Power Rangers Global Trackers
Episode 1 - Operation Trackers pt. I
Writer: Arrow
Synopsis: Terra Expedition Fleet hires two new civilians to join their ranks of field specialists, to the mild discomfort of three other members of the organization. Meanwhile, an enemy group they've fought with in the past unravels a clue pointing to a secret island, and T.E.F. sends the five out to follow.
Disclaimer: In a crazy switch of reality compared to most PR original team disclaimers, the five Rangers (as well as powers and zords) and a huge chunk of the enemy designs are owned by Disney/Village Roadshow Productions. Everything else is ours, of course.
Rating: T
Note: This fic series is an English adaptation of Gougou Sentai Boukenger, the season of Super Sentai airing in 2006 in Japan, which will become Power Rangers Operation Overdrive in 2007. We're basically writing this saga to attempt to see whether we can do a better job at adapting a Sentai season to PR than the people getting paid to write the yearly seasons can. It's also a fic written by multiple people, stored at Arrowned's account only because he's the one that got the initial project together and we're too lazy to set up a combo account. Individual chapters will list who the writer was; generally the other writers all serve as beta readers for chapters they didn't write. More information, including profiles, pictures, and Youtube videos of actors, Rangers, weapons, and zords, is available at prgt . rangerwiki . com
Standing up from the position in the forest he was kneeling in, he took a long look around. The area was full of deciduous trees as far as the eye could see, packed so closely together that he couldn't actually see very far at all. The idea of finding a specific item in this forest was ludicrous, and yet, this was where all his leads were pointing. He took a deep breath and turned to head back to the campsite. Before he could get far, a reptilian creature strode up to him and handed him a tattered rag. Taking a closer look, he realized it wasn't just a random old sheet of paper; it was a map.
He nodded to the soldier, and the creature walked off. Looking down at the faded picture, he could make out very few words in the ancient language it was written in. Only two of them were readable without much difficulty: Graues and Tile. A small smile flashed across his face too quickly for most to catch.
"...This should do quite nicely."
Silvy sat down on the window sill and looked at the landscape. It was high summer, so the residential section of Stone Canyon was wavering in the heat. She could see children playing in yards a good distance down the street, and cars would occasionally zoom by, though in mid-morning, the traffic obviously wasn't going to be very heavy.
She wished she could feel as relaxed as the children. It had been so long since her life wasn't so complex; everything felt like one giant question these days, and she had no idea when she would find an answer. What would she do over the next few hours? Over the next few weeks? How would she take care of herself with all possible resources cut off? What could she do when the only person helping her wasn't able to do so anymore?
Who was she? Where did she come from?
Silvy squinted her eyes hard, but as usual, no memories before three weeks ago came rushing in to fill her mind, as she constantly hoped. Sighing inaudibly, she turned to look at her temporary companion, who was currently putting on what looked like a military dress uniform. "What time are you leaving?"
Dylan, his back turned to her, put his jacket on and zipped it up. "Fifteen minutes, if I want to get there on time."
Silvy gently bit the inside of her lip in unease. She could understand him needing to head off for this job interview as soon as possible; it sounded promising, and money certainly didn't grow on trees, as the saying went. But she didn't even know what his old job was, or why he left it. He didn't seem to be keen on sharing much of his story, though he was certainly willing to listen to what little of hers she'd remembered. Was it that he didn't trust her or was he just incredibly broody? Considering the way he acted towards the random people they had encountered in the past few weeks, she would probably be safe in assuming the second.
"How long do you think it will take?" she asked, watching as he moved over to the mirror and glanced over his appearance, making sure it was as impressive as he could make it.
"Depends. If they're really serious about hiring me, I'd expect them to show me around, which might take an hour or two."
"Do you think they'll hire you?"
Dylan frowned as he considered her question. His resumé was pretty impressive skill-wise, as long as they didn't look too closely at the details of his last line of work. "It's possible. At this point, I really hope so. You're surprisingly full of questions today."
Silvy let loose with a seldom seen grin. "I've got reason to, you know."
Dylan chuckled. "I suppose. Were you just going to sit around here while I'm there?"
"Yeah. I don't really know this area, so I probably shouldn't go out on my own," Silvy replied. She gently rubbed her arms while Dylan was still facing away from her; to counter the high heat, he had what little AC the room had on at full blast. She was sitting right above one of the vents since the building's circulation wasn't the best.
"Actually, I was thinking about taking you with me."
Silvy's eyebrows raised. "Are you sure? I don't want to be a burden. And it might make a bad impression, bringing me along to your personal interview."
"It won't be a problem; don't worry. At the least, my car is better air-conditioned than this apartment anyways. And from the way this place sounds, I'm sure they have a break room or something they can put you in while you wait for me."
Silvy nodded in relief, her guilt at being dependent somewhat assuaged. "That sounds fine then."
Well, that was one question answered. Maybe she'd get lucky and find more answers soon.
