In the Cyber Dimension, Scrozzle was in his lab with Blaze and Roxy, fixing a couple of new fingers onto Blaze's hand. Roxy was watching on, giggling to herself as she saw him being repaired.
"You know, you really ought to be more careful." Scrozzle complained. "Those bodies of yours were prototypes, it's not like I have an endless supply of parts and spares."
"What can I say? The Red Ranger got a lucky shot." Blaze said with a shrug. "His swing just missed the hand guard. If this was my old body, that might have been an issue."
"And the fact you lost two fingers isn't an issue?" Roxy chuckled.
"This one works just fine." Blaze replied, flipping her off. This didn't seem to bother Roxy at all. She just shrugged.
"I'm just sayin', I managed to go down there and come back with the same number of body parts I left with." Roxy pointed out.
"And you BOTH failed to destroy the Rangers!" Evox's voice boomed as he teleported into the Crystal Dimension. They all jumped in fright, seeing him, before coming before him and kneeling. Scrozzle hadn't quite finished reattaching Blaze's fingers, so one of them dropped off. He just quickly scooped it up and put it behind his back.
"Master, we had the Rangers right where we wanted them. They were hopelessly overmatched." Blaze told him. "If we weren't running low on Morph-X…"
"You ran out of Morph-X?" He demanded, glaring at Scrozzle. He just held up his hands defensively.
"I…I…I told you that the robotic battle units they're based on were prototypes, we hadn't gotten around to fine-tuning them yet." Scrozzle told him. "It looks like fuel usage was…one of the things we hadn't quite…"
"You had over twenty years to perfect us!" Blaze screamed.
"You mean that you had two decades to work on your design and we still get sucky fuel milage?" Roxy groaned. "God, you're slower to adapt to the market than the American Automotive Industry."
Blaze just looked at her confused.
"Oh, come on, there's a reason Europe doesn't buy American cars. They suck!" She continued. "We make cars for a market where people complain if gas hits four dollars a gallon. There it averages closer to twenty dollars a gallon! That's why they don't buy our cars, not some kind of nationalism, just the fact our cars are too expensive to run there!"
"Well, as fascinating as all this has been, I don't remember asking about the economics of the Auto Industry!" Evox roared, causing them both to bow their heads submissively. Evox started pacing. "I need Morph-X to maintain the Mayor's body. They need Morph-X to run, how do you expect us to attain enough Morph-X to maintain our campaign if we're using most of it just to keep ourselves running?"
"I…I can work on their bodies, see if I can't make them more efficient." Scrozzle stammered. "I can check the city for soft targets, see if we can't get some stockpiles…"
"Yes, you do that." Evox told him. "In the meantime, it's time the Mayor made some appearances in Coral Harbour. I've been gone far too long; people will start to wonder where their Mayor is if I'm gone too long."
With that, he disappeared. Scrozzle took Blaze back to the lab to continue the repairs.
"Roxy, you work on the computer, see if you can't find some soft targets." Scrozzle told her. "I'll see what I can do about our little fuel economy issue."
On the base, Roxy was packing the last of her things away in the drawers Ravi had given her on his bedside cabinet. She closed the drawer, backing away from it and sat on the edge of the bed. She felt Ravi's hands on her shoulders as she looked around the dorm room.
"Well, I guess we were planning on moving in together at some point." She sighed. "This…this could be good. You know, a trial run for the real thing when…when things get better."
Ravi put his arms around her and kissed her cheek softly.
"So, how are your family?" He asked her. She and Blaze had been allowed to make some calls home to arrange what they needed to, set their affairs in order and have some personal items brought to the base. For Blaze, that simply entailed him giving a list of things he wanted from his house and sending a security detail, but for Roxy, it meant a lengthy call to her family to explain why she wasn't coming home.
"Aunt Regina's doing as well as can be expected. Apparently, she was pretty shaken up by what she saw at the Aquatic Centre and has agreed for Collins Industries to pay for everything, no matter what it costs." Roxy said, starting to play with her necklace. "The shareholders aren't too happy, but she said that it's a matter of Corporate Responsibility."
