Tenaya woke up, slowly getting her bearings after her treatments. She had been out in the wastes for a long time, and had been tortured mercilessly, leaving her considerably weakened. If it wasn't for the Venjix hardware within her, it was almost certain she would have died.
She felt an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth, and her vision was a little blurry as her eyes fluttered open, taking in the harsh lights of Dr. K's lab. She saw someone with dark hair and a dark jacket leaning over her and smiled. Ziggy had kept his promise to her. He was there to watch over her. She felt her hand being knocked away as she reached for her mask.
"It's alright, I'll get it." The figure said, reaching to her face. Her vision cleared a little, and she felt a sense of disappointment as she realised from the voice that it was not Ziggy standing over her. It was Dillon. He removed the mask, looking into her face. "You gave us all quite a scare. What were you thinking running off like that?"
"I guess I wasn't thinking." She whispered her throat a little dry. Dillon looked around to someone in the background that she couldn't see.
"Can I get some water?" He asked. He was handed a cup, which he gently placed to her lips, pouring some into her mouth.
"Her condition is improving steadily." Dr. K's voice said from a little way off. "She has been fortunate that she was found so soon."
"She'll be alright Dillon." Summer's voice added. She stepped into view, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We got to her in time."
"Where's Ziggy?" She asked them. Dillon looked a little more serious as she said this.
"You've been through a lot." He reminded her. "You should rest; you shouldn't have many visitors right now."
"But..."
"Leave this stuff to Dr. K." Dillon interrupted her. "She knows what she's doing. Just be patient. We'll let you have all the visitors you want when you're stronger."
She started to pull herself up, becoming a little more impatient. She wanted to see Ziggy. He had promised he would be there for her. He had promised her that he would take care of her. Dillon grabbed her shoulders and pressed her back down gently, yet firmly enough to exceed her remaining strength, forcing her back down.
"You don't get a choice in this." He told her flatly. "I'm the big brother here. Dr. K says you need to rest."
"But..."
"I'm not above having Dr. K restrain you." He interrupted her, replacing the mask. "You are staying right here, and you aren't to move an inch until Dr. K gives you the all clear, is that understood?"
Tenaya looked at him, her eyes betraying her frustration, but nodded as she realised the futility of her situation. There was a little awkwardness between herself and the Black Ranger. They had only found out they were related a few days ago, and they were largely still trying to find their way when it came to how they acted around each other.
They had remembered so far that in their lives before the procedure, she had been blind, and that Dillon had apparently taken a large role in her care. Given the way he was acting, it seemed he was taking this role seriously. As much as she could take care of herself, and there were few who could deny that, it wasn't like she was in a position to argue right now.
"I'll be watching." He told her, tapping her restraining bracelet. "I wasn't joking about the restraining thing. If you move an inch..."
She muttered something which he took to being an acceptance of his terms. She had indeed resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't to leave the lab, though it was probably just as well her "brother" couldn't hear what she had actually said. He smiled at her.
"I'll come to see you in a little while." He told her. He raised a hand, considering touching her hair for comfort, but his hand just kind of hovered there for a while. Neither of them could deny that there were feelings there, but it was still a little awkward. Neither of them were sure how close they were or how intimate their contact should be. He let out a sigh and withdrew his hand, causing her to feel a little relieved. She settled down onto the bed as the three of them left the room, feeling only disappointment that she couldn't see Ziggy. A few tears ran down her face as she settled down to sleep. Why hadn't he come to see her?
Out in the main room, all the furniture had been pulled back, and the vehicles had been parked out in the street for safety. A few mats had been put down on the floor to protect it, while Chas, Flynn and Scott tried to explain the finer points of Lightningball to Ziggy. He was wearing a toy Football helmet, some mismatched motocross armour, and a couple of soccer shin pads for effect. Right now they were throwing softballs at him, but his attempts at catching them were more than a little haphazard. He caught the odd one or two, more through luck than design.
"Come on Ziggy!" Flynn roared at him as he started to get a little frustrated. "Haven't you played any kind of ball games before?"
"Ms. Foster rarely had enough kids for anything like softball." He replied in an irritated tone as another ball rebounded off his helmet.
"Look, it's only a charity game; no one's expecting us to beat the Rockets." Chas reminded him, more as a way to alleviate his own guilt at getting Ziggy into this in the first place than any real defence of his abilities as it quickly became obvious that he was far from a skilled player. "I'll have to put in some calls to get some armour that'll fit you, but I should have it here by tomorrow night. In the meantime, maybe we should work on your defence and tackling."
