Mr Tien, Victor, Monty and Al were all riding the elevator down to the garage when Mr Tien's phone rang. He answered it, but as soon as he did, it was easy to see that he was not happy.
"Problem? What kind of problem?" Mr Tien asked. There was some chatter on the other end, but Al couldn't hear it. "Protesters? What do you mean protesters? I specifically told all the papers to keep the building notices small and bury them in the classifieds!"
Al smirked a little hearing this. It was a requirement that before any building work took place; especially controversial projects had to put out notices for a period of time before building began so that people would have time to file objections. There were any number of reasons people could object. Disruption to local businesses or local transport routes, losing too much local park land, effects on wildlife or the environment, and geological surveys were all reasons people had been refused permission to build, but as long as a "fair" effort was made to allow people to lodge complaints and apply for permission to form cases for their objections, it wasn't unknown for developers to get the go-ahead.
Mr Tien had used one of the oldest tricks in the book, putting small ads in the newspapers in sections people were unlikely to read. For a start, most people in the modern era got their news from the television or internet so few people even READ newspapers now, and of those that did, few read every single article, only those that interested them. Unless someone was looking specifically for a slightly-damaged coffee table for under ten dollars there weren't many people who would read the classifieds closely enough to notice a small article about the destruction of a local landmark. Mr Tien had probably paid weekend rates for workmen to begin the work in the hopes of starting the work before people even noticed he was doing it.
"SIX? You're telling me that you can't get rid of SIX protesters?" Mr Tien yelled. "You have about thirty big guys there and you can't throw six protesters off my land? What the hell am I paying you for?"
"Is there a problem Mr Tien?" Victor asked. Mr Tien held up a hand to silence him.
"I'll be there in fifteen minutes! If you know what's good for you, you'll figure out a way for those protesters to be gone by the time I get there!" Mr Tien snapped, before shutting off his phone and putting it in his pocket. "Bleeding heart tree huggers, when did people in this country stop wanting progress?"
"I honestly don't know Mr Tien." Monty commented.
"This skyscraper will be a huge benefit to the city, far more than some stupid tree, some silly little park will." Mr Tien grumbled. "I mean, how many jobs does a park bring in? Maybe two, three trash collectors? Perhaps a groundskeeper or two? This building will bring in HUNDREDS of jobs, not to mention all the homes it would create."
"It defies logic." Victor agreed sycophantically.
"I mean, I'm sure there's people living there right now, but not exactly contributing members of society." Mr Tien chuckled. "The last time I went for a site inspection I saw a few of them. They'll not exactly be any great loss to the city."
"They're just going to go somewhere else." Al commented. "People need somewhere to live, even if they don't have a roof over their heads."
"Then it'll be somewhere else's problem." Mr Tien answered. "Boys, I want you to pay attention today. You're about to get an important lesson in how the world works."
Meanwhile, up on the Warrior Dome, Cosmo was preparing for his show. It was a little bit of a disruption to his usual schedule to hold the show on a Saturday instead of a Friday, but he was willing to take a punt on Ripcon's monster since right now the only other option on the books that was ready was Odious' poison monster. He didn't think an episode watching the Rangers slowly die from poison was exactly going to be the most exciting for the ratings, and if this Trapsaw was anything like his brother, at very least he would hold the audience's attention.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this special broadcast of Galaxy Warriors!" He called out, getting a much more muted response than he was used to. With the sudden change in schedule, a lot of monsters didn't know when the show was on, and so the audience on this occasion was only about two-thirds full. Normally it was an easy sell-out, but hanging so suddenly many already had other plans. He was sure his ratings were also showing a marked hit. "Now welcome to the show, a master strategist, a genius of mechanics, TRAPSAW!"
The monster walked out onto the stage, and Cosmo perked up a little. He looked almost exactly like Ripperat, and that boded well. Ripperat still had a loyal following, and he was hoping that his brother would remind enough people of him to take on some of that fan base. However as he came onto the stage, waving, Cosmo watched as he turned to the back wall, waving.
