Morph Ten: Synchronization Ignition
"Go!"
Sarah Birch watched in panic as the masked man in goggles vanished, only to reappear right in front of her mother, grappling with the spandex man in sapphire. He had called himself the Dark Sapphire Ranger, whatever that was, and now he was going to attack her mother! Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought to herself. She knew she shouldn't have stayed. But then the bruise on her head annoyed her, and she remembered that she had been knocked down trying to get out with Mr. Toby and the others.
"I won't let you hurt them," the masked man vowed fiercely. "And you're not getting the Dark Gem!" The man spoke with such passion, and such rage, to the evil ranger. Sarah didn't like the look of the bad guy, he and his friends looked like the people who tried to hurt her momma at the Contest. "You hear me, Sappho?"
The Dark Sapphire Ranger seemed indifferent to his name calling. "Nope. Stone deaf at the moment!" he exclaimed cheerfully and twisted the goggle man, forcing him on his back. Goggle-Man recovered, just in time to avoid the bad guy's boot from hitting his back. Sarah bit her lip, determined to keep quiet until she could get to her mom. Goggle-Man leapt to his feet and forced the bad man back, right into the waiting grasp of Goggle-Girl, who helped her partner fight the Dark Sapphire Ranger. The bad guys on the sides did nothing, maybe because they were politely waiting their turn. Sarah wasn't sure, but the man called Sappho didn't seem to mind fighting the both of them and what resulted was some sort of fighting that Sarah had only ever seen before on her Saturday morning cartoons. But Sappho seemed to be beating Goggle-Man and Goggle-Girl, because he hardly seemed to be breaking a sweat. His odd footwork and swaggering style made him look like someone who was dancing, not someone who was fighting. And Goggle-Man and Goggle-Girl couldn't keep up, so both of them were easily tossed to the floor.
"That's pathetic," the bad man murmured to them, wagging his finger in triumph. "Really now, is this the best PKM can offer me? A bunch of whiny little babies? Morph now, or I kill you!" Sarah was fairly certain that couldn't be good. Goggle-Man and Goggle-Girl grimaced, but rose to their feet.
"He's right," said Goggle-Man and raised some strange wristwatch that Sarah could have sworn she'd seen somewhere before. "Let's show this idiot how we do things in PKM."
"Thought you'd never ask, sweetheart," Goggle-Girl retorted and lifted her own wristwatch, only hers was white instead of black like Goggle-Man's. "Let's dance with the funny man."
"Ready?"
"Right!"
Both of them pressed a red button on their watches.
"Golden Spirit, Pokemon Power!"
"PKM Spirit, Activate!"
Both Goggle-Man and Goggle-Girl flashed a bright color, golden and white, and two PKM Rangers appeared where they had been standing. Sarah stared at Goggle-Man, who had become the Golden Ranger, in awe. His entire body was armored with tough fabric, covered in muscle and raw strength, decked in golden and black. And then she saw the beauty that was the White Ranger standing beside him. Where the Golden Ranger was gold, the White Ranger was white, down to the little skirt she had added to her uniform. A picture of a water Pokemon, Sarah thought it was a Dewgong, adorned her chest where the Golden Ranger's Pikachu was.
"Pure as the fallen snow," said the White Ranger and struck a dramatic pose too elaborate for Sarah to remember completely. "PKM Agent 3! White Ranger!" As she did this, it almost seemed like it got colder in the room and Sarah's mother and uncle looked up, like they expected snow to fall gracefully from the cracked ceiling.
At this, both the Golden Ranger and the Dark Sapphire Ranger turned to stare at the oddly-posed 3. "What was that?" the Golden Ranger asked, in an entirely incredulous manner.
"What do you mean, 0?" she replied. "That was my battle pose. I do it every time I morph. All rangers do it."
"Are you making fun of me?" Sappho asked with a slight growl. "I don't like being made fun of." He tilted his helmet and snapped his fingers. All of the little black men jumped to attention. Sarah dug herself deeper into hiding.
"Just don't do it anymore!" 0 ordered. "It's incredibly embarrassing."
3 groaned. "Can we please just do this?" 0 nodded and focused again on Sappho, who seemed immensely annoyed at the apparent lack of attention he had been getting. "Download Frost Fan!" 3 ordered and tapped her helmet's right side. A white light formed in 3's gloves, before a white war fan roughly two feet long emerged in her fingers. She opened it, to test its speed, and then sealed it again.
