This chapter is for BraveRadin, who inspired me to update this story after so many years. Thank you! Also, a giant thank you to my beta reader, Hybryd0.
A Different Path
Chapter 3: Body Swap, Part 1
For once, it was a slow day at SPD. There had been no monster attacks, no briefings by Cruger, and no early morning training sessions with Kat. Jack liked to think of it as a vacation -- if he was really lucky, maybe Mirloc would decide that the Earth wasn't worth conquering and move on to another planet.
'Even if Mirloc left, Cruger would find some excuse to keep me around,' Jack thought. At this rate, he was probably going to be stuck working for S.P.D. until he turned thirty. At least the job had its perks: decent pay, top-of the line equipment, a room of his own and as much free food as he could eat.
Jack reached for another handful of popcorn and tried to pay attention to whatever show Syd was watching. Soon tiring of the parade of fancy clothes and elaborate hair styles, he looked around for other diversions. His eyes fell on Sky, who had spent at least the last hour slowly leafing through the handbook. Jack got up from the couch, ever-so-casually walked across the room and snatched the book.
"I was reading that," Sky said. He made a grab for the handbook but Jack held it just out of reach.
The cover of Sky's handbook was soft and well-worn. Jack opened the book to a random page and squinted at the tiny, neat handwriting around the edges. "Hey," he said, "what's so interesting about this thing?"
Yes, he had his own copy, and he had even tried to read it… once. Sky, however, seemed completely obsessed with the handbook. He wouldn't be surprised if the blue ranger knew every line and regulation by heart.
"That thing is the foundation of SPD," Sky said. He snatched the book back and glared at Jack. "Don't you have someone else to bother?"
"Nope," Jack said, unperturbed. "But you didn't answer my question. Why do you care about SPD so much? It's just a book of stupid rules."
"It's personal," Sky said, "and it's none of your business."
"I order you to tell me."
"You can't do that," Sky said, looking a little smug. "Unless it's an issue of planetary security, I don't have to tell you anything. And if you had actually read the handbook you would know that."
Jack was just about to argue with him when the alarm sounded. "Rangers! Report to the command center!"
'So much for a vacation.' Jack thought glumly as he shuffled out of the room. Noticing Sky's relief at the interruption, he made a mental note to follow up on their discussion.
He didn't like secrets, and he didn't like Sky. As far as he could tell, both together were the worst possible combination.
Cruger watched as the four rangers, his front-line defenders against Mirloc, filed into the command center. The teenagers stood at attention and saluted. Z almost saluted with the wrong hand but caught herself just in time.
Cruger sighed. Training a new ranger team took time and that was the one thing they didn't have. A unified force had to fight Mirloc – and all of humanity was depending on the skills of an untrained, mismatched team.
"So whose alien butt do we get to kick this time?" Jack asked. The cadets in the command center paused in their work and gawked. Very few people ever dared to speak to the Commander in such a disrespectful way!
Cruger said nothing, only glared at the insolent cadet.
"Sorry, sir," Jack mumbled. The commander was in a bad mood. That seemed to happen more and more often, as the threat from Mirloc grew. Not like Jack could blame him – having his planet under threat by a galaxy-conquering monster was enough to get under anyone's scales.
"His name is Hothos." Kat began the briefing, pointing at the hologram of an alien with far more eyes than Jack thought were necessary. "He's from the planet Mesarthin IV. Little is known about his species, but it can be safely assumed that he is armed and extremely dangerous."
Cruger stepped forward. "Hothos has been spotted in downtown Newtech city. Considering the situation with Mirloc, he must not be allowed to escape."
"He won't." Sky said grimly and the other rangers nodded.
"Be careful, rangers." Kat held up a cautioning hand. "He is wanted on 26 planets for crimes ranging from kidnapping to murder. Many have tried to contain him, but none have succeeded."
"We can handle it," Jack said. "We're ready for anything he's got!"
The one good thing, Jack reflected, about being SPD rather than a bounty hunter, was that your targets tended to be conspicuous. He supposed there was no point even trying to hide when you were green and had tentacles for hair – and besides, the criminals they captured tended to be the wanton-destruction types.
This one was no exception. The rangers simply went the opposite direction of the screaming civilians.
They found Hothos in the center of the plaza, a terrified businessman caught in his grasp. 'Just in time.' Jack thought, drawing his blaster. Carefully aiming, he fired on the monster, who released his captive and staggered backwards a few steps.
"Stop right there!" Jack pulled out his morpher. "Ready!"
