A Darker Shade of Red (Time Force/Power Rangers, T, Chapter 15: Encryptions)
Holy crap! I'm still writing!
Fandom/: Power Rangers Time Force, slight crossover with S.P.D. (In Bright Skies universe)
Characters/: Alex
Pairings/: Alex/Jen, Lucas/Trip, Katie/OC, Wes/Eric
Rating/: T
Disclaimer/: Saban/Disney/Whoever sure didn't write *this* into the series. The plot comes purely from my own warped little mind, and the characters are merely borrowed from them for my own amusement. Lucky you.
Summary/: The legacy of Wesley Collins and Eric Myers didn't just affect the past - it affected the future. One thousand years after they became Rangers, one person is still struggling against the corruption of Time Force and the heritage he never wanted.
Warnings/: People used for scientific experimentation, corrupted Time Force, character with self-image issues
Author's Notes/: While watching Reinforcements from the Future again, I noticed that Trip never seems surprised when Wes and Eric call him, or even when they answer his call, using super-secret *future technology* in front of other people. My mind wandered.
Also, I did not *intentionally* insult Wild Force; I was looking at things from a factual stand point. c.c;;
-- "I don't like this."
"No one's expecting you to."
"Doesn't anyone else think this seems like a trap?"
"We *all* think it's a trap, Alex. But we don't exactly have a choice."
"Why only one? We can spare at *least* two, if not more." A pause. "We should send all four of you. I can handle things here."
"And leave you without anyone to watch your back? Not happening." --
Six months ago, all five of them had gone over every inch of Ranger Tower, cleaning and rearranging. The end result had given them a map of every hidden camera and listening device, which Trip had programmed into their morphers before removing all traces of the original. They'd hacked the door lock to Ranger Tower and added a new code that could only recognize the five Chrono Morphers, as well as allowing for a warning alarm in the event that any of them brought a guest.
In addition, they now had one room completely secure for planning and discussing any new information gathered against Time Force. Trip and Alex had done what they called a 'fake feed', copying an image of a nearly identical room and sending it to both cameras, essentially rendering them all invisible. Trip had added a bug scrambler to their morphers so that with the touch of a button, all of the listening devices in the room received no audio, but remained active to keep from setting off any alarms. The room they'd chosen was one of the smallest in Ranger Tower, making it less likely to be missed. Lucas had crankily dubbed it 'The Closet', prompting a great deal of snickering and bad jokes from the girls for several weeks.
Time Force remained frustratingly unchanged. While the Rangers struggled to identify which members of the board were part of the original experiments, they found themselves also trying to decide who to trust among the current staff. While Logan had shown that he was on their side, that didn't mean that he was *completely* trustworthy, and nothing he had done so far had confirmed where his loyalties lie. Then there was the ongoing investigation of the rest of the Time Force Officers and their subordinates, gathering evidence against the board ...
It was a long, slow process, and it didn't seem to be going anywhere.
And now they'd been given a report of evidence of three mutants still unrecovered from Ransik's prison break, along with specific instructions to send one Ranger back in time to investigate. Trip had confirmed that the report and the missing mutants were a real case, but no one liked the orders they'd been given - Alex most of all. He'd argued against it for the better part of an hour.
He was outvoted in the end, mostly because no one could come up with a better plan. And being that it was Jen's team, Jen had been the one to take the assignment. She left Alex in charge, and made the other three promise to keep him from getting himself killed. Katie had been given special permission to tie up or beat into submission anyone that became 'difficult', and Alex had ignored the glances the two women had given him when Jen had given the order.
That was a month ago. A week later, Jen had stopped reporting in. The original plan had been for her to 'drop out' of contact to throw Time Force off their trail, and keep them from learning gaining any information the Rangers didn't want them to have. But Jen hadn't even reported in to the Rangers, which had *not* been part of the plan.
Alex was worried. Which meant that he'd been ruder and more snappish than usual, to the point that only Trip seemed to be able to tolerate him for extended periods of time. Katie had been agitated and looking for a fight she couldn't have, leaving her and Alex often at odds with each other. Lucas was helping Trip to keep the peace more because Trip needed the help than for actually wanting to, and spent most of his time away from Ranger Tower whenever possible. Alex wasn't exactly sure where he'd been going, just that he made sure to show up for his assigned patrols.
