The debriefing was arduous, and with Sky and Corona in the same room, it was awkward. Everybody was waiting to see Sky explode and punch Corona, or for him to make a snippy comment while she was talking, but they got a no-show as far as insults and injuries went. It was eerily quiet between them. She was only there because Cruger wanted to hear what happened at the mall from her as much as he wanted to hear it from Bridge. After the debriefing, Cruger requested that Bridge stay.
"Officer Carson, I have to commend you on the fine job you've been doing."
"Thank you, sir. I'm doing my best."
"Unfortunately, I have a sneaking suspicion that all is not right."
"You have that feeling too, sir?" Bridge asked.
"What are you sensing, Carson?"
"The weather was shoddy today…we never have cold weather. I think it might be El Nino or something like that. What were you thinking?" It wasn't the thing Cruger was looking for, but it was a good question to ponder.
"I was thinking about the attack. It had no real purpose other than to stall time. I have a bad feeling about this. I'm setting you and RIC up for all-day patrol around the Lab room where Corona will be working. You're to get back into your uniform and get back on active duty pronto." Bridge saluted Commander Cruger and headed back to his room.
Z and Syd were in the Lab room watching Corona work on a hunk of metal by the time Bridge arrived.
"Oh! Thank goodness you're here!" Corona said, dropping her wrench and dragging Bridge in. "I heard you're a master mechanic, so I wanted your opinion." She stood him in front of the hunk of metal, and Bridge just stared.
"What are you trying to make?"
"A training robot."
"Well then, you're gonna need some work." Bridge said. "First off, you're making the joints rigid. There's not an alien in the entire galaxy that moves like that. Well, maybe there is. But you're looking to simulate normal bad guys, so it's gotta move faster…"
"We'll leave you two alone with this." Z said.
"Yeah, we should go train…or something." Syd added. They both left promptly to go to the Commons Room.
Inside, they ran into Sky, who was playing Light ball with Jack. Sky was throwing the ball way too hard, and every time he hit Jack, he sent the Red Ranger flying into something.
"Man, take it easy!" Jack said as he got up.
"I'm sorry. I know you really like this game, so I'm giving it my all."
"Well, cut it out. Play normally. It's like you're trying to kill me."
"I can if you want." Sky laughed, trying to give the impression that he was joking. Jack, however, wasn't buying it.
"Sky, you seem to be in a good mood. What's up?" Syd asked.
"Oh, I'm just glad Mordom didn't kill me. He probably would have if he had stuck around any longer."
"You think?" Z asked.
"Oh, definitely." Sky sounded so assured.
"Then you should go train to make sure he doesn't the next time." Z replied.
"Good idea!" Sky said, taking the Light ball glove off. He handed the gave to Z as he roughly patted her on the back and walked out to the gym.
"I think it's safe to say that Sky hit that tree really, really, really hard." Z said as soon as she knew Sky was out of listening distance.
Sky popped his head in at the Lab, scaring Bridge and Corona. In less than ten minutes, their joint effort had forged together both a well-circuited torso and a perfectly jointed arm, complete with batteries, circuits, and wires. They had been testing the movement speed of the arm when Sky walked in.
"Um, hey Sky…" Bridge said. "Whatcha up to?"
"Just came in to see if anybody needed anything before I go work out."
"Nope. We're all good here." Bridge said with a smile.
"Good to hear." Sky said as he began to look at the torso and arm of the robot. "What's this?"
"This is my new training robot, Schuyler." Sky had begun touching the front of the robot's torso, trying to find faults in the plating. Corona slapped Sky's hand, making her shield react. She looked up at him, giving him a death glare and he left.
As soon as Sky left, Corona looked at Bridge. "Please don't leave this room…please."
"Well, I've been ordered not to, so it looks like I'd have to even if I didn't want to."
"If?"
"This robot needs to be done. You want my help. I want to help." Bridge replied, coughing afterwards.
Hours went by, and the robot was nearly done. It lacked a humanoid outer shell, but all of the circuitry, armor, wiring, batteries, and other robotic essentials were completely implemented.
