There had been no signs of Grinder's attacking, and as far as Chris knew, there were no Gairac's attacking. Everything was silent, peacefully silent. It gave Chris time to spend time in Platform Tower, working on the new artillery, neglecting his studies… As usual.
Charlie had been pestering Chris occasionally throughout the past week, specifically asking about her motorbike, but making an energy cell work is very difficult, especially making it work outside of Platform Tower. Charlie didn't understand this however.
Chris was currently sitting in the sports hall of his school, in the middle of a Sixth Form assembly. He was uncomfortable to say the least, and finding the presentation very boring. He wasn't listening, and working through schematics of some of the arsenal in his head.
"I find that, being selfless is easy. It's merely putting yourself in front of others!" the teacher leading the assembly wasn't best public speaker around; his voice was very dreary, making it very easy to blank out. "A top example of people who put themselves before others," he changed the slide, showing a close up of Go-On Red and Go-On Green in the middle of their role-call. Everyone turned around to face Chris, in the back-row, not paying attention.
"Chris, wake up…" Zoe nudged him in the side, causing him to jolt out of his trance.
"What is-?" he darted his vision around to Zoe, but before he could react further, he noticed everyone in the room was looking at him. "Is there something on my face that only I don't know about?" he noticed the projection projected onto the wall: him and Charlie as Go-On Red and Go-On Green. "Oh right."
After the assembly Chris was sitting in the Sixth Form Café, face as red as a beetroot. He was very embarrassed about the situation that happened during the assembly. He was on display in his Go-On Ranger outfit; tight spandex should not be displayed on a large screen. It should just NOT be done.
He was shoving baked potato into his mouth as fast as he could, ignoring the sniggers of people walking past his table, and trying to blank out the conversations that were happening on his table. He didn't want any of it, he was going to finish his food, and then be off to Platform Tower for the remainder of lunch, and the entire of fourth period.
"It wasn't your best moment… You could've been paying a little bit of attention. That might have helped…" Lauren tried to help Chris, trying to make him feel better.
"I couffuf done a loff of fings! How wuff I fuffofed to know phat he fuff going to put me up in his prefentafion?" Chris lifted his head, mouth full of potato innards, spitting the contents of his mouth all over the table and the people sitting at it.
Everyone sitting at the table flinched and put their hands up, so as not to get whacked in the face by the contents of Chris's mouth.
"It's not the most graceful of days for you, is it mate?" Haggett mocked as he lowered his hands.
Chris swallowed the last of his potato, picked up the plate and stood up. "Well your face is akin to a lemonade stand!" he picked up his shoulder bag and stormed out of the café. He was not happy.
He locked himself in a toilet cubicle in the E block toilets. Making sure that no-one was in the bathroom, he took out his key to Platform Tower, and opened the portal. He stepped inside, entering the Lobby.
"Not impressed MCPU, not impressed." Chris slung his bag onto one of the sofas in the lounge area of the lobby, while storming up towards the Main Control center.
"Why are you not impressed, Chris?" the MCPU appeared as his overly pixelated face to the right of the Main Control center.
"Because I made a fool out of myself, AGAIN." He put his Go-On Phone on its dock. "That's why I'm not impressed." He opened the program which would evacuate Kiyoko from the Go-On Phone, and into the Lobby.
"It could've happened to anyone." Kiyoko appeared on the holo-porter, she stepped off as soon as the barrier was lifted.
"Right right…" he closed the program, leaned away from the Main Control center and began walking towards the elevator. "MCPU! Set an alarm for 2:15!"
"Right away, Chris." The MCPU's face disappeared – perhaps going into the system – and activated the alarm. The countdown to 2:15 appeared on the Main Control centres screen.
The elevators doors opened, Chris and Kiyoko loaded themselves into the elevator, and descended into Basement 1.
Charlie was in town, in Mansfield during her lunch hour, just being in town. She was wandering around, trying to ignore the annoying gawks of passer-by's when they realized that Go-On Green was passing them.
Some began to take photographs of her, just so as they could show to friends and relatives. She was even pestered to sign an autograph by an old man! 'Not enjoying…' she often mumbled to herself while walking through the city.
Her friendship group had mixed opinions on her being Go-On Green. Some completely disagreed with the idea, saying that it was far too dangerous. Others thought it was really cool, saying that she was doing a great justice.
Charlie, however, was the third party person in the argument. She loved being a Go-On Ranger, but it wasn't for the justice reasons, it was just because it was so much fun! The justice thing was just a given. But she was wondering about when she might get a Zord, though Chris hadn't even mentioned the possibility of having Zords, though he had used the term 'Engine Cast' in many situations.
