Ranger Drabbles

Wes Collins’ face was the first to appear on the large flat-screen tiv in the command center. It actually doubled as a television and a screen for conference calls-an addition Alpha 5 wasn’t sure how to feel about.

“Virgie, we’ve detected a disturbance on the moon,” Wes said. “It seems that-”

“Rita’s out,” Virgie replied. “Sensed it already. Plus my parents gave me a heads up. Tell Eric it’s time, and thanks in advance.”

“You think you can handle him?” Wes teased. 

“The question is, can he handle me?” Virgie replied with a grin. “Alpha, get everyone on the line.”

“Roger that!” Alpha replied. His fingers moved quickly on the console, and soon other faces appeared on screen.

“RJ, time to come out of retirement,” Virgie greeted the wolf ranger on screen. He’d been spending his days of late training students at the Pai Zhua academy outside Ocean Bluff.

“Yeah, I felt it too,” RJ said grimly. “Who knew that dumpsters existed back then? Though I’m not sure I would’ve put her in one.”

“Yeah, we all know what happens when you just temporarily put someone away,” Virgie drawled.

“Ahem,” Came the voice of Jayden Shiba, who was pretending to look annoyed at that statement.

“C’mon Jayden, you know that’s true,” Virgie replied cheekily. “Sealing away has never really worked, though I guess people get an a for effort.”

Jayden sighed. “I’m guessing it’s time?”

“That it is. Have you decided who you’re sending? I’d ask for you or Lauren, but I know your duties there are too pressing.”

Jayden nodded. “I’m sending Mike, actually. He’s grown as we’ve battled together, and I think he can teach everyone a few things.”

“That’s the idea,” Virgie replied. “Taylor?”

“And here I thought I’d just get to go back to what passes for normal in the Air Force,” Taylor replied with a sigh. “But I’ll be there. 

“Who’s the last?” Wes asked. “Don’t you need five?”

“I’m the last,” Virgie replied. “You didn’t think I was going to let everyone have all the fun themselves, did you?” She grinned. “I’ll have Alpha send a taxi for everyone involved. Thanks for answering the call, and I’ll be checking in often.”

“Roger that,” Wes replied cheerfully. 

Jayden meanwhile, just gave a nod and a polite smile-he was often a man of few words 

The others murmured their goodbyes, and when they’d all hung up, Virgie said, “Alpha, get Lightspeed Rescue on the line. Tell them it’s time to suit up once again.”

A Marine. Wes had been flabbergasted when he’d heard, and when he’d asked Eric, Eric had just grinned widely and said, “GI Jane has nothing on my sister.”

Not only was Jamie Myers a Marine, but she was apparently *the* Marine, having set every record and blown her male counterparts out of the water. The rejection resulted in a call from a high-ranking Marine official who almost got the Guardians shut down before they began. That little incident tested Wes’ talents of smooth talking. Though it would have meant he’d be out of a job, Eric seemed to find the whole incident hilarious.

Though she’d become a part of the Guardians after that, Wes hadn’t seen much of her at first, though he’d certainly heard of her efficiency. She and Eric had little trouble taking care of any problems that arose, knocked around Cyclobots with ease, and had even gone toe to toe with Ransik at least once. 

The next time he really saw her, though, was the final battle with Ransik. She was the only Guardian left standing aside from Eric and himself. Right after he and Eric had morphed, Wes heard something.

Helicopters.

“On your feet boys, the cavalry’s coming!” Jamie called cheerfully. Everyone-including and Wes-looked up to see dozens of helicopters, with dozens of men jumping out of them.

“Did your sister just summon the Marines?”Wes asked.

In response, Eric thumbed a finger towards Jamie,who grinned and said, “Did you know that things like this are a matter of national security? Who knew?” And then she’d charged off, yelling  Semper Fi!” Followed by a curse that made Wes arch an eyebrow underneath his helmet.

By the time the Time Force Rangers arrived, things were actually halfway handled, and in spite of Wes’ warnings, Jamie had gone toe to toe with Ransik at least three more times.

When it was all over, Wes couldn’t help asking her out on a date.

