At the Ranger Base, Sarah, Calvin, Hayley and Preston rushed in after the battle with the Kudabots. Sarah threw her Stetson onto the floor in frustration as she arrived.
"They have the Gold Ranger!" She rushed out as Mick was about to talk. He just held up a hand like he was a student in one of his own classes, waiting to ask a question. "We...we got caught up with the kudabots, and by the time we were done with them, they were gone!"
"We had a look around, but we couldn't find anything." Calvin said as Mick started to say something. "We searched three blocks square; there was no sign of them."
"I tried asking some of the local birds, but most of them were scared off as soon as the battle started." Hayley complained as Mick was about to interject. He folded his arms and looked at her as he took a seat, waiting for her to finish. "I'd suggest taking Kody out there, but since we don't know who the Gold Ranger is and we don't have anything of his to get a scent from, there's nothing to go on."
"Three blocks, I can't believe we searched for three blocks and we couldn't find a single trace of them anywhere." Preston sighed. "Do you have any ideas Mick?"
The alien just pointed to himself.
"You want a suggestion?" He asked. "Well, just off the top of my head, I would say you should check out the warehouse on Emery Street."
"Emery Street?" Sarah asked. "Why there?"
"Because I picked up a lot of Kudabot activity there." Mick told them. "Oh, and also there's been no energy readings from a teleporter, and since Ripcon and his goons really don't like shuttle craft that would suggest that they never took the Gold Ranger off the planet. I'd say the odds are he's there."
The Rangers all just stared at him.
"I just thought you might like to know." Mick finished.
"Mick, why didn't you tell us?" Sarah rushed out.
"Well, I did try but you were all so busy talking I thought I should wait until I could get a word in edgeways." Mick concluded. "Oh, I took the liberty of pulling up a schematic of the area around the warehouse including energy signatures from kudabots, indicating guard patrols."
"Yeah, that's...um...great work Mick." Calvin said with a cough. "Alright, um...any ideas?"
"There's quite a lot of kudabots, not to mention Ripcon's likely still in there." Preston reminded them.
"Hey guys, Brody's been training us in all this ninja stuff for a couple of months now right?" Sarah asked, her gaze finding their training uniforms. "What do you say we start acting like it?"
"I like the way you think." Preston stated as he pulled off his shirt, heading for the training uniforms. "I've been itching for a chance to try this stuff out in the field."
Meanwhile, over at the Botanical Gardens, Brody was standing, watching as Levi checked over the engine of the stranded motorist. He had known celebrities a long time, that was to say, he had known the fighters of the Warrior Dome for a long time, and he saw what generally came with celebrity status.
Most of the warriors on the Warrior Dome were used to privilege that came with their fame. They would be rushed through queues, they would be directed to VIP sections, they would be handed things that most of the inhabitants of the Warrior Dome, even those that weren't slaves, could only dream of owning like they were worthless trinkets. Whenever one of them didn't get their way, there would be hell to pay. Families would be thrown out of their homes, paying customers removed from restaurants and people who were just standing in hallways minding their own business would be literally trampled over if they got in the way.
He had never seen one of them actually go out of their way to help anyone before. He was still a little surprised that Levi would even bother taking a few steps out of his journey to ask what the problem was, never mind try and help a total stranger.
Levi smiled as he saw something and began tinkering with the engine. "I see the problem, right here; it's just a loose distributer lead."
Levi reached in, taking the lead and tightening it into place as much as he could with his hand, before wiping it off on his shirt, leaving large, dirty marks on it. He looked to the woman and smiled.
"Crank 'er up." He told her. The woman turned the key, at which the engine burst into life.
"Thank you!" She said gratefully.
"It's just a patch job, it'll get you where you need to go, but I'd recommend a professional look at it for a more thorough job pretty soon." Levi told her. "If it's done right, this car's got years left in her."
"Thank you; I don't know what to say!" She rushed out.
"Thank you is more than enough!" Levi assured her. She gestured to her kid, who was already making short work of Levi's burger.
"Please, at least let me buy you another burger..."
"That won't be necessary ma'am." Levi assured her, holding up a hand. "Just promise me that if you see someone that needs a hand, you'll pay it forward."
"I will." She answered. As she got in and drove away, Levi turned to see Brody, who looked more than a little surprised by the whole incident.
"That was a pretty nice thing you did there." Brody said.
"You sound a little surprised by that." Levi replied with a smirk. "You know, maybe you shouldn't go around judging a book by its cover."
"Yeah...I think I kind of owe you an apology." Brody said a little awkwardly. "I've...known some celebrities in the past and...they weren't very nice."
