"Sky!"
The outcry acted as a spur, raising the pitch of the battle. Pink Ranger and Yellow Ranger sped up their attacks, desperate to finish the fight quickly so they could see if their friend was hurt. Black Ranger was unable to immediately reengage the Reaper. In pushing him out of danger, Blue had given the Krybots space enough to interpose themselves between Black and the Reaper.
That left Blue lying on the ground, and Bridge essentially weaponless. His Deltamax Striker would fire an energy blast, which the Reaper had proven that it could absorb. But a Ranger doesn't need equipment to defend themselves. Bridge had known that long before anyone had tried to teach it to him. The others relied heavily on their powers when they didn't have tools to draw on. But Bridge had never had that advantage as his power wasn't useful for offense or defense. He had always been forced to use his wits.
Left to his own devices, he might have hesitated to actually fight the Reaper on his own. But Blue was down, and the Reaper would surely destroy him if nothing was done to prevent that. And so Bridge went right for it. The Reaper was once again faster, but Bridge had anticipated this. Instead of lunging directly, he feigned an attack, dodged, and then struck from the side before getting clear.
He barely escaped injury as the clawed hand raked down on him, slicing the arm of his jacket to ribbons. But Bridge himself was unharmed, at least for the moment. Instead of moving in again, he took a moment to replay the last few seconds in his head.
His initial strike had done exactly what was necessary. It had turned the Reaper's attention to him and away from his downed teammate. The question now was, could he win, or did he just need to hold out until one of the other Rangers could assist him?
A moan distracted him. Blue was rolling onto his stomach and getting to his hands and knees, shaking his head slowly. Bridge felt relief, but then realized he was in trouble. The Reaper had noted his lapse of attention and taken instant advantage.
Raising a hand, it showed the blue orb in its palm, which glowed faintly, then more and more brightly. From inside the orb there came another silver blade, which spun through the air like an arrow. Bridge didn't have time to get clear. But he did manage to protect his neck with one hand. The blade pierced through his glove, straight into the center of his palm.
Bridge cried out involuntarily and staggered at the combined pain and force of impact. The Reaper closed the distance between them in a heartbeat and took hold of the exposed end of the blade. Twisting it, the Reaper drove Bridge to his knees. But it was more than the blade that caused him to cry out in anguish.
The hole in the glove, as well as his hand, exposed him directly to the aura of the Reaper. Bridge's eyes went wide as his power activated, amplified a hundred fold by his adrenaline and The Reaper's evil aura and immense power. He found himself being drawn into The Reaper's mind, his thoughts being drowned in the darkness of The Reaper's very soul.
"Let him go!"
For once, Blue didn't quote the rule book. He was direct and to the point, leaping at his adversary without real warning. He followed through with a raised knee to the Reaper's face, assuming the thing had one somewhere inside that hood. The Reaper staggered back with an ear-splitting wail and Blue took up a position between it and Bridge. Seeing that most of the Krybots had gone down and that soon the rest of the Rangers would be upon it, the Reaper chose to flee. With an angry hiss, it turned and ran.
"Blue!" Black Ranger shouted, holding several Krybots at bay, "Run. It. Down."
Blue nodded, turned and took off after the Reaper.
"Wait! Stop!" Bridge cried out, staggering to his feet, "No, no!"
But Blue was already gone and there was no way that Bridge could even possibly catch up. So he stood staring after Blue while the rest of the Rangers dispatched the remaining Krybots. Then he turned on Black, anger unmistakable in his eyes.
"What the Hell were you thinking!?" Bridge demanded, eyes bright with barely contained fury, cradling his injured hand with his good one.
"What is your problem, Carson?" Black growled, turning on him heatedly.
"You shouldn't have sent Sky after that thing!" Bridge shouted, "Didn't you hear that cracking sound earlier?"
"What about it?" Black asked impatiently.
"That was his radio, genius."
"So?"
"So? So? Now you can't call him off," Bridge retorted furiously.
"And that's a problem because?..."
"Because he can't catch the Reaper," Bridge snapped angrily.
He turned his attention to the blade in his hand, trying to reclaim his sense of calm. His hands were shaking, his thoughts whirling.
"So he'll lose the thing and come back, big deal," Black shrugged with maddening indifference.
"No. No he won't," Pink Ranger said before Bridge could think of a retort, "Sky follows SPD regulations to the letter. You gave him a direct order. He won't stop until he carries it out, you stop him... or..."
