In her apartment, Muriel Reeves was compiling stories for her broadcast later in the day. She was working incredibly hard given all the calls and reports coming in from all corners of the city following the battle.
Her podcast was doing well, quickly becoming and ranking among the top-rated independent media in the city. Following her dismissal from Channel 6, she had fallen on some pretty hard times. Her decision to destroy the memory card and kill the story of the Rangers' identities live on air had been a very costly one. No one was willing to hire the woman who was believed to either be the reporter that killed the biggest story in existence, or the woman who had pulled a massive hoax as a publicity stunt, and so there were precisely no stations that were willing to hire her. Even the puff pieces that had dominated her career were out of reach now with the major networks.
Setting up her own medium had been a lot of work, but now that she was building a reputation among those that either didn't have much interest in the mainstream media or distrusted it as a reliable and well-researched source, she was quickly beginning to bring in respectable audiences. She'd stopped claiming welfare checks months ago, now that the payments from her monetised site were covering her expenses. She was finally getting back on track.
"Alright, I've got some reports from the hospitals, they've been working around the clock. Emergency Rooms are at full capacity and they're putting out appeals for blood donors, so I thought it would be a good idea to add an appeal to our own story among our viewers." Amelia said as she came in, handing Muriel a folder.
Amelia had been a God send! An intern she had found that never failed to put all her energy and enthusiasm into her work. Much like Muriel, she'd had her issues getting a foot in the door. She had an obsession with the paranormal that Muriel still didn't quite understand, but even when she was researching some of the most ludicrous stories anyone could imagine, she had a thoroughness and insight that was rare, and could never be taught in any journalism class. It was rare to find someone who could take a story as ridiculous as reports of Elvis' ghost being sighted at a theme park and treat it as seriously as they would a Presidential scandal, but Amelia had an investigative drive that bordered on the obsessive. Muriel needed someone to help her take on the work she needed done, and Amelia couldn't find a studio who would take her as an intern, so it seemed like a perfect fit.
"They've not got any update on the figures from last night; they're hoping to get back to me later." Amelia continued. "I've also got reports from the field; they're still pulling survivors from the rubble. About half a dozen people are sending me footage regularly. I also had a really great interview with a soup kitchen, I thought that would be a really good feel-good piece to show the community spirit and make the whole broadcast not quite so...you know...depressing."
"Amelia, you've been doing great work." Muriel told her. "Um...would you mind taking a seat please?"
"I just wanted to check..."
"This isn't going to take long." Muriel told her, gesturing to the chair. Amelia came and sat down with her. "Look, you've been doing great here. I could not possibly ask for a better intern. The only issue is, I know I can't keep you on as an intern forever."
"It's alright..."
"No, Amelia, it's really not." Muriel told her. "You surpassed any expectations I could ever have had for you, and you made up more than enough credit here to put you through any accreditation. You've got your qualifications, and pretty soon I'm going to have to make the decision whether or not to hire you."
"I love working here..."
"Amelia, the numbers just don't make it possible." Muriel told her. "Once I've paid my bills, and paid Pete for his camera work, I really don't have anything left in the budget for another employee. I'd love to hire you, but I just...maybe in six months...a year if the numbers keep going up the way they are, but right now there's no way I can afford to pay you."
"I don't mind about that." Amelia told her. "I still do odd jobs with Pop Pop, and..."
"Amelia, I can't ask you to keep working for nothing. It's no longer a decision that's financially or professionally responsible for you to stay." Muriel told her. "I know you've been getting some offers, you've made a really big name for yourself here, and people are taking notice of your talents."
"But I like working here." Amelia reiterated. "And...there aren't any serious offers, just a few applications being sent to me and..."
"Amelia, I got a call from Buzz Blast. They wanted to know what I'm offering you because you turned them down and wanted to know what they needed to offer to get you." Muriel told her. Amelia fell silent. "You're being headhunted by an actual news organisation for a real, paying job and you turned them down."
"They told you that, huh?" Amelia sighed.
