There were times, Grumm decided, when he believed in an unseen omniscient power running the universe. Usually, even after meeting Great Omni(the Patellen suppressed a twitch of awe, as he always did when thinking The Name), he'd scorned such things. Fools. It must be easier to serenely surrender control of your fate than to create it yourself. However, with how the universe seemed to be bending itself to his will lately, he wondered if such things could legitimately NOT be attributed to providence.
For starters, his little farce with the Dino Gems had gone perfectly. He hadn't even had to stage a fake attack to convince SPD of their authenticity. The easiest thing in the world, it had been, to just bury them under debris that could be attributed to the mid-2015 Earth Invasion(an attempt by several former Alliance Of Evil fools to raid the Galactic hotbed of Ranger powers. Which had ironically led to the Galactic Alliance formally sponsoring an Earth branch for SPD). And the idiots had fallen for it. SPD had taken those gems into their custody, serenely attempting to decipher them with no particular rush. He had no doubt Dr. Manx's team would eventually do what his scientists could not. Given time.
Time being the resource he needed them to waste, if his plans were to succeed. SPD's interference at this juncture could cause all to fall apart. Quite apart from the subtle surprise he'd embedded in the Gems, he had several backup plans. If the fools failed to act, he could unleash a few of his preliminary fruits to keep them off balance. Yes, it would work. They will be blinded, until it makes no difference.
"Release me!", an elderly human's voice snapped. Grumm turned around to behold Anton Mercer, former CEO of Mercer Industries. Also holder of much useful knowledge that Grumm found necessary. Some of which he had already surrendered without much incentive. The man was, of course, held by a pair of Orange-heads who had orders to escort him to their master.
"And why should I wish to do that? You have not given me all the information I requested.". What did the fool hope to accomplish with that tone?
"I gave you all I can. And you're being a fool with one of the things you're asking for.", the man said, with more dignity than Grumm would have been willing to grant a being getting on in years. Especially one not especially formidable to begin with. It might even be amusing, he supposed, to break him. He'd almost been disappointed that it hadn't been necessary at the beginning.
"Maybe Warlord Grumm hasn't made himself clear…", Morgana's voice broke in as she sauntered into the chamber. "He pointed out that he'd requested your help thus far. Might have led you to think it would stay a request.".
"A matter…", Grumm inwardly grinned as he put his face close to Mercer's, and allowed his retinas to begin giving off a red glow many species found intimidating. "That will change shortly."
Mercer went pale as a sheefrit on it's maximum solar distance. Well. This might not be so great a challenge after all.
"So… how DO we get in?", Kira asked as the team sat around a table(having decided such meetings merited more dignity than mattress lounging). "I mean, it's SPD. I doubt their big stuff is gonna be lying out in the open.". It was meant more to open the meeting than to convey anything.
"Shouldn't be a problem", Conner said confidently. "You think it could be any heavier guarded than Mesogog's old fortress? We blew that security, we'll blow this one. Nothing to it". That was infinitely more confidence, Kira figured, than he actually had. Conner's leader instincts were back in full flower, and he seemed to figure he should be leading by example. Of course, he also had a big ego back in the old days. Maybe he does believe it'll be that easy. She supposed the whole quandary came with the Red Ranger territory.
"Somehow, I don't see SPD as having Invisiportals.", Trent's voice was dry. "Or inviting me in to hold the door open.". Conner flushed. "What we need to do is figure out where the Gems are being kept. Maybe, I don't know, Kira can break a wall to wherever that is with her sonic scream. We grab them, run-"
"I can't. Maybe I can crack one, but I'm not THAT good Trent", the former Yellow Ranger interjected. The thought was tempting, but she knew the upper limits of her ability. Any metal, especially the grade of it SPD was likely to use, would merely gain dents from even her best sonic wave. Then, she realized the perfect way.
"Why are we even talking about this? We've got Dr. O and Trent. Dr. O can just sneak in with his invisibility and open a-"
"Yeah, because SPD would never have commonly-available body-heat sensors to cover that issue. Y'know, invisibility being such a rare ability and all. Shit for that's been around since 2010, Guitar-girl.", Ethan snapped. "Look, we're never gonna be able to get into the building by sneaking in. SPD's got sensors out the wazoo on every entrance and exit, video cameras in every hall. I say we go in there, smash a few newbie cadets and-"
"Powers or not, we're still Rangers, Ethan", Tommy(as he had encouraged them to call him shortly after their graduation. None of them had gotten used to it) put in with a shadow of his old dignity, while holding up a hand to forestall Conner. "We want to do this with minimal casualties to SPD. They're still the good guys, even with all this.". True enough, Kira supposed. They had Rangers and all supposedly, so yeah, that was pretty much a given. They shouldn't hold the Gems like that, though.
