Nate tried hard to concentrate on his work while Zoey sat in the corner, drumming her fingers and tapping her foot on the floor while she waited for supplies.
Quarantine was no joke. The lab worked with a lot of hazardous materials, and while Nate did his best to limit his work with materials that could do any lasting harm, his work with Morph-X being the ultimate example of his commitment to ending the world's energy crisis without adding to the world's pollution problem or any form of harmful radiation build-up, occasionally his work would bring him in fleeting contact with materials that could potentially be harmful until he refined them into a safe state. The lab had a very strict quarantine protocol, one even he couldn't over-ride, which was designed to contain any inadvertent leaks. The air vents had sensitive equipment in them that checked for any unknown materials, and while it was possible sometimes those were benign, the lockdown could only be over-ridden from outside the lab with clearance from either Commander Shaw or General Burke, and even then they would only do so once the analysis of the suspect materials confirmed it presented no threat to life.
However, right now, he couldn't really think about what kind of agent had been released in the lab. He couldn't concentrate on the diagnostics he was looking over, or the new weapons designs he was considering for the Rangers. Right now, all he could think about was the fact that Zoey was now sitting only a few feet away, and they would be stuck together now and he had no idea when they would be able to leave.
He felt strangely energised, but at the same time a little queasy whenever he was around her. His stomach wouldn't settle, his chest felt tight, and he rambled. He was not a rambler; he was always very precise in everything he did. Such was the nature of his work that he just got into a habit of being extremely precise and ordered in everything he did. His shirt was always tucked in, he always styled his hair the same way, he got every pair of glasses he'd ever owned from the exact same optician…he was the kind of person who would explain at length why a killer whale was in fact not a whale but a dolphin by a painstaking rundown of all the scientific criteria of definition. He could be long-winded but never babbling. But whenever Zoey was around, he found his intelligence seemed to fall faster than a rock subject to the gravity on Jupiter.
There were times he did want to spend more time with her, but he was always grateful for the fact there was an escape route. If he was starting to sound like too much of an idiot, he could always claim he was needed somewhere else on the base, but now he was stuck, and she wasn't going anywhere.
"Does it matter at all that we both feel fine?" Zoey asked. The thought of spending this long around Nate was just a nightmare. She longed for the days when she didn't actually know that he was one of her idols and was just some random person that she bumped into on her first day at Grid Battleforce. Zoey wanted more than anything to change the world. While her mom saw the media as the way to do that, exposing those in power and pressurising people of influence into taking the right path, Zoey always felt like a more practical path was needed. She saw how time and time again large energy companies were fined and sued, only for them to issue a limp, half-hearted apology, pay a token fine and promise to change, only to go right back to doing the exact same thing. Far too many people grew up in those industries and had earned their fortunes doing business that way to be convinced to change, while many in positions of political power relied on donations from them to dare stand up to them. Waiting for the status quo to change was no longer an option. If the world was going to change, people had to do it themselves.
She did like science, but she was in no way a scientist. It was kind of hard to study to get into the sciences when there were times, she needed to decide whether she needed to replace her shoes before they fell apart or help her mom pay the rent. The option of higher education was laughably out of reach without some kind of financial aid, something she hoped signing up would give her. But since finding out that Nate was Nathaniel…she kind of became more aware of what she was saying around him and how she acted around him. Now, she was worried that he'd see her as some kind of child that threw out suggestions, they had no idea how to make a reality.
"I'm afraid not." Nate sighed. "The incubation period for many contagions and toxins could be anything from hours to weeks."
"Weeks?" Zoey shrieked. She was completely mortified by the thought she might be forced to be around him for weeks. It was bad enough when she had to second-guess everything she did, what she said to him for a matter of a few minutes.
"I'm hoping the chem analysis will reveal the foreign substance to be benign." He responded hopefully. It really was the best chance for them getting out of quarantine as early as possible. They were, of course, able to test themselves, but as he had already said it was possible anything that affected them might not show up for a couple of weeks. The best-case scenario was to hope that the substance in the beaker had been harmless to begin with. "In the meantime, I guess we're just stuck with each other."
