In the lab, Nate was working on some maintenance to keep his mind off the situation while Zoey was trying to do some revision nearby. It was an agonising wait for the Rangers, knowing that they couldn't do anything to help Meghan until Robo-Blaze told them where she was being held.
Nate hung the Spin Sabre on the wall, by the other weapons.
"And, the Spin Sabre's in prime condition." He sighed. "Just like the other two dozen times I've checked it."
Zoey looked to him sympathetically.
"Maybe Devon had the right idea." She sighed. "A little fresh air sounds really good right now."
"I just feel so...helpless!" Nate said to her, scattering some tools in frustration. "Look at me, the great Nate Silva, the boy genius...outsmarted by Blaze."
"He got all of us." Zoey reminded him as she beckoned him over. He sat with her, as she put her arm around him, comforting him. "We're all worried about Meghan."
"I just can't help thinking about what Commander Shaw said." Nate admitted sadly. "I know that it makes sense that if we have to make a choice, then...we have to let Meghan be sacrificed. It makes complete logical, statistical and strategic sense..."
"But it just feels wrong." Zoey concluded. He just nodded.
"All of us knew what we were signing up for. Everyone on this base, everyone that works for Grid Battleforce signed that hostage clause, but you know as well as I do if it was any one of us..."
"We'd do everything we needed to in order to get them back." Zoey concluded. "Nate, every one of us feels the same way."
As they sat, Nate couldn't help taking a look at Zoey's notes. He furrowed his brows as he didn't recognise what she was working on.
"That...doesn't look like your coursework." Nate told her, nodding in the direction of her book.
"It started out as that." She admitted. "I just can't concentrate, so I thought about something else instead."
He took the book and started to read over it.
"Cloning?" He asked her. "Wait, what is this?"
"I just can't help thinking about what Betty was saying about Steel." She told him. "I was trying to think about..."
"The Neural Aligner, Morph-X..." Nate said, reading some of the snippets of her notes. Zoey had always had an inquisitive mind, and was great at coming up with ideas. Like her sonic fences that she had created to prevent animals running onto roads, she had ideas, but due to her inability to afford the time to concentrate on her studies when she was younger needing to work, and her relatively short time being able to study college level courses, what she lacked was the ability to execute her ideas. She did, however, have a great mind for coming up with concepts. "What are all these?"
"Well, I was just thinking, you know how Blaze and Roxy were made into Avatars, how they were given new bodies by Evox?" She asked him. Nate just nodded. "Well, he did that with the neural aligner, and I was wondering if there was some way to do that with Steel."
"The avatars weren't Blaze and Roxy though." He reminded her. "They were evil..."
"They were only evil by design. He took the worst parts of their personality and amplified them." She interrupted him. "But if he can do that, wouldn't it be possible to make a direct copy of Steel's mind? To transfer it into another body?"
Nate thought about it for a while.
"I suppose it's theoretically possible." He stated. "But we'd need a body to put him into, and he wants to be human. Making him an avatar wouldn't be any different than him being a robot."
"But who says the body has to be a robot body?" She asked him. "We're all biological beings and the Neural Aligner put new attributes into our bodies. Wouldn't it be possible to do something like that for Steel?"
"I hadn't thought about that." Nate admitted. "Wait, we'd still need a biological body though. Where are we going to get one of those? There are all sorts of ethical questions..."
"Nate, do you remember that time you met me in the hall with the jackrabbit?" She asked him. He smiled as he recalled the incident.
"I do." He told her.
"You remember how I was freaking out when you told me you were going to extract DNA from it?" She asked.
"I told you I didn't need to harm it because my scanner..." His words tailed off as he thought about it. "...because it basically..."
"Makes a 3D print of the DNA." She reminded him. "What if we could do something like that on a larger scale? If instead of just a line of code or two, we could create something larger, something like say...a whole human body?"
"You want to create a whole human body for us to transfer Steel into?" He asked her. She started to look a little hesitant now.
"Well, I mean...it was just an idea." She conceded.
"No, it's given me something to think about." Nate told her. "I mean, not all the pieces are here, but a lot of these things you're suggesting, it might be possible to do."
"So, you think I'm onto something?" She asked him.
"I mean, I'm not saying any of this is something we'll be able to do tomorrow or anything, but maybe if we work on the concepts..." He started to say. "We can't tell Steel, not yet. I don't want to get his hopes up."
