A/N: Ziggy was five when he came to Earth. I remember some things from then, so Ziggy did too. Other parts of it, he learned later on. I've made a more detailed note about updates on my profile for future reference. I've been a little bogged down by my original work. Sadly, none of it is quite ready for publication, but I'm trying to get something out for Christmas. Enjoy!
"As far as caves go, this one isn't all that creepy," Ziggy said as he swung his flashlight around.
"You've had a lot experience with caves then?" Dillon asked as he played his flashlight over a pile of discarded computer parts.
"My Uncle Eric likes spelunking," Ziggy said. He swung his flashlight towards Dillon, "It's kind of a hobby for him. Sometimes he goes rock climbing too, but Mom never let us go on those trips. She said if Dad wanted to risk his neck, he was free to do so, but we kids would have to be a lot older." He flipped the flashlight up to illuminate his face, "Naturally, that just meant that Dad and Uncle Eric would sneak in the rock climbing lessons as part of the cave experience."
"Right," Dillon said.
A loud skittering noise echoed for a moment.
"Did you hear that?" Ziggy asked, spinning around.
"Probably just a bug," Dillon said, "the echoes make is sound louder than it actually is."
"Right," Ziggy said as he inched a little closer to Dillon.
"Are you afraid of bugs?" Dillon asked.
"Mostly just spiders," Ziggy replied, as the skittering noise passed behind them.
"I'm sure that there are very few spiders in this place," Dillon said as he played his light over a stack of parts.
"You say that now, don't complain to me when you run into cobwebs," Ziggy said as he studied an oddly shaped pile of scrap.
"Hey," Dillon said.
Ziggy turned and jumped, he had not even heard Dillon coming up behind him, "What?" Ziggy asked as he licked his upper lip.
"You won't be attacked by giant spiders, ok?" Dillon said, and bent down to kiss him gently. "I promise you'll be fine. We're almost done anyways."
Ziggy leaned into Dillon's chest, slipping his arm around Dillon's neck to pull him down for another kiss. Dillon slid his hands down to rest on Ziggy's hips as they kissed. Then he stiffed and pulled back, "What?" Ziggy asked before Dillon yanked him to the ground. Ziggy gripped Dillon's shoulder as he tried to turn and see what had caused Dillon to act so strangely.
Dillon's free arm came up to the chest high horizontal motion Ziggy had seen him use when calling his shield.
Red light flashed in the corner of Ziggy's eye, and he heard the static noise of lasers hitting Dillon's shield. Ziggy froze for a moment, because Dillon could not create his shield without morphing first, their powers did not work that way. The skittering noise from before echoed through the cave and Ziggy finally squirmed enough to see what was going on.
There was a giant spider charging them.
Ziggy froze long enough to take in enough of the creature's appearance to register. From the metallic gleam where their flashlights illuminated it to the red light that the creature created, Ziggy could tell it was robotic. However, its eight legs, and its distinctly spiderlike head, triggered an instinctive reaction in Ziggy.
As the robot sent more red lasers at them, Ziggy gripped Dillon tightly and threw himself into teleportation, shoving their bodies through space back to Dillon's car as he struggled with an instinctive panic he could not fight.
As soon as they hit the ground, Dillon wrapped both arms around Ziggy. "You ok?" He asked gruffly.
"Big spider," Ziggy said in a tone that he would never admit was a whimper.
"Yeah, it was," Dillon agreed as he forced them both to sit up.
"I hate spiders," Ziggy said as he allowed himself to move around in Dillon's lap.
"Did something happen?" Dillon asked.
Ziggy shuddered, "I don't- I don't remember it clearly," he said after a long moment. "But I remember Adon some. We lived in a rain forest, I think. Lots of trees, lots of big, leafy plants, and it rained almost constantly. The city was in the trees, not like a tree house, but, some of the trees were hollow inside, and people made their homes and businesses in those hollows." He hesitated, "I know that because I learned about it from Dad. What I remember is growing up in the canopy, where the bescue climbed and played. We were always careful though, always watchful. Because twice a year, the gamaii came. They migrate, you see, with the seasons, and it is no use trying to build out of their migration paths, because the gamaii go everywhere. I was about four, almost five, just before they sent us away. The gamaii came, and the force fields that protected our tree broke. They were, they were in our house. They were everywhere, like a swarm, with their legs, and their eyes and their skittering noises and their squeals. I woke up, and they were on me."
