Crisis Contained

Posted on Wed Feb 19th, 2025 @ 12:43pm by Damien McGinnis

2,004 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Shadows of Trust
Location: Event Centre, Earth

Marvin Carmichael sat at his desk in the security office. He'd heard that there had been a murder outside, but of course, the IT guy in charge of the security cameras didn't get to go out. Probably for the best; he was far from a good fighter and, while well proportioned, was somewhat lacking in both muscle mass and and fighting skills.

“What do you need?” He asked as the door behind him opened “Better question, who am I helping?”

“I need all footage from the hall and surrounding areas as requested in the warrant Marvin.” Fraser requested glancing back at the pink ranger as he pressed his west and showed the operator the copy of the warrant. “The president? Galactic Patrol Force? The power rangers? Any of your deities? Does it really matter who you are helping with the warrant?” He wondered, smiling ever so slightly. This was not their first interaction.

“I just like to know. I trust you brought the usual.” Marvin remarked with a wry grin “Or do I not get my salmon and cream cheese bagel now?”

Fraser smiled as Kilena raised an eyebrow at seeing this side of her husband. “Not today Marv. No time. I am standing here in a tuxedo with a beautiful GPF officer though so that had to count for something. You did ask to meet my wife.” He commented indicating Kilena.

“So this is your wife.” Marvin said, glancing at her for a moment before going back to the monitors, beginning to key in commands “Got to ask; did he lie to you until it was too late to back out or was it just sympathy for the poor S.O.B?”

”Kilena.” Kilena laughed at Marvin and shook her head. “Unfortunately not. I love him.” Kilena assured as Fraser smiled leaning against the wall to watch Kilena. “Do not think I have ever seen him lie. Pretty shocking for a journalist right?” She teased feeling she might have found someone to help her wind the man up who she had not realised she had needed in her life until time changes had brought him to her.

“So he told you about the bachelor party?” Marvin asked with a cheeky glint in his eye “Brave man. Now, who are we looking for here?”

“He did. I now know who to blame for the blue patch on our living room floor.” Fraser laughed a little before rolling his eyes as Kilena stepped forward and started looking through the screens. She wished she could have brought Melody with her as the robot would have been helpful in this situation. “That man there.” She said pointing out the murdered man on the screen.

“Right. So let's back up, following him…” Marvin said, manipulating the controls as the Ambassador sprung up in reverse as a young woman put a hand on him “There's our suspect, now let's follow her…”

He began playing the recording at triple speed, following the woman before freezing at the interesting part.

“Looks like she's a twin. In the same outfit. But your lack of reactions tells me you knew that.” He said, observing her passing another identical woman in the screaming crowd, highlighting the woman he'd been following in blue “Best keep an eye on the right one. So she's exiting the hall through south west four. Let's check that corridor.”

The footage cut to the corridor, where the woman was walking down in a hurry. As she did, she appeared to shimmer and distort, being replaced by a young man. Marvin frozen.

“You ever seen a girl do that, Frazer?” He asked “Because my last date sure didn't.”

“Cannot say I date much but that is a shapeshifter from Silerous 8. How in the world did they get through biofilter? They are a species banned from most homeworlds, including Earth.” Fraser wondered glancing back to Kilena. He saw something pass over her eyes as she realised simultaneously that they could no longer trust many people.

“Can you continue to track them?” Kilena wondered quietly as she brought up information on Silerous 8.

“I've set the software to track the general figure rather than a specific individual.” Marvin replied as he keyed in the commands “As for getting through the bio filter, I have a theory. The Imperium are known to engage in bio-engineering outlawed within the alliance. It's why they remain as largely unknown entity; our laws and theirs just don't mesh and that makes negotiations nigh impossible. I guess they gave this guy or girl an upgrade.”

“Or magic.” Kilena commented in a whisper to Fraser. He smiled sadly and ran a hand along her arm comfortingly knowing exactly what she was thinking of when Luna had hurt her.

“Biofilter is a good theory.” Fraser said as he watched the screen.

The figure on screen kept walking, shifting through four different figures as he did, before settling as he approached the elevator at the end of the corridor on the figure of Inspector Maddison.

“Okay, so he's the boss now…” Marvin said, pausing as he spotted a young Human man in a red hoodie jogging for the lift, holding up a hand to hold the elevator “Isn't that one of the cadets on security for the event? Daniel or something?”

“Damien.” Kilena whispered as she lifted her skirts and ran out of the room followed by Fraser who grabbed two weapons from the locker on his way tossed one to his wife.”Why did I not foresee this?”

“You do not always see everything.” Fraser recalled as he followed the woman's lead as she approached the elevator.

The doors slid open, revealing an empty elevator. As they did, their comm units chirped.

“Potential lead on our assassin in sector six.” Came Damien's voice “The inspector and I are en route now. Cover all exits.”

