A couple of blocks from the car wash, a Limo was in the parking lot of a burger joint. Three men in suits, one with a driver's hat as well, were sitting in a booth in the restaurant having lunch. Although they had been turned down by Sudsy, they didn't want to go too far. They'd been left under little doubt that Mr Winchester wanted the car was plot and he wasn't too keen on hearing no for an answer.
"What can I say? The old geezer is stubborn." The lawyer told him between sips of coffee. He picked up a piece of apple pie, taking a bite. "I mean, the offer is way more than the property is worth, what else was I meant to do?"
"I don't care what you have to do I want that land!" Winchester told him. "The middle of the business district with freeway access? That land is absolute gold!"
"But the owner knows that. He has cars and vans coming out his ears all day." The lawyer carried on, taking another bite. "I pointed out he could retire, but he doesn't want to! He said he likes working."
"He likes the money more likely." Mr Winchester snorted. "How much more do you think it's going to take?"
"I don't know, I get the feeling he's not interested in money." He replied.
"Everyone's interested in money!" Mr Winchester assured him. "It's just a case of finding out the point at which it's more costly than it's worth to keep it."
"Sir, it's not like we can MAKE him sell the property." The lawyer reminded him. "If he doesn't want to…"
Just then, there was a loud crash from outside. They all turned to the window in time to see some red streaks, rushing past the limo. With each pass, pieces of it just seemed to fly off. With the last pass, the whole thing fell into pieces.
"What the hell?" The lawyer called out as he ran outside with the other two.
"What is it?" Mr Winchester asked. "What's going on?"
"Uh…I'm going to have to call you back." The lawyer replied as he hung up the phone. He went to the car, seeing it neatly sliced into pieces.
Devon ran into the Command Centre, coming into the room completely oblivious to General Burke's presence. He had raced over as soon as he got the call from Commander Shaw. He still didn't know if Sudsy had noticed the fact he was gone. There were a lot of cars and a lot of employees so it was entirely possible he wouldn't notice just one, particularly if they were busy. He had never had a job before, but even he knew that it was considered good form for someone to at least start actually working before they wandered off the job site.
"Guys, what's so urgent? It told you I got this job!" He complained. Ravi, Zoey and Nate all quickly shooshed him and pulled him into line. He was turned to see Commander Shaw, who had her face in her hands, and a much larger guy that Devon hadn't seen before. He was wearing a much more ornate uniform than hers, and had a chest full of medals. He had played enough strategy games to know that generally meant it was someone with a significant rank. Given the way everyone was acting, it looked like he outranked the Commander. He wasn't sure there was anyone that outranked the Commander, as far as he knew she was the one running the whole thing.
"General Burke, may I present our Rangers. Of course, you know Nate." She declared, presenting the Rangers to him. General Burke had left shortly after the selection committee had disbanded. He had a number of duties to take care of, and had left the base in Commander Shaw's care. He had, of course, been briefed on the incident which led to the fact the final team of Rangers was not the ones that had been selected, but he hadn't yet been formally introduced to them. He went to Ravi first, saluting him. Ravi returned the gesture.
"Good to see Evox didn't get all of you." He stated. Ravi just nodded.
"It was a close thing sir." He replied. He took a little sidestep to the right and stood before Zoey. He pointed to her and his face was an expression of recognition.
"Reeves, isn't it?" He asked.
"Yes…" She said, before saluting. "Um…yes, sir. Zoey Reeves sir."
"Yes, I recall." He drew in closer and whispered to her. "I can honestly say, I've never been more glad to be wrong."
Zoey smiled and blushed a little as he backed away, before looking to Devon. He stood, staring at him blankly, observing him curiously.
"So, this would be our civilian would it?" General Burke asked. Commander Shaw had briefed him on the fact that Nate had created the Rangers out of who was available at the time. She'd had to tell him about the fact that one of the Rangers was in fact a civilian who had just happened to be in the base at the time. It wasn't ideal, in fact it was about as far from preferred protocol as anyone could get, but she had to let him know that one of the Rangers wasn't only not one of the original candidates, but wasn't even a Grid Battleforce employee.
