Authors Note: For the 30 people who read my original story, this is a rewrite of the series that I wrote a year and abit ago. As much as I loved writing it, there were a number of things that I didn't like or hadn't worked they way I wanted them to. And I've also planned for an extra ten chapters this time, so look out for that. So I've made things more detailed, changed some things around, and I'm happy with how things have turned out so far. So now without any more interruptions, I present the new and improved…
Power Rangers: Data Squad
Boot It Up Part 1
"And another excellent maneuver from Ray Wheeler!"
Ray jumped backwards and waited for his opponent to counter attack. It was the finals of the annual Cransdon City Charity Martial Arts tournament, and with time running out, Ray knew he had to end it fast. The trouble was, the other guy was just as good as he was, and wasn't falling for the same tricks that the people in the earlier rounds had.
If I can just get inside his guard, even for a second.
Ray dropped down and tried to sweep his leg out from underneath his opponents feet, but as their legs collided, his opponent leant backwards, landing on his hands before pushing himself back up onto his feet.
"You've nearly got him Ray!" called his friend Johnny from the sidelines, "maybe they won't have finished sound check!"
Johnny had already changed back into normal clothes, having been knocked out in the round before, and was now sitting at the edge of his seat in a black jacket with his brown hair finishing neatly at his shoulders.
Well, let's just hope this works.
Ray stepped forward, raising his right leg upwards in a crescent pattern, forcing his opponent to step backwards. Not wasting anytime, he then shot the same leg out for another kick forcing him to block, then quick as a flash, spun around to deliver a powerful Back-kick into his opponent's stomach, sending the boy hurling backwards and over the boundary.
"After a spectacular final round, the winner is Ray Wheeler!"
The crowd roared as Ray walked over to help his opponent up. The announcer walked into the middle of the ring to address the audience.
"We'd like to thank you all for coming today to support our local charity and watch young- hey where's he going?"
The crowd looked over to the exit to see Ray and Johnny, sports bag in hand, running off.
"Sorry!" Ray called out as he was halfway through the door, "I'll come pick up my trophy later!"
*Data Squad*
"They're late," Hilary decided as she looked at her watch. It wasn't like Ray to be late for anything, he was their old reliable. Even if he had something on before hand, it was his bands first gig at The Art House, and he didn't want to upset the owners by going on stage late. She pulled a hair tie off her wrist and began tying back her straight golden hair, until it all sat bunched together neatly and hung over the back of her yellow T-shirt.
"Relax, sis," Ben, her twin, told her from across the table. His hair was an identical shade to his sisters, but his just sat as a short, untamed mop that went a little bit past his ears. "He was competing in a charity event, maybe he just got further than he expected.'"
"Even I showed up on time," said the Chinese boy sitting across at the table with them in a green shirt, "and I found out this morning that I may need a new carburetor."
"Oh come on Jake it's not that far a walk." Hilary told him, rolling her eyes, "Besides you're on the football team, it'll be good for you."
"I'm just saying it's a bummer," Jake replied before looking at Ben, "Think you can look at it later?"
"I'll see what I can do. I've got to have some project while Hilary fixes my computer."
"Well maybe I'd be more inclined to if it didn't keep breaking to begin with."
"Well if you stopped installing programs that I can't use…"
"It's not that hard to use virus scanners, if you just…"
Jake just ran his hand through his spiky black hair as he looked over at the door and zoned out. As amusing as the Infamous Bickering Twins were, it could get tedious some of the time, or a lot of it. He sometimes wondered why they hung out together at all.
Then again, he rationalized; we're not exactly a normal group of friends.
He was a jock, linebacker on the school football team, and sure, he had some friends from the team, he preferred to spend time with Hilary, Ben, Johnny and Ray. Hilary Hawkins, being an absolute computer lover, seemed an odd choice in friends for a jock, but they'd been friends since elementary school, and stayed that way since. The same went for her twin brother Ben, who as Hilary put it, was completely opposite to his twin in every way. While she tended to get through tense situations with a combination of rational thought and an acid tongue, Ben was a joker, and often the reason for being in tense situations to begin with. Next was Johnny Ford, the brooding loner of the group. He'd moved to Cransdon from Reefside only a year previously, and if it hadn't been for Ray, he would have just been passed off as another moody emo kid who wanted to be left alone with his long hair and often torn jeans. While the group were still getting to know him, he'd fit in with them fast and was inseparable from them as the rest of them.
