Ben and Betty were wandering the base between tasks, looking for something to do. They were usually always on the lookout for places they could help out, and normally people were only too happy to find them busy work to do, either as a convenient way to get them out of the way where they could do least harm, or because they had tasks that they really didn't want to do and free themselves up for more important tasks, but today they were at a little bit of a loose end. Betty was walking along, trying to reach her fingers in under her cast to scratch.
"Betty, will you quit that?" Ben asked her.
"That's easy for you to say." She muttered. "My arm itches like crazy."
As they were walking, they found Cole, one of the security team, standing outside a meeting room. Cole had been with Grid Battleforce since it was first launched, having requested a transfer there upon graduating from Military Academy. He was kind, thoughtful and like many on the base, had sought to work there specifically because he believed working on the Morph-X project was of more benefit to the world than another base. He was, if the reaction he got from many of the staff was anything to go by, more than a little bit of a heart-throb as well. He was standing with his hands behind his back, looking forward.
"Hey, Cole." Ben greeted him, looking around. "I thought you were working custody today."
"I am." He told them. "The prisoner was called in for questioning."
"He was?" Ben asked. "But interrogation is on the third floor. This is a board room."
"This is where I was asked to bring him." Cole said. Both of the twins found this a little curious. Just then, the door opened and Eli walked out, accompanied by Commander Shaw, and more curiously by General Burke. Both Ben and Betty recoiled.
"Dad!" Betty rushed out. "We didn't know you were here today."
"Kids...yes...um..." He said, looking to Commander Shaw. "Yes, I had some urgent business to discuss with Commander Shaw."
"What's he doing here?" Ben asked, a little aggressively, gesturing to Eli. General Burke just cleared his throat, at which Commander Shaw stepped up.
"Cole, you may take the prisoner back to holding." She told him. "If you'd just come this way, sir."
Commander Shaw and General Burke just left, at which Cole was about to take Eli's arm, but he just glared at him, before looking to Betty.
"Hey, what happened there?" He asked her. "You look like you've been in the wars."
"Oh...just a little accident." She said, waving him off. "No big deal. Really."
"I'm sure there's a really great story there." Eli said, before Ben rolled his eyes.
"She was almost hit by a truck, she jumped out the way, she fractured her wrist. The end!" He snapped impatiently, before reaching to grab him. Eli just brushed him off.
"So, would you like to walk me back?" He asked her. Betty just nodded her head, at which she, Ben and Cole all followed them as they headed for holding. "Tell me, have you ever ridden a Harley on Route 66?"
In her apartment, in another part of the city, Muriel started to come to. She ached all over. Every breath hurt, and as she pulled her face off the floor, she could see a patch of dried blood from where she had been lying. She grunted as she tried to get up, only to fall back to the ground, her body barely responding to her thoughts. Her head was fuzzy, and the light was like a knitting needle jammed right through her eye into her brain.
She saw her cell phone a little way off, and started to drag herself towards it, through the mess strewn all over the floor from the Bastards' disorganised search. She wasn't sure if it had been that bad before, or if they had smashed up the place more after she lost consciousness to make it look more like a burglary gone wrong, but it didn't make much difference now. All that mattered now was she needed help. She needed help, and she needed it fast.
She dragged herself what could only have been a few feet, but it felt a lot like she had just dragged herself across a mountain range. When he finally got to her phone, she didn't call one of her friends, or her daughter, she dialled 911 straight away.
"911, which service do you require?" The dispatcher asked.
"Ambulance." She managed to force out. "Please...help..."
She dropped the phone as her strength left her, and she just lay, focusing on her breathing. She could hear the dispatcher calling out to her on the phone, but she didn't want to waste any of her strength. She knew they could trace the call to her location. Instead, she just rolled onto her side to make breathing as easy as possible, while she waited for help to arrive.
In his lab, Nate was admiring some blueprints, something of a passion and…if he was honest…a little bit of an ego project into the bargain. Now that he was a Ranger, he could justify the budget of building himself a Zord. In fact, since there were two Rangers, that meant double the fun! Many kids had imagined themselves as super heroes and done doodles of what their costumes and equipment would look like, but for Nate, he'd been doing it with Ranger tech and Zords for as long as he could hold a pen.
He was undeniably proud of his new blueprints. Ordinarily the Rangers' Zords required a Beastbot to operate, but since he didn't have one, and neither did Steel, their Zords would be piloted directly. He figured it was also for the best that the Rangers had at least some of their technology that could operate in the eventuality the Beastbots were rendered inoperable, as had happened with the train Robotron.
"Not a bad design if I do say so myself." He declared with some measure of the joy of the realisation of a childhood dream, and if he was honest also a little bit of ego. Steel came into the lab, whistling as he wandered by. He casually picked up his Striker Morpher from one of the racks and was walking away with it.