"No, of course." She replied. "But you think..."
"Every great discovery starts with an idea." He interrupted her, kissing her softly. "You want to look over some of these together?"
Zoey nodded enthusiastically as Nate started to separate out her notes onto a nearby table and inspect them thoughtfully.
Elsewhere on the base, Cole was in the gym, working out when Ben came in. He flopped down onto a nearby bench, while Cole carried on with his pull-ups.
"Ben." He said with a smile as he dropped down, looking to him. "You wanted to join me?"
"I'm not really in the mood." Ben grumbled. "I just know this is one of the few places Dad won't look for me."
"You're still ducking him?" Cole asked. Ben just sighed.
"I know, I know, it's pathetic, I'm scared of my dad." He admitted. "I know I have to talk to him, but I was hoping to find a way to be the one that approached him, you know? Pick my battle ground; create the setting that works for me..."
"Are you...are you taking advice from 'The Art of War' to apply to coming out to your dad?" Cole chuckled. Ben just looked to him a little surprised.
"You've read 'The Art of War'?" He asked him.
"Cover to cover." Cole told him. I do take my military career seriously you know, I don't want to be a night watchman forever."
"That's the kind of talk I like to hear." General Burke boomed as he walked in, wearing his gym gear. They both snapped around.
"General!" Cole greeted him with a salute. General Burke just waved off the greeting.
"I don't think that's necessary here, do you?" He asked. "Especially since you'll probably be peeling me off the mats soon. Would you mind spotting me?"
He pointed over to the bench press. Cole just looked to Ben and then to the General.
"Of course, General Burke." He answered as he went over, taking his place behind the weights. General Burke lay down, before lifting the weights off the hook and beginning his reps. "That's good form, sir."
"I may spend a little too much time pushing pens these days for my own good, but I'm not completely out of shape yet." General Burke responded in breaths between reps. "So, you're looking for advancement?"
"Well...yes, eventually." Cole told him. "I'm just happy to serve..."
"Of course you are." General Burke responded. "I have to say, I've heard a lot of good things about you."
"You have, sir?" Cole asked.
"I do like to keep my eyes open for prospects." He told him. "And I have to say, you certainly seem to take care of yourself."
"I've always been a bit of an athlete." Cole told him. "It was just academics that was a slow start for me. High School was kind of rough on me, but I'm trying to improve that."
"I always like to hear about a young person who believes in self-improvement." General Burke told him, racking his weights. His communicator bleeped.
"General Burke, we have a message from Blaze." Commander Shaw told him. "I'm summoning the Rangers to the Command Centre as we speak."
"Looks like this has to get cut short." General Burke told him. "I'll speak to your superiors, see if there are some recommendations they can make for your progression."
"Um...thank you, sir." Cole answered.
With that, he left the room. Ben looked to Cole.
"He didn't even say anything to me." Ben commented. Cole came over, putting an arm around him.
"Come on." He told him. "I could use some coffee."
Up in the Command Centre, the Rangers arrived, assembling with Commander Shaw, General Burke and Joanne, who had to leave the Zord Bay. Devon was carrying a box, which he tucked under his arm.
"You went shopping?" Ravi asked him.
"Uh...yeah." Devon told him, before looking to Commander Shaw. "You said Blaze has been in contact?"
"He's on the line now." She answered. She pulled up the screen, letting them see Robo-Blaze, standing by Meghan.
"Rangers, glad you're all able to follow directions." He taunted them. "You know, I was half expecting one or more of you to try and make some kind of ill-advised rescue attempt. I'd have hated to have to hurt Meghan here..."
"We listened to your instructions, Blaze." Devon snapped impatiently. "Just tell us what you want us to do!"
"Oh, well...that's the thing. I don't know how much I can trust you to keep those claws sheathed." He commented. "I mean, you can't even make it through a polite conversation without..."
"Polite conversation?" Zoey shrieked. "You kidnapped our friend!"
"See what I mean? You're all so short-tempered." He answered. "Which is kind of why, I wanted Commander Shaw to be the one to make the delivery."
"The Commander?" Ravi scoffed. "Good luck with..."
"Done." Commander Shaw cut him off. "Though I can't imagine I can carry much by myself."
"No, but you can deliver a tanker. I'm sure you still have that HGV licence." Blaze commented. "And, just to make sure you're alone..."
Just then, alarms started sounding. Joanne rushed to her station.