He cringed, he wished he hadn't said that. Looking at Zoey's expression, she looked like she found the prospect just as enticing. He took off his lab coat and hung it up, before heading to a control unit.
"Are you checking the results?" She asked him.
"Not exactly." He replied, pressing a few keys. One of the lab units spun around, revealing a large, comfortable looking couch on the other side. Zoey smiled.
"Wow, that's…that's something." She said cheerfully. "I guess even a genius needs to just kick back once in a while."
She rolled her eyes. Had she really just said that? Nate just chuckled.
"I wish I could say it was just about 'kicking back'." He responded. "In fact, it's just a necessity. It wouldn't be the first time I worked so late that I fell asleep in the lab."
Of course, he did, she thought. He was always working, always thinking. He was changing the world in ways she could not even dream of. She looked to the couch and could imagine him curled up on it…was it hot in there? Why was she getting hot? The lab was air conditioned!
"Room service!" Ben called out, pounding on the glass door.
"Oh, thank God!" Zoey called out, grateful for the distraction. She noticed the way Nate was looking at her and had to quickly think of something. "Uh…I mean…I'm just hungry that's all. Probably down to that metabolism thing."
"Well, we'll bring you a proper meal later, but in the meantime, we have some snacks, and some drinks." Ben said, setting down a little box of items. "There's also some movies in there to pass the time."
"Ben, is there any word when we're getting out of here?" Zoey asked. He started to back away from the door at which another closed.
"Sorry, I've got to…" He said, before scurrying away. There was a spray, before the first door opened. It was an air lock, designed to prevent anything getting out from the lab. Nate picked up the box and looked into it.
"So, we have chips, some dips, some soda and…Star Wars." Nate said as he looked through the collection. "The whole series." He started banging on the door.
"Ben, this isn't any good!" Nate called out.
"Nate, it's…"
"No, you said you were hungry, you need something nutritious!" He told her. "Ben, BEN!"
"Nate, it's…it's fine really." Zoey assured him. "It's just…hunger. I don't feel wobbly or anything, it's not like before, I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" He asked her. "I'd not recommend it but I have some carrot sticks in my lunch…"
"I'll be fine, I promise." Zoey assured him, putting a hand on his arm. He was so thoughtful and kind to worry about her. She suddenly became aware of the fact she was touching him and pulled away. "Um…Nate…why are you not suggesting I eat carrots?"
"I'm sorry?" He asked her.
"That's the second time you said you wouldn't suggest I eat carrots." She told him. "I thought jackrabbits liked carrots."
"Well…they do, but…" He started to explain. "Carrots are full of a very high concentration of sugar, way higher than is advisable for jackrabbits to eat. It will give them energy, but in the same way as I'd get energy if I pounded half a dozen cans of energy drinks."
"Wow, really?" She laughed, remembering the last time she'd needed to do an all-night study session after working and had indeed pounded energy drinks like her life depended on them. It had worked, but to say the results weren't pretty would be an understatement. "So, I guess all those cartoons lied."
"I'd say that Bugs is a problem addict." Nate giggled childishly, so much so that he inadvertently snorted. He saw her staring at him, wondering what she was thinking. They both stared at each other for far too long, before Nate finally grabbed one of the DVD's. "So…should we go by chronological order in franchise? Or the order of release?"
"I think seeing the whole story unfolding as it's meant to would be interesting." Zoey answered. "Plus, I know it's not the done thing to admit but…I kind of liked Jar Jar."
"Phantom Menace it is." He replied as he set up one of the monitors. "Pick us out some chips while I get this set up. I'll let you pick the flavour."
Meanwhile, in another room, Ben scurried in as Betty was watching on the monitor, while speaking into her communicator.
"Yes, Commander Shaw, the analysis is still running." Betty assured her. "I'll let you know when we know anything."
She turned off the communicator as Ben came in.