"Hey, bro, what are you doing?" Nate asked, curious as to his activities. Steel was something of a fascinating creature in his own right. Nate had always wanted a brother, someone to look out for him and to hang around with and discuss his interests and his thoughts with. Though he had certainly never anticipated something like Steel.
From what he understood, his initial wishes were for an older sibling, something that was really not possible unless he wanted to risk altering the space/time continuum, and while he imagined he possibly could figure out a way to do just that if he was able to secure all the funding, resources and time he'd need, he couldn't begin to imagine the kind of chaos that someone could cause doing so even with a well-intentioned accident. He didn't want to accidentally bring back the dinosaurs or something of that nature, no matter how fascinating they would be to study, as with them around, it was likely humans would never become the predominant species on the planet and he wouldn't be able to appreciate the results. Still, it was an interesting challenge to think of how he could raise a younger brother.
"I'm about to defeat every program in the simulation room!" He said, swaggering over to him. It was no small task he'd set himself, there were thousands of unique training simulations. Of course, Steel was nothing if not confident. "Want to help, bro?"
"But I was about to give you…"
"A maintenance overhaul." Steel said in an off-hand way that slightly unsettled Nate. He sounded almost bored. "I remember, thanks, but I don't think I need one!"
"But…"
"Are you bugging me because you have Praying Mantis DNA in you?" He asked, chuckling a little at his own joke. Nate understood the pun, but it was hardly particularly amusing. It was a rather basic joke. Steel though just nudged him. "Get it? BUG you? Mantis? Anyway, why are you so worried about my maintenance?"
"Why?" Nate asked him. "Because you're family. And you're my only brother. We need to look out for each other. The one thing you can't replace is family."
"Oh, come on, we both know if I get broken, you can just build a new me!" Steel replied, slapping him on the back so hard he almost took him clean off his feet. "I mean, you're my super smart big bro! You can do anything!"
"That's not exactly true." Nate responded. "A lot of the circumstances that went into creating you were completely unique. There's also the random chance factor. Two people can be raised in the same family environment and turn out completely different. Even if I replicated the circumstances of your creation…"
"Birth." Steel chipped in. Nate just sighed.
"Of your BIRTH, exactly." He said, taking on Steel's term. It wasn't so much a correction; he just couldn't bring himself to argue the semantics of it with Steel. "Your personality is unique. There's no guarantee you'd turn out the same. In fact, given the almost infinite variables involved, the odds are mathematically on the verge of impossibility what was made would be just like you."
"So, what you're saying is I'm unique?" Steel asked. Nate just nodded. "HA! I'm even more awesome than I thought! Now, how about those training simulations?"
"But your maintenance…"
"Fine…but how about we both do maintenance?" Steel asked him. "I heard Zoey and the others talking about working out, that's how humans do maintenance right?"
"Well, in a way, yes, it is." Nate agreed.
"Well, how about we climb Mount Everest?" He asked. Nate just sucked his teeth.
"That's not even in this country." Nate told him.
"Oh…well what about Hannal Peak?" Steel asked. "It's in Coral Harbour!"
"How about we just go for a jog today?" Nate asked him. "I mean, I have been looking over these blueprints all day. I guess it'd be nice to get some fresh air. I'll just go and get changed first."
"Changed?" Steel asked. "What for?"
"You might not sweat, but I do." Nate reminded him. "And I think the other people in the lab would appreciate it if I didn't stink later today."
As he went to get changed, Steel went and hung his blaster back up on the wall.
"I wonder what it would be like to sweat." He mused.
The ambulance crew arrived at Muriel's apartment, coming in as soon as the saw her. They didn't need anyone to let them in, Muriel's attackers had been 'helpful' enough to kick her door off its hinges before they left. No doubt to further the illusion that the whole incident was just a run of the mill robbery that had gone wrong. An opportunist who was unfortunate enough to find the resident still in the property and panicked when they were confronted. They ran over to her, kneeling down next to her.
"Ma'am? Ma'am, you're going to be alright." One of the paramedics said as her partner began unpacking equipment. She began her routine inspection. "I know this hurts, but I promise we'll get you out of here soon. Can you tell me your name?"
Muriel just kind of mumbled something. Typical. She was on television all the time, but the paramedic still was asking her name. They seemed to get the gist of what she had said though.
"Ma'am, we're aware of who you are, we just need to check if you know." The paramedic clarified. "What's your name?"
"Muriel." She said weakly. The paramedic was checking on her pulse.
"Has anyone been here? Has anyone tried to help?" She asked, noting that she was in the recovery position. Muriel just shook her head gently. "Try not to move, we have to be careful. No one left you like this?"
"I...I did first-aid." She managed to say. The paramedic just nodded.
