Chapter 3

Plan of action (Following Joel)

"All of you should read through the brief pamphlet I prepared about telling which people have the pathogen and which don't. We don't have time to go through it all together so read it in your own time. Now we have to get you off to training," Dr. K instructed. Joel looked at the "pamphlet" that was given to him. This is a book not a pamphlet he thought as he made a face of disgust towards the reading assignment. I didn't know I would have to go back to school just to kill some evil bugger. Joel got up and followed the other rangers to the training center. It was a little different than the obstacle courses at lightspeed, but he figured that he could still show off. He walked over to Taylor and began talking to the defensive yellow ranger. "You know I have to always stay in shape, so this should be a piece of cake," Joel said as he started stretching out his muscles, preparing for his upcoming work out. "Oh really? And why do you have to stay in such optimum shape?" Taylor patronized.

"Well, I don't know if you have ever heard of me, but I am called the sky cowboy where I come from. Not bragging, but I am kind of a big deal in the world of pilots," Joel said nonchalantly.

"Really? I've never heard of you."

"Well, that is because you don't know planes that well. Don't worry I can teach you."

"Oh, thank you. I don't think I have introduced myself properly, I am lieutenant Taylor Earhardt."

"Lieutenant? Were you in the army?"

"No. The air force. As a pilot." Taylor said smugly.

Joel felt extremely embarrassed, and it didn't help that the pink ranger heard the whole thing, and began to chuckle at the green rangers failure to impress. Joel, feeling ashamed, went to run on one of the open treadmills that so happened to be next to another treadmill, used by none other than the legend himself. "So, how bad did you strike out with Taylor?" asked Tommy without even being out of breath. Joel was just excited to talk with the legacy Tommy Oliver and didn't really answer. "Oh you know… girls… fff," Joel said trying to shrug off the failure of his latest conversation with Taylor. Tommy laughed, and increased the speed of his treadmill. Joel, being the show off that he was, increased his speed to match Tommy's. "She has probably already told you she has a boyfriend. It's ok though, there are other girls," Tommy said in his cheerfully optimistic tone.

"She has a boyfriend? That is news to me. Maybe she didn't tell me because things are not working out between them. She didn't want to tell me because she wanted to keep her options open." Joel said very out of breath because of the increased speed.

"I don't think so. Her and Eric are still very much into each other. She probably just likes to watch you stammer and make a fool of yourself."

"So how do you know so much about her? Were you rangers together?"

"Oh, no. I only know her vicariously through Eric. Me and all the other red rangers including Eric all went to the moon to defeat the last of the machine empire. That was a crazy time."

"Carter told me about that. So, which team is Eric the red ranger for?"

"He is the quantum ranger for Time Force. So not technically red, but we couldn't let Wes go unsupervised," Tommy joked.

Jen, hearing her soon to be husband's name, walked up to the two rangers. "Hey, Wes is an excellent red ranger," Jen defended. Tommy laughed, but then quit realizing Jen was serious. He looked at Joel for some support, but had to return to Jen's glare. Tommy eventually said, "Is that why you had to keep saving him?" Tommy laughed and tried to pass it off as simple poking fun. Joel knew that Tommy was on thin ice. You don't want to piss off Jen, or Taylor for that matter. Both of those girls are not pretty when angry. At least I know that much. Jen forced a smile then went back over to Taylor, who was using a piece of gym equipment. Probably to talk about how terrible men are. The workout room was silent besides Tommy, Joel, and the gym equipment. Dr. K walked in to call the rangers in for their dinner, so they could both eat and start working on a plan to defeat the controlling pathogens.

Joel sat down at a large table in between Ethan and Leo. He didn't know much about Leo, except for the fact that he got his ranger power from some place way far from Earth. The only thing Joel knew about Ethan was that he was Tommy's student. Joel tried to make some small talk with Ethan, but it turned into a conversation about a video game that Joel had never even heard of. Tommy was on the other side of Ethan giving Joel a look like, I have no idea what this kid is saying either. Joel looked across the table to see that Taylor, Jen, Jason, and Dillon were sitting on the opposite side of the table. Taylor and Dillon were sitting as far apart as they possibly could. Dr. K brought in some pizzas, their aroma filtering through the air, and set them on the table. I am so glad that pizza still exists in the future, Joel thought. Everyone dug in. I guess we are all starving, he thought. Jen looked at Tommy and gave him a kind of half smile, almost like apologizing without saying a word. Joel looked over to Dr. K when she began to clear her throat. Always staying focused on business I guess, Joel thought.

