Earth, 2010.
For many, many years, the city of Hawshaw Vale had been nothing but peaceful. Despite the fact that it was a fairly big, productive city, it had gained the reputation of being the kind of place where nothing of great importance ever occurred. Indeed, it was a tranquil place.
As with all things, however, things couldn't remain this way permanently. In fact, on this very evening the change has already begun. Deep within one of the city's various warehouse districts, a golden ball of light descends on one of the warehouses and disappears inside...
Within the warehouse, the light slowly moved down until it was about half a meter off of the ground, where it hovered for a few moments before a massive pulse of golden light erupted from the ball, the light clearly viewable even from outside the building. As the light faded, a shadowy figure stood where the ball of light had been.
Looking around him, it was hard to see anything in the almost complete darkness. The only light in the entire room came from the small windows that lined the walls, the moonlight dimly shining against the armor that covered his body.
He waited for a few seconds for his eyesight to adjust to the darkness before reaching for a device hanging from his belt. Holding it up to the moonlight so that he could see a panel on its front, he pressed one of the buttons, leading the device to emit a small humming noise. About a second later, an image appeared on the screen, containing a holographic, detailed image of the warehouse, displayed in a gentle green. There was a tiny flashing red dot on the map where the back of the warehouse was.
Without wasting a moment, he quickly and quietly began walking in the direction of the dot, but before he could even walk to the next room, the building's security systems activated, setting the alarm off. He looked around for a way to turn the shrieking noise off, the sound initially making him cringe a little, but knew that it would just take too long. He also knew it wouldn't be too long before he was interrupted.
Quickening his pace, he moved towards the shutter leading to the next section of the warehouse. 'Time is short...' he thought as he quickly analyzed the metal divide. It was heavily secured, but didn't appear to be very durable.
Putting the device on the floor, he once again reached for something from his belt; he drew a sword from its scabbard, the gleaming blade shining in the dull moonlight. Grabbing the hilt with both hands, he held it above his head, the blade beginning to glow in a brilliant golden light.
As bright as the light was, however, it couldn't hope to match the darkness he was feeling within his heart. 'Where is the honor in this?' he thought as the sword's light pulsed. Just as it did so, he yelled as he swung the sword down before him sending the blade on a collision course with the shutter.
The sheer force of the strike alone was enough to cleanly cut through the metal barrier, but the small shockwave sent from the blade's stored energy was the finishing blow, the pressure blowing the entire shutter, the frame that was attached to it and even a few pieces of the wall itself straight across the new room. The might crashing sound the various objects made as it landed momentarily eclipsed the repetitive wailing of the alarm.
Putting his sword away, he picked his device back up and rushed through into the next room. The device clearly indicated that the target was in this room. Looking around him as the dust cleared, he could see exactly what he was looking for – a small safe lying on the floor in the corner.
Turning the device off and putting it back onto his belt, he leant down and picked up the safe. Despite its great weight, he was more than strong enough to pick it up without any difficulties. He breathed a sigh of relief. For once, there was to be no trouble, it appeared.
Just as the thought passed is mind, he sensed it. There was someone else in the room with him. Turning around, he could just about make out someone running towards him from the room he came from himself.
"Stop right there!" cried the new arrival, who appeared to be wearing some kind of red suit.
The shadowy figure simply shook his head, holding the safe close to him as he shut his eyes.
As a golden aura surrounded the figure, the red-suited arrival drew some kind of handgun from his belt and shot several fist-sized balls of red light at him. Before they could connect however, the golden light pulsed once more, deflecting the shots, forcing the red figure to dodge his own attacks as he dived behind a nearby crate.
Quickly jumping back up, he ran back into the open just in time to witness the figure disappearing in an orb of golden light, flying upwards and disappearing through the roof.
'Darn it! How could I let him get away again?!' he thought as he could just about make out the sounds of police cars approaching the building. 'Time to leave!'
Reaching for a strange device on his wrist, he pressed one of the buttons. He too turned into a ball of light, this time red, and flew away...
Despite the chaos that had been, the rest of the night passed without further incident. It was now Saturday morning, the news of the burglary broadcast all over the news. In one of the city's many houses, a teenage boy was listening to the story on the family radio as he ate his breakfast.
"...And to repeat today's main story, yet another warehouse in the industrial district was the target of a robbery last night. The police forces are not giving us much detail at this point in time, but what we have been told is that the scene does appear to be linked to the dozens of similar robberies that have occurred over the past few months. This is currently the 11th burglary in the past 9 weeks..."
