Tommy heard the word "come" from the githkin outside, and headed out of the small crevice. As he opened his mouth to tell the githkin more specifics pertaining to the situation, they weren't the brightest after all, he noticed that Oliver had apparently gotten into a scuffle with an elite githkin. He quickly closed said mouth. Perhaps it had already started? He had heard rumors... Well, regardless of what may or may not happen today, he couldn't just let Oliver die in the grips of this githkin.

Tommy quickly sneaked out of the crevice, trying to make as little noise as he could. He might be able to save his friend if the other githkin did not restrain him. The minute he had both feet on solid ground, he began running as fast as he could (which unfortunately is not saying much) toward the githkin that held his friend aloft. Tommy clearly did not have the weight to tackle this githkin to the ground, even with a head start. However, if he tried to grab its legs, he might be able to make the githkin lose its balance.

Adelram noted the military grade electric device on the Foreman's arm. Obsolete technology, but the background check on Foreman Jo'ones confirmed Madam Ruthalia's claim that Adelram's new opponent was ex-military.
When the reptilian humanoid nimbly escaped his grasp, Drax did not anticipate that he would begin pounding against his lower body. In most situations, one in the Foreman's position would attempt to flee or make an escape. Unfortunately, this criminal outburst lowered the probability of Madam Ruthalia's direct orders being accomplished. Adelram quietly calculated that perhaps just mortally injuring the Foreman would satisfy the Regional Manager.

Either way, the veteran Foreman's death by Adelram's, and by extension, Madam Ruthalia's, hands was inevitable.

"Your transgression has been noted, Foreman Jo'ones."

Whilst informing the criminal suspect of Adelram's awareness that the Foreman has, in fact, committed a crime, Drax cocked his previously zapped right fist and angled it downwards. He jutted his massive mace of a hand rapidly forward, leaning into it. A crippling injury to a common man, but there was a high probability it may just send the Foreman flying backwards with a concussion if his quick punch connected. The punch was launched just as Adelram finished saying, "-noted-".

The android also made note of Foreman Jo'ones' advice, that the position on which he stood is the preferred location of dismemberment.

A thunderous roar bellowed heated rock and dust, scattering the fine material against him and down the long dark maw of the tunnel. Michael felt tiny bits pierce his skin. The feeling was like pin pricks, pin pricks he could take, that pain was small compared to what he had been through over the years.

He raised to his feet cautiously, looking for any hint of weakness in the walls of the mines; explosions could rock the very structure of any mine and that brought a tinge of fear to him. To die in the mines without doing anything avenge Courtney's death would be ashame. He couldnt' imagine forgiving himself if he had.

Michael tossed that thought aside as he neared the charred, smoldering entrance of the once sealed doors. Inside, he saw spacious elevator shaft freighter. It was... old, how far back he was unsure; his education in historical tech was fruitless and not at all touched on. His lips pursed tightly as he pulled himself through the blowned hole.

Is this what they were hiding? he asked unbelieving. Why hide this?

He paused for a moment before stepping into the elevator and absentmindedly checking to see if it worked. His powerful hands motioned towards a random button, his thumb pressed down on it without caution. Soon afterwards he chided himself for his one-track mind.

"Maybe they aren't hiding this? Galatec could be pushing me... do they know they can't brainwash me?" His right fist clenched at his side while the other thumbed the scar on his nose.

I'll fight to the death.

Jackson jumped off the drill, rubbing his dusty, dirt-filled hands on his once-white shirt, creating two brand new, hand-shaped dirt stains on the poor thing. Today was a great day for him. He got to use the drill, and now he had a whole three minutes break! He sure was lucky to have such great and awesome people like Galatec looking after him. Speaking of, he glanced back towards the Ghitkin that he’d been provided with to keep him company, before towards the twins he’d spotted nearby him. Mr. Ghitkin didn’t really look in the mood for a little bit of conversation - which Jackson understood; we all have our grumpy days - so he decided to approach the ladies, grabbing a dirt-caked bottle of water and taking a big swig. Gulp! Boy, Galatec was so nice to give everyone water after having fun working.

