Headquarters, Sector 0
Metro City, Canada
May 16th, 2015
8:13 AM
"Heath "Oz" Ostreicher"
"Remind me again why you didn't ask Riley to help you rebuild Headquarters?" I asked, grunting as I lifted what seemed to be an enormous box full of blinking lights.
"Because Riley has a fractured rib and isn't as strong as you are when unmorphed." said Silver.
"Be careful with that, Oz," said Jenna, "That's the server for Headquarters. If any of those wires comes unplugged, Stephen will have to reconfigure the whole thing."
"Hey, you called me Oz," I said, putting the server box down gently where she was pointing, "I figured you'd call me Heath, like Silver always does."
"Nope," said Jenna, "Stephen calls everyone by their proper names. It's just a sign of respect. He claims he doesn't really grasp the whole 'nickname' concept."
"But he gave himself the nickname of Silver," I said, "So he must sort of grasp it."
"That's why I always call him Stephen to bug him." said Jenna.
"Heath was my father's name," I said, "When I was a kid and my Dad was around, I didn't mind being named after him. But then when he left, even hearing his name, which is also my name, just made my blood boil."
There was a loud rumble outside. It hadn't stopped raining since the Renegade beat us. Yet all the weather forecasts never seemed to mention the thunderstorms. Just then I noticed that Jenna had sort of jumped when the thunder echoed.
"Stupid thunder..." she muttered.
"Just ignore it," said Silver, to her, "It can't get you from down here."
"I know that," she said, "But I still don't like it."
"Are you afraid of thunderstorms?" I asked her.
"No," said Jenna, "Just the noise it makes."
"You're just like my little sister." I said, chuckling.
About five minutes later, Riley and Rachel teleported into Headquarters. They were holding hands again, and looked well rested. Riley didn't seem to be in as much pain.
"How goes the rebuilding?" asked Rachel.
"Not too bad," said Jenna, "Oz has been helping us."
"I didn't know you knew anything about computers and technology." said Riley.
"I don't," I said, "But I do know how to pick up and carry things."
"As of now, the Mainframe can monitor all of the rangers remotely as well as allow me to communicate with them," said Silver, "I've also got all of the cameras back online."
"And I'm just putting the finishing touches on the virus detector and tracker." said Jenna, who cowered again when another loud rumble echoed throughout Headquarters.
I looked over to Riley who had noticed that Jenna was hiding.
"What's wrong with her?" he mouthed.
"She doesn't like thunder." I mouthed back.
The sirens in Headquarters began blaring and all the lights went off. Halfway through this, yet another deafening crash of thunder drowned out the sirens temporarily.
"Looks like Trojan is at it again," said Silver, "I'm paging the others now."
Marcus and Chloe teleported in to Headquarters moments later.
"You rang?" asked Marcus.
"There's a virus in Sector 9," said Silver, "Get there as quick as you can."
"That's the business district," said Marcus, "Lots of tall buildings."
"Be careful of the storm," said Jenna, "Remember that most viruses can feed on electricity."
"Oz, I'm staying behind this time," said Riley, "You're in charge until my ribs heal."
"What? Why me?" I asked.
"If you don't want to do it, then Rachel will be in charge." said Riley.
"No, I'll do it." I said.
I wasn't afraid or nervous when he put me in charge. I was confused. I figured that if Riley ever needed a break, that he would pick Rachel or Marcus to fill in for him. He's known Rachel his entire life, and as such, trusts her implicitly. He hasn't known Marcus as long, but they've been friends for years. Whereas I've only been 'friends' with him for a few months. He told me that he wanted me to be in charge, and I have no problem stepping up to the plate. I just can't figure out why Riley chose me.
"If I were you I'd teleport to the roof of this building," said Silver, "It's a great vantage point. Wherever the virus is, you should be able to see it from up there."
We wasted no time. After Silver indicated where he thought we should go on his map of the city, we got into our trademark formation and teleported up through the roof of Headquarters.
We arrived on the roof within a few seconds. From up here, lightning looked very different. More lethal, more menacing.
"I was wondering when you'd show up." said a familiar voice.
It was the Renegade. Is this guy ever NOT morphed?
"As much as I'd like to, I don't have time to mop the floor with you right now." he said.
"What are you doing up here?" I asked.
"I tracked a virus into this sector," he said, "Now I'm watching to see what it does."
"Does this mean you're on our side?" asked Rachel.
"I will never join you," said the Renegade, "I'd rather die than be a pathetic lap dog."
"But you're after the same virus that we are." said Marcus.
