"Oh my God, it's really you," Katie sighed as she stared with amazement.
"Adam? But how…" Tommy question was cut short as Alex walked over to them.
"Originally, the black morpher was meant for you, which is why you were taken out of your cryogenic suspension when you were. Because of circumstances beyond our control, and the time lines shifting during the incident with Ransorg, you were given the red Chrono morpher. You see, to control the black morpher, the human body must be conditioned to withstand much more radiation than the average person," Alex told him.
"So instead of stopping him from being able to accept the black morpher, his condition allowed him to control the powers," Camille added.
Alex nodded.
"After Tommy was given the red Chrono morpher, we began to train Lucas to accept the black morpher, but his body rejected the power and drained him of his life energy. Once we realized that we would never be able to recruit a suitable replacement within Time Force, we looked for other ways to find someone who would be able to physically accept the power," he mentioned.
"Besides, black was always my color," Adam brought up.
"Well I'm glad we were able to clear all that up, but what were those things that attacked us?" Trip inquired, injecting himself into the conversation.
"They were a race of beings known as the Vorhsoth, they're a warrior race. The bad news is, that's not the worst of it. Every baddie in the universe has been assembled by a man named Dez and are under his control. With control of his own slipstream portal, he's gone to different points in time and assembled some of the worst villains in our universe's history," Alex explained.
"But there is no honor amongst thieves. Sooner or later they'll turn on each other," Katie said.
Alex shook his head. "Dez has found a way to control all of them. You'll notice that the Vorhsoth had collars around their neck, similar to the ones from prison planet. If someone opposes him, the collar destroys them instantly," he said.
"So why did this Dez guy let Vorhsoth loose in here?" Camille asked.
"He's after something, but I don't know what,"
"Can you contact Admiral Summers? Maybe she can tell us something," Trip suggested.
He shook his head again. "The moment you discovered the plan, the time line was changed. Admiral Summers, at least the one I'd been in contact with, doesn't exist anymore. If we were to contact the future, assuming that there's anything left, they wouldn't be able to help," he said.
"So we're just stuck on deck 8 forever?"
"We have to find a way off this deck, but the power has been shut off and theres seems to be a dampening field in place. Communication is impossible," Alex said.
"I believe that's where I come in," Adam put his helmet back on. "I'll find a way to restore power to this deck and let the others know what's going on," he told them.
"But how?"
Without a word, Alex hit a switch on his morpher, making him almost transparent, and he simply disappeared into the floor.
"Of course, the bio-chemical phase emitter," Camille squealed.
"The what?"
"The phase emitter accelerates his molecular structure, sending him exactly 1.5 seconds into the future. Because his molecular structure is moving 1.5 seconds faster than the rest of us, it allows him to pass through solid matter and re-materialize at will," she explained.
"So Adam can walk through walls?" Katie asked.
"Yeah,"
"Why didn't you just say that?"
~
Adam engaged his cloak as he wandered down the halls, still unsure on where he was. Finally, when he came to the end of the hallway, he saw a sign on the wall. "Deck seven, duh," he mumbled to himself.
At the end of the hallway was a metal grate, which he quickly snatched off the wall and threw to the ground. There were wires and circuits, but he had no idea what any of them did. "I'm going to need some help," he sighed.
~
Jen found herself surrounded by lifeless bodies in the medical lab. They were creatures of some sort, but nothing she'd ever seen before. While she waited to hear from Tommy and the others, vortex' began to open throughout the lab, and the creatures came after her. She was able to fight them off, but was sure that at any moment, more vortex' would open. 'And only Lord knows what's going to come out of them this time,' she thought to herself.
Just then, in the distance, she heard a sound. She quickly called for her chrono saber and headed over to the main door. The doors opened very slowly, and as soon as something came through, she held her blade up to it.
"Stop right there," she screamed.
"Relax Jen, it's me. Nadira," she said, holding her arms up.
Jen took a breath as she realized it was Nadira, pulling her blade back. "Sorry about that, it's been a stressful day," she sighed.
"I know. On my way here some dog looking thing attacked me. I thought it was going to kill me," she said, walking into the lab and getting a good look around. "What happened in here?"
"You weren't the only one who was attacked. I haven't been able to contact the others," she brought up.
"Each deck has been sealed off for some reason, and there's no communications from deck to deck. The elevators are down, the stairwells have been sealed off, and there's no power anywhere in the building," she said.
"We have to assume that these attacks are happening on every desk," she paused. "Nadira, how familiar are you with the service hatches?" she asked.
