Authors note: OH MY GOSH IT'S BEEN THREE MONTHS. AHHHH. I'm so sorry guys for forcing this wait on you, I've felt terrible keeping this chapter from you. I have many excuses, but I don't want to write a list. So you should enjoy this instead.

edit (4/9/2012) I have put the translations down at the bottom, as well as corrected a few things. :)

edit(4/17/2012) Thanks to lucyjoan for pointing out a few spanish and grammar mistakes. Those are now fixed!

Chapter 7

Up stared out the window of the G.L.E.E pod, watching the stars fly past him in the vast expanse known as space. Over to his left the other rangers were chatting about something or whatever; their guns piled up on the floor by their feet. Taz was the exact opposite, curled up and silent, as far away as possible from everyone on his right. She was feverish, and it was just their luck that they got one of the basic models of a transfer pod. Up couldn't believe it. No medical bay, no bathrooms. It was all around inconvenient. The only things tolerable were the foam benches lining the interior that he and everyone else were currently sitting on. Oh, and the mini fridge. He was worried about her,but there wasn't much he could do besides provide her with her duffel bag for a pillow.

Taz groaned and shifted onto her other side, trying in vain to get comfortable. It had been forever ago since they had left Earth, right? Or had it only been five minutes? Taz had no clue. Fading in and out of a fever could screw with your senses. She shut her eyes against the dull lighting in the pod and tried not to picture anything. It didn't work. Mama, Pedro...all of her familia's faces flashed in front of her.

What seemed to be only minutes later, Up shook the sleeping Taz. "Come on Taz, we're almost to the academy." She tried to shoo him away, and curled into ball.

"Let me sleep, por favor. My head is killing me." Up rolled his eyes and pressed a hand to her forehead. She slapped his hand, but not before he felt the oven temperatures radiating off her body.

" Anthony!" The ensign snapped his head up from where he had been dozing off. " Get Taz some water! She's burning up!" He scrambled over to the built in fridge in the wall and grabbed a water bottle out of it. He then quickly tossed it into the air and Up caught it, twisting the lid of simultaneously. "Here, drink." He held the liquid up to Taz, who limply took the bottle and sipped to cool water. It slid down her dry throat but provided little relief. She whimpered and leaned back on the bench she was on. Everything was hurting, and from the way Up was panicking, her situation was very... well, not good.

"How long until we get to the Academy?" Taz managed to ask. Dancing-Tacos looked her way from his position near the port window. An asteroid that seemed to give a metallic sheen in the Pods lights was closing in quickly. As it came closer, Taz realized that the asteroid was really a floating space station, built to look like a giant rock from a distance...but up close she could see windows and beams... and a few landing decks.

"We're already here."

As soon as they had landed, the rangers and their Guatemalan girl were whisked away to some medical bay to be attended to. Taz happened to have three fussy female nurses who forced her down on a medical bed to be wheeled to the bay. She could walk fine! What was their problem? She tried to walk, but gave up when her ankle gave out. The nurses quickly hooked her up to a portable iv to pump some liquids into her, their patient being too weak to fend off the needles and iv's they were stabbing into her. After a few minutes, she felt her headache begin to dissipate. What was this stuff?

Lieutenant Up walked down the academy corridor with his fellow rescued rangers and Taz's duffel bag in hand. All of them were trailing Taz and the nurses. She supposed she should be grateful to him for watching out for her, but at the moment she was to busy trying to take in every detail of the academy to care. She could thank the mustached hombre later.

Everything had that squeaky clean feel, like a giant hospital floating in space. The color scheme was chrome, white, and creme. The only colors Taz could see were the green medical scrubs all the nurses were wearing. Taz eventually got bored with the scenery and turned her attention to the nurses. One in particular was talking about her, like she thought Taz couldn't understand her...or just didn't care. Idiota.

"What a stupid idea! Fighting robots at her age? She looks twelve! I would never have done that when I was that small. And look at what she's wearing. Ick, who in their right mind would wear a dress-"

"Excuse me Ms.-" Taz looked at the blonde bimbo's nametag, "Jessica Albatross. I can understand your english perfectly fine so you should shut your mouth; or if you prefer, I can shut it for you." The Albatross lady stared at her gobsmacked while the other two nurses stared at their colleague. The nurse's eyebrows narrowed. Who did this scruffy little space hitchhiker think she was?

