Chapter 48: Birthday Boomin'/In the Driver's Seat

"The good news is, I think I wrote a program that can override the city's grid long enough to get inside," Noah explained an hour or so later.

"And the bad?" Orion prompted him.

"I can't shut Venjix down for good with just my laptop," Noah continued. "It just doesn't have the processing speed for a job that big. This is bigger than just some quick virus scan on your home computer."

"Hey, if you can get us in," Scott told him, patting him on the shoulder, "I know some friends who have something a little bigger than that thing," he said, pointing to the laptop.

"What are we waiting for?" Gem asked, standing. His sister popped up next to him.

"Let's make things go boom," Gemma nodded.

"How close do you need to be for that to work?" Troy asked Noah as the group started for Flynn's truck.

Noah did some mental math. "Ten feet?" he guessed.

"How long do you need to be within ten feet?" Flynn asked. "Not that I'm trying to rush you, but the city's defense grid is a bit tetchy about sharing personal space."

"It shouldn't take more than a minute or two," Noah said. He held up his computer. "It's ready to go, I just need to hit go, for lack of a better term."

Jake clapped his best friend on the shoulder. "I always knew your nerdiness would come in handy someday," he teased him.

Flynn put the truck in drive and began driving full tilt toward the city. "I'm going to get up parallel with it, and then stay moving, try to make us a tougher target," he yelled over the engine. "Can your computer do whatever it's going to do on the go?"

"Hopefully," Noah whispered, loud enough so that only Troy heard him. The city's white walls loomed ahead. Flynn threw the truck sideways and began driving all out.

"I think it found us!" Gia yelled to Noah, his fingers already flying over the keyboard. She and Emma held hands and watched as a panel started opening in the city's wall and what looked like a futuristic gatling gun started inching its way out.

"Almost…" Noah gritted his teeth. "Come on, come on." The blue bar on the screen was loading. 65%.

"Everyone down!" Scott commanded and everyone ducked as well as they could into the truck as the gun began firing. Projectiles thunked into the dirt behind the truck. "Flynn, can't this thing go any faster?"

"I'm givin' her all she's got, Lieutenant!" Flynn yelled back.

80%.

85%

A bullet pinged into the truck near Noah's head and he ducked his head, taking his fingers off the keyboard so he didn't hit Cancel by accident.

95%.

"I'm running out of places to go!" Flynn yelled. More panels were opening up and if they didn't get stopped soon, the entire outside of the city would be ringed with them. There'd be nowhere for the truck to go except right back into the line of fire.

99%

"Come on!" Noah yelled.

100%. Noah punched ENTER with gusto.

The guns sputtered…then lapsed into silence.

Everyone popped their heads up above the sideboards of the truck. "Are we dead?" Jake asked.

"You did it!" Troy yelled. He shook Noah's shoulder so hard he almost knocked his glasses off his friend's face.

"Let's move!" Scott yelled, and Flynn threw the truck into a tight circle and made for the entrance gate into the city. The truck rumbled through the small tunnel, entering a brightly-lit…and eerily silent…metropolis.

"Where is everyone?" Emma whispered.

"Lockdown," Gemma explained. "Stuck inside."

"Flynn, I hate to say it, but we need to lose the wheels," Scott said. "We're the only thing moving, and that makes us a target."

Flynn frowned. Then, he put the truck in park. "I'll come back for you," he promised, following his friends out into the silent city. Scott led the charge, angling toward the Corinth Academy for the Gifted.

"Whoa," Gem breathed.

"Look at that," Gemma added, and the group stopped to look at the twins. Gemma was pointing. Troy followed her outstretched hand to a skyscraper near the city center that was crackling with energy. "The power station," she added.

"If that thing goes, life support goes," Scott noted.

"If life support goes, we all go," Flynn confirmed. "We need Dr. K."

"We should split up," Scott decided. "I'll take Troy's team and we'll go to the school. If we can get in, we can get to Dr. K, and maybe she can work on shutting down Venjix."

