INSUFFICIENCY PART 2.

John ran to the hangar, the place where all the vehicles were parked. John felt good because the commander or J'onn had made them motorcycles, exclusively for men. Although he wanted his motorcycle and suit to be for him as the Red Ranger, having a motorcycle was something he felt good about. John even though they were no longer disrespectful to him, since he was the oldest of all the Rangers, even more than Major Wayne.

The other four Rangers were there. The training in the simulation room of the four had been interrupted by the alarm. The five Rangers were informed by the spokesmen that another robbery had occurred, but this time from a truck that was transporting scientific and technological instruments to GothCorp, in the middle of a restricted road. It was not known who had committed the crime, but they had to arrive before it escaped again.

Kal, John and Barry were riding their motorcycles as they headed towards the location of the GothCorp truck. Diana and Shayera were in the regulation car for the patrol, but it was still frustrating how the male Rangers received vehicles.

Upon reaching the location, the Rangers found a dented truck, a little burned and abandoned truck in the middle of the road. Barry ran to the truck after getting off his motorcycle. He found the driver of the truck hit and with a first degree burn on the left cheek of his face. Barry pulled the driver out of the truck and placed him on the ground. Seeing the man knocked out, and possibly injured, Shayera took out her Morpho, but this time to ask for medical help. The medical help would arrive in a short time.

Kal observed any detail he could say if there was any clue to find the criminal. John, who always wanted to prove he deserved leadership more than Kal, created binoculars that tracked electrical activities or recent chemical activity. Diana watched if there was any activity or something that said where the criminal had gone. Kal informed the other Rangers that the truck was empty. It was not known what the truck had, so they were stagnant.

"There is! Let's run for him! "John shouted, pointing his finger towards the outskirts of the City, near where one of the bridges was.

The Rangers returned to the vehicles and drove to the location John pointed out. When they arrived, they saw a metal house with several metal portfolios with the symbol of GothCorp. The Rangers did not advance, they waited for Kal to give an order.

"Get your guns out. Let's move with delicacy, but be alert. I go ahead, John back and the others to the center."

The Rangers used their Morphos to obtain their pistols. They walked as Kal ordered them to do so. John was upset because Kal had chosen him to be behind the group. It seemed that Kal did not want him for anything important. Everything he could not do on Kal's orders was insufficient. When they arrived, Kal and Barry leaned on one side of the door, while the other Rangers were on the other. Kal kicked the door, advanced first and with his gun in hand, checked each of their hiding places, then the Rangers lowered their weapons and entered. However, they were received by another electromagnetic discharge.

A tall, muscular man in a yellow suit, red cloak, trousers and black boots, and accompanied by a red hat with a purple fin entered the room. The man had a mustache and visors that startled his white eyes with small brown pupils. The man had the same height and physical build as the criminal who had beaten them the previous time, but he did not have the black cloak.

"Hello Rangers. Apparently, you want to defeat me. While you could not find me, I found the missing element to increase my power. Now Double X is invincible," said the criminal standing in front of the Rangers who were lying on the ground something hurt.

"I do not understand why you talk about yourself in the third person," Barry said.

Double X sent a discharge to Barry before leaving through the door. The other Rangers, except for Shayera who was in charge of helping Barry, left the house and fired at Double X. Double X turned around and blocked the shots and diverted them to another side. The Rangers fired again, but this time repeatedly. However, Double X caught each shot and deflected it towards them, causing a huge explosion behind them. Seeing that the Rangers were back on the ground, Double X left for the city.

Double X began to cause disasters in the city. There was no one safe from him. All the cars in the city were beginning to be destroyed. They needed help from the Power Rangers or the Justice League.

The Rangers stood up and saw the strong nuclear activity that Double X was doing in the city. They had to act. Diana called Major Wayne to get directions about Double X's situation and the artifacts. Because there were many artifacts in the Double X house, so they could not leave them here for someone to use for an evil purpose.

"Well, Prince cadet. Now, three Rangers must go to stop Double X, but two have to remain watching the objects. The employees of GothCorp will come to pick them up," Major Wayne said.

"Understood, thank you, Mr. Wayne." Diana answered before hanging up. She turned to the others. "Major Wayne gave us orders that three Rangers should go to take care of Double X, but two have to stay until the GothCorp employees arrive. You decide Kal.