"Well that's the thing Brody, I ain't just a celebrity." Levi told him. "You want to know what the difference is between a celebrity and everyone else?"
Brody shrugged and shook his head.
"More people recognise a celebrity. It doesn't mean they know them." Levi told him. "I was raised right, I was a nice guy before all of this and I like to think I still am."
"I'm sorry Levi, I guess I was a too quick to judge you." Brody said. "I thought you were just some self-obsessed celebrity. But you're a normal dude. In fact, you're pretty cool too."
"Thanks, that's good to hear." Levi answered as he looked to Brody. "I can't stand it when people treat me like I'm something special. But I could tell you were different."
"You could?" Brody asked. "Why?"
"Because I had to win you over." Levi chuckled. "Usually people are clamouring all over themselves for my approval, most of them before they know anything about me other than my name and what I do for a living. It's like sometimes they think my opinion is worth more than anyone else's which is ridiculous. I sometimes say and do smart stuff, but I also say and do some pretty dumb shit sometimes. Honestly, it was refreshing when I talked to someone who thought I was an asshole and I had to prove them wrong."
"Yeah, sorry about that." Brody stated.
"Hey, don't be. I guess I haven't been entirely honest either." Levi told him. "I didn't hire you to be a bodyguard. Hell, Tom's out right now trying to track down some of the best in the business as we speak. When you treated me like a normal person it was a nice change. I thought...maybe we could be friends."
"So, you hired me to be your friend?" Brody asked him.
"Well..."
"You don't like it when people treat you as something special because they have something to gain by knowing you." Brody continued. "So you said you'd give me and all my friends backstage passes if I'd hang out with you?"
"Well..."
"You're bribing me to get what you want from me?" Brody teased him with a little smile. Levi just started laughing.
"See what I mean about saying and doing dumb shit sometimes?" Levi sniggered. "I guess when you put it like that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense now does it?"
"Weirdly...I kind of get it." Brody assured him. "And don't think I'm going to refuse those backstage passes on a point of principle."
"I can live with that." Levi said as he stared to rummage around in his pockets for the backstage passes he had promised Brody. Just then, Brody's Ninja Comm started bleeping.
"One sec." Brody said, moving just a little bit away to answer it. He saw Calvin's face in the screen; he looked like he was in his training uniform.
"Brody, there's kudabot activity at the factory in Emery Street." Calvin told him.
"OK, I'll meet you there." Brody replied, before heading back to Levi. "Sorry Levi, there's something I need to take care of right now!"
"Hey, I was just..."
"I'll pick them up later!" Brody called back as he ran off. Wherever Brody was going, he was heading in a hurry, the kind of hurry that suggested someone he knew was in trouble. Levi started to sprint after Brody, hoping that there was some way he could help.
At the factory, Preston, Hayley, Sarah and Calvin arrived, finding kudabots outside. Some of them were stationed at entrances while others appeared to be moving in a kind of search pattern, indicating a patrol, looking for uninvited guests such as themselves. They could hear anguished screams that caused them all to shiver uncontrollably coming from inside.
"I think we can safely say they still have the Gold Ranger here." Hayley commented. "What are they doing to him?"
"I'm not sure I want to know." Sarah said, looking a little ill. "But whatever it is, he sounds like he needs help and fast."
"This looks like the least guarded entrance." Calvin said, pointing to a door with only a couple of kudabots standing either side of it.
"If we're quick and quiet, hopefully they won't get a chance to call for help." Sarah stated. "Only the sentries up on that roof and over at that corner can see the entrance."
"The patrol comes round every few minutes." Hayley stated. "Sarah and I will take care of the sentries. You take care of the patrol."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Calvin said as he pulled up his mask.
Quickly and silently, they all moved into position, taking care to keep out of view. Brody had already taught them a lot about manipulating peripheral vision. Sarah got into position on the roof, and waited until she saw Hayley get behind her sentry, while Calvin found the patrol. With a simple hand gesture, they all co-ordinated their attack, taking down their respective targets all at once so that none of them could see another go down and sound an alarm.
Sarah grabbed her sentry around the neck, something of an instinctive move since the techniques Brody had shown her were based on human sentries, but ripping a few wires out of its processing unit had similar effects to a take-down, at which she caught the now inert robot across her knee, before lowering it quietly to the roof to keep it from making noise. She looked around for the signal from the others to confirm that they had also completed their tasks. That just left the two kudabots flanking the door.
Sarah moved into position directly above them, while Calvin and Preston used crates in the yard to get closer without being seen. Once more with a signal, she dropped down, driving both of them forward, right into the waiting arms of Calvin and Preston who finished them off before they could make a sound.
"Alright, that's our way in clear." Calvin stated as they heard another scream coming from inside.
