DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POWER RANGERS

AN: Thankyou to all for being so unbelievably patient with me for this, so without further delay, here comes the next chapter!

"WOOF!"

Kat ever so slowly raised her head from her desk at the sudden outburst she heard, coming from just outside her door. Sighing, she walked out into the corridor and everything looked surprisingly normal...that was until Bridge flew out of one of the maintenance cupboards on all fours, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth and drooling everywhere as he 'barked' persistently at passing cadets.

Kat never even bothered to raise so much as an eyebrow towards the so-called Green Ranger as he bounded away down the corridor with the same agility as a small elephant.

The feline calmly walked back into her lab just in time to hear the satisfied beeping of her computer as it finished its analysis of the mystery goo. Staring at the screen, the substance had indeed been identified with 98% accuracy, according to the machine, yet Kat was unfamiliar with the name. As she looked down the long list of properties, her eyes latched onto a category labeled 'Human Side Effects'. Among the many possible outcomes were 'Temporary hallucinations', 'Increased energy levels' and 'Unexplainable psychological effects'. Kat mentally ticked all these off and then proceeded to find out how long it would take for the Rangers to return to their normal selves – if at all. After a minute of searching, she found what she was looking for. 'Side effects should be non-existent 8-10 hours after exposure, if this becomes longer than 12 hours then consult your nearest doctor...'

"10 hours?" she estimated that it had only been 3-4 hours at the most since the first symptoms had appeared that morning...they had a long way to go...

The canine-like Ranger leapt through the Rec room doors in a very ungainly manner before making his way up to the small table that sat in the middle of the room. Sniffing around the legs he finally decided to fix his eyes on the only item that sat on its surface – Sky's treasured SPD handbook.

His eyes widening in delight, Bridge nosed the book onto the floor where he carefully picked it up as if it was the holy grail. Making his way back towards the door; now stood on two feet, he failed to notice the shadow that was creeping up on him until he felt hot breath on the back of his neck. Slowly turning, the Green Ranger came face to face with an imposing figure...

"Hey Sky!"

"That's MY book!"; the delusional Blue Ranger growled in response as he snorted like an angry Rhino.

"Oh...erm...okay..." Bridge gently placed the book down on the edge of one of the sofas before slowly walking away. The fire in Sky's eyes seemed to calm, but that was until Bridge shot back inside and attempted to steal the handbook from right under Sky's nose.

The Blue Ranger roared out and flung himself on top of the hapless Bridge, who only just broke free of the enormous weight that had suddenly landed on him. Circling the sofa, the Green Ranger looked for an opening to seize the book as he sniggered helplessly.

Grabbing the nearest thing to him that could be used as a weapon, Sky pointed a banana menacingly towards his adversary, completely unaware of its harmless nature. On the other side of the 'battlefield', Bridge had chosen an innocent pen as his weapon of choice as he brandished it at Sky like a magic wand.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room and blissfully ignorant to the chaos that was ensuing between her two teammates, Syd danced around the food replicator like a prima ballerina as she inputted her choice of drink.

The machine hummed satisfyingly as the Pink Ranger broke into song and serenaded the 'joys of modern technology'.

A loud ping signaled that her hot chocolate was ready and Syd took the beverage and lovingly stroked the replicator as she dramatically bade her farewells with a swan song and waltzed off down the corridor.

The Yellow Ranger's attention was completely elsewhere when Syd swept past her with her eyes shut and seemingly conducting some sort of invisible orchestra waving her hands wildly around and singing to herself. Z turned to stand right in front of one of the automated doors, deep in conversation...

"I'm telling you, double cheeseburger with bacon and fries sooo kicks ass over a hotdog!"

Realizing that this was all streaming through the various surveillance cameras, Kat sat back in the Command Center, watching the new form of 'entertainment'.

"Hehehehehehe..." the screen flicked to the unmistakable image of the A-Squad Red Ranger as she rode up and down in the maintenance lift excitedly, constantly pushing the buttons on the control panel inside. "Weeeeeeee! This is fun!" Every ten seconds, Charlie would be visible on the top-floor cameras before she disappeared to reappear again on basement surveillance in a constant repetition.