"Its only my second day," she squealed.
"Oh yeah. There are crawl ways that connect each deck. Most times they're used for repairing sub-systems to the main computer network. Not only will those take us from deck to deck, we should be able to re-route power from the main computer network and restore power to the secondary systems," she explained.
"So what do you want me to do?"
Jen walked to the far corner of the room and pushed a table aside, revealing a small hatch on the floor. "Grab yourself a phaser cannon and guard this hatch with your life," she opened it. "I'll be back for you as soon as I can,"
"But I don't know how to work a phaser cannon,"
"Just aim at the bad guys and pull the trigger," Jen told her, then crawled into the hatch and closed it behind herself.
(*)
Lucas and Admiral Logan were back to back in the medical bay, fighting off a group of soldiers. Lucas bent over, and the admiral flipped over him, kicking one of the soldiers in the face, knocking him over. Another one swung a blade at him, but Lucas caught the blade between his hands, snatching it away from him. Before the soldier had a chance to respond, Lucas swung the blade and sliced it's head off. As the head fell to the floor, Admiral Logan hit a spin kick into the lifeless body, sending it crashing into the remaining soldiers.
"What the hell are these things?" Lucas asked.
"If I know my history, they're Quantrons," he told him.
"But how is that possible?"
"I don't know," he walked over to the main computer panel. "This is Admiral Logan to Jen, come in," he said.
There was no response.
"Admiral Logan to Commander Collins, do you read me?" he tried.
Still, no response.
"Are they all…" he was cut short.
"I doubt it. I think there is some kinda of dampening field in place and we can't contact anyone. We have to assume the others are alive somewhere and trying to make contact with us," he said.
Just then, the black ranger seemed to materialize out the wall. At first glance, he was transparent, but after he reached for his morpher, the transparency faded. "Admiral," he said, saluting.
"At least Lt.," he said. "Report,"
"Commander Collins and several of the rangers are trapped on deck 8. I was able to determine that main power has been cut, and secondary power is off line," he told him.
"Are there any other surprises I should know about?"
"So far we've been attacked by a race called the Vorhsoth, but we were able to hold them off. Commander Collins believes that every known creature in the universe has been assembled and are trying to gain control of the building," he said.
"They've done a pretty good job already," Lucas added.
"If we don't get the secondary power on line soon, the Chryno-containment modules will fail and every mutant we ever captured will be set free," Admiral Logan mentioned.
"If I could get to deck four, I could initiate an auto reset to the secondary systems from the main computer," he said.
"But deck four is three decks up. There's no way you could make it," the admiral mentioned.
"But I can. Just tell me how to do it, and I'll take care of it," Adam said.
"Once you get to deck four, take the main hall all the way to the end and make a right. The first room on your left should be the main computer room. You'll need to activate auxiliary power to the computer, and then reinitialize the mainframe. Once you do that, activate the secondary systems," Lucas explained to him.
"He's going to need an external power source to get auxiliary power on line," the admiral pointed out.
"I'll come up with something," Adam said as he pushed on a button on his morpher. Suddenly, he was transparent again.
Lucas walked over to him, putting his arm through Adam's chest, then pulled it out; amazed that neither of them felt a thing. "I've got to get one of those," Lucas sighed.
"Once you get secondary power back on line, we should be able to communicate with each other," the Admiral said.
"Wish me luck," Adam said as he walked through the wall, disappearing.
(*)
Dez stood in containment room four, simply admiring the design. "You've got to admit, humans have come a long way since my day. Back then, they never would have been able to contain so many beings in such a small place. I'm tellin' ya, there's no tellin' what they'll think of next," he said, turning to the tall figure behind him. "Ecliptor, are the containers in place?" he asked.
"Yes sire. Awaiting your orders," he said in a cold, ruthless voice.
"Transport the mutants to the ship, then lets get out of here. I'd forgotten what it was like to be around humans again, my skin is starting to crawl," Dez groaned.
Ecliptor activated a transporter beam, and the entire containment module disappeared in a stream of light.
"Transport complete sire, all the modules are on board," he said.
"Excellent work. Its good to finally have some decent help after so long," he told him.
"Thank you sir,"
Just then, the door to the containment room opened and Ransik walked in. "Hold it right…" he paused as he got a good look at them. There was a human, or at least something that looked human, but the other one he recognized right away. "Ecliptor, but how…"
Instead of answering, Ecliptor charged at him with his sword, swinging at him. Ransik sidestepped him, hitting him with a forearm to the back, then a reverse sweep that knocked Ecliptor to his knees. Ransik went for a kick to the face, but Ecliptor caught his foot, tripping him. As Ransik fell to the ground, Ecliptor cocked back with his sword, stabbing Ransik in the chest.