It was all Charlie could do but think about fighting Grinder's as a Go-On Ranger alongside Chris and Kiyoko. She loved it, with a capital L. She loved it so much that she didn't even know what else to think of, her mind was so preoccupied with the next attack on the Grinder's.
She was even preoccupied with the thought during her lessons! And she needed to focus in order to get good grades. She was so looking forward to getting a bike as well. That was top on her priority list, getting a shark-shaped, green motorbike, and Chris knew that this was top on the list. It was top on his list of Go-On Ranger things to do.
A few hours had passed, and Chris was in the middle of his Ethics lesson 5th Period (2:30-3:30). He was writing some information down that the teacher was spewing out about Swinburne, and his idea of the soul, and how God reacts.
His Go-On Phone was on display on the table, he had managed to convince his teacher to let him have it out, so he could find out the situation quickly, if there were to be one. It had remained rather silent for the majority of the lesson.
Charlie was doing the same. She was in the middle of her English Language lesson, also taking down whatever posh sounding jargon the teacher was spewing out at the class. She had her Go-On Phone on display, so she could find out about a situation without much hassle.
Hers was the first to bleep. She looked over and picked it up, opened it and held it to her ear. It was a voicemail from the MCPU, there were Grinder's attacking in downtown Mansfield. She excused herself from lesson and ran for town.
By the time she had ran out of her college, she was already out of breath. She pressed the number 1 button on her Go-On Phone, calling Chris.
"I got the voicemail! Where are the Grinder's attacking?" Chris had also excused himself from lesson, after explaining to his teacher that, though he didn't agree with what Swinburne said, he still understood.
"Mansfield… Town… Centre… I thin-… I think the Four Seasons Mall!" Charlie was out of breath, lightly jogging towards her destination.
"I'm on my way!" Chris pressed the Go-On button at the top of his Go-On Phone, teleporting him over to Charlie. He took a running start, but then realized that Charlie was slightly out of breath, and stopped. "Oh you'll love me for this…" he called the MCPU, "Yeah, send it over MCPU." He closed the phone.
Beside Chris appeared Charlie's long-awaited motorcycle. The Birca-Bike! Charlie was beside herself. She was nearly foaming at the mouth she was so excited with what she was looking at. The pure marvel of the bike was enough to make even the best of Power Ranger haters jealous. To put it simply:
"It's like a shark! But in bike form!" which was exactly what it was.
"We'd best morph before we go anywhere!" Chris took out his Change Soul.
"You betcha!" Charlie took out her own Change Soul.
"Change Soul, Set! Let's Go-On!" following the same morphing pattern, they jumped on the Birca-Bike. Charlie driving, Chris in the sidecar. "Let's Go!" Chris pointed forwards overdramatically while Charlie pulled the bike into gear.
Charlie sped off with the bike, Chris sitting in the attached sidecar. Even with the bulky sidecar attached to the Birca-Bike, she was still able to weave between the traffic with ease. Chris pulled out a megaphone from inside the sidecar. He called at the oncoming traffic to move out the way of Charlie, and the Birca-Bike.
"Where are the Grinder's attacking again?" Charlie yelled to Chris over the roar of the motorbike.
"Hold on!" Chris took out his Go-On Phone, Kiyoko came out as a hologram, ready to inform him the location of the Grinder's.
"Four Seasons Mall, Chris! The Grinder's are attacking there!" Kiyoko informed, and disappeared as Chris slammed the phone down.
"Four Seasons, AND STEP ON IT!" Chris raised his voice upon giving the instruction.
Charlie looked ahead, noticing that the traffic was backed up. There were some gaps in the traffic, but not enough for both the Birca-Bike and the sidecar to fit through. There was a turning to the left, which was another way around to the Four Seasons Mall, but it was too much of a sharp turn for the sidecar.
"Can you unhinge the sidecar, Chris?" Charlie yelled over the roar of the engine, getting Chris' attention once again.
"Yeah! Why?" Chris hadn't noticed the big row of traffic that proposed a problem to the two.
"Unhinge it when I turn for the corner on the left!" Charlie's idea flabbergasted Chris. Unhinge the sidecar when she turned the corner? What corner? He hesitantly covered the button which unhinged the magnet on the Birca-Bike sidecar, detaching it from the bike. "Ready! Three," Chris shivered. "Two," Chris whined slightly. "One!" Chris pressed the button on the dashboard of the sidecar, and went flying forward, through the lines of traffic. He was being propelled by the momentum that him and Charlie had gained, and the added momentum Charlie had given him when turning the corner, made Chris zoom forward through the traffic, and in front of it.
Unfortunately, the reason the traffic had stopped, was because the traffic lights had told them to. You see, on a four-way intersection, the traditional thing that happens, is that one line of traffic (say the traffic heading north and south) is stopped because the other line of traffic (the ones heading east and west) needs to go.