“You always go for the tough ones, don’t you Collins?” Eric teased.

Wes coughed and tried to hide his blush, but blushed even more at Jamie’s response.

If looks could kill, Gold would be six feet under. Virgil was mostly mad because Gold hadn’t broken up the fight between himself and Virgie, but Gold had reasons for that. One, Gold knew that for all her rage, Virgie wouldn’t kill Virgil. It wasn’t because she couldn’t, mind you-though logically she shouldn’t be able to come anywhere near their power levels. And yet, every time she got angry-Nokrea called it ‘going Super Saiyan’, whatever that meant-it seemed as if she could channel the fury of the gods themselves.

Another reason was that Virgil needed to keep his temper in check. Virgie was far more human than the rest of them in terms of emotions. She even called a few rangers ‘friends’ much to their distaste, but at the end of the day, Gold knew where her loyalties lay.

And besides that, Gold knew that he and Virgie were far more alike than they seemed on the surface. She was gentler-kinder even-but when threatened one way or another, well-Virgie could be as ruthless as Gold himself. She was the only one Gold knew that wielded her emotions like weapons, and her strongest weapon was rage.

Finally Gold spoke, and he asked, calmly, “Are you an absolute fool? She could have killed you, and Trek would’ve had to revive you, again-”

“She had a child with him!” Virgil interrupted in a fit of rage. “She’s probably been feeding him information behind our back, and-”

“I was aware of the child a long time ago. She told me when we met, and if I thought it was a concern, you would have been told.” Gold hadn’t told anyone else, though he suspected Trek might know, as Trek had told him that Virgie often projected her thoughts when upset.But then Trek had also told him that Virgie wasn’t a threat, so he tuned Virgie’s thoughts out most of the time.

“You knew and you-whose side are you even on?” Virgil might have lunged at Gold foolishly in a fit off rage if he could move.

“A child is of no consequence to any of us as of yet. She knows who her mother is. Should she become a problem in the future, you will be the first to know. Her father doesn’t even know she exists, and Virgie doesn’t plan on telling him. What were you thinking, attacking a child?”

“She’s his child.” Virgil pouted. If it hadn’t been for a burn cream Trek had provided him, he would still be covered in scorch marks. 

“Precisely,” Gold said, folding his arms. “A child that Andros knows nothing of, and could be used as leverage should the occasion arise.”  Gold wouldn’t harm the child of course-he’d simply make sure that she knew her father had been a menace to her mother-had hurt her even-and to her companions at every turn. Yes, he’d thought about this in detail.

“What...what are you on?” Virgil squinted at Gold. “I’m not babysitting that brat and looking at his face every damn day-” The fact that child looked like Andros was the main reason Virgil had attacked in a blind rage during that chance meeting. Even after Virgie had revealed her secret and asked him to stop, he hadn’t, and that was why Virgil was in that bed, lucky to be mostly in one piece.

“Of course not.” Gold shook his head. “We merely keep an eye on the child and see that she’s more in line with our way of thinking. If she comes to us of her own free will when she’s older, so be it. As long as she doesn’t prove to be our enemy, then I suggest you keep away from her,unless you do want to end up dead. Might I remind you that when Virgie gets angry, she’s strong enough to down at least ten rangers at once? Or about the time she sent Andros flying halfway across the planet?”

“Still should’ve killed him,” Virgil muttered. He was calming down, though, even if he didn’t entirely see why they needed to let a child of Andros live. “You’re letting her live because she’s hers, aren’t you?”

Gold let out a dark chuckle. “Children are of no consquence to me and they shouldn’t be to you either. Focus on our family and the tasks at hand. The more you let your rage blind you, the more reckless you get. Think about, and apologize to Virgie-if she’ll let you get near her.” He laughed again and walked away. 

“You’re doing it wrong.” That was Andros, who walked over from the side. His gaze and stance was somewhat cautious, but there was a slight tinge of concern in his eyes.

“What the-” Virgil glared over at Andros. “Get out of here before I destroy you. I’m not in the mood to deal with you right now.”

Andros folded his arms. “Isn’t your sole purpose to destroy me?”

