I looked at Scott laying on the exam table that I normally inhabited in Dr. K's lab and felt bad about my actions over the last twenty four hours. Drake had been recaptured and I made everyone go out looking for Drake. We were out in the waste lands driving in circles looking for anything familiar. I felt so strongly about finding him that I kept everyone going. We had been out in the wastelands when Scott had collapsed again. Flynn and Summer weren't taking any chances and drove him right back to Corinth. Scott was our leader and we needed him to lead us, his health took priority and I could just stand there and pray for my brother's safe return.

I looked at the scans as Scott walked off to go lay down. I noted Summer's concern over Dr. K's expression and I frowned, "It isn't what I have correct?"

"It isn't the virus that much is clear." Dr. K shook her head, "but I haven't discovered its exact function."

Gem walked out of the lab and came running back in a few minutes later, "I just ran upstairs and while I was there I checked in Scott's room." Gem stopped to catch his breath, "he wasn't there."

Gemma raced out to the garage and looked around, "he isn't in the garage."

Dr. K was just about to order a sweep of the building to see if he had collapsed somewhere when the alarms went off. "I will search for Scott; we have a breach in sector E-12 which is down town."

Summer dragged Ziggy by the arm, "We will go see who has come to visit, notify us if you find Scott."

We got to sector E-12 to find General Shifter wreaking havoc. I raced in and attacked, it didn't matter who was attacking the city I would waste them even if it was a fallen General. The only one I wouldn't hurt was Drake and that didn't matter now that Drake was on our side.

Shifter had become stronger than the other times we had fought him. He had us all on our backs and we were trying to figure out what to do when Scott appeared and stood next to Shifter. He was clutching his side but he was morphed.

Scott stood in front of shifter and when we were able to fire our weapons at shifter we ordered Scott to move but he responded in pain as if he was struggling to talk, "I can't!"

It dawned on me, "The thing in his chest. Shifter is controlling him with it."

Shifter gloated and flipped a switch causing Scott to pull his weapon on us.

I sighed, "We have to shoot, Scott would want us to." I pointed my weapon at Scott but couldn't press the trigger. I realized that even though Scott and I didn't get along much of the time he had grown to be like a brother.

A torrent of blue laser shots surrounded Shifter and Scott fell to his knees as the control box was destroyed. Scott quickly scrambled away from the device as it fell out of his side. And Ziggy looked for the source of the explosion.

"Uhh, is that who I think that is?" Ziggy asked pointing at a staircase behind us.

I looked up and gasped as I recognized Drake's profile. I ran towards my brother happy to see that he had escaped. As soon as I reached him my excitement turned to horror as he failed to recognize me and Summer pointed out the strange circuitry imbedded in Drakes forehead.

Drake addressed me in a cold computerized voice while I attempted to remind him of who he was. Drake then shoved me off and threw me to the ground like a piece of trash before jumping off the steps mindlessly.

I stood there and nearly cried at the thought of Drake being lost to me again. I didn't know how much more loss I could take. I didn't get much time to stew because Shifter made a giant come back. Scott was unable to join us as his energy levels were low from fighting himself. But the eleven of us managed to put together the Ultra Zord and Ziggy did the unbelievable act of firing both his and Scott's weapons. I had to admit the guy was dimwitted but he was either very brave to channel that much energy or that much stupid then I had always evaluated him to be.

We soared right through Shifter using a burning attack however we learned that the maneuver didn't defeat Shifter it just shrunk him. Scott was able to track and finish Shifter off for us though.

When we got back to the garage Scott came back with the key that had been inside him and Dr. K ran some tests on it. She announced that the key wasn't broken, just damaged and that she could partially repair it. Ziggy made some off the wall comments about using it to attract ladies for his potential harem which Dr. K shut him down.

I approached Dr. K at the mention of mind control, "Could we use it on Drake?"

"Potentially yes however because it was damaged you will only have three to four seconds before you will lose control of him." Dr. K responded to me

After going through a rundown I pretty much made the decision to use it on Drake and the others supported me. We owed this to Drake to get him back. Dr. K gave me a launcher for the key and everyone else devised a plan on how to catch Drake after I had shot him.

As we were planning the alarms sounded and Gem and Gemma went ahead of us to buy some time. They reported back that the Attack bot looked like a giant set of barbells and that Drake was nowhere in sight. We still went on as planned because I knew my brother would return to the city, Venjix after all wanted me destroyed.

