Disclaimer: See Chapter 1.

Checkmate

Chapter 2

(Flynn's POV)

When I woke up, the first thing I saw was Tenaya 7 standing over me, with her blaster pointed in my direction. It was enough to scare the living daylights out of me. Let's face it; it's not every day you wake up to an attack bot trying to shoot you. Needless to say, my fight or flight instinct kicked in.

"Sweet mother molasses! RPM, Get in…Whoa! Wait a second. What am I doing?" I asked myself out loud, before I could finish the morphing call.

Reaching for my morpher, and wanting to morph was one of those knee-jerk reactions. However, it was also almost a costly mistake. If I had morphed, the other rangers would have been alerted to my whereabouts.

Besides, it's not like I didn't know what was going on. It's not like I was surprised about what was happening. Well, that's not entirely true; I was sort of surprised, but that was only because I wasn't certain what actually happened would happen at all.

Hovering over me was Tenaya 7, as still as a statue. For all intents and purposes, it was like she was frozen. It was kind of reminiscent of how when I had that glitch in my morpher, my Time Manipulation Burst caused me to freeze.

See, I'm not stupid or foolish enough to actually fall asleep with an evil attack bot in the other room. The only way I would do such a thing was if I took certain preventative measures first.

After Tenaya 7 nodded off while I was working on her legs yesterday, I saw what a huge opportunity was before me, and I milked that opportunity for all it was worth. I pretty much performed a surgery of sorts on her while she was sleeping.

Upon opening her up, maybe it was just the inner geek in me (all mechanics have one), but I felt like a kid at a candy store. I wasted no time trying to figure out what wires made her perform what actions. I had to be quick—I had no idea how long she would be asleep for.

What was so strange is what the inside of Tenaya 7 even looked like. It was very different from say the inside of a human. Sure, on the outside, she appears human. On the inside, however, it was quite clear that she was a machine, a robot. She may have human tissue, but underneath that, is a metal endoskeleton; while the skeletons of humans are made up of bones, the skeleton of Tenaya 7 (and most likely, those like her) is made up of metal.

It didn't take me long to figure out which wires in her forearm caused her to flex her fingers, for example. Once I discovered how to make Tenaya 7 flex her fingers, I fiddled with the amount of pressure applied. If enough pressure was applied to certain wires, her hand would curl up into a fist.

Similarly, I set out to find out which wires would cause her joints to move—her elbows, her shoulders, her hips, her knees. While I was messing with the wires in her forearm, I accidentally stumbled upon the wire that was responsible for the formation of her blaster.

On that wire, I installed an ever so small device that, when it detected movement of the wire, would emit an electrical charge. Since Tenaya 7's endoskeleton is made up of metal, and metal conducts electricity, the electric current would travel up and down the metal in her body until it reached the part of her brain that was responsible for sleep. Well, okay, so I didn't even know if she had a brain or not—for all I know, she could just have a computer chip instead. However, if her nodding off was any indication, she was capable of sleeping.

So anyways, the electrical charge would stimulate whatever was responsible for her sleeping patterns. Since she is a robot, I compare it to how a computer is put into stand by mode. It wasn't tested, but in theory, whenever her blaster is activated, an electrical charge would surge through her body causing her to go into stand by mode. It was a self-preservation mechanism of sorts—only instead of it saving Tenaya 7's hide, it would save my hide.

That is why I felt safe enough to fall asleep with Tenaya 7 in the other room. I was sure (at least, I hoped) it would work. Plus, since her weapon of choice is her blaster, odds are if she was going to try to destroy me in my sleep, she would try to do so by shooting me. While it may have been untested, for my sake, I'm glad that it worked. It was literally a matter of life and death.

The only downfall is that once Tenaya 7 realizes that I was responsible for causing her to go into stand by, once she realizes that her forming her blaster was the trigger, she'll more than likely come up with other means to destroy me in my sleep. So, it's a temporary solution, but a solution nevertheless.

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but it actually wasn't my idea. It was Doctor K's idea. She created the electrical device. She told me (in layman's terms) what it does and how to use it. The only thing I did was install it in Tenaya 7.

Now that she was in stand by mode, again, I compare it to a computer—when a computer is in stand by mode, simply moving the mouse will cause the computer to wake up. So, therefore, in Tenaya 7's case, merely moving her will cause her to wake up.

Not that I ever really trusted Tenaya 7 to begin with, but the fact that she did try to blast me while I was sleeping just proved that she cannot be trusted. From now on, I have to be extra careful. There's no telling what else she might try to pull.

RPM-RPM-RPM

While Tenaya 7 was for all intents and purposes sleeping, I decided to get me some coffee and donuts for breakfast. I figured I might as well get Tenaya 7 some too while I was at it since she does get hungry and thirsty. That, when you think about it, is really bizarre. I mean robots don't experience hunger and thirst. Somehow Tenaya 7 does. Talk about weird.

At any rate, I needed all the caffeine I could get. If she discovers that her blaster is what put her in stand by mode, then I can't rely on the electrical device I installed in her to keep me safe tonight. I would need to stay awake as much as possible—maybe even pull an all-nighter.

As luck would have it, I ran into Summer at the donut shop. She just so happened to be picking up donuts for the rest of the rangers and Dr. K. Wouldn't you know it, she chose to go to the same donut shop I went to. My mind raced as I immediately started to think up lies before she even asked me any questions.

Before I could duck and run, and maybe find another donut shop, Summer saw me. She smiled and waved at me.

"Hey Flynn! How are you? How's your dad?" she asked, having walked over to me.

