The Gathering (II) - Part 3

Blue Rock Quarry, California

Gun shots rang around the quarry walls, even the spaces between the shots reverberated with the following echoes. The birds that rested in the trees overhanding had long since flown away, to return when the dust had settled, and the pesky humans had left for the day.

Several men, each dressed in navy combat gear, were either crouched or laying prone at one end of the abandoned quarry, rifles in hand. Muzzle flashes stood out against the blazing sun as targets down range were struck. Some dead bullseye, others just slightly off centre. One wayward shot sailed way past the targets and embedded itself within the canyon wall.

"Don't know what target your aiming at, Lawson, but I don't think that's gonna count on your final result."

Lawson let out a sigh, removing his cap to brush the sweat off his brow, tossing it to one side as he adjusted the sights on his rifle.

"Yes, sir."

Through a set of binoculars, their instructor could see precisely where Lawson's bullet had impacted-there was even a small dust cloud from the now loose rocks-and made a mental note to file away for a later date. Probably a one off, but never hurt to make a start of it.

Lowering the binoculars again, West Collins looked across at the rest of the newest recruits to the Silver Guardians-training had been going smoothly, at least for this batch of recruits. He always found it funny when they first suggested this canyon for weapons training; while it made sense, with it being far enough away to not risk anything, he was sure he had fought here any numbers of times in the past.

Amazing what a Ranger could come across down memory lane.

An engine revved in the distance, and West looked over his shoulder. Even with the heat rays warbling the horizon, the black SUV was unmistakable.

Removing the binocular lanyard from his neck, West glanced to the other spotter to his side.

"Gonna take five," West said, lightly bumping elbows before gesturing to the distant, but rapidly approaching, vehicle.

"Gotcha."

With a nod, West walked around the other spotter-giving a parting pat on the shoulder-as he walked away from the range. He approached the single dirt road leading to and from the quarry, the others long since abandoned and reclaimed by nature. Waiting in the middle of the road, hands on his waist, West watched and waited for the SUV as it eventually pulled up a few feet in front of him.

The driver's door popped open, engine still running, as set of combat boots crunching the dirt. Behind a pair of black out aviators, Eric stepped around the door and closed it behind him.

"Wasn't expecting to be graced with you down here today," West commented, greeting Eric with a smirk and firm handshake.

"What? 'Fraid I'll show you up…again?" Eric responded, offering his own smirk in response as his hands come to rest on his belt. "But nah, didn't plan on coming here today. Something…Let's just say something came up."

"Oh yeah?" West folded his arms across his chest. "What's that?"

Almost on cue, both of the back passenger doors opened, another pair of previously unseen passengers stepping out…

"Carter! Joel!"

West's surprised tone was quickly overtaken by one of joy as he greeted the former Lightspeed Rangers with handshakes, a smile breaking across his face. "Wasn't expecting to see you guys!"

"Well, we hope it would've been under different circumstances…" Joel replied, his voice trailing off as he glanced across to Carter.

As Carter reached out to accept the handshake, West noticed something just as their hands met; Carter's jacket sleeve rolled up slightly at the arm movement, West got a glimpse at the Morpher strapped to his wrist.

That, combined with Joel's words, quickly made the smile drop from West's face.

"Something going down?" he asked.

"There will be if we don't make a move soon," Carter answered, jerking his head backwards. Along with Joel and Eric, West followed Carter back towards the SUV, coming to lean on the side as he met West's eyes again.

"What do you know about Division 13?"

\/\/\/\/

"Previously an undisclosed R&D unit linked to various Senators and Representations, originally under the leadership of one Director Warren Mallory, until he took a more hands off approach and allowed his apprentice, Elijah Canales, to take the reigns."

As West began listing off the details, he turned the computer monitor around, showing the various scraps of data he had complied to the rest of the Rangers scattered around his office.

