Eli was in his cell, whiling away his time. It was not the first time he'd been in a cell, not by a long chalk. While he was generally careful enough to ensure that cases against him were dropped before, they got to trial, given the fact he didn't have a registered address, he was often held for at least some time before his release. Most courts were extremely reluctant to release people on bail if they were a flight risk, and having no fixed abode usually read on a file as meaning having nothing to lose by simply skipping town, especially when they were facing serious jail time.
The door unlocked and Ben walked in, carrying a tray. Eli was stripped to the waist, performing some tai chi. Ben didn't react to the scene at all, just coughing to let him know he was there.
"Dinner." Ben told him. Eli just ignored him, continuing with his pattern. "I said dinner!"
"Just leave it on the bed." Eli told him, continuing with his exercise. Since his deployment ended and his enlistment with the military came to an end, he felt little love for his country. He'd had a promising career, with numerous commendations and honours to his name. He was all but guaranteed promotion if he re-enlisted, but watching good people die, friends die for no reason, had left him with no love for the forces.
He had spent a long time trying to figure out how to channel his anger. He had a lot of anger. The Bastards gave him a release for that. He found a place where he was accepted, where he had the brotherhood that he had felt in the military, but didn't feel like he was being taken for granted. He did his duty for the club, and whenever he needed it, they had been there for him…for a while at least.
For a while, he sought a release for that in violence, but after a time, he realised that only made things worse. It only seemed to escalate, and his rage if anything just seemed to fester and grow. It was on one of his lengthier stretches in a county jail that he had discovered yoga and tai chi. He was able to focus his anger now, and it became clear to him rather than throwing it randomly at the world, he needed to use it to direct at the one responsible for the friends he had lost. He had started to work his own jobs on the side and had found all the faulty equipment all led back to one place. Arthur Winchester.
Ben put the tray down on the bed and was about to leave.
"Where's the other one? The girl?" Eli asked him. Ben just sighed and turned towards him.
"You mean my sister?" He asked. "She's in the infirmary."
"The infirmary?" Eli asked. "What happened?"
"I really don't want to talk about my sister." Ben snapped. "Especially to the likes of you."
"The likes of me?" Eli asked, finishing off his routine. He just smirked and went to the bed, sitting down. "OK, this ought to be good. Go ahead, what's that meant to mean?"
"I'm not talking to you." Ben responded sharply as he turned to leave. "I've got better things to do…"
"Yeah, that's what I thought." Eli chuckled. "A good little boy, always odes what he's told, never asks any questions. At least your sister showed some guts."
"You think that makes you better than me?" Ben demanded, turning back towards him and pointing to his kutte. "You think because you spend your time riding around on that over-compensation machine you call a bike and get in fights and cause trouble, you're a big man?"
"Kid, you don't know the first thing about me." Eli chuckled. "But I take one look at you and I know, if this place asked you to walk off a cliff, you'd probably do it. You're pathetic."
"I'm part of something important." Ben answered. "You…you're just a criminal. That's why you're in here, and I'm going to my own bed when I'm done here."
"Your own bed in a room, in this building, which is probably not much larger than this no doubt." Eli replied. "Probably the same bedding too. Am I right?"
Ben just shook his head and walked out, standing by the door.
"My sister was hurt doing something good for this city." Ben told him. "She's worth more than you'll ever be."
"Oh, so that's the issue. You think your sister…?" Eli said, just taking amusement in his discomfort. "She's an adult, she's free to do whatever she wants."
"When was the last time you did anything for anyone but yourself?" Ben asked him.
"Kid, you have no idea…"
"That's what I thought." Ben cut him off. "Just stay away from my sister."
With that, he closed and locked the door. Eli just picked up the tray, beginning to eat.
"Whatever, kid." He responded. He started eating. "You know, the food here really isn't that bad."
Elsewhere on the base, Commander Shaw was waiting on her guest. She was looking out of her window, over the city. She heard a knock on the door and Joanne came in.
"Commander Shaw, you told me to show the General in when he arrived." She reminded her.
"Thank you, Joanne." She replied. "You're dismissed."
Joanne left the room as General Burke came in.
"I was rather surprised to receive your call." He stated. "It is rather late to be calling meetings."
It was very late. As ranking officers, she and General Burke did enjoy something of a privileged position as far as most of their schedules were concerned. Like everyone else in the military, if duty called, they were expected to answer, but especially with regards to meetings, briefings and such like, normally there was a little more flexibility to allow them to get in a good night's sleep and speak at a reasonable hour. She just sighed.
