Hacktrack appeared back on the Warrior Dome, stumbling a little with excitement as he raced to Cosmo's side. He was skipping and dancing as he cradled the silver sphere in his hands.
"I did did did what I promised." Hacktrack bleeped as he showed him the device. "I took this techno gadget from the R...r...r...angers!"
"What's up with his voice?" Cosmo asked.
"Something must be wrong with his vocal processors." Wrench told him. "How long was he locked up?"
"Never mind, it's a gimmick." Cosmo stated, taking the device from him. He sighed and looked to the robot. "What exactly is this?"
"It's one of the Ranger's techno..."
"I asked EXATLY what is it?" He asked again. "For all we know it could be a fancy coffee maker!"
"When I hit the Pink Ranger she d...d...d...disappeared and th...th...th...this was all that was left!" Hacktrack told them.
"Hmm...the Pink Ranger disappeared and this was left behind?" Madame Odious asked, appearing as though from nowhere and taking the object, inspecting it. "Perhaps there is much more this than meets the eye."
"Well, it's never a bad thing to have one less Ranger around." Wrench stated. Hacktrack took back the device, and scanned it with his weapon. They all watched as it disappeared into him and his eyes started glowing. Hacktrack looked back to them.
"This is b...b...b...better than I hoped!" He said excitedly. "This is a h...h...h...holo p...p...p...projector."
"Holo projector?" Wrench asked, throwing up his hands. "That means it's a fancy night light! I've seen places where these are kids toys!"
"B...b...but this one is d...d...d...different." Hacktrack told them. "This hologram was s...s...s...solid."
"Solid?" Cosmo asked. "Light can be solid?"
"This projector can make c...c...c...clones." Hacktrack explained. "Imagine having an a...a...a...army with all the training of a warrior but no ca...ca...ca...casualties."
"That DOES sound good!" Odious replied. "Tell me, can you improve on this? Supersize it if you will?"
"Y...y...y...yes." Hacktrack stated. Odious smiled.
"I think I have an idea." She said, looking to Cosmo. "Let's take this into the office shall we? I think I have an idea that can bring you a REALLY big show!"
Back in Summer Cove, the Rangers came storming into the Ranger Base in a panic. It was never a good thing when they returned with less Rangers than they set out with, but right now they were in a total panic. They had literally watched Sarah disappear. They had no idea what Hacktrack had done to her, but it had something to do with that spherical device Hacktrack had taken with him. Preston had blurted out the theory that it was kind of a real-life poke ball, perhaps having trapped Sarah inside it. While this did sound silly to everyone, in the absence of any other ideas it was so far the leading theory.
As they got back, Mick was working on one of the computers.
"Mick, something crazy just happened to Sarah!" Brody began. Mick didn't look worried, if anything he looked more confused than anything else.
"Yeah, we were fighting and..." He started to say, preparing to explain his poke ball theory to Mick, when he looked to where Mick was pointing. He let out a high-pitched yelp and jumped about five feet in the air when he saw Sarah rising up from behind a computer screen. She was wearing a lab coat, and some kind of skull-cap that was linked by a bunch of wires to the mainframe. She had set herself up a strange kind of fort almost of computer screens around her.
"Sorry you guys." Sarah said sheepishly, smiling at them. "That wasn't strictly speaking ME you saw at training just then."
All of the team were happy to see Sarah standing in the same room as them, seemingly safe and sound, but by now everyone was as confused as hell. They started to file over, looking to Sarah hoping that somewhere in the procedure they'd finally get some kind of explanation as to what was going on.
"What are you talking about?" Brody asked her.
"Well...I thought about all the demands on everyone's time, and how we all seem to be having to be in multiple places at once..."
"Um...I'm pretty sure that's just you." Calvin stated.
"But I mean, between training and schoolwork and building weapons and suchlike..."
