Ryder, Flynn, and Summer were sitting on Flynn's truck as Ziggy rambled on to them about not fully understanding the finer points of male-bonding rituals as he drew a finishing line.
"Look, I told you the salt air would throw off Scott's nitrous mixture by at least 7%," Summer said, nudging Flynn and causing Ziggy to pause and frown at her.
"Really? Care to double our bet then?" Flynn asked, smirking and folding his arms.
"You're on!" Summer grinned, holding her hand out for him to shake.
"Come on, Dillon!" Ziggy shouted as the black Ranger pulled ahead in the race.
"He's got it!" Flynn said, happy that he was going to win the bet.
"Come on!" Summer yelled, desperate for Scott to get back in the lead.
"Go for it!" Flynn continued to shout, egging Dillon on.
All three rangers continued to yell sans Ryder who was still on top of Flynn's truck uninterested in the race reading her book. Unknown to Ryder, Flynn, Summer, and Ziggy frowned as Scott and Dillon both stopped short of the finish line. When Ryder heard the engines stopped she looked up to congratulate whoever won but was only met by the two walking out of their cars with an annoyed expression. She dropped from Flynn's car and joined the others standing by their side.
"Very, very impressive race," Tenaya smirked. "But you see I prefer my battles to have a more permanent outcome."
"Now, see here, I don't care how powerful or deadly you are, Miss. Tenaya 7." Said Ziggy. "But there are five of us against only one -" he cut off as several Grinders appeared from behind the rocks surrounding the beach. "One, two, three, four, five six seven eight. Oh, well now this isn't fair." Ryder sighs lightly slapping her forehead in annoyance.
As the Grinders charged, so did the rangers. Dillon and Ryder handled Tenaya while the group handled the Grinders. Ryder swept her feet under Tenaya causing her to fall, and for Dillon to grab onto her lifting her. Ryder aimed a punch at Tenaya's face, only to be blocked. Tenaya aimed a punch at her head, but Dillon stopped her by grabbing her wrist and twisting it away from her body.
"For a human," Tenaya said, struggling for release, "you're pretty fast."
"For a robot, you're pretty human," Dillon retorted.
Tenaya snarled at him and ripped her hand free of his. "Don't call me that," she shouted. Exchanging a few more blows she flipped over the hybrids, using Dillon's collar as a base, then hit Ryder in the bad of her neck, knocking her out for a minute.
"Ryder!" Dillon shouted before Tenaya punched him on the chest and throwing him backward away from her. Getting annoyed he morphed, "RPM, Get in gear!"
Ryder groaned waking up, memories crashed her mind. She morphed while reaching Tenaya and Dillon's place. Ryder jumped back to her feet just in time to catching Tenaya's leg as the hybrid aimed a kick at her head, she struggled to keep her in place and cried out to Dillon. He raised Tenaya above his head and tossed her back towards the rocks. With a cry of defeat, Tenaya struggled back to her feet and glared at the two Rangers.
"To be continued..." she said with a sigh, before blasting the two rangers and disappearing.
The two rangers on the grown were de-morphed by the impact. Both exchanged looks without saying anything to the other and went back to their respective vehicles.
"I had you." "I had you." Dillon and Scott snapped at each other, both of them holding a finger up to the other.
With that, they returned to their respective vehicles driving home.
| Garage |
Ryder hopped off of her Motorcycle and went to bed without speaking. She lied on her bed to organize her thoughts, they were all over the place. Ryder had a suspicion that Dillon was her brother. She had an attraction to him, pretty similar too. If she was a part robot, it could mean that Dillon and she were prisoners of Venjix and were implanted by machine parts turning them Hybrid.
Thinking back to the nightmare she had the day before, the man's voice sounds a lot like Dillon's, and on the same day, he had the same expression as her when they got out of the room. Could he really be? SO that girl was my…? Multiple thoughts ran through her head, so many explanations of why he could, of why he couldn't. Frustrated, she fell asleep.
| Lab |
"Ryder snap out of it!" Ryder woke up to the shout. Her eyes were already open. She couldn't move, she tried but failed. Looking through her eyes she saw Summer in-front of her blocking her head from something. Looking to her right, it was her first. With all her will she stopped the punch before it hit. "Ryder?" Summer questioned.
