Mission Log: Supplemental 03

Lieutenant Ella Catalano stood checking off a To Do list from her dataslate while a team of volunteer base personnel buzzed around her carrying boxes and holiday decorations. She and her team of subordinates all stood within a beautiful indoor promenade of a glass building situated on the West End of Atlantis Base. Normally this building was used for classy diplomatic receptions or high end social functions, and this coming event was no exception. In just one more day, the annual New Year's Ball for the base's military officers was going to be held and Ella had volunteered to help coordinate the logistics for it. For her, it was a fun way to use her sharp eyes and organizational skills outside of a combat situation. Despite the lack of small arms fire and exploding grenades, she still acted like a battlefield commander deftly issuing orders and coordinating the preparations for the party. She wanted to do a good job and she hoped that she would make it a fun experience for her fellow Rangers when they attended... at least she hoped they were planning to go.

As she watched some of the volunteers continuing to assemble strings of lights along the balconies of the Promenade's upper level, Ella turned when she heard her name being called. Both Lucy and Erik walked over and took a look at the progress being made. Erik crossed his arms and observed some of the streamers being put up, "Hey Ella! Dr. Beckett and I had some free time and thought we'd check up on how you're doing with the preparations."

Ella tapped her datapad to her chin thoughtfully and shrugged, "It's coming along. So far everything is on schedule, but I want everything to be great. You guys will be coming right?"

Erik scratched his chin with a smile, "Will you be serving those little cocktail wieners I like as an appetizer?"

The Pink Ranger patted his arm reassuringly, "Not to worry. We'll be serving the wieners."

"Then I'm in!"

Ella laughed and turned to their chief engineer, "How about you Doctor B? You're on the honorary guest list."

Lucy shifted about slightly, "Oh, I don't know Ella. I figured I might spend a quiet evening in. I'm not a social butterfly and I never know what to do at these kind of parties."

Ella put an encouraging arm around her shoulders, "Ah, come on Doc. It'll be fun! You can dress up really nice and come by for food, drinks, maybe do some dancing?"

Lucy bit her lip hesitantly, "Maybe… I don't know."

"Would you feel more comfortable about it if Martin came too?" Ella suggested helpfully. "You two could go as each others' dates for the evening."

Lucy thought it over for a moment before nodding, "Okay… do you know if he's going?"

"Actually I haven't asked him yet," Ella answered with a shrug, "I'll go pester the Captain later today. I can't imagine he'd say no."

"Gee Ella, I don't know about the party," Martin sighed as he sat in one of the West End's warm cozy cafes playing a game of chess with Erin, "I always get a little uncomfortable with so much small talk and I never know what to do with myself at these functions."

"Che palle! Not you too! Dr. Beckett said the same thing!"

Erin took her turn and moved a rook on the board, "Check."

Martin frowned slightly as Erin continued, "I'm sure the party will be fun sir. You can always cut loose a little and do some dancing for fun…"

"I'm not much for dancing," Martin said flatly as he made his next move in the game and captured one of Erin's threatening bishops.

Ella distracted him some more and tugged at his sleeve, "Oh come on Martin. If you go, then so will Dr. B. I told her you'd be her date for the evening."

"You what?" he said with wide eyes, "Ella! Please don't volunteer me for things without even asking first! Besides, you know I already have a girlfriend, right?"

"Of course I do," Ella protested stubbornly, "I figured you guys could just go as friends, right?"

Erin tapped her chin in thought, "I think he's more worried about what might happen later on in the evening. When the clock strikes twelve and everyone starts smooching? That could be a little awkward given the fact she shot him down once before."

"Oh right… I didn't consider that," Ella admitted sheepishly while Martin glared in mild annoyance.

"Thanks for reminding me."

To add insult to injury, Erin took her turn and made one more move on the board with her knight, "Checkmate."

"So… do you still want to come?" Ella asked but Martin simply rolled his eyes and left the table after tipping his king piece over.

Later that day in the R&D lab, Bharata Timothy sat at a table while Julian Wilson entered some new data on a spreadsheet for analysis. Sitting in front of them was a small cylindrical device from which data was being downloaded. Bharata drummed his fingers on the table and gave his friend a curious look, "Are you going to be much longer? If we wait any more, the gym is going to get crowded."

"Hang on. I'm almost done," Julian said as he kept typing, "I'm just waiting for my last test subject."