"I guess you could say that." Devon said nervously, extending a hand. "Devon. Devon Daniels."
The General shook his hand, but looked to Commander Shaw. He trusted her judgement; they'd served together long enough to have entrusted everything to each other on more than one occasion. However, it was pretty clear that the whole situation was testing everyone's benefit of the doubt to the very limits. General Burke looked to the team.
"Well, I think we can all say that things have not gone as expected, but I've been kept appraised of your situation and I have to say your performance under these far from typical circumstances has been admirable." General Burke began.
"There's typical circumstances for this?" Devon asked. The others just tensed up at that. General Burke glared at him, but then carried on with his briefing.
"However, we cannot just sit back and let Evox call the shots. It's time for Grid Battleforce to go on the offensive." He declared bombastically. "Fortunately, someone on the base has had a great idea! My two brilliant children!"
"Hi dad!" Betty declared cheerfully as she and Ben hobbled into the room, still covered in bandages and dressings from their injuries at Blaze's hands. Devon just started sniggering.
"They're his kids?" He asked. "Well, that explains a lot."
"Not cool." Ravi whispered abruptly. Ravi had heard all of this from the beginning. The fact he was Commander Shaw's son had led to a lot of accusations of nepotism and favouritism. He was more than aware of what it was like being a kid working under a parent in a position of power. No matter what he did, there were always some who only saw the surname and assumed that they were only there because of their parents. Ben and Betty weren't necessarily the most gifted of people on the base, but they more than made up for it with enthusiasm and a work ethic that put a lot of officers to shame. Devon just held his hands up apologetically. It looked like General Burke and the twins hadn't actually heard him. The General was too busy beaming with pride as Ben and Betty set up a projector and started to explain their idea on the wall.
"The biggest problem we've had all along is we don't know what Evox is, or how he came to be here." Betty began.
"Not to mention we don't know anything about Scrozzle or any of his tech." Ben chipped in. "But we think that is something we can do something about!"
"After each attack, there's been pieces of Scrozzle's technology left behind." Betty reminded them. "Up until now, they've been getting cleared up and taken to recycling along with anything else that was damaged in the attacks to clear the way for rebuilding."
"Until now, the city has been clearing them into holding facilities, scheduled to be melted down. They didn't want to take the risk that anything we hook up to here might infect our systems like Evox did." Ben stated. "But we were just thinking, if we instead brought them to a secure location off-site…"
"Then maybe we can study their tech and see what we're up against." Nate concluded. "Guys, I think Ben and Betty might be onto something."
"Yes, I really think they are onto something!" General Burke said proudly. "My division has a special ops black site facility just west of the city. Feel free to use that for any of your needs."
"I'll contact the holding facilities and tell them to expect you." Commander Shaw stated. "They'll have the parts ready for collection. We'll have the co-ordinates of the black site uploaded to your Beast Bots immediately. Devon, can I have a word?"
As the others headed off to get started, Commander Shaw just looked to him.
"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't know the General was coming." Devon told her. "Come to that…I didn't know anyone outranked you…I thought you were…"
"As far as you're concerned, I'm in charge." She sighed. Devon just fell quiet as she reprimanded him. "Devon, I understand your situation is unique among the Rangers. Zoey and Ravi both work on-site, but I expect you to be able to respond to a call."
"Look, I'm sorry, I just got this job…"
"Yes, this job." She said, looking to his overalls. "What made you think it was a good idea to take on a commitment like that while you have your responsibilities here?"
"Look, I know I've got a lot on my plate, but this is really important to my dad." Devon answered.
"To your dad?" She asked, looking at him curiously.
"Look, I'm sorry, I'll…I'll make it up to the others, but right now I've got to get back." He said as he ran out of the base. Commander Shaw just sighed and got onto her communicator.
"Ravi, Zoey, begin the collection without Devon." She told them. "He'll catch up when he can."
