Headquarters, Sector 0
Metro City, Canada
June 12th, 2015
5:00 PM

"Marcus Reynolds"

"Marcus, I can't find Riley. We're playing hide and seek, but I've been it for so long now." said Rachel.

Her two front teeth were missing, so it was adorable to hear how she talked. I didn't know her when she was that old.

"Well, I can't help you find him, that would be cheating." I said.

"But he could be cheating too! Normally I would've found him by now." she whined.

"Two wrongs don't make a right." I said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that just because Riley might be breaking the rules, that doesn't make it okay for you to break the rules too," I explained, "I mean, what if you do find him and it turns out he wasn't cheating?"

"I think I understand." said Rachel.

"Besides, I don't know where he is either." I said.

Sawyer was on one of the couches reading quietly. I guess because he started off a few years older than us, he's still a few years older than the others. I would say he's about 10 years old now, while the other are about 6 or 7.

Chloe and Oz were playing house in one of those toy house things that I bought specifically for the Lil' Rangers, as Jenna calls them, to play with.

Just then Chloe came bursting out of the toy house screaming. She ran away, probably to go find Jenna, who she had taken a liking to for some reason. I went over to the toy house and dragged Oz out of it.

"What did you do to her?" I asked sternly.

"We were pretending to give each other anniversary presents. So I thought it'd be funny to pull down my pants and give her my wiener as a present."

I glared at him disapprovingly.

"What? My friend's older brother did it when he was playing house with a girl and she took off her clothes too."

And I thought he was bad before he got reverted to a second grader.

"Marcus, there you are!" said Jenna.

She looked completely frantic. There was a look of panic and sorrow in her eyes that I'd never seen from her before. Even when we first met her, back when we were powerless, Jenna was always cheerful.

"I was helping Riley find a good hiding spot for hide and seek, and he..." she couldn't prevent a small whimper from escaping.

"He what?" I asked, "What happened, Jenna?"

Silver came up beside her and put his hand on her shoulder. Yet again, something that I've never seen him do before.

"He disappeared." said Silver.

"So you found him too good of a hiding spot?"

"No, I mean he literally disappeared," said Silver, "And that's coming from me, the guy who knows for a fact that disappearing is a molecular impossibility."

"We can't describe it any other way," said Jenna, "He just vanished into thin air."

Oops... Silly me! I'm bringing you guys in halfway through the story, aren't I? Sorry, I wasn't thinking clearly. Things have been a little crazy since the rangers started pulling a Benjamin Button. Let's back things up a bit. It all started four days ago...

I was continuing my chess lessons with everyone, except for Jenna, who already knew how to play and was pretty good. By now I was in Phase 2 of my lessons. Any time I teach chess, I like to start with the basics (Phase 1) first, such as the rules and how each piece moves.

Phase 2, is where we actually start playing to get accustomed to the game. I don't normally go farther than that, unless people actually ask for the advanced lessons, which is Phase 3. I was playing against Oz in a practice match when the sirens started wailing.

"There's a virus attacking the Clock Tower in Old Town."

"Our game will have to wait until later." I said to Oz.

"Just give me a second. I have to make move now or I'll forget what I had planned by the time we get back." he said.

"Your priorities seem to need a bit of tune up, Oz." said Silver.

"Wait a minute, did Silver just call him 'Oz'?" asked Chloe.

"Oh yeah, that's right, you guys wouldn't remember," said Oz, "During one of the loops, Silver and I came to an understanding about my nickname. He's on board now."

Oz moved his piece into place, then came over to join us in our hexagon shaped formation.

"Let's be smart about this, last time we went running after a virus, guns blazing, we all got stuck in a time loop and had to wait for Oz to break it." said Sawyer.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" asked Oz.

"I agree with you, Sawyer," said Riley, "Let's not morph until we know what we're dealing with."

"Be careful out there," said Silver, "There's something odd about this virus' signal."

When we arrived at the clock tower, there was nobody in sight. The clock tower itself didn't even work, nor had it worked for as long as I could remember. Rather than tearing it down, the mayor just left it there as a landmark, since it is a pretty distinctive part of Metro City's history.

"I'll bet it's up there." said Rachel.

"That can't be where it entered from though," said Chloe, "Trojan needs to use electronic devices to create the portals for his viruses."

"It could be that it entered somewhere else, but then went into to the tower to wait for us." said Riley.

"I would happily stay down here in case it isn't up there," said Oz, when we all looked at him curiously he blushed a little, "That tower gives me the heebie-jeebies, okay?"

"The fact that you just said heebie-jeebies gives me the heebie-jeebies." said Sawyer.

