Morph

"So that's what I know," Alex finished to a select audience in the confines of his office. Rob Logan was actually present, while Ven Evore was listening on a secure holo-screen link.

It was Ven who was first to speak. "It sounds hideous," she admitted, shaking her head, "but I'm not sure I can help you. I'm up here in Manitoba, and you're lucky you caught me at all. We've got chaos on our hands."

Momentarily forgetting his own problems, Alex said, "Why? What's happening?"

"Some bunch of mutants is on the rampage. We picked them up from the Moscow branch when they came up over the pole."

Something about Ven's words struck a chord. "That's it," he mumbled.

"Alex," said Rob dispassionately, "you're not making any sense – as usual."

Alex shook his head, trying to dispel the feeling of impending dread. "No, I'm not. But I think I've got it figured." To Ven he said, "Something that came up in the explanations: I 'die' facing down some criminals from this time who wind up in 2002."

"You think this is them?" Ven asked.

Alex shrugged. "I got the impression it all went down…will go down – God, I hate temporal mechanics, it gives me a headache – very soon. Unless there's something else out there, it seems to fit."

Ven looked grim. "There's no way we can stop them up here. We just aren't equipped, and they make Ransik look like a kindergarten teacher."

Rob winced. "And we know how well that went."

"They're heading south," Ven continued, ignoring Rob's comment, "based on what we can track, and from what we know, you're gonna have a tough time stopping 'em down there, even with TF Tech's help."

Alex nodded. "That would be how they land up in 2002." He rubbed a hand over his face and nodded again. "You'd better go, Ven. If they're that big a threat, you're going to be needed."

"Thanks." The grim expression on Ven's face lifted briefly. "Good luck." Then the holo-screen connection cut.

"So, what's the plan?" Rob asked.

"I don't know," Alex admitted. "I'm still not sure why you would tag me with a temporal transponder in the first place."

"Because, frankly, in the last year or so, you've had a death wish," Rob answered bluntly. "At a guess I chose – or would have done – to do it because I figured you weren't looking out for yourself."

"Well you can rule that out," said Alex. "It's not gonna be that way."

"Isn't it?" Rob lifted his eyebrows in a sceptical fashion. "You're suddenly not bothered by being Wes Collins' descendant?"

Alex snorted. "I didn't say that." He sighed. "I promised Wes – that Wes at any rate – that this time would be different. And that means no more copping out from me." Rob said nothing and said it pointedly. "All right. OK. Quit it. If I wanted 'I told you so', I could call up Ven again. She's got them down to a science." Rob grinned. "So what do we do?"

"Actually," Rob answered thoughtfully, "the answer's simple. We do what we did. But differently."

÷

Alex hurried across the Quadrangle towards the Supreme Court just as the lunch recess was called. There was little he could do about the future for now; changing the future required the right moment and, as Rob had pointed out, that wouldn't come for a week or so yet. Which left him scrambling to concentrate on the here and now, and, in particular, Merle Askot's trial. As he mounted the steps of the court building, though, he met Katie and Wes coming down them.

"Where the hell have you been?" Wes demanded.

For a second, Alex flashed on Wes' counterpart in that ruined future and felt relief at seeing Wes' face unlined and youthful. "Sorry; been a nightmare of a morning."

"You do realise it's Jen's testimony today?" Katie asked.

"I do; I've been hung up trying to get a handle on some temporal mechanics," Alex replied with a grimace. The best part of that statement was it was completely true, he reflected, it just wasn't the whole truth. Katie winced. "How's it going?"

"Carmen was being an ass over the whole thing," said Wes. "I'm guessing that's not news."

"Not exactly." They started to walk towards the new bagel stand on the Quadrangle. "How was van Zyl fighting it?"

"Pretty well," Katie answered. "Until he called for recess. That was weird."

"Oh?" To the blue-skinned Duros who was running the stall, Alex said, "Cream-cheese salad bagel, please."

"You want, you got," the Duros answered, grinning toothily. "And you others?"

"Plain for me," said Wes.

"And me," said Katie.

"Comin' up."

As the Duros went to work on the order, Alex said, "So? What happened?"

