Red Letters (Bridge Carson)

"I'm just saying. Someone named the subway station after the Punisher." Larry said as the Rangers walked towards St. Andrews.

The others shook their heads. Harriet sighs and explains. "It's named after a Castle owned by someone named Frank. Not Frank Castle. You remember Castleoma, that replica mediveal castle in the middle of the city, less than a block away from Castle Frank station."

Alan wasn't really paying attention to the conversation about Castles and subways but he stops in front of the post office. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up later."

"Something wrong Alan?" Penny asked.

"Nah I just need to check my mail. I'll be along in a bit." The others went off on their way as Alan checked the mailbox and got Bridge's letter. It sat in his bag for the rest of the day until he could get home to write a reply.

Dear Bridge,

I heard about that moon thing, must have been hard to deal with that so soon after the Earthquake. To tell you the truth I didn't figure out who you were on my own. Wild Corp may not trust us for missions but they still let us see their files, it wasn't hard to cross reference the appearences of Dekared to the cases that SCU Officer Bridge Carson worked. I haven't told anyone so you don't have to worry about me leaking your secret identity.

I can kind of understand why we aren't popular with the authorities here, in North America it's standard policy to brush the monsters under the rug. No one wants to admit that Megacorps are owned by walking corpses or that the biggest city in Canada is under siege by Angels and Demons. So when the human of identity of a demon turns up missing the spandex clad teenagers that some witnesses saw confront them earlier are made the lead suspects in a murder case and the witnesses' reports that the victim turned into a monster are thrown out as histeria. It's different in Japan I guess, I mean you no doubt have some skeptics but you got a whole police division dedicated to crimes involving monsters and whatever but I suppose it comes with being home to half of the Riders.

Anyways, I'm sure you seen at least once that you can't save everyone. How are you supposed to deal with that? The knowledge that people died and if you had just got there a little faster or took more time to evacuate the area before calling in mecha they could have lived. I know it's not really my fault but I really can't help but to blame myself sometimes.

Thanks for writing back.
-- Alan


When the letter makes it to Japan the envelope was repackaged with a note from the post office saying part of the envelope had been burnt. They weren't sure if it was like that before they recived it but apologize for the inconvience all the same.

Checking the post office weekly had become something of a ritual to the Alan. He had let the other Rangers know he was writing to another Ranger but refused to tell them anything else. He couldn't afford to lose Bridge's trust.

Dear Bridge,

What you said makes sense but I don't know. Half of the city still thinks I'm a menace despite how many of them I have saved. Sometimes it doesn't feel worth saving them. I'd never actually do that but it's hard when you are actively punished for your good deeds. Larry, our Blue Ranger occasionally talks about going public and just telling the world who we are and what we are doing. We keep dismissing it as over excesive idealism on his part but some part of me thinks it might be a good idea. To not always hide behind the helmets and spandex and show them all we mean well face to face. Then the realization that coming forward would expose our loved ones to the danger kicks in again. That White Ranger is still out there and she's nearly killed our mentor. If the guys sending the monster found out we wouldn't be able to protect the city and our familes at the same time. Why haven't you come forward? I mean you're already a cop, your family is already in danger from the monsters. Showing them you're the Ranger wouldn't hurt right?

--Alan