In Grid Battleforce Headquarters, Commander Shaw and Joanne were keeping track of the battle over the viewing screens. They didn't have access to an extensive security camera network in the Cyber Dimension like they did in the city, so they had to work with a system they had prepared for such a situation.
The Ranger suits had technology within them, inside the visors, that relayed visual images back to the base. It wasn't ideal, because it meant they could only see whatever the Rangers were looking at, but they didn't have many options when they were working in Evox's back yard, a place where they weren't even sure if he had cameras, but where they certainly had no access to them.
"Whao, did you see that?" Betty yelled excitedly as they watched an explosion on one of the screens, crunching through some popcorn. "Zoey just kicked that Zord's ass!"
"Go Zoey!" Ben added.
"Joanne, the Zords were pretty banged up." Zoey told her.
"Yeah, they were." Joanne told her. "I've got the self-repair working, but they are going to need a serious servicing when we get them home. There don't appear to be any more Gigadrones, but I wouldn't recommend using them any further if you don't have to."
There was an alarm, at which Commander Shaw checked her console.
"It's the medical bay. Meghan is waking up." She told them.
"That's good to hear." Zoey responded. "Do you think she's going to be alright?"
"Don't worry, I've got some people checking on it." She said, looking over to Ben and Betty. They both just looked at her wide-eyed.
"Aw, Commander Shaw!" Betty protested.
"But we want to watch…"
She just pointed to the door. Ben put the popcorn aside and humphed.
"Alright, we're going." He muttered.
"The best show all year and we're missing it for Meghan." Betty whined as they left. Commander Shaw just looked back to her consoles.
"The team is about three clicks to your South East." She informed Zoey. "Rendezvous with them as quickly as you can."
"Roger that Commander." Zoey answered, running off. She then looked to another feed.
Ravi smashed his way through some Tronics as he, Nate and Steel made their way through the Cyber Dimension. He had trained his whole life, served in the Armed Forces for his entire career, but so far, he'd never been deployed in an active war zone, yet here he was, deep behind enemy lines in the most literal of ways.
He felt his temperature rising, and Tronics flew in all directions with his blows, shattering into pieces. He was focused on the task in hand, but he couldn't help his rage building as he went through. He was still furious with his mother for her part in his misery. He had given everything to the military, to Grid Battleforce, and to the Ranger Program, and yet it seemed that even then it still wasn't enough. Roxy was the one thing that made him happy, and yet because of his mother, he had been forced to choose.
He grabbed one, its head caving in under his grip, letting out a guttural roar as he threw it aside. He'd second-guessed and questioned his choice ever since the day they'd gotten their powers. When he saw his beloved Roxy taken from him, REALLY taken, possibly never to awaken, he had been faced with the prospect of a life without her. He'd always been raised with the belief that nothing was more important than duty. He had put the lives of others over his own happiness.
When Roxy's avatar had used the Neural Aligner on him, trying to turn him into an avatar too, it had messed with his mind, trying to alter his thoughts, but it had taken doubts, feelings, thoughts he already had and just amplified them. The one thought that kept echoing through his mind when she was trying to convert him was that he could be with her, finally put his own needs first. That Grid Battleforce only took and never returned that devotion. Even then he had been tempted to just let go, to let himself give in to those desires. But still, he had believed he was doing the right thing. Now though, he had to wonder if Evox had a point. Grid Battleforce, the military and his mother all took everything from him and never once concerned themselves with giving him anything in return. Now that Roxy was back, he wasn't going to leave his friends in the lurch, but he had already made up his mind. Once this mission was over, he was done with it all.
"Guys!" Devon called out as he and Mayor Daniels ran across them, drawn to them by the sounds of battle. Ravi looked around.
"Devon?" He asked. "We're here to rescue you! Guess we're a little late!"
"It's never too late to see another player join in!" Devon responded with a nod of the head as he helped them with the rest of the Tronics.
"Alright, we found Devon and the Mayor." Ravi stated. "Now we just need to worry about Evox…"
They all looked around as they saw an ominous green glow. They could see the Morph-X tower and knew that Evox was using the Morph-X to download into a new body.
"Does anyone want to bet that we just stumbled onto their base?" Steel asked. "I guess it makes sense. It explains why there are so many Tronics around."
Zoey leapt onto the scene, smashing the last of the Tronics as she joined her friends.
"Hey, guys." She greeted them.
"Meghan?" Ravi asked.
"Toast." She confirmed, nodding in the direction of the green glow. "I'm guessing that's probably Evox?"
"Looks like it." Nate confirmed. "Come on, let's do this."
In Grid Battleforce, Ben and Betty got to the medical bay as the staff there were opening the pod, tending to Meghan as she started to come around. They arrived with a security team.
"Get…get away from me." Meghan rushed out in a panic as they were trying to check on her.