Grunting and struggling she willed out, "the fuck?"
She lost control again, Dillon blocked her this time, hooking her to place. "She must have a controller somewhere on her body, find it!" She hears Scott order. She broke free from Dillon's hands and was prepared for more attacks. Scott came.
Ryder's body was moving on its own, so she thought of this situation and what could have caused it. The fight in the morning. That was the only time Venjix could have gotten a controller on her. Tenaya, Venjix, Knocked out, Head, "the back of my head!" She shouted, realization dawned on Scott as he and Dillon pinned Ryder down, taking the controller out of her hair. Ryder got control of her body again. "That was a shitty feeling!" Ryder yelled.
The exclamation alerted both male Rangers that Ryder was back, her let go of her. She looked around at the confused glances she received.
"You don't remember anything?" Summer asked Dillon, somewhere along the lines also directing the question to Ryder. "Nothing at all?"
"I fell asleep."
Dillon shook his head. "Not since earlier this morning," he answered. "Why, what happened?"
"You just tried to kill us!" Ziggy exclaimed, waving his arms around in exaggeration.
"We understand how Dillon was controlled, but what about you lass, how were you?" Flynn questioned.
Ryder stood up and rubbed the back of her head looking sheepish, "just discovered not long ago." Ryder rose her hand in a 'hi' gesture. "Names, Ryder or Venjix called: R-17"
The rangers were now looking skeptical of Ryder.
"Have a seat," Dr. K said, patting a leather chair. "We'll explain everything."
Both shrugged and sat down; the moment they did two metal bands shot out of the chair and strapping them down. "What's going on?" he asked, looking up. "So, what, you're trying to strap me down so I don't hurt myself?"
"More so you don't hurt us," Dr. K answered. Ryder shrugged in agreement.
"Doctor, is that really necessary?" Summer asked.
"Yeah, it was this thing that was doing it, not him," Ziggy agreed, holding up the device.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Dr. K informed them. "If you look at these latest readouts of Ranger Operator Series Black -"
"Oh for the love of Odin's beard, woman, would you just call him 'Dillon'?" Flynn sighed.
"Is there a reason you won't call us by our real names?" Ziggy asked, wrapping her arms around herself. She was still dressed in her dressing gown and pajamas and was starting to feel the chill in the lab.
"There's a reason for everything," Dr. K informed her.
Ziggy blinked in confusion, and then looked across at Summer. "Did she just explain why, and I completely missed it?" she asked.
Summer smiled and patted her sister's shoulder.
"When the remote bug was activated," Dr. K pressed on as if she hadn't been interrupted, "it downloaded an acceleration upgrade into the viral hardware already growing inside Ranger black."
"Acceleration upgrade?" Summer repeated.
"The Venjix hardware inside him is not taking over his biological being at a rate fifty times greater than it was before," Dr. K explained.
"How long do I have, Doc," Dillon asked, "before I change to a machine completely?"
"You won't change into a machine, you'll just lose your mind."
Dillon turned his head towards Ryder's direction, "thank you for the reassurance."
"There is no telling at what point the infection will cause you to lose control over your own actions," Dr. K answered, vaguely.
"Hold on," said Flynn, "we all saw that Venjix attack bot this morning. That's what must have activated the device."
"Flynn's right," Summer agreed. "If we could get a hold of that thing's circuit board, we could hack it and download the acceleration program."
"It still would not stop the spread of the virus," Dr. K informed them.
"Aye, but it might slow it down," Flynn said, nodding.
"How are you gonna find it? That thing is long gone by now," said Scott.
"We lure it back," Ziggy said, quickly. "If we lower the shields, Venjix will think Dillon did it and send everything he has, including that thing."
"I hate to admit it, but that might actually work," Flynn says.
"It's worth a try. I mean we got to do something," Ziggy added.
"Look, people, we'd be taking a huge risk," Scott said, still unconvinced.
"What we would be doing is putting the entire city and the fate of the human race at stake all for Ranger Operator Series Black," Dr. K said, appalled by the idea that the Rangers were considering.
"Thanks for the mention, appreciate it Doc," Ryder says sarcastically.
Summer rolled her eyes and handed the device Ziggy had been playing with to Dr. K. "Them, Dillon, and Ryder," she said, placing the disc in the doctor's hand. "We're doing it for them, Dillion and Ryder." She starts to take off the cuffs on Dillon.
