Sector 0, Town Square
Metro City, Canada
March 30th, 2015
7:00 PM

"Rachel Parker"

Riley looked like he was about to faint as Silver drove as fast as he could down his twisting driveway which was on a hill, like Plant #13, only much taller. Silver's mansion rested atop it. I kept staring at Riley, but he didn't notice. He was too preoccupied trying to make his codec glow again. He might not realize it, but he's the perfect choice for being our leader. After all, he was the first of us to rush into that alley to help Oz.

"Come on, come on…" he muttered under his breath.

Riley Bishop was skinny and pale. He had messy, black hair and a boney nose that was now crooked and bandaged thanks to Oz. His eyes were hazel and hardened. When you looked into them, you could almost see all the tragic things that he had endured. To the casual observer, Riley would not be considered good looking, like Oz. That's because his best features were his personality and intelligence. The school actually had to create an AP Computer course just for him. He's always been gifted at building and fixing things. I gave him my watch to fix one time and he returned it saying that it was now a calculator as well. He's decent at programming too, although I don't know much about that kind of stuff. He must have a photographic memory or something, because even though he never seems to study, he passes most tests easily, even though he played video games most of the night.

"You really don't like those glasses?" I asked, trying to take his mind off his codec.

"No, I feel like a big nerd in them."

"You are a big nerd, Riley."

"Yeah, I know."

"But, you don't want other people to know?"

"Not if they learn it just by looking at my glasses."

"Well, just like how I never got a nose job because you told me I wouldn't be "me" if I did, I want you to keep wearing those glasses even you don't like them."

"Why are you so obsessed with these?"

"I don't know… There's just something about them."

In truth, I think I knew all too well why I liked those glasses. I've always liked Riley's eyes. Looking into them has always made me feel safe. Probably because of how often I would be over at his place when we were younger. My father used to drink; a lot. In fact, saying he used to drink is like saying an elephant is large. It just doesn't do it justice. So, I would escape him by hiding at Riley's house. His parents often referred to me as his "not-sister", because, obviously I wasn't really his sister, but I spent so much time there that I could have been if he didn't already have one.

"How's he doing?" asked Marcus.

"Nervous," I said, "I figure that once he morphs, he'll realize that he had nothing to fear."

"Did you hear him earlier?" asked Marcus, "He offered to trade codecs with me."

"Why didn't you take it?" asked Oz, "You could've been the leader!"

"Because that's not how it works, Oz." said Marcus.

"Being leader doesn't mean you're better than the others," said Rachel, "It just means you have to make hard decisions."

"Riley has always sort of led us," said Marcus, "Unofficially, of course."

"He'd just boss you around?" asked Oz.

"There's a difference between being bossy and being a leader," said Silver, "Besides, the red codec wouldn't have glowed for you or Marcus."

"Why not?" said Oz.

"Because you're not a leader, Oz, you're a battle commander. Two totally different jobs, but both are equally as important." said Rachel.

"It was Riley's idea to help me, wasn't it?" asked Oz.

"Yeah," said Marcus, "He knew it wasn't logical, but he did it anyway."

"I think I get it now." said Oz.

After what felt like hours, Silver slammed on the brakes and the car rotated 90°, blocking off the street we came from. We all hurried out, except for Riley, who still looked nervous.

"We beat them here," said Silver, "They're probably still making their way through the park. Everyone insert your codecs into the case on top of your Digitizers."

This city was the first one in Canada to implement a unique grid layout. There were twenty different sectors that encircled Town Square. Town Square was collectively referred to as Sector 0, which made no sense, because it wasn't even connected to the any of the others. Sector 1 began the chain directly in the northwest, then, continuing clockwise, it went to Sector 2, then Sector 3 and all the way up to Sector 20.

"While we've got a chance, I'll tell you how to destroy Replicators," said Silver, "Their wire frame armour leads to a small core on their chests. Hit that, and it should delete them instantly. It's your best bet if you want to make sure they can't multiply."

Silver couldn't have timed that any better. Before he had even finished saying the last word, a group of eight Replicators had materialized out of thin air.

"They don't look so tough!" jeered Oz, cracking his knuckles eagerly, "I can take them right here and right now!"

We all rolled our eyes as Oz charged at the Replicators head on. They just stood motionless, and at first, it really seemed like he was actually going to hit them, until a second before he would've made contact when they all pivoted out of his way. Once Oz had stopped, he looked around, trying to find them. Before we could warn him, one of the Replicators took out some sort of gun and shot it at Oz's back. Instead of hurting him, he became trapped in a strange wire frame bubble that was connected to the gun by a chain. The Replicator threw his arm back, which caused Oz to be yanked through the air, following the motion until the orb burst and Oz continued to fall. It took us a while to realize that he was going to crash into us, but by then it was too late and before we knew it, we were all sprawled on the ground.

