In the medical bay, Chaku was sitting with Meghan as she worked. He had agreed to come and work for Grid Battleforce, but when they learned about his daughter, and more importantly that the reason he wasn't going to return to her or bring her to Earth was because he was concerned how she'd react to his implants, they had offered to help out, and try to restore him as much as possible to his old self so that he could bring her to Earth.
He was sitting on a workbench in his underwear, allowing her to see the extent of his cybernetics. He'd had a large number of his biological structures augmented. She had already done initial analysis and figured out that some of those cybernetics could simply be removed with no real harm to his biology if the surgery went well, but some structures actually replaced biological systems, such as his eye, areas of his brain, his ear canal and suchlike. They couldn't be removed because the structures they replaced no longer existed and so in those instances, it was going to be more an issue of converting them into more covert systems that would look as close as possible to his original body.
Blaze walked in, looking for Meghan.
"OK, Meghan, it's time for your...whoa!" He said, becoming a little taken aback as he saw Chaku. "Um...hello?"
"Hello." Chaku responded. Meghan looked around at Blaze.
"Oh, Blaze, sorry, I meant to call, we're going to have to delay our session today." She said, continuing her work on the computer. "Commander Shaw wants me to work on Chaku today."
"Right." Blaze said, looking to Chaku and pointing. "Chaku, right?"
"Captain Chaku." He introduced himself. "Well, I WAS Captain Chaku, I'm not entirely sure what my job title will be here yet, Commander Shaw hasn't filled me in on the details of that yet."
"Welcome to the base." Blaze said as he went over to Meghan. "Meghan, can we just have a word?" He took her aside, just out of earshot of Chaku.
"I have a lot to do here." She told him. "What is it?"
"The naked guy sitting on your workbench?" He asked. She just shrugged.
"What about him?" She asked.
"Meghan, this is the kind of thing we've been talking about." Blaze told her. "How long has he been sitting there on that bench?"
"I don't know...an hour, maybe an hour and a half." She answered.
"And is there any reason he needed to be naked all that time?" He asked her.
"He's wearing his boxer shorts!" She pointed out.
"That's not really the point." Blaze stated. "This has to be pretty uncomfortable for him."
"But I need to be able to access..."
"Meghan, you just talked about him to me like he wasn't even there." Blaze continued. She just face-palmed.
"I did, didn't I?" She asked.
"Also, how would you feel about being made to sit around in your underwear all day?" He asked her.
"I..." She thought about it. One of the things that had led to her sentence being commuted to the base was one of her custody officers taking some liberties with her. Blaze had fortunately figured it out and brought it to Commander Shaw's attention, but it still affected her. "I hadn't thought..."
"Maybe just offer him a gown or something?" He suggested. She nodded.
"Chaku, you can probably put your clothes back on." She told him. He went and got his clothes, beginning to get dressed. "And...I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable."
He looked to Blaze, not really understanding the situation. Blaze just nodded to indicate he just go with it.
"That's quite alright; I know you're trying to help." He assured her. "If I get to see my Starlight again, it'll be worth it."
"So, I got some images from G4 Galaxy Police that were taken before your procedures." Meghan told him. "Um...I've made some approximations of some of the alterations I could make and how they should look. Would you like to see the mock ups?"
"I'd like that very much." He said as he came over. Blaze just went into the corner, taking a seat and smiling. He was a little sceptical about the counselling role that Commander Shaw had assigned him, but he was starting to think that he was getting the hang of it.
Up in the Command Centre, the Rangers had brought everything they could salvage back from Ryjax's ship. Most of the parts had been sent to engineering to see if there was anything that they could use or replicate to update their own arsenal, which Joanne was already eager to get started on, but the rest was in the Command Centre with them. Mostly, it was weapons, but they had brought anything that didn't look too damaged to recognise.
Devon turned over a wicked looking axe in his hands.
"This is all some pretty gnarly looking stuff." He commented.
"Not nearly as gnarly as the people who carried them." Ravi told him. "That belonged to Zeltrax. He gave the Dino Thunder Rangers a real tough time. Almost destroyed Reefside a couple of times!"
"And this belonged to Scorpina." Nate added, taking out a vicious looking weapon that looked like a cross between a sword and a boomerang. "We didn't find the re-animiser, so we can only assume Blaze and Roxy got it. If they had these, there's no telling what kind of carnage they could have unleashed."
"Guys, we still have another problem." Zoey reminded them. "They still have Kendall. When she was fighting me, she told me they'd had her for weeks."
"She probably showed up on their radar when she came through to help separate my dad from Evox." Devon said sadly. "She made herself a target because she came to help us. We have to help her."
"Believe me, I have no intention of leaving any Ranger in the clutches of evil, whether they're my team or not." Commander Shaw assured them. "Whatever it costs, we'll bring her back."
"She has a family." Ravi stated, looking at something in his hand. "We should make sure they get her back."
"The only question is, how?" Zoey asked. "We don't even know where they're hiding now?"
"Then I guess, for now, they're the ones in the driver's seat." Devon answered reluctantly. "We need to wait on them making the next move."
