A/N: Sorry for the hiatus folks. There were some personal matters I needed to attend to. I really hope the next chapter won't take quite so long. Hope you enjoy it.
Steel continued to head towards the top level of the TV studio, looking for the roof access. As he got closer, he could feel a strange transmission in his systems.
He started patting the side of his head, feeling a strange sensation running through him.
"That's…that's weird." He commented. "I can see a different world, one where…things are different."
Steel had both human and robot elements in his makeup. While he didn't strictly speaking have a brain, some human DNA ran in his systems. He felt something, something telling him what the world was, telling him things…but it was all wrong. Blaze and Roxy were Rangers. Evox didn't exist. He felt it, he felt all of it…and yet, he knew it wasn't true.
"These images, no wonder everyone believes those tricky avatars." Steel remarked. "My robotic side must somehow shield me from it, but the closer I get to the roof, the stronger it gets. Guess I'm in the right place!"
He turned a corner, unfortunately running straight into a security team. He just pointed.
"Uh…wrong turn!" He declared, just before they started opening fire. A couple of shots tagged him, staggering him as he ran. Now more than ever, he knew it wasn't their fault. He couldn't hurt his friends, even if they were trying to kill him. Betty got onto her communicator as she and her squad started their pursuit.
"Commander Shaw, we've got the robot here at the TV studio." She grunted, still struggling to run with a stomach full of pizza. "Our weapons don't seem to be having much effect on it!"
"Well, I think I know something that might." She replied, before looking to Joanne. "Joanne, looks like the Rangers get to make their debut."
Joanne just nodded and hit a few buttons on her computer.
"Rangers, this is Command." She said cheerfully. "We have a job for you!"
Outside, Ravi, Nate and Zoey were with Meghan, Blaze and Roxy, loading up the Mega Transporters into the back of one of the transport trucks. Blaze answered the call. He looked to Roxy and Ravi with a little smirk.
"Tell Ben and Betty that back-up is on the way." Blaze told them, cutting off the communications link. "What do you say? You ready to do this for real?"
"We didn't train so long for nothing." Ravi replied, putting his arm around Roxy. "You think you can finish up here?"
"We can." Meghan told him. With that, they ran off, getting into a transport and racing off for the studio. Meghan looked to Zoey, before wrapping her arms around Nate.
"I can get these to the hangar from here." She told him. "How about we meet up later?"
"That sounds great." Nate told her, kissing her softly. Zoey had to look away. She knew she had no right to have Nate return how she felt about him, but it still stung whenever she saw him happy with someone else. As Meghan got into the transport and drove off, something fell out of her pocket, onto the ground. Zoey bent down, picking it up and running after the vehicle.
"Meghan, you dropped something!" She called out. "Meghan!"
"What's going on?" Nate asked as he saw her yelling and flailing.
"This fell out of Meghan's pocket." Zoey replied as she showed him. Nate took the item from her and inspected it. It was a bottle. He checked the label.
"Pink clothing dye?" He asked. "Why would Meghan have pink clothing dye?"
Over at the studio, Steel got to the final corridor, seeing the door out onto the roof access. He saw that a security team had assembled outside the door. He tried to think of ways to distract them, to get them to move, but there were far too many of them. At least some would remain.
"I don't have a choice." He muttered to himself, preparing to run down the corridor. "Sorry guys, I'll make it up to you later, I promise."
With that, he rounded the corner and broke into a run. He was already halfway there when they finally realised, he was coming. As they opened fire, the first rounds hit him, sparking off his body. Warnings started blaring within his CPU as he ran at them, tackling through the first of them, shoving past them, doing his best to try and limit how much he'd hurt them.
He got out onto the roof, before slamming the door shut, jamming it closed with a piece of debris. His systems were still blaring out warnings, and his body was smoking from all the shots he'd taken. He was down to about forty percent function. Struggling, he turned towards the antenna.
"Alright, I'm almost there." He stated. As he was making his way forward though, there were a few shots that hit the ground, right by his feet. He looked towards where they had come from. If he had a heart, he was sure it would be sinking at what he saw.
"That's quite far enough!" Ravi warned him.
"You guys!" Steel called out accusingly, pointing towards Blaze and Roxy. "Whatever you're up to, it's not going to work! I'm smart enough to figure out your little game."
"Uh…aren't we the ones that are meant to be saying that?" Ravi asked. Roxy just smirked.
"Ravi, you can see it's just a machine. It believes whatever it's told to." Roxy said, knowing that every word was a needle jabbing right at Steel. He could still feel the transmission, he knew that they had brainwashed all his friends to believe in this new world. One where they were the good guys, and apparently, he was the only threat because he knew the truth.
