I woke up to someone shaking me awake.

“Huh? What?” I mumbled, and blearily opened my eyes.

Clyde was standing over me.

“Get up. Put your shoes on. We gotta go,” he said.

I blinked, trying to drive away the sleepiness from my eyes. I could see it was dark outside the window, it was probably late evening or night – I’d slept the whole day, it seemed.

“What? What is happening?” I asked again.

“What does it look like?” Clyde replied. “I’m breaking you out. Up you go, come on, we don’t have much time,” he added, pulling me to a seated position on the bed and handing me my shoes, which I’d taken off before going to sleep. Behind him, I could see the cell door was wide open.

I blinked again. “You’re… What? Why?”

“The short version is, I’m working with someone outside the base, I called them after you were arrested and they asked me to do this,” was the answer. “We don’t have time for the long version. That will come later.”

I looked at him for a couple seconds, then said, “Okay.” I put on my shoes and followed him outside.

The guards were knocked out cold, sprawled on the floor. I hoped Clyde hadn’t hit them too hard, they were just doing their job after all.

“Come on, keep moving,” Clyde said. “We have to get outside the inhibitor field before we can teleport away.”

A thought came to me, and I hesitated. “What about Amet? Sapphire Beetle?” I asked.

Clyde had been peeking out of the door into the corridor to see if anyone was in sight, but he turned back to me. “What about him?”

“We can’t just leave him here.”

“We can and we will.”

“Clyde,” I said. “They’re going to torture him if he stays here. The guard told me as much.”

“What a shame,” Clyde commented. “You coming or not?”

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “No, not without Amet.”

Clyde stared incredulously at me for a few seconds, then groaned loudly. “Fucking hell, I should’ve known you’d be stubborn as a mule, knowing whose sister you are.” He paused, then continued, “The keys are still in your cell’s keyhole. Go get him.”

I nodded, and rushed back into the cell block, heading towards the third cell, grabbing the keys as I passed mine.

“Hey! Hey, wake up!” I said, banging the keys on the bars.

Amet turned over in his bed, lifted his head, and looked at me. “Stephanie Kennedy?” he said.

“I’m breaking out, wanna come with?” I asked.

“Breaking out? What?” he said in response. “What does that mean?”

“Look, I don’t have time to explain, just…” I took a deep breath. “In a couple days, they’re going to try and torture you to extract information, and that’s something I don’t wish on anyone. So since I’m leaving, if you want, I’m taking you with me.” I raised the hand I was holding the keys in and showed them to him. “Like I said, we don’t have time, so you have ten seconds to decide.”

The alien blinked, but then nodded. “Let’s go.”

I nodded in return, unlocked the cell door, and swung it open. “Follow me,” I said, turning around and starting along the corridor without even looking to see if Amet was following me.

In less than a minute we’d rejoined Clyde at the cell block door. “Took you long enough, I was starting to get worried,” he muttered.

“I was as quick as I could,” I replied. “Clyde, Amet. Amet, Clyde.”

“Charmed,” Clyde said; Amet just nodded in acknowledgement as Clyde opened the door just enough so that we could slip out. “Follow me. Quietly.”

“With cat-like tread?” I asked, earning a glare from him.

We left the prison block and started down the corridor.

“Where are you going?” said a voice behind us.

We quickly turned around, and I saw Megan and Amelia lounging next to the door we’d just gone through, looking at us with a smirk on their faces.

“Amelia? Megan? What are you two doing here?” Clyde asked.

“We followed you, of course,” Amelia said, shrugging. “You’re not nearly as subtle as you think you are, Clyde.”

“Again, where are you going? And what’s up with him?” Megan asked, motioning at Amet.

Clyde seemed to hesitate, before replying, “I’m breaking Kennedy out, and she insisted we bring the Repulsoid too.”

“The guard said they were waiting for someone to do ‘enhanced interrogation’ on him, and you know what that means,” I said.

“Right,” Clyde nodded. “We’re leaving. Please don’t stand in our way.”

Megan crossed her arms in front of her. “That depends.”

“On what?”

She turned to me. “Steph, what were you trying to say earlier today?”

I blinked. “Earlier today?”

“Yes, when you were arrested, and General Ryder accused you of being a spy for the Repulsoids,” she said.

“You said something like ‘It’s you who,’ but was cut off,” Amelia added. “What were you about to say?”

I looked at them and took a deep breath. “It’s the general. He’s the one who’s been working with the Repulsoids, he’s in contact with the Emperor himself. He’s been passing him information, it’s probably been going on for years now.”

“What?!” I heard Amet say behind me.

“Alright,” Amelia said, ignoring the alien’s outburst. “And you have proof of that, right?”