"My dad? Oh, well you know, he's about as well as can be expected," I answered, mentally reminding myself of the cover story I had given Dr. K before I left.

Summer frowned. She knew that my dad was all the family I had. She also knew how close he and I were, and how everything I did was in the hopes of making him proud of me. Summer even knew that every Sunday, I would go to my dad's house and bring him a sack of groceries.

"Well, do you know when you'll be coming back?" Summer asked. It was clear she wanted my answer to be 'soon.'

"I don't know. My dad's pretty sick," I replied. The lies were getting easier and easier.

"Have they figured out what's wrong with him?"

"Unfortunately, no. It's not like anything they've ever seen before."

I hated that I was lying to Summer, of all people. It was necessary though. If she knew what I was doing, what my real plans were, that would only compromise my chances of completing my mission.

"Well, I should probably go. I don't want to keep the guys waiting any longer. Guys get pretty cranky when they're hungry," Summer said. "Tell your dad I said, 'hi' and that I hope he gets well soon."

"Okay, I will," I responded. Not that I'm going to be seeing my dad anytime soon…

As soon as Summer left the donut shop, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I must say that I handled that pretty well. I mean it could've been worse, much worse. I was actually surprised I could lie so well. I always thought lying wasn't my forte.

RPM-RPM-RPM

When I got back to the shack, I had this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was wrong—something was horribly wrong. I had my eyes peeled for any sign of attack as I cautiously entered the shack. Everything was quiet, but then again, they could just be waiting to ambush me.

That is when I saw her. She was lying face down almost exactly where I left her this morning. I rolled her over on her back, and was horrified by what I saw. The metal endoskeleton beneath her human tissue was exposed in too many locations to count. There was a particularly big exposure on her right cheek.

I was careful not to get shocked by the sparks that were flying off the damaged parts of her circuitry. Her eyelids were shut, and she didn't appear to be responsive.

I couldn't help but feel responsible. I left her here alone in stand by mode. She was completely defenseless. She was practically a sitting duck.

However, I still couldn't shake the feeling that this may be some sort of trap. Maybe she was never attacked. Maybe she just wanted to give the appearance that she was attacked.

Then, of course, there was the side of me that continued to tell myself over and over that this was all my fault. It was probably Venjix that attacked Tenaya 7, or at least someone who Venjix sent to attack Tenaya 7. What if she wasn't even the primary target? What if I was? What if she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?

I wasn't a paramedic or anything, but part of becoming a ranger includes becoming certified to give CPR. Even though me giving her CPR was so many levels of wrong, she wasn't waking up…

I took a deep breath, and knelt down beside her. I pinched the bridge of her nose, and opened her mouth. My lips lowered so that they were hovering just millimeters from hers. That is when her eyes opened.

"Aah!" I screamed, popping up to my feet and backing away several strides.

"What are you doing?!" she asked, the disgust in her voice readily apparent.

"You were unresponsive, so I was going to give you CPR."

"You mean you were going to kiss me?"

"Ugh! Do you have to say it like that?"

"What? It's the truth! That's what mouth-to-mouth is!"

"Look, I didn't like the idea of it anymore than you did!"

She suddenly became quiet and I was curious why that was. I followed her line of vision to the coffee and donuts that I had set down on a table. I noticed a change in her posture—she was less tense.

"I don't understand you at all. Last night, it was take out and smoothies. This morning, it's coffee and donuts. What's next? A picnic in the park? It seems all fine and dandy, but then I remember how you somehow caused me to go to sleep just when I was about to bl—" Tenaya 7 said before stopping.

"No, go on. Just when you were about to what? Blast me while I was sleeping? Don't think for one moment that I didn't see your blaster aimed at me this morning when I woke up. Do you really want to talk about me being untrustworthy? Pot calling the kettle black, much?" I retorted.

"Yeah, thanks to you, I was still in stand by mode when Venjix decided to send some Grinders after me. I was easy pickings for them."

"Oh, come on! Do you really expect me to believe that you were even attacked? For all I know, you could be, I don't know, faking it!"

"If I was faking it, then why were you about to kiss me blue boy?"

"For the love of Odin's beard, woman, I wasn't going to kiss you!"

We were both seething with rage. I was starting to wonder what gave me the crazy idea that this could even work in the first place. Just then, there was a popping sound. Tenaya 7's knees buckled, and she fell forward. I stepped up and caught her in my arms before she hit the floor.

For a split second, there was—gratitude—in her eyes, but that was gone quicker than you can say, "RPM, Get in gear!"

"Put me down!" she barked.

"Gladly," I said, dumping her unceremoniously on the ground.

I stalked off to my room without giving Tenaya 7 another glance. Too many things had happened just now. I needed some time by myself to think. Besides, one more second in the same room as her and there's no telling what would've happened. We probably would've ended up in a fight to the death. I couldn't have that. I wouldn't be able to complete my mission that way.

Of three things I was absolutely, one-hundred percent certain. First—Tenaya 7 knew that I was responsible for her going into stand by mode last night; she just didn't know how I managed that. Second—Doctor K was right; I can't trust her as far as I can throw her. Third—I have never met anyone who gets under my skin like Tenaya 7 does.

To Be Continued…

A/N: Thanks to my beta! As you can see, I envision the insides of Tenaya 7 (and Dillon too, for that matter) to be just as I described it in this chapter—human tissue covering a metal endoskeleton. (Just like in Terminator: Salvation and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.) I need a little help deciding what genre(s) to classify this story as. I think ultimately, Flynn/Tenaya 7 in this story, are going to turn out like Lucas/Nadira in Time Force. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to drop me a review. Thanks for reading!