"Ravi, please, I don't want to fight you!" Steel told him.
"Then surrender." Ravi told him. Steel just shook his head.
"I can't do that." He stated.
"Well then, you can't say we didn't warn you." Blaze said, stepping forward. "It's Morphin' Time!"
Steel watched as Blaze, Roxy and Ravi all transformed into their Ranger forms. He could see the antenna behind them. Whatever was creating the illusion was transmitting from the antenna. He needed to find it. It was unfortunate that Ravi was with them, but Blaze and Roxy, he had no issue fighting.
"You're not the only ones that can do that!" Steel reminded them as he morphed. Ravi stumbled back a little.
"Did…did he just…?"
"Whatever!" Roxy called out, before she and Blaze ran at Steel. Ravi took a moment, before rushing in to join them.
Nate was in his lab, working on his latest project, but there was something that was nagging on him. The bottle of pink dye was sitting on the bench a little way from him. He still didn't know why Meghan would be carrying it. She had no reason to need it in the lab, and he knew that she hated the colour pink.
He also couldn't help thinking that there was something odd about the way she was behaving. She was taking the Mega Transporters off-site, but he couldn't remember Commander Shaw saying anything about any new project.
He shook his head, trying to get back to work. He loved her, he trusted her implicitly. What was he thinking imagining she was up to anything?
There was then an alarm in his system.
"Medical alert?" He asked. "But I don't have anyone in medical…"
He looked and saw the location of the alarm, and turned towards the sealed door. It had been closed off for a quarantine, but…somehow, he couldn't recall what it was about.
The alarm just wouldn't quit, so he went to the door, tearing down the sign. He punched in his access code.
"Access denied?" He asked. "But…why would I be denied access?"
He went back to the computer, checking all the systems. No matter what he did, the system insisted that someone in medical was in need of intervention because their life support was failing.
He took a deep breath, before making a decision.
"It's better to ask forgiveness." He said to himself as he prepared to start hacking the system, trying to open the medical lab.
Back at the television station, Steel was struggling against the Rangers. As tough as he was, three on one was tall odds to ask anyone to face, especially when those three were Rangers. At least…Rangers of a sort.
He couldn't help pulling his punches with Ravi, but since he didn't know any better, the Blue Ranger had no such problems. Blaze and Roxy were loving every minute of having the upper hand over Steel. They knew that he had no one coming to his aid. Nate, Zoey and Devon didn't even know they were Rangers. Ravi thought he was an enemy. As he blocked a blow from Roxy, Ravi surged forward, hitting him with his Gorilla Strength, smashing Steel straight into the antenna. His systems were stretched to their limit, running on only 15 percent. Everything that wasn't failing was at critical.
"Well, it looks like this robot is nearly done." Roxy stated. "Maybe we can take him to Nate for spare parts."
Ravi though seemed to pause for a moment. He was clutching his head, and starting to sway on his feet, looking disorientated. Steel saw it too.
"Ravi?" Roxy asked. Ravi just staggered a little, before seeing Steel.
"I…Do I know…you?"
"Blaze?" Roxy asked.
Steel then looked to the antenna. When he hit it, he'd buckled one of the supports. It was now off-centre, meaning the broadcast was being affected. He still didn't know where the device they planted was, but without the ariel, the transmission wouldn't broadcast. He pulled out his Striker Morpher.
"Looks like people are going to be missing the six o'clock tonight." Steel said as he opened fire into the supports, before lunching into the antenna with the last of his strength. With a mighty crash, he sent the whole thing tumbling off the roof to the street below. He lay on the ground, looking to the Rangers, who were approaching.
"Steel?" Ravi asked, finally coming to his senses. He saw him, and then he saw the Red and Yellow Rangers. The illusion faded and Blaze and Roxy reverted to their original armour. Blaze looked to Roxy.
"We got what we came for." He reminded her.
"But…"
"Another time!" Blaze told her, before they both teleported out. Ravi rushed over to Steel's side, seeing him lying inert on the ground.
"Steel, are you alright?" He asked. Just then, the door was finally broken and Ben and Betty managed to get out onto the roof.
"Steel!" Ben shrieked as they all ran over. Ravi looked to him.
"He looks to be in a bad way, we need to get him back to the lab." He rushed out, getting on his communicator. "Grid Battleforce Command, this is Ravi, prep the lab for emergency repairs, now!"
Over in the Cyber Dimension, Blaze and Roxy arrived, finding Meghan waiting for them with the newly acquired Mega Transporters.
