The Dino Charge Rangers were battling against Snide in the warehouse, trying to corral him into a good position to unleash a finishing attack. Riley flipped away as Fury almost caught him with a swing of his sword.
"Do any of you guys remember him being this tough?" Riley asked. "I seem to remember this being easier!"
"Well, we are out of practice." Tyler conceded. "It's been a few years since we last needed to deal with stuff like this. For him, it's like it was yesterday."
"Perhaps someone should remind him that 'yesterday', he lost!" Chase suggested as he ducked under some blasts that Snide deflected back at him. "Hey! I'm the hotshot here!"
"At least we only have this fiend to deal with!" Ivan grunted as he soared at Snide, their swords clashing as he hammered into him. "It could be worse."
"Did he just say...?" Shelby asked, but her question was cut off as she was blasted off her feet. She rolled over and over, skidding to a halt some way from where she had started. Looking up, she saw Sledge standing, his blaster smoking. The others flew towards her, landing together with her in a heap. They all started to scramble to their feet as Sledge, Poisandra, Curio and Fury all appeared, strolling out to gather around Snide.
"You just had to say it, didn't you?" Shelby grumbled, dope slapping Ivan across the back of the helmet.
"Apologies my friends." He answered, stroking the back of his head. "It appears it has been longer than I recall. I should know better."
"OK guys, things were wild before." Tyler said as Sledge's crew started to surround them, and they all shuffled into a defensive circle. "But now...I think they're about to get painful!"
Elsewhere in the city, the Beast Morphers Rangers' Zords were hammering into the Gigadrone with all their firepower. Devon positioned the Megazord between it and the tower.
"Alright, we've got it away from the tower." Devon commented. "What do you all say we finally put this thing out of commission?"
"Gladly!" Ravi replied. "You ready Nate?"
"Locked on and fully charged!" Nate answered.
"Then let's bring him down!" Devon called out, summoning the Cheetah Blaster.
Nate opened fire with his Megazord, hammering into the Gigadrone, while Devon and the others powered up their attack from the other side, surging forwards. The Gigadrone exploded, showering debris over a large area.
"Virus Eliminated!" Devon said with a smile. Just then, their communicator burst into life.
"Guys, have you got Kendall back to base yet?" Tyler asked.
"Not quite, we've just finished up with our big problem." Devon told him.
"Well, Evox just sent down his first batch of reanimated bad guys and we're kind of taking a beating here!" Tyler told him. Devon thought about it for a moment.
"Steel, take Kendall in the jet and get her back to base." Devon instructed the Silver Ranger. "Tyler, hold tight, we're coming in hot!"
At the Command Centre, Commander Shaw was watching the battle with interest. She was pleased to see that her team had managed to destroy the Giga Drone and prevent Evox getting away with more Morph-X, but they still had the matter of the Dino Charge Rangers.
They had come to their dimension seeking their friend Kendall, and had offered to help the Rangers when it became clear Evox planned to use Ryjax's technology and his collection to bolster his ranks with some of the worst beings the various Ranger teams had ever faced. Now that they were being confronted by their resurrected enemies, it seemed like their worst fears had been realised.
"Commander, we have an incoming message." Joanne announced, causing her to just stare at her, confused.
"A message?" She asked. "We're in the middle of something…"
"It's from G4 Galaxy Police." She interrupted the Commander, realising that now really wasn't the time for them to be taking phone calls, and knowing she had to tell her why this message was important. "They have a shuttle only a short way out."
"Captain Chakku's daughter!" She sighed. "Perfect timing…"
She pressed a button on the edge of her chair.
"Roxy, are you receiving?" She asked. With a battle so intense going on, and the medical and engineering bays getting ready for casualties and repairs, she could only think of two people on the base that didn't have terribly much to do right now. Roxy was the first one that came to mind, but she didn't get an answer. "Roxy, where are you?"
When she still didn't get an answer, she just groaned.
"Shit." She muttered. "Blaze, are you receiving?"
"Commander?" He asked.
"There's a shuttle coming into the landing bay shortly. We're receiving a new arrival." She told him. "Could you do me a favour and meet them?"
"I guess so." He responded. "I'll be there shortly."
With that, she disconnected the communications link.
"Well, that's one problem dealt with." She stated, before turning her attention back to the matter at hand.
In the warehouse, the Dino Charge Rangers were struggling with their opponents. Even though they had faced them before, they had never expected them to come back, and certainly not all at once.
"Who says teamwork is only for Rangers?" Sledge chuckled as he levelled his blaster their way as they lay on the ground.
"Ooh, they look so helpless all strewn out on the ground like that." Poisandra chirped in a cheery little sing-song voice as she came to his side, draping herself next to him. "What do you think we should do with them Sledgeums? We should make sure they pay for destroying us, those…those…meanies!"
"Not yet!" Sledge cackled. "First, we have to get their Energems."
