Ripcon appeared on the Warrior Dome, in a darkened room and immediately fell to his knees. He had gone to battle with the Rangers, and done nothing but embarrass himself. Although hatred still burned within him and he had the will to fight and kill anything within arm's reach, he knew that his co-ordination was shot to hell considering the vast quantity of alcohol he had consumed. His courage and bravado far outweighed his skill, and he had made himself look like a drunken fool. The fact he had been teleported back to the ship was worrying, he didn't have permission to leave the ship, and he definitely didn't have permission to engage the Rangers.
"Galvanax, Champ! Please, let me explain..." He started to rush out, before the lights came up and he saw Wrench standing in a room alone with him. Looking around, he realised he was not in the Champion's Quarters, he wasn't in Cosmo's office, he wasn't even in the main studio. He had been brought to Wrench's lab. He wasn't even sure it was possible, or that Wrench had access to the system, but the discovery of the Gold Ranger and Odious' ability to leave the ship undetected had left him with no doubt that the ship had more secrets than he first knew. "What...what are you doing?"
"I'm saving your worthless, drunken hide by the looks of things!" Wrench said as he approached him to help Ripcon up. Ripcon shoved him away. "Hey! I just saved..."
"You should have left me!" Ripcon screamed at him. "Once Galvanax finds out about this..."
"Galvanax doesn't know a thing; he doesn't even know I sent you to Earth in the first place!" Wrench assured him. "Though right now I'm wondering why I didn't just leave you."
"I...I humiliated myself! I made myself look weak in front of the enemy!" He grumbled. "I deserved..."
"Believe me, nothing would have given me greater pleasure than to watch the Rangers spit-roast you, but right now you're still useful to me." Wrench told him. "Well...you will be once you sober up and get over that hangover. I can't believe I risked myself for you to do something like this...I should have let the Rangers destroy you and used this just to make a point!"
"What...what's that?" Ripcon asked, looking to the machine Wrench was pointing to.
"That, that's just a little souvenir I brought from my previous employer." Wrench told him. He saw a couple of jars sitting next to it.
"And those?" He asked.
"Let's just say that's something I hope I never have to use." Wrench answered, rolling out a cot for him. "Now, sleep it off and don't go anywhere until I tell you!"
Ripcon waddled over to the cot and face-planted into it before starting to snore loudly. Wrench just looked to him and sighed.
"You nearly blew everything!" He grumbled. "I guess that's why you're the fighter and I'm the engineer."
The Rangers and Aiden arrived back at the school, finding Monty running around in a panic. There weren't many others around, but given the fact it was lunch time they figured most would either be at the canteen or have left the grounds to get something to eat.
"Victor!" Monty wailed as he ran around. "VICTOR!"
"Whoa, Monty, calm down!" Sarah said sympathetically, grabbing him by the shoulders. "What's going on?"
"Have any of you guys seen Victor?" He rushed out. They all looked to each other.
"Um...we all just got back." Brody told him. "Last time we saw him, he was with you."
"What happened?" Sarah asked again.
"I accidentally poured chocolate on him. He went to get cleaned up." Monty informed them. "I haven't seen him since then!"
"Have you tried the bathroom?" Preston suggested. Monty started to nod frantically.
"Maybe because right now the bathroom is the last place any sane person wants to be?" Calvin asked him. "I swear I just opened the door there this morning and my eyes were burning!"
"The bathroom! Right...why didn't I think of that?" He rushed out as he ran off.
"Poor Monty." Hayley sighed. "Victor treats him like a doormat and he keeps running around after him. Victor really doesn't deserve a friend like that."
"You don't know the full story." Sarah told her. Hayley just looked to her.
"And you do?" She asked. Sarah wanted to say something, but she stopped herself. The fact was Monty had told her the story.
"It's not that complicated." Brody told her. "Weak personalities have a habit of latching onto stronger ones. It's a survival instinct."
"I really don't think..." Sarah started to say, but she stopped when she realised that she couldn't say anything without betraying Monty's confidence any more than she already had. It was only good luck that her friends either hadn't remembered what she said at the Ribbon Tree, or hadn't thought enough about it to look it up themselves. "...yeah, maybe it's something like that."
"Say, Aiden, you should probably be making tracks." Calvin suggested. Aiden just stared blankly at him.
"Why?" He asked.
"Well, you're really not meant to be here." Hayley reminded him. "You're not a student, and..."
"Hey, trained ninja remember?" Aiden said with a smile. "If I don't want to get noticed, I won't be."
"I love the confidence, but Principal Hastings likes to patrol..."
"Hell, I bet I could do a song and dance number in here and no one would notice." Aiden said, picking up a mop. They all just stared at him, wondering what he was doing, all except Brody. He could remember even as kids that Aiden had a little bit of a cocky streak. Being older and further along in his training, Aiden had a habit of showing off, especially in front of Brody. It would be just like him to push his luck.
