-The Compound-

Like a leaf caught on the wind, the butterfly wafted across the space, fluttering higher as K's tingling elation returned and willed her to follow. Her body moved before her mind, chasing with eager determination to keep up. A mistake K didn't realize until she stepped into the light.

The sunbeams stuck her hands and panic seizing her as it glowed against her flesh. K's hands snapped to her face in a desperate bid to shield, breath escaping as she tried to stifle a scream. In an instant, every possible reaction raced through her mind; blisters, swelling, anaphylaxis. All the ways her allergy could bring about an agonizing demise. The taste of freedom had lured her into a trap, the creature had received her grateful mercy and had repaid her with stinging betrayal!

… And yet; she felt no pain.

In fact, K felt almost nothing at all, save for the soft touch of warmth that brushed against her skin as the glaring light wafted through the open window. As she stared at her hands, watching the shadows shift as she moved them back and forth, the butterfly continued its journey. But K was no longer watching it, no longer registering the flight of wings as it danced towards the window and made its final leap for freedom.

Instead, K stared at herself, at the soothing bask that rested on her skin while having no effect at all. Her heart pounded in increasing fright as the realization began to dawn on her.

The light… it… it was touching her.

And she was… fine…?

She wasn't allergic at all.

This whole time she could have left the compound; she could have gone outside…

They'd lied to her.

-3 hours, 40 minutes to Judgement Day-

Panic seized him, and Benson's breath sucked in to stifle a scream. His limbs flailed helplessly as the iron grip yanked him, dragging him out from behind the vehicle. The others hadn't realized, and Benson realized with horror that he was caught between warning his team or revealing their position to any enemy that had not yet descended. And in a moment, it wouldn't matter. Gasping for any desperate air he could heave, Benson did the only thing he could think of. His hand slapped against the side of the truck in a desperate bid for attention, the heads of the entire team whipping around just as he was reefed behind the vehicle.

As the assailant slammed him to the ground, Benson looked up at his attacker in horror. Garbed in black from head to toe, their face was concealed beneath a balaclava and goggles. Benson snapped his arms, flinching on instinct to shield himself as the soldier curled their hand into a heavy fist that readied to knock him cold. And as it did, Benson swore he caught a whirring from the joints.

That's when Kyle lunged.

Shooting out from behind the truck, his arms wrapped around the waist of the attacker and crashed into the ground. Caught off guard, the masked soldier was helplessly slammed to its back as Kyle pinned it down and punched. As the face met Kyle's fist, it clanged. The former Ranger winced, hand twitching as a punch snapped up and clocked him.

Kyle fell back, hand snapped to his face as the soldier rose and followed. From his back, Benson caught movement, the team rushing out from behind the convoy, Carter with his Rescue Blaster already drawn. Jen's hand lashed out and slapped it down.

"No blasters!" she hissed. "Keep it quiet!"

Carter obeyed without question, lunging immediately with the other three in tandem. Four former Rangers against one solder, tackling the limbs and pinning it to the ground. But despite its opposition, the soldier continued struggling. Moving quickly, Jen spun around her Chrono Pistol and rammed the butt against the forehead.

Nothing happened. Nothing but another ominous clang as the Time Agent stared in confusion and horror. But it gave Benson an idea. With no time to voice it, he leaped up and rushed to the group, yanking a Magna-Clamp from Wes' belt and thrusting it against the soldier's face. The magnet whirred life, slamming to the head in an instant. And then the soldier fell still, limp in their grasps.

The team jumped off, panting heavily while Benson stared down at the motionless attacker. Hunched and recovering her breath, Jen shot Benson a look. "How'd you know that would work?"

"I didn't," Benson admitted between heavy panting. "It was just a hunch."

Closest to it, Kyle kneeled over their enemy, fingers finding their way to the helmet's chinstrap before yanking off the goggles and balaclava. But it wasn't a face that greeted them. The head was large and round, an egg-shaped ball of burnt chrome, and where its features should have been, instead was a singular crimson lens.