He looked over to the weapons arrayed before them.
"And something tells me, we won't be waiting too long."
In the Crystal Dimension, Blaze and Roxy had returned with the re-animiser, Kendall and one of the weapons from the ship. As soon as they arrived, it was pretty clear that the haul was far from what Evox had expected.
They had the benefit of being in a new dimension, where the Rangers had yet to find them, giving them the advantage of being able to attack at will, but the fact was that their forces were still seriously depleted. Scrozzle was working hard on turning the raw materials of their new base into more robotic henchmen for Evox's forces, but even he could only work so fast. The prospect of Ryjax's technology being able to bring back the worst of the worst that the Rangers had ever faced instantaneously was a prospect that they couldn't afford to ignore. They could potentially recoup their losses and more in no time.
That is...if they actually had the weapons!
"Is this a joke?" Evox asked angrily, seeing the rather meagre haul they had brought with them. "Explain yourselves!"
"The Yellow Ranger showed up. She distracted our slave here." Blaze said, grabbing Kendall painfully by the shoulder, forcing her down to her knees with a grunt of pain. "Let's just say, one of the security systems kicked in."
"That explains why you're looking rather singed." Scrozzle cackled as he took amusement in their misfortune. "Nice hair."
Roxy just flipped him off, before returning to trying to sort her hair back into some kind of order.
"I can't help it if your henchmen are clumsy." Kendall stated, causing Blaze to clamp down harder on her shoulder. She cried out in pain once again.
"And I'm sure that it just slipped your mind to tell us you turned the security system back on, didn't it?" Blaze asked her.
"You never asked." She pointed out, at which he shoved her forward onto all fours. Evox just glared at them.
"You two have failed..."
"It wasn't a complete failure." Roxy told him, producing the re-animiser. "We got the most important piece. We figured out how it works too."
She pointed it at a spot a little way off, activating a command on it. Before their eyes, some putties, some viviks and some tyrannodrones appeared.
"Well, that's one thing at least." Scrozzle said in a begrudging tone.
"That's not all." Blaze said, taking out the weapon, showing them a sword. "We got this too."
He drove it into the ground, before backing away from it.
"Hit it, Roxy." He beckoned her. Roxy took careful aim, activating another command. The sword started to glow for a few moments, before in a flash of light, a form appeared. He looked around in confusion.
"What? Where am I? What's going on?" Snide yelled. "The Rangers...they destroyed me!"
His eyes locked on Kendall, who was staring at him in horror. The last time she'd seen Snide, he was in the base beneath the museum, fighting with her. He had almost destroyed her and her friends; only a fortunate turn of fate had given them the victory.
"YOU!" He snarled. He started to make his way towards her, but Blaze and Roxy got in the way.
"Whoa, not so fast. She's still useful to us." Blaze told him. "You'll get all the chance you want to destroy Rangers, mark my words."
"Who are you?" He asked. "Why should I listen to you?"
"Because we brought you back." Roxy stated. "And, we have plenty of back up to help you cause all the chaos you want."
She pointed to the viviks, putties and tyrannodrones. He just nodded.
"Alright, I'm listening." He answered. "What do you want me to do?"
"Go and get their attention." Blaze told him. "Have fun."
With that, Scrozzle teleported Snide and his henchmen into the city. Evox just looked to them.
"This is how you want to use the meagre resources you managed to scavenge?" He asked them.
"Oh, this is just to get their attention." Roxy assured him. "Once the Rangers have had a little playtime with Snide and his goons, we'll put in a call to the Rangers. They'll give us all we need to create all the help we'll ever need."
"Really?" Evox asked. "And why would they do that?"
"That would be where our friend here comes in." Blaze said, putting his hands on Kendall's shoulders. She just sighed. "Isn't that right, our little bargaining chip?"
"Oh goody." She replied sarcastically.
Back at Grid Battleforce HQ, the alarm sounded, at which Devon, Zoey, Nate and Steel all ran into the Command Centre. They all gathered around Joanne's console.
"What's going on?" Devon asked.
"There's an attack downtown." She told them. "It doesn't appear to be Tronics though. A lot of the signatures appear to be biological."
She pulled up some security footage, letting them see the attack. They could see Snide, directing his forces to random acts of destruction.
"I guess we've confirmed that they have the re-animiser." Nate replied nervously. "That's Snide. At one time he had a reputation for wiping out entire civilisations."
"Well, he's not going to add ours to his list." Devon stated, before looking around. "Where's Ravi?"
They all looked around, noticing that he was missing. Devon got onto his communicator.
"Ravi?" He asked. "Ravi, come in!"
"Ravi here." He answered.
"Where are you?" Devon asked.
"I'm...I'm downtown." Ravi replied. They all looked at each other.
"Downtown?" Devon asked. "What are you doing there? We thought you were on the base."
"I had...um..."
"Never mind." Devon interrupted him. "Are you anywhere near Levy Square?"
"Just a couple of blocks." Ravi answered.
"Meet us there." Devon told him. "We'll be right over."
