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Jordan had never minded that Troy sometimes had to cut and run.
It was annoying, of course, but Troy was the only friend he had, and Jordan made some allowances for that. And anyway, even when Troy left, he'd always call or come by later with an apology, and then they'd hang out. His parents were busy all the time anyway, so it wasn't like he'd get grounded for having a friend over until 3 AM, and apparently Troy didn't have anyone worrying when he didn't come home, so. They worked.
This time, though, he and Troy were meeting at Ernie's after school- none of Troy's friends were meeting them, seeing as Gia and Emma were on a date (Jordan applauded their method of coming out- Gia planting one on Emma did send a message to that biker who wouldn't leave Emma alone, especially since Gia had a reputation for kicking ass when she got annoyed), Noah was doing something science-y with Mr. Burley, Jake made some kind of excuse that meant he'd be hanging around until Noah left, and Jordan didn't know about the new guy- and they were going to work on English, because Jordan had a better eye for the wording and grammar of a story and Troy was better at picking up underlying themes.
Jordan had set up at an outside table (he hadn't gone inside Ernie's since the whole Ranger thing) and Troy was walking out with their drinks-
And then a monster literally swooped down and grabbed him.
"TROY!"
Jordan jolted up and stared uselessly as the monster flew away with Troy. He had to- but he couldn't-
The Rangers. He knew where they trained, didn't he? If they could- they had to-
Jordan ran.
He seriously needed to learn how to get through the forest without falling on his face. This was just embarrassing, and if they were going to save Troy they had to take him seriously.
When he looked up, the Blue, Pink, Green, Yellow, and Silver Rangers stood before him.
"What's going on?" the Pink Ranger asked.
"There was a monster- it kidnapped Troy Burrows."
They all froze.
"What?" the Yellow Ranger snapped. "When was-"
"At Ernie's," Jordan said, trying to get his breathing under control. "It- just swooped down- I couldn't- but I remembered that you trained here. Where's the Red Ranger? You have to get him, you have to save Troy."
There was a pause before the Blue Ranger said, hesitantly, "I'm not sure if-"
Jordan swallowed. "Look, you may not know him or anything, but Troy's awesome, okay? He shuts people down when they cross the line, he stuck with me when I outed myself as a fake, and he's the only one who actually talks to me or listens. Some people sneer at him because he's quiet, but he's one of the most idealistic people I've ever met, and he's really nice and cool. He's- and he just got taken, look, get the Red Ranger and please save him."
"Well, you've just named the problem with tha- ow!" The Green Ranger rubbed his side where the Pink Ranger had elbowed him. "E- Pink!"
The Pink Ranger hissed something, but Jordan wasn't listening. Had he just- did he mean-
Troy was- and he'd seen, he knew from the start, and he still-
Troy was the Red Ranger. He'd just been abducted by a monster. The Rangers were down one and they had to save Troy.
"How can I help?"
He had to do something.
The Yellow Ranger (the Green had almost blurted out an E name, Troy's girl friends were Emma and Gia, if Troy was Red and Emma was Pink Gia had to be Yellow and that fit, because everyone knew that Gia Moran was the toughest chick in town so of course she'd be his second) looked at him and then nodded, just once.
"Our mentor is fucking useless," Gia said bluntly, holding out her hand for something. "He should have alerted us to Troy's disappearance by now, especially since you came from Ernie's. Even running, Gosei should have realized and messaged us before you could get here. Since he hasn't, let's assume he's not gonna check in anytime soon. Blue, get Robo Knight's receiver."
The Blue- Noah- took a silvery device out of the bag on the ground and handed it to Gia.
"You're Mission Control for this," Gia said, handing Jordan the device. "It's easy to work- it's already on, just tell us when the red light starts flashing, because that's when we'll be near Red. Robo Knight made it for us because we kept getting split up or lost, but he left and it ran off of his systems. None of us can use it while we're in morph- we need our hands free. So if you want to help? Hold this and watch for the red flashing."
Jordan nodded, taking it and holding it carefully. There were six lights on it- presumably one for each Ranger, though the last one looked weird. They all were connected to each other with colored bonds.
"Let's go!" Gia snapped.
The only thing that sucked about the Rangers rescuing Troy- rescuing their Red, and that was still mindblowing- was that Jordan was stuck in the meadow, desperate to help but only able to stare at the red light and listen to the Rangers chatter as they fought their way through the latest bad guy.
"Green, you'd better be on Silver's six!"
"I'm on it, I'm on it!"
"More on the left!"
"Move!"
"Lunar Saber Activate!"
"Star Cutlass Activate!"
"That was a building!"
Jordan's eyes ached by the time the red light started blinking.
"It's flashing, it's flashing!" Jordan shouted at the device, not sure where the voicebox was.
"Are any of the bonds flashing, too?" the Pink- Emma- asked.
Jordan blinked and looked down at it. "The silver one is!"
"On it," the Silver Ranger (what was his name?) said, and then Jordan just head a lot of running until-
"You all right?"
"I'm fine," Troy said, coughing. "They need to work on their air quality. Did they get anyone else?"
"Probably planned to, but your friend warned us first. Oh, and Jake accidentally blew our cover, so he knows. And he's running Robo Knight's tracker."
"Wh- Jordan?"
"Yeah, Jordan."
"No, I was trying to talk to him. Jordan?"
"I'm here," Jordan blurted out, heart pounding.
"Thanks for the save," Troy said, tone warm.
Jordan felt his cheeks heat up. "I didn't do all that much, it was mostly your team."
"Still."
"More morphing, less flirting!" Gia snapped.
Jordan felt his cheeks burn.
"Right, sorry."
And then it was all battle and a lot of shouting from the device.
After the fight ended, the Rangers came back to the meadow and de-morphed.
"That was a pretty good fight!" Jake said, grinning and thumping Noah on the back. Gia and Emma rolled their eyes at each other.
"Hey."
Jordan turned to see Troy walking up to him with a shy grin.
"Hey," he responded. "You- what I did, it was-"
"Even if it had hurt," Troy said, stepping closer, "it's nothing now. You're a lot more than that."
Jordan felt warmth in his heart. "But that day, after I admitted it- why did you-"
"You were lonely, too."
Jordan felt his jaw drop, just a little, and he stared at Troy- Troy, leader of the Rangers, with his friends-
Troy, who had just moved to town and found himself in with two groups of tight friends. Troy, who could stay at his house all night and never call anyone to tell them he'd be fine, he was just at a friend's, don't owrry.
"We still on for Ernie's?" Troy asked.
"Of course."
Troy's grin got brighter and he nudged Jordan with his shoulder as they walked away.