"Yes, it is, but I felt this is something you should be read in on." She told him. She set up a device on her desk, which General Burke recognised as a scrambler, normally a borderline paranoid precaution on a military base, especially one with the security clearance of Grid Battleforce, but as she turned it on, he realised she was serious.
"What seems to be the problem?" He asked her. She put some files down on her desk. The fact they were all marked as classified, and from a number of installations she had no Earthly business having any access to, indicated something was seriously off. General Burke almost fell back off his chair and looked to her in shock.
"These came into my possession; I'll explain the source in a little while." She told him. "However, upon close inspection they appear to be genuine. They make for some rather unsettling reading."
"What are they?" He asked her. "Even I'm not meant to have these."
"That's just the problem." She told him. "I've agonised over this decision for hours, but I felt it needed your attention."
"You understand that even reading these…"
"I understand." She interrupted him. "However, once you do, I think you'll realise my concern."
General Burke didn't look comfortable at all with this, but he'd known the Commander a long time. She wasn't one to break the rules on a whim. She took her responsibility and discipline very seriously, a trait that had been passed down through her family all the way to her son. If she ever did, it was likely because she believed the alternative was simply too horrific to even contemplate. He just nodded in understanding, before opening the first file and starting to read.
In another area of the base, in his lab, Nate was running some tests on the mysterious new Silver Ranger. Ravi and Devon had stopped by to have a look, but it was clear it was going to take a while, and Nate had asked them to leave so that it didn't distract him from his work.
He had built the robot to be functional. If Scrozzle hadn't been there, he could have made an empty shell with enough wires and circuits to look good. As highly-trained and educated as Blaze and Roxy had been, they would never have been able to tell if the robot was going to be functional at a glance, but Scrozzle would have known right away, so he had to build a robot that would work if activated. It had everything it needed to operate, right down to a brain, one of the spares he had left over from creating the Beastbots which already had its basic mobility and functions programmed in. It would need to be given further programming, but that was to leave room for Evox as far as Scrozzle was concerned.
The Silver Ranger was sitting on the table, drumming its heels against the table and its fingers on its thighs. It looked much like an impatient child, albeit one with a titanium alloy body. It was also…whistling? He had no idea where that had come from. It had basic programming; it should not have anything like a personality.
"Are you nearly done yet?" The Silver Ranger asked him. "We've been here ages!"
"I just need to know how you work." Nate replied. This was partly true. He knew the basics, he had literally made the robot, but everything else was still up in the air. As he waited for the results, he took a look at the schematics for it. He had built everything on its body with the exception of the horns on its head. That was something that had just appeared. He biggest question of all though was what had happened moments later. The Silver Ranger had morphed.
His technology was never designed to work with machines. Although he knew from creating the Beastbots that robots could be created with a personality, with a conscience and morality, he had always felt like people would always be more comfortable with a human under the suit. As amazing as it seemed, as much as people knew that humans were ultimately fallible, there was still an unease about the thought of a machine being in ultimate control of vital systems. Aeroplanes flew predominantly on autopilot but still required a human pilot and co-pilot. Trains ran almost entirely on an automated system but still needed a human brake man. Schemes had been trialled for self-driven cars, but ultimately few people were willing to trust a machine to make life-or-death choices regardless of how precise the algorithms were.
There had even once, been a team of mechanical Power Rangers made. The team had briefly been trialled to replace the Lightspeed team, but ultimately, they had failed, being turned against them and so the Lightspeed Rangers had been retained. The decision was made very early in development that the Rangers had to be human, and so his technology was made to be unable to operate with a non-organic being. Somehow, the Silver Ranger managed to convince his technology it was a biological entity.
He had noted the horns, and had surmised that the robot had been uploaded with Scarab Beetle DNA. He had been holding both the Preying Mantis and Scarab Beetle samples when he stood under the Neural Aligner with his robot. He didn't have time to choose between the samples, so he held them both. He knew he had the Preying Mantis DNA, so it looked like the robot had been fused with Scarab Beetle DNA. But at best…that would make the Silver Ranger a Bestbot. Even Beastbots couldn't morph, which led to the inevitable question, what was different about the Silver Ranger?
"What's taking so long?" The Silver Ranger asked him. "I want to go hang with the other Rangers!"
"You'll see them again tomorrow." Nate assured him.
"That's a long time." The Silver Ranger muttered. "Can you at least give me something to do while we wait?"
"Like what?" Nate asked him. The Silver Ranger just shrugged.
"I don't know. I was only born today." He answered honestly. "What do people do for fun?"
Nate just looked to him curiously.
"Born?" Nate asked. "People?"
"Yeah, I was only born a few hours ago." The Silver Ranger replied. Nate did find it a little odd to hear a robot talking about being 'born', and it also referred to itself as a 'person'. Was that just a fault in its programming?