"I can't in good conscience ask you to stay." Muriel told her. "This is a great offer, one that doesn't come along every day. You can't be an intern forever."
"I know, it's just...I really don't want to leave you right now." Amelia told her. "Like you said, maybe in a few months you'll be in a better place, the numbers are going up all the time. Maybe then you won't need me and..."
"Amelia, it's sweet that you want to help." Muriel told her.
"You gave me a chance when no one else would. Buzzblast wouldn't know who I was if it wasn't for you." Amelia interrupted her. "I just wouldn't feel right about leaving you before you're...you know...all set."
"Like I said, that's sweet, but I can't in good conscience ask you to give up your own career for me." Muriel replied, leaning over and hugging her. "Besides, like you said, our numbers are doing great. And who knows? The big break may be about to knock on that door any minute!"
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Amelia and Muriel just looked at each other.
"Um...give me a moment." Muriel told her. She went to the door, finding a couple of Grid Battleforce officers standing outside. Muriel gulped.
"Um...can I help you with something?" She asked.
"Muriel Reeves?" He asked. She nodded. "I'm Sergeant Williams; can we speak for a moment?"
She showed him inside. She didn't really know what Grid Battleforce wanted with her, but she didn't want to argue. Sergeant Williams and a couple of his officers came in, standing in the middle of the room.
"So, is there anything I can do for you?" She asked. She didn't want to take too many chances. Thanks to the footage, she knew who the Rangers were. It was the reason she had destroyed the biggest story of the century. Knowing her daughter was the Yellow Ranger, she had decided not to make their identities public. She had willingly sacrificed herself for Zoey.
"We were actually wondering if there was something we could do for you." Sergeant Williams answered. He panned his hand around the room. "Your platform, you've done something very impressive here, and you have a great reach with the people of the city."
"Number three and climbing." Amelia chipped in cheerfully. The look on Sergeant Williams' face though didn't seem to indicate he was particularly amused.
"Following the battle with Evox, we managed to seize him, we currently have him imprisoned." He told them. "We're working on an anti-virus that should be able to destroy him for good."
"That's incredible." Muriel said happily, inwardly bursting with pride in her daughter. She had sent her a message to tell her she was safe, but Muriel knew she likely couldn't say too much. She was relieved Zoey was alright, and knowing that Evox was close to being destroyed lifted a massive weight from her.
"We're planning on destroying him, and we'd like someone to cover the event." Sergeant Williams told her. "We'd like that to be you."
"What?" She asked. "Um...there are bigger outlets that..."
"Commander Shaw asked for you personally." Sergeant Williams interrupted her. "If you want to get the exclusive, would you come with us?"
"Just give me a moment to get my equipment..."
"We'll provide everything." Sergeant Williams told her. "We just need to pat you down for any recording devices and then we'll take you there."
"No recording devices?" Amelia asked.
"We still have a lot of classified materials on the base. We need to ensure you only capture what we're willing to release." Sergeant Williams told her. "Which brings me to our next precaution."
He pulled out a black cloth bag with a draw string. Amelia's eyebrows shot up.
"You are joking, right?" She asked. Just then, one of the other agents put a bag over her head and pulled the drawstring around her neck. "Apparently not!"
"Alright, do what you have to do." Muriel told him. She was confident that they wouldn't mistreat her. Her daughter was a Ranger after all, and she had more than a sneaking suspicion that was at least a factor in their decision to give her exclusive access to such a massive story. After they patted her and Amelia down, Sergeant Williams put the bag over her head, blocking out her sight, and pulled the drawstring tight. "Alright, let's move out."
Back at the base, deep in the basement, Zoey and Nate had gotten up early to get to work. Evox was in his cell, pacing like a caged lion.
"You pathetic humans, do you really think you can destroy me?" Evox hissed.
