Headquarters, Sector 0
Metro City, Canada
May 20th, 2015
10:55 PM
"Marcus Reynolds"
The teleportation trip back to Headquarters felt like it had taken hours. I had so many questions, but I knew that now would not be a good time to ask them. Jenna seemed to be alright, it was obvious that she had been tortured, but yet she seemed to be in better shape than Riley all things considered.
Once we were back, Silver went over to the bed area. He was carrying the unconscious Jenna in his arms, while Oz was carrying the unconscious Riley.
"What the hell happened to him, Silver?" I asked, unable to hold it in.
"I have no idea," he said, "It was unlike anything I've ever seen."
"Did everybody else see that weird black lightning?" asked Chloe.
"I thought it was just me." said Oz.
"Set him down over there." said Silver.
I hadn't seen those beds since Riley was infected with that computer chip. The fact that we didn't need them very often was a good thing though. It meant that we were getting better at this. Riley does seem to be awfully unlucky though. First the computer chip, then his fractured rib and now this...
Jenna seemed to react when Silver put her down on a bed. Her eyes almost seemed like they wanted to open and she let out a weak moan. Once she was on the bed, Silver scurried off to get a first aid kit and a wet sponge. He proceeded to dab at her cuts with the sponge to clean them up.
"What's wrong with Riley?" sobbed Rachel.
She seemed to be in shock or something. She hadn't spoken since Riley was struck by the black lightning.
"Sawyer..." muttered Jenna, weakly.
"What about him?" asked Chloe.
"Sawyer's codec..." she moaned, "It's malfunctioning..."
"But we already knew that, didn't we?" I asked.
"No," said Silver, "We knew his codec was controlling him."
"Doesn't that amount to the same thing?" asked Oz.
"Not really," said Silver, "Up until now, Sawyer's codec was doing exactly what we theorized a larger codec would do without a Digitizer to keep it stabilized."
"But now?" I asked.
"It reacts differently to the Extractor," said Jenna, wearily, "That's what triggered what you saw in the cabin."
Well at least she was awake now.
"Go back to sleep," whispered Silver, "Rest first, explain later."
"Breathing hurts more than talking." she said.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small notepad.
"Sawyer helped me get information." she said.
Silver flipped through the notepad and bit his lip anxiously. Jenna swatted him in the knee when she saw him.
"Don't bite your lips," she scolded, "Do you want them to crack?"
Silver chuckled and then smiled at her. This must be some sort of long running joke with them.
"According to this," said Silver, "Sawyer's codec is self-aware."
"What does that mean?" asked Oz, "That its aware of itself?"
"In a way," said Silver, "It means that the codec is aware that it's a codec. It now understands that it's limited to what it can do without a body."
"So that means it's malfunctioning?" I asked.
"Yes, because it's defying its purpose for existing," said Silver, "Codecs aren't meant to have bodies of their own. They're meant to give power to whoever the Master Codec deems worthy."
"Everything comes back to the fact that Sawyer doesn't have a Digitizer," said Jenna, "If he had had one from the beginning, none of this would've happened."
"But can we still solve everything by giving him a Digitizer?" asked Chloe.
"I don't think so," said Silver, "It's probably too late now."
"The codec has been able to gradually grow stronger for too long," said Jenna, "It would probably be able to resist the Digitizer. Just like how it can resist the Extractor now."
"The only thing we can do now is try to keep Sawyer away from that codec," said Silver, "It's the only way to prevent the codec from permanently stealing his body."
This was all too much for me. I felt like I needed some fresh air. I mean just a few days ago I met Sawyer. He was the last person any of us would've expected to be the Renegade. I was so sure it was Sebastian.
And now Silver tells us that it's too late to stop the Renegade? Great. That's just perfect. Oh, but wait, he's also going to be even stronger than he already is, making our only effective weapon completely useless against him! Then to make matters worse, we still have Trojan to deal with. Now, in the middle of all this, Riley is out of action again just when he had gotten back into it.
"If you guys don't need me," I said, "I'm going to for a walk and clear my head."
"Go ahead," said Silver, "Take your time."
I jogged up the stairs and out the front door. We rarely use the front door of Silver's mansion. We mostly just teleport directly into the basement.
When I stepped outside and closed the door behind me, there was a moment wherein I really hoped that the Renegade would be waiting for me. If I had to confront him, I'd rather just have it be right now. But then I remembered that he'd mop the floor with us. On my own, I stood four or five times less of a chance against him.
At least it had finally stopped raining. The clouds had completely cleared up, which meant that I could lay down in the grass and look at the stars if I wanted to. As it turns out, I did want to. The lawn of the mansion is great for that because it's big enough for all of us to lay on at once. It wouldn't even be crowded.