Kal thought for a moment in his mind. On the one hand, he thought of leaving Diana and John to interact with each other and forget their grudges or anger with each other, but on the other, Kal wanted John to interact with another person so that he would begin to trust.

"Shayera, Diana, to the vehicle. Barry, John, stay here to await the arrival of GothCorp employees," Kal ordered.

The three Rangers went to stop Double X, who was still destroying the most beautiful places in the city.

"Hey, Double X, you should go to a nuclear plant to help people with electric power," said Shayera.

Double X threw a strong volley that drove the Rangers back.

"Double X does not have time for nonsense, do not get in my way."

Double X sent another volley to the Rangers, who dodged it again.

"Ready?" Kal asked.

"Ready!" Shayera and Diana shouted.

"Justice League, activate!"

The three finally wore their Power Ranger uniforms.

"Surrender or we will force you to do it," Diana said.

"I will enjoy destroying all of you," Double X said.

Kal threw punches, but Double X was stronger because of his atomic power, so he gave him more electric shocks. He even threw it a few meters into the air before falling. Diana tried a little before Double X used an atomic attack on her and threw her to the ground. Shayera tried to use her electric pulses, but only Double X used it to return the electric shock to Shayera, who fell very exhausted. Kal fired his heat vision towards Double X. Double X was struck by Kal's heat vision. Kal fired again, but Double X caught it this time; Kal tried to keep his vision warm, but he could not, and Double X returned the explosion to Kal, who was shot by the explosion behind him.

"We need help," said Shayera.

Kal took out his Morpho and called the other two Rangers.

XXX

Barry and John were in Double X's house. Barry was drinking a two-liter bottle of water. John was just waiting for the GothCorp employees to arrive. John was already desperate to help and prove himself more than he expected. He hated being under Kal and Diana, and especially being with Barry waiting. This was a useless job. John did not accept any insignificant work.

"Why do you drink more than any human?" John asked.

"Sorry. I have a very fast metabolism," Barry replied.

"You can not be so calm. We are on duty. The worst part is that nobody is coming here. Why did they ask us to watch?"

"I do not want to know why the commander left us here, but Kal knows very well what he's doing. Look, he even gave me the order to throw you water."

Barry threw water at John while laughing. John shot a furious look at Barry. John got up and ran to Barry. Barry did not run, especially since it was also stressful to interact with John, but for Barry, interacting with Commander Wayne was even worse than John, even though he hardly knew Major Wayne.

"And they gave me this order," John said.

John emptied what was left of the water in the bottle on Barry. John literally smiled.

"So the grumbler smiles," Barry said.

John stopped smiling and sat down again.

"Oh, come on. I'll let you do that if you smile every time, John."

"You do not know anything about that."

"Then I'll bother you until you tell me."

Barry began to peck John's shoulder with his index finger repeatedly.

"You're not going to give up, right?" John asked.

"No," Barry replied.

John then created a force field around him. Like a big bubble. Barry tried to bother him a bit by running around John around, but the force field was impenetrable. With that, Barry gave up. Suddenly the Morpho sounded. The two Rangers answered the call.

"Barry, we need your help with Double X. Come fast," Kal said.

"Great," Barry replied. "I'm on my way."

"Hey, I can help. Let Barry stay," John replied.

"No. Your mission is more important. Barry, come fast."

"But…"

"No, John. Stay there."

Barry ran to his motorcycle and left, leaving John even more angry. When Barry came to battle with Double X, he found his other teammates fighting Double X, but it was not going very well. Diana fired her gun, while Kal used his heat vision. Double X threw a volley that knocked them down. Shayera tried to electrocute him, but Double X electrocuted her. Double X was still attacking.

Barry transformed and began to run while hitting Double X again and again. Double X tried to hit him, but Barry was very fast. However, Double X created a great shock that caused Wally to stop and fall with a hard blow to the ground.

However, John appeared just in time to hit Double X with a big hammer. Double X managed to fight against John, but John managed to put up a lot of resistance and managed to bend Double X a bit.

"You should have stayed," Kal said.

"It's not going to happen. Besides, I'm necessary, believe it or not, "John said.

Kal decided not to argue. In the end, if John made the mistake, the commander would let him know later. Fortunately, a GothCorp truck arrived. Equipped with a rare electrical device.

