In the present, Gem and Gemma were with the other Rangers, having somewhat resigned themselves to the fact that there was nothing they could do to bring Dr. K and Ziggy back. They didn't have the means to re-create the attack which sent them into the future, and even if they did, they weren't sure how much good it would do.
Gem sat, playing with a soldering iron dejectedly, miserable at his failure to recover his friends. Summer came over to him, putting an arm around him in a comforting gesture.
"How are you doing?" She asked him quietly. Gem just looked up, seeing Tenaya walking with Alex, humming him a lullaby, while Scott sat by the computers, looking at them thoughtfully. Summer squeezed him a little. "You shouldn't let what they said upset you. They didn't mean anything by it; they know it isn't your fault. They're just worried."
"I don't know what to do." He whimpered a little, causing Summer to feel badly for him. Because of his nature, Gem, like his sister, took things to heart a lot more easily than others. She was sure she had seen him struggling to keep from crying when Scott and Tenaya yelled at him. She knew that he had done everything he could to figure out what had happened; he just knew that from this end, there was nothing he could do to help them.
"There's nothing you can do." Summer reminded him sympathetically. "Dr. K's the smartest person...possibly ever. If there is a way to reverse this, I'm sure she'll find it."
The phone rang, and Scott picked it up, taking the call.
"Sam, are you calling for Flynn, I'll just..." His words tailed off as she started to relay the news of Father Larry's murder to him. Scott just stood with his mouth hanging open, and listened intently. "Are you sure? Sorry...I'll hand you over to him."
He handed the phone to Flynn. Sam had been badly upset by the murder and needed him right now. Flynn took the phone and went to talk with his wife while Scott paced the room.
"That was Sam. They just found Father Larry's body." He informed them. Everyone looked completely at a loss for words. It had only been a couple of days since he had performed the wedding ceremony. "Sam said that all the evidence points to it being a hybrid."
"A hybrid?" Dillon asked him. "Tenaya and I haven't left here all day, and Marcus is in the Asylum. That means..."
"What we feared when the other hybrid framed Gem is true. There are more hybrids in the city." He told them. "We don't know how many, or who they are."
"They could be anybody." Summer added, voicing everyone's fears. "What if they've got key positions? What if they have hybrids in the water treatment plant, or the air circulation plant...?"
"We all know how bad this could be." Scott interrupted her, looking around the Rangers. "If Venjix still has infiltrators in the city, there's no telling what he could have them do."
"Why would he kill Father Larry?" Dillon asked him. "What does Venjix have to gain by that?"
"Well that's just one of many questions we need to answer, and soon." Scott shot back. "This has alerted us to the fact other infiltrators are here. If Venjix has done that, then we can presume that they'll be used to make a move sometime soon."
"So what do we do?" Dillon quizzed him a little sarcastically. "I don't know about you but I'm not keen on the plan of waiting until they make a move to know who's a hybrid and who isn't."
"Maybe there's something in Dr. K's computer." Gem suggested, rushing over. "After last time I'm sure she'd have considered the possibility we'd need to scan for more infiltrators."
He opened her computer and typed in her password, only to look puzzled as it flashed up a message telling him he had been denied access, and informing him he had only eight attempts left to guess it."
"I don't understand, she told me her password, it's always been butterfly!" He stammered as the others crowded around him.
"Butterfly?" Dillon asked him disbelievingly. "Her password was butterfly?"
"She chased a butterfly from her lab past a window, that's how she found out we weren't really allergic to sunlight." Gem explained. "She must have changed it recently, but she hasn't told me what it is!"
"Let me try." Summer told them, typing in another word. She tried Scott. "Denied."
"Come on guys, think!" Scott stated. "What could she have picked?"
In the future, Ziggy and Dr. K followed Flynn on their three-man mission towards the old Central Command building. Flynn had scavenged some simple, woollen travelling cloaks with hoods to conceal their identities as best he could. As they made their way through the city, Dr. K and Ziggy looked around at the dirty, malnourished, pathetic people scrambling over the ruins looking for anything they could find. Some were erecting crude shelters and building fires to keep the worst of the elements at bay during the night.