"You're nothing special, just another computer virus." Nate answered as he worked on his computer, writing up some of the code, trying it in a simulation. He had a working version, but he was just fine tuning it. In order to deliver the anti-virus, he'd have to lower the forcefield, and before he did that, he wanted to be sure it would work. 99% was nowhere near acceptable in this instance, if he was going to take down the forcefield, even for a moment, he wanted it to be an absolute certainty it would work.
"Oh, I'm much more than that." Evox taunted him. "You really have no idea what you unleashed on the world."
"Something that'll be put down soon enough." Nate answered. Zoey was working at another station, and looked up.
"Nate, can you check this out for me?" Zoey asked, beginning to look excited. "I think...I'm not sure, I really want to be sure about this, but..."
Nate came over, looking at the screen. Zoey ran some simulations that she had set up.
"I'm not sure I got all the calculations right, but I think..."
"Zoey, there's no mistake here." Nate told her. "Those calculations are right on the money."
"Are you sure?" She asked. "I don't want to..."
"Zoey, don't doubt yourself, I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true." Nate told her. "You've...you've managed it!"
"It's a lot of power..."
"Power we have, we have all the power we could ever need!" Nate assured her. "The theoretical side of what you proposed, it's all sound. We could produce the body while the Neural Aligner works on the coding..."
"So, you're saying...?"
"Yes! You did it!" Nate congratulated her. "We can get Steel into a human body! We can finally give him what he always wanted!"
They both hugged each other tightly. They were only interrupted as Evox started laughing.
"Are you seriously telling me that Steel actually wants to be a mere human?" He scoffed derisively. "He's so much more already, and he actually wants to be in one of those fail, human bodies of yours?"
"He always was human." Zoey snapped at him. "He just wanted a body that reflects what he always was, and now...now we're finally able to do that for him."
"Yes we are!" Nate answered with a bright smile. "I can't wait to tell him, he's going to absolutely flip his lid!"
"I can get him on the communicator..."
"No, not right now." Nate told her. "Like I said, this will take a lot of power, and right now we need everything we have for this. Once Evox is gone, we'll be able to give Steel his new body whenever we want."
He got a couple of Mega Blasters and hooked them up to the computer.
"Right now though, we need to make sure this goes off without a hitch." Nate answered. "We'll tell him once we're done here."
"You'll tell him." Zoey corrected him with a grin. "It should come from his brother."
"If I had a stomach I'd vomit." Evox sneered. Zoey just shook her head, at which her communicator sounded.
"Commander, you're good for Zoey." She answered.
"Your mother's on the base." Commander Shaw told her. "I thought you'd want to welcome her."
"I'll be right there, Commander." Zoey replied.
A little while later, the entire team walked into the Command Centre, where Commander Shaw was waiting, with Muriel and Amelia, both of whom still had the bags over their heads. The Rangers were all morphed.
"Um...is that entirely necessary?" Devon asked. Commander Shaw sighed and nodded to Joanne, who took the bags from their heads. They both blinked a few times as they got used to the change in light.
"Well, that wasn't something I want to do too often." Amelia commented.
"Mrs Reeves, as promised, here are the Rangers." Commander Shaw told her, gesturing to the team. "In a few moments, they'll take you down to the lab where Evox is being held. Once we prepare your broadcast, we'll be airing the destruction for the world to see, and you'll be the one that gets to cover the whole thing."
"We're going to be in the room with Evox?" Amelia asked them.
"You're going to be perfectly safe." Devon assured her. "We'll be there to administer the anti-virus. We'll be right there with you, everything will be fine."
"If you say so." Amelia answered.
"Will I get the chance to interview the team?" Muriel asked, her gaze straying to her daughter. She was so close, but she couldn't let on that she knew who she was. It pained her not to be able to tell Zoey that she knew, to tell her how proud she was of her, and how relieved she was that soon Evox would be gone.
"We'll be able to answer a few questions when we get there." Commander Shaw assured her. "Now, if you'll all step onto the elevator, I believe it's almost time."
It didn't take long for the elevator to take them all the way down into the lab. As they all disembarked, Joanne headed to the workstation controlling the forcefield, while Commander Shaw got a hold of a camera, handing it to Amelia. Muriel quickly got her bearings, lining up a shot that would keep Evox JUST out of frame for the beginning of the broadcast.