"And pretty much every extra-curricular activity available on the same day." Preston said, moving closer to Sarah. He gently prodded her with a finger on the arm, almost as if making sure she was really there this time.
"Well...I just thought we could do with a few more hands to lighten the load around here, and whose hands are better than mine?" She asked. "So after a couple of hours, I engineered this."
She showed them one of the silver spheres they had seen Hacktrack taking. The Rangers looked no more enlightened as to what was going on than they had been when the conversation started. Sarah hit the button on the sphere with the heel of her palm and tossed the ball into the middle of the room. The Rangers and Mick all watched as it started floating and in a burst of light, another Sarah appeared. They looked back and forth between both of them, hardly able to believe what they were seeing.
"It's a holo projector! It can produce a hologram that looks, and acts...just like me!" She told them excitedly. The Rangers started to make their way around to view the computers, and noted the programs on the screens. There was a Sarah prepared for the archery club, one for the camping club, one for the track club, one for the chess club, and a blank screen with the word "offline" across it, presumably the Sarah they had seen being struck down at training. There was another, the new one in the room. It was just designated "Sarah 5"
"So that's how you've been at all those clubs all afternoon." Brody surmised. "While you were meant to be all those places, in reality, you haven't left the lab all afternoon."
"Exactly!" Sarah said cheerfully. "So while I was crushing it in track, chess club, camping club and archery club, I was able to work on the Whiplash attack on the blasters and finish it today!"
"Yeah...there seems to be a lot of Sarahs." Mick commented, looking at the screens.
"And...I'm not sure I'd say you were 'crushing it' at all those clubs." Brody told her. "At track club you kind of got lost."
"I...I did?" Sarah asked him.
"Yeah, you ran off the track and spent the afternoon running around the woods." Brody informed her. She looked to the program.
"Hm...there must be a glitch I haven't seen."
"Yeah, and I beat you five games in a row at chess club." Preston told her. "And I don't mind admitting the fact that...I kind of suck at chess."
"Oh...um...I probably haven't seen..."
"And in camping club your tent fell down." Calvin told her.
"Well...any technology has a few teething problems, right?" She asked. "Hey, think about it, how awesome would it be once I perfect it. If we can keep the bad guys on their toes with five Rangers, think how much easier it would be if we can field fifty!...A HUNDRED even!"
"Sorry guys, I've got to take this." Mick said as a cell phone rang. They all just looked to him.
"When did you get a cell phone?" Brody asked him.
"Oh, Principal Hastings gave it to me when I told her I didn't have one. She said all staff have to be reachable and it was standard..." He looked around as the Rangers gently shook their heads. "...it's not standard is it?"
"Standard for YOU maybe." Calvin laughed. Mick answered the phone.
"You're go for Mick." He stated. "Wait, hold on...you want me to what? Fine, I'll be there soon."
"What is it?" Brody asked with a cheeky smile. "Private meeting in her office?"
"She wants me to accompany her as she takes Victor and Monty to the hospital." He informed them.
"Hospital again?" Sarah asked. "What did they do this time?"
"It's what YOU did actually." Mick corrected her.
"Oh God no!" Sarah said, looking horrified. "PLEASE tell me I didn't shoot them or something!"
"No, but they both have multiple bee stings, something about you missing your target by about eighty feet and knocking down a bee hive." Mick informed her. "I gotta go guys."
"Sure thing." Sarah said as he left. She looked a little guilty. She would never intentionally hurt anyone, even if it was Victor. Sure, he was a jerk, and Monty by association wasn't much better, but that didn't mean she wanted to hurt them. It wasn't like either of them had outright caused her any actual harm. "There's...obviously a few bugs to work out, but...it's a good idea right?"
"I guess a few more of you around wouldn't be a bad thing." Preston said, prodding her in the arm with his finger again.
"Preston!" She protested.
"Sorry, I was just...checking." He said, before putting his arm around her.
"Sarah, when your clone disappeared in the woods, that monster stole the ball thing." Brody informed her.