Virgil glared at him before awkwardly trying to bandage his shoulder again. “Damn it!”

“I told you, you’re doing it wrong.” Andros walked over and took both bandages and antiseptic from him and sat down. “Just sit still.”

“I don’t need your help, ranger! I’m doing just fine by myself!” He tried to wrestle the items back, but Andros had actually managed a firm grip.

“You’ve been trying for the last half hour-I’ve been watching.” Andros’ lip twitched in laughter before he started tending to Virgil’s wound. “Now try to sit still for once, and try not to kill me till after it’s over.”

“Shut up you stupid-damn it!”

“Yeah, this stuff usually stings.” Andros didn’t sound at all sorry about that, though. “But hey, it’s probably no worse than getting blasted, right?” He sounded almost cheerful.

“Ranger, I swear to Dark Specter, when I get my hands on you-” Virgil started.

“So what’s stopping you?” Andros was about halfway through bandaging Virgil’s shoulder. “Even injured, you’re stronger than me. You probably could’ve killed me at least three times since this conversation started, but you haven’t yet.”

Virgil glared at him, then huffed. “Not in the mood.”

“You know, we don’t have to fight. We could be-”

“What, friends? With you?” Virgil snorted as Andros finished bandaging his shoulder. “Have you forgotten that your sister programmed me to destroy you?”

“My-how did you know about that?” Andros honestly hadn’t thought the psychos knew Astronema’s true identity-they were far more concerned with ranger destruction, after all.

“Ecliptor talks too much.” Virgil stood up, brushed himself off, and put his leather jacket, which he’d taken off temporarily, back on. “She just can’t program us to get along.”

“Get along...did Psycho Black do that to you?” Andros’ face softened slightly. “You can’t just-”

“Time for me to go, ranger. I suppose I’ll just say I didn’t find you today. Or that you tricked me. Either way, I’ll let you live.”

“You know, a thank you would suffice.”

She was idly listening while Wes tried to re-explain this to the rest of the Time Force team, and given the look on Jen’s face alone, she was glad that she hadn’t been the one to tell them. ‘Good old Wes,’ she thought to herself.

It was only when someone mentioned the name of the monster she and Wes had faced before-Brickbreak-that she remembered something. ‘Wes is supposed to help Eric against him in this episode, but he can’t because he’s...’ 

“Oh crap,” she said out loud. Everyone turned to look at her and she stood up. “Uh, gotta take care of something, back soon!” She concentrated, and was grateful that she’d managed to summon the psycho speed she’d assigned Virgie. 

Thankfully she reached her destination in time, and it was another concentration trick rather than a morpher and a pose that called on the Time Force Black powers once again. “Gangway!” she yelled as she ran through, sword in hand.

“Who the hell are you?” Eric snarled from underneath his helmet. “I don’t need your-”

“The Lone Ranger,” she replied sarcastically. “And yeah, you kinda do. I haven’t seen all of this episode, but I know what’s supposed to happen.”

Eric couldn’t comment right away due to Brickbreak taking another swing at him. When he got a moment, he asked, “Do you even know what you’re doing?”

“Haven’t the slightest idea my dude, but at least I can access something that keeps me from being monster bait right away,” she replied cheerfully.

“What. The. Hell.” That was all Eric could say before they went back to fighting. Thankfully, with the two of them working together (sort of), Brickbreak was no more.

“It’s Shake and Bake, and I helped,” Kelli drawled before powering down. Nearby, Eric facepalmed before doing the same. 

“What are you, nuts?” He asked. “You could have gotten yourself killed, and besides that, I didn’t need-”

“Would you rather have had Wes help you? Because that was who was meant to before I messed things up.”

“First of all, I don’t need help from some snotty rich kid, and second, what do you mean, messed things up?”

“You know just because most rich people-or people in general really-are assholes doesn’t mean everyone is, right?” When Eric snorted , she went on, “It’s true. But to answer your question, I’m a part time fanfiction writer from a universe where this place is part of a tv show and for some reason I can access ranger-related powers I’ve assigned to characters I write.”

Eric stared. “Which nut hut did they let you out of?”