"Ten-Four Commander." Ravi acknowledged. Commander Shaw went to her control console and sat down, contemplating Devon's situation. They had a certain level of luxury with Zoey and Ravi, both of them lived and worked on the base. Everyone on the base already knew they were Rangers and were sworn to secrecy. In Devon's case, he not only had commitments outside the base, but one of the people he had to keep his secret from was one of the most famous people in the city! They had to give him a certain level of leeway in what he had to do to keep his secret, but she was starting to worry when that would be too much.
Later in the day, Devon was back at the car wash. Sudsy had noticed him leaving and was far from happy. He had given him a warning, not to mention a long lecture about responsibility and the fact he needed his workers to be on-site. Devon, to his credit, hadn't made any excuses. Not only could he not really think of any excuses for leaving the work site straight after getting the job, he was willing to take it on the chin and take his lumps. He could see Sudsy's point. He wouldn't have blamed him if he had fired him on the spot, but after telling him some stories about when his dad worked there, he gave him another chance for his dad's sake.
Devon did his best to make the most out of the rest of the day. He didn't know how long he intended to keep the job, but he did want to show his dad he could commit, that he could at very least hold onto a job for a little while.
The work was hard, the vehicles came in thick and fast and there was barely any time to rest between one vehicle and the next, but in many ways that just meant the time went by. Even Sudsy seemed a little happier too. Devon was working on a car when his dad's limo came rolling in. Devon saw his dad coming towards him, and there was something about him. He looked happy to see him.
"Hey there son!" He greeted him.
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Devon asked him.
"I just thought I'd swing by and see how the new job is going." He said, beaming brightly. He had a definite bounce in his step as he came over. "So, how was the first day?"
"What do you mean 'was'?" Devon asked him.
"It's five o'clock." Mayor Daniels told him. "I was hoping we could go for dinner. I know a great burger place nearby…"
"I'd love to dad, but I've got a lot to do here." Devon told him. Sudsy came over as he saw Mayor Daniels.
"I appreciate the work ethic, but you've been here the whole day. Last thing I need is for the Mayor of this great city to accuse me of unfair labour practices."
He slapped some money into Devon's hand. Devon just looked to it a little curiously.
"I thought I got paid at the end of the month?" Devon responded.
"You do…that's just your share of the tips." Sudsy told him. "Finish up that one and get out of here. Adam, how about you show that kid of yours some of your old moves? He could do with the lessons!"
As Sudsy walked away, Mayor Daniels took off his jacket and tossed it over a nearby chair.
"Dad, what are you doing?" Devon asked him.
"What does it look like?" He asked in response, grabbing a hose.
As they started work on the car, Devon couldn't help smiling.
Meanwhile, over at the Black Ops site, Nate had already set up his work station, while the Rangers had spent the whole day bringing in bits and pieces from various Gigadrones, tronics and Robotrons that had been smashed up in the Rangers' various fights across the city. Although some of the parts had already been melted down, completely destroyed, most of it was still awaiting processing. No one was really sure what to do with the pieces afterwards, since the only thing they knew about Evox was that as a virus they didn't want to inadvertently give him another way into their system again. Ravi and Zoey de-morphed as they approached him.
"That's the last of the stuff in storage." Ravi told him as they came to see what Nate was doing. Seeing as they were the ones that were going to have to fight these machines, they wanted to know anything he could tell them.
"Learn anything useful?" Zoey asked him.
"Not so far." Nate said as he hooked some pieces up to a computer. It was not connected to the mainframe, a precaution in case of trojans, but it had the capability to read what was on the machinery. "Near as I can tell from the files, the big ones are called Gigadrones, while the smaller ones are called Robotrons."
"I guess at least we know the names of what we're fighting now." Zoey replied, moving in next to him to get a close look at the screen. She felt herself brush up against him, and looked to the side, to see him looking at her. They both just moved a little bit away from each other. Ravi picked up a piece and held it up. It looked like a robot head, but it didn't look familiar. It didn't look like it belonged to any of the robots they had fought up until now.