"She wants to clean up their mistake and make things right." Ravi replied, shifting around beside her, taking his hands. "It's just a shame more companies aren't like that."
"My Grandfather, the one who started the company…Uncle Wes always told me he was really big on taking responsibility for the actions of his company." Roxy informed him. "Aunt Regina's not a bad person, she just…I always felt like once she got to think about it, she'd realise that was the right thing to do."
"Look, I know it sucks that you have to stay here." Ravi said to her in a comforting gesture, rubbing her hands gently. Roxy was by nature a very energetic and adventurous person. She hated sticking around in one place for too long. It was just one of the reasons she'd been so bored and unfulfilled in the token job she'd had at the firm. He knew that being forced to stay on the base would likely be driving her crazy. "But I promise we'll do everything we can to destroy that thing that has your face and get you out of here."
"I mean…at least the last time I was asleep the whole time." She grumbled. "What am I meant to do around here?"
"Well, we've got a gym and a pool and…"
"And that covers about a week. GOD!" She yelled, placing her hands over her eyes and flopping down onto the bed. "Is there like…some way Nate can put me back in the pod until this thing is over?"
"I don't think he'd be able to justify that ethically." Ravi told her. "Not to mention I'd miss you."
"You'd miss me?" She asked, arching an eyebrow. "How much?"
With that, Ravi crawled onto the bed, and began kissing her passionately.
Elsewhere on the base, Zoey came into Nate's lab, pulling on her lab coat as she prepared for their latest lessons. Nate closed the door, sealing it.
"Sorry I'm late, I needed to go to Blaze's place and pick up some stuff for him." Zoey told him. "It took a little while to find everything."
"How's he getting settled in?" Nate asked her.
"He's doing as well as can be expected. They assigned him the room across from mine so he's near someone he knows." Zoey said sounding a little bit dejected. Nate wanted to ask after Blaze further, but they were already into lesson time.
"Alright, did you do the reading I assigned you?" He asked.
"Most of it, I have some questions." She said, pulling out her notepad. Nate just smiled. "What?"
"Nothing, it's just…if you've already got questions then that means you're engaged with the material." Nate said as he looked to her impressed. "Alright, let's take a look at your notes."
Zoey handed him the notebook and let him look at it. He saw that she had already started on some equations and exercises.
"Alright, I see what you're doing here, it looks like you had the right idea but you made a little bit of a wrong turn here…"
Zoey let out an exasperated groan and slumped down onto the table. Nate just looked to her.
"It's not a huge mistake, it's easy enough to…"
"Nate, what are we going to do?" She asked him. "It's hard enough sneaking around here as it is, but with Blaze just across the hall, how are we meant to spend any time together?"
"Well, we're together now." He reminded her. She just took his hand gently in her own.
"You know that's not what I mean." She told him, her other hand going up towards his face. He just looked around.
"Like I said, we're together now." He answered with a smile. They were about to kiss when the door opened and they both jumped away from each other. Zoey's hip hit the corner of the table painfully.
"Hey, guys, I was just thinking, now we know that the bad guys are upping their game, maybe it's time we revived those Mega Blasters Nate was…" Devon started to say, before seeing them. "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, we were just…concentrating on my lesson." Zoey said, shifting a little. Devon saw her hobbling a little.
"Are you OK?" He asked. "Were you hurt in…?"
"Yeah, the last battle." Zoey interrupted him. "I'll be fine, honest!"
"Alright, just…let us know if it becomes a thing." Devon stated. "So, what do you say, Nate? Think it's time to finish work on them?"
"I think that might be a good idea." Nate told him. "I should have them ready for target practice later today."
"Alright, well…I guess I'll see you later then." Devon said as he headed for the door. "Later!"
As he left, closing the door, Nate looked to Zoey apologetically.
"See what I mean?" She asked. "What are we going to do?"
Nate thought about it for a moment, before a thought crossed his mind. He smiled brightly.
"I think I might just have a solution, somewhere on the base no one goes." He told her. Zoey just looked to him curiously.
