Whiteness came. Things formed as his eyes opened, a window, a chair, what looked like a bed with feet laying on it. It was hard to tell what they were because they were so bandaged up. They looked more like pillows than feet.
But then it hit him. They were his feet, Zack's feet. Man, I'm still here! Zack thought. Why did hospitals have to be so boring? He'd been stuck there for days and days with nothing to do but watch the crappy Lifetime movies they left on the T.V. Why did the nurse refuse to give him the remote? Why can't I watch my Andre Benson? Why—
Zack stopped that thought, and he looked back down at his feet. Maybe watching Andre's sweet moves wasn't exactly what he needed right now. But a distraction would be nice. The only noise in the room came from the droning beep of the heart monitor, and that was on the good days.
Some days were bad. Occasionally, Zack heard this horrible shrieking coming from the hallways. Just randomly in the middle of the night he would snap awake to these screams. Sometimes they were just the screams of the nurses. He didn't much of those. It was a hospital after all.
There were other screams, though. Weird ones, ones so high pitched that felt like someone was shoving glass into his ears, no matter how far away they were. These screams were always followed by the sounds of glass smashing and a gurney wheeling by his room.
He called for the nurse the first time it happened. She smiled and said that it was no biggie and told him to go to sleep. She laughed as she walked away, holding a sponge to a nasty gash on her head. After that, Zack just covered his face with the blanket any time the screaming started again.
A mechanical whirl went off of in the room. He darted his back and forth to see where it was coming from. The window, a steel sheet was sliding down and covering the window.
"What th—nurse! Nurse!" Zack called out from the top of his lungs.
The blonde nurse came out with a bright smile on her face, and several men in black suits standing behind her.
"Hey honey," she said, "just relax. I'm ensure you everything's gonna be fine. We just need to take some precautions."
The men in black suits approached Zack. Three of them standing on each side of his bed.
"Wait! Stop!" he screamed as they tightened the leather straps onto his skin.
The man's grip was so hard that Ben Douglas thought that he was gonna tear Ben's arm out of its socket. The man in black grabbed Ben's greying hair and rammed into the windshield.
"Stop resisting!" the man said.
Ben's jaw ached. He could taste the blood leaking into his mouth. "Please," he tried to say with his face against the windshield, "I didn't do anything!"
"Enough, give him the test."
Another man in black came around and slammed a metal briefcase on the hood of the truck. He flipped a switch and swiveled a couple of dials on the top of the case then he unhooked a metal wand on a cord from the case.
Searing pain rang throughout his arm as the man in black slowly bent it backwards. Ben winced in agony.
The man took the wand. "Now hold on sir, it will be over soon."
"Let him go!" a shrill voice called out from the distance.
Oh no, not now. Please don't let it be. . . Ben thought as he barely managed to flip his head to the other side. It was Rachel, and she was running in her pink nightgown toward the truck. Her eyes red were with tears as she ran across the lawn.
"Honey, stop!" Ben yelled.
"Get her," the man said.
Two more men rushed out and made a wall to block her. She kicked and scream at them before they tackled her onto the lawn, bending her arms behind her back.
"Let her go you bastards!"
The man didn't even respond. He just waved the wand over Ben's head for a few seconds. A moment later, the briefcase started beeping like crazy.
"Alright, let's bag 'em," the man said.
He slipped handcuffs onto Ben's wrists and dragged him off of the hood. Sloppily, Ben tried to wiggle and worm his way out of the man's grip as he was around back to the trailer, but his head was getting dizzier and dizzier, and the man was much younger than he was, much stronger. The man threw him into the trailer
His feet quaked as they shut him in, because the last thing he saw, before the door closed, was six more government trucks. Each one perfectly lined up with every house on the block.
What? What's going on? Tommy thought as his vision gradually returned to him. He was moving, being pushed on wheelchair. Around him, a hallway was zooming by him, and he was being pushed toward some double doors. A sign hanged on top of the door. It read: Level 1 Area and Kitchen.
Through the doors, he was wheeled into a wide area with a concrete floor and a metal ceiling, where flickering fluorescent lights hung. People in tattered clothes ate at little folding tables together.
Giving Tree? Tommy thought. But no, this place seemed a little cleaner than the giving tree. The wheelchair stopped at a table, and two men in grey coveralls helped him out of the wheelchair and onto the table's seat.
A wicked burning went through his side as they moved him. Tommy gritted his teeth at the pain.
"Easy, easy," one of the men said,"you're home now."
"What are talking about?" Tommy said with a wince. "Where am I?"
The other man dropped a pink brochure on the table then a bowl of green slime. "We found you on the street and we patched you up," he said, "please eat up and make yourself at home." The men then started heading out the door.
"Hey, wait!" Tommy said, but it was like they didn't hear him. They just turned around and stomped out like robots.
Patched me up? And then, it all came back to Tommy. An agent shot him. Quickly, he rolled up his shirt to see what happened. There was a yellow bandage tapped onto the side of his stomach. So, am I suppose just keep this on for the rest of my life, or what? Tommy thought.
He tried hard to remember what happened to the Command Center, but the only thing that came to mind was him limping through the escape tunnel and then wandering around in the street after that.
Oh no, Tommy felt his wrist, his communicator was gone. Without it, not only couldn't contact the others, but unfortunately Zordon made safe house only accessible via teleportation beam, to keep it secret. He needed to find the communicator now. Luckily, he was able to feel his morpher in his left pocket.
The pink brochure stood out on the grey the table. He snatched it like would run away and read it: The House of Hope has over five different shelters around the city. All dedicated to one singular cause: to protect and give hope to those who don't have any at all.
On the bottom of the paper, it read: Join the Team! We're always ready to accept new members, especially to those who don't have anywhere else to go. You can eat, sleep and work at our shelters and further our cause of bringing hope to the people.
"Creepy," Tommy said. He looked down at the bowl of green, and finally he was able to see what they were serving to people. Some kind of weird chicken soup that smelled like a hospital.
"Well with food like this, why wouldn't I want to work—"
An ear piercing sound rang throughout the room. He darted his head around find the sound was coming from a little stage in the corner. A skinny guy with a shaved and grey coveralls was adjusting a mic on the stage.
All around Tommy, people lifted up their dirty faces from their bowls and gazed at the stage, wide eyed and mouths gaped.
"Hello brothers and sisters," the man on the stage said, "we live in a dark time now, a time where our government can come into our homes and just take our families away from us for the simple crime of existing."
The crowd cheered a little weakly.
"Why are they are gone? We don't know! We must of scared them, I guess. Though I don't know how, since we are the ones barely making by under the helpful watch of big brother, while they are the ones who are taking people off the street and hauling them off to some camp somewhere! Why are they scared?!"
The crowd let out a collective: "Yeah!" Tommy sanked down in his seat.
"And where, may I ask, are the Power Rangers, huh? Where are so called protectors, while the government is doing this to us? Are they on vacation?!"
The crowd began stomping their feet on the floor as they cheered. This is nuts, Tommy thought, do they really think that we're not trying our best?
"Hey folks, how about each of come up here and talk about all the things that've happened to us after the Power Rangers showed up."
Tommy seized up and withdrawn into his seat. He wanted to be as small as possible.
A large, fat man went up to the mic, and there was something was off about him. He kept his down and his eyes away from the crowd the whole time he talked. "You see, my daughter's very sick, and I use to run a little convenience store, you see. And, uh, when that comet came in, it fried up all the electricity, you know? I lost the store, you see, and, uh, I had to sell my house so I could pay off my daughter's doctor bills. I don't remember no comets comin' in before the Power Rangers showed up."
The big guy stepped down, and Tommy saw why he was looking down the whole time. The man's left cheek had crystal growing on it. Slowly, but surely, he was mutating.
An old man with a white beard went up. "My whole farm burnt down after a spaceship crashed on it. The government didn't help me, and neither did the Power Rangers." He walked off, scratching at the crystal growing on his neck.
Then a skinny lady who couldn't stop shaking went to the mic. She talked in a raspy voice "My husband was kidnapped by a bunch of alien cheerleaders, or something like that. I can't even believe half the stuff that happens on my street every other week."