“Hey there! How are you? I know I’m great!” He said, flashing a friendly smile to the twins as he pulled a sandwich out of his pocket, peeling the cling film off and taking a bite. Mmmm, ham, cheese and cucumber was his favourite! As he waited for the girls’ replies, he took a mental note to buy some more of said ingredients when he got home. Though, with the amount of fun he was having today, he never wanted to leave!

"Ah, Cheif Kylo, It's a pleasure to meet you, my name's Clementine Mayweather, and I'm just doing an audit of the facility," Clementine introduced herself. "Oh, and this is Jonah Fallen," she added. Though it wasn't common practice to introduce security personnel, Clementine wanted him to feel included despite the awkwardness.

"I just want to double-check the expenses that have occurred here. One thing that popped out at me is the 'driller' went missing? While it's all good that the vehicle has been recovered, production was understandably lower during its absence. Is there any explanation for where it went during that time? Finding a reason should help prevent future, ah... disappearances," Clementine smiled at Kylo in an attempt to appear non-threatening, as most people easily become defensive when being audited.

Oliver smashed the rock down on scar-face as hard as he could. Turning to the other kid, "Get out of here man." When he looked back up scar-face had already recovered. It grabbed Ollie's throat and lifted him up while choking him. *Dang. I've done it now. No getting out of this one.*

Knowing that no matter what he did he was probably going to be killed he just stared defiantly at scar-face as if saying, "You haven't really won." Suddenly Tommy showed up plowing into scar-face's legs. On instinct Ollie lifted his knee up into the chin of the Githkin holding him. Know Ollie was worried, and it clearly showed on his face. He didn't care if he died, but he didn't want anyone dying for him. He had to figure out how to get Tommy out of there.

Trepidation racked his insides. The three minutes in the elevator felt longer... way longer. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, heard the raucous elder metal grinding outside the heated cage, he saw nothing in particular as he readied himself. It was not the knowing that held his thumb in place on his scar.

When the doors finally opened, Michael's eyes went wide with shock.

An... army? he thought, too unsure to step forward or backwards.

For a long, literal, second Michael attempted to understand. The group... the rebels perhaps, were packed tight in the hallway; were they getting ready for a raid? Really it didn't matter, all that mattered was his answer to her question. He could see it in her eyes; he was already too deep in. His answer would be detrimental to something.

"I think you're gonna end up dead going against them," Michael said tensely. "The devils aren't normal."

Adelram said nothing as the beam struck his armor. Judging by the Foreman's expression, Drax concluded that the weapon was at full power, and bringing up shielding would be unnecessary for winning this engagement. One thing Drax did not understand was the Foreman's willingless to die at his hands. Adelram calculated what the Foreman's best moves would be, and escaping seemed to be the most sensible route of action. Perhaps, he wondered, if the Foreman was on a suicide mission to distract Adelram for reasons unknown. He self-countered this thought, as the Foreman did not initiate this fight through physical means, but rather that Drax was the aggressor in this situation. If the Foreman had not incurred the kill order by Madam Ruthalia, the current combat situation would not be happening.

At the same time, he reached down to the comically large firearm at his side. Gripping the handle, he ripped the gun out of it's holster and leveled it towards the lizard man.

Two shrieking pulses of yellow energy exploded from the barrel in rapid succession, powerful recoil cancelled by Adelram's strength and inner gyroscopes. The first shot was aimed to collide with the Foreman's core, a hopefully direct hit. The second shot slanted slightly downwards, as to explode at Jo'ones's feet to propel him upwards.

After the stunt Tommy has pulled in an effort to save his friend's life, he fully expected to die. After all, he was on the ground looking into the face of a very angry elite githkin, he was physically frail and had never fought anything more threatening than a household pest, and to top it all off, Oliver and him were outnumbered. The collision with the ground had opened new wounds in his knees, which spread fresh blood onto the floor of the tunnel. Even worse, he couldn't muster the energy to get up at this point, as the sprint and dive had taken all the energy he could muster for the moment.

Tommy gave Oliver one last little smile, the sort of knowing smile that meant he knew what was coming next, and he was fine with it. It really was all fine though! all living things die eventually right? Besides, ditching the mortal coil for whatever awaited beyond would make sure he would never be hungry again... Closing his eyes, Tommy waited for the end.

