It was a few weeks later, and people were now starting to see the brass ring well within their grasp. Out of the original 500 candidates, there were now only about thirty left, and the word was circulating that the program was close to completion, meaning that soon the final three would be chosen.
It was a beautiful day, and Ravi was taking full advantage of it with Roxy. Another reason the cadets had for believing something big was coming was because they had all been given leave to go home to their families and to relax with strict instructions to return for an assembly at the beginning of the week. Most of the cadets had not been home in some time and were taking full advantage of the fact. For Ravi, Grid Battleforce was his home. He'd always grown up in military bases, so he didn't really have anywhere to go, but when Roxy told him her parents were on an overseas cruise and she would be staying in Coral Harbour, it just meant that they had all the time in the world together.
He was sitting a little way off from her, his pad in his hand, quietly sketching. She had become something of a muse to him, encouraging him back into his art in a way he wasn't sure he ever would be. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy his art, it was just that his mom always thought of such things as a waste of time, and he always thought he would be best served concentrating on his training. It wasn't as though he'd NEVER draw again, just…maybe when there was time. Now though, he found himself making time.
Roxy, for her part, loved to see him work. She was a little too energetic and fidgety to really model for him particularly often, no matter how flattering she found it that he wanted to incorporate her into his art, but as this was a special occasion, she had made an exception. It was almost a year since they'd first gotten together, and while not really an official anniversary, they figured it was close enough for them. She was lying by a flower bed in the same park where they had first met, while he drew her, glancing between the page and her to ensure he got the details just right. She was, however, having difficulty keeping a straight face.
"Roxy, will you stop giggling?" He asked her.
"What?" She asked. "I can't help it!"
"Roxy, if you start, then I'm going to start too and then there's no way I'll get this finished." Ravi warned her.
"Well, at least let me scratch my nose, it's itching like crazy." She told him. He just smiled.
"I'll tell you when you can move." Ravi answered. He did love her spirit, and he loved trying to capture that on the page, even if it was something of a chore to get her to remain still for more than a few minutes at a time. He did love that they had a shared love of physical pursuits, but she did seem to find it impossible to remain still for long enough for him to draw.
"Ravi, we've been here ages." She giggled. "I think I can literally feel the grass growing under my butt."
"Hey, some things can't be rushed." He assured her. "It'll be worth it, I promise you."
Roxy just continued to pose while Ravi carried on with his sketching. Just like with his training, when it came to his art he was a perfectionist, and he wanted to get everything just right. Although he was perfectly sure the odds were only he and Roxy would ever see the portrait, that didn't mean to say he was willing to settle for anything other than his very best work. Roxy deserved that much.
"Come on, you have to be finished by now surely?" She asked.
"It's just a few details, just…making sure…HEY!" He called out as Roxy finally got fed up and snatched the pad from him. She scrambled to her feet and ran off with it, her mischievous laugh like music to him. He quickly stuffed his pencils into his bag and ran after her. "Roxy…Roxy, come back here!"
Back at Grid Battleforce, Nate headed into the cafeteria, looking for somewhere to have his lunch while he waited for some test results to come back. He was coming close to having most of the technology the new Ranger team would be using up and running, and he just had a few more tweaks he wanted to make to ensure that everything was just as he wanted it in time for the new Rangers being chosen.
The one thing he lamented was the fact that he wasn't actually going to decide who would use that technology. While he did understand military tactics from an academic standpoint, he was never enlisted himself and so he had to bow to General Burke and Commander Shaw when it came to deciding who would use the weaponry and how. They did, of course, consult him with regards to exactly what kind of knowledge, skill and ability would be required to use each of the weapons he was creating, but the fact was he was not going to be on the panel and so he wouldn't decide who would be the Rangers that would finally be chosen.
He had seen all the cadets training, he knew their scores, so he knew who was showing the levels of intelligence and skill that would be needed to use his weapons, but he didn't really want to think of them as just weapons to be used. He was more interested in the kind of people his Rangers would be, the kind of people who he would look up to and admire as the world's latest super heroes.
He did, of course, see the importance of his technology. No one was ever going to last particularly long in a firefight if all they had was pluck and optimism. However, he thought of his weaponry as largely of secondary importance. He saw no weapon as inherently good or bad, it was down to who used it and for what purpose. He saw a weapon as no more inherently good or evil than one of the beakers in his lab, which could just as easily be used to make a new kind of sustainable food source or medicine as it could a deadly toxin. He knew that ultimately his opinion on the candidates meant little, but he was preparing some notes that he hoped they would at least look at to make their decision.