"I'm stronger than all of you put together," said the Renegade, "I don't need or want your help."
"Good, because we don't need or want to help you either." I said.
"I like you, you've got a backbone, unlike the rest of them," said the Renegade, "You're not afraid to stand up for yourself, and I respect that."
"Thanks... I guess?"
"I see you're still a man down," he said, "Good riddance. He was a pushover anyways."
"You take that back!" said Rachel.
"And if I don't?" asked the Renegade.
"You'll be sorry," said Rachel, who seemed to be trembling in anger, "Riley is twice the man you'll ever be."
"You're only saying that because you love him," said the Renegade, "Don't bother hiding it Tinkerbell, I can smell it all over you."
"Don't you have a city to terrorize?" I asked.
"The city can wait," said the Renegade, "These viruses can't though. If I wait too long to destroy them, it will make Trojan seem more powerful than me. And I can't have that. If I ever hope to conquer this city, then the people need to depend on me and despise me at the same time."
"What about us?" asked Chloe.
"Eventually I'll destroy you too," said the Renegade, "But you're not my top priority right now."
"Good," I said, "Then you won't mind if we go destroy that virus."
"If you want to destroy that virus, you'll have to go through me to do it."
"Is that a challenge?" I asked.
"Only if you have a death wish." said the Renegade.
"Oz what the hell are doing!?" asked Marcus.
"What does it look like?" I said, "Standing up to a bully."
"This should be fun..." said the Renegade.
"I hope you know what you're doing..." muttered Marcus.
"Ready?" I asked.
"Ready!" said the others.
"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" we shouted together.
Now that we were all morphed, the four of us plus the Renegade actually looked pretty good together. We were missing Red, and of course the Renegade hated our guts.
"Download weapon!" called the Renegade.
"Download weapon!" we called in unison.
"Riley Bishop"
Jenna and I had been watching the whole encounter back in Headquarters. She had one of Silver's floating cameras positioned in Sector 9, only a few feet away from the others. I could see and hear everything. It was almost like I was there in person.
"Jenna, can I borrow you for a minute?" asked Silver.
She hurried over to his desk. I could hear what was going in Sector 9 and I could also hear what Silver was saying.
"Do you think this will work?" he asked.
"Hard to say," said Jenna, "Is this supposed to replace the original Virus Database you had? You know, before it almost succeeded in bringing down this entire operation."
"Yes," said Silver, "I'm trying to design it as a two part program. In order to work, the software needs to be running on one of the Mainframes, and then this smaller application needs to be able to relay any information back to the Mainframe."
"Can you make the Digitizers run the smaller application?" asked Jenna.
"Yes... Yes I can!" said Silver triumphantly.
"You're welcome." she said.
Jenna came back to watch live broadcast with me. I could see that the others had morphed already, but Oz seemed to be holding something behind his back.
"Jenna, can we freeze and magnify on this thing?"
"I think so..." she said, pulling out a remote, "How's this?"
The angle made it hard to tell what Oz was holding, but because he was holding it like you would hold a gun, I knew that's what it was. Or at least, it was something like a gun. It must be the Extractor. The device Silver gave me that he said was capable of draining some of the Renegade's power.
This is exactly why I put Oz in charge this time. Because out of all of us, he's the best fighter we have. In order to use the Extractor, you would probably have to be at point blank range, which means you would have to be able to either withstand or dodge attacks and Oz seemed like the most viable candidate to pull that off.
"Oz took the Extractor," I said, "I had a feeling he would."
"Heath "Oz" Ostreicher"
The Renegade had wasted no time. He went after me first, twirling his scythe in a showy manner. I think it was meant to distract people by psyching them out, but my years on the football team helped me focus. With a few quick nods of my head, I dodged his strikes with ease.
The others had left me to fight the Renegade while they went after the virus. At first, it seemed as though they might actually get away with it, but then almost as if he teleported, the Renegade appeared seemingly out of thin air in front of Blue and delivered a quick, but precise kick right in the chest. She was sent flying back, but Green caught her. These tall rooftops made for quite an interesting battlefield, as we could leap from one to the other like it was nothing.
I hadn't really noticed it until now, but all this heavy rain that we'd been having lately seemed to be emanating from the virus. Had it been causing all this weird weather right under our noses this whole time?
The Renegade went after Green next, he was able to block most of his attacks using his spear. Orange had her weapon in flail mode and was trying to sneak up behind the Renegade, but was struck from above by a bolt of lightning. She lost her balance and was about to fall off the building, but Blue pulled her back up while Green continued blocking as many of the Renegade's attacks as he could.