And that left Ray, who seemed to be the heart and soul of the group. If the arguments between the siblings got too tense, he'd always be the one to diffuse the situation. When Jake needed someone to practice some football moves with, Ray would gladly put up his hand to be the crash dummy. And as for Johnny, well if Ray hadn't been so willing to get to know the new kid and found that they had common interests and hobbies then he wouldn't be part of the group at all.
"…so next time you intend on making an ice cream cake, we better make sure we have a fire extinguisher near by!"
Hilary paused for a moment, searching for a thought, only to frown instead.
"Damn I've got nothing."
"Yes," Ben cheered quietly as he gave a small fist pump, "Six to Thirty two, totally catching up."
"When did you start counting?" Johnny asked as he appeared behind them and sat down.
"Since the first time he actually won," replied Hilary with an amused look on her face, before seeing that the fifth member of their group wasn't with them. "Where's Ray?"
Johnny pointed towards the stage where they all saw Ray and the rest of his band standing up on the small stage. Ray double checked the levels on his amp, then the knobs on his bright red Stratocaster, and then moved up to the microphone.
"Hey everybody, we're the Argonaughts, and we're here to play for you this afternoon."
There was small applause as the patrons greeted the new band.
"Our first song is called Everything's Alright by Motion City Soundtrack."
And with that, the band burst in to life as they played the opening bars.
*Data Squad*
High above the rooftops of Cransdon City, a large flying fortress hovered out from behind a cloud. At first glance it would have appeared to be a large block with propellers, but a closer inspection gave it a much more sinister look. The entire complex was covered in catwalks, patrolled by orange and grey mechanical foot-soldiers, each armed with powerful laser blasters. Multiple cannons faced outwards from the fortress, and other than the catwalks, the only way to see in was a small observation deck, where a tall red headed man with a hooked nose and black cloak looked menacingly down at the houses bellow.
"Where did you hide it?" he muttered to himself.
He looked at the magnificent design of the airship, which he had mostly designed himself. Now with all the finer details worked out and programmed, all his equipment was now fully operational. He walked inside and brought up the sensors on Cransdon City, knowing that if he was right, then the good Doctor would try to locate what he needed, unknowingly leading them right to it.
If only you hadn't been so stubborn Dr. Meyers, he thought cheerfully to himself, maybe then your death may have been quicker and less painful.
Suddenly a red point on the map started flashing, and the screen read: DIGITIZER DETECTED, PREPARING TO DETECT ENERGY SPIKE.
The man gave a sinister smile as h moved over to his thrown, and pressed an intercom button on the right hand side.
"Corax, I want you to tell Kelgar to send some Byte-Bots up here, and I want them ready to go the second I give the word. We've found it."
Now Dr. Benson, he thought to himself as he let out a creepy chuckle, let's see if your plan worked out for the best.
*Data Squad*
"You guys were great, really." Hilary told Ray, "You won the crowd over in seconds."
"Yeah dude," agreed Johnny, "I've had to pay to see bands that needed to work harder to win a crowd."
"So when are we gonna have to buy tickets to see you at The House of Blues?" asked Ben jokingly
"Hey we're just a cover band," replied Ray bashfully, "nothing serious. But thanks guys, it means a lot."
The five of them were sitting around the table and were some of the last people in the popular hangout. The Argonaughts gig had finished up nearly two hours beforehand, and while the band's lead guitarist, Brent Weekly, had disappeared almost immediately afterwards, Gary Porter, the bass player, and Travis Williams, the Drummer, had hung around with Ray afterwards to celebrate a successful first gig. While Gary and Travis had eventually gone home, the rest of the gang had stayed behind to hang out. The Art House was an interesting place, having been opened a few years ago by a young man who wanted to help encourage local young artists. But now it was closing time, although none of them wanted to go home just yet.
