Disclaimer: SPD and its characters do not belong to me. I'm just playing with them a little.
Recognition
Doggie growled when the alarm in Kat's lab went off and he immediately made his way there. Kat had not been happy about having an alarm in her lab, but now it was a good thing it was there. He wondered what had happened to make her set off the alarm, but he firmly dismissed his thoughts, they wouldn't help Kat. All he could do was get there as fast as possible.
He walked into the lab and felt his heart clench when he found her on the floor, expression one of pain and fear. He looked up and found Sky was the only other person in the room, although the look on his face was not one he'd ever seen the blue ranger wear before.
"Look who's here," Sky sneered and Doggie instantly knew he wasn't talking to his ranger. Sky might have his faults, but he would never do something like this. His earlier worry for Kat metamorphosed into anger on behalf of Sky. He loved his rangers, despite their faults, and for this to happen, to any of them, made him fume.
"Who are you?" he demanded. "You're not Sky."
"No fooling you," replied the person in front of him, mocking smile on his face. "That must be why you're the Commander." He pulled Sky's morpher out of its holder and activated it, leaving the blue ranger standing in his place and Doggie growled inwardly. That was a mistake. Just because whoever this was looked and sounded like Sky didn't make them Sky, and he was determined to get his cadet back, no matter what. "Your ranger and I have switched bodies," continued the voice, Sky's voice, but now things were falling into place.
"Wootox!" he snapped, furious with himself that he didn't realise before what had happened. He pulled out his own morpher and transformed into the Shadow Ranger. "Nobody messes with my rangers," he growled and blocked when Sky's sword came flashing towards him. It was both easy and hard to keep in mind he wasn't fighting Sky. On the one hand it was hard because of the familiar blue suit and the even more familiar sounds of Sky's fighting, the force behind each blow resulting in the expected noises of battle. On the other hand it wasn't difficult at all, the sneering commentary and unfamiliar fighting style allowing him to remember who exactly he was fighting.
He knew this was a bad situation. He couldn't go all out in fighting Wootox, because doing so could cause great harm to Sky's body, if not destroy it completely, leaving Sky trapped in that criminal's body forever, an unacceptable option. Conversely, he couldn't hold back as much as he'd like either, doing so would only allow Wootox room to manoeuvre, also unacceptable. It was his bad luck that Wootox had no such problem in fighting him, and sent him flying over the rail with a long drop to the bottom.
Doggie came to slowly, his head spinning, and he was disconcerted that his morph had faded, though thankfully after he'd hit the floor, rather than before. He dimly heard Sky's mocking laughter echoing in his ears and he growled, pounding his fist on the floor and resuming his morph instantly. He was determined to get Sky back. The team needed a blue ranger that was true to them, not some impostor wannabe who would turn on them in a moment. Whatever it took, he was getting Sky back. Now all he had to do was find the real Sky before the other rangers did.
His heart sank as he took in the scene in front of him, 'Wootox' with three Delta Max Strikers and one pair of Delta Enforcers aimed at him, poised to strike. "Stop!" he shouted. He couldn't let them confine Wootox, not until they knew for sure it was him and not Sky still trapped inside.
"Just in time, Commander," Bridge said, his aim steady.
"Wait," he insisted, turning to Jack. "We don't know who is who. They switched bodies."
"What?" Jack's voice was stunned, his head snapping round to 'Sky' immediately.
"We changed bodies but we changed back. I'm Sky." The confidence matched Sky's but Doggie wasn't convinced.
"Sky?" he asked, dubiously.
"Don't let him fool you again, let's take care of him, now!"
"Well it sounds like Sky," Syd said, but Doggie disagreed. Sky was forceful, true, but not vindictive, and most of Sky's mannerisms were gone, replaced with a hard darkness in the eyes which Doggie would never associate with Sky. 'Wootox' on the other hand was looking around desperately, almost in a panic and Doggie was convinced that Sky was in front of him, not behind him.
He was relieved when Jack's strange idea worked, identifying Sky standing in the circle of SPD weaponry. "Impostor!" he shouted and both he and Jack grabbed hold of 'Sky'. "Sky, go for it!" It took a lot of willpower not to flinch at the sight of Wootox running straight at him, and only the knowledge that it was really Sky kept him from firing.
After the switch back, Wootox's confinement was inevitable and Doggie heaved a silent sigh of relief. He would have to make this up to Sky somehow, make up for the almost betrayal of not realising one of his rangers, someone he had known, and helped oversee the training of, for many years, had been compromised, replaced by one of the most wanted criminals in the galaxy. Yes, he would definitely have to make it up to Sky somehow, even if only he knew about it.