As for Ben, he had barely seen more than a glimpse of his brother wandering through the halls a few times, and neither of them had sought the others out. For now, it seemed that Time Force didn’t want them near each other, and Alex was perfectly fine with that. Ben had already made his choice; it was painful enough catching him out of the corner of his eye when he wasn't expecting it.
After another morning of useless paperwork and questions about why they hadn't located Jen yet he couldn't answer, Alex found himself leaning against the wall of the elevator to Ranger Tower with a sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to wish away his growing headache. Things had been a lot easier when Jen was in charge of the team, for many reasons. He hadn't realized just how much he'd come to depend on her lately until she was gone.
The doors slid open, and he absently keyed the recognition code for his morpher as he headed for Ranger Tower's main entryway. The computer chirped a cheerful acknowledgement at him.
"Time Force was tracking three fugitives in the year 3001. How they showed up in the year 2002 is ... beyond me," he heard Trip say.
He frowned. What was Trip doing on the comm? Wasn't Katie supposed to be on duty today?
"Oh, and ... There's - there's something you should know, Wes, um ... " Trip continued, and Alex paused in mid-step. "Jen was assigned a special mission to arrest those mutants, but ... we lost contact with her a few weeks ago."
Then Trip looked up and froze. The comm he was using vanished abruptly. "Alex! What are you - I thought you were coming in later," he stammered.
"Wasn't Katie on comm today?" he heard himself ask blandly.
Trip blinked. "Um ... she uh, went down ... to get some lunch. She was going to bring something up for everyone." He hesitated. "Alex, are you - "
"So the fugitives are in 2002?" he interrupted.
Trip bit his lip, nodding. "Wes and Eric called to ask if any mutants had escaped from the future."
Alex frowned slightly. "2002?" he repeated. "Why would they go a year *after* you four were there? Are there any events we should be concerned about around that year?"
Trip turned to check the computer. "Well ... there's the Wild Force Power Rangers in Turtle Cove, California. But I don't see anything else in that year, exactly. But the beginning of that century was very active for Power Rangers. Maybe that has something to do with it."
Alex shook his head. He'd never understand why for fifteen years Power Rangers seemed to be popping up like daisies, yet his team was the first that had appeared on Earth in nearly a century. "But why Wild Force in particular? Anything special about them?"
Trip frowned at his results. "Well ... as far as Power Rangers in general go, not really. I mean, they saved Earth, but that's - "
"Something all Rangers do," he interrupted. "Nothing involving timelines or anything of galactic proportions?"
"No ... " Trip tilted his head curiously. "There's a side note here, but it's been encrypted."
"Can you hack it?"
He hesitated. "It might take me a little while if we don't want anyone to notice."
"Go for it," Alex told him. "Anything else we can learn about them could be important."
The sound of Katie cursing as fluently as her morpher would allow made him turn to look at her as she stumbled through the door, clutching several bags. "You all right?" he asked, frowning in concern as he took some of them from her.
She glared at him. "Your brother is ... is a ... a world-class *jerk*!" she shouted.
He flinched slightly. "You saw him?"
"He shoved his way into the lunch line and jabbed his elbow into my ribs on *purpose*, just to tell me that Time Force wants us to find Jen," she snapped.
Alex paused. "He said that Time Force wants us to find Jen? Exactly like that?"
She stopped too, looking at him oddly. "'Time Force needs you to find your Pink Ranger'. That's what he said. Why?"
Alex shook his head slowly. "Ben ... isn't subtle," he said eventually. "If he thinks we're taking too long to find Jen, he'd say so. Saying Time Force needs us to find her ... He shook his head again. "There's something odd about how he said it, but I can't put my finger on it."
" ... Guys?"
They both turned to look at Trip. He was fidgeting, looking worried and nervous all at once. "I found something," he said eventually.
Alex raised his morpher. "Alex to Lucas."
"This is Lucas. Any news?"
"Report in. We need to talk."
****
"Seriously, why couldn't you have picked a bigger room?" Lucas grumbled as they squeezed into The Closet. It was just big enough for a five small chairs, one side table squeezed into the center, and bookshelves hung on the walls that forced him and Alex to lean forward to avoid hitting their heads.