“I…” I began. “I’ve seen proof. I broke into the general’s office before we went out to the battlefield – that’s why I was fully dressed, of course – and heard a recording of a conversation between him and the Emperor. But…” I sighed. “No, I don’t have any evidence. Except my word.”

Amelia and Megan looked at each other for a few seconds, then nodded at the same time.

“Okay. Good enough,” Meg said. “We’re coming with you.”

I blinked in surprise.

“You’re what?” Clyde exclaimed.

“We’re coming with you,” Amelia repeated. “You’re not the only one who’s been noticing that some things are amiss, Stephanie. Of course. We’re not stupid, lots of stuff doesn’t add up.”

“And General Ryder being in cahoots with the enemy would explain an awful lot,” Meg continued.

I held their gaze for a few moments: from the look in their eyes, they weren’t going to take no for an answer.

“Alright,” I said. “Let’s go, then. Which way?”

“Follow me,” Clyde said, and started down the corridor again.

We must have been a really comical sight: Clyde walking in front, peering around each and every corner, then three humans following him, and a cat-like alien bringing up the rear.

“Where are we going, exactly?” Amelia asked, as we turned into yet another deserted corridor.

“We need to get out from under the teleporter inhibitor field, so we can teleport away,” Clyde whispered back. “We’re headed for the rear gate, after we cross that we should be far enough.”

“No, that part I’d gathered,” Amelia replied. “What I meant was, where are we going after that? Where are we going to teleport to?”

Clyde grinned. “You’ll see.”

I suddenly realised something. “What about my morpher?” I asked. “Are we just going to leave it here?”

“Of course not,” Clyde said. “My job is to get you out, someone else is working on the morpher.”

“Someone else?” I said, my eyebrows rising in surprise.

“Yes, someone else,” he nodded. “Why, did you think I came here alone?” Then he raised his hand, motioning for us to stop. “We’re here.”

We had reached a set of double doors, which led out of the main building into a wide courtyard. Going by memory, I knew there were two guards posted outside the doors; then there were about two hundred metres of wide open space between the doors and the secondary gate in the perimeter fence of the base, where four more soldiers were standing guard. Somehow, we had to pass two inspections, before we’d be allowed to leave.

“So how do we do this?” I asked.

“Don’t worry, I have a plan,” Clyde replied. “Here, I took these from the cell block, put them on.”

He produced two sets of handcuffs from a pocket, and handed them to me and Amet. I nodded, understanding where he was going with this, and slipped the handcuffs on my wrists, while Amet looked sceptically at us. “You don’t have to lock them, they’re just for show,” I reassured him; he held my gaze for a few moments, then nodded, and put his wrists into the cuffs, too.

“Okay. Now, I’ll go first, you two follow me. Meg, Amelia, bring up the rear.” He paused. “It’s good that you’re here, too. Added credibility.”

We lined up as Clyde had told us and, with him in the lead, marched up to the double doors, which he opened.

“Good evening, corporal,” he said, saluting sharply.

The soldiers that had been standing guard outside the doors boggled at him. They turned their heads, looked at me, then at Amet, then at Amelia and Meg, and then back at Clyde.

“Lieutenant Weber?” one of them said, saluting back. “What’s happening?”

“We’re transferring the prisoners out of the base. General Ryder’s orders,” Clyde replied.

The soldier’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “I haven’t heard anything about that. I’m sorry, I’ll have to check.” He started to reach for his radio.

“That won’t be necessary,” Clyde said. “This is official Defender business, you see. All hush hush.” He leaned forward and jerked his thumb at me, while lowering his voice at the same time. “Wouldn’t want anyone to learn where this traitor ended up, you see? All off the record.”

The soldier still looked doubtful, but then he nodded and saluted. “Sir.”

“Thank you, corporal. Now--”

Clyde’s words were cut off, as a loud alarm pierced the air – I’d never heard anything like that in all the time I was at Defender Base. The soldier’s radio crackled to life, and from it came a voice: “Alert! Lieutenant Kennedy and Sapphire Beetle have broken out of the guardhouse! All units, report in immediately if you spot them!”

Before anyone could stop him, the soldier’s hand flew to his radio, and he pressed the call button. “This is Corporal Andrews at the rear gate! They’re here! They--”

He crumpled to the ground as Amelia socked him in the jaw; Meg did the same to the other soldier.

“Well, so much for subtlety,” Amelia commented.

“Go! Run for the gate!” Clyde said, starting towards the perimeter fence at a sprint.

I removed my handcuffs, dropped them to the ground, and ran after him. “What do we do when we reach it?” I asked.

“We’ll think of something! Move!”