Come on, lady! That's not our fault, and we brought him back to you! Tommy thought.
The lady scratched the top of her head. "After he came back, it was only a matter of months before he was taken again, this time by the government."
Tommy rubbed his temple,while also trying to bring his head as close to the table as possible. However, he had to lift himself up a little bit when he realized Kali from Kali's pizza was making his way to the stage.
Kali looked straight at the crowd with malevolent eyes."Ever since the Power Rangers showed up, I've been noticing a lot more kids going around with those ray guns, thinking they own the city. A bunch of those kids robbed my pizzaria not to long ago. The police didn't do anything about. And to top it off, my pizzaria got destroyed by a swarm of alien bees."
The guy in the coveralls finally went back on the stage. "Thank you, thank you all. Before we close out, I would just like to remind you that no matter how bad things seem. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It may not be what you expected, but it's there. You might be a little afraid of what's happening to your bodies right now, afraid that you might be turning into a monster, but just remember that everything, no matter how strange, has its benefits." The guy then flashed the widest grin Tommy had ever seen.
The crowd cheered and applauded.
Tommy bolted for the door. He had to get out of there as soon as possible. He did feel bad for those people, but the Power Rangers can't be everywhere at once, and plus, these people were sick. They were sick and whoever was running this place was taking advantage of that. Something strange was going on around here, and he needed his friends to help him figure out what.
If they are still alive. . .
He ran from white hallway to white hallway, making endless turns that seemed to go nowhere. Everything looked the same, white walls and brown doors with little red signs next to them. Some doors had windows, but that was it. That was all he could he as he ran by. Tommy stopped and looked around at maze surrounding him.
In the corner of his eye, there was a short little hall, too small to lead another endless hallway. Ranger instincts kicking in, he slid across the wall to the hall, and slowly peaked his head out the corner.
Surely enough, there was a bright red exit sign hanging over a couple of metal doors, but there was also two guys in coveralls standing there with rifles strapped around their shoulders. They stared blankly into space.
Tommy banged his into the wall in frustration. What kind of place is his? He looked back and forth, and his only other option was another huge hallway with a Level 2 Area sign above it. He guessed any opportunity to learn more about this place before leaving should probably be taken, and a suspicion of what was going on here was growing in Tommy's mind.
He wandered the level two area for awhile, and the same walls and doors repeated themselves over and over, until he came across some double doors with little windows in them. Peering through, he saw what looked like people laying in beds. It was hard to tell because everybody seemed wrapped up in white cloth. Tommy got a little closer to the glass. Something seemed to be moving around.
Slam!
A lunch tray hit the window. Tommy jumped back. In the room, a man screamed as he tore at the bandages wrapped around his ripped at them, freeing his nose and mouth. In agony, the screamed at a pitch higher than any human could.
Nauseous bile rose in Tommy's throat as he saw little pinchers come out the man's mouth, wiggling their way out of him. Tommy had to close his eyes and cover his mouth for a second.
When he opened eyes his again, he saw a couple of ladies in coveralls pushing the man back on the bed. One held onto his hand as its finger curl and bend in way that were just natural. Little crystal claws extruded from the ends of the fingers.
A lady ran to end of the bed and seemed to be reading to him out loud from a book she had. Tommy couldn't hear, but he could tell she was shouting from the book until she was out of breath, and that seemed to finally calm the man down.
Tommy got out of there before he was spotted. That suspicion grew even bigger in his mind and he wanted to know how deep this rabbit would. He spotted the Level 3 Area sign and went for it.
It wasn't long before he found more double doors. Keeping low, Tommy peered through the window.
It was dark. A black room, only illuminated by candles burning all over the place, but Tommy could see the bugs very well. These were real bugs, almost completely mutated, sitting in chairs around a speaker who was slamming their claws onto a podium.
But, who was it? Eyes peeled, Tommy got as close to the glass as possible. Could it be? It had to be. It was Zane. He had been almost completely transformed into a bug with pinchers and everything, but he still had some of his funky hair left on his head, and his shades, and his leather jacket with the sleeves torn off for his crystal sharp forearms.
What was that creep doing here? Tommy leaned his head into the crack between the doors to listen.
"And there I was," Zane said, "left penniless and without a. . ." he made the most insincere sob Tommy had ever heard, ". . .without a family. Made into a criminal by society, by our government. Forced to steal from my fellow brothers to survive, and with no help whatsoever from the people who claim to be heroes." He continued on with his fake crying and wailing, banging his head and fists onto the podium.
Yeah, I do know who are talking about, and I don't remember you ever asking for help, Tommy thought.
Zane "composed himself" and looked back at the crowd. "And now, the man of the hour. The man who has shown us all the way. Dr. Forrester!"
I knew it! Tommy thought. His suspicion had been correct. Forrester must of been using this joint for who knows how long to get people to join his little Dark Specter fanclub.
Forrester casually walked to the podium, smiling, exposing the crystal formations on his teeth. "Thank you my boy," he said to Zane, "now, I'm glad to see that most of our level four members survived the attack on our home by the Power Rangers."
Most? They're invincible. All of them had to survive, you liar, Tommy thought.
Forrest spreaded his arms wide open. " Brothers, levels three and four alike, I have message for you. Revolution is at hand! Are power only grows as the Dark Specter approaches. The E.S.B can only slow us down for so long, and with the Power Rangers taken out of the picture we can—"
How does he know about what happened to us? Tommy wondered. Though, he didn't have much time to think about it as three bugs in the room started heading toward the door.
He ran down the hall, darting his eyes around for a place to hide. Heart racing, he ran past three doors, quickly trying every door knob, all locked. Only one door left in the hall, and jiggled the knob in hopes it would spontaneously open.
The door next to him spontaneously opened with a bug lumbering out of it in the opposite direction. Without thinking, he slipped behind the door and shut himself in the room.
He waited there in the dark for a moment, then a horrible thought came into his mind. Tommy jiggled the door knob again.
Locked. Tommy's mind was actually right this time.
Crap, now how am I gonna ge—
"Lunch?" a voice said.
Tommy looked behind him and gasped for air
Oh, my. . .
Arms chained to the ceiling, the tall figure stared down at Tommy, illuminated only a small window light. He leaned closer to him, rattling the chain that ran from his neck to the floor.
"So?" the figure said in a crackly voice, "where's my after-torture lunch?"
Tommy stumbled for words. "Uh. . . uh, sorry I came in here by accident, but why are you here, like this?"
The figure tilted his head to the side. "Tommy?"
Finally, someone who can help me get out of this nightmare, Tommy thought. "Yeah, it is. Who are you?" he said as he carefully stepped closer to the figure.
The figure leaned his head into the light from the window, shining the crystal growing on the right side of his face, exposing the scars and claw marks etched on the left side of his face. His right eye was completely black and enlarged, while his left eye was only a little red.
Tommy jumped a little because he could see whose face it was, even through all the mutations. "Rocky? Is that you?"
"Yeah, so?" Rocky said.
Man, Tommy always thought that kid was gonna get himself locked up, but not like this. "How did you end up here?" Tommy asked.
"Zane. I went after him, then this happened. He thought it would be funny,"
"When then I guess it wasn't such a good idea to run off on Jason while he was trying to help you, wasn't it?" Tommy said.
"Whatever."
Why that arrogant little. . .
"Listen," Tommy said," I came in here with a watch with a little walkie-talkie in it. It's gone now. Do you think th—"
"Oh, they snatched it. They don't want any contact with the outside. Once your in here, there's no getting out."
"I need that watch. Do you have idea where they might have taken it?" Tommy asked.
Rocky hanged there in silence for a moment.
"There is a room for that. I'll show you. But, you have to get me out of here first."
"Of course," Tommy said. Even Rocky didn't deserve to be treated like this, like some kind of zoo animal.
But, how was he gonna get him out of there? They were both locked in, and there was no chance anyone come in with the walked around Rocky, observing the chains. They were the thickest chains he had ever seen, each link as a big as a fist, but he knew how to get rid of them. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Alright Rocky, can you keep a secret?" Tommy asked.