"Please tell me you've learned something from this." groaned Marcus.

"Yeah," groaned Oz, "Never go bowling with one of those guys."

"Guys, they're heading this way!" moaned Riley, checking his nose to make sure it hadn't broken again.

"What do we do, Silver?" asked Marcus, "They're too strong for us!"

"Not for long…" he said, pushing a button on a remote he had withdrawn from his pocket.

The effects were instantaneous. We got gingerly to our feet, and I could hear a faint whirring sound coming from my Digitizer. My codec was glowing so brightly in the plastic case on top of it that it looked like an actual light. The others seemed to notice as well, because they were all examining their Digitizers too. I turned to my left, expecting to see Riley's glow too, but it wasn't. Suddenly I felt a brief surge radiate through my body, starting at the right wrist. As the strange sensation went away, it occurred to me that I was no longer afraid, I was no longer in pain and I knew exactly how to use the Digitizer on my wrist. I felt sorry for Riley, because even though he's our leader, he couldn't be the one to do what I was about to do.

"Ready?" I asked, turning my head to check on them.

"Ready!" called Marcus and Oz together.

"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" we screamed together.

Our morphing action was to throw up our left fist at neck level, then move our right fist in to form a sort of '+' shape. From there, our right fist went up into the air, bent at the elbow; then the last part was to thrust out of left fist into an open palm and then bring it up to push the button on our Digitizers on our right wrist.

Upon pushing the button, I could see a swirling tornado of 0s and 1s come from out of my codec and encircle me. It kept swirling faster and faster becoming more and more, narrow as it did so until it collided with me in a small explosion. I had a blue ranger suit on now and felt myself leap high into the air, rotating slightly as I rose. By the time I reached the height of my jump, I had my helmet on too. During my descent, the strange dimension faded from around me until my feet crashed down on the cement of Sector 0. I know that to anybody who would've seen that, the whole process would've occurred in the blink of an eye. I also knew that I hadn't really moved. My theory is that time freezes for all civilians and monsters when a ranger morphs, because what I went through was definitely real. Riley seemed to have seen the same thing as us, because he was blinking rapidly and his mouth was wide open.

"This feels incredible!" shouted Green.

"This is just what we needed!" shouted Yellow.

"Yes! Yes! Yes! It worked!" cheered Silver, "I knew it!"

"In theory, anyways…" sighed Riley, shaking his whole arm up and down.

"Remember what I told you, Riley?" asked Silver, "The codec is working fine. The only thing standing in its way is you."

The Replicators had swarmed us by now. I was totally overwhelmed and shrieked in panic.

"Calm down, you three!" called Silver, "Read the words on your screen and it will tell you how to summon your weapons!"

Despite being surrounded, I somehow managed to dodge the majority of the Replicator's attacks instinctively. Silver was right, of course. Now that I could focus a little better, I could see what looked like a chat room on displayed on my visor. It was listing which buttons to push and what words to say to do all sorts of things. I was itching to try out my sais, so I pushed the button that my visor indicated and yelled:

"Download weapon!"

The weapons looked just like the codecs; almost as they were holograms. Yet, I could still grip them tightly with my gloved hands. Once I had them ready, I stayed low to the ground and spun around on my toe, entering a pirouette that slashed the group of Replicators that were around me. As I swung the sais; pretty trails of binary code were left behind almost like the cursor trails on a mouse. Three of my attackers fell down, but quickly got back up again. I tried to cleave through them to escape, but there were too many. What started off as roughly eight had now become at least twenty, and eight of them were all picking on me. I couldn't see beyond them, so I had no idea of how the others were faring. These new powers were great, but I had no idea how to use them effectively. I felt so stupid.

"Give it a rest!" shouted Riley, "She'd never go out with creeps like you!"

I heard a sickening clang as he struck a Replicator right in the chest with a stop sign. It flailed frantically and then imploded.

"Riley!" I snapped, "Stay back! You won't stand a chance against them until you can morph!"

I was so proud of him. Riley hates waiting. He's the most impatient person I know. If he ends up having to wait longer than five seconds for a computer to do something, he flips out and takes it apart so he can improve it even more. I also knew he was absolutely terrified, but yet, somehow he had overcome his fears to help me. Either that or he just got bored of waiting for his codec to glow again. I had zoned out, lost in thought, because I snapped out of it when I heard another clang. I looked up to see another Replicator implode. Now, I had an opening. I could break free now.

"Come on!" I shouted, grabbing the stop sign to pull Riley to safety.

It turns out that Rangers Yellow and Green were having better luck. Yellow was putting all of his strength into a swing of his enormous sledgehammer weapon, which stunned the Replicators upon impact. Then, Green would come along in Yellow's wake and finish them off with his spear; the only problem was that they weren't doing it fast enough. For every one they destroyed, two more would appear and replace them.