"Hello. I am ACTER, the Advanced Civilian Training Emulation Robot. It's nice to finally optically sense you, Miss Corona and Officer Carson." The robot said in a monotone voice.
"That voice needs to be changed." Bridge said.
"Change…" ACTER repeated. "Am I able to change…?"
"Yeah, a few little tweaks here and there, and it's all better." Corona said, holding up a pair of wire strippers and a small welding torch.
"Can you be changed so easily? Can you evolve easily?"
Bridge and Corona looked at each other and pondered for a moment. That was an awkward question if there ever was one.
"Well, humans can evolve, but that takes a very long time and it's permanent." Bridge added.
"Yes, evolve. To change drastically. To become something entirely different. Am I going to evolve?"
"Of course not! It's just an adjustment to your voicebox, silly!" Corona said. "I'm going to shut you off to make sure you don't shock me, then you'll be back online soon."
"Okay…shutting down…" ACTER shut itself down and it slowly lied back against the table. Kat walked in and smiled.
"I see you two are working hard on getting ACTER online." Kat commented with a smile.
"Yup, ACTER just needs a new voice and an outer shell to make it look like a human. Other than that, ACTER's ready to go." Corona replied with a smile.
"Great to hear! I'm glad you managed to finish it now…Boom got annihilated by Z an hour ago and he's out of commission for at least a week."
"Ooh. That sucks." Corona replied.
"Well, do what you must. I just came in the check up on you two; I'm hitting the hay for tonight. Stay out of trouble, and no funny business." Kat said, giving Corona a suggestive look.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Corona asked, giving Kat the look back.
"Just stay out of trouble, you two." Kat said as she walked out.
"Kat assumes the worst of us." Corona said as she opened up the plate sitting over ACTER's throat.
"Well, they all do, really. Just on different levels."
"They said something?"
"They think too loud."
"Oh." After a moment or so of silence, Bridge spoke up. "Do you think we've evolved?"
"What?"
"I mean…we all have our powers, right?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"Do you think that, if we tried hard enough, we could tap into a part of our abilities that we never use?"
"Like…maybe me using my shield as more than just a shield?" Corona was interested to see where Bridge was going with this.
"Yeah, but I mean much more than that. I mean…you have your shield, but you have your attack too. What if Sky could do that too? What if Jack could phase through moving objects? What if Z could make more than two duplicates? What if Syd could change the entire composition of her body instead of her just her hand? What if I…" Bridge stopped. He couldn't think of any way his powers could improve.
"What if you could move things with your mind? Isn't your power a psychic ability?" Corona said with a smile.
"Yeah…come to think, that would be handy, wouldn't it?" Bridge replied.
"Knock Sky's drinks into his lap by just looking the cup…now that would be awesome to be able to do."
"Hey now…we're fighting crimes with out abilities, not playing pranks with them."
"But what's the point of having telekinesis if you can't ever use it to play pranks on somebody once in a while?"
Bridge sighed. "We're digressing. The point is…what if our powers are evolving?"
"Well, to be honest, I wasn't able to manipulate my shield until I was ten or so…it's possible."
"But how come I only have my aura reading…?" Bridge was slightly jealous. He had never exerted anything else besides aura reading before, and he could only pick up loud thoughts at an extremely close range. Of course, there was his other, unexplainable ability, but it was neither wise to use it nor all that useful. There wasn't exactly an evolution of sorts; he had developed those abilities long before he knew how to use and control them. He was envious of Corona to an extent; she had some control over her main power, even if her shield couldn't be dropped. She never had to fear hurting people around her, or ever getting harmed herself.
"Some people are lucky, Bridge." Corona said. "I do have to say, I didn't think that so many people had special abilities. When I was growing up, I thought Sky and I were the only humans to have these abilities. Being here at SPD and meeting you…it's made me feel better." Corona said as she blushed.
"Well, I'm here to help. That's our job." Bridge replied. RIC sauntered in and barked a few times.