Bharata raised an eyebrow, "Test subject? What the heck is that gadget being used for?"

Julian gave a sly smirk and tapped the device, "This my friend is a subsonic neural emitter. I've been playing around with the schematics of the Xeno Conduit helmets to make something new."

The Green Ranger gave the device a wary look, "That' not going fry anyone's brains is it? You remember what happened last time you and I were playing around with experimental tech, right?"

"Yeah, I wound up creating something awesome for you in the end," Julian retorted with a laugh, "Relax. This device is largely harmless. Instead of directly putting data into people's brains, this device allows for subliminal ideas to be planted in your mind. It's kinda like signaling your subconscious mind to act on something."

"Sounds awesome… but also kinda dangerous," Bharata mused, "Does it actually work?"

Julian turned to see Ella and Jake walk in through the lab doors, "We're about to find out."

As they entered the lab, the Silver Ranger gave a wave and headed for the table, "Hey Julian! Bara! What's up?"

"Jake! Just the man I wanted to see," Julian said as he reached into his labcoat, "How are you feeling?"

"Uh… great," Jake shrugged, "Those radio waves weren't supposed to do anything weird, were they?"

Julian shook his head and offered a cigarette from his pocket, "Nope. Would you care for a smoke Corporal?"

To Bharata and Ella's astonishment, Jake shook his head, "Nah. I'm good thanks."

Julian turned back to his work and entered a few more notes, "Interesting…"

Ella furrowed her brow, "Okay… what exactly is going on here?"

Bharata crossed his arms thoughtfully, "If I had to guess, Julian here is running an experiment with his new gizmo. He was using Jake as a guinea pig and trying to manipulate his behavior?"

"Precisely," Julian smiled, "I had Jake sit near this running device earlier and I casually suggested he kick his smoking habit. His subconscious did the rest for me."

"Oh that's not cool mate. You tricked me," Jake protested, "This isn't permanent... is it?"

Julian shook his head, "No. As far as the other tests went, it's just a temporary effect which should probably wear off in a little while. This device was never designed to be effective for long term use."

"Hold on a minute, are you saying that thing's got the power to mind control other people?" Ella asked curiously.

"It's not mind control per se," Julian frowned, "It's more like making others more open to suggestion."

The Pink Ranger rubbed her hands together with a devious smirk, "Julian, may I borrow that device for a little while? I can help you gather more data for your report and I promise I won't use it for anything bad."

"You know, it's the damndest thing," Martin remarked to Erik the next day as the two men waited in the lobby of the reception building. They wore their blue dress uniforms and watched as other party guests made their way toward the greater indoor promenade, "I wasn't too hot on the idea of coming to the Officer's Ball tonight, but after talking to Ella again, it just seemed like a good idea."

"She can be rather persuasive when she wants," Erik shrugged, "Erin's told me when Ella sets her mind to something, there's usually no point in trying to stop her."

"Well I will say this," Martin added while adjusting his tie, "She and her work crew did a great job of organizing this event. The place looks really good."

A minute later, their respective "dates" for the evening returned from the bathroom after doing a makeup check. As they walked, Lucy smoothed out her classy black dress and commented to Ella, "You know, I still have no idea how you talked Martin into coming out tonight. I was a little uneasy about the whole thing too."

"Relax Dr. B. Let's just say I had a secret weapon in reserve," Ella smiled while patting the small handbag she carried, "Besides, I wanted all my friends to be out tonight and have a good time at this party I put together."

They greeted the boys as Erik held out his arm gallantly to Ella, "Shall we?"

The four mixed in and made their way onto the main Promenade admiring the décor while greeting a few familiar faces here and there. As they walked, Lucy nudged Martin gently, "Hey, so I know you weren't too keen about coming out tonight, and neither was I, but I'm glad we still decided to go."

He gave her a friendly smile and gently patted her hand, "Yeah, me too. Who knows, maybe we'll still have some fun yet. Though, we don't have to stay the whole night if you don't want to."

She shook her head, "No… it's okay. Let's stay a while."

Soon enough they were met by the other Rangers and Julian, who were all dressed in their finest too. Erik eyed the buffet table and shifted his feet, "I think I'm going to grab some chow. Anyone else want in?"

Ella sighed and shook her head, "All right already. Go eat."

She stopped a moment and turned to Bharata with a gently teasing voice, "Maybe you should go join him Bara. You look like you could stand to gain a couple extra pounds too."