As I got into position, I let myself take in the smell of the grass and fresh air. I instantly started feeling a bit better. I let my mind wander and just savoured the moment. Gradually I started to doze off a little. I hadn't been able to get much sleep since the Renegade showed up. I suppose the same could be said for the others too.
I'm not sure how much later, I opened my eyes. I hope I hadn't been asleep for too long. I made my way back inside, stretching and rubbing my eyes. Well, at least I felt better.
When I got back down to Headquarters I could see that Silver was now examining Riley. He had some sort of machine hooked up to his head.
"His vitals are strong," said Silver, "He's probably just unconscious."
Silver removed the device from Riley's head. Then he removed the Digitizer from his wrist and brought it over to his computer. He took Riley's codec out of the case and connected it to the Mainframe's central computer. On the screen, we could see a fully rendered model of the red codec, but there was something strange about the way it looked.
"Oh no..." muttered Silver.
Jenna gingerly got out of her bed and walked slowly over to the monitor.
"You should be in bed." said Silver.
"I know," said Jenna, "Scooch over, I want to see."
I followed Oz and Chloe over to the monitor so that I could see for myself what was wrong. We all knew that nothing good had ever happened when Silver says something like that. Especially if he just lets his voice trail off.
"Oh my god..." muttered Jenna.
"What?" asked Oz.
"If I'm seeing this right," said Silver, "Riley's codec has been corrupted."
"What do you mean by corrupted?" I asked.
"It's not a physical corruption, per say," said Jenna, "But based on this scan, Riley's codec is starting to behave just like Sawyer's."
"Is that a bad thing?" asked Chloe, "He has a Digitizer, so it doesn't matter, does it?"
"It's bad," said Silver, "The Digitizers aren't capable of protecting your codecs. All they do is keep them stable and allow them to release their excess energy safely."
"How could something like this have happened?" I asked.
"I'm not entirely sure what happened back at the cabin," said Jenna, "But Sawyer and the Renegade were fighting for control of Sawyer's body. It got to the point where they were stuck halfway between identities. Both Sawyer and the Renegade were controlling the body at the same time."
"Like Jekyll and Hyde?" asked Chloe.
"Exactly," said Jenna, "Except both personalities were present at the same time. I didn't know what else to do, so I fired the Extractor at them. The blast hit them and that's what caused what you saw in the cabin."
"But why would the Extractor do that?" asked Oz.
"I have no idea, but it was probably just a single occurrence that will likely never happen again," said Jenna, "It almost seemed like the energy from the Extractor rebounded and produced the hologram we saw."
"How could a hologram attack Riley like that?" asked Rachel.
She hadn't said anything since we got back. But it seemed like now that she knew what was wrong with him, she could relax, at least a little bit. She let go his hands and tucked him in to the small bed gently, and then came to join us in the middle of the room.
"It wasn't the hologram," said Silver, "Since Riley wasn't morphed at the time, he wouldn't have been able to touch the hologram, which means it can't be what hurt him."
"Then what did?" I asked.
"I might be partially to blame," said Jenna, "I never should've used the Extractor on Sawyer, he wasn't technically morphed, but he also wasn't technically in civilian form either."
"You had just been tortured Jenna, no one blames you." said Rachel.
"That's not the point," she said, "The point is that the Extractor malfunctioned and wasn't able to neutralize the energy it drained from Sawyer's codec. Then that energy got trapped inside the trinium until it reached critical mass and broke free."
"And then that energy latched on to the closest thing it could find," said Silver, "Which at the time, I suppose was Riley's codec."
"But why would it latch on?" asked Oz, "What would that accomplish?"
"It was just survival instinct at first," said Silver, "It was being kept alive in the form of pure energy, but when that energy was released, it knew it would cease to exist along with the rest of the energy. So, it jumped onto something else to try and stay alive."
"But if Sawyer's codec has an evil personality inside it, doesn't that mean that the energy that was drained from it would also have that same evil personality in it?" I asked.
"It certainly looks that way," said Silver, "That's probably what we saw on the scans."
"So how do we get rid of it?" asked Rachel.
"I have no idea," said Silver, "Right now, only a small portion of his codec is corrupted."
"And just like with Sawyer's codec, the corruption will rapidly start spreading until it completely infects the red codec," said Jenna, "Which will interfere with his Digitizer's ability to keep the codec under control."
"If that happens, he'd be no different than the Renegade Ranger." I said.
"I know," said Silver, "Which is why, until I can figure out a way to reverse the process, I'm taking Riley off active duty. The less he uses his codec, the better."