"Sure. Why not?" Rocky said, stoned faced.
Tommy pulled his morpher out of his pocket. "Tigerzord!" he yelled, and in a whiteflash, he stood before Rocky as the White Ranger.
"Tada," Tommy said, "I'm a Power Ranger, and guess what? Jason is too."
"Huh, whatever," Rocky mumbled.
Tommy sighed. He reached up and grabbed the chain holding up Rocky's left arm. "Okay, three, two, one." Tommy pulled on the chain as hard as he could, bending his knees so he could as close the ground as the ground as flexed his massive arm downward. They pulled and pulled until the chain was tight and quaking with tension.
Snap! The chain hook and a chunl of the ceiling came crashing down to the ground. Rocky snapped off the his leash with his free hand, and they repeated the process to free his right arm.
Rocky rubbed his wrists. "Thanks. I think there's a vent up here we can use."
Tommy readied himself. "Alright man, I'll give you a—"
Rocky clung to the wall and crawled his way to the ceiling.
"—boost. . ."
Tommy demorphed, then something strange caught the corner of his eye. He headed to the window and peered through the bars. The blue sky hanged over head with the usual collection of puffy clouds, but something else was there too, a weird shape that didn't belong. . .
The eye, the distortion, the Dark Specter, foggy in the distance, but can clearly be seen from the naked eye. He stared into it as it stared into him. It was coming, and Tommy needed to get to the other rangers as soon as possible.
The vent grate clanged onto the floor.
"Come on! Let's get out of here," Rocky said, hanging from the ceiling.
"Oh, you don't have to tell me twice."
Tommy plopped down onto the tile floor. Around him, a bunch of cardboard boxes and stacks of clothes laid sloppily on metal shelves. He took one step forward.
His face almost plummeted to the ground, if it weren't' for him grabbing the the shelf at the last second. Of course, the shelf almost fell over. He gripped and tugged it back toward him before it fell away, only a few small boxes fell to the floor.
"You're a superhero?" Rocky said from up in the vent.
"Shut up!" Tommy said. What happened? he thought as he looked down at floor. Junk, the floor was littered with everything little thing a person might keep on them, cell phones, watches, necklaces, lipstick, pens, and a couple of toy cars that may of been what he actually slipped on. Most of the stuff was also busted and in pieces.
"What's with this?" Tommy said.
"You come in. They take away everything you were," Rocky said.
"Wow," Tommy said, "how am I gonna find what I'm looking for?"
Rocky jumped down to the floor. "Kyle knows."
"Who is. . ." Tommy's train of thought was derailed. Really obnoxious sounding guitar music started rumbling through the room. No rhythm whatsoever, just a series of random crashing notes getting louder and louder in the room.
They followed the sound to a little office in the side of the room. Feet splayed out on the desk, a bug leaned in a chair and thumbed a gameboy, while rocking out to the loud music playing on a boombox.
"I don't need nobody! I don't need NOBODY!" the bug wailed as they sneaked behind him. Rocky reached over and crushed the gameboy like it was a soda can.
The bug spun around to face them. Every inch of his crystal mouth was embedded with rings and piercings "Hey man, I stole that fair and sq—oh, hey Rocky! What, uh, what are doing out?" he said with a slurred speech and uneasy smile.
"Hey Kyle." Rocky grabbed the chair slung it to the other wall. Bouncing forward, Kyle almost fell out of the chair before Rocky snatched his neck and threw him back to the wall.
"Now that we have your attention," Tommy said, "can you help us find a watch with a microphone for a clock?"
"I ain't seen nothin' like that," Kyle said.
"Are you sure? It must of come threw here this morning," Tommy said. He lifted the boombox off the table and held it over the floor. Kyle's beady black eyes lit up with fear. "Maybe, you just need reminder," Tommy said as he released his hands.
"Wait!"
In a split second, Tommy caught it again.
"Fine, fine," Kyle said with a growl, "It should be on the third rack of the shelf by the door."
"Thank you." Tommy put the boombox back on the desk. "Rocky, could you go grab that for me?"
Rocky looked back at him, puzzled.
Tommy nodded, and then Rocky went up to get it with a scowl.
With the best fake smile he could make, Tommy sat down on the desk and casually leaned in toward Kyle. It felt weird to have to play this part, but Tommy had seen Jason do it so many times that it couldn't be that hard.
"Listen pal, you and I both know that the big shots here are planning something huge for the city. I heard they were talking something about a revolution. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it? Do ya?"
Kyle curled his crystal lip at Tommy. "Man, I don't know nothin'. I'm just here for the free stuff."
"Oh, well. . ." Crap, I don't know what to say next, Tommy thought.
"Uh,uh," Tommy stammered, "why Do the guys up there not think you're important enough to be apart of there special little meetings?"
"Pfffftttt, those bozos wish they had me helping them out. I have so many good ideas on how to take out the humans," Kyle leaned back and crossed his arms, "but I guess playing some Killstorm at eleven amps until the humans gave up was 'Too stupid for words.'"
Alright, we might be getting somewhere. "So, they shoved you down here then, huh? Maybe you can help us do something that'll make those bozos go away? Maybe then you can call the shots?" Tommy said.
Kyle rubbed his claw in and out of his lip ring. "Well, they also told me that told anybody anything that would snap arms off and shove them down my throat, so. . . yeah."
"Well, uh. . ." How the hell does Jason do this? Tommy thought.
Rocky came back in with the communicator in hand. "Is this it?"
"Yes," Tommy said as he snatched it. His fingers down the silver and gold band and over the copper speaker. Please, please work. He flipped it over and pressed down hard onto the red button on the back.
Nothing.
"What's wrong?" Rocky asked.
Tommy sighed, and leaned over to whisper into Rocky's ear. "I can't teleport us out of here. I think the communicators need to be resynched with the teleportation grid, but I have no idea how to do that."
"So. what now?"
Tommy pulled Rocky in closer, their backs facing Kyle to block him from seeing anything. Pinching in buttons on both sides of it's speaker, he activated the tracker. A blue halo projected out from the watch. Multi-colored dots materialized in the halo, separated by blue lines intersecting into a grid.
"I should be find where the E.S.B are keeping the others," Tommy whispered.
"Can't they also find us then?" Rocky asked.
"They would've been here by now," Tommy said,"I think they're all morphed, which would make the tracker untouchable to anybody besides them."
"Okay, but how do we get out?"
"Ha!" Kyle laughed from behind them. "This place crawling with trigger happy bugs! You two have no chance of getting out of here! No way Jose!"
Tommy sat back down on the desk. "Really? Are there is not a single way for us to get out of here? You have to know something?"
Kyle violently shook his head from side to side. " I ain't tellin' yous nothin', cuz I know nothin'!"
"Oh, I believe you," Tommy said as he placed a hand on Kyle's shoulder, "but I don't think my partner here does at all." He winked at Rocky.
Rocky winked his black eye back.
"But hey, maybe you can convince him." Tommy turned his head over. "Rocky, would you mind handling this for a little while?"
"Sure," Rocky said.
This was great. Kyle was already shaking as Rocky approached him. If there was anybody who was gonna make this guy talk, it would be Rocky. All he would probably have to do is just poke Kyle and the guy would cry louder than—
Sparks flew as the boombox came down and smashed against Kyle's skull. Rocky lifted the boombox back up and smashed it again one more time as Kyle let out an agonising howl.
"Hey, stop!" Tommy yelled, but it was too late. Rocky had already thrown Kyle from the chair. Screaming, Kyle flew onto a shelf, knocking it to the ground which then knocked over another shelf on top of him.
Rocky ran over and bent down to grab the shelf. His muscles quaked as he slowly began lifting the shelf over his head while a growling hiss escaped his mouth. From over his head, Rocky tossed the shelf aside and grabbed Kyle.
"Please," Kyle spat out.
Tommy ran over, but not before Rocky started bashing Kyle's head into the tile floor over and over and over again, cracking the crystal encasing his head. Rocky grinned as he pressed his claw down onto Kyle's face, smooshing deeper into the little crater he made. Kyle gasped desperately for air.