We made it halfway before a jeep cut us off, stopping right in front of us; the doors opened, and General Ryder stepped out.

“Where do you think you’re going?” General Ryder said. Gone was his usual calm, measured voice: now he was almost growling.

“We’re leaving,” Clyde said. “Step aside, General.”

“I cannot allow you to do that,” the General replied.

Clyde quickly reached down, and manoeuvred the switches and lever on his morpher. “Welcome. Standby. Power Up!” it said, and Defender Yellow took Clyde’s place.

“Step aside, I said,” Yellow repeated.

General Ryder’s voice was cold. “Fool,” he said. “I didn’t want to use this yet, but you leave me no choice.”

He unbuttoned his military jacket… Revealing a morpher, strapped to his chest.

“But I suppose it will be a good test run.”

He slapped the morpher with his hand. Hard.

The sound it made was almost a scream.

“POWER ON!”

There was an explosion of light; I had to shield my eyes to avoid being blinded. When the flash subsided, a magnificent, awesome, scary figure was standing where General Ryder had been: well over seven feet tall, his suit was lined in gold, purple and crimson.

He looked really frightening.

Yellow didn’t hesitate: he sprung forward immediately, and kicked the general hard, directly in the chest. However, the general didn’t even flinch.

“Go!” Yellow shouted. “Keep going, I’ll keep him busy!”

I hesitated. It felt wrong to just leave him alone, fighting against… That.

“But…” I began.

“Come on, Steph, let’s go!” Amelia said, pulling me by the arm towards the gate.

I looked at her, then at Yellow. General Ryder had started fighting back against his onslaught, and Yellow was parrying and dodging the general’s blows, but I could see he was having trouble: the General was just too powerful.

Silently begging for Clyde’s forgiveness, I turned around and followed Amelia, Meg and Amet towards the gate.

“Steph!” I heard a voice call. “Stop!”

I stopped, and turned around. Maelyn was standing there, looking at me.

“Come back now,” she said. “Don’t make this harder on yourself.”

I shook my head. “I’m sorry, Mae. I’m leaving.”

She held my gaze for a couple seconds, then shrugged. “Had to try, at least. Before doing this the hard way.”

Her tone of voice sent shivers down my spine. “Morph. Now,” I said to Meg and Amelia, who had also stopped and were looking at us.

“Why?” Meg asked.

“Do it!” I said.

They probably heard something in my voice, because their hands flew down to their belts. With twin flashes of white and green light, their defender suits materialised.

And not a moment too soon.

“Welcome. Standby. Power Up!” I heard from behind me.

I turned around; as I did so, I saw something out of the corner of my eye, and instinctively ducked.

Defender Black’s sword passed mere inches above me, in a near miss.

“What the hell?” Defender Green said. “You’re a Defender too?”

“Of course,” Black replied.

“Why didn’t you tell us? We trusted you!”

“Sorry, it was classified. General Ryder’s orders.”

“So let me guess. We have to beat you, if we want to leave?” White asked.

Black nodded. “Precisely.”

“Alright.” White took a stance. “Bring it!”

“No, look out!” I shouted. “She’s really fast!”

My warning shout came a fraction of a second too late.

As she’d done previously in her battle against Ruby Scorpion, Defender Black seemed to just flicker out of existence for a moment, disappearing, and then reappearing behind White and Green, as twin showers of sparks bloomed across their chests.

“Whoops. Guess I was a bit too fast, wasn’t I?” Black mocked. “Here, I’ll go more slowly this time, see if you can follow this.”

Again, she blinked out of sight and back in sight, and again Green and White were hit.

This continued for a while: Black, it seemed, had no intention of letting up her attack. Soon the other two defenders were seriously injured, barely able to stand up straight.

“So, wanna give up?” Black casually asked, stepping towards them.

“Never,” Green hissed in reply.

Black raised her sword.

“Too bad.”

The sword fell, straight towards Green.

And stopped in mid-air, with a clanging sound.

“What…?” Black said.

The air in front of her shimmered, and a figure materialised seemingly out of thin air, their sword blocking Black’s. I took in their appearance: it was someone I’d seen twice before.

Defender Silver.

“Sorry I’m late!” Silver said. “I had a few errands to run, I hope I didn’t miss the fun!”

Black gave a shout, and tried to slash at Silver, but she dodged Black’s sword by simply stepping backwards.

“Unfortunately, I can’t stay too long. Got places to be, hope you understand that.”

“If you think I’m going to let you--” Black began, but Silver cut her off.

“Nope, didn’t ask for your opinion,” she said. “Here, catch!”

She threw her sword at Black, who reflexively slashed at it, knocking it out of the air.

In a flash, Silver was in front of Black.

“Made you look.”