"Ready!"
"SPD Emergency!"
If the criminal was at all intimidated, he didn't show it. "I will never surrender to SPD," Hothos declared scornfully and drew a plain black rod from his long coat.
'It's a shock baton,' Jack realized, an instant too late to warn the others. The monster swung the baton in an arc, sending a wide blast of electricity towards the rangers. Taken by surprise, the four rangers were thrown backwards several feet. For a moment, Earth's last defenders lay stunned.
Jack gritted his teeth as electricity tore through his body. His suit deflected the worst of the blast but still, for a few long seconds, he saw stars and everything went white.
Sky was the first to recover. He drew his striker and charged at the criminal with a yell, only to be sent flying into the plaza fountain. Syd and Z rushed to defend him. One aimed high, the other aimed low, and both were taken out by a sweep of the shock baton.
"I won't let you defeat us," Jack said. "We have to pull it together, guys!"
Stumbling back into formation, the four rangers drew their blasters and fired on the monster as a team, following their attack with a flurry of blows from their strikers. A well-aimed kick from Jack sent the baton clattering to the ground, and the monster retreated a few steps and fell to one knee.
"It's all over for you!" Jack exclaimed, but the alien didn't reply. Instead, he held out both hands and, before the ranger could react, a bright wave of energy emanated from the alien.
The four rangers reeled, disoriented. Jack saw the blurry outline of the criminal fleeing down a side street and tried to follow, but his legs wouldn't obey. Instead, he sunk to the ground, darkness closing in around him.
Sky blinked, his sight slowly returning. Getting unsteadily to his feet, he noticed immediately two things. First, he was unmorphed. Second, his head throbbed mercilessly, a stab of agony accompanying every heartbeat.
"What happened?" he groaned. He didn't remember powering down and the criminal hadn't been confined—in fact, Hothos was nowhere to be seen. Sky put a hand to his aching head. That was when he noticed the third, and most important thing. His hair had changed. He had dreadlocks.
Sky started at his hands in panic. "Oh, no. This can't be happening!"
"What's going on?" Jack asked. He was startled by the change in his voice. He froze when he saw Sky and his hands flew to his own new face and then his uniform. "I – I'm you!" he exclaimed and then pointed at Sky, a little bit accusingly. "And that must mean that you're me!"
"No," Sky said. "Not really. I think we're still ourselves. We've just changed bodies." Walking over to Z—or was it Syd?—he helped her to her feet.
"I feel like I got run over by the Delta 4 Runner," Z said, brushing off her now-pink uniform.
"And I look like it!" Syd cried, catching a glimpse of her reflection in the fountain. She began to hyperventilate. "This can't be happening!"
Z gritted her teeth. "When I find that alien—"
Jack nodded in agreement. "Hey, where did the monster go?" he asked the crowd of curious onlookers. One of them pointed down the street. Jack took a determined step in that direction, ready to hunt down the criminal and bring him to justice.
"We don't have time for this," Sky said. "He's long gone, and we have bigger things to worry about. We should report back to SPD headquarters."
"I'm in charge, and I say we search," Jack said, frustrated. Why did Sky always have to contradict him? Sky was his second-in-command, which meant that he was supposed to follow orders!
"And I say he's already gone!" Sky retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Rangers, return to SPD headquarters," Cruger commanded through their communicators. Jack threw his hands up in the air, exasperated. It might be irrational, but there was just something about the blue ranger that got on his nerves.
As the head scientist of SPD Earth, Kat had seen a lot of strange things over the years. Few, however, were as bizarre as this. The four members of B-squad were lined up in front of her, but in the wrong order. Even worse, the entire team insisted that they had been body-swapped.
It was like something out an old horror film.
There were only two options, and neither looked promising. Either the rangers had, due to some mysterious power, actually swapped bodies – or the entire team was suffering from some kind of group psychosis. In a way, she hoped it was the latter; insanity she could deal with. Her track record with mysterious powers was not the best.
Kat sighed, remembering past mistakes. How different everything would have been if that terrible lab accident had never happened!
'I shouldn't dwell on the past,' she reminded herself. 'There's nothing I can do to change it now. Doggie says that everything happens for a reason – perhaps these teenagers and their powers are needed to save the Earth.'
Pulling her attention back to the present, she watched as Doggie paced in front of his team, his arms clasped behind his back.
"So you're telling me that you," Cruger pointed at the Red Ranger, "are Sky and you," he pointed to the Blue Ranger, "are Jack?"
"Yes!"