In her office, Commander Shaw was sitting, dealing with some administrative work for General Burke when her intercom sounded. She just sighed.
"What now?" She asked in frustration, before pressing the button. "This is Commander Shaw."
"Commander, this is the medical bay." A medic answered. "I just wanted to report something unusual."
"Yes, Meghan is supposed to be there." She answered in an off-hand way. "She's developing treatments for Chaku."
"Yes, we're aware of that." He told her. "I called to report a security breach."
"Another one?" Commander Shaw asked. "This is getting out of hand...what happened?"
"This time it's the pharmacy." He informed her.
"The pharmacy?" She asked. This was potentially very serious. Military life could be very demanding. People worked long shifts, sometimes shift patterns extending for weeks at a time. Many of the employees lived on the premises, but even that didn't guarantee everyone got enough rest.
While some progress had been made, there was also still somewhat of a macho culture in the military, with many seeing taking time to recuperate or heal from injuries or sickness as a sign of weakness. Sadly, it was not unknown for people to resort to self-medication as a way of keeping up with the demands put on them and that they put on themselves. The medical bay was very strictly controlled for good reason, and so anyone taking anything without permission could be taking something that was potentially harmful.
"What's been taken?" She asked. The medic sent over an inventory.
"That's the strange thing." He told her. "If it was painkillers or amphetamines I could understand, but...all they seem to have taken is vitamins!"
"This is most peculiar." She said, taking note of what had been taken. "See if you can find anything on the cameras and keep me posted."
With that, she turned off the communication link. She just sat, trying to think what was going on. Over the last couple of days, the medical bay had been broken into a couple of times. It was hard to think that was a coincidence, but since all anyone had stolen was some medical records and some vitamins, she wasn't entirely sure what their motive could be.
The Rangers arrived at the scene of the battle, finding Ravi already there, battling as hard as he could against the numerous henchmen. He was hit with a huge blow from Snide's shield, sending him flying, landing in a heap by his friends' feet.
"Are you alright?" Zoey asked as she and Devon helped him to his feet.
"Fine." He assured them, scrambling to his feet. "Snide is back?"
"It looks like we know where the re-animiser is." Zoey agreed. "Just as well we have those weapons or we could be in REAL trouble!"
"You're in plenty of trouble as it is!" Snide responded, powering up a blast. He launched it at them, knocking all the Rangers to the ground. They all scrambled back to their feet.
"Yeah, he definitely hits hard." Nate complained. "I see why he gave the Dino Charge Rangers such a hard time!"
They were quickly surrounded as Snide ordered his henchmen forward, swarming them. They fought off wave after wave of viviks, tyrannodrones and putties, putting them all down as quickly as they could, hoping to get some room to breathe.
"This isn't looking good!" Devon said as he saw Snide coming for him, swinging his sword. He barely got his own sword in the way in time, staggering under the force of the blow. "We could be in trouble here guys!"
"Great, what now?" Ravi asked as he saw a bright light. They all looked over to see something forming a little way off.
"It's a dimensional portal!" Nate called out, throwing one of his enemies away, knocking over a bunch of others with the body of their comrade.
They all watched as four figures started to appear in the portal. For a moment, they wondered who was coming, if they were friend or foe. Eventually, they all emerged, and as they saw the brightly coloured suits, they felt a sense of relief.
"It's the Dino Charge Rangers!" Ravi called out.
"Well, four of them anyway." Ravi chimed in.
"Hey, I'll take it!" Zoey added as she blasted down some more of the henchmen. Snide saw that the odds were turning against him and gathered what few of his forces remained.
"I think that's enough attention for now." He stated. "See you soon, Rangers!"
With that, he disappeared, taking his remaining forces with him. The Beast Morphers Rangers came together with the Dino Charge Rangers, all demorphing.
"Thanks for the help." Devon stated. "You guys have pretty good timing."
"It's kind of a habit." Chase greeted him.
"I'm Devon; this is Zoey, Ravi, Nate and Steel." Devon introduced his team.
"Tyler." Tyler introduced himself. "This is Chase, Koda and Ivan."
"I'm guessing you guys are here for Kendall." Zoey asked. Tyler just nodded.
"We've been searching for her for a couple of weeks now." Tyler told them. "We only just managed to get a lock on this dimension."
"You know where Kendall is?" Koda asked them.
"Yeah, we do. Our big bad has her." Zoey informed them. "It looks like we all have the same problem."
"Then I propose we go somewhere a little less public to discuss our shared dilemma." Ivan said, gesturing to the transport vehicles. "May we trouble you for a ride to your headquarters?"
"That sounds like a great idea." Devon answered, whistling, at which Cruise came racing over. "Cruise, back to base."
"Right away, Devon!" He replied. As Devon raced off, Ivan just pointed after him.
"Do all the vehicles talk in this dimension?" He asked.
"It's...a long story." Zoey answered, escorting them towards the transport vehicles. Evox now had a powerful ally in Snide, and a whole swathe of new henchmen, but with the arrival of the Dino Charge Rangers, it looked like the odds on the Rangers had just improved a little.