Lab Accidents

Posted on Thu Nov 25th, 2021 @ 6:25pm by Kilena Keithron & Lunandria & Damien McGinnis & Roluga

2,503 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: The Invasion
Location: Science lab
Timeline: 1000 Hours, November 2nd 2050

It had taken days of working out where stuff was to even discover where the labs were let alone find time to go down to have a nosey. She smirked as she saw Damien through the observation window.

Damien picked up the crystal, examining it. He hadn't managed to get a duplicate incident to match that which had happened a few days earlier. He set the crystal down on the table, rubbing his eyes.

The woman walked in and grinned at the man looking frustrated. She was dressed in civilian clothes of black leggings with a long black and pink top and her hair was up in a ponytail. "So this is where you hang out?" She said by way of greeting as she ran a hand over the table that the crystals were on. "You've only got the red one here?"

"There are a couple of others in the storage unit under the desk, but the prof insists we only work with the red one for the sake of a fair test." Damien replied, shaking his head "I don't get it personally, they're all the same barring colour but hey, I'm no scientist."

Kilena laughed just a little as she looked at the red crystal. It was a boring red colour and it wasn't even the first one that had been discovered. "Scientist. So stubborn in their processes." The woman rolled her eyes as she sat on one of the chairs looking at the device. "So how have you been?" She wondered thinking she hadn't seen him since the lunch they had shared.

"Bored." He admitted, "What about you?"

“Anything but bored.” She admitted back. “Got my ass handed to me by another member of my squad and then he got upset when things hit him out of nowhere.” She said innocently as she moved to sit back on a cabinet.

"Which, of course, you had nothing to do with?" He questioned.

"Why would I?" The woman remarked with an innocent look that would have given most people a moment of doubt if they didn't know her abilities. "So apart from bored what else have you been up to?" She wondered looking over the readings that were coming off the computer.

"Old movies in my room. My roommate hates me for it." He laughed before picking up the blaster from the desk and holding it out to her "Here, put it on your wrist, gripping the forward handle. You can help me take some readings."

"Your roommate sounds like a bit of a jobsworth. Old movies are the best. You should come to the rec room tonight they are showing the 2005 version of the walking dead." She offered as she jumped back up and took the blaster from him. It was weighty but she fastened it on her wrist and gripped the handle. "This thing feels so strange," Kilena murmured as she looked up taking in the details of it. "Have they worked out how long it has been underground? Could have been from countdown? Lots of strange things happened then?"

"Apparently it defies carbon dating." Damien noted, grabbing the red crystal and slotting it into the circular port in the middle of the star "Now, hold still, I'll start taking the readings."

He began pressing a few controls on one of the terminals. He shook his head.

"That's not right..." He said "Every other time we've run this test, the energy levels have been much higher than this. Maybe it's not on right?"

Kilena looked at the gauntlet and wiggled her fingers. She raised an eyebrow at the fact it defied carbon dating, that was just plain odd to her. "Feels like it is on right. Who has been the one strapped in the other times?" She wondered. "Maybe try another crystal?"

"I've been strapped in every other time." Damien said "Except the first time, that was the Prof, but that gave us the same minimal readings as now. Probably just hadn't booted or something."

He reached into the cabinet below, pulling out blue, yellow, pink, black and green crystals. He walked over to her, pulling the red one out and setting it down.

"Pick one." He said offering her the other five crystals "What's your favourite colour?"

"Maybe. Just seemed a little odd that it react like that." Kilena mused softly thinking about it a little. It had been such an odd dig when they had been discovered. "Black like my soul but that isn't an option so I will go for pink." She said gently picking up the crystal. She paused for a second as she saw an eagle inside of it but it disappeared before she could get a better look.

"You okay?" He asked, "Earth to Kilena?"

The woman shot him a confused look before she nodded and quickly put the crystal in. "Sure odd moment. Thought I saw something in the crystal." She admitted not sure if it was the training getting to her or not.