“I need to contact Damien discretely.” Kilena whispered to herself but she also needed to speak to Marvin to find out what was going on. “Marvin? Where are they?” Kilena demanded pressing her comms unit to a secondary channel.

“They're two floors down, south east corridor headed north.” Marvin said “If they keep going in that direction they're going to enter a blind spot in 30 seconds.”

“Baby contact him and tell him to stop acting like he is on the farm and to stop chasing the cockerel.” Kilena said, pressing the elevator door closed.as she listened to Marvin. This was a nightmare that she could foresee going wrong even as Fraser looked quizzical but passed the message on hoping whatever codes were between the red and pink ranger would trigger something.

“You might want to tell him more than that.” Marvin chimed in “Encrypted message. Inspector Maddison was found dead at his apartment ten minutes ago. Early reports put time of death 2 days ago.”

Kilena blinked several times. “Understood. Marvin, I am about to trust you with my life, do you understand?” Kilena whispered blinking as she saw several futures and there was only one way she was about to save Damien.

“No pressure.” Came Marvin's response “Let's do this.”

Kilena flicked her wrist and her solar crystal appeared. Fraser looked away as a pink light filled the elevator and the Pink Solar Force Ranger stood there. Fraser smiled proudly. He never got bored of seeing her morph even in a small space like they were in.

The doors slid open with a ding, and in front of her was not one but two Damiens.

“Kilena, shoot him.” The one on the right said.

Before she had a chance to react, the other Damien grabbed the one that had spoke, spinning them both round several times before splitting off.

“Kilena, it's him!” One said, pointing at the other.

“Don't listen to him, he's the impostor!” The other said, pointing at the accuser, mirroring his position.

Kilena blinked between the pair as she held up her solar weapon in blaster mode and looked at the pair. They both looked the same and blasting them both seemed like a good option but she had an idea first. “Why did I get drunk on Ko-35?” She demanded off of the pair.

“You and lover boy over there had a fight.” One of them said.

“I promised I wasn't going to mention that to anyone.” The other noted.

Kilena without hesitation shot the one who said You and lover boy over there had a fight. Fraser had not existed in that universe and she had gotten drunk at Damien’s rejection. “How did you know?” Fraser asked as he stepped over watching the creatures form flickering .

“Because it was the other timeline.” Kilena commented. “The one where me and you never fell in love.”

“It's a whole big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff.” Damien quipped as he moved beside Kilena, looking at the creature as he added darkly “You took my face and tried to have my friend kill me. It's morphin time…”

There was a flash of red light as Damien morphed into his ranger form. He turned to Kilena and Fraser for a moment.

“Get him out of here.” Damien noted seriously as he turned to face the flickering creature that was still in his appearance “This is no place for civilians, and I'm going to have to pretend not to enjoy this…”

“I would have only stunned you a little.” Kilena said quietly as several other officers came in as she huffed the creature with a pair of power dampening cuffs and waited until they were alone again. “What now?” She wondered.

“Now?” The doppelganger replied “Now it's morphin time…”

In a flash of red and purple energy, he morphed into a duplicate Red Ranger, with the colour pallet of the helmet inverted.

“I see why you like this, kid. This feels incredible!” He laughed as he looked down at his hands “Same upgrades that let me avoid detection let me mimic any abilities I see people I copy use. So thank you for the upgrade.”

Kilena froze and took a step back wondering how he could copy the ranger form. Did they now have a connection to the morphing grid? How exactly did it work? “You are still a poor imitation.” Kilena assured really hoping that Marvin was watching so she could look back at the footage and work it out.

“Maybe, but still, it was enough to counter your dampener.” The copy said, taking aim with his morpher “I suggest you walk away, pink ranger. Unless of course…”

He moved his arm, adjusting his aim to Fraser. He laughed to himself.

“Anyone moves, lover boy dies.” The copy said “Now, arrange for safe transportation for me out of here and no one gets hurt.”

“You really think they value me over your risk to the universe. Do not be ridiculous.” Fraser commented ignoring Kilena’s gaze and what he knew would be a stunned expression under her helmet.

Damien slowly began lowering the weapon he had aimed at the duplicate. Then, in a flash, he charged the duplicate, taking it to the ground, a blast of surging red energy pulsing from its blaster, grazing Fraser's shoulder.

“You think you can threaten my friends?!” Damien screamed in the face of the duplicate as he began punching it in the face, a hairline crack forming in it's visor “What do you have to say?!”

The duplicate attempted to get something out as Damien continued his string of blows, picking the figure up and hurling it into the wall, the figure reverting to a silver coloured androgynous figure with no discernible features, it's breathing slow and shallow as Damien began to advance, his sabre appearing in his hand.

He paused as he reached the figure. Unconscious. He pressed two fingers to the left side of his helmet as his sabre disappeared, noting Kilena and Fraser had retreated.

“Event control, this is the red ranger. Our assassin is in custody.” He said “Situation is contained.”

 

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