I'm back and with a brand new story that I think will knock the socks off of you. My second four-way crossover from various seasons that I hope will top "Black Water" I'm hoping to update every few weeks, depending on what the week for school brings.
This may come off as a little AU, but bear with me, because I think youll like it.
Summary: In the year 3009, an excavation team lead by Time Force unearths a cavern not entered to in almost 1,000 years, but while doing so unleashes a forgotten evil so deadly that even the most experienced Power Rangers may not be able to stop
Timeline: Nine years after Time Force ended. The rest you'll just have to find out on your own
Seasons: MMPR, IS, TF, DT. Please note not all Rangers will be present, but may make cameo appearances as the story progresses.
Enjoy, and as always, leave me a review.
Dead by Sunrise
By: Stephanie
White Time Ranger
Chapter 1: What Once Was Lost, part 1
Year 3009: Outskirts of Los Angeles
The darkened earth seemed to breathe as the wind blew, whistling around the grand sand dunes that rose from the ground casting shadows over the scattered remains of buildings that crumbled under the beating of the harsh deserts hands. Dancing slowly the sand moved its way carelessly over the hidden remains of this once-grand city, lost and forgotten with time. For hundreds of year it lay concealed in the desert grave time carelessly placed there. A city forgotten, an ancient and grand land where skyscrapers towered over all; where they now lay battered and beaten, shrinking as the merciless winds cut them down to size, burying them, cutting them off from the world.
Over the years, the surrounding cities began to grow distant; this great monument to the past was abandoned, forgotten, and left to continue its decay. Miles and miles of sand separated it from civilization and from memory. A once-proud city became one with the ground, its elements returning home. The desert grew taller as the years continued and the last memory faded underneath its thick gravelly blanket, never to be thought of again.
A single gleam of light bounced from the moon as it rose higher into the night sky, giving light to a small vehicle as it glided effortlessly through the air, towards a small metal statue that had not managed to escape the layers time bestowed upon it and made its letters nearly illegible to the human eye.
"This is creepy," stated a young woman as she gazed over the miles of dark emptiness. "No one's been out here for centuries." Allison Rider shivered as a chill ran down her spine and she pulled her jacket closer to her. The blue of her eyes continued to stare at the land time forgot.
Doctor Alan Grant turned back towards the young woman, the aged lines of his face grinned. "This area of the state was abandoned mid 23rd century, after a tsunami nearly wiped everything this side of the Rockies off the map." He turned his eyes back to the glowing GPS on the dashboard. They were almost toward their destination. "I cant imagine it, humanity having to start over."
A red haired man sitting next to Allison turned to her, "I remember reading in school, that tsunami was massive, stretching the length of the western United States, from Oregon to Baja California. Incredible." He scanned the desert. "Everything was destroyed, lost beneath the water, millions of lives lost. Thousands of miles of city gone, just like that. A buddy of mine had to go through his training for the Marines out here years ago. He said at night, in the dead middle of it, you could still hear the souls of those lost crying for help."
Allison turned abruptly. "Alright Greg, knock it off. Youre giving me the creeps." Greg Hutchen grinned at her through the dark and averted his eyes back to the nothingness around them.
The trio continued quietly once again through the desert for what seemed like eternity until the Doctor saw the marker he was looking for. The entrance, just as the Admiral said it would be there.
"Were here," he called, rousing Allison and Greg from their stares. "Grab the equipment and lets go the winds out here are strong enough to break skin." Both acknowledging him they opened the side doors and grabbed their cases. Moving toward the small entrance way, the Doctor slipped the card past the lock, and the pressurized seal broke, the door sliding past them. Instantly they felt the dampness of the ground around them, the chill seeped through their clothes.
"Dr. Grant, why are we here again?" Greg asked and shook the piles of sand off his jacket.
Dr. Alan Grant ruffed the sand from his hair. "This comes as a special order from Admiral Williams himself. Top secret, he said it was. Of course he couldnt give me specifics, but if you ask me", he cracked open a green light stick and began to move down the set of stone stairs toward an opening in the wall, "I think Time Force is looking for something."
Greg huffed. "Time Force is always looking for something. More money, you know how those bastards are. Ticketing everything possible trying to fund for their anti-crime goal. Ever since that guy Ransik leaked through here, Im beginning to question whether or not were ever going to have their idea of a safe city. Nine years later and we still have crime." They turned through another corner and down a winding case of stares, their footsteps echoed around them.
"Oh please, Ransik killed one of their Lieutenants, remember?" Allisons quiet voice peaked up form the back of the line. "It wasnt like Time Force turned its back and let him get away. Those four officers that went back, they saved our lives. One of my husbands co-workers girlfriends brothers knew a guy from high school that was on that mission, she slung her backpack over her shoulder. Kendall I think was his last name. Nice kid."