"Wow ranger yellow, I think this pretty much answers the statistical question regarding the number 10 we were discussing earlier, has it not?"
Ryder rolling her eyes, broke her own cuffs causing a large sound. Everyone turned to look at Ryder who was rubbing her wrists. "What? It was itchy." With that, she walked out of the room.
"Never let her get controlled again." Said, someone.
| Morning |
Dillon approached his car and started loading it up with supplies for his road trip. He wouldn't let the other Rangers lower the shields for him, he couldn't allow them to put themselves and the rest of Corinth city in danger for him. Ryder was next to him on her motorcycle, helmet already on, her supplies were together with Dillon's.
"Going somewhere?" Scott asked from the driver's seat of his own car. He had been waiting for Dillon, having anticipated the black Ranger's move ahead of time. Though he didn't expect Ryder to be there; but knowing her for a while now, he knew she would follow Dillon with any/most decisions.
"I can't let you lower the city shields," said Dillon. "Not for me… or her."
"Yeah, I kinda figured you might say that," Scott nodded. "But you keep forgetting - I'm a team leader. I make those decisions, not you. Plus, I can outrun you."
Dillon smirked as Scott tried to turn on his car, only for the engine to splutter and the gage to read empty.
"You never got to finish the race. And…"
"I kinda figured you'd say that," Dillon shot back, "that's why I emptied the gas of your tank."
Scott scoffed and laid his head back against his seat.
"So, I guess this is goodbye, fearless leader," Dillon said, turning on his own engine. "I'm heading out to the wasteland, where I can't be a danger to anybody. Don't try to follow me."
"Dillon, Dillon, Dillon," Scott said, shaking his head. "You really are a piece of work, aren't you? You know, you've got to be the most stubborn person I have ever met - next to me, that is."
Dillon grinned and nodded as he reached over to tune in his radio; he stopped and looked back as he felt something cold against his wrist, and glared up at Scott as the red Ranger snapped the free head of a handcuff to him, linking them both together.
"You, my friend, are not going anywhere - not without me," said Scott, jangling the chain.
"Are you completely insane?" Dillon asked.
"Maybe."
"I'm giving you five seconds," Dillon warned. "Take out the key and unlock us, then I'm pulling out of here. I'll take your arm with me if I have to."
Scott sighed and took the key from his pocket. "So convincing," he said, before chuckling and throwing it over his shoulder and into an oil drum. "You wish." Ryder sneakingly got off her bike and went to catch the keys. She didn't plan on telling them that though knowing the outcome, hilarious. Ryder caught the Key and let it drop for the sound effect.
"Suit yourself," Dillon said, putting his foot to the floor and looking up at Scott. "Last chance."
"For both of us!" Scott challenged.
The arguing had drawn the attention of Flynn, Summer, and Ziggy out of the ranger lab. They went to see what the commotion was about. As Dillon pulled off, ready to take the red Ranger with him, his tires screeched.
In the last moment of worry, Dillon slammed on the brakes and glared out of his window at Scott. "I really hate you, you know that?" he growled, getting out of his car and walking back to the red Ranger.
"Yeah, yeah I know." Scott did the 'what can I do," motion as Dillon stepped out of the car.
"Now... let's have the spare," Dillon said, holding his hand out for the key.
Scott nodded and turned to Ziggy.
Ziggy looked sheepish. "That, uh - that was spare," he said, pointing at the oil drum that the key had fallen into. "I accidentally swallowed the original during my, uh, charity magic show last month."
Annoyed, Dillon sighed and glared against Scott. Ryder was holding bad a laugh with a smirk. "Learn to get along with each other. This is the handcuff version of 'get along shirt'."
Scott chuckled, "looks like it's you and me, Dil." Scott and Dillon were too much alike for anything good to come of this situation, except entertainment.
A few minutes later, Dillon and Scott were preparing a snack. Ryder chuckled at the sight of Scott tugging the chains so Dillon couldn't get a bite, so, Ryder snuck up on both of them and took a bite out of it when Scott tugged the third time. Dillon looked to his left in betrayal. Ryder just sent him a smirk while Scott was laughing.
Walking into the lab with Flynn and Ziggy, Summer asked standing in front of the computer, "how are the lovely couple doing?"
