Tommy walked into the counsel's chambers, only to discover all three of them motionless on the floor and covered in blood. He quickly rushed over to them, helping one of them up.
"What happened here?" he asked.
"It was… Darkonda…"
"Darkonda is here too?"
"Ranger, you must defeat Dez before he is able to drain the…" his sentence trailed off as his injuries got the best of him.
"Before he does what?" he asked, but it was too late. He was gone.
~
Jen and Camille did their best to organize everyone into the science lab. Glancing around the room, Jen estimated maybe a dozen people, give or take a few. 'If this is all that's left of Time Force, we're going to have our hands full,' she thought to herself. Her thoughts quickly shifted to Alex, who stood off in the corner with his arms folded.
"I'll be right back," she sighed as she put her hand on Camille's shoulder. Camille nodded, and Jen headed for Alex.
"Did you come over here to hit me again?" he asked, neglecting to even look in her direction.
"I never hit you,"
"No, but Camille did. She may look small but she has a hell of a right hand," he sighed.
"I just wanted to say that…"
"Save it captain, if I were you I would have done the same thing. The other rangers are loyal to you, and to each other, and sometimes that's more important that rank," he told her.
"Thanks Alex," she sighed.
"But the next time you take my glasses from me, you're fired," he said, cracking a slight smile.
Without another word, the two of them headed over to the conference table, joining the others. "By now, more of you know me. I'm Admiral Logan. Since I am the highest-ranking officer here, I'm assuming command. From what we know, there is a man called Dez who has managed to get his hands on a slipstream portal and has been assembling every villain in the known universe, past and present. He also stole every containment unit in the building, taking with him every mutant we've ever captured here," he told them.
"This is a very serious time for Time Force. If Dez sends those mutants back here, we won't be able to stop them all. Even if we did, we'd have nothing to contain them in. With that in mind, we need volunteers," Camille said.
"Volunteers? For what?" someone asked.
"Over the past few weeks Camille and I have been able to develop a gold morpher and a silver morpher. In addition to that, we have a white morpher as well. Whether or not Dez sends the mutants or not, something will be coming, and we need to have all the rangers we can get. I won't lie to you, this will be dangerous, and all of us may not survive, but our chances of coming out of this in one piece are a lot better with a few extra rangers," Trip explained.
"I'll do it," someone said, taking a step forward.
The first thing Jen noticed was that he had an average build, maybe a few inches shy of a full six feet tall with short blonde hair. 'He's kinda cute too,' she thought.
"What is your rank and position?" Jen asked him.
"I'm Ensign James Emery, sir," he said, standing at attention and saluting her.
"How does Lt. James Emery: silver Time Force ranger sound?" she asked.
"Very good sir. Thank you sir," he said.
Camille walked over to them, handing him the silver Chrono moprher. James quickly put it on his wrist, admiring it for a moment.
"But if you call me sir again, I'll devote you to the janitorial staff," Jen told him.
"Yes si… I mean, ma'am," he said.
"Just call me Jen."
"Anyone else?" the admiral asked, glancing around the room.
"Count me in," Lucas said, taking a step forward.
Trip grabbed the gold Chrono morpher and walked towards him, but the admiral stopped him. "I'm sorry Lucas, but you have to get your body time to readjust itself. The black morpher tapped into your life energy, and I'm afraid you won't be able to sustain any ranger powers you will heal fully," the admiral explained.
"I see," he sighed.
"What about me? I could do it," Nadira said eagerly.
"Are you sure that's what you want to do Nadira? You said it yourself, this is only your second day," Jen mentioned.
"This may be my second day in Time Force, but I have years of experience being around rangers. Remember, me and daddy tried to take over the world a few times," she brought up.
Jen nodded, and Trip walked over to her, handing her the gold morpher. She put it on, getting a good look at it.
"Congratulations," Trip said.
"I don't suppose you wanna trade with me, do you Jen? Yours is pink, and it would match my hair if we…" she was cut short.
"No," Jen said sharply.
"The white Chrono morpher isn't ready to be used yet, there are a few more adjustments we have to do," Camille said.
"How long?" the admiral asked.
"About two hours," she said.
The admiral turned to Jen. "Captain, assemble your rangers and search the city. I'm sure Dez has sent a few surprises to New Silver Hills," he told her.
"Understood," she said, motioning for the others. Trip and Katie followed her out the room.
"Alex, go with them," he said.
"Yes sir," he nodded, rushing out after them.
"Camille, your priority is getting the white morpher back on line for us. We're going to need the extra firepower," he said.
"I'm on it,"
"Lucas, take Lt. Emery and Nadira to the main training room. They'll need some time to adjust to their new powers, and the last thing we need are rangers won't don't know what they're doing," he said.
"Yes sir," he said, motioning for Nadira and Lt. Emery to follow him.
"Adam, I have a special assignment for you," before he could finish his statement, the doors opened and Tommy walked into the room with a concerned look on his face. "What is it Tommy? What's wrong?"
"The counsel, they're all dead," he sighed.
The admiral took a deep breath. "Adam, you and Tommy find a way to track down Dez. We need to know what his next move is," he said.
"I think I might have something that can help," Camille walked over to them. "Because all our main systems were down at the time, it was easy to isolate an external transporter pattern. Here are the coordinates that Dez transported to," she said, handing them a piece of paper.
"Thanks Camille," Adam said.
"Anytime,"
"I'll take the rest of available personnel and start repairs deck by deck. The last thing we need is Dez catching us with our pants down," the admiral said. "Alright everyone, dismissed," he said as everyone walked out the room, leaving Camille to her work.
(*) Xybria (*)
He'd been reading the reports for the last few days, and although he didn't have all the details, he knew something was wrong.
'Temporary power loses at Time Force, disruptions in the space/time continuum. That can't be good,' he thought to himself.
He remembered being there, and even after all the things he'd done to them, they were willing to forgive him and give him a second chance. If it hadn't been for Captain Logan and Trip, he more than likely would have been sentenced to containment for life for the things he'd done. Instead of locking him away, they gave him a second to do something worth wild with his life.
They arranged to send him to Xybria, where the Xybrian authorities welcomed him. It had been a few months, and he'd managed to get promoted rather quickly in the science department. He was well respected now among the other scientists, but he refused to just sit back while his friends were being attacked.
He stood up, making his way out the lab and down the hall to main shuttle bay. As soon as he walked in, he was greeted security.
"Working late again sir?" one of the guards asked.
"You could say that. I need to pull some censor readings off one of the shuttles. It should only take a few minutes," he told him.
"Take all the time you need sir,"
He headed towards the shuttle, climbing inside and sitting down in front of the controls. He powered up the engines, and then armed the laser banks. Before security knew what was going on, he blasted a hole in the wall and piloted the shuttle out.
