Out of the Shadows, Part 1

Out of the Shadows, Part 1 is the first episode of Power Rangers: Shadow Ops.

Plot
Just as I’d suspected, the office building’s fourth-story windows were unlocked. Piece of cake--at least for a good climber like me. I boosted myself over the lip of the sill and dropped inside, landing in a crouch. For a minute I just sat there, waiting for my heart rate and breathing to slow back to normal. I ran a hand through my hair; even with the gel, it had gotten pretty windblown during my climb.

Okay, ready now. Rising, I pulled out a lockpick from the inside of my jacket, and got to work on the door. This wasn’t the office I wanted; a couple of floors up were Ivory Tower offices. I wasn’t sure what I’d find there, but I was sure it’d be valuable on the black market. I felt even less guilty than usual about robbing this octopus of a company.

The door swung open, and I headed into the hallway. Faintly, I could hear a vacuum; apparently the janitors were in today. I stuck my hands in my pockets, still holding my lockpick, and headed up the hallway. The stairs were probably unlocked, at least, though I’d need to be on my guard. I looked more like I belonged in a lockup than a high-rise office building like this, and admittedly I had more experience with the former.

They were. I sprinted up two flights of stairs, and came out in another bland grey-on-beige hallway. The vacuum had gotten quieter, so I guessed the janitor was still downstairs. Great, that gave me some time. I headed down the hall, looking for the Ivory Tower logo. It looked just like a miniaturized version of the big, pyramid-like towers scattered all throughout the city. Energy factories, basically. By now they powered the whole city, probably more than that. They probably wouldn’t even notice I’d been here.

Bingo, a manager’s office. I tested the doorknob, but it was already unlocked, so I opened the door--and found a group of men in grey jumpsuits crouching around the wall. Multicolored wires piled on the floor or twisted together, plugged into what looked like some kind of tank. I froze, one hand on the doorknob. Slowly, they all turned to look at me. At least, I assume they were looking at me; all of them wore dark sunglasses.

“Uh, wrong room,” I said, and slammed the door shut again. I bolted, only to hear rapid popping noises, like a lot of firecrackers going off at once. A small hole materialized in the wall near my head, and I felt bits of plaster hit my face. I hit the deck. Guns? What had I just walked into?

The door opened, and two of the men came chasing after me, still shooting. I scrambled to my feet and bolted for the elevator. The idea of two metal doors between me and the bullets was a comforting one.

The double doors slid open, and I skidded to a halt. A dark-skinned janitor the size of a football player stood there, looking almost as surprised as me. Abruptly his hand shot out, catching me by the elbow and swinging me around behind him. He gave his wheeled bucket a shove, and it rolled down the hallway towards the two guys. They moved aside, but stopped shooting to do that, and the janitor leaped out of the elevator. I watched in disbelief as he pulled out what looked like a fancy camera, only to twist it around in his hands and transform it into a gun. He started pumping blue lasers at my attackers.

I snapped out of it enough to hit the button for the first floor. I needed to get out of here, fast. As the doors slid shut, I heard breaking glass, and saw the janitor charge back into the room. The elevator jolted to life, and I slumped back against it, panting.

“. . . the hell just happened?”

At last, the doors opened again, and I got out. As I headed for the door, I glimpsed something hurtling to the ground through the cathedral windows out front. It hit with a surprisingly light thump, and straightened. Wait, was that a man? Looked like one of the guys I’d run into. Off he ran, metal tank bouncing against his back.

I saw two more figures drop to the ground, and stared in confusion. Black pants, silver-highlighted jackets, motorcycle helmets with visors that looked like sunglasses. One of the strange figures was yellow and female, the other blue and male. They looked like Power Rangers, but their clothes were less spandex-y. They ran after the fleeing man, guns at the ready.

Logically speaking, I knew what I needed to do. This place would be crawling with cops soon, and if they caught me I’d go to jail again. I’d done that too many times already; now I was legally an adult, I’d go to a real prison, and if they thought I’d been involved with this case I was screwed. I needed to get as far away from this fight as possible.

Logic has never been one of my strong points.

Hey, it had been years since I’d seen anything this patently weird. I wanted to know what was going on. As the group rounded the corner, I bolted after them, slamming through the glass doors. That hurt, but I walked it off and started running again.

The man led us down the street to an amphitheater. Yellow must have known the area or something, because she broke off and disappeared. The man raced I skidded to a halt in the back row of seats, and doubled over, panting. I was in decent shape, but today had been a crazy day.

“Stop right there!” That must have been Yellow; it sounded like a girl’s voice. Looking up, I saw her leap into the running man’s path. She leveled her gun--which looked weirdly like a camera--at him. He turned back, but Blue was already there.