"You might need someone on the other side," Noah spoke up timidly. He looked at Troy. "I'll go with Flynn, Gem and Gemma to the power station."

"Are you sure?" Scott asked him. "Gem and Gemma are geniuses…they could probably figure it out with a little instruction."

"Even that might not be enough time," Noah disagreed. "I'm computer-literate. It's all I'm good for." He looked at Troy. "I want to do this."

Troy looked at Noah. His friend was determined. "Be careful," he said finally, and Noah nodded, pushing his glasses a little higher on his nose. "And Noah? That's not all you're good for."

Noah smiled.

"We'll take care of him," Flynn promised. "Go."

"I'll go with them," Orion offered, seeing the look on Troy's face. Troy nodded to him gratefully. The group split, and Troy followed Scott as he took off at a jog.


It felt like it took forever. Every step, Troy was convinced that it was going to be their last. Jake kicked a can on accident and the sound thundered in the empty city. Finally, Scott held up a hand and Troy and his team paused behind him, looking across the street at a rounded building with a brightly-colored green sign that proclaimed it home of the Academy of the Gifted.

Scott was bent down, gripping a grate with both hands. "This is a maintenance tunnel," he explained. "If we can get in here, we can get right into the school. No way we're going through the front doors."

Jake bent down with Gia and the three of them helped Scott pry it out. The sound was deafening, and Emma and Troy stood guard as their three friends made their way into the access hatch. Troy sent Emma down, and then, he went.

It was pitch black save for some orange emergency lights. "Here," Scott said after a minute, finding a door labeled 113. "This is the boiler room for the school. No electronic keypad." Scott led them inside. The five of them exited out into a stark white hallway. "I don't know where everyone is," Scott said worriedly, "but let's just keep moving until we hear signs of life."

"Like that?" Troy asked, pointing ahead. A lone security guard was blocking their path. Something was off about him though. As they got closer, Troy could see….well, it looked like circuitry….instead of two normal eyes.

"How did you get in here?" the guard asked.

"The non-tech way," Scott replied. "We walked."

"You'll never stop Venjix. Venjix will rise again."

"Venjix is about to become obsolete," Scott returned. "Again." The guard smirked, then, attacked Scott with surprisingly inhuman speed. He tossed Scott into the wall like he was a rag doll, and Troy jumped in, ducking under a punch and tackling him around the knees. The guy felt completely solid. Like Robo Knight, but with skin. "He's not human," Troy breathed. "How do we stop him?"

"Everything has an off switch," Scott yelled. "Hold him!" The four Megaforce rangers held the guard in place while Scott reached into his flight suit. "For emergencies only," he noted, pulling out a small object. He stepped on the chest of the guard and plastered a thin square of something on the exposed skin near his neck. "Move, move!" Scott yelled urgently, and the group let go of the guard and took off down the hall as the guard got to his feet…and then dropped like he'd been Tased. Pulses of electricity shivered up and down his uniform. Part of the skin burned away to reveal more circuitry.

"He…he was…" Gia gaped, pointing.

"Hybrid," Scott replied darkly. "Half-human, half-Venjix. We thought we'd destroyed them all but…I guess this guy was waiting in the wings." He pointed. "Come on. The lab is this way, and I'm sure that's where everyone's holed up." He took off at a sprint, and the others followed. Scott ran down a corridor and skidded to a stop, banging on the window of the room he was standing in front of.

A curly-haired man's face popped up, making Scott jump in surprise. A moment later, the door slid back and Scott was enveloped by a shorter, thinner man, wearing a green suit jacket and green sneakers. "Scott! My man. My hero, my friend-"

"Ziggy!" Scott cut off. "Breathe."

Ziggy Grover let go of his former team leader and ran a hand through his curly hair. "Sorry. It's just, seriously, dude, you have no idea how good it is to see-" He got a good look at the Megaforce Rangers. "All of you…guys…here…exactly who are they?"