"How about I go up and look for the virus?" I asked, "If it's in there, I'll try and bring it down to you."

I power walked into the clock tower and began ascending the old spiral staircase, skipping every second step to speed things along. The stairs groaned and creaked, but held strong.

"Power Rangers! I've been waiting for you!" called a voice that echoed and sounded muffled, as if it was stuck inside of jar or something.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm just one ranger." I said.

"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" I shouted.

Now clad in my green ranger suit, I held out my hand.

"Download weapon!" I called.

My spear materialized in my hand, and I started twirling it around in front of the virus. It looked like an hourglass, but it couldn't be. Hourglasses aren't electronic devices.

It had an upside down face on the lower half of its body with a different expression as the currently right side up one on the top half. I would imagine it also had two more faces on its back in the same places as the ones on the front, but probably with two different emotions.

While still twirling my spear, I took a few steps forward, to see what the virus would do. It just stood there, watching me. Not wanting to risk falling into a trap, I stopped coming closer and threw my spear at it.

The virus roared in pain as my spear became lodged in its lower body, right between the eyes. The virus was standing by an open window, so I grabbed the other end of my spear and lifted it, bringing the virus along.

I positioned my spear so that it was sticking through the open window and the virus was now hanging from the spear where I had impaled it. Then I let go and it fell all the way to the ground near where the others were waiting.

I took a few steps back so that I could get a running start, then leapt through the window too, since I knew it wouldn't hurt me and it would be more fun and make a better entrance than just teleporting.

"Look what I found." I panted, getting to my feet.

"Doesn't seem like it put up much of a fight." said Riley.

"It didn't, actually, now that you mention it." I said.

"It looks like an hourglass." said Sawyer, stepping closer to examine it.

"Silver did say there was something odd about its signature." said Chloe.

"What do you think, Chief?" I asked, "Should we destroy it like usual?"

"I guess so," he said, "Whatever is weird about this thing probably won't matter anymore if we destroy it."

I watched as they arranged themselves into the trademark "V" formation.

"Ready?" asked Riley.

"Ready!" said the others,

As Sawyer said it, he pumped the clutch on his Digitizer.

"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" shouted Riley, Rachel, Oz and Chloe.

"RENEGADE, POWER UP!" shouted Sawyer.

Now we all had our suits on.

"Stay back you guys, I'm gonna go get my spear back." I called.

"It hasn't moved since you threw it down here," said Orange, "It might already be dead. Or, you know, the digital equivalent of dead."

I approached the virus apprehensively, but it looked as though Orange was right. It didn't even twitch or look at me as I got closer.

I was standing right next to it by now, and still nothing. So I relaxed a bit and reached for my spear, but it was stuck.

I struggled with it and kept moving it back and forth. Each time I felt it loosen a little.

"Maybe it's because you're not worthy?" jeered Yellow.

"Hilarious!" I yelled back, "I'll get it, it's just lodged in there more than I thought."

Finally, my spear came free. Moments later, a massive shockwave erupted from the virus that radiated out and struck the other rangers, but it missed me completely. I was so close to the virus that I was out of range.

"Power down." I said.

I ran over to Riley, who had de-morphed from the blast. But instead of Riley, I found a little boy wearing clothes and a pair of glasses several sizes too big for him. I could tell it was Riley though, because he looked like he had climbed straight out of some of his old photos in his house, which I've seen enough to recognize him.

I went over to each of the others in turn, who all seemed to have transformed into children as well.

"Silver, can you bring the car and pick us up?" I asked, speaking into my Digitizer, "We've got a bit of a situation here..."

And that's pretty much what happened. After that we had to go shopping for some clothes that would fit the rangers and make sure they had plenty of toys to play with. Let's go back to present day.

"So... Is it going to happen to the other Lil' Rangers?" I asked.

"If I had to guess, yes, eventually," said Jenna, "I think that because Riley is a few months younger, he vanished first."

"Right before it happened, he started flickering in and out. It was like he faded out of existence." said Silver.

"But we already beat the virus," I said, "How do we get Riley back?"

"I don't think we can..." said Jenna, her eyes started to glisten as the thought made her tear up.

Just then, Riley reappeared beside Jenna. Silver seemed like he just had an idea, and rushed off to his chair.

"Riley!?" she gasped, "Where have you been!?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, "I've been here the whole time. I was even talking to you, but nobody seemed to hear or see me."

Rachel ran over and tapped Riley on the shoulder.

"I found you! Now you're it!" she squealed, sounding delighted before running off.

"Hey, no fair I wasn't ready!" shouted Riley, chasing after her.

"Marcus, could you come here for a minute?" came Silver's voice.

I walked over to him.

