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Rainbow Seven
It was hard to say what woke Chris Larabi first; the smell of breakfast or the sound of Buck and JD arguing over it. Somehow, the squabbling of his teammates carried through two closed doors of universal steel to reach from the common area into his quarters. Briefly, the Green Ranger considered pulling his pillow back over his head and going back to sleep, but the smell of the food convinced him otherwise.
Pulling a shirt on, Chris staggered out of his room and down the hallway, the heavenly scent pulling him onwards. Palming open the door to the commons, he took a second just to size up the situation, not to mention the other six members of his team.
Josiah was cooking, which explained the pleasant nature of the scent that was wafting through headquarters. It wasn’t that no one else on the team COULD cook, but the White Ranger was far and away the best at it. Briefly, Chris wondered where an Eltaren cleric learned to cook food from so many worlds, but dismissed it as just being part of who Josiah was.
Behind him, Buck had temporarily broken off his skirmish with JD to try and get a closer look at what Josiah was cooking. Chris smiled to himself. The Zarakin had been one of his staunchest friends for years, ever since the two had crossed paths during Chris’s cadet days with the IGPF. Buck hadn’t changed much, continuing to follow Chris around even after Sarah and Adam’s deaths.
From Buck, Chris’s gaze slid to the man’s “little brother,” currently planning some type of revenge on the Black Ranger. JD was the only native Cardonian on their team, the rest of them having been visiting the planet for one reason or another when Zartav’s attack started. Young and idealistic, the Yellow Ranger was sometimes overconfident, but still a valued member of the team.
“Hey, Chris,” a soft voice greeted him. “Come on in, Josiah’s almost got breakfast ready.”
With a nod, Chris moved to sit beside his second-in-command. Vin T’ner was playing with a cup of stim. Raised by the felinoid Fel’hari, the tracker still didn’t quite understand the concept of stimulants, which is why none of the others would let him make the morning pot.
“You feeling sick?” the Red Ranger asked, quietly. “You’re up late this morning. Even later than Ez, over there.”
From his comfortable chair in the entertainment area, the Purple Ranger sniffed. “I resent that remark,” the pirate declared, green eyes twinkling with amusement. “Some of us are simply used to later hours than others.”
“Ezra, you’re a space pirate,” Nathan interjected, without looking up from his book. “Those ships don’t HAVE day-night cycles.”
“But I’ve been on this planet for some time,” Ezra reminded their Pink Ranger.
Closing the book, the Ystaran healer gave him a mild glare. “But you’re always telling us this planet doesn’t have any nightlife,” Nathan reminded him mock-maliciously.
Seeing the amused stares of his teammates, the dapper pirate decided to concede the issue.
“All right, kids,” Chris broke in, as Josiah began to serve breakfast. “What’s on everybody’s agenda for the day?”
“JD and I are going to do some work with the horses,” Buck informed him, plopping down on the nearest chair. “They came in pretty handy during that last skirmish with that land-crawler… thing.”
Nathan sighed. “Inventory, shopping for more medical supplies, and then some time spent down at the local hospital. I’ve got a few questions to ask some of the head doctors about Cardonian physiology, since SOMEBODY,” he aimed a glare at JD, “doesn’t know enough to get out of the way of speeding shrapnel.”
“Hey!” JD defended himself. “I dodged, I just wasn’t fast enough.”
Chris interrupted before a full-scale argument could emerge. “Vin? How about you?”
The tracker shrugged. “Gonna see if I can’t follow up on the damage that land-crawler did during the last battle. Destabilizing a planet’s ecosystem is a pretty efficient attack too.”
“Need some company, brother Vin?” Josiah asked. It wasn’t really a question. Rangers out on their own were just too tempting as targets. Vin acknowledged the cleric’s offer with a nod.
“I,” Ezra declared loftily, “am endeavoring to direct a more funds into our coffers, since supplies such as Nathan’s do not come cheap.”
Buck grinned. “Translation, Ez has got a card game. Careful how you play, Ez, Power Rangers aren’t supposed to cheat people.”
The pirate looked down his nose at his teammate, but an amused sparkle still lurked in his eyes. “I assure you, I have no need of such underhanded techniques.”
“He’s too good to cheat,” Vin supplied, blue eyes twinkling as well.
“So what about you, Chris?” JD asked, snagging one of Buck’s eggs.
“I’ve got to go downtown and meet with Orin.” The planetary president insisted on being kept informed on all of the Rangers’ activities, since he was their nominal employer. “Everybody keep an eye on your coms, all right? No telling when Zartav may decide to send down another wave of goons.”
There was a collective grumble, but he knew they’d do it. Addressing
himself to his breakfast, Chris smiled. He didn’t know what he’d done to
deserve this group of nutballs as his teammates… but whatever it was, it
was worth it.