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"That's it! That. Is. IT!"
Vera looked up idly as Doug glared furiously at his screen, clenching his fists. "Mmm?"
"I'm becoming a supervillain. I'm going to take over the world, and the timestream, and make people STOP FUCKING WITH TIME."
"Mmm," she nodded amiably, turning her attention back to monitoring the early 21st century. Alpha 5 had just grown a plant outside of the Command Center. She opened a new report, noting the size and color of the flowers, as well as the resulting flower patch that would spread across the desert through the seeding and pollination process over the next twenty years.
"That's the third time this week you've said that," Hiro noted.
"It's the third time this week someone's fucked with time!" Doug snapped back. "I mean warping time and space, just to go to the old west era? FUCKING *RANGERS*!"
"Swear jar," Vera reminded him absently.
He swore again, digging into his pockets for some money. He stood after a moment, practically pitching it into the gallon jar next to the water cooler labeled '*@$#(!& Power Rangers Fund' before flopping back down into his seat.
The jar was nearly full for the second time that week.
The Department of Timeline Research, Tracking, and Recovery was one of the less glorious areas of Time Force, but no less important. Despite the prestige of its name, the TRT&R Department (more commonly known as TR Squared, the Time Fuckery Department, and Trainee Torture Sessions) was actually very small. It was specifically used for trainees post-graduation, prior to being placed in a permanent position within Time Force. The idea behind it was to allow said trainees to learn the importance of careful timeline monitoring, as well as teaching them how easy it was to unintentionally affect the timeline. After one year of TRT&R, depending upon their performance review, the trainees would be moved based on what they'd learned and their personal professional strengths.
It was a well-known fact that TRT&R could make or break a trainee. Nervous breakdowns were common, due to the sheer amount of information that could change in the span of an hour. Often a newer trainee would one day break down in tears without warning, and had to be lead away for evaluation and potentially re-training. Swearing was not only also common, but in fact encouraged, as it was such a high-stress environment.
Which wasn't to say that members of TRT&R weren't well taken care of. Trainees only worked three days a week, and never consecutively. They were very well paid despite the lack of hours, and received all the benefits of a full-time employee. Their office was full of comfortable furniture, bright lighting, and the highest quality timeline monitoring system in all of Time Force. The walls were a pale, pleasant blue to contrast the bright monitors, and covered with pictures of clocks and inspirational quotes about time. They had their own water cooler and food replicator, a private bathroom, and a side room complete with an overstuffed recliner, a pullout daybed, workout equipment, a dartboard with a battered picture of the Zeo Crystal on it, and a small lightball set for use during breaks.
They worked in teams of three during a six hour shift, so that in the event of a breakdown, at least two people remained to continue monitoring. They were allowed to discuss what they were working on, as well as ask for advice from senior members who'd been with the department longer for how to file a particular incident. Music was also allowed, provided it was only played on a personal earset to keep from distracting other team members.
Not that music tended to be what distracted them from their work.
"You need the Ranger-Related File?" Hiro offered, grabbing said file off his own screen and sliding it over to Doug's.
"Zeo Crystal Sub-file?" Vera murmured, holding a finger over it on hers.
"No," Doug grumbled. "It's Grid related, not Zeo Crystal. Ranger Hart just created an alternate reality."
"Again?"
Vera shifted, reaching over to touch the board against the wall next to her. It lit up as she paged through the windows to find Mighty Morphin Rangers and added another mark to their tally.
Hiro glanced. "Who's winning?"
"Still Time Force." She paged through again absently. "Mighty Morphin is catching up, though."
While there were many factors behind changes to the timestream, none were so constant and so hated, as Power Rangers.
It was all due to the Morphin Grid. According to studies, The Grid was an alternate plane which existed outside of time itself, seamlessly merging past, present, and future. As a result, using it often granted Rangers the ability to consciously or unconsciously affect the flow of time, particularly during times of great stress. It wasn't always obvious: Ranger DeSantos had once caused time to stop for three hours while sleeping after a long night of studying, Ranger McKnight occasionally held his soccer practice for another hour, and Rangers in a relationship sometimes made time stop around them and their partner for several minutes.
Sometimes it was more obvious, such as when Ranger Grayson rewound an entire day due to emotional trauma. Or when The Wizard of Deception had attempted to send the Mighty Morphin Rangers back in time and they created an alternate reality instead. Or the multiple times the Time Force Rangers had frozen time during battle. Or the events surrounding the first use of the Zeo Crystal on Earth.
Ranger Oliver was one of the worst offenders according to the poll Team Poncho had been keeping: they discovered he'd repeatedly stopped time during college, allowing him to pass multiple classes a semester and achieve his doctorate early. It had yet to be decided whether or not he’d been doing it knowingly.
The '*@$#(!& Power Rangers Fund' had been started in the early days of the department, by a trainee who had been particularly frustrated by the amount of Power Ranger-related timeline alterations. His teammates had demanded compensation, and he had (reluctantly) agreed. It had been said that he was personally responsible for most of the objects in the break room.
Team Dragon Fury - as named by Doug - worked the late evening shift, from 1800 to 0200. They'd been together for four months, ever since Doug had replaced Fatine after what was now known as 'The Lightspeed Incident'. (Word had it that her re-training was going well, but she still twitched whenever someone referenced anything to do with the Lightspeed Rangers.) Doug was the current most frequent contributor to The '*@$#(!& Power Rangers Fund'. Hiro was hoping they'd be able to buy a new VR set for the break room by the end of the next month. They were already three-quarters of the way to their goal.
The overhead alarm abruptly began to shriek. In the same instant, all three screens lit up with details about the Time Force Rangers, and the appearance of the retired Transwarp Megazord in the year 2001.
"SON OF A - Fucking COCKSUCKER!"
"Baka yarou."
"Shit."
All three of them reached for their wallets.
Vera sighed, muttering "Sekai de ichiban daikirai," to herself as she slipped back into her seat.