Early Next Morning
Rachael stared at her ceiling, totally and completely annoyed. Mostly at herself, but she still wanted to know what the hell was going on. She understood how Bronwyn was worried about Jen, and when Rachael had checked the consol she knew how right it was. Steelix was a tough one, but the thing that irked her was that Bronwyn hadn't called to at least tell her what was going on. Sighing, she pulled herself out of bed and to her closet and pulled on work clothes and went down to eat breakfast with her father.
After parking in the lot across from the Silver Guardian HQ, Rachael walked over to a little café to grab some coffee and a donut before actually going into work. People's screams from the park grabbed her attention first and she dodged forward and scanned the area, not seeing a mutant anywhere.
"Hello Ranger." A dark voice said from behind her. Rachael felt something grab her neck and she screamed and fell on the ground, twisting in pain and no longer knew what was happening in the world around her.
Soon the Silver Guardians were on the scene and Eric yelled for them to scan the area before he caught sight of the raven haired girl. "Rachael." He whispered in shock and ran to her, scooping her up in his arms. Her forehead was already covered in sweat, but her arms were shining with weird silver worm-things. He picked her up effortlessly and her outside hand moved instantly to his chest and grabbed his jacket in pain. Eric sprinted to his SUV and placed her gently on the backseat and sped the whole way to the hospital.
"I need a bed." He said hurriedly to the nurse in charge.
"Everyone needs a bed, just wait." She snapped at him.
"This is Alan Collins' daughter, she needs a bed now." Eric snapped back, and the nurse paled.
"Right away sir." She mumbled and ran from the area. Rachael's grip on his jacket was like a vice and she kept pulling on it as each wave of pain hit her. The nurse came back partially down the hallway and waved Eric back. He followed her to a small room in the back of the hospital, with only one bed in it and placed her down gently. It took both of his hands to pry hers from the jacket before he could stand straight again.
"Rachael." He murmured, looking at her writhing in pain, it hurting him as well. The Quantum morpher beeped, but before he could respond he acted on a whim and kissed her forehead before leaving the room as fast as he could, answering the morpher as he went.
"Captain Meyers, you're needed at the base."
"I'm on my way." He replied and shut off his communication channel. He sped back to BioLabs and quickly grabbed a few guardians and was leaving when Wes stormed through the door. "Hold on, where're you going?"
"I need to see my father."
"He's busy with the Silver Guardians, come back later." Eric grabbed Wes' arm and held him at bay.
"No, it can't wait."
"In case you hadn't noticed, the city is under attack."
"I know! That's why I'm here; my friends have been bitten." Eric stopped and released his hold.
"Come on." He muttered and turned for the hallway, leading Wes to Mr. Collins' office. When they made it to the door Eric turned to Wes. "One thing, Rachael was bitten too." Wes paled even more and ran his fingers through his hair when Eric went in to talk to his father. After the executives left Wes went up to the desk.
"Dad I need your help."
"You don't come around here for months, and when you do show up, you ask for a favor?" Alan had his hands in his pockets as he berated his son. He sat down. "Ok son, what do you want from me now?"
"This isn't about me; it's about the whole city, everybody's sick." He lifted the glass jar in his hand. "This serum, it can cure them."
"Where'd you get that?"
"That's not important, but what is important is that only BioLab has the technology to reproduce it fast enough to save lives." Alan picked up the glass jar.
"If it works, this could be a gold mine." Wes could almost see the dollar signs in his father's hazel eyes.
"Dad, it's not about that! People's lives are on the line! Rachael included!" Alan looked up startled.
"Rachael…"
"She was bitten, Dad. Do it for her."
Within an hour the lab was already delivering the antidote to Venomark's bites all around the city. Eric directed the Silver Guardians to take the serum to all of the people in the streets and take the cases to the hospitals.
Bronwyn, however, was racing through the streets in her small white rental car, looking for Rachael in each of the four hospitals in the city. She'd been to two of them, and she was on her way to the memorial hospital before the final one as fast as possible. "I'm looking for Rachael Collins?" She asked hurriedly, praying if Rachael was there she was alright.
"Captain Meyers put Miss Collins in room 132, now if you'll excuse me, I'm busy." The nurse snapped. Bronwyn didn't even notice as she sprinted down the hallway and slid into the hospital room. Rachael was still writhing on the bed, her arms crawling with the poison. Without a second thought Bronwyn raced back to the main room and snatched a vial of serum from one of the Silver Guardians and back to her partner's room.
"Rachael, you need to drink this." She said softly, trying to hide the panic in her voice. "Drink." She urged, and poured the odd blue liquid into the girl's mouth. After only a few moments, the mark vanished from her neck and her brilliant green eyes opened.
"Bronwyn?"
"Rachael, you were bitten by Venomark." Bronwyn sighed as Rachael sat up in the bed, still wearing her work clothes and everything.