"Hey there, RIC. We're making you a new buddy." Corona joked.
RIC barked and Corona responded by petting RIC and kissing the metallic mutt's nose. Bridge sighed. Maybe it was fate that he were to be so unlucky and jealous.
Several hours later, Bridge was struggling to keep awake. The only thing making sure he was awake was RIC's constant barking. Corona was wide awake.
"Must be hard to stay up, eh?" Corona said, nudging Bridge with her elbow. He looked over to see that ACTER was covering in a flesh colored synthetic skin. He poked the skin and was surprised to find that he felt almost exactly like the real thing. Perhaps it was because he was wearing gloves that he was unable to tell the difference. He mildly sighed, as he was reminded of his personal vice.
"You okay, Bridge?" Corona asked.
"I just need some coffee…" Bridge replied. "you want something, Corona?"
"I'm fine. I have jellybeans." She held up a bag of brightly colored jelly candies that resembled rounder versions of kidney beans. Bridge weakly smiled.
"Okay…RIC, stand guard while I get some damn coffee…" Bridge slowly marched out of the room and slowly down the hallway.
RIC happily paced the hallway, barking every fourth step. He spotted a figure walking down the hallway, so he quickly scanned it. Visuals indicated it was Sky, but every other scanner was in the red.
"Hi there, RIC. Aren't you all feisty tonight?" He asked RIC. RIC began to howl as he charged at Sky. "I can fix that." He quickly balled up his left hand, forcing a fraction of his shield to strengthen his punch. Just as RIC had gained the proper altitude in his leap, Sky threw his left hook as hard as he could. The poor robotic dog couldn't stand up to the blow, and RIC was sent flying through the air, its skull bashed in and spitting sparks. Needless to say, his descent was noisy. What also made noises of its own was Sky's fist; the shield hardly held up to the power both in front and behind it, and it shattered on contact, allowing RIC's head to smash into Sky's hand. The sick popping sounds of several joints in Sky's hand dislocating matched with the dull crack of bones splitting shortly followed. His left hand was practically useless now.
"I guess that trick's just not good enough…" Sky muttered to himself. Corona ran out, gasped as she spotted Sky, then ran back into the room. "Oh! Just who I was looking for!"
"BRIDGE!"
Bridge hadn't even made it to the snack machine when he heard Corona screaming. Adrenaline took the place of much-needed caffeine, and he rushed back to the lab.
By the time he had arrived, Sky was dragging a beaten and bruised Corona out of the room. Sky spotted Bridge and smiled.
"Oh look, it's the little hero-in-training." Sky mocked.
"Let her go!" Bridge said, reaching for his pistol. "Sky, we can be rational about this…"
"It's not Sky!" Corona shouted.
"Shut up." Sky replied, tossing her into the wall and breaking her nose. She fell backwards, unconscious.
"Corona…" Bridge uttered. He took his glove off and scanned Sky's aura. Corona was both right and wrong; Sky's aura resonated from the body, but it was now encased within a black shell…
"You're not Sky…you're not Mordom…you're both…" Bridge muttered.
"Aren't you a smart one?" Sky replied with a slick grin. "I am, in fact, two beings at once at this very moment."
"You're a Zantarian, aren't you Mordom? You're nothing but a shell looking for something to fill it." Bridge said, taking a fighting stance.
"I'm impressed, human. You're smarter than you look."
"I dislike showing off."
"I see. Well, I'd like to get rid of you before I finish my old student, so let's make this quick." Sky seemed to pull a blade out of thin air, then he struck it against the floor, causing the sword to ignite. "Have I mentioned that I have a feeling that I know how to hurt you without really hurting you? Mental destruction is much more potent than physical. What good is a powerful soldier with no will to live?" As soon as he said the last word of his sentence, he swung at Bridge, slicing through Bridge's jacket and shirt and setting the jacket ablaze. Bridge panicked and quickly tossed the jacket off, then quickly assessed the wound in his abdomen. The wound had been cauterized and it was screaming in pain, despite how shallow the wound actually was.
