A/N: Hello! Over the Christmas holidays, I dug up an old Nanowrimo fanfic I wrote years ago and realized that I haven't put it up anywhere. So here it is! I won that Nano so there will be at least 50K words of this coming up, but only arc 1 of the story is complete. Whether I write more about this universe depends on whether people like it enough - let me know!
A little more on the story itself: I am a huge, huge fan of Starandrea's First Saga, a glorious saga set in the PR In Space universe and spread out across years and years. I love the intergalactic travel part of the story, but didn't want to write another PRIS or PR Lost Galaxy story because I knew I would be comparing myself against the First Saga and it won't be as good. Thus, I've developed an OC team of Rangers who live on a spaceship...
More than that though, it's going to be about a group of strangers thrown together by circumstance, and they'd have to learn to work with each other, to trust each other because the fate of the Earth rests on their shoulders...
Disclaimer: I don't own the concept of Power Rangers or the names of planets.
Chapter 1 summary: All Xadrin, White Ranger of Eltare, wanted to do was to hunt down a cargo thief she accidentally helped. But when the thief led her to Earth, she was in for more than she bargained for...
Chapter 1: The First Battle on Earth
A muted chime startled Xadrin out of a foggy dream, and for a moment she lost balance, feeling as if she was among the stars in the window in front of her.
"Exiting hyperush nine," VIKI, the ship A.I., announced, "Location: Galaxy 902488, Solar system of star 0801."
Xadrin sat up straight on her seat, and consulted the map on her console. She frowned, "And the stolen ship?"
"Location currently unknown. It is likely in stealth mode to avoid detection."
"Again," she sighed. Five days – for five frustrating, restless, sleepless days, she had been on the trail of this stolen cargo ship. For more than a few times already, its residual signals have been traced to a certain galaxy, only to be lost again for a period of time, before VIKI picked up the hyperush beep that signals its departure from the galaxy. This blasted thief had dragged her halfway across the galaxy, and her patience was running short.
But something felt different this time, with this solar system. It was a strange system even for a seasoned traveler like her. Preliminary scans showed that one planet in the system – the third from the sun – had trillions of life forms, of which there are around billions of humans. Yet, this was not registered as a galaxy that has established any intergalactic contact. There is a high likelihood that none of the humans there knew there are other humans outside of their little planet too.
"VIKI, did any of the galaxies we stopped at previously have human life forms?" she asked, as a hunch slowly formed in her mind.
"Negative."
"Hmm. Watch this planet for any teleportation signals. Our little thief might be looking for humans."
"Affirmative."
She stretched and yawned. At the moment, she was too tired to guess why a cargo-ship thief might be hopping around the galaxy looking for humans. She needed proper sleep, and she needed to haul this ship back home – where she would make sure the thief gets more trouble for it than what she would surely get from this little hunt as well.
She stood up to go back to her room – and another muted chime stopped her.
"Teleportation signal detected. A life form just teleported onto the planet surface."
"Damn it," she muttered, even as she rushed to the back of the room to grab her gears and weapons. This blasted thief had the worst timing. She would make sure it pay for all this trouble.
It was a sunny, breezy Friday in Crystal Falls' central park. Most students in the town's college had just finished their final papers for the term, and many of them are descending on the park in droves to celebrate the beginning of summer.
In the shade of a big tree stood a young man holding a rose made of balloon. He looked like one of those college students – mildly styled dark hair, with jeans and a polo shirt. But unlike the other college students who were relaxing and rejoicing at the start of the summer, he was fidgety, and checked his watch every few seconds. At times, he examined his balloon rose; sometimes hopeful, yet sometimes looking almost disgusted.
Suddenly, the balloon burst – and something flew right past him to hit the tree behind him.
He flinched and duck instinctively as people around him screamed and ran in panic.
In the middle of a park, stood someone – something – out of a nightmare. It is vaguely humanoid in shape, yet definitely not human with flame-colored scales covering its entire body, and with sharp spikes protruding along both arms and the back of its spine. Its face – if it could be called that – was marked by sharp teeth that reminded one of saber-tooth tigers, and reddish mad eyes. It carried something in its hand – and as it surveyed the people running away from it, it pointed the thing in its hand, and a hot laser beam blasted out of it, burning patches of grass into ash in an instant.
The young man cursed and turned to run – but then he saw a fallen stroller in the monster's path, and the mother was almost crying with fear as she tried to extract her baby.
The monster was still closing in. The young man scanned around quickly, picked up a half-empty bottle of beer - "HEY!"
He threw it at the monster as hard as he could.
The bottle shattered against its shoulder, and it stopped to look at him. Cursing again, he turned, and ran for his life.
About a hundred meters away, a girl hung up her 911 call, and gaped as the young man threw the bottle at that monster. Was he out of his freaking mind?
Her brain told her that she should run, but as she watched the monster turn and aim its weapon at the young man, she couldn't look away. Any moment now, the same high-energy beam will turn the young man into ash in an instant –
Something else hit the monster.
It stumbled – it was a big rock. The girl turned – as the monster did – to the source, and saw a jogger in a cap and black shirt running away as fast as he could. Someone else was fighting back!
The monster screeched – a thunderous yet piercing sound unlike any other she'd ever heard of – and trained its weapon on the retreating jogger.
And for the third time, something else attacked the monster from behind.
It spun around with another screech, to find a figure in white and black armor standing in wait.
The girl felt her breath catch. The latest arrival – and she did not even see her coming – was covered from head to toe in some sort of light armor in black and white. His – or her – head was fully covered in a similarly colored helmet, and its black visor revealed nothing about who or what might lie behind.
