"I'm tellin' you Lex, this isn't going to work," Alexis told him. "She's leading you into a trap, I can feel it,"
"Would you relax? What could possibly happen? I'm going with her to retrieve the Morpher, that way I can ensure that nothing goes wrong. Once I have the Morpher in my possession, I will personally bring it back to Lex Corp to begin mass production," he explained.
"I don't think you can trust her,"
"And I don't. Once I have what I came for, you can do whatever you'd like to her,"
"Really?"
"Yes. Kill her slowly if you want, I don't care," he told her.
"Thanks Lex," she said with a devious smile.
The two of them walked into the room, where Jen was working in front of a small computer panel. She heard them come in, but chose to ignore them and continue with her work.
"Are you done?" Lex inquired.
"No, I still need to calibrate the…" she was cut short.
"Spare me the techno-babble and tell me when it's going to be finished,"
"Contacting the future it is a tricky business, it has to be done just right. Now shut up and let me finish," she said.
Alexis cocked back to hit Jen, but Lex motioned to her to stop. With a reluctant sigh, Alexis walked out the room.
"She doesn't like you very much you know," he mentioned.
"The feeling is mutual," Jen said, never taking her eyes off her work.
"She thinks you're going to betray me,"
"And miss out on changing history? That would be stupid,"
"What do you have to gain from changing history? From your descriptions of the future, it sounds like a virtual utopia. No drugs, no wars, no violence, no crime, why change all that?" he asked her.
This time she stopped, turning around to face him. "Because all of those things come with a price. We work constantly, going back and forth through time to clean up other people's mistakes. I'm tired of being Time Force's puppet, I'm ready to change my own destiny," she told him.
"Spoken like a true anarchist," Lex said with a smile.
She turned back to her work. "I think we're ready," she said, turning on the machine she'd been working on. "Jen to Trip. Do you read me?" she asked.
For a moment, there was static.
'Jen? This is Camille. Its great to hear your voice again,' a voice said, startling Lex.
"Same here, but I don't have time for a reunion. I need a favor,"
'Name it,' she said."Bio-Lab has the experimental morpher locked away in a restricted area. I need you to access the history banks and tell me exactly where it is," she said.
'But why?' she asked."I don't pay you to question my orders, I pay you to carry them out. Now find me the location of the Morpher," she said.
'Yes Captain. Stand by,' she told her.Lex had to admit how impressed he was with Jen, taking control of the situation. She was strong-willed, and he admired that.
'Captain?' the voice said.
"What do you have for me Camille?" Jen asked.
'The Morpher is being held on a secure deck after a half mile underneath the building. To access it, you'll need to get in the main elevator, then input the following code sequence: 60644 omega. That will gain you access to the deck, but once down there, there are other security precautions. A voice activated security system will ask for your voice print, and the only two people who have clearance for that deck are Wesley and his father. From there, retinal scanners will probe you, and only Wes and his father are authorized for the retinal scan. Once you get inside the vault, a fingerprint scanner will ask for a positive ID,' she explained.
"This is going to be a lot more difficult than I thought," Lex sighed.
"Can you tap into the systems and over ride them?" she asked her.
'No, the encryption codes are much too advanced for that. Even trying to shut down the system will result in an overload. Lethal doses of gas will leak into the main chamber and kill you instantly. But I can trick the computer into thinking you're Wes,' Camille said.
"Great. What about the retinal scans?"
'I'm going to switch the retinal files along with the voice identification. The computer will think you are Wes, so they shouldn't be a problem,' she said."Good work Camille," she said.
'If I may ask Captain, what are you planning to do with the experimental Morpher? Its still in it's testing phase and it…' she was cut short.
"No, you may not ask. Now make the modifications to the security system, that's an order," she said.
'Yes Captain. Summers out,' she said.
"We're in business," Jen said, turning to Lex.
"Excellent," he said with a sinister look on his face.
(*)
"… and that's the whole story Mr. Wayne," Wes said, leaning back in his chair nervously.
It was the first time he'd told anything the whole story. When Jen originally went back to her own time, it was with the understanding that he wouldn't tell anyone about the future, what was to come. He even recalled being contacted by Alex shortly after, warning him of the potential dangers of revealing future events. But this, this was different. 'It was a necessary risk,' he assured himself, knowing that Jen and maybe even Alex would have done the same thing if they'd been in the same situation.
Mr. Wayne stood up, walking around to the other side of the desk as he buttoned his jacket. "There are a few things about your story that just don't add up," he paused, gathering his thoughts. "If your morphers are from the future, and…" his thoughts trailed off. "What was the name of the company?"
"Time Force," Eric mumbled, expressing his discontent.
"If your morphers are manufactured by Time Force in the future, how it is you were able to go back to pre-historic time to get the Q-Rex?" he asked.
"The Quantum Morpher was lost in one of Time Force's initial testing of the time hole generator. It accidentally ended up in the past," he said.
"But no effort was made to retrieve it until Eric came along?"
"I'm sure they made an effort, but without success. Even if they'd found it, they wouldn't have been able to activate it without the Quantum Morpher itself," he told him.
"And what's the story with your Morpher? I know I wouldn't leave such a sensitive piece of equipment in the past, especially with the risk of it altering the time line," Mr. Wayne mentioned.
"As we said, the time line has already been altered. By Eric getting the Quantum Morpher, me being a ranger, Doomtron's attack on the city a few years back, the mutorgs, all of it has altered the time line in some way. All we can do is try to make sure there are no drastic changes," Wes explained to him.