"Aiden, please..."
"Chim Chimminey, Chim Chimminey, Chim Chim, Chereeeeeee!" He started to sing as he replicated the song and dance number from Mary Poppins with the mop. Dane had loved the movie and watched it with his kids numerous times. The team couldn't help laughing, even as Brody nervously started to try and get Aiden to stop.
"Aiden, that's enough."
"But I haven't even gotten to the good part yet!" Aiden said as he swung around. However, as he did, he found himself face-to-face with Principal Hastings, who seemed to have appeared from nowhere. The Rangers and Aiden all stopped still and stared at her.
"What exactly are you doing?" She asked him.
"Um...well...um...I..." Aiden started to stammer.
"Principal Hastings..."
"I've got this covered Hayley!" She told the White Ranger, before pulling out a large bunch of keys and handing them to Aiden. "If you've got time to entertain the students you have time to clean that boy's room."
"I'm sorry?" Aiden asked.
"Well, it is your job isn't it?" She demanded, pointing to the cleaning cupboard. "Now, it's up to you, but I'd suggest wearing coveralls. The boys in this place are disgusting...no offence kids."
"Um...none taken." Preston offered weakly. She stared straight at Aiden.
"Stop by my office later with your bank details, I'll need that to set up the transfer for your salary." She told him. "Now, go! I expect that bathroom to be clean enough to eat off in an hour, and for YOUR sake it better be because you'll be the one eating to prove it's done!"
With that, she just walked away. As the team all burst out laughing, Aiden just flicked a thumb in the direction she went.
"What just happened?" He asked. "Does...does she think I'm the janitor?"
"It's kind of her hiring policy." Sarah chuckled. "It's how Mick got his job, and Levi..."
"Yeah, that's pretty much exactly how I got my job." He coughed, hoping to end the conversation early. He didn't want to tell the team there was a whole other part in how he got the job he really didn't want to admit to.
"Well, I guess it gives Aiden a reason to be here." Brody said with a shrug. "Not to mention it'll be nice to have an income coming into the house."
"Never let it be said a ninja isn't willing to get his hands dirty." Aiden sighed as he went into the cleaning cupboard to get changed. As the team started to leave, Hayley noticed that Sarah was just looking the direction Monty had run.
"Hey, I'm sure he'll find him." Hayley assured her. "Victor would never give up his favourite victim."
"I guess you're right." Sarah sighed as she went with Hayley, wishing she could tell her that there was so much more to the bizarre relationship between the two than they could possibly know.
In the past, Monty went down into his room in the basement, sporting the bruises and carrying the humiliation of yet another day as he went. He was miserable, and it was only getting worse. His parents had spoken to the school, but without evidence, they could do nothing against Ace, who always had an alibi as a result of the large number of kids willing to testify that he was nowhere near Monty whenever he "tripped and fell into a garbage can" or "dropped his own books on the floor."
His parents weren't much more help. Monty had only ever heard from them that Ace would get bored in time or that if he just didn't retaliate then he would lose interest since he was only looking for a reaction, but none of that was working. After one too many "bathroom showers", Monty was sick fed up, and he was preparing to bring an end to the torment once and for all.
He had been moved down to the basement to give him more room to work for his experiments and suchlike, and down here, his parents couldn't hear much of anything Monty did. He wondered if that was more for their benefit than his.
He went to the computer, and pulled up a document that he had been working on for some time, detailing everything that was wrong with his life. How he felt whenever he pleaded for someone to help him and got nothing in return, and detailing in graphic detail every single transgression against him. Satisfied it was finished, he typed in the final line.
"I'm sorry I couldn't be stronger, that I couldn't just ride it out like you taught me, but I just can't see the end of this tunnel. If it's going to end, I have to end it myself. I'm sorry, love Monty."
He saved it, and left it on the computer, before going to his dresser and pulling out the belt to one of his nightgowns, and looked up to the support beam. He had planned this all out; it would be morning before his parents would come to find out why he wasn't ready for breakfast. More than long enough to make sure he did the job right.
He got up onto his bed and reached up...before the plan unravelled spectacularly quickly. He was a short kid, and even standing on the bed he couldn't reach the support beam. He tried a couple of times to throw the belt over the support beam, but athletics was as alien to him as physics was to most of his classmates! He tried jumping up and down on the bed, flailing to grab the beam, but even as he got a hand to it, he didn't have the strength to hold himself up long enough to tie up the belt.
