Chapter 15

Hard Headed People

Corinth, Alternate Dimension, 2050

The area around the domed city of Corinth had drastically changed in the recent years. Where there was once nothing but desert land, now an oasis spread across the plain where verdant saplings were growing at an astounding rate. Colonel Mason Truman decided it was time to get a lay of the land; see how the citizens of Corinth, who had recently just come out of the dome in the past few months and were branching out just beyond the city, could benefit from the new surroundings.

It hadn't been long since "V-C Day", when the sentient computer virus known as Venjix that had ransacked the world's computer systems was finally defeated by its creator, known only as Dr. K. and her team of full-throttle superheroes, the RPM Rangers.

Ever since Dr. K.'s days in the mysterious government organization known only as Alphabet Soup, where she had been raised since childhood, she had been longing to go outside, to feel the warmth of the sunshine, if only for a few moments. She was told she was allergic to sunlight, however, so she never got the chance. She was always told to solve problems for her overseers, though she never knew what they did with her answers. Finally, she had had enough. She created the Venjix Virus to shut down the Alphabet Soup computer system for about an hour or so, so she could slip outside and back in undetected. Unfortunately, she was caught, unable to rein in the virus; and left unchecked it evolved and spread around the globe.

Before that, Dr. K. had been working on a special experiment in nanotechnology, one in which electrons could be gathered by the wearers of special battle suits to alter space-time for short bursts. She called it "Project Ranger" and she was nearly finished when the Venjix Virus was left alone and struck Alphabet Soup. She was forced to flee to Corinth, the only place in the world that was safe from the virus; while her assistants, an overenthusiastic but very caring set of twins, stayed behind to complete the top secret portion of the project.

When she arrived, it was only a few days before the First Battle of Corinth, where Colonel Truman's forces protected the city gates from Venjix's Grinder army. It was during that battle that Dr. K. discovered her first three subjects for Project Ranger.

The first was Scott Truman, the Colonel's younger son. He had been a pilot in the elite Eagle Squad alongside his older brother, Marcus, who had been lost in the battle. The second was Flynn McAllistair, a mechanic by trade who risked his life to bring in a busload of refugees into the city just ahead of the approaching Grinders. The third was Summer Lansdown, an heiress who disobeyed her parents and went back out into the battlefield to bring the injured Scott back into the city. One year after the Battle of Corinth, they became Rangers Red, Blue, and Yellow.

The first three were a good start, doing well to hold off Venjix's forces, but it wasn't enough. More was needed. That's when he came to town. He had entered Corinth in his own car with little to no memory of his past, and the only possession he had on him was a pocket watch. The only name he knew himself as was Dillon. He had been put in jail for breaking into the city, but he was released because of his "special talents" that would benefit Project Ranger. Dillon had only two conditions to agree to join the cause. One: his new friend, Ziggy; who was quite the master of shadow puppetry, be released with him. Two: he got to pick his color. It just so happened that the color he wanted was the color Dr. K. had in mind for him: Black.

As for Ziggy Grover, that young man was quite a pain in the backside to Dr. K. He had been a member of the Scorpion Cartel under the infamous Fresno Bob, but he had never been able to get a job done. Then came a day when he was supposed to deliver a truck full of medical equipment to Fresno Bob; five MILLION dollars' worth of equipment. But when he saw an orphanage full of sick children on the brink of closing down, Ziggy couldn't let it happen. So he gave the equipment to the orphanage. Fresno Bob, of course, went ballistic, and Ziggy was forced to flee Corinth. When Venjix struck, Ziggy saw his chance to get back in; he even threatened Dillon with a supposed blaster, really an old car part. Dillon saw right through him, but helped Ziggy, anyway.

Dr. K. started with him doing menial jobs to fill his time, but there came a time when he was needed to do a big job: find a new Ranger. He thought he found the perfect candidate, but unfortunately, she turned out to be Venjix's humanoid attackbot, Tenaya 7, and she nearly claimed the morpher from him, but in desperation, he bonded the morpher to his own DNA, becoming Ranger Green himself. Dr. K. was angry, but saw the fact that there was no choice.

Now, all this time, Dr. K. had hidden herself behind a voice-changing computer system. She finally decided to reveal herself when the team demanded it. She was afraid they could all be lost just like Gem and Gemma, her assistants, had been.

