Following the procedure, Dr. K watched as the platform sank out of the ceiling, bringing Gates back into the lab. She hated to think what she had done, but by now it was too late.
His build was drastically improved by a variety of genetic enhancements, making him look like a statue of some fictional hero. What looked like a skin-tight black bodysuit covered every inch of him below his neck. It was the same fibre and alloy compound that comprised the Ranger series exoskeletons. There was one difference major though; this was now permanently bound into his physiology.
"It looks like I was right about Project Strychnine after all." Gates told her, inspecting the rig thoughtfully. "The power is incredible!"
"I've done as you ask." She replied.
"Don't think I'm not grateful." He stated, strapping on a shoulder-harness, containing a variety of compartments, housing all manner of covert weaponry. "Because of you, my plans will finally all come to fruition."
"You said you'd release me." Dr. K stated. "I guess you'll keep me until after Colonel Truman and Scott are killed at least."
"Well at least." He told her. "Why, are you really in that much of a hurry to get back to your life? I mean, you did shut yourself away in that lab all day anyway, what really is the difference between what you had then and what you have now?"
"The Rangers are good people." She told him. "The other rig operators are brainwashed automatons, and you are a psychopath."
"The funny thing is, you kill a few people and people think you're a psychopath." He told her. "Kill a few people for a cause and you're a terrorist, and yet you kill a few thousand people and lead a nation and you're a hero. Before long, I'll practically be a God here."
"You're insane!" She muttered. "If you think that the Rangers..."
"Oh don't worry about the Rangers; they'll be taken care of." He replied. "Why do you think I needed the Project Strychnine rigs?"
"You intend to fight them?" She asked him.
"I intend to replace them!" He announced. "I know as well as anyone that we need someone with the power of the Rangers at their disposal to protect the city. Of course the problem I have is..."
"They aren't psychotic." Dr. K interrupted him.
"I was going to say misguided." He answered. "They allow morality to hold them back. They would waste valuable time and resources battling to defy me. That is why I need to get rid of them. You know as well as I do the Project Strychnine rigs are more powerful than the Ranger rigs."
"You don't realise what you've done!" She shrieked. "Project Strychnine was scrapped because the bonding is permanent! The rigs can't be recalled like the Ranger rigs, that suit's bound to you for good!"
"Why would I want to take it off?" He asked her with a shrug. "The power is immense!"
"You really value power more than humanity?" She asked him.
"Why don't you ask The White Rose?" He asked her. "Of course you can't. They've already served their purpose."
Just then, two large, glass tubes lowered from the ceiling. One held a woman, just short of six feet tall, with flowing brown hair and the other, a man with short-cut blonde hair. They were both wearing suits identical to that worn by Gates. They jerked into consciousness with a start as the tubes opened, though they stared with a vacant, barely registering existence.
"You know people really should read the fine print when they sign up to the military." He commented. "Both of these people thought they were signing up for a Special Forces unit. I guess in some ways they got their wish."
He went over to the woman, waving a hand in front of her face. She never even flinched as he did so.
"You know, I always thought of people in the military as puppets, mindlessly following orders." He commented, moving around behind her. "I guess this is just taking the next logical step. Now all they know is their conditioned training, and a mindless obedience to my orders."
"You said you want to take care of the Rangers." She commented. "What do you have planned for them?"
"I'm glad you asked that." He replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You see, I need a little more information on your Rangers before I can formulate the best strategy for destroying them. I know exactly what their suits can do, but your operators? Sadly I had left the soup before you chose them."
"I'm telling you nothing." She told him flatly, crossing her arms in front of herself defiantly. "You have your Project Strychnine biotech rigs."
"Well I require just a little more from you." He told her. "You already know what I'll do if you don't obey me."
Dr. K just sighed and looked at the computer screen blankly for inspiration. She had no ideas for how to escape this situation. She had nothing she could use as an effective weapon. Certainly nothing that would help her escape.
"Now, why don't we start with your most mysterious Ranger?" He asked her. "What can you tell me about Series Black? He seems to be the one I know least about."
Meanwhile, Chas was lounging around in his swimming pool, enjoying a relaxing swim when Brie walked into the room.
"I see you're feeling a lot better." She commented. Ever since the party, he had largely kept to the mansion while the mark on his cheek left by the fencing "accident" healed. As much as he knew the injury wasn't serious, and he could easily have gone about his business, he loved milking the sympathy for everything he could get. Almost a week later, the stitches had dissolved, and the cut was beginning to fade, but his physician was paid enough to write him sick lines for him, excusing him from returning to the base. It also helped his public image, as the papers were quick to elaborate the stories of how badly he had really been hurt by Dillon. "Do you think we could go out tonight?"
"I'm not really feeling like it." He told her.
"We haven't gone out all week!" She whined, lying on a lounger next to the pool. "I'm getting bored sitting around."