“Hey, I’m a functioning member of society. I take showers, wear clean clothes, and even pay bills!” When Eric snorted again, she said, “ Anyway, Wes was supposed to come help you here and I think you were supposed to have some sort of standoff at the OK Corral where you’d stare each other down-”

“Psh,” Eric scoffed. “If anything, I’d tell him to get the hell out of my way. Damn spoiled rich kid, always getting in my way-”

“You’ll like him eventually,” she interrupted.

Eric almost choked at those words. “Bullshit.”

“No really, he’ll grow on you, like a fungus.”

“No way. No way in hell am I ever gonna like that-”

That was where Wes found them, though it didn’t look like Eric was any angrier than usual-it was hard to tell with him really--so he paused for a moment, listening.

“You don’t have to be an asshole to everyone, you know,” Kelli told him. “Just the people who deserve it. Though I guess I don’t blame you-I mean, when the world treats you like shit, it’s hard not to do the same right back.”

Eric stared for a moment, and was about to say something like ‘What do you know’, but held his tongue, if only because it seemed like this weird girl at least was trying to get it.

“I actually envy you in a way,” she went on. “I was the socially anxious introvert in school. Still don’t like to be around a lot of people much, but it’s easier to talk more if I need to. Anyway, I got teased a lot for various things. Stupid kid stuff. I could never think of anything to say or do back because of the social anxiety thing. I was always afraid to, you know? Which sounds really stupid. Anyway, looking back now, I kind of wish I’d punched a few people in the face. My mom told me she would’ve understood.” She grinned. “Anyway, even if you don’t believe me about where I came from, good on you for being brave enough to stand up for yourself, even if you’ve gone it alone a lot.”

The first Eric reaction would be to brush this off or say something snippy, but he was actually too stunned. Finally, he recovered a little and managed a slight smile. “Thanks. You need some work with your fighting skills, though.”

“Tell me about it.”

“I could show you a few things,” he found himself offering. ‘Why?” he asked himself. ‘What for?’

“That’d be great, but you have to promise to be patient. You can be pretty snippy, you know.”

“Excuse me, but I am not snippy.”

Carlos spun around at the sound of the voice, and realization hit him. “You!” He charged forward in a fit of anger, only to find himself swept off his feet with a large gun pointed at him.

“Nice try, handsome.” Charlie grinned. “Carlos Vallerte, former In Space Black ranger, now turned bounty hunter. Let me guess, either the coalition convinced you to turn in your morpher for the ‘greater’ purpose of hunting down its enemies? Man, you sure are dumb.”

“I don’t give a shit about the Coalition or anything else as long as I’m paid!” Carlos snarled. He actually tried to grab for the gun and catch the woman by surprise, but she ended up kicking him and smacking him on the back of the head with her firearm. “Dammit!”

“Listen up, hothead,” Charlie said. She shifted the gun again. “Now it’s pointed straight at your head. I may be SPD, but I’m pretty sure I can pull off an escaping fugitive who tried to kill me defense.” She grinned widely.

“You’re crazy,” Carlos replied. Then he grinned a little. “Crazy enough to almost be my type.”

“We’ll talk when you’re not trying to bring down the Red Raiders,” Charlie replied.

“Why does SPD care anyway? Shouldn’t you be helping the coalition bring them down too?”

“First of all, SPD operates as an independent law-abiding force and owes the Coalition nothing. Second, our own investigations have revealed that ranger and villain usage of the grid over time has drained its power. The coalition is ignoring that and wants to give grid energy to any dumbass that swears fealty or falls under their control. Even if their grid energy runs out like everyone else’s, by the time that happens, they’ll have taken over everything.”

Carlos shrugged-or about as much as one could shrug with a gun pointed at him-and said, “So what? In the end, I can still get paid hunting down the coalition’s enemies.”

Charlie rolled her eyes. “You really did leave behind the boy scout, didn’t you? Listen dumbass, you might get paid for a while. Then they get tired of you, or you become a thorn in their side and they try and get rid of you. You piss off the wrong person over there, and it’s curtains for you.  Or worse , they don’t pay you at all and brainwash you into becoming their little lapdog.