At that point, the young man turned off the radio, sighing. 'Again? What on Earth could they be after?' he wondered aloud as he took a passing glance at his watch – 8:49AM. His eyes widened in surprise. 'Nuts! Late again!' he thought. He had arranged to meet up with some friends at 9, which meant he should have left ages ago. Gulping down the last of his breakfast, he bolted for the door, stopping only to pick up his jacket before leaving.
About 10 minutes later, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, were sat on a bench on the local high street, waiting. The girl sighed. "Glen, you did tell him that we were meant to be meeting up, right?"
Glen nodded. "You betcha. Then again, we both know the Tristan's never been known for his timekeeping skills, right Em?"
Out of all three of the friends, Glen was by far the most energetic. To those that didn't understand him, he often came off as annoying, but those close to him knew that his personality came from his constant thrill-seeking. He was loud, cheerful and friendly, although he was occasionally bad with the way he words things, often making innocent comments seem like extreme insults. He was fairly tall, with short, blonde hair and blue eyes. Because he was always running around and trying different things, he had developed a relatively athletic build over the last few years, particularly from where Tristan had been teaching him some of the martial arts he knew. He always seemed to be wearing yellow, something which oddly went well with his energetic personality.
Emily, known as "Em" by many people, was in many ways the complete opposite to Glen. She was the quiet, shy type that seemed to make many friends without even trying. Well known for her warm, caring and friendly personality, many people trusted her deeply and would often talk to her about their problems, something she never tired of, mainly because she hated being alone, she loved her friends with all her heart. Like the others, she was also an active person and enjoyed swimming. She was the shortest of the trio, with bright blue eyes and shoulder length blonde hair. She wore blue a lot, which in many ways matched her calming personality.
For 10 minutes, they continued to wait and wait for Tristan. By this point, Glen was impatiently pacing up and down in front of the bench. It was driving Emily mad, but she didn't want to mention it because she knew that he'd probably just get even more impatient if he was made aware of it.
Her mind drifted to the news of the warehouse robbery, wondering if it would lead to anything more serious. One way or another, the general atmosphere of the city had grown a lot more tense than usual since the robberies started. There was nothing to confirm it either way, but she had heard rumors that the robbers always seemed to cause a fair amount of damage inside the targeted buildings, but it was seemingly far too much to have been caused by your typical robber.
Deep inside herself she could feel that nothing good would come of any of this. As she ran her mind through it over and over, she became entirely lost in thought, staring up at the perfect blue sky...
At the same moment, around the orbit of the moon, there was a small, deadly looking spaceship. Inside, on the cold, dark bridge, a lone being stood there, looking out into the black depths for a few moments before turning to something on the floor. It was a safe, the same safe that he had stolen just hours before.
Going on appearances alone, it was difficult, if even possible, to tell if he was human or not. Standing at a massive 7 foot all, his body was covered with golden armor, heavily damaged from many battles. Having taken off his fierce looking helmet however, which lay on one of the nearby consoles, he certainly looked human. He looked about the same age as Tristan and his friends. He looked very gentle and harmless, much unlike what his behavior had shown. He had sharp looking brown eyes, matched with short brown hair.
After fiddling around with the safe for a little while, he finally managed to open it, albeit with a little force. Inside it, he found a locked briefcase, which he proceeded to rest on a console. Carefully, he proceeded to break the locks on the case and opened it up, revealing its contents.
Inside there was a small sphere, roughly the size of his fist. He looked at it, deeply in thought. 'There's no doubt. This is indeed what I was looking for.'
Looking at a small plate on the inside of the briefcase confirmed his theory. It simply read "BATTERY PROTOTYPE: HANDLE WITH CARE".
After carefully putting the battery back into the briefcase, he reached into a small shelf inside one of the consoles, pulling out a silver sphere, about the size of a standard basketball – a special device he had built from the things he had stolen from the other warehouses. The device contained a sphere-shaped hole, which he carefully slipped the battery into, pulling over a cover to stop it from falling out.
His head turned to face the floor. He looked upset. 'Is this... Is this really the only way?' he wondered.
He walked over to the opposite wall, where one of the panels had been removed, revealing another hole. Taking one final look at the device, he sighed and slotted it into place before taking the panel and fixing it back onto the wall.
Pushing a button next to the panel, a gentle humming sound could be heard as the device began to power up. A few moments later, he heard one of the doors behind him slide open as someone walked in. Turning around, he could see some kind of android moving towards him. 11 more followed behind him. As they came close, they stopped and began to speak with a raspy metallic voice.