"I appreciate your help, Riley, but I can't protect you and myself at the same time, so please stay out of this for now, okay?" I said gently, putting my hand on his shoulder.

"Behind you!" he screamed, frantically.

I saw the blast coming at the last minute. I was lifted into the air and then was slammed down to the ground. It went on and on. All I could do was float there and take it.

"Blue!" yelled Riley.

I tried to call back to him to get the others to help me, but couldn't say it fast enough. The first syllable died in my throat as I hit the ground for what felt like the billionth time.

"I've got to do something." he panicked.

"Why?" asked Silver.

"What do you mean, why!?" snapped Riley.

"Why do YOU have to do something?"

"Because she's my friend…"

"And?"

There was a long pause, wherein Riley tried to understand what Silver was trying to do. I really hoped I'd stay up in the air long enough to hear the whole conversation.

"…Because I know that I can help her." said Riley.

With that, Riley's codec exploded with light. It was shining so brightly that it literally made a pillar.

"Let her go!" yelled Riley, confidently.

The light from his codec was higher up than I was by now. The Replicators didn't seem to care. They just sort of chuckled to themselves.

"Fine then," said Riley, menacingly, "Don't say I didn't warn you."

They slammed me down again and the bubble I was trapped in finally broke, leaving me on the ground, writhing in pain.

"Go for it…" I groaned.

Riley winked at me and stepped forward, shielding me from harm.

"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, moving his hands just like how the rest of us had.

Instantly, Riley's Digitizer sent the same swirling tornado of binary that I had seen. It kept swirling faster and faster becoming more and more, narrow as it did so until it collided with him in a small explosion. Now wearing an impressive red ranger suit, Riley leapt high into the air, rotating slightly as he rose. When he crashed back down, his helmet was gleaming in the moonlight.

"Download weapon!" he called.

His weapon materialized in his hand. It was a powerful, stylish long sword. Near the cross-guard, imprinted onto the blade itself was binary code. It must say something. Binary is kind of a language, right? Only computers can read it, but I mean, just because I can't read Mandarin doesn't mean it's not a language, so, then, does the same rule apply for binary? At that same section of the sword, the edges were serrated on both sides. It added a bit of flair to it, as well as more functionality.

"Are you okay, Blue?" he asked, pulling me to my feet.

"I think so." I said, readying my weapons again.

"You take the ten on the left; I'll take the ten on the right."

"That works for me."

With a flourish of his sword, Red charged into the swarm of Replicators. About halfway there, he threw his sword into the ground and then kicked off of it like a pro. Now hovering above them, he pulled out the laser pistol from his holster and made it rain down beams of energy.

"Hey, check it out, guys," chuckled Red, "I made them dance!"

He landed, somersaulted forward, picking up his sword as he went.

Meanwhile I had been taunting the Replicators by cartwheeling around a circle of them. After several minutes, they all seemed to be dizzy, so I stopped and began jabbing their chests with my sais. My aim wasn't all that great, but, then again, neither was Red's. I seriously doubt that he had been trying to make them dance.

Before too long, both Red and I were fresh out of Replicators, so we went over to where Yellow and Green were to lend a hand.

"We need a new plan!" sputtered Yellow, "We've doing this for a while and yet they keep coming!"

"How can you not have noticed that they were replicating, you big oaf!?" snapped Green.

"I leave you two alone for ten minutes and you're already at each other's throats." said Red as we approached.

"Ri- I mean, Red? You morphed?" gasped Green, high fiving him.

"He's just a late bloomer." I said, trying to rumple his hair until I remembered we were all wearing helmets.

"There's eleven left!" snarled Yellow, "My arms aren't even tired yet! Isn't this the greatest?"

"There's eight left, dude..." groaned Green.

"Whatever, you know I'm not here because of my brains."

"I say we split up," said Red, "It seems to be the only way to make sure none of them are left alone long enough to multiply."

"That's what we were doing, and now we ran out of goons." I said.

"So, Yellow," said Red, "If there are eight Replicators and four of us, how many do each of us get?"

"Don't make me hit you this thing." said Yellow, raising his hammer warningly.

"The answer is two, by the way..." muttered Green.

"Let's squash them like bugs!" bellowed Yellow, preparing to charge forward again.

"Don't do that..." said Red, "Remember what happened last time?"

"Oh, yeah..."

"On my word, we'll all go together, okay?"

We all nodded. Even Yellow seemed to understand why we had accepted Red as our leader so quickly. Because he was a natural. He wasn't necessarily the best fighter, but his mind was a like a super computer.

"Now!" shouted Red.