"Brie, you know I'm just resting up for the ceremony." He reminded her. "Look how much better my face looks already. By the time the ceremony comes around, a little make-up and I should look fine for the pictures."
"It's just so boring around here." She complained. "You know I love spending time here, but can we please do something different tonight?"
"Look, I'm expecting a call from Gates tonight." He reminded her. "He said I shouldn't go out until he called me."
"I don't know why you hang around with him." She muttered, snapping her fingers to attract the butler's attention. The look on his face demonstrated his loathing at being summoned like a dog with such a disrespectful gesture, but he came over to her anyway. "Would you get me some lemonade? Not too bitter."
"Very good miss." He said in a little drawl before heading off to fetch her drink.
"You know what this is about." He reminded her. "He's handling my public image. You know it isn't long until the Mayor's term is up and there's an election. He said that a little sympathy, followed by a heroic return to the public eye at the ceremony would work wonders for my campaign."
"He's just so creepy." She replied, shuddering just at the thought of him. "He makes my skin crawl, and I know what we did to Summer was a little mean, but what he pulled with that story on Marcus Truman was a whole different league."
This caused him to pause for a second as he got out of the pool and started drying himself. He knew that Gates hated the Trumans, and that he had blamed them for holding him back in his career. He knew he was responsible for the attack on Scott, and also for the stories circulating in the newspapers about Marcus, casting doubts as to his actions during the Battle of Corinth. He had to admit that when he said he was going to discredit Scott, he had no idea it would be anything that serious. He had set him up to look like he was involved in a drug deal. So far no charges had been filed against him, but the damage had been done, and the newspapers had already suggested that the Military had done a white-wash on the case to make it go away. There were still whispers that the Colonel had used his political power to quash the case. What he had done to Marcus though just seemed unnecessary, and more than a little sick. He really didn't like what he had done with Marcus, besmirching the name of the Hero of Corinth
"I know, I didn't like the article about Marcus either," he conceded, making his way over to her side, "look, I don't pretend to understand what he does, but he's done everything he said he would. Look at the papers, my public image has never been better! When I throw my hat into the ring for the Mayoral elections next year..."
"Chas, the people love you anyway." Brie told him. "I love you, but you know what he did to Marcus was wrong."
He sat down next to his fiancée and held her hand.
"I know it was Brie." He replied. "It's too late now; I can't do anything about that."
She hated to admit it, but in a lot of ways, Chas was right. There was no way to prove what Marcus did on that day. Not without his flight recording, or the wreckage of the plane.
"I promise this won't go on much longer." He told her. "After the ceremony, we can start preparing for the wedding."
"Really?" She asked him. Chas smiled and nodded.
"We'll have the greatest wedding ever." He replied.
He stroked her hair out of her face and kissed her cheek again.
"Why don't you go out shopping?" He asked her. "Call some of your friends, you can get lunch, make a real day of it."
"I'd prefer it if you were there." She said with a little pout, before kissing him. "I love you."
"You know I do too." He said with a little smirk as she left. His maid came into the room and he got a little smirk to himself.
"I'm going for a sauna." He told her. "I'll be ready for a massage in about 10 minutes."
Benny made his way through the streets to the construction site of a new apartment building. The men that had been hired to attack Scott had given a name under questioning, but it hadn't checked out. He knew that no one dared to lie to Mr Smith. Everyone told the truth eventually under his treatment. The only possible explanation was that whoever had hired them had lied about his name.
The only thing they had told them was that he had arranged to meet them here. He figured that this was about as good a place to begin looking for answers as any. He had told Fresno Bob he was going to check it out, but in truth he had already called Ziggy and arranged to meet him there. He made his way awkwardly over the chain-link fence, before checking his suit for tears. He then made his way inside.
"Ziggy?" He asked, looking around for his friend. "Are you here little guy?"
"I'm here Benny." He replied in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.
"What's wrong?" Benny asked him.
"Look at this." Ziggy stated, waving him over. In the low light of the building, he could barely see, but when he came over, he saw that next to where Ziggy was kneeling was a dead body. The massive gangster almost threw up as he saw the lifeless, glassy eyes and the pained expression on his face. He seemed to be wearing some kind of robe.
"He's been dead for a while." Ziggy told him. "There's another one over there."
"Here, I think I saw a light switch." Benny told him. He made his way back towards the door, finding a petrol-driven generator. Firing it up, the lights came on, causing them to see the full horror of the scene.
The floor had not been completed, leaving what appeared to be almost a stage where they were standing with the body of the man they had found. They could now see that he was wearing deep red robes. In the pit below, in the very foundations of the building, were more corpses. They looked to have died the same horrible death. By now Benny was completely overcome and lost his lunch.
"What the hell happened here?" He asked Ziggy.