And somehow, as Tommy awaited the pain that would eventually be followed by death, he felt nothing... there was a flash of light that he could see even through his closed eyes, and... nothing. Was this death? It felt a lot like life, and he was still hungry which was probably the biggest disappointment to come out of the whole ordeal. But as he heard the voice of (ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND), he knew that for the moment he had avoided death.

Looking around the room, he could see that there were four other people in roughly the same predicament he was, and luckily Oliver was one of them! If Tommy had had any time to worry during the last few moments of his life, that would certainly have been a weight off of his mind. And with all of these observations he hadn't even gotten to the room! There was a lot of advanced machinery, that given the proper time and training, he could probably learn how to operate, and maybe even construct. Oooooh, nothing more exciting than learning new things! Well, except perhaps for the prospect of saving the world, which he had just learned about now.

Suddenly, Tommy jumped up from his previously lying position and inspected everything in the room. "That looks like it might... transport particles?! How exciting, that's how we got here!" He exclaimed, looking at the displacer. "And these are... no idea actually, but they're color coded and look pretty neat." He said looking at the morphers. Speaking at roughly the speed of a supersonic jet, Tommy began to bombard the room in general with questions."How does all this work? Can I learn to build it? I'm Tommy, who's who here?" He continued, wearing the biggest grin on his face.

"Oh, sorry." He said turning to (ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND). "I never answered your question... ugh, yes, that sounds rather good at the moment. Also, does anyone have any food?"

Clementine was glad to see that her first stop along her audit journey was going so smoothly. it was rather amazing that Chief Kylo responded with such compliance rather than adopting a typical defensive stance. Clementine wrote a note to herself concerning the failure of the forensics department to analyze the driller, then reached out a hand to take the disc from Kylo when she was suddenly surrounded by a bright, disorienting light.

When the light disappeared, Clementine found herself somewhere else in the mine, somewhere that didn't look like any of the few places she had already seen. She listened with growing trepidation as the alien spoke. One man among the people here sprang into action, inspecting the machinery and spit-firing questions and introduced himself as Tommy. Then the unthinkable happened: the man agreed to help the alien fight against Galatec.

Clementine's eye twitched.

"HAH!" Clementine barked uncontrollably. "Haha...heh..." Clementine laughed nervously, "Th-that's not how you're supposed to answer...silly." Clementine looked almost drunk as she continued, "I-I know what this is...this is one of those corporate team-building exercises, right?" She looked around at the people nearby, visibly shaking, turning to look at the as-yet-unnamed Samara and at the alien for some confirmation. "Y-you really threw me for a loop you know, whisking me here suddenly...you almost had me for a second...almost had me...But we know where this goes, right? Now we all share stories of how much we've benefited from Galatec: all the great opportunities, awesome products, and what an ideal work environment it is. We all love Galatec here, right? ...right?" For some reason Clementine couldn't stop talking, afraid that the silence would expose some horrible eventuality. Something was definitely wrong here, so she clung to the comfort of the sound of her own voice.

The growing hum from the computer did not distract Samara, nor did its sudden silence. This location was not powered by some of the greatest technology on the planet, but it was going to have to be enough. They had never summoned four people at one time before, so some slack had to be cut on the system itself. Her expression didn’t shift at the silence, instead her eyes kept focused on the platform this group would appear. The faith in their system—and her own abilities—was promptly rewarded with the materialization of the four targets. As the Mentor began to explain to them the situation they now found themselves in, Samara was watching their individual reactions from a distance.

Tommy was by far more enthusiastic than she expected. He looked around erratically to examine his surroundings, smart of him, but she couldn’t tell if he was actually listening to her colleague about why he was here. He began to go on a tangent and speak of what he noticed. It pained her to even think it, so she dare not say it: Tommy actually caught on quicker than she expected him to. Typically she associated excessive cheer for lack of interest in the technological, but a living, breathing contradiction to that theory was right in front of her. The RDS did convert their physical mass into light. He wasn’t wrong, but he was closer than she believed anyone could get within a minute of getting here. Samara found herself smiling. Maybe he’d be a bigger boon than she once thought.