"I'd say you're a good study." She continued, listening to her chest. "Are you finding difficulty breathing?"
"It hurts." She replied.
"OK, that's not surprising, but can you please take a deep breath in?" She asked. Muriel did as she was asked. "And back out again...that's good. Thank you. It doesn't sound like your lungs are punctured, or collapsed, that's a good sign. Alright, we're going to start immobilising you ready for transport, do you understand what I'm saying Muriel?"
"Yes." She replied. The paramedic started to strap the collar around her neck, while her partner got the back board ready. "Alright, we're going to take you to the hospital, is there anyone you need us to call?"
"My daughter...Zoey." She murmured. "She works at Grid Battleforce."
"Alright, we'll have someone call her and tell her what happened." She replied. "Alright, now we're going to just roll you onto your back and strap you in, then we'll get you into an ambulance. We'll have you somewhere more comfortable soon enough."
Meanwhile, at the new site of the Cyber Gate, Scrozzle was just preparing the last few adjustments to make sure it was up and running, ready for when Blaze and Roxy managed to get the Silver Ranger back for them. The fact that the Rangers now had two new Rangers was bad enough, but the fact that they had stolen Master Evox's body into the bargain was just an insult that they were eager to correct.
However, they hadn't actually left yet on their new mission. Roxy was looking around for Blaze, eventually finding him as she heard him yelling and screaming at something. She came to a side room he was in, finding him shaking a tablet, almost as though doing so would somehow change the image he was seeing on the screen.
"Aw, what's the matter, did you drop your pacifier?" She taunted him.
"I can't believe it…I don't…GAAAAHHH!" He screamed, slamming down the tablet on a crate and walking away, punching a wall. Roxy went to the tablet, picking it up and looking at the screen. It was a replay of the news report.
"Oh, I understand why you'd be upset seeing that face on TV." She said sarcastically. "I'd say it's more a face for radio. Now, Ravi…"
"He hired a body-double!" Blaze roared. "My real body is in Grid Battleforce, and I was…"
Roxy just started laughing, which did absolutely nothing for Blaze's mood. Blaze just came up to her.
"He thinks he's so clever, but let's see how clever he is when…"
"Blaze, Roxy, get in here!" Scrozzle called through. Roxy just shrugged.
"As much as I'd just LOVE to hear you whine about daddy, we have a job to do." She reminded them. They headed into the main room, where Scrozzle was waiting impatiently for them.
"Thank you for finally deciding to do something today!" Scrozzle greeted them sarcastically.
"You know, between you and Blaze, you kind of take the fun out of being a bad guy." Roxy replied. "You need to relax a little Scrozzle. It'll do your fuel pump good."
"In case you forgot, it's YOUR fault that now we have two more Rangers to deal with!" Scrozzle accused them bitterly, causing both Blaze and Roxy to glance at each other with quizzical looks. Sure, they were there, but how Scrozzle figured out it was there fault when it was his machine that created the Gold and Silver Rangers to begin with was anyone's guess.
"Chill out, Scrozzie, Blaze and I will recapture the Silver Ranger." She assured him, nudging Blaze. "Who knows? Maybe having a little play time will help you get over your tantrum." Blaze just flipped her the bird in response.
"Oh, and how do you plan to do that?" Scrozzle asked. "The only way you can get the Rangers to reliably show up anywhere is to cause a whole lot of mess in the city, and then they turn up mob-handed! You'll never get to single out the Silver Ranger with all his friends watching out for him."
"Oh, I'm sure it'd be fun doing exactly that." Blaze commented as he looked to a radio receiver. A little smirk crossed his face. "But I think I have a better idea.
In her office, Commander Shaw was going through some paperwork, when Joanne contacted her by intercom.
"Commander Shaw, there's a call from Coral Harbour Memorial Hospital. They're calling for Zoey." Joanne told her. "I told them she isn't here, but they want to leave a message."
"Patch them through." Commander Shaw told her. She pressed the button on her phone as it lit up. "This is Zoey's Commanding Officer Commander Shaw, is there something I can help you with?"
"Do you know how we can get in contact with Ms Reeves?" The voice on the other end asked.
"She should return to the base shortly, I can get a message to her." Commander Shaw answered. "Is everything alright?"
"I'm afraid I can only speak with Ms Reeves directly. Can you have her call us when she gets back?" The voice asked. Commander Shaw looked a little concerned.
"Of course, I'll deliver the message personally." She assured her. "Thank you for your call."
As she hung up, she sat back in her chair, tenting her fingers. She didn't know what the hospital would want to call Zoey for. One of the fringe benefits of Grid Battleforce was comprehensive medical care, and especially for the Rangers, who thanks to their unique physiology had very specific medical needs that a normal hospital may not be able to accommodate, she was updated on any conditions that might cause concern about them, so why would the hospital be calling her?