"Well, Carmen was into his cross examination," said Katie, "and he pulled the whole 'since you and Wes are two different people, Chrissy Lithgow and Jen Scotts must be, too' thing, which we all knew he'd pull."

"Thanks," said Wes and accepted the plain bagel the Duros was holding out to him. "van Zyl objected, and then withdrew it and asked for a recess."

"Thanks," said Alex, exchanging some credit chips for the heavily loaded bagel the Duros was proffering.

"Name's Zek," the Duros answered. "Accla maz'ni."

Alex nodded. "Accla maz'ni." To Wes and Katie, he said, "Was that the end of proceedings?"

"Yup." Katie nodded and took a bite out of her bagel.

"Good," said Alex.

"Good?" Wes echoed. "How can it be good?"

Alex grinned. "As you said; we guessed Carmen would pull that line of interrogation, because it was something we couldn't prove, thanks to not being able to bring Rocky and his year book forward." He sat down on one of the many public benches on the Quadrangle. "After we had that particular discussion, though, I had an idea about how van Zyl could counter it." He took a bite from his bagel and realised, for the first time, just how hungry he actually was.

"Which was…?" Wes prompted.

Alex chewed his mouthful and swallowed before answering, "There's a way to recover old memories, in a case where someone was memory adapted. It's not a complicated process, but unless it's required, it's not done so that people don't end up with dual memories for events."

"And they're going to do that to Jen?" asked Wes.

Alex took another bite from his bagel and shrugged. "That's my guess."

"Will you be in court for this afternoon's session?" Katie asked.

Alex frowned. There were all those reports that Civ-Ad wanted him to complete; that had been what he'd intended to do before The Master had intervened. He ought to do them. Then again, this was Jen's day on the Witness stand and as her commanding officer, he ought to be there. Civ-Ad can wait, he decided. "Of course."

÷

Alex glared at the general contents of his desk with complete disgust. It seemed as if leaving Civ-Ad reports for a week only caused them to breed, and yet, there hadn't been anything else he could do. The court case had required his attention, and that hadn't been the only thing: The trio of mutants had been steadily working their way south, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. They were still TF Crime's case, but one of the tracking units had noticed a pattern to the mutants' movements that seemed to correlate to previous temporal anomalies and naturally occurring time holes, which suggested that sooner or later, they'd become a matter for TF Covert Ops. Unfortunately, Civ-Ad had caught up with him that afternoon and demanded he give their reports some attention. So here he was, at nine o'clock in the evening, the night before the verdict came back on Covert Ops' first case, filling out records to say how many cups of coffee the department drank in a week and how many accidental blaster discharges there'd been in the past month.

"All work and no play makes Alex a very dull boy," remarked a voice from his office doorway.

Alex looked up to see Katie grinning at him. "And if he doesn't finish these reports, Civ-Ad will make Alex a very dead boy," he shot back, smiling faintly.

Katie winced. "Are they really being that bad?"

"I've been putting these reports off for more than a week," Alex replied. "The least they want to do is kill me."

"Ouch." Katie took up a seat. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

It was on the tip of Alex's tongue to say no. Then it occurred to him to wonder why Katie had come looking for him. "You didn't come here to help me with Civ-Ad reports."

"Well, no," Katie admitted, a sheepish smile on her face. "When you didn't show up at Trip and Nadira's party, Captain Logan was a little concerned."

"Trip and Nadira's party?" Alex blinked. "Is that tonight?"

Katie nodded. "Uh-huh."

Alex clapped a hand to his head and groaned. "I'd completely forgotten."

"Clearly," said Katie dryly. "And we all know Civ-Ad reports are far more interesting than celebrating your friends' engagement."

"Believe me, I'd rather be shot multiple times than do these reports," Alex retorted. "I swear, I have no idea why they want to know this stuff."

"Well, anyway," Katie continued, waving off his comment, "Captain Logan was concerned so I volunteered to come look for you."

Alex blushed. I quit drinking ten years ago, and Rob still thinks he's gonna find me face down in the gutter. "Should I ask where Rob suggested you look?"

"Well here, obviously," Katie answered. "Your apartment for another."

"He didn't suggest any bars?"