"Or he dies trying," Bridge finished, then pulled the knife out of his hand, biting back a yelp of pain as he did so, "Real good leadership there, Cale," he threw the knife down and it clattered to the ground.
"What? It's your job to tell me stuff like that!"
"No," Pink Ranger flew at once to Bridge's defense, getting between him and Black Ranger, "It's not. It's your job to know. You're the leader of B-Squad."
"Rangers!" Cruger interrupted over the radio, "Who's at fault can wait. Come back to base at once."
"Commander, what about Sky?" Yellow Ranger asked.
"We'll discuss that when you get back."
"Isn't there a way to track them, or at least track Sky?" Jack asked.
"No. There's a tracking chip in the radio, which was broken," Kat explained, "The best I can do is try to find them with cameras. But if they've left the populated areas, there's no way to find them."
"Another fine mess caused by SPD regulations," Jack grumbled, shooking his head in disgust.
"It's not the manual's fault," Kat disagreed, "It's about how the rules are implemented, not the rules themselves. Reese made a mistake, it happens."
"Yeah well, I never got anybody killed with my mistakes," Jack said.
"Don't count Cadet Tate out just yet," Cruger told him, "We're assuming he can't achieve his objective, and we may be underestimating him."
"No. We're not," it was Bridge who said this as B-Squad filed into the command center.
"You know something about this alien?" Jack demanded, turning towards him.
"Only what I felt from it," Bridge replied, his voice unusually subdued and very small and quiet, "And it was not good. It was... very, very bad. Extremely-" he broke off, biting his lower lip to keep it from quivering, his eyes looking from face to face unhappily.
"Let me see that," Kat broke in, taking Bridge's wrist and turning it so she could see his palm.
"I'm okay," Bridge said, but everybody could see by his face and voice that he was lying.
Everyone could tell he was in no small amount of pain.
"So he got stabbed in the hand. Big deal," everyone, that is, except Callum.
"Yes. It is a big deal," Kat hissed, "Bridge, come with me. Right now."
She didn't wait for a reply, or permission from Cruger, propelling Bridge from the room.
"What?" Callum asked.
"Cadet Carson reads energy through his hands," Cruger said.
"Yeah, so?"
"It's a power he does not have control over."
"Hence why he's always wearing gloves," Jack put in, then added before turning to leave, "And now there's a hole in his glove."
"Not to mention his hand," Syd said, turning and following Jack.
Z went with them, leaving Callum and Cruger standing alone in the command center.
"Really, I'm fine," Bridge insisted.
"No, you're not. Stop arguing with me," Kat retorted, "and hold still."
Gently, she pulled off the damaged glove and put it aside. She could see the change in Bridge's face immediately. Even damaged, the glove had kept Bridge's power semi-contained, limiting his exposure to energies. Normally, he would only run his hand over a very specific object, then put his glove back on. It had taken him time to learn how to do it just right, so that he didn't get overwhelmed by unwanted information.
But with an open wound, as well as an open glove, there was no telling what he was picking up. It was clearly difficult for him to try and ignore it all. Kat wasn't sure Bridge was actually hearing what she was saying. Maybe he was ignoring her, maybe he wasn't hearing her.
He had his eyes closed and was biting his lip so hard she was afraid he'd make it bleed.
"Sit," she said, and when he didn't do as she asked, she half-guided and half-pushed him into a chair.
Frankly, she was surprised he'd held it together all the way back to base. She bandaged the wound as quickly as she could and then turned to the damaged glove. It wouldn't do Bridge much good now. Thinking quickly, she began to look through the drawers and cabinets.
"It's not running away," Bridge said, opening his eyes and staring past Kat at the wall, "Evil never runs away."
"What?" Kat asked distractedly, responding solely to keep Bridge talking, and not really listening.
"Grumm's Reaper wants to be chased. That was the plan, all along. All along," his voice shook.
Kat wasn't listening, but the rest of the Rangers were, having just arrived to see if Bridge was okay. They halted in the doorway, but didn't interrupt. Bridge didn't seem aware of them, slowly swaying from one side to the other in his seat.
"True evil never runs. Bad people run. Bad people hide. Evil only lurks. Evil always plots. Evil lies in wait. Plan... it was the plan... all along," his brow furrowed as he tried to form what was in his head into words, "He can't catch the Reaper."
"Here," Kat sighed with relief.
She'd found one of Bridge's old gloves. It wouldn't be as good as what he was used to, but it would have to do for the time being.
"Put this on," when Bridge didn't seem to hear her, she took his hand gently and did it for him.
