Chapter 4
Next morning, Joshua found Alex loading some gear into a large, yellow truck.
“I’m going to see one of our benefactors, if you’d like to go for a drive?”
“Can I?”
“I mean, it’s up to you…”
He thought for a second. Would Mel be mad? Given he’d be with Alex and Alex was more than capable of protecting the two, he nodded and climbed in, Alex having to yell at him about his seat belt.
The ride through the city was quiet. Joshua looking at all the tall buildings. They soon pulled over at one labled “Hartford Technologies”.
“Joshua, this is Mr. Andrew Hartford.” Alex said, introducing him to the older man waiting in the lobby.
“Pleasure, miss…”
“I’m a boy…” Joshua pointed out.
“You’re going to have to get used to that…” Alex said “So, boss, what can I do for you?”
“I wanted to talk to you about Project 114… I think we might need some privacy…”
“Um, Joshua, could you wait here for a few minutes?”
He nodded as Alex and Hartford walked away.
Joshua looked around the lobby. Everywhere was marble. A large, square fountain took up much of the room.
He sat down and looked at the wall. There were seven pictures on the wall.
“Still can’t believe how long it’s been…” A voice said. Joshua looked up to see a man standing over him. Blue shirt, dark blue tie and hat, with the word “Security” printed across the top.
“Who were they?” Joshua asked.
“Those were the Overdrive Rangers. A team founded by Mr. Hartford himself. Well, six of them were. The seventh was his butler and friend, he sadly passed away last year. The Red Ranger was Hartford’s own son… Today really stings for him… Losing a child like that… Then again, I lost all my close friends that day as well.”
“You knew rangers as well?”
“Yeah… Name’s Boom. I worked with the SPD Rangers. After they all vanhsied, SPD shut down the Earth branch and, well, Mr. Hartford hired me on. He’s given a lot of people who lost ranger loved ones jobs. Like um… oh… see that lady over there, reading the paper, she used to be married to one of the Lightspeed rangers. She used to be a really cheerful person, but when her wife Kelsey vanished… Nancy just wasn’t the same anymore. These days she just spends here time working on Mr. Hartford’s space station. She only came down for the ceremony.”
“Are you going?”
“No… There is a lot of expensive and important stuff in this building… someone has to watch it… And, well… I tried once… The first ceremony… I was a mess afterwards.”
“Hello Boom…” A voice called. Joshua turned and gasped.
“Ah… Commander Birdie… good to see you again.” Boom said, shaking his former superior’s hand.
Joshua proceeded to faint.
“Huh… Must be new around here…” Boom noted.
“Come on, upsidaisy…” Alex said, getting the boy to his feet.
“There was a bird… monster… thing… in the room… I want to go home… I want to go home…”
“Must have met Fowler…” Hartford said “He said he was coming to town…”
“Well that’s the only aviioid I’m aware of who’d be here today…” Alex said before looking at Joshua and explaining the alien was a friend.
“Well, I’ll get this back to the lab once the ceremony is over. You sure you’re not ready for this?”
“No… especially with Spenser gone… it’s not… it’s just going to be so much harder for me… You know… when Mack vanished… even the tools I used to build him disappeared. The spare parts I made should they ever be needed before he was made human… they all vanished as well. Even the table he first woke up on was gone…”
The man was fighting back tears.
“Maybe one day, sir…” Alex said, before helping Joshua back to the truck.
“Did he say ‘tools he used to build him’ or am I still woozy?”
“No… no you heard him right… His son was created as a robot, made flesh and blood by a magical artifact after several years.”
“You have MAGIC here?”
Alex held up his Dragon Soul.
“This doesn’t exactly run on AA batteries.”
Alex parked the truck and met with the others. They transformed into their suits, took off their helmets and each was handed a bouquet of flowers.
Joshua stood to the side and watched as several important people stepped up to speak, followed by Alex stepping forward.
“Good morning, everyone… odd choice of word, one letter off from what many of us are here to do… Mourning. It’s been six years since that day. Since people we looked up to… people we admired… were taken from us. But more than that, they were people… people who touched our lives in ways many of us didn’t notice. They showed us the best of what people can accomplish.
“And even more than that, to many of us gathered here today, they were our friends, our loved ones, our families.
“I lost someone that day myself, my Aunt Kendrix. One of the Galaxy Rangers. I didn’t know her very well, her being on the Mirinoi Colony much of my life. But she is the reason I got my degree… became a scientist in the first place. If she could see me fight as a ranger as well, that would have been something.
“Today we honor their memory. But it is not lost on us what we currently face. The Ferrox have taken 20% of Earth’s landmass. A Super Drone tried to attack Angel Grove only yesterday. My team and I fought it off… but it came so close to destroying the memorial we have here behind me… I promise that the rest of the Dragon Force Power Rangers and I will get rid of those bugs… and should the day come when… our friends and loved ones are returned to us… the come home to a world that knows peace. Thank you…”
The crowd applauded loudly as Alex and the others set down the flowers and stepped off stage.
“That was really beautlif.” Joshua told him as they walked back to the car.
“Thanks… God I hate having to be the public speaker of the group… ‘oh, but you’re used to talking in front of a room of people…” He said, mocking Kelly’s voice. “I used to teach. Put myself through my master’s and doctorate teaching high school biology. Spent a couple years lecturing after I got my degree… Still doesn’t mean I like talking like that… all those cameras…”
They drove back to the base and as Alex put the case Hartford had given him in his lab, Joshua heard Mel screaming.
“Where were you?!?!”
“He was at the memorial ceremony with us…” Kelly said, coming in behind her.
“You took my husband without my permission?”
“He’s a grown adult…” Kelly countered.
“He’s a man… He’s my man…” Mel answered back.
“He was with us.” Thom added “possibly the safest place on Earth short of locking him in Fort Knox…”
Mel took a deep breath,
“I’m sorry… this is still just all a lot to take in.”
“We asked you if you wanted to come” Kelly continued “You said no. We asked him, he said yes. I am sorry we didn’t run it past you, but we’re all used to the idea that adults don’t need permission to do simple things.”
“Well, in the world I grew up in, men do…”
“You’re not in that world right now, are you?”
“No…” Mel conceded.
“Around here, we have a saying…” Alex said “When in Rome… do as the Romans do…’ When you’re somewhere else, don’t expect them to follow your customs…”
“I get it… I don’t like it, but I get it.”