"Magnets don't play well with computers," Benson reasoned, looking back over his shoulder to see the others. Although Kyle's expression was a more dour concern, the others gazed in gaping horror, all recognizing it for what it was. A sight they'd likely thought to never see again, certainly not in this timeline.

"I… I don't believe it," Wes stammered.

Jen looked down more sternly, eyes narrowing in heightened fury as she too recognized their foe. A cold sneer passed her lips as she confirmed, "A Cyclobot."

"I don't understand," said Carter. "I thought all the remaining Cyclobots were returned to the future with Ransik?"

"So did I," Jen agreed coldly. "Guess we missed one."

"What does this mean?" Dana asked. "It's one thing for Cyclobots to still be in this timeline, but that doesn't explain why they'd be here on the base."

Benson couldn't help but agree, the potential ramifications twisting in his stomach. An android from the future, wandering a base on the eve of a robot apocalypse. It was more than coincidental, that was obvious, but as Benson stared at the stationary body, a new fear seized him. They really knew nothing of what was happening, of just how deep the rabbit hole of Alphabet Soup went.

Gritting his teeth, Benson cursed himself for his arrogance; one time he'd managed to burrow in the Soup's servers, and now suddenly he was an expert? They may well have bitten far more than they could chew, and he'd insisted on coming along for the ride. Jen was right, he shouldn't be there. Twice now his presence had jeopardized the mission, and they'd barely gotten through the front door. Only now there was no way out.

But beside him, Jen looked back upon their team with a renewed steely resolve. "Trip, any luck with those building scans?"

"I've got the above-ground mapped out, but I still can't get a read on the lower levels," Trip replied. "We're still scanning from long range, but Lucas thinks he could pull close to increase the depth."

"It's too risky," said Jen. "While those batteries are active, we can't afford to get too close. And if they've got technology shielding their soldiers from our readouts then they could also pierce our cloaking if we're not too careful. We'll figure it out."

Then she turned to the rest of the group.

"Whatever is going on here, we can find out later. Our objective hasn't changed." There was an icy fury in her voice, curling beneath each syllable with burning determination in her eyes. "Somewhere in this facility is a little girl that needs our help. We're running into more problems, and we need to start solving some. Carter, Wes, find somewhere to hide our friend here. Doc, if we wanted to find a solid layout from this place, where would we go?"

It took Benson a moment to realize that Jen was addressing him directly, the first, active acknowledgment of his presence and value. The first time she hadn't treated him like a burden. Snapping him from his pitying stupor and shaking his attention to the task, Benson had no idea if it was faith, or simply a desire to stop his spiraling. But he wasn't about to argue with either.

"The Terminals will all be linked," he reasoned, "but they won't all have the same levels of access. In theory, I could use any connected device to gain access, but if it hasn't got the right clearance, it could take up time that we don't have."

"So where would we find a useful one?"

Benson paused on the thought, racking his brain for potential options. "If all we need is an overview of the base, we could try the supply depot. They'd need readouts of all supply distributions, and that information wouldn't be tightly secured as other intel."

Jen immediately snapped her hand to her ear, barely acknowledging the response before opening the com-line. "Trip, you get all that?"

"Copy, Jen," came the reply. "There's a large warehouse about five blocks south of your location. Looks like where the convoy would have dropped you if Eric hadn't chased them."

"Copy that." Then Jen looked back at her team and gave the command. "Move out."

The others were swift and silent, slinking to the edge of the warehouse as they readied to make the trek. As Benson moved to follow, Jen stuck out her hand and stopped him.

"I know," he bemoaned. "Keep my head down and out of the way. I shouldn't be here."

But Jen glowered instead. "You're right, you shouldn't be here, but you are. And that means from here on in I need your A-game. I didn't want you on this mission, but you insisted. So, prove me wrong."

It was likely the greatest approval Benson was going to receive, and Jen was right; rightly present or not, he needed to be a hundred percent if they were to have any chance of success. Taking Jen's lead, Benson stuck close as the six reached the corner and huddled around.