I reached my Replicators first and practically pounced on them, landing with my sais stuck in their chests. They started shaking convulsively and then they imploded, which shocked me, because once they were gone, I fell to the ground as my platform vanished. I looked around, eager to see how the others handled their pair of Replicators.

Yellow had apparently lifted his mallet high over his head as he had ran towards his targets, because he was now checking the head of his weapon to see if there was any Replicator goo while pinning the second one to the ground with his foot. When he was sure there was nothing to clean up, he crushed the remaining Replicator's head without ever standing up.

Green seemed to be trying to copy moves from "The Matrix", which only didn't work because there wasn't enough Replicators for him to work with. I watched as he twirled his spear above his head, like he was trying to fly like a helicopter, before he stabbed one Replicator with the sharp end and flip it around in flash to stab the other one.

Lastly, Red was locked in combat with his only remaining foe. Their weapons were clashing. The Replicator was using two sleek daggers while Red was using his sword. At first, it seemed as though the Replicator was going to overpower him, until Red pivoted away and swung his sword blindly. When he peered over his shoulder to see, I could hear him chuckle triumphantly as the both halves of the Replicator fell to the ground.

"Nice job everyone." said Silver, hopping out of the car, "Especially you, Red. I knew you could do it."

"Apparently, so did I." said Red.

"The Digitizers work perfectly," said Silver, "Now you just need to get the hang of those powers."

"Well look who it is!" jeered a high-pitched voice that sounded like that of an evil clown.

We all turned around and gasped as we saw that there was a man standing behind us. He could only be Trojan. His veins appeared to be visible on the outside of his skin, but rather than being round and smooth, his veins were straight lines with corners almost liked a circuit. His whole body had the same texture and appearance of our weapons and codecs. Over his right eye was a hunk of metal with a menacing red light that was blinking randomly. His hair was thin and greasy, which along with the overall unkempt appearance of him, implied that he rarely ever bathed. His left cheek had a nasty "X" shaped scar and he was wearing a thick, black leather trench coat over top of a white office shirt with a tie patterned with binary. Not quite what I was expecting...

"Long time, no see, Aaron." said Silver.

"Is that anyway to address a king?"

"You're no king... You're a monster; a heartless, murderous monster!"

"Stick and stones, Stephen, sticks and stones."

"Silver, how can he be here if he's in Cyberspace?" I said.

Trojan was scary. Not in a traditional sense, but in a more disturbing sense. When you looked at him, you could basically see everything evil about him. It was like his humanity was gone and all Trojan is some kind of empty shell.

"He IS in Cyberspace. What we're seeing is a holographic image." said Silver.

Red suddenly swung his sword at the holograph. It made contact, and made the image go all weird.

"Then why can I attack it?" asked Red.

"When you morph, you become digital, just like the holograph," said Silver, "So, because your ranger powers exist in the same dimension as the holograph, you can touch it... Watch."

Silver stepped forward until he was standing inside the image of Trojan.

"I can't touch him, because I'm not in the same dimension as him." he said.

"Is it actually talking to us, or is it just some sort of recording?" asked Yellow.

"I don't know. But when Red attacked it, I think he paused it." said Silver.

Just then, the hologram appeared to reset itself. You could actually see it happen.

"I didn't choose the name, you know. But, when you use your skills to create a new form of life from something that never had a real brain, it tends to cause things to worship you." said the Holograph.

"What kind of king manipulates his followers into being sent to a different dimension?" I asked, in disgust.

"The ones who believe in their cause, the ones who go down in history as being tyrants, the ones who people learn to fear..."

"Aaron, have you met my army yet?" asked Silver, "It might not be a big as yours, but something tells me it's still stronger."

"You expect me to be afraid of four mortals in technicolour spandex?"

"Not right away, no," said Silver, "Once you understand what they're capable of, then, maybe."

"I FEAR NOTHING!" screamed the holograph.

As the holograph vanished, it must have released a shockwave of something. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to knock us off our feet and revert us back into our civilian forms.

"What the hell was that?" wheezed Oz.

"I think it was some sort electromagnetic pulse." said Silver, who hadn't been affected by the shockwave at all.

"You mean an EMP?" said Riley, getting to his feet.

"It would explain why it didn't do anything to me."

"There was no way that was a recording, Silver," I said, "It was actually talking to us. It even knew when to disappear and attack us with that electro thing."

"This is bad," He said, "His powers are getting stronger every day."

"So will ours," said Riley, "You said it yourself earlier, Silver. Cyberspace is constantly expanding. If these codecs were created from Cyberspace, then their powers should too."

"No, Riley, the codecs are no longer IN Cyberspace, so, they can only get stronger over time. The more you use them, the stronger the bond between you and your codecs will become." said Silver.

"Well, whatever!" said Riley, "With the four of working together, there's nothing that can stand in our way!"

"I really hope you're right, Riley..." said Silver, ushering us back into the car.