Chapter One:

Karen Miller

Early one morning, in New Tech City, Detective Karen Miller did up her running shoes. She rose and stretched a bit, glancing at herself in the mirror. She was tall, with light brown hair cut short, and wearing a hot pink tank top and sweatpants, showing off her bare midriff's six pack. She smirked at herself, grabbing her music player off the table and starting up her favorite song.

She headed out the door of her townhouse and crossed the street to the park nearby, setting off at a brisk jog around the park's trail. Aside from a few other joggers here and there, the park was mostly empty, the crisp morning air feeling cool and refreshing. As she rounded the pond, she could see the city's skyline, including one of the brand-new generator towers that had recently been constructed, supplying the entire city with free clean energy.

As she was circling a bend in the trail and her music switched to a new song, she heard a strange noise coming up behind her, like the sound of another jogger's footsteps except sped up a couple of times. She pulled out her headphone and glanced back just in time to see someone coming up on her fast.

"One side," the jogger said.

Karen jumped out of the way, just in time to see a tall man with long dark hair and olive skin blaze past her, far faster than any normal man ever could. For just a second, she thought she caught a glimpse of his face, a face she'd seen a hundred times before on the news.

"Sorry," he called back to her, soon disappearing down the trail.

Karen stared, her mouth a little open. "Was that-?"

She shook her head and went back to running. She made it around a few more curves before she heard the same pounding sound coming up behind her.

"Me again," he said, as she moved out of his way. "Sorry."

This time, she got a good look at his face. It was definitely the person she thought it was. She shook her head and continued her jog, running just a little bit faster out of annoyance, trying to cover as much distance as possible before he lapped her again. Sadly, she heard his feet pounding behind her far sooner than she expected.

"No," she said, picking up her pace into a full-on sprint. The man sped past her before she'd even made it a couple of steps.

"Oh, come on!" she shouted.

"Sorry," the jogger shouted back.

Karen kept going, keeping up her sprint. She rounded the pond again, covering almost twice the distance she had before hearing him coming up behind her again. She clenched her teeth and ran even faster, her calves burning with the strain. Despite all her effort, her opponent shot past her once again.

"That's cheating, you know!" she called after him.

"I know," he called back.

Finally, Karen made her way back around to the start of the trail and slumped down on a park bench, resting for a bit. She was breathing heavily, her tank drenched in sweat. A few minutes later, Gordon Cherry came running up the trail once again, slowing to a stop as he approached her.

"What, did you give up already?" he asked.

Karen took a swig from her water bottle and cleared her throat. "Please," she said. "I would have had no chance of beating you before you pumped all that Power Ranger stuff into your veins. Now it's just a losing battle."

Gordon smirked, running his hand through his long black hair. "Guess there's no need to introduce myself," he said.

Karen grinned, wiping the sweat from her forehead. "Not really, no," she said. "But it's still nice to meet you, Mr. Cherry. I'm Karen." She reached out and shook his hand. "Don't worry. Not that kind."

Gordon returned the handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Karen," he said.

Karen fiddled with her water bottle a little bit. "Technically, though," she said. "We've already met."

Gordon raised an eyebrow. "We have?"

"Yep." Karen sat up, looking proud. "A couple of weeks ago, my squad and I were doing a drug bust on a major meth operation out in the Gorisaki district. You and the blue guy were a big help."

Gordon's eyes lit up with recognition. "Oh," he said. "I remember that. So, you're with the . . . thirty-third precinct?"

"Thirty-fourth."

Thirty-fourth, right. Well, it's nice to see you again. How'd that all turn out on your end?"

"Great," Karen said. "Biggest drug bust we ever pulled off. Found a ton of evidence, got a bunch of confessions, even nabbed a few of the big guys. How about you guys, out there doing your ranger stuff? I understand you've been having some problems with people attacking those new towers lately."

"Yeah," Gordon said, looking off in the direction of one of the towers in the distance. "Lots of people trying to destroy or sabotage them. Some, I think, are just scared of nuclear power, but some others . . . we think a few of them are being paid off by power corporations feeling threatened by their existence."

"Ah," Karen said. "Corruption. That's a familiar story."

"Yeah." For just a second, a frustrated expression crossed Gordon's face. "We're having a lot of trouble getting hard evidence on that though. They've been covering their tracks pretty well, and no one wants to confess."

He shook his head and changed the subject. "Anyway, do you jog here often?" he asked.

"Every day," Karen said. "I live close by, so it's the obvious choice. What about you? I don't think I've seen you around this park before."

Gordon looked down. "No," he said. "I've been shopping around a bit, for places outside to work out. Kinda hard to find places to give myself a good workout anymore, now that I'm—"

He gestured down at himself, holding out his arm as it reflected a slightly metallic sheen.

"Unless, of course, I just want to spend all my time in the gym back at the lab, and I don't want to do that. I like being outside."

