Nate clapped his hands together, "All right. I'll call about our next client." He hesitated, "Although, Eliot, do you mind staying back for a moment? Parker, Hardison, you can stay if you want or go."

He didn't even have to watch the younger couple to see that they'd clearly decided to stay.

"What's up Nate?" Eliot asked.

"Do you remember that samurai sword we got you for Christmas last year?" Sophie asked.

"What about it?" Eliot said looking between the two of them.

"The people helped us to get it, they've asked about meeting you," Nate said. "I used a contact from the old days, a man named Will Aston."

"What a minute," Hardison said, "Will Aston, you mean the Will Aston, the Power Ranger?"

"Yes," Nate said after a moment. "I'm not entirely sure his contacts weren't Rangers, but they'd like to meet you. One of them, Adam, said that they would be in Portland in a few days for something and they are all interested in arranging that meeting."

"You know a Power Ranger?" Hardison said.

"I got him the job," Nate replied. "Well, Eliot. You have the option to say no, of course."

Eliot stared at him for a minute, "Fine," he said finally, "I'll meet your friends." He turned and slammed his way out of the office.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Maybe he should have thought more about it before agreeing to meet Nate's friends, Eliot thought as he watched the security cameras. Five men, five very dangerous men, one of whom Eliot was positive was CIA, were in the pub talking quietly. As he watched, Nate approached and shook hands around the circle, and there was definitely two people being introduced, one of whom brought about a lot of laughter.

"Is that them?" Hardison asked.

"Either that, or a camera," Eliot said, crossing his arms.

"Then let's see who our guests are," Hardison replied. White boxes appeared around each face, and the edges of the image switched over to facial recognition programs. One of them stopped almost instantly, "That's Will Aston, Overdrive Back Ranger and former security specialist. Next to him, the Korean guy is Adam Park. He runs a dojo in Angel Grove, married for eight years, has three born kids and an adopted kid named Antonio who just might possibly be a Power Ranger himself. The Black guy is Zack Taylor, CIA liaison to Lightspeed Rescue. Last is Cameron Watanabe, two doctorates, works contractually with the government. What an interesting group."

"And they're headed back here," Eliot said, turning to the door.

Hardison typed for a few minutes longer, and then turned, raising his hands up, as the office door opened. "Here's part of the team," Nate said. "Sophie's arranging for drinks and food with the kitchen and Parker's around here somewhere." Eliot scratched his ear and discretely pointed to the ceiling, making Nate nod slightly. "This is Alec Hardison, our hacker and this is Eliot Spencer."

"Hi," Hardison said softly. Eliot quietly bet himself that Hardison was staring at Will in that awed way the hacker had never quite managed to overcome.

"Hardison, Eliot, this is Will Aston, Zack Taylor, Adam Park, and Cam Watanabe. Eliot, Cam here is the samurai I mentioned."

Eliot nodded, distracted by Zack Taylor, who stalked towards him with a very intense expression. Eliot held his arms at his side, loose and ready to respond to whatever Taylor did. The man stared into his face for a moment before circling him, still staring. He didn't even flinch when Parker dropped from the ceiling and followed him. Then Taylor was back face to face with him, still frowning.

There was an awkward cough.

Taylor lunged forward, wrapping Eliot in a hug so tight that Eliot was hard pressed not to wheeze. "Welcome to the family, little brother," Taylor whispered in his ear before letting go, backing up out of Eliot's reach with a huge smile. "I like you," he announced. "I'm sorry I didn't get to know you sooner."

Eliot glanced over Taylor's shoulder to the other three men. Adam had a smirk on his face, Will looked worried, and Cam just scowled right back at them. "Okay," Eliot said finally.

"Now, I'm going to let Cam do his samurai thing because that's a thing he does. I want to have a word with you, Mister Ford." Taylor said, he turned away and slung his arm over Nate's shoulders, "Because Will has been telling me what you do and I think it's awesome."

Eliot tried to keep track of the man, but Watanabe had indeed approached him. "I'm Cam," he said, "You're lucky he likes you."

"What?" Eliot asked.

"Zack," Watanabe said, "you're lucky he likes you. Me, on the other hand, I'm curious. Why a samurai sword?"

"What?" Eliot asked, he really wasn't sure what was going on. He'd been hugged by a complete stranger who called him 'little brother', which he might have been shorter by a few inches but little?

"Why did Mister Ford and Miss Devereaux go through all that effort for a sword?" Watanabe said slowly.

"That's Nate man," Eliot replied, "if he thinks something's worth doing he'd go through hell to get it done. I do appreciate that you helped him get it. The sword is amazing; I've never owned one like it. It even saved my life a few months back."

