The Sixth Ranger (A Power Rangers Story) Book 1

Help

    Jason walked out of the school, closely followed by the boy he had helped from the bully. Jason looked into the parking lot to see Kimberly getting yelled at by her father for cutting her hair. Jaylyn was merely walking home, as she did every little day.

    "Hey, thanks for that in there," the boy said.

    "No worries. I hate guys like that," Jason said, walking down the stairs.

    "Oh, so. Hey, we should, uh, hang out sometime, huh? Not that we have to. But I think tonight we should," the boy said.

    "What's your name again?" Jason asked.

    "Billy. Billy Cranston," he answered, holding out his hand to Jason, who laughed. "Or William Cranston. You remember kids used to call me Billy Crams-tons as a third grade joke? Like Billy crams tons of crayons in his butt. Which I didn't! But it's really impossible to cram a ton of crayons in a butt. No, no, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that," Billy said.

    The two boys had stopped on the stairs, Jason turning to face the over excited boy.

    "Okay, Billy. I would honestly hang out with you, but I have a date every night with the Angel Grove Sheriff's Department," Jason said, lifting up his pant leg to reveal the home arrest device attached to his leg. "So... I'm sorry."

    Jason continued to walk down the stairs, letting the pant leg fall back down to his ankle.

    "Wait-- no, no, no. Don't leave, don't leave, hey. All right, so I don't really expect to for us to hang out. Truth is I need to get somewhere tonight, and I could really use your help," Billy called out, following him.

    "Billy, I hear you, but as I told you, I have house arrest. There's nothing I can do about it. I'm sorry."

    "Well, like, I mean, I can fix that. I know how to trick the SIM. I have, uh-- I have tools."

    The two boys were now on level ground, on the sidewalk. Jason was facing Billy once more, who was insisting that he could help him.

    "I have to be in my house before 7:00," Jason said.

    "Well, if you come to my house before 7:00, then I can fix it for you. Oh! I also have a car. Or access to a car. And if you decide to help me, you can have the car for a few hours," Billy told him.

    Jason walked off and went home. Opening his fridge, he took out a burger and placed it on the counter for later. Looking up, he spots the news article about the 'Angel Grove's Golden Boy' hanging on the fridge. The door opens, and Jason's dad walks in, hanging his coat on the hanger. Sam wanders into the kitchen, seeing his son, who turns away and walks off.

    "Come on, honey. Let's go," Beverly, Jason's mom, said to the little girl in the living room. "Don't be so hard on him," she added to her husband.

    Jason sits on his bed, looking at the house arrest device.

    "How do you think he feels walking around town now?" his mother continued.

    "How do you think I feel walking around town now?" Sam snaps.

    "Let's not do this tonight," Beverly sighed.

    Jason grabs one of his small trophies and looks at it for a second. He snaps the figure off the top as his father continues to shout.

    "What's the plan, huh? What's he gonna do with his life? He could've been so much more."

    Jason looks at his digital clock, seeing the time. 6:22. He sighs and gets up from his bed. He was going to get this house arrest thing fixed. He grabs his bag from his closet and swings it over his shoulder. Running outside, he hops on his bike and rides hard and fast through the alleys and streets. Doing a few tricks to take shortcuts, he makes it to town, passing the Angel Grove sign. As he rode in the street, horns honked and people shouted.

    "Get out of the way!" a man shouted after him.

    He cuts in front of a car, which screeches to a stop. Two girls who were walking by, stopped to see him.

    "Oh, my God, is that Jason Scott?" one asked.

    Jason doesn't stop until he reached Billy's house, panting. The door opened to reveal Billy's mom, Cadence.

    "Oh, my God! Jason Scott!" she said, letting him in.

    "Billy?" Jason asked, going to the basement.

    "Yeah," came the reply.

    "Billy!"

    "Yes?"

    Jason thundered down the stairs to see Billy at his desk.

    "It's 6:56--"

    "6:56, I know. You got four minutes. Grab that chair," Billy said, standing up and moving to grab the things he needed.

    Jason sat down, looking at all the things cluttering the basement.

    "What's all this stuff?" he asked.

    "It's objects that I found with my dad. Most of it is his," Billy answered, moving items out of his way.    

    "Hey," Jason mumbled.

    "Where's the cage? Where's the cage? Here. Here it is," Billy said, grabbing a piece of metal mesh and walking over to Jason. "Put your foot in this."

    "What is it?"

    "It's a Faraday gate. It should stop the cell signal if we're lucky," Billy explained, getting up again to grab more things.

    A beeping filled the room, making Jason look down at his leg in panic.

    "That's the three-minute warning. Come on, bud. If the signal goes off--" Jason started.

    "My dad's been dead on for seven years, four months, and two days? Yeah, two days."

    "Um, okay, um..."

    "That's a long time. He used to work at the mine."

    "Billy, I really don't think that we have time--"

    Billy had, by now, taken out the chip in the device and plugged it into his hard drive. The drive was plugged into the computer, and Billy was typing away. Looking up, he spoke again.

    "You still live at 4455 Old Wharf?"

    "Yes-- yes, I do."

    "Great house."

    "Okay."

    "So, yeah, about my dad. We used to go and find objects together," Billy continued, not ceasing in his typing. "Some really, really old."

    "I'm gonna get in trouble, Billy."

    "Oh! Almost like that show American Pickers."

    "Billy, the signal's gonna go off."

    "We should've definitely had our own TV show," Billy said, taking out the chip and leaning forward to put it back into the house arrest device. "That would've been so crazy."

    The steady beeping quickened its pace, causing Jason to panic more. Billy continued to talk, removing the Faraday gate from around Jason's leg.

    "What are you doing?" Jason asked. "Dude, come on, seriously. It's gonna go-- Billy, come on!"

    The rapid beeping continues as Billy looked up.

    "What?" he asked.

    There was along beep from the house arrest device and then a small chirp. The red light turned back to green. Jason looked up at Billy, astounded. His face broke into a grin as he hugged Billy, who was shocked to say the least.

    "Thank you," Jason said, pulling away but keeping his hands on Billy's shoulders.

    "Mmm-hmm. Can you stop touching me now?" Billy asked.