"Any relation to Lucas Kendall, the NASCAR champ?" Greg asked and earned an unsure shrug from Allison. "My daughter absolutely adores him. I didnt know he was a NASCAR driver until the news had a special on the four officers. I got to give them credit; I could never have just jumped in a ship and departed. The past, its a scary thought."
"I heard," Greg continued, "That the Sergeant leading the team, the one engaged to the Lieutenant, broke it off because of some guy she met in the past and had a fling with."
Dr. Grant turned. "Jennifer Scotts?" Greg nodded. "I think theres more to that story then Time Force was willing to portray. They knew what happened; you could see it in their faces. Besides, I met Lieutenant Scotts a few weeks ago when I was given this mission, and she was charming, a beautiful young woman. She looked to be either twenty-seven or twenty-eight I think. Amazing how she got to be that high in the ranks at such a young age."
In silence they continued their descent even further, until the sand became solid stone encasing them like a tomb.
"This place creeps me out." She looked around at the light stone and the light that bounced off of it. "Hard to believe this used to be a city." A few more twists and turns, and they came to their site, a small cave pressed deeply within the Earths crust.
"Technically," Dr. Grant set down his cases and opened them, beginning the process of powering up him jackhammer, a faint buzz came from the lower part, the laser-cutter powering up. "This is the mountains, we believe. Angel Grove has yet to actually be found."
Greg powered up his equipment as well, strapping the holster around his back. "So then what makes Time Force believe this is place where theyre going to find whatever it is theyre looking for?"
"Classified," Dr. Grant interjected. "I asked the same thing and Admiral Williams wouldnt tell me." Opening a laptop, a digital map spread all throughout the wall and illuminated the inside of the rocks, mapping what was beyond it for a few feet. He pointed in several different spots, and gave directions for who would begin where; Greg to the middle, himself in the center, and Allison to the side.
Greg grinned as he pointed his illuminated shovel towards the rocks. "Lets get cracking!"
The room buzzed to life as the shovels and jackhammers they had began to hum, the laser piston began cutting effortlessly between the microscopic crevices of rock and clay. The trio worked in silence with the quiet hum that came from the tools. Slowly piles fell to their feet as the moved within the cavern, expanding it inch by inch.
As Greg continued his deploy into the rock, he pushed harder, finding a rough spot in the rocks. This one section, however, would not budge. The harder he pushed the more resistance he came to find. "Allison," he called. "Come here and give me a hand, will ya? This damned thing isn't..." As he leaned onto it with all his weight suddenly the floor beneath him opened wide and fell along with him and Allison with it.
"Greg!" Dr. Grant called as he flew back to the wall and hoped the chasm would stop, his wish granted. Slowly he moved towards the opening as a rush of cool air came out, whistling past his ears. "Allison! You guys alright?"
"We're okay, Alan," Allison responded as she helped Greg to his feet, the Doctor crept closer. "What is this place?" Spider webs and sand covered everything, the metal around them degraded to nothing. In the middle of the room sat a large oval cylinder rising about thirty feet into the air and glass spayed all around it. Inside the cylinder sat a bounty of clear crystals with a light purple tint. Across the room from the large cylinder sat a smaller column with the remnants of a spherical shape, this too had the same crystal configuration inside the broken glass.
Alan slithered slowly down the ladder and came to rest on the stone platform around them, his eyes gazing in wonder. "We're standing in a room that looks like it hasnt been entered in hundreds, perhaps thousands of years." Decaying metal ramps lined both sides of this strange cavern, leading up to a smaller, and half circle table with small round switch-like objects sat. On top of them rose smaller platforms, and unknown objects resided.
Moving past the gigantic cylinder, Greg found another table, surrounded by a broken case. Inside that case lay six small coin-like objects, covered in years and years of spider webs and sand, a thick blanket of gray.
Greg picked up one of the tattered and broken coins, holding it up to the floating lamp beside him. He turned it over several times in his hand, outlining the faint picture it held, it almost resembled the look of a...
"Dinosaur?" he mumbled. "Dr. Grant, call the Admiral," he started at the coin, his mind twisting, his face turning into a pleasant smile. "I think we found something..."
"Admiral Williams, over here!" a woman pushed through the crowd towards the floating podium where several Time Force officers stood, staring out over the sea of reporters. "Admiral, what is it that your top secret diggers have found in the desert? No one has ventured out there in hundreds of years. What is it Time Force is looking for?"
The gray-haired Admiral waved his hand and grinned. "Time Force, as you all are aware, is looking for a newer, more powerful way to give our city the cleaner resources it needs. With the help of our research team we are one step closer to that goal."
Another voice beckoned from the crowd. "What is it that Dr. Grant and his team found buried beneath the sand? Is it the lost city?"