"Fearlessly." Flynn answered the same time Ryder said, "hilariously."
| Night time |
After an entertaining day for the non-chained rangers. Rivals Scott and Dillon went to their respective cars chained wrists hanging out of their windows. Neither of them wanted to sleep in the same bed as the other. Ryder was present during their conversation as she couldn't sleep. Sitting on the stairs, she was reading her book and listening to low music while listening to the boys' conversation.
"Why did you do it?" Dillon asked.
"Do what?" Scott asked.
"This," said Dillon, holding up his wrist.
"I don't know," Scott answered. "I guess I'm a saint."
"Nobody's a saint, nobody," Dillon replied.
"By the way, what's your story with Ryder? You guys aren't dating or sibling- not that we know." Scott asked.
Dillon thought for a moment, "I guess… We could be called siblings, dating her feels wrong. And I do feel protective of her."
Scott let the words sink in, and was thoughtful for a moment, "You know… maybe you are, just that you both don't have memories meaning you wouldn't recognize each other." Scott sighed, and then looked up. "Dillon?" he said his voice low.
"Yeah,"
"You're welcome."
They both drift off to sleep leaving a Ryder behind. She thought through their words, her foreign feelings, her robotic parts, her family, her dad, her sibling which she didn't remember… there could be a possibility.
Making a mental note to think about it later, she returned to the page she was reading and finished in the morning.
Throughout the night, she kept on switching positions, lying on the pool table, sitting on the raying, lying on the top of both Scott and Dillon's car, and the final position, hanging upside down from the ceiling pole. She continued to read while moving.
| Morning |
"Ryder?" Came a confused Summer's voice.
Taking her head off her book Ryder looked down to where Summer was, "yeah?"
"Why are you upside down." Ryder shrugged, "Did you sleep?" She shook her head no, "next time sleep, it's good for your body."
"Sometimes have Insomnia," Ryder says nonchalantly.
"Now can you please come down?" Summer asks with worry.
Ryder nods shutting her book and grabbed onto the pole. Now hanging by her arms, she swung and flipped in the air, landing on the floor without much of a struggle. "They are still asleep."
"Wow." Said a voice behind them, they turned around. "Like, you were up, there like how I was when I first transported - how did you do that could you teach me…" and so on, Ziggy's questions ignored why Ryder.
The alarm rang loudly in the morning, startling both Dillon and Scott who were both sore and stiff from sleeping in their cars. "That's the ranger alarm." They both got out of their cars and tried to walk in separate directions forgetting their chains and were pulled back towards one another falling onto the floor.
"We're going out," Summer said as she passed the two fallen Rangers.
"That's right," Scott coughed, now fully awake.
"I guess the chain gang's staying here, then," Flynn teased, walking over to his truck. Ryder also walked away towards her motorcycle, all the while hiding her smile with her stoic/emotionless face.
"Don't worry, Dillon, I'm coming back with that circuit board or not at all," Ziggy promised, he then paused and thought through what he had said. "That was a bit dramatic about not coming back, but you get my point, right? I'm gonna try really hard to get it."
"Ziggy, come on!" Flynn shouted from the truck. Ziggy nodded and hurried over. He climbed into the back and all available rangers drove off.
| Fight |
"Stop!" Yelled Summer as 4 colored rangers entered the bot's view. "We have to take that thing down." No shit captain obvious, Ryder mentally commented I don't want to be a puppet.
The bot shot lighting at the rangers. "Ahh," they shouted as they were blasted, flying up.
"How do we do that again?"
The bot tried to shoot another blast but something blocked it, so the Grinders charged. Taking this opportunity the Rangers also charged, fighting off the Grinders.
"Taking fire!"
"Blue, what out!" Ryder saw this and kicked the Grinder above Flynn.
"Thanks." Then they went back to fighting.
"Hey, wait, I don't want to destroy that circuit board-thing. Uh- should I hit the spot in his foot or the kneed, or maybe the…"
Annoyed at the green rangers Ryder shouted, "JUST HIT HIM!" The bot hit the green rangers, "not you metal head!"
Ryder could hear the boys arguing through the comms. "Dillon, can you please stop pulling on that?" Scott asked, yanking the chain back towards him, only minutes after Dillon had pulled the chain towards him and causing it to tighten around Scott's hand.
