Green With Evil: Power Rangers

Searching

~One Week Later~

Knocking.

Knocking.

Endless hours of knocking against the doors of relatives in the town area, which had only increased slightly since the events of the first alien attack. Striking a surface noisily to attract attention, especially when waiting to be let in through a door is bound to wake up almost everybody.

And the situation was urgent.

Almost a week had past since Deborah or Jeffrey Oliver had seen any signs of their son, Tommy.

The news of the putty attack at the mall and the return of Rita Repulsa hit the karate veterans parents hard with worry, doubt and anxiety.....but not as much as opposed to when Tommy didn't return home later on that same day.

One hour passed. Then two. Then three.

No Tommy.

But then the morning came. Any hopes that poor Debbie had that her baby boy would return safely to her were quickly dashed as she commenced a quick search of the house and, eventually, her block and avenue in hopes of finding him.

When no such luck came and Jeff had helped sulked up her tears, they were eventually forced to file a missing person report. From that point onwards, the police took over the investigation with Officer Bebe leading the charge. Given the first 72 hours in a missing persons investigation are often considered the most critical, police had called on the aid of any remaining Angel Grove residents.

Just waves and waves of knocking.

Those generous enough, who felt obliged to join in on the search did little to find any leads and eventually the integrity of the case began to grow cold.

Enter Monday of the following week.

Compared to the other bustle Angel Grove had to put up with previously, the mid-afternoon fuss was aggressively tame; not that anybody minded the peace and quiet. Anything to get away from having to deal with the Putties or Rita every other damn day. So instead, in her place, came missing person posters.

With the police coming up empty on the search for their son, the Oliver's stayed vigilant....to a fault. Taking matters into their own hands, they printed out and stapled posters of Tommy all over town.

Houses, restaurants, lightpoles, support beams, vehicles, almost anything that moved had been plastered with a photo of a missing mother and fathers son, desperate to cling onto the hope that he is not dead.

That was the full bulk of what the two were able to tell Lucas, who they just so happened to be acquainted with mid-afternoon at the Krispy Kreme parlor.

With the two separated on different sides of the table, the scenery spoke for them: quiet, tame, very uneven within the midst of their own selves. Uncomfortable; sheltered even. Lucas was the most recent of the civilians in this town that caught the news of Tommy's disappearance.

News that the Oliver's delivered to him personally.

"Sorry to hear about your son", Lucas assured the both of them.

Jeff can only nod at him; Deborah laid there in silence, stating at the styrofoam edges of the coffee cup to block out reality for the time-being.

"Think we pushed him away?"

"That's not wishful thinking."

"I was hard on him for awhile, Lucas. He's had it rougher than I dared to notice. We should have been more supportive to him."