"General Vazon, we await your orders."
Vazon looked at them as 4 more came in and joined the formation. His mission appeared to have been a success. If these were moving, the several hundred others around the ship were no doubt wandering around as well.
'All for the cause of war... Father, what would you do in my place?' he wondered...
Back on Earth's surface, it was now 9:20. By this point, Glen was pacing up and down so fast he might as well have been running.
"I've had enough!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to go on ahead."
Emily stood up and faced him. She understood why he was annoyed, but she didn't feel right leaving without Tristan. "Glen..." she said in a slightly frustrated tone, "Tristan will be here, OK?"
Shaking his head in response, Glen turned away. "Look Em, if you really want to, you're happy to wait for him. Me on the other hand, I'd like to get back to my life now. When he gets here, or rather, if he gets here, feel free to catch up!" he yelled as he ran off down the road.
Emily wanted to run after him, preferring if they all stuck together, but she knew that if someone didn't wait for Tristan, he'd be the one complaining. Sighing, she sat back down and watched Glen dash around the corner at the end of the road.
A few moments later, Emily heard a familiar voice shouting at her from the other direction. "Emily! Hey!"
Emily stood up once more and saw him sprinting towards here. She waited for him to get to her and stop before she said anything. She couldn't help but giggle. "Late again?" she said with a smile on her face.
"How... How could you tell?" Tristan said sarcastically in-between deep breaths.
Tristan was a good natured guy, but if he was known for anything at all, it was his terrible sense of timekeeping. He was constantly late for everything, school, friends, anything. His friends, no matter how often they saw it, couldn't help but wonder how he managed it consistently every single time. Physically, he was well built, mainly from being a keen martial artist. He was always practicing whenever he wasn't doing anything and he had become very adept at it. He had black hair, brown eyes and had a tendency to wear red, which everyone always found entertaining since he always seemed to be running around like a bull.
Looking around, he couldn't see Glen anywhere. "Let me guess... Glen went ahead again, right?" he asked as Emily responded with a nod.
"We should go find him." She said cheerfully as the pair started to walk down the road.
Before they could get very far, frantic screaming could suddenly be heard from a nearby street. Moments later, the same sounds could be heard from several directions.
"What the-" Tristan began to mutter as several silver beams of light rained down from the sky to hit the ground before them. Where the beams struck, humanoid-like beings stood. Covered in metal armor and their voices having a raspy metal tone to them, the pair instantly knew that they were in trouble. Sensing the danger, Tristan instantly moved into a defensive stance.
"W-what are they?!" Emily cried as she could see more of the beams flying down in the background.
"I don't know, but I'm guessing they're not friendly. Too early for Halloween, too." He replied.
Before they could say anything else, the beings rushed at them.
"Move!" Tristan yelled as Emily ducked out of the way.
Both of the beings rushed at Tristan, who was quick to throw one over his shoulder before elbowing the other one in the chest. He got lucky with the first one as they turned out to be a bit lighter than most adult-sized humans, but he didn't realize that whatever they were made of was so durable; his attack bounced off the second one without a dent.
'What?! Not good!' he thought as blocked it's first punch, only to be sent reeling by a second blow to the stomach...
Standing on the end of a nearby street, Vazon, now wearing his helmet again, watched the carnage around him with his sword in hand. 'Let this be dealt with quickly.' He thought as he rushed into battle.
As Tristan continued to fight, Emily found herself to be the target of 2 more attackers. She had some fighting ability, having been taught by Tristan, but she didn't feel confident about her chances against her opponents and chose to go down a more evasive approach, nimbly dodging the attacks as they came her way.
She appeared to be doing pretty well, but as she evaded a kick, something caught her eye in the distance – some kids in a nearby alleyway, surrounded by more of these mysterious invaders. However, it was just enough of a distraction to catch her off guard as one of them punched her, sending her flying to the floor.
As she looked up, Tristan seemed to be doing even worse. 2 more of them had joined in the battle, and Tristan had been forced to go on the defensive, constantly trying to block the incoming attacks, but he just wasn't fast enough as he took blow after blow. All 3 of them kicked him at the same time and he was thrown backwards into a wall, collapsing to his knees and holding his stomach in pain.
Emily scrambled over to him and helped him up, and together they kept their distance from their attackers.
"We need to get... Out of here. Glen's gotta be around somewhere." Tristan muttered through the pain.
Shaking her head, Emily replied. "We can't leave yet, look!" She pointed over at the alleyway. "We have to help them!"
