A/N: Another update! As always, life in the Garage goes on as they struggle to defeat Venjix. I was just chasing a few thoughts here, although there are a lot of interesting and exciting events coming up in future chapters. Events are rapidly coming to a head here, so I hope you can keep up. Enjoy!
Dillon watched as Scott, Summer, and Flynn wandered out of Summer's room again. The trio was talking quietly before Scott reeled Flynn in for a light kiss while Summer laughed at them. He remembered when he had first come to the Garage, how they had been so careful around each other, so careful about touching and talking, and even laughing. They had been so fragile that he had been waiting for them to break, for a battle to happen that broke them and destroyed Corinth. Dillon knew that he had not been good at reading people back then, too busy looking for threats to himself and reasons to run to wonder about the oddly fragile connections between Corinth's primary defenders.
It had been Ziggy who had changed things, the young not-yet-a-Ranger had been so oddly innocent, and so in need of a protector that Dillon found himself watching out for him. After they would come to the Garage, Dillon had been careful, afraid that a mistake on his part would send Ziggy back to the prison, a death sentence Dillon could not live with. He had watched Ziggy, noticing how he interacted with the others, especially Scott. Watching Ziggy showed him a different side to Scott, Summer, and Flynn, and from there, he had begun to find himself protecting them as well.
Not that Dillon would ever admit to anyone that he protected Scott specifically and the trio in general. Dillon was planning to bring that out the next time Colonel Truman tried to interfere with the Rangers. After the disappearance of Bridge and Elizabeth, and Ziggy's brief stint with mind control, Dillon expected Truman to have something planned to exert control over them, particularly Ziggy.
"Dillon." A slender set of fingers snapped in front of his face.
Dillon glanced up, "What?" He asked Summer as the yellow ranger stepped back.
"What were you thinking about? Flynn was trying to ask if you wanted breakfast," Summer said.
"Sorry," Dillon grunted, leaning over to look at Flynn, "and I wouldn't mind if you're cooking."
Flynn grinned at him, "You're learning Dillon. Aye, I'll cook. I'm in the mood for something simple, like scrambled eggs, bacon and toast."
"Sounds perfect," Dillon said.
"What were you thinking about?" Summer asked, leaning against the bar beside him.
Dillon eyed her for a moment, "I was thinking about change, actually. We've all changed, and I thought it was interesting."
"Are you feeling all right there?" Scott asked, leaning against the bar behind Summer.
Dillon shrugged, "Doc K and I were doing some preliminary tests with Moneta. I don't have any memories back, but there were some random impressions I got from it that were weird." Dillon really did not want to talk about what had happened, not to Summer and Scott. They had never known James Hart and would not understand how different James's thoughts and feelings were; Dillon was worried that those differences would make it difficult to integrate James's memories into who he had become.
"Good morning Rangers," Doctor K announced, startling Dillon from his thoughts.
"Good morning, Doctor K," Scott said, straightening up, "what's going on?"
"I have been studying the latest attack bot," Doctor K replied. "We must prepare ourselves to see another Venjix upgrade in the next few weeks. In addition, we have continued to receive readings of an attack bot at the edge of our sensor range. Gem and Gemma have left the dome to do another reconnaissance, as well to investigate the coordinates to three factories that might be sufficient to our needs. There has been no news about the missing people."
The alarms went off.
"That's not an attack bot," Scott said as Doctor K brought up the appropriate screens.
One of the screens switched to Colonel Truman, "Doctor K," he said.
"Colonel Truman," Doctor K replied quietly.
"Did you forget to inform us of new Zord testing?" Colonel Truman asked.
"New Zord," Doctor K repeated, "No, I haven't even finished coding anything."
"We've received reports of a Zord in the southwestern sector of the dome," Colonel Truman said, "It appears to resemble both dinosaurs and a train."
"Did you say a train?" Doctor K went very still.
"Yes," Colonel Truman replied.
Doctor K stared at him for a long moment, "The Zord you've detected is a prototype that we were forced to scrap, the Paleomax Megazord. Whatever activated it," she trailed off for a moment before jerking her head up, "Colonel Truman, thank you for the update. I will deal with the Megazord."
"Doctor K," Colonel Truman began.
"Have a good morning, Colonel Truman," Doctor K replied, "I have much to do, and I'm sure your day is just as busy." She killed the feed and turned to them, "Rangers, I have a personal request to make."
"What can we do?" Scott asked.
"The Paleomax was scrapped and placed in a technological waste dump in the southwestern portion of the dome, in the hills down there." Doctor K said, "Among other items relegated there where the drivers that were scrapped following an upgrade during the height of the Ranger and Venjix Projects. If Colonel Truman gets too curious, it is possible he may discover things that are better left unsaid."
Dillon bit his lip, but before any of them could say anything, the Garage door opened and Ziggy puttered in on his scooter. "Ziggy," Scott said.
"Sorry I'm late," Ziggy said as he climbed off his scooter, "Zoe almost killed Luce this morning; we had to separate them and calm her down."
Dillon snorted, because Zoe's intolerance for Luce was something of an accepted fact. The younger boy found Zoe fascinating and followed her everywhere, often leading to Zoe becoming hysterical and or running away to visit the Ramos household. "Was he hurt?" Summer asked.
"Bruises," Ziggy replied, "a scratch or two. Chase might not use it, but he is fast when he wants to be. What's going on?"
"Apparently there's a prototype Zord on the loose," Dillon said, "and we need to find out why."
"What Zord?" Ziggy asked.
