A whining alarm drew Dillon from his sleep. Opening his eyes he was momentarily disoriented by the sudden awakening and the darkness pressing firmly on his eyes. However after a few seconds he gained his bearings and was on his feet.
His roommates stumbled around them in the dark, searching for clothes to throw on. After a few moments one of them decided to turn on a light. Whether it was Gem or Ziggy, Dillon didn't know. All he knew was a moment later the room was full of light and he was able to easily grab his jeans from the duffle at the foot of his bed and pull them on followed by a t-shirt over the wife beater he wore.
Stuffing their feet into shoes they all stumbled towards the door, tripping over themselves and each other. It had been a very long while since they'd had to jump and respond to an alarm at such a late hour that they were out of practice and clumsy. They almost didn't hear the small voice behind them.
"What's going on?"
All three men stopped in their tracks and turned to see Candy looking up at them curiously. She wore simple yellow pajamas with white flowers on them, the side of her face was still red and creased by her pillow.
"Go back to bed sweetheart. Everything is fine." Ziggy said but the little girl frowned at him.
"Is that the bot alarm? Are there Grinders?" she asked.
"Yes there are. Now you need to go back to bed." Ziggy replied.
"Oh no! Mommy might need my help!" Candy said and began to run for the steps.
"Aren't you going to stop her?" Dillon asked looking at Ziggy.
"Dude…the first thing you learn with kids is that in times like these it's best to let her Mother handle things." Ziggy said shaking his head and following his daughter.
Summer, Gemma, Flynn and Scott soon joined the team of three as they hurried down the steps, all looking less than awake.
"I am downloading the coordinates to your morphers now!" Dr. K called from the testing room where she had surely taken up her spot in front of the monitors again.
"Got it!" Scott yelled as he jumped into his car, Ziggy and Dillon got into the Fury and Flynn, Summer, Gemma and Gem stepping up into the Hummer.
"WAIT!" Candy suddenly yelled and a moment later all three vehicles had small boxes of cereal tossed through their windows.
"Daddy says breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" she yelled.
"Thanks Candy!" Summer smiled and a moment later all three cars peeled out of the Garage.
"Most important meal huh?" Dillon said as he shook the mini box of cereal that Candy had throw at him.
"What can I say? She listens." Ziggy replied and popped open his own box and downed a handful of the breakfast food.
Following the coordinates off of their morphers they were soon face to face with a dozen grinders.
"Alright let's show these walking pieces of scrap metal that we still have it! Ready?!" Scott yelled.
"READY!" the others echoed.
"RPM! GET IN GEAR!"
Once morphed all seven Rangers moved into action. They fell into their old parings as they fought. Scott, Flynn and Summer took the center, Dillon and Ziggy took the right and Gem and Gemma took the left. It was almost like nothing had changed. Then something happened.
"ARGH!" Dillon suddenly yelled.
A sharp pain coursed through his body, starting at his wrist and traveling to his head. He dropped to his knees as stars burst in front of his eyes.
"DILLON!" Summer yelled and ran over, kneeling next to the Black Ranger.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
"Pain…so much pain…" Dillon replied as his body collapsed fully on the ground.
The other Rangers finished dispatching the Grinders and rushed to their friend's side.
"What's going on? What's wrong with him?" Ziggy asked crouching beside Summer who was clasping Dillon's hand as he writhed in pain.
"I don't know! We've got to get him back to the Garage!" Summer replied.
"Scott, Ziggy, Gem help me get him into the back of the Hummer." Flynn said.
They lifted Dillon's twitching and stiff body into the back of the Hummer as quickly as they could.
"I'll take the Fury!" Ziggy yelled as he hurried to the black Mustang.
"NO!" Dillon yelled from the back of the Hummer.
"Even in pain Dillon is protective over his car. I'll take it!" Summer said and hurried and climbed into the driver's seat of the Fury with Ziggy in the passenger seat.
The three cars sped through town and soon screeched to a stop in the Garage.
"Dr. K!" Scott yelled and Dr. K came running with Tenaya behind her.
"I know! I saw the spike in his bio readings! Get him into the lab!" she ordered.
The guys picked up Dillon and put him on the table Dr. K had already sat up.
Suddenly Dillon began to convulse, rattling the table.
"Oh my god! Dr. K! What's going on?!" Tenaya asked as tears filled her eyes.
"His body is rejecting the morpher program! Scott, Flynn make sure he doesn't hurt himself! I'm going to try to shut it down from my computer!" she said and hurried over to her chair.
Suddenly a little whimper came from the corner of the room and Ziggy turned to see Candy peering around the case where the Ranger suits were kept when they weren't being used. Running over he scooped the little girl up in his arms and took her out of the room.
"Daddy what's wrong with Uncle Dillon?" Candy asked her eyes wide as she looked up at her father.
"He's sick right now sweetheart." Ziggy said as he carried the little girl up to her room and far away from the chaos downstairs.
Candy's blue eyes grew even wider and tears began to rim the edges, "Is he going to die?"
Ziggy's heart snapped in half. Sighing he hugged the 3 year old tight.
"Come on baby girl. Let's go lay down." he said and walked into her room, laying her on her bed.
Reaching over to the bedside table he picked up the watch and carefully used the key around her neck to turn on the music. Candy lay on the bed, silently listening to the soft music that played from the watch that sat on her pillow. She had loved that watch from the first moment she had heard it.