Tristan shook his head. "How can we expect to save them when we can't even defend ourselves? Besides, we can't save everyone."
Emily stopped in her tracks, horrified. "How can you say that? They're just kids!"
Shutting his eyes for a moment, Tristan quickly tried to come up with a strategy. As dangerous as it was, he already knew that he couldn't turn away from them. At the same time, they had no hope of beating them all, especially with the others closing in from behind.
"Fine, but we have to hurry!" he replied, moving himself away from Emily, barely managing to stand on his own.
Nodding, Emily gave him a hopeful smile as they made their way to the alleyway.
As they got there, Tristan sprinted at the first one ahead of him and shoulder charged at it. It heard him coming and started to turn around, but there was no time for it to try and stop him as he collided with it, which in turn sent it into most of the others, all of them toppling like dominoes. Emily decided to copy the technique and slammed into the last remaining enemy, sending it careering backwards.
The two of them ran to the children and got them all to stand up. "You're going to be safe guys, just stick with us." Tristan ordered. As they turned around to come back from where they came, they were greeted by a terrifying sight – the group that they fought before had already caught up with them, and the group they had just dealt with was now coming from the other direction, leaving them trapped in a pincer.
"N-n-nice knowing you!" Tristan yelled.
"Tristan!" Emily yelled back. She couldn't believe that someone like him could have given up so easily.
'This can't be the end!' Tristan thought as the enemies came closer and closer, surrounding the group entirely.
Just as it all looked like that was going to be the end, a red-suited figure front-flipped from the roof above them, firing some kind of handgun down on the android-like beings, each one being destroyed in a single shot. As he landed on the ground facing away from the group, the last of the beings fell.
Everyone simply stood still in stunned silence as whoever it was stood up and turned around to face them.
From looking at him, it was impossible to tell who he was, but he looked powerful. He appeared to be just a little taller than Tristan was, completely covered in a red suit and helmet. His gloves, boots and collar were white. In the middle of his chest was a round, gold colored emblem, the inside of which was white apart from a red flame symbol in the middle. He also wore a golden belt, the buckle of which had 3 marble-sized slots in them – the central one contained a red orb, the others were empty. On the side of the belt was a holster which now held his weapon once more. All down the sides of his arms, body and legs was a single white stripe.
"T-t-thank you!" Emily said, relieved that this stranger had saved them.
However, just as she finished talking, he grunted in surprise, drawing his strange gun once more, aiming it in the direction of the group, whose faces quickly regained their terrified gaze.
"What the hell are you doi-" Tristan started to yell at him, but before he could finish, the stranger fired, the projectiles flying straight past them. Tristan turned his head just in time to see yet another terrifying sight – Vazon, his sword harmlessly deflecting the shots.
Tristan quickly gestured to Emily to move the kids as close to the side as possible. 'Another freak? Gimme a break...' he thought as he too moved aside, in the likely case that the red stranger would fire more shots.
As he kept looking at both of them, it was clear that they were at the very least acquaintances. They walked towards each other, weapons firmly gripped in hand, until they were a few feet away from each other. They remained silent, the only noise coming from the sounds of destruction from the surrounding streets.
A few moments passed before Vazon spoke. "We finally get to fight, Red Ranger."
Tristan's eyes widened as he heard it. 'Ranger.' Something about the word awakened something deep down within him.
"Later than I'd like, but your time's up." the Red Ranger replied.
Tristan turned to Emily. "You guys have to go, now."
Gasping in disbelief, Emily shook her head. "Wait, you can't!"
He shook his head, turning away from her. "You trust me, right? Have some belief in me as well."
Emily nodded silently, she knew he couldn't be talked out of it. She began talking to the children and they started to run away, past the Red Ranger, in the direction they came from.
Tristan, on the other hand, ran up to the Red Ranger, faced Vazon and moved into a fighting stance.
Surprised, the Red Ranger glanced over at him. "Can't you see how dangerous this is? Get away from here!"
Tristan laughed. "Never. Something tells me you're the good guy here, and he doesn't look like the rest of them which means he must be the guy in charge. Even if I lose, I can't turn back now."
Without replying, the Red Ranger put away his gun and held out his hand. "Flame Saber!" he cried, a silver orb materializing in his hand. In a swift motion, he slotted the orb into the left slot on his belt. Both orbs glowed and a mist of red energy appeared before him, roughly the size of his head. Putting his hand up to it, the mist rushed into his hand and there was a bright light as the saber emerged.
Taking up a fighting stance, the opponents stared each other down. The battle was about to begin...