Alex sighed. "We've been over this. No one would expect us to use a room this small for what we use it for."
"Because everyone else has sense," Lucas muttered darkly, wincing as he folded himself awkwardly into a chair.
Alex shook his head. "Trip, you said you found something in that file on the Wild Force Rangers in 2002?"
Trip nodded. "You guys aren't gonna believe this ... " he warned. "The note labeled three Wild Force Rangers as being connected to Space Patrol Delta. It said that Wild Force Yellow was even an enlisted member."
Alex frowned. "Space Patrol Delta? The prototype for Time Force? But what would the Wild Force Rangers be doing with them? You said they were based in California."
"They were," Trip agreed, nodding again. "But get this - the Space Patrol Delta they're connected to? Is on *Earth*."
They all stared at him.
"That's impossible," Lucas said slowly. "Space Patrol Delta was formed on the planet Sirius, and was a galactic organization until it became Time Force. The first base on Earth wasn't until 2087, and that was Time Force - not Space Patrol Delta. That's Time Force history from basic training."
"I know!" Trip leaned forward eagerly. "But that's what the file says - that Taylor Earheart later became an important member of Space Patrol Delta, and get *this*: she's also side-referenced as a *Newtech Ranger*."
"A *what*?" Katie demanded. "There's no such thing as Newtech Rangers. The only Rangers Newtech City has ever had is us, and we're Time Force."
A chill ran down Alex's spine. "You think Time Force has been withholding information from us about the past."
Trip nodded again, looking serious now. "It's a definite possibility. And ... I found something else."
"What is it?" Lucas asked warily.
"There's another sub-log to the Wild Force Rangers entry that was encrypted, too." He paused. "It states that on July 27, in the year 2002, the Wild Force Rangers teamed up with the Time Force Rangers to defeat three time bandits known as 'Mutorgs'."
Katie's eyes widened. "You mean ... Just Wes and Eric? Or ... "
"There were twelve Rangers credited with bringing them in," Trip said quietly. His eyes flickered to Alex.
Alex swallowed. "Then you have to go back," he said evenly.
Fandom/: Power Rangers Time Force, slight crossover with S.P.D. (In Bright Skies universe)
Characters/: Alex
Pairings/: Alex/Jen, Lucas/Trip, Katie/OC, Wes/Eric
Rating/: T
Disclaimer/: Saban/Disney/Whoever sure didn't write *this* into the series. The plot comes purely from my own warped little mind, and the characters are merely borrowed from them for my own amusement. Lucky you.
Summary/: The legacy of Wesley Collins and Eric Myers didn't just affect the past - it affected the future. One thousand years after they became Rangers, one person is still struggling against the corruption of Time Force and the heritage he never wanted.
Warnings/: People used for scientific experimentation, corrupted Time Force, character with self-image issues
Author's Notes/: While watching Reinforcements from the Future again, I noticed that Trip never seems surprised when Wes and Eric call him, or even when they answer his call, using super-secret *future technology* in front of other people. My mind wandered.
Also, I did not *intentionally* insult Wild Force; I was looking at things from a factual stand point. c.c;;
-- "I don't like this."
"No one's expecting you to."
"Doesn't anyone else think this seems like a trap?"
"We *all* think it's a trap, Alex. But we don't exactly have a choice."
"Why only one? We can spare at *least* two, if not more." A pause. "We should send all four of you. I can handle things here."
"And leave you without anyone to watch your back? Not happening." --
Six months ago, all five of them had gone over every inch of Ranger Tower, cleaning and rearranging. The end result had given them a map of every hidden camera and listening device, which Trip had programmed into their morphers before removing all traces of the original. They'd hacked the door lock to Ranger Tower and added a new code that could only recognize the five Chrono Morphers, as well as allowing for a warning alarm in the event that any of them brought a guest.
In addition, they now had one room completely secure for planning and discussing any new information gathered against Time Force. Trip and Alex had done what they called a 'fake feed', copying an image of a nearly identical room and sending it to both cameras, essentially rendering them all invisible. Trip had added a bug scrambler to their morphers so that with the touch of a button, all of the listening devices in the room received no audio, but remained active to keep from setting off any alarms. The room they'd chosen was one of the smallest in Ranger Tower, making it less likely to be missed. Lucas had crankily dubbed it 'The Closet', prompting a great deal of snickering and bad jokes from the girls for several weeks.
