As they re-materialised, Dr. K and Ziggy landed on an unsteady surface, which quickly shifted under their feet, causing both of them to lose their balance and fall, tumbling over and over again down a mountain of rubble. As they finally came to a halt, Ziggy looked around, quickly finding Dr. K and rushed over to her, kneeling by her side as he skidded to a halt on the gravel.
"Sorry, I don' know what happened." He told her. "Dr. K are you alright?"
"I am not significantly injured, though I could use some antiseptic and access to a laundry." She answered grumpily, inspecting her dirty, and slightly damaged lab coat. Ziggy picked himself up, looking around in horror. He didn't recognise where they were at all. There were a few buildings all around in various states of ruin. Everything around was charred, and crumbling. Dr. K shoved him away a little as she stood up.
"Dr. K, I'm sorry I don't know where we are." He informed her. "I've never seen this place before. I concentrated on Corinth Square I swear it."
"Well this doesn't look much like Corinth Square now does it?"." She grumbled, pointing upwards. Looking up at the dark, smoggy sky and pointed. Ziggy's eyebrows knitted in confusion. "It appears that whatever that weapon Kilobyte fired at us does, it seems to have thrown off your teleportation."
"Where's the dome?" He asked her. "You mean we're not in Corinth?"
"It doesn't look like it does it?" She replied sarcastically. "Ziggy, get us out of here."
He tried to activate his morpher, but it just sat lifelessly on his wrist. Nothing happened when he tried to morph or teleport.
"It's not working." He told her, handing it to her to inspect. "It must be broken."
"Everything here looks like it works." She responded as she checked the wiring and circuits quickly with a small screwdriver. "I can't understand it.
Ziggy grabbed her and pulled her aside into cover as they heard footsteps. He was sure that being so far out from the dome that they couldn't see anything familiar; he was expecting a patrol of Grinders. They watched from a safe distance as the strangers went past.
"This doesn't make sense." Ziggy commented as he watched them pass by. "They're human."
"They're wearing Corinth military uniforms." Dr. K pointed out. "Why would they be out here?"
"Maybe they're refugees." Ziggy suggested. "They do say there's strength in numbers. Maybe we should find out who they are."
Just then, they heard a weapon cocking and looked up to see four men in deep blue bodysuits made of what looked a lot like latex, though it seemed to house a number of raised plates at strategic points on their bodies. There was a radiation shield attached to the left breast of each suit, indicating the level of toxicity in the area. All four had short, tidy crew-cuts and styled beards and moustaches blending into their hair line. The weapon being trained on them appeared to be one neither of them recognised.
"Who goes there?" One of them called out.
"My name's Ziggy Grover." He informed them. "We don't mean you any harm; we just want to know where we are and how to get back to Corinth."
The leader of the group looked to the others, a small smile crossing his lips.
"He says he's Ziggy Grover." He repeated. The men started to laugh insincerely. The leader grabbed a baton from his belt, swinging it and striking Ziggy in the temple with unbelievable speed. A bright blue flash accompanied the impact, and he fell to the ground unconscious. Dr. K Just looked at the men coldly.
"Trust my luck to run into some of Ziggy's friends even out here." She muttered as the leader put away his weapon and pulled out restraints.
"No one has to get hurt little lady." He assured her, holding them up. "I'm sure the boss would love to meet you."
Back at the Garage, Scott and Flynn widened their search as far as the scanners would reach as they tried to locate their missing friends. Gem and Gemma meanwhile were busy trying to figure out what the weapon Kilobyte had been carrying did by piecing together the debris.
"I still can't find anything." Scott complained. "We've already upped the range to far beyond the range of Ziggy's teleportation ability and we still can't find anything."
"We have to find them." Tenaya put down flatly, holding onto Alex tightly as she tried in vain to calm herself. "They have to be somewhere!"
