The Underdogs & The Outcasts

Chapter Two

Bridge could feel the tears welling up in his eyes now. He felt so guilty he hadn't been able to visit his little siblings in the past few months. But with B-Squad becoming rangers and Gruumm's threat of destroying Earth, he'd neglected to visit her in person where he would have been able to realize how much she was struggling better.

"Callie, I'm so sorry. I realize it must feel like I've been neglecting you these past few months. That's not okay. I'll go talk to Cruger now. I'm taking a few days off to come see you and make sure you're okay." Bridge saw his sister's face fill with guilt as he announced he'd take some time off, and he immediately moved to squash the thought he knew was in Callie's head. "And you aren't taking me away from important work. You are important Callie. Even without powers, you are so much more important than my job here at SPD. And I'll take my morpher with me; if SPD needs me, they can call me."

Callie smiled with a shadow of guilt. "Okay, Bridgey, I really miss you. And I know Xavier and Aiden do, too. I'm glad you're coming to say hi."

"Me too, Cal. I love you, okay?"

"I know Bridge; thank you."

Bridge hung up the phone and leaned back in his chair. He had sensed some tension recently when he'd had his daily calls with his sister, but he had no idea it had gotten this bad. She looked like she was barely keeping it together. Like, well, he knew she'd killed Michael a lot more recently but he'd wondered if that was her period or a friend fight or-

"Bridge!"

Sky's voice snapped him back out of his thought and he spun around to see Sky giving him a questioning stare.

"Did you hear me?" Sky was obviously annoyed. He'd either had a fight with Syd recently, had the spicy cheese sauce from the cafeteria, or was back on the kick of trying to become the red ranger.

"No, Sky, sorry. What did you say?"

Sky shook his head and also shook off his obvious frustration. "Sorry, Bridge. Cruger has decided we need another dumb training course; we are to report to the training center now."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Bridge slipped his phone back in his pocket, he would have to talk to Cruger later. Bridge sighed and stood to head to the training center.

Five minutes later, he was standing in front of the commander of SPD Earth, Doggie Cruger, and his assistant, Kat. "Good, you're here," said Cruger. "Line up."

The team immediately fell in line. Cruger might be their commander, but he was kind and the kind of leader that made you want to fall in line instead of ordering you in line. Sure he could be annoying and hard, but so could anyone. They'd gotten pretty lucky by getting Cruger as their commander.

As the team lined up in their usual order, Bridge found himself next to the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, the light of his life, the butter to his toast, his strong and overall amazing girlfriend: Elizabeth (better known as Z) Delgado. (He'd always found it funny that her first name was the same as Callie's middle name.) Their relationship was an unconventional one, that is to say, they got together in an unusual way. Z had just recently joined the team after being a homeless thief, and Bridge wasn't sure what to think of her. She was definitely beautiful. No. Drop dead gorgeous. And she seemed nice enough and her aura was calm and sweet, but how good could someone who was homeless and resorted to stealing be? But that's beside the point. Shortly after she joined, Syd started making trips to Sky and his room at night for 'sleepovers'... Very loud ones. Bridge had put up with it for almost 2 weeks, getting less and less sleep before he finally broke. He honestly was so tired he wasn't quite sure what happened until the next day when Z explained it to him. Apparently, he had dragged himself out of his and Sky's room and walked to Z and Syd's room and knocked on the door until Z answered. She told him he was almost crying and asked her if he could stay in her room tonight. She let him stay and the bond was there.