"So Jake you want me to check out your car?" Ben asked as they got outside.
"That would be great." Replied Jake, "it's going to be a pain if I have to walk everywhere."
"Oh no, whatever will you do?" laughed Johnny as they all headed to Jake's place.
While, Jake's place wasn't too far away, following the main paths would have taken twice as long as it should to get there. So as usual, the five of them took their normal shortcut through the abandoned factory district. They'd been using the route as a short cut since before the factories shut down, but most of the dangerous equipment was gone and it would still be a few more months before demolition began, they didn't see any reason to stop using it.
"Might as well use it before they put a big parking lot in our way," Ben had once said.
It was dark by the time they hit the district, not that it bothered them, they'd taken the route so many times that they were used to it. But it was when they were about halfway through that something caught their eyes. It was a dim blue light, shinning through one of the buildings windows as it flickered on and off.
"Hey guys," Johnny told them as he noticed the light, "these factories are abandoned right?"
"Yeah, people aren't meant to go in there." Ray agreed
"Well maybe it's just an inspection," Hilary suggested, "you know, making sure it's safe for demolition."
"Hmm you're right," snorted Ben, "I know I would do safety inspections at 8 o'clock at night when I can barely see anything."
"Well you've got any better ideas?"
"Let's go check it out," Jake suggested, "if it's just a dodgy light, then it's nothing to worry about, but if not…"
They all looked at Ray. For some reason they always diverted group decisions to him. What movie were they going to see, go to The Art House or go to the lake? And this was like no other. Or so he thought.
"Why not," Ray decided, "can't see any harm in it."
They crept towards the factory, careful not to make a sound. Although they were all good kids, none of them wanted to be caught trespassing on council land. But as soon as they reached the wired fence, they noticed a gaping hole.
"Okay," decided Jake, "this is weird; the fences went up when the factories closed."
"Judging from the rust it was cut a while ago," Hilary told them as she bent down to inspect the edges.
"Alright let's be careful," Ray told them, "we don't want to get in over our heads here."
They slowly snuck to the edge of the factory walls, then up the steel stairs to the door, before going through it. They found themselves on a small balcony that ran all along the wall and could look straight down into the main area of the factory. Despite the fact that the factory had not been used in some time, what was there was something none of the teens had seen before. It was some sort of machine, sitting in the middle of the factory floor, with wires sprouting out of it that each connected the machine to the ground. Not content to look from where he was, Johnny began to climb down.
"Wait what are you doing?" asked Ray
"What does it look like? I'm taking a closer look." And with that he climbed down the ladder and began to walk towards the machine. The others held their breath as he walked up and put his hand on the side of the machine in an over exaggerated manner. The other sat and waited for something to happen, none of them daring to move as the seconds slowly ticked by.
But nothing happened, and they all to let out a sigh of relief.
"I guess its okay to go over there." Ray decided and the remaining four began to climb down the ladder.
Before long the four of them had caught up to Johnny and were standing around the machine. Being able to see the machine more closely, they could tell that it was two different devices plugged into each other, one had a small blank screen and was the size of a tissue box while the one that was plugged into the ground was easily as big as a delivery crate.
"What do you think it is?" Ben asked his sister
"And how am I meant to know?"
"Because you're the techno geek of the group."
"Well I'm sorry; it sounds like somebody doesn't want to have any internet in his room again." She threatened
"I'll be good." Replied Ben in a mock whimper.
But while the twins were busy mocking each other, Johnny was busy examining the machine.
"Ah guys, I think we may have a problem." Said Johnny in a very concerned tone
They all looked at the machine. The screen that had previously been blank now had three words written on it: PULSE ACTIVATED IN: and a countdown timer, which was now set to two seconds.
Ray's eyes widened as he saw the screen
"Oh cra-!" was all he could get out before pulse of green energy burst out of the machine. Like a wave it slammed into the teens, lifting them all off their feet before sending them all hurling towards the ground.
The next thing Ray knew, he was staring up at the ceiling of the factory.
Slowly, he got to his feet to see his friends had been knocked over as well.