"Those who refuse to bow to Grover's will are forced to live how they can out here." Flynn informed them as they headed along the broken remains of a main street. Ziggy felt another shudder down his spine as he watched the homeless and desperate eke out a miserable existence. "The price of being able to have a choice in your life is the possibility of starving to death."
"What happened to the sky?" Dr. K asked him, looking up to the thick, black clouds, blocking out almost any form of natural light. "Why is it like that?"
"Between the factories inside Grover's territory and a lot of crude generators out here there's been a lot of pollution." Flynn informed them. "Most of us haven't seen a blue sky in over a decade."
As they got closer, a wall became visible, almost 50 feet in height, and made of large, disjointed pieces of salvaged metal welded together. The mast of the Central Command building could be seen rising above it, but the head, where the main complex was housed, was blanketed by the fumes.
"He had his men erect this wall around his territory." Flynn explained. "There's only one gate to allow his patrols to get in and out on salvage runs. It's guarded at all times by GEARS."
"What are GEARS?" Dr. K asked him. "What are they exactly?"
"Genetic Enhancement Armoured Rigs." Flynn told her. "Those suits mechanically enhance the genetic potential of the wearer, heightening their natural attributes beyond their natural limits. It's also heavily armoured and provides some protection against toxins and radiation."
"Not that I'm planning on going up against one of them, not having seen what they can do and all, but how exactly do you take them down?" Ziggy asked him. "I mean we might run into one or two of them."
"The suit doesn't offer protection to the head." Flynn said flatly. "Blow their brains out, they die just like everyone else."
"What else?" Dr. K asked him. Flynn shrugged.
"I guess you could empty about eight ammo clips into their bodies." He suggested.
"Well there's a comforting thought." Ziggy replied. "So what do you suggest?"
Flynn took a blaster off his shoulder harness, handing it to Ziggy, before handing a hand blaster to Dr. K.
"Don't miss." He replied as they rounded another pile of wreckage, seeing two GEARS standing guard.
"If we take them out, we might be able get inside." He told them, pulling back his cloak and readying his blaster arm.
"Are you sure there isn't any other way?" Ziggy asked him.
"If there was, do you think anyone would live out here?" He asked sarcastically. He took careful aim, hitting the first of them in the head, taking him down with ease. They broke cover, rushing the second as he started to return fire. Ziggy managed to score a couple of hits to his chest, which knocked him backwards into the wall, though he recovered quickly. Flynn though had closed in enough that his shot found its mark.
"I told you to go for the head!" Flynn snapped at Ziggy.
"Well sorry for not being exactly enthusiastic about the plan of just rushing in, killing anything that moves!" He responded angrily. "They're humans!"
"Exactly, they're not like hybrids, they aren't victims, they CHOSE to serve Grover." Flynn reminded him. "They volunteered to wear those suits. They're as bloodthirsty as he is!"
With that, they made their way inside as discreetly as they could. The guards on the other side were facing away from them, but as Flynn was about to act, Ziggy grabbed his arm. He put a finger to his lips to indicate that they should be quiet, before pointing to a nearby manhole cover. Flynn didn't look impressed by the plan, but after giving the GEARS one more glance, he obviously saw the wisdom in confronting as few of them as possible and followed.
Ziggy slipped off the manhole cover, helping Dr. K into the sewer, followed closely by Flynn. As he climbed down, he made sure he covered the hole, ensuring their entry had gone unnoticed.
"I don't think we were seen." Ziggy told them. "Which way now?"
"Central Command is this way." Dr. K told them. "Unless the sewers have changed in the last 30 years."
Back in the present, Kilobyte was working on another project in Venjix's palace when Crunch came into the room.
"I hope you're manufacturer's warranty isn't expired." He screeched as he came to the work bench. "Venjix found out you activated one of the sleepers without his permission. You know the plan!"
"It was to preserve the plan that I did it." Kilobyte said in a slightly arrogant tone. "I don't expect a simpleton like yourself to understand the complexities of such an operation, but one of my sleepers heard something about humans with empathic abilities. I didn't want to risk that they could discover our sleepers could I?"
