Wes and Alex ran like they had never run before, both of them intent on getting to Jen in time and hoping that Ransik hadn't already ended her young life, because if he had, he would have one hell of a fight to put up with. Both Wes and Alex knew that if anything had happened to Jen it would be unlikely that they would show any mercy to Ransik, or at least it would be very difficult for either one to show it..
Just as they made it inside the building clasped into rubble, leaving their teammates shaking in fear, not knowing whether or not the two young men that had gone in after the woman they both loved had survived to make it down below. Even if they had, had the floors foundation held - and if it had, for how much longer?
His arm shaking and his heart racing, Eric didn't know what to think. He had just found out hours prior that Wes was alive and though the two were only starting now to become friends, he wasn't so sure he was ready to lose him, not now, not when they were so close to finally ending this and all of them finally being able to get their lives back on track. He knew more than anything that it would mean the world to Mr. Collins, that his son was alive all this time. But at the same time Eric knew, even after this was all over and everyone made it, that it was going to be a very long time until Wes would ever be the same again, if he would ever be the same again.
He raised his arm up, getting ready to speak, but then he realized that his wrist held no morpher. It was empty. Damnit! Wes still had his morpher; he would be unable to make any contact with them. He turned to Lucas, Trip and Katie. "Well? What the hell are you waiting for?" he yelled as they stared at him blankly, still in shock over what had just happened. "See if they're okay, damnit!"
"Right." Lucas shook his head, snapping back to reality; everything had happened so fast that he had just frozen. They all pretty much had, all in total shock and distraught over what had just happened and fearful for what could have. He raised his morpher up to his face and pressed the communication button. Please be okay, he mumbled under his breath. "Alex….do you read me?"
Both Wes and Alex were a little dazed and confused, their Ranger suits and helmets covered in dust from head to toe. They were vaguely aware of Lucas's voice penetrating through Alex's morpher. Alex was getting ready to respond, when a loud crackling noise and a large puff of dust emerged above them.
"Run!" yelled Wes as he jumped to his feet and started to run forward, with Alex quickly running next to him, as part of the floor from above began to cave in on top of them, seeming about to crush both of them. But the floor was collapsing rapidly, much faster than their legs were willing to carry them. Quickly thinking, Alex grabbed a hold of Wes's shoulder and leaped forward, sending them several feet ahead, with the floor still falling, but just as they landed on the ground and watched as the floor fell, it stopped just a couple inches away from them. All was still, for now…. Their hearts could be at ease for the moment.
They both looked at each other for a moment, though neither one could see the other's face both could guess what the other was thinking. If they didn't find Jen soon and get out of here within the next few or so minutes, they would all be goners.
"Alex, this is Lucas, please respond…."
"You going to answer that?" asked Wes as he pushed himself to his feet and dusted the muck off of himself.
"I read you, Lucas," The sound from the unstable floor above them was starting to get worse, there was no telling when the next cave-in would start or even if it would be the last and final blow. This was getting more serious by the second. "Look, I don't know how much time we have left, but you and the others need to find another way out for us. We're going to start to look for Jen."
"Right, we're on it. …But exactly how much time do you think you have?"
"A few minutes, give or take." Alex glanced over at Wes. "You have to hurry, Lucas, we're counting on you. Alex out…" He took a few minutes to gather his composure, knowing that time was something they both didn't have, something Jen didn't have. "Let's do this…"
"Right," answered Wes. Though he knew that he and Alex had issues, they would have to put those issues and feelings towards each other behind them for now. It would have to wait until they and Jen were all safely above ground. This was difficult for both of them, knowing how the other felt about Jen and each believing that they loved her more than the other, but both knew only one of them held Jen's heart, which made this all the harder for Alex.
"Well, you heard the man." Lucas glanced at the others. "Let's find them another way out."
"Wait!" Alyssa looked around and noticed somebody was missing. "Where's Merrick?" They hadn't seen or heard from him ever since he had left with Eric the day before, and when Wes and Eric had shown up moments ago Merrick wasn't with them.
"Where is he?" asked Taylor, walking up to Eric. Though she and Merrick weren't close, he was her teammate and someone she was proud to call friend, not to mention she didn't even want to think about how Princess Shayla would be if they came back without Merrick in one piece.
Eric didn't know what to say, so much death had already happened before his eyes and he knew the chances of Merrick still being alive were very slim. Whatever he had gone after appeared to be extremely powerful and he wasn't sure if Merrick alone could defeat it. He would have stayed behind, but he had no way to defend himself and Wes had been hurt and was fully determined to go find Jen. Not that Merrick objected to the idea, he had wanted to face this threat alone, as if it were something he had to do.
"Well….." Taylor got into his face. "We have a right to know what happened to Merrick."
"When Wes and I last saw him he was alive, but….."