An explosion violently tore across the pavement, but Nico was already out of range thanks to a perfectly timed flip off of a nearby brick wall. Ducking into an alleyway, he stealthily bounded up the fire escape, aiming for the roof of the building. Once there, he kneeled down and glanced over the edge, looking towards the main site of the battle. Several rock-based creatures were wandering around, obviously searching for him. He didn't see the others, nor the enemy commander.
Nico fumbled for the Accellular sitting in its mechanical holder on the back of his belt. Flipping it open, he held it to his helmeted ear and waited for it to beep with confirmation of the opening of two comm channels. "Where are you two?"
A female voice came back immediately. "At home. Watchin' the game, havin' a Bud."
The other side of the joke came from another male on the line. "Wassssaaaaa!"
"Ugh. C'mon you two, stay serious."
"In the bushes across from the bank," replied the male voice. Turning his head in that direction, Nico could barely see a tidbit of blue behind the flora in question. Nico shook his head with a snerk at the choice of location; Simon was a wonderful technician, with a knowledge of mathematics and science that Nico couldn't even come close to, but common sense seemed to regularly elude him.
Heather obviously felt the same way. "You really should choose camouflage that actually matches the color of your Ranger outfit next time."
"Oh whatever; Golems aren't even that smart. You could be standing in plain view if they're not looking for you and they wouldn't see you."
"Do we even know if they see in colors or not?" Heather asked.
"For all you know I'm more hidden than you are."
"Simon. You're in a dark blue outfit in the middle of a bunch of light green bushes."
Nico jumped in. "And I actually see a few Golems coming your way, so maybe you should move. Heather, where are you?"
"Look to your left," she replied, over Simon's grunt at having almost been discovered. Nico glanced to his left, saw the Pink Ranger kneeling before the edge of the roof of the bank, cell phone in hand, much like him. Nico smiled. When she first joined their group two months ago, he would've been surprised at her already knowing exactly where everyone on the battlefield was as if she were playing a riveting game of chess; now, it wasn't surprising at all.
"Anyone see Mr. Eager Beaver?" Simon asked over the line.
"He's eight meters down the street, in the alleyway on the left side," Heather replied.
"Let's flush him out. Anyone with a direct line on him, take it. Everyone else, hit the building tops. Fire on ten." Nico pressed the scanner trigger on the left side of the phone to send a click across the line. Two double-clicks responded, and he put the phone back into the belt holder. Pulling his Recon Blaster from the holster on his right hip, he sighted in near the top of the building he could see in that alleyway. On the roof as he was, he certainly didn't have a direct shot, and neither did Heather probably, though there was a good chance Simon did. With five seconds left, he steadied his aim and counted down...
At exactly zero, with perfect synchronization, three lasers fired from the weapons. One hit the pavement, sending up a burst of concrete and fire. The other two hit the building top and sent chunks of mortar falling to the ground. A distant yell could be heard, followed by a man with a gray combat outfit rolling out of the alleyway. Not wanting to give the man any time to react, or the Golems any time to rush to his aid, Nico stood up and leaped off the building top, falling seven stories in a matter of seconds. Hitting the ground, he rushed forward and put out a scatter shot of multiple lasers to keep the man down, with Heather off her building and doing the same nearby. Simon had started picking off footsoldiers around the area.
Nico and Heather reached him, but the man quickly leaped backwards from them and held up a rather wicked looking sword in defense. "You three just don't know when to quit bothering us, do you?"
"We'll quit bothering you if you leave; it's that simple," Heather responded.
The man snarled and sheathed his sword, taking a single step backwards. "Fine. But it's never going to be 'that simple'; not now or next time." He snapped his fingers and turned transparent, literally vanishing into thin air a moment later. The 23 Golems of the original 40 that Simon's sharpshooting behind them hadn't taken out stood still for a moment. The Rangers looked at them, expecting them to vanish in a similar flash of energy.
Instead, they rushed the Rangers.
"Whoa crap!" Simon yelled, taking a step back, unsure as to whether he wanted to stand his ground or backpedal as fast as possible.
"Keep your cool; we can handle this!" Nico replied. "Too close to pick them off; go to Recon Sabers."
The three Rangers pulled up on the handles of their blasters, bringing them in horizontal line with the main portion of the gun. As they did so, sharp extensions popped out of the front of the blasters, turning the ensembles into sword-length blades.
"Go, go!" Nico lead the rush into the oncoming rock monsters, slashing the first, delivering a sidekick to the second, and getting swept off his feet by a third. He rolled away and swept a Golem behind him, then turned back around and delivered a powerful snapkick that sent the first rocketing backwards through the air.
Heather was a whirlwind of punches, kicks, and slashes a short distance away. With a simple maneuver, one rather hefty Golem who attempted to punch her went flipping onto his back, knocking another Golem's feet out from under him. Two more slashes temporarily disabled a third Golem, and she took the opportunity to use him as a springboard, flipping over and landing a drop kick on the next Golem in line.
Simon was quickly alternating between the Recon Saber and Blaster, slashing Golems one second, firing at them point-blank the next. There was already a pile of downed Golems spread around his feet, and the standing opponents were finding it difficult to get at him without tripping over their fallen companions. Simon used that to his full advantage, dodging attacks by dancing out of range, and even kicking downed Golems into live ones.