Katie's eyes widened. "Bars? Why should he have done that?"

"It's a long story," said Alex.

"Oh, I have time," Katie replied, leaning forwards and propping her chin on her hands. "I'm betting it's an interesting one."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Depends how you define interesting." Katie just looked expectant. "I had some problems, back when I was in the academy. I turned to drink."

"Oh, my." In an instant, Katie was around the desk and had put her arms around him in a tight hug. "You don't have to say any more; it's none of my business."

Alex smiled faintly. "It's OK. I'm OK; I had friends who stuck by me, straightened me out. Rob was one of them. And every now and then, if I forget I'm supposed to be doing something, like going to Trip and Nadira's party, he worries I've fallen off the wagon." His smile turned self-depreciatory. "He just hasn't figured out yet that I've replaced one addiction with another; instead of drink, it's work."

Katie gave a hiccup of laughter. "You're not a workaholic."

"I'm not so far from it," he retorted. "Witness me being here at long gone nine o'clock in the evening."

"Well we can fix that," said Katie firmly. "You tell me what I can do to help, we'll avoid your untimely death at the hands of Civ-Ad and then we can go and have some fun, with our friends."

"That sounds like a plan." Suddenly, Alex understood just how his future-self had ended up married to Katie. She would be able to help him find a balance. "Maybe, when the court case is over, we could go out. For a coffee?"

Katie, who was just on the point of returning to her seat froze. "Alex, are you actually asking me out?"

"I know, my timing stinks; it usually does. But, yeah, if you're interested."

Katie smiled. "I'd like that."

÷

Alex slid behind his desk and sat down. "Come in," he said to both Jen and Wes, who were hovering in the doorway. "And sorry about the mess. Katie and I were here until late last night trying to sort out statistics for Civ-Ad and, what with being grabbed by Hawking first thing and then having to be at the Supreme Court by nine this morning and everything else, I haven't had a chance to tidy up yet."

"Clearly," said Wes.

Jen chuckled. "Are you sure this mess is just from your stats gathering?"

Alex just rolled his eyes. "Take a seat," was all he said.

"Are you going to tell us about Eric?" Wes asked.

"No, I'm going to leave you worrying about it until you get back," Alex retorted sarcastically.

Wes shrugged a little. "There are rules and regs about how much we can know, aren't there?"

"There are," Alex agreed. "But they're also entirely moot, since you live in that time period. It'd be different if I was briefing Lucas or Trip for a mission there."

"So, you said it was good news," Jen prompted.

"It is," Alex agreed. "Hawking informs me that the timeline has stabilised and destiny force has been rendered inactive. Which means," he added, before Wes could ask, "that everything's settled down and is back to normal. The pre-Biocon timeline's been restored and Eric is fine. A little banged around, but otherwise OK."

The remaining tension in Wes and Jen's expressions bled away at this news. "He's really OK?" Jen asked.

Alex smiled. "I think he's probably better than OK," he said. "I do know more, but honestly? It's his news, not mine."

Wes groaned. "You do realise getting information out of Eric's almost as bad as getting a straight answer out of you?"

Alex grinned. "Trust me, he'll want to share this."

"That'll be a first," Wes muttered.

"So, it's all over," said Jen thoughtfully. "You did promise us some explanations. Particularly about why you acted like a complete jerk on your first trip to the twenty-first century."

Alex nodded. "I know." He sighed. "I said, at the time, that the future was shifting."

"And yet the only changes to the timeline was a book of bad poetry and a line of children's toys," said Jen.

"That's because the shift wasn't down to anything you'd done; it was my fault," Alex admitted.

Wes and Jen exchanged looks. "This should be good," Wes murmured.

Alex hesitated for a moment. Future-Wes had told him that he and Jen didn't need to hear everything in this meeting, the question was, how to explain? "When I came round, after Ransik's attack, everything seemed to be fine. Temporal was keeping an eye on the situation, making sure the timeline wasn't too strained by so much futuretech in the wrong place, and there didn't seem to be any point to my distracting you. I don't know if that was the right decision or not," he admitted. "It also wasn't really my decision: Temporal all but ordered me not to."

"Wow; that's cold," said Wes, shaking his head.