Candy had a bad cold. She was barely 6 months old and cried non-stop. Both Ziggy and K had tried everything to quiet her.
Ziggy had tried every hand puppet he knew and K had done research on every last method she could find. Now the two of them were sitting here passing their daughter back and forth as they tried to get the screaming infant to sleep.
"What should we try now?" Ziggy asked as he paced back and forth, jiggling the little girl in his arms.
"How should I know?! We've tried everything!" K said tossing up her hands.
Suddenly something shiny caught Ziggy's eye. It was the watch Dillon and Tenaya had left behind when they'd left Corinth with Summer.
"Here take Candy." he said and passed the baby to K.
"Where are you going?!" she asked exasperated.
"Just hold on one moment!" Ziggy replied and walked over and picked up the watch.
"And just what are you going to do with that?" K asked.
"This." Ziggy replied and pulled out the key he'd found laying on Dillon's bed the day after he'd left.
Carefully inserting it into the watch he wound it and let it play. The soft tune began to play and a moment later the cries of the baby stopped.
"Oh my word! It worked!" K gasped as she looked at her daughter who was sleeping soundly in her arms.
"I know! I didn't think it would." Ziggy replied.
"Well keep that thing playing and perhaps we'll get a good night's sleep." K replied.
They had gotten a good night's sleep and had ever since. Whenever they needed to calm Candy down it did the trick. Even now Candy was asleep, calmed by the music.
Smiling at his daughter Ziggy pulled the blankets back and tucked them around her small frame. Pressing a soft kiss to her forehead he stood and headed downstairs to see what was up with Dillon.
"So what's going on?" Ziggy asked as he walked into the lab.
Dillon lay on the table wearing a black undershirt, a sheet draped over his lower half. He was hooked up to a monitor that beeped in time with his heartbeat and had a tube in his nose.
"His body had a bad reaction to morphing. His body was rejecting the power. I don't know why quite yet. I'm running tests on both him and the morpher. I should have the results in a few hours." she replied.
"Will he be okay?" Tenaya asked.
"For the moment I think so. We'll have to wait until he's awake to know the extent of the damage. For now I suggest that you rest Rangers. If anything changes I will let you know." Dr. K said.
"Just one thing before we go though Doc…there wasn't an Attack Bot when we got there today. Just Grinders." Scott said.
"That is odd. Perhaps Venjix is just working on building a stronger one. We will have to be ready if he is. So once again I must ask you to rest." she said.
"Right. Night Doc." Flynn said and everyone separated, Ziggy staying behind.
"How is Candy?" Dr. K asked.
"She's asleep. She's shaken up though." Ziggy replied.
Dr. K sighed, "Well I'm sure Dillon will wake up soon and we can assure her that he will be fine."
"I hope so K." Ziggy sighed and with that headed to his own bed.
An hour later everyone was asleep. Dr. K had returned to her room behind the lab to sleep, a laptop opened and connected to the monitors on Dillon. Any change and an alarm would sound and she would wake up. The other Rangers and Tenaya were tucked securely in their beds, worn out from the fight and fright of Dillon's sudden illness.
The only person still awake was Candy. Once she was sure both of her parents and their friends were asleep she had pulled from under her bed a small box full of parts and began to carefully work on her latest project. However soon the process became too noisy and she returned the secret back to it's hiding place.
Once she was sure it was safe she stood up and did what she did most nights and began to wander. She had been told not to but she couldn't help it. She didn't want to stay in bed all night.
Opening her doors she walked down the hall and looked in each door. The first room she came to she found Ziggy and Gem both asleep. The next one was Summer, Tenaya and Gemma, asleep as well with Scott and Flynn the same.
Frowning she looked over the railing and down to the lab and saw the lights were off meaning that her mother had retired to bed for the night. Frowning she knew that downstairs Dillon was alone. She had to make that right.
Walking back to her room she grabbed the watch from her pillow, her pink stuffed rabbit Usa-Chan and her blanket and carefully made her way downstairs.
Reaching the bottom of the steps she walked into the lab where Dillon still lay unconscious. As quietly as she could she pulled a chair next to the table and sat down.
Her Daddy hadn't told her anything earlier but she knew that something was very wrong with Uncle Dillon. Kneeling in the chair she tucked Usa-Chan under Dillon's arm before curling up in the chair with her blanket. Pulling the key to the watch from under the top of her pajamas she wound the watch which began to play.
"Don't worry Uncle Dillon…Usa-Chan and I will stay here with you." she whispered as she curled up with the blanket and in no time she was sound asleep.
Sorry it's been so long! I've been really busy with shopping and getting things ready for Thanksgiving!
However it is finally over and I had a chance to write this for all of you :D
I actually got some really good news today and it's that my cousin and his wife (who I guess would be my cousin by marriage) are having a baby! Normally I wouldn't put something like that in a Author's Note or whatever but I feel the need to because they said the names they've picked out and if it's a boy it's going be...
Hunter Bradley
I saw it on Facebook and like freaked out. They didn't even know it was a Power Ranger! Well...i guess they do now lol
I commented on my cousin's wife's status and told her that it was the name of the Crimson Thunder Ranger.
I guess this just means that if it's a boy it's just going to be that much more awesome!
I also have one more thing to say!
I am having a small contest!
If you can find the Anime reference in this chapter, tell me what anime it's from and name the 7 main characters from that anime I will have you help me choose something that will be of utmost importance in a coming chapter!
So anyhow happy hunting and thanks for reading!