"Hi everybody!" He called out. "Huh? Where's the audience?"
Cosmo face-palmed. He couldn't believe it, there were only two directions he could have turned, and he chose the wrong one! He'd had some problems with introductions before, but normally it wasn't hard for the contestants to find which way to look for the audience.
"Ahem." Cosmo said, trying to raise his attention, before pointing at the rather large, noticeable and noisy audience that Trapsaw had somehow missed. He came over waving wildly.
"Hi everybody!" Trapsaw greeted them in a rather childish, gleeful tone that sounded more like he was getting ready for a play-date than a fight to the death. Now Cosmo was starting to get worried.
"Well Trapsaw, we know your brother fought on the show, what can you tell us about yourself?" Cosmo asked, hoping to get something from him he could get the audience excited about.
"Um...well...uh..." Trapsaw uttered, looking like he was contemplating the secrets of the origin of the universe rather than a very simple question that literally every single warrior had an answer for within moments. "I love traps. Here, stand right here on this X."
Trapsaw pointed to an X marked on the floor. Cosmo just sighed and stepped onto it.
"Now hold very still." Trapsaw giggled. Cosmo just took a deep breath as he waited what felt like an eternity. Even a few moments on camera was enough to lose an audience if nothing happened.
"Is something supposed to happen?" Cosmo asked him.
Just then, a huge anvil dropped down, right on Trapsaw's head! He fell to the ground, clutching his skull and crying out in pain. Cosmo was almost ready to call a halt to this farce right here and now, until he heard something from the crowd. Laughter. Not just a small chuckle, but real, hysterical laughter! Some of them were falling out of their seats, while others looked like they were close to needing oxygen.
"Aw, it happened again!" He whined. Cosmo looked to it, and then to the audience, seeing their continued laughter. He couldn't do much about things now, he didn't have an alternative monster ready, but if he couldn't give them a warrior, at very least he could provide them entertainment, even if it was in the form of a clown.
"That could have been me!" He screamed. "Well, we know that the Rangers have a lot to worry about, let's see Trapsaw in action!"
With that, he hit the teleport button, sending Trapsaw to Earth. He stormed off the stage to where Wrench was waiting.
"Cosmo, we have a problem..."
"Yes, I'd say we have a very BIG problem! Ripcon just sold me a lemon!" Cosmo screamed at him. "His monster is a MORON!"
"He's...he's definitely..."
"He's a MORON!" Cosmo reiterated. "Get me Ripcon, NOW!"
"Uh...that was the problem...Ripcon isn't on the ship." Wrench told him.
"Of course he's not." Cosmo grumbled as the pieces started to fall into place. "Come on Wrench, maybe with some good cutting we can make a decent blooper reel and stop this being a complete waste of a show!"
Back in the park, the Rangers were in the tree, occupying it to that the workmen couldn't cut it down. No matter how ruthless a developer was, they couldn't wilfully put lives in danger in the pursuit of their goals. They couldn't cut down a tree while someone was sitting in it anymore than they could bulldoze or blow up a house with someone inside.
It had been about half an hour already, and they didn't even really know what they were waiting for. They weren't doing anyone much good being stuck up on the tree. They had their picnic with them, but between rest, the call of nature, or at worst if they managed to stay all weekend, eventually needing to go to school, the fact was sooner or later they would have to leave.
"We need to figure out what to do next." Sarah told them. "I mean, as long as at least one of us is up here they can't cut down the tree, but we can't do much to stop this long-term from here. We need to let other people know about this."
"Maybe we won't have to wait that long." Brody suggested as he saw a fancy car rolling up. "That looks like someone in charge. Maybe we can reason with them."
"We'll stay up here." Calvin told them, putting his arm around Hayley. "The rest of you talk to them."
"Well, you started this." Brody said to Preston as he patted the Blue Ranger on the shoulder. "I guess that makes you our spokesman."
With that, hey all climbed down the tree.
A short distance away, the foreman saw the car arriving and knew that things were about to turn ugly. Mr Tien was not a patient man, and he did not like it at all when things didn't go his way. He got out, along with Victor and Monty, who mirrored his every move as he straightened out his jacket and buttoned it up. Al followed a short way behind them.