Time Force remained frustratingly unchanged. While the Rangers struggled to identify which members of the board were part of the original experiments, they found themselves also trying to decide who to trust among the current staff. While Logan had shown that he was on their side, that didn't mean that he was *completely* trustworthy, and nothing he had done so far had confirmed where his loyalties lie. Then there was the ongoing investigation of the rest of the Time Force Officers and their subordinates, gathering evidence against the board ...
It was a long, slow process, and it didn't seem to be going anywhere.
And now they'd been given a report of evidence of three mutants still unrecovered from Ransik's prison break, along with specific instructions to send one Ranger back in time to investigate. Trip had confirmed that the report and the missing mutants were a real case, but no one liked the orders they'd been given - Alex most of all. He'd argued against it for the better part of an hour.
He was outvoted in the end, mostly because no one could come up with a better plan. And being that it was Jen's team, Jen had been the one to take the assignment. She left Alex in charge, and made the other three promise to keep him from getting himself killed. Katie had been given special permission to tie up or beat into submission anyone that became 'difficult', and Alex had ignored the glances the two women had given him when Jen had given the order.
That was a month ago. A week later, Jen had stopped reporting in. The original plan had been for her to 'drop out' of contact to throw Time Force off their trail, and keep them from learning gaining any information the Rangers didn't want them to have. But Jen hadn't even reported in to the Rangers, which had *not* been part of the plan.
Alex was worried. Which meant that he'd been ruder and more snappish than usual, to the point that only Trip seemed to be able to tolerate him for extended periods of time. Katie had been agitated and looking for a fight she couldn't have, leaving her and Alex often at odds with each other. Lucas was helping Trip to keep the peace more because Trip needed the help than for actually wanting to, and spent most of his time away from Ranger Tower whenever possible. Alex wasn't exactly sure where he'd been going, just that he made sure to show up for his assigned patrols.
As for Ben, he had barely seen more than a glimpse of his brother wandering through the halls a few times, and neither of them had sought the others out. For now, it seemed that Time Force didn’t want them near each other, and Alex was perfectly fine with that. Ben had already made his choice; it was painful enough catching him out of the corner of his eye when he wasn't expecting it.
After another morning of useless paperwork and questions about why they hadn't located Jen yet he couldn't answer, Alex found himself leaning against the wall of the elevator to Ranger Tower with a sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to wish away his growing headache. Things had been a lot easier when Jen was in charge of the team, for many reasons. He hadn't realized just how much he'd come to depend on her lately until she was gone.
The doors slid open, and he absently keyed the recognition code for his morpher as he headed for Ranger Tower's main entryway. The computer chirped a cheerful acknowledgement at him.
"Time Force was tracking three fugitives in the year 3001. How they showed up in the year 2002 is ... beyond me," he heard Trip say.
He frowned. What was Trip doing on the comm? Wasn't Katie supposed to be on duty today?
"Oh, and ... There's - there's something you should know, Wes, um ... " Trip continued, and Alex paused in mid-step. "Jen was assigned a special mission to arrest those mutants, but ... we lost contact with her a few weeks ago."
Then Trip looked up and froze. The comm he was using vanished abruptly. "Alex! What are you - I thought you were coming in later," he stammered.
"Wasn't Katie on comm today?" he heard himself ask blandly.
Trip blinked. "Um ... she uh, went down ... to get some lunch. She was going to bring something up for everyone." He hesitated. "Alex, are you - "
"So the fugitives are in 2002?" he interrupted.
Trip bit his lip, nodding. "Wes and Eric called to ask if any mutants had escaped from the future."
Alex frowned slightly. "2002?" he repeated. "Why would they go a year *after* you four were there? Are there any events we should be concerned about around that year?"
Trip turned to check the computer. "Well ... there's the Wild Force Power Rangers in Turtle Cove, California. But I don't see anything else in that year, exactly. But the beginning of that century was very active for Power Rangers. Maybe that has something to do with it."