0 tapped his own helmet. "Download Lightning Laser!" he ordered some unknown individual and a large gun formed in his hands, like some of the toy shotguns Sarah had seen some boys her age playing with in parks. 0, however, seemed to be able to wield it with significantly higher proficiency because he spun it around by the trigger, waiting for the bad guy to make his move. Sarah watched the shotgun's twirling in wonder.
"That's not fair," Sappho whined. "I wanna weapon too. Not fair!"
"I don't play fair with terrorists," 0 retorted stubbornly and shouldered his gun. "Ready for round two, dirt bag?" He turned to his partner. "3, get the civilians out of here right now. I'll bring up the rear with any remaining people and the Dark Gem." At this, however, Sappho laughed gleefully, which seemed to irritate 0. "Got a problem with that, Sappho?"
"Oh yes indeed," he replied, almost cheerfully, and dangled something that looked suspiciously like the Dark Emerald from his fingers. "You need to be more careful where you put things, Golden Boy. Anyone could easily pickpocket something like this…" He started to laugh, but didn't really get the chance, as 0 fired a bolt of lightning straight at his visor. He flipped backwards, dodging the attack rather gracefully, but not gracefully enough to stop 0 from charging forward with 3 to reclaim the shiny emerald. This time, though the little black men moved forward to protect their master, forcing the Rangers to fight multiple opponents.
"Rangerlings! Tear them apart!" They howled their approval of their master's order and dove into the fray.
The Lightning Laser swerved and, almost like a sniper, the Golden Ranger laid waste to ten of them in five seconds. At the same time, he swung the shotgun down, knocking down anyone as he moved to protect Sarah's momma and uncle. May was terrified and Max was, despite his immense disadvantage, doing his very best to keep one of the Rangerlings off her, relying on what little fighting prowess he had. Finally, he had enough and summoned both his Gallade and Mightyena to the fray. "Get 'em, guys!" he shouted and they hastened to obey him. Mightyena snarled and clamped its jaws on the nearest Rangerling it could reach, upon which said Rangerling emitted a loud shriek of pain, which ended with a punch to the face from Max, who bruised his knuckles but downed the enemy.
Meanwhile, the beautiful White Ranger wielded her war fan with such proficiency that it might have scared Sarah if 3 wasn't trying to help her. The Dark Sapphire Ranger, once so quick and calm, was becoming more and more erratic. The White Ranger was far more graceful in their dance of death, and the bad guy appeared to be losing. Again and again the war fan struck him, forcing him to hide amidst the Rangerlings, who fared even worse than their leader. 3 was cool and collected, unlike the violent 0, and dodged them all, smashing through the white gem-like thing on their chests, which seemed to have an adverse affect, because they fell down and didn't move after it was broken.
"0!" shouted the beautiful lady to her partner. "Smash the white things on their chests! It's the Rangerlings weak spot!"
"I figured!" he shouted back, and blasted three dead in the chest. They absorbed the majority of the impacts and their chest gems held, so 0 switched to using his ranged weapon as a melee one and smashed at their chests with the gun barrel before unloading a burst of electricity. It seemed to work, because one just exploded in a puff of black smoke. 0 repeated the process on the six closest to him. Sarah noticed that none of the bad guys were waiting around. Everyone was fighting, which made it significantly harder for her uncle and his Pokemon, 0, and 3, to focus on just one opponent. The Rangers definitely did a better job of it, but Uncle Max and his Pokemon held as best they could. One of the Rangerlings was thrown into the air by the Golden Ranger and smashed the glass case that she had been hiding behind. She covered her head as glass rained around her. She felt something bite her hand and noticed she had had been cut by a shard of glass. It hurt and she accidentally cried.
"Momma!" she sobbed. "I hurt myself!"
"Sarah!" May shrieked and finally spotted her daughter. Ignoring anything that stood in her way, her mother rushed for her, and even 0 stopped to stare at her determination. When a Rangerling foolishly decided to get in her way, her mother shoved it out of her way and kept going. The Dark Sapphire Ranger noticed this too, however, and stepped in to stop her.
"Get out of my way," May ordered and put up her fists. Sappho laughed.