Ziggy wasn't sure if he was talking as he remembered waking up in his bed, in the cuboom, to find it crawling with gamaii, looking so much like Earth spiders, only black as night. His screams had brought his parents into the room at a run.
"Ziggy."
Ziggy jerked, and looked around. He was curled into Dillon's chest, gripping his boyfriend as tightly as he could. Summer was kneeling beside him, "Are you all right?" She asked.
Ziggy shifted and felt Dillon's arms relax, "I'm fine," he said and carefully climbed out of Dillon's lap. "It's just, spiders." He shuddered and stood up.
"I know," Summer said, she offered her hand to Dillon, who accepted her help in standing up. "I mean, I'm ok with spiders, for me, its snakes. Scott however, he'll scream like a little girl when there's a spider involved."
Ziggy nodded, brushing off his arms against the imagined feeling of a gamaii crawling on them. "What are you doing here, anyways?" He asked, leaning back against the car and trying to look casual.
"The technology in these hills makes it difficult to communicate," Summer said, "Scott's working on the Zord, and so Doc K asked me to come up here and check on the two of you."
"I think those robots set off the Zord," Dillon said, "they looked like they were scavengers or something. Maybe they are looking for stuff Venjix can use. We checked over everything before the robot showed up, so we're going to head back to the Garage unless Doc has new orders for us."
Summer shook her head, "She just wanted to make sure you were ok. I'm not sure why."
Ziggy snorted, "She's got bio-monitors built into the morphers, Summer. She probably read elevated heart rates and wanted to make sure we were not under attack. The monitors operate on a different frequency then the radios, different signals and towers. She can find us anywhere in the Dome as long as we have those morphers. She has maybe a mile outside the Dome too, but that is not a sure thing. There are sensors out there, but Venjix destroys them when he finds them, so the distance is between a hundred feet and a mile depending on where. They work in conjunction with the attack 'bot alerts."
Dillon and Summer frowned and exchanged a glance.
"Look," Ziggy said, "I'm not a computer guru, but I know how to use them. I checked sensor data when we arrived, to see what it looked like, and I have checked it a few other times. I think Doc has Gem and Gemma replacing the sensors because the profile keeps changing. It's also why we get more warning about the attack bots, because the sensors are being replaced or upgraded."
"Does Doctor K know you know this?" Summer asked.
Ziggy grinned at her, "The last time I went to check, she had already pulled the data up for me. She not only knows that I'm looking, she is helping me."
"We should go," Dillon said, "I don't want us to be out of communication range when she needs to know about that robot. We may need to come back and take care of that thing."
"I'll meet you there," Summer said as she stepped back.
"Right," Dillon said.
Ziggy took his seat as Summer left, and he buckled his seat belt as Dillon slid behind the wheel. "Are you all right?" Dillon asked him.
"I'm fine," Ziggy said, "sorry about that freak out. I just really don't like spiders."
"That's fine," Dillon said, "You have a reason to be freaked out."
Ziggy settled back against the doorframe, "I'm going to be fine, Dillon. Are you ok? That teleport wasn't exactly up to standards."
"I'm more than fine," Dillon said.
Doctor K was waiting for them in the briefing room when they got back to the Garage. "Rangers," she said, "I trust your mission was a success."
"To the best of our knowledge it was," Dillon replied, "we ran into some trouble, however. I don't know that we found everything."
"What sort of trouble?" Doctor K.
"A robot, probably Venjix's, that shot lasers and looked a lot like a spider," Dillon replied.