He introduced himself to his peers and agreed to take on this new responsibility, almost too quickly. When he complained about food, Samara glanced to the corner beside her own little workstation. Just beside it was a small cache of purified water, completely absent of Galatec’s chemical meddling, and a collection of protein bars as an easily disposable snack. Standing up and moving over to it, she knelt down and pulled out a bottle of water from the dust-covered duffle bag they were stored in, as well as two protein bars. It wouldn’t be much, but for a guy as slim as him it would be enough nourishment and energy to carry him through the next couple of hours minimum.

She stood up just as Clementine had begun to have a breakdown. There had to be at least one of them that believed this was some sort of elaborate trap to test their loyalty to Galatec, and as expected it was Clementine after all. As she wrapped it up, Samara had spoken for the first time since they arrived.

“Not quite, Clem,” she started before her eyes rested on Tommy. “Head’s up Blue,” Samara tossed the bottle of water to him first, followed by one of the protein bars she carried in the opposite hand. “Protein bar and water—before you think it’s got any of that poison Galatec feeds you, it doesn’t.”

Whether or not he chose to believe her would be up to him. Moving the free hand to her hip, Samara’s attention returned to Clementine. “You’re half-right; everyone standing beside you is about to become your new teammates against Galatec, so I guess you could consider this an introduction that will lead into team-building. Galatec is not our friend, and they aren’t yours either.”

This was all assuming Clementine would not refuse this offer. As John said, they were free to return to a life of willing slavery, but Samara wanted to believe that Clementine, like all of them, could become a vital part of the team and help free New Earth.

Despite her ragged appearance—a sheen of sweat across her exposed forearms, neck and face, and an untidy length of hair tied back in a ponytail—Samara still stood with confidence.

“I know it’s sudden. If I’m being honest, I’d have kept a couple of you out of this,” Samara was careful not to let her eyes linger on any of them for too long, fearing that they would be offended that she might think little of them. “We recognize your potential as individuals, but the things you could accomplish together far exceed anything you could hope to do on your own. Power Rangers in the distant past were able to come together when a world, or a space colony, or even an entire sector of space needed them the most. Now we hope you four can do the same.”

Digging into her back pocket, Samara removed an ID card showing a neater, cleaner appearance with a brilliant smile, and her name on clear display. “I’m Samara, and I’m asking you to trust us. You may be this world’s last hope.”

---

---

With little else of interest happening in the mines as of yet, Ruth decided to watch the two lone sl—ahem, employees walking around the mine. She didn’t like seeing the humans in groups together without supervision. She didn’t give a flying Gulliet if they had Loyalty Privileges. It always made her unhappy. She had every confidence in the abilities of the suggestive and influential powers of Galatec but she had never taken a great liking or trust towards humans. They were so… repugnant? Irksome? Insignificant? Yes, that seemed the right word. Humans were so insignificant.

She folded her arms across her chest and drummed her fingers on one arm with one hand while the other zoomed in and out, following the two humans wandering around, her fingers clicking buttons to switch camera views when the need arose. She read the subtitles and felt her brows knitting together in a most unattractive manner. Ruth expected to be informed of a missing vehicle after an hour of being missing, let alone an entire Groth damn week. She could feel her temper rising and she had to wonder where their supervisor was. It was most unprofessional and she began to hope that the supervisor also had a particularly vibrant skin that she could appropriate.

It was a good job she was such a wonderful multi-tasker or she’d never have seen what happened next while thinking of how to best dress herself with her destroyed subordinates. The humans were gone with a flash of light! Ruth turned to look at the workers at the terminals that had remained behind to work over their lunch break like good little insects. If they didn’t already regret that decision, they soon would be.

“What in the damn just happened there?! What was that light?! Where did those humans go?! DO NOT MAKE ME ASK AGAIN, MAGGOTS!!!!” She let out a loud huff of anger, and took a deeeeeeeeeep breath. She was extremely close to losing her self-control. This was what she had been expecting but she hadn’t expected it so soon! She watched the workers in the terminals, examining their every move uncomfortably closely in the off chance that they had been responsible for the glare of light in the cameras. She listened out for their thoughts as she began to stretch her mind to reach the Githkin within the facility.