"Rangers, we have to have a plan as soon as possible. We don't have much time. Are there any suggestions about how to go about defeating the pathogen, and disinfecting the President of Earth?" Dr. K asked.

"I say we try to find a cure and then give it to the world," said Tommy.

"We can't, Tommy. We have found a way to prevent it, but that is only by downloading the morpher software. We can't give it to every one though," explained Jen.

"Well we obviously can't shrink down, and kill off every pathogen inside every infected person with our micro zords," replied Leo.

"My research has shown that the President of Earth was the origin point of the disease. So you might be able to wipe out the entire disease if you get rid of the original pathogen," Dr. K suggested.

"Do diseases normally act like that?" Ethan asked.

"No, but this pathogen seems to control its carbon copies through telepathic signals. It is very likely that the replicated pathogens are just manipulated by the original. Then again I have never seen the likes of anything like this," Dr. K replied.

"That sounds like what we will have to do. I don't see another option. The only thing remaining is, how will we get close enough to the President in order to get the micro zords to take care of the original pathogen?" Dillon calmly said, almost whispering like he didn't mean for everyone else to hear him.

Joel thought to himself, contemplating his options. They have some good ideas, but this seems too easy. The guards for the President couldn't be that good in this post apocalyptic world; certainly no match for the Power Rangers. Plus what if it didn't work? These were thoughts that Joel was sure everyone else was having too. " I say we just kill of the President. It is a sacrifice for the good of the people. The pathogen would die without a host and our problem would be solved," stated Taylor.

"As much as I am sure you could handle that operation. I don't think that would solve anything. As of now the pathogen is present in 1/3 of the population, but it hasn't shown it self because it is waiting to have more humans under its control. If you kill the President you run the risk of making it agitated, and making itself known and take over one third of all humans minds." Dr. K informed them.

"But wouldn't the lead pathogen would be dead before it could send out its commands?" Taylor argued.

"No, the pathogen could easily continue to live for several weeks after the host dies, or it could move to another host." Dr. K states.

The room was silent, but the company occupying was heavy in thought. Joel continued to think. The only obvious thing is to get the micro zords to defeat the original pathogen within the President of Earth. That is not nearly as easy as just simply killing the President. Also, if it dosen't kill of the rest of the disease, we will be stuck in nearly the same place we are in now. These thoughts were racing through Joel's mind just as Ethan exclaimed, "I know what we have to do. We have to split up in to teams. One team can work on finding a cure because that is our best option. A second team can plan an attack on the little space bug itself, while a third team focuses on keeping the pathogen contained. Then if all that fails at least we know what doesn't work." The room was silent; all were thinking over the plan Ethan had just come up with. Man, that is a great idea. He must be a student of Tommy to come up with a plan like that. The only problem is how are we going to split the 8 rangers and Dr. K up in to teams. Obviously, some of these rangers don't play well with each other, Joel thought as he looked over to Taylor and then to Dillon. "That sounds like a morphinaominal idea Ethan," Tommy said in his encouraging teacher voice.

"I agree. What about everyone else?" Jason asked

"How are we going to be split up," said Dillon looking at Taylor with intense anguish.

"I think we should put Dr. K and Ethan to work on finding a cure because they know the most about programming antiviral nanites. Tommy, Taylor, and Dillon should be in charge of the micro zord part of the plan because they are the best fighters. Leaving Jason, Jen, Joel and I to contain the pathogen as much as we can," explained Leo.

"I am not working with her." Dillon asserted.

"It's ok I don't want to be that close to you either," retorted Taylor.

"Listen, we all have to work together one way or another. You both have to grow up and bury the hatchet." Tommy asserted