"Of course, that all came to a head when those Wolf Rangers popped up in Nebraska," Eric piped in, moving off of the wall to stand in front of the desk, eventually leaning on it; pointedly ignoring the slight glare West shot his way. "Quickly changed from being undisclosed to 'front and centre'."

"And Dr Fairweather's involved with them?" West asked, his direction solely focusing on Joel as he asked. "Thought she was an ally with Power Rangers. I mean…"

"You two going through some kind of breakup or something?" Eric asked, earning his glares from three people now. Not that he seemed to take much notice, or care.

Joel eventually gave up on the glare as his shoulders sagged.

"She said she was going to Chicago to help a friend out…No idea she was involved with any of this until Carter showed up at my doorstep."

"Then how did Carter find out?" West asked.

"Angela managed to get into contact with me through a secure link," Carter answered, taking a step forward as he addressed the heads of the Silver Guardians. "She couldn't contact Joel directly since they were keeping tabs on him, to keep her toeing the line. So she reached out to me to get Joel out of danger."

"And you're that much more secure than her actual husband because…?" Eric asked.

"According to all official records, I'm out of the game. Retired."

West gave a laugh. "Like you'd ever stop this."

"Seems it was convincing enough to not invest much in watching me. Managed to get Joel out with only a little…trouble," Carter continued, earning an exaggerated look from Joel.

"So am I going to expect a visit from the FBI at the training grounds?" West asked, taking a seat in his chair behind the desk, elbows propped on the semi-polished wood.

"Probably."

West heaved a heavy sigh, shaking his head as he leaned back into his chair. "Well, what's the plan from here?"

"We need to get Angela outta there," Joel insisted, getting up from his own seat to being pacing the width of the office, running a hand over his smooth head. "The longer she's stuck there, the more danger she's gonna be in."

"We can't just storm their facility," Eric pinched the bridge of his nose, "do you know how many laws that'd be breaking?"

"Do you really think they care about the laws they're probably breaking?!" Joel countered hotly, stopping and turning on the spot to glare at Eric.

"We can't just go around accusing them left and right; trust me, I'd love nothing more than to do that," Eric replied evenly.

Carter turned to West. "I was hoping you had a few connections that could help us out."

West glanced across at Carter, then swept to look at both Eric and Joel. The desperation behind Joel's steely expression…West turned back to Carter.

"I'll pull up a few old strings; Dad worked out a few contracts between some Senators back in the day, Mallory included. Might be able to get us a few favors. Though…not sure how it'll work out with the two of you," he said, the last sentence directed at the Lightspeed pair.

"Just…leave us out of the details," Joel breezed, vaguely gesturing to both himself and Carter as West turned the computer monitor back to face him.

As he began tapping away at the keyboard, West commented, "Might be worth reaching out to a few other Rangers…been to anyone else yet?"

Carter gave a small shake of his head. "Came here straight from Texas. Figured it was the safest option."

West nodded in response; eyes primarily glued to the keyboard. "Well…one way that'd definitely help us getting at least a meeting is to make them think we want to invest in something. Money is a universal key. Might need to make a visit to the Hartfords, see if that'll help secure something."

Division 13 HQ

The sucker punch collided right with Isaac's face, square in the nose. His head was thrown back, blood spurting out in an arch as he fell flat on his back. Chest heaving, sporting a number of ugly purple bruises not even remotely hidden by the vest top-not that it did much better to hide the dried blood already caked into the worn fabric.

Hacking up a gob of bloody bile, Isaac slowly eased himself up enough to prop up on one of his elbows, the other hand coming up to wipe the dribble of blood from the corner of his mouth.

At the opposite end of the sparring area-not that this could really be called sparring, Isaac thought sourly-stood his opponent.

The soldier, instead of just sporting some kind of camo army uniform or even a training vest, was wearing something else entirely overtop. A black exoskeleton wrapped around his various limbs, thin robs of metal connecting everything together, various wires and cables coiled up and down his body. His fists were raised in a fighting ready stance, fingers clenched around what appeared to be knuckle dusters.