I climbed into a snipers position where I could see the entire attack and the others calmly walked into a Grinder attack before they started fighting.

As I watched the battle from a rooftop looking for Drake he found me and attacked me causing me to lose the launcher and the key. I struggled to fight him; whatever Venjix had done to him had stripped everything that had been Drake from him. He was little more than a mindless machine in comparison to the Drake I had come to know as my brother. In fact his actions resembled the video Dr. K had made me watch of the time Venjix had gotten into my head.

Drake threw me off the rooftop and I morphed during the fall so that I landed fairly smoothly and not a pancake on the sidewalk. I raced for the launcher however Drake jumped down and got in my way. He had more control over jumping long distances than I ever did and it hurt to see how much like a machine he was acting.

We fought and fought and nothing I said seemed to get through to Drake. He used an upgraded laser finger on me and when I put my shield up it ate right through the shield. Drake seemed to watch me for a second and I could have sworn I saw something in his eyes but it was gone as soon as it had appeared, I knew he was still in there.

I grabbed the launcher and pointed at his retreating back but as much as I wanted to shoot it at him I kept hearing my team get smashed around by the bot they were fighting. In a last ditch attempt I turned and shot it at the bot allowing everyone else to destroy the bot. unfortunately Venjix started the download and the bot grew to zord size.

Despite the difficulty that everyone had at defeating it in normal size it was easily subdued by the road attack zord and the Mach megazord laser arrow attack.

We went back to the garage and I looked at the empty launcher with sadness. Ziggy had the pieces of the key and was trying to figure a way to recycle it with Gem and Gemma while Dr. K dragged me to the exam table to perform a scan on me.

I looked at the screen as she scanned and all I could see were mechanical bits and pieces taking over my body. My mood started to sink even lower.

"using the key on the bot was the right choice." Dr. K informed me as I started to frown.

"It didn't help Drake though did it?" I said bitterly as I turned my head away from the screen.

"We have plenty of time, we will get him." Flynn nodded as he took my hand.

"Actually we are almost out of time." Dr. K said losing all tact that she may have had in the last few hours. "The virus is at forty percent, I estimate that when the virus hits fifty percent Venjix will have your mind."

I ripped the electrodes off and stormed off not wanting to hear any more about my growth rate.

I was able to brood around for a few days but once I was back up to snuff and thinking clearly I found that Ziggy face a possible ghosting by Fresno Bob for acts he had committed before becoming a ranger. Surprisingly some of it was stuff that had been blamed on Flynn. Flynn wasn't angry at Ziggy however because if Ziggy hadn't done what he had Flynn would be the blue ranger, I wouldn't be in Corinth and Flynn would more than likely have the lame ability to teleport himself into dangerous locations.

Miraculously now that I was feeling better about myself Venjix resumed his attacks. We went out to find Kilobyte attacking the city personally. We fought Kilobyte demorphed because our morphers were down for maintenance. But after a butt whooping and Ziggy getting captured Dr. K rebooted the system for us. even morphed we got trashed by Kilobyte.

We were defeated and when we did a headcount we found the Ziggy was missing and that his morpher was untraceable. We proceeded to search the city but the only thing we found was Kilobyte when he returned to the city. Gem brought us the Rail Sabre and news that Ziggy had been located and was being joined by Gemma as he spoke to us.

With the rail sabre we nearly finished Kilobyte but he was able to save himself by starting a download and growing therefore reversing the energy we had shot at him. Because Ziggy was missing we did a melee attack on Kilobyte and hoped for Ziggy and Gemma to return to us quickly.

We were about to attack when we were notified that Kilobyte and drake had been distracting us from the actions of the grinders. The city was strung up to explode. Scott ordered the formation of the Ultra zord. Kilobyte seemed to be heading the taskforce so he reasoned that if we destroyed him we might be able to throw his plan to the curb.

When we got back to the garage Ziggy attempted to run however Fresno Bob came to the garage and told Ziggy that because the blue ranger had saved his life he was willing to drop all debts owed.

Ziggy settled in and unpacked his suitcase and returned all the fruit to the fruit bowl which while he was in his room Flynn scrubbed each piece of fruit not wanting to chance what may have been in his suitcase.