So the traffic that was stopped was only stopped so the traffic heading an opposite way could go, which meant that Chris was about to head sideways through a line of fast traveling traffic. Evidently, this situation was actually much more dangerous than fighting Grinder's.
And so, Chris was screaming through the mass amounts of traffic, as he was on his way to the Four Seasons Mall, heading down the wrong way of a one-way street. The situation wasn't getting any better, since Chris was now serving either side to avoid traffic, coming down the wrong way dual-carriage, one-way street.
The only world that could be heard coming from Chris was: "FUCKIN-!" as he speed down the street.
However, now he had to turn his first corner. He hadn't built the Birca-Bike sidecar with a steering wheel, or any forms of steering. But then he thought: in video games where they drive around in a mine, with a kart, how do they turn? By LEANING!
Though the thought of leaning when going the ridiculous speed of nearly 50mph completely terrified him, he had to get around the corner, lest he be splatted against the building, possibly killing him, and indefinitely destroying the sidecar.
Charlie was having a little less difficulty making decisions, and driving the Birca-Bike down the side-road. She turned left on the junction, taking her on the main road, and towards the Four Seasons Mall. She looked behind her, seeing if she could see Chris, but all she saw was the four-way intersection, and cussed.
She had to continue though; the Grinder's weren't going to be defeated by themselves! She just had to hope that Chris was going to be alright. So as she wouldn't get caught up in the traffic following her, she sped up, steaming ahead. She took the first right she could, and found herself on the direct route for the Four Seasons.
Good for her! Chris however… Well…
He pulled the right side of the car and leaned left. He skidded around the left turn, avoiding any cars that had the misfortune of getting in front of him while turning. He managed to get around the corner unscathed! He let go of the side of the car.
Something strange then began happening to the sidecar: it began to decrease in velocity! He looked straight in front of him, and noticed he was going up a hill. He whimpered. The laws of hills: what goes up must come down. So on the other side of the devastatingly steep hill, was an even steeper drop, and that eventuality was even if he made it up the hill.
There was always the possibility that Chris wouldn't even make it to the peak of the hill, and would be forced to roll backwards, back down the hill. The thought wasn't fun. He could always leave the sidecar, but that would involve him leaving the sidecar, not an option he wanted to consider.
Luckily, the car was able to get to the summit, but it stopped. It teetered backwards, slightly, then forwards, then backwards. It was about to head back down the hill! Chris didn't want to go fast in any direction, but if he had to pick, he would rather go fast forwards. He held the front of the kart, and leaned forwards.
As the sidecar began to lean forwards once again, he looked either side of him to see pedestrians cheering him on, yelling for him to 'Go Save the Day!' or 'Go, Go-On Red!' and other celebratory chants.
Though it was nice of them to feel so much for him, he couldn't feel anything but fear. He was scared for his life, but it was behaviour to be expected of any individual in the same situation. He looked right down the steep hill, seeing the Four Seasons Mall at the bottom; he could just see Charlie on the Birca-Bike pulling up in at the entrance. She pushed down the kickstand of the bike, and ran inside.
"Pressing Forward on the Road of Justice!" was the last thing he was able to say before he began rushing down the hill.
Before he knew it, he was zooming down at Mach-Speed, except this time he felt in a bit more control. This time he had chosen to go forwards down the hill, instead of teleporting the sidecar back to Platform Tower, he went the whole hog, pushed past his fears and was racing ahead down the hill.
However, now he noticed that the glass doors of the Four Seasons Mall were closed. It was lucky that he was wearing a helmet, because he didn't have any choice but to crash through the doors, since the sidecar was not equipped with brakes.
"In hindsight…" he paused. "I probably should have equipped you with brakes…"
Charlie pulled up the Birca-Bike, kicked the kickstand into place and ran inside. There were Grinder's all around, and people needed to be saved. She did the only thing she could think of:
"Mantan Gun! Soul Set!" she equipped her Mantan Gun with her Engine Soul, making it blaster ready. From where she stood, she aimed at the Grinder's that were attacking individuals. She hit them all with nigh perfect accuracy, knocking them all down and out!
"So you're Go-On Green?" a rather posh sounding voice appeared behind Charlie. She turned around and saw a peculiar looking, sort of kingly dressed, robot. She recognized it for some reason, but she couldn't put her finger on it… Chris had showed her a photograph on the internet of a few of the Engine Sentai Go-Onger enemies; this could've been one of them.
A few words were hanging on the edge of her tongue, a name and a title. "Are you Earth Pollution Minister, Yogostein?"