She flicked a switch on the morpher that was fastened to her wrist: “Kick!” the morpher said, and Silver’s feet started glowing with an intense white light.

She spun around like a whirlwind, and slammed her right foot into Black’s stomach, who gave out a cry of pain, doubled over, and fell to the ground.

“Sorry about this. You should be fine with plenty of bed rest,” Silver said. Then she ran over to me, and pulled me to my feet. “Come on, get up, we gotta go.”

I hesitated, and looked back at Defender Yellow: he was still fighting with the general, but was clearly about to lose.

Seemingly understanding what I was about to say, Silver shook her head. “I’m sorry, Steph, but we have to go. Clyde knows what he’s doing.”

I looked at her for a moment, then nodded. “Follow me!” Silver shouted, and took off at a run… In the wrong direction.

“Wait, the gate’s that way!” I said, pointing.

“We’re not taking the gate,” she said, picking up her discarded sword as she ran. “Come on, keep up!”

By then, Green and White had struggled back to their feet: they too, along with Amet, started running after Silver.

“No, wait!” I heard Black call, but I didn’t even turn around to look at her.

In less than a minute, we’d reached the fence, about fifty metres away from the gate. “Okay, kids, let me show you a magic trick,” Silver said. She pointed at the fence. “There’s no door here, right?”

Her sword moved faster than my eyes could follow, and a whole section of the fence collapsed to the ground, cut out cleanly from its supports.

“Now there is. Come on, let’s go.”

We kept running, and soon passed the white light of the teleporter inhibitor; I didn’t even feel anything as I went through it.

Silver skidded to a halt. “This should be far enough.” She turned around, and counted on her fingers. “One, two, three, four… Yep, everyone’s here. Let’s go home.”

She extended her hands towards us. I took one of them, while Green grabbed the other; in turn, I grabbed White, and Green held on to Amet.

A flash of light, and we were gone.

 

 

We materialised with a silver flash, and I immediately let myself crumple to the ground, the tension and stress of battle going out of me all at once; wherever we were, I was extremely glad to be out of Defender Base. To be somewhere safe.

Speaking of which: where were we, exactly?

I looked around. The five of us were standing – or, in my case, lying – on a teleporter platform much like the one at Defender Base. The room was brightly lit, and I could see a strange sight: there were both humans and Repulsoids walking around, operating the various controls set into the walls and into raised consoles. They were working side-by-side, without any apparent problem.

“You’re back. How did it go?”

I turned my head and looked at the speaker: a tall, middle-aged woman, dressed in a tracksuit. She had tanned skin, brown eyes framed by a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, and a poofy mane of chestnut hair. And she was frowning.

“Where’s Clyde?” she asked.

“Let’s just say there were… Complications,” Silver replied.

The woman turned her head, seemingly just noticing Defender Green and Defender White, who were standing next to Silver. “Oh! Girls! I didn’t expect to see you. Come on, demorph, quick, you know the morphers can be traced when they’re active. We don’t want that, do we?”

Green and White exchanged a look, and then simultaneously flicked the levers on their morphers, making their suits disappear with an electronic “Power Down.” Their helmets gone, I could see they were both giving the tall woman a bewildered stare.

“…Doctor Winters?!” Amelia said.

“That is my name, yes,” Doctor Winters said. “It’s good to see you.”

“But… How?” Meg asked. “We thought you were dead.”

“It is surprising, is it not?” said a Repulsoid Leader, stepping up beside the doctor. I didn’t recognise her, but the way she moved… And her voice…

“Lorem…?” Amet asked.

“Amet,” she nodded.

Lorem.

The Leader who had tricked and betrayed my brother. The one who was, at least in part, responsible for his death.

Using what strength I had, I struggled to my feet, and squared up against her. “You…” I said. “Fight me.”

She tilted her head to the side and gave me a curious look. “Excuse me?”

“Fight me, I said,” I repeated. “I will…”

Suddenly, Silver stepped between the two of us, her hands spread wide in a placating gesture. “Stephanie, no. Stop. She’s on our side.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I’m sorry, our side? What the fuck is going on here? Which side is our side? How do you know my name? Who the hell are you?”

Silver seemed to hesitate, but then raised her wrist and pushed a button on her morpher.

“Mission Complete,” the morpher said, and Silver’s suit disappeared.

I stared at the woman in front of me. Her face… It was somewhat different from the last time I’d seen it, but very similar all the same. I recognised her immediately.

I felt tears well up in my eyes.

“Mark…?” I whispered.

“I go by Emmy now,” she said. Then she stepped forward and embraced me, squeezing me tight, tighter than we’d ever hugged.

“Welcome to the resistance, sister.”