"No one?" She asked. Nate just nodded.
"Well, only the Commander and I have clearance." He told her, showing her his key card. "Well…we're the only ones on the base. The General has access too, but how often does he come by here?"
"Oh, really?" Zoey asked. "So, where is this place?"
Nate went over to the corner of the room, to a door. She'd seen it many times, she'd been in this lab almost daily since she became a Ranger, but she just never gave it much mind. She watched as he scanned his keycard, letting the door open. He gestured her inside.
Zoey headed for the door, looking inside. Nate helped her through before turning on the light. She looked around in awe.
"What in the world?" She asked as she looked around. There were shelves all around, filled with devices and weapons. Nate closed the door behind them, sealing it behind them. "This stuff…I recognise all of this stuff…is this…is this what I think it is?"
"Welcome to the vault." Nate said, panning his hand around it.
"I recognise most of this stuff. I've seen a lot of it in Ranger History Class…" She said as she went around the shelves, looking at the items on display. "Blade Blasters, Chrono Sabres…don't…don't tell me all of this stuff…"
"It's the real deal alright." Nate declared proudly. "Once I started doing research into the Morphing Grid and realised, we'd need to create our own Ranger Tech to protect it, we were able to reach out to other teams for samples of their tech to study as a basis for our own."
"I don't recognise all of this, some of these are teams I've never seen before." Zoey said as she checked some of the labels on the shelf. "Dino Thunder? Jungle Fury?"
"The Morphing Grid doesn't just flow through our dimension; it flows through others as well. Some of these artifacts come from dimensions other than our own, places where teams that never existed here operated." Nate explained to her.
"I can't believe this place exists; I mean…I know you studied other teams but they actually let you keep some of their stuff?" She asked. He just nodded.
"They were extremely helpful. Fortunately, most of them are long since finished with their Big Bads and were happy to do anything to help other teams with theirs." He told her. "So, what's your favourite team?"
"Really?" She asked him. "You know why we came in here and you want to show off your collection?"
He just smirked, pulling off his lab coat.
"You're right." He said, kissing her deeply. "The toys can wait."
A little while later, Steel, Ravi, Devon, Smash and Cruise were all in the firing range, waiting on Nate and Zoey to arrive. They'd sent messages, but so far none of them had heard anything back.
"I've got to tell you; these new blasters look pretty sick." Devon said as he inspected his new, shiny red mega blaster. "Maybe we can just try out a little trial run before…"
"Devon, just wait a little longer, alright?" Ravi asked him.
"I'm with Devon, I say we give these suckers a dry run." Steel said as he picked one up. "We can tell my bro how they run when he gets here…"
"Unless they malfunction." Ravi sighed, taking the blaster off Devon. "Grid Battleforce regulations quite clearly say that when new weaponry is being tested, we need a senior member of the tech team on hand in case of malfunction."
"But it's so shiny and big!" Steel whined. A moment later, Jax came rolling in.
"Have you found them?" Devon asked.
"I don't know what to tell you guys, I haven't seen them anywhere." Jax told them. "I must have been around the whole base and I haven't found them anywhere."
"Then, where are they?" Ravi asked. "Should we maybe…?"
"Hey guys, sorry we're a little late." Zoey said as they finally arrived. "We got uh…"
"We were a little caught up in Zoey's lesson." Nate rushed out. He saw Steel with the blaster in his hand. "You didn't try these out, did you?"
"No, Mr Rulebook here wouldn't let us until you got here." Devon answered. Nate breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alright, now I'm here, we can give them a try." Nate said, gesturing to Steel to step up. "Alright, we'll try just one of us first. You want to give it a shot?"
"Do I?" He yelled. He pointed down range at a target and pulled the trigger. They all watched as the blaster burst into life, obliterating the target.
"Whoa, that was great!" Zoey shrieked, grabbing Nate, before realising what she did and backing off quickly. The others just focused down the range.
"Man, I can't wait to give this a go!" Devon said, picking up another.
"Well, now we know they're safe, we can give them a more thorough workout." Nate answered, looking to the Beastbots. "Mind setting up some targets for us?"