"On your feet, maggot!" he spat, his mouth twisted into a sadistic smirk. One of his bottom jaw incisors was missing.

A low, primeval growl bubbled at the back of Issacs's throat, almost threatening to spew up more blood. He managed to swallow it back, however, leaving only a copper heavy taste in his mouth as he got his feet beneath him. He stood to his full height-a full inch taller than when he first arrived, despite their best efforts to stunt any sort of further growth-but doing this highlighted the prominent collarbone now sticking out against his skin, and the numerous other scars and bruises-new and old alike-were scattered across the rest of his body.

Rubbing his tongue against the back of his lower jaw's teeth-counting at least one loose molar-and spitting out another wad of phlegm and blood, Isaac shifted into a defensive stance. Even considering the metal box effectively encasing his lower arm-encasing his Howler, more importantly-Isaac still swayed a little, adjusting his footing minutely to keep them beneath him.

The soldier sneered, falling back into his own fighting stance. Fingers clenched into fists, a mechanical whirling accompanying his movements. The power pack on his back started emitting a crimson glow between the fine gaps in the mechanics.

For a second, no-one moved.

Then, Isaac took the first step.

He closed the gap in a second, the faintest red blur trailing behind him.

The soldier went to throw a punch, but barely got the momentum going when he felt something latch onto his closed fist. Stopping him right in his tracks.

Despite being face-to-face with Isaac and one of his hands already caught, the soldier defiantly threw his other hand at the teen.

Isaac's other hand had already caught his wrist before he came close to landing a punch.

The soldier tried wrenching one of both of his hands free, the mech suit whirling and grinding at his sporadic movements, but Isaac refused to budge. He could only glare, with widened eyes and grit teeth, at the dispassionate Isaac.

His glare only weakened somewhat when a guttural rumble-like some kind of animal-tore from Isaac, one corner of his lips curling up. Revealing an unnaturally sharpened canine, before tightening his grip.

Isaac gave a sharp jerk upwards. To both of the soldier's arms.

The soldier's scream bounced off all of the walls as both of his wrists shattered, the back of the palms pushed flush against his forearm. Bones jutted out, blood spewing onto both fighters as well as the floor.

Isaac barely shifted his legs back, bracing himself against the ground, when a surge rocked through his body. Electricity crackled, locking all his muscles up, forcing him to release the still screaming soldier and stagger back. Even as all his muscles seized up and threatened to topple him, the teenager was defiant.

It took an additional two soldiers to tackle and bring him under control.

He jerked and tried moving, but a punch square to the face-probably readjusting his nose for the who knows time-and darkness consumed his vision.

\/\/\/\/

"Did we manage to get the results?"

Fairweather snapped to look at E. She wasn't entirely sure what it was-a build up of all the previous months' she had had to deal with, the nonchalant way he asked that question, like he was asking her what the damn weather was like next week or some other factors that she couldn't grasp right now-but something finally gave way. She rose to her feet and slowly turned around to face him fully.

"The results?!"

Her shout captured the attention of all the other workers in the room; technicians stopped working at their keyboards to look over their monitors, some having to fully turn around in their chairs to watch. A pair of the guards stationed at the door into the computer room paused their conversation to focus on the coming showdown. One unlucky employee, with a pair of coffees in hand, froze mid-way back to his chair, before quickly ducking back around to try and avoid any potential fallout.

"We practically had to put Isaac into a medically induced coma following your brutes' excessive tasing, Edwards is having emergency surgery, he's lucky they were able to stop the bleeding-he will lose both of his hands! And you're worried about results?!"

Fairweather's fingers dug into the back of the chair, not wanting to feed the temptation to throw something at E. Though that coffee mug was looking like a pretty tempting piece of ammo…

She really had to fight the temptation when E, without saying a word, simply walked past her to the computer that she had been working at. She stepped a single step to the side, spitefully taking the chair with her, leaving E to stand in front of the desk as he examined the monitor.

"Jesus Christ."

