Chapter 7

"Scott, get off of me. This is wrong on so many levels." I rolled out from under Scott and the first thing I saw were fuzzy bunny slippers. "And it just got even more disturbing."

"Lacy, do you know what you just did?" Scott asked standing up as he looked at me.

"Uhh, the last thing I remember Summer dragged us all to the beach. What am I doing on the floor of the lab and why is it a mess?" I recalled what I remembered.

Summer had been bored of sitting around at the garage and Venjix hadn't attacked in several days. So she had dragged us all to the beach. She said it was to ease her boredom but I had also figured out that it was a ploy she was using to try and get me out of my broodiness that I had been sinking into.

We had been having enjoying the day at the beach when Ziggy had decided to see if he could outrun me at a foot race. Summer had bet that I would still win while Scott was betting that given the loose terrain of the sand I would tire quicker allowing Ziggy to beat me. I don't know how he reasoned that Ziggy would not tire as much as I did if not more but no matter he was running a fair race with me. We were neck and neck until just before the finish line when the both of us stopped short as if on cue much to the disappointment of the rest of the team.

"Come on Lacy, don't just give into Ziggy. Beat this I know you can." Summer cheered.

"Ziggy, what are you thinking she stopped you can totally beat her she just gave you the opening." Scott yelled.

I however looked at Ziggy and the both of us stepped over the finish line together and pushed past the other three which got them to turn around to see our uninvited spectator.

Drake was walking towards us clapping and shaking his head. "Human's and their attempts to show dominance among each other. That is why being a machine is so much better we all know our places and would never dare to challenge the superior."

Ziggy pointed, "I don't recall inviting you to our beach party. You should just leave while you still can."

"I have no intention of leaving. I think we need to have a little dance, we haven't met up in a while."

"You know, I really liked it that way!" I screamed as I ran in and started punching Drake while the others went after the grinders that poured out from behind a cliff down the beach from our location.

"You know, I missed our dance. I think if it didn't have to be this way we could make a pretty nice team because for a human you are pretty fast and accurate." Drake's lips curled up under his visor.

"No, thank you, I don't think that would work because for a robot you are a little too human for me. I like my robots to be a little more umm you know robotic looking." I smiled back as Drake twisted me around aggressively.

"Don't you dare ever call me a human, I am nothing like you." he growled at me before really heating up the aggressive dance like fight.

It was after he did a move that was more like a hug then anything else that sent me over the edge and into my morphed form. "You just crossed the line. I guess in whatever robot school you went to they didn't teach you how to treat a girl." I kicked him in the chest and flipped over and fought him for some time losing the dance we had been doing before in my human form.

After the others had finished off the pack of grinders Drake pulled out his handy hand blaster from his glove and blasted me directly. While I was flipping over from the blast he disappeared leaving me demorphed on the ground. Flynn ran over to me and picked me up.

"We should be getting back to the Garage so we can report back to Dr. K," Scott replied as he opened his car door with Summer sitting in his passenger seat

I went to the jeep and got in the passenger side while Ziggy climbed into the back seat of the jeep with Flynn and I.

Then I woke up on the lab floor staring at a horrific sight of fuzzy bunny slippers on a person that just didn't strike me as a fuzzy bunny type of person. I mean had any of us ever seen her out of her lab coat and school uniform? I for sure had never seen this side of the Doctor and wasn't sure if I wanted to see any more.

"Rangers Black and Red, could you please help Ranger green up and put her on my examining bench?" Dr. K asked and soon after I had Scott and Flynn's arms wrapped around mine pulling me to a standing position.

"Hey, Flynn, Scott, the last time I checked I had two perfectly fine legs and arms, I can get myself up." I struggled a little bit so I could get my balance.

"Oh, trust me, we know your legs and arms work fine, we are going to be coving up bruises for quite a while." Scott snorted as he put me down on the bench before pulling locks over my legs.

"Umm, guys, I may not like this table but you really don't need to strap me down, I will stay here you know that right." I struggled a little bit but the straps had been put in place just for me and were specifically made to hold me down. "Umm Doc, you said you hoped you would never have to use these and now all of a sudden you are just ordering that I get strapped down?"

"Lacy, you see all the destruction lying around?" Summer frowned as she came to stand near me.

"Yeah, it looks like Drake lent us his hand again." I looked around and then looked at Flynn's face followed by Summer's. "Wait a minute, it was me wasn't it? Venjix got to me out there, which is why I don't remember leaving the beach." Realizing this I struggled at my bonds knowing that I wouldn't be able to break them they had been designed following a test of my strength and were designed to withstand almost one thousand more pounds resistance then what I could currently manage. The reasoning behind this was that as my virus spread and grew I would potentially get stronger.