"Power Rangers! Use this to drain the electric power!" Shouted one of the guards of GothCorp after getting off the truck. "Since the theft we investigated the nuclear power, but we know how to drain it. Just detónenlo close to him and absorb all the nuclear energy." The latter said as he gave the guradia to Kal, as he had run to him after getting off the truck.

"Good," Said Kal, who took the artifact that the guard of GothCorp gave him. Since GothCorp had a tracking system for nuclear power, they had located the Rangers, so Kal and the others were relieved. - Diana, Barry and Shayera, distract him. John, place the artifact in position.

The Rangers obeyed Kal's orders. Obviously, John was happy to be here, not watching an abandoned place where nobody was going. Diana, Barry and Shayera started attacking Double X who easily returned the attack, and on top of that, launched a volley that caused an explosion behind them.

John placed the device, but Double X threw the device away, so John had to go through the device. Kal attacked Double X directly, before he did the same as Barry, Diana and Shayera. John approached Kal.

"We have to detonate it," John said.

"No. We have to put him in his position and activate him," Kal replied.

-We will not achieve much like that. We must detonate it. Shoot when I throw it. If not, I'll go, I'll do it."

With those last words John ran, still angry at being underestimated or hated by the other Rangers, so he wanted this to change. John was hit by Double X and fell a few meters back, but when he fell, he threw the device in front, and was greeted by Kal's heat vision, causing Double X to fall and causing a strong explosion.

There was no longer a giant criminal, just a weak man with no power. John walked up to Double X and put it in handcuffs.

"You've been arrested, Mini X," John said with a mocking tone.

"Thank you for your help, GothCorp," Kal said.

"No problem."

It was time to return to the base. Even the other Rangers were impressed by John's toughness but also intelligence. However, they heard that he disobeyed Kal's order, so he did not expect anything good for him.

XXX

At the base of the Gotham Justice League, in the conference room, Major Wayne and cadet John Stewart were looking through the monitor at the house of the double X criminal, who was now locked in a cell in one of the prisons isolated from the world, and impossible to escape. Sadly, when the GothCorp guards arrived at the Double X house, there was no trace of the inventions or devices that Double X stole, which meant they had been stolen by other criminals or someone with some evil purpose.

"You disobeyed El Cadet's orders. I monitored your communications, and I saw that you deliberately abandoned your position and now perhaps one of the biggest criminals in Area C has some dangerous weapon or experiment that could cause future damage. Do you have something to say?" Commander Wayne asked.

"They needed me more there than in that house. So I did a good job," John answered.

"I do not deny that you did a good job, but you disobeyed an order from your leader and now you have to wait until there is no danger in zone C due to your carelessness. Look, cadet, you let your emotions dominate you, and to be a Power Ranger is to think with logic rather than with the brain in most of the times. This was not one of them. But since you did a good job, you will not be punished this time. Retire cadet. I hope you learned the lesson."

XXX

In his room, John was doing push-ups with as much effort as possible. He was angry with himself for allowing them to steal dangerous devices, and now it was his fault, not Kal's or other Rangers', was his. This meant that it was insufficient and that he could not be a good leader in a short time. This made him more angry.

"Do you have a moment?" Kal asked.

John did not respond. Kal still spoke.

"John, I know you hated staying in the Double X house, and I know that now some criminal has the GothCorp devices that you left unprotected."

John continued to do push-ups.

"But I did not let you watch because I hated you or because I wanted to keep you away from the team or the action. I left you in charge because you are the most attentive and it would not be a difficulty. Besides, I wanted you to know Barry better. He's naughty, but good guy."

"I'm sorry Kal," John said as he got up.

"It's okay, John. Look, I'm new being a red Ranger, and I'm still learning to trust me. I'm willing to do this."

"All right."

"Now, if you do not mind, let's play the electric ball. Viennese?"

"Clear."

John and Kal walked to the entertainment room, where the other three Rangers waited for them. Diana was ready to play this fun game, especially to return the blow that Shayera gave her the day before. Meanwhile, she was beginning to see how her fellow Rangers seemed trustworthy, but with flaws that would eventually be corrected. Even so, she felt good about finally being included in the fun activities of her fellow Rangers, so that was enough, that and she wanted to talk to Major Wayne again.

While playing, John began to feel better about the mistake he had made today. Finally, it felt enough for the team, for now.

NEXT: MUD PART 1.