Legal: I do not own Power Rangers, or the associated names, places, characters, events etc. Anything not associated with the above rights should be considered purely the creation of the author.
Rating: T-There may be some adult themes and language.
The Rangers were gathered in the Red Galleon and taking some time to figure out their next move. In the few days since the mysterious new stranger, Orion had joined the team, and a team of Rangers had come back through time bringing a new Zord for them to use, they hadn't really had much chance to decompress. Of particular note, although Orion had been on the planet now for close to two weeks, the fact was that he wasn't FROM Earth, so they had no idea of the long-term issues that could arise from him being on the planet. Noah had made the case that while it was possible his physiology was superficially similar enough to human that so far he hadn't exhibited any ill effects, it was possible that long-term, Earth's environment might have an impact on his health, something they could ill afford now that it was clear he was going to be a part of the team. Since there had been no reports to indicate Lafitte or The Armada were making any moves, they decided to delay their search for more keys while they satisfied himself Orion wasn't taking any more risks than necessary.
Noah was working on some skin and blood samples, after Tensou had given him a full-body scan to compile data about his internal body structure. While they were waiting on the results, Jake, Emma, Gia and Troy were up on deck, putting him through his paces.
They already knew he was strong, and that he was fast, they had seen him in action enough times to know that, but it was difficult to tell on what scale without real testing. Emma watched as Jake held up a pad, connected to a computer, inviting Orion to hit it. Gia was sitting with her.
"We should have plenty of data soon." Gia told her as she put an arm around her friend. "The one thing that is obvious is he has plenty of stamina. He's been going for hours. Even I'm exhausted."
"I'm not sure it's his body we need to worry about." Emma told her.
"Well if anyone knows that, you do right?" Gia teased her, shoving her gently. Emma just folded her arms in defiance as she pulled away. In a rather embarrassing incident, Emma had seen him completely naked. In all his time alone, some of his social conventions had eroded slightly, so when he didn't have something to wear to sleep in, he had gone au natural. Emma had caught the show when he didn't seem to think anything of getting out of bed with her in the room when she took him breakfast. Gia still loved teasing her about it.
"That's not what I mean." Emma whined defensively. She pulled in closer. "Haven't you noticed he's kind of...cut off?"
"Well he is the new guy." Gia reminded her. She had noticed it too, and knew what Emma was talking about, but she had to concede that he had kind of landed in the middle of everything. He was likely going to take some time to warm to the team and get used to them being around. While he had been part of a team before, they knew that his time on Lafitte's crew had ended badly, so it was no surprise he wasn't exactly throwing himself into a new team.
"I know, but..." Emma tried to explain what she was thinking. "He's been on his own a long time, I get that, but...he spends a lot of time in his room. We already know he had a rough time of things, I can't even imagine what he's been through, but...he hardly talks."
Gia said something to her, at which Emma just stared at her blankly. Gia smiled.
"Why do you think I want to learn some Andresian?" She asked. "It's not like a lot of us have a lot in common. Maybe in time he'll feel more comfortable and..."
"Not if he spends all day in his room alone." Emma told her. "What does he even do in there?"
"Do you really want to know what a guy does alone in his room?" Gia asked her. Emma just looked to her judgementally.
"You have a one-track mind do you know that?" She asked.
"Hey, I have an excuse for not knowing much about guys." Gia sniggered. Emma just shook her head in defeat, before their attention was snapped back round to the middle of the deck.
There was a huge yell, at which Jake ended up on the ground, clutching his ribs. Orion had hit the pad, but his kick had still taken Jake clean off his feet, and dumped him unceremoniously on the floor. Orion rushed out something in Andresian as he approached, while the others closed in.
"I'm sorry Jake, are you alright?" Orion asked.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault." Troy rushed out before Jake could say anything. "We told you to hit it as hard as you could. You just did what we asked you."
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks for asking." Jake grumbled as they assured Orion he hadn't done anything wrong.
"Uh...Orion DID ask if you were alright." Gia reminded him. Although Jake had accepted the fact Orion was here to stay, and even accepted him as being a Ranger, there was still a lingering coolness between them. Jordan had been really close to Jake, and he had taken it particularly hard when they realised Jordan was not coming back to the team as they had believed. It wasn't Orion's fault, and in some ways it wasn't Jake's either. It was just something that they'd have to work to get over. Before anything else could be said, Noah arrived.
"Guys, the scans are ready." He told them. He looked to Troy. "Is the data from the physical tests ready?"
"It should be." Troy answered, figuring this was a good place to end the tests for the day. They all went down into the main room to wait while Noah compiled his results.