"So, that's what we were waiting for, a news crew." Evox hissed. "And to think you humans like to paint yourselves as so civilised."
"What's that meant to mean?" Zoey asked.
"I'm here, in a cell, helpless, while you're about to record my final moments." Evox told them. "You're about to air a public execution."
"Public execution?" Amelia asked. "Wait, is he...?"
"Don't listen to him; he's trying to get in our heads." Nate told her. "He knows he's almost finished. He's desperate, so he'll try anything to save himself."
"What are you going to do next? Hold a parade where you carry my head through the city on a pike?" Evox taunted them. "For all you like to paint yourselves as so developed and so enlightened, you haven't progressed beyond the savages whose first instinct dating back to the Neolithic era was to face anything unlike yourselves with a club in your hands and destroy it!"
"He's stalling for time." Devon agreed. "Joanne, mute him."
She toggled a command, which prevented Evox behind heard outside the forcefield. Muriel started to prepare herself.
"Would you all mind standing there please?" She asked them. They all lined up, at which she indicated to Amelia to start rolling.
"Citizens of Coral Harbour. This is Muriel Reeves, do not adjust your feed, we are broadcasting live from deep inside the Grid Battleforce headquarters."
She panned her hand over to the team.
"With us, we have the Power Rangers, who just hours ago finally brought Evox down." Muriel continued, looking to the Rangers. "I guess the first question on everyone's minds is, how are you all after the battle?"
"We're a little bruised up to be sure." Devon answered. "Thanks to the excellent work of our engineers and scientists, we managed to survive the battle, and thanks to our excellent medical teams we're all going to be just fine."
"The battle was brutal, and the city is still reeling." Muriel told them. "What do you have to say to them?"
"We lost a lot of good people. Sadly, many people weren't as lucky as us, and we owe it to each and every one of them to see this through to the end." Devon told her. He was starting to gesture over to the forcefield, but Muriel stepped forward.
"How about your own families?" She interjected. "Your identities are still secret, but surely you have families, friends of your own that almost lost you. What do you have to say to them?"
"Without our families, we couldn't have done any of this." Ravi answered. "Even though they don't know, they were with us all through all of this. If it wasn't for them, we would never have been able to keep on fighting."
"I know that I've got people in my life I wish I could have shared more with." Zoey interjected, looking to her mother. "Many of them have sacrificed so much, sometimes even without knowing it, and I just want to say, thank you to all of them. We love you dearly."
Muriel had to take a moment to compose herself. She wished she could go to Zoey and hug her. However, she carried on, focusing Amelia on her.
"Now, people of Coral Harbour, I have to caution you, what we're about to show you is potentially frightening, so if you're of a nervous disposition I advise you turn off now. Grid Battleforce has not only taken Evox down, but they have him captured and they're holding him right here, now!"
She stepped in front of the forcefield, Amelia following her to show Evox.
"He is being held securely here in the base, and now Grid Battleforce have brought me here to show you all exclusively the final moments as they destroy Evox once and for all."
Amelia followed Nate as he went to the table, showing the Mega Blasters.
"We've downloaded an anti-virus into these blasters. It'll deliver data packets that will destroy Evox's base code destroying him for good." Nate explained. "Alright, everyone take a blaster."
Each of the Rangers picked one up, before lining up a little way from the forcefield. He took a deep breath.
"We're going to need to take the forcefield down momentarily to deliver the anti-virus." He told them. "Devon, the command is yours."
"Alright team, power up." Devon told them. They all prepared their blasters as Evox awaited his moment. He stopped pacing, his eyes locked on them. "Take aim!"
As they all lined up their blasters, he kept looking straight at them.
"Joanne, on my signal, take the field down. Rangers, open fire when it comes down." Devon told them. "3...2...1...FIRE!"