Cruger narrowed his eyes and glared at the ranger who appeared to be Jack. "In that case, what is the full official name of the handbook?"
"The Space Patrol Delta Official Cadet Code of Conduct," Sky replied promptly, grateful that being stuck in Jack's body hadn't affected his memory. "The current version is revision number 38."
"Hm," Cruger replied and stroked his chin reflectively.
Kat's medical scanner beeped and the four rangers held their breath as she read the results. "Doggie, I'd have to run further tests, but it does seem like they've been body-swapped."
"Can you change us back?" Sky asked.
"I don't know," Kat replied. "As I said, I'd have to run further tests."
Cruger considered the options. "We cannot afford to have your enemies know that your team has been compromised," he said after a moment of thought.
Jack shrugged. "Easy enough. We'll just stay in our quarters until Kat finds a way to fix this."
"No," Cruger said, his mouth quirking into a wry grin. "Each of you has prior engagements and activities, and it would be suspicious if all four of you just disappeared."
"What – what are you saying?" Z asked. He couldn't possibly mean…
"I'm saying that you must pretend to be the person who's body you are currently occupying."
Syd flashed the commander a horrified look. "No offense, Commander, but you're kidding, right?"
Cruger shook his head. "I am completely serious, Cadet Drew. You will each review your teammates' schedules and activities, and adjust your plans accordingly."
"But—"
"I—"
"You can't—"
"Dismissed!" Cruger growled, ignoring their protests. The four cadets slowly filed out of the command center, mumbling under their breath.
As the door slid shut, Jack pulled Sky aside. "Don't forget," he said, as soon as they were alone. "I'm still in charge here."
Sky crossed his arm over his chest. "No, Jack. You're not. For all intents and purposes, I'm the red ranger, and you are my second-in-command."
The door of the command center slid open. Kat paused in front of the two rangers, the tension palpable in the air. "Is there a problem, cadets?"
"No, Dr. Manx," Sky said, gritting his teeth. Jack slowly nodded in agreement.
"Good," Kat said. She looked between the two of them and walked away, shaking her head and muttering something about difficult teenagers.
Taking a deep breath, Jack forced himself to calm down. His fist itched and it took all the self-control he could muster to resist the urge to wipe that arrogant look off of Sky's face. After all, it was his own face and he rather liked it. He would definitely regret breaking his own nose later, when Kat found a way to return them to their own bodies.
Conceding defeat for now, Jack turned to leave. "Enjoy yourself while it lasts," he said maliciously, shoving past the blue ranger.
"Don't worry," Sky murmured under his breath. "I will."
Jack had already returned to his room and opened the door partway when he realized a very important fact.
If he was supposed to pretend to be Sky, he was also expected to live in his room. And so he reluctantly retraced his steps back to the blue ranger's room, just down the hall.
The room was exactly as Jack suspected it would be: boring, empty and perfectly tidy. Even the empty half of the room was neat, the bed on that side seemingly untouched. 'That's strange,' Jack thought. 'I thought that only the Red Ranger had a private room.' And then it struck him. This bed must be meant for the owner of the S.P.D. 3 morpher.
'I wonder why they haven't chosen a fifth ranger?' He considered idly, sitting down on the edge of Sky's bed. He picked up a pillow and threw it across the room. It came to rest at the foot of the Sky's closet, looking terribly out of place compared to the ordered perfection of the rest of the room.
Crossing the room, he slid open the doors to the closet. At first glance, Sky's closet had only one item: the blue SPD uniform and several copies of it, at that. Catching a glimpse of dark fabric at the very back, Jack tugged and pulled until the outfit came free and found himself holding an old cadet uniform.
"Did this guy ever do anything aside from serve SPD?" Jack wondered. Even the most hard-core cadets had at least one set of civilian clothes for when they were off-duty. Jack put the uniform back and closed the closet. As he turned towards the window, something on the desk caught his eye.
Sky's desk had all the required equipment. A dictionary, a data pad and a small lamp. None of these interested Jack. What caught his eye was a metallic picture frame, positioned on the left side of the desk.
'What's this?' Jack thought. He picked it up and studied the photo. It was a picture of an old Red Ranger, standing with a little Sky. A happy little Sky. Happier than he had ever seen him.
Jack's dislike of Sky lessened a little bit. 'His father was the Red Ranger? That explains a few things. I wonder why he never talks about him.'