The age in his eyes kept his mind hidden well. "We are still examining what Dr. Grant found, we believe it to be a new form of a trizyrium crystal to power our citys resources."
From the back of the crowd, a younger woman shook her head in disbelief. She huffed and moved her bangs from her face. "This is bullshit," she shook her head, her eyes hidden behind the sunglasses she wore.
A younger officer turned towards her. "Come again, Lieutenant?"
Jennifer Scotts huffed again and looked at the young man. "Its a cover-up, this whole 'cleaner' city campaign he's got going on. It's pure and absolute bullshit, Jack. It really is." The Admiral continued to talk, a dark smile descended upon his face. "You can see it in his eyes. Time Force is looking for something else. Something about this whole excavation thing just doesn't feel right. Call it a hunch."
The officer turned back to the podium. "The mayor seems to be happy about this, you know. Since that leak from the plant two years ago, we're still trying to clean it up."
"And you believe that crap?" Jen blurted out, silencing the officer. A few people turned to her and brought their eyes back. "Every since we came back, nothing's felt right." She gestured to where Admiral Williams and the Mayor now stood; shaking hands over the pact they created to make their fine city better.
The officer shrugged. "Well, at least corruption is down within the last few years."
Jen crossed her arms in front of her chest in disagreement. "Corruption is the leading cause of this citys problems, starting with the two men standing up there," she pointed. "They're the top of all this, Jack, and they're hiding something." Turning on the point of her heel, Jen left the scene and headed back to her car. Paperwork swarmed her desk back at headquarters. Paperwork. Thats all she seemed to do these days.
Powering on her squad car she left the scene and drove past the training academy where she saw Alex's car parked. She had almost forgotten- today was fitness day; where all the new recruits got their asses handed to them. It was all part of the new training protocol the Admiral instilled- have them work till they pass out and work some more. Jen didn't agree with it one bit. After parking her car she entered the gymnasium. Equipment lined the walls, platforms hovered near the ceiling, the irritating sound of sneakers against wax floors screeched into her ears.
She heard his deep voice clear as day across the large room, booming out orders. Run. Drop. Roll. Run. The familiar pattern she went through almost ten years ago with Alex, all designed to heighten the senses and increase agility. It worked some of the time, but not all.
"Officer on site!" one of the recruits in the back yelled as they all stood and snapped to attention as Jen walked by, they offered a crisp salute to her and she returned it, calling them back as they were.
Alex turned as she passed the group; they dropped again to the ground and continued the familiar phases. He pressed a button on his board, and it disappeared back into its holder.
"How was the press conference?" he asked after ordering a ten minute water break. Grabbing a towel he wiped his forehead of the lines of sweat and swallowed a mouthful of water.
The Lieutenant shrugged. "It was the same old story; Williams making up lies and cover-ups and the Mayor backing him up." Jen rubbed her forehead and dropped her voice, despite the noise surrounding them. "This entire thing is unsettling, Alex. It really is."
"Just dont go around snooping like I did. Look what happened to me when Williams found out. I lost my title, my pension, everything, and all to shut me up. He doesnt play around, Jen." He looked her straight in the eye. "I'd hate to see the same thing happen to you. Time Force doesn't need another one of their top officers to get fired. Not again."
"What this organization needs to do is cut out the top man and start over. Ever since we got back, everything seemed off." Jen looked towards the ground. "I don't know, maybe its just me."
Alex nodded. "No, you're right. Williams was never like this, and once he was promoted, everythings changed, for better or for worse." He took another sip. "For worse, if you ask me. Keep your ears open. Williams has a soft spot for you. Good or bad, youre the only chance we have of seeing what he's really up to."
"This whole thing scares me, Alex. Its all so shady, all the money hes pushing for and everything. The sad part is almost this entire city believes him and Mayor Mincini. Its all wrong." She sighed. "Then theres you and me. Two against the world."
Alex smiled. "That hasn't stopped us before, Jen. Perhaps that's what makes us such a great couple." He saw Jens cheek twitch at that word. His smile faded as quickly as it came. "We live in dangerous times with dangerous people at the top who would do anything to bring us down. Keep your chin up, Jen." the group he was working with returned and took their spots. "Things are going to change, I can feel it. We just need to keep on our toes."
She agreed. "It's just a matter of when and how. For better or for worse," she echoed him. "Let's hope this is for the better."
He reached out and graciously grasped her hand, a sign he knew she appreciated. They parted once again and went their separate ways, Alex back to his training group and Jen back to her car. Across the city blocks, the Mayor and Admiral Williams stood, hand in hand as the crowds cheered for the change they promised, a change that blanketed the corruption and disorder that lay hidden in the upper ranks of Time Force, all kept a dangerous secret by one of the most respected organizations known to time
To Be Continued