"A soldier with no will to live is as worthless as an infant with every thought focused on survival…" He then swung at Bridge's left hand, slicing the left glove in two and leaving a grazing blow that was quickly cauterized by the flames.
"A soldier who has no will to live has no strength, no thoughts, no chance!" Sky sneered demonically as he took another swing, this time lighting Bridge's right glove on fire. Bridge panicked and wondered if he should really just let it burn off. Of course, he wasn't sure he wanted to get a full-hand skin graft, so he quickly discarded the other glove. Sky drove the blade into the ground and pulled several shurikens out of his jacket, tossing them at Bridge. Bridge attempted to dodge the little metal stars, but they all snagged his shirt and pinned him to the metal grating behind him; his arms pinned up so that he couldn't call for backup. He struggled against the stars, but he was stuck completely in the wall.
"Damn shirt…" he muttered. He tried pushing against the wall, hoping his shirt would rip, but he was unfortunate that the shirt was holding up well. "Damn poly-cotton blend…"
He was now standing over RIC, watching in horror as the still-unconscious Corona was dragged away from the wall. Sky straddled the young woman and held the flaming blade above her chest. His left hand cracked sickeningly as he uncurled it and wrapped it around the hilt of the sword.
"If you will not join my glorious plans, little Corona, then I'll have to make sure nobody uses you."
"STOP!" He jolted forward, focusing his sight on Sky and the sword. He suddenly felt a push forwards as everything he saw surrounding Sky and the sword faded out from view. He felt himself both moving forwards and falling to the ground, but the longer he pushed, the less he felt like he was falling. Everything outside his sights was black, and the sword and Sky was all he saw. His movement was fluid and required no effort on his part; all he did was force himself closer and held out his arms. The sheer will of his thoughts propelled him at Sky in a blinding rage, screaming at the top of his lungs. Sky spotted him and panicked, dropping the sword off to the side. The impact of Bridge's blow tossed Sky off of Corona and down the hallway, landing on his left arm and barrel rolling into the wall, knocking Sky out.
Both pleased and perplexed with his success, Bridge turned around, only to be rewarded with a disturbing sight. He gasped as he saw his lifeless body hanging on the wall like a sacrifice that was given up to the gods. He looked down at himself, only to see nothing more than an faint outline of his body, void of substance and structure.
Oh no…Bridge thought. What have I done…? He quickly forced himself forwards, back towards his body. He stopped short, however, and mentally pulled the stars out of the wall, tossing them backwards and narrowly missing Corona's head and jolting her awake. She turned around to watch Bridge's body slide off the wall and a faint silvery cloud of light sink slowly into the badly bruised shell.
Bridge pushed himself up slowly; his nose was gushing blood and his hands and side begged to be left alone.
"Bridge…are you okay…?" Corona asked as she slowly got up. He held her head in pain. Bridge's sight was still out of focus, and there was a ringing in his ears, but he knew that Corona was coming towards him. His senses realigned slowly as he pushed himself up. Corona helped him up, which gave him a jolt.
Corona tried to speak, but the thoughts of how to respond were dropping out of her faster than water flowed out of a broken dam. It was too late for either of them to realize that Corona's shield had dropped from the concussion she was suffering from. She slowly fell deeper into her hole of thoughts until she collapsed and her subconscious began to empty out, including the most basic of mental processes. The sudden rush of it all put Bridge into shock. He fell out of her grasp and began to convulse. It was only by sheer luck that Z had been on her way to get a late night snack that she saw Bridge's condition. She quickly ran down the hallway, avoiding his exposed skin, not sure what was to happen. She deftly grabbed his morpher and called everybody else down to the area. She looked around for any sign of an attack, but Sky and the sword were nowhere to be found. She quickly checked Corona's vitals, only to find that Corona had little to respond with. Z's first aid training kicked in and she began to give her CPR, and she made a duplicate to keep an eye on Bridge until the rest of the team arrived.
For once in her life, Z was happy that she was a late night fridge raider.