In Review

Posted on Thu Jun 29th, 2023 @ 8:17am by Damien McGinnis & Kilena Keithron & Spencer Gustaffson & Ciestra

2,534 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: GPF Academy, Commandant's Office
Timeline: 0900 Hours, November 18th 2050

Damien walked up to the door of the commandant's office. He paced nervously down the sterile, white corridor. Before the invasion, he'd always thought the idea of having the base be able to retract into the ground beneath a nigh impenetrable bulkhead and shield sounded like something from some kind of kids show, probably the kind with puppets or something. Now, seeing the place as pristine as when he'd left, apart from a few missing busts of notable SPA, SPD and GPF personnel from the podiums along each wall.

He was less than happy with the fact that he'd been called down to the Commandant's Office. The guy had known what had been going on from the beginning. Maybe this was the part where they were told they're thrown under the bus. He didn't like that idea. Not one bit.

Finally, he stopped, slumping down onto the bench lining the wall. He looked up at one of the intact busts, of a man with dreadlocks. He rolled his eyes slightly and shook his head before looking at the bust.

"What would you do?" He asked, before rolling his eyes once more "Damn it, Damien, you're talking to statues."

"Well only people who are going to respond this morning," Kilena commented as she stepped into the corridor. She looked pale but she was wearing a clean uniform with her hair tied up out of the way. "Sleep much?"

"What do you think?" Damien replied simply, slumping back in his seat once more.

"Well at least they allowed us a shower and a night's sleep in own bed before arresting us I guess," Kilena said leaning against the wall.

Spencer had taken the time to trim his hair and clean-shave again for the first time in weeks. He approached the other two, not hiding the Morpher on his wrist. There was something a bit less belligerent than before in his appearance, but more commanding. Maybe being half in charge of a short-lived rebellion was what he'd needed, along with the newfound confidence about his powers. He nodded at Damien and Kilena somewhat grimly. For a moment, he thought about giving a status report on Kyarah, but the lack of SOS would tell them everything he feared. "I'll be honest, my opinions have changed since my little existential crisis on the way back here the first time. After the amount of grief that Kyarah, Keon, and I went through trying to save the world without an ounce of help from GPF command, if they give us trouble, I'm fine going rogue. We have a command center that doesn't rely on them, if we need it. I'm glad you're all back, though."

"You know what..." Damien said, standing up and walking up to the man and catching him in the jaw with a left hook, pausing for half a second before pulling him into a hug "Don't you dare go off half cocked like that again. That's an order."

Kilena said nothing as she leant against the wall and just waited for the commandant to appear or for something more interesting to happen. She was tired and the fact she was currently living in fear of spending the rest of her life in jail was weighing heavily on her mind.

Spencer grimaced at the punch, but when Damien pulled him into a hug, he returned it. "Acknowledged. When we see that prick again, we take the shot together. I'm glad you're safe."

“Where are the others?” She demanded thinking of the other rangers that they had collected along the way of the last week. No one had really spoken last night or even seen each or her after the Kalador Empire left Earth atmosphere.

Spencer tried his hardest to look innocent after the hug. With the fact that he wasn't hiding his morpher anymore, it was difficult. "What others?"

"Ellie, Keon, Valdana... other rangers... We have seemed to double in the last week." Kilena said ignoring the man hug that was going on.

Spencer looked at her. "Trying to figure out how to dock a spaceship at a haunted house, I assume. If this goes as sour as I fear, they're our backup so we have an exit. I believe in what the GPF stands for; but right now, either the COs have to recognize we can help against the Kaldor, or we'll just have to do it without them."

"A megaship of Kerovian make is not going to fit anywhere like that." The woman said with a small smile not at all understanding why there was a haunted house involved but that was a question for another time. She glanced to Damien and shrugged. "I would have thought they were asleep or something." She added thoughtfully.

"I don't know, I just had orders to report here at this time." Damien shrugged "I'm fully expecting to be handed my papers and told to go f-fly far away from here."