"Like what?" Damien asked, unsure if he should flag his own incident a few days before.

"Was an eagle." She said with a shrug as the room fell silent again. "So what is the readings now?" Kilena wondered breaking the silence.

"Readings... Nominal." He said, "Exactly as they are on the other tests."

He paused, before going back to the table, picking up the red crystal. He reached under the desk, withdrawing a second device and putting it on before inserting the crystal and moving back to the console. He brought up a side by side comparison of the readings.

"Literally, 100% match..." He said "I'm no scientist but... That's not something that happens. Like, ever."

Kilena shook her head. Something like that never ever happened at all, it had to be a fluke or something. "It probably is just synched or something." She said with a shrug despite the expression on her face.

"How?" Damien asked "This is the first time we've had more than one crystal hooked up at a time. How could they-"

Before he could finish, the room shook, the lights flickering for a second. After a moment, a voice came through.

"This is not a drill. All cadets to their quarters until further notice."

Damien froze looking at her for a second. The room shook again.

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence..." He said.

The woman shook her head there was no such thing as coincidence in her books. “Let’s just do as instructed,” Kilena said moving to take off the gauntlet.

"You may want to rethink that..." Damien said, pointing behind her "He doesn't look friendly..."

"I'm not." The figure in the blue armour said "Now hand over the crystals..."

Kilena turned and had a moment of panic before she remembered her training. Never looked scared and never back down. She looked him over and shook her head. “I don’t believe you have the correct access for this area of the base.” She said inching towards the door. The other crystals were safe it was the ones they had that are the issue.

"Hand. Them. Over." The figure repeated, taking a step forward.

"Sorry Prof..." Damien said to himself, taking aim at the figure and pulling the trigger, a red star-forming in front of him "What the f-"

Before he could finish his sentence, the star fired back at him, leaving him in a red bodysuit with a black torso, a star cut out of it, with grey shoulders and upper arms, a pair of white gloves on his hands. In the centre of the star was a red orb. A second later, a red helmet with embossed lips and a stylised lion image appeared on his head, the black visor glittering like a starfield.

"What the hell?" He questioned, looking down at himself and patting himself down "What's going on?"

“You’re a power ranger dear.” A voice called from behind the pair. Kilena turned and a woman was stood there dressed in black leathers and silk, with long blonde curls with specks of silver in them and piercing eyes. She was barely taller than 5 foot but her heels made up more than that. She looked like she was only just older than them but the look of determination on her face made her seem older more than the evil auras that surrounded her.

“Whoever she is she’s right,” Kilena said pointing the gauntlet she had at the newcomer.

"I'm a Power Ranger? That is... Awesome!" Damien squealed before narrowly dodging a slash from a long blade that materialised on the armoured man's forearm "I've changed my mind! I don't want to be a Power Ranger!"

Kilena yelped and grabbed Damien back getting a shock from him as she did.

“No choice right now,” Kilena said as the woman leapt forward and made Kilena instinctively pull on the blaster. It was seconds too late that Kilena realised her mistake as a pink star shot back at her and left her in a pink version of the outfit Damien wore.

“You too!” The woman announced frustrated as she saw that now there were two rangers.

“Not pink.” Kilena groaned

"Didn't you say it was your favourite that's not black?" Damien questioned, dodging another slash "Okay, time out Blue Beetle! Can't you see I'm trying to have a chat with the lovely lady in pink and I'm assuming the psychopathic one in black?"

The figure in blue stopped for a second, tilting his head in apparent confusion.

"Thank you!" Damien said before a red handle appeared in his hand, a small white and silver blade appearing on top of it and a larger, curved white and silver blade appearing on top of that "Ooh... Now I have a sword... hohoho..."

“Less talk more slashing,” Kilena commented on thinking they could discuss her and pink later on.

"I'm chatty, it's part of my charm." Damien quipped, blocking the figure in blue's slash "Who are you?"