“GITHKIN. This is your Regional Manager speaking with an order for all of you that can hear me. We have missing human employees that have vanished in a flash of light. If you have witnessed any of these events, come to the Foreman’s office IMMEDIATELY. The rest of you must search for the missing human employees. Detain any human employees that are of a low loyalty level for questioning by me. Ensure they are unable to cause any trouble. Ensure that they have no access to anything that could be used as a weapon. Ensure that you do not keep me waiting long. I expect the missing human employees to be found within the hour. MOVE.”

She was going to get wrinkles. Someone was going to pay.

Ruth strode forward and slapped the nearest terminal worker square across the face and glared at them, daring them to challenge her. This would not do. She couldn’t even get hold of Drax in her usual method! Having an android subordinate really did have its drawbacks. She sighed as she clicked her communicator on to contact him. “General Drax, we have a situation. Return to the Foreman’s office now. If the lizard isn’t dead yet, bring him too.” She flicked it off and gave a stern gaze at the workers in her vicinity.

She couldn’t decide which one to slap next.

---

The pain was massive. Being hit in the back by a Githkin was no joke. Oliver, despite this, quickly tried to see if there was anything he could do to save his friend. Unfortunately, there was no way out of this one. When Tommy smiled at Ollie it made him feel sorry for dragging someone else into trouble he caused. He said, "Sorry."

Just as Ollie turned to face the fist that would destroy his head a light appeared and had engulfed him. It was so bright that Ollie couldn't keep his eyes open. It took him a couple of seconds to get the spots to go away, but when they did he saw a room filled with work stations and computers. He then saw three other people standing on a platform with him. He only recognized one but thankfully it was Tommy. Ollie looked at the other two until he heard a voice.

The man gave this whole monologue about how he thought he and the other three could save the world. Ollie thought it wasn't possible for so few a number until he heard a two words that Ollie had jotted down as myth- Power Rangers. When Ollie was younger his mother had told him stories of amazing warriors for the human race in order to keep his hopes up. His father told him that the stories weren't real and that he should focus on waiting for the right chance to eliminate Galatec.

Ollie really didn't know if he could believe what this man was saying. On one hand Ollie was hoping that something good would happen, and on the other the man said he use to be high-ranking among Galatec. How could he trust him? When Tommy started running around with random questions, Ollie actually laughed a little. For some reason this place made Ollie more at ease. He couldn't tell why though. Unfortunately the only girl on the platform that seemed to have been poofed in started saying how this was probably a trick to test their loyalty. It made Ollie start to doubt if his hopes were coming true, but then he thought about it. Tommy and he were about to die. They also knew he was immune so why do this? Everything that was happening just confused Ollie so much until the associate of the ex-Galatec guy spoke up.

As this woman addressed Clementine's doubts Ollie got up and walked around. If this was a trick he may be able to find some proof of it. He first walked over to Tommy and asked quietly, "Hey, are you alright? That was pretty close. You know you didn't need to worry about me though." Before Tommy could answer Ollie's eyes landed on six devices on a table. The ones Tommy had mentioned earlier. For some reason Ollie felt drawn to them. They were all different colors. One was red, another blue, green, yellow, violet, and the last Ollie couldn't really tell cause he was still a little blinded from the light earlier.

Ollie eyed each of them and remembered how the woman, who had introduced herself as Samara, called Tommy Blue. He then noticed how six people were standing in the room. Six people and six-uh-things. This combined with the constant talk of Power Rangers made Ollie very confused, "Wait. How do we know for sure we can trust you? Aren't Power Rangers just stories told to kids to make them feel safe? Supposing you are telling us the truth, and Power Rangers are real. How are the six of us going to stop Galatec alone? Didn't the Power Rangers in the stories have some sort of guy over them that helped them?"

It was there now, an anger and resolved forged by fire. He saw then that there was no changing her mind. That was okay, he decided a split-moment afterwards. It wasn't his life or anyone he loved. Cramped in the tunnel was readied warriors, men and women whose armor left much to be desired but whose eyes spoke of hope, fear, and a cauldron-stew of other emotions. Among them all though it was their hope for today that shone the most. Michael's breathing became even as he near-instinctively tried to calm himself. The situation was awakening something

He hadn't noticed how tensed his fist were, how strong his veins were pushing against his scarred skin. Then... like the explosion from earlier, an inferno blazed in his hazel eyes. They were shaded by suddenly down-turned brows and a tightness was in his jaw. Those words were all he needed to hear to drive his nightmares of Galatec into a corner. A corner that was wrapped in a impregnable fortress, a defense unlike anything he could conjure. It wasn't hard to figure out why but not many had strayed towards the topic of his cousin.