"There are assaults on numerous towers." She told them. "Tronics are assaulting towers...3, 4, 6, 7, 9 and 12."
"Evox is attacking six towers at once?" Nate asked. "He's never tried anything like this!"
"He's trying to force us to split up." Devon stated, before looking to the screen.
"Evox has never rolled this deep before. He has to be desperate." Ravi chipped in.
"Well, it's up to you." Blaze stated. "Whatever happens, we're going to get some Morph-X. The question is, how much?"
"Blaze, we're coming for you and..."
"Go, deal with the towers." Commander Shaw told them. They all looked to her.
"Commander, we can't..."
"It's better to lose one tanker than everything." She told them. "Each of you take one tower, a team will support each of you. Save as much Morph-X as you can!"
"But mom..."
"GO!" She interrupted Ravi, pointing to the door. Reluctantly, the Rangers all ran out. She glared at the screen.
"I'm on my way." She told him. "But I warn you, if you've harmed her in any way, you will rue the day Evox ever created you!"
With that, she started to head out the room.
"Joanne, keep track of the Rangers' battles. We'll need to know what we're dealing with." She told her.
"You're not really going!" She yelled. "There are tons of drivers on the base..."
"He asked for me. I'm not going to take any chances at all." She told her. "General Burke, you have Command."
With that, she headed out of the base.
Over at the Winchester Crypt, Blaze ended the communication, and turned towards Meghan with an evil smirk on his face.
"Now I've got the Rangers running all over the city, there's no way they're going to save all those towers and get here before the Commander." He taunted her. "If they abandon the towers, they lose tons of Morph-X. If they abandon the truck, they lose it. If they abandon you..."
He just shrugged.
"You won't get away with this!" She shrieked. "They'll find a way to stop you, they always do!"
"Please, we've thought of everything!" Blaze chuckled. "They're all running all over the city! Surely someone as smart as you knows that there's no way they have enough Rangers to cover everything. No matter what happens, Evox will get all the Morph-X he needs to enact his Endgame."
"The Rangers will..."
"The Rangers will have way more to worry about than me, that's for sure." Blaze told her. "I just want to keep you around long enough to see what happens."
She struggled against her manacles, but they wouldn't budge. Blaze just laughed.
"Even if you could get free, what do you think you could do?" He asked her. "Face it, we've won. It's only a matter of time."
He barely noticed a shadow in time to throw himself aside. The blade of Blaze's katana narrowly missed him as it collided with the ground.
Robo-Blaze rolled away as Blaze came after him, swinging in sweeping, elegant arcs he had practiced over a whole lifetime. Robo-Blaze summoned up his own katana, blocking one of his swipes, but the human Blaze ran his blade along Robo-Blaze's sweeping the morpher clean off his wrist.
Robo-Blaze spun away, finally getting some room, and reached to his wrist, but noticed his morpher was gone. Blaze brought his blade down, stabbing straight through it, destroying the morpher.
"NO!" Robo-Blaze called out as Blaze replaced his katana in the scabbard at his side, scooting over to where Meghan was restrained. He glared at him hatefully.
"BLAZE!" Meghan screamed. "Get out of here! You can't..."
"I'm not going anywhere!" Blaze told her. He pulled something out of his back pocket, clutching it in his hand. Meghan looked to his hand as he bobbed it, indicating he had something for her. Blaze looked to his robotic counterpart, beginning to circle him. "You made a big mistake coming here. I came to this home all the time as a kid. My dad showed me this crypt so many times when I was growing up, I'd recognise it anywhere."
"So, you're here alone?" Robo-Blaze asked. "Not smart!"
"Maybe." Blaze remarked. He flicked the object out of his hand. It was a small screwdriver. Meghan quickly took it up, secreting it in her own hand as he got up and started to pace. Robo-Blaze mirrored his movements as they started to circle each other. "But without that morpher of yours, I think my odds just went up!"
"You really think you can take me?" Robo-Blaze asked. "I know you! You've never risked your ass for anyone or anything in your life!"
"Let's just find out then, shall we?" Blaze asked. He took his sword off his waist, pulling it out of the scabbard, before throwing the scabbard aside. Robo-Blaze raised his own katana, as the two stopped circling each other, and just stared at each other. The wind whipped through the yard, rustling through the trees.
With a huge yell, both men surged towards each other, their swords raised to attack.