"It's mostly me fault," Ziggy said as he slid onto one of the stools. "I saw the spider and, and I panicked." He bit his lip and looked down, "I have issues with spiders, when I was really little, well, I woke up one night covered with them. It is one of the lovely features of AdonKrev, their spiders migrate. When that one came at us, and it was shooting lasers, I panicked and teleported us out of there."
"I think it was a scavenger though," Dillon said, "not an attack bot. I did not see much, it was dark back there, but the body looked like a truck bed. That might be what set off the Paleomax."
Doctor K bit her lip, then nodded, "The lasers say that it might be a Venjix bot as you suggested. I don't know why it would want to take anything from there; Venjix had full access to the Alphabet Soup files for years."
Dillon frowned, "Maybe he's looking for something new. You have been developing Ranger tech almost exclusively for two years, right? We don't see all of it because not all of it works, but it accesses the bio-field, and the Grid."
"Venjix can't access the Grid," Ziggy said. "At least, I don't think he can. Tommy would probably know the details, but I think there's something about robots." He frowned. "Sorry, there's a lot that I know, but there's a lot that I don't know. It is not like I sat around studying Power Rangers when I was a kid. I just liked hearing the stories."
"I'll ask Doctor Oliver," Doctor K said, "in the meantime, Scott has managed to stop the Paleomax, and we've completed its programming, allowing us to have another powerful addition to our arsenal. Gem and Gemma will be back in the Dome tomorrow, and we can prepare for the next stage of our defense against Venjix."
The alarms went off, Ziggy slid off his chair and Dillon straightened, "After we deal with this, we can deal with whatever," Dillon said.
Doctor K brought up the site of the attack, "That's near the one of the electric control stations," she said, "if that's destroyed, the Dome will be compromised."
"We'll stop it," Dillon said, "Call Scott; tell him to bring his new toy."
The attack bot was big and ugly, making Tenaya, standing next to him, look positively tiny. "Looks like someone hit every branch on the ugly tree on the way down," Ziggy commented as he shut his door.
"Rangers," Tenaya said. "Meet Bouldershock. He may be ugly, but he has a nasty surprise."
"Who said I was talking about him?" Ziggy replied.
Tenaya straightened and glared at him.
"Need a little ice for that burn?" Summer called as she walked up beside Ziggy.
"You'll pay for that," Tenaya said, "Grinders."
Ziggy shook his head, "Dad always said that minions lacked imagination." He lunged forward, tackling one of the Grinders and releasing a small electric charge to make sure the robot would stay down. Then he blocked a second one's attempt to punch his head and took it down with a leg sweep. As he bounced back up, leaning to avoid another Grinder's flailing arm, Tenaya appeared. Ziggy grinned at her, before throwing a punch.
Tenaya caught his fist and pulled him close, "Ziggy," she said quietly, "I did those tests."
Ziggy jabbed her in the ribs, "And?"
"You need to be careful," Tenaya replied as they pulled back.
They moved in again, "We are careful," Ziggy said.
"Something's going on, I don't know what." Tenaya said. "I can't come to the Garage, there's some sort of tracking program, he'll know."
Ziggy moved back then launched a new series of attacks that ended with him being pinned by Tenaya. "Is it a program or a device?"
"I don't know," Tenaya replied. "But Venjix has a new General in the Palace. He's called Cog. I don't know what he's doing, they stop talking when I'm around. If I hear anything, I think I can tell you."
Ziggy wriggled and threw Tenaya off with a minor touch of magic, then followed her. They exchanged blows for a long moment, and then Tenaya pulled him in with a neat arm twist. "Don't take big risks, Tenaya," he said quietly. "Dillon would be devastated if something happened to you. Not to mention your mom."
"She's here?" Tenaya said.
"Safe and sound," Ziggy replied. "She still loves you and wants you to come home."
"Tell her I love her. I'll tell you what I can, ok? I don't know how much, because I think I'm being watched."
"Just be careful, Rebecca," Ziggy said before freeing his arm and pulling back.
"Ziggy, we could use your help over here," Dillon called from where he was helping the Trio with the attack bot.
"Until next time," Ziggy said as he slid the Engine Cell into his morpher. "RPM Get in Gear."