"Is everyone alright?" he asked as he got up and helped Hilary to her feet.
"Yeah, I think so." She replied, "What was that?"
"I have no idea," Ben replied groggily as he too began to stand, "but I don't really want to be around if it does it again."
"Were we out at all?" Johnny asked as he looked around.
"I don't know," Hilary admitted as she looked at her watch, "I don't remember seeing black and my head isn't- Hey that's weird!"
All of them looked Hilary, who was now staring intently at her wrist.
"What's wrong?" Jake asked
"My watch stopped, I swear it was working a second ago."
All four boys immediately reached into their pockets and pulled out their cell phones.
"Mines dead," Ben announced
"Mine too," Ray agreed, "What was that wave?"
"Must have been some sort of EMP." Hilary decided
Ben looked at his sister with a look of confusion
"What?"
"An Electro Magnetic Pulse. It tends to stop machinery in its tracks."
The all looked at each other, wondering what they had all stumbled onto.
"Well should we tell someone?" Jake asked, "I mean, if there's some dodgy machinery lying around spouting those EMP things, someone should do something about it."
"Yeah except we're not meant to be here," Johnny replied, "we'll get in trouble for trespassing."
"Yeah something like that would take a massive amount of power," Hilary replied, "they would've notice a spike in the grid."
"Fair enough," Jake decided, "in which case they might be sending someone over right now."
Just as Jake said that, one of the side doors opened, and fifteen human shaped…things walked into the factory and stood in front of them.
"See," Jake replied as he walked over to the newcomers, "what did I tell you."
But Ray could already see Jake's mistake, as well as sense the danger they were all in. Something about the new arrivals felt so…menacing.
"Ah Jake," he began, "I don't think that-"
"Sorry for trespassing Mr. Council-Worker sir," Jake started as he began to try an sweet talk the new comers, "there seems to be a misunderstanding here, you see my friends and I here, well we were in the area and-"
"Give us the Digitizer!" ordered one of them in a monotonous and metallic voice.
"Digitizer?" Jake question "Not quite sure what that is, maybe you can describe it to me?"
But before Jake could say anymore, one of the humanoids stepped forward and slammed its fist into Jake sending the boy flying backwards into his friends.
"You will pay dearly for crossing our master, Lord Gideon."
The five of them backed together, frightened by the strange creatures.
"Dude are you okay?" Johnny asked Jake, not taking his eyes off the creature.
"Yeah I'm fine." Jake replied as he got to his feet to huddle next to his friends, "What are these things?"
"They sound like robots," Hilary suggested, "Did I really just say that?"
"You? Crazy theory?" replied Ben, also not averting his gaze, "remind me to laugh about it later."
"Assuming there is a later," added Johnny, "Ray, got a plan?"
Ray had been silent the whole time, trying to think of a smart way out of this. He knew the best way was the door behind them, and they could probably all make it outside, from there it was simply a case of splitting up and losing whoever was on their tail. But there was something about the small box on top of the machine. He'd guessed that that was what the robot things wanted, but some part of him knew it was a bad idea to give it to them.
"Okay guys, on the count of three, make for the door behind us."
"That's it?" Jake hissed, "Hope they don't catch us?"
"Well my mind's open to suggestions right about now."
"Never mind."
The others nodded and tried to not make any sudden movements.
"Okay then. One, two, THREE!'
The five of them turned around and made for the door, with Ray stopping only briefly to take the tiny device off the giant box. Within seconds they were out the door, but unfortunately, so were the robots. And they were gaining.
Okay Ray, think. You've got what they want, and you're closest to them. This might be the stupidest plan I've come up with.
"JAKE!" he called out to the football player, "GO LONG!"
Jake understood immediately and began running backwards. Knowing he only had seconds to spare, Ray hurled the device as far as he could, and relieved to see Jake catch it as he ran. But Ray's relief was short lived as three of the robots tackled him as the rest followed his friends.
