Sarah was sure Jenny would flip out if she knew how she had spent the morning, but she didn't care much. Right now, things were going well. She just hoped her mother would never have to find out.
Kelly and Hayley had picked Sarah up in the morning before training and walked with her to the Ranger base. They trained in the garage with the boys and Sarah had opted to work with Kelly to teach her a little more about her weapons. Kelly had no formal martial arts training beyond a couple of lessons from her friends when she was with them, so it was tough for her to understand what Sarah meant. The stutter made it even harder.
So, carefully, Sarah sparred with Preston to show Kelly what she meant. She found she enjoyed letting her energy out that way with her friends and she trusted they wouldn't hurt her, so she continued to train with them. Mick, when he arrived to check up on the Ranger, initially wanted her to stop, worried she would hurt herself further, but Preston brought up the point that, as far as Galvanax was concerned, Sarah was still a Ranger and therefore needed to keep up with her training, just in case.
Mick let her continue, and Sarah was able to spar with Preston and Kelly before training ended. After that, the Rangers parted ways, with Preston, Levi and Brody going home to shower and change, and Hayley staying in the garage with Calvin as he worked on Nitro's engine. Kelly wanted to continue practicing what she knew, so Sarah was the only one to follow Mick inside.
There, she got caught up with the work RedBot had been doing, and was impressed when he showed her that the machine was now running, but there wasn't nearly enough power to treat an injury like the one she suffered to her brain. However, if the Rangers suffered a paper cut, it could be gone in five minutes.
"It's progress," RedBot told her sadly. "But it's not moving as quickly as I'd like."
"B-But it w-work – it works?"
"It works," RedBot nodded. "Do you want to have a look?"
Sarah nodded and held out her hand, "P-Pass me the-the-the wrench."
Mick picked up the tool from his kit and placed it in her hand. Sarah looked to him with a frown.
"The w-wrench," she said and set the wrench down on the table. "The... the… that one."
Mick looked to where she was pointing and saw the screwdriver. He held it up and Sarah confirmed that was what she wanted. He handed it over and looked to RedBot with a sigh.
"Y-Your power s-s-source is-is-is not strong-st-strong enough," Sarah said. "If-if-if it-it's going to f-fix my head, it needs to – needs to be stronger."
"We're worried about making it too strong," RedBot stated. "It it's too strong and it malfunctions…"
"C-Can it really get-get-get worse?" Sarah asked as she gestured to herself. "D-Do we h-h-have a stronger bat-battery?"
"Nothing mildly stronger."
"We need – we need much stronger."
"Sarah, that might be too dangerous," RedBot warned her. "A shock collar was enough to trigger your seizures. If we give this even just a little too much power, the damage could worsen. You could wind up in a coma or… dead."
"D-Do we have a batter-a battery – battery or n-not?" Sarah asked and glared at RedBot. He nodded and walked over to his charging station.
"I… I carry a spare," he said. "Just in case something happened to mine. It… it might work."
He handed the battery to Sarah, who placed it in the machine, then turned on the device. It came to life, just like in previous tests, but the power readings were much higher.
"Who are we going to test it on?" RedBot asked. Sarah volunteered herself. He shook his head. "You're crazy."
"M-My bruise," she said and pointed to her side. The bruise from her accident was already starting to fade, but it was still very visible. RedBot had heard that if challenged, Sarah tended to lose her temper and didn't want to deal with the consequences of that. Mick could turn himself into a stone or something hard to keep himself safe. RedBot would be alone against her rage. So he handed over the wand of the device and if he could breathe, this would be the part where he held it in anticipation.
"Sarah, I really don't think…" Mick interrupted, but Sarah held up a hand as she waved the wand over her bruise. Slowly at first, then a little faster, the bruise faded, leaving behind clean skin.
"It w-w-works!" Sarah smiled. Mick took the wand from her hand.
"Maybe before we test it again, we see if there are side effects," he told her. "Give it a day? Make sure it's working properly."
"But-but Mick…"
"No, Sarah, we need to be careful," he said and put his hand on her shoulder. He saw her mood change, and suddenly he found himself on the ground, nursing what was sure to be a painful bruise. At least he knew who would be able to test their device next.
He covered his head with his hands as Sarah grabbed the stool and tossed it across the lab, breaking one of their monitors. And the fit continued, with RedBot hiding behind a table and Mick remaining out of Sarah's way, but keeping his eye on her so he could intervene if she threatened to hurt him, RedBot, or herself.
Eventually, Sarah stopped, but not before the Ranger base was trashed. She collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. While RedBot went to check up on their newest device and the rest of their technology, Mick slowly approached Sarah. He knew she had exhausted herself, but he didn't want to upset her further in case she was able to catch a second wind.
"Sarah…"
"G-G-Go-Go-Go a-a-a-away!" Sarah shouted. Mick knelt behind her, staying out of her line of sight but keeping close if she needed him. He heard her sob and wished there was something he could do to help.
"I know you want to get better," he said. "I know this must be frustrating for you, but there's no point in rushing the recovery. You understand that, right?"
"Sh-Sh-Shut – shut-shut up-p," Sarah growled. "Y-You – you- you don't-you- you don't – don't get it."
"Sarah…" he whispered and put his hand on her back. Sarah whipped around and punched him. Mick fell back and Sarah jumped on top of him. Mick didn't feel a second blow hit him, but he did heard a loud scream. He looked up and saw Preston, Brody and Levi were back from getting changed. They must have seen the base and seen Sarah hit him because Levi and Brody and both grabbed her and were holding her still as Preston came to his side.