His crew all assembled around them, readying their weapons.
"How about it, Rangers?" He asked. "Give up your Energems and we'll make your end quick, and relatively painless!"
"Sorry, but there's no way we're giving up the Energems!" Tyler replied. "They chose us for a reason! Their power will never serve evil!"
"I guess that's our answer then!" Sledge replied. "I suppose we can pick them off your corpses!"
As they were about to open fire though, they were hit with a barrage of blasts. Devon, Nate, Ravi and Zoey all ran into the warehouse, putting themselves between Sledge's crew and the Dino Charge Rangers.
"You guys, OK?" Devon asked.
"If you'd waited much longer, we wouldn't have been." Chase answered. "Thanks for the save, nice timing!"
"They're down, but they won't be down for long." Zoey pointed out. "Let's make ourselves scarce."
"Sounds like a plan I can get behind!" Devon agreed. With that, they all ran out, leaving the area before Sledge and his goons could recover.
As they started to get up, Sledge shook the cobwebs clear, realising they had been ambushed. His hated Dino Charge Rangers were no longer anywhere to be seen. He let out a bellow of rage, smashing into the concrete wall with his massive fist.
"They got away!" He screamed, before rounding on Snide. "This is YOUR fault!"
"Please! Tell it to Evox!" Snide responded in an off-hand way. With that, they all teleported out.
In the landing bay of the Grid Battleforce Headquarters, Blaze was waiting for their arrival. Steel had already come in with Kendall, taking her through to the medical bay for a check-up.
He was grateful when he saw the shuttle arriving, descending into the base through the overhead entrance. As it came to rest, and the hangar crew indicated it was safe to approach, he walked up to the loading ramp as it opened. An officer wearing armour much like Chakku's only gold in colour approached with a young girl. Blaze smiled and extended a hand.
"Hi, I'm Blaze." He introduced himself. "Welcome to Earth."
"Commandant Aurelia." The officer introduced herself, shaking his hand in return. "I was expecting…"
"I'm afraid we have something of an emergency on our hands, otherwise Commander Shaw would be here to meet you in person." He assured her. "I've been charged with acting as her envoy."
"Well, I suppose in our line of work, occasionally the forces of evil are not respectful of our own errands." She replied, before putting her hand around the young girl. "This is Starlight. I decided to deliver her to myself."
She turned and knelt down to be level with the girl, looking into her face.
"Your father has been such an invaluable part of G4 Galaxy Police, I felt I owed it to him to handle this personally." She pulled the young girl in, hugging her. "I'm really going to miss you both."
"Alright, now your dad was resting earlier, but how about we see a nice lady about when we can go and see him?" Blaze asked, offering his hand to Starlight. At first, she was a little reluctant, but finally she took his hand. "Alright, thanks for delivering her."
"Be sure that you do." Aurelia told him, before turning and getting onto her shuttle. The engines fired up, and a short time later, the shuttle blasted out of the landing bay. Blaze looked back down to Starlight.
"Alright, how about we go and see if you can see your dad, then we see about getting you something to eat?" He asked her. Starlight nodded, at which Blaze began to lead her down towards the medical bay.
Up in the lab, the Dino Charge and Beast Morphers Rangers had assembled, surrounding Kendall as Joanne and Nate tried to remove the collar. Her hand was now properly bound, her fingers immobilised in proper medical splints.
"I can't believe you broke your own fingers." Shelby commented with a pained look on her face.
"Just Ryjax's way of proving this thing works!" She said bitterly, tapping the collar with her finger. "Fortunately, they let me treat myself, so I could limit the damage."
"You did a really good job given the means at your disposal." Nate complimented her. "If they hadn't let you treat them, I'd have been concerned about Compartment Syndrome or…"
"Oh, I got pretty good at patching up this lot." Kendall said, panning her hand around the team. "They made sure I got plenty of use out of those medical courses I took."
"Yet, you were always remarkably poor at treating yourself, Dr Morgan." Ivan said dryly. "I believe it was you who checked out of a medical facility before being properly treated and fainting into your own lunch."
"Hey, that was…"
"Admit it." Shelby told her. Kendall bit her lip, before blurting out.
"It's true." She answered. They all stared at her.
"Hey, that thing does work!" Shelby commented. "Um…Dr Morgan, Tyler, his dad and I wanted to go camping this weekend, could you possibly give us all the weekend off?"
"Yes, of course!" Kendall replied, before shaking her head. "Really, Shelby? This is Dino Fun Day weekend! The busiest weekend of the year, and all three of you want it off?"
"Dr Morgan, Erin and I are approaching an…anniversary of sorts." Ivan told her. "Would you allow me the use of the restaurant after hours for a celebration?"
"Yes." Kendall rushed out, before looking irritated. "Oh, come on! That's not fair!"