Ziggy came down and sat next to me, "So what is with your family?"

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"You both are so high strung and tense." Ziggy exclaimed

I threw a pillow at Ziggy and stalked off to work on my car for a while before turning in for the night

RPM

I bolted upright in bed and grabbed my watch noticing that it was only a little past midnight. I should still be asleep. I had had a dream unlike all my others. Most dreams and nightmares I had had were either nonsensical dreams like most people had or regressed memories about my capture in the palace. This was a dream about the future.

The sun was shining and I was waking up at first I had been confused why I had slept all night. But then I felt really good and almost relaxed. I went down with a spring in my step and got a drink from the fridge while have a nice conversation with Flynn and Summer. It was Flynn who freaked out first and Summer screamed like a little girl when she noticed my hand. I looked down to see a completely robotic hand.

I held my hand up to my face in the moonlight and flexed it back and forth it was flesh covered and it responded the way it should. I was in control of my body. I knew though that sleep was gone for the night so I got dressed and made my bed.

I went downstairs but as I walked to the stairs I noticed that Gem and Gemma's room was empty and their door wide open. I went to fridge upon going downstairs but hesitated as I looked at my hand. I couldn't let fear guide me so I opened the door and hastily took out the pitcher of juice.

I sat on the couch and read a book. I saw the twins sneak back in and then slip into the lab. They seemed happy about something and I figured they were up to some strange project so I just shrugged it off.

Summer came down at six and looked me over, "Did you get up earlier than normal?"

I looked at Summer and shrugged before looking back at my book.

"You had more nightmares didn't you?" Summer asked frowning

"This wasn't about Drake though." I said easing her mind.

Gem and Gemma came running out of the lab, "Summer, Lacy come to the lab!"

They then ran upstairs to wake up Scott, Ziggy and Flynn. Summer and I walked into the lab to hear the alarms blaring. As soon as everyone was in the lab Dr. K sent us out to the city. Venjix wasn't wasting anytime this morning and I felt bad for the team members who still needed sleep.

I realized just how bad of a day it was going to be when the attack bot accompanying Drake turned out to be Venjix in the machine for lack of better terms. I hissed in anger wanting to take out all my frustration and blame on him but knowing that being Venjix himself his powers would supersede everything we had fought before.

I decided to make the best of this situation "You may be in a new body but you are still going down just like the other times!"

Venjix cackled, "Foolish rangers, you can talk but I become strong with every second that I am in this body." Venjix paused and then addressed Crunch and Drake, "Destroy them!"

Drake came charging at me along with a stream of grinders. I started wasting the grinders with little effort. I looked at Drake as he waited his turn and I noticed again that there was no feeling in his eyes. They were cold and mechanical. I shivered; Venjix was subduing everything that had made Drake human which included his ability to question orders. While I took care of the grinders Gem and Gemma came to keep Drake busy. I knew Gem and Gemma would do their best to try and rescue my brother so I fought a little easier but not too easy.

Once Flynn and I had finished the Grinders we went onto Venjix. I felt a little relieved that I was spared this battle to have to fight my brother. I soon regretted this as the attack bot that was guarding Venjix could control our weapons and the swallow the blast before regurgitating it at us tenfold.

As I stood up I felt a searing pain run through my head and it caused me to collapse for a few seconds. Flynn looked at me but I was afraid to show any weakness to Flynn, I didn't need to have the team pitying me during this battle so I fought through it and stood up to return to the battle.

The attack bot had Ziggy, Scott and Summer on the ground so I surprise attacked the bot giving a brief reprieve to them. However, soon after we totally blasted the bot with our weapons it sent our energy back at us which demorphed us. We fell back to the garage with loud complaints about being bested by an attack bot that looked like a clown.

I fought the pounding in my head and managed to hold it together but the others seemed to be screaming all the time or at least talking very loudly about how we were able to be demorphed so easily. I rested my arms on a computer monitor in the lab and tried to channel out all the loud noises.

Dr. K wasn't any quieter than the rest of the rangers. She went on to tell us that the attack bot had the ability to harness and manipulate our bio fields. I was in too much pain to go through everything that she said so I just processed the relevant parts. I thought I was holding it together pretty well until she spoke straight at me.

"Ranger Green you aren't looking too good right now." She stood up and got in my face.