"It's Alex all over," said Jen a little bitterly, "putting the mission over personal feelings."

Alex winced. "Jen, you weren't the only person who hurt from that. I didn't like it, at all. But tell me this; what would you have done, if you'd known I was alive?"

Jen opened her mouth to reply. The closed it again, frowning. "I don't know," she finally said.

"Would you have been so focussed?" Wes wondered.

"I don't know," Jen repeated. "So why did you come to 2001?" she asked.

"Something Steelix did started Destiny Force," Alex answered. "It took Temporal a couple of days to figure out what it was."

"And what was it?" asked Wes.

Alex grimaced. There was no easy way to say this. "You and Jen weren't together any more."

Wes and Jen both stared, wide-eyed. "Excuse me, what?" said Jen, astounded.

Alex sighed. "As it's turned out, you were never supposed to have been here. You were supposed to grow up in twentieth century Angel Grove, go to college, meet Wes, fall in love, have a family…the whole fairytale romance thing. We know that now, because of Biocon and Merle Askot and unravelling the whole Shendraville story." Jen nodded grudgingly. "But, just because we didn't know that before it all unravelled, it didn't mean it didn't still apply."

"So, you're saying you had to go back to 2001 and play matchmaker?" said Wes incredulously.

"Not exactly matchmaker," Alex replied. "Just make it so that you and Jen becoming a couple wasn't completely impossible."

"So you turned yourself into a grade A jerk?" Jen slowly shook her head.

"What other alternative was there?" Alex asked. "I mean, I guess I could have locked you in a room until you kissed. Or maybe I could have ordered you to kiss. Something tells me you wouldn't have appreciated that, either."

Jen looked down. "There had to be a better way."

"You've no idea how many times I've thought that," said Alex. "But there it is. That's why I did it."

"And telling me about my dad served exactly what purpose?" Wes asked.

"Beyond proving my jerk qualifications?" Alex sighed. "It proved I had knowledge of what was going to happen. And for what it's worth, I know my tactics were about as low as they could be. I wish I'd been able to figure out a better way of doing it."

Wes shook his head. "Wow."

"If all that was to get me and Wes together," said Jen, "why was I allowed to come back to this time, after Ransik was captured?"

"I don't know," Alex replied. "I wasn't involved in that decision. Seeing as Nidia Nechev was involved with Jack Scotts, and head of Temporal at the time, Biocon probably had some bearing on that. Only she'd know for sure."

"And she's batshit insane," Jen finished. "I'm never going to know."

Alex shrugged. "Probably not."

"And where does my diary fit into this?" Wes asked.

"What diary?" Jen looked puzzled.

"It's a family heirloom," said Alex. "It was DNA encoded, so I'd be the only person to read it. In it, Wes wrote – will write – a bunch of advice. There was nothing specific about what would happen, but a lot of little hints." He smiled faintly. "Like: Wear extra armour when you face Ransik. And: If I argue about sending Jen and the team back, don't let me; the only way the megazord can help us is if they pilot it back." It was, he reflected, not quite the truth, but he guessed this, in particular, was what Future-Wes had been talking about. After all, what good did it do telling Jen he'd known she was his ancestor when they first met?

"That sounds like something I'd do," Wes observed.

"Why didn't you explain about the megazord?" Jen asked.

Alex shrugged again. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." He smiled faintly. "I think we've already established I'd be happy to do that whole mess over again."

There was a few moments of silence, then Wes said, "So what happens now?"

"Hopefully," Alex answered, "you and Jen go home in a couple of days' time and we can all get on with normal life."

"Why hopefully?" asked Jen.

Alex sighed. "There's something that might come up. It's still a TF Crime case at the moment, but that may change. And if it changes, well, all hell will break loose. Again."

÷

All hell breaking loose might just be an understatement, Alex decided as he looked around his office at those gathered. He'd been out, with Katie, enjoying their date, when the call had come through that the mutants had left this century. And despite knowing it had been going to happen, Alex still found himself surprised. "I know it's short notice, but thank you for coming."

"What's happened?" Lucas asked.

