Rita Repulsa watched the whole scene unfold from her magical telescope on the Moon Palace balcony, smiling all the while.
"You can't plan for everything, Power Rangers," she said, breaking out into a cackle.
"Perhaps the counselor was right. These teenage twerps seem to have too much to handle," Rita said, her toothy grin still plastered on her face. She kept her right eye locked onto her Repulsascope and twirled a few strands of her ancient hair, watching the Blue Ranger pry the two infected humans off of his father.
"Oh my!" she squealed in a rare moment of giddiness. "It's good to see human flesh rip like that after so long."
Scorpina stood by her empress, giggled, and sighed. Finally, all of the planning was going to pay off for them this time.
The vampiric humans in the Feron Grove Hospital clamped their jaws down once more, except this time they bit into the length of the Blue Ranger's Tricera Lance as he forced them to the wall. Blue Ranger willed himself not to push with all his might to snap their necks more than he did not to cry while Oliver suffered. Two more patients occupied the room—an older woman huddled under her sheets and a younger man who was trying to just keep breathing while he smothered his bite wound with his blanket.
Green Ranger sped into the room, surveying the scene and allowing his body to shake at what he saw. He whipped around to look at his fellow hero fending off the vampires when he put his palms together.
"That's enough, Blue! I've got an idea!"
Tracey hesitated for a few moments, watching Dredwing's charges flail, watching fluid flow off their fangs and down the man's beard and the woman's well-manicured toes. He removed the pressure and dropped his weapon, joining Hayashi in forming his Dino Crystal. With glittering green energy engulfing him, the sixth Power Ranger shouted, "Ocean Vortex!" and threw his hands out, releasing a cone of sea water that surrounded the vampires.
"We don't have the Glacier Flash, but maybe we can trap them!" the Green Ranger surmised.
"I read you, Green…" Blue Ranger huffed, picking up his Tricera Lance. He took it and started rotating counterclockwise, conjuring a wall of desert sand that flew into the aquatic vortex. Within a minute, both of their targets found themselves immobilized in smooth, muddy blocks.
After seeing the ensnared pair couldn't break free, the Rangers caught their breath for a few seconds. Tracey looked at his bloodstained gloves and Tricera Lance, quickly dropping it and running over to check on the victims.
"Call Zordon and Red," he said, examining the man who was holding his neck. It was only a small tear in his skin, but the black poison was already smeared over it.
"I'm here!" a voice called out. The Blue and Green Rangers turned to see the Red Ranger and Chief Kanzaki enter the room, flanked by a couple of doctors. More police and medical officials could be seen checking the other rooms.
"Oh my…" Kanzaki whispered, lowering her firearm and running to Oliver, Tracey joining them. She had just sent doctors and officers to attend to secure the other floors and take care of the bitten humans, and all of the color had drained from her face when she first saw the victims Ash had to quarantine with his Dino Crystal powers; it had yet to return. "Ollie, stay with me…"
In between his hoarse exhalations, Tracey's father tried to form words, scrunching his eyes shut as the sting of the bites needled his whole body. He let out an inaudible murmur.
"What?"
"Where's Tracey?"
The Blue Ranger looked at his friends while he helped the chief and a physician clean his wounds, and they all frowned behind their helmets. He trembled, but only slightly.
"I just checked in with some of my men," Kanzaki said, her stomach uneasy. "They've made sure they're going to be fine, him and the other kids."
Hayashi and Ash broke went to check on the rest of the room. Aside from a ripped curtain and an overturned chair, everything appeared to be in order.
"Zordon, this is Green Ranger," Hayashi reported while Ash met with the elderly lady who hadn't been attacked. "We've cleared the Feron Grove hospital. Some people have been bitten, though."
"I see it now, Green Ranger," Zordon responded. "Your trap should hold the infected for a little while, but the sun will set in under an hour. You must rejoin the others and aid the Yellow Ranger."
"I am still unable to raise her on any communication frequency, Zordon!" Alpha chimed, pressing red and aquamarine buttons on one of his consoles. "Her energy reading is pinpointed in Riko, but she won't answer her Communicator!"