“So, the Zigli family’s hiring out to do their dirty work?” The man in blue asked. His casual stance faded, and he leveled his own gun at the thief. “How about you tell us who your boss is now, save us a little time?”

Nobody moved. I’d just gotten my breath back and now I was holding it, watching the standoff. The man’s hand twitched, making both of his captors jump. Abruptly he raised both arms, and cables shot out of his wrists. My startled curse was muffled by the metallic swishes and sparks they made as they lashed at the two. Blue and Yellow dropped and rolled, but still took a few sparking hits from the writhing cables.

As they recoiled, their owner was enveloped by glowing red computer code, and transformed. Now he wore goggles and a shiny, stiff coat, the kind mad scientists think is stylish. At the sight, both of his attackers stiffened into crouches, guns at the ready. Okay, now this had gone from weird day into nightmare territory. Either that or I was hallucinating, though I couldn’t remember taking anything to cause that before the job.

“Sorry, Rangers, customer agreements are confidential,” the man said, smirking. “You’ll have to figure out this one yourself.”

“No more tricks or we’ll shoot!” Yellow snapped.

“Navarro,” Blue warned her, standing up. “This isn’t just another Shadowtech flunkie. Don’t get cocky.”

She sprang up with him. “I know.” Her movements were a lot more clipped and tense than his relaxed, smooth moves, but I got the feeling that he had a lot more power behind the demeanor.

“Now, I have a report to file,” the man said, beginning to walk. The Rangers (at least, that’s what he’d called them) circled, keeping their guns trained on him. “I’d love to stay and show you a few real tricks, but work before pleasure. Perhaps we’ll be able to dance again some other time. I think our next operation should be soon, so you won’t have long to wait.”

“Next operation?” Yellow asked.

Instead of answering, the man raised both arms up over his head, sending his wrist-cables shooting up. They slanted down, lashing at the two Rangers. They forced their way through the Rangers’ fire, and the two had to leap aside again. The flashes blinded me, and when I looked again, the man was gone.

“Where’d he go?” Yellow demanded, pointing her gun every which way.

Her companion rose more slowly. “We’ve lost him.”

“What? How? Can’t we track him?”

“We didn’t have any luck before, did we?”

As the Yellow Ranger turned back around, she stopped up short, staring at me. Only then did I remember that I probably wasn’t supposed to be here. I turned and bolted.

“Stop!” The man yelled. “We need to talk to you!”

That got my attention. I slowed down and looked back. Blue had jumped off the platform and was coming towards me. Not at a run, just a rapid walk. Wait, where was--

I glimpsed the yellow blur out of the corner of one eye just in time for it to slam into me. I hit the pavement, scraping my cheek and one extended hand. A lithe body straddled my legs, jerking my other arm behind my back.

“You’re under arrest,” the Yellow Ranger informed me.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

***

“Your name is Aran Jainukul, correct?”

The voice was male, and slightly distorted, like he was talking through an intercom. I looked around, but all I could see was white light from every direction. I cringed, squeezing my eyes shut. Wasn’t much else I could do to get away, with my hands zip-tied behind my back. The lights were hot, too, and I was already starting to sweat.

“Yeah.”

“You attempted to break into the offices of an Ivory Tower employee earlier today.”

“I might need a refresher on my Mirandas, but I’m pretty sure I don’t have to answer that one,” I said. “Not without a lawyer.”

“You are not under arrest, Mr. Jainukul. You have been detained for questioning,” the voice replied. “Nor are charges being held against you.”

“Oh yeah? Then how come I’m tied up and getting blinded by stage lights?”

One by one, the lights shut off, leaving my vision full of big blue dots. I blinked until they went away, and waited for my eyes to adjust to the now-single light before me. Slowly, a bare metal room came into view. The wall before me was covered in dark glass, so probably a two-way mirror, and there was a door in the wall to my right.

“Can you describe for us what happened when you entered the building?”

I clammed up. This whole setup rubbed me the wrong way. I knew how cops operated, even the mean ones, and this was nothing like it.

A new, higher voice broke in. It was either a woman or a young boy, I wasn’t really sure.

“--not going to tell you guys anything if you keep acting all mysterious and stuff. I’d be freaked out too!”

Another, lower voice interrupted. “Fine, then I’ll talk to him.”

With a start, I realized that the newest speaker was sitting right in front of me, in the room. It was the janitor from before, seated in a metal folding chair. Now he wore a blue-and-black uniform. There was a logo on the chest, a silver stylized GB. Guardians of Blackridge, then—our own personal branch of the Silver Guardians.

“Where’d you come from?” I demanded, shaken but trying to act tough instead.

“I’ve been here the whole time.”

“How?”

He smiled slightly. “That’s classified.”