He had seen Ravi, and in him he saw what could frankly be described as a prototypical soldier. He followed orders with little hesitation or doubt. He was the top scorer in every area of training, and he was always trying to prove himself, a drive which would over-ride any kind of ego or self-importance. He could definitely see Ravi as a Ranger, he was without a doubt his first pick. Strong, capable…he did come off as a little stand-offish, but he wasn't cruel or selfish, so with others to guide him Nate was sure he'd be ideal. He just wasn't sure if he would pick yellow or blue for him.
He'd seen Roxy around, and she had a lot of the kind of qualities he'd always imagined for a Ranger. She was kind, she was thoughtful, her first thoughts were never for herself. Her scores were pretty respectable, easily enough to handle all of Nate's technology, and more importantly, he could see something heroic in her. He wasn't sure if she would be best served as simply a member of the team, or if she would possibly be a good leader. She certainly seemed to have a capacity for leadership. At least, she was pretty good at trying to lead Nate into doing things he really wasn't comfortable doing. If she could do that, then maybe she did have some kind of gift that meant people did listen to her and do what she said.
Then, there was Zoey. He saw her sitting in the canteen, working on something while she ate lunch. While others were heading out to have fun or go home to their families, she was still on the base, still working in the laundry and doing what she could to keep up with the rest of the cadets in training. He had seen her scores and the one thing he could say was that they were hardly impressive. She was very definitely a smidgeon below the middle of the pack in pretty much all areas, but that didn't concern him in the slightest. Anything she couldn't do, she always worked twice as hard as anyone else to be able to learn to do.
More than that, she was simply one of the most wonderful, kindest and most selfless people he had ever met. She was always thinking of others. It was a little humiliating at the time, but he did appreciate the fact she stepped in when she saw Blaze giving him a hard time, even when the fact was a direct confrontation with her would likely only have ended very badly for her. She was brave, never giving up no matter how many of the other cadets or instructors told her she wasn't good enough. She only seemed to use any setback as fuel to fire her up enough to be able to turn around and shove it straight in their faces when she finally did accomplish what others said she couldn't. He admired her, and believed others would do the same. To him, she was already a Ranger!
"Hey there…your friend isn't around?" Nate asked. Zoey looked up to him, before seeming to cover up what she was doing with her arms.
"No. She and Ravi went somewhere to do…something." She told him. This did make him feel a little uneasy, he was never particularly great at talking to Zoey. Whenever he did he somehow managed to find his supposedly superior intellect plummeting faster than the rate of gravity, but when Roxy was around, she did kind of dominate the conversation and mean that he wasn't under quite so much pressure to say anything at all. It was a good thing, given that old adage about saying nothing and being thought a fool versus speaking and leaving no doubt. However, he did see that Zoey was sketching something, and from the looks of it, while crude, it did look like some kind of technical drawing.
"What are you working on there?" He asked her.
"Oh…oh, this?" She asked him. "It's nothing. It's silly really, it's…don't even think about it."
Zoey could feel her body temperature increasing dramatically, like she was seconds away from bursting into flames. She was working on some ideas she'd thought of for a project, but since she now knew who Nate was, the thought of him looking at her drawings was completely terrifying to her. She could see that Nate was still trying to see them, but she could only imagine what someone who was designing technology that would quite literally save the world would think about her little doodles.
"No, please, I want to see them." Nate told her.
"It's…it's nothing, it's really just…" She tailed off as he looked at her hopefully. She found herself unable to refuse him and just slid the book over to her. She saw Nate starting to inspect them.
"Interesting, it's some kind of speaker array." He commented.
"I just…I heard recently that a lot of animals from the woods at the edge of town get knocked down on that fast road nearby." She told him. "The built the road, and for a while animals stay away from it, but after a while they get used to the noise and stop being afraid of it so they start coming closer. Then there are houses nearby so they smell food from people's garbage and stuff and…"
"And they wander from the safety of the woods into traffic." Nate said as he looked at the drawings.
"Fences don't always work, and it would mean a lot of building work that'd disrupt their natural habitat." She said bashfully. "I…I…was thinking that since animals stop being scared of traffic noises maybe some speakers that play something they are scared of, like predator calls or something."
"Interesting." Nate said as he tried to piece together what Zoey had sketched. It was definitely rough, a lot more simplistic than he was normally used to working with, but it did show that she had put a lot of thought into it, and had even started to research ideas for how best to place the speakers and potential recordings to use.
"It's a dumb idea." She murmured as she tried to take the drawings back, but Nate wasn't finished with them yet. He pulled them away a little.