"You think that's possible?" Crunch asked him. Kilobyte just showed him footage taken by some of Hicks' implants of the confrontation with Father Larry.
"As you can see, he knew Hicks' intentions, and he knew about his true nature." Kilobyte responded casually. "Of course that doesn't matter now does it?"
"There is one more though is there not?" Venjix asked as he strode into the room. Kilobyte turned and bowed to his master.
"She is in the Asylum under the care of D46." He replied. "She is, as far as we know, the only one left."
"D46 complicates matters." Venjix replied. "Do we have any agents there?"
"Vasquez was assigned to hire new security staff." Kilobyte informed him. "She can..."
"She is in far too vital a position to risk exposing." Venjix cut him off. "She and Hicks have access to the command building. Have her send a couple of our drones their way instead."
"I'll have that done right away." Kilobyte replied, activating the signal.
Vasquez was sitting in an easy-chair in her apartment, stroking a curled up, purring Elwood as she looked over a couple of files. He got up, looked at her, and then hopped off her lap. Her eyes flashed red, and she got up from her chair, making her way to the phone.
In the future, Flynn got out of the sewers first, covering the back alley across the street from the Command Building and covered it with his blaster. Dr. K and Ziggy followed him.
"Alright, we're here." Ziggy stated, checking for guards, and finding no shortage of GEARS patrolling the building. He could guess there were more inside. "Where is Dr. K?"
"I'd imagine I'd be in the main lab." Dr. K replied with a small shrug. "I have an idea."
"I kind of hoped you would." Ziggy said with a grin.
"Well I did design this entire complex, so if you follow me, I'm sure we'll get in unnoticed." She told them.
Up in the lab in Central Command, the older Dr. K was working on another weapon when an alarm tripped. She was confined to an electric wheelchair, the result of years of torture and abuse at the hands of her sadistic former Ranger. Her hair was completely white, and had now grown well past her shoulders, such matters as grooming being somewhat secondary now. Her skin was wrinkled, and aged far beyond her years as a result of her hopeless imprisonment.
She checked the monitors finding something curious. She saw a party of three intruders entering through a hidden access hatch outside the building. She had built it into the design all those years ago as a fail-safe in case the base was ever captured and needed to be liberated, but as far as she knew, she was the only one that knew about it.
Checking the footage, she had to pause it in disbelief. Flynn had somehow found out about this access. She enhanced the image and was stunned to see herself, considerably younger. She had been working on a principal that it might be possible to transfer matter back through time to send a message to the Rangers in the past, but seeing herself in the future, she knew that it was possible, or at very least close. Her past self had obviously not realised that she had updated the security within the last 30 years. Silencing the alarm and de-activating surveillance to the passageway, she turned back to her work just in time as a guard approached her.
"There was an alarm." He told her. "Where?"
"I already checked it, it was merely a rat." She lied to her captor with the same weak whisper she was forced to use now due to her multitude of health problems stemming from her mistreatment. "The vermin control system will take care of it."
The guard looked at her suspiciously, before walking away. Dr. K was thankful that they were generally arrogant and foolish enough not to press matters too much when she explained something. They had resigned themselves to the fact they usually didn't understand much of what she said anyway, and so they stopped listening. It seemed that in this instance that might have been a good thing.
In the present, Cassandra was sitting, watching some TV in the recreation lounge with Marcus when there was a knock at the door. He saw four soldiers in the doorway.
"Vasquez sent us. She said that it's alright to release Cassandra into Father Larry's care." One of them began as Marcus looked at him a little uncertain as Cassandra turned to see them. She was still nervous about being around others.
"I only discuss matters of patients with people I trust." Marcus told them. "Come back with Colonel Truman or..."
"You don't need to worry; we have orders personally signed by Vasquez." He continued, opening the door and stepping into the room. Cassandra closed her eyes, screwing them shut and started to rub the sides of her head. "She couldn't be here in person..."
"Then Cassandra goes nowhere." Marcus interrupted him sharply, getting to his feet. "Colonel Truman knows the score."