At that moment, the black ranger materialized through the wall, getting a look at what happened. "Ecliptor?" he mumbled in disbelief as his transparency faded.
"That voice, I recognize it," Dez mentioned.
Ignoring them altogether, the black ranger tended to Ransik, who was bleeding heavily. "Just relax, you'll be okay," he told him.
"Its too late for me ranger, just stop them," he sighed just as his eyes glazed over.
The black ranger stood up as the golden blades extended from his forearms. "Alright you over grown Rubix cube, lets dance," he snapped.
He charged it after Ecliptor with a series of kicks, knocking him up against the wall. He cocked back, aiming one of his blades at Ecliptor's throat, but Ecliptor moved aside, sending the blade through the wall. Ecliptor responded with a kick, sending the black ranger across the room. Ecliptor pulled his sword out of the lifeless Ransik, and then threw it at the black ranger.
The black ranger disappeared, confusing Ecliptor. "What in the…" before he could finish his sentence, the black ranger reappeared behind him, stabbing both blades through his back. The tips of the blades came out his chest, and as he pulled them out, Ecliptor fell to the ground.
With Ecliptor down, the ranger turned his sights on Dez. "Its your turn," he groaned.
"I knew I recognized that voice. Is that you in there Adam?" Dez asked him.
Adam paused. "Who are you?"
"Lets just say I'm an old friend. You're an awful long way from home, aren't you Adam? Tell me, is that pretty little girlfriend of yours here too? What was her name?" he paused. "Ah yes, Tanya,"
"Leave Tanya out of this!" Adam snapped.
"First Tommy, you now. They'll let anyone into this century, won't they?" he asked with a giggle.
Adam rushed at him, but Dez disappeared into a silver stream of light.
(*)
Trip managed to pull one of the metal plates off the wall near the main door, trying to reconfigure it to get the door open, but he wasn't having much luck.
"Without any power, I could reroute these wires all day and it wouldn't make a difference," he sighed.
"Well, we'll just have to get you some power," Camille said, taking off her morpher and handing it to him.
Trip quickly opened a panel on her morpher, snatching out a wire, and then connected the wires to the plate in the wall. The lights flickered for a moment, then seconds later, the door opened.
"Good work Trip," Alex said.
"Now we should make our way to the science lab. I'm sure Adam and Jen are working together by now to restore power to the building," Tommy mentioned.
As soon as they stepped out into the hallway, there were attacked by a group of Ghouls. Trip stormed in, spearing one of them and knocking them into the hallway. Two more grabbed him, but he did a back flip, flipping both of them over in the process.
"Time to go to work guys," Katie said as she rushed into the hallway, taking down three of the Ghouls with a cyclone kick, sending them through the wall.
One of the Ghouls swung at Alex, but Alex grabbed his arm, flipping it over his shoulder and down to the ground. Another one grabbed him, but Alex ducked, and Camille used her disrupter to blast it in the face, taking it down.
Tommy managed to finish off the last Ghoul just before the rest of them disappeared.
"What the hell are Ghouls doing here?" Trip asked.
"Dez is really going all out, isn't he?" Katie replied.
'This is Adam to Tommy. Respond,' they heard a voice say.
Tommy reached for his morpher. "I hear you Adam."
'I got secondary power back on line and disrupted the dampening field. I found Jen and Nadira too, but we've got a serious medical condition here,' he said.
"Who is it? What's wrong?"
'Its Ransik. He's lost a lot of blood, I don't think he's going to make it much longer,' he said.
"I'll find a doctor and meet you in the containment room," Alex said, rushing down the hallway.
'That's not the half of it guys. Dez and Ecliptor managed to steal all the containment modules,' he told them.
"Did you say Ecliptor?" Katie asked.
'Yeah, but I don't think he'll be much of a problem anymore,' he said.
"All of them?" Camille asked.
"With that many mutants under his control, we won't be able to stop him," Katie sighed.
"Adam, round up all available personnel and meet us in the science lab. We need to know how many officers are down and how many are able to fight. We'll meet you there in ten minutes," Tommy instructed.
'Understood. Adam out,' he said.
"Alright guys, go deck by deck if you have to, but find out if anyone else needs medical attention," he ordered.
"What are you going to do?" Trip asked.
"I'm going to have a talk with the counsel. Something tells me they know more than they're letting on," Tommy said, walking away.