It took a few seconds, but his eyes cleared somewhat and he looked at Kat as though seeing her for the first time. Then he looked around the room and noticed the rest of B-Squad, minus Callum, in the doorway.
"He'll be okay," Kat said, seeing their worried faces.
But that didn't clear their expressions. Instead, Jack stepped forward until he was standing right in front of Bridge. His face was very serious.
"What were you just talking about?" he asked, his tone caught between authority and gentleness.
"Hmm?" Bridge blinked thoughtfully, then his face darkened, "Sky can't catch Grumm's Reaper."
"Why not?" Jack demanded.
"Jack-" Kat began, but he put up a hand to silence her.
"Why not?" He repeated, harshly shaking Bridge by the shoulder, noticing that Bridge's attention was wandering.
"Because," Bridge replied distantly, "Grumm's Reaper... is going to catch him."
Blue Ranger had pursued the Reaper through shopping districts and parks, under overpasses and across streets. It hadn't been long before he lost direct line of sight with the Reaper, but it left a clear trail of blue-black smoke behind it. In spite of its speed, the Reaper wouldn't find it easy to elude Blue Ranger with that trail.
The other Rangers might not know it, but Blue had heard Bridge call out. He had considered heeding the warning, but decided against it. He was already in bad with Jack somehow. He'd tried not to take that personally, he and Jack never got along. But the truth was that he didn't believe Jack did anything without reason. Not anymore. The issue, then, must be with Sky himself as a Ranger.
He wasn't about to add disobeying a direct order to the list of strikes against him, whatever they might be. He knew he hadn't always been the model of self-control, especially where Jack's orders were concerned. He probably deserved to be off B-Squad. Chances were, he was still on the team only because they were the last defense against Grumm's army and there weren't enough of them to afford losing a Ranger. But the arrival of Black Ranger might signal a change to all that.
Blue Ranger at last got a visual on the Reaper near a cliff overlooking the ocean. The Reaper stood at the edge, facing towards Blue. Smoke curled out from under the black robe, rising almost shoulder high and spreading in a dark circle around the Reaper.
Blue halted several yards away, suddenly wary. The Reaper had intentionally cornered itself. That meant only one thing. A trap, set for a Ranger. And Blue had walked right into it. He looked around, but the flat ground covered in short, sparse grass left nothing to the imagination. There weren't any hiding places for Krybots or anything else. It was just the Reaper, standing alone. Waiting. Waiting for him.
And yet, somehow, that didn't put Blue at ease.
He had known, even as he took off after the Reaper, that he didn't stand a chance. The earlier fight had been going badly, and that was with Blue, Black and Green working together. He had known going in that this was a fight he could not win. But he'd hoped Black had a plan. He'd trusted to that.
And here he was, standing by himself. Bridge had been right. Long ago, when he'd talked about his former roommate, Sky had never paid much attention to him. Bridge said the guy couldn't be trusted. And here was the proof. Now Sky wished he'd listened more closely. But, in those days, he hadn't really bothered to understand Bridge. Just tolerate him. It was before they'd become friends.
"You... should not... have pursued..." the guttural, oily voice came from somewhere inside the dark hood of the Reaper.
"You assaulted SPD Rangers. That's against the law, you know," Blue countered, his voice steady, sure, "And now you're under arrest."
"And you," the Reaper hissed, "are going to die."
As it said this, the smoke to the Reaper's right seemed to suddenly thin out. Two glowing objects, like red lasers, peered from the gloom. A low growl reverberated through the air, and a large clawed foot that looked like a paw stepped out of the smoke, followed by a muscular black body. The red lasers turned out to be a pair of demonically flashing eyes set in a massive panther-like skull.
"Scared to fight me on your own?" Blue asked, his voice cold.
"This," the Reaper said, laying a boney hand on the beast's head, "is a monster of my own creation. It was designed for one purpose only."
Blue recalled to mind the silver blades which had materialized out of nowhere. Objects created using energy. And now... a smoke-based energy beast which looked like a cross between a wild cat and Cerberus. Blue had nothing which could compete with that.
"As I said," The Reaper purred, its voice rattling like an old car's engine, "You are going to die."
"Sure," Blue replied evenly, "but not today."
He then did something which went against every bit of his training, as well as his own nature. He turned, and ran. With a roar, the Reaper's beast flew after him, claws ripping tears into the soft earth as it sprang from its master's side in pursuit of the prey it had been created to hunt.