"Look guys, let's list what abilities we have that SPD wouldn't expect from us. We have our powers. So yeah, Ethan says Dr. O's invisibility isn't as useful as we'd like, but still. We've got two guys who can hide in some areas, a sonic scream that can distract and smash some stuff at least, one guy who can run faster than a blur, and two arms that can double as baseball bats. That's gotta be worth something, if we can figure out how.", Conner said, apparently trying to stop Ethan from making an angry reply to Dr. O. "Besides, we've got the world's oldest, greatest Ranger here", at this point he stopped to gesture at their former high-school teacher, who smiled distantly, "and we can pretty much pinpoint the Gem's location if we get close enough.".
"And we're both brilliant and desperate. And we're right, too, that's important right there", Kira said, trying to inject some humor in. "What was it, Dr. O? That you told us you said to Mesogog, way back when? 'Good guys always win'?"
"Covers us pretty well", Trent grinned hugely. Everyone laughed.
Tommy looked out the window, staring at the SPD insignia, visible from any point in Newtech City. Funny that that particular incident should be brought up. He made no reply, allowed Conner to commence laying out the beginnings of a plan.
Right now, I'm thinking of what Mesogog had to say to that.
"I suppose that all depends…. on who you believe the good guys to be".
Syd yawned hugely. It had been a long, tiring day for the B-Squad. While Grumm had been mysteriously quiet lately, there'd been a sudden influx of the more common day-to-day scum to deal with. Not Krybots, but not fun either. On top of that, their teachers had not seen fit to slacken their pace of teaching for them, meaning the five of them had to pull way-too-long homework periods in lieu of their standard after-battle wind-down. Add that to her having to calm her roommate's anxiety about Omega Ranger(a Ranger from the future distantly attached to their squad. The "distant" part being mostly because his past self was Z's pet D-level cadet, Sam) being sent off to the Tau sector to investigate a disturbance, and you got one exhausted Pink Ranger.
Could be worse. At least Cruger's not in one of his moods. Ever since that meeting a week ago about the Dino-Gem leak, SPD's Earth Commander had been curiously lenient on their training regimen, probably figuring they had enough to deal with. Or had relegated them to insignificant in the face of this threat, of course. The Shadow Ranger had been conducting his investigation into the leak with a furious energy that seemed to leave no room for other matters. Any conversations not containing useful information on the matter were likely to be ended in short order by one of the Sirian's trademark growls.
Which of the two was right, she had no idea. Nor could she summon up the energy to care. About anything, for that matter, aside from her bed. Brushing off the usual amount of debris that both her bed and Z's seemed to accumulate over the course of a day, she threw herself on the mattress, just as SPD Yellow emerged from their bathroom(not having to use the common cadet's facilities was one of the perks of being B-Squad).
"Looks like someone's bedtime", her roommate smirked from the other side of the room. "Princess didn't get her beauty rest today". Syd was too tired to take offense even if she had thought Z was serious. "Hey, look at it this way – things could be worse. At least clean-up duty was light today. I seriously thought we'd have to mop vomit after those druggies got loose in the lobby."
Huh? Oh, right. Middle-aged woman in a yellow trenchcoat, started stumbling around the academy, babbling incomprehensibly. She'd actually made it as far as Kat's lab before building security had grabbed her. She'd gotten all violent then, screaming and lashing out at the guards. One even claimed she'd thrown something at them, but they'd not found anything in the corridor, nor had security scans turned up anything significant.
Another old black man had grumbled and muttered his way up to the second-floor public bathrooms. Almost diametrically opposed to the woman's direction. Weird. He hadn't gotten violent, but he had lurched around a lot when the guards had ejected him.
Ah, well. Both had been given the numbers of rehabilitation centers, and they hadn't gotten anywhere not public. No harm, no foul.
"Not in the mood, Z. Can we just call it a night?", Syd groaned.
"Sure. As soon as you move off my bed."
Syd sheepishly looked at the yellow sheets where she was lying. Oops.
If Grumm tries anything tonight, I'll rip up his goons with my bare hands. Just on general crankiness.