"I think not, May Birch," he replied happily and punched her in the face. Her mother dropped like a sack of potatoes. 0 roared in outrage, as did Max, and both rushed towards her defense. But neither got there as quickly as Sarah did. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her hand, the little girl ran up and began to wail on Sappho's leg, for she wasn't tall enough to do much else. Something green fell from his belt and landed in the pile of emeralds scattered on the floor. Sappho looked down and kicked her full in the stomach, downing the daughter like he had her mother.
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"Go!"
0 was beyond furious.
The berserk Golden Ranger roared as he lunged at the Dark Sapphire Ranger. Time slowed down and he smashed Sappho right in the face with the Lightning Laser's gun barrel, sending the evil ranger flying into and through the nearest wall. "Pi, analyze and determine life readings," he ordered the Pokemon as he fended off the Rangerlings who were attempting to swarm over Sarah and May's bodies.
"Calculating…" Pi replied. "Both are unconscious. May Birch has head injuries, but nothing life-threatening. Sarah Birch has a broken rib. Both will require medical attention. May is bleeding from her head injury. I'm alerting the authorities outside to send in SWAT teams to recover them and that the paramedics need to be on standby."
"Thank you, Pi." Despite his calm voice, Pi knew 0 was quivering with rage. "Download Bolt Blade!" He wanted to slice these things up. The shotgun digitized itself and vanished from his hands. A golden light exploded and a giant gleaming sword emerged in his hands. 0 glanced down at the black and gold surface of the metal sword, then cleaved a Rangerling in half as if it were a slice of bread. The second one he killed went down painfully, as it refused to simply allow itself to die. First 0 had to slice through its arms to rid it of its defenses, then he sliced it in half from the helmet to the groin. 0 relished the revenge, but kept his head as best he could. He could wail on the Rangerlings all he wanted, but that wasn't going to change that May and Sarah needed medical attention.
"You," he said to Max. "You are related to them, correct?" His mechanical synthesizer made sure that his voice was warped, there would be no chance of Max Birch knowing who was behind 0's golden visor.
"Y-yeah," Max replied. "I'm Max Birch. I'm May's brother."
"I will cover you. They need medical attention immediately or they will die," he explained, as calmly as he could. "Can you get them out of here?"
He nodded. "I can," Max answered.
"Good. They are after one of those emeralds over there. Take one with you and some of the Rangerlings will follow you. SWAT teams will be waiting in ambush, but can you create a diversion?"
"Yes. It'll be dangerous, but I've done dangerous stuff before," Max said. "Mightyena! Gallade! Help me get May and Sarah! We need to get out of here right now!" Both his Pokemon snapped to attention and obeyed without question. Gallade helped 0 fend off the opponents while Max helped load Sarah's body onto Mightyena, before picking up May. "Okay, Golden Ranger, make us an exit!"
"Roger," 0 replied. He rammed through the remnants of the Rangerlings still attacking and, with much gusto, used the gigantic Bold Blade to cleave a path for Max, Mightyena, and Gallade to get through. "Go! Don't look back, and don't come back!"
"Got it!" Max charged through the room and managed to evade the Rangerlings long enough to get out of ranger. 0 watched them leave, then turned his attention to helping 3 clear up the rest of the Rangerlings. He sliced open one behind her and joined her.
"Having fun?" he asked.
"You sure know how to show a lady a good time," she replied. "Next time, I want to go to the park for a date."
"Don't count on it," he answered. "Sappho will be back soon and I don't think the little freak's going to be happy."
And, as usual, 0 hated when he was right. The Dark Sapphire Ranger burst through the already weakened west wall he'd been punched through and even thought he wore a visor he still gave off the aura of someone incredibly angry. What made this situation worse was the fact that he was closer to the Dark Emerald, as he stood right next to the pile of fallen gems.
"Rangerlings, distract them!" he ordered with glee and the last five drove 0 and 3 back.
"We've got to get to that gem!" 0 groaned and sliced through two of the Rangerlings at once. Sappho inspected the pile and found the one he was looking for. He then exclaimed in triumph and jumped up and down with happiness.
"I'm on it!" 3, because she was apparently much more limber then 0 was, ran to the wall and kicked off it, soaring over the last three Rangerlings to go fight Sappho. 0, in the meantime, took advantage of the fact that the Rangerlings stupidly chose to stop and watch 3 soar over them by cleaving all three through their chests. They fell in unison and 0 charged towards Sappho to defeat him.