"We want to stay quiet, but keep your blasters ready," Jen ordered. "We'll move corner by corner. Carter, move ahead with Mason and signal us when we're clear. Be careful of bottlenecks and ambush sites; there's a chance they already know we're here."

Both men nodded and moved, careful to check their position before slowly slinking to the next building. Pressing against the side, they peered around the edge and signaled for the team to move. Taking it slow, they moved in singular drips across the open way. And then, block by block, they repeated the pattern.

"One thing's bugging me," Benson admitted as they waited for Carter and Kyle to signal their next movement. "As we were coming in, I didn't hear any voices from the people around the base. I thought I just couldn't hear it over the engines but…"

Jen and Wes both nodded.

"I thought the same thing," Wes agreed before shooting a look at Jen. "The gym?"

"There's a good chance."

And then two of them got a signal from ahead and shifted to the next corner.

"Are you going to elaborate on that?" Benson hissed as he followed up behind them.

"Back in Silver Hills, Jen and I uncovered one of Frax's schemes," Wes explained. "They were using a gym to lure in innocent people and convert them into Cyclobots. They almost did it to Jen."

"And if you hadn't pulled yourself away from Angela," Jen snorted. "They might have succeeded."

"So, what happened to the people?" Benson asked. "Were you able to help them? Change them back?"

"When we captured the mutant responsible, the victims were restored to their normal selves," Wes confirmed.

"So, if that mutant responsible is dealt with, how could the same thing be happening here?"

At first, neither replied, and Benson gulped down as he realized that neither needed nor wanted to.

"It's just a hunch," Wes decided, finally. "But it would explain how a heavily guarded base was able to swap its people for robots without anyone noticing."

"There's a good chance that every single person in this facility has been converted into a Cyclobot," Jen agreed. "At the very least the ground soldiers. Be careful, and don't hold back."

The agreement was unanimous, a synchronous nod of understanding. No time to waste, no time to further explore. Not with what was at stake.

With that dire warning, the team continued their journey to the depot, inching forward at a snail's pace in a last-ditch effort to conceal their existence. It took them a while, far longer than any would of them liked, but at last, they approached the final corner that brought them within sprinting distance of the building.

Huddled close and checking the corners, Jen signaled the go-ahead for Kyle and Carter to move. From his vantage, Benson watched as the duo crossed the open ground and slunk toward the door to peer inside. Pressed against the wall, Kyle began to slowly ease the door while Carter covered his six.

But there was something else that was bothering Benson now. One Cyclobot was all they'd run into. They could hear Eric's distraction still raging at the front gate, but even then, they should have run into another patrol by now. Something that would force them to slide around the edges, to dive out of sight from the henchmen that prowled the compound. But there was nothing, no one at all. It was an eerie concern clearly shared by the others.

"I don't like this," Dana warned quietly.

"I know," Jen agreed. "It's too quiet; stay sharp."

Up ahead, Carter motioned to the team, the way clear to slip inside, and one by one they made the journey to cross the open passage towards the door. They stepped inside, and Benson gasped at the sight that greeted them.

This… this wasn't a storage depot…

Benson was used to warehouses, he'd lived in one for months, converted into a makeshift command center. This place made that look like a holiday cabin. There were shelves and crates, but their layout was far too purposed and methodical for mere supply distribution, open and littered with tools awaiting use. At the center of the room was enormous, square shaft that plunged into a hungry darkness, surrounded by railing and scaffolds that rose toward the cavernous space above. Stairwells and elevators were positioned at even, mathematical intervals, leading to the gantries that lined the upper walls, crisscrossing overhead to create a maze of service catwalks above.

And as they looked up, the team's jaws dropped in horror.

Machines, great and mighty, suspended from the ceiling by enormous chains that hung them at level with the upper scaffolding. Hanging in pieces, there were panels missing from their frames, exposing the wirings and workings to the open air. But it wasn't their size that filled with dread, it was their shapes.