As if in response to the remark, the doors to the office slid open, the Commandant stood there. He looked the three cadets up and down for a moments before stepping aside and gesturing inside.

"Good, you're all here." He said "The Director is expecting you."

"The who now?" Damien asked, freezing "No offence sir, but if the Director herself is here, I'd rather just go before she decides my entrails would make a good garter belt."

"In." The Commandant replied forcefully "Now."

Damien sighed, stepping inside. He'd met the Director exactly once. At the time, he'd been running late and had ran straight into her, spilling a milkshake down her. He could only hope she didn't remember or that their recent saving of the world would count for something.

There was a woman in the office who looked less than happy to be there as she sipped her coffee. “Director,” Kilena said saluting quickly. Ciestra looked up from where she was sitting behind the Commandant's desk and looked at the three ca… power rangers and sighed as she finally got a chance to look at them.

“At ease.” The soft voice spoke. “I am relieved to see that you have no milkshake this time McGinnis.”

Spencer remained silent, saluting the Commandant at the order to go inside. Seeing the Director, he realized - his expectation was of someone more physically imposing; but he guessed that with the kind of power she wielded, she didn’t need to look terrifying, she simply was. He saluted and stood firmly, Solar Morpher still visible on his wrist and arm. When she let them stand at ease, Spencer first looked to Damien, and then eased into a parade rest stance. It was clear from just that silent glance whose order he would follow if there was a disagreement - and it wasn’t the Director. He’d learned before when in trouble, rather than dig himself in by talking first, let the other side talk, and respond with as little self-incrimination as possible. He hoped Damien had learned the same.

"Director, before you send us all to prisoner containment for breach on the Ranger ban, I want it on record that Kilena, Spencer and the others were just following my orders." Damien said, stepping forward "I'd like to request that any sentence be levied at me, and that they be spared any jail time. They were my soldiers and they were following orders."

"Like hell..." Kilena started.

It took everything in Spencer's considerable willpower to prevent himself from reacting to Damien's outburst. Even still, it was obvious from the look on his face that the Blue Ranger was not willing to be told he was only following orders.

"Enough." The voice of Ciestra said simply. It was harsh enough that the room fell silent again despite the tension that filled it. "McGinnis... whilst for once I can see the potential leader that the red ranger powers forsee I do not believe that is necessary. I do not believe any of your colleagues here would have followed you into being a ranger with an order." She was not stupid and neither was anyone else who knew the team. "But there are going to be some immediate changes to your team to include your three friends and you and them are not under Galactic Patrol Force and the Alliance governing council."

"What kind of changes?" Damien asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"The Kaldor Imperium has created somewhat of a situation by attacking a founding world and has tied our hands into having to vote on whether Power Rangers have a place in our efforts to stop them and they have agreed that they do." The Director looked tired for a moment before her perfect mask came back obviously having been up all night.

"So, what, no jail time?" Damien asked, "We're off the hook?"

"No jail time unless you mess up going forward and do something stupid," Ciestra commented.

Spencer looked at the woman, his own expression just as stony. Almost unconsciously, he shifted the arm that had his morphing device so that it was more clearly visible. Damien could be worried about the sudden change; Spencer and Kilena could focus on the priority for the near future. "Thank you, ma'am. Will we be receiving direction and communication from you directly, or will there be a liaison assigned between Command and McGinnis?"

"It will be a liaison between us and all of you. We do not just talk to the red ranger." She said simply glancing at the pink ranger. "He might be the team leader but sometimes other skills are required as well as communication."

"Fine by me. I hate paperwork." Damien quipped with a half smirk "So what's the plan? Are we maintaining anonymity or are you planning to pull a Captain America and parade us around as a propaganda piece?"

Spencer nodded appreciatively at the woman’s response. It was probably a very good thing that this liaison would be talking to them all; hopefully it would be someone they could trust. He looked at Damien. “I think our real identities being public would be a very bad idea. The Kaldore have the ability to teleport, and we don’t really have a means of stopping them. Our families would be in real danger.”