It only took a few minutes for the three Rangers to take out the remaining footsoldiers. They glanced around to make sure they had gotten them all, and then regrouped next to the bank.
"Well that was fun," Simon muttered as he attempted to catch his breath.
"Only you could come out of something like that and call it fun," Heather said in response, leaning against a wall, breathing heavily herself as she sheathed her blaster.
"I'm personally wondering why they showed up here in the first place," Nico said, the lycra of his red outfit rustling slightly as he stretched his slightly bruised right arm. His question was valid; the only building of importance in the area was the bank they were standing next to. When the enemies initially appeared, they weren't active in that area until the Rangers had inadvertently cornered them there near the beginning of the battle.
"Well, they were obviously after something." Simon looked around slowly as if he could divine what the enemies had been up to just from clues in the environment.
Heather spoke up. "We're not going to figure out anything else here, I think. Maybe we should just take some high-level topographic scans and head back to base. Let the techs figure it out."
Nico nodded, turning around and heading back for their jeep. "Sounds good. Let's get out of here."
Jürgen looked up as the stack of papers landed in front of him on the desk. His subcommander looked rather annoyed. "Is this all you could find?"
Andreas nodded. "Those Rangers showed up again and spoiled the hunt."
Jürgen leaned back into his chair and pressed his fingers against his forehead, trying to stall the incoming headache. The Rangers were far too good at popping up and slowing down their research. "You couldn't manage to keep them busy enough to let the Golems finish searching?"
"Not with the Blue one taking out a Golem a second with his blaster. You're going to have to start giving me more soldiers if you want me to get the job done properly!"
Jürgen glanced at Andreas with a stony look. "Or perhaps you should start using that brain of yours to disperse them in directions that won't get them put in enemy fire at the start of the battle." Andreas grumbled at that, but Jürgen didn't stop. "And stop asking for more soldiers. We can't grow them like fruit, you know."
"They're made of rock and cheap electronics. Of course we can," Andreas replied, trying his hardest to keep from rolling his eyes.
Jürgen blinked. He was right, of course. Sometimes it was hard to remember specifics about his operations when he was in the middle of planning or ranting. Grunting, he picked up the stack of papers and leafed through them. There was very little there that they didn't already know.
"Well, there's no point in wasting anymore time. Gather up a squad of 40 more Golems and get them ready for dispatch; we'll leave as soon as they're up and running."
"Before you do so, I'd like to have a word with you," came a voice to their right. The two men spun around to see a rather powerful looking armored... something standing in front of them. They both reached for weapons in alarm.
"Please don't; I'm not here to attack you," the creature replied, his easy stance broadcasting calm. "I'd just like a little chat."
"How did you get in here?" Andreas said in a low voice, his right hand still resting on the hilt of his sword.
"Not easily, I assure you. In fact, it took me several months to even find the location of this building. I applaud you on your ability to hide your forces."
"What exactly do you want?" Jürgen asked, wanting to get to the meat of the conversation, so he could quickly decide to either get rid of this presumptuous creature or get on with his business.
"My name is Qí Ji Shén. I am the leader of a group named Lóng Gu we are very similar in nature to your own operations. We are treasure hunters."
"Treasure hunters?" Andreas asked, moderately interested now.
"Yes, treasure hunters, just like your Neolante group. And speaking of your group, we found something that may be of interest to you." The creature handed an old map to Jürgen. He took a quick glance at it, and then looked closer. It was a treasure map almost identical to the one they had found recently and were getting ready to head out to use, with one exception: it showed a second treasure on the same island.
"I do believe you might wish to take advantage of this," Qí Ji Shén said, taking the map back.
Jürgen looked into the creature's eyes with a disconcerting stare. "And what exactly do you plan to do? I can't see you randomly showing us this without expecting something in return."
The creature didn't even flinch. "I simply wish to take scans of these two treasures so that I can attempt to duplicate abilities similar to what they allow. I have no intention of keeping them, or even taking them, really. If you allow me a few minutes each with both treasures, I'll be on my way. I also have forces of my own to bring along, in case we need to take care of any problems that show up."
"That would be very useful." Andreas smiled in anticipation at the idea of having more footsoldiers to hold off the Rangers should they appear.
Jürgen, who just as easily assumed that Qí Ji Shén was bringing his own soldiers to hold them off, mysteriously didn't object. "We'll be ready to leave in a half hour."
Qí Ji Shén simply nodded.
"Any ideas?"
Nico's question came through audibly, despite the mid-level racket that was constantly going on behind the four people. Terra Expedition Fleet's base of operations was always loud, what with dozens of people walking through hallways, working on projects, building new devices, and discussing archaeological sites. Even in the command area, the noise pervaded.
The C.E.O. of the entire organization, Emma Reinhart, nodded. "Based on information in our own systems, we were able to locate what they were after, and the scans you took confirmed it. Unfortunately, we don't have much information on the specifics of what it does or what Neolante needs it for. All we know is that there's a third-century device on an island in the northern Pacific that they're after. As soon as we get the newcomers ready, we'll send you to intercept them."