E leaned over the desk, angling the monitor up so he could look at it head on.

"Am I reading this right? That exo-rig Edwards was wearing could record up to two thousand pounds of force?"

One of the technicians, after glancing to Fairweather-she gave a curt nod, though did little to hide her clenched teeth behind her pressed lips-approached the computer. Taking the keyboard, and gently turning the monitor back around, an action that E eventually allowed, she began working at finding the answer.

"The…The readings were limited to two thousand pounds, sir."

E raised an eyebrow, arms folded across his chest as he leaned in. "'Limited'?"

"The subject exceeded these limits in the hardware."

E's other eyebrow rose to join the other, as he turned back to around to look to Fairweather; in the time he had been examining the monitor, Fairweather had turned on the spot, arms still folded across her chest. Flicking a strand of hair back into place.

"This is why we're doing this research," E started, slowly turning on the spot, so everyone in the room could hear him. "To examine the enemy, to figure out what they're capable of. So that we may better defend ourselves, should another threat arise."

"This freak," E jabbed his thumb in the monitor's direction, "practically tore one of our guy's arms in half without breaking a sweat."

"Imagine the kind of damage even one of them could do if they were out for blood; that is why they need to be disposed of. We just need all the intel we can get out of them first."

"They. Are. Teenagers."

Fairweather's words came out behind grit teeth, her expression a ball of half-heartedly contained fury. The previous drumming of her fingers against the office chair had ceased, replaced by fingers digging into the cheap cushiony material.

"They're children. Impressionable. Young. Inexperienced. Any other scenario-any other situation -they wouldn't have a care in the world! They'd be at school, learning, making friends, living! None of them could have predicted being in this situation!"

"None of them deserve this!"

In the face of this chewing out, E stood exactly how he had before, arms relaxed by his sides, a single eyebrow cocked up.

"After all they've done, you really think-"

Fairweather flung the chair aside, sending it colliding into the nearest desk as she marched right up to E.

Several other technicians quickly moved back, some evening standing up as some sort of response. Fight or flight. The D-13 soldiers quickly moved from their position by the door, pistols being removed by holsters.

But Fairweather stopped just shy of E-who had only moved a single step back at her sudden approach-to stare up at him. The height difference did little to stifle the sheer blaze E spotted behind Fairweather's glasses.

When she spoke, it was in a dead whisper. As if these next words were solely for E.

"Everything that has happened with these teenagers-every death, every incident, every politician riding your ass-that's all on you. You escalated the situation; how else do you expect them to react?"

With those few words passed in a one-sided exchange, Fairweather stepped back and turned around, walking away. The small crowd that was in the room parted ways to let her pass, a clear path directly to the doors.

They burst open with a loud slam, as Fairweather disappeared out of the room.

A pregnant pause lingered in the room long after the doors swung close again, as the numerous technicians slowly tried figuring out their next step. Most returned directly back to work, tapping at the keyboard with renewed vigour. Others lingered a second longer, sparring a glance across at the Big Boss before quickly finding the readings on their screens the most interesting thing in the room.

E stood in silence, body rigid and refusing to move. His hands were tightly wound, fingers clenched to the point of his knuckles turning white. His face bore no one expression, any and all hidden away beneath a well-constructed façade.

"Get that data copied to the shared drive," he instructed to the nearest technician, after a few moments of silence. It felt like minutes, but for all E cared, it might as well have been seconds.

He barely spared the technician a second glance, only vaguely registering the response as he walked out of the room. He shoved a chair out of the way in the process, sending it careening into the nearest desk as he shoved the door open.

The nearest technician flinched as the chair shuddered as it slowly turned around. She glanced to the chair before returning focus to the computer desk in front of him.

Before she could focus, however, she blinked and glanced back to the chair again.

Blood…?

Pax Valley

"Triangulating Dr Fairweather's previous moments…comparing radio frequencies…gathering latitude and longitude co-ordinates…"

"Here."