"Marcus...I feel ill..." Cassandra told him. He turned to see her, and immediately went to her side comforting her as much as he could. She looked like her head was caught in a vice, and her rapid, pained gasps left him in little doubt something was wrong. "I feel it again, but this time it's worse...something's wrong..."
Marcus turned back to the soldiers, seeing all four of them were in the room.
"Look, she's obviously not comfortable." Marcus told them. "If you come back..."
"We have medication. We'll take care of her." The soldier assured him. As he reached forward, taking Cassandra by the wrist, her gift suddenly exploded into life. She thrashed wildly, desperate to get away from him and let out a hellish scream that could be heard throughout the entire building.
"That's it; you're not taking her..."
Marcus was cut off as one of the soldiers kicked him in the chest and sent him flying across the room, hitting the opposite wall so hard that dust fell from the ceiling. Marcus felt incredible pain from the blow. Now he knew why Cassandra was so scared. Her gift had picked up the fact that these men were not human.
As they tried to leave, Marcus threw the couch over them, ensuring he missed Cassandra, and landed, blocking the doorway. They turned in time to see him bellowing a savage cry as he attacked.
In the future, Dr. K, Ziggy and Flynn turned a corner, finding themselves standing before a vent. They watched for a while as a GEAR paced back and forward, checking on things. Satisfying himself with this particular sweep, he left the room. As soon as he'd gone, they opened the grate, crawling into the lab.
"I seem to remember moving faster." The future Dr. K commented. "While I still had the use of my legs of course."
"Sorry to disappoint...me." Dr. K said, her eyebrows meeting in a mixture of confusion at the fact they had been detected, and also the bizarre nature of addressing herself. "How...?"
"When have we ever been able to leave a project for 30 years without upgrading it?" Her future self asked.
"I don't know, I've not reached 30 yet." She answered. "Though I do see your point. I guess you updated security."
"Do not worry; I kept you off the grid from the guards." She replied. "Whether or not His Lordship has seen you is another matter. Grover's is the only system I have no access to."
"So where is he?" Ziggy asked.
"He's at the top, in Colonel Truman's old headquarters." She answered him matter-of-factly. The present Dr. K saw a device on the table and inspected it closely.
"This looks like the weapon Kilobyte had." She stated. "This looks like the weapon that sent us here."
"It's designed to accelerate the particles until they vibrate apart." The future Dr. K told her.
"Of course! When Ziggy teleported us, the energy stream kept the atoms from spreading apart, so instead of the teleportation only lasting a second, it lasted 30 years!"
"So how does this help?" Ziggy asked her.
"Just give me a little time to figure it out. I'm pretty sure I can get it to reverse the process." She told him. "Well, both of me might."
"I'm getting out of here before I get too confused." Ziggy responded, looking between both Dr. Ks. "We still need to get Grover to shut down that battle suit if I'm going to use my morpher."
"Well that's one idea." They heard a loud, booming voice announcing with a loud, evil laugh. Turning around, they saw him enter. Obviously much had changed about him in the years that followed. Ziggy's face was much the same, though his hair was longer, and wilder than before. His eyes lacked any compassion or reason, and his usual cheerful, friendly grin was replaced by a sick twisted smirk. He was now close to eight feet tall, and heavily muscled. The battle suit was a form fitting affair, though unlike the Ranger suits, it was constantly shifting between all the old Ranger colours. "Though if you think I'll just let you go back and destroy me and everything I've worked for, you must be insane."
"What the..."
"I made some improvements." The future Dr. K pre-empted his question. "His body has been genetically enhanced, and the battle suit is indestructible."
"Uh, Docs, you might want to put a little hurry on that device." Ziggy told them. "Listen...uh...me, I know this is..."
Ziggy was kicked across the room by a blast of Summer's Chi Energy Blast from the suit's hand.
"I can't kill you, but that doesn't mean I can't hurt you." He replied. "I guess you've come back to let me take the rest of your body parts Flynn."
"Let's see how indestructible you are!" He screamed, throwing himself at him. Ziggy got up and looked to the two Dr. Ks, indicating he was alright, and waving them back to their project.
"Just get that thing ready, I'll deal with myself!" He told them, getting to his feet. "I just have no idea how."