Life was good! Wrench could hardly believe the difference a week had made to his lot in life, but all things considered, life was pretty damn good! Through his own machinations, he had gone from being an 'intern', little better than a slave, to running the entire tech division within the Warrior Dome! He now had great living quarters, he had a bunch of 'interns' of his own to order around, and most importantly, he was getting PAID!
He wasn't, of course, in a perfect position. He knew that Cosmo had him backed into a corner. Cosmo Royale, the promoter and the true power behind Galaxy Warriors was more than aware of Wrench's involvement in Mick, Brody and Redbot escaping from the ship, and he made sure that Wrench was aware of this. The only reason he hadn't met his end at Galvanax's hands for his part in creating the Ranger nuisance in the first place was because Cosmo was more interested in the effect they had on his ratings than anything else.
As he made his way into the databank room, where they housed the servers that kept all the information they had ever gathered in order to try and make the most competitive and entertaining matches, he snapped his fingers.
"I believe I ordered a mocha!" He stated. An intern came towards him, struggling with a large envelope under his arm, while carrying a large coffee. He only had one hand, his other wrist still bandaged up and being held in a sling. This intern had lost his hand when he had made the mistake of trying to take the recording that Wrench had shown to Cosmo showing them the location of the Ninja Steel. The expression on his face was one of complete disgust as he held the coffee for Wrench. The cyborg looked to it, and then back to him.
"What syrup?" He asked.
"Peppermint." The intern sighed.
"How many shots?" Wrench asked.
"Two." The intern replied.
"How many sugar?" Wrench asked him.
"None. You take sweetener." The intern groaned. "Three..."
"THREE?" Wrench shrieked at him, interrupting him. "I only take TWO!"
"I'm sorry, I..."
Wrench slapped the coffee from his hand, also scattering the folder on the floor.
"Can you do ANYTHING right?" Wrench asked him. "Clean this up and go and do it again!"
The intern got down on his knees, starting to gather up his paperwork. As Wrench headed for one of the databanks, Cosmo was waiting for him.
"He does know you don't even drink right?" Cosmo asked him. Wrench chuckled.
"I just LOVE having interns!" Wrench admitted. "I spent so long having Sledge trample all over me, it's such a great novelty to make someone else suffer!"
"Well, never let it be said I don't like messing with the help a little." Cosmo agreed. He took Cosmo to a computer bank. "Now, why did you call me down here?"
"I just found that there have been an awful lot of very strange Data Comm requests lately." Wrench told him. "There's an awful lot about Earth..."
"Well, we are orbiting Earth, and most of our competitors know they could be chosen for this week's show." Cosmo answered. "They're probably just doing a little research."
"I thought so too, but the nature of some of these searches is really strange." Wrench told him. "I've got a lot of questions here on human physiology...specifically requirements for keeping them in captivity."
"How regularly does a human need to eat? How do you regulate a human's natural waste production? Advanced brain wave research?" Cosmo said, reading some of the requests. "Where are these coming from?"
"I don't know, whoever asked these questions is trying hard to hide their location. I can't even tell if it's a fixed console or one of our mobile Datacomms." Wrench told him. "There's also these..."
"Where can I find a good burger in Summer Cove? Why do dogs walk in a circle before lying down? Where's the main entrance to Summer Cove Plaza? Where is the best ice-cream shop in Summer Cove?" Cosmo said, reading some more of the recent requests that Wrench had flagged as strange. "Who's asking all of these?"
"I don't know, I'm having a little difficulty tracking it down, but I'm pretty close." Wrench told him. Cosmo just stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"I'm going to have a look at the contestants pool, see who would make an interesting choice for this week." Cosmo told him. "Keep me posted on this. Let me know what you find out."
"I will." Wrench replied, taking up a chair and beginning to work at his console as Cosmo left the room.
Back on Earth, Sarah was eating breakfast, but kept glancing at the door. Her mom and dad came into the room, coming to sit at the table with her, setting down their own plates.
"So, after explaining to him how the process works, he STILL managed to get it wrong!" Al chuckled. "I took it straight back to him and said, 'I don't know what reports you were reading, but they sure as hell weren't these ones!'. I swear, I think that guy must do his pay-ins blindfolded."
"Fascinating dear." Mrs Thompson said, somehow managing to feign interest. Sarah never did figure out how her mom managed to not sound sarcastic whenever she listened to her dad's stories from the office. Being an auditor, he was paid to ensure that the financial figures balanced at the end of the day. To listen to him talk, without hearing the details one would think he was talking about the most exciting game in the world he was playing, but it was just chasing ones and zeros around on paper.
"Did the mail come?" Sarah asked her. Mrs Thompson just sighed.
"No Sarah, the mail hasn't come yet." She responded. "I swear, that's every day this week, what are you waiting for that's so...?"
