Disclaimer: No Ownership of Rangers Here
A/N: For reference, you can consider the Rainbow Brotherhood stories to be background for Summer's Boys...at about the time of the time travel, there is a divergence in the time stream the cause will be explained later.
Cam walked into the Ranger Room and glanced around, Hailey was waiting for him on the other side of the room, "Hey," she said, "we're back here."
"Ok," Cam said, trying to absorb the shock he felt at seeing Hailey looking older. He'd just seen her a week back when she'd come down to see the work he'd been doing. To see the lines on her face and the white hairs made him feel deeply unsettled. "Did you help build this place?" He asked.
"Some," Hailey said, "but it was Dr K who did the work. She created the bio-hardware they use from scratch, right down to creating the connection to the Grid."
"Why didn't she just use the Lightspeed equations?" Cam asked as he joined her and they started down a sterile corridor.
"Because nobody told her they existed," Hailey replied.
"Wait," Cam said, "Dr K is a woman? She seemed…masculine."
Hailey chuckled, "She hides her identity from the Rangers for several reasons. You won't meet her in person either; she'll remote access the lab as she does the Garage. Don't disabuse the Rangers from using the masculine pronouns; it's a layer of protection for her."
"Why does she need protection?" Cam asked.
"Because Venjix knows that I am the one who will engineer his downfall," the synthesized voice announced. "Also, the people of Corinth are uneasy with technology now, the work that I do is very similar to what Venjix does. There is a five percent chance that if my identity and the work I do for Corinth is revealed there will be an uprising."
"Oh," Cam said he glanced at Hailey. She had a fond smile on her face as they walked passed a set of double doors. There was a hiss of air and as Cam spun, the doors shut firmly.
"The Rangers are not permitted back here," Dr K said, "I close the doors to prevent their curiosity from overwhelming their understanding of the rules."
"In here," Hailey said, and led the way into a work room. She settled into one of the chairs, "Have a seat, Cam," she added.
Cam sat down, trying not to look around like he was a tourist. "Now," Dr K said, "what happened to bring you here?"
Cam took a deep breath, "It all started six months ago, when the Elder and Senior Rangers requested a meeting with myself, Jus- uh, Blue Turbo Ranger, Mr. Hartford and Angela Fairweather. Blue Turbo turned down the request, but the three of us arrived at the meeting…
"Cam," Shane said, "thanks for coming."
Cam nodded slightly, "Of course I'm going to be here for this. What's going on?"
"I'll explain in a minute," Shane replied. "Go in and find a seat."
The meeting took place at the Aquabase, and the conference room reflected that, having a wall of what Cam knew couldn't be glass. Beyond that was a beautiful shot of the sea floor, teaming with life. In the room, Cam spotted people he'd met briefly, most notable being Mr. Hartford, the guy who had created Operation Overdrive. In addition, there was Dr. Tommy Oliver, who nodded at him, and Hailey Kendall, who was playing with her wedding ring. "All right," a tall, dark haired man said as Shane walked into the room, "this is everyone."
"Would everyone find a seat please," he continued.
Cam maneuvered himself to be beside Shane, figuring if he had to ask questions he could get his teammate to be more forthcoming than any of the others. Shane flashed him a slight grin before turning to look at the speaker.
The door swung shut with a hiss of air. "My name, for those of you who have never met me, is Jason Lee Scott. I'm Earth's Elder Red. This is my wife, Elder Yellow Trini Scott." The pretty Asian woman beside him waved her hand slightly. "I'll let the rest of you introduce yourself one at a time."
"I'm Billy Cranston of Aquitar," said the man beside Trini, "I am technically Elder Earth Blue, but as I am no longer a citizen of Earth the title is mostly ceremonial."
"Dr Tommy Oliver," Dr Oliver said easily. "But I'm sure everyone here has met me at some point." There was laughter around the table.
"I'm Hailey Kendall," Hailey said, "although most of you know me as Hailey Viktor. I worked with Tommy on the Dino Thunder project although I've never been a Ranger myself."
"I'm Carter Grayson," said the next man, "I'm Lightspeed Red and I'm mostly here because Jason and Tommy asked to use the Aquabase for this meeting."
"Angela Fairweather," spoke the next woman. "I was head of the Ranger research team here at Lightspeed and developed the Lightspeed Rangers' weapons and vehicles."
"I'm Shane Clark," Shane said, "Senior Earth Red and Air Ninja."
"Cam Watanabe," Cam said, "I did the technical work for Ninja Storm and served as the Green Samurai Ranger."
"Andrew Hartford," Mr. Hartford said from his spot next to Cam, "I developed the technology for Operation Overdrive."
"Mack Hartford," the young man beside Mr. Hartford said, "I'm the Red Overdrive Ranger. I'm not exactly sure why I'm here."
"Thank you," Jason said, "the reason we've asked for this particular meeting is to place a task before all of you." He looked around the table, "Among this group we have four people who have developed and adapted Ranger technology, usually working from scratch or without guides. This talent is important because our world is in danger and it is not a danger that can be solved by using weakened morphers and wishes." He moved away from the table a bit and began to pace.
"Not long after I became a Ranger, I made friends with a group of Red Rangers. Among them was a Syrian Ranger who became a close friend of mine. He was working on a project called SPD, which was meant to serve as a police force amongst the Syrian colonies, using experimental morphers." Jason stopped and turned, "These transformation devices are not Ranger Morphers such as we use. They tap the grid, and the bearers take on a Ranger like aspect, but they are not Rangers. There is a filter on the device that diffuses the Grid to such an extent that anyone could pick up the morpher and use it. The inventor was an Eltarean Silver Ranger who wanted to create a group that could, say, fight the Putties, or Kelzacks."
Jason started pacing again, "Four years later, Syria was destroyed by an unknown enemy and the SPD became Space Patrol Delta. They offered their services to small colonies without Rangers, and began to gain a reputation. On paper, SPD is a wonderful organization." Trini cleared her throat delicately, and Jason nodded, "However, I'm not here to rant about SPD. The short version is that SPD has been corrupted and instead of protecting planets in need they are slowly but systematically destroying young Ranger Teams that don't have a strong Senior network such as Earth has developed. We have people who are trying to find the source of the rot so that it can be burned out, but for now, we want to make it very clear that Earth is not open to their designs."
"How?" Cam heard himself asking.
"There are several ways," Jason said, "one of them we ask each of you, Andrew, Cameron, Hailey and Angela, to consider. We'd like to reactivate the morphers that were drained during battle." He looked at them, "And we'd like you four to spearhead that effort."
Cam sighed, "We agreed, naturally, and set to work immediately. Since I was intimately familiar with the Wind and Thunder morphers, I worked with them and when Hailey became pregnant, I added the Dino Thunder morphers to my studies." He looked from Hailey to the ubiquitous computer screen, "I thought I had managed to get the morphers reenergized without causing damage to us or causing the Power to seek new bearers, today was the test. Shane had work at the Academy and couldn't be there, but Dustin could. Blake and Tori didn't want to be there because Tori is going to have their second child any day now and neither of them wanted to risk it. Trent should have been here, but he's laid up in the hospital with a broken leg. Dr O told us that he had his Zeo Powers and that was enough for him."
He stood up and began to pace, "I don't understand," he said, "I did all the tests and they worked. I had every safeguard in place, and every test I conducted with the Samurai Amulet came out perfectly. This time, when I flipped the switch to begin the recharge it seemed to go as it should, but when we morphed, we ended up here." He turned to them, "I just don't understand what we did wrong."