Johnny was the next on to be caught. As he tried to divert from the others, three of the robots surrounded him, blocking any escape. The first one dived at him, forcing him to jump to the side, right in the path of the second robot, whose kick knocked him to the ground. Looking up, Johnny barely managed to move before the thirds robots knee crashed into the ground next to him. Completely surrounded, Johnny thought it was over. And that was when everything suddenly slowed down. One of the robots, in some sort of fighting pose, was floating in the air, while the two on either side of him looked almost frozen. Johnny shifted his stance to counter before he realized something different. He was moving like normal. Taking advantage of this, Johnny leapt up and dragged the airborne robot to the ground, before running back and forth between the three of them, taking as many potshots as he could. He gave himself a second pause, and that was all he needed. Suddenly, everything moved like normal, the three robots slumped down on the ground, defeated.
Hilary on the other hand, was having more difficulty. Unlike Johnny, she didn't have the advantage of martial arts training, and was spending more time dodging the robots attacks. Thinking quickly, she rolled over the cement pipe behind her, giving her a few moments before the robots ran around to meet her, realizing she was now cornered, she deflected the first to blows with her forearms, and instinctively twisted the arm of the third one into an arm bar, before kicking the second in the side. Suddenly, she saw the first robot run at her what looked like a sword. Forced to let go of the Bot she was holding, she raised up her arms to try and soften the blow. But the blow never came, or at least she never felt it. All she heard was a loud metallic thunk, and as she looked again, she saw that her arm was suddenly metallic. Slowly, the metallic substance covered her body until it concealed all her skin.
"Well I guess that it's fair play now," she smiled, noting a metallic ring to her voice.
She reached back with her free arm, before shooting it forward, slamming her fist into the Robots stomach and sending it flying. The other two barely had time to react before Hilary grabbed them and forced them to follow their comrade.
Meanwhile, Ben was backed against a wall. He tried putting into practice all the martial arts moves that Ray had shown him over years, but none of it seemed to make sense. Two of the robots grabbed him and tried to slam him into the wall, but at the last second, Ben raised his feet, and bending his knees against the wall. Using all of his might, he pushed out, throwing the robots off of him. But to his surprise, he didn't fall down. In fact, he didn't even feel like he was on his side. It felt like he was standing on normal, horizontal ground, but instead, he was standing on a wall, with three very confused robots staring at him.
"Surprised?" he laughed as he taunted the robots, "Well so am I."
The robot charged at him, but all he had to do was swiftly step backwards and they smashed into the wall. Taking the opportunity, he took half a step forwards and kneed one in the face, before kicking the next one. Finally, Ben turned around and jumped backwards, doing a back-salt before landing on his feet behind the last remaining robot.
"And that's how it's done," he laughed as he kicked the robot square in the stomach, sending it crashing into the wall.
Jake ran as fast as he could, like he had the ball with seconds to go, and the only way to win was one more touch down. He knew that the robots had caught up to his friends; he just had to hope they could take care of themselves. Ray had given the device to him, and he was not going to give it up. But just as he thought he might lose them, he caught his foot on a stray piece of metal, and tripped over. Lying chest down on the ground, he gripped the devise close to him. He could hear to footsteps of the robots arriving behind him.
"You will suffer the consequences for defying our Lord Gideon!" one of them wizzed, and raised its arm to strike Jake. Acting out of instinct and fear, Jake flipped over in the dirt and struck out his own hand, hoping to block the incoming blow. But suddenly, he felt as if something was flowing in his hand, and the second he fully extended his arm, a large wave of force shot out from his palm, sending the robots flying backwards.
Dammit Jake! He told himself, got to get off the ground!
Meanwhile, back towards the factory, Ray was still on the ground. He rolled over and jumped upwards, landing in a perfect fighting stance that he'd often had to use at training. The robots didn't waste any time, and weren't afraid to get up close. Ray had to resort to a lot of elbow and fist strike just to keep them off him. Suddenly one of them grabbed his fist and twisted his arm backwards, forcing him into a painful joint lock. But before he could perform a counter, he saw one of them running at him with a long blade. Knowing he didn't have much time, Ray stared intently at the charging robot, hoping he could strike it before it gutted him. Suddenly, he saw a flash of red, and suddenly the robot was lying on the ground with a hole in its chest. Noticing the other robots sudden distraction, Ray stamped down on its foot and flipped it over his shoulder, giving himself enough time to get some distance between himself and his attackers.