Just then, there was a ring at the doorbell. Sarah got up and ran to the door, stumbling a little on her own feet as she tried to get there. She opened the door to find a mail carrier standing in front of her.
"I have a recorded delivery for..." He took a while to find the name on his register. "Sarah Thompson?"
"Here! Here, that's me!" She said, snatching the sheet from his hand and scribbling down a signature. He just smiled and looked out the parcel.
"Wow, someone's eager, what is it?" He asked. "Let me guess...a catalogue for dresses for the school formal?"
"Not exactly." Sarah said, ripping the package from his hands and slamming the door on him. She paused for a moment, before opening the door, finding the stunned mailman still there. She looked out a couple of dollars and handed it to him. "Sorry."
She slammed the door again, before checking the return to sender address, seeing that it was indeed Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum. Kendall had finally managed to send out the documents she needed for Brody and Mick. While Mick had been working happily in the school now for almost a week, she knew it wouldn't be long before he couldn't stall any longer and would have to submit his documentation. Brody in the meantime hadn't actually been able to enrol in the school. He had to hide out to ensure he wasn't found, and while that wasn't particularly difficult for him with his training, it was going to be a lot easier for the team when he could openly wander around the school and meet with them during the day.
"So, I take it you got what you were looking for?" Al called over. "I suppose we can all breathe easily now."
"That is a HUGE weight off my mind!" Sarah told them, kissing each of her parents on the cheek quickly. "Alright, I'll see you tonight. Dad, good luck with the guy that was...losing the thing...and messing up...the thing...bye!"
As she sprinted out the door, he just smiled and looked to his wife.
"She didn't listen to a word I said, did she?" He asked.
"She's happy, so I think that's a safe bet." She teased her husband. "So, what would you like for dinner tonight?"
Over at the school, Mick was reaping the benefits of a busy week. He, the Rangers and Redbot had put a lot of work into preparing the painting room as their base of operations. There were now multiple concealed entrances and exits. More than were absolutely necessary, but due to his eccentric nature, Mick was always a big proponent of having too many options than not enough. They had also made great use of the debris they had salvaged from their escape, the tools they had taken from Brody's dad's old workshop and some disused items from the Shop Class to set up an impressive workshop in the painting room for working the Ninja Steel into new weapons for their battles against Galvanax.
Redbot was busy by a furnace, pouring molten steel into moulds. Mick had been figuring out the best way to manufacture the fragments of Ninja Steel into weapons, and so far the best method he had found was to melt it down completely to forge into stars, before grinding and finishing by hand. Redbot looked to the moulds as he let the most recent ones start to cool in preparation for shaping, while Mick ground and sharpened the first ones.
"Forging this Ninja Steel is really making my circuits sizzle." Redbot commented as he looked away. Mick didn't really hear him, he was too busy with an angle-grinder, completing the first of them for use. Brody came in, taking a sip of some coffee.
"This is pretty good." He commented. "Datacomm, how long is the local store going to run its promotional pumpkin blend?"
"According to the stock records, the promotional seasoned pumpkin blend is scheduled to run until the end of this month." The Datacomm told him. Brody just smiled.
"Sweet!" He responded as he put down a coffee for Mick, while he took a sip of his. Mick put down his angle grinder and removed the first Ninja Star from the vice.
"Nice timing Brody, the old caffeine was getting a little low." Mick told him as he handed him the first throwing star. "What do you think?"
"Pretty nice work there Mick." Brody answered. Mick tasted his coffee and smiled.
"Hey, that's pretty good." He told him.
"It's seasoned pumpkin." Brody told him. "We'll be able to get it until the end of the month."
"The end of the month?" Mick asked him.
"It's a promotional item." Brody told him. "I already asked the Datacomm, it checked the stock records, they're scheduled to stock it until the end of the month."
"You asked your Datacomm that?" Mick asked him. Brody just nodded.
"Yeah, it's still connected to the ship's database." Brody answered. "Epic, right? We have access to all of their own data!"
"I guess so." Mick answered, putting down his coffee before heading into the middle of the room. "OK, now time to give this a try. If I remember the legends you told me right, all I have to do is...HA!"
He spun around, throwing the Ninja Star into the Ninja Nexus Prism, which accepted it and started to glow. Mick smiled, realising that his first creation was working like a charm.
"Wow Mick, you really are a genius." Brody complimented him.
"Well, you know, I don't like to brag but..." He said, before pausing. "Um...that seems to be building up a lot of...WHOA!"
Mick and Brody both leapt out of the way as the star came shooting out at great speed. It rebounded off the wall right next to Sarah as she arrived, causing the Pink Ranger to shriek. Mick came across, picking it up off the floor.
"Well, I don't remember the legends mentioning THAT." Mick commented. He inspected it, seeing that now, in place of the simple steel star, there was a new Power Star, with images depicting the elements. "It looks like it worked at least...but a little warning about the delivery might have been nice."