"Listen, we all want to get them back. Scott isn't giving up." Summer assured her as she tried to take Alex from her. He was becoming a little upset, obviously picking up on how Tenaya was feeling, and Summer just wanted to take him to ease him a little. Tenaya tough wasn't having any of it, snatching him away a little, keeping hold of him as though fearful of losing him too.
"We're not giving up. We just need to figure out what to try next." Scott told her. "Gem, is there any luck piecing together what that thing is? Maybe that will help us."
"I still don't know if I have all the pieces." He replied with a forced grin. "You kind of went to town with that street sabre."
"Well let me know when you find something." Scott told them. He looked calm and collected as he always did, but inside, he was paralysed with dread over what could have happened to the woman he loved. There was no telling what happened, or even if….he couldn't bring himself to imagine what he'd do if his worst fears were confirmed.
Ziggy cam to, finding his wrists shackled together. Dr. K was a short way off, watching their captors, similarly restrained. The four men had their backs to them, concentrating on what they were doing.
"Are you alright?" She asked him. Ziggy rubbed the side of his face, nodding.
"It feels like my head's been smashed with a sledgehammer, but yeah." He replied gently. He gestured to the four men. "What are they doing?"
"They said they were stopping for something to eat." She told him. Ziggy's eyes grew wide as he got a flashback of the Dregs that had captured him in Omega City. Dr. K saw this and put a hand on his arm. "They haven't built a fire. They aren't going to cook us; it looks like they're carrying some other form of sustenance."
"Well I'll still feel better with a little distance between us and them." He whispered in response. "It doesn't look like we're secured in any way. If we just move quietly…"
"I can hear you like you were sitting next to me." One of the strangers interrupted him loudly without bothering to look around. "You wouldn't get ten feet before we cut you down."
"Are you hybrids?" Dr. K asked them, trying to make sense of what they had said, while she pulled a small tool from her pocket quietly, beginning to try and figure out how the restraints opened while she distracted them. "Are you taking us to Venjix?"
The four men just looked at each other and laughed as though taking amusement in her ignorance, like she had asked if they were taking her to the Gingerbread House or if they were working for the Tooth Fairy.
"Venjix?" He asked her. "God, I guess the lab coat's more of a fashion statement than a sign of intelligence."
Just then, one of the strangers fell to the ground lifelessly, an energy blast penetrating his skull. The remaining three snapped to their feet as dozens of men, dressed in Corinth military uniforms rushed into the clearing.
As they started to move, one of them covered Dr. K, levelling a weapon in her direction. His uniform was dirty, hastily repaired, and looked like it was incredibly old. She thought this was odd, since the military had only adopted the uniforms after the dome had been closed.
He saw the restraints and realised they were prisoners, turning back to the fray. Dr. K watched in awe at the battle. The Corinth soldiers fought bravely, but it seemed the remaining three strangers were more than a match for them, moving with unnatural ease, seemingly dodging laser blasts while firing back with superior weapons. She and Ziggy pulled back with the guard who had rescued them, watching as others fell in the retreat.
Just then, an explosion detonated by one of them, sending him to the ground. A man rushed from the shadows, kicking him hard in the ribs, pinning him to the ground with his boot, before smashing him in the face with the barrel of a gun. He fired at point-blank range obliterating the stranger's skull. It was then that the remaining two took flight, leaving the battlefield.
It was only then that there was enough light for Ziggy to see who the new arrival was. He looked a lot older, his hair almost completely gone, and his face was heavily scarred. His left eye was gone, covered by a black eye patch. He noticed then that what he had thought was a rifle was in fact grafted directly to his arm, replacing his right hand. His right leg had been replaced with a crude bionic replacement.
"Flynn?" Ziggy asked him. The Blue Ranger approached him looking at the young man suspiciously.
"How do you know that name?" He asked him, eyeing up Ziggy as though he had no idea who he could have been. He seemed to be unable to recognise either of them as he paced back and forward, inspecting the pair. He grabbed Dr. K's lab coat, seeing the Alphabet Soup insignia on it. "Where did you get this?"