Alone in her room, Z studied herself in the mirror. She was no longer plain Z Delgado; instead, she was a blonde beauty, the kind everyone saw on glamorous magazines and shows. "You know," she told her reflection. "When you first joined the team, I was a little jealous. I mean, I'd always wanted to look like you. But now that I do—" Z sighed. "I miss my old body."
Sitting down in Syd's chair, Z put her head in her hands and stared out the window. A flowery smell drifted up to her nose and Z sniffed her sleeve in disgust. 'So,' she wondered, "if I were Ms. Pampered Princess, what would I be doing?"
Leaning backwards, she put her feet on the desk. Something clattered to the floor and Z leaned down to pick it up. It was an agenda and, like everything else on Syd's side of the room, it was fuzzy and pink.
She paused for a moment, her hand on the latch. She didn't always get along with her roommate, but reading the agenda felt like an invasion of Syd's privacy. 'Well, Cruger did order me to familiarize myself with her schedule,' Z told herself, dismissing a slight twinge of guilt.
Thumbing through the agenda, she scanned this week's entries. A few practice sessions, two photo shoots, several calorie counts, and later today – a dance? No, a ball. "I can't go to a ball!" Z exclaimed. "What am I going to wear?"
"Jack!" the pretty cadet cried, running to catch up. "Jack!"
It was a moment before Sky remembered who he was pretending to be. "Yes?" He replied, a little hesitantly.
The girl smiled up at him and brushed a light blue curl out of her face. "You're being awfully polite today," she said, grabbing him by the arm and confidently steering him away. "So, how about that lunch-date I mentioned. Surely even big, strong Red Rangers like you take breaks…" she batted her eyelashes and gave him a pleading look.
Sky shrugged, a little uncomfortable. 'Might as well go along with it,' he decided. 'Well, Sky, you always wanted to be Red Ranger. Now's your chance.'
"Why not?" He said to the pretty alien and led her away.
When Sydney Drew was angry, people got out of her way. Being stuck in Z's body hadn't changed that one bit. The sea of cadets parted as she stormed through them, and no one even protested when she slammed the bathroom door behind her.
'I can't go back to my room,' she thought, taking her towel and a basket bath accessories from her locker. 'Z might be there.' Syd felt an irrational twinge of anger towards the other girl and just as quickly dismissed it. 'It's not her fault this happened,' she reminded herself. 'It's not anyone's fault except for that monster.'
Sitting at the edge of the tub, she kicked off her shoes.
'I need a bath.' Syd realized. Bubble baths always made her feel better. They were so warm and relaxing –Turning on the water, she started to undress, only to pause in realization. 'I'm in Z's body. I don't want to see Z naked! What am I going to do?'
An announcement over the intercom solved her dilemma. "Rangers, report to simulation room 3!" Feeling relieved, Syd left the bathroom, leaving her rubber duckie behind and the water running.
The SPD simulation rooms were a masterpiece of engineering. It utilized the latest technology in order to produce realistic holographic environments. Every squad had several training sessions a week in them, which served to familiarize the cadets with the kinds of environments and enemies they might face in the real world.
This session, however, was not routine. "As part of my medical evaluation," Kat said, "I need to record any changes in your skills."
"What are we supposed to do?" Jack asked, feeling uncharacteristically nervous.
"You and your team will go through the holographic obstacle course; Boom and I will watch, and evaluate your performance." Boom waved at them from behind the glass observation window.
The four rangers gave her apprehensive looks. "Don't worry," Kat said. "You've done this dozens of times."
Z shook her head. "Not like this!"
"Exactly," Kat replied patiently. "Are you ready to begin?"
"Let's just get this over with." Sky said. An instant later, the walls of the room were replaced with the streets of Newtech city. Holograms of civilians surrounded them, ignoring the rangers as they hurried about their business. The wind whistled through the tall buildings and if this day had been any better, Z would have admired the realism of it all.
She did, of course, dodge to the side as a laser beam sliced through the air, scorching the ground near her feet. Drawing her blaster, she warily scanned the area – and was not at all surprised when, a moment later, a monster landed in front of them.
"Fight me, rangers!" the alien growled and ran towards the rangers, weapons drawn.
"Kat's not wasting any time, is she?" Syd said, falling into position.
Sky ignored her, intent on the task at hand. "Ready!" he shouted, beginning the morphing call.
"Ready!"
There was a brief pause.
"Ready," Jack said unenthusiastically.
"SPD Emergency!"
A/N: Wow, I think that is a record for the longest update time for a story. The "Body Swap" story has two more chapters, both of which will be posted in the next couple weeks. Please review!