"Rangers from another dimension," Scott said with a wave of introduction. "More later. Is Dr. K-"

"Waiting for you to stop blabbing and help!" This came from a young woman with short, dark hair pulled into a severe bun, who was seated in front of a computer, furiously typing away. "Ranger-Scott," she amended, "I trust our mole has been taken care of?"

"He won't be getting up," Scott confirmed. "Uh, Troy, everyone, this is Dr. K. Dr. K, we've got Flynn, Gem and Gemma and some friends of theirs in the power control room, waiting for you."

"I've isolated where the Venjix virus originated from," Dr. K told him. "It was in Rang-Summer's morpher."

"Summer's?" Scott's jaw dropped. "But she-"

"Was human," Dr. K confirmed. "Still is. I assume it must have been transferred during our final fight with Venjix. Perhaps Summer was next to be disconnected from the Morphing Grid before Venjix was eliminated and that's when the contamination happened."

"Our friend managed to shut down the city defense long enough for us to get in," Troy told her, cutting into the conversation. "Is there a way to shut Venjix down before life support goes critical?"

"Of course," Dr. K replied, sounding miffed, as though Troy had just asked the genius doctor what one plus one was.

"Noah, did you hear that?" Jake called Noah on their morpher. "She's gonna-"

"Whatever it is, do it fast!" Noah's voice was urgent. "We've got company here!"


Harwood

Carter Grayson leaned casually against a planter, one hand flipping the pages of his paperback, his eyes scanning the crowds in downtown. "Anything?" he asked into his cell phone, which was on speaker in his lap.

"I think you're being paranoid," the voice of Joel Rawlings answered back. "We've been here almost a full day and nothing's happened."

"Maybe the Armada took a day off," Kelsey suggested from her spot at the food truck across the plaza.

"I wouldn't bet on it," Chad said, sitting down on the bench across from Carter. "Knowing them, they probably sent the kids out of town on purpose."

"Not just out of town," Dana corrected. "Out of universe."

The skies darkened, and Carter looked up. "Still think I'm paranoid?" he muttered to Joel, standing and letting his phone fall from his lap as about twenty X-Borgs materialized in the plaza."Twenty of them and six of us with no Power," he said to Chad.

"Let's hope the kids get back soon," Chad replied, his fists tensing.


Corinth

"We can hold them off!" Orion assured Troy. "Just hurry!"

"I don't have enough power from here to implant the virus I've created into Venjix," Dr. K informed them calmly.

"What if you sent it to Noah at the power plant?" Emma asked. "Could he transmit it somehow through there?"

Dr. K paused, considering. "That's a feasible thought," she said after a moment.

"She hates that you came up with it first," Ziggy added, and Dr. K shot him a glare, then shook her head.

Troy handed his morpher over to Dr. K and she spoke into it. "Noah?" she asked. "Send me the destination of your laptop."

Noah repeated the laptop's home address. In the background, Troy could hear shouting from Flynn, the twins, and Orion, and the sounds of combat. "Got it!" Noah confirmed. Troy could hear typing on the keys. "I just need to-"

There was a yell. "Orion!" Noah cried out.

"Noah!" Jake yelled. "Is he-"

"He's good!" Noah assured them. "Gem's got his back. I'm almost….There!"

"He did it," Dr. K noted. She sounded very impressed. "Your friend is very, very good," she noted to Troy with an approving nod.

"Yeah," Troy countered with a grin. "I know."

"Come on!" Scott told the group and everyone followed him out of the room and out into the streets. As they burst into the daylight, Scott shielded his eyes and looked west toward the power station.

The crackling energy was gone.

A shrill ring cut through the moment of silence, and Scott reached for his cell phone. "Dad?" he asked. Then he shook his head. "I mean, Colonel Truman, sir. Yes sir, everything is A-OK on our end."

"No more traces of Venjix," Gemma's voice crackled over the morpher.