But it turned out Gem and Gemma had not been lost. They had survived the Alphabet Soup destruction and had not only finished the top secret Rangers Gold and Silver projects, which they had used on themselves, (who else was there, really?), they had fought their way through the desert and into the fray against Venjix, saving the other five when their backs were against the wall.

Eventually, through all the problems: infighting amongst the team, Ziggy's bumbling attempts to be the best Ranger he could be, the twins' constantly wanting to either build something or blow it up (usually the latter), and above all Dillon and his body's hybrid technology being infected with the Venjix virus (which Dr. K. tried to find an antidote for) and his search for his sister (he had found out he had one during one of his flashbacks), the Rangers were able to pull through and beat back the tide of Venjix deployments, striking blow after blow to its army. Eventually, Venjix downloaded itself into a robot body of its own to do some of the fighting itself. The team destroyed that body, but Venjix removed itself just before the body became worthy of the scrap heap, so it survived to regroup and come back stronger than ever, and with Generals Shifter and Crunch leading the charge, it made life very hard for the Rangers. But they still hung on, beating back the flood, with Scott even defeating General Shifter in one-on-one combat.

Then came a major shocker. Tenaya always had a thing with taunting Dillon during battles. But in one battle Tenaya noted the difference between humans and attackbots. "When I get damaged, it's just a simple repair. But when you get damaged, you bleed." However, another one of Tenaya's little quirks gave Dillon just the tip he needed in his search.

When the Rangers searched through a prison site, Dillon remembered it was just the place where he and his sister were held before being turned into hybrids. The team didn't find any survivors, but there was a key. It happened to fit with a key that Dillon had that came with his pocket watch. And when the keys were placed inside the lock of the pocket watch, the melody of the pocket watch changed from its normal haunting tune to "A-Hunting We Will Go." Tenaya always whistled that tune before she struck. It was beyond a doubt; Tenaya was Dillon's sister.

At first Tenaya didn't believe Dillon, but when she attacked him and was wounded on the arm, to her shock she discovered she was bleeding. She retreated to Venjix's base and scanned her wound to find that in fact true her hybrid DNA signature, T-78, matched Dillon's D-44 as siblings. When Kilobyte, Venjix's most trusted general, suggested that Tenaya was weak and human emotions made her that way, Tenaya said she would have to destroy the emotions at the source: Dillon. When she attempted to do so, the rest of the team stopped her, but Dillon tried to protect her. She was sent flying over the edge of a building, hanging on for dear life by a rail. Dillon risked himself to pull her up, and this time she believed him.

But the reunion was short-lived. Kilobyte recaptured Tenaya and she was re-brainwashed and filled with upgraded technology, thus turning her into Tenaya 15. She had no memory of her past life, or her brother. The Rangers, though saddened by Tenaya's capture, fought on. Dillon's fight was especially difficult, being as he was not only angered by the loss of his sister, believing it was his fault, but his viral progression was rapidly increasing, and Dr. K.'s antivirals were not doing enough. Dr. K. herself said it was only a matter of time before they lost him to Venjix as well.

But somehow, after another of Venjix's bodies was destroyed, Gem and Gemma reactivated a Grinder and attached a camera to its optical sensors, finding a way into Venjix's base. But Venjix, by now in its ultimate body, turned the tables by having Tenaya activate hybrid technology all over Corinth, forcing hybrids' programming to activate and those that were thought to be humans turn into slaves for Venjix; including some of Colonel Truman's own soldiers. Colonel Truman himself was captured and held for Venjix itself to destroy. The Rangers made one last stand, battling thousands of Grinders, even having lost Gem and Gemma when Venjix turned the bio-field against them and deleted them from existence. But Dr. K. had a couple more tricks up her sleeve. She used Venjix's original programming code to create an antiviral to the hybrid virus technology. She also used the code to reverse the bio-field effect and bring back Gem and Gemma. Dillon, just barely able to resist the viral progression long enough to get to the damaged lab, was able to inject himself with the antidote just before he would have completely lost to Venjix. He then took on Kilobyte, saving Tenaya from certain destruction yet again, as well as injecting her with the antidote. Kilobyte was about to destroy them both, when Scott, Flynn, and Summer intervened with the Road Blaster and took him out. Those three then battled Venjix and were nearly destroyed as well, but Gem and Gemma shot down the control tower and it crashed on top of Venjix, sending it to the scrap heap once and for all. Dillon and Tenaya were almost lost as well, but they were able to skydive out of the tower just before it fell. And all the while poor Ziggy had held out on his own.