"Give it up, Meghan!" Betty snapped. "Commander Shaw told us we have to be here, we had to leave our friends to take care of you!"
"Please, you don't understand…"
"Meghan, for once in your life, just shut up and do as you're told!" Ben put down angrily. "Our friends are in the Cyber Dimension fighting for all of us. Zoey risked her life to save even you! You don't get to walk away, you're still…"
"Please, I don't care about going to jail!" She rushed out, surprising them. "I need to tell you all something!"
"What could you possibly have to tell us…?"
"It's Evox. I know what his plan is!" She told them.
"Yeah, we all know too." Betty interrupted her. "He's downloading to a new body and coming here, which is why we're making sure you aren't going to go anywhere while we're dealing with that…"
"You guys don't understand, I was the one that created that body! I know what they're facing!" She rushed out. "Well…the avatar me, but I know what it's capable of."
"They're going to destroy it right now." Ben informed her.
"No!" She screamed. "They can't! There's nothing they have that can defeat Evox's new body!"
"Wow, even now you're more concerned with your own ego." Betty sneered as she shook her head. "You can't stand the Rangers winning against your creation even if it means everyone else…"
"You don't get it! My avatar knew everything I did! I worked on all of the Rangers' arsenal!" Meghan told them. "She made Evox's body to be able to withstand all of it. They literally have nothing that can harm him!"
Ben and Betty just looked to each other.
"They're going there now." Ben stated.
"The download's already started." Meghan informed them. "If the Rangers don't get out of there now…they're not going to make it!"
Back in the Cyber Dimension, the Rangers made their way through the structure, finding Scrozzle working in his lab. They saw the chamber holding the robotic body, glowing green, and Scrozzle working away, cackling maniacally as he kept his eye on the download.
"Hold it right there, Scrozzle!" Nate warned him as they all levelled weapons at him. Scrozzle just turned towards them, holding up his hands.
"You're too late, Rangers!" Scrozzle answered.
"We'll just see about that." Nate replied, aiming at the computer. The rest of the team all did the same thing, opening fire and destroying it. Nate turned his attention back to Scrozzle.
"Uh…guys?" Mayor Daniels asked. "Why isn't that green thing stopping?"
"Because, you're already too late." Scrozzle cackled. "The download is already complete. Evox is now in his new body! I was just finishing powering it up!"
In a fit of temper, Nate opened fire on Scrozzle, but he teleported away before they could finish him. Nate rushed over to the control console, desperately working on it to try and find a way to shut it down.
"Nate, can you do anything?" Zoey asked him.
"Not in time. It'd take me way too long to get through his security." Nate told them apologetically. Just then, they saw a robotic hand coming through the green glow. They all started to back away.
"Dad, get somewhere safe." Devon instructed him. Mayor Daniels went to hide, while they all trained their weapons on the chamber. "Alright guys, it looks like we have to do this the hard way!"
"At last, I am finally free of my digital prison!" Evox boomed as he stepped forth, the full horror of his new, armoured form emerging from the light. It was a large, bulky body, yellow and black, with long, clawed fingers, and a triangular face. "And my enemies will all suffer! Beginning with you!"
"Alright guys, light him up!" Devon ordered them. The Rangers all powered up their weapons to the maximum setting and poured on the firepower, hitting him with blast after blast.
Back in the Command Centre, Ben and Betty rushed back in as Commander Shaw and Joanne watched on.
"COMMANDER!" Betty panted, out of breath from the run all the way from the medical bay. "The Rangers…"
"Not now." She told them. "The Rangers are facing Evox as we speak!"
"That's what we're afraid of." Ben whimpered, red-faced and sweating from the exertion.
"We just talked to Meghan, she helped create his body!" Betty told them. "She told us that she made it invulnerable to our tech!"
"What?" Commander Shaw asked. "Is that possible?"
"She helped design and build almost the entire arsenal!" Joanne conceded. "If anyone could do it, it'd either be Nate or her."
Commander Shaw checked on the battle, seeing the Rangers throwing everything they had at Evox.
"Their weapons are all on maximum output." Joanne confirmed. "But…Evox, it seems to be having barely any effect on him!"
"We have to get them out of there!" Commander Shaw screamed, getting on the communicators. "Rangers, get out of there, NOW!"
"Commander?" Devon asked.
"Your priority is to get the Mayor and yourselves out of there, now!" She yelled. "Abort! ABORT!"
Back in the Cyber Dimension, the Rangers heard the instruction, but they were still busy hitting Evox with everything. As their weapons finally fell silent, they just stared directly at Evox, who stepped through the smoke left by the heat from all the blasts. To their horror his body seemed completely unaffected.
"Oh shit." Zoey muttered.
"It can't be!" Nate gasped, as they watched Evox powering up a blast. He cast it out, scattering them all. They all demorphed and struggled on the ground, trying to get up.
