Chapter 10 – Seven Holy Paths To Hell

December 1 1999 – INET Headquarters, Angel Grove

Gazing out of the frosted glass of her office window, one of the CEO's of the INET corporation idly watched her employees going about their daily business. They were grabbing piles of paper from a printer, talking at the coffee machine, all the time glancing around to see if their boss would catch them sneaking a few extra minutes from their desks. The CEO though just smiled, like she was remembering a time when she did exactly the same thing.

Aimi McBride, formerly Miyamoto, found herself people watching several times a day. It seemed like such a long time ago that she was assigned to Angel Grove. She sometimes still wished that she was that wide eyed 25 year old woman that got through her days by annoying her boss. Now she had crashed into her thirties and found herself as the Chief Executive of a Fortune 500 company.

Forbes Magazine wrote an article about her and Xander, the youngest CEO's of a major corporation in decades. It was a decent article but the magazine, like several other people, wondered how this newly married couple had found themselves in charge of INET. Every moment of the day it felt like everyone was expecting the pair to fall flat on their faces. Of course they couldn't tell them that the company was transferred over to them by a time traveller from an alternate future that no longer existed. They would call for the men in white coats and have her escorted out the building in a straight jacket.

Aimi stretched her arms and slowly got out of her leather chair. She glanced at her reflection in the glass and she barely recognised the person staring back. She had cut her hair shorter so it now only reached her shoulders. Her previous wardrobe of comfy jeans and trainers had been replaced by power suits and heels. She had dreams of becoming self employed and avoiding all the stress of government work. Now all she had to look forward to was the daily visit of the sandwich lady in the morning.

She and Xander had talked about stepping down as CEO's and leaving the job to someone more qualified. Technically they were still the majority owners of INET so it wouldn't be a problem. The sticking point came with Project Hexagon. The whole reason they got back into the ranger business around the time of the Turbo Rangers was to make a difference and they wouldn't be able to do that without having a hands on role. Unfortunately the latest team had rejected their offer to enter the project. She understood their reasons but it was more than a little disappointing and their failure to get the Galaxy Rangers on board hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Hey", Xander quietly left himself into the office, "still having IT problems", he smiled, that was their code phrase for 'I'm taking an unofficial break'.

"Yeah I'm still surprised that no one has questioned that", she replied, "I mean we do own a multi-national software manufacturer, we shouldn't suffer with IT issues".

"No one questions the boss", Xander snorted, "except for the accountants apparently".

Project Hexagon was partially funded by the government but the bulk of the money came from INET itself. Aimi and Xander had pumped a lot of money into getting everything off the ground. They were hit with a hammer blow when the Space Rangers had declined to sign up. The team were national heroes after defeating Dark Specter, a fact that still rankled some of the veteran rangers. Without their support they were finding it difficult to fund additional ranger technology research, "I take it the meeting didn't go very well", Aimi crossed the room and placed an arm around her husband's shoulders.

"That's putting it mildly", Xander began, "they went through everything we've spent money on with a fine tooth comb". He opened his folder to display some notes from the meeting, "For example they questioned why we gave this much to Captain Mitchell and Lightspeed".

"Because he came to us asking for a grant to get the Rescue Morphers working", Aimi shrugged.

"Yeah but to go demon hunting is basically what they said", Xander began, "you should've heard the laugh that got. Then they asked who Kanoi Watanabe was, do you know how hard it is to explain that he's a ninja master without saying he's a ninja master who wants to start a ranger project".

"They're just looking at the bottom line though", Aimi tried to soothe her co-executive, "they haven't seen the things that we have and realise what a very real threat some of these things are".

"And they probably never will", Xander reached into the desk and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured a glass, "they're asking for a vote of no confidence in us", he said before taking a swig.

"You're kidding", Aimi exclaimed and grabbed the glass from her husband, "bastards", she took a drink herself and handed the glass back to him.

"They said the only way to avoid this is if we set up an executive committee, basically taking away our sole control over everything", Xander swirled the liquid in his glass. "We would remain as CEO's but the real power would rest with this new Board of Directors".

"Do we have enough support from the shareholders to win a vote", Aimi asked but Xander shrugged in response. Aimi grabbed her hair and paused for thought for a few moments, "Do they have anyone in mind for this committee?"

