There was a certain sense of relief at Grid Battleforce the following day. They had come very close to one of the most closely guarded secrets of their organisation being broadcast live on television. There were a lot of discussions, a lot of behind-closed-doors meetings and a lot of meetings far above the pay grade and security clearance of the Rangers to be had to figure out how credible the threat had been and how to prevent any future threats to the security of the Rangers' identities, but for now, as far as the Rangers were concerned, the threat was over. Commander Shaw had even agreed to sign off another personal day to make up for the one they'd had to cut short in the operation at the studio.
Nate, despite it being a personal day, had opted to work. There was an extra special project that had been waiting a little too long already. He was just setting up a table with all the tools he'd need, when Joanne wheeled in, wearing a thin robe. He just turned to look at her as she came in.
"We're just about set up here." Nate told her. "Do you want a little time to relax, perhaps I can take you through…"
"No, thank you." She responded. "I'd really rather just get on with it. No offence, but I've been in this thing long enough."
It had been a tough road for Joanne. After her initial injury, she'd been left quadriplegic. It was only extremely experimental implants all but completely replacing her spine that had given her back the use of her arms and legs. She'd put up with the pain, the faults, the bugs that had plagued the process that had developed over time, sometimes having to endure pain that all but completely floored her on many occasions.
The attack at the memorial service had damaged the implants to the point they now had to be replaced. It was something that ethically, Nate couldn't really justify doing while she was effectively otherwise healthy. Now though, the incident had given him the opportunity to effectively start all over again, this time with a much deeper understanding of the technology he needed to integrate it into her nervous system. So far, he'd managed to give her back the use of her arms, but the full process was going to take several hours, most of a day in fact. Joanne had done so much for the Rangers already, that Nate thought sacrificing one of his few personal days was a small price to pay.
"Alright, we'll just need to get you up on the table." He said as he positioned himself to help her lift herself onto the worktable. Just before they were about to start though, the door opened. Devon walked in.
"Devon?" She asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I heard that this was going ahead." Devon told her. "I just thought…maybe you might appreciate some moral support."
"Devon, this is a really delicate procedure." Nate told him. "I don't think you can…"
"Nate's right, this is going to take all day." Joanne interrupted him. "There's no reason for you to miss out."
"Yeah, I kind of do." Devon told her. Joanne just smiled and took his arm, using his body to help herself up onto the bench. Devon helped move her legs up, allowing her to lie face-down on the bench. Nate got a chair for Devon.
"Alright, this is going to take a while." Nate told him. "It might be more comfortable…"
"I'll be fine right here." Devon told him as he took the chair and sat beside the table, taking one of Joanne's hands. "There's nowhere I'd rather be."
Joanne felt his hand in her own, and gripped it tightly as Nate collected the first of his tools.
"Alright, then." Nate stated. "Let me know if you feel any discomfort."
In another part of the city, Muriel Reeves was in her apartment, well after 10 AM, for what was the first time since she'd been on maternity leave with her daughter. There were a couple of casualties in the whole incident. The studio had to face a measure of ridicule and a lot of hit-pieces from rivals which claimed the whole thing had been a publicity stunt. That the fact Muriel destroyed the footage they promised was just their way of getting out of having to admit that it never existed in the first place, and the claim they had the identities of the Rangers was a hoax designed to boost viewing figures.
There wasn't really much the station could do about that. Libel suits were costly and would take months, and most importantly, they'd need to prove that the claims others were making were false, something that was difficult to do now they no longer had the footage. Even if they were able to sue, the damage was mostly done, and a lot of people believed the whole thing had been a publicity stunt. They would have to weather the storm and build back their reputation over time.
The other main casualty was Muriel herself. She knew what was likely to happen when she made the decision. Even without the damage her actions had done to the studio, even without the drop in viewership and the truckloads of angry letters. Muriel had the biggest story in existence, and she had destroyed it. Not only that, but she had done so on-camera. There was no hiding it. No matter whether people believed she had the footage or not, every media outlet in the country had watched her promise a bombshell only to snatch it away. Either way, no one would be willing to work with her again. Almost thirty years, her entire career, and she had flushed it all down the toilet on national television.
She heard a knock on the door and peeled herself up off the couch, heading to the door. Zoey, her only daughter, was standing in the doorway before her.