"Betty, how did you talk me into this?" He whined fearfully, hearing her lie so brazenly to the Commander. Betty just shrugged.
"I'm persuasive." She responded. "Besides, we're just continuing Roxy's good work, we owe it to her!"
"Oh, we're so getting kicked out if the Commander ever finds out!" He whimpered as he paced around.
"Relax bro, it's not like we released anything that's actually dangerous, they'll just get some alone time." Betty assured him as she turned her attention to the monitors and pulled out a bag of chips. "And the best bet is, we get to watch!"
In the cyber dimension, Roxy was going over some of the weapons schematics when Scrozzle found her on his computer.
"Hey, keep your nose out of other's…"
"Scrozzie, please, you need to learn to share!" She said in a sweet tone as she just shoved him away. "I'm just familiarising myself with how all this works."
"You wouldn't even begin to understand…" He started to say, before she pulled a charged key out of the computer. "Hey, how did you do that?"
"What can I say? I've always been a quick study." She told him. "So, all I need to do is stick this in any object and it makes a Robotron. How very Lord Zedd of you!"
"What can I say? Even though we displaced him, I can't say he didn't have SOME good ideas." Scrozzle admitted. "He did have some success after all."
"Until your King went boom." She reminded him gleefully, before putting the key back into the computer and de-powering it. "Now, there's no point in leaving this lying around until we come up with a nice, soft target to hit."
"Soft target?" Scrozzle scoffed. "You sound like you're afraid to confront the Rangers."
"Oh no, I want to confront them alright." She said with a little smile. "But I just want to mess with them a little first."
"Mess with them?" Scrozzle asked. "What for?" Roxy just shrugged.
"It's just what I do." She answered.
Back at Grid Battleforce, Nate shut off the DVD player as he took out the DVD.
"What do you say we take a little break before we watch Solo?" He asked her.
"That would be a good idea." She answered as they heard a knock on the glass. "Oh, it looks like dinner's arrived! That's really nice timing!"
The door opened, and inside they found a trolley, set out with two dishes under closhes. The cutlery looked a lot fancier than the stuff in the mess hall, and was wrapped in cloth napkins.
"Wow, this is a step up from the mess hall." Zoey commented.
"It was stew day." Nate reminded her, making a face of disgust, which made Zoey laugh. "I think anything would be better than that."
"Yeah, I think I'm going to have to ask what's in that from now on." She said to him as they took the dishes to a nearby table and sat down with it.
"It's alright, I've already started to work on a diet plan for you that should satisfy your nutritional needs." He told her. Zoey looked up at him. "You know…make sure…"
"That's really sweet." She answered. "You…you're really putting a lot of effort into this."
"I just feel really badly about the weaknesses. I feel like…like I'm somehow responsible, like I should have known…"
"Hey, no one can think of everything, not even you." Zoey assured him. "We know it's not your fault."
"Thanks, that's really nice of you to say." Nate replied as they opened up their meals. "Beef stroganoff…one of my favourites!"
"It is?" Zoey asked him. "I don't think I've ever tried it."
"You're in for a real treat then." Nate answered with a smile. Zoey pointed to some parts on the bench. "What's that stuff?"
"Oh, it's just leftovers from my latest idea." He told her. "I was working on an upgrade for…"
He tailed off as a thought occurred to him.
"You know, with those parts, we should be able to make a concept version of your Morph-X bike motor." He suggested. "Maybe once we're done with the movies…"
"You think we can make it?" She screeched. Nate saw her excitement, and the embarrassment that followed, and couldn't resist trying to make her feel better about her outburst.
"You know what? Tinkering sounds like fun." He told her as they began their dinner. He furrowed his brows. "Am I crazy or does it seem darker in here?"
"We've probably just been shut up too long." She answered with a shrug. "We're just getting used to the light."
"Yeah, that's probably it." Nate agreed.
In the surveillance room, Ben looked to Betty as she fiddled with the controls.
"Betty, what are you doing?" He asked her.