A blue light activated, starting to appear on the ground as nothing more than a circle, barely larger than a quarter. Slowly, the light expanded out, growing, gradually covering a larger area. As it expanded, towers and structures started to take shape. Blue tinted and partially transparent, the buildings rose from the ground up, a number of boxy warehouses surrounded on all sides by smaller, but equally imposing buildings.

The boundary finally came to a stop, expanding to fill the majority of the floor with a rounded map of the highlighted grounds.

Savage's looming form slowly paced around it, coming to a stop and facing across from the main control module of the Den.

"And this is where you've deduced the humans are holding the Warriors?"

"With a accuracy of 97.8%, I do believe the Warriors are being held in one of the buildings present in this map," MUTT answered, continuing to tap away at the various keyboards surrounding him. "Comparing the footage I was able to sieve through for evidence of Fairweather's presence following her apparent deletion on record, the direction of scrambled frequencies sent to and from Pax Valley since the escalation of the Humans. It is a matter of deduction, and this location specifically gave the highest probably location."

Merrick slowly paced around the opposite direction, one arm folded across his chair while the other held his hand to his chin, biting his thumb nail.

"And how far is the base from here?"

"Approximately 231.34 miles north-north-east from the Pax Valley border. Close enough for their heavier supplies to remain out of our immediate range of scope, but far enough away from our yield to not risk a direct attack."

"Surely they're not sending their guns all that way whenever they decided to poke the territory?" Merrick questioned, stopping at another point around the map.

"There is a more forward warehouse a mere 25.3 miles from the Pax Valley border, but the various maps and schematics I could find led me to conclude it was insufficient for holding the Warriors. Thus, this collection of buildings being the highest probability."

"What of maps of the insides?"

MUTT, Savage and Merrick all looked up at this question.

Sculking a little further back, on the edge of the shadows around the central command room, Zen-Aku paced back and forth, cloak swooshing behind him when he sharply turned around and began pacing back the way he came.

"We know where they're being held, but that's only going to get us so far. We need to know what we'll be in for when we breach the outer walls."

Savage turned to look back at MUTT, "Can you find the floor plans, MUTT?"

A small pause followed Savage's question, noticeably more than normal.

"Unfortunately, I was unable to obtain floor plan schematics for these particular buildings. All efforts to find any were snubbed by outdated building permits, or complete digital footprint removal. In order for me to form a floor schematic for us, I would need to connect to the computer system within the facility itself."

"So, we'd be going into the hornet's nest completely blind…" Merrick breathed, scratching the back of his head as he paused a third time, checking the various warehouses on all angles.

"You still have the opportunity to walk away from this," Savage stated, flicking his gaze across to the Animarian before returning them to the map. "I am not forcing your hand to aid me. If it comes to it, I'll infiltrate the facility and get my Wolves back myself."

"Don't be ridiculous, that's a death sentence. I'm not going to let you go marching in like that," Merrick responded tiredly, giving a small shake of his head as he started walking around the perimeter of the map again, returning to stand opposite to Savage's position. "I'm going to help as much as I can; both you, and the Rangers."

Savage gave a quiet scoff and eye roll.

"Lot of talk from a lone wolf."

Merrick glanced up at Savage's words but said nothing; out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted Zen-Aku pause his pacing and turn to face the other Wolf.

Even MUTT paused his typing to look across the room, even moving his arms away from the keyboard. He spared a look across the room to their two guests, before turning back to Savage.

"Savage, I require another backup. Could I have your assistance?"

Savage turned away from the map at MUTT's request, immediately walking to the Control point, taking the numerous wires offered to him in MUTT's hand and began sorting through them.

As Savage began connecting the several wires between MUTT and the console, Merrick continued to study the map, pacing around the entire circumference.

"He has a point, you know."

Zen-Aku stepped up right alongside Merrick, partially looking over the map even as he spoke to Merrick. "This isn't your fight; you need not risk your life on these wayward humans."