The three Rangers blinked at the statement Emma had just delivered as if it were of no consequence. Simon spoke up, "Wait, who else did you hire? I know you were interviewing the Dylan guy..."
"The woman he brought with him. She wasn't here for an interview, but after meeting her, I decided she was resourceful enough to join you three."
The Rangers nodded. Emma was a fantastic judge of character as far as hiring new employees went, so if she believed this girl was a boon in disguise, they would go along with it. Hearing footsteps behind them, they glanced back to see the focuses of the discussion in question walk up, both dressed in the t-shirt, khaki, and light jacket field outfit for the Rangers.
Emma smiled. "Speaking of, here they are now. I'd like you three to meet Dylan Klinger, our new Black Ranger, and Silvy, our new Yellow. Dylan and Silvy, this is Nico Rodriguez, Simon Barnes, and Heather Giordano."
Dylan nodded at the three in response, while Silvy looked down at the floor with a reserved smile. Nico and Heather smiled, while Simon gave a grin and a little wave.
"Nice to meet you two, and glad to have you onboard," Nico said, holding out his hand for the two to shake, initiating a proper group-wide greeting exchange.
Dylan glanced him over while he shook his hand. "UN?"
"Yeah, and a bit of Peace Corps work," Nico responded, surprised at the other man's accurate guess on his previous career before joining T.E.F.
"Dylan, Silvy, I'll need you two to head down to Tech Ops. We need to get you suited up and have Alexander give you a rundown on your powers before you all head out. I would rather have given you a little extra time to get used to your roles here, but we're on a tight schedule. Follow me, if you please." Emma gave the other three a hand signal they knew to mean they should report to the Zord Launch Bay and walked off with the two new team-members.
Silvy glanced around with her jaw dropped in amazement. She wasn't sure which area looked more impressive, the Command Ops section of the T.E.F. building they had seen a few minutes ago, or the Tech Ops center they were currently in.
Command Ops had looked similar to the type of setup she had seen in sci-fi movies, with a range of computers and video stations all spaced around a central depression, including a circular command ring in the center where the higher-ups would discuss strategy. Tech Ops, on the other hand, looked like a normal laboratory, except about ten times as large. The room easily dwarfed her, and supposedly there was an even larger section elsewhere. The building didn't even look like it could contain all that.
Duh, underground, she thought to herself. And then she turned her attention back to the conversation at hand. While she was glancing around in awe, it seemed their new boss was introducing someone else to them.
"This is Alexander Troxell, our chief technician," Emma said, gesturing towards an older gentleman, whose brown hair had started to go gray at the sides. He looked pretty fit, dashing her mental image of scientists who sat in labs all day without exercising much.
"Call me Alex, kids." Silvy gently smiled. He actually did look to be in his 40s or 50s, so calling them kids in comparison was understandable, though Dylan probably wouldn't agree. In fact, she could see the annoyed tension in her companion's posture as he shook Alex's hand, and she had to fight to keep her smile from turning into a full out grin.
"Alex is in charge of the scientific side of our operation, and is in command of all the engineers you see now. With their help, he created all the gadgets you'll be using on the field, and so he's obviously the best person to explain how to use these devices."
"And Ms. Reinhart will handle questions on the organization, since I'm the mechanic and don't pay much attention to the nitty-gritty of the actual archeology stuff, unless it has to do with my paycheck," Alex explained with a smirk. Emma snorted as he continued. "You can ask Diata about that too, but she's off doing research right now, so we'll introduce you to her later."
Silvy spoke up. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I'm not really clear on the whole point of this place."
Emma nodded, having expected that question to pop up relatively quickly. Silvy didn't know as much as Dylan coming in, so she'd need to hear the details eventually. She gestured at the base around them as she spoke.
"Despite all the monstrous hardware and strategical conversation you see, Terra Expedition Fleet is actually an academic group. We all work in this one building, and though the building has apartments of sorts, many of us live at other homes and come here during the day. As a group, we're not actually that large; we have about 10 archaeologists, 30 technicians, and a few dozen other people handling various other jobs like medical, administration, bookkeeping, our little cafe, and so on. And then there's the five of you, of course. We're in business thanks to government and private grants, and our main objective is simply to explore the world for ancient culture and treasures of old societies. Some of the relics we find, we keep in an in-house museum that's open to the public, and others we donate to other museums or special groups."
Dylan frowned. "Then why do you need a team of Power Rangers?"
"Because," Alex explained, "sometimes those treasures turn out to be not quite normal, and a few have actually been weapons or power sources and the like. They can be dangerous to retrieve, so having a team of superheroes nearby can be handy."
Emma added to the explanation. "There's also the issue of rival treasure hunting groups who either have a monomaniacal desire to find traces of their culture, or who want to use the more powerful treasures out there for illegal reasons. In those cases, we can expect to get attacked if we happen to be at a dig site at the same time as them. So it's obviously not a good idea to send out a team of civilian archaeologists in cases like that."
Dylan and Silvy nodded. It made perfect sense; with a team of Rangers on hand, the archaeologists on site could leave while the Rangers held the enemy back. And with heightened abilities, the Rangers might be able to get the treasures before the rival groups could.