I tried to wrap my head around this new addition to today’s pile of crazy. The city’s main defense force had snuck one of their agents into the Ivory Tower building, dressed as a janitor. They’d fought a guy who could shoot something like electrical cables out of his hands, and now I was here--wherever here was--getting interrogated. Then there had been those weird guys in the grey jumpsuits.

“Why am I here instead of with the normal cops?” I asked.

“Because what you witnessed in the office is something we’d rather not become public knowledge,” the Blue Ranger said.

“What, the guy with the metal tentacle powers?” I asked, confused.

“Among other things, yes.”

“What other things?”

The Blue Ranger gave me an amused look. “Which one of us is doing the interrogation again?”

“Then ask me a question,” I retorted. Being smart probably wasn’t a good idea, but I didn’t get good ideas very often.

He smiled briefly. “All right, then, what did you see when you reached the sixth story?”

“A bunch of creepy guys dressed like repairmen, but all wearing sunglasses. They moved in sync and they had guns. When I found them, they’d opened up part of the wall and there were a bunch of wires on the floor. It looked like they were hacking in or something,” I said, with a shrug. “I don’t know much about technology.”

“Did they say anything?”

“No, they just looked at me and started shooting.” I glanced up at the guy, smiling crookedly. “By the way, thanks for the help back there.”

“It’s my job.”

“Right, right. So after that I saw everything you did, assuming you were one of the people in the weird suits and helmets chasing Edward Cablehands.”

“Have you seen anything like him before?”

“Not really. I mean, the guys looked pretty normal to me.”

The Blue Ranger nodded. “Would you be willing to look?”

I cocked my head to one side. “Come again?”

“You have connections in the underground. We’ve seen your files, we know. We would like you to use your contacts and find out what you can about these people.”

“And I should do this. . . why, exactly?”

“If you give us anything useful, we’ll wipe your records. You can start over.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s a pretty big promise. How do I know you’ll keep it?”

“What will you do if we don’t? Your other option is to go straight to jail for breaking and entering,” the Blue Ranger replied. He was still playing casual, but the look he gave me was intent.

I sat back in my chair, and shrugged. “Okay. I’m curious about these weirdos too. I’m in. Got a good cover story?”

He smiled again. “I think we can come up with something.”

***

I leaned against the wall of the alley, and took a long drag on my cigarette. That had been the first thing I’d asked for when the GB guys had gotten me un-zip tied. They’d shot me some dirty looks, and one said it was a no-smoking area. I’d gone without for the next few hours while they made plans, and now I really needed it. For the nerves, not because I was addicted; I blamed my shaking hands on the whole arrest-and-espionage thing.

“Aran?”

I glanced around and saw my Mom slip out the back entrance. She heaved a bag of garbage almost as big as she was into the dumpster. That done she slumped against one wall with a sigh. Silently I handed her a cigarette, which she took without a word. She’d given up on trying to get me to quit ages ago.

“Busy?” I asked.

“Yes, luckily. I only have a few minutes, though.” She lit up, and neither of us said anything for a few minutes, just smoked in silence. I could hear faint clattering and voices from the kitchen inside. It was a Thai restaurant, and it actually belonged to my uncle—on my Dad’s side, not Mom’s. She was actually half-Caucasian, though it was hard to tell from just looking at her.

“Do I want to know where you’ve been?” She asked at last.

“. . . The truth would sound crazy,” I decided at last. “I’m not in any trouble, though.”

She gave me a scrutinizing look, decided I was telling the truth, and put out the cigarette. “I’ll be home by ten. Don’t leave the house unlocked.”

“I won’t.”

She went back into the kitchen, and I stood up straight. I should probably get back to work too. As I stomped out my cigarette, I heard someone coming, and looked up. A guy about my age, but a head taller and much stockier, strode towards me. This was Josh; we’d gone to school together and dropped out at about the same time. Like me he had a lot of tattoos and piercings, but he smelled worse. He was a construction worker and he lived alone so he could get away with it.

“Hey, Aran!” He exclaimed, grinning. “How’d the burglary go?”

I made a face. “It didn’t. Place was busy. I’ll have to try again some other day.”

“Too bad. I knew some guys who really wanted to get their hands on Ivory Tower’s secrets,” Josh said.

This sounded like something the GB guys would want to hear—but I couldn’t seem too interested, that might be suspicious. “Really?”

“Yeah, and they’d have paid good money. Really good.”

“Seems like a lot of trouble to go to over a power company.”

Josh came closer, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Ivory Tower isn’t just a power company, Aran. Word on the street is, they’ve got some kind of secret project going.”

“Did they fake the Moon landing?”