"I need to call Sam; she'll be able to tell more from this than I will." He stated, his eyes wide in amazement. "Go back to Fresno Bob, tell him we got to the scene first and you couldn't risk coming in here. He'll hear about this soon enough."
Ziggy pulled out his morpher and activated it, calling Flynn.
"Flynn, is Sam with you?" He asked.
"I'm here Ziggy." She responded over Flynn's morpher. "What is it?"
"I think I found a lead." He told her. "I'm pretty sure I've found The White Rose."
Back at Gate's lab, Dr. K was being relentlessly questioned by Gates. When she refused to talk at first, he had injected her with a serum. It dulled her senses and made her zone out a little. Her head was spinning, and she felt incredibly tired. She knew that in this state, her body was in no condition to resist. No matter how hard she tried to resist, she just didn't have enough focus to think about what she was saying. The truth just came out. He slapped her gently to make sure she still hadn't passed out.
"You've been most helpful Dr. K." He taunted her, pacing the room.
"Please, you can't do this." She muttered.
"I would have thought by now you'd know me better than that." He replied, picking her up from the chair and carrying her across to the bed in the corner. As she lay on the bed, barely conscious, he made his way over to the female operative.
"Nightshade, the good doctor has been kind enough to tell us that Ranger Yellow is due for another therapy session today." He instructed her, handing her a package. "She and Ranger Black will be there together. Disguise yourself, and when the time is right, attack them. You know what to do."
He noticed Dr. K was watching, though he knew it wouldn't be long before she lost consciousness. He smiled at her.
"I have people to see." He told her. "Don't worry though, I'll be back soon enough."
In Dr. Young's office, Summer came to after he brought her out of her trance. He handed her a cup of water from the water cooler.
"I think we're starting to make some real progress." He told her. "I'm really sorry your first few nights without the meds were rough, but that's to be expected. Your dreams are where your subconscious normally deals with your conflicts."
"What conflicts?" She asked him. "I've talked to mom and dad, they've explained everything..."
"You can't expect these things to be fixed overnight." He reminded her gently. "You still have to resolve how you see your life."
He came over to her side, placing a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her.
"Your mother and father have learned to love each other." He continued. "Dillon clearly loves you; I could see that in the time he sat in on our session."
"So what's the problem?" Summer asked him. "Why am I still like this?"
"You've lived for a long time with a very confused idea about relationships." He told her. "You were expected to spend the rest of your life with a man you didn't love, an expectation you eventually convinced yourself to share, and the very people most of us look to for our model of a relationship, your parents, only learned to love each other recently."
"So what are you saying?" She asked him.
"The first step in learning to love is learning to believe you deserve to be loved." He told her. "I'll see you next time."
With that, she made her way into the waiting room, where Maxie was talking to Dillon to pass the time. More accurately, she was talking. As usual, Dillon was saying very little in response. His face lit up as he saw Summer.
"How was it?" He asked her, giving Summer her jacket. She pulled it on as Maxie looked out the appointment book.
"I really wish I could have made more progress." She muttered. "My dreams are still not making a lot of sense, I'm really having trouble sleeping, my brain's totally fried."
"I'm sure Dr. Young knows what he's doing." Maxie chipped in, handing Summer the book, allowing her to fill in her name in the next vacant appointment slot. "He wouldn't have taken you off the meds if he didn't think the time was right."
"I guess so." Summer replied, taking her jacket and putting it on. "Come on Dillon, it's time to go."
He put an arm around her shoulders and led her out of the office, into the street. Dillon groaned as he saw a cable repair van blocking them in.
"Hey, would you mind letting us out?" He asked the repair woman as she worked on a box nearby. "Hey, you've blocked us in, can you move the van?"
Before he knew what was happening, the repair woman grabbed his wrist, twisting it sharply and rammed a needle-like weapon into his chest.
"Damn it!" He screamed as she kicked him away. Summer rushed forward, but was caught off guard, being thrown to the ground. She looked on in amazement as the repair woman leapt an impossible height, disappearing into the rooftops and left at incredible speed. She made her way to Dillon's side, checking on him.
"Dillon, are you alright?" She asked him, checking his wound. "Dillon, talk to me."
"She's strong; I think she managed to damage my implants." He informed her.
"I'm getting you out of here." She told him, looking around to make sure their attacker wasn't coming back. She knew it had to be serious if the wound was deep enough to hit his implants. "Sam can have a look at you when we get back to the lab."
With that, she carefully helped him into the passenger seat of his car, before getting into the driver seat and starting it up. Mounting the pavement to steer past the van that had blocked them in, she raced into the street towards the Garage. She had no idea who had attacked them or why, but she couldn't worry about that right now. Dillon's car was a lot more powerful than she realised, and it was only now she was regretting the fact she was more used to two wheels than four.