Alex shook his head. He'd never understand why for fifteen years Power Rangers seemed to be popping up like daisies, yet his team was the first that had appeared on Earth in nearly a century. "But why Wild Force in particular? Anything special about them?"
Trip frowned at his results. "Well ... as far as Power Rangers in general go, not really. I mean, they saved Earth, but that's - "
"Something all Rangers do," he interrupted. "Nothing involving timelines or anything of galactic proportions?"
"No ... " Trip tilted his head curiously. "There's a side note here, but it's been encrypted."
"Can you hack it?"
He hesitated. "It might take me a little while if we don't want anyone to notice."
"Go for it," Alex told him. "Anything else we can learn about them could be important."
The sound of Katie cursing as fluently as her morpher would allow made him turn to look at her as she stumbled through the door, clutching several bags. "You all right?" he asked, frowning in concern as he took some of them from her.
She glared at him. "Your brother is ... is a ... a world-class *jerk*!" she shouted.
He flinched slightly. "You saw him?"
"He shoved his way into the lunch line and jabbed his elbow into my ribs on *purpose*, just to tell me that Time Force wants us to find Jen," she snapped.
Alex paused. "He said that Time Force wants us to find Jen? Exactly like that?"
She stopped too, looking at him oddly. "'Time Force needs you to find your Pink Ranger'. That's what he said. Why?"
Alex shook his head slowly. "Ben ... isn't subtle," he said eventually. "If he thinks we're taking too long to find Jen, he'd say so. Saying Time Force needs us to find her ... He shook his head again. "There's something odd about how he said it, but I can't put my finger on it."
" ... Guys?"
They both turned to look at Trip. He was fidgeting, looking worried and nervous all at once. "I found something," he said eventually.
Alex raised his morpher. "Alex to Lucas."
"This is Lucas. Any news?"
"Report in. We need to talk."
****
"Seriously, why couldn't you have picked a bigger room?" Lucas grumbled as they squeezed into The Closet. It was just big enough for a five small chairs, one side table squeezed into the center, and bookshelves hung on the walls that forced him and Alex to lean forward to avoid hitting their heads.
Alex sighed. "We've been over this. No one would expect us to use a room this small for what we use it for."
"Because everyone else has sense," Lucas muttered darkly, wincing as he folded himself awkwardly into a chair.
Alex shook his head. "Trip, you said you found something in that file on the Wild Force Rangers in 2002?"
Trip nodded. "You guys aren't gonna believe this ... " he warned. "The note labeled three Wild Force Rangers as being connected to Space Patrol Delta. It said that Wild Force Yellow was even an enlisted member."
Alex frowned. "Space Patrol Delta? The prototype for Time Force? But what would the Wild Force Rangers be doing with them? You said they were based in California."
"They were," Trip agreed, nodding again. "But get this - the Space Patrol Delta they're connected to? Is on *Earth*."
They all stared at him.
"That's impossible," Lucas said slowly. "Space Patrol Delta was formed on the planet Sirius, and was a galactic organization until it became Time Force. The first base on Earth wasn't until 2087, and that was Time Force - not Space Patrol Delta. That's Time Force history from basic training."
"I know!" Trip leaned forward eagerly. "But that's what the file says - that Taylor Earheart later became an important member of Space Patrol Delta, and get *this*: she's also side-referenced as a *Newtech Ranger*."
"A *what*?" Katie demanded. "There's no such thing as Newtech Rangers. The only Rangers Newtech City has ever had is us, and we're Time Force."
A chill ran down Alex's spine. "You think Time Force has been withholding information from us about the past."
Trip nodded again, looking serious now. "It's a definite possibility. And ... I found something else."
"What is it?" Lucas asked warily.
"There's another sub-log to the Wild Force Rangers entry that was encrypted, too." He paused. "It states that on July 27, in the year 2002, the Wild Force Rangers teamed up with the Time Force Rangers to defeat three time bandits known as 'Mutorgs'."
Katie's eyes widened. "You mean ... Just Wes and Eric? Or ... "
"There were twelve Rangers credited with bringing them in," Trip said quietly. His eyes flickered to Alex.
Alex swallowed. "Then you have to go back," he said evenly.