"3, duck!" 0 swung the behemoth Bold Blade horizontally, and the White Ranger did the splits to avoid it. Sappho, however, seemed pretty confident in himself and took the full blunt of the blade. 0 felt satisfaction as the sword's sharp end smashed into Sappho and sent him flying. Then, he felt confusion, because Sappho picked himself right back up and dusted off his spandex like nothing had happened.
"Wait, why didn't the idiot get sliced and diced like the rest of them?" 3 asked.
Sappho seemed genuinely offended. "How dare you compare me to these trinkets?" he asked in a heightened voice. "My Dark Gem is a sapphire. Those onyx class freaks can't compare to someone of my magnificence." He grinned and held up the Dark Emerald. "See? Told you I was brilliant!" He didn't even stick around to kill them. He bolted for the exit and disappeared.
"He's going outside," 0 said.
"There are civilians outside," answered the White Ranger.
"If I might make a suggestion," said Pi, who had been working the whole time, "why not take the Zero Cycle? I can download it with your confirmation."
"Let's hope my Driver's Ed paid off," 0 replied with a grin. "Download the Zero Cycle!" Instantly, the Bolt Blade vanished and the Zero Cycle emerged, its engine primed and ready for its owner. Without hesitation, 0 boarded the machine and activated it. "3, get on, and hold on." She obeyed him without question and disengaged her Frost Fan so she could keep a better grip. 0 revved the engine. It roared and 0 kicked it off. The motorcycle tore through the room and to the outside world, where it exploded out of the doors and down the stairs into the streets.
0 located the nearest police officer. "Where did the guy in blue go?" he demanded. The cop, far too terrified to lie to the Golden Ranger, pointed down the eastern road.
"He killed two of my men and took off in a police car!"
"Thank you." 0 revved the engine and took off again, this time racing through the streets.
"3, what do you think is the best way to track Sappho?" 0 asked, as he zoomed through the hole in the police barricade the Dark Sapphire Ranger had created. He kept going straight, right into the now-oncoming traffic.
"Are you crazy?" she shrieked and held on for dear life. "Slow this thing down!"
"Guess you forgot," 0 muttered and merged into the right lane. "Bakaguru designed this thing without breaks to increase optimum speed. Pi, what are our best bets?"
"The Dark Sapphire Ranger is being tailed by a few news crews. I'll hack into their signal and trace where he's going. For now, follow the accidents." Pi was referring to the vast amount of damage Sappho had taken the time to do as he zipped through the wrong lanes. The Dark Sapphire Ranger was a good driver, but 0 was even better. He took the fastest lanes, used the super speed of the Zero Cycle to leap over wrecks with wheelies, and followed the bread crumbs Sappho had left. "Got it. He's heading to the intercity lines between North Petalburg and Petalburg City. Turn south here. It'll be faster than following his route."
"Copy." 0 swerved and turned with pinpoint accuracy. Multiple cars honked, but no collateral damage resulted, as 0 pivoted the Zero Cycle right into oncoming traffic. "Upload the best possible map into the visor's map." After a few moments, the visor's screen changed into something from a video game. 0 saw arrows and signals from Pi's coordinates displayed in real time with the street, which even calculated the best lanes to be in to compensate for any traffic. "Thanks." He accelerated.
"You guys are really getting the hang of this," 3 grumbled.
0 laughed. "What happened to the exciting and dangerous 3 I know?" he retorted and merged into the left lane.
"You know damn well I only get excited in the bedroom!"
"I knew no such thing," he answered and pushed the Zero Cycle to its optimum speed purely to spite her as he turned left and found himself directly in the route of the annoying Dark Sapphire Ranger. They were right behind him. "Pi, does this thing have nitro?" 3 screamed in protest.
"It'll be located right next to the nozzle," it explained. "A little red button."
"Good," said the Golden Ranger. "And what weapons do we have equipped to this thing?"
"Machine gun turrets mounted to the front of the vehicle. The activation button will be a black switch next to the nitro booster."
"Hang on, 3!" 0 shouted and punched the nitro booster. 3 shrieked as the world became a massive great blur. Cars seemed insignificant, but thanks to Pi's help, 0 avoided every last one. They passed the insane police car.