Carlos glared up at Charlie. “What makes you so sure? Deep down though, he knew she had a point-several points.”

“I know I didn’t hit you on the head that hard, so you really must be that much of a dumbass,” Charlie drawled. “All the signs are there. You really think the Morphing Masters are going to bother to repair the grid when mortals have squandered it in the first place, and the Coalition alone wants to use it for their own gain? Idiot. I’d hit you again, but it might cause brain damage.”

“Hit me again, I might like it,” Carlos retorted with a wide grin.

“Stop distracting me,” Charlie replied. But there was a slight twitch in her lips, as if she wanted to laugh. “But now that our chat’s over, I’ll leave you to it. But if you go after the Red Raiders again, I will come after you.”

“You promise?” Carlos grinned wider.

She watched as a red ranger that could only be Wes went flying. “Where the hell are the other four? Poor guy’s about to get waxed, and if I jump in I’ll get waxed, but...wait. If this is a fictional universe and I”ve come up with character powers for this universe or at least characters using said powers, I wonder if...” She concentrated for a moment-concentrated on one specific thing-well two really, because it took one to make the other stable-and felt a sudden rush of power.

And suddenly she felt like she could do anything. She was half tempted to yell something badass, but instead summoned the sword that came with this transformation and used the distraction of the monster-whatever his name was-to sneak up behind him and slash him in the back.

“What the-” Both Wes and the monster echoed those words at the exact same time. The monster fell over,injured, but wasn’t entirely down for the count.

“You’ll pay for that!” He charged at her, but was deflected by the sword.

Of course the lack of combat experience was evident in her movements-they were sloppy, and it was only with the interference of the secondary force-a ghostly shark spirit-that she didn’t get hit at all. “Man, am I gonna feel this one in the morning,” she groaned.

By this time, a stunned Wes had been able to get to his feet and summon his own chrono sabers. “Thanks for the hand, but...who are you? Are you from the future?”

“I dunno, what year is it?”

“2000,” Wes replied between slashes. 

“I’m from the year 2023, so I guess so, sorta. And I’m Kelli. Ouch, that almost got me.”

In the end, whoever the monster was-was forced to retreat. Kelli had no idea that she’d changed things, and in the original timeline,it had been Wes doing the retreating.

In the meantime, one Eric Myers had taken the distraction as time to snatch the very thing everyone was after for himself. At least that much hadn’t changed.

“By the way, how do you guys get out of these things? I mean, it’s a cool suit and all, but I can’t eat pizza in this helmet.”

Wes chuckled. “We usually just say power down.” When he said the words, his own transformation faded.

“Power down then,” she echoed. Thankfully, it worked, and she peered over at Wes.”You’re even cuter in person.”

“Pardon?”

“I said you’re cuter in person. Let’s just say I’ve seen your face somewhere before, and it’s not because your dad’s a rich dude. Anyway, are you okay?”

“I should probably be asking you the same thing. You look like you’re kind of new to this, but you did pretty well.”

“Thanks, I figured I’d fail miserably,” she replied. “I didn’t think I could do that, but I just went on a hunch. Hard to explain. I’m expecting to feel the impact of this in the morning.”

“Yeah, it’ll do that. I’d ask if I could take you home, but it might take some help from Time Force to do that.”

“Just promise me they won’t lecture me about time travel, cause this totally wasn’t my fault. Jen’s a total badass, but she can be kind of mean. And that Alex guy is kind of a stuffed shirt.”

Wes looked at her quizzically. “How do you know about Jen and Alex? I don’t know much about the guy, other than the fact that Ransik-”

She winced inwardly. “Oops. Well, cat’s out of the bag. I guess I should explain somehow, but long story short, where I come from, Alex is somehow alive, perhaps having reading about all this stuff the others did in the year 2000 in the year 3000...or something. Tell you what, can we go someplace a little more quiet and I can explain to you, and then you can explain to everyone else? Because explaining to groups is nerve-wracking for my introverted personality, and I feel like Jen would interrupt me a thousand times and I’d get pissed off.”