"Enough!" Tommy yelled as he tried to pull Rocky off of him.
"Alright! Alright!" Kyle begged. "Zane got wind of a E.S.B sweep downtown coming this afternoon. He and his boys are gonna try to blow them away and rescue some bugs. You can try to leave with them if you want. Just please stop! I won't tell nobody!"
"Good," Rocky said as he walked away from Kyle's shivering body. Rocky cracked his neck toward Tommy. "Nice teamwork," he said as he walked by.
Tommy was gaped and dazed. Not just by what happened, but also by the fact that as Rocky walked him, Tommy caught a glimpse of a new shard of crystal growing and pulsating on the good side of Rocky's face.
All around the garage, bugs armed themselves with long range Martian plasma blasters Some bugs carried up to five bandoleers of Triforian sonic grenades over their shoulders. Tommy even saw one bug brandishing a Horathian laser-knife. It sucked, no, it blew that all this hi-tech weaponry was on the street for maybe years without the Power Rangers noticing, and now they were in the claws of crazed lunatics and sick people.
Tommy pulled and tugged at his collar. This leather jumpsuit they gave was really uncomfortable, but at least he blended in with as the bugs as best he could. He did see a couple of people walk by that weren't completely mutated yet, and hopefully that meant that no one was gonna notice him being here.
He grabbed a helmet and a blaster, and he kept his head down as he walked in line with others to the back of the armored truck they had setup. He trundled along, trying to bring attention to himself.
A claw pushed onto his shoulder, stopping him dead.
Tommy gulped. It was Zane, and he stared at him through his shades as his pinchers disgustingly chomped up some pink bubble gum.
"We don't usually allow level one members on these raids," Zane said.
Eyes darting, Tommy tried to think of something to say. Something that Zane could relate to, and then it came to him. He starting twitching his left eye and griding his teeth together.
"But I gots to, man! I wanna see them pigs bleed! No! I wanna see 'em burn up! Burn in the flames of revolution! Burn! Burn!"
Zane laughed as warmly as the creep ever possibly could. "Alright brother, I'll see out you there." He slapped Tommy's back as he passed by him.
Quickly, Tommy ran into the truck and sat on the bench. His hands wrung together as more bugs loaded onto the truck. They were cutting it close on this one, having to play along with these guys until they got to wherever they were going, then soon as they could.
But Tommy had no idea where Rocky was, or how he was going to be able to slip past Zane and the others, and the truck was almost ready to go. Where is that weirdo? Tommy thought. Where is—
"Psst."
Tommy looked up, and a bug sat down next to him on the bench. Under the bug's helmet, Tommy could see the left side of his face was wrapped up with bandages, exposing only a half a bug face.
He recognized him. "Roc—"
"Shoosh," Rocky said.
"Sorry," Tommy whispered.
The engine started, and the truck rumbled off onto the road, dying sunlight seeping in through the windows. All the bugs began to whisper among themselves. Rocky leaned closer to Tommy's ear.
"They're not that bright anymore. If we stay away from Zane, we should be good," Rocky whispered.
"What did you do about Kyle?" Tommy whispered back.
"He's not gonna be a problem."
"What does that mean?" Tommy almost shouted by accident, gaining the attention of a couple of bugs for a split second.
"He's just tied up in the vent. Relax. Trust me, nobody is gonna care enough to look for him, or me for at least the rest of the day," Rocky said.
"The dude was a cow, you didn't have to do all that to him," Tommy said.
"He's strong enough now. He'll get over it."
"What you did was insane and just wrong," Tommy said, and he meant it too. Seeing the utter glee Rocky had on his face while he was pummeling Kyle just twist Tommy's insides, and it reminded him way to much of the way he beated on that kid back in the pyramid not to long ago.
Did I look like that too?
"Whatever," Rocky said.
"Listen," Tommy said, "I'll help you out, but I'm not Jason. I'm not gonna put up with your edgy, emo B.S."
Rocky stared off into the empty space above him. "Cool," he said.
They rode along in silence for a moment.
"Where is Jay anyway?" Rocky said.
Tommy sighed. "Oh, you care now, huh?"
Rocky just stared back Tommy. He couldn't read anything from his black, bug eye. Just emptiness in there. Tommy rubbed out an ache in his neck. "Well for your information, he went MIA even before our base got attacked, not long after trying to help you."
Rocky turned his head back up to the ceiling. "Huh."
"Yeah," Tommy said.
"That blows," Rocky said.
"Yeah, yeah it does."
The truck rumbled along, breaking up the silence that consumed the area. Tommy still wrung his hands together as he looked at all the bugs surrounding him. They were just sitting there, waiting. They weren't waiting to jump Tommy, probably. But still, having them be all around in the endless silence was going to drive him crazy.
"So, is Jay always like that?" Rocky said.
The sudden break in silence shocked Tommy, but he was not gonna let a possible conversation pass by. "What do you mean?" Tommy asked.
"Just, the complete lack of subtlety, and the out of nowhere preaching," Rocky said.
"Oh yeah, he never shuts that off. I don't think he can," Tommy said.
"One time, Rocky said. "I didn't show up to math class, and then the next day at lunch, Jay starting talking on and on about how it's wrong to skip class, and I should believe in myself more, and that I could get an A in the class if I worked hard enough, and how I shouldn't drop out of school, and. . .and I told him that I didn't show up to class that day because I was coming off a bad cold."
Tommy tried to keep his laughter under control, to avoid gaining attention. "Yeah, he can be really annoying like that. I remember this one time he setup an intervention for this kid that he swore was doing drugs, because this kid was dazed and sleepy all the time.. He got the kid's family together in the living room and everything, but it just turned out this kid was just sleepy from staying up all night playing video games."
Something happened that amazed Tommy after he told his story. For a brief second, if you blinked you would've missed it, a warm smile came across Rocky's face before vanishing.
The fireball engulfed everything. It's vibrations rumbled through the quaking earth. The heat almost melted Tommy's face. The smoke made his eye water a little bit as he stumbled through the black cloud.
Eyes peeled,he stepped lightly through the chaos and the rubble. Someone's laugh echoed in the background, but Tommy didn't from what direction. His ankle popped slightly out of place as whatever he stepped slipped beneath his foot.
Staggering back, Tommy tried to find what in the world he stepped on. Laying on the road, Tommy's own head was staring back up at him. It was the head of the White Ranger statue from the dedication fountain, laying there, cracked and in pieces.
The smoke cleared, and finally Tommy could see what was left of the fountain. Water leaked out of the jagged edges of the demolished pool. Two pairs of severed ranger legs stood alone on the top of it.
He thought of a lot things, and yet, he couldn't think of anything at all.
"Let's move out!" a bug called out over the distance.
Tommy followed the voice and he managed to find all the bugs marching together Slipping in among them, he and the others marched down mainstreet all the way to the end, coming up onto that moss covered house that always for sale.
Did Rocky bail on me or what? Tommy thought. He lost sight of Rocky after they left the truck, and he seemed to completely disappear after the bugs blew up the fountain.
Up ahead, a black van with a yellow E.S.B logo laid on the lawn. Tommy grinded his together. They're here. Rocky better show up fast before Zane turns this place into a crater, he thought.
They all swarmed around the van, and two bugs shoved their fists through the backdoors like they were paper. They reached their arms deep into the tears they made and yanked and tugged at the doors until they snapped off of their hinges.
Guns high in the air, the bugs all gave a small little victory cry. Quickly, Tommy tried to mimic them with a half-hearted "hurrah" and barely lifting his blaster over his chin.
Zane passed by Tommy and approached the van. Through the sea of bug heads, Tommy could make out Zane helping somebody out of the van, maybe it was an old man with no hair? No. He had long white hair on the left side, but no hair on the other side, just jagged crystal spikes protruding from his head.
That wasn't it, though. Zane stepped in and reached deep inside the vehicle. Tommy was pretty sure he heard him say: "It's okay, it's all over now," in what was probably the softest, yet creepiest tone of voice Zane had ever used. Zane came out holding a little blonde boy, who couldn't be any older than six, high over his head like he was playing with him.
