NOVEL WEB Is It Over?
Inside doesn't look like any lab I’ve seen. The light from the hall illuminates a room of shelves stacked with metal crates, the smell of wet dirt wafted on the humid air. A supply room maybe?
“Should we check it out?” Leo asks.
“I don’t know i it’s worth tipping them off.” Summer says.
“There could be weapons.” Ziggy breaks formation and pokes their head in. The lights turn on illuminating the place, it’s no bigger than a classroom. Behind some of the shelves there is an oven thing made of white bricks. Next to it is a rack filled with trinkets? Gizmos? Some resemble headless people but there were some lit LEDs that caught our eyes.
“Or it could just be lab supplies,” Scott muses. Worth a quick look, Fi, stay with Summer and look out for danger, Ziggy, Leo, Let’s crack open a box.”
They run in and I can hear the sound of plastic ripping and boxes creaking. Surely only one person needs to be on look out. Is he just trying to get rid of me? Does he think I won’t be useful? My thoughts are a mess.
Summer looks at the panel, not really emoting. She wouldn’t entertain thoughts like that, she is smarter than that. Since we became rangers, I’ve seen less of her stoic side. We only really got to fight alongside each other in the school hallway. Is this what she is like when she’s tuned in?
“Are you okay, Summer?”
“I’m pissed. I think,” she says, monotone and still focusing on the door.
“At me?” I wouldn’t be surprised. I made it out then got caught to save them. Not my smartest move.
“Of course not, Fi.”
“Then what about?”
“Getting caught, I should have noticed something was up with Scott’s text. And because I didn’t today has been ruined.”
“Is this like what Ziggy was talking about?”
“They were right. We wanted to be there for you like we were for Scott and they ruined it.”
I don’t deserve that yet. I don’t deserve them being proud of me. Maybe, I could believe that I deserve them as friends, and maybe that they won’t move on from me, but I’ve never done anything worthy of pride. Or people being disappointed on my behalf. I have to earn that.
Clink, clink, clink.
“Did you hear that, Summer?” I ask. The noise sounds like it came from around the corner.
“Yeah.”
Scott walks out holding a handful of clay. “Nothing in there but clay and mud, each box, more clay. What do they need so much clay for?”
“Fish can be into pottery I guess,” Leo jokes.
Summer puts her finger up to shh him but by the time they notice it’s too late. She shoves everyone into the store room, turns off the light, and closes the door, putting her ear up to it to listen for anyone walking by.
“Noise around the corner. Sounded like someone dropped a tin can” I explain with a whisper into a warm cushion that I can only assume is my crush. Deep breaths Filia. Scott loves you. You don’t have to panic.
“Oh no.” Leo says.
We let Summer listen for a few minutes. There’s no light on, and I can’t tell if Summer had intentionally shoved me into Scott or not but I am definitely in his chest… And I’m not pulling away. I don’t want to move and not see something, and then trip and make noise in the dark. I wrap my arms around him to secure myself even more. He knows I’m not great with the dark. He’ll forgive me.
He loves me.
Damn it.
He slowly wraps an arm around me and traces circles into my back to keep me calm…
“Should be clear.” Summer says and opens the door.
Light shines on us. I’m sure Ziggy and Summer are rolling their eyes at me. Falling into his arms because I’m relieved he’s okay is one thing but this is just ridiculous. I used to tell him off for being this gentle with me and now I’m just leaning into it and even if they don’t think it's pathetic, it’s still groan worthy.
“I’m going to look around the corner!” I pull away from Scott. Walk into the hallway. I don’t know if I care about that anymore. Is there a reason to? Is it at all productive?
“I’m going with her.”
I expect protest from the others but nothing. He catches up quickly, not hard when I’m trying to sneak and he’s stupid tall.
“Why are you coming?”
“Strength in numbers.”
“I’m just looking down a hallway.”
“Is it a crime to want to spend time with you?”
“No… Let’s just. Maybe save it for after.”
“Are you asking me out?”
“Shut up.” I'm grateful for reaching our target. That isn't how I want to ask him. It should be more romantic, considered, especially after making him wait. It’s dumb. I’m dumb. We could die here and I’m worried about a hypothetical date. If I don’t ask now, I might not get the chance.
I peek my head around the corner, a tattered lab coat sits behind an access terminal, but no source of the noise.
“Sorry. Yes. Date yes do you want that?”
“Yes. Yes I do.”
“Then let’s break into this lab, so we can do that. Go get the others, I’ll keep an eye on things.”
Scott follows my instructions with a big stupid grin on his face and I focus on investigating the area so that I don’t explode because of it. He was so…
The lab coat doesn’t look like it had been ripped apart in a struggle, there’s no signs of blood, unless alien blood is orange. A can lays next to it. The smell was sweet and artificial. Maybe an experiment with Clownfish Orange? The tears fell along the seams of the fabric. Were there other scientists or was it just Fins? He made it sound like he was working alone. Maybe a monster went awry? Was he okay? Were we going to open this door and find a corpse?
I left the torn lab coat and continued up the hall, the other would catch up, and I needed to find the source of the ring from earlier. A plain metal can lays in my path. It was definitely clownfish orange or something like it.
The others were at the lab door when I got back.
“Do we want to follow the same entry order?” Summer asks, crouching over the torn lab coat.
“Definitely.”
“Maybe I should go first? I’ve met Fins before.”