"Yes, it was you, out at the beach while you were fighting Drake he planted a remote override device on you and evidently it worked without our even knowing it till we had all gone to bed and you had slipped into the lab." Summer replied.

"So is putting me in my restraints for my protection?" I squirmed as I attempted to get my arm in a more comfortable position.

Dr. K looked at me, "No, it is for our safety."

"But it was that devices fault that Lacy lost control Doc. You know Lacy would never hurt us on purpose, yes she might be slightly overly aggressive at times and a bit stubborn but I think she has proven herself over and over again that she will be there for us every time." Ziggy said from behind me.

"Yes, that is true but I managed to get a partial scan before Ranger Green trashed my best scanner and from what I can tell that override downloaded an acceleration program into the already growing viral hardware, it is now growing fifty times faster then it was before.

"Oh, great, just what I needed to know, I am going to turn into One of Venjix's freak shows fifty times sooner then what you thought before?" I rolled my eyes and looked at the screens which now showed my bionic hardware, the small seeds were already very noticeable as they coated my bones and even replaced muscle groups. My shoulder didn't even look like a human shoulder anymore.

Flynn walked over to the screen and looked at the readouts before turning to the Doctor. "Out there we saw this attack bot that was with Drake. It didn't attack and it stayed on the cliff. I think it might have been the one to activate the remote device. If we could get our hands on it maybe there would be some data about the acceleration code or whatever."

"It is impossible to stop the transformation." Dr. K shook her head.

Summer looked at me and then at the screen, "But couldn't you use the data to slow it back down?"

"Theoretically, I should be able to slow down Ranger Green's transformation but I will not be able to stop it." The doctor said thoughtfully.

"Ok so that is covered but how the heck do we get that bot to come back to the city?" Scott looked around, "It seemed to have only one purpose and that was to sabotage Lacy."

"We make them think they won and that Lacy succeeded in what they programmed her to do." Ziggy smiled. "We lower the shields and Venjix will send back the attack bot to give Lacy new orders."

"And how do you know he didn't just give me all the orders out there on the beach?" I question up at Ziggy.

"Because that would be too risky, if you had been stopped we would have had all his information and as far as I know Venjix is not one to lose information to the side he feels is already losing." Summer said as a she laid a hand on my shoulder.

****

Half an hour later, I was free from the restraints but was being watched carefully by at least one other ranger at all times. I decided though that I couldn't let them take the risk of lowering the shields. Corinth was too important to the human race. I decided that I was going to slip out while Ziggy was supposed to be watching me. He was in the middle of reading a book that seemed to captivate his attention so much that he didn't even really notice when I stood up and went to my car.

"And where do you think your going Lacy?" Flynn popped up in my passenger side window as I turned the key in the ignition.

"I can't let you lower the shields. I am going out to the wastelands where I won't be a danger to the last human population. I will look for my partner and then journey on till I loose control and hopefully by then I will be so far away from Venjix's lair that I won't be accessible to him and I can hopefully keep myself from hurting another human."

I heard something and felt something cold snap onto my arm at that time. "No, I don't think you are going to do that." Flynn said smiling having crossed to my side of the car while I had talked.

"Flynn, give me the key or I will drive out of here taking your arm with me. I don't care how friendly we are or aren't I am leaving the dome before I can hurt anyone."

Scott walked over holding a key. "Lacy you want this key?"

"Scott, give me that key now or I will run you over while I rip Flynn's arm off his body." I revved my engine and glared him down.

"Oh you want this key?" Scott moved towards me but flipped the key into a gas can near the hood of my car.

I climbed out of my car through the window and stared the two of them down, "You two are both asking for it."

"We figured you would say that Lacy." Flynn smiled as he pulled my chain closer to him.

"Alright, you win, I am not happy about endangering Corinth but I will play along this time, now give me the spare so I can go to the bathroom without Flynn having to follow me."

Ziggy gasped slightly, "Uhh that was the only key, I swallowed the other key a few years ago."

"Ugh, I am glad I really didn't need to go." I glared at Flynn who looked almost too happy to spend some time handcuffed to me.

"We are going to have to figure something out for this evening because it is bound to be tomorrow at the earliest that Venjix sends anything into the city." Flynn rocked on his heals.

"And you couldn't just have Summer chain herself to me; it would have been a little bit more appropriate." I complained as I looked at the chain.