While Green Ranger talked to Zordon, Red Ranger finished speaking with the lady, who now pointed to the ground. Ash knelt down and saw a silver box with its contents spilled open. Several of the bandages Zordon and Alpha had crafted were strewn about the tile, all torn to shreds.
"Either she's fighting Dredwing or…"
Hayashi stopped talking at that moment when he moved to look at Ash, who froze up at his words, and he felt the same chill when he saw their only means of slowing the vampire virus in bits at his feet.
"You sure about this, Black?" Pink Ranger inquired. "We didn't fare too well the last few times we tried to stop a monster like this."
"You said cornering them would be the fastest way to stop them, Pink," Black Ranger said back over his Wrist Communicator. "They can't fly like Vires and Keese, so we won't miss them in the air or catch a backbreaker…hopefully…"
Lia ran her hand along her back, recalling her and the team's first time tangling with Dredwing. She had tried to incinerate him with the Aerial Eruption, but he easily dodged the flames, much like Squatt and Baboo's Monarch monster, and proceeded to lift her in the air and slam her spine with his knee.
"What the heck," she internally scoffed, stifling anything that would make her hesitate. With a sigh, she turned her Dinozord controls to the left and guided her Pterodactyl to circle Kau Cove hospital.
"I just hope they don't jump off the roof."
With his open helmet in his hand, the Black Ranger coughed and spat onto the floor. Blood from his throbbing mouth smeared the pure white tile with a plit! He did this a few times and ran the length of his left glove over his mouth, staining the white and black pattern as well. With a flourish, Brock then snapped his helmet back over his head and moved through the crack of the storage room door.
Brock and Lia had managed to lock all of the vampires in an empty fourth-floor room after chasing them away from those inside Kau Cove Hospital, and Brock opened that door to let seven afflicted humans out. Six stared at him and one man leapt right at the Black Ranger, but he found himself pie-faced back to the ground, but not before tasting his prey's blood off of his glove. The vampire slowly licked his fangs and turned to look at his unwilling accomplices, who growled with hunger.
"Good, right?" Brock asked, backing up as the group gradually moved toward him. The seven spotted the blood on the floor and feverishly crowded low to sample it; a famished woman even batted her possessed seven-year-old daughter to the side to have some.
Brock tightened up his chest, fighting the urge to throw up, and extended his hand. "Come and get some more," he said, breaking into a run to the door that led to the stairs.
A collection of squeals assaulted his ears, and the vampiric people followed suit, barreling through the door and climbing up the stairs after their fast food. Brock huffed and puffed while he pounded his inflamed feet up each step. He didn't look back, but he knew each victim thirsting for him was only a few feet away from him. He blocked out everything except a vision of the top of the building: his long-time friend Misty in agony and having to fight the vampires' ghoulish master on her own, his team fraying at the edges and being split up all over the island, even the innocents that had bitten into some of the people who were just trying to get well here, the ones that throatily chanted, "Yellow. Gold. Yellow. Gold."
Fifth floor, sixth floor, seventh floor, and then one final door. Black Ranger surged and pumped his right foot through it, knocking it off its hinges, and stepped out onto the roof and into the dull light of the cloudy afternoon. He pressed his palms together, looking up into the sky.
"Ready when you are!" he boomed. His Dino Crystal in hand, he launched the lustrous gem like a football. It flew through the air at a forty-five-degree angle, and the Black Ranger faced his pursuers once more. They were all disheveled, all in tattered blue hospital gowns, and all within twenty feet of feasting. Three seconds later, they were ten feet away, and that's where they stopped when a screech rang in their ears.
Pterodactyl Dinozord was looping around the bend, smoothly and swiftly cutting a perfect circle. The Pink Ranger's radar beeped, indicating an incoming object. However, Lia stayed the course, letting Brock's Dino Crystal to smash over her cockpit's windshield. Brilliant black sparkles spread over the Zord's immense body, and the Pterodactyl opened its mouth to cry again, whipping around as Lia turned hard left.