To her surprise, the Green Ranger paused and nodded his head, "Yeah… actually, maybe I will. Good idea."

While Martin and Jake stood off the side chatting and sharing a laugh between them, Julian eyed the Pink Ranger, "Ella… don't tell me you still have it, do you? You're not still using it?"

"Using what?" Ella asked trying to play dumb while putting her handbag away.

"What are you both talking about?" Lucy and Erin asked in confusion.

Julian swiped the bag from Ella and gave a huff as he removed his experimental device. "The subsonic brainwave emitter? Ella! You said you were going to be responsible with this."

"And I am," she insisted, "I'm using this for a good cause so everyone can have fun tonight! It got everyone here, didn't it?"

Lucy plucked the device from her aide's hand with a reproving frown, "I think all of you have caused enough trouble already. I'm going to hold on to this for the rest of the evening."

Erin took Julian's arm with an amused smile, "Ohh, new bad boy Julian is breakin' some rules. I think I kinda like it."

"Oh get a room you two," Ella mumbled sarcastically while strolling off to chat with some other guests instead.

Lucy held the emitter in her hand and deactivated it. She thought for a minute and figured that Ella must have used the gadget to trick Martin into coming tonight. While she wasn't happy about the pretense, she couldn't feel too upset at the Pink Ranger either. It was for a good cause and it did give Lucy the opportunity to be out on a date of sorts. She chewed her lip for a moment before reactivating the device and tucking it into her white waist sash.

Later that evening, Lucy checked her watch as the song she and Martin were slow dancing to wound down. Midnight was fast approaching and she debated taking advantage of the neuro emitter's powers, even if it was to get a kiss. Then again, Martin had been a perfect gentleman and an attentive date all evening. For her to do something like that felt a little like cheating. "You don't think Chrissy minds you being out at a party tonight with another girl, does she?"

He shook his head, "Nah. She's going to be celebrating with her own family tonight and I told her I'd be going with a trusted friend so there's no need to worry. In fact, she said she'd like to meet you someday."

"Oh? Um, sure. That sounds nice," Lucy lied. Before she could say anything else she was bumped from behind.

"Ah! So sorry Dr. Beckett," Jake apologized sheepishly as he and Lt. Clarissa Lewis made their way off the dance floor. "I haven't had much to drink at all and I'm already feeling like a bit of a klutz."

"Can't be nerves, can it?" Clarissa teased gently.

"Nah luv, more like worried that if I step out of line dancing with you I might get busted down to private."

As Jake and Clarissa moved on, Lucy glanced down and froze in horror realizing that Julian's gadget had been knocked loose from her sash when she got bumped. It was nowhere to be found! She looked around the crowded room in a mild panic as Martin turned back to her, "Luce? Is everything okay?"

"Oh fine. Fine. Everything is just fine," she replied with a nervous laugh, "Can you excuse me for a minute? I need to go, uh… powder my nose."

Lucy hurried away and wove through the other party guests keeping an eye on the floors where the device might have been kicked or rolled. As she passed the food table, she paused and stared as Bharata stood talking with a few other officers while holding a small plate full of appetizers.

He stopped and offered the plate, "Oh hey Dr. B! Great party huh? Do you want to try some of these? They're so good! I've really been chowing down on them tonight."

"Err… no thanks," she said politely while weaving past and continuing her search. He must have been affected by the device too based on what Ella had suggested to him earlier about eating more. As she came to edge of the Promenade, she saw the door to a storage closet off to the side that was somewhat ajar. As she neared, she heard some rustling and giggling before she peeked inside. To her shock, she saw Julian and Erin jump out of each other's arms and try to compose themselves. Erin cleared her throat and tried to straighten her mussed hair while Julian readjusted his neck tie and tried to wipe way a few faint lipstick smudges from his face. Not surprisingly, the color seemed to match the shade Erin was wearing that evening.

"Dr. Beckett… um, we weren't expecting to see you… here," Julian said hesitantly trying to catch his breath, "We uhh…"

"We couldn't wait for midnight," Erin cut in matter of factly, "So we took Ella's advice and got a room. Is there anything we can help you with?"

Lucy took a quick look on the floors and shook her head, "No. Never mind… uh, carry on."