"I think I know how to reverse the effects." he said.

"That's awesome, way to go!" I said.

"Somehow, Trojan found a way to bypass the restrictions for sending his viruses to our world," said Silver, "As you already know, he needs to use an electronic device of some sort because that's the only way he can open portals."

"Yeah, but where did those restrictions come from?" I asked, "Is it something you did when you banished him in Cyberspace?"

"No, those restrictions have existed since Cyberspace was first created. Think of it like a border between countries," said Silver, "You can cross if you have a passport, but they won't let you bring certain things across with you."

Jenna came over to join us.

"This is why Trojan needs to use electronic devices to get his viruses across the border. It's like them all having passports," she said, "If we destroy those viruses, Trojan can't make identical copies of them because that would be like forging new passports and the border would prevent the clone viruses from entering."

"So you're saying that somehow, Trojan managed to get a virus across the border without a passport?" I asked.

Normally when Silver and Jenna start explain using their fancy, high tech words, Riley will take it upon himself later to help the rest of us understand what the hell they were going on about in a significantly dumbed down version.

But, with Riley too busy playing hide and seek, it seemed like Silver and Jenna were trying their best to explain things to me in a way that I could understand on my own.

"Yes, exactly," said Silver, "I think Trojan somehow created a digital anchor and then tethered the virus to that anchor. The virus on its own is harmless and can't attack."

"But if Trojan pulls on that string, he can manipulate the virus' actions remotely, from the safety of Cyberspace," said Jenna, "Almost like some sort of digital puppet."

"That would explain why the virus didn't attack me at all," I said, "And why all it took was one attack to destroy it."

"Trojan planned on having you defeat that virus and left a little surprise inside it for when you did eventually defeat it." said Silver.

"That shockwave missed me completely," I said, "Trojan probably expected us to use the Virus Reaper or something to take it down from a distance. If we had, I'd be a Lil' Ranger now just like the others."

"Now, onto the idea I have about how to reverse the effects," said Silver, "You need to destroy that anchor. Since its technically part of the virus' body, it's the thing that's keeping the spell going."

"How am I supposed to destroy the anchor?" I asked, "Didn't you say it was in Cyberspace?"

"He did," said Jenna, "But you're forgetting that Silver is the one that created the technology that banished Trojan in the first place."

"I wasn't forgetting so much as I was hoping that he wasn't suggesting what I thought he was suggesting." I said.

"I understand how you might be apprehensive, Marcus, but you're the only one that can do it right now," said Silver, "If I had other options, you know I wouldn't make you do this."

"Will it uh, you know, be painful?" I asked.

I had started trembling. I was genuinely terrified. I might get trapped in Cyberspace like Trojan, or maybe the machine won't work and it'll just kill me!

"I can't do it." I said, hanging my head.

I turned away from them and went over to the lounge, where the Lil' Rangers were playing and sat down on one of the sofas. I saw Chloe walk over to me and climb onto the couch to sit next to me.

"What's wrong, Marcus?" she asked.

She was adorable too, although she had all of her teeth. Her hair was in pigtails, so she looked a bit like Pippi Longstocking, except with blonde hair and no freckles.

"I'm afraid." I said, wiping my eyes.

"I thought grown ups don't get scared." said Chloe.

"Growing up doesn't mean you stop being afraid." I said.

Rachel came to sit on the couch too, on my other side.

"I'm afraid of water." she said.

"I know that," I said, "You broke your arm while swimming, right?"

"Yeah, it really hurt," said Rachel, "It happened on my birthday too."

"I'm afraid of the monsters under my bed." said Chloe.

"Monsters don't live under your bed, they live in your closet." said Rachel.

"Not my closet. There's not enough room in there for monsters," said Chloe, "I think you're just trying to scare me."

"There's no such thing as monsters," I said, "You've got nothing to worry about."

"Maybe you should tell yourself that," said Rachel, "Don't let whatever you're afraid of stop you from doing what you have to do."

"Did you learn that from your dad?" I asked.

"Yup, he teaches me all sorts of cool things," said Rachel, "I think he's so smart because of his job. You remember, don't you? He's a psychopath."

"I think you mean psychiatrist." I chuckled.

All of a sudden, she fell off the couch and curled up in the fetal position. I watched as her body began to fade in and out.

Chloe also started fading in and out, but she fell backward on the couch, instead of forward onto the floor. I looked around and saw that Riley, Oz and Sawyer were all flickering too.

"Rachel's right," I said, "I don't have time to be afraid. The others need my help!"

As I stood up, my codec exploded with green light from inside the plastic container on my Digitizer. My fear was gone.

I made my way back over to Silver, who had gone back to researching the Hourglass Virus.