"We passed him, you nitwit!" 3 shouted at him and dug her hands deeper into his stomach. "Do something!"
"Okay!" 0 performed what had to be the most insane stunt he could think of: a high-speed U-turn, which would result in skid marks on the street that the city would spend many months attempting to clean. 0 switched off the nitro and activated the machine gun turrets, blasting the squad car to bits. 0 didn't waver his guns, and the end result was that the squad car came to a screeching halt mere feet away from the rangers.
Then the Dark Sapphire Ranger exploded out of the car and 0 leveled him with bullets. Sappho fell, and the rangers didn't move from the vehicle. "Pi, activate my loudspeaker system," 0 ordered.
"Done."
"This is PKM," 0 broadcast to the Dark Sapphire Ranger. "Stand down immediately, or we will continue the barrage. In a few moments, we will be taking you into custody. Hand over the Dark Emerald now."
"What is he doing!"
The Dark Sapphire Ranger rose, right as rain, the Dark Emerald clutched in one hand, a scimitar in the other. "You think a little bit of bullet rain is gonna break me, suckers!" He cackled again and swung his sapphire scimitar. "I have the unbreakable body! I can't be touched by the likes of you weaklings!" He slashed his sword through the air and skipped to one of the passerby civilians that happened to be standing around. "But these people? Oh no. They're quite vulnerable. Watch!" He slashed his sword down and it stuck into the arm of the woman, who shrieked in agony. "Let's see how much of a pincushion I can make of her!"
"Go!"
This time, however, the activation was different. Some kind of gauge emerged at the side of the screen, timing him. He didn't really notice it, he was much too focused on stopping Sappho from cutting the girl again. She was already bleeding heavily. He smashed Sappho to the ground before the gauge emptied and the scimitar was removed. He collected the girl, and passed her to who looked like her father. "Look after her." The father nodded and shouted for someone to call the hospital.
"Pi, did you see that gauge?" 0 asked.
"Yeah. Something's happening with the suit's programming."
"What?"
As if to answer his question, the visor did indeed change. A new display, located on the bottom of the screen, started forming and charging itself. "Synchronization Drive activated. Charging up." At this, 0 grew confused. That hadn't been Pi speaking.
"What's a Synchronization Drive?" 0 asked.
"No idea," answered Pi. "Try using it when the gauge is full."
"Roger," he said, then turned to 3. "3, help me buy some time!"
"For what?" 3 asked, though she jumped straight into the fray to fight Sappho.
"Don't know!" he shouted. "Just do it!"
Both of them struck against Sappho, forcing him back. The Dark Sapphire Ranger struck back, but the tough fabric of 0's ranger uniform prevented any significant damage from occurring. "How many bruises do you want, Golden Boy?" the Dark Sapphire Ranger asked. "I can cut them for you now and save the trouble!" He retrieved his scimitar and resumed his onslaught.
"Just enough to get this!" 0 retorted. 3 ducked beneath him and Sappho and in one swift motion grabbed the Dark Emerald. Sappho shrieked and threw his sword downwards. 0 shoved 3 out of the way and grunted. The sword sliced through his armor, right into his shoulder. 0 gasped in pain and Sappho shivered with pleasure. "Now you're in trouble." He grabbed the sword's blade and kept it inside his shoulder.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Synchronization Drive charged," said the mysterious dark voice. "Producing options." The gauge transformed into two choices: Agility or Volt Tackle. 0 smiled through his pain and started to laugh himself.
"What's so funny, Golden Boy?" Sappho demanded and drove the sword deeper.
"Let's find out what this baby can do!" He activated it. "Synchronization Drive: Volt Tackle!"
"What're you babbling about-" Sappho stopped taunting and shrieked in agony. 0 groaned as a vast amount of electricity burst through his body and conducted itself through the metallic sword. Sappho's screams were unbearable, but 0 didn't really notice them on account that he was experiencing the worst electric shock he had ever had. After years of being shocked by Pi, he had expected immunity from the pain at this point. But this was different: his body was creating the electricity, and it was ripping through him. He roared in agony and vaguely heard someone shouting at him.
Both rangers experienced an equal amount of pain and finally the area around them exploded in an electrical storm. 0 was thrown away from the blast radius like a rag doll. He heard 3 scream and someone was supporting him. He glanced dimly around. The Dark Sapphire Ranger was gone.