"So you know me?" he took out a long, golden trident, "This is perfect! Means I can skip the annoying speeches and entrance, and get right to killing you!" Charlie flinched. She wasn't expecting this. If Yogotstein was a Minister, it meant that he was one of the most powerful people out there, this meant bad news.
"MACH FULL-SPEED!" Chris could be heard slightly, like he was slowly getting closer. Charlie looked past Yogotstein to see Chris in the Birca-Bike sidecar, racing down the hill in front of the Four Seasons Mall.
"Oh my god, Chris…" Charlie watched momentarily as she could make out the helmet of Go-On Red. She dived sideways out of the way the potential impact.
Chris and the sidecar smashed through the glass double-doors, and into Yogostein. "GO-ON RED!" he knocked past Yogostein and skidded across the floor. He quickly jumped out of the sidecar, letting it slide into a nearby shop. He landed directly in front of Yogostein, into his position as Go-On Red.
"Go-On Red! What a surprise seeing you here!" Yogostein taunted at Chris, banging his trident on the floor in a rhythmic sort of pattern.
"That's my line, Yogostein! I thought you Minister's didn't rear your heads until much later?" Chris taunted back, equipping his Mantan Gun and setting it with his Engine Soul, allowing it to activate as the Mantan Beater.
They began to circle each other, like they were preparing to fight. Charlie was watching in the side lines, confused as to why Yogostein and Chris knew each other. Chris left so much undisclosed about how he became a Go-On Ranger to Charlie. She felt a little left out of the circle, between him and Kiyoko. But she knew that he must have had his reasons. Although, she didn't half pester to start with.
Chris took the first lunge with the Mantan Beater. Yogostein blocked the attack easily, but he was over three times as powerful as Chris was currently.
"You've gotten stronger, Chris! I'm impressed!" Yogostein pushed him away, causing Chris to be knocked flying backwards. "But I'm still more powerful than you are!" Yogostein prepared an attack.
"Before you start anything!" Chris stood up straight and pointed at Yogostein with his free hand. "I have a new development!" he pressed his Go-On shaped belt buckle. Out of his Number 1 emblem shined a light. The light took form as the Street Sabre! It looked nearly exactly like the schematics that Chris had shown Charlie days before! Except now it was coloured in beautiful red, grey and white patterns. "Street Sabre!" he held it with his right hand, "Mantan Beater!" and stood in attacking formation. "Duel, Wield!"
Yogostein began to laugh maniacally. "This is not a fight for today, Chris!" he slammed his trident down, and disappeared in a sudden puff of smoke.
"Good…" Chris smiled, resting his blades on either shoulders, "Because I wasn't ready to fight…" he reached into his Go-On Phone pouch and took out the Change Soul, transforming him back to normal Chris. "Oh god I'm tired…" he slotted the Soul back into his Soul Lanyard.
"That was amazing, Chris!" Charlie took out her Change Soul from her Go-On Phone and ran up to Chris. "Was that your ranger specific weapon?"
"Yop! Makes me happy that I can finally use it… If the Minister's are starting to show up, means that we might start having a bit more of a prob-…" his words started drifting off into a sort of mumble. "Oh that reminds me!" he turned back to Charlie, holding out his Go-Phone to her, "When you want to use your Birca-Bike, press 4 then * when you're morphed. Means you can easily pick it up without asking MCPU. I'll see you later…" Chris pressed a few buttons on his Go-On Phone and disappeared in a beam of light, probably teleporting back off to Southwell.
Chris was not in the mood for a lot that night, but Alex was coming over to see him. Which, admittedly was a good thing, but Chris wasn't even in the mood to make out. He was just lying on his bed, with Alex next him, just lazily kissing.
"Was it that bad today?" Alex broke the lazy kissing session.
"One of the Minister's appeared today… I've met him before, and it was a bit of a hassle. That wasn't even the bad part… The bad part was nearly scaring myself shitless with…" Chris sat up. "Go-On Black…" he whispered quickly.
"What was that?" Alex sat up next to him, wondering what might have been going through his mind.
"Alex! Alex, can I show you something? It's something you have to keep a complete and total secret, and you're not allowed to tell anyone." Chris dived up off of his bed and to the other side of his room, to the container where he kept the PT Key.
"Sure." Alex laughed slightly under his breath, thinking that the secret may just be something miniscule like some sort of dietary habit.
Chris turned around and knelt down at Alex, with PT Key in hand. "You have to promise me, that you will not tell anyone. Swear on your life that you won't tell a soul of what you're about to see." Chris was being deadly serious; you could see it in his eyes.
"I-…" Alex hesitated. "I promise…" but soon nodded.
"Fab…!" Chris smiled, jumped around and stuck the PT Key in his wardrobe door, opening the portal to Platform Tower. He turned around to Alex, and held his hand out to him, "Come with me."