"Let's do it, Silver," I said, "I can't let my fears stop me. I'm the Lil' Ranger's last chance."

Silver nodded and then pulled out the same device he had used earlier when Chloe's tattoo needed to be transferred into Cyberspace.

"We can drop you off right at Trojan's front door," said Jenna, "He's not hiding in Cyberspace at all. There's an enormous cluster of corrupted data that gives it away."

"Ready?" asked Silver.

"Absolutely not, but do it anyway." I said.

He started with my head and then moved his way down. It did hurt quite a lot, but it went away almost as fast as it started.

At first I just saw nothing, but then gradually, shapes began to form. Nothing was solid or filled in, instead everything had that wire frame look. It was like I had just jumped into Tron.

I found myself in front of an elaborate door that looked a lot like the door to a castle from the medieval ages. I knocked on the door and it opened all by itself, so I walked inside.

I looked around and saw that wherever I was, the place was completely deserted. No Trojan, no viruses, no Replicators, just nothing. There were various filing cabinets and other kinds of digital furniture, but the thing that immediately caught my eye was a magnificent throne.

Since nobody was around, I sat down in the throne and then I could see that on the wall behind me there were millions and millions of monitors. I couldn't even process what I was seeing, there were so many of them.

Well, Silver did say that Trojan could potentially be watching our every move as well as monitoring every conceivable inch of the internet. I guess he had to teach himself to focus only on what he wanted to see when he wanted to see it.

I stood up from the throne and whipped around. I know I heard footsteps.

"Who's there!?" I shouted.

"You must be one of the Power Rangers," said a voice, "I'm supposed to keep you busy for as long as I can while Master Trojan sets his grand plans into motion."

"So you're some sort of lackey?" I asked.

"My name is Phisher!" he said, "Now hold still so I can keep you busy!"

"Not gonna happen." I said.

"You have to hold still or I won't be able to do what Master Trojan requested!"

"CYBER POWER, ACTIVATE!" I called.

But nothing happened.

"Oh yeah, Master Trojan also wanted me to tell you that that won't work here," said Phisher, "Something about how those things only work when you're in your own world.

"Perfect." I muttered.

"Now hold still." said Phisher.

He lunged at me, and I rolled out of the way. I got to my feet and kicked him in the back.

I ran forward, trying to get as much distance between me and Phisher as possible. Then I saw it. There was a large fishing hook floating a few feet away from me. It looked exactly like our codecs, you know, except shaped like a hook.

I grabbed the hook and saw that there was a string tied to it, but there was enough slack in the string for me to run over to Phisher. He was a few yards behind me, about to try and tackle me again.

I swiped at him with the hook and much to my amazement, it sliced right through him.

"You may have defeated me, but Master Trojan is probably long gone by now!" wheezed Phisher.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Phisher's eyes closed and I watched as he disintegrated into binary code, which was quickly reabsorbed back into Cyberspace by flying upwards.

"I don't like the sound of that." I said.

Realizing that I was still holding the anchor, I pulled as hard as I could and the string snapped. Then I dropped the hook and stomped on it over and over again. It took turned into binary code and flew upwards.

"David Sawyer"

I was sitting on the couch, then a few seconds later I seemed to double in size.

I sat up and saw a stack of my neatly folded clothes nearby. I was wearing clothes that way too small on me for some reason. After finally managing to free myself from the tiny clothes, I threw on my normal clothes and stood up.

It looked like everyone else was going through the same thing. As I made my way over to the center of Headquarters, Rachel, Riley, Oz and then Chloe all caught up and followed behind me in a single file line.

Jenna was standing behind Silver's chair with her hand on the back of it, as if he was sitting in it, but then as we got closer, we could see that Silver wasn't sitting in it.

"Jenna, what happened to us?" asked Riley.

"Yeah, and where's Silver?" asked Chloe.

"The Hourglass Virus turned you all into the children, but Marcus was unaffected and went into Cyberspace to destroy the last piece of the virus. That's why you all turned back," said Jenna, "At least there's some good news."

"What are you talking about, Jenna?" asked Oz.

"Someone kidnapped Silver," she sobbed, "I was busy making sure that you'd all have clothes for when the spell wore off. But when I came back, Silver was gone and I found this note."

Riley took the note from Jenna and read it out loud.

"Freedom feels so good. Now that I can finally feel again, imagine how good it's going to feel to get my revenge on the man that banished me five years ago. If you want him back, you'll have to come and find me. I can't promise he'll still be alive by then though."

"I don't get it," I said, "Who took Silver?"

"Trojan... He's free," said Riley, "I don't know how, but he's free. And now he has Silver."