The Messiah Protocol

[akinoame]

I'm purposely trying not to make a huge deal about this existing and possibly being a thing because I kind of expect it to die when I'm halfway through a second chapter, and I also really need to work on "Derailed" and "Graduation Day," but... Yeah. For a while, I thought that an adaptation of Go-Busters would work perfectly in the RPM universe, and I even thought that if the game I'd run (Corinth RP) had survived to now, we would have had the Go-Buster suits as the final, perfected Ranger suits for that game.

But now with the news that Go-Busters is being (honestly, understandably) passed over in favor of Kyoryuger, well...why not?

And I apologize for generally sucking at writing Dillon and Tenaya. I'm much, much better with Scott and Summer.

It took three years for Venjix to grow after escaping Alphabet Soup's network—three years of infection, reprogramming, and refitting the world's computer networks to suit himself, the most perfect machine. It took two years for Corinth and her Power Rangers to finally defeat him, beating him at his own game by infecting him with a virus. But now, the world was finally free to rebuild.

It was on the first anniversary of their victory that Lieutenant Scott Truman of Eagle Squad, Corinth's elite air force unit, flew low over the scrublands that had grown to replace the wastes beyond Corinth, keeping an eye out. Finally, he saw it: a beat-up black car sitting just outside the limits of the rebuilt and re-settled Omega City. Scott grinned and swooped over before landing his jet, blowing around the hair of the three people waiting by the car.

"I see you've finally traded in your wheels," snarked a young man walking toward him.

"You wish," Scott replied, grinning at Dillon and tossing his sunglasses into the seat before leaping out of the plane. "My car can beat your junker any day of the week."

"Oh yeah?" Dillon asked. "Why not settle it?"

"Knock it off," groaned Summer as she and Tenaya walked up. "Seriously, can you guys even say hi without turning it into a competition?"

"You're talking about the two guys who tried to take me on handcuffed before realizing they could have broken the cuffs any time they wanted," Tenaya said. "So, no."

Scott laughed. "Good to see you too, Tenaya. How's everything holding up?"

She shrugged. "Haven't been chased out of the city by peasants with torches and pitchforks yet, so I guess I'm doing good."

"Omega's got a lot of escaped Hybrids," Summer explained. "Not as many as Corinth, but enough that they're more sympathetic to Dillon and Tenaya than some of the other places we've been."

"Well, let's keep up that friendship," Scott decided, unloading crates from the bomber bay. "Enetron fuel, and the equipment needed to extract and detoxify it from fallout.
Anti-radiation medications. Additional food supplies and seeds, since winter's on the way."

"That'll really come in handy here," Summer agreed. "Omega doesn't have a dome to keep out the snow."

"Snow, joy," Tenaya deadpanned. "Do you realize how irritating it is when your parts freeze up?"

"We have to hear this all winter," Dillon explained. "It's not like she's not bundled up in two jackets and steals all our blankets..."

"I wouldn't have to if someone would let me set a fire at our campsites!"

"Welcome to the life of a younger sibling," Scott answered. "Big brothers are always being a pain."

Summer gave Scott a look of concern—typically, mentions of siblings, particularly older siblings, were a touchy subject around him. But he glanced from her and Tenaya to the crates, and she caught on that he wanted to talk to Dillon alone.

"Come on," she insisted. "Let's start moving those crates in. The sooner we can build the extractor, the sooner we can get power going through the city."

Once they were gone, Scott shot an accusing glance at Dillon. "You wouldn't light a fire?"

"Drop it," Dillon warned.

"Dillon, I know you," Scott insisted. "You were willing to risk everything to find and save your sister. So telling her no, she can't warm herself up—that's not like you." Dillon sighed. "So something's going on."

"You're as bad as Summer," he muttered.

"She got you too?" he guessed.

"Yeah. I purposely tried to keep it from Tenaya, but I'm sure she's got some idea." Scott nodded, and finally, Dillon said, "About a week ago, I noticed someone hiding out by the ruins."

"More refugees?"

"That's what I thought, so I left some food and water out for them—let them know that we were friendly. Went back the next morning, and it was still there."

Scott looked skeptical. "Maybe they moved on?"

"Thought that too, but when we camped out that night, I heard someone coming. I heard someone typing."

"Typing?" Scott repeated. "Like, on a laptop? Dillon, those..."

"Are deader than the dinosaurs, I know," he said. "Omega doesn't have any computers period, let alone rebuilt portable ones. But someone had one, and he was walking toward the Fury."

"...Trying to hack it?" he guessed.

"I don't know. I fought him, but he was strong—strong enough to take me on. Probably as strong as Tenaya, if not stronger."

Scott went quiet. Another Hybrid? With possibly Venjix-infected technology on them?

"So you put out the fires to keep them from finding you," he realized.

"Not sure that's going to work for much longer," Dillon admitted. "So I convinced Summer and Tenaya that we'll stay in Omega long enough to get everyone settled, then spend winter in Corinth."

"Where it's warm and Tenaya won't complain," Scott answered. "Keeps her from suspecting too much."

"Like I said, I think she's figured some out already," he said. "If I could hear that, she could too. And she's been giving some of the women here weird looks."

"You think it was a woman you fought?"

He shrugged. "Could have been. It was too dark to see clearly, and they were wearing loose clothes. Doesn't matter either way—if they're a Hybrid and still infected with Venjix."

"Dr. K deleted Venjix," Scott reminded him.

"With another virus," Dillon pointed out. "Who's to say that one didn't gain sentience too? I'd be more worried about Tenaya if I didn't know that we both had the antivirus uploaded into us, and it vaccinated us against the new one."

That was a chilling thought. "Okay. I'll talk to Dr. K about it. But if there's anything you guys need, call. We'll be there."

Comments

[gourdcaptain]

Okay, this is a genuinely awesome idea. :)

Looking forward to more of it if you write more.