"Mick, are you okay?"
Mick couldn't see out of his left eye, but he nodded his head.
"I'm fine."
"It looks bad," Preston said.
Sarah fought against Levi and Brody, who were doing their best to restrain her, but also didn't want to hurt her. A couple of times she almost managed to slip out of their grasp, but one of the brothers would be quick to catch her and pull her back in.
It didn't matter what Sarah tried, or how close she came to escape, they wouldn't let her go. A little quicker this time, she eventually tired herself out again with her muscles giving out. Brody and Levi gently lowered her to the ground, then on Mick's command they took a step back.
"Don't touch her," he said. Twice now, when she had been frustrated and he put his hands on her she had lashed out. He knew her temper was unpredictable, but it seemed in some instances, there was a pattern.
Sarah tried to calm herself and started with not looking at her friends first. They had been the ones to piss her off, so she needed to get her mind off them for a bit. Then, she tried to slow her breathing and, eventually she felt calm. She finally looked up, saw the destruction she had caused, the fearful looks on her friends' faces, then saw the black eye on Mick's face.
"What the hell?" Calvin called out as he, Hayley and Kelly came in. Since the Ranger base had been made sound proof from when class took place on the other side of the wall, they hadn't heard anything that happened and were surprised to see the mess. Kelly recognized what happened immediately, while it took Calvin and Hayley just a couple moments longer to piece it all together.
"S-S-S-S-Sorry," Sarah said as she pushed herself up to her feet and raced out. Kelly watched her go, then looked to her friends.
"She didn't mean it," she said, a phrase she used often now. "It's the injury. When she gets angry she… she can't control what she does or…"
"You don't need to explain it, Kelly," Mick shook his head. "What's important is no one got hurt."
Right away, all six Rangers and RedBot pointed to their left eyes, indicating they had seen the bruise on his face. Mick nodded his head.
"Badly hurt. But it's okay…"
"No," Levi shook his head. "Mick that's not okay. I mean, trashing the base is one thing, but…"
"She didn't mean it," Kelly reiterated. Levi again pointed to the bruise on Mick.
"It doesn't matter what she meant. She hit him. She didn't even try to hold back."
"That's not fair."
"You think it's fair Mick's got a black eye because she can't control her temper?"
"She can't control it," Preston reminded the gold Ranger. "You saw her run out of here."
"Yeah, leaving us to clean up the mess," Levi said. "Look, I know we're all hoping this is temporary. I know we're trying to build a miracle machine that'll somehow fix it, but what if this is it? What if we can't make this go away? I say we teach her this isn't okay."
"Levi, I think you're being a bit harsh," Calvin said. "It's like Kelly said, she didn't mean it…"
"That doesn't mean she should get a free pass when she gives someone a black eye. That doesn't mean we have to pretend like any of this is okay."
"But Levi…"
"I want to help her," Levi said to Kelly. "And I'm still going to be there for her, but if she's going to do stuff like this and not take ownership for it, she's putting us in more danger, and I don't see any other Ranger substitutes walking around here, do you?"
"No, but…"
"So, who agrees, Sarah can't come back to the base until she can get her temper under control?" Levi said and put his hand up, with Brody reluctantly following his lead to show his brother support.
"But that's not fair," Kelly whined. She turned to the rest of her friends, "Guys, come on, you know Sarah would never do this if… if… Hayley?"
Hayley's hand slowly went up, and the white Ranger sighed. "I'm sorry, Kelly. I know she didn't mean it, but… Levi makes sense. We have valuable equipment here and… Next time it might be worse than a black eye and some busted computers."
"But it's not even her fault!" Kelly shouted. "All those fights, the car accident, my mom shocking her and the funny cookies… She didn't do this to herself."
"But she is dangerous," Levi said. "Mick, you agree, right?"
All eyes turned to him. When he hesitated, Levi added, "She punched you in the face."
"I think it is best if Sarah doesn't come back…"
"Mick!"
"At least until we can clean up the base," Mick said and pointed to the floor. "It's not safe in here for her either."
"You can't kick her out," Kelly shook her head, but Mick shrugged. "You're supposed to be her friends!"
"We are…" Brody said.
"Great! Just fucking great," Kelly muttered as she stormed out. "Screw you all!"
Preston followed her out. Calvin turned to leave as well, but then glanced over to Hayley. She walked over to him.
"I'm going to help clean up," she said. "Are you staying or going?"
Calvin knew the others saw him and Hayley as inseparable, and often they were. They usually agreed on everything and supported each other no matter what. Of course, there were the times when one was being stupid and the other needed to set them straight, but those moments were rare.
"It can't be just Kelly and Preston following her," Calvin said to his girlfriend. "Even if she is… scary, she still needs help."
He opted to use scary instead of dangerous, because he felt it wasn't right Levi had called her dangerous to start. Of course, Sarah's temper could mean trouble for the Rangers and she could cause them harm, but Calvin didn't consider her dangerous. She didn't mean harm and she was fortunately small enough that one or two of the Rangers could restrain her if they needed with very little trouble. Calvin knew that to be true, as his scratches from the night of her accident were just starting to disappear.
He was certain the Rangers were just scared of what she might do next. Scared they wouldn't be able to anticipate her next attack. Calvin was scared too, but he didn't want to leave her alone.
"I'll stay with her," he said. "You're okay cleaning this up?"
Hayley nodded. Calvin gave her a kiss on the cheek then followed Kelly, Preston and Sarah out.