"So, why don't you just end the suspense and head out there now?" Says Dr. K
"I thought you'd never ask," Scott sighed sarcastically
"And for Pete's sake, decide whose car you're taking first," Dr. K called after them.
Ryder could hear the chains dangling as Scott and Dillon squabbled about whose car they were taking. "Children," Ryder says as she shakes her head back and forth before heading back to the fight, which caused her to be immediately blasted with the other rangers, now lying on the floor.
The Rangers heard a honk, causing them to look backward showing Ziggy's motorcycle with Dillon and Scott. The two rangers fought simultaneously.
"Hey look," Summer says as the 4 fallen rangers stand up. We have eyes, we know. Ryder comments. Even though they were friends, she couldn't understand why they always point out the obvious stuff.
"Ready to cut the cord?" Dillon asks, Scott agrees and they morph. "You have something I need," Dillon says annoyed.
Red and Black together fought the bot, destroying it. And … then turning it big. Dr. K sent the Zords, destroying it a second time.
Summer went to the Bot's parts while the rangers went back to the garage lab. Picking up the circuit board saying "gotcha" and returned.
| Lab |
Summer inserted the circuit board into the computer. She typed furiously alongside Flynn. Ryder and Dillon suddenly got a headache, Ryder resisted knowing what was going to happen, so she ignored the pain and rushed to where the extra set of shorter cuffs were. Holding the cuffs she ran back to Dillon's side. Kneeling, she grabbed his hand and put the cuffs on, the same way Scott did it with him. After a few seconds, Ryder and Dillon weren't in control of their body anymore.
Both hybrids stood up eyes glowed similar to Tenaya 7. "Not again," groaned Scott.
Scott and Ziggy went to hold the hybrids, Summer joined soon after. Summer grabbed Dillon while Scott grabbed Ryder, Ziggy was holding both backs from moving forward. Ryder was trying hard to resist the coding, causing her strength to diminish so Scott could hold her with more ease.
"Can you please get that circuit thingy to work?!" Ziggy asked struggling to hold both hybrids.
"I can't, it's all encrypted," answered Flynn from the computers trying to disable the virus.
"Encrypted?" Summer repeated. "How long is it gonna take to crack?" Summer asked.
"I can't - not without the base code," Flynn answered troubled.
"Base code," Ziggy repeated trying to sound like he understood what it meant.
"The original code used to program the Venjix virus," Flynn explained.
"Oh!"
Summer gasped as Dillon rolled his arm and grabbed her around the waist; he hoisted her into the air and then flipped her over. Ryder at the same time reached behind her, grabbing Scott by the scruff of his jacket and tossed him over her body. Dillon picked up Dr. K's sonic blaster and pointed it at them, moving it around so that it was aimed at each of the Rangers that had tried to get in his way. Ryder stood next to him.
"Dillon, don't do it, please!" Ryder hearing Summer's pleading, resisted the virus harder, allowing her to move her body in front of the sonic blaster so if he shot she would be the one hurt. Which he did blast. Ryder has shot semi away through the room, as she was still chained to Dillon. As they landed on the ground, similar to how Scott and Dillon woke up. The hybrids gripped their head, faces contorting in pain. Dillon collapsed down onto his stomach. Ryder was holding onto her injuries from the sonic blast alongside her head.
"The virus has gone back to its original growth rate." Summer announced.
"I'm getting really sick of asking this but, what happened?" Dillon murmured on the floor as he got up from it in front of Scott, he held out a hand helping Ryder. Ryder gripped onto Dillon's hand getting up.
"We got taken over by the virus… again," Ryder says in annoyance.
"You expected this," Dillon stated more than asked motioning to the chains on his wrist.
"Precaution." Turning her head towards the other rangers she asked, "did it make it easier?" They nodded in response.
"What happened," Dillon asked again looking at Summer.
"What just happened is that I entered the base code for the Venjix virus." Dr. K finally informed the rangers. They all looked at her. "I know it because I wrote it. I'm the one who released it. Everything's that's happened, everything you've all been through - it's all my fault."
Four Rangers looked at Dr. K in shock while two looked at her in anger. Ryder didn't think about what happened next because it blurted out of her mouth before she walked out towards her room. "Fuck you!"