"An old one," Doctor K replied, "it was scrapped a long time ago."
"Scrapped," Ziggy repeated, looking panicked. He blinked for a moment and took a step back, "So what's the plan then?"
"Ranger Red, Scott," Doctor K said, "I believe you will have the strongest connection to controlling Paleomax. Take Summer and Flynn with you to try to ensure that it does not cause any more damage. Ziggy, Dillon, I want you to go to the southwest hills to see if you can determine what activated the Zord."
"I guess we're getting takeout then," Scott said as he turned to Summer and Flynn, "let's be out of here in ten minutes."
Dillon caught Ziggy's arm, "Do you need anything here?"
"No," Ziggy said, "I'm ready to go now."
"Dillon," Doctor K said, catching their attention. "If you would wait just one moment." She spun and vanished into the Ranger Room. Dillon glanced at Ziggy, who was staring after the Doc with a slightly panicked expression on his face.
"You ok?" Dillon asked.
Ziggy glanced over and gave him a tiny smile.
Doctor K came back out carrying a slender wand, "Take this, Dillon, and use it on the servers when you get there. It will erase them so that no one can access the data inside."
"Sure thing, Doc," Dillon said, tucking the rod in his pocket, "everything's going to be fine."
Dillon and Ziggy slid into the Fury and left quickly. Ziggy stared out the window and fidgeted as they went. "What's wrong?" Dillon asked, watching Ziggy out of the corner of his eye.
Ziggy glanced at him then looked away, "I don't know why, or even how, but I might know who activated Paleomax."
"Why didn't you say something?" Dillon asked sharply.
"Because the person who might have done it is supposed to be dead," Ziggy replied. "He almost did die; I just happened to be there and saved him. I cannot explain why, but it was agreed that it was better for him to be assumed dead." He toyed with his seatbelt for a moment, "He worked with Doc and knew the Trio, if they knew we'd lied, Dillon, it would hurt a lot of things."
"This doesn't have anything to do with that Bridge kid, does it?" Dillon asked.
"Sort of," Ziggy said. "They weren't supposed to disappear like that, although they were helping him. I was told that the project needed them there for a while, but they were fine, they were safe. I think something bad happened and they had to defend themselves."
"Can you tell me who it is?" Dillon asked, "I promise, I won't go running to Doc or Scott."
Ziggy was silent for a long moment. "His name is Julian Park, but everyone calls him Jinx. We are the same age, but he is a lot smarter than I am. He has been studying Ranger tech for years, mostly because of his godfather, Antonio Garcia. We can't let the other Rangers know because they have to be able to focus on Venjix and not worry about what's coming next."
"Next?" Dillon asked.
"A long time ago, Adam Park and a group of Rangers were told that Earth would be the site for a major battle, one that would stop a war. There were issues, which prevented the literal translation from occurring. Instead, they tried to find a way to fulfill the conditions for victory a different way when it became clear that the original assumption would not work. Jinx and I have been a part of that group for a few years now, for different reasons. If I had not have been branded, I would never have become a Ranger, but I'm a Ranger, and except for making sure Jinx and the others were safe to continue their work, I've been staying out of it."
"Must be hard," Dillon said, "to know something and unable to act on it."
"Most of the time, it's easy," Ziggy said. "I have enough to focus on with RPM. I would never have gotten one of Jinx's morphers anyways."
"What morphers?" Dillon asked.
"The ones he's making just in case," Ziggy said. "The ones that David, Elizabeth, Jack, Sky, and Syd are going to use when the time came and they were needed." He gave a slightly bitter laugh, "Those five were born to be a ranger team."
Dillon parked the car in a small lot Ziggy pointed out and followed his friend up the side of the wooded hills that hid their objective. Once they were in the woods, however, Ziggy stopped him. "What is it?" Dillon asked quietly.
"I want to go check on Jinx," Ziggy said, "but I don't want to compromise anything. I've probably told you way more than I'm supposed to in the first place."
"Go," Dillon said, "but stay in contact. I'll see what I can see by walking."
"Thank you," Ziggy said, he gripped Dillon's arm as he leaned up to give him a quick, firm kiss. "I shouldn't take long."
"Just be careful," Dillon said, "I don't want to have to explain to your dad what happened to you."
Ziggy gave him a little salute and vanished in a crackle of black and green lightening.
Dillon sighed and continued up the hill on his own, finding an actual path about halfway up. He picked up his pace, eager to see why a scrapped Zord had suddenly woken up and gone on a rampage. What he had expected was not what he found however.
On the far side of the hill was a large hole, from the debris, that was probably where the Paleomax had come from. Dillon scrambled down the hill and slid into the cave quietly. There was the remains of tech everywhere, including two rows of the servers Doctor K wanted erased. Dillon pulled the wand from his pocket and stepped forward to get to work.
"Dillon, wait!" Ziggy shouted suddenly.
Dillon turned, "What?" He asked.
Ziggy ran into the cave looking worried. "They're ok, but they didn't set off Paleomax. Apparently something set off their alarms, and then the Zord burst through the wall and took off." He pointed at the servers, "Those are," he paused, "no, those are Doc's, not the others. Go ahead and erase them. Sorry, there are back up servers in here somewhere and I told them that I'd make sure they were hidden by any means necessary."
Dillon waved the wand and a shower of sparks erupted from the servers, "I'm glad your friends are ok, now I want to know who was sneaking around down here."
"You and me both," Ziggy replied.
"I guess we'll find out soon enough," Dillon replied as they started to move further in the caves, "or Scott will."