"He…he barely has a scratch on him." Ravi commented.
"He's not even trying!" Steel added.
"Rangers, your weapons are ineffective against Evox's new body, you must retreat!" Joanne screamed at them. "Get out of there, NOW!"
With that, they all started running. Evox just started laughing as he watched them, scattered and defeated.
A little way off, the Rangers finally regrouped with the Mayor, hiding from Evox. They all looked among each other in a panic.
"That was insane. We hit him with everything!" Ravi stated.
"It's only getting worse." Nate added as they all looked skyward. Evox started to grow, his body reaching immense proportions as he powered up. They all looked to him. "If he gets back to Coral Harbour now, I don't know if we can stop him, even with the Ultrazord."
"Then we have to make sure he doesn't get back." Zoey responded.
"But how, we can't even dent him!" Steel pointed out.
"We need to get back and try to collapse the gate on this side." Devon said, trying to form up a plan in his mind. "If we can't destroy him, maybe we can trap him. It might not hold him forever, but it might not need to. If we can only hold him off until we can create something that can actually harm him."
"But how do we do that?" Nate asked. Devon pointed to the Morph-X tower.
"The same way you deal with a problem in any good first-person shooter." He answered. "If all else fails, blow the shit out of everything."
"Devon, that's a whole Morph-X tower." Nate pointed out. "If we blow that up…"
"Then we have to make sure we're out of here REALLY fast!" He confirmed. "If anyone else has a better idea, now's the time."
They all just kind of shook their heads. No one loved this plan, but right now they only knew one thing. If Evox got to their world, then there was nothing that could stop him.
"Alright, then that's the plan." Devon stated. "Come on. We don't have long."
Back at Grid Battleforce Headquarters, Joanne was checking on the Ultrazord's systems, relaying the information to the Rangers.
"There's no way they're up to facing Evox, but they should hold together for your return journey to this world." Joanne confirmed as Nate called for an assessment. "With a really heavy emphasis on the word 'should'."
"Right now, that's about the best we can hope for." Zoey answered. "We're going to be coming back fast, so we'll need all emergency staff available at the Zord bay."
"Already assembling the team." Commander Shaw stated. "Are you sure about this?"
"About as sure as we can be about anything." Devon answered honestly. "Alright, we're almost at the tower. Signing off."
As soon as he signed off, the Rangers all stopped as they heard some laughter. It was a chilling, arrogant laugh. One they had heard all too many times. They all turned around, seeing Blaze standing on a cliff above them.
"Devon, I was just looking for you! Imagine how worried I was when I saw you weren't in that safe space I made for you." Blaze taunted him. "I was so worried; I was almost beside myself."
"Devon." Zoey said as she saw him tensing up. "We don't have time for this."
"Yeah, listen to your friends." Blaze told him. "I mean, Evox will probably be able to teleport out of here in any minute now."
"Blaze, I am so sick of your shit." Devon replied, summoning up his Beast X Sabre. Ravi interjected.
"Devon, we have to…"
"You guys go." He told them. "Set the tower to blow and get out of here."
"But Devon…"
"I'll meet you at the Ultrazord. If I'm not there in five minutes…leave without me." He told them.
"Devon…"
"That's an order!" He put down flatly. The rest of the team didn't want to leave him, but they knew that their priority was stopping Evox being able to get to their world. Mayor Daniels looked to his son, putting his hands on his shoulders and turning him to face him.
"Devon, don't do this." Mayor Daniels begged him. "Blaze made his choices…"
"That's just it, dad, I really don't think he did." Devon answered him. He took off his helmet, looking his dad in the eyes. "Dad, I know things haven't been right between us. I know that we've had our differences, and that at times we didn't get where we were coming from, but Blaze…"
He looked to the avatar, and breathed a sigh. They could see something in Devon's expression, but it wasn't anger or vengeance…it was pity.
"I learned a lot about him, and the two of us, we weren't as different as I thought we were." Devon explained. "But the one thing I always knew in my heart was that at the end of it all, no matter how bad things got between us, I always knew you cared. I always knew you were tough on me because you loved me and worried about me. Blaze…he didn't have that."
"Devon, the blast will destroy his avatar…"
"But we can't guarantee that." Devon pointed out. "And if the blast stops it being possible to get to the Cyber Dimension…"
"Blaze will be lost forever." Ravi concluded. He nodded as he finally realised what Devon was doing. This wasn't just an ego trip. This wasn't about settling a grudge with Blaze. He just patted him on the shoulder. "I'll get the others home."
With that, they all left. Blaze just pulled off his helmet, throwing it away.
"So, you're really doing this?" He asked.
"Yeah, I really am." Devon told him. "And I'm always at my best when I've got no extra lives and no continues."
He pulled into a guard.
"What do you say, Blaze?" He asked him. "One last time?"
"Your funeral!" Blaze responded, also adopting a guard.