"Hey, mom." Zoey greeted her uneasily. "I um…I caught your broadcast last night."
Muriel just sighed and showed her in. Zoey entered the apartment, looking incredibly uncomfortable. Muriel had expected to see her at some point.
"I called the studio…they said you were here." She said uneasily as she tried to begin. She had guessed that the studio wouldn't be happy with her mom, and there was a part of her that suspected how it could have ended. However, she called the studio to confirm, wondering if perhaps they might have taken into account her years of work and punished her in some other way, put her on crummy assignments or put her in spell-checking or something. Unfortunately, when she called the phone call was very brief, and her boss had confirmed very curtly, and with a lot of very harsh language, that her mother no longer worked at the station.
"That's what happens when you're fired." Muriel said as she went to the coffee maker. "Still, I got my first long lie in years, can I make you some…?"
"No, thank you." Zoey answered. She couldn't help feeling guilty. She had given her mom the footage, given her the opportunity to decide what to do with the story, and while a part of her was impressed that her mom had chosen to keep the Rangers' secret, she also couldn't help feeling like she had put her in that situation in the first place. Maybe if she'd destroyed the memory card herself, her mom could tell the studio that. Maybe if she'd taken the decision out of her mom's hands, then this might not have happened. After all, who was going to fight a Ranger with no powers or weapons of any kind? "I'm sorry…"
"You don't need to be sorry. It's not like you made me destroy that memory card." Muriel answered as she turned on the coffee maker for another cup. She could see the way her daughter was looking at her. The only thing that Zoey didn't know was that Muriel had actually watched the footage, and knew that her daughter was a Ranger. She had seen what the Rangers had done to help those she worked with, people she'd known and cared about at the studio for many years, and even that was enough for her to think they deserved to keep their secret. But knowing that her daughter was one of them, knowing that to get what she wanted, she'd have to sacrifice her daughter's privacy, she didn't have a choice. "The Rangers are heroes, they do so much for us. If this is what it costs for me to repay them then…it's just the price that has to be paid."
"I know, but it just sucks." Zoey told her. "Have you contacted any other studios? Newspapers? Maybe…"
"What's the point? Every outlet in the country, possibly the world, just watched me destroy the biggest story on the planet on national television!" Muriel reminded her. "Either that or they think I'm a hack who was part of a massive hoax. No one's going to want to touch me with a barge pole!"
"Is it really that bad?" Zoey asked. Muriel just took a sip of coffee.
"It was…it was just a job." She tried to say in an off-hand way.
"No, mom, it wasn't. If it was just a job, you'd have left years ago." Zoey told her. She showed her mom to the couch, sitting down with her. "Well, maybe you could start something yourself?"
"Start my own studio?" Muriel laughed. "Yeah, I couldn't afford to get you more than one pair of trainers every three years your whole life, so I'll just reach down the back of the couch and pull out the millions that would take."
"Well, maybe it's not as expensive as you'd think. What about online?" Zoey asked her. "Lots of people are doing shows online now. You wouldn't need a fancy studio, just dress this place up a bit and hook up a web camera…"
"Zoey, that's sweet, but I don't think it's going to work." She answered. "It'd take years to build up the kind of viewership that could sustain it as a full-time job, and after yesterday I'd need a pretty dynamite story to get anyone to watch anything I had to say."
Zoey thought about it for a moment, before something went off in her brain.
"Mom, do something with the apartment!" Zoey told her. "I'll be back with your story!"
"Zoey…"
"Trust me!" Zoey rushed out as she started to get up and make her way out of the apartment. "Trust me, have everything ready in an hour!"
"Zoey, what are you…ZOEY!" Muriel called after her, but it was too late. Zoey was already out the door.
Back at Grid Battleforce, the procedure was going well.
Joanne was still lying on the bench, but was impressed that Devon had never left her side. He insisted on being there the whole time, moving only when he needed to in order to let Nate get access to the pieces he needed to, but even then, it was only to move a little bit. Most of the time, he continued to hold her hand, the warmth of his touch a constant comfort as she felt different and disorientating sensations running the whole length of her body as Nate worked on her spine.
"Alright, let me know what you're feeling now." Nate told her.
"It feels cold." She told him. "My toes, they feel cold."