"You used it?" Watanabe asked, looking stunned.

"It was a spur of the moment decision," Eliot said defensively, "hitters like me? We make enemies with a lot of dangerous people. When someone breaks into my home looking to put me down, I defend myself. The fact that I used a 16th century sword to save my life doesn't really bother me. I mean, I did put it in a safe location afterwards so that it wouldn't happen, but in the moment of the fight, it saved my life."

Watanabe smiled, "I see why it was appropriate then. My father will be relieved to know that it was a good choice."

"Where did you get a sword like that anyways?" Eliot asked.

"My mother," Watanabe replied, his smile a little sadder. "Her family comes from a long line of Samurai, and she had quite a collection."

"A family heirloom," Eliot said, feeling stunned.

"That one wasn't," Watanabe said, "She bought it herself. Her note on it said that it was in a pawnshop alongside a bunch of fake Rolexes and plated gold jewelry. It was the most expensive thing in the shop and she got it for a hundred bucks. She'd be happy that it went to someone who would appreciate the history of it."

"I appreciate that you would give it to me," Eliot said.

"Dude, quit hogging him," Taylor shouted.

Watanabe closed his eyes for a moment, "It's moments like this that I'm glad that I'm not one of his." He stepped back and tilted his head, "You might want to pay attention to this part, it's a bit important."

"Now," Taylor said, "I'm sure you're wondering how a single phone call to an old coworker lead to this little shindig. Well, you all know that Will here is a black ranger. Whom else should he call for help but another power ranger? That would be Adam Park. Adam was my chosen replacement before he was stolen away by the greenies. Which is lucky for you, Mister Ford, because Cam here is a greenie."

"Nothing wrong with that," Cam said.

"I didn't say that," Taylor said, "I just want you people to not steal my best and brightest."

"We gave you the Doc," Cam replied.

Taylor laughed, "That one's just waiting around for another color and you know it. If he belongs to anybody, it has to be the greenies, because he was the first!"

"Have you been drinking?" Will asked, staring at Taylor.

"Nope," Taylor replied cheerfully, "I'm natural and unmedicated. Anyways, when Mister Ford here called to tell Will about Eliot Spencer, Will heard a perfect candidate for a black ranger. He did some digging of questionable legality and he realized it was true. So he used that to get Adam and Cam to help him because of an unpayable debt between Will and Nate. Well, I heard about it and that they were going to meet this candidate for a morpher and I decided to tag along. You see, I'm not just a black ranger, I am the Black Ranger. I am the man Zordon of Eltare himself picked the day Rita Repulsa was freed to fight her. And I agree with Will's instinct. Eliot is a ranger looking for a morpher and that makes him one of mine." He pointed at Nate, "I wasn't joking either, Mister Ford. If you need anything from the CIA, just let me know. What you guys are doing is a lot more important that spending six weeks serving fast food just to get a dumbass with a fancy computer chip to ignore me when he sells the chip."

"Isn't that illegal?" Will asked.

"I'm a Power Ranger," Taylor replied, "part of what we do is develop and promote resources to help our planet remain independent and to stall and even halt the advancement of possible villains. Leverage Inc does that but halting the development of CEOs who are clearly falling into the trap of power and greed before they get their hands on dark power."

"Shame they weren't in business back in 05," Adam said. "Mesogog."

"Yeah but his alter was a good man. Just careless about human testing without FDA approval." Taylor said.

"Wait a minute," Eliot snapped, "You think I'm a power ranger?"

"You could be," Taylor said. "Frankly, given your record with the government, if things go south I'd put a morpher in your hands just because you know how to kill. For right now, all that means is that we can help if you need it. Both for information and for law trouble."

"You saw my file?" Eliot said.

"I saw the real file," Taylor said. "I showed it to my Red. We find you to be a valuable asset to this planet."

"Is that a recruiting speech?" Eliot asked.

"Fuck Uncle Sam," Taylor said. "This ain't recruitment man. I'm just saying, you, or any children you have, have the potential to be a Power Ranger. One day we might ask you to take a morpher, but that would only be because we had no other choice and we need Dark Rangers to protect Earth and man, I hope that day never comes."

Eliot didn't know what to say to that. This man-child who switched moods like Eliot switched knives in the kitchen, a Power Ranger, admired him. He wanted Eliot to keep an open mind towards being a Ranger if the world needed him. He'd never heard of the Rangers being particularly tied into the government. "You and I both," Eliot said. "But for what it's worth, if you need me, I'll be there."

"Then let's have a party," Taylor said. "Cam, have you ever been to one of my shindigs?"