"What's the hold up?" Mr Tien asked.
"Sir, the protesters..."
"I told you I wanted those protesters gone!" Mr Tien responded angrily. "I want this tree cut down immediately or I'll use your Christmas Bonuses to buy a new jet!"
Al just rolled his eyes and sighed. It didn't surprise him in the least that Mr Tien would make a threat like that. It wasn't the workmen's fault that people didn't want him to pour concrete over every square inch of greenery in the city, and many of them were hard workers with families. Although Christmas was a long way off, it was doubtful that most of their families would be able to shrug off the loss of in some cases thousands of dollars.
"I'm sorry Mr Tien, we've asked them to leave." The foreman tried to explain. "Most of them are just kids..."
"Kids? You're getting pushed around by a bunch of kids?" He said in disbelief. "What kids? I'll show you how to get rid of them!"
He started to trudge over, at which Victor and Monty followed. Al dutifully went with them. They rounded a truck, coming face to face with the protesters that were holding up the work. Mr Tien stopped in his tracks.
"PRESTON?" He roared as he saw his own son standing in his way. Preston gulped as his dad confronted him, coming over to his son.
"Oh...hi...dad." Preston finally stammered out. He was still holding the ribbon that he and his friends had wanted to put up on the tree. There would never be any monuments or statues to them, the Rangers perhaps but nothing that acknowledged them. He had taken on this fight, determined to ensure that there was at least something left for them to remember all this by. However, seeing his dad standing before him, the fight seemed to start to noticeably melt away from him. Sarah came over to Preston.
"That's your dad?" She asked. She had never met Preston's dad, but she knew about him from reputation. Her dad worked for him, and most of the people in the city had some kind of opinion of him, whether it was complimentary or not.
"Uh huh." He replied weakly. Sarah felt badly for Preston, she had seen him go from confidently ready to stand his ground to quaking in fear in a matter of seconds. She hated to see that his dad could have this much of an effect on him. She looked up and saw her own dad standing a little way off, looking rather uncomfortable.
"Don't tell me you have something to do with this!" Mr Tien snapped at his son in a manner that shocked all of the Rangers. While they all had arguments with their families at times, and some of them could get very heated, none of them could think of a time that their own parents would speak to them with such venom. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Well...we were just going to put a ribbon on..."
"Ribbon? Don't be absurd! All of these ribbons are going to be trashed! Along with this tree!" He told him flatly. "Now get out of the way or..."
"HEY!" Sarah protested, stepping between Preston and his dad, getting into Mr Tien's face; well, as much as she could anyway considering she was shorter than him by almost a foot and a half. "You can't talk to him like that!"
"Sarah?" He asked, looking at her and recognising her from the picture on Al's desk. He looked over to Al. "Your daughter is in on this too?"
"It...would appear so." Al answered with a shrug. "It's the first I knew about it."
"You need to learn to control your daughter..."
"HEY!" Levi called out as he interjected himself into the situation. "I think YOU need to learn how to talk to people!"
"Levi Weston?" He asked, looking a little confused. "What are you doing here?"
"These kids and I happen to be friends. We were all out here for a nice day and to hang a ribbon until your workmen showed up." Levi told him. "Now this here tree, I admit that I've not been in town long, but it seems pretty clear that this tree is important to this town."
"Yeah, these ribbons represent important memories to so many people!" Hayley called down from the tree.
"Yeah, some of these ribbons date back to the first settlers of Summer Cove!" Calvin added.
"Young lady, the skyscraper I'm going to build here is also important. Important to my BANK ACCOUNT!" Mr Tien yelled at her. "You get down here this instant!"
"Dad, please..."
"Wait in the car Preston." Mr Tien interrupted his son.
"But dad..."
"THE CAR!" He reiterated, pointing to the car. Victor and Monty followed suit. Preston just sighed and hung his head as he trudged towards the car.