"Is that normal?" Devon asked. "Is she…"
"No, it's…I feel them!" She clarified.
"Then we're on the right track." Nate said to her. "It should only be another few hours and then we can discuss your recovery."
He looked to Devon.
"It's going to be a few more hours." He told him. "If you want…"
"No, it's fine." Devon assured him. On the bench, Joanne could only smile.
Over at her apartment, Muriel was tidying up, though she had no earthly idea why. She couldn't imagine what, if anything, Zoey could be trying to set up that would make a single bit of difference to her situation.
She heard a knock on the door and answered it, finding to her surprise that Eddie was at the door. He was carrying a whole bunch of his equipment.
"Eddie?" She asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to set up." He told her. "Didn't you get the memo? I was fired too."
"Eddie, I'm…I'm…" She stammered. "I didn't mean for that to happen. I'm sorry…"
"Muriel, you don't get it. I ASKED to be fired." He told her. "I said that if they were going to fire you, they had to fire me too. I gave you that footage, I didn't back it up, I was as responsible as you."
"Eddie, why did you do that?" She asked him. "If you'd just kept your mouth shut…"
"Sorry, but I don't turn my back on friends." He interrupted her. "I wanted you to do what you did, the fact that you did, I can't walk away from that. I'm not going to sit and keep a job with a boss that punishes people for having a conscience about the stories they tell."
"So, what's all this?" She asked.
"Your kid called me, said she wanted me to set up a studio in here." Eddie told her. "Said it was urgent, something about a huge web cast you were about to do…I thought you knew!"
"No, she was pretty sparse on the details." Muriel sighed. "My daughter likes solving big problems, but I'm not sure how realistic she is about problems that can be solved."
"Muriel, we both know what your kid's real day job is." He reminded her. "I think the word possible means a whole different thing to her."
Just then, there was another knock on the door. They answered it, finding Zoey there with another person, one with a large hat and sunglasses.
"Let us in, fast!" Zoey told them, barging in. "Eddie, you got my message, great! How quick can we set up this studio? Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Zoey, slow down, what's all this about?" Muriel asked. Zoey just smiled brightly.
"Mom, I want you to meet your big story." She replied, gesturing to the other person, who pulled off her hat. They both stood, open-mouthed.
"That's…Nicky Reve!" Muriel gasped. "You got Nicky Reve?"
"Your daughter helped me out of a tight situation." Nicky told her.
"So, you're going to give us an interview?" Muriel asked. Zoey just shook her head.
"Not just any interview." She answered, looking to Eddie. "What do I have to do to help you set up? I'll explain everything."
Back at Grid Battleforce headquarters, Nate had finally finished his procedure. While he recommended that Joanne rest up as much as possible, she was insistent that she had been off her feet long enough. She was determined to get back on her feet and back to work as soon as possible. It wasn't his choice for her to try and walk back to her dorm, but he had realised it was a fight he wasn't going to win and agreed once Devon assured him, he would help her to her room.
She shuffled a little, and leaned on him for support. Her legs now worked, but it had been a while since she was able to do so, and it took a little bit for her muscles to get their memory back. Devon was patient with her as she walked, taking rather cautious steps as she got used to her legs again.
"Alright, it's not too much further." Devon assured her. "I can carry you if you…"
"No, I can see the door from here." She pointed out. "I'm not going to walk this far only to get carried the last few steps."
"Your wish is my command." He assured her, before helping her the rest of the way. Joanne activated the door, opening it up, letting herself in. "You can come in for a bit if you like."
"I think I should…"
"Devon, get your ass in here." She told him, steadying herself on the wall as she made her way to the couch.
"Yes, ma'am." He responded. She gestured to the fridge.
"You can join me for a drink." She told him. He just chuckled.
"So, I can't carry you but I can carry your drink." He teased her. "Good to know where you draw the line."
As he came over, sitting with her on the couch, she just looked into his eyes as he sat with her.
"You didn't have to stay with me." She told him. He smiled.
"I wanted to." He assured her. She just shifted her hair a little over her shoulder.
"I appreciate it." She answered. They both looked to each other for a long moment, before drawing closer, kissing each other softly. However, as they kissed, Devon became aware of another presence. The hairs on his neck stood up, and he heard some deep, heavy breathing. He looked to the side and saw a huge, furred face. He leapt up, clean over the couch, landing on the opposite side, before scooting away.