"What's goin' on?" the kid asked, tears rolling down his face.
Zane pulled the kid down closer to his face. "I'm gonna take you home, where our family is gonna take care of you, and you are gonna take care of us," he said with a grin.
That's it, I'm out of here, Tommy thought as tried walking backwards away from the crowd, but the bugs just pushed pulled forward as they all ran toward the house.
He was flung to the wall. All around Tommy, the bugs started crawling up the walls of the house, pieces of wood and vegetation falling to the earth with every step.
"Hey rookie!" Zane called as he walked up to Tommy with a metal baseball bat in hand. He placed his free hand on the dirty window. "This is how it's done."
Smash!
Zane shattered the window before jumping through it. Inside, Zane swung wildly at a couple of agents, knocking a few right in the head. One managed to block a swing with a huge metal box they were carrying, but the box just sparked right the man's face.
"Come on," Zane shouted at Tommy, "don't be shy! Burn 'em up!"
Crap, there was no turning back now. Tommy stepped into began firing his blaster wildly into the air, while making sure that every shot wouldn't hit anything at all.
That didn't stop a bald agent the size of a brick house from coming at him. He stretched his arms out around Tommy and wrapped him up tight. Tommy tried to wiggle his way out the man's python grip. He squeezed him so tight that Tommy could feel the air being pushed out of his lungs.
One hit with Zane's bat, and the giant was down.
Trying to catch his breath, Tommy bent down onto his knees and frantically rubbed his chest. Zane came by pulled Tommy back up again, hugging his side.
"I guess the pig didn't know what hit him!" Zane laughed as he threw the bent baseball bat on the floor next to the agent.
Tommy winced as he gazed down at the unconscious agent's bleeding head. Sorry, pal. He never felt this bad for a faceless E.S.B agent like this before in his life.
The bugs all gathered together into the living room they were in and started piling the agents bodies on top of one another. Zane stood there with his claws on his hips and admired the pile like it was a piece of art, then he actually noticed the group of tied up people they were there to rescue.
There was around twenty people, all of different ages, shapes and sizes, all halfway through their mutation, all bound together with metal cable. Tommy figured this house must of been where a few different families decided to hide after the E.S.B took over.
"Rejoice my brothers!" Zane shouted. "Your liberation is at hand!"
The people just shivered and crawled away as the bugs came over to them.
Zane pointed his finger at Tommy "Rookie! Scope around for any stragglers."
Tommy nodded, and he hoped that this would be his opportunity to make a break for it, but no. Two more bugs followed Tommy upstairs to check out the rest of the house.
The house spelt of mothballs and rotting leaves, and it seemed each sound made was amplified up to eleven and echoed throughout the house. Tommy wondered how the bugs behind him didn't just fall through the uncarpeted floors, as they just stomped through.
Tommy stuck his head into what was probably a bedroom. Nothing there but a window and a drawer.
He opened a door to find toilet-less bathroom, and that was about it.
The bugs stumbled by six feet behind him, taking way too much time to scan their heads over every square inch of the house. Maybe, it would be easy enough to just jump through a window and make a break for it. Nah. too risky.
Tommy eyed a door that was small enough to be just a hallway closet, and to continue playing the part, he opened it, pretended to look, then shut it again. . .wait.
He opened door again and found two big, innocent eyes staring back at him. The eyes of a pouty little girl with a messy bob cut. She scratched hard at her arms as little shards of crystal grew out of them.
"What's. . ." she managed to say with a gap in her teeth.
"Shoosh!" Tommy said as he closed the door on her.
No. No more kids.
He ran back to the bugs. "Hey boys, I think I heard something in the bathroom!"
The bugs looked at each other, then lumbered off to the bathroom. As soon as their backs were turned, Tommy ran back to the closet, grabbed her, and ran across them to get to that bedroom.
He placed the kid down for a second, and looked out the window. It was probably fifthteen above the grass. Frantically, Tommy scratch his head about how he was gonna do this, then it came to him.
He ran over to the drawer, pulled it out, and dumped the contents on the floor. A leather belt stood out to him and he grabbed it.
Kneeling over her, he said: "Hey kid, you know those shiny things on your arms? Do you have them on your legs too?"
With distress in her eyes, she nodded. Her poked out of her foot pink nightgown, exposing the crystal starting to encase her entire foot.
Tommy wrapped the belt around his arm. "Great, now I'm gonna lower down as I can, then your gonna jump, and your gonna be strong enough now to land safely and run away."
"I dunno. That's scary," she said.
He heard bathroom door creaked open.
"Oh trust me, that's nothing." Tommy picked her up and set her up by the window, wrapped some of the belt around her arm.
The floor creaked as the bugs lumpered toward the room.
"Now!" Tommy said as he put her through the window.
"Eh, eh, eh," she muttered as she climbed down the wall, carefully, if precariously placing her feet on the siding.
Tommy slowly unwrapped the belt from his arm, keeping an on her descent. "Come on kid! You can do it!"
"Hey, what's the big idea!" one of the bugs slurred as they stumbled closer. to the room.
And then Tommy ran out of belt. "Alright kid, now your gonna have to jump!"
Eyes clenched shut, her head hiding close to her arms, she said: "I can't! it's too far!"
The floor creaked. He looked back. The bugs turned the corner lead that straight to the room. He snapped back to the window.
"Jump!"
It all happened so fast. She descended to the bugs peered into the room. Tommy shut the window and faced them.
"Oh, uh, hey boys! Did you find anything?" Tommy said as sweat poured down his face. He tried to look at them in the eyes, but he couldn't help but glance down to see the kid run off.
One bug tilted their head to the side. "What are you try—"
A high-pitched hiss ascended from downstairs. The two bugs mimicked it and ran for the door, Tommy followed them down the stairs.
Before he could even make out what was going in the smoke below, the staircase gave away, and Tommy flopped down onto the bottom floor.
Boom!
Little splinters of wood flew over Tommy's head. He looked up; three pairs of headlights shone through the dust. Red energy blasts flew from out that direction, obliterating the walls, and sending chunks of drywall into the air.
He crawl across the floor, trying to keep low under the energy blasts that soared through the air from both sides. White noise flooded around Tommy, the high-pitched zip of the energy blasts, the squeals of the bugs, the booming crashes of the sonic grenades, all pounding into his eardrums as he crawled.
In the flashes of light, he could get a brief glimpse of the action. Some kind of task force was sweeping in the house. Bugs would charge at them, only to be shot down to the ground, occasionally making for something to crawl over as he avoided fire.
He reached out on the ground until his fingers were met with shards of glass. A way out? Maybe? Tommy got onto on his knees and elbows and bared through the glass carefully, baring through the cuts, baring through the pain.
Stupid, why am I so stupid.
He rolled over, feeling grass touch his back. Reaching into every pocket this jumpsuit had, he wondered why the hell he didn't try morphing earlier? His fingers finally touched it's silver surface—
Screaming, Zane ran over to Tommy, covering his leaking face with his claws. He squirmed and wiggled in a dance of agony.
His screams were cut short as an armored truck bashed into him, sucking him underneath it.
The truck's door flew open. From out of the dark, Tommy saw Rocky's face appear from the truck.
"Get in!" Rocky yelled.
Without hesitation, Tommy climbed into the truck. Rocky started the engine before Tommy could even get both of his feet in the cab. Tommy was flung into the seat. Rocky spun off into road, smashing everything in his path, and laughing the whole way.
Tommy tried to rub away the pain that stabbed straight through his brain, which wasn't easy with him trying to read the tracker, and not to mention the truck bouncing up and down over and over again, making the pain stab a little more deeper with every bump.
None of that seemed to bother Rocky at all. He just continued to stare blankly into the night as they drove on into desert. It was nothing happened at all, just a normal day. Like, he didn't just screw Tommy over at all.
"How much further?" Rocky asked casually.
Tommy looked down at the tracker, and the white dot on the holographic grid seemed to be getting relatively close to the blue, yellow and pink dots, but Tommy never really learned how to read this thing. They could fifteen miles away? Thirty? Thirty-fiv— Oh, screw it!