"Dr Morgan, I was hoping I could get an advance on my next pay." Chase told her. "Say, around a hundred dollars?"
"I'll get it from the safe when we go back." Kendall replied, looking decidedly more bad tempered. "Oh, come on guys! This isn't funny!"
"It's fine we're only teasing." Tyler said as the latch finally popped. Kendall breathed a sigh of relief as Joanne finally removed the collar.
"Well, there we go, you won't need to worry about this anymore." Nate assured her. She started rubbing her neck, finally glad to be free of the compliance collar.
"Thank you, so much, you have no idea how much of a relief that is." Kendall told him.
"Oh, I think we can imagine." Devon chuckled, looking to her own team, who were still laughing. Kendall gave them all her infamous Death Glare, at which they all fell silent. Even the Beast Morphers team, who had never encountered it before were quiet. Kendall just smirked.
"Who needs a compliance collar?" She asked.
"Thank you, guys, again." Tyler stated. "We don't know if we could have got Kendall back without you."
"We're glad to help." Zoey assured them all. "Once a Ranger and all that, right?"
"I just wish we could stay longer, but we have our own responsibilities back home." Ivan added. "And sadly, your own foes are not yet defeated."
"Not to mention they now have some new goons to throw at you." Shelby replied uneasily.
"We won't leave you high and dry." Tyler told them. "We owe you guys a lot. Just give us a call if you need us."
"We appreciate that." Devon told him, fist-bumping Tyler.
"Now, if you guys don't mind, there's a little girl who's been without her mommy in way too long!" Kendall said, hopping off the bench. "And this mommy is LONG overdue for a good, long hug."
"Take care!" Zoey called out as they all bid their new friends farewell. They stepped through the portal, heading back to their own dimension. Commander Shaw turned to face the team.
"Today, we managed to help a friend, and that can never be taken as a bad thing." She told them. "However, we have made a significant loss in the process."
"Yeah, Sledge and his crew are back." Zoey agreed. "I am really not looking forward to facing them again."
"Not to mention they still have the rest of those weapons." Nate reminded them. "So, we don't know who else they can bring back."
"One thing's for sure, with that much power at his disposal," Tyler sighed, "it won't be long before we find out."
Over in the Crystal Dimension, Sledge and his crew arrived back, finding Evox, Scrozzle, Blaze and Roxy waiting. They appeared before them, at which Evox just glared at them.
"So much for the mighty Sledge." He sneered.
"Hey, you try fighting against ten Rangers." Sledge complained, before looking at his crew. "Seriously, why does no one ever give us credit? Most other villains only have five or six Rangers to worry about, we had TEN!"
"Well, maybe if you didn't vapourise your comrade right before a battle?" Roxy teased him.
"Wrench was a traitor!" Wrench growled. "He left my crew for a job on some crummy TV show!"
"Whatever." Roxy said with a smirk. "We brought back a couple of helping hands."
They all turned as a couple of new arrivals walked out. They stared at them.
"Who are these guys?" Poisandra asked, gesturing to the new arrivals. She leaned in towards Snide. "That one in the black…are you two related?"
"Meet Scorpina and Zeltrax." Blaze introduced them. "They were two of the most feared enemies their respective teams ever faced."
"And we have a whole trunk full of weapons! We can overwhelm the Rangers with numbers they can never…" Curio started to rush out, before a blast from Evox sent him flying back from the crate. "Hey! What gives?"
"Those weapons are powerful, and their wielders even moreso." Evox stated. "Which is why I am being VERY selective about who we bring back!"
"See, we don't just want powerful." Roxy said, pulling out Lord Zedd's staff and staring at it, before sticking it into the ground. "We want powerful…AND controllable!"
"I have a plan that will require an army of dangerous foes to keep the Rangers busy." Evox told them. "And you will all be led by a lieutenant with the power to destroy a whole army of Rangers."
"So, what do you say we start the audition process?" Blaze asked, pulling out a hard drive. "Who wants to take a walk down memory lane?"
Back at Grid Battleforce Headquarters, Blaze arrived in the medical bay, finding Meghan checking on some displays. He brought Starlight in with him, smiling as he saw her.
"Meghan!" He greeted her. She turned to see him, but her expression became one of confusion when she saw Starlight.
"Hi, Blaze." She replied. "Who's the girl?"
"This is Starlight, Chaku's daughter." Blaze told her. "So, you're out here, instead of in there, I guess things went well?"
"Oh, yes, of course, really well!" She told him. "I just needed to take a break. The patient needs a little time to recover between treatments."
"Patient?" Starlight asked, looking up at Blaze. He cringed a little.
"Uh…your dad was just getting…a check-up, isn't that right?" He asked. Meghan just saw him nodding, indicating he wanted her to play along. He figured telling his daughter that her dad was having surgery, when to the best of anyone's knowledge she didn't even know about his cybernetic implants, was probably not the best approach.