"But…." Max questioned, not sure he liked where this was going. Already he could feel his stomach twist and turn and was vaguely aware of Danny gripping his shoulder.
"He went after something, said he wanted to fight it alone, told Wes and me to go."
One thing was for sure; they couldn't say Eric was lying about this. That had Merrick written all over it. He was the lone wolf Ranger, a man on a mission who felt like he owed everything to the world for what he had done all those years ago and had to do it on his own. No help from anyone.
"Do you know what it was?" asked Cole.
Eric bit his lip, he never did get a good look at it, but he had a few guesses. "I think it may have been one of the mutorgs, but I don't know for sure. It looked different, somehow."
Lucas, Katie and Trip all shared a concerned glance; though they were sure the others noticed no one seemed alerted by it, not when all their minds were on Merrick and whether or not he was okay.
"We should go after him, make sure he's all right. And even if he isn't, we have to make sure that org doesn't live to see another day," announced Taylor.
"But wait, we still have to find a way out for Alex, Jen and Wes," added Katie, not wanting to forget about her friends and the other young man who at one time had been her friend in more ways than she had known.
"We should split up," announced Trip, knowing that all Rangers alike were important. 'Some of us should stay here and look for another way out and the rest should go help Merrick defeat the mutorg."
"All right, who's staying and who's going?" asked Lucas, staring them all down; they needed to straighten this out quickly, before it was too late for all of them….
Alex and Wes walked carefully through the darkness, with little light to guide them, both of them unmorphed. Not a whole lot had been said between them during the last few minutes. It had been complete silence. Nothing. Nothing could be heard, not even the sounds of a battle that might be going on between Jen and Ransik. That is if….if they were still alive.
Clutching at his chest where the bandages were heavily wrapped around him, Wes inhaled heavily; he winced at the pain of the pressure of his bruised ribs, it hurt even to breathe. The last thing he wanted to do was come across Jen's mutilated body, finding Ransik's would be one thing, but Jen…. Just the mere thought of it made him come to a stop. He took that pause to catch his breath and to relieve some pressure to his ribs.
"We have to keep moving," Alex announced as he turned around to face Wes. They didn't have the time to stop and rest, even now the ceiling above them was becoming more and more unstable with each passing minute. He glanced a moment at the bandages peaking out from Wes's open shirt and became aware that there must be some deep cuts underneath them, because blood was starting to soak through the bandages. "If I had known you were hurt I wouldn't have let you come."
Wes took a deep breath, ignoring the pain the best he could. "Yeah. Well, we both know I wouldn't have listened," answered Wes as he started to move again. "Not when Jen's involved."
"And that itself could be a problem."
"Meaning what?" asked Wes as he moved up ahead of Alex and stopped right in front of him.
"Meaning you're too emotionally involved." Alex glared Wes down, this wasn't the time or the place to be doing this, but Wes wasn't giving him much of a choice. This was a talk that had been coming for both of them. "All you've got on your mind is getting Jen out of here, you don't care how banged up you are or how that will affect the mission."
"So you're saying that I should put my emotions and feelings about Jen behind me and concentrate on getting Ransik, no matter what."
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. If you're too emotionally involved, it can damage the mission."
Wes just shook his head, not believing what he was hearing. It was no wonder that Jen had ended things with Alex, how things had fallen apart for them. "And isn't that exactly why things didn't work out for you and Jen!" Wes stared him down now, wanting to make it perfectly clear that in some way Alex was dead wrong. "Because all you cared about was getting Ransik, you didn't care how you treated her or how she felt all those months, thinking you were dead. You didn't give a damn about her!"
"You think that is why Jen broke it off with me?" Alex just shook his head. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Wes."
"Yeah, I'll admit I was part of the reason, but that's because I gave Jen what she needed." Wes pointed his finger right at Alex. "I was there for her! I put her first!" Ever since he had heard how he had treated Jen, he had wanted to give Alex a piece of his mind. "When did you ever put her first? Name one time."
"I….." And for the first time Alex didn't have an answer. He could not for the life of him think of a time when he had ever put Jen first. When they had first met and he had taken her under his wing, he had only worked with her after he was done with his duties. Even the day he had proposed to her he had said 'After Ransik is locked up….' It had always been only 'after' with them. Wes was right, as hard as it was to accept, he was right. Even after Ransik was put away, there would always be someone else and he knew that catching whoever that was would have come first. He loved his job, it was his life, but he should have put Jen first. He had loved her and still did to this day, but love hadn't been enough, she needed more. And Wes had given her what he couldn't, someone who would drop everything just for her.
Wes could see he had made his point, the look on Alex's face said it all. It made him a little guilty and even ashamed, because he knew that Alex loved Jen very much and never would intentionally hurt her. He was getting ready to say something when….
