Chapter Six

In Need of Repair

The Iron Claw paced inside his chamber, ignoring the shattered glass all over his floor and the cold wind blowing in. "Where is the Shine?" he muttered to himself over and over and over again. "We need to find it. Where is the Shine?"

He remembered when he first came in contact with it so many months before. That brief moment of glorious power he felt before being murdered by an alien. Then so many months later, after being resurrected and used as a slave and fighting his way to the top, the Shine was presented before him once again. Finally, it was his. Finally, he had all the power he wanted at his fingertips.

He would stare at the glowing orb for hours at a time. It became his world, his light, his everything. He started talking to it, telling it everything and confiding in it secrets he had never before told a living soul. After a while, it started talking back. It started as simple whispers, teaching him how to harness its power in little ways, how to wire machinery to it and give that machinery far more power than mere electricity ever could. Before long, he was having full conversations with it, laying out plans for world domination that led to him commissioning the construction of a new line of Devil Machines as well as an airship patterned after the ships of the Vader Clan, both powered by the Shine.

But now it was gone, stolen, ripped from his grasp. He felt its absence like an open wound, as if the Rangers had ripped off a chunk of his own body. He shook, unable to sleep, unable to eat, unable to think, caring about nothing more than finding it and taking it back.

He heard the Shine's whisper in his head, steadily growing fainter by the hour. "No!" he pleaded. "No! Please, don't go. I will find you. Please!"

A knock came at the door. Iron Claw lashed out, firing off his metal arm, which embedded itself in the steel.

"Whoa," the orange head of Leon yelped, his head poking out from the other side of the door. He carefully edged into the room, eyeing the wickedly sharp, stuck blades. "Um, sir?"

"What is it?" Iron Claw snapped. "What do you want? Who are you?"

"Um, Sumpter, sir. I'm, uh, sure you've heard by now about my failure to protect the Rangers' morphers." He swallowed, wringing his hands. "I wanted to come by and offer my sincere apology in person."

Iron Claw glared at him with bright red, bloodshot eyes. "You think I care about morphers?" he shouted, thrusting his stump forward. The finger blades grinded against the metal of the door. Leon took a quick step away from them.

"Does, um, does that mean I'm forgiven?"

Iron Claw turned away. "Have you located my Shine yet?" he demanded.

Leon rubbed his head. "Um, not yet," he said. "But we are tracking the Rangers' Sky Ace. I'm sure they have it with them, somehow."

Iron Claw looked back and stared at him for a long minute. Leon took another careful step away from the stuck arm.

"Right," Iron Claw said quickly. "Right. Good. Good. Yes, I'm sure they have it."

Leon watched as his boss paced back and forth, muttering to himself. "So . . . I'm just gonna—"

"Get out!" Iron Claw screamed, his arm dislodging itself from the door. Leon quickly dove through the door and slammed it shut behind him. Iron Claw remained behind, his arm reattaching itself. He stared out the window at the darkening sky. "I will find you," he said. "Then we'll be together again."

Back on the Sky Ace, Benton lounged shirtless on a cushioned seat, a patch on his shoulder that Algernon the hamster was sniffing at. Rio sat nearby, Yoselin rubbing ointment on his swollen chin. Doctor Kuchar and Karen sat at a computer console nearby, Gordon hooked up to a bunch of wires.

"You said the virus was derived from his own enhancements?" Doctor Kuchar said.

Karen nodded. "That's right."

Doctor Kuchar let out a breath, his mustache bristling. He cursed under his breath. "I'm sorry about the suits. I put that in as a failsafe to make sure the morphers didn't end up in the wrong hands. I didn't expect it to become a hindrance to you four."

Benton rolled his eyes.

"I can turn off the failsafe. That won't be a problem. The real issue is reactivating your enhancements."

"But you can do it, can't you, Doctor?"

"Do we need to do it?" Benton asked, speaking up.

The room fell silent, everyone turning back to look at him. "Dude," Rio said. "Of course we do. It's what makes us Rangers."

"I thought the suits did that. My buddy Kenny and his team don't have enhancements and they're still Rangers. Well, the blue guy excepted, of course."

"But our enhancements make us stronger than the old team," Gordon said. "They couldn't do anything against the Devil Machines. And you saw that army back there."

"The army without a power source," Benton said. "So make the suits stronger. They already surpass the old team's suits on their own without enhancements, right? So, what's the problem?"

Karen stared at him. "They saved your life," she said.

Benton looked down, giving a half-hearted shrug. "I'm just saying. Between Kuchar spending most of the last ten years on the run, Ivan, the blue guy getting hacked by aliens, and now this, it just seems like the negatives tend to outweight the positives most of the time."

His eyes met Doctor Kuchar's, and he could see a deep sadness well within them. The doctor turned away to face his computer.

The others started to argue with Benton, but Doctor Kuchar shut them all down. "He's right," he said.

The rangers fell silent and turned to look at the doctor.

"My work has caused a lot of problems," he said.

"But sir," Gordon said.

"You could still be an Olympic champion, Gordon. Right now, you could still be. And because of me, you never will again."

Gordon shook his head. "I made the decision to sacrifice that."

"You should never have been put in the position where you had to make it."

The airship fell silent for a moment.

Rio shook his head. "I can't believe I'm hearing this," he said. "Guys. Iron Claw has an army of those Devil Machines back there. Even if he doesn't find the Shine, they're still Devil Machines, and right now, our enhancements are our best option to take them down. We can talk about the 'merits' of them all we want, upgrade the suits, or whatever. But if Iron Claw decides to launch them all tomorrow, Shine or no, we will need these enhancements."

Karen looked back at the doctor. "Do you know how to fix them?"

Doctor Kuchar breathed. "I believe I do," he said. "But I'll need a sample from an uncorrupted source, and Algernon's not going to cut it."

He got to his feet and crossed to the door into the cockpit. "Tomas, set a course for Texas. Yoselin, can you make contact with Sean Cassidy? Tell him to be ready to receive us."

Yoselin looked up from Rio. "Um, sir, Mr. Cassidy and his wife were vacationing in Greece right now, remember?"

Doctor Kuchar's eyes widened. "Oh, right."

Tomas looked back anxiously. "You want me to turn the ship around, Doc?" he asked.

"Surely we can't do that," Karen said. "CRIME is sure to be tracking us."

Doctor Kuchar hesitated for a moment. His eyes fell on the map on the ship's navigation screen. He bit his lip, as if he hated suggesting what he was about to suggest. "No," he said. "Tomas, please change our course to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil."

Tomas looked surprised. "Sir?" he said.

Everyone turned to look at Doctor Kuchar in confusion. The doctor shifted uncomfortably. "There may be one other out there," he admitted.

"One other?" Benton asked. "Like . . . another cyborg."

Doctor Kuchar didn't say anything. "Tomas, change our course to Rio, if you would, please," he repeated.

Tomas looked uncertain, but he nodded and turned back around. "Yes, sir. Rio it is."

Doctor Kuchar shifted uncomfortably. "If you'll excuse me," he said. He left the room, leaving the four Rangers and Yoselin alone.

Several miles away, on a beach in Rio de Janeiro, a hand in a pure white sleeve reached out to accept the tropical drink he'd just been brought. "Thank you, minha linda," a smooth voice said. "Could you please ask that handsome young musician over there to play that song again?"

"Of course, sir," the waitress said with a smile.

Benito Santori raised the drink to his lips, adjusting his rainbow ascot and pulling his hat down over his eyes a little more.