I needed to get closer to the action, so I leapt from building to building trying to stay out of the Renegade's sight. Just then, a powerful gust of wind blew me off course. I missed the jump and was about to plummet to the streets below, until a cyclone caught me.
"Silver!" I moaned as I was blown around and around by the cyclone, "We may be in over our heads here!"
"My new scanning software seems to work perfectly," said Silver into his headset, "You're facing the Weather Machine Virus, as you might expect, it can control any and all aspects of weather and use them as weapons."
"Does it have any weaknesses?" I groaned, "Ohhh... I hope I don't throw up in my helmet..."
"Yes and no," said Silver, "If I'm reading this right, it can only control one aspect at a time, and it becomes immune to whatever it's currently controlling."
"Okay, I need that dumbed down." I said.
"When it controls wind, wind can't hurt it," said Silver, "When it controls lightning, lightning can't hurt it."
"But if it controls wind, lightning can hurt it?" I asked.
"Yes, exactly," said Silver, "And vice versa."
"So, if we can somehow confuse it," I said, "We might be able to make it attack itself."
"Oz," said Jenna, "That won't work. It can't switch between weather elements while it's attacking, so there will never be an instance where it would be vulnerable to its own attack... Unless..."
"Unless what?"
"Unless you were to sabotage it," said Jenna, "Most weather machines that I know of contain very simple circuitry. If I could get up close to its back panel, I should be able to reverse the machine's polarity by swapping the cables around."
"But then we'd have to protect you from the Renegade AND the virus at the same time! With Red out of the picture, we're already outnumbered as it is!" I grunted, trying to free myself from the cyclone.
"Riley Bishop"
"Silver," I said, "Why don't you give Jenna the silver codec?"
"Because I don't have the Cyber Gene," said Jenna, "Even though it's synthetic, it's still bound to most of the same rules as the other non-synthetic ones."
"Then have Silver use it and he can protect you." I said, "This is our chance to finally defeat the Renegade, with me warming the bench, we can't afford to have any of the others go off on side missions."
"He's right Stephen," said Jenna, "Oz needs to get back to fighting the Renegade with the others, it's a miracle that Rachel, Chloe and Marcus have held him at bay this long as it is."
"Why don't you just stay behind with Riley and walk me through it?" asked Silver.
"Because then you'd only be focusing on the virus," said Jenna, "If I focus on the virus, and you focus on protecting me, then you'd be able to fill in for Riley."
"Efficiency over convenience?" asked Silver.
"Yeah." said Jenna.
"Alright." said Silver.
He went over to the two enormous vault doors and opened the one that he keeps all of his inventions in it. I saw the small inconspicuous black box that once held our four codecs. Now, it held only one.
As far as I knew, Silver had only ever used the silver codec once before to save us from the Television Virus, but that time I never saw him morph with it. Even though I knew it was inappropriate, I was mildly excited to see how it worked.
Silver took the black box and walked back towards the middle of Headquarters as the vault door closed behind him. He opened the box and pulled out the codec, which rather than insert into a Digitizer on his wrist, he just held in his hand.
"Don't you need a Digitizer?" I asked,
"If I used one then the codec would try to bond with me," said Silver, "And since it's synthetic and unstable, I have no idea what the side effects might be."
"Besides, if he bonded with it, he'd be obligated to join the team as a ranger." said Jenna.
"Jenna, stand back."
"Oh, right."
"SILVER POWER, ACTIVATE!" he shouted.
Silver did the same gesture we all do before morphing, only mirrored. And when he finished, there was sizeable explosion. I guess that's what he meant when he said it was unstable. If Jenna hadn't backed away, the blast would've hit her.
I also noticed that there was no cool spectacle to see when he morphed, like when we do. No binary, no tornadoes, no jumping. Instead, the suit just sort of materialized. Maybe because he hasn't bonded with the codec?
"Heath, I'm joining in this fight," said Silver, "I'll protect Jenna so she can work her magic on the Weather Machine Virus, so you can go help the others fight the Renegade."
"Easier said than done," I sighed, "I've been trapped in a cyclone since I called to ask about the Weather Machine Virus."
"Then I'll come get you out."
I noticed that the silver codec was nowhere to be found. It was almost as if the codec itself became the ranger suit that Silver was now wearing. He took Jenna's wrist and then stood in the same stance we do to teleport, except there was no Digitizer for him to touch.