"Well that shouldn't be too much trouble." Flynn replied, collecting a pad. When he had joined the team at first, one of the things that worried them the most was that he was hardly the ideal warrior. He was small, skinny, and had never really been in any major fights. At first, only Dillon had any real faith in him, the reaction of the others the first time he recalled his helmet, revealing his identity had been far from encouraging.
Over time though, he had worked hard. Eventually, Summer and Flynn had accepted that since his DNA had been bonded to the morpher, it was pointless to complain, and instead had worked with him to improve his technique. Scott had eventually also come around and helped with his training. He was still far from their level, though now he had improved considerably, to the point where he was now an impressive fighter in his own right. Chas stood back as Ziggy started to attack the pad.
"Move around!" Chas yelled. "No one stands still in Lightningball. You have to chase the guy with the ball. Flynn! You're the one with the ball; try to take him down Ziggy!"
Chas watched as Ziggy launched into an impressive attack pattern, and smiled.
"This might not be such a disaster after all." He commented, nodding his head knowingly. "He can hold his own."
"Well practice is one thing, taking on the Rockets is another." Summer commented. "Umm...Chas, you said you could get armour to fit him. How...?"
"I know the manager of the Icini." He interrupted her. Summer and Scott sniggered a little.
"Chas, they're a ladies team." Scott reminded him.
"All the male professional players are too big. None of them could lend him armour that would fit." Chas told them. "Besides, what he doesn't know won't hurt him."
Flynn bore Ziggy to the ground, levelling him. The others looked across a little concerned.
"OK, that's enough for tonight." Ziggy wheezed a little as he got up. His eyes strayed to the door leading to the lab Tenaya was being treated in. While he was far from an athlete, there was another thing playing on him. So far he hadn't had a chance to go and see her since they had brought her back to the city. Dillon had been to see her, and he knew that he would want to know why if Ziggy had asked to see her. It was something he was unlikely to be able to explain, especially since Dr. K had insisted that she was still weak from her ordeal and had insisted that her visitors be restricted to allow her time to rest. He felt badly about not being able to go and see her. He promised her he would be there from her, but right now that wasn't possible.
"Ziggy, we have to get you ready for..."
"Its fine Chas, I'll train with you again tomorrow." Ziggy told him, tearing off his armour and heading away towards his room. Summer looked a little worried as he left.
"I promise I'll be around tomorrow to help some more." Chas assured her. "In the meantime, I need to see someone about whether or not it's worth starting a defamation suit against Dome Secrets."
He left the Garage, heading back to his apartment.
"I'm just going to find Gem and Gemma." Scott stated. "The last time I saw them was when we defeated the Saw Bot. If we don't keep tabs on them they might just go on another 'super fun, super secret' mission without us."
"I never would have thought it was possible, but the way they write is weirder than the way they talk." Flynn agreed.
"You haven't tried to read one of their maps." Summer commented as Scott went off in search of the twins. Dr. K watched him go, and just seemed to quietly leave the room to head back to her secure quarters.
"I'm heading to my room." Dillon told them. "I need some time alone."
As he left, Flynn gathered some equipment together. Summer grabbed his t-shirt, attracting his attention.
"Flynn, this isn't going well." She told him. "You know Ziggy isn't ready. If we don't help him..."
"Summer, we'll get him ready in time for the match." Flynn replied sadly. "You heard Chas, he's..."
"He's going to be eaten alive!" Summer interrupted him. "The smallest guy on the Rocket's first team outweighs him by over 100 pounds! Even with his training he'll get hurt."
Flynn just ignored her as he carried on gathering balls into a net. Summer grabbed him and turned him to face her.
"Flynn, his mind wasn't on practice." She said softly, looking to him sympathetically. "He's worried about something and you're covering for him, I can see it."
Flynn let out a small sigh and shook his head.
"He's worried about Tenaya." He told her. "He hasn't been able to see her since she got back."
"She's with Dr. K and Dillon." Summer replied. "I know he's been taking care of her, but he should know..."
"It's more complicated than that Summer." He interrupted her, pulling her in more closely. "You saw the way he kept looking over to that door."
"What?" She asked him, looking to the door a little surprised. "Are you serious?"
Flynn nodded his head sadly.
"Is it serious?" She asked him.
"Summer, he asked me not to say anything." Flynn told her. "He's worried about what Dillon will think. For what it's worth, he told me he loves her."
Summer leant back against the wall, looking up to the ceiling as she processed this information.
"How does she feel about him?" She asked the Blue Ranger.
"Why do you think she really ran out of the dome on her own?" Flynn asked her. "She knew we hadn't figured out what Venjix had planned, she was certain we'd be trapped in here like everyone else. She's been trapped here for almost two months, but not because of us. We haven't even been trying to restrain her for a while, and we all know if she made a conscious effort there would be little we could do to stop her."