“Are you sure?”
“If you're behind me Scott, I don’t think there will be an issue.”
“Aww.”
—
That kid better be up to something by now. The alarms are disabled. She has my key. There really isn’t much more I can do beyond that that wouldn’t upset the rest of the underlings. They need to think he failed because of his own flaws.
Then again, not anticipating a betrayal is his arrogance. Dysphorus was never this sure. He would watch us like hawks to ensure everything was to his liking. He would anticipate that a six month mission turning into six years might start to cause some tensions. I’m not sure who else would see it like this.
After this lousy business is taken care of, we’ll focus on getting off this rock. Dysphorus’ empire be damned. That man didn’t know when to cut his losses and Loch had none of the redeeming qualities of the old crab.
Dysphorus floats in his tank. His body marred with scars and holes from attempts at trying to bring him back. Nothing worked. It would be better to let the old emperor rest. That would be the first job when I take over. He lost and nothing Loch could do would change that.
—
The lab was a lot more tidy than expected given the torn coat outside. On a central desk sat a computer interface, a set of beakers drying on a towel, and a book of notes in a language I can’t read. Across the room in a glass cabinet sit out morphers, sparkling and pristine. Has he pulled them apart? Wouldn’t it have been easier to destroy them? Leave them disassembled to slow us down? The room lacked the tank-like walls of the other rooms, no anemones in sight, and no Fins. Whatever he’d taken, he’d done it alone.
Probably best to not look a gift horse in the mouth.
“Grab the morphers.” Scott follows behind me and reaches for his morpher. Red light covers him as he shouts his morphing call.
“Galah power activate!” I need to think of something better. I feel my body getting leaner and more agile. It’s much less of a
“Should I check the computer?” Summer flicks through the scientists' notes.
“Do you speak fish alien, Summer?” Ziggy investigates the draws, now suited in yellow.
“Good point.” She grabs her morpher and shouts her call.
For the first time since this morning I could relax. There's still the matter of getting out, of if our morphers have been damaged but together it was a lot easier to breathe.
“Comms,” They toss the communicators to us. “I don’t think we’ll be able to call command, but if we need to split up it might work. Signal might be spotty with all these aquariums though…”
“Better than nothing.” Scott says. “Still not on board with splitting up if we don’t have to. Anyone got ideas?”
“Do these suits work like spandex or could we use them to swim out?” Leo asks.
“We don’t even know how deep we are. Or if we’re on the surface. Kepler wouldn’t tell me.”
“So we could be crushed by the pressure.” Summer says. Not really something I want to think about.
My mind went back to something Astrus had said when we were first chosen. Hold down the red button on the communicator for five seconds… If we could teleport in, maybe, even if we couldn’t call, we could teleport out.
I pull my communicator back off, hold it in front of the others and press down the red button, Ziggy watches me as the others come up with ideas. This thing would have to have a failsafe right. It’s teleportation. Teleportation without a failsafe would be–
Pink light surrounds me, my body feels light, the laboratory fades and the blinking lights and screens of the command centre appear around me. Astrus’ hologram stands in the centre of the room, talking to Kepler and a woman with long blonde hair, a denim jacket patched with band logos and a sundress. A glimmering morpher sits on her belt. The same one I failed to bond with.
I’m alive. I’m free. Why did I try something like that if I wasn’t sure? Am I stupid? Yes. Yes I am. It doesn’t matter anymore though. I’m safe. I just have to hope the others got the drift or they could be teleported.
The stranger and Kepler turn to look at me. Her with a gorgeous smirk, and Kepler with a look of relief and confusion that they shared with Astrus.
“We got our morphers, pull them out.” I yell.
“It seems your runaway found her way back.” She says with a smile. One of my heroes stood in front of me and was smiling that I’m there. A few weeks ago I would be curled up in a ball or hiding behind Scott. I’d never be able to look someone like her in the eye. Hell any other day this might be the biggest surprise, but after everything it was just a relief to know we had back up. “Your new team is very resourceful.”
Ziggy appears with a flash of yellow. Then Leo in blue, Summer in black, and Scott in red. Everyone is safe. I’m safe.
I can’t remember her name, though. Kepler said it when she was getting tired of me not realising, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that she is like me. She wasn’t always like this. Yet, here she is
Astrus’ look of worry gave way to something more stern. “Filia. What did you do?”
“Oh you’ve engaged total dad mode, Missy,” the gold ranger teases, me or Astrus I’m not sure. Astrus glares at her and she smiles in turn.
“I was blackmailed!”
“You should have told us,” Kepler says.
The blonde woman watches with a smile. I guess having been a ranger she is used to these conversations.
“They threatened the others if I did.”
“And how would they know?” Astrus winces like he would be facepalming if he had a palm to face.
“I don’t know! You're a hologram, they are fish aliens and I’m a girl so I just assumed.”
“Oh I like her.” She was absolutely gorgeous.
“Angelica, do not encourage this.”
“Is she the girl you were telling me about, Kepler?”
“Yes!” The robot chirps. Astrus glares at both of them.
“I couldn’t risk it. I don’t know what they can do. They didn’t even tell me a time. I had to do something.”
Astrus sighs. “I understand. We will work on crisis management together soon. I’m just glad you are all safe.”
“Guess you won’t be needing my help anymore?”
The alarms interrupt whatever conversation they were going to have.
“I would not be so sure.”