"We did it!" Ziggy yelled, pumping his fist. The group turned to look at him. "What?" he shrugged. "What'd I say?"

"I'll be returning to base shortly, sir," Scott said, shaking his head at his Green Ranger teammate. "I have something I need to take care of first."


"So what's the diagnosis, Doc?" Jake asked Flynn as he came out of the cockpit of the Skyship.

"I'd say with a few more repairs, she's good as gold," he replied. "This is cool, never thought I'd get to work on a pirate ship."

Gemma followed with a portable welder. "This thing is-"

"Awesome!" Gem proclaimed, slapping the hull.

"That's still creepy," Jake whispered to Gia. Gia only grinned and shook her head.

Scott shook Troy's hand. "Thanks for everything," he told him. "I still don't know how you got here, but I'm glad you did. If you ever need us…we'll find a way to get to you."

"I appreciate that," Troy nodded. "Flynn, if we're all patched up, we should head home. I sort of left my parents in charge while we were gone and we'd better go see how they're doing."

"Your parents?" Ziggy asked.

"Long story," Orion told him.

As the Skyship took off, Scott heard the rumble of a familiar engine. The Renegade cruised to a stop and a familiar figure in a black leather jacket poked his head out of the window. In the passenger seat, a blonde woman inched her way out so she was sitting on the window ledge. Both of them stared in shock at the flying pirate ship.

"What the hell is that?" Dillon asked, noting the group.

"What are all of you doing out here?" Summer Landsdown asked.

"What'd we miss?" That came from Tenaya, Dillon's sister, who had poked her head out of the backseat.

Scott looked at Flynn, Ziggy, and the twins. Then, he turned to Dillon.

"Long story."

"Sounds like one worth sharing," Dillon said. "How 'bout we trade?"

"Sounds good," Scott agreed.


Harwood

Ryan Mitchell slugged an X-Borg with his right fist and yelped in pain. "Geez! These things have hard heads!" he yelled.

"I'm aware," Carter yelled back, reminded of his own bruised hand the first time they'd fought them, shortly after the initial wave. "What I wouldn't give for a nice soft Batling right about now."

"At least they're not driving little go-kart things," Joel noted as he swung the arm of an X-Borg into another.

"I'd take the go-kart," Chad argued, planting a foot in one of the X-Borgs and dropping it into the fountain.

"I think I'm too old for this!" Kelsey protested.

"Don't worry Aunt Kelsey, we got you!" Troy's voice sounded from somewhere above Kelsey, and the Lightspeed Rangers turned to see Troy and his team sliding down some ropes from their SkyShip.

"That thing is so cool," Dana grinned.

"We have something even cooler," Orion told her with a smile. "Watch this!" He looked at Troy, and Troy nodded. "Let's go Legendary!" Orion whipped out his morpher, pulled out a key. "RPM! Get in Gear!"

In a burst of light the teenagers were covered in metallic suits. Emma's was black instead of pink. What looked like seatbelts criss-crossed the front of them. Orion's was split; one half of the suit was gold, the other silver.

"I feel the need…" Troy said aloud, stepping forward in an offensive position.

"The need for speed!" Noah agreed.

The six of them made short work of the X-Borgs. It almost looked like they had wheels. As the last one fell, the suits disappeared and the teenagers stood before the Lightspeed team.

"So," Troy asked, looking around the plaza. "How were things while we were gone?"

The older rangers looked at the teenagers in disbelief. Then, Ryan said, "Let's put it this way…'Earth's defenders' can have their job back!"

"Can you keep it a little longer?" Troy asked his uncle. He looked at Noah. "We have a birthday to celebrate." Noah grinned as Troy threw an arm over his shoulders and the six of them walked away.

"Sure," Ryan muttered, watching their backs. "Sure, we'll watch the planet for you. Again. No problem."

"I'd say after a day of dimension hopping, they deserve a break," Carter told his brother in law. "Come on guys."