"Preston!" Sarah called after him, hating to see him defeated. He had faced off against so many monsters, but to see the effect his dad had on him was heartbreaking. She had seen him scared and she had seen him low, but she had never seen him so completely crushed before. Preston looked to her apologetically before heading to his car.
"You better go too young lady." Mr Tien warned her. Sarah just folded her arms.
"Sorry, but I don't have to listen to you." She said defiantly.
"Al, perhaps you can make your daughter see some sense." Mr Tien suggested. "You don't want her to be around when things get ugly."
"Whoa, is that a threat?" Brody asked.
"Tell your daughter to move." Mr Tien warned Al. He looked to Sarah, and then back to Mr Tien.
"I'm sorry, but it looks like she's made up her mind." He told his boss. Mr Tien glared at him in a way that let Al know this wasn't going to be the last word on the subject. He knew there would be hell to pay, but it was clear Sarah had made up her mind that she was standing up for herself and this tree.
"Then don't say you weren't warned." Mr Tien told him. "INTERNS!"
Victor and Monty both stood to attention. Monty actually saluted as they came to report to Mr Tien.
"You two want to be like me some day right?" He asked. "Then show me what you've got! Get them off my property!"
"Yes sir!" Victor responded. They looked to Brody, Levi and Sarah, all of whom they knew, and were trying to figure out how to get them to move. That was when Monty noticed something and tapped Victor on the shoulder.
"I've got an idea." He told him. He pointed to a truck, which had a hose on the back. Victor smiled as he realised what Monty was thinking of.
"Good thinking Monty!" Victor said as Monty went to get the hose. They had both seen a number of protest videos and seen police break up riots with water cannons. Water cannons were themselves just basically big hoses, so a hose cranked up to high pressure was bound to have the same effect. Monty came back, pointing the hose at them.
"Unless you want a shower, I suggest you move." Victor declared.
"I think this should be a real...skoosh!" Monty said, beginning to chuckle. Sarah glared at him.
"You're going to turn a hose on us Monty?" She asked. "I thought home-made semtex was more your speed."
"Wh...wh...what?" Monty stammered.
"Your old Middle School?" She asked. Monty suddenly turned sheet-white and fell completely silent. He looked like he was going to be ill. He dropped the hose and started to walk away, heading for the car.
"Monty?" Victor asked, sounding concerned. He glared at Sarah, a look that she had never seen from him before. He had been mad at them before whenever things didn't go his way or whenever he was made to look foolish by them, but this was a look of almost pure hate. Sarah felt badly about what she had said. It was a low blow, one that she regretted using, even if it did seem to have the desired effect of making them leave. Victor went after Monty to check on his friend. Mr Tien just rolled his eyes.
"I don't have time for this!" Mr Tien snapped. "Mark my words, this tree's going to be cut down today! PRESTON! Get in the car!"
With that, Preston, Victor, Monty, Al and Mr Tien got in the car and left. The Rangers had won this round, but they knew that they would have to leave eventually; all Mr Tien had to do was wait them out. They were in control for now, but that wouldn't last long.
"How can he be so cold?" Hayley yelled down. "We have to stop him!"
"But how? He won't even listen to his own son!" Calvin reminded her. "Why would he listen to us?"
"Tons of people put those ribbons up, maybe he'd listen to them?" Brody suggested.
"Yeah, but how are we going to find them?" Levi asked. "I have Twitter, but most of my followers probably aren't in Summer Cove. They come from all over."
"We should put up flyers, all over town!" Sarah said as the thought came to her. "If we put them up everywhere, people are bound to notice and come to help!"
"Great idea!" Hayley answered. "You guys do that, Calvin and I will start posting online!"
"Come on guys, let's get busy!" Brody said as they were about to leave. Sarah just held up a hand though.
"Yeah, but...before we go, I just realised something!" She said as a smirk started to cross her face. "Calvin and Hayley are LITERALLY sitting up a tree!"
"Sarah..."
"Calvin and Hayley, sitting up a tree." Sarah started to sing, before Brody grabbed her and pulled her away. "Aw, you're no fun!"