Karen nodded. "Well, if that's the case," she said. "How does this one stack up?"

Gordon shrugged. "About the same as Stagg Park out on the south side. So, average."

Before Karen could respond, a loud honk made them turn and look at the nearby street. A pair of the most high-tech one-person cars Karen had ever seen had pulled up alongside the curb. The blue one had a large man with a muscular build sitting behind the wheel, but the red one was driverless.

"Hey, Cherry!" the blue car's driver shouted. "Did you forget the time?"

Gordon's eyes widened, and he checked his watch. "Oh, right," he said, looking up at Karen apologetically. "Sorry," he said. "I have to go. Duty calls."

"Go save the world, Speedy," Karen said, raising her water bottle to him. Gordon crossed to the street and climbed into the red vehicle. With one last wave, he and the blue ranger took off at high speed. Karen watched them go, letting herself admire the ranger's dark hair blowing in the wind for a second. She smiled and blushed for a second, before starting up her music again and going back to her workout.

Meanwhile, Gordon raced down the road in his Spade Machine, side by side with Rio in the Mach Diamond, a pair of vehicles built by the Ranger Team to make up for their lack of Birdies. They worked well enough for the most part.

"So," Rio said, his face on a small monitor on Gordon's dash. "Who was that?"

Gordon rolled his eyes as they weaved around a couple of SUVs. "Just another jogger," he said.

"Uh-huh," his companion said.

"Rio, we've been through this." Ever since they'd become partners a few months before, Rio had been trying to nudge Gordon back into dating. "It hasn't even been a year since. I'm not ready for that yet."

"I'm just saying," Rio said. "That girl was cute. And she looked like she was pretty into you. Or, if you wanted, I'm pretty sure that new Agent 10 of ours wouldn't say no if you asked."

Gordon rolled his eyes again. Their team's new agent had been quite red-faced and flustered any time she was in Gordon's presence. "I'm sure she wouldn't," he said. "Can we just get back to the mission, please?"

Rio smirked. "Sure thing," he said. "Heading down."

He and Gordon split up, both entering the underground as the entrance came up. "I'm detecting an armored car moving dead ahead," Rio reported.

Gordon worked his way around a fancy Sedan. "I see it," he said. He booted up the scanner on his car. "And just like the report said, it's loaded with explosives."

"Looks like they're headed for the third tower," Rio said.

"We've got to stop them before they get there. You head for the cab. I'll take the back."

"Gotcha, captain."

Gordon maneuvered his way through traffic and pulled up alongside the vehicle. As expected, he spotted a pair of faces in rubber masks glancing over the side at him, drawing out heavy machine guns to fire at him.

"Time to go," Gordon said, tapping his morpher followed by his car's autopilot. He leapt through the air as bullets sprayed around him, his body glowing with light as he came to a landing on the truck's roof, fully armored as the Ace of Spades. The goons turned to fire at him again, but the bullets merely bounced off.

"Is that all you've got?" he said, rushing them both at top speed, grabbing their guns and crushing them beyond repair before grabbing them both and knocking their heads together. He then crouched down and pressed his hands against the roof. Over the last several months, he'd learned a great deal about atomic structure and how to use his power to manipulate atoms and molecules. He channeled atomic energy into the thick steel, using his visor as a controller as he forced the molecules to move apart, opening a giant, perfectly circular hole in the top.

Inside the truck, two guards were watching over the payload. They looked up as light flooded in, raising their guns as Gordon jumped through the hole, rushing them both before they could open fire and knocking them both out.

"That's that," he said, stretching a bit. "That was easy." He looked around to find himself surrounded by even more explosives than he had been expecting. "Whoa," he said. "Guess I'd better get defusing."

Outside the truck, Rio pulled up on the driver's side, already in his ranger suit. "Pull over," he ordered. The driver, also wearing a rubber mask, veered into him, trying to make him crash.

"Alright," he said. "Let's do it the hard way."

He set his car into autopilot, getting up and grabbing the truck door. He pulled and strained, his muscles clenching, yanking the heavy metal door away with ease. The driver and passenger both turned their guns on him, but before they could get a shot off, Rio pressed his fingers against the driver's head and knocked him out with a sharp jolt of electricity.

"Nighty-night, now," he said. He turned to the passenger and shot the same type of jolt in his direction. Once they were both out, he unbuckled the driver and shoved him to the side, climbing up into the driver's seat himself. A small console sat beside the wheel.

"Now, let's see who you're working for," he said, tapping on the screen. He had barely tapped it twice when the entire thing went blank, all data on it scrubbed clean, leaving behind only a bright flashing message reading "CRIME WON'T PAY."

"No!" Rio said, cursing at the stupid screen. "Not again." He pulled up his comm system. "Gordon, it did it again. Are you done with the bombs?"

Gordon glanced up at him and seemed to sit up. "Yeah, I just finished," he said. "That's to be expected. Let's get this truck back to base, see if our team can figure out anything."