini, is this what you were freaking out about last night? Is this why you left so suddenly?"
Trini glared at Adam, who just shrugged and rested his face on his arm. "Well, we might as well tell them now. Not like we could make things worse."
The Asian woman sighed and rubbed her eyes. "OK, fine. Over the last year or so, I've been getting these really weird messages from some guy claiming to be a government scientist telling me that I have to investigate this group called ERECA or else Angel Grove and potentially the entire planet are in big trouble. After something Billy said last night I got a hunch that they might be about this place where he does his super-secret job. I told Adam about it and we were hoping to catch Jason before he left this morning but obviously that hasn't worked out."
Kim let out a bitter, astonished chuckle. "Well let me just say your timing on that little gem was absolutely dead on." After a tense moment of silence the former Pink Ranger sighed and stood up. "You don't happen to have these messages on you, do you?"
Trini frowned. "Why?"
Kim cocked her head to one side. "Because no offense, Tri, but unless the UN suddenly grew a criminal justice division when nobody was looking, I'm the only one here who's actually qualified to do anything about these emails. Let's have 'em."
"They're at my place," Trini said. "We can go get them if you want."
"One thing first," Rocky piped up. "I know I'm not the qualified investigator in the room," he said, looking pointedly at Kim. "But I'm wondering about something. What was it Billy said that makes you think he could work for these people and not even know about it?"
"Something about how the squad that attacked Tommy's house operated," Trini answered. "I'll remember more clearly when I actually have them to look at. Someone want to give me a ride back to my place?"
"I will," Aisha said, raising her hand. Trini smiled.
"Thank you."
"Speaking of which," Adam said suddenly, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "There's another aspect of this we could be looking into." He stood and shoved his phone back into his pocket. "Any of you guys have an extra key to Billy's apartment?"