She closed the closet door and shook her head while making her way back into the crowd milling about the Promenade. She glanced at her watch in dismay and saw it was now only a few minutes before midnight and she didn't know whether to go find Martin or keep looking for the neural emitter. She felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Ella and Erik join her, "Hey Dr. Beckett. Everything okay? You look lost."

Lucy sighed, "Actually everything isn't okay. I lost the neural emitter on the dance floor."

"I figured," Ella replied holding it up and handing it back to her, "It rolled into my foot and nearly caused me to wipe out earlier. Lucky thing Erik has good balance. Still, I don't know how much good the device will do now."

"What? Why?"

Ella tapped the top of the small cylindrical gadget, "It's out of juice. I think the battery just ran out."

Lucy took the device back in dismay and tucked it safely in her sash again, "I see… well, thanks anyway."

Erik accepted a few champagne glasses from a server passing by before pointing to a large clock on the wall. "Hey guys, it's almost time."

Lucy looked around and watched as the final countdown for the new year commenced. When the last seconds counted down, a net of balloons and confetti opened up and rained down on the guests as partygoers gave cheers, threw back their drinks, and exchanged New Year's kisses with their dates.

Nearby, Jake had caught Clarissa passing by and put an arm around her waist. In one smooth suave motion, he dramatically dipped her and planted a big kiss on her lips, not getting any protest. Across from that scene, Erik and Ella turned to each other and gave a sheepish shrug. "Oh what the hell? We did it once in Rome? Why not do it again?"

Erik and Ella gave each other a hug and took a moment to exchange an innocent friendly kiss between themselves too. Meanwhile, Dr. Beckett suddenly found herself fending off a drunken Marine Lieutenant who had approached her.

"Hey pretty lady, it's New Years. You haven't been kissed yet, have you?"

Lucy wrinkled her nose and handed him her untouched glass of champagne, "Here. Why don't you go put your lips around another glass of alcohol."

The Marine officer took the glass and mumbled something before giving a shrug and walking off drinking from the champagne glass.

As Erin and Julian made their way back to the main floor and joined them, Lucy turned back to the Blue and Pink Rangers waiting politely before they parted ways. When they did, she gave a sigh, "Well… I guess still need to find my date. I don't suppose either of you two have seen Martin, have you?"

Ella nodded, "Yeah, we just saw him a couple minutes ago. He was standing around waiting for you so I told him he should cut loose on the dance floor in the meantime."

Ella stopped and exchanged a look of dawning realization with Lucy as they remembered the neural emitter had still been active at that time, "Ooooh boy."

"Oh boy is right. Look!" Erik laughed pointing over toward the main floor of the Promenade.

Their search was immediately ended as some high energy dance music began to play and a surprised murmur went through the crowd. Everyone turned to see what was going on and the Rangers stared in amazement as they saw Martin head out on the dance floor by himself moving to the beat. They continued to gawk at the Red Ranger as he began up-rocking and arm waving enthusiastically while the edges of the floor cleared out to watch. With single minded focus, Martin started to dance like no one was watching. After a few more flashy dance steps, he slid to the ground doing some break dancing hand glides before whirling on the floor in an improvised back spin... still in his full dress uniform. After a few rotations, he kicked himself up in one motion without missing a beat and continued dancing while the other spectators applauded.

"Oh my God… is the Captain drunk?" Clarissa asked in wide eyed shock while Erik raised his smart phone up and started video recording the spectacle.

"Erik! What are you doing?" Lucy chided him, "Shouldn't we stop Martin?"

The Blue Ranger laughed aloud and kept filming, "Are you kidding? He's in the zone right now! Let the man dance!"

Bharata and Jake could only look on in bewilderment while Ella and Erin cat called and cheered their dancing squad leader on. As she watched the scene unfold, Lucy simply shook her head and began to laugh. In the face of such comedic error and absurdity, it was all she could do. It wasn't exactly the way she was expecting the evening to go, but as the Rangers could attest to, no mission ever went the way they expected either. At least for this moment, she would do what she had always done while performing her duties. She would watch over her Rangers and laugh along at their foibles and follies.

A/N:
That's it for the little bonus chapters everyone. Hopefully you enjoyed getting a little more time with our heroes when they're off duty and not busy saving the world. Heck, maybe you even got a few laughs along the way too. I'll plan to try and start Season 2 in a few months as a separate story entry so stay tuned. I'll make an announcement when the time comes. As always, thanks for reading!