"It sounds like you've already tangoed with some other groups before," Dylan commented.
"Yes, we have," Emma replied. "The majority of them have been small time, two or three man teams who haven't reappeared. There is one exception though, a German-based group named Neolante that we've had to deal with several times in the past."
"Nazis?" asked Silvy. Alex chuckled.
"No, not Nazis; at least, we don't think so. And you'll probably get them mad if they aren't and you say that to their faces, so keep that thought locked up."
Silvy blushed. "Sorry."
"It's alright," Emma responded, smiling at the timid girl. "A lot of people tend to equate the Third Reich with German groups. Probably from watching too much Indiana Jones. We're pretty sure Neolante isn't even mildly related to Nazi society, but they are interested in something the Nazis held a lot of mysticism for. Specifically, the old Ahnenerbe Society often searched European soil for supposed proof of German relation to Nordic ancestors with mysterious technology; in fact, Atlantis figures into a few of their myths. Neolante seems to be a modern splinter group of the society, though I sincerely doubt they're working with governmental backing."
"So if they're just searching for traces to their peoples' past, then why are they fighting to find treasures before we get to them?" Dylan asked.
"As far as I we can tell, it's because their group believes that the Nordic race were inherently dominant over the rest of the world, possibly even superhuman. And they want to bring that dominance back to the fore. So whenever they find ancient technology that can be used as weaponry, they tend to have a desire to want to use those weapons for the benefit of a German takeover, despite the fact that they don't seem to want to give the people of their country a say in the matter."
Dylan grimaced. "So we're looking at a group of extreme idealists with possible access to WMDs."
Alex grinned. "Pretty much. Ain't the truth just a piece of crap?"
Silvy giggled, Dylan rolled his eyes, and Emma gave Alex 'the look'. He subsided, though his grin didn't shrink that much.
"So anyways," Alex continued, "we'll often be sending you out into the field in dangerous situations, and that's what the Ranger powers are for. So here's a breakdown of what you'll have available to you."
He handed Dylan and Silvy two cell phones. There was the usual range of buttons on the front, with a few extras on either side of the phone, and a camera lens on the top left.
"This is your Accellular. Cute little name that Diata, of all people, came up with. More than anything else you'll receive, this is the most important of your arsenal. The cell phone has a carbon-dating/danger level scanner, camera, and blacklight, and can call in your zords to a location in addition to making normal phone calls. It also acts as your morphing device; it's what allows you to transform into Rangers. Lose this thing and you're screwed, so don't lose it."
Silvy flipped her phone opened and looked at it. The number buttons were pretty obvious, but the rest of the array was just confusing.
"It looks confusing, but we've programmed some low level mental acuity into your powers, something we picked up with the help of the Lightspeed folks in Mariner Bay. You'll understand how to use the phones when the time comes, and if you don't, your teammates are already fully familiar with everything, so they can show you."
"You've also got several weapons available while morphed," he continued, bending down to a computer screen and pulling up relevant pictures on the monitor. "Your standard sidearm is called the Recon Blaster, which you can turn into a full length sword called the Recon Saber by yanking up on the handle. You also have a device called the Scope Sight, which you can use both morphed and unmorphed incidentally. I'll go into detail on that later; you probably won't need that right away. Each of the five of you have unique weapons as well, in addition to the Recon Blaster, called Seeker Weapons. Dylan, yours is the Radial Hammer, and Silvy, you have the Bucket Scrapers. Call their name out while morphed and they'll teleport in; you can handle it from there."
Alex flipped the pictures of the Seeker Weapons he was last showing them over to a set of five vehicles sitting in a large room. Silvy gasped as she realized that the image was realtime, being shown by a security camera, and that these weren't small machines like she had initially assumed, but gigantic vehicles. She could see a tiny Red Ranger through a window in the dump truck.
"These are your zords, the Geo Cruisers. Dylan, Silvy, you'll be driving Cruisers 2 and 4 respectively, 2 being the race car and 4 being the bulldozer. I'm sure you two are familiar with Power Ranger arsenal having lived in California, so you probably already can tell that those five zords can combine to form a Megazord. Nico, Simon, and Heather will help you out with that too, since you'll all be controlling the thing together. But as for driving your individual zords, that trick I mentioned that will let you know how to use the phones when the time comes will do the same for the zords, so you should be good to go. The zords' steering wheels, called Geo Launchers, are sitting in a section in the wall right before the entrance to the bay; we keep them separate for safety reasons. Just don't forget to grab them on your way to the zords, or you won't have anything to drive with."
Emma spoke up once Alex was finished with his explanations. "I know all that was a bit limited, and probably a lot less detailed than the kind of briefing you're use to Dylan, but trust us when we say you'll know what to do. The technology's pretty ingenious on that end."
Dylan wasn't too pleased with the lack of specifics, but he just nodded. "You said something about us being on a tight schedule."
"Yes. The other three Rangers were in a battle only a few hours earlier, and from that, we found out that Neolante is heading for an island in the north Pacific, with ruins from around 200 CE. We don't know what they're after specifically, but the fact that they attacked a busy section of the city earlier to get documents that would help them locate whatever they're after doesn't paint a good light on their eventual intentions. So we're sending the five of you after them."
