Work Text:
Theme: Competition
Summary: The team never felt the same after he left.
Z alternated glares between her neon yellow cast and the mound of paperwork on the boring desk in front of her. Man, desk duty sucked. She prodded the stack with a finger, sighing in dismay when it didn’t disappear. That meant she actually had to read through them.
They were application files for the Green position on the C-Squad. She sighed, remembering the frustration that had resulted from the last two team shifts.
After Jack left, Commander Cruger had promoted Sky to Red, and Bridge to Blue, which left open a slot as Green, since neither Syd nor Z wanted it. After much competition and interviews, reviews of files and watching the cadets, it was finally decided to permit SOPHIE to join the team as a Green Ranger.
And again, the B-Squad had to adjust to having a new team member on the lists. It wasn’t really too bad, but it was a little frustrating. They had all come together as a cohesive unit, explicitly trusting each other. Then Jack left, though she didn’t blame him, he had found something better. But it still left a gaping wound in the team dynamics. Still, they reworked the team until SOPHIE fit in as best as anyone could expect, and slowly, they became a single unit again.
Then Supreme Commander Birdie retired, and SPD HQ decided to promote Cruger, whom in his own turn, promoted Sky to Base Commander. Again, the roster changed, this time Bridge shining in Red, SOPHIE in Blue, and a blank spot for the Green. When questioned by Sky why she didn’t want to move up in the team ranks, she calmly informed him that it was her decision, and that was that. Syd was too attached to the Pink Power to release the mutual grip, so they had again scrounged and reviewed and watched as C-Squad cadets jockeyed and volleyed for the position. Finally it was given to Alexandra Hashiba, often called Alex, whom proudly accepted the Green Power.
But it still left a hole in C-Squad, a hole that she was to start to fill by sorting out the papers on her desk, marking candidates that she felt were worthy of the position. Growling to herself, she awkwardly grasped a stack of papers, starting to sort through them.
Too bad Jack was insistent on not returning to SPD. He would have helped her find a replacement…actually, he would have taken the Green spot, and this would never have happened.
She sighed, missing the easy team dynamics when he was still around. The team just never felt the same after he left.