"Power Rangers Psycho Impulse"
Book 1: "Ground Zero"
Chapter 4: "Twisted Trigger"
Disclaimer: The Psycho Rangers are not mine. Everyone and everything else in this story is.
Author's note: The new Rangers have their morphers and have their modes of transport, but how well are they going to fight against the extraterrestrial invasion of Earth? And how well are they going to get along with each other? For the answers to those questions and others, read on.
XIPHOS Base
The five newly drafted Rangers walked down to the hangar, guided by the control systems in their morphers. Once there, they found five hovercraft bikes, with rocket-style engines in place of back wheels and curving, scythe-like protrusions extending where front wheels would be. Each bike was colored black, with highlights in individual colors – red, blue, gray-black, yellow, and pink.
"Red's mine," Robin stated, and mounted the red hoverbike before anyone could stop him.
"Well, he is wearing a red shirt," Alaric said. "Maybe we should all pick the ones that match the colors we're wearing." He got on the hoverbike highlighted gray-black, while the other three mounted the hoverbikes with highlights matching the colors they were wearing.
"The coordinates are already programmed into this, right?" Robin asked.
"Yes," Shango answered. "Now let's move."
The five Rangers started their hoverbikes and rode them out of the XIPHOS Base hangar, only to be surprised when those bikes began to accelerate. "Whoa!" Robin shouted as the digital speedometer on his bike climbed higher and higher more and more rapidly.
It was all the Rangers could do to hold on to their hoverbikes while they were accelerating. However, they didn't have to hold on for very long; they soon found themselves in African wilderness, which the bikes' coordinates were saying was part of Sierra Tigris. This was the point at which the bikes slowed to a more normal speed, allowing the Rangers to get a better look at their surroundings. In the distance, they could hear the sounds of combat.
Sierra Tigris, wilderness region
"I don't think we should wait for them to come to us," Robin said, beginning to ride his hoverbike toward those sounds.
Shango followed, visibly irate if one were to see how tightly he was clenching the handlebars of his hoverbike. "We need a plan."
"I've got one. We go in and kick their asses."
"The simple solution is not always the best one," Shango rejoined. "Very often, it is among the worst solutions."
Robin was approaching the scene of the fight and both he and Shango could see two factions of uniformed men fighting each other with high-tech assault rifles and with their bare hands. To their surprise, the uniformed men took notice of their arrival and both factions began opening fire on them. Cursing Robin under his breath, Shango moved in front of him to draw the fire of the uniformed men. Of course, Robin wouldn't let Shango take the heat by himself, or rather – let Shango start "kicking ass" before he could.
Robin accelerated past Shango and threw himself off his hoverbike, lunging at the uniformed men. "Execute Psycho Trigger!" he shouted, pressing the button Deputy Sakurai had pointed out to him. A grid of red energy formed over his body, acting as the "skeleton" for his Ranger suit, which finished forming when he landed on the ground slashing one of the uniformed men with a black-and-red sword. Blackish-blue blood sprayed from the wound and Robin rose to his feet, transformed.
At this point, Shango and the others had made it just in time to see the morphed Robin. He wore a black armor-like suit with red framing the sides of his torso and forming vestigial protrusions on his shoulders. A bar of red across his chest connected the sides, forming a red "H" on a black background. A white belt with a gold-and-black "N" buckle wrapped around his waist and red stripes outlined his pelvis, which was also somewhat emphasized by silver studs just below the buckle. A white "collar" framed the suit's neck, while white bracers and boot cuffs highlighted by red wrapped around half his forearms and ringed his upper calves. His gauntlets and boots were black, with silver studs on the backs of his hands, and a black helmet with demonic red framing around an equally demonic black visor obscured his face, while a silver plate decorated by needle-like black "teeth" covered his mouth.
"Robin?" Alaric asked. "Is that you?"
"Yeah," Robin replied, but his voice had a twisted, metallic quality to it. "So this is the power of a Psycho Ranger. Feels awesome."
"Then you must be the Red Psycho Ranger," Alaric concluded.
"Or Psycho Red for short," Robin rejoined.
"We shouldn't waste any more time," Achala said, raising her Psycho Morpher. Micaela and the remaining unmorphed boys raised their morphers as well, all four angling their wrists so that their fingers were pointing toward their eyes. They drew back their left arms, positioning the fingertips of their right hands over their left wrists, and then swung their left arms back around into position in front of their bodies, pressing the activation buttons pointed out by Deputy Sakurai while shouting, "Execute Psycho Trigger!"
"Psycho Trigger Initiated," the morphers' control systems declared. Immediately, the display panels on those morphers flashed with more equilateral digital representations of Robin's belt buckle, albeit colored pink, yellow, blue, and grayish-black. Energy grids formed around their bodies, acting as skeletons for the Psycho Ranger suits that quickly covered them. The suits were exactly identical to Robin's, only highlighted in their own individual colors – Shango's in vivid blue, Alaric's in a shade of black slightly differing from the black of his armor and with a gold collar, Micaela's in electric yellow, and Achala's in striking pink.