"Just a little mood lighting." She replied with a wicked grin.
In another part of the city, Muriel was sitting at her desk, staring at a blank computer screen, trying to think of something to write. She had believed she was close, so close to getting the break of her career when her source at Grid Battleforce was discovered. She had been sure there was something going on there that was too good to be true. People that promised to change the world often had an agenda. Somehow the changes they wanted to make always ended up being in the best interests of only a few if the surface was scratched hard enough.
The fact she'd found out that Morph-X was derived from the Morphing Grid was something she was sure people would be worried about. It had been almost 20 years since there were last Power Rangers on Earth, and coincidentally there had been no monsters in all that time either. It was always hotly debated if the presence of that power, the presence of the Rangers was in fact the protection from evil that everyone thought it was, or if it just attracted more problems than it caused.
She'd been hoping to scoop the world, but finding her leak had forced Grid Battleforce to open up to the public ahead of time. Now, she no longer had a news story, she had just one of many recounts of the information the public already had. There had been a monster attack, which had once again opened up the debate of the risk the Morphing Grid posed, but the benefits of Grid Battleforce were already being felt. People were switching to Morph-X energy already in droves, seeing their energy and fuel costs plummeting. The average electricity bill quoted by Morph-X companies was mere cents on the dollar compared to traditional suppliers, and while it would be some time before the first Morph-X cars rolled off the production line, pre-orders were racking up faster than anyone could keep up with. Hardly surprising when the average gas station was selling at close to twenty dollars a gallon and Morph-X was being quoted at only a couple of dollars for enough to power a car for a whole year!
The news cycle was dominated by Grid Battleforce, and all the earth-shattering promises it had made which they seemed to be delivering. The markets were shifting by the hour and it looked like the few that had believed in Morph-X from the beginning were about to turn into by far the wealthiest people on the planet within only a few weeks. But that was what was occupying the middle pages, the mid-broadcast stuff. The thing that was getting the most attention was the new Rangers.
For almost twenty years, almost a whole generation had known the Power Rangers only as the stories their parents told them. The kind of thing that had existed, but now was more entertainment, with little relevance to the real world. But in one day, an entire new generation had been introduced to super heroes right in their own city.
The details were still sketchy. People were still in awe to think that a new team had been created. There were some already pointing out the fact that they had shown up along with the robot that wrecked a significant portion of downtown Coral Harbour, while others were praising Grid Battleforce for having the forethought to see the potential danger and create Rangers to prepare for it. There was, of course, one over-riding question though. Who were they?
It was somewhat of a tradition that the Rangers' identities were hidden. The Lightspeed team had been the most notable exception, being a Government funded team whose identities were always a matter of public record. Grid Battleforce had already given a press release that said the Rangers' identities would remain hidden, citing the safety of their families.
Muriel looked to a magazine with a photograph of the new Rangers on it. So far there hadn't even been official press shots released by Grid Battleforce, only stills taken from security footage at the distribution centre. What were they hiding? Why was so much done to keep the Rangers under wraps? That was when she finally got her headline.
"Do real heroes wear masks?"
Back at Grid Battleforce headquarters, Nate and Zoey were working on the motor. Nate was turning it over in his hands.
"It's crude, but as a concept model it will work very well." He told her. "I'll have access to all my materials once we're out of here."
"That's great, I'd really like to see the city consider this." Zoey answered. "I know traffic is a real problem here, but I really don't want to see more roads."
"No, we don't need more of them." He agreed.
"Nate, since we're here…there's something else I've been curious about." She said as she leant on one of the work benches. "Devon said that he morphed in front of a whole bunch of people."
"Yes, that is the case." Nate answered.
"But…no one has reported it in the news." Zoey pointed out. "How is that?"
Nate looked to her and then held up a hand.
"Let me show you something." He said, pulling something up on the monitor.
"It's a playing card." Zoey said. "The Queen of Hearts."
"Yes, it is." He replied. "Now, I want you to look straight at that screen."