Tommy threw the communicator to the floor. "What the hell happened back there?!"
Rocky slid his eyes over to Tommy for only one second. "What?"
"What do you think I mean? I wanna know what happened to the plan. I wanna know why you left me in that warzone!"
"Pardon me If I thought a Power Ranger could take care himself. Besides, I came up with a better a plan," Rocky said.
The truck picked up a little more speed through the desert.
"Oh, thank so much for believing in me Rocky. It means a lot," Tommy said. "Enlighten me, what was your brilliant plan that almost got me killed?"
"Well instead of just leaving, it would better if I took one of Zane's trucks for a joyride, got the men in black's attention, then bring them to Zane so they could kill each other. Two birds, one stone."
"Why didn't you tell me first?" Tommy asked.
"Because you would've said 'No.'"
Asinine! Asinine! Asinine! Tommy slammed fist on the dashboard. "Yeah, I would've because that idea was stupid!"
The engine roared as Rocky hit the gas.
"At least it was an me, what exactly is your plan when we get to wherever we're going? Are you just gonna knock on the door and ask the government to let your friends out?" Rocky said.
Heat radiated out of Tommy's face. How dare this creep even compare them? "There were civilians in that house, you know? Not only could you've killed just me, but them in the crossfire."
Rocky just stared off at the desert.
"But hey! Whatever, am I right?" Tommy said. "As long as Zane pays for what he did to you, that's all that really matters."
"Yes!"
The terrain whooshed by them at infinite velocity.
Rocky turned to him, showing off the large mass of crystal growing, pulsating and consuming his left cheek. "I hope he suffers! Burns! I hope all of those freaks burn!"
Tommy covered his face as shards of glass rained over him. The cab went on its side as Rocky was sucked out of the window.
Rocky's skull smashed into the ground as he tumbled. Something was with him, wrapped around him, holding him. The night sky wiped past his eyes as he flipped over onto his back.
Everything swirled and shifted in front of his eyes. There was no sense of anything. All feeling was blocked by vibrations going through his body. It was like there was nothing around him, just blackness, just a void.
Slowly, a pressure began to form around his neck, cutting into his crystal hyde. A shape moved in front of him, moved closer to him. The sound of laughter creeped in.
"Hey, thanks for the lift," Zane said, blue blood dripping out of cracks in his forehead. He reached behind his back, and a long machete blade slid from out his jacket. "Would you mind holding still while I cut your face off?"
With a growl, Rocky thrusted him off, sending Zane tumbling into the dirt. Rocky got himself back on his feet, and rubbed at the stinging pain in his neck. A warm sensation touched his fingers. He looked at them.
Blood.
"I guess somethings really don't change that much," Zane said as he pulled himself back up, "you were a traitor back then, and you're a traitor now."
"Oh, just shut up!"
"Come on Rock, don't you feel it? Don't you feel it in your blood." Zane pounded his machete against his chest. "It's pumpin' through your veins right now. It's callin' for you Rock, the Dark Specter. Why resist?"
Rocky winced. The crystal was cutting and shearing at his face. He picked and clawed at his cheek, but it was like chipping at a stone.
Zane inched toward him, one step at a time. "You know it's pointless, just look at the sky. Just embrace it! The Dark Specter will sweep through and we'll be free. We will be the ones to carry on, to bring in a new era in the grand evolution of the cosmos."
"Do you really believe that?" Rocky said.
"Nope. I'm just here for a good time." Zane swung at him.
In a second, Rocky blocked, and the machete was lodged into his forearm. Zane struggled to pull it out, but it was wedged to deep in Rocky's thick hyde. Smiling, Rocky snapped the blade in half with his free claw.
Zane lunged at him, but Rocky charged forward with all his might, making them fly three feet.
They crash landed in the sand. Rocky pressed his claws deep into Zane's face. Eyes crazed, Rocky searched for something to use. He picked up a nearby rock and bashed into Zane's face over and over again until the rock disintegrated.
Zane hissed as Rocky's claws tore into his face.
"Tigerzord!"
The energy blast from the morph ripped the truck door from off its hinges. Tommy tumbled out of the smoking vehicle. Before he could even wonder about what happened, he spotted Rocky struggling with someone in the distance.
He rushed over there as fast as he possibly could. With each step he got a better picture of what was going on, and how terrible things really were.
Rocky was there, sitting, growling, smiling, baring his claws into Zane's crackling neck. Zane laid there, gurgling, eyes twitching, barely conscious.
"Rocky, stop!" He's had enough!" Tommy yelled.
"Stay out of my way," Rocky said, his voice crackling into something unrecognizable.
Tommy unholstered his blaster. "Don't make me do it!"
Rocky gnarled his teeth at Tommy. Zane convulsed in pain. Tommy fired at Rocky
He was flung a foot away from them, and Tommy ran over to Zane for a moment. The creep coughed, good enough. Tommy rushed over to Rocky.
Crawling back to his feet, dusting the soot off of him, Rocky glared at Tommy. "Why? Why do you help him?" he grunted.
Tommy could see the crystal on Rocky's good side etching its way to his eye socket. He had to think of something fast. "Him? I don't care about him. I'm looking out for you. Look at yourself, man! You're not yourself!"
"Says who? Because I thought I was a creep," Rocky said.
Tommy sighed. Oh, you heard that, huh?
"Listen," Tommy said, "if l let you finish this, there's no going back for you. Just stand back!"
"I'm tired of people deciding what's best for me," Rocky said as he lumbered toward him.
"Rocky!"
He lunged at Tommy, and swatted the blaster away before he could even used. His claws enclosed around Tommy's neck, and flung him into the air.
Tommy barely landed on his feet before hopping back from Rocky's slashes. He hopped and swerved as Rocky slashed his claws at him, each hop just an inch away from doom.
Rocky thrusted and tore his claws across Tommy's chestplate, sparking and shearing the metal.
Tommy wailed as he felt the sparks burn his skin.
Rocky dug his claws deep into the ranger helmet, leaving only two inches between the claw and Tommy's face. The heat from the sparks made Tommy's eyes water as Rocky peeled the face off the helmet.
Before Tommy could even do anything, Rocky dug into his shoulders and forced him on his knees. He had to drop. It was like trying to fight gravity itself. Wedging his claws into it, Rocky tore off the back of Tommy's helmet.
The world was spinning. Tommy could feel Rocky's hot breath over his shoulder. His head rung as Rocky knocked it into the dirt. No, not now. . .
Howling and screeching in pain, Rocky dashed away from Tommy.
What th—Tommy weakly lifted his head back up. In the distance, Rocky hissed and wailed as energy blasts fired at him from behind Tommy. Rocky swung blindly as they kept coming at him.
Something small was flung onto the ground. Tommy could barely make out what it was. It's metal casing glinted in the nightlight, a red light blinked rapidly on it, and it beeped incessantly. Oh no. . .
Flash!
Claustrophobia set in. Tommy was completely boxed in this little grey room, handcuffed to the table, and uncomfortably close to guy who almost ripped his face off. Gazing into the mirror on the wall was the only escape from that cramped, closed off feeling. The E.S.B had to be watching Tommy from the other side. What were they thinking? What were they planning?
Rocky slumped in the chair he was chained to, sleeping with his eyes wide open. He didn't shift or squirm at all. In fact, It was hard to tell if he was even breathing. Stiff as a statue, he stood there, staring down at his feet.
The metal door swung open, and from the dark hallway, Walker materialized with a clipboard in hand. "Thomas Oliver," he said, "sixteen years old, adoptive son of Joseph and Caitlyn Oliver, and currently attending Angel Grove High School. Now I admit, that is not who I was expect to under that helmet."
"Yeah, It's a little embarrassing knowing it was a kid who was picking up your slack over and over again, isn't it?"
Walker grimaced.
"Does that clipboard mention that I'm not very good at math, because that makes it worse," Tommy said.