"I always wear it." Dr. K told him. "You've seen me wear it many times."
"Commander McAllister, the remaining GEARS have disappeared, they got away." One of the soldiers informed him. "We've got six men needing urgent medical attention. Peters and Clarke are already dead."
"Flynn, what happened to you?" She asked him. "What's going on here? Where are we? How did we get here?"
"This is Corinth Square." He told them. Dr. K saw the noticeable signs of aging in her former Blue Ranger and came closer.
"This can't be Corinth Square; it looks nothing like I remember." Ziggy told him. "What happened here? The place is totalled, not to mention there is the small matter of what the hell happened to the dome."
"How long have I been gone?" She asked him. "What year is it? Are those things hybrids? Did Venjix win?"
"They must have been breathing too many fumes." One of the soldiers commented. "The Dome? Hybrids? Venjix?"
"Venjix was destroyed over 30 years ago." Flynn informed them.
"Then who were those guys in the jump suits?" Ziggy asked him. "If Venjix is gone, then who are they and who do they work for?"
"We don't have time to discuss this. We need to get out of here before they come back with more of their kind." He barked as his men scavenged what they could from the camp. "Do not release them from the restraints. We still have no idea if this is some kind of trick. Blindfold them and bring them with us. Move out!"
As his men blindfolded Dr. K and Ziggy, the doctor couldn't help wondering what could have happened here. All she knew was what they had been told. 30 years had passed. Venjix was gone, so was the dome but instead of getting better, it looked like things had only gotten worse.
Back at the Garage, in the present, Gem pulled off his goggles as he finished inspecting the weapon, backing away from the work bench. Scott abandoned his scans, which were still showing nothing, and approached the twins. Seeing this, Tenaya rushed over too.
"Have you found anything?" He asked them. "What is this thing?"
"It appears to work on a similar principal to Flynn's time manipulation burst." Gem informed them. "It manipulates the time-field in the atoms of matter it hits, but instead of halting the movement of atoms, it speeds it up."
"Speeds it up?" Scott asked him. "So what does that mean?"
"All atoms move. Speeding them up weakens the bonds between them until…" He held his hands together, and then slowly moved them apart to illustrate his point in a vain attempt not to worry Scott or Tenaya. It failed miserably though, as Tenaya just became noticeably distraught, almost collapsing on the spot. Summer grabbed her.
"So you're trying to tell me that they just…disintegrated?" Scott asked him as calmly as he could, his eyes showing equal measures of pain and anger as he tried to remain in control.
"No, I don't think so." He told them, checking another computer. "You see if they had just…" He made the hand motion again, though regretted it as Tenaya looked like she was ready to tear him apart. "There wouldn't have been any light or sound. The atoms would just have drifted apart. Like a bunch of balloons when the strings are cut."
"So what happened?" Summer asked him. Gem showed them the footage.
"As you can see, they were hit while Ziggy was teleporting them." He informed them. "It seems that the beam hit them when their atoms were already slipping into the space time continuum."
"What does that mean?" Scott asked him. Gem just looks a little regretful, wishing he had another answer for them.
"I don't know." He told them. Scott just ran his hands through his hair in frustration.
"Well get back to working on this and don't waste our time again until you have something useful to tell us!" He sapped at the Gold Ranger, shoving him into the work bench. Gem looked hurt by the way he had been chastised by his leader as he stormed away. He wanted to tell him more, Dr. K and Ziggy were his friends too, but right now, he just didn't know what, if anything the circumstances around their disappearance meant. Gemma stepped back to the bench, patting his back gently.
"Let's get back to work." She whispered to him softly. "We'll find out what happened."
In the future, Dr. K and Ziggy were bundled rather less than ceremoniously along, only to finally be released when they apparently reached their destination. They heard a heavy metal blast door slamming shut behind them, at which their blindfolds were removed.
"OK, we're friends here." Ziggy complained. "We..."