"TF Crime have been tracking a trio of mutants across most of the known world," Alex answered. "At nineteen hundred, local time, the trio vanished through a time hole, dropping the whole sorry mess in our laps."

"This is what you thought might come up," Wes guessed.

"Got it in one." Alex nodded. "And it gets worse, too. Dr Bennett?"

Dr Bennett, the head of the technical department nodded. "Simply put: They're not standard – if there is such a thing – mutants. They're mutations of some as yet unknown non-humanoid life form. None of our existing weaponry has any effect on them, and that includes the weaponry from the Ranger program."

"So, what you're saying," said Jen, "is we don't know what they are, we don't know when they are and if we find them, we can't do anything to bring them in, either."

"That's about the size of it," Alex replied grimly.

"Oh brother," said Wes shaking his head. "It doesn't get any better."

"Welcome to Time Force," quipped Lucas. "Endless periods of boredom punctuated by occasional bursts of completely insane terror."

"We do," said Alex, giving Lucas a glare, "have a plan of action. Nadira – you still have contacts in Forgotten District," she nodded, "I need you to speak to them, and very probably your father too. See if anyone knows anything." She nodded again. "Trip, Marissa, you along with Rob and whoever it is from the Moscow office need to go over every scrap of data we have on these criminals. There has to be something in there that will give us a clue as to what or who they are." They nodded. "Lucas, I have a brief errand for you to run, then you're liasing with Dr Bennett's team. I'll be liasing with Director Hawking's team, who're trying to pin down when, exactly, these mutants have landed." Alex paused and looked at Wes and Jen. "Wes, Jen – you'll be our recon. team, and you'll be setting off in half an hour."

"Makes sense," said Jen, nodding.

"Dr Bennett has equipment for you, to make your job a little easier, and Lucas will be contacting Eric to warn him you're probably going to be delayed returning."

"That would be the errand you want me to run," Lucas guessed.

Alex nodded. "Got it in one. Lastly, because there's essentially going to be no-one in this office to report to, Katie's agreed to sign on as Civ-Ad for Covert Ops. She'll be our point of contact." Katie gave a nod, but said nothing. "Any questions?" Silence. "Then let's get this show on the road."

÷

"This is the situation," Dr Bennett explained as Alex took a seat. "With what we now know, and the help of Cadet Williams, I can develop a neutralising agent that will reverse the mutation."

Alex nodded slowly. "Nadira's presumably happy to help?"

Lucas chuckled. "She all but begged to the moment Dr Bennett said she would need a DNA extract."

Alex smiled faintly. Nadira was rapidly growing up and was determined to prove something good had ultimately come from Ransik's activities. "All right," he said. "So we have a neutralising agent. How do we get it to the Mutorgs?"

"You have two choices," Dr Bennett replied. "I can either embed it in a form of explosives, which would work for a long-range, targeted release. Or, I can develop a gas bomb, which would be close-range."

Alex frowned. "I can't guarantee we can set up an ambush," he mused.

"That's true," Lucas agreed. "And would you want an explosion on a site like Rancho Diablo?"

"No," said Dr Bennett. "Too much risk of a chain reaction."

"Gas bombs, then," said Alex nodding. "And it had better be in the plural. We'll be splitting up to cover the ground."

Dr Bennett nodded. "I can have them ready within the hour. One thing," she added. "You'll need to make sure that anyone armed with one is prepared to teleport away the second it detonates."

"Is it toxic?" Lucas asked.

"It shouldn't be, unless you happen to be a Mutorg," Dr Bennett answered. "But I think we'd all rather not find out for sure."

÷

As the sun rose over the Animarium, Alex was still not sure how best to deal with the gas bombs. He had wanted Rob to travel back with them, in addition to everyone else, but the Bigwigs had denied his request, leaving his team short of Rob's expertise in mission surveillance.

"Earth to Alex," Katie interjected. "We need your thoughts. There's eight of us for clearing the site, and four of Doc Bennett's gas bombs."

"Four pairs, then," Alex decided.

"And didn't you say someone was going to have to stay here and keep an eye on things?" Taylor asked.