"Ha," Walker said, reaching into his suit jacket. He pulled out a little remote and pointed at the mirror. "Ha." And with a click, the mirror went to static like a T.V. In a second, the static switched to a three way split screen. On each screen, the Blue, Yellow, and Pink Rangers wriggled and twisted their limbs as they tried to pull out of the huge cuffs attached to cell floors and walls. Cracks ran along almost square every inch of their armor.
"Ha."
Tommy jumped to his feet, only for his handcuffs to bring him back down. He grinded his teeth together and slammed his hands down on the metal table. "What did you do to them?!"
"Well, we learned that whatever material your armor is made of must be one of the most impenetrable substances in the known universe, could be very useful to us," Walker said.
"This is crazy," Tommy said.
"Crazy? I myself would call withholding an interdimensional device from the people of earth when they're in the middle a crisis crazy," Walker said.
"You don't know what the key is capable of."
Walker bent forward over the table, up close to Tommy. His face was so close that Tommy could feel his breath on his, but all he could see in Walker's shades was his own reflection. "I don't," Walker whispered, "reverse engineering it to make some mutant scanners was only scratching the surface of its abilities, but I do know this. If you don't give me the names of your team members, the current locations of the Red and Black Rangers, and information on how your morphing technology works, then I will do whatever is necessary to scrape that armor off of them."
"Try," Tommy said.
Walker adjusted his tie, and slid down table. He sat down casually across from Rocky. "Of course, I would be perfectly willing to give special accommodations, amnesty even, to any mutant with information vital to earth's security."
Oh, crap. Rocky knows who Jason and I hang out with, Tommy thought. His eyes shot over to Rocky, still uneasily swallowed a lump of air in his throat
"Huh?" Walker said.
Slowly, Rocky lifted his up to face Walker, and he shot a load of saliva out of his mouth.
"Dah!" Walker yelled as he tried to wipe the thick blue gunk from his shades. "Have it your way!" he said as he slammed the door behind him.
Tommy sat there for a moment, stunned. Why didn't? He turned over to Rocky, who returned to his original statue position.
"Thanks?" Tommy said.
Screaming and hollering, Rocky shook violently in chair, banging it against the floor and rattling his chains. "Why did you stop me?! Why couldn't you just let me end him?!"
Tommy rubbed his forehead with his palm. "Really, man? We're doing this again? You know what the answer is."
"It was between me and him. It had nothing to do with you."
"So, you tried to kill me instead," Tommy said.
Rocky finally gave up escaping and slammed his feet onto the ground. "I wasn't going to kill you."
"Oh, you just wanted me to fear for my life then! Great! I feel so much better now, thanks man! You know what? I gotta say, mutation or no mutation, you really suck!" Tommy said.
"You don't know anything about me, or what i've been through."
"Man, are you kidding me?" Tommy said, "I had you pegged the moment I first saw you. Hell, I was you. Let me guess, mommy and daddy didn't love you that much? Huh? So you just went out and did whatever you want, because who cares? Right? Everyone around you would rather just spit on you than look at you. Might as well spit back. It's not like there's else anything you can do. Right? Is any of this ringing a bell?"
Rocky just returned his gaze to the floor.
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Tommy said, "life sucks. Guess whose fault it is?"
Rocky squirmed a little bit in his chair. He cleared his throat. "My parents are gone," he said.
"Yeah." Tommy raised an eyebrow.
"We were moving from Stone Canyon to Angel Grove, and then this car got came out of nowhere, and just. . . I don't really remember I was like six or something. I moved around after that from here to there, to here, to there—"
Same old story, Tommy thought, you still suck.
"—then I met Zane," Rocky said,"I thought he was so cool. He did whatever he wanted, and didn't let anybody get in his way. We got a little group together and we taught ourselves how to fight, how to get a few bucks, how to party. . .how to take."
"Yeah, and?"
"We learned pretty quickly that Zane was not like the rest of us. He had just this way of getting in your head, you know? He'd say it, and we'd just do it. We had to do it. It felt wrong if we didn't. He made us feel wrong if we didn't. It was like we were his dogs, or something," Rocky said.
"And if you didn't do what he told you?"
"We were treated like dogs," Rocky said.
"Huh. . ."
"One day," Rocky said, "Zane wanted us to torch down this antique shop. He said it was a symbol of our liberation from the monetary system that was keeping us down, or something. He could've said anything, and we would've bought it. We're setting up to do it, and I noticed that there was this family living above the shop. Two parents, their girl, and an old man. Zane didn't tell us anything about them. He just wanted to place gone. At that point, I thought things were just getting too weird, and I sold him out to the cops and ran.
"He didn't leave me alone after that, even when he was locked up. I couldn't sleep at night. I thought about him almost every second of everyday. And when he got out, he made sure that I knew he was back. He sent all of his cronies after me. Everyday I had to run, I had to hide. One time, to curl up in an alley, and just hope didn't find me. After that, I jus—I just couldn't take it anymore. . . Do you know what it feels like. . ."
"Feels like, what?" Tommy asked.
". . . what it feels like to not be in control of your own life," Rocky said.
Tommy wrung his hands together. "Yeah, I can imagine that pretty well. And, when you think it's over, you'll promise to yourself that you'll do anything to not feel that again. . ."
Walker busted through the door and slammed a black suitcase on the table. "Alright gentlemen, since you refuse to play the easy—"
Red lights flashed all over the room, sirens blared, the mirror displayed a flashing message reading: Emergency: Intruder Alert.
Walker whipped out a walkie-talkie. "What the hell is going on out there?"
The talkie staticed before a voice came on. "Sir, it's the mutants, they're—" A large crashing sound came out of the talkie, then static.
Walker pulled out his remote and then switched the mirror over to some grainy footage.
Tommy widened his eyes at the footage. A smoking hallway cleared to show an armour truck stalking down the hall followed by a swarm of bugs. Peering closer, Tommy noticed the little cell doors on the walls were opening by bugs didn't have to do anything at all, they just walked out.
Walker's jaw dropped at the sight of it. "But, how—"
Another agent came in through the door. Walker turned to face him. "Shaw? What's happening?"
Shaw raised a gun. "The Dark Age."
One shot, and Walker was down.
Shaw turned to the open doorway. "Clear," he said.
And waltzing in like it was nothing at all, Forrester came into the room. His eyes scanned every inch of the place. They rested on the screen for a moment, admiring the destruction. Then, he turned his attention to them. "Bring them along. They need to bare witness to this."
The chains cut into Tommy's arms, and probably his circulation too. Rocky was also chained to a hand truck-thing, and he tried shaking himself out of it earlier, but gave up once he realized all that would happen is he would fall on the floor and not be able to get up.
One fluorescent light shined over head, reflecting off a couple of bugs as they eteched the eye into the quartz floor. Darkness laid beyond the light, and all Tommy could make out was a few shapes. If he had to guess, It would have to be a row of cell doors, all of them open. Above, a catwalk was suspended, all the doors up there seemed to be opened there too. Tommy took a deep breath, or the deepest he could with the chains. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.
A couple of figures moved through the darkness, only Forrester came into the light. "So, this is what you use exude power others," he said, waving the morpher around, Tommy's communicator wrapped around it.
Rocky coughed and convulsed. A couple of bugs came to make sure he wouldn't fall over. With each cough, Tommy saw a couple of pinchers crawl out of Rocky's throat.
Forrester passed by Rocky like he wasn't there at all. He just slowly approached Tommy. "Fascinating piece of technology, really. I can see why the E.S.B wanted to study it so badly. They craved it. They tried so hard to dismantle it, but nothing took. Every drill, every saw they used just melted in its presence."
Leaning in, Forrester put his foot on Tommy's chair. "And you know what the best part is, White Ranger?"
Tommy tried to form a quip. He opened his mouth—
"The best part is," Forrester said, waving the morpher right in Tommy's face, "this piece of highly advanced extraterrestrial technology is of no importance to me."
"So, can I have it back then?" Tommy asked.
Forrester laughed and laughed as a bug came up behind him. He nearly collapsed as he handed the bug the morpher. "Wow, you really can't handle how it feels, can't you?"
"How what—"
Forrester shoved himself up against Tommy. "How it feels to be just like everybody else. . ."