Somehow, he was still able to teleport, leaving a silver trail of binary behind as he and Jenna flew up through the ceiling. All I could do now was sit back and watch.
"Heath "Oz" Ostreicher"
I could still see the fight between Blue, Green, Orange and the Renegade. Somehow they had managed to hang in there a lot longer than I expected. Maybe we got hit so hard last time because we weren't expecting the Renegade to be stronger than us.
On the other hand, the Renegade showed no signs of surprise. Either he doesn't care that we're putting up a better fight or he doesn't notice a difference. That arrogance of his really gets to you. Well, with any luck, he'll get his comeuppance soon. All I need is a clear shot at him and the Extractor will take him down a few pegs.
A stream of silver light soared up past me and my personal cyclone and landed on the rooftop I had been aiming for before I got caught in the wind. Silver was here to, hopefully, turn the tides.
Silver and Jenna were quite far away now, but our helmets have all kinds of fancy features to make it easier to see, like Infravision, night vision and even a zoom function. I zoomed in on the rooftop they were standing on and could see a machine huffing and puffing. If that was the Weather Machine Virus, it hadn't assumed it's true form yet.
Silver made his weapon appear in his hand, which was a four-pointed blade of some sort. He slashed at the virus, and I felt the effects instantly. The cyclone seemed to be dying down, and it spat me out onto the closest rooftop. I was finally free, so I leapt right back into action against the Renegade, who had just broken free from a weapon lock with Green.
As he broke away, he swiped at Orange and cut her shoulder. Blue retaliated by jabbing at his chest. The first few hits made contact, but then he blocked the others. This was my chance! He must not have seen me land behind him.
I pointed the Extractor directly at the small of his back and pulled the trigger. I wasn't sure if I needed to hold down the trigger, but I did it anyway in the heat of the moment. The Renegade writhed and flailed before collapsing to his knees. The Extractor had started to vibrate and smoke was coming from it, so I let go of the trigger.
"What's happening to me!?" groaned the Renegade, his voice didn't sound quite as deep anymore.
Green and Blue helped me surround the Renegade. Orange got to her feet and stood on his left. Now there was one of us on all four sides of him, and all of us had our weapons poised to strike. As we stood there, basking in our triumph, we saw another silver streak soar past us.
"The Weather Machine Virus is taken care of," came Silver's voice, "Jenna reversed the polarity of the wires. It should be powerless now!"
"You're not going to stay and watch the fireworks?" I asked,
"No, I need to get out of this suit as fast as I can," said Silver, "It's risky enough to use a codec without bonding to it, but to do it without a Digitizer..."
"A synthetic codec no less," said Jenna, "Trust me, it's better this way."
"If you say so." I said.
"Hey, Yellow?" asked Green, "What should we do about him?"
The Renegade still seemed to be in pain. It was now or never, I took hold of my hammer with two hands, and swung it right at the Renegade's head to deliver the final blow. But he caught my attack at the last minute! Then, with a flourish of his scythe that was so fast that we could barely see what happened, he had knocked away all of our weapons.
"Fine, you won... This time," he said, "Even though you cheated."
"How did we cheat?" I asked, "Do tell."
"You did something to me that weakened me, and then you called in that silver guy to sabotage the virus while I was incapacitated," said the Renegade, "That's not playing fair."
"It's funny, but I don't remember you saying that there were any rules when we started," I said, "Admit it! You're just pissed off because you lost and didn't see it coming."
"If you hadn't weakened me, I would've won!" snarled the Renegade.
"Against us, sure," said Blue, "But Silver still would've been able to sabotage the virus."
"This just proves that being powerful isn't enough," said Orange, "Think about how strong we could be as a team if you joined us."
"Exactly," said Green, "Because in the end, it was teamwork that beat you."
"The one thing you claim you don't need." said Blue.
"This proves nothing!" screamed the Renegade.
He teleported away, but there was no tell tale trail of binary to indicate which direction he went this time.
"What a sore loser..." I chuckled.
"I can't believe he got away." said Orange.
"Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time," said Blue, "If nothing else, we learned that underneath all that arrogance and extra strength, the Renegade isn't really much different than us."
"It's not hopeless," I said, "As long as we have the Extractor, we stand a chance."
"Rangers! Don't forget about the Weather Machine Virus." said Silver.
"Oh yeah," said Green, "Let's finish it off with the VR."
Our weapons disintegrated and turned into a flurry of data. The four different swarms combined and reshaped until they solidified into the Virus Reaper.
"Virus Reaper, online!" we announced in unison.