Ben snorted. "The answer to that's obvious." He jerked his head in the direction of Eric who, thanks to his status as just barely out of plaster, was disqualified from taking part in the operation. "He can't run shit for nothing, but I'd bet my last buck he'd be able to do the surveillance stuff."

Alex grinned. Ben was right, the answer was obvious. "I should have thought of that sooner, Ben; you're right."

"Yo, boss! Get your butt over here and be useful," Ben called.

÷

"The reactor's secured," Katie reported as she and Alex picked their way through the western quadrant of the Rancho Diablo site.

Alex smiled in terse relief. "That's half the job done." I'll feel better when we've found the Mutorgs. He had a nasty suspicion that it would be the other way around, though. Namir had been specific about how he was supposed to have died: In an explosion. It was one reason he'd opted for the gas bombs, even with the inherent dangers. There was only one reason he could imagine being at stupidity central when the plastique detonated, and that was as a result of an ambush.

"It's kinda weird we haven't seen any Putrids over here, though," Katie continued. "The rest of the site's crawling with them."

A sinister, female laugh filled the air, preventing Alex from making any response. He felt the hairs at the nape of his neck stand on end. He knew that laugh.

"You didn't really think," said a voice, "that Time Force could lock me away?"

It can't be… Slowly, Alex turned to face the direction the voice was coming from. "Arachna."

The female mutant spy smiled. "Not just Arachna, now, Major," she spat. "I have some new friends." And almost as if by magic, the three Mutorgs materialised on cue to surround them.

"Oh holy hell..." Katie mumbled.

"It looks like we win," said Master Org, coming to stand beside Arachna. "And you were so easy to distract," Master Org gloated. "So willing to be credulous."

"And I thought you were the intelligent one," Arachna snorted.

Alex said nothing. He hated being right. It was only a matter of time before the other rangers realised there was something drastically wrong; he just hoped that would happen sooner rather than later.

"Not so cocky now," Arachna continued. "No threats this time? I'm disappointed."

"Life is full of disappointments," Alex answered.

The mutant spat at him. "I'm gonna enjoy ripping you limb from limb for what you did to Jack."

"Oh please." Alex snorted and rolled his eyes. "You're Biocon's revenge? I've had more threatening hot baths."

The Mutorg's blow was not unexpected, but it still sent him doubling over, winded and wheezing.

"You will pay," Arachna hissed. "You and Time Force and the rest of your pathetic race."

"No!"

Before Alex could say anything, Katie had launched herself at Arachna. The next moment seemed to unfold in complete slow motion. The Mutorg with the batwings – Kired, Alex thought – stepped in between Katie and Arachna. He caught Katie in mid-flight and to Alex's total horror, simply pivoted and flung her, like a rag-doll, towards one of the nearby storage bunkers. For a second, Alex thought Katie would actually hit the bunker, then she vanished and he allowed himself a moment of relief. She'd probably be pissed with Eric for intervening, but they could argue about that later.

"What!" Arachna was beyond angry at having her fun spoiled.

"What can I say?" Alex retorted. "Life really is full of disappointments."

"You have the man you came for," Master Org stated, giving Alex a flat glare. "I know that when you have finished, I will have what I came for."

"Thank you, Master Org," Arachna replied. "A pleasure doing business with you."

Master Org smiled. "Goodbye, Time Force Pest." And with that, the current Org leader teleported out.

"Talking's over," Arachna stated, even before Master Org had fully left. "You can't win. You're pathetic, weak and outnumbered."

Alex grinned ferally as his fingers closed around the gas bomb. "I'd agree on the outnumbered. But the rest – you only wish." Out of the corner of his eye he saw Wes and Cole arriving from the south, with Taylor and Ben close on their heels. "I've told you before. I don't like people trying to kill me or mine." I hope this works. With that last thought, he dived towards Arachna and flung the bomb hard at the ground in one smooth move. As the bomb casing shattered, he grabbed hold of the silver-haired mutant in a flying tackle that took them both off their feet.

It was only when a streak of yellow energy narrowly missed him and hit Arachna, stunning her, that Alex was actually aware of no longer being at Rancho Diablo. He'd done it. Relief left Alex sprawled where he'd landed, half on top of the stunned mutant.

"I need a vacation," he murmured. "A very long vacation."