The pickaxe in his hand was nearly forgotten until he felt the chafing of his skin against its wood. Michael loosened his grip on it before touching the old weapon in her hand. It had some of the same features of the newer model weapons; a barrel, a trigger, but it held a kind of style that simply fitted him, he thought awkwardly.

He eyed it with curiosity, hefting the ax onto his powerful shoulder while doing so.

He spoke next without looking up, "An entire three-sixty at the mention of one word." Because to him it was really only one that sparked him. "Cousin". That single word often invoked alien emotions in him. "Either way, I'm on board but you'll have to show me how to use this," he told her finally.

Jonah placed a hand on Clementine's shoulder.

She was growing in instability, obviously shaken by the context of the discussion and while he understood her concern, that wasn't what they needed right now. They needed to think calmly, assess the situation and these people to determine their real motives. This was most likely a trap anyway, and even if it wasn't, there was no reason to just go along with whatever they said.

Though, one of them seemed to be totally unaware of their situation. If Jonah wasn't so focused on the task at hand, he'd slap the toy-maker across the face for acting so ridiculous in the face of a serious problem. Did he think this was some sort of game? Well, it didn't matter in the end. If this was a test, Jonah was pretty sure that guy just failed it.

The other one had his doubts, he seemed slightly more rational than the rest and rightfully questioned their chances of success. Than the woman, Samara, began talking about plans of hope and dreams and freedom. Their "mentor" even gave a speech of his own.

And then it hit him, the final conclusion born from his philosophy.

He laughed at the sudden realization, every other thought seemingly just passing by, washing away in the face of what stood before him. The possibility, the potential reality, all hitting him at once as he took a step forward after silently contemplating for a moment.

“I'm gonna say I believe him since I'm doubting that this is an exercise. Given the circumstances required, it's far too unlikely that we'd be given so much attention and planning just for a simple trust exercise or screening. We're simple workers with no great power in the system, they'd more likely just kill us if they had that high a suspicion. ” His sharp eyed glare never left his target. “And besides, even if he sends us back, the security cameras would have clearly seen us all disappear already. There will be questionings, investigations into our lives, that's how these things work when an empire loses track of its workers completely. Whatever freedoms we had before won't be there when the dust clears. So, you're either a liar or you just gambled with all of our lives for a self righteous ideal. Like I already said though, I'm assuming the latter option.”

But, with all of that being said, there was still only one option, only one course left.

“I'm in.”

Because the objective truth was, his life was over, the hope speeches and ideological resolves didn't matter. His plans were gone, whatever trust Galatec had in him would probably be broken by the time he showed his face again so he might as well go all in. What is is and what is not is not, he'd deal, that's how he lived.

“But let me make something clear, I don't believe in heroes or a righteous cause. I'm doing this because I want to.”

But even more than that, more than the logical conclusion; he had wanted this to happen, an excuse to not care. Let's face it, he'd been waiting for something like this to push him ever since he let that girl go at the mines, ever since he saw her name plastered on a random TV screen that said she had joined the rebel army officially.

"So,"

He folded his arms.

Adelram calculated his next course of action. With the Foreman over the railing, a swing of his axe would be very problematic for the ex-soldier. He grabbed the end of the handle of his axe that was attached to his back, but halted when a sudden communication fizzled through his communication.

His new directive was to take the Foreman captive once more, if he was not already dead. Drax's mission was just extended as the Foreman was currently still alive. He also began to consider the possibilities as to why the Regional Manager wished to see the Foreman once again. However, it was not of his concern. The mission will be completed.

"Foreman Jo'ones, Madam Ruthalia wishes to have an audience with you. Your compliance is not necessary but may be appreciated." Drax said, voice predictably even and clear. As he spoke these words he quickly paced over to where the Foreman was hanging and attempted to grab his legs with his giant left hand.