The monitor went all fuzzy and then when it cleared, there was a video signal instead of the scan of Riley's codec. It was the Renegade. Somehow he had hacked into one of Silver's floating camera drones to talk to us.
"Hello lap dogs," he said, "I hope this isn't a bad time."
"It is, actually," said Silver, "Riley's codec is starting to malfunction."
"I think you have it backwards," said the Renegade, "His codec is finally starting to work properly. The way it should have from the start."
"Did you do something to him?" asked Rachel.
"Not intentionally," said the Renegade, "But it does sound like something I would do."
"Tell me how to reverse it!" snarled Rachel, getting as close to the screen as possible by standing on the computer desk.
"You're feisty," said the Renegade, "I like that. But, sweetheart, even if I did know how to reverse it, what makes you think that I would want to?"
Rachel had no response. Instead she just kind of glared at him through gritted teeth and hopped down off the desk.
"Anyways," said the Renegade, "The reason I'm calling is because I thought you should know that I'm at the Mega Mall right now. There's plenty of people here to fight, but so far none of them have put up a better fight than you."
"Is that a challenge?" I asked.
"Yeah," said the Renegade, "Except this time, you don't have the Extractor. Which means this time, we'll get to find out, once and for all, who the better ranger is."
"Get going," said Silver, "Jenna will keep an eye on Riley."
We arranged ourselves in the middle of Headquarters.
"Ready?" asked Rachel.
"Ready!" said the others.
"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" we shouted together.
We wasted no time and immediately teleported to the Mega Mall in Sector 10. It was named that for a reason. This mall was enormous and took up most of the sector. Of course, every sector in Metro City except for a few exceptions, have some residential areas in them. Even Sector 10, which is predominantly the shopping district.
The Mega Mall, and all of its stores, excluding the theatre, were open 24/7. It had three floors, there was the first floor, which had a large food court and contained all of the clothing based stores. Then the floor above that was where you'd find electronics stores, book stores, cosmetics stores, video game stores, movie stores, music stores, pet stores or toy stores. The top floor contained an arcade and a theatre. On the main floor there was also a fountain that had a spout which could shoot water as high as the third floor. There was also a giant, elaborate clock that was a tall as the third floor as well.
When we arrived, we were on the main floor and could see the Renegade on the floor above. We hopped over to the escalators, dodging terrified shoppers as they ran for safety. He knew we were behind him, but he didn't turn to face us immediately.
"You came," he said, "Right on schedule..."
"You didn't leave us much of a choice," said Blue, "You threatened to hurt people."
"And so of course, you needed to come to their rescue."
"I'm surprised Sawyer hasn't tried to stop you." I said.
"Sawyer is gone!" snapped the Renegade.
"So he's dead?" asked Orange.
"No, not dead," said the Renegade, "But he might as well be. He's just taken a permanent backseat. I'm too strong for him to break free anymore."
"I don't believe you," said Blue, "He has to be in there, somewhere!"
"You don't have to believe it," said the Renegade, "It's still true."
"How could you?" I asked, "Sawyer was a good person."
"There's no such thing," said the Renegade, "Good and evil are just points of view."
"I've had enough of this!" snarled Yellow, "You brought us here to fight, so let's fight!"
"So be it."
"Download weapon!" we called.
"Download weapon!" called the Renegade.
Yellow dashed forward, leading with his hammer. He swung at the Renegade, who leaned out of the way and counterattacked by kicking him in the back. I used my spear and hoisted myself into the air. While the Renegade had his back to me, I landed on him, and jabbed at his back with my weapon several times.
He grunted, so I knew my attacks landed, but it didn't really slow him down. He broke free and rolled away, only to get walloped in the face from Orange's flail. He was momentarily stunned, so Blue got in a few good hits with her sais.
"Now this is more like it!" chuckled the Renegade.
Yellow got in a mighty blow as well, and sent the Renegade flying up through the floor above us with an uppercut. He was now on the third floor, which meant the only way we could get to him was to run over to the escalators.
As we ran, we could hear the Renegade laughing. It didn't sound like he was mocking us, it sounded more like he was enjoying the fight too much.
"Has he completely lost his mind?" asked Yellow.
"No," I said, "I think this is genuinely fun for him."
"But he's losing!" said Orange.
"No," I said, "He's toying with us."
When we got to the top floor, the Renegade was on his feet again. He looked right at us, and then threw his scythe at me, but I saw it in slow motion and was able to dodge it. Then he kicked me hard in back, and I was sent flying a few feet. He never meant for his scythe to hit me, he just used it as a distraction to get behind me.
"Green!" yelped Blue.
"I'm fine!" I called, getting to my feet.