"Yeah, could he do something with it?" Hayley asked. Hayley thought for a moment, trying to think about this. She hadn't stopped to think what could happen if the bad guys got a hold of her technology. She looked to the others, who were all staring at her.
"Nah...no I really doubt that." Sarah stated. "I mean, they have an intergalactic space ship, I can make a hoverboard that on a good day can go about four feet off the ground. Anything I make they have to have stuff that outstrips it by a century or more right?"
"Are you sure about that?" Preston asked her, going over to the clone Sarah and inspecting it. "I mean...this is pretty impressive."
"I'm sure my technology has to be kid's stuff to them. You all saw how Mick reacted when he saw this place; he said the stuff here was like a toy shop where he comes from." Sarah reminded them. "What would they use it for anyway?"
"I really hope you're right." Brody said with a shrug.
In another part of town, Hacktack appeared in a food court, prompting a lot of diners to abandon their meals and run for their lives. Quickly, the abandoned tables gave the place the appearance of the Mary Celeste. A few Buzz-Cams came down and pointed at Hacktrack, alerting him to the broadcast coming back.
"I have absorbed the Rangers' Techno-g...g...g...gadgets and now they're going to face their worst n...n...n...nightmare." Hacktrack said as he looked into the nearest camera. "Are you ready Galvanax?"
On the ship there was a cheer as the Champion made an unscheduled appearance on the stage. He strode into the middle of the room, at which a couple of Kudabots started to work on a console beside him. Wrench took a headset from it as Cosmo went onto the stage.
"A few weeks ago, the champion appeared on our show and gave you a tour-de-force!" Cosmo announced. "If one Galvanax gets that kind of reaction from you, let's see how you feel about EIGHT GIANT GALVANAXES!"
With that, Wrench placed the headset on Galvanax's head. The champion just gruffly grunted.
"I don't like this...how does this work?" He asked.
"Just think what you want to do." Wrench told him. "Worst case scenario, one or two of them get deleted and you don't feel a thing. Trust me!"
"Alright Hacktrack, we seem to be all set up here!" Cosmo told him. "Let the show BEGIN!"
With that, Hacktrack raised his weapon into the air and a beam of light shot out of it, splitting into eight. Before long, there were eight giant Galvanax clones running rampage through the city. Cosmo just smiled as he thought of something.
"Wrench, imagine what this thing could be like on the market!" He whispered to him. "Galaxy Warriors, the home game! Why watch the show when you can live it!"
"That sounds great sir!" Wrench said gleefully as he watched the chaos on the monitors begin.
Back at the Ranger Base, the Rangers were training as Mick arrived back, looking to Sarah.
"Victor and Monty will be fine." He assured her. "It'll be a while before they're sitting without inflatable cushions, but...they'll be fine."
"Thank God." Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief was short-lived though as the alarm sounded. Redbot came over to them, flailing his arms wildly.
"Suffering Circuits, this isn't good!" Redbot told them.
"There's a monster in the city?" Calvin asked.
"Worse than that...there's EIGHT!" Redbot told them.
"EIGHT!" Brody said in shock. In all his years on the show, he had never seen as many as eight monsters sent to a planet at once. It was something Cosmo referred to as 'over-booking'. If people had too much to concentrate on at once, then they became confused and lost interest. He had seen team contests involving four to six monsters, but much beyond that was just putting monsters at risk with very little reward as audiences turned off when they became too confused what was happening. "Which ones?"
"Galvanax!" Redbot told them. Everyone's blood ran cold hearing that. They all remembered the one and only time they had fought Galvanax. It had been a beating they had all barely escaped, and it was sheer luck he had pulled out.
"Who else?" Brody asked.