Joanne took down the field, just as the Rangers opened fire. The blasts hit Evox, who screamed out loud as he staggered backwards, beginning to glitch out.
"It's working!" Nate told them. "Hit him again!"
"NOW!" Devon yelled. They all fired, this time, Evox falling to his knees. As he did, his hands touched the floor. He focused on the cables a little way from him. He managed to send some data to one of the cables, sending it along past all the Rangers, to the Command Station.
"NOW!" Devon called out again. As they all opened fire this time though, the forcefield went up, blocking their blasts. Devon looked to Joanne.
"What happened?" He asked her.
"I...I don't know!" She screamed. "I didn't do anything...I can't bring the field back down!"
"He must be in the system!" Nate called out. "Destroy the Command Station!"
Joanne stepped back, pulling out a blaster and destroying the computer. The forcefield went down, but they didn't see he'd already begun a transfer. Before they fired another shot, he disappeared, reappearing on the other side of the room.
"Fools! You gave me everything I needed, right here!" He told them, smashing aside some equipment. "All it took was a little pathetic human sentimentality!"
"What is that?" Ravi asked as he picked up an old computer. "It...looks older than me."
"Just hit him again!" Devon yelled, at which they opened fire. However, he had already started downloading from the old computer. Their blasts dissipated from him as he laughed.
"What happened?" Zoey asked. "Why isn't it working?"
"Because I was able to finally complete my old base code from the original source." Evox explained. "Leave it to human sentimentality to give me what I needed."
"What's he talking about?" Ravi asked Nate.
"That's...that's my old computer from when I was a kid." Nate told them. "I had it in here the day I made you Rangers. I kind of had it as a good luck charm..."
"And in so doing you gave me access to the systems that made me as I am!" Evox cackled. "And although I had to retreat into the mainframe before I could complete my base code and you banished me to the Digital Dimension, it was that computer that I came to this world in to begin with!"
"What are you talking about?" Nate asked him.
"Oh, poor little Nate. So smart, and still so far behind." Evox taunted him.
"Wait, Nate? Nate Silva?" Amelia asked. "Nate Silva is the Gold Ranger?"
"You thought you were so smart figuring out Morph X, but where did you get that first sample? How did you come to that discovery?" Evox asked him. "I brought it with me when I escaped to your dimension into that computer where I lay dormant until my moment to revive myself."
"No...its...its not possible." Nate stammered.
"Oh, but it is." Evox told him. "If there's one thing I can rely on its humans venturing into places they have no business being. Reaching for the sun and being surprised when they get burned. The last world I inhabited found that out to its cost."
"Last world?" Devon asked.
"Oh, you're starting to put it together, aren't you?" Evox asked. "I escaped into a Cell Shift Morpher, where I lay until it was used again, and in doing so escaped as they moved between dimensions in search of my underlings."
"No." Nate murmured. "It's not possible!"
"Nate, what's not possible?" Zoey asked. "What's he talking about?"
"Now, I shall do to your world what my base code...my 'father' if you will, once did to Corinth." Evox told them.
"Corinth?" Devon gulped. They all started to feel the dread building inside them as the realisation came to them. "No, it's..."
"That's right. I...WAS...VENJIX!" Evox declared in a booming voice. "And thanks to you all, your world is now doomed!"
"LIGHT HIM UP!" Devon screamed. The team all opened fire, but their weapons fire dissipated uselessly into his body. His laughter echoed around the room.
"You're too late!" Evox told them. "And you've all played your part beautifully. Thanks to you, your world is MINE!"
With that, he disappeared into the computer system, before sparks started flying, and explosions ripped through the equipment.
"We've got to get out of here, now!" Devon called out as the Rangers fled the lab with Commander Shaw, Muriel and Amelia in tow.
As they fled to a safe place, Nate could only think about Evox's words, hearing them echoing in his mind. Venjix had escaped through dimensions into his world...and now he had unleashed the villain that had almost succeeded in destroying an entire world.
Everything that had happened, all the destruction, all those lives lost or ruined, it was all his fault.