It didn't take long for Noah to add the results of the physical tests to his own medical and anatomical scans. He pulled up an image on a screen and prepared to make a presentation. For a moment, the Rangers could see a slight glint in his eye, the way he always had back in the days they still attended High School. While many didn't like presentations, Noah seemed to relish the opportunity to share the results of his many experiments with people.
"Well, the good news is that Orion's not in any danger from our atmosphere." He told them. "I've done a complete analysis of his tissue and blood samples, and with the exception of a few anomalies, his DNA says he's human."
"Human?" Jake asked a little sceptically. "He's human?"
"Earth isn't the only planet humans have evolved." Noah told him. "KO35 and Miranoi also have native human populations."
"You said something about differences?" Troy asked, hoping to get Noah to cast some light on anything they might need to know about Orion to help him adjust. Noah smiled and pulled up some information.
"As we all know, there are two factors in evolution, genetics, and environment. Sometimes, a species' physical characteristics are only superficially different based on their environment." He said, pulling up some notes. "Now, I know that Orion was likely very fit anyway given his career as a miner, so I've factored that in, but by the looks of things, his bone and muscle density is approximately 8 percent greater than it should be for someone of his height and build."
"So...his muscle and bone is...stronger than it should be?" Gia asked. Noah just nodded.
"I think Andresia might have had a stronger gravity than we do, because from what the scans show, it's across his whole body. It also explains why he survived so long on his own. We've all seen his scars...without access to medical care, a lot of those injuries should have left more lasting damage."
"I can vouch for the stronger part." Jake complained, rubbing his ribs. Noah just gestured to him.
"That's one of the side-effects, his muscles are slightly more powerful on scale than ours." Noah answered. "I imagine that must have been an advantage since most of their population were miners."
He pulled up another screen.
"Orion told me that the climate on Andresia was always very dull, between pollution from mines, and a naturally subdued climate, the sun wasn't too strong there, so as a result, his people have evolved to have very little melanin in their skin, hair and eyes. That's why his complexion, hair and eye colour are so naturally light." He continued. "As an upshot though, it looks like his visual receptors are more sensitive to light, something that was probably an advantage for miners. He can see well in low light. It's really fascinating; it shows how a species can..."
"NOAH!" Troy called out, interrupting him before he went too far. It only took him a moment to realise his enthusiasm was getting away from him. The last thing they wanted was for him to seem like he was treating Orion as a test subject. "So...he's safe on Earth?"
"Well...I'd recommend sun screen in hot climates, but as far as I can tell, nothing about our environment or our food should cause him any problems." He replied. Troy got up from his chair and placed a chest on the middle of the table.
"Now that we've got that sorted out, I think it's time we summarise where we are on our search." He told them. He started to take out the Ranger keys from the chest, arranging them all on the table into their individual teams. It took a while, but eventually he finished with his task. "At present, we have 86 Ranger Keys."
"We have all the Mighty Morphin' Keys, including the White and Green ones." Emma began, pointing to the first team. "Not to mention Orion brought us the six Alien Ranger keys."
"We've got the Gold Zeo key, but that's it." Noah added. "We do have five Turbo Keys from Justin, and all six Space Ranger keys."
"We got the five Galaxy Ranger keys from Orion." Gia said, patting him on the shoulder. "And we have the Titanium Ranger Lightspeed Key."
"We've got the Quantum Ranger Time Force Key, but Jen didn't have the others." Troy reminded them going down the line. "But we do have the six Wild Force keys."
"We've got all six of the Ninja Storm keys now." Jake continued. "But we only have the White Dino Thunder Key."
"We've got six SPD Ranger keys, Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Pink and Omega...but I know there was another when they showed up in Reefside." Noah added. "Mystic Force, we've got the Solaris Knight, and the Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Pink keys. There was a White Ranger though, so we're missing that."
"We've got all six of the Overdrive keys." Emma said, gesturing to them. "We also have the five Jungle Fury Keys."
"We've got all the RPM keys as far as we know. They only showed up in Panorama once, so there might be more...I don't know." Gia responded to that. "And for the Samurai...we've got all six!"
"And we have all five of our old keys." Troy concluded the rundown. "So, what are we looking for?"
"Well, there are the five Zeo keys for a start." Noah said, pointing to the lone Gold Ranger key, then to the Titanium Ranger key. "Not to mention the Lightspeed keys."
"We've not got the Time Force Keys since Jen didn't have them." Jake reminded them. "And we're missing the Dino Thunder keys."
"That's another twenty keys." Gia concluded.
"Thirty." Orion corrected them. They all looked at him. "When I last saw Lafitte, he had some Ranger Puppets with him...he said he had ten keys."
"There are other Rangers...one SPD...One Mystic Force..."
"There were others, ones that weren't CALLED Rangers." Noah interrupted Gia. "Like the Blue Centurion!"
