The fight hadn't lasted long, only a short ten minutes. But the moment it ended, two of the Rangers fell to the ground. Knowing they weren't hurt, the other two did not turn to their comrades. Rather, the team just was still for a minute. Any bystander would have thought something was terribly wrong, and they would have been right in a way. The team wasn't hurt physically. They were beyond exhausted.
Jack finally moved. The others couldn't look at him. "We did it," he tried to exclaim to no one in particular. The words fell flat and Sky slowly moved to where Syd had fallen. Turning to face his teammates, Jack continued. "And in record time."
No one felt impressed. Jack gave a half shrug with all the energy he could afford, and took a step. His knee fought him and brought him down on it. "This has to stop," Z declared loudly. "I'm so tired!"
The other's head movements were shallow, but agreeable. Bridge moved to Sam and held out a hand to help him to his feet. "I'm not taking that," Sam stated quietly. In the aftermath of the battle's silence, everyone heard and all made an attempt to turn and see why. Bridge did not lower this hand. "Just leave me. Let them finish me off. It would be easier than this."
Bridge's face inside his helmet was stone. The emotions on the inside were as controlled as he could be with the predicament they had been facing. When Cinnamon told him there were 16 more on the way, he didn't think eight of them would have shown up within hours of each other. There had been no sleep for 36 hours and the team felt it. "Give me your hand," Bridge said in a low commanding voice.
Sam looked sharply at him. He wasn't used to that from Bridge. The things exhaustion brings out in people. Reluctantly, he reached up to the Green Ranger. Getting to his feet, the team slowing trudged back to their headquarters. Commander Cruger said nothing as the team headed to their quarters instead of debriefing. It would have been the same song and dance anyway.
Sam fell asleep on the couch and the rest of the Rangers went to their rooms. Bridge planned on only resting his head for a moment, but that moment lasted three hours. When he woke, he immediately knew something wasn't right. The Green Ranger reached for the lamp next to his bed, but the sensor wouldn't read him. Sitting up slowly, Bridge realized nothing had power. Throwing the covers off himself, he went for the door. He hit his head at his own stupidity when it refused to open.
Turning back to the other boys, the Green Ranger made the decision to wake his poor teammates. If there was an attack, there were stuck here. Jack wouldn't allow himself to be bothered as Bridge shook him. Giving up, he turned to Sky who was moving uncomfortably having heard the noise from the other two. "Sky," Bridge said quietly, shaking him harder than he meant to.
Annoyed, Sky opened an eye and hissed, "What do you want?"
Bridge knelt so the Blue Ranger could see his face. "The power is out."
"So?" Sky said, closing his eye. Bridge waited a couple seconds before shaking him again. "What?" demanded Sky, eye popping open with fire.
"The power is out," Bridge repeated with some urgency.
"So?" Sky said again. Before he could close his eyes again, he sat up quickly. He looked intently at Bridge, before moving to stand. "Jack!" the Blue Ranger yelled loudly.
Bridge switched from Sky's bedside to Jack and shook again. Jack groaned. "Wake up," suggested Bridge.
"No," Jack said, struggling with a little effort to get away from Bridge.
Sky was up and at the door trying to figure out how to get out. "Jack, the power is out," Bridge explained, taking his hands off the Red Ranger.
Jack's mouth began to from the word 'so', but he realized quicker than Sky what Bridge was saying. Flipping over towards Bridge, Jack said, "Nothing works?" Bridge shook his head as he stood and proceeded to try and help Sky. Lifting his communicator, Jack tapped at it in the dark. "Z? Syd? Sam? Can any of you hear me?"
Silence greeted him causing Jack to try again as he stood. Finally giving up, Jack looked around for the source of light. Dusk. The sun wasn't going to last long. "Isn't there a manual override?" the Red Ranger asked.
Bridge and Sky stopped talking and looked at each other with an expression that cleared said, "Duh." Both men reached for the panel, but Sky got to it first. Pulling the level inside, the door opened enough for the three men to get there fingers around the side of the door and pull it open. A gloved hand cause them to jump halfway through.
"Hey guys," Sam said, joining them. He sounded very tired, but struggling to be alert. "I take it this is a bad thing."
"I wouldn't call it good," Jack replied as he struggled with the door. "Can you tell if the girls are up?"
Sky slipped through the opening as Sam said, "Honestly, I just figured out you were up from the door being pried open."
"Sydney!" Sky's voice made the boys jump. The two had joined Sam in the main room . Jack wanted to take stock in what was going on, but obviously Sky had a different priority. "Sydney! Wake up! It's an emergency!" He banged on the door. Bridge walked over to the door to see if he could find an external override. Sky kept pounding on the door as Sam and Jack watched with concerned looks.
"Um, Sky," Bridge said trying to interrupt him. Sky either couldn't hear him from the noise or was ignoring him. "Sky," Bridge tried a little louder. Still not getting any results, the Green Ranger waved his hands in front of the Blue Ranger's face.
"What?" Sky demanded, sharply turning on Bridge.
Bridge opened his mouth as he pointed to the door about to explain that he doubted they could hear the girls even if they were up, but he didn't get the chance as they heard Z calling out. Jack was at the door in the next instant. "Z! There is a manual override," Jack yelled through the door.
"No duh!" Sydney replied from inside the room as the door popped open a bit. Three boys and two girls pulled at the door until the girls could squeeze through. "I guess it's good we had that emergency base training after all," Syd said to Sky as he pulled her over to the side as the others tried to open the door for the main room to the hallway.