The computer bleeped and he went to it, checking the results.
"Well, what does it say?" The Silver Ranger asked.
"It's confirmed that you are mechanical, but with DNA strands fused." Nate explained. "Scarab Beetle, and…"
His words tailed off as he saw the results.
"This isn't…it can't be…"
"What? What is it?" The Silver Ranger asked. "What does it say?"
"According to this, you have another DNA sequence bonded to you." Nate explained. "According to this, you're part human."
"Human?" The Silver Ranger asked him. "That's outstanding! I am amazing!"
"Yeah, you're definitely that." Nate said, still unclear what had happened as he got the computer to run a further analysis of the DNA sequences to find out what had happened. "I don't understand how this could happen. The only DNA samples in the Neural Aligner were the Praying Mantis, the Scarab Beetle…"
He suddenly came onto a realisation before the computer even responded. The analysis only confirmed his theory.
"My DNA." Nate whispered. "The Neural Aligner was never designed to have more than one person in the field at any time, it must have been confused and fused my DNA to you."
"Your DNA?" The Silver Ranger asked. "Do you know what that means?"
"It means you're part human." Nate declared. "It explains why you can morph it…"
"It means WE'RE BROTHERS!" The Silver Ranger declared excitedly, grabbing him and hugging him tightly.
"We're…um…" Nate started to say, trying to think of a better way to say it, but…the more he thought about it, they shared a DNA code, one that was a combination of his mother and father. "In a manner of speaking…yes! We're brothers!"
"That is AWESOME!" The Silver Ranger declared.
"Yeah, it…it definitely is." Nate agreed. It wasn't what he had envisioned at all, but he had always wanted a brother. In a manner of speaking, he now had that.
"So, what do you want to do?" The Silver Ranger asked him.
"Well, you do have some stuff to learn, and unlike you I need to sleep." Nate told him. He set up a computer. "Look, there's some education programs on this. It'll help you learn a little more of what you'll need to know about being a Ranger."
"Oh, right." The Silver Ranger said, sounding a little disappointed. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."
"Bright and early." Nate assured him. "Good night…Brother."
As he left, he couldn't help smiling. He had begun the day with a simple mission in mind. He had intended to become a Ranger, to finally gain the power he needed to finally be treated with respect, and to be seen as an equal by his peers, not someone who needed to be coddled and protected.
Blaze and Roxy's interference had been unexpected, and it had meant that he had so much more now. He had in a single day foiled Evox's most dangerous scheme yet, keeping him imprisoned within the Cyber Realm. He had completely unexpectedly, even to him, been given a brother, someone who would always see him as an equal, and look out for him, be able to talk to him. And he now had his power as a Ranger.
He looked to his communicator, and he recalled seeing Zoey staring at him as he stepped out of the Neural Aligner, morphed for the first time. He had never felt more powerful in his life. He had never felt more like she finally saw him, like perhaps now he was the kind of person she could see as an equal and respect. He was now a Ranger just like her! Maybe now she'd see him as something other than someone to pity.
Back in her office, Commander Shaw watched as the General read the files. The colour in his face was draining from him, making him look deathly ill given what he was reading. It very much mirrored how she felt when she read them. She believed in the military, she believed in the Government, and she believed in her duty, but with the documents Eli had brought to her, it appeared that one of the companies entrusted with providing the equipment that soldiers posted in warzones all over the world needed to do their job safely, had been cutting corners for years.
Billions of dollars' worth of hardware that was not fit for purpose was being funnelled into the hands of people in some of the most dangerous regions of the planet. Everyone that signed up for the armed forces knew what they were risking when they signed on. However, it was always on the understanding and the trust that they were not risking their lives needlessly, and that they were given the equipment to protect them as much as humanly possible. It turned her stomach to think that to save some money, to increase profit margins, a company was knowingly endangering the lives of people who were serving in good faith. He put down the last file and looked to her.
"Is this…are these the documents connected to Muriel Reeves' story in the news this morning?" He asked her. She shook her head.
"We've not got those documents. My source has been collecting these for some time." She told him. "I should warn you; he did not come by them legally."
"I should think not." He responded. He took a deep breath. "You understand what all this means?"
"I believe I do." She replied.
"If we're going to pursue this, you understand we're about to accuse one of the richest and most powerful men in the country…in the WORLD…of crimes that could escalate as far as treason." He clarified. "We'd have to be sure; we'd have to lock down a case against him that's air tight."
"I understand that." She replied. "But you've read those same reports I have. You know why we have to do this."
"Then…what are we going to do about it?" He asked her. She leaned on her desk.
"That…is a much more complicated question." She responded honestly.