All evening Flynn and I spent the evening together and did everything together. We managed to work out the bathroom rotation and the chain was just long enough to enter the bathroom and do basic things without the other entering the bathroom, which however cancelled out Flynn's evening shower. For bed we both chilled in my car and reclined the seats. It was an uncomfortable night but it was a night of understanding for the two of us and we grew closer together despite my reluctance to do so. I didn't want to set ourselves up for a disaster and then to find that my partner was my lover but I was ready for whatever might happen and it seemed that Flynn was as well.

We woke up to the intruder alarm early in the morning very stiff from sleeping in the car and not in our beds. I climbed out of the car and Flynn followed however we ended up piling on the floor when we tried to run to join the others in answering the alarm.

"I was going to suggest that you hang back for a bit Lacy, it might make our trick look more real Lacy." Scott said as he chased the other two out of the garage and I just looked at Flynn.

"Tomorrow night, if we are still stuck like this, we are sleeping in the jeep, the seats look more comfortable."

"Hey, it was your idea to sleep in your car." Flynn protested as he worked on getting himself up off the ground.

Dr. K analyzed some readings while the monitors displayed the battle and as it heated up I began to pace. I wanted to be out there in the action getting retribution for what had been done to me and I was annoying Flynn as I proceeded with my pacing.

After a while I gave up with my waiting, "I give up, they have waited long enough. I am joining them out there." I pulled the chain over to my car.

"Oh no you aren't. I am not getting into that car again as long as my life depends on it until you get new seats for that thing." Flynn stopped short pulling me away from my car.

"If the two of you are going then shouldn't you at least decide on which car you are taking first before fighting over it?" Dr. K said getting very annoyed at us rattling the chain constantly.

In the end, we grabbed the random scooter that was parked inside the garage, which no one liked to drive.

When we got to the battle site Drake's jaw nearly hit the ground when he saw me back the rest of the rangers up. Of course, they were surprised that I was still on the rangers' side.

"Hey, Flynn, how about we cut this chain once and for all?"

"Now, that is an idea I can enjoy. No offence, Lacy." Flynn laughed as we both pulled out our morphers

"None taken, Flynn. I just want to get rid of this creep. We can worry about being close to each other on our own terms." I agreed with a smile as we both put up our wrists and activated the morphers. Once activated it was a very easy tug and the chains snapped. As we stepped apart Ziggy muttered something about that having been his best set of chains.

"Whatever is spinning through that mind of yours, Lacy had better be a plan to save the circuit board or you won't have much longer." Scott yelled at me from the side lines as I pulled out my weapon of choice ready to aim it at the attack bot.

"Oh I will be careful, I have a fairly new weapon from Dr. K." I responded as I pulled out the wheel blaster and lined it up with the twin that Flynn was now holding. They were supposed to bring our power to a new level but I wanted to wait and see what it would do before making any judgments on it. Though Flynn and I had talked it over on our way over here and we had decided that this was better then using our larger weapons which could potentially harm the chip they were aiming on getting to help me keep my humanity just a little while longer.

It did take some time but eventually with the help of the others we safely deactivated the bot. However, this just had to be one of the bots that could grow and force us to use our zords. I had never been a fan of this solution and now that I saw the bot growing what little hope I had had to getting the virus to slow down its transformation of my body was starting to diminish. That was until everyone banded together to form a megazord formation, my hope rose a bit and I felt confident that everyone would help me to the best of their ability. While some still were a bit hesitant they all loved me and treated me with the same exact respect they treated everyone else.

"Rangers, your energy levels are go for energy blasters." Dr. K responded over the comm.

"Doc, what is that supposed to mean?" Scott asked the communicator.

I jumped in having heard a bit about it earlier, "We have enough energy to deal a hard blow with the wheel blasters when we combine our energies with the zords."

"Green, how do you know that?" Ziggy turned to look at me and if I could see his eyes I would say he had one raised up past his hairline.

"Gee, you tend to pick up on extra things when you spend quite a while being the Doctor's lab rat." I sassed back as I pulled out my blaster and aimed it through the zord's visor and everyone followed getting the surprise when our zord's indicated they were also lining up fire power. When we hit the triggers instead of our blasters firing our zords each fired an energy blast.

"Wow!" Summer breathed as she watched the bot fall to the ground in pieces before jumping out of the zord. When the zord had disassembled and we were gathered on the ground Summer came running up to us holding a tiny little data card.

"Did you get the circuit board?" I asked looking almost hopeful.