"Damnit, let's go." She muttered, grabbing her shoes and started for the door, but Bronwyn didn't follow.
"Wait, I… I'm sorry I didn't call you about the battle yesterday." She apologized.
"No, I'm sorry for overreacting, seriously. I think I might be turning into my brother." Rachael winced teasingly sending Bronwyn into laughter and they sprinted through the hospital and out to the battle.
Eric was taking on Venomark as the Delta and Theta rangers joined the five core rangers at the scene. By using the MegaBattle, he had the upperhand and easily, caused the mutant to fall to the ground. He got up and tried to run but the purple and the navy colored rangers got in his way and he resorted to the last thing by exposing his skin to the air and growing.
After the Battle
Eric grinned as the last of the infected people were taken care of. He watched Jen and Wes shake hands and grinned at them when he heard Jen speak.
"Everyone's going to be ok, because of you." They caught sight of him and Wes gave him a thumbs up before Eric turned away.
"I have to find Rachael." Wes told Jen and released her hands, but a voice called through the crowd instantly.
"Wes!" He turned to have his sister jump into his arms and he hugged her as tight as possible.
"Rachael," He said as she pulled back, but kept his arm on her waist, "Eric said you were bitten."
Rachael winced and pressed her neck gently. "Yeah, but he took me to the hospital."
"He did?"
"Yup." She nodded and glanced over to see Eric standing alone because the people he'd been talking to left. "Thanks." She stuck out her hand and he took it.
"Just doing my job."
"Well you do a good job." She rolled her eyes and pulled her hand from his. "I'll see you at work tomorrow." She waved and returned to Jen and her brother and saw the red hair of Bronwyn's wig near Trip and Katie, but when Lucas came near, she bolted over to her white car. "I think that's my cue. I'll see you around." She kissed Wes' cheek and ran to the car and got in the passenger's side. Bronwyn practically sped through traffic all the way to where Rachael's convertible sat and then the entire way to her apartment. Rachael got out and stopped her before Bronwyn could get up the stairs.
"Whoa whoa whoa, where's the fire?" Her face was alight with amusement and curiosity as she stopped Bronwyn. The red wigged girl pushed past her and up the stairs, making Rachael have to jog to keep up. Bronwyn slammed the door behind her but Rachael caught it before it shut completely in her face.
"I hate him." Bronwyn started pacing the floor angrily with Rachael following each movement curiously.
"If you don't mind me asking, who do you hate?"
"No one." Bronwyn moaned, sitting down and slamming her head down on the table with a thud.
"Lucas?"
Bronwyn's head snapped up. "How'd you know?"
"I didn't until now." The blonde winced and slammed her head down. "Well I saw you bolt from Trip and Katie once he showed up. Come on spill, what's the history."
"I dated him." Her voice was muffled, but the words had the same effect. "Not too long before he came to the past." She banged her head on the desk a few times as Rachael watched with amusement.
"And you still like him."
"No!" Bronwyn's head shot up and she glared at Rachael but her face melted as she slammed it down again. "Yes." She mumbled.
"What happened?"
"I don't really know. We both spent so much more time at work and just decided to end it, but I really regret it." She lifted her head.
"You do realize I was there." Rachael raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but we weren't partners yet." Bronwyn muttered. "We were paired up right after it." She sighed. "I can't believe I freaked out."
"Nah, it happens to the best of us." Rachael grinned standing and going into the kitchen and the fridge.
"What about you?"
"What about me?" Rachael's voice was mumbled from the inside of the fridge. She started pulling out random containers.
"What are you doing?"
"Making dinner since you apparently only want to hit your head repeatedly on the wooden table."
"Aren't you hilarious. Then what's with you and Eric?" Bronwyn leaned on her arm and watched Rachael start to cut up chicken and heating up a saucepan and didn't skip a beat with answering.
"I dunno, I'm his new secretary, he went to prep school with Wes." Her head disappeared as she bent to get something out of the bottom cabinet.
"As in, your brother's friend? That sounds promising." The blonde teased. Rachael just laughed and continued cooking.
"Nah, I first met him that one Christmas all that time ago." She paused for a second remembering. "I haven't really thought of him as, well, a potential boyfriend, ever." She shook her head and threw tortillas into the saucepan and put the ingredients in.
"And now?"
"He makes me want to hit things." Bronwyn burst out laughing at Rachael's comment. "Gah, he's just so arrogant and doesn't want to work with the rest of the team!" She pressed down the quesadillas with the spatula as they sizzled in the pan.
"And us sitting here not telling them our identities are…."
"Orders! We're not allowed to tell them!" The dark haired girl protested, cutting up the quesadillas and putting them on two plates before practically tossing one at her friend. "He's still a jerk."
"A jerk that saved your life."
"We don't need to mention that." She bit her dinner with a flourish. "And if we do, I'll bring up you-know-who."
"Deal."