Now, Col. Truman was ready to send the citizens of Corinth out into the world again. He just had to find some good places to help relocate them. For that, he would send his troops out into the field and have them do some reconnaissance work. But he would need his best to make sure it was safe out there before sending anyone else out for longer missions.

"So let me get this straight," said Scott, after his father had briefed him on the mission. "You want three members of Eagle Squad to go out and do recon duty to make sure things are safe for the citizens of Corinth to branch out into the world?"

"That's exactly it," Mason responded.

"Well, I think Seven and Eight would do well on this mission…"

"Seven and Eight? They're loose cannons! They're juveniles! They're…"

"They work well individually and even better together."

Col. Truman considered his son's words. "All right. They're in. And who's the third pilot?"

Scott immediately answered, "Me."

"No."

"Why not, Dad?"

"There are so many unknowns out there; we don't want to lose anybody, least of all you."

"You mean you don't want to lose me, like we lost Marcus?"

This caught Col. Truman off-guard.

"I know. I'll do everything I can to survive, Dad. I promise."

Col. Truman lowered his head. "All right. Go. Just one more thing, though."

"What's that?"

"Tell Seven and Eight: This is Recon only. No Boom Time."

"Yes, Sir."

"BOOM TIME!"

"NO!" yelled Scott for the umpteenth time, as Gem and Gemma were packing their gear for the mission, chanting "Boom Time" over and over. The chanting was really getting on Scott's nerves.

"Thanks again for letting us go with you on this mission, Scott," said Gem as he loaded up his gear.

"If you don't stop chanting and get it into your heads that there is NO BOOM TIME ON THIS MISSION, I might just change my mind," Scott grumbled.

"Aw, come on, Scott," said Gemma with a smile. "It isn't every day you get to blow something up. Unless you're us. Ha-ha!"

"You're not hearing me. No blowing things up! Listen for a second…"

"This is gonna be awe-some!" said Gem. "I can't wait, if there's something out there that we need to get through, just fire away. BOOM!"

"BOOM!" echoed his sister. "This is gonna be so much fun!"

"Hell-oooooooooooo? Earth to Gem and Gemma: No Boom Time!"

Gem and Gemma still didn't hear him. The chanting continued: "Boom Time! Boom Time!"

"SHUT UP!" screamed Scott. This caused the twins to finally stop chanting and look his way. Scott tried to collect his wits. They were geniuses and absolutely two of the most loyal friends he could have, but Sweet Mother of Love they could be dense sometimes.

"There will be absolutely: no fire, no flames, no pyrotechnics, no bombs, no missiles, no explosions, no combustions, no detonations… NO BOOM TIME!"

"What's your point, Scott?" Gem asked.

"Yeah, I'm not seeing it…" Gemma added.

"UGH! Do you two listen? NO BOOM TIME! You are not going to blow anything up on this mission!"

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW…" the twins chorused.

"No fair…" Gemma pouted.

"Why are we even going, anyway?" Gem asked.

"I need you two to help scout the area for potential habitats for the citizens of Corinth to relocate to when they feel the desire to. You'll be fine with it, I promise."

"What's in it for us, huh?" Gemma countered.

"Yeah, we gotta get something outta this, right?" Gem agreed.

"I knew you'd say that, and I already have something in the bag for you," said Scott. "The big V-C day celebration's coming up and I've volunteered you two to run the fireworks display."

This brightened the twins' moods quite a bit.

"Really?" Gemma squealed.

"Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou." Gem grinned. "We won't let you down, Scott."

"Promise." The twins started chanting again.

Scott just shook his head. Maybe he'd ask Dr. K about why they were so obsessed with blowing things up later. But now wasn't the time for that. The mission waited. And with good results, perhaps Corinth's citizens could branch out further. Maybe they could repopulate the earth, reverse the damage Venjix had done. Maybe even do better. But it had to start somewhere, and hopefully he and the twins could find the places to do just that.