"Uh…yes, a check-up." She replied.
"So, can we go and see him?" Blaze asked.
"Sure, he's right through there." Meghan told them. Blaze gestured to Starlight to follow him, and was just getting into the room, when he suddenly stopped still.
Chaku was there, but he was unconscious, still under sedation. He was covered in bandages, and hooked up to numerous machines. He was horrified by what he saw, and his first thought went to a young girl about to see her dad the same way. He immediately stopped and put himself right in her path, blocking her view.
"You know what? It looks like your dad's sleeping, he's really tired!" He told her.
"But I've come all this way…"
"Yeah, and we just want to make sure he's healthy and ready to play with his little girl, now, don't we?" He asked her. "Um…why don't you go get some ice-cream?"
"I want to see my daddy!" She told him.
"You see those machines we passed?" He asked. "They're all free! You can take all the ice-cream you want! We'll let you see your dad once he wakes up."
Starlight looked a little unconvinced, but eventually she turned and headed out of the lab. Blaze went over to Meghan and grabbed her by the arm, taking her out of earshot.
"Blaze, what are you…?"
"What the Hell is wrong with you?" Blaze asked her.
"You asked to see Chaku!" She reminded him.
"Yeah, with his daughter!" He reminded her. "Meghan, he's lying in there looking like something from a Frankenstein movie!"
"He's just between surgeries…"
"And his daughter is…what…ten years old if that?" Blaze asked her. "Do you really think it's best that she sees her dad looking like that?"
"You're…you're mad at me?" She asked, starting to back off a little. Blaze just sighed.
"Meghan, you're smart, way smarter than I or the majority of people will ever be." He told her. "But think about it, would you?"
She could hear the disappointment in his tone. He just shook his head.
"Call me when he's awake at least." He told her. With that, he walked out.
Meghan turned back to her work, taking a seat by a desk, but his words weighed heavily on her. She hadn't thought about it. She had done it again, being unable to put herself into someone else's shoes. She pounded a fist into the table in frustration, before some tears came to her eyes.
"Meghan?" Zoey asked, coming in.
"Zoey!" She responded, wiping away her tears quickly.
"Are Chaku's treatments going badly?" She asked. "Is that…?"
"No, he's resting comfortably just now. I should be able to start on his facial prosthesis later." Meghan told her. "It's…something else."
"Well, whatever it is, you can talk to me about." Zoey assured her. Meghan just shook her head.
"No, I think this is something I need to figure out myself." She muttered. Zoey just looked to her sympathetically. She felt a little bit jealous about that. It was so easy for Zoey to be able to empathise with others. She envied that about her. Part of her wondered if that was one of the reasons, she had resented her so strongly at first, but even after all she had done, Zoey still went out of her way to help Meghan and bring her back to Grid Battleforce, albeit as part of a parole agreement.
"Well, as long as you're sure." Zoey answered. "Just know, you only have to call."
"What's that?" Meghan asked, looking at the item in Zoey's hand. Zoey just held it up.
"Oh, this?" She asked. "It's the compliance collar we took off Kendall."
"Compliance collar?" Meghan asked.
"Yeah, it's some sick thing that Ryjax had that makes everyone do whatever someone tells them to." Zoey told her. "He actually made her break her own fingers, can you believe that?"
Meghan didn't answer, instead just looking at the collar. She did have some knowledge of mind control, but this was something she hadn't heard of. Mind control was something a lot of people had attempted for various reasons for many years, but it was incredibly difficult to get something that couldn't be circumvented. In particular, it was almost unheard of for someone to make a person over-ride their own sense of self-preservation, or their most deeply-held morality. Brainwashing someone into committing murder was, for the most part, only possible if that person had it in them in the first place, while getting someone to do something that put them directly in harm was thought to be verging on impossible unless they wanted to make that choice.
"Yeah, that's really something." Meghan said, her eyes never straying from the collar. She looked to Zoey, thinking of how she had described it. "It's sick."
"Yeah, well, I was asked to put this in the vault, so hopefully it won't cause any more problems." Zoey said, heading for the door.
"I can do it for you!" Meghan rushed out. Zoey just turned towards her.
"Sorry?" She asked.
"I just mean…I'm heading towards my own lab soon anyway; I can do that for you." She told Zoey. "You and Nate can do something instead."
"Well, I guess I was hoping to get a little studying done tonight." Zoey mused. "OK, thanks Meghan."
With that, she put the collar down on the table. As Zoey left, Meghan's eyes fixed on the collar. She could only stare at it, thinking about what it offered. She picked it up, turning it over in her hands. She looked around, making sure she was alone, before slipping it inside her own lab coat.
A/N: Been a while, hasn't it? Yeah, sorry about that. It's been a time; I can tell you! Thanks for your patience, and I really hope you enjoy the chapter!