"It wouldn't necessarily work on everything though, particularly on predators themselves who might just think it's more of their kind." Nate mused. "Have you heard of sub sonic vibrations?"
Zoey just looked at him a little befuddled. He was actually looking at her ideas seriously?
"It's a kind of sound, on the spectrum but it's so low on the spectrum it can't be heard by humans." He explained to her. "Well, it not only puts out a sound that animals can hear, but at certain frequencies it creates a vibration that's very unsettling. It doesn't harm or hurt the animals per se, but it makes them feel very uneasy, a little scared, perhaps even panicky and causes them to retreat. Some game reserves use it to discourage animals from going to manned areas like storage or photography hides."
"So, instead of predator calls, we could use those sub sonic vibrations to set up kind of an invisible fence animals wouldn't cross?" She asked him. Nate just smiled and nodded.
"It wouldn't just protect the animals, there'd be other benefits too!" Nate told her. "It'd save on road clean up. Less people would have accidents either trying to avoid animals or hitting them and swerving…I think this could be a really great solution to a problem city hall thinks is just one of those things that happens."
"You really think so?" Zoey shrieked in delight, unable to believe that Nate Silva of all people was actually complimenting her on an idea she'd just been kind of throwing around as a possible way to stop some unlucky wildlife getting squashed. He got out a pencil and started sketching around some of her plans.
"I think with a couple of adjustments it would be workable, but the central idea is…it's inspired!" He told her. "I can't believe I never thought of it myself if I'm honest!"
"Now I know you're just playing with me." She said meekly.
"No, no I really mean it!" He assured her. "Would you…would you mind if I held onto these? I'll be talking with some people from the planning department soon about the Morph-X towers, maybe I could suggest we look into this."
"That would be great!" She yelled. "Listen, um…I…I've really got to go, but…I'm glad you like the idea."
"If you have any more ideas, I could have a look at them!" Nate called after her as she started to leave. Zoey got out of the canteen, stopping just outside the door. By now she was positively vibrating. A squeal came right up through her all the way from her toes. Nate Silva of all people had liked not only liked one of her ideas, but he had said he might talk to the city about having it made into a reality!
"He liked it! He really liked it!" Zoey stammered to herself, before having to take some deep breaths. "OK, calm down Zoey, it's probably a fluke. Just…stay calm." With that, she skipped off back towards her dorm.
Meanwhile, in another area of the base, Roxy came running in, almost bowling over some hapless employees that were just going about their duties as she tried to evade Ravi. She still had his sketch in her hand, and had managed to make it all the way back to Grid Battleforce from the park, but he wasn't far behind her.
She ran along the corridor, laughing all the way.
"You're going to have to be faster than that!" She taunted him. She managed to make it back to her dorm, opening the door and slipping inside, but before she could close the door, Ravi ran through, picking her up and tackling her clean to the other side of the room onto the bed. She let out a yelp as they landed.
"I wasn't finished, give that back!" Ravi said as he was trying to get it back from her. She just continued to play a childish game of keep-away, switching it from one hand to the other as Ravi tried to get it back. Even in the midst of all this, Ravi couldn't stop laughing. He could never remember a time where he felt this free, where he felt so much like there was so much more to his life than just the training and the thought of being a Ranger.
Eventually, he grabbed her wrists and held them down, before trying to catch his breath. They both just stared at each other.
"So, you finally caught me." She said mischievously.
"It looks like it." Ravi said.
"So, what are you going to do with me?" She asked. He paused a little. They pulled in, kissing each other passionately. As they parted, Ravi just got up off the bed. He headed back for the door, and pressed the button to lock it. Roxy just smiled as he came back over, starting to take off his shirt.
"You are…incredible." He told her, before pressing his lips to hers.
Outside the dorm, Zoey was whistling to herself, walking with a little skip in her step as she thought about the fact that Nate was now going to be building her idea. She'd always had ideas, but there was always an issue with how to put them together. She had some technical skills, but with her income getting tools and materials to actually practice any of the designs she'd thought of was more of a pipe-dream than anything else.
She could only imagine her creation being put up, keeping the animals of the woods safe from the traffic that frankly had come into their home uninvited in the first place. Although she didn't really care about credit, she did wonder if Nate would mention that it was her idea. She wondered if the city ever did utilise it, whether he'd let her come and watch it being set up. As these thoughts came to her, she came to the dorm and let herself in, but as she did, she found that Roxy's door was closed, and the red light indicated it was locked.
She headed to her room, grabbing some gym gear and heading out. She had intended to see if Roxy was free for some extra tuition, but she figured that right now, she probably had other things on her mind.