He fell to the floor, and sitting up, a flood of tears came to him as he kicked his bag away. He couldn't even do this right. Maybe Ace was right all along. Maybe he was a loser. Maybe he was a loser for studying and learning when Ace could just beat kids to get the answers to his coursework. He'd even found a way around the tests lately. He had found a way to get a hold of tests, which he sold to some of his friends for a little extra money on the side. He had heard Ace talk about going to the school to collect this week's geography quiz the next morning.
That was when something occurred to him. Ace was helpless; he needed others to do things for him! He couldn't do anything on his own! He wasn't smart enough to deal with things outside his area of understanding; even his famed knowledge of mechanics was a sham. He had seen him take his bike to a shop to get his latest upgrades!
He looked to the books and parts scattered around his room and a new thought came to him. He was smarter than Ace, he was smart enough to make sure that he would never bother him again...and more than that, he knew a time and place where Ace wouldn't have anyone to help him. He grabbed some components as a thought came to him. He was going to the school in the morning to collect the tests. It was Saturday, so he would be alone, no one would be there to help him. All Monty would have to do was catch him by surprise. Maybe with a weapon...no, even with a weapon Ace would probably still pound him like a piñata.
Of course, not all weapons were the same. Some didn't even need him to be there! Looking to the parts on his desk, he wiped away some tears and frantically got to work. This was so much better. After all, what would killing himself prove other than Ace was right and he was pathetic? Far from being upset, he was sure Ace would probably laugh. Of course, with a little knowledge and some planning, Monty could be sure he would never laugh at him ever again!
Back in the present, in the Ranger Base, the team were relaying the day's events to Mick and Redbot, comparing notes on what had happened. It was unusual to see an attack any day other than Friday...it was also unusual to see any attack with no cameras. Cosmo had one golden rule about the Warrior Dome. No one died off-camera. No one died unless he could make money from it! To think a whole battle had taken place where dozens of Kudabots had been destroyed, Odious, Ripcon and another monster had shown up without anyone even filming it was truly baffling.
"So Ripcon was drunk?" Mick asked them.
"He wasn't just drunk, he was paralytic!" Sarah told him. "The safest place for us to stand was directly in front of him! It's the only place he'd never have been able to hit us!"
"Are you saying Ripcon didn't drink?" Calvin asked.
"Never before or during a fight." Mick answered, scratching his head. "Whatever's going on up there has to have really gotten under his skin."
"He's still looking for whoever took me onto the Warrior Dome. He seems convinced Odious is setting him up." Levi recalled.
"Was it Odious?" Sarah asked. "I mean, we know she kidnapped you but...are you sure she's the mastermind?"
"I honestly wish I knew." Levi replied sadly. "I don't remember a whole lot about what went on up there. I'm not even particularly sure about a lot of the stuff I know about my own life."
"Hey, it's alright." Preston answered sympathetically. "They kind of stuck your brain in a blender, I think we can all forgive you for blanking on a few details."
Levi just nodded, but kept quiet. He didn't want the others to worry, but he also wasn't being honest about just how much he was blanking on. A lot of details he should know, things about his childhood, places he had been...things that weren't connected at all to his time on the ship were just gone. It frustrated him to think that there was so much of his own life that he was essentially taking best-guesses about.
"Whatever's going on up there, it could be used to our advantage." Mick suggested. "The board room up there has never exactly been what you would call united."
"I just want to know what the deal was with Odious and that other monster." Hayley replied. "I mean, we've faced weak monsters before, but none whose attacks did literally nothing."
"Are you sure you're alright?" Preston asked Brody. The Red Ranger just shrugged.
"Nothing I can't handle." He answered.
"Alright, for now we just need to be on our guard and be ready for things when they do make their move." Mick replied. "Sarah, you said that Aiden's the janitor now?"
"Yeah, he got the usual Principal Hastings recruitment method." Sarah told him. "Someone really needs to teach that woman about background checks!"
"Can you call in another favour from Dr Morgan and sort him out with some papers?" Mick asked her. "He's covered to be here, but the last thing we need is anyone asking too many questions."
"I dread the day Dr Morgan starts calling these favours in." Sarah sighed as she dialled her phone and stepped outside.
"So what about the rest of us?" Preston asked. Just then, the bell rang.
"I guess we go to class." Brody answered, getting up. They heard a grumble and he put a hand on his stomach.
"Are you alright?" Hayley asked him.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I think I just ate too fast." He assured her. "I really hope Aiden's cleaned up that bathroom."
"I'd hope so too." Calvin answered. "That place was NASTY!"
As the Rangers left, Mick looked deep in thought. Redbot just looked to him curiously.
"Mick, what is it?" He asked.
"I don't know...a lot is happening at once." Mick told him. "I'm just...not sure I like it."
"You're probably just being paranoid." Redbot suggested.
"Maybe." Mick answered with a shrug. "But it's kept us alive this long."
With that, Mick headed out to his class to await his first students of the afternoon, while Redbot went to work on the forge.