They headed off to set up the range, while Nate and the others took up the blasters, familiarising themselves with them. As they were getting ready, Devon got an idea.
"Tell you what, how about we make this a little more interesting?" He asked. "How about anyone who misses during training buys everyone smoothies?"
"Oh no, I don't have my wallet." Ravi said, before chuckling. "Good thing I won't need it."
"Hey, come on guys, this is just practice. It's not a competition." Zoey said, before smirking. "Besides, I'll beat you all."
"Hey, I don't even drink smoothies." Steel pointed out. "Or…get paid for that matter. Nate, that's something we should really talk to the Commander about…"
"For the last time Steel, you don't have any living expenses, you don't need to be paid." Nate groaned as they all set up ready for the contest. The Beastbots all cleared the range.
"Alright, we're ready to go." Smash said as they stood at a safe position. Devon and the others all lined up.
"OK, first round, let's go." He said. "In three, two, one…GO!"
They all opened fire. The new blasters worked like a charm. Although this was effectively the first time, they'd tested them, Nate wasn't in the habit of giving weapons to soldiers before he knew they were ready. The team managed to knock down all the targets without any real difficulty.
"No smoothies so far." Ravi said.
"Don't get cocky, the next round is a little harder." Smash informed them, hitting some controls. They all watched as a target appeared and started zooming around the target range quickly. Devon just nodded.
"Moving target, eh?" He asked. "Yeah, that's a little trickier."
"Is that you conceding?" Ravi asked him. "Because if it is, I'll take carrot and wheatgrass."
"Oh, you wish I was conceding!" Devon answered cockily. "I have the highest score in every shooting game in the arcade!"
"Alright, ready, aim…FIRE!" Nate called out. The team all opened fire, putting down a huge barrage of fire, but as the target zoomed around, it seemed like they were always just a little bit behind it. None of them could draw a bead on it. One by one, they all gave in to frustration, putting their weapons down.
"It was moving too fast!" Ravi complained.
"It was a tough one." Nate agreed.
"I'll say!" Zoey added.
"That wasn't just tough, that shot was impossible!" Steel whined. "There's no way anyone could get that!"
"Oh, really? I'm sure I tested the settings earlier." Cruise said, picking up one of the blasters. Devon just patted him on the shoulder as he tracked the moving target.
"Cruise, it's alright, you don't have to prove…" He was silenced instantly as with just a single shot, Cruise managed to blast the target out of the air. The whole team just stared at him in amazement.
"Nope, just as I thought, the settings haven't changed." Cruise said, shrugging his shoulders. "Would you all like another shot at it?"
"Cruise, that was amazing!" Devon congratulated him. "Way to go buddy!"
"Yeah, we could use that kind of shooting on our team." Ravi interjected. Devon thought about this for a moment.
"Well, yeah, we could." Devon suggested. "If Cruise has these types of skills, maybe he could help us out with real Robotrons and Tronics."
"Whoa, wait, that's not exactly what I meant." Ravi said to him.
"Well, why not?" Devon asked. "I mean, the bad guys are stepping up their game and trying new things, what about us?"
"The Beastbots were never really designed to fight in the field." Nate reminded him. "They're more…technical support."
"So? Steel can do a whole bunch of stuff he was never programmed to do." Devon pointed out.
"Steel's different…"
"But his base programming and construction was based on the Beastbots, you said so yourself." Devon reminded him. "If he can learn, why not the others? You've all seen how good a shot he is, if he can cover us, we'd be unstoppable."
The others looked to Nate, who still didn't seem completely convinced, but he had to admit that Devon had made some good points. Just because Cruise hadn't been programmed for combat didn't mean he couldn't LEARN to be.
"Alright, I'll make Cruise some blasters." Nate told him. "But he MUST do combat training before we deploy him in the field!"
"Alright!" Devon called out, high-fiving his Beastbot. As he and the others started to leave, Zoey hung back with Nate.
"It'll…be alright, won't it?" She asked. Nate just sighed.
"I really hope so." He stated.