Of course, the Blue Ranger failed to mention that he’d been less secretive about his identity among the Resistance fighters in Australia, making his comment a bit hypocritical. But he wasn’t perfect. Besides, what he did when there wasn’t a global communication system that could easily be hacked compared to life being normal again could be different.

Ciestra looked at them all before rolling her eyes. Whatever the morphin grid was thinking was beyond her. All three of these rangers were going to injure themselves more than they already had. “You are to be kept a secret to the best of our abilities but one of your rangers creates a bit of a conundrum in this situation.” She admitted thinking of the orange ranger.

Spencer nodded stiffly at her response. As the Ranger who'd already gotten himself injured once - and been saved by their missing person, he was probably the one who most understood what was at stake. Even still, there was no fear in him about it. "Thank you, ma'am."

"A conundrum?" Damien asked, cocking an eyebrow "Ma'am, I know that Ellie is a civilian but I think it's safe to say she's acquitted herself well."

“Our green ranger? Oh deities no. I mean our orange ranger.” The director stayed letting them catch up to the realities of having a galaxy wide known pop star on the team.

"Oh... Yeah, that..." Damien said, scratching the back of his head "I mean, she's kept it a secret so far? Surely she can manage to keep it further? Hell, the three of us managed to keep it secret from a troop transport we had been on not a few hours before without them questioning where we were. I'm sure she can pull off the same. And if not... Is the dark dimension kicking about still? We could leave the paparazzi there."

“How can she be an officer is what she is asking.” Kilena whispered softly. It was a logical point, Kilena had spent a moment or two fan girling so she could understand.

Spencer looked at the other two and shook his head. His attention hadn’t been on pop culture, so he didn’t really know much about the Orange Ranger. “That’s inconsequential. She hasn’t showed up but twice. Nonsense like popular culture can be ignored for now. We’re saving the world. Commander, with all due respect - before her abduction, Silver, Cyan, and I ran a better resistance than you. Silver is gone. I presume Kyarah dead and her Crystal stolen. I trust McGinnis, ma’am. We will figure that out if, and only if, that becomes a priority. Until then, I formally request that we have a free hand to stop the Kaldorian Empire as we see most fit. That fake Red Ranger and I have an appointment.”

Kilena raised an eyebrow at the request. “You ran a resistance unit for a week Cadet. You might have the self-confidence that you were the only one but you were not.” Ciestra said gently but firmly. She had no time for egos when an empire had attacked one of the founding worlds. “You have been a ranger from my timeline and investigation a month or two so do not be so quick to judge your orange ranger. There have been reports all over the universe for two years of a rogue orange and black ranger fighting the Kalador Empire. Your request is denied to have free rein. You are part of GPF and the only way you will avoid jail for being vigilantes is by being rangers under this organisation as per the council vote.” She said reminding him of the beginning of the conversation.

"I hate to agree with authority figures, and trust me, my record is a testament to that, but the Director is right." Damien relented "We'd actually benefit from some oversight, and being allowed to go out without it hasn't always ended well with rangers. Look at the A-Squad SPD rangers back in 2025. Free rain given and they went rogue. Not saying we would but it'd be nice to know there are some checks and balances in place."

Spencer nodded at that; he remembered hearing about the A-Squad incident. Everyone knew about it, and knew what dangers the Power Rangers could represent if they turned. "Fair point. Still, I don't think it will be that hard to maintain our identities and keep that information away from Kaldor, if we're the least bit cautious."

Kilena stayed quiet. She knew neither man understood the Orange ranger's situation but what could she expect from two boys from Earth? She glanced around as everyone looked at her expectantly. "I am fully aware and understand the risks, requirements and expectations."

"Congratulations, madame Director." Damien said with a smirk "Looks like you've got yourself a Ranger team."

 

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