"This . . . is amazing," Shango uttered in a twisted and metallic voice.
"Uh-huh," Alaric agreed in a similarly twisted and metallic voice.
"This feels nice," Micaela joined in, her voice just as twisted and metallic as the boys' but with a hint of menace in it.
"Stop wasting time," Achala cut in, her voice twisted and metallic like her comrades'.
"Rangers!" one of the uniformed men growled. "We were not told there were Power Rangers on this world!"
"We're not Power Rangers, dipstick," Robin sneered. "We're Psycho Rangers, but you can identify us by color. And you're all going down."
The uniformed men began to open fire on Psycho Red, who deflected their blasts with his sword. "My turn." In a red-lit blur of motion, Psycho Red began slicing apart the uniformed men, black-blue blood spilling from them.
The other Psycho Rangers materialized their own weapons, Psycho Blue a blue-and-silver double-sided axe, Psycho Black a black rod with sharp twin prongs on the business end, Psycho Yellow a black-and-yellow sling, and Psycho Pink a black-and-pink bow. Blue and Black moved into action, attacking the uniformed men with their weapons and their speed, while Yellow and Pink utilized long-distance attacks with their respective sling and bow, the latter firing energy arrows.
Red's sword was blocked by one of the uniformed men via that man's rifle. The same thing happened to Blue's axe and Black's rod. The other uniformed men began to fire on Yellow and Pink, who dodged in yellow- and pink-lit blurs of motion. At one point, Yellow stopped and the ground warped beneath her feet, swallowing her in, much to Pink's worry. She didn't have to worry for long, as Yellow reemerged from another ground warp and shot down several of the uniformed men with her sling.
"Enough of this!" one of the uniformed men roared. "It's time we showed these humans what they're dealing with!"
With angry roars or screeches, the uniformed men literally tore out of their bodies as though they were just old clothes that had outlasted their usefulness. Behind those human bodies were monstrous dragon-like and birdlike hominids . . . and none of them looked happy to see the Psycho Rangers.
Psycho Red smirked under his helmet and pointed his sword at them. "Come on."
The draconic and birdlike hominids rushed the Psycho Rangers as one, the Psycho Rangers lunging into the thick of battle. Red, Blue, and Black sliced through them with their weapons, while Yellow and Pink fired upon the extraterrestrial hominids. As much superiority as the extraterrestrial hominids had in sheer numbers, the Psycho Rangers were too stubborn to just give in and cry uncle.
Psycho Red charged up his sword with green electricity and swung it in a wide arc, sending a wave of green lightning through it and at two scores of alien hominids, killing them. Psycho Blue held his axe in battle position and spun at super-speed, the air friction from his spinning generating the unique combination of heat and light known as flame. His axe tore through even more of the draconic and birdlike hominids, killing them as well. Psycho Black charged his rod with green electricity and stabbed it into the ground, sending a wave of that same force through the ground and killing more of the hominids.
Psychos Yellow and Pink launched themselves into the air, poised horizontally and with their weapons pointed at the ground. They strafed the alien hominids, to the point that there were hardly any more that could stand against them. Of course, when they landed, they found that one of the hominids, a dragon type, had survived . . . and was mightily pissed.
"You brats . . ." he rasped. "Who do you think you are?"
"We're the Psycho Rangers," Psycho Yellow retorted. "And you're going to be lava ash soon."
"We'll see!" the draconic hominid snarled, summoning a wicked-looking double-bladed lance.
Psycho Red charged at the dragon hominid, their weapons colliding halfway. Their battle was fast and brutal, until the dragon hominid slashed Psycho Red with an energized blade, knocking the twisted Red Ranger down with a charred mark where the blade had struck his armor. Just as Red started to get up, Black and Blue went on the attack with their respective rod and axe, the dragon hominid easily blocking their attacks with his lance. Again, he energized both blades on the lance and slashed both Psycho Rangers, knocking them down just in time for Pink and Yellow to open fire on him with their weapons. The dragon hominid simply deflected their fire, the energy coating his blades generating a reflective field that sent their fire back at them.
"Who is this guy?" Psycho Black asked.
"I am Kraylost," the draconic hominid replied, "and I'm going to kill you."
Psycho Red rose to his feet, supporting himself with his sword. "Screw that. You're not killing me. Or anyone else on this planet. Understand . . . punk-ass?"
End Notes: That's a good point on which to end this installment. The Psycho Rangers have activated their morphers for the first time, but will their newfound abilities enable them to prevail against the invasion forces threatening to turn their planet into charcoal in their quest for the planet's precious minerals? Will they be able to overcome their personality conflicts in order to cohere as a team? For the answers to those questions and others, keep on reading and let me know what you think of this one.