Totally forgetting that there were five rangers who happened to be friends of the scruffy little space hitchhiker right behind her, Jessica spoke up again. "Do you know who you are talking to?" Taz scoffed. Who cared!

"A blonde medical halfwit who just upset five of the Leagues best rangers by opening your big mouth?" The said medical halfwit turned and saw the rangers who were previously just trailing behind the patient, now grouping up behind her, looking pretty upset. Four of them had known Taz since she was nine. The other just saved her life. Their Taz needed attention to her wounds. Not insults against her bravery.

Albatross gaped and turned around, making no eye contact with anyone."I'll shut up now."

"Buen idea chica." The girl sunk into her pillow, and tried to ignore everything going on including the pain. She could feel another headache coming on. Eventually their little group made it to the medical bay and she was traded off to a male doctor. Everybody split up and went to different medical beds where other doctors awaited.

Taz's doctor looked down and flipped through a clipboard that had been shoved into his hands by Albatross. "Ms. Taz." another page was flipped. " Seems to me like you got off with fewer injuries than a kid your age would've." She flicked her eyes open at the new voice. Hmmm, Jamaican late 30's. Seemed more intelligent then the last one. Cool accent. Name tag: Dr. Greggory James.

"Si. i'm not dead." He laughed and patted her head. Taz allowed him to, saving her energy for more important things. Like eating. Was there a cafeteria around here?

"That is true." He gestured to the clipboard. "Says here that your friends think you have a sprained ankle, bruised rib, quite a few cuts and scrapes, and a concussion. Anything else I should know about while you're still conscious?" Taz took in what he was saying. Did all of that stuff really happen to her? Up who was sitting on a medical bed a few feet away turned to the doctor and patient.

"She has a really high fever. We tried giving her water-"

"But it didn't help." Dr. James turned and walked over to a medical cabinet, grabbing a few pill bottles as well as a syringe and placed them next to Taz on a wheelie table. He turned again and got a pair of blue latex gloves and snapped them on. "A high fever is a side effect of being shot by a robots laser. Specifically if you've been attacked by one of the newer robot models. Your body can't figure out how to handle the unique data code that was shot at you." Taz groaned. Figures. Of course los robotas that attacked her village were the newest ones. "It doesn't help that you have a concussion."

A few seconds later ensigns Dancing-Tacos, Anthony, Drew, Kent and Lieutenant Up all jumped and turned to stare at their latina friend. "NO ME GUSTA!" Taz was screaming bloody murder, and everyone in the long medical room froze except for her and Dr. James. "Get that thing away from me!"

"You're going to cause yourself more harm! Stop moving!"

"No mierda! NEEDLES ARE EVIL!"

Taz and the Doctor were struggling against each other, the Doc trying to stick a needle in her arm. She was doing her best to avoid it by gripping onto his wrists and directing the sharp, pointy object away from her tiny body. "You need this!"

"No I don't!"

"TAZ!" She flinched at the voice who yelled at her, turning her body by a fraction to see who it was. Up was standing and walking over to her, an amused expression on his face. What was so funny?

"This is not the time for jokes U-"Taz growled. Dr. James used this distraction as a chance to inject Taz. She jerked as it punctured her skin, and she glared at Up realizing his ploy. "Oh, Come on!" She frowned at the lieutenant, and then slumped over immediately afterwards, her energy spent, and medicine coursing though her veins.

The medical room quickly resumed to its bustling normalcy. Taz, oblivious to the world as she was in an induced sleep, was shifted into a more comfortable position by Dr. James and Up. "Thanks for dealing with her." Chuckled Up. "I've learned that she's a bit of a handful from the other guys."

The doctor nodded; That was for sure. "Her fear of needles is worrying... almost all of our medicine needs to be injected." Up frowned,eyebrows knitting together. She was going to have a rough time here.

"Will she be alright?" He glanced down at the teenage girl currently knocked out by narcotics. "She's been through hell."

Doctor James rapped his knuckles on his clipboard. "you can say that again."

Translations:

-Familia: Family

-Por favor: please

-hombre:man

-buen:good

-chica:girl

-los robotas: those robots

-NO ME GUSTA: I do not like

-mierda: Sh**

Authors note: once again, sorry for the ridiculous wait! I hope this chapter turned out ok. Remember, I love reviews and criticism! Also, what do you think will happen next? I'd love to see what your thoughts are on the relationship between Taz and Up so far. Does it seem to be progressing at a normal rate? O.o