“You’re back!” Alex Drake stood up when he saw that it was Virgie that had entered the room.

Virgie didn’t have the heart to remind him that she’d technically only been gone five minutes-that was the benefit of time travel. She understood why he’d worried, though, even if her memories of the matter weren’t entirely intact. “Yep,” she said instead, and hugged him. “Boy, do I have a story for you.”

“Oh?” Alex hugged her back and frowned in concern before letting her go and gesturing for her to sit down. “You didn’t run into any trouble, did you?”

“No actually. And even if we did, Wes could probably charm his way out of a snake’s den. Eric says he’s the kind of guy who grows on you-like a fungus.

At the mention of Wes, Alex made a face, which caused Virgie to laugh.

“You know Wes makes the same face when I mention you, right?” 

Alex sighed and rubbed his temples, but managed a small smile nonetheless. He couldn’t be irritated at Virgie-not ever. Not after all they’d been through. “Well?”

“I know you warned me timelines could be complicated, but this is a good one,” Virgie said. “You know that movie trilogy from the 20th century called Back to the Future? Well, turns out in this timeline, it’s true.”

“It’s-no, that can’t be right. I would’ve read about it somewhere.”

“Alex, there are multiple timelines-you can’t be expected to read everything. And besides, if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can show up in an In Space timeline, Back to the Future can be real. Can we time travel to that timeline to see the look on Andros’ face?”

“Virgie!”

“Kidding, kidding.” Virgie leaned up to give Alex a kiss on the cheek before continuing. “Well, everything that happened in the movies happened. Emmet Brown invented the time machine sometime around 1985, Travels were made to 1955, 2015, and 1885 respectively, with Emmet himself settling in 1885 in spite of being born in the 20th century.”

“He can’t just-” Alex sighed in frustration. “And how is it that this only showed up as a minor blip on our systems rather than-”

“I think we’ve both learned that nothing in time is as certain as we might believe,” Virgie replied. “That being said, things still need to be monitored so there isn’t absolute chaos. As for why it only showed up as a minor blip, I’m not entirely certain. The time machine, originally a DeLorean but later a train, was  manmade invention kept secret except to a small few.”

“But surely with someone just traveling through time at will would’ve created some sort of alarm on our radar,” Alex mused.

“According to our data, there were at least two instances of timeline skewing that would have had a major impact, but apparently they were fixed before our agents could be dispatched.”

Alex paused, processing all this information. “So how does this lead to 2025?”

“Well, when Wes and I arrived, we headed straight for SPD headquarters, figuring that was the best place to start for information. After some time speaking with Commander Crueger, we were able to trace the source to A Squad Red Ranger Charlotte ‘call me Charlie or else’ Clayton Brown.”

“Let me guess, a descendant of Emmet Brown?” Alex rubbed his temples again. “Time travel isn’t for personal gain, it’s-gah!” He’d loosened up a bit since working with Wes and the other Time Force rangers, but Alex was still...Alex.

“She has a watch with time travel capabilities. And yes, she’s aware of what could happen if it falls into the wrong hands,” Virgie continued. “Apparently she’s used it to visit relatives a couple of times-”

“WHAT?”

“-and thwart certain catastrophes. I have a feeling that the other blip from 2025 that was unsolved has to do with her-something rippled slightly on the day the Dino Thunder rangers accidentally traveled to the future. Their memories should have been erased of the day. Oddly enough though, they’re A-squad rangers alongside Charlie. I think maybe Charlie was trying to prevent something horrible. The timeline itself wasn’t impacted too much from it, however.

Alex sat in silence for a moment, then frowned in thought. “What do you recommend?”

“Monitor the situation, and nothing more. If this is a family that creates minor changes at best and fixes the worst, I don’t think we have much to worry about. We might need to step in someday, but not today.”

“Very well; sounds good to me. Thanks for checking it out.”

“Thanks for letting me go. Though I still think it would be fun if you and I went to the Library of Alexandria or something. And don’t you dare give me that look.”

Alex laughed,forgetting the mini-lecture he was going to give. “We’ll talk.”

“Is that a maybe?”