"Took you long enough." She commented.
"Sorry, we were just having a little fun with the Silver Ranger." Blaze said with an evil smile. "Let's just say the Blue Ranger and his friends are going to have their work cut out putting humpty dumpty back together again."
"So, we got the Mega Transporters." Roxy said, running her hand across one of them. "Phase one of the endgame is complete. Soon, we'll all get what we want."
"Yes, about that." Meghan told them. "I also decided the Rangers might need a little bit of a distraction, something that'll put a little bit of a clock over their heads. That way they won't be quite so focused on what we're doing."
"Oh, really?" Blaze asked. "And what would that be?"
"I just paid a little visit to the medical lab before we left." Meghan informed them casually. "A few little modifications to one of the stasis pods and now, the Rangers will have a little more on their plate."
"Wait, you messed with the stasis pods?" Blaze asked. "That's our real bodies in there!"
"And the avatars will continue to exist even after the bodies die." Meghan assured them. "Believe me, it was an idea I had when I worked with them. The only reason I didn't suggest pulling the plug months ago was because it wouldn't have destroyed the avatars."
"So…which one of us is it?" Blaze asked. Meghan then looked to Roxy.
"Looks like now you have even more reason to bring your little cuddle-monkey over to our side." She told her. "Because pretty soon, that's going to be his only choice if he wants you at all."
"Whoa, you're going to kill Roxy?" Blaze asked. "That is pretty messed up, even by my standards!"
Roxy, however, just smirked.
"I guess I was always going to have to let go eventually." She responded.
Back at Grid Battleforce, Ravi and the security team all came back with Steel. There had been quite a frantic burst of activity. Once the ariel was destroyed, people started to remember what was real and what wasn't. Before long, everyone knew that they'd been played.
Zoey had returned to the lab, and was busy preparing the tools for when Ravi got back with Steel. Nate was still working on the door.
"How's it looking?" Zoey answered.
"Not good." Nate told her honestly. "Meghan set up some pretty good security."
"Is it wrong that I'm kind of hoping hers is the pod that's affected?" Zoey asked him. She then shook her head. "No, no one deserves that, not even Meghan."
"Avatars just heighten the worst parts of a person's personality." Nate reminded her. "It's just a shame in Meghan's case it had a complete sociopath to work from to begin with."
Just then, Ravi ran in with Steel in his arms. Ben, Betty and the security team were all waiting outside. Ravi laid him down.
"He's in a bad way." Ravi rushed out in a panic. "He's not responded since he broke the antenna. There's still power going through him…"
"Ravi, you did all you could." Zoey assured him. Just then, Devon came running into the lab.
"Guys, did…did we all just get Matrixed?"
"It would appear so." Zoey told him. "Man, that illusion was so real. I honestly thought I still worked in the laundry…badly! And everyone hated me!"
"Everyone hated you? Who could hate you?" Devon asked.
"I have a feeling that was Meghan's little addition to the narrative." Zoey sighed. "Her idea of payback."
"Payback for her being fired for her own actions?" Ravi asked. "And if that's the case, why did she make Nate her boyfriend? He had as much to do with you getting fired as you did, why didn't she punish her?"
"Uh…"
"I'm in!" Nate called out as the doors opened. They all ran in, checking on the stasis pods.
"Meghan's is fine, no surprise there." Zoey said bitterly.
"Blaze's is alright." Devon added. They all looked over to where Ravi was standing by Roxy's stasis pod. Nate removed a thumb drive from the side of the pod, turning off the alarm.
"What is that?"
"It looks like it's some kind of malware, designed to overload the stasis pod's life support system." Nate informed them.
"Well, is Roxy alright?" Zoey asked him.
"For the moment, she's fine, but the life support system has been irreparably damaged." He told them. "The systems will hold out for a while, but after that…"
"Roxy will die." Zoey murmured. They all saw Ravi pacing away from the pod, moving into the corner, running his hands over his face.
"Wait, if the body dies, won't that destroy the avatar?" Devon asked. "Why would they sabotage one of their own troops?"
"I don't think it works that way. Avatars are digital constructs. They don't have biological systems that need to be maintained." Nate explained.
"So, how long…um…"
"I designed the stasis pods to be able to operate without any power for a day." Nate responded morosely. "If Roxy doesn't wake up within the next 24 hours, she'll die."
"Then there's only one thing left to do." Ravi said as he turned to them, his eyes burning with anger as he wiped his tears from his face. "We do what we should have done months ago. We have to destroy her avatar!"