"Well, at least we know one thing." Preston gulped. "He's still alive."
"Time to break up this party." Sarah answered as they all headed for the door.
Inside, Ripcon was busy with his interrogation. He wanted to know what Tom knew, and he was determined to make him tell him one way or another.
Ripcon dragged a blade across Tom's flesh, causing the man to scream out in agony. The only thing Ripcon loved more than defeating an opponent was inflicting suffering, and this human was giving him ample opportunity for that. He had been working for so long he was considering taking a break, as much to give himself a rest as for any fear that he might inadvertently take things to a level the Gold Ranger couldn't take and he'd slip away before he was willing to talk. Ripcon put his blade down on the table, next to some of its brothers, which were also covered in Tom's blood.
"You're brave, I'll give you that!" Ripcon complimented him.
"We've been at this for hours." Tom hissed as he glared at Ripcon defiantly. "How long's it going to take you to figure out you're going to get nothing from me?"
This was only partly true. Tom did know one thing that Ripcon didn't and that was that he was NOT the Gold Ranger! He had figured out who was though, he had figured out that his brother, Levi was the Gold Ranger. What he didn't know was anything about this business to do with a space ship that Ripcon kept asking about. Levi hadn't told him anything about what happened to him in those missing weeks where Tom had assumed he was at the cabin working on his music as he had said, and so Tom literally had no information to give Ripcon.
Of course the problem was that Ripcon would never believe Tom, even if he told him the truth. In fact, Tom HAD told him the truth that he didn't know anything and Ripcon had tortured him anyway! It was one of the major flaws in the argument that torture was an effective interrogation tool. If the person being interrogated told the truth and yet got tortured anyway, then very quickly afterwards, they would no longer concern themselves with telling the truth, but start telling the interrogator whatever they wanted to hear in order to get them to stop hurting them!
Ripcon was beginning to lose patience with Tom. Seizing the Gold Ninja Power Star from the table, he grabbed Tom roughly by the neck, forcing him to look up at him.
"You're going to tell me who let you onto the Warrior Dome or I'll..."
"Ripcon!" Hayley called out as she, Preston, Sarah and Calvin ran into the room. Brody arrived by a side door shortly afterwards. They all turned to stare at him.
"Brody?" Sarah asked. "Where did you come from?"
"Side door." He told her. "It was completely unguarded."
"But...we just took out the guards at the back." Calvin commented. "We used the training you gave us..."
"Always use the path of least resistance." Brody answered with a shrug. "Looks like you could use a few more lessons."
"Are you all quite finished?" Ripcon asked, interrupting them. "Perfect, so glad you could join the party!"
"Look, he's got the Gold Ninja Power Star!" Preston said, pointing to the star in Ripcon's hand.
"Not only that, I have the Gold Ranger!" Ripcon told them, gesturing to Tom. They all looked more than a little ill seeing the state Ripcon had left him in with his torture. Brody furrowed his brows.
"Tom?" He asked. "Levi Weston's manager is the Gold Ranger?"
"That's right, and when I'm done with you, I'll have all six Power Stars!" Ripcon taunted them.
"Don't count on it!" Brody called out as he and his team pulled out their Power Stars. Before they could morph however, a large, steel mesh net dropped down on them, dragging them all to the floor. It was incredibly heavy and they were quickly entangled in it. Ripcon hit a command on his handset and an electrical charge surged through the net, preventing any of them from even trying to escape. They were all convulsing and jerking around in agony as the charge went through them. Ripcon started laughing as he approached them.
"You fell for the oldest trick in the book Ratbait. All I needed was to find the right cheese to bait my trap." Ripcon told him. "Now, you've delivered all six Power Stars right into my hands, along with all six Rangers."
"Are you sure about that?" He heard a voice say. Ripcon turned around just in time to receive a large, heavy boot straight to the face. Ripcon dropped the Gold Power Star and the handset controlling the net onto the floor. The handset shattered on the floor, at which the current stopped. They all looked up to see Levi standing in the middle of the room, retrieving the Gold Power Star.
"Oh my GOD!" Sarah screamed. "We've just been saved by LEVI WESTON!"
Levi went to Tom's side, releasing his shackles.
"Tom, are you alright?" Levi asked him.
"I will be once you skin this son of a bitch for me!" Tom stated. Levi just sighed and nodded. "Turn him into a football!"
"Sorry about this." Levi replied, before rounding on Ripcon, who was starting to get to his feet.
"What? Who are you?" Ripcon screamed. "What are you doing?"
"You were messin' with the wrong cowboy." Levi told him as a morpher appeared in his hand. "And now, now you're gonna pay for what you did to my brother! Ninja SPIN!"