Confused, Ray looked over at the smoldering wreck of the robot.
Now there's just no way…
He thought back to the flash of red that he saw before a gapping, burning hole appeared right at the point he was looking at. Was it possible…?
Why not? Here goes nothing.
Ray looked at the remaining two robots and focused on them. Once again the flash of red appeared, and this time Ray swore he could see twin red beams land in both the Robots. Like their partner, the stumbled down to the ground, smoking.
"RAY!"
He looked behind him to see the others coming towards him.
"Did that just happen?" Hilary asked in shock
"The evil killer robots or the super powers?" Ben retorted, as surprised as his sister.
"Take your pick."
"How did we just do that?" Johnny asked, "I mean… did we just…?"
"Adrenaline rush." Hilary puffed, trying to rationalize the situation, "our brains didn't have time to take in what happened so it filled in the blanks. It would also explain how we managed to take them out."
"What is that thing?" Ray asked Jake as he saw he saw still holding the device.
"I have a better question," Ben decided before Ray could even begin to come up with an answer, "what was with the evil killer robots?"
"They're called Byte-Bots." Said a voice behind them.
The five teens spun around to see a tall man, who couldn't have been older than forty, standing behind them. He was wearing a brown shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and tucked into his jeans, while his small glasses framed his face along with his neatly combed black hair.
"What?" Ray asked, confused as ever.
"I said they're called Byte-Bots." Repeated the man, "I'm sorry I got here so late. My name is Dr. Samuel Benson. I know this has probably been a really weird night for you but you have to believe me on this. I need you all to come with me, it's not safe here."
*Data Squad*
"So am I the only one suspicious of the strange man showing us his bat-cave?"
"Jake, it's a warehouse."
"Even still dude, how do we know that his desk doesn't slide away to a secret cave?"
Ray just sighed; he wasn't in the mood to deal with Jake's conspiracy theories. At the moment, he just wanted answers. Benson had taken them to a warehouse not far from the factory district. For such a big place, it was almost empty, bar a small wooden desk, what looked like a large generator next to the wall, and some stairs leading up to a loft where Ray supposed Benson slept.
Benson moved over to a large generator and plugged the device into it. Suddenly, the device came to life, and along with the rest of the machine, began whirring and flashing.
"What is that thing?" asked Johnny
"The device you gave me is called a Digitizer; it's basically a huge data decoder and file converter." He said before pointing at the generator underneath. "And this thing is basically a giant transformer, providing it with power."
"Why would someone send those Byte-Bot things to collect a file converter?" Hilary asked, but Benson just shook his head.
"Believe me," he told them, "this is really dangerous. For your own sake, the less mixed up in this you get, the better."
The five teens stared at him. After what they had just done, he was telling them to get out?
"But we had to fight those things…" Ben began before Benson cut him off.
"Look, I'm sorry that you got mixed up in this, really, I am, but believe me, if you get out now, you can't get hurt."
Hilary looked like she was going to pummel him. Ray didn't blame her. But there was one thing he still wanted to know, what was with their powers?
He was about to ask when Ben put his hand on his shoulder, giving him a look that said, "don't bother".
He was probably right; they weren't going to get any answers from this guy.
"Once again, thank you for saving the Digitizer. Feel free to come back if you have any problems. It's for your own good guys."
The teens just sighed and then walked out the door. Benson watched onwards as each of them, looking sad and confused left the warehouse. Just as he was leaving, Ray turned around, as if wanted to ask another question, but simply shook his head and follows with friends outside.
"Sorry guys," Benson said quietly as the Ray shut the door behind him, "but it's for the best."
And with that he booted up his computer and made sure the digitizer was working.
"Now let's see if I can get you to work." He said as the words "Project Data Squad" appeared on the screen.
Next Time: Our heroes delve even deeper into the mysterious Dr. Benson and the reason behind their newfound super powers. But with Gideon closing in, will they discover the answers before it's too late? Coming Soon: Boot It Up Part 2