"NOOOO!"
Both of their hearts skipped a beat and fear struck in their eyes. Jen…. They both nodded their heads and ran as fast as their feet would carry them, hoping that they wouldn't be too late.
Taylor, Alyssa, Max, Cole and Lucas were the ones who had chosen to go and look for Merrick. It only seemed logic to leave the others behind to search for a way out for their friends trapped underground. Katie with her super strength, Danny with his muscles, Trip with his engineering skills which could come in handy, and Eric with his command skills, they would be able to work together to find a way out if there was one.
Though Lucas didn't like the idea of leaving his team behind, he knew it was important for them to work together. Not to mention the fact that if that thing was still out there, it needed to be taken care of. Although it was in the rules to bring criminals back alive, in practice this one was classified as bringing it in dead or alive.
"You should try contacting him," announced Lucas, as they walked through the ruins of the city, the light of dawn shining down on them.
"Obviously you don't know Merrick," answered Taylor.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Max walked up behind Lucas, wrapping his arm around his blue comrade. "Well, Merrick isn't exactly the social type. He kind of likes to keep to himself; we hardly ever see or talk to him."
"Huh….." Lucas for a moment almost felt like he knew what they were talking about, as if at some point he had known what that was like, but a moment later the thought was gone as if something inside his brain told him to forget it. A side effect of the memory adaptation no doubt. He had wondered how long it would last, if it would be forever… if his brain would tell him to forget something every time it came close to remembering those months he had lost.
A part of him wished he could go back, maybe stop the memory adaptation process from happening. He felt like a piece of him was missing, which was silly in a way since he had no real idea what was missing. All he knew was that months ago he and the others had been here, defending the city against Ransik, and had befriended Wes, who in return took care of them. That was all Alex had told them, just bits and pieces, only Jen knew what had gone on all those months.
"You okay, man?" asked Max, concerned. "Kind of lost you there for a minute."
"I'm fine," he smiled coolly. "No problems here."
"Maybe we should try, Taylor," announced Alyssa. "Merrick knows we would be looking for him."
"She's right, Taylor," added Cole. "We have to try." Though he knew that a part of what Taylor said was right: it was unlikely they would hear from Merrick, but given the situation on hand perhaps this one time their lone wolf friend would answer their call.
"All right, but I'm not holding my breath." Taylor raised her morpher. "Merrick, do you read, this is Taylor, come in." No answer. They waited for a few more moments, but still there was no answer, only silence from the other end. Nothing. The hard headed yellow Ranger just shook her head. "See, I told….."
"I read you…."
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine…." Though his voices sounded winded and weak, it didn't sound life threatening. Then again, Merrick would do all he could to hide the fact that he might be hurt.
"Did he destroy that monster?" exclaimed Alyssa, hopeful that the thing had finally been put an end to.
Taylor was getting ready to ask that, when... "It's finished… It won't be hurting anyone anymore."
"You just hang in there, Merrick, we're coming to you," announced Cole.
"Alright!" Max jumped in the air, overjoyed with excitement. "I knew he would do it!"
Lucas was silent for a moment. He had something else on his mind, pertaining to Merrick and the given situation and his own thoughts. It seemed to him unlikely, no matter how great a fighter Merrick might be, that he alone would have been able to stop the powerful mutorg, but at the same time he did not want to ruin their happiness that their friend and teammate was fine. But, given everything that had happened he felt that it was important to bring it up. "How do we know it was him?"
Silence….. Lucas' voice rang in and killed the parade of happiness with just a few words. "What the hell do you mean?" Taylor got right into his face. "Of course it was him, that was Merrick's voice."
"I realize that, but how do you think those things escaped from my time in the first place? They're tricky." Lucas could see that none of them liked where this was going and he couldn't blame them, he didn't like it any better than they did. "Look, I'm just saying we should be careful, go with caution."
Taylor looked like she was about to right hook Lucas in the face. She couldn't believe what Lucas was saying. He didn't know anything about Merrick. He had no idea what kind of warrior he was or anything at all.
"He's right." Taylor turned and looked right at Cole. "We should keep our eyes open, just in case."
"You're telling me you're going to trust this guy over your own teammate?"
"We're all on the same side here, Taylor." Cole licked his lips; it had been difficult for him taking over as leader when Taylor at times still felt like she was the leader or still felt like she should be. "We're all in this together."
"Yeah." Taylor turned to Lucas, looking him coldly in the eyes. "For your sake, let's hope you're wrong about this."
"That makes two of us." Lucas crossed his arms against his chest staring her back in the eyes, giving her the same coolness.
"And I thought Taylor met her match with Eric," whispered Max to Alyssa, recalling how things hadn't gone well with them either. But then again, Taylor had that effect on just about everyone.