"Not all of this is from our fights." He declared, turning it to show Nate. "What is all this stuff?"
"I was running out of room in my lab." He admitted. "When we were given this site, I thought…it might be worth doing a bit of spring cleaning."
"You were building a robot?" Zoey asked him. Nate just looked to her a little sheepishly.
"It's…an old project. I started it when I was nine." He said rather bashfully as he saw them both looking at him. "It was...it was meant to be a big brother for me."
"What?" Ravi asked. Nate just took the head from him and put it on the shelf.
"I just…always wanted a brother." He told them.
"Aw, that's kind of sweet." Zoey said sympathetically. Nate's toes curled inside his shoes. Great, did she really need to hear that? Now he had to sound completely pathetic to her. He was a kid, only 9, and his parents were constantly away on business, spreading the word of Morph-X across the globe. None of the kids his age were able to understand much of what he said, most of the adults didn't either! He spent almost all his time on military bases. The idea of making his own friend made perfect sense to a kid, but to an adult, it had to sound pretty sad. "Did you have a name for him?"
"Can we just work on this please?" He asked them. "It looks like most of the circuits get fried when the Gigadrones and Robotrons explode."
"Like we couldn't have figured that out." Ravi chuckled, looking to a piece of the Cyclotron's shin.
"No, it's more than that, it's…I think it's a failsafe designed to prevent exactly what we're doing." Nate replied. "I can only get minimal information from what I'm seeing here. I can't even really tell what the origin of these robots is."
"So, what do you need?" Ravi asked.
"I need a sample, something intact." He told them. "Other than that, it'll take years for me to reverse-engineer, possibly longer."
"An intact Gigadrone or Robotron." Zoey sighed. "That's going to be tough."
"Yeah, but we're tougher." Ravi answered. "We'll figure out a way Nate."
Over at the burger joint, Mayor Daniels brought over a tray and sat down with Devon as he watched some police in the parking lot, by a cordoned off area. His dad started handing out the food.
"This place was amazing; it's been here almost as long as Sudsy's. I remember when it opened." Mayor Daniels said as he started to arrange his food on his tray. "Me and the guys must have come here about three times a week. The burgers are good, but absolutely the best apple pie in the city by a country mile!"
"What's going on out there?" Devon asked him. Mayor Daniels just looked out.
"I don't know." He replied with a quizzical look on his face. "It's a real shame though. This was such a nice neighbourhood. I'd hate to think any bad elements were starting to come in."
Devon just started eating. As soon as he bit into his burger, his eyebrows shot up. He looked to his dad in disbelief.
"I know, right?" He asked. "Your dad knows his burgers."
"You really do." Devon said with a little laugh. "Shame you're not so good with tacos though."
"You are not going to let me forget that are you?" Mayor Daniels laughed.
"Dad, we were both in the bathroom for two days! If I wasn't firing from one end it was the other!" Devon laughed in response. Mayor Daniels looked to his son.
"It's been far too long since we did something like this." Mayor Daniels said as he looked to his food. Just then, Devon looked up.
"What?" Mayor Daniels asked. "What is it?"
"Know that bad element you were talking about?" He asked, pointing to some men heading through the parking lot. The fact they were carrying crowbars and baseball bats gave the impression they were up to no good.
"I'll call the police." Mayor Daniels said as Devon got up and ran out. "Devon, where are you going? DEVON!"
Devon followed the men, wanting to see what they were up to. He didn't like leaving his dad behind, but he didn't want to let them run around unchecked if he could help it.
He followed them, recognising the route. They seemed to be heading towards Sudsy's. He dialled his phone, trying to raise him, but it went straight to voicemail.
"It's closed." He said to himself. "No one should be there, that's one thing at least."
He rounded a corner, heading into the street, only to find all six of the men lying on the ground unconscious. There was a dark figure standing over them.
"What the hell?" Devon asked, before the figure looked up. For the briefest of moments, he could see him in a street light. "Blaze?"
With that, Blaze teleported away, leaving Devon with some unconscious thugs, and a lot of questions.