"Syd," Sky started talking, but wasn't sure how to keep going.
"I know," she said smiling at him. Turning away, she mentioned, "we should try to find some artificial light." Following Sky, the training the two had received began to kick in and the Rangers grabbed provisions. Without a word, the Pink and Blue Rangers startled the others by shining light on the door.
Z shrieked a little, but the boys just jumped. Dispersing the emergency equipment, Jack split the group into three teams. Z and him were going to try to get to the command center. Sam and Bridge needed to get out of the building in case the city was in trouble, while freeing as many cadets and staff as they could. Sky and Syd's mission was to figure out how to get the power back.
Z had to move quickly to keep up with her leader. "Jack?" she said. "Slow down. We should check these doors."
"We can't," Jack dismissed the idea.
"Um, why not?" Z demanded.
"Cause we have to shut off the self destruct," stated Jack.
"The what?" Z shouted, stopping mid-step. Running to catch up, she said, "What do you mean self destruct?"
"It's a protocol," explained the Red Ranger. "In the event the power is off for longer than two hours, it's assumed the base has been compromised and a distress signal would be transmitting and the self destruct runs for three hours and the base is history."
"That's stupid!" Z exclaimed. "Who would make that kind of protocol?" Jack shrugged as they reached the lift's doors. "How long do we have?"
"I don't know," admitted Jack. "Hopefully, long enough." He pulled out a suction from his supplies and attached it to the door. Z used hers on the other door and both Rangers began to pull.
Syd and Sky were moving at a decent pace towards the main Power Room. "You don't think this is a drill do you?" asked Syd, watching the way Sky was reacting to the situation.
"I'll be as shocked as you if it is," he stated not slowing for even a second.
"Then you won't be that shocked," Sydney stated almost under her breath. Sky slowed as they reached the hatch for the internal tunnel system. Sky opened it with his suction and lead the Pink Ranger three floors down to the middle of the base. He opened the hatch to the corridor outside the Power Room and climbed out.
The Blue Ranger was about to turn back to help he companion out when he heard pounding and yelling. Rushing to the door, he could hear the men trapped inside and something about their shouting put him on edge. He pounded back causing the men to pause. "Move away from the door!" he shouted the instruction and readied his blaster.
"You're going to use that?" Syd asked getting to him.
"I'm going to set it on a tight beam to cut the door," Sky said. "Suctions wouldn't work and these doors need to be open now. Grab yours. I'll show you how." Sydney did as she was told, and after a minute of following what Sky did, they were ready. "Move away from the door," Sky instructed loudly.
Hoping they listened, the two Rangers began cutting through the door. It look longer than Syd thought it would, but it did work. Pushing the cut part into the room, Sky immediately took command of the situation. "Is anyone hurt?" he asked the room.
"No," one man stepped forward. "But we need to get out of here."
"Why?" asked Sydney, not able to help herself.
"The self destruct," the man explained as two others ran out past the Rangers.
Syd turned to Sky sharply, but the Blue Ranger didn't look phased. "The entire base is dead. We need to get power back. Do you know what happened?"
The man shook his head. "There wasn't any warning," he explained. "One second, we had power. The next, it was gone. Nothing out of the ordinary happened."
Of course at the at moment, the building shook a little. "We're under attack," Sky said loud enough so all the workers knew what was happening. "We need to get the power back and get it back now!"
The last team of Rangers knew more than either of the other teams. Bridge had been working with Boom and Dr. Manx enough to know how to get from point A to point B the fastest. Sam had his work cut out for him to follow. Before he realized where they were, Bridge had them in the main lobby for their headquarters. It was very dark, darker than it should have been. "I hate emergency protocols!" exclaimed Bridge.
Sam was about to ask why, when Bridge and his light took off. "Hey, wait up!" called the Omega Ranger. He stopped short when Bridge's light rested on the metal panels closed down on the main doors. "Nothing is ever easy."
"You actually thought it would be?" Bridge asked. Suddenly he was on the move again. Sam decided to stay put unless Bridge told him to move. The Green Ranger appeared know what he was doing. "Where is it?" the Green muttered to no one in particular.
The Omega Ranger listened to the multiple metal and other objects being thrown on the floor. Some were louder than others. By the sounds, Bridge was throwing certain objects farther away. "Gotcha!" came the cry as the Green Ranger as he raced back to other Ranger. "Here, take this."
Sam took one of the two cords attached to a small object. "What are we doing?" he asked.
"The panels have an independent system," Bridge explained. "There is a failsafe that if we give it power, it will open all the panels."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" asked Sam. "We could be exposing the building..." He trailed off when he realized Bridge wasn't listening at all. It was very obvious when Bridge just started walking off. "Ok, how do we do this then?"
"Plug that in on the top of that control box," Bridge said moving to another control box to do the same thing. Two minutes later the panels were rising, and Bridge was screaming out his morphing call as Sam rushed through the doors. Outside of SPD headquarters, the ground was littered with robot parts and the smell of smoke was in the air. The building itself wasn't in the city, but rather in a remote area. Being a Zord, someone moved it.
The two Rangers didn't have time to worry about that. In a short distance, they could see and hear a fight between evil and two people Sam didn't recognize. They reached the fight just as a monster launch eye-beams at the base.
TBC