"Um...they're ALL Galvanax." Redbot clarified, showing them the screen. The Rangers looked at the screen, seeing he was right. Eight giant Galvanaxes were rampaging through the city, leaving devastation in their wake. Sarah didn't need the team to look at her to get a sinking feeling right in the pit of her stomach. Unless Galvanax was an octuplet and had never told anyone, there was only one explanation.
"They're holo-clones." Sarah said in complete horror. Her clones messing up her extra-curriculars was embarrassing, but nothing she couldn't live down. Hurting Victor and Monty was something she felt guilty about, particularly when she realised with a bow and arrow involved in the incident it could have been significantly worse, but now seeing this, she realised what she had unleashed. "Somehow that monster hacked my technology...this is all my fault!"
"Blame doesn't help people whose lives are in danger." Brody told her. "We need to get out there and stop this now."
"But how do we stop eight..."
"It looks like we have a little help." Calvin pointed out. The Rangers all looked to the screen in time to see two Megazords coming into view. They weren't their Megazords, but it wasn't that long ago they were active, so they recognised them as Dino Zords. The Plesiomax Megazord and Titano Zord strode into the picture, beginning to weigh into the fight. In a way she was glad to see that her friends had her back, but in another way this made Sarah feel worse, knowing that her friends who should be retired were having to cover her ass for her mistake.
"Alright, that's a start. That should take some of the heat off." Brody stated. "Sarah."
Sarah was still staring at the screen as the Megazords started taking abuse. Preston grabbed her, shaking her to get her attention back on the task at hand.
"SARAH!" He yelled at her. "You're the only one that knows how these things work. How can we stop them?"
"Maybe...I can try to find a way to shut it down?" She suggested. "As we saw with my clone if you cause enough damage it shuts down, but I'll see if I can find a way to shut them all down at once."
"Alright, get started!" Brody said, before looking to the others. "Alright, it's still a handicap, but three Megazords are better than two. We'll go out there and try to limit the damage until you figure out how to shut this down!"
As they ran out, Sarah struggled to get any of her thoughts straight. She was consumed with guilt over the fact that the city was in danger as a direct result of her actions in creating the holo technology. She was angry with herself for not seeing the danger it could pose, and she was frustrated that now she was facing her own weapon, she realised she hadn't thought to put in a kind of remote fail-safe just in case.
"Come on Sarah, you can kick your own ass later, think!" She said, beginning to wring her hands, trying to think of ways that she could counteract her technology. She could think of a few ways, all of which took time, but there was no way of knowing which would be the quickest, or how she could best use her time. "Think, think, you CAN find a solution to this, I know you can!"
That was when her eyes came to rest on her work station. Of course! How had she not seen it before? Why try and figure out which solution would be the fastest when she could try all of them at once! Whichever one was finished first didn't matter, if she was working on all of them, then she was bound to find the fastest solution!
She went to the workstation, putting on her control cap and started activating holo-projectors. Mick watched as she called up four Sarah clones. It was a bizarre sight indeed to see five Sarahs standing in the same room, and he had a feeling
"Listen up girls, I have a few ideas how to stop Hacktrack's clones, and you're each going to work on one of them." She began. "As for me, I'll help all of you."
Mick leaned against the wall, stroking his chin as he saw this unfolding.
"Sarah number one, look for bugs in the programming. If there's any flaws or weaknesses in it, I want to know. Sarah number two, see if you can block Hacktrack's radio signals. If he can't control the clones, he'll have a bunch of very large, fancy flashlights."
"Mick, is this..." Mick cut off Redbot with a hand signal as he continued to watch this.
"Sarah number three, find out how we can regain control. If we can do that, we can just press the off switch." Sarah informed her. "Sarah number four, try to stop the power source. If we pull the plug, then no more Galvanax clones."
As the Sarah clones each broke off to work on their assigned tasks, Mick opened the door to leave the base.
"Mick, where are you going?" Redbot asked him.
"I'm just going to...clear my thoughts for a little while." He told him. "I'm sure Sarah...all of them...have things handled here."