What had happened?
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Serena Brine panicked. Never before had she seen anything like what her partner had just done. She lowered the ranger's body onto the alley's pavement gingerly, not wanting to hurt him any more then he had already been. Her analysis had told her that he was still alive, but his heartbeat was irregular from the electric exposure. She patched herself into 0's link to talk to Pi. She glanced around but no one disturbed them.
"Pi? You have any idea what's going on?" she asked.
"We're…okay…" it replied, its voice ragged. "Just…he's gonna be out for a while… He's awake…just in constant pain"
"Do you have any idea what happened?" she asked.
"Can't be sure. He activated something called a Synchronization Drive. Do you know what that is?"
She shook her head. "We should probably return to our civilian forms and get home." She deactivated her ranger uniform and Pi did the same for 0. His shoulder wound looked pretty bad, and she gasped when she saw it. "We can't take him to a hospital. I'll need to get him home and use the first aid gear."
"Will it be enough?" Pi asked.
She smirked. "He's been through a lot. He can handle something like this." She lifted the hulking 0, which was impressive, since she was dwarfed by her partner's size. The little ranger huffed and headed for the street, where she hailed a cab. After a minute, one pulled over.
"Where to, lady?" the cab driver asked.
"My husband had a little too much to drink," she explained and shook 0 to prove it. 0's gigantic coat hid his still-bleeding wound, and she shoved him into the backseat. "Can you take us to the gym? Our apartment is right across from it." The cabbie started the meter and pulled away from the curb, heading for the gym.
Serena fingered the Dark Emerald in her pocket. It was spooky, sure, but at least they had gotten it. But then she looked at 0. The color in his face was gone, and she was pretty sure that wound in his shoulder was going to kill him if she didn't do something quickly. Fortunately, the cab ride took less time then she expected. For some reason, people didn't feel like driving, so most of the streets were empty. They stopped ten minutes later, which felt like an eternity to Serena, who thanked the cabman by tossing the money she owed and hauling 0 out of the car as quickly as she could.
She took the elevator to their room and slammed the door shut. Before she took care of 0, she locked the door to make certain she wouldn't be bothered and lowered 0 onto her mattress. "Pi, I'm turning on my laptop so you can watch and surf the net." She flipped open the computer, and Pi's worried face appeared on the screen. "I'll go get the first aid kit." She retreated to the kitchen, where she located the kit and returned to 0's side. She stripped him of his shirt and his coat and he groaned loudly.
The wound wasn't infected, but it was deep. The sword had sliced quite neatly into some of the muscle and tissue, drawing a steady amount of blood that had begun to clot. In addition, the electricity had taken an even more severe injury. She pressed onto the wound, and the ranger grunted in agony. The bleeding stopped, and Serena thanked whatever Legendary Pokemon that looked after 0 that his shoulder injury was minimal. The problem was the electricity that was still running rampart through his body.
"I don't know what to do Pi." Serena's voice was shaky and hesitant. She bandaged the wound as best she could and turned to the mouse on the computer. "Pi, what can I do?" she asked. "I don't know what to do!" Her face was warm and her eyes hurt from the tears she was trying to hide.
Pi was even worse off, and regretted the fact that it could not even touch 0. "Wait," it said and looked to the White Ranger. "What about short-circuiting him?"
"What?" she asked and rubbed her eyes.
"If we put him in some water, the electricity tearing his systems apart should short out and stop," Pi explained. "He used to do it to me when we had solar flares."
"You want me to…put him in the tub?" For a moment, the seriousness of the situation evaporated and she grinned. "Sure… I can do that…"
"Serena, please!" Pi scolded. "Now is not the time to be thinking like-"
Serena closed the laptop and headed straight for the bathroom. The apartment was simplistic, and so was their bathtub, which was little more then a man-sized sink with some extra faucets. She started the water, and warmed it up to a nice temperature. When the tub was filled halfway, she shut off the water and turned to the hulking, groaning mass that was her partner. He was already half-naked, so she slipped off his boots and his pants. He murmured something, she couldn't make it out, and she dragged him to the bathtub. She shut down everything electronic in the apartment, knowing that something bad was probably going to happen the moment she put him into contact with water.