For a moment both party did not move a single inch – as if they were examining each other, or as if they were surprised by each other.
Then – both charged.
The monster fired its weapons with hardly any break in between, which the armed figured dodged with amazing speed in almost acrobatic-like fashion; the figure fired back in between rounds, but its shots barely grazed the monster. In seconds, it was clear that the armed figure was rapidly losing ground.
"He's not gonna make it." The girl jumped as a voice panted next to her. It was the guy who first threw a bottle at the monster. And from her periphery vision she saw that the jogger was running towards the two of them as well.
"Are you both insane?" she blurted when the jogger came within earshot, "you both just – and you came back – that thing will kill you!"
"I see you're still here," The jogger who looked about her age said, not looking at her as he was transfixed by the battle taking place near them.
The girl followed his gaze, and bit her lip. "I don't know who he is, but he's protecting all these people, us – and he needs help."
"That's an understatement," the jogger murmured, and she shot a glare at him.
"Look, I called 911, help should be coming soon." She said, and even as she said it she doubted the police could do anything to something like this, "If we could just buy him some time…"
"Do you trust me?" The first guy said, still panting slightly. Both the girl and the jogger exchanged glances. She nodded slowly, and he shrugged.
"I have a plan."
Xadrin dropped to the ground and rolled, barely dodging the blast from Metigor's weapon. She cursed her luck again – not only did the supposed small-time thief turned out not to be a small-time thief, it had to turn out to be one of the most infamous intergalactic fugitive, who is also a known mass murderer. She knew she needed back-up, but the only back-up she had were halfway across the universe.
The only upside was the few seconds she had in between consecutive attacks as Metigor's weapon charges. She charged again – firing shots at Metigor's weapon and trying to close the ground between them. If only she could get close enough and disarm him –
She stumbled, pain exploding from her right leg – she dodged a second too late. She gritted her teeth and scrambled back, gripping her blaster with both hands and firing continuously from the ground.
It was useless. Metigor's armor – it had to be wearing one – was fortified against even a Ranger weapon like hers. He took all the hits to his chest without flinching, and for a moment, just stood there without moving, as if he was humoring her.
He spoke, and her visor showed her the translated words, "What's a small little Ranger like you doing here? Isn't this a little far from home?"
He was humoring her. Taunting her like a trapped prey. She'd be damned if she give him any satisfaction. But just as she was about to retort, she saw movement behind Metigor. Two humans were slowing creeping up on him, holding some sort of long cloth between them – what the hell were they doing? They were not even armed!
She bit back her retort, she couldn't draw attention to them, whatever they were attempting.
"What's the matter," Metigor was still enjoying himself, it seemed, "Is that fear holding your tongue?"
"Fear?" She pretended to laugh, "For the likes of you, Metigor? My family has defeated your kind over and over again. Your turn will come soon enough!"
Metigor did not speak for a moment, but its fury was growing. "Your family would never find any scrap of you left when –"
- A cloth flew over his face from behind, caught it in its neck, and pulled sharply back. Caught by surprise, Metigor turned to look – only to have a girl run right towards him from the side, and knocked his weapon out of his grip with a bat.
Enraged, he roared. With one hand he grabbed and tore the cloth in half, and with the other he grabbed the girl by the neck as she tried to run. She screamed – and the two other humans kicked Metigor from the back, and Metigor dropped her.
Xadrin was already up and running towards them. The girl scrambled backwards as Metigor turned around to the two humans. Metigor flexed the spikes on his arms, and Xadrin knew she had only seconds before the three humans suffer a fate worse than death.
"Use this!" She threw a morpher at the girl, knowing that she would find the way to activate it.
She summoned her sword mentally, and brought it down on Metigor's back as it materialized. Sparks flew as it made contact with the scaled armor.
Metigor spun around, and Xadrin attacked, again and again. With the spiked, poisonous arms his species was known for he blocked her blows each time. She tried to find an opening, but he was faster than her. Suddenly, his arm lifted away, and he aimed at someone –
She jumped to the right, knocking the flying spike out of the air – only to feel a blow slamming her from behind, and she cried, losing balance.
She landed on something uneven – on someone. She opened her eyes – and saw a pair of blue eyes staring back at her. She almost couldn't breathe from the pain on her back.
"Are you all right?" The human asked, his eyes nervous and concerned.
Breathe, she ordered herself. Fumbling with her belt, she found another morpher. She got up painfully, and thrust the morpher at the young man.
"Use it," she said hoarsely, and turned around.
A second Ranger – her armor marked with blue – was already engaging Metigor. The second human was looking at the new Ranger in part confusion and part awe. He turned to her, and Xadrin made another decision. She found and threw the third morpher at him, nodding.
There was no time – the girl was too new, she would not last long. Picking up her sword, Xadrin charged at Metigor from his side, landing a blow at the space between his armor. He screeched, and kicked the other girl – she fell back. Xadrin hit again.
Two new Rangers rushed in, one red and the other pure black. Metigor was forced to block their kicks as Xadrin charged again. They pressed on and on – suddenly Metigor froze and they landed a few more hits – the other girl had gone behind Metigor and fired with her blaster.
Metigor screeched once more, firing the spikes on his arm all around him. Xadrin blocked, prepared for the stinging pain, but secure in the knowledge that its poison would not penetrate. The other Rangers stumbled back a little.
And in a red flash – Metigor was gone.
Xadrin panted. It was over.
For now.
A/N: That's chapter 1! What do you think?