"That remains to be seen sunshine!" Flynn interrupted him, levelling his weapon at him to make a point. "Now, we want to know who you are and what you're doing wandering around in the war zone without even a single weapon between you!"
"We didn't know we were coming into a war zone." Dr. K told him. She looked around at the installation. It was a little more Spartan. Men were sitting around, cleaning and preparing weapons, tending to injuries, and spending time with the few families that were there. "We don't know how we got here, but it certainly wasn't intended."
"What the hell happened?" Ziggy interrupted her. Dr. K couldn't believe he had blurted out a question like that. Obviously no one seemed to recognise them. Flynn looked at him a little bemused.
"I'm trying really hard to decide if you're a liar or an idiot, but I'll bite. I'll tell you if you can explain one thing." He replied, grabbing Ziggy by the jacket and yanking him forward. "Where did you get these clothes? I've only seen a uniform like this, or like the one the lass is wearing years ago."
"We recreated these outfits from scraps we've found." Dr. K blurted out. "We know the legend of the RPM Rangers and wanted to emulate them. We've become lost."
Flynn didn't look convinced, so he looked to the other side of them. Craning her neck around, she saw he was looking to a slightly greying, brown haired woman, who was wearing glasses. As she looked back to Flynn and shrugged, Dr. K realised it was Sam. She was pleased to know that at least that hadn't changed in this time. It seemed they were still married.
"So what happened?" Dr. K asked him. "If Venjix was destroyed, what happened to the dome? Who are those guys in the blue suits?"
"What happened to the other Rangers?" Ziggy asked him. Flynn looked like Ziggy had just slapped him across the face. It seemed he had hit a nerve.
"The Rangers are gone, a distant memory!" He snapped at them in disgust. Sam flinched a little as his temper got the better of him and he kicked a work bench over hard. "I'm the only one left! The others are gone and are never coming back and it's all because of him! They were hunted down and destroyed by one of their own!"
Dr. K and Ziggy just stared at each other, horrified by what they had heard. It seemed the world had gone to hell. The very people they had struggled so hard to protect were fighting each other over what was left of the city, and all of this had happened without Venjix. Apparently all of this was down to one of them.
Back at the Garage in the present, Gem picked up a small hand held device and approached Scott nervously. The Red Ranger got up and looked at him, trying to maintain his patience.
"Please tell me you have something." Scott said in a low, slightly menacing voice. Gem knew that he didn't mean to blame him. He hadn't done anything to cause this, but Scott's frustration at losing Dr. K was beginning to wear on his patience.
"I did some small scale testing with the weapon. I've recreated the weapon, and I've tapped into the Series Green teleportation ability to recreate the circumstances of the attack." Gem informed him. "I tried it on an apple."
"So what did you find?" Scott asked him. Gem checked the device in his hand.
"If my theory is correct..."
At that, an apple materialised on the table. Gem shrugged.
"I guess I was out by a couple of seconds." He stated. Scott shook his head.
"What was that?" The Red Ranger asked him. "You just teleported..."
"I teleported it two minutes ago." Gem interrupted him. "I told you that the weapon speeds up the movement of atoms right?" He asked him. Scott nodded. "Well that should have caused the atoms to fly apart, but when Ziggy teleports, his atoms already split, they're just contained within an energy field which stops them flying off and reconstitutes them at his target location."
"So where is he?" Scott asked. Gem picked up the apple, handing it to him.
"When he teleports, he doesn't re-appear instantaneously. He takes a fraction of a second to re-assemble." He explained. "What happened here is because the movement of atoms was speeded up, it took longer to re-assemble them."
"So where are they?" Scott asked again.
"You mean when are they." Gem corrected him. "I ran the weapon at only a fraction of its power, so it only speeded up the atoms a little, leading to the two minute time gap."
"So how long do we have to wait?" Scott asked him. Gem showed him his scanner.
"If my calculations are correct, they'll have appeared about 30 years in the future." Gem told him.