Their forms had hulking limbs, fists, and feet that could crush cargo planes beneath their weight. The first was longer, more slender; its metal casing was a mixture of chrome, light blue, and crimson, the full length extending to the shape of a long and mighty tail. The other was considerably larger, bulky golden armor that look nigh impenetrable. These weren't any machines, they were Zords.

Between them was a third, even mightier still. Longer than the first one, also draconic in shape but its form stretched from wall-to-wall and dwarfing its companions by comparison.

"Dragonton…" Wes gasped. "Doomtron too…"

"I… Don't believe it…" Carter stammered as he stared at the one in the middle. "Is that… Serpenterra?"

"I… I don't understand," Jen stammered. "These were destroyed in Silver Hills eight years ago. What are they doing here?"

Benson's eyes continued to stare at the Zord in the center, having read enough archives to know of its supposed fate. "How could Serpenterra even be here? I thought it was destroyed by the team of Red Rangers on the moon."

"You're right," Carter growled in agreement. "It was."

"Add it to the growing list of questions," Dana suggested before tapping at her ear. "Trip, are you getting all this?"

"Something's interfering with your body cams," came the reply, "it keeps shifting into static, but I heard Jen and Wes clear enough. Are you sure it's them?"

"We're sure, alright," Wes confirmed. "No forgetting those ugly mugs."

Jen's resolve had already returned, icy glare whipping around to Benson to bark a dispassionate order. "Terminal, now."

Yes, mam'!

The closest to them was by the plunging shaft; tower, keys, and screen all awaiting input. Benson just prayed it wouldn't take too long. He motioned silently, Jen taking a look before nodding in confirmation and examining their positions. A few hand signals later, and she moved beside him with Carter as they slunk their way to the terminal. It lit up to Benson's touch, and the programmer immediately set to work.

"We're too exposed out here," Jen warned. "Make it quick."

"Believe me, I am."

It was he suspected; it was a computer with limited clearance, unlikely to provide easy access to the facilities' more secure servers. But it would have what the team needed; directions.

"I'm in," Benson said in a hushed whisper. "Pulling up manifests and maps now."

Beside him, Jen took the moment to deliver a fresh order through the com. "Eric, you've had your fun. We're deep in and have what we need, pull back and start preparing for extraction."

"Copy that Jen, they were getting boring anywhere. Pulling back now… wait…"

The next sound on the com was a shrieking blast, like steam escaping a funnel at a frightening pace. And they didn't just hear it on the com, it shrieked from outside as well.

"I'm hit!" Eric warned. "They whammied the Q-Rex with something, movement's slowing down!"

Benson's typing quickened, breathing beginning to sharpen as the Quantum Ranger's fear echoed through the earpiece and Jen barked back, "Eric, retreat! I repeat! Retreat!"

"Q-Rex not responding! They're closing-!"

All that came next was static. In the corner of his eye, Benson saw Wes snap his hand to his ear across the room.

"Eric, are you there?" he pleaded. "Eric? Eric?"

But there was nothing. Benson shot a worried look to Jen and Carter, both wearing their worry as plain as day.

"Trip?" said Jen, suppressed alarm seeping through her tone. "Eric's in trouble, how you got eyes on him?"

But there was no reply from their eyes in the sky; only static there too.

Not good; if their coms to the Time Ship were down that meant they were likely jammed, at least Benson hoped that was what it meant. It was far more hopeful than the alternative. Either way, the result was the same. Their enemy knew they were there. And that meant they needed to move.

The screen lit up, floorplans of the base now rolling before his eyes. Benson scrolled down immediately, looking for the sections that were fresh to them.

"There's an entire maze of tunnels underneath," he breathed. "It's like a whole other base! It's almost as if this facility up top is just a front for-"

"They're above us!"

Jen hurled her arms around him and slammed him to the ground as the console exploded in a rain of sparks. Carter dropped for cover, Jen's Chrono-Pistol ripped from its holster as she shielded Benson with her body.

And then all hell broke loose.