"How are we gonna get to the north Pacific? Most of those zords are wheeled," Silvy asked in confusion.
"You'll be good to go on that end," Alex explained. "Another bit of technology we have access to, thanks to a private scientific group we're friends with. Their technology probably won't go public domain for at least twenty or thirty years, but in the meantime, they're letting us test it. It's a sort of on-land hyperdrive. Despite the whole crossing the ocean and going 3000 miles thing, it'll take you less than an hour to get there."
Emma placed a hand on both their shoulders. "Go ahead and meet the other three Rangers in the Launch Bay; you don't have much time to spare. And good luck."
"Well, that was strange," Nico muttered, leaning back against the seat of his zord. The view out of the window displayed the florescent-lighted exit path for his section of the bay. The three had morphed and decided to wait in their cockpits for the other two teammates, instead of in the lounge that connected to the bay.
"Interesting that Ms. Reinhart would just hire someone off the street like that for a job this important," Heather added. She had her head leaned back against her seat's headrest, eyes closed. Working with the shocktrooper group in Lightspeed Rescue, she had learned early on that it was a good idea to catch power naps anytime she could in battle situations. That held true even when she could only rest and not actually sleep, and even now when they hadn't left for the battlefield yet.
As she relaxed, she continued to think about the new teammates. Silvy seemed nice at first glance, if a bit shy. But they already knew a little about Dylan since Emma had shared portions of his background with them, and felt a little more comfortable at the idea of him joining. Having to take care of someone else on top of that, whose skill level was unknown, didn't sit well with her. But she had done it before and could do it again, she supposed.
"Well, she's the boss lady, so I guess that's that. Might as well just go with it," Simon replied, running along the same line of thought. He rolled his eyes as two female technicians as old as his parents smiled and waved in his direction as they passed by his zord. They were heading for the emergency exit, along with the rest of the techs that had been servicing their vehicles prior to departure.
Geo Cruisers 1, 2, and 4 sat on platforms on the lower level of the launch bay that could rotate a full 360°, so that the zords could reorient for departure after arriving from a battle. Nico had been rotating his section of the floor in boredom, and happened to be facing in the direction of the raised platform Geo Cruiser 3 was sitting on while the ladies had walked by. He smirked. "Can't seem to get them to stop, can you?"
"Ugh, don't remind me. Even when Heather and I were working with Lightspeed, I had to dodge them constantly."
"You could beat yourself up, give yourself a few facial bruises. Maybe they'd stop then," Heather added in jest. She could already see what had happened from her position, since Geo Cruiser 5 was slightly below the level of all the other zords, with the view out of the left side of her cockpit trained right on Simon's zord.
"Are you kidding? Then they'd just mother me back to health," Simon countered.
"Well, you could try a little harder. Bathe less frequently. Pick your nose."
"Talking from experience on that one?"
"Only trying to make you accentuate your fouler qualities; I just work with what I've seen."
"Yeah, what you see every day in the mirror."
Nico couldn't keep himself from speaking up at that point. "You know, if either of you just showed this side of your personalities to interested people, you'd scare them off in no time."
Simon and Heather both burst out laughing at that. "Oh c'mon hon, you know you love the bickering. Your life would be entirely too boring without us around," Heather responded. Nico just grunted.
Before the two could throw the inevitable trashtalking in Nico's direction, Dylan and Silvy came running from the elevator for their zords, Geo Launchers in hand. Nico sat up and rotated his zord back to exit position while they waited for the two to buckle in. "Status check; Red's standing by, full power."
Dylan had just sat down in his seat and was placing his Geo Launcher into the control panel of his zord. "Black's greenlighted across the board."
"Blue's ready to fly," came Simon's response as he hit a button on his console, making the steering wheel of his own Geo Launcher pop up from the briefcase into standard position with a ratcheting click.
Silvy was already in her zord as well by this point, and was connecting her Accellular to the tiny panel that had just slid out of the side of her locked-in Geo Launcher, giving the cell phone a nice stable location where she could easily dial commands when needed. "Yellow here; I guess I'm good to go."
"Pink; systems optimal," Heather finished. She started the departure process by reaching for her Accellular and pressing the button to the right of 0 on the phone, a button labeled GO. Upon pressing it, an automated voice called out "Dispatch mode, online!"
"Alright then," Nico continued. "Everyone launch." He pressed 1 on his own phone.
"Dump Truck," called the recorded voice. The headlights on Nico's Geo Cruiser 1 flipped on as he started the engines.
"Racer." Dylan could feel the powerful thrum of Geo Cruiser 2's motor beneath his seat, dust beginning to whip through the bay from underneath his vehicle.
"Copter." Geo Cruiser 3's airfoil rotors on either side of Simon's cockpit began whirling, quickly picking up speed.
"Bulldozer." Silvy smiled as she tested the giant scraper on the front of Geo Cruiser 4 while the ignition was turning over.