"Don't worry, big guy," she whispered to him. "Serena's gonna make you all better." If he heard her, he didn't acknowledge it, but apparently very grateful for the fact that he had been allowed to keep his underwear on, because he didn't fight her, not that he really could. She stood him up as best she could and helped him into the tub, moving away the moment his skin touched the water.
The water started hissing, and Serena noticed crackling electricity running down 0's muscles. It should have burned him, but it didn't. A scraping sound echoed from him, and he screamed loudly. For a moment, Serena lifted her eyes to stare at him writhing, but knew that if she touched him she would die. Then, the light abruptly stopped and 0 started coughing loudly. Serena approached him, but kept her distance.
"A-are you okay?" she asked him.
"S-serum," 0 groaned. "And alcohol. Now."
"I really don't think those are going to-"
"Now!" His voice was hoarse and she didn't dare disobey him. "In my jacket."
She retreated to where his blood-stained jacket was and retrieved the already-loaded syringe and a beer from the fridge. She placed them on the floor near him so he could reach the materials, as she wasn't sure whether the water was still electrically-charged. After what appeared to be an extensive struggle with his muscular system, his arm slunk down and grabbed the needle. He drove it into his skin immediately and shot himself full of the dark blue liquid. He groaned in satisfaction and smiled.
"T-thank you, 3," he muttered and grabbed the beer. "I'll be alright now." He drank heavily from the bottle and soon finished it. "Okay, that's better." He got out of the tub, thought he was shaking, then simultaneously realized that he was almost naked and that Serena was standing directly in front of him with a facial expression that was rapidly becoming dangerous.
"3, could you look away while I find some clothes?" he asked. Serena's stunt with the bathtub had gotten him dripping wet. He was wearing only a torn shred of underwear that barely managed to cover him. He stepped out of the bathtub, but slipped on some of the water that had split out of the tub during his thrashing episode and accidentally fell.
Serena grinned and her instincts took over as she allowed him to fall on her, in an effort to make it seem as thought she was just trying to help him. 0's gigantic body was crushing, but warm at the same time, especially since she wasn't wearing the maximum amount of clothing for the weather outside.
"Ow," she grumbled and rubbed her head. She then noticed that she was staring at him. His long black hair was draped over the majority of his face, but she could still see the hardened line that Serena had long since learned to distinguish as his lips. "Hey, 0?"
"Yeah?" For some reason, she thought his voice sounded significantly deeper and throatier then normal.
She kissed him. It was just for a moment, but in the moment their lips touched, her heart soared. "That's for saving me," she said and felt a slight tingle creep on her face, which was nothing compared to the blush on 0's face, which had transformed it into something resembling a cherry.
0 stood up immediately and used his wristwatch to change into his PKM uniform, which was better then lying on Serena almost naked. "Uh…you're welcome," he replied and did not look her directly in the eyes. He removed the goggles and sat down at the table, where he put the headgear. "So…" He appeared quite flustered from her gesture. "Can I take a look at the Dark Gem?"
She nodded. "Of course," she replied and produced the near-black gem. 0 took it, but dropped it almost immediately.
"3, is this the gem you took from the Dark Sapphire Ranger?" he asked. "Are you absolutely certain?"
She nodded. "It's the only one he had."
He looked up and groaned. "This isn't the Dark Emerald."
"What?"
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"Don't worry, Mr. Birch," the doctor said with a smile. "I'm certain that both your sister and niece will be fine. A few hours sleep, and I promise they'll be right as rain."
"Thank you," Max replied and boarded the ambulance that Sarah and May were going to be traveling in. His parents were going to be meeting them at the hospital, he had just called them to let them know what had happened. They were shocked and his father Norman had almost gone for his gun rack to go deal with the Dark Sapphire Ranger himself when he heard what had happened to his daughter and grandchild, but persuasion from Max had kept the retired gym leader from going on a vigilante streak. Still, as he sat next to the unconscious bodies of Sarah and May, he wasn't quite sure why he himself hadn't stayed with the Golden and White Rangers and fought.
His hand curled up into a fist. Inside that fist was a very small, but very noticeable, emerald.
Unknown to Max, the Dark Emerald began to pulsate as it bonded itself to its newest host. However, by the time they arrived at the hospital, the fusion was complete, and Max thought he could hear someone laugh as he put the emerald back into his pocket.