Tommy just looked over to Rocky, who was twisting and turning as his arms seemed grow faster than the chains could handle. Enough of this nonsense. "Why are you doing this, man? How did you get of jail?" Tommy asked.
Forrest walked back over the eye carved into the floor "Do really think anybody cared that much about a crazy old man who stole a piece of stone from a museum? The E.S.B didn't think I knew anything to be worth their trouble. But they were wrong, I knew a lot of things," he said as he unbuttoned his dress shirt.
With a growl, Rocky exploded out of his chains before flopping on the floor, writhing. Forrester didn't seem to much at all about one of his prisoners being free.
"For one," Forrester said, taking his shirt off, "I knew everything about the Ka'zar, even their name, almost nobody knew that. I knew what the Ka'zar believed, what they feared, what they built, and where they built it."
Two bugs came out of the dark and stuck some cords or cables into his back. Forrester went on, "That tablet for instance, I think it was some kind of warning. After touching the symbols in a certain sequence, it showed me things. Things I couldn't even imagine. Things the E.S.B would never allow the world to know."
"You ever think of actually listening to clear warnings?" Tommy said.
"You wouldn't understand," Forrester said, "you don't need this power the way my people do."
"The people you manipulated?" Tommy said.
"White Ranger, I only did to them what you've been doing to them for years," Forrester said.
"What are you talking about?"
"I lived in the city," Forrester said, "and I know what it's like. These people, they worship you, praise you, hang on every word you say. They're all weak, because of you. Sure they were happy when everything was going fine and dandy, but as soon as the situation changed, as soon as they had to deal with problems that their precious Power Rangers couldn't and wouldn't solve for them, they lost it! And I was there to pick up the pieces. I gave them hope, I gave them something to believe in, I gave them power."
A bug came out of the dark and handed Forrester the key. He gazed at it ravenously as he ran his fingers all around it. "And I'm gonna give them a lot more when this is over."
Tommy just was stunned at how insane everything was, and yet, how it all made sense to him at the same time. There's gotta be a way to talk him out of this, he thought. "Do you really think your gonna be able to work that thing? It's old, it probably doesn't even have any juice left."
"Well it's like I said, White Ranger, I know everything the Ka'zar built, everything." With a snap of Forrester's fingers, more bugs came into the light, each one had attached to them the same cords attached to Forrester. They all sat in a circle around him.
Purple electricity ran from the bugs, through the cords, straight into Forrester's back. The bugs collapsed before him. He wriggled and writhed as the key's blade spun around its jewel. His eyes illuminated purple as his face began to crystalize.
Two bugs helped Rocky get to his knees.
Forrester's voice deepened as he raised the key into the air. "The Mirinoians called it the B'lar. The Aquitians called it the Kalarum. And the Ka'zar called it the Key. No matter what mythology you read, you'll find that this item is a gateway to the secrets beyond this realm. That may whoever hold it may be given direct access to the forces of time and space itself, and it's my gateway to the Dark Specter."
Rocky managed gurgle some words out of his mouth. "You don't really believe in any of this Dark Specter stuff, do you? You're just a con."
"But I do," Forrester said as he levitated off the ground, "Sure, at first I just wanted the people to believe in something that would make them see just how much they were being held back by their heroes and their governments, but as my brothers began to evolve, it became clear to me that the legends were true! It was clear sign that we were being driven by a greater consciousness to usher in a new world!
"And it's a world I want you to be a part of Rocky Desantos," Forrester said.
One of the bugs placed a blaster in Rocky's claw before they walked back into the dark. Rocky just stared at the blaster, eyes twitching.
"I have seen what you've done, brother. And I must say, I am impressed. The will of the Dark Specter rushes through you. Even as we speak, it beckons to you."
Rocky ambled back to his feet, twitching and squirming.
"Come on, man!" Tommy said. "You can't be buying this!"
Trembling, Rocky just looked down at the blaster as it laid in the palms of his hands.
"Zane was weak," Forrester said,"but you are strong. You truly understand what it means to do whatever is necessary for the greater good. Kill the White Ranger, and take Zane's place in the order of the cosmos."
New shards of crystal ripped across Rocky's forehead. He seized inwards, and as if it would relieve some pressure, he pointed the blaster at Tommy.
Tommy's jaw quivered. "Rocky. . ."
He just hissed back at him, eyes bulging.
Forrester raised himself over five feet off the ground."You know better than I now, Desantos. When the time came for you to free yourself from fear, he took that choice away from you. He is the very prison that's been holding you captive your entire life!" Energy sparked out of Forrester's fingers as he stretched his arms out. His form seemed wave and in shift in purple aura around him. "I'm giving you that choice back to you. Kill him, and fear nothing ever again."
Rocky lumbered over to Tommy, eyes glazed over, his hand shaking.
In the spark of the moment, Tommy said the first thing came into his head: "Why did you come back?"
Rocky stopped. He tilted his head at Tommy. "What?" he said.
"At the house, the agents and the bugs were gonna blow each other away, Zane was probably gonna die in the crossfire. You had what you wanted. Why did you come back to get me? In fact, why did you come here in the first place? "
Rocky's whole body quivered. "Because. . . because. . ."
"Because you wanted to, right?" Tommy said, "You wanted to, so you did it. Now tell me, what do you want to do right now?"
Rocky turned his attention to the floor, then to the ceiling. He darted his head all over the place,like he was looking for a way out.
"Desantos!" Forrester yelled from above, "The Dark Age is coming! You can either be apart of it, or wiped out by it. Now, kill him!"
Rocky finally looked at Tommy straight in the eye, and Tommy looked straight back at him, staring deep into his unmatching pair of eyes. "What do you want to do, man?" Tommy said,"Because, I don't think you want to shoot me."
"Why?" Rocky said, "What makes you so sure I won't do it?"
Tommy grinned at him. "Because, only a creep would do that."
He stared at Tommy for moment, then took a breath.
He spun around and fired at Forrester. With a blinding flash, a rippling boom reverberated throughout the kept his head down as the bursting aura blasted the roof apart, sending chunks of metal tumbling to the floor.
Smack! Forrester hit the ground.
Pushing and slaming against any bugs that got in his way, Rocky sprinted over to Tommy and ripped his chains off in pull swift pull. Without hesitation, Tommy grabbed his chair and thrashed it at the first bug that lunged at him. Swiftly, Rocky gunned down wave after wave of bugs. They crawled after them, covering the floor, and descending down the walls. They inched ever closer to them, on all fours. Tommy and Rocky went back-to-back to face the swarm around them.
And then they stopped. The bugs all scurried away as the key lifted Forrester back to his feet again.
His illuminescent grinned at them. "It's here. . ." Forrester raised the key in front of them. The jewel sparked as the blade spun. Purple bolts fired straight into his head, making Forrester jump back with every bolt.
It's busted, Tommy thought as he saw the cracks forming on the key's jewel. No second thoughts, he just went for it.
"Alright man, thanks for saving my life. See ya," Tommy said before charging after Forrester.
"What do you think your doing?" Rocky said.
"No Idea."
Tommy grabbed the key. Forrester wrapped his free arm around Tommy's neck and tried to pull the key away from him. Tommy's tried to anchor Forrester off of him. They were about to tumble to the ground, then a bolt fired into Tommy's skull.
Flash!
"Tommy! Tommy!" Rocky screamed as he shaked Tommy's unconscious body. His eyes were open, but empty. He had a pulse, but his body was cold and pale.
The building quaked as more chunks of metal and concrete rained onto the floor. The bugs swarmed throughout the building, and climbed out of the gash in the ceiling. A wave of them crashed and carried Rocky away from Tommy's body.
"Get off me! Get off me!" Rocky yelled as he tugged and pulled at the crowd, but Rocky couldn't even hear himself. The sound of the bugs infernal hissing rang incessantly through his ears. It was only matched by Forrester's laugh as it echoed throughout the building.
In the distance, he saw them sweep Tommy's body off the ground before a large mass of stone ruptured from the floor.
The bugs carried Rocky all the way to the ceiling, and Rocky saw it. As they climbed up through the gash, he saw the night sky turn into blinding white light.