"I guess we just have to be careful when we're making them." Sarah commented, holding a hand on her chest, trying to return to a normal heart rate. She looked to Mick and Brody.
"You're here early." Brody commented. "You're even here before the others."
"Well, I believe in being punctual." She said, pulling out the package. "Especially when I come bearing gifts!"
Mick took the package off her, tearing it open and tipping the documents out onto the table.
"These all look great!" Brody complimented her.
"Mick Kanic?" Mick asked her, glaring at her. "Really?"
"I...didn't actually know your surname." She said somewhat apologetically.
"Yeah, I don't know your surname either, and I've known you more than ten years." Brody commented. "What is your surname anyway?"
"I don't have one." Mick told him.
"People here have surnames." Sarah explained. "A second family name..."
"Madonna doesn't." Mick told her. "Cher doesn't."
"That's not exactly the same thing." Sarah told him. "Still, you've got a birth certificate, a High School diploma from Arizona...by the way, you're from Arizona if anyone asks...degrees in mechanical, electrical and chemical engineering, passport..."
"Swimming badges?" Mick asked her. Sarah just shrugged.
"My friend is very...thorough." She told him.
"According to this I went to kindergarten and middle-school in Alaska?" Brody asked her.
"Brody, we can't say you're from here, people will notice a kid they've never seen or heard of claiming to be from Summer Cove." She reminded him. "There are only five kindergartens, and four middle schools."
"These documents really are remarkable." Mick said, inspecting them carefully. "Who's this friend you got them from?"
"So...new Ninja Power Stars!" Sarah said, taking the Power Star from Mick and inspecting it. She didn't like lying to her friends, but she did have to respect the privacy of her friends in Amber Beach, not to mention the fact that Kendall had essentially committed a felony to help her and her new friends keep their identities secret. "When do we get a chance to try them out?"
"We'll give them a whirl in training as soon as the others arrive." Brody told her. "Speaking of which, we finally got the training uniforms finished. You want a look at them?"
"Do bears shit in the woods?" Sarah yelled excitedly. Brody just shrugged.
"I don't know." He answered, lifting up his wrist. "Datacomm, do bears shit in the woods?"
"The common bear will defecate wherever it is most convenient for them to do so. While this is often in the woods, all they require is that it is not near their preferred living area." The Datacomm replied.
"You have heard of a rhetorical question right?" Sarah asked him, before putting a hand over his Datacomm. "Never mind, I'll explain later. In the meantime, let's see those uniforms!"
Up on the Warrior Dome, Wrench was walking through the ship, checking up his tablet as he looked for Cosmo.
"Pumpkin blend coffee? Bear's toilet habits? Who the hell wants to know all this?" He asked as he approached the producer. He was talking to a monster, who was in one of the many training rooms getting ready. While there were numerous training areas that monsters used to practice their various skills and to get into peak physical form for when they would get the call to battle, most of them were more like traditional gyms. This one seemed almost like an ice rink or roller arena. As he approached, Cosmo gestured him over.
"So, how is the investigation going?" Cosmo asked him. Wrench just shrugged.
"The only thing I'm figuring out is whoever is asking these questions is some kind of scatter-brained moron." Wrench commented. "These are just some of the questions asked since we spoke earlier!"
"Really? He actually asked that?" Cosmo asked, his eyebrows raising. He just shrugged. "I'd have just left it as an expression, but then who am I to judge what makes people curious? Anyway, I think I've found this week's contestant. Tell me what you think!"
Wrench looked out into the arena to see a creature whizzing around the arena on rollerblades. He was hitting some ramps, performing tricks as he flew through the air. Wrench just shook his head.
"Well, he'll look impressive on camera with all those gymnastics." He stated. "But...I thought you wanted fighters, not..."
He was caught off guard as the creature flipped through the air, at which flames erupted from his hands, blasting numerous targets scattered around. Wrench watched as they exploded, before the creature landed on his feet nimbly.
"I stand corrected. He could provide a lot of flash-roasted Rangers!" He complimented him.
"He's only had a handful of appearances, but I think the fire angle could really...light up the screen!" Cosmo chuckled. "He's got a little bit of an ego, but I can work with that. The only question is, where do I send him?"
"The Rangers always look to stop carnage. Look for somewhere with a lot of civilians." Wrench told him. "Datacomm, where is the most crowded public place in Summer Cove at 8 AM?"
"At 8 AM, the most populous area is central Summer Cove Plaza." The computer answered. Cosmo just patted him on the shoulder.
"Now, you have a real flair for this business Wrench." He stated. "Get to production, we have a show to introduce, and I want YOU to make the filming something special!"
"I won't let you down!" Wrench assured him, running off as Cosmo Royale returned his attention to the monster.
"You my boy are going to be a star." He told him.