I lifted my head and swallowed which seemed to relieve some of the pain for a few seconds, "I am fine."

"It could be the Venjix virus. We should do a scan to check you out." Dr. K started to leave her desk.

"I said I am fine, will you leave it at that. I don't need another scan right now. We need to get this bot off the street before it becomes any stronger!" I forced the words out before spinning on my heels and left the lab. If I was alone I wouldn't have to worry about noise control.

I had maybe only gone a couple of blocks towards the largest of Corinth's parks when Flynn came running up behind me. "Lacy I know we have gone over this a lot lately. It hurts to see you stuck in brooding moods. I want the sweet and not so volatile Lacy back."

"Tell that to the virus that has spread through my body." I shook my head as I kept on walking

"I don't care about the virus. The virus has not changed your mind, except for the one time you lost control but it hasn't changed how you think. The mind in your head is the same it was the day I met you." Flynn begged, "Please come back and have the scan done."

"I just need to be alone right now Flynn. I am sure I am fine. I just have a headache and I can't stand everyone screaming or the beeping in the lab." I tried to get Flynn off of my back.

"well come back and have the scan and if it isn't something related to the virus maybe Dr. K has something you can take to help the pain." Flynn begged me again, "If not I have a tension relief blend of smoothie that may help."

I smiled, "Alright I will come back and get the scan done but you need to keep everyone quiet."

"I can do that!" Flynn smiled and he patted me on the back

We had walked about a quarter of a block back to the garage when we were hit by a blast that was released by the attack bot. we morphed and faced off with the bot after agreeing that my scan could wait. The others showed up as we blasted it with our blaster and I ordered them to each blast the bot with their weapons as it returned fire on Flynn and I.

Surprisingly as their blast hit the attack bot as it blasted Flynn and I we were thrown back but not demorphed. At first I thought we had managed to blow it up but then it grew and I groaned; it could never be easy.

We called our zords even though Scott ordered me back to the lab for my scan. I couldn't leave the others. My scan had waited this long it could wait until we had blasted the revived bot back out of existence. We formed our megazord as it blasted the others from their cockpits.

I shook my head and looked back down at Scott. "My scan can wait. This bot cannot." Evidently Dr. K agreed because she had an upgraded code for us to use against the bot. we used it and managed to get rid of the bot without any further incident.

As I walked back to the lab with the other rangers I had to join in the laughter even though my head was still throbbing. It felt good to laugh for a little bit though.

"Your energy array must not have been very good for that bot!" Ziggy said loudly to which Flynn tried to quiet him down a few decibels.

Summer nodded, "The attack bot had a last meal that gave it severe indigestion."

"I have to admit that was clever of Dr. K!" Gem and Gemma each crowed

I looked at Gem and Gemma, "what were you doing out late last night?"

"Oh we couldn't…" Gemma started

"Sleep! So we went out to the…" Gem continued

"Wastelands to work on a project!" Gemma finished

Gem and Gemma then said together, "You will see in a little bit if our project had any results."

Our walk was over just a little too soon and I groaned as I walked right into the lab and onto the examination table. I dreaded the results that I was sure were soon to follow.

Dr. K picked up her scanner and I closed my eyes not wanting to see the reports as they appeared on the screens. I didn't open them again until I heard Summer bite back sorrowfully at the results. I was at fifty one percent.

I cringed at that number. Fifty percent had been the evil number for so long. Everything that it stood for had held the meaning end game in my head. "So it is over I guess?"

Dr. K shook her head, "it isn't over until it is over. Venjix could activate you any day however there is a chance."

"I don't like the thought that I could be taken over." I sighed as I swung my legs off the table and sat up.

"I have been working on an antidote. If you can hang on a few more days I will have try to have it ready." Dr. K held up a green vial and a special injector.

"Give it to me now and we will know if it works without the risk of me going crazy on you." I begged as I looked at the antidote.

"I can't do that. I have no idea what it would do to you. It could make you better or it could kill you. I can't willingly kill you before it hasn't been tested." Dr. K explained, "If you can hold on a few days I will have it fine-tuned and tested."

I walked over and picked the vial up and seriously thought about injecting myself right then and there. At least if I died it would be on my own terms but Summer and Flynn both put their hands on me and I set it down. I would wait as long as I could.