"Devon…"
"What the HELL is that thing?" Devon screamed. Joanne just looked between him and the dog.
"That's Bruno!" She told him. "He's my dog…"
"That's not a dog, that's a freaking BEAR!" Devon screamed in a panicked tone. Bruno started to bark. "Get him away from me!"
"Devon, calm down, you're scaring him…"
"HE'S scared!" He yelled. He could only stare at the huge dog, barking at him, with huge, jagged canines, custom designed for ripping flesh from bone. He could imagine it sinking those into his arm or his leg, tearing into him. He started sweating profusely and his breathing became rapid. "Get him AWAY!"
"OK, it's fine, he's not going to do anything!" She said, grabbing onto Bruno's collar. "Quiet, Bruno, he's a friend!"
Devon edged his way around the outskirts of the room, keeping as far from Bruno as he possibly could. He knew that Joanne had a pet, but he'd never actually met him. Joanne calmed Bruno, keeping him on the opposite side of her from Devon, but the door opened and Devon stumbled out.
"Devon, come back! It's fine, he's not going to…" She said as he disappeared down the hall. "DEVON!"
As she closed the door, she rested back against it, running her hands over her face. Bruno came to her, nudging against her legs.
"It's alright Bruno." She sighed. "It's not your fault."
Eddie and Zoey had finished setting up the studio in the apartment, and gotten onto spreading the message about the web cast as much as they could. Getting as many people as possible to start spreading the word about the interview. As soon as Zoey explained, suddenly there was a lot more excitement about the whole thing.
Eddie gave Muriel the countdown, at which she began her interview.
"Hello, I'm Muriel Reeves, and tonight it is my very special privilege to present a very special interview." She began. "Nicky Reve, you may well know her as a successful actress, philanthropist, activist, but tonight, we want to explore a side of her you may not have known about."
She took a little moment.
"Like millions of people all around the world, Nicky has had a secret struggle, one that she has had to deal with for a long time, and one that she has agreed to discuss with us tonight. Like millions of people worldwide, Nicky Reve suffers from social anxiety." She stated, before turning to her guest. "Nicky, thank you for coming to speak to us."
"It's my pleasure, Muriel." Nicky replied.
"Nicky, I suppose the first question has to be, this is something you've kept from the public for so long, why are you discussing it now?" Muriel asked her.
"Thank you, that's an excellent question." Nicky agreed. "It's something that I've dealt with my whole life, and like many I've had difficulty talking about it. There have been a few incidents where it's gotten the better of me but if I'm honest, it was a chance meeting with a very special fan that convinced me that if I have these problems, then perhaps bringing them into the open might help not just me, but others too. If I may, I'd like to make a special shout-out to that fan now."
She looked into the camera and smiled.
"Thank you, Zoey." She stated. Muriel just smiled and nodded. Her daughter had indeed given her a very special exclusive. No one had ever heard of Nicky's anxiety; it was something she had successfully kept out of the media for her whole career. She didn't know how but just as she had always loved doing, her daughter didn't run from big problems, she solved them.
"So, can you tell us a little about how this has affected your life?" Muriel asked.
The following day, over in the Cyber Dimension, Blaze and Roxy were pacing while Meghan and Scrozzle worked on the computer. Scrozzle let out a roar of triumph as he finally finished.
"There, it's finally finished!" He screeched. "I've upgraded the Robotron maker to activate the Memory Pulsator."
"Yeah, 'you' did." Meghan said sarcastically, miming the air quotes.
"I don't care which of you did it." Evox hissed. "All I care about is, will it work?"
"The Memory Pulsator is already in position, and we've already set the new memories we're going to beam into the entire city." Meghan told him.
"You promise a lot." Evox told her. "Your plan had better work!"
"Oh, don't worry." Meghan told him. "It definitely will."
With that, she looked to the others.
"I hope you're all ready for a bit of acting." She stated. "Because here, we go."
With that, she pressed the button, activating the device.
FIN!
A/N: Well, I'm finishing this off here, to keep the finale arc of this first half for its own story. Hope you enjoyed it, and I hope to begin the next story very soon.