Sky Tate was awake in an instant, as the piercing shrill of the alarm hit his ears. Diving from his bed in one smooth motion, hand-generated force-field flying to the door, he went for his sidearm, saw his roommate immediately begin a telepathic scan of the area. Both were practiced in midnight drills. Right. Now Cruger decides to throw one on us. Sky was all for random drills to increase awareness, but today was just ridiculous, and the boss had to know it. Especially after such a lo-
"Sky!", Bridge said in his slightly detached way. "That's not a drill alarm. That's a base alarm. Intruder. We gotta get the others". SPD Green was, of course, correct. A drill alarm would've been out by now. "Computer, intruder location!"
"B-Squad, report to level 3, corridor 6. NOW!", Jack's voice roared from their morphers on the emergency frequency.
As they rushed through suddenly-filled corridors, Sky's mind began to race, wondering who the intruder was and what they could want. This was an INTRUDER alert, not a general battle one. Scratch the surprise attack idea. If this was a burglary attempt, they'd screwed the pooch rather badly, hadn't they? All exits guarded, everyone alerted. Besides, most of SPD's most valuable objects were off-planet. And even Bridge couldn't crack Kat's best firewalls. Sabotage? Possible. What was in that area, anyway? As Sky skidded to a halt between Z and Syd, Bridge falling in line to their left, the answer became immediately apparent.
"A bathroom. Someone just intruded into the fucking BATHROOM", Z growled. Right. This was public area during the daytime, the restrooms. What the hell? Contrary to holo-vid myths, the bathrooms had no special access to the vents or open pipes or any of the rest of that nonsense. Now that he looked harder, though, the walls were cracked a bit.
"Yeah, Z. A bathroom. Maybe a bomb or something that went off course. Boom says the alarm detected huge reverberations through the walls consistent with high-speed running. Looking at the damage here", Jack gestured around, "I'd say our guy dropped his package early and ran. Z, you come with me, we're sweeping north. Sky, Syd, sweep south. Bridge, you go to the security center, try to-"
"Doukalishan Constructs", Bridge read off the wall inscription. "Sky, what metal do they use?"
What!
Bridge was in one of his damned weird streaks again. This was SO not the time.
"What METAL do they use? Come on, this is important!"
Sky looked at Jack. They simultaneously suppressed a sigh.
Bruloan. Amazing how such a short word could lead to so much. A simple sonic frequency check, matched to the frequency of the materials that made up SPD's main walls, and you had utter confusion. The violence of the harmonic wave was calculated to cause a panic AND damage. Though the panic was far in excess of the damage. Even matched on a recorder at maximum volume, Kira's sonic wave posed little threat to SPD security….
Except when thrown near an electronic lock, to crack it past uselessness. Or in a direction diametrically opposed to that lock, leading everyone too far away to do any good. Conner grinned. He'd laid out the tactics, Ethan the techno-skills. Trent and Dr. O were the inside intelligence, scouting to make sure the way was clear.
There. There the Gems lay, on a table in the middle of the recently unsecured lab. The gift of a lifetime. The curse of a lifetime. The purpose of life. The scourge of our lives. For a moment, they all stood in awe, unbelieving that the moment had come, that the Gems were there for the taking.
Only for a moment, though, as they all rushed forward to claim their prizes. Conner snatched up the Red Dino Gem, felt the power course through him. Yes. Power lost in a moment of weakness, a moment that would not come again, power regained.. His second chance, his new life. Lost to his thoughts, for several seconds, Conner McKnight knew euphoria.
Several seconds that terminated in a cold official voice saying "That's far enough. Put em' down".
The five burglars wheeled around in union, staring at the recently arrived B-Squad. Jack allowed himself a smirk. Thought you were sooooo smart, boys? To be fair, if it hadn't been for Bridge's brainwave about how the metal could easily be used as a distraction, they might've been just smart enough. But hey, that was luck, and that was the B-Squad. His Green Ranger hadn't been hired for nothing.
"Y'know, Sky, I don't think these geniuses heard you. Put. Them. DOWN. You're backed up against solid walls, and believe me, you don't want to mess with us"
The yellow-clad woman(attractive, if a bit on the old-and-heavy side) spoke up. "You have no idea who you're dealing with. Out of our way". While her voice was hardly authorative, it carried a tough steel behind it, though one supported by desperation. Great. Not just a lunatic, but one at the end of their rope. This would NOT end well. And none of the other four made any move to contradict her.