Summer ran a hand through her hair and looked towards Ziggy's room.
"She's only been trapped here by her fear of Venjix." He continued. "That day she ran out to face potentially everything it had single handed and unarmed. What do you know could make someone take a risk like that?"
"Poor Ziggy, he must be going out of his mind." Summer commented.
"I've tried to convince him that letting Dillon know might not be such a bad thing." Flynn told her.
"He's still trying to figure out things with her himself." She replied. "I love him, but even I can admit that he never thinks things through to deeply when he's upset. We have to approach this slowly."
"In the meantime," Flynn sighed, gathering the last of the equipment, "we should probably just concentrate on hoping he lives long enough that fate doesn't make this a non-issue."
Meanwhile, at the racetrack, Fresno Bob was quietly having dinner with a few business associates. Between mouthfuls of soup, prepared by his personal chef, he shared jokes and discussed business strategies with his partners.
Benny came into the room as the plates from the first course were cleared away, coming over to his boss and whispering something in his ear.
"If you'll excuse me, I have something urgent to take care of." He told them. "Waiter, make sure they have plenty of wine, and instruct the chef to hold off on the main course for five minutes."
He left the room with Benny, closing the door behind him.
"Where is he?" Fresno Bob asked him.
"I asked him to wait in your office." Benny told him. "I told him you were busy, but he insisted it was important."
The crime boss was far from happy about being pulled out of that meeting. He was going over business, and it was far from convenient to have those discussions interrupted.
He stepped into his office, finding Mr. Winchester sitting on his chair, with his feet crossed on his desk, quietly sipping some scotch, and smoking a cigar.
"You know those refreshments you've helped yourself to cost almost a grand." The gangster stated with a little smile. "If it was anyone but you, I'd probably already have them six feet under just for having the audacity to sit in my chair!"
"I take it you've read tonight's newspaper." Mr. Winchester stated, pointing to it. "It seems my son has recovered a lot more than I thought from the article I had published."
"You know a lot less about people than you think, unfounded allegations that his fiancée slept around on him?" Fresno Bob laughed dismissively. "Questioning the parentage of his child? You know blue-bloods like yourself might care about crap like that but the normal working man? He'd probably find it admirable if he helped a single mom, and how many politicians do you know who've had affairs?"
"Don't you dare lecture me on politics!" Mr. Winchester snapped, crushing out his cigar in the ashtray. "I want my son to be crushed!"
"You really are a family man aren't you?" Fresno Bob asked. "I guess that's why you came to me Charles."
"We're only related through marriage Bob." Charles reminded him. "Besides, we both know that both of us benefit from our mutual businesses."
"The first thing you have to do is understand your enemy." Fresno Bob told him. "You have to know what makes him tick, figure out where his weaknesses lie."
"He's my son..."
"So naturally you know nothing about him." Fresno Bob remarked as he poured himself a drink. "The first thing to know is that he won't sink as low as you. Since his heroics, he's leading a good life now. He doesn't want to get involved in a mudslinging campaign, which is just as well because we both know you have a lot more skeletons in your closet than he does."
"So what do you suggest?" He asked him.
"I suggest we start a scandal." Fresno Bob told him. "One people will care about."
"I thought you might see things my way." Mr. Winchester replied.
"Well just about every former Mayor's promised to make the reduction of organised crime a chief manifesto policy." Fresno Bob chuckled in reply. "Of course your son's the first one that wasn't already dealing with us in some way, so I'm a little worried the little shit might actually go through with it. That would be bad for business. I hate losing money."
"So what do you have in mind?" Mr Winchester asked him.
"We'll have to do a lot to overcome the popularity your son will have earned by saving the game. Bringing in Ziggy was a brilliant move." Bob stated. "Of course Lightningball is a rough game, sometimes people get hurt."
"You plan to settle your own vendetta and mine at the same time?" Charles asked him, taking a sip. "I know the Green Ranger burned you a while back."
"As tempting as that sounds, I still think setting the dogs on him would look a little suspicious, even in a Lightningball match." Fresno Bob suggested, looking at him in a way that was slightly unsettling. "I was planning on unleashing the dogs; I just had a different target in mind."
He sat on the edge of the desk and looked into his eyes.
"How much do you really like your son?" He asked.
"That's your plan?" Mr. Winchester sneered. "Beat him up? If anything that'll make him look like a damned hero! It's a charity game he arranged..."
"Trust me; this is only the beginning of my plan." He replied. "Character assassination is an art form. It takes time, it takes planning. Trust me, by the time I'm finished, he'll have less chance of being elected than Benny."