The feline was pleasantly surprised that the lift's circuitry hadn't been fried yet due to excessive 'over-use'...well...at least it was keeping one Ranger occupied. Kat continued to watch Z with some amusement as she argued the better points of a double cheeseburger with bacon versus a hotdog.

"Hold on a minute, you listen to me!" she pointed a furious finger at the door. "Two burgers up against one hotdog is no competition...hey I happen to like cheese!"

Totally engrossed in the more-than-unusual conversation, Z was totally oblivious when a very dizzy Charlie stumbled out of the lift a couple of meters down the corridor, attempting to stand on her feet after fifteen whole minutes of joy-riding.

Swaying slightly, the Red Ranger staggered towards her yellow B-Squad counterpart and her glazed over eyes fixed themselves on the Patrol Morpher hanging from Z's belt. Grinning stupidly, she reached down...

"Don't you dare talk back...I know that everyone else in the country would agree with me," the door unsurprisingly remained silent as it constantly slid in and out of the wall due to Z's close proximity, "Hey, don't you run away from me..." she warned, "Get back out here!"

Charlie sat on the floor at the end of the corridor, still able to hear Z in the background debating with the door. She managed to flip open the morpher before she started playing with the buttons...

Z threw up her hands in frustration and turned away from the door saying spitefully, "Well I can't help it if you're not open-minded, you should learn to voice your opinions better." as she walked away, the door automatically slid shut... "Hey, you wanna fight?" she raised a fist threateningly as the door remained silent...the Yellow Ranger blew her fringe out of her eyes and whispered with a malicious gleam in her eyes, "I didn't think so".

A shrill scream penetrated the walls of the Command Center, causing Kat to wince loudly and cover her sensitive ears as the piercing noise followed its owner straight down the main hallway.

Not even bothering to poke her head outside the door this time, Kat switched straight to the nearest CCTV camera...It came as no surprise to see Jack sprinting down the corridor at his top speed and screaming like a banshee.

The Red Ranger pelted through the Base until he ran into something that finally brought him to a stop – Z.

"Ahhhhh! Help meeee!" the Yellow Ranger yelled dramatically as several kilos of Red Ranger crashed into her, causing them both to thud into the floor, sending a shudder throughout the corridor.

"Wha? What...how...who's that?" Jack asked through a very shaky voice as he clung tightly to his self-adopted sister.

"Erm...pass...next question," Z replied thoughtfully.

"You gotta save me!" Jack scrambled to his feet behind Z and attempted to hide behind her.

"What's going on?" the Yellow Ranger asked.

"Big...real big...huge...scary...monster...don't like...eat...me..."

"Come again?"

"Big..." Jack gestured with his hands, stretching as far as he could.

"Big?" Z asked helpfully.

Jack nodded earnestly. "Big...bird..." he finally managed to stutter.

CRASH!

"Ahhhhh!," Jack jumped into Z's arms in a Scooby Doo-esque fashion upon hearing the noise, resulting in them both being dumped unceremoniously on the floor once again.

Cautiously looking up as he cowered on the floor, Jack came face to face with the metallic body of RIC as he picked himself up after crashing ungracefully into the opposite wall.

From the surveillance cameras, Kat could see that RIC's systems were going haywire as the lights on his forehead synchronized themselves with the loud music that he had suddenly started playing. Apparently, this hallucinogen also affected machines...

The robotic dog mooed happily, although it sounded more like a cow in pain rather than one calling to its friends before 'sneezing' flurries of coolant all over the two Rangers and bounding off outside.

Amidst the commotion, Syd had now 'decided' to become a babbling nervous wreck in the space of five minutes as she curled herself up in the furthest corner of the training room, wringing her hands together and muttering about absolute nonsense.

The loud bangs and crashes echoing throughout the Base did nothing in the way of calming her nerves as she hugged herself close...

Kat strained her ears to hear, and pulled back with a confused expression on her face...was Syd just whispering a prayer for the pretty, pink, sparkly hippos to come and save her?

Thanks everyone for reading, hope you'll stay tuned for the next chapter!