"It is right here. Dr. K told me what to look for just before she took the shields down." Summer laid her gloved hand out to show the little thing in her hand. "Why don't we get back to the garage so that we can start the attempt to save Lacy's life?"

*******

"What just happened was that I entered the base code for the virus. I knew it because I am the one who created and released the Venjix virus." I shook my head and attempted to stand.

"Ugh, don't tell me that it happened again. And did I just hear what I think I heard or was I still somewhat disillusioned just now?"

Scott stepped forward, "We won't tell you what just happened, Lacy, and yes you did hear what you think you heard. Though I am wishing I hadn't heard that either."

"Whoa, let's hear the doc out." Ziggy stepped forward.

"I don't think I want to hear her out, she just said she is the entire reason behind what is happening to me. If she had never done what she had done I would be happy and have my memories intact and not be turning into a cruddy machine." I ground my teeth as I glared in her direction.

Summer gasped, "Look, the virus has slowed back down to its original growth rate." Summer pointed to a screen.

"I would feel happier about this if it wasn't for the bomb shell dropped on me just now." I groaned as I sat on the examination table.

"I know how you all must feel but I think it is time I told you more about the why and how." Dr. K walked closer to us all before looking to the ground. "If you will so permit me to tell you."

"If it will make your guilty conscious rest a bit easier I guess I can just sit back and listen to this sob story." I narrowed my eyes and sighed.

"Ranger green, when I created the Venjix virus I had no idea it would do this to humans much less evolve into a deadly virus that brought humanity to its knees." Dr. K said briskly. "When I was about six, I don't remember exactly how old I was I was taken by people in black coats because of my superior intellect. They fed me lies and kept me locked up in a windowless bunker. They told me that I was allergic to the sun. I know this isn't true however a part of me still believes them."

"So, that is why you don't go outside Doc?" Ziggy snickered a little bit.

"Yes, that is why but I was locked up in this bunker which the government called Alphabet soup, there were a couple of other children in there with me that were also extremely bright, two I know are dead, they helped me escape but got caught in an explosion. I was ordered to work on several top secret projects while there and to help me I created a virus which could speed up my work. Venjix was nothing more then a helper program that I could manipulate. I made a mistake one time when I tried to escape after I figured out that I wasn't really allergic to the sun. I freed Venjix from my computer and into the network that controlled Alphabet soup hoping it could help me evade detection. I was caught before I could erect a firewall and Venjix left the base. I had made the first mistake of creating Venjix sentient; I had done so, so that Venjix could communicate back to me easier what its findings were in my programs. Unfortunately when it got free it took what it learned from the way other humans treated me as the way of the world and apparently set out to destroy all humanity so that I could be free." Dr. K exhaled as she finished an explanation.

"Wow!" Scott and Summer replied in unison.

"Ok? It still doesn't make you any more the innocent." I shrugged as I jumped down. "You should have known not to play with fire, people always get hurt and in this case people had their lives ripped from them."

I turned on everyone and walked out of the lab however I stopped just outside the doors and listened to everyone else.

"Hey, Doc, we all make mistakes and if we were in your situation I am sure I would have done something similar." Ziggy responded.

"Yes, don't listen to Lacy, she can be a bit stubborn when it comes down to the fact that she was once one of Venjix's experiments and still is in some senses.

"I know where Lacy is coming from but I am sure she will come around. You were doing what you had to do. I am sure given by what kind of person you are that you really didn't mean for Venjix to become what it has become. You have us to stop it and we just have to deal with what has been done." Flynn said and I heard him shuffle around inside the lab.

I leaned my head back hard into the wall causing a slight pain, I am pretty sure that if I were entirely human I would have hissed in pain from how hard it hit but to me it felt like a light tap. Sighing a pulled myself off the wall and walked back into the lab. "They are right, I will get over it, if it hadn't been you probably someone with a more malicious intent would have created a threat worse then Venjix."

"Thanks, Ranger Green, I think that means a lot coming from you." Dr. K nodded.

"For crying out loud just this once do you think you can use our names?" Flynn exclaimed which caused me to giggle just a little, I had actually gotten used to being called Ranger Green and wasn't going to push my luck right now and I was happy just seeing Dr. K smile, for once she seemed like she was one of us and not so brainy that she was perfect and way above us. She was a girl and she was hurting inside like all of us in some shape or form. I knew though that come tomorrow we would probably be back on the same old track that we had been on with her acknowledging us as nothing more then weapons. It would be then that I took my anger out on her not now when she needed us.