"Roluga. General of the Kaldor Imperium." The figure said, "I will claim the Solar crystals?"

"That's what this is about? They're just baubles..." Damien replied, pausing "Okay, maybe the whole Power Ranger thing is evidence to the contrary, but-"

Before he could finish his sentence, Roluga kicked him in the gut, sending him hurtling back through the desk. Damien struggled back to his feet.

"Yeah... I really don't want to be a Power Ranger..." He grimaced inside the helmet "Call it a draw?"

"Call it your death?" Roluga retorted, preparing a stabbing strike.

"We don't die easily." Kilena jumped forward without a second thought and knocked the sword out of Roluga's hand as the other woman tried to grab her.

"Stupid pink ranger." The evil woman said annoyed that there just wasn't enough room for her to swing her staff.

"I don't normally hit a lady." Damien said, spinning and kicking the woman in the chest "However, I think this qualifies as exceptional circumstances."

"So we know who the blue guy is so who are you?" Kilena asked raising her blaster this time a 100% sure it would work and not change her again.

"Lunandria." The woman finally introduced herself as she pulled herself up and glanced over at Roluga. These new rangers were far too unpredictable.

"We'll be back," Roluga growled before teleporting away in what looked like a ball of green flames.

Kilena stood there for a long moment before she looked at Damien. "Any idea how we de morph... you know power down?" She wondered not sure in the slightest what they were going to do at all.

"Power down?" He asked before his suit disappeared as a red star of energy flashed over him, Damien removing the crystal from the blaster "Guess that's how. My big issue is how do we hide these blasters? They kind of stick out."

In response to his question, the blaster flashed with red energy, before becoming a silver wrist band with a red star pattern on it. He looked at it for a second before continuing.

"Okay. How do we get a spring break wet T-shirt contest in here?" He said, sighing as he added "It was worth a try..."

“So what do we do now? We will have to explain this to Hendrix.” Kilena looked back at the now red ranger and rolled her eyes, couldn’t blame him but not the time or place.

"Not yet." Damien said, pausing "We tell him Roluga got away with the crystals, that he needs to get a transport for the remaining crystals set up. We stow away in the transport, and when they strike, we do."

"He will eventually find out and more than likely be really angry that we lied." She reminded him wincing at the bruises she was likely going to have.

"Okay, what would you suggest?" He asked, folding his arms over his chest.

“I don’t know but I suggest we cannot do this alone.” Kilena was a team player and if she had learnt anything it was there was no I in team.

"So, what, just walk around asking random people if they mind shooting these magic space guns?" He questioned, "We'd end up in a psychiatric ward."

The woman looked at him and rolled her eyes. It wasn't going to happen in the slightest but she at least thought they should get support. She was a first-year cadet and he was disgraced. "I just think we should get support. We have no idea what we are facing." Kilena stated.

"I don't need an idea what we're facing." Damien said indignantly "We got them on the back foot without any prep. If we face them on our terms, we can win!"

The woman paused and looked at him. If he truly thought that he would be on his own, she wasn't going to follow him with that attitude. "Have you stopped and thought for a second that is why you are disgraced at the moment?" She wondered already heading to the door. They would need to check-in and be accounted for.

"No, I'm disgraced because I pulled a prank that happened to hit commandant Tate's daughter." Damien said, "It wasn't what I planned."

The woman shook her head. "I am going to check-in. We can talk more another time." She told him point-blank knowing he wasn't getting what she meant at all.

"And how are you going to hide that crystal?" He asked, "The blaster might have made itself incognito, but the crystal will never fit in your pocket."

"I don't know Damien. How are you going to hide yours?" She wondered opening the door.

"Plain sight. Leave it on the desk." He said, going to set the crystal down before it disappeared in a star of red energy "What the... Where did it go?"

"What the hell? Come on?" Kilena hissed slamming the door closed.

"Women." Damien rolled his eyes as he slammed his fist down on the desk.

 

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