I grabbed one of the handles as we took aim. The familiar laser sight showed us the path the bolt would follow once we pulled the trigger.
"Four…" said Orange.
"Three…" said Blue.
"Two…" said Green.
"One…" I said.
"FIRE!" we shouted together.
With an electronic twanging sort of sound, the VR shot the bolt. There was a loud boom as the bolt broke the sound barrier. The bolt of pure data went right through the virus and then returned to us like a boomerang.
It became rigid and fell backwards, exploding when it the ground. During this time, the VR disappeared and we struck a pose.
"It's just like riding a bike." I said.
A torrent of binary showed up and rained code onto the spot where the virus had just exploded and a percentage bar appeared next to it. This could only mean one thing. Trojan was making it bigger.
"Silver," I said, "It's time for the Zords!"
"They're ready when you are." he said.
"Download Marlin Zord!" called Blue.
"Download Falcon Zord!" called Orange.
"Download Gorilla Zord!" called Green.
"Download Rhino Zord!" I called.
The Data Zords materialized before us quickly. We all jumped into our respective ones.
"Commence Megazord transformation sequence!" I said.
I felt myself being pulled away from the cockpit and I got a bird's eye view as piece by piece, the Data Zords transformed until they were all properly attached in their designated locations. Since we were without Riley, Orange's Falcon Zord became a substitute again. It formed the same powerful claw as when it filled in for the Marlin Zord, only this time it was became the left arm. Then a few excess pieces from the Falcon Zord detached to finish off the head.
"Cyberspace Megazord, online!" we announced together.
"We'll be twice as lethal this time," said Orange, "We've got the Marlin Sword and the Falcon Claw!"
The Weather Machine Virus looked completely different now. This must be it's true form.
"Now that the virus has assumed it's true form, it has a whole new set of abilities," said Jenna, "Damn! So much for my sabotage theory."
"What about weaknesses?" asked Blue.
"I doesn't have any," said Silver, "But it also doesn't have any immunities."
"Tonight's forecast: A 100% chance of severe thunderstorms!" shouted the Virus.
The clouds were already stormy, but as the virus spoke, they seemed to get even worse. Deafening thunder rumbled constantly and vicious winds started to blow.
"It's going to take a lot more than that to stop us, right?" asked Blue, "Yellow, try making us walk forward."
"I already am!" I grunted, "The wind is too strong!"
"Then we need to find a way to attack it without moving."
"Of course," I said, "Silver, we need the nail gun!"
"But without the Fox Arm, there's no way for the Megazord to hold onto it." he said.
"No problem," said Orange, "My falcon is the ultimate substitute, remember?"
Orange pushed some buttons on her control panel. Much to Silver's surprise, the Falcon Zord transformed again. The claw reassembled itself into a makeshift hand, it looked more or less like the hand of the Fox Arm.
"I should've known," said Silver, "The nail gun is downloading as we speak."
We could actually watch as it gradually materialized in the Megazord's hand.
"Auxiliary weapon, online." said Orange.
A bolt of lightning shot out of the clouds, missing the Megazord by less than an inch.
"Hasn't anybody ever told you, rangers?" cackled the Virus, "Never bring a gun to a lightning fight!"
More lightning shot out of the clouds. One bolt hit the rhino horn on the Megazord's foot, another hit the Megazord's shoulder, then the next two missed.
"Hurry, Orange! Take the shot!" called Green.
She pounded a button on her control panel and the nail gun fired one nail. Orange hit the button again and again, leaving as little time in between shots fired as possible.
All of the nails seemed to be heading right for either the virus' head or chest, but then the virus raised its arms slowly and dramatically, and the nails were blown off course by a gust of wind.
The virus laughed as if to taunt us.
"Crap!" said Orange, slamming her fist down on her control panel, "I'm out of ammo!"
Her fist must've landed on the trigger button, because it shot another nail that went right through the virus' eye. It had been busy laughing and was caught off guard.
"Or the gun was jammed." said Orange.
Several minutes later we were on the streets of Sector 9 in civilian form and the Megazord was gone.
"Oz, can I see the Extractor?" asked Rachel.
"Sure." I said
I felt around in my pocket for it, but I didn't feel anything.
"I could've sworn I put it away when I saw there was smoke coming from it." I said.
"You lost it!?" asked Rachel, "You lost our secret weapon against the Renegade!?"
"I didn't lose it, I just can't find it!"
"That's the same thing!" snapped Rachel.
"Maybe this isn't such a big deal," said Marcus, "Silver can probably just make another one."
"For your sake, you had better hope he's right, Oz!"