Mr. Wayne remained silent as he walked over to a file cabinet across the room, using a key to unlock the top drawer, then pulled out a vanilla folder. "Wayne Enterprises was already aware of the rift in the space/time continuum, our scientists were looking into ways to close the rift before any damage was done. Thanks to you, we have what we need to close the rift," he told him, handing them the folder.
"What is this?"
"Its everything we know about the rift. I'd have my scientists work on the project, but we may run the risk of contaminating the time line. I think its best if you and your people build the ion generator. I'll have someone from the science department escort you to the labs, take whatever you need," he said.
"Thank you Mr. Wayne," he said.
"If there's anything else I can do to help, by all means let me know," he said.
"We will,"
Wes and Eric headed for the exit, but Mr. Wayne stopped them. "After all this is over and your friend is safe, tell you father I'd like to have a meeting with him to discuss the Bio-Lab/Wayne Enterprises merger," he said.
Wes smiled.
(*)
"There is it, Bio-Lab," Lex said with an eager smile on his face.
The two of them stared at the building, though it wasn't much to look at. Bio-Lab was still only partially reconstructed after the battle with the Machine Empire, with holes in the wall and a lot of fire damage. There were groups of construction workers going over the damage, doing their best to repair it, but it was far from done.
"You know it might not even be there anymore," she mentioned.
"We won't know until we go down there and check," he said.
With a reluctant nod, the two of them walked passed security and made their way into the building. There were a group of guards standing near the entrance to the elevator, who quickly cut them off.
"What are you doing here kid?" one of the guards asked.
"Well, Mr. Luthor and I are here to break into the lab and steal the Quantum Morpher," she told him.
"What?"
Two of the guards rushed at her with nightsticks, but when one of them swung, Jen grabbed his arm and spun him around, knocking him into the second guard. As they both fell over, Jen threw the nightstick at the third guard, catching him in the leg and tripping him, taking him down. One of the guards got back to their feet, but Jen caught a spin kick to the side of the head, taking him down.
"You are good at this," Lex admitted.
"I try," she said.
With all the guards unconscious, the two of them stepped onto the elevator. Jen walked over to the keypad, entering the access code. As soon as she was done, the elevator began to move, taking them down. It took a few moments, but the elevator finally stopped, and when the doors opened, they found themselves staring down a long, dark hallway.
Lex was the first to notice beams of red light along the floor of the hall. "Infrared censors. Your contact didn't say anything about infrared censors," he said.
"That won't be a problem. Wait here," she told him, taking a step forward and jumping.
Jen managed to grab a pole on the ceiling, swinging back and forth to gain momentum, then let go. She did a flip in mid air, landing at the end of the hallway. She quickly reached for the panel at the end of the hall, ripping it out the hall and crossing the wires. Moments later, the censors powered down.
"You are good at this," Lex repeated as he headed down the hall, meeting up with Jen.
"Voice authorization please," a computer voice said.
"Heres go nothing," she cleared her throat. "Wesley Collins," she said firmly.
For a moment, there was silence.
"Voice authorization confirmed. Welcome back Wesley," the computer said as the door in front of them opened. The room itself was completely white. All the tables, the equipment, everything.
"Its hard to believe that all of this went untouched by the attack a few weeks ago," Jen mentioned.
"Yes. Very impressive," he mumbled in a sarcastic tone.
"Retinal authorization required," another computer voice said.
Jen walked over to the small panel near the fault, wiping her eye then looked inside. A small beam of light passed over her eye.
"Retinal authorization accepted. Hello Wesley," the computer said.
At that moment, the door to the vault opened, and before Jen could make a move, Lex shoved her aside and rushed inside. "Where is it?" he asked, glancing around the room.
"It should be here," Jen said as she walked in.
She headed to the far corner of the vault, pressing a small button in the corner. A panel opened, and a small plate slid out.
"There is it," he said, reaching inside and grabbed it.
The Morpher itself was much bigger than the original Quantum Morpher, and much heavier. It had a long, bulky design, with a series of buttons along the side.
"Somehow I imagined it would be a little smaller," she sighed.
"Never mind the size, how do I work the thing?"
"There should be three buttons alongside the Morpher. In addition to voice activation, the second button has to be pressed to initialize the…"
"QUANTUM POWER," he called out pressing the button.
There was a surge of power, and in a flash of light, Lex was transformed into the Quantum ranger.
"Oh my God," Jen sighed as she looked on.
"I can feel the power surging through me," he said, laughing with sinister pleasure.
Jen paused. "So now that you have all this new found power, I guess you…" she was cut short.
"… won't be needing you anymore," he said as he lunged towards her, kicking her up against the wall.
Jen hit the wall with a thud, and before she could get back to her feet, Lex swung a right hand at her. She managed to move out the way, and Lex punched through the wall.
He struggled to remove his hand, and that gave Jen a chance to kick him in the chest, knocking him up against the opposite wall. As soon as he hit the wall, he jumped right back to his feet, reaching for his Quantum defender.
He aimed, but at that moment, his vision began to blur. Suddenly, his hands began to shake uncontrollably, forcing him to lose hold of the defender. It fell to the ground, and Lex himself fell to the knees in pain. "What… is… happening… to… me…" he moaned.
Jen got back to his feet, wiping the blood away from her lip. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that the Morpher is still in the experimental phase, and it was locked away because it sends a neurological shock down the spine of the user. It won't kill you, but its enough to paralyze you for a while," she told him.
"You bitch, you set me up!" he managed to groan at her.
"Oh, and you didn't set me up?" she asked as she leaned down, snatching the Morpher off his wrist. Lex powered down instantly as Jen put the Morpher back into the panel in the wall, closing it. "Your time is up Mr. Luthor," she said.
Jen quickly put Lex over her shoulder, walking out the room.