Xander said nothing and simply handed Aimi a folder with the names and details of the people in mind for the team, "These are basically career suits with absolute no compassion or soul".

"That's a little strong", Xander pointed at one picture, "I mean eyebrows here looks like a reasonable guy".

Aimi groaned, "Where did this all go wrong?" She paced the room for a moment, "If only certain people had kept their mouth shut a year ago then we wouldn't be in this mess. Now we're known as the people that forced the Space Rangers off the planet".

"Forced probably isn't the right term", Xander shrugged.

"Stop standing up for them", Aimi cried, "it's bad enough they haven't taken responsibility for their actions". She took another couple of paces, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to snap".

"Apology accepted", Xander began, "I know what you mean but we can't change what's happened, we just have to make the best of a bad situation".

Aimi sighed and gave her husband a firm hug, "I knew you were the logical one in this marriage", she whispered. They held each other for a few moments before separating, "I really don't like this committee idea, it'll be like working for the agency all over again".

"Slightly questionable ethics and morals?" Aimi nodded, "You're not the only one who thinks that, trust me but we can't fight the system from the outside", Xander added.

Aimi nodded and looked at the notes from the meeting in more detail, "What's this about monitors?" she asked.

"Just something I came up with on the fly", he began, "basically we assign newcomers to Hexagon with a veteran ranger to act as a liaison". He pointed down at a barely legible scrawl in the margin of the page, "I even had an idea for the three potential teams we have in the works".

"Billy with Lightspeed I agree with", Aimi raised an eyebrow, "Rocky with the ninja's, are you sure?"

"He's got insider knowledge of the academy", Xander replied.

"Yeah but no offence to the guy but he can be a total douche", Aimi shook her head, "and Tommy and this dino team. Firstly how do we know that these gems will even give someone ranger powers?"

"The researcher working on them thought they had potential", Xander began, "Hayley is one of our brightest assets, almost as intelligent as Billy".

"Ok fair enough but did you know that Kat's pregnant?" Aimi added, "don't you think that this will add unwanted pressure to the pair".

"It's just an idea at this stage", Xander slumped into one of the office chairs, "plus we're short on numbers, ideally we would've considered Trini, Andros, TJ and maybe Cassie but we don't have that option".

Aimi sighed and sat in the seat opposite Xander, kicking her heels off in the process. She grasped his hand and stroked the back of it with her thumb, "That could be us you know, settling down and having kids of our own, my biological clock is ticking".

"I know and it will happen one day", he tried to soothe her. He leaned over and gave her a kiss that gradually became more passionate. A few moments later they realised they were in a glass office and passers by were staring at them.

"I want that report by five McAdams", Aimi shouted at one of the gawking employees. The young man that was presumably named McAdams jumped out of his skin and quickly ran back to his desk, "Sometimes it's good to be the boss", she smiled.

Xander chuckled before returning to their original conversation, "Let's get Lightspeed launched and see what happens. Maybe if that's a success then we can wrestle some control back". He gave a saucy look, "And I'm not saying no to children but in the mean time we could always get some practice in", he wiggled his eyebrows.

He was fully expecting Aimi to reject him but she surprised him by looking on her computer, "Well my next meeting isn't for another few hours", She replaced her shoes and walked towards the door, "If we leave now then you might get a special treat", she blew him a kiss and opened the door. It took Xander a few moments to pick his jaw up off the floor before he hurried off after her. The pair were trying their best not to let the corporate world change them but it was getting harder with each day. The Galaxy Rangers might not be joining their team but that would soon be forgotten if Lightspeed went off without a hitch. The success of Project Hexagon rested firmed with Captain Mitchell and the team that he chose.

A/N – An appearance from the CEO's of INET and it's good to see they still have the same dedication to work as before. So Only The Good Die Young is officially over. This chapter sets up three future stories nicely where more details about the benefits (or drawbacks) of working with Hexagon get revealed. Billy's still working with them, the Wind Ninja's are one of their first clients and Kat's pregnant!

The next story will be up soon and is entitled "Infinite Dreams" and will be set during Lightspeed Rescue. It should be up next Monday so if you haven't set an author alert, keep an eye out for it. I was going to split it into chapters but I've now decided it's going to be a 10k word one shot. Just a quick note on story lengths in this series, most (except the Super Megaforce one) will be around this length. Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder will be a little longer but the rest will be between 20-30,000 words.