"Submarine." Heather felt a slight feeling of weightlessness as the clamps holding Geo Cruiser 5 to its position in the bay released, letting the vehicle float in the manufactured river it would exit from.
The five Rangers placed their upstretched hands against the turbine wheel at the bottom of their Accellulars and quickly passed their hands to the right, spinning the turbines and producing a series of sparks, while that same automated voice yelled "Go!" With that confirmation, the zords began to move out. Geo Cruisers 1 and 2 drove straight ahead, across bridges leading over the man-made lake to their exit ramps on the far side of the room. Geo Cruiser 4 rumbled out of an exit on the right-hand wall, while Geo Cruiser 5 sped along the water underneath the bridges, heading for its exit on the left-hand wall. Geo Cruiser 3 lifted straight up and out of sight.
Upon exiting the facility, all five vehicles appeared from their individual exits to various sections of the city. Geo Cruiser 1 came thundering out of an unfinished skyscraper construction site, while Geo Cruiser 2 power-slided around the curve of a racetrack. Geo Cruiser 3 took to the air and flew past a tall tower in the middle of the city skyline. Geo Cruiser 4 barreled through another construction site, displacing a large pile of dirt as it went. Geo Cruiser 5 steadily traveled along a serene river, passing under a traffic-filled bridge.
Within minutes, the five zords had regrouped and were traveling along a stretch of plain between mountains and the river, on their way to the target site.
Andreas had just stepped out of a particularly nasty bush full of thorns when he heard a whirling noise. Looking up into the sky, it took several moments to track the noise down. Qí Ji Shén glanced up at the stopped Neolante member and spoke up. "What is it, young warrior?"
"We've got company," he replied, pointing to the sky. Upon looking up, Qí Ji Shén and Jürgen could see what Andreas had trouble picking out seconds before. A blue helicopter-like vehicle was passing overhead through the large valley.
Jürgen grunted. "They appeared a bit too fast for my liking."
Qí Ji Shén just nodded, as if he was expecting this to happen. "It looks like they are heading in the direction of the Red. What do you suggest we do?"
Jürgen scratched the five o'clock shadow on his chin for a minute while thinking it over. "Split up. We'll ambush them at the Gray site. You take your forces to the Red and secure it; go ahead and go for the Red Shrine. We'll meet you there once we've retrieved ours."
Qí Ji Shén nodded, pointed his Shou Gui soldiers in the proper direction, and walked off behind them. Andreas, Jürgen, and their small Golem army walked off in the other direction. Andreas waited for them to have gotten a good distance before speaking up again.
"Are you sure that was a good idea? I don't know if he's going to wait for us to get back once he's picked up the second treasure."
Jürgen snorted. "Of course it's not a good idea. Which is why I'm sending you to retrieve the Gray. I'm following him. Call me if the situation devolves."
"Alright." Andreas watched as Jürgen turned around and tramped off in the direction the Lóng Gu had taken.
Geo Cruiser 5 was steadily making its way through the depths of the ocean. Inside the cockpit, Heather was at the controls, with Dylan standing behind her, arms folded. Silvy was glancing out the window in awe. The two had left their own Geo Cruisers on standby mode aboveground near where Nico and Simon were currently holding position.
"Wow, it's really beautiful down here..." she said quietly, trailing off as she watched majestic rock formations pass by in the dark water around them.
"Let me know if you two are getting cold or anything," Heather said, gripping the steering wheel, maneuvering them through several arches.
"I'm fine," Silvy replied, still looking into the depths.
"I'm pretty hot actually; could you turn the air up a little?" Dylan responded.
Heather blinked under her helmet. "The AC is up as far as it'll go."
Dylan put a hand on the steering wheel and reached for the console controls. "Can't be; it's blazing in here. I'll see if it'll--" Before he could get any farther, she slapped his hand away from the console.
"Don't; you might drive us off course," Heather said.
"Geez, alright; sorry," Dylan replied, leaning back.
"Anyways, we're here." The headlights for the zord were illuminating an area not too far in front of them. With a touch of her controls, two mechanical pincer arms reached forward as they got closer to the target.
"Ready to do this?" Silvy asked Dylan, getting antsy now that they had arrived.
"Of course. It'll be interesting, but we can handle it," he replied.
"Hey, what is that?" Silvy questioned, bending her helmet in front of the forward viewscreen to look in detail at something that was hard to see in the gloom. Heather reached a hand up and pushed Silvy's head, which had just obscured her view, up and out of the way.
Nico's helmeted head popped up in a video window on Heather's console, on top of the constant scans and text that were scrolling past. "We don't have a lot of information on it; this area is unexplored. As far as we can tell, it's an ancient shrine of some type."
Simon's head replaced the view on the screen. "There was probably an old civilization living on the island itself at some point in the past, but from what I can tell, this is all that's left. Though I really don't know why the shrine entrance is underwater."