“Aran, I’m serious.” He sounded like it, too. “Something really fishy is going on. Some of my friends’ parents work at Ivory Tower, and they’re getting longer and longer hours. Whenever someone asks they get all snappy and secretive. It’s getting really busy over there, and some of the towers are shutting down for maintenance, but guess what—the power’s still on. A lot of it.”

I let myself look interested. “Who told you that?”

“Everybody—some of the people in the know are saying the power plant thing is just a cover. Now they’ve got plants all over the city, it’s time for phase two.”

“You read this on the internet, didn’t you?” Josh could get very talkative when he was on the defensive, and sure enough, his response was rapid and indignant.

“I got it straight from Franklin! He’s the one who wants people to bust in and try to find blueprints and plans in the first place!”

I froze, and so did Josh, his eyes widening as he realized what he’d just let slip. Franklin was the man who usually hired us out. Kind of like our agent, only for burglaries and muggings instead of gigs or movies. Everyone knew he was doing it for the Zigli family, but of course there was no proof that would stand up in court.

“So the Ziglis are the ones who want this info,” I said.

“Aran,” Josh began, clearly uncertain.

“Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out, Josh, they pretty much own the criminal underground. Why are you getting so jumpy? A second ago you were happy to talk about this big conspiracy.”

“Aran, what do you know?” Something new had entered Josh’s voice, something with an edge.

I shrugged widely. “Just what you’ve told me.”

“Are you sure? Because rumor has it something pretty weird happened to you earlier.”

“Pretty weird covers a lot of things.” I leaned against the wall again, trying to look casual.

“Which building did you try to break into?”

“How should I know? They all look the same,” I retorted.

Josh’s eyes narrowed. “Because other people saw you. They saw who took you away, too.”

“What are you talking about?” This wasn’t going well at all.

“Sorry, Aran.” Josh pulled what looked like a computer chip out of his pocket, about the size of a postage stamp. “You’ve just gotten in way over your head.”

He smacked the chip against the side of his face. Black circuitry lines extended from it across his skin, and his eyes began to glow yellow.

“Josh!” I yelled, and tried to grab the chip off his face, but his hand caught my wrist halfway. His face contorted into a snarl, and he threw me against the wall. The brick knocked the wind out of me, and my legs gave out beneath me. Glowing computer code whirled around him, and just like the guy last time, he changed. This time it wasn’t just his clothes. Metallic armor, yellow and silver, covered his body, extending and molding into a familiar but bizarre shape. When the light faded, a bulldozer monster stood before me. He slammed his shovel on the pavement with a clang.

The noise jolted me back into action. Scrambling to my feet, I bolted down the alley. At the dumpster I paused to grab a bag of trash and fling it at the monster’s head (or where I guessed its head should be). It grunted and I sped around the corner, racing away.

There were people in the street, and they started screaming and shouting as I raced past, monster in full pursuit. Its massive claw-shovel smashed the wall as it went, drawing sparks. Diving under a poorly-parked delivery truck, I sprang up and ran into another narrow alley, hoping to hide before I could be spotted. I dropped behind a dumpster and panted. Where were those Rangers?

“Where did—Aran!” Josh-the-dozer screamed. I heard a loud thud, a splintering crash, and then running footsteps. He was leaving, good.

I was just starting to relax when I saw the telephone pole wobble. Cautiously, I risked a peek into the street, and saw an elderly woman on the ground, struggling to get up. She’d been pushing a cart or something, and now it lay smashed all over the pavement. The telephone pole was starting to fall.

Of course.

Maybe I could do it if I was really fast. He might already be gone. Besides, she was a tiny old lady. Springing to my feet I raced back down the alley, all the while wishing I didn’t have to do this. I snatched up the old woman and carried her to the sidewalk just as the telephone pole crashed to the pavement, cables crackling and whipping around like angry snakes.

“Knew you couldn’t resist,” Josh’s newly-electronic voice buzzed behind me. I just had time to look around and see his shovel swinging towards me.

The metal barreled into me like a massive bullet, and I felt my ribs shatter. Before that pain even hit I’d slammed into the wall. I just had time to think the pain wasn’t so bad before I was proven oh so very wrong.

“Hold it right there!”

Two blurry figures in black appeared, distracting Josh as he raised his shovel for another bone-shattering blow. He turned away, and I saw them raise their left arms in unison.

“It’s Morphin’ Time!”

Computer code ran in rings around their bodies, transforming them back into Power Rangers. I could breathe again now, and I gulped, tasting blood in my mouth. A lot of blood. The blurriness was getting worse. . . hey, was that a motorcycle?

Trivia

 * This episode, and the adaptation of Go-Busters overall, is only being done for the contest hosted by 146Chris. While there may eventually be a second part of this episode to finish the plot (the contest's deadline was far too short to write the rest) otherwise this series will not continue unless it is adopted by someone else.