Orange threw her flail at the Renegade, but he just stood there because it looked like she hadn't thrown it far enough, until it tangled itself around his legs. The Renegade lost his balance, which allowed for me and Yellow land a few good blows. Yellow was ready to hit him hard, but the Renegade grabbed the head of his hammer and pushed it away. Yellow tripped over the railing of the walkway and fell down through the floor of the second level, landing hard on his back near the base of the giant clock. Yellow was defeated. We could see that he had de-morphed. It looked like his hammer actually fell on him.
The Renegade ran down and picked him up, using his superior speed to make sure we couldn't get to Oz first.
"Come here, big fella," said the Renegade as he lifted Oz up with one hand, "Wouldn't want you miss all the action."
He sped back up to the top floor and dropped Oz unceremoniously up against the wall of the theatre, meanwhile, Orange retrieved her flail and regrouped with Blue and I.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall." chuckled the Renegade.
Orange threw her flail again, but this time the Renegade caught it by the handle and threw it right back at her, it hit her square in the chest, having doubled in speed from when she originally threw it. She was launched off her feet and hit the wall that the unconscious Oz was now propped up against. She also de-morphed, but was still awake.
"Two down, two to go..." said the Renegade.
"Great, as if he wasn't bad enough before, now he's spouting clichés." I said.
He advanced on us, his scythe poised menacingly. It was hard to concentrate, knowing that we were already two rangers down. Three, if you count Riley.
"Come on," said the Renegade, "Don't wimp out on me now. This was just starting to get interesting."
"You disgust me." said Blue.
"Sticks and stones, darling." he said.
Blue kicked him hard in the groin, and he was down, gasping for air.
"You don't get to call me that," she spat, "I'm not your sweetheart and I'm not your darling."
"Blue, take it easy," I said, "This shouldn't be personal for you."
She didn't answer. Instead she strode over to him and was ready to stab him in the chest with her weapon, but the Renegade grabbed her arm and twisted it hard.
"Don't take this the wrong way," said the Renegade, still gasping a little, "But you hit like a girl."
Blue tried to retaliate, but the Renegade was too fast. He let go of her arm and then within a fraction of a second, spun her around a sliced her right across the chest with his scythe. She screamed, but most of it was muffled by the sound of her de-morphing. The Renegade tossed her aside, and she landed near the same wall as Oz and Chloe, clutching at her chest.
Now it was just me. I knew it, and so did the Renegade. I raised my spear, because if I was going to go down, I wanted to go down fighting. Just then, a silver streak of binary landed right in between the Renegade and I.
"Thought you could use some help," said Silver, who was in ranger form.
"The more the merrier," said the Renegade, "No matter how many of you there are, you'll all go down just the same!"
Silver slashed at him with that strange, four-sided blade thing. The Renegade was caught off guard and jumped away, rubbing the place where Silver had cut him. I vaulted over the Renegade so that I was blocking his escape from the other side of the walkway.
The Renegade approached Silver, and they started duelling one on one. They were equally matched, blocking each other's attacks with ease, until the Renegade hit Silver in the chest with his knee. Silver dropped his weapon and it landed in the fountain two levels below.
Scythe raised high, the Renegade prepared to deliver the final blow to Silver, but I intervened, stabbing at his back with my spear. This gave Silver enough time to hold out his hand and recall his weapon. The Renegade turned towards me, so Silver sliced and diced him while his back was turned.
The Renegade dropped to his knees, so I came over and tried to hold him down, but he still had enough strength to pick me up and throw me behind him. Silver was ready to attack again but in an instant, the Renegade got to his feet again. He grabbed Silver's blade and threw it at me. I struck me right in the chest. I felt myself power down and collapse to the floor.
Silver had no time to react. The Renegade slashed him with his scythe, which was enough to power Silver down too.
I must have passed out for a minute, because the next thing I knew, all five of us were arranged in a small heap up against the same wall.
"Good, you're all awake," said the Renegade, "It's no fun killing people when they're unconscious."
"You're going to kill us?" I asked, "Just like that?"
"You lap dogs are like herpes," said the Renegade, "No matter how many times I get rid of you, you just keep coming back, more annoying than ever."
"What if we were to promise to stay out of your way?" asked Silver.
"I trust you as much as I trust meteorologists." said the Renegade.
"So there's no talking our way out of this, then?" asked Chloe.
"Nope," said the Renegade, "But don't take it personally. It's just business."
"Somehow that doesn't make us feel much better." I said.
The Renegade raised his scythe high over his head and was about to bring it down, but someone who had snuck up behind him grabbed hold of the scythe. The Renegade moved aside to see who it was.
"Don't you want a chance to complete your collection?" asked Riley, pushing away the scythe.