Conversation stopped for a moment as the submarine reached the target site. They had arrived at what looked like a large humanoid-shaped rock sculpture, something more suited for a forbidding ancient temple entrance aboveground rather than sitting at the bottom of the sea. The large figure was reading as around 70ft. tall, and that was from its waist up. Assuming the sculpture was fully built to resemble a person, there would presumably be legs too, although if that was the case, the bottom half of the figure had long been buried underneath the ocean floor. With a push on the gearshifts of her Geo Launcher, the pincer arms reached forward and began removing large boulders from the entrance on the front of the statue's 'chest'.
"Dylan, Silvy, you two do the initial recon. We'll keep track from here in case you need any help," Nico said, his face re-appearing on the console. The two nodded and exited out of the door in the back of the cockpit. A few minutes later, Heather was watching them swim past her viewport, Diver Propulsion Vehicles in hand, heading for the now visible large hole in the 'chest' of the statue.
"Nico, are you sure about sending them in by themselves? Trial by fire seems kind of iffy for something this big," Heather asked, having keyed the connection to only send a comm message to the two more experienced teammates.
Simon's face took center stage on her console again. "Yeah, Dylan sounds like he'll be alright, but Silvy's pretty new, and we have no idea how the two of them work together. This is too important to botch up."
Nico glanced at Dylan and Silvy's progress from the console of his own zord, sitting aboveground on a mountain trail nearby. Geo Cruisers 2 and 4 rested just behind him, and Simon's zord was sitting on the ground just behind those two. "Yes, but we're here to help if something goes wrong. And we'll need to see what they're capable of anyway; better to find out now instead of later, in my opinion."
Heather nodded. He was right on that end. Whatever Neolante was up to, the fact was that there were five Power Rangers on location. They'd be able to handle it if things started going awry, even if the two members needed to grow into their roles in the process.
She watched in silence as Dylan and Silvy disappeared into the shrine.
The two new Rangers broke surface inside a large cavern. Looking around, they could hardly see much of anything; there was no light source to be found. Their eyes adjusted as they crawled out of the water and placed their DPV's on the cavern floor, but the darkness was still overwhelming. "It's really really really dark," Silvy noted, her sing-song tone making the beyond obvious statement not as airheaded as it could've been.
"Turn on your headlights," Dylan replied, smirking at her tone and following his own instructions. With a tap to his right temple, the high power beams on his helmets flipped on, allowing them to illuminate portions of the area. Silvy followed suit. They slowly walked forward, taking in portions of the scenery as they went.
The cavern wasn't much to look at, even with the headlights. Formations of rock with straight lines on the walls and ceilings hinted that even the natural cavern had been worked mechanically sometime in the past, though whether for a type of mining or just for decoration, they had no idea. A large rock wall blocked their passage only a short way up the path though.
Dylan put his hands on the ragged wall and looked at its corners. "Looks like we can't go any further."
"Doesn't make any sense; there's gotta be a way through somewhere." Silvy started looking around for an alternate path when her lightbeams suddenly fell on a group of bats hanging off a nearby section of roof. With a multitude of screeches, they scattered from the light, flying down to the two and overwhelming them with numbers.
"Ack!" Silvy cried as she and Dylan stumbled back into the wall. They tried waving their arms repeatedly to get them to go away, but there were far too many. As Silvy fell backwards though, her right hand hit a section of the wall, and the spot started glowing. With a sudden roar, a portion of the wall behind them crumbled to pieces, and they fell into another room.
Dylan let out a grunt as his back landed on Silvy's feet; she was sprawled on the rock pile underneath him. They quickly got to their feet, waving dust away. Silvy made a noise of wonder as they started looking at the room they had inadvertently found. The new area shone with a deep yellow light and was filled with more of the type of stuff they had come here searching for instead of piles of rock.
Dylan brushed some dust off his behind as he walked in, turning around as he went, taking it all in. Silvy wandered to the other side of the room, drawn to a large statue that lined one wall. It had four protrusions reaching upwards, and a fifth pointing towards a shrine in the middle of the room. An identical five-point statue was on the opposite of the room. Stationed at multiple points around the circular area were columns of intricate design. The shrine in the room's center was simple; a small elevated platform with steps leading to it. At the center of the platform was another statue, a vertical one about six feet high. Six small heads were on each side of the hexagonally shaped formation at knee-height, and the stepped top half culminated in a crystal spike.
Silvy walked up to the statue and looked at it closely. "Hmm, now this is interesting. Hey Dylan, look, there's a switch."
Dylan turned around to watch Silvy reach for a hand-sized, hexagon-shaped piece of rock on the statue. With her left hand, she started turning the switch. "No Silvy, don't!"
His warning wasn't quick enough; she had already rotated the switch a quarter circle counter-clockwise. In response, the six heads on the center shrine shot out massive tongues of fire that stretched the length of the entire room. Silvy screamed and fell backwards off the platform, while Dylan rolled to a prone halt on the other side of the chamber, the flames above his head so hot that he was already sweltering, not more than two seconds after they had appeared.
"Dylan!" Silvy screamed from her position, trapped between a corner of the room and the five-pointed statue.
"Stay down!" he responded, furiously thinking of a way to get them out of this trap that they so blatantly fell into. But he was coming up with nothing but blanks, and the room temperature was quickly becoming unbearable.
He growled to himself in fear. They were running out of time.