"So there are ten others?" Troy asked. "Then I guess we have thirty more keys to collect."
"There's not much we can do about Lafitte's keys until he gets back." Noah replied. "So I guess now we just have to concentrate on the others."
"So, whose turn is it to get the clue?" Gia groaned. "I know it isn't mine, so don't even TRY and tell me it is!"
"What's going on?" Orion asked.
"We're going to get a clue to getting the next Ranger Keys." Emma explained.
"No, I mean...why is everyone so reluctant?" He asked. Just then, Jake got a wicked grin on his face.
"You know what...Orion hasn't gotten a clue yet!" He reminded everyone. They all thought about it for a moment, before turning to face Orion. He was blissfully unaware of what that meant though.
"Come on guys, Orion..."
"No, he joined the team; he should get a turn like everyone else." Jake replied as he got up from the table. "I'll just go get...ready."
"What was that about?" Orion asked.
"Tensou, come here for a moment." Troy called out. The little robotic parrot flew into the room, landing on the table. His head was hung low, and he walked rather slowly, with little enthusiasm. "We need another clue."
"Oh great, which one of you is it this time?" He grumbled.
"This time, it's Orion." Noah told him. Tensou made his way over to Orion's place, then turned his back.
"Just make this quick." He muttered. Orion didn't really understand what was going on; having never seen the Rangers activate Tensou's tracking software. It was a mishap in Jordan's attempt to create their new technology that had led to a minor problem with Tensou's tracking software. So far, the only way they had found to activate it was to hit Tensou over the head. Needless to say he was not exactly best pleased with this, and for a while had attacked whoever had the unfortunate task of getting the clue. Since then however, they had come up with a compromise of sorts, a way to appease Tensou for the inconvenience of having one of his friends bash him over the head without him attacking them in response. Jake came back, dragging the large, foam-rubber Mr Brainfreeze outfit.
"OK, what's going on?" Orion asked as Troy handed him a hammer. He pointed to Tensou.
"To kick-start his tracking software, you have to hit him on the head." Troy explained. "Then, to make it up to him, you have to wear that for an hour."
Orion just looked between each of the Rangers, smiling nervously, but pretty soon he realised they weren't joking.
"It's kind of a ritual." Emma explained. "We've all had to do it."
"So...you hit Tensou...one of your friends over the head." He started to say, trying to make sense of the situation. "Then I have to wear that...thing?"
"That's the ritual." Jake replied, holding up the Mr Brianfreeze outfit. "We haven't got all day."
Orion just stood, staring at them for a moment, before realising that he was in a no-win situation. He just sighed.
"And you all think I'm weird." He responded, before switching to his native tongue. "Forgive me my friend."
With that, he brought the hammer down across Tensou's head, causing him to tumble across the table. He shook his head as the Rangers scrambled to set him upright, and record the poem.
"Beneath the Watch of Her Majesty's Yeomen Warders,
Guarding India's Star upon Her orders,
Seek out the First Child of the Crystal in the Pudding and Pie's path,
To find the keys, before your latest foe hath."
"OK, these poems are getting worse." Jake grumbled. "What are we looking for and where?"
"The Yeomen Warders...that sounds familiar." Noah said as he went to the computer and started an internet search.
"What was that about a pudding and a pie anyway?" Emma asked. "It's not like we're looking for a dessert."
"The Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty...that's the official title of the Beefeaters!" Noah called out as he got up from the computer. "They only serve in one place, guarding the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London!"
"India's Star...the Star of India." Gia groaned, realising that part of the clue. "It's a huge diamond in the queen's crown."
"Pie and Pudding, the Great Fire of London started in Pie Corner and ended in Pudding Lane." Noah told them, checking the computer. "So it looks like we're heading to London."
Meanwhile, on board his ship, Lafitte was navigating his way back towards Earth when his communicator bleeped. The Shadow Ranger handed it to him.
"What is taking you so long?" His employer screamed. "So you realise how close the Rangers are to gaining all the Ranger Keys?"
"I had to take a detour; I got involved in some obstacles." Lafitte told him. "I should be there soon."
"There aren't many keys left!" His Employer reminded him. "I was under the impression..."
"I'll be there in plenty of time." Lafitte assured him. "Don't worry about it. You'll get your money's worth."
As the communications link cut off, the Employer just put down his communicator. He was beginning to lose patience with Lafitte's laissez faire approach to the contract. Although he knew he was powerful, and he now knew he would bring all his power to bear, now that Orion had gotten involved and made it personal.
"Well forgive me if I want some reassurances." The employer said as he reached out, stroking a long, sliver staff with a large, silver Z at the top of it. "I have my own ways of making things interesting."