Zoey did as she was told, but was stunned by a flash of light, following which she was staring at a blank screen.
"So, what was on the screen?" He asked her.
"Was there something on the screen?" She asked him. Nate just smiled.
"There's a certain frequency of radiation that affects the memory centre of the brain, causing it to kind of…glitch out for a few moments." He explained.
"I don't get it." Zoey responded.
"Watch this footage of Devon morphing." He said, pulling it up. "Tell me what you notice."
Zoey watched, finding herself drawn to the smoke and light of the morph, after which the Red Ranger was standing there. She shook her head.
"Wow, that was…what?" She asked. "I know that's Devon but…"
She smiled as the penny dropped.
"You put that radiation into the morph sequence to cause people to forget what they saw before the morph!" She surmised. He just nodded in confirmation.
"Affirmative." He confirmed. "There's also a specific mix of sound and light in there that compels people to look…"
"So, they stare right at the memory flash." Zoey concluded. Nate looked really impressed at how quickly she put it together. He tapped his head.
"You don't think all those pyrotechnics were just for show, did you?" He asked her. She just looked at him unconvinced. "Well…OK, there might have been a part of me that thought it was really cool, but…I figured if we're going to draw attention to ourselves, why not let that work for us?"
"That is…that's brilliant!" She shrieked. "You're amazing!"
"Well, I just wanted to do my bit to help you keep your identities safe." Nate told her. "I mean, it doesn't matter much to our enemies since Blaze and Roxy already know who you are, but at least you won't have to worry about fans swarming you when you go to the gym or something."
Nate started yawning, at which Zoey grabbed onto him.
"Nate, are you alright?" She asked him.
"Just a little tired." He yawned. "I just…I'll be fine."
"No, come on." Zoey told him, guiding him to the couch. "You're taking a rest, no questions!"
"But…"
"No buts mister!" She warned him. "Besides, we can always watch Solo before we talk about inflating those mattresses for the night, right?"
"That sounds good." He agreed, heading to the couch as Zoey put on the DVD.
The following morning, Zoey started to come to, waking up from a nice, restful sleep. She looked around and had to remind herself she wasn't in her room. She was still stuck in the lab. She could see the device on the workbench that she'd been working on with Nate. It was a concept model for the motor she wanted to put into bikes that could be put throughout the city for people to borrow rather than drive their cars everywhere. She smiled as she saw it, remembering Nate taking the time to explain to her how it worked, show her how he was putting it together. She didn't understand all of it, but he had the patience to try and teach her. She pulled her blanket around her…only to realise it wasn't a blanket…unless blankets suddenly had bones in them! Seeing a hand, she turned slowly over, finding Nate with her. They'd gone to rest on the couch and must have fallen asleep.
She shrieked as she got up, waking up Nate. Before long he was in a panic too, realising where he was. They both gulped and looked to each other.
"I'm…I'm so sorry…"
"Yeah, we were tired." Zoey rushed out.
"Yes, tired, sooo tired!" Nate agreed.
"Um…sorry I screamed." Zoey said as she suddenly started to straighten herself out. Nate started tucking his shirt into his trousers, something not a lot of guys did these days. Most people didn't bother unless they were dressing formally, but Nate just did it by habit, something Zoey had noticed and something she found kind of adorable… 'what the hell is the matter with me?'
"It's OK, I understand, it took me a moment to remember where we were too." Nate assured her. Just then, the door opened and Commander Shaw came in.
"Commander!" Nate yelped, surprised by her presence. "What are you doing here?"
"The analysis has come back, and the substance was not harmful." She assured them. "I'm not even sure why it would have triggered the quarantine alert."
"Yeah, it's…just one of those things, right?" Zoey replied. "I'm just going to get cleaned up and get to work."
With that, Zoey scurried out of the lab as quickly as she could. Commander Shaw just looked to Nate.
"Get cleaned up." She told him. "We've all got work to do."
"Yes, Commander." He replied as he went back to his room.