"Look", the SPD Red Ranger attempted to draw on some of the diplomatic lessons Cruger had insisted he undergo, "There's obviously been…. Some kind of mistake here. Just put the Gems down, and we can talk about it."
"No mistake, Officer Friendly. These Gems are OURS, YOU stole them, and we're leaving. Anything that stops that gets pounded. Hard.", the black guy snapped. And grinned. Or at least showed his teeth. That was goddamned ENOUGH. These psychos had gotten his squad out of bed to bluster and make empty threats? Screw that. Enough diplomacy.
"OK, your way. Hand over the Gems before someone gets hurt".
Bridge pushed forward. "Jack's so vague at times, y'know? Half the time, I don't get him. See, he said SOMEONE might get hurt. Not that that's not true, but see, he didn't mean SOMEONE. OK, he did but….", Bridge paused for breath. Jack looked at the crazies. They appeared as confused he was. Scratch THAT hope of understanding B-Squad's third-in-command.
"He meant you, more specifically. Or at least I think he did. I mean, if he meant us, he wouldn't say it out loud. And we're the only people here. Aside from you.", Bridge concluded. The tall guy in front opened his mouth to say something. Z cut him off "Forget it. You can figure it out on the way to your cells."
"Those Gems are SPD property", Sky snapped in a cold voice, apparently feeling the discussion had been sidetracked. "They belong to us, to the government. Not to private citizens. Now-"
"There's two things you guys need to learn about Dino Gems", the tall guy(red shirt, Jack noticed) smirked, of all things.
"One. You can't choose them - ", the yellow girl began.
"They choose you", a Hispanic man clad all in white finished.
Syd looked bored by the recitation. "Fine", the Pink Ranger sighed tiredly. "I'll bite. What's the other, before we haul you in?"
Black guy grinned his grin again, while bringing up his wrist. Jack tensed, but no weapon came out. Instead, a metal bracelet appeared on the guy's wrist, with a little model of a Triceratops on the front. As Jack watched, similarly themed bracelets appeared on the other four loonies. "They go real well with Dino Morphers", Black said in a predatory voice.
Morphers. Jack heard a quickly stifled snort behind him. Those toy things? He almost pitied them. OK, that was enough. He began gesturing to his squad to grab them – gently.
In a flash, the five brought the Gems to their wrists, slamming them into the bracelets, which seemed to swallow them. Before anyone could stop them, they yelled out simultaneously "Dino Thunder, Power Up!", while triggering something on the models.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the figures dissolved into white light.
Tommy felt the power, and found it not familiar at all. Oh yes, the sensations were familiar – the sudden fire exploding over his body, savage action exploding into his mind, his body seemingly becoming anything he wanted. Viewing the world once more through a helmet, THAT was familiar, of course. But the overall feeling….
The lack of helplessness. The ability to solve any problem, merely by deciding to do so. The laws of reality becoming recommendations. None was true, yet it was all a part of the power. He'd taken it for granted before – how much did a teenager now about helplessness? Always thought THEY were the world. And later, he'd been far more disciplined, far more controlled. He'd not allowed the power to dominate him.
But now…. The years had eroded at his restraint, and he allowed the Power to course through him, filling him with it's whispering song. You're invincible, the song said. No one has ever been able to beat you! You're the best there ever was! Kill them! Kill them!
No. Not kill. Tommy snatched back his restraint, before the feeling overwhelmed him. Didn't look like it would even come down to a fight. The five cadets, he supposed they were, stared at them open mouthed. The blonde girl who'd baited Kira had dissolved into hysterics, snatching at the black guy(seemingly the leader).
"Oh my God! Power Rangers! PowerRangers, powerrangers…. OH MY GOD! Jack, what're we gonna do? How can we fight them! We can't! Jack, we need to surrender…."
Tommy smiled. He was glad there'd be no need to deal with these kids. They could just walk out of-
It was then, in the flash of a second, that Tommy Oliver noticed three very terrible things:
One – The blonde had gone into far too exaggerated hysterics. Typically, they came with a quiet forerunning, before exploding into screams. As a matter of fact, THESE hysterics were remarkably low-pitched, attention-drawing though they were.
Two – The blonde was neatly concealing the leader's torso from view, but Tommy could see rectangular devices hanging from the waists of the other three. Devices they seemed poised to draw.
Three – All five cadets were dressed in non-standard uniforms. While possessed of the same basic style, they alternated SPD grey with a strip of color. A different strip of color each, all basic solids.
Oh. No.
"Or Syd, we could just say…."
"SPD EMERGENCY!"