"I'm not going to turn away from people who are in need of help; these Rangers need another guiding hand more than anyone else I've encountered," Merrick replied, his voce dipping near the middle as he glanced across at Savage. Thankfully, the wolf was too involved with connecting the robot up to…whatever to visibly react to Merrick's implications.

"Besides," Merrick continued, jerking his thumb in Savage's direction, "he asked for help. Not only that, but he also actively sought us out to ask us. Considering how we left off when we were last here, that says something that he turned up when he did."

"Funny how he could find us with ease…" Zen-Aku muttered, arms slowly folding across his chest. Unlike Merrick's subtly glance, the Duke Org made no attempt to hide how he was looking in Savage's direction.

However, Savage had his back to Zen-Aku at that very moment, finding one of the wires stubbornly refusing to slot into the port on the top of MUTT's back.

"Let me get a different cable…" the Wolf uttered, throwing the troublesome offender aside as he brushed over the various desks and cabinets for a replacement.

"I am pleased with the progress you have made in your relationship with the team, but I am concerned regarding the status on your other relations," MUTT informed, turning slightly as Savage rummaged around the cabinets. His movement was no doubt limited, thanks to the numerous other wires plugging him into the console.

"If this is about what a mess I'm making of your organization, I'll sort it out later," Savage grumbled, checking over another cable before shoving it back into place. Sort of.

"That wasn't what I was getting at."

"Then what?"

"Your delicate relation with Zen-Aku."

"Naku?"

"…Yes."

"What of it?" Savage asked, connecting the new cable to the computer. His one free hand moved to MUTT, as if intending to move MUTT around.

Without a word, nor contact MUTT turned in time with the motion, and Savage got the new cable connected in a single, swift motion.

"I believe missteps you make with Merrick may, even will, negatively affect you rebuilding a relationship with your former friend and ally," MUTT responded, his entire body straightening and turning around.

Savage had moved away to the nearest computer and tapping at the keys. Fingers too big for the keyboard to work effectively, he was thankful for his claw tips.

"He's a brother, MUTT. We're the only ones left…" Savage responded, his typing pausing for a moment. He glanced across the room, seeing Zen-Aku, with his back to him, in some kind of discussion with Merrick. Between the quiet voices and the machinery around it, he couldn't focus enough to hear what was being said.

Or maybe he should be listening to all that was being left unsaid.

"…Still doesn't mean I have to put up with the Animarian," Savage finished, a sour look pulling at his muzzle as he hit the 'ENTER' key.

"Savage."

The Wolf turned widely on the spot at MUTT stating-not even saying, stating -his name.

"Try. Just try."

Savage tried meeting MUTT's visor, he really did try. But he barely managed to hold a glance for a second; seeing his own reflection staring back at him, yet it was like behind the mechanics and mystery that surrounded MUTT, he got the feeling he wasn't the only thing staring back at him.

Even after all this time, MUTT seemed to know Savage better than Savage himself did.

"Fine," Savage replied quickly, as if removing a verbal band aid-wanting to get it over with-as he found distraction in the form of putting away a few of the stray cables he had taken out earlier. "I'll try."

MUTT gave a slow nod, raising a hand to rest on Savage's shoulder. A gentle, honed pressure squeezed, enough to be felt and nothing more. A small, comforting feel.

"Thank you, Savage."

Savage paused, hand pulling back from the cabinet door as it closed. He raised the hand and rested it over MUTT's. The sheer temperature difference between his palm and MUTT's cold, metal appendage would've been a shock to the unexpected.

It was a comfort to Savage.

Though it didn't last long, as Savage rose back to his feet and stepped down from the consoles, approaching the map again. MUTT remained where he stood, watching what was to happen.

Merrick spotted movement out of the corner of his eye and gave a tap to Zen-Aku's shoulder. Both turned to see Savage approach, standing across the map.

Savage looked between the pair, trying to stop his gaze from flicking too quickly away from Merrick.

"I'm…open to ideas, on how we can get eyes on the floor plans for these warehouses."