The sick humans stood still, stunned at seeing a winged being that wasn't the monster that had turned them into his and Rita's minions. Brock took advantage of their immobility, sprinting and somersaulting over them, blocking the open doorway and assuming his Mammoth Axe. He cocked the sliding part of the handle, activating its cannon mode, and this startled the seven, who all huddled together and tried to look for a way to escape.
"Ready?" Black Ranger questioned.
"As I'll ever be!" Pink Ranger yelled. "I'm sorry, everyone, but you have to cool off for a while!"
She hit two buttons on her console and then pressed down on the fire button of her control stick. Four blue-white lightning bolts crackled forth from the tips of the Dinozord's wings and its eyes as it flew over the building, striking at the feet of the vampires. Instead of electrocuting them, the plasma stretched over them, forming a hemisphere as smooth as glass, rendering the seven victims completely motionless.
"Bullseye!" Lia said, pumping her fist in victory. "Well, there's no way I could've missed."
"Great job, Lia," Brock breathed, salty liquid pouring down his head and past his face. He came away from relief almost immediately. "But now we've got to get to Misty and Dredwing. And the last of Zordon's healing aids just got torn up by the vampires…"
Lia clenched her teeth and moved her Pterodactyl due north. She checked a small screen on her user interface; it was half past four, leaving only thirty more minutes before sunset.
"Then l hope you can keep up, Brock! See you there!" she called out. She set the mech's thrusters to full speed, and the Dinozord screeched once more, signaling the beginning of its urgent journey.
The Black Ranger watched the Pink Ranger and the Pterodactyl zip through the beach town's airspace toward the farming community of Riko, and he activated the secondary function of his Wrist Communicator, surrounding him with black light and propelling him into the sky as well.
"Just a little while longer, my Waterflower. Just a little while longer."
The Yellow Ranger tried to push herself up to a standing position, but she was locked in a perpetual state of kneeling. Sure, Dredwing's palm resting on her head kept some pressure steady, but his toxins flowed through her own internal river more than ever before. It felt like her whole body was on fire, but she couldn't even move an inch, save for her trying to spit out some of the poison. She could only see the faint light of the outside world peeking through the maw of Life's End.
"Just close your eyes for a moment," the creature said. He rotated his hand across his hostage's head, threading her frizzy red hair through his clawed fingers. "You'll get to see your mechanical friend one last time, dear."
Misty wanted to retort, but all she could do was struggle to keep her eyes open. She attempted to speak, but her jaws clamped shut for some reason, her teeth nearly busting her tongue open; when she grazed her tongue, some of her teeth felt different, sharper even.
Dredwing hissed, pushing her head down even more and straining her neck. She finally shut her eyes, and what were once flashes of action became a coherent scene.
Eleven of the last Vire's offspring soared high above the countryside, their sights set on the same town square as the first attack. But as they flew in search of sustenance, a rolling growl caught their attention. Many feet below and away from them, the Saber-Toothed Tiger Dinozord was on the prowl, arching its cannon-shaped tail over its back as it bounded across the farmland; dogs and horses raced alongside, separated by picket and wire fences.
Devoid of sight but not of instinct, three Keese broke from the flock to challenge the oncoming yellow behemoth. Two were promptly incinerated by a sweeping yellow ray, but the last one dove under the blast, looping and latching onto the Saber-Toothed Tiger's neck. The Keese repeatedly scratched and bit the Zord's metallic exterior, but the Yellow Ranger's robotic friend continued to charge toward Riko. They were soon joined by another Keese, which landed on its target's face and tried to gouge out its eyes. The Dinozord snarled, opening its jaws wide and snapping them shut three times. The first time was in futility, the second caught the evil replicant's foot and caused it to cease its assault, and the third saw the Keese flung from the Saber-Toothed Tiger's face and run through by one of the machine's silver fangs.
All the while, the remaining Keese picked up speed, urged on by the disembodied will of their master. They flew closer and closer to the center of the town, where people were running inside buildings and two cars and two pickup trucks began to approach from the far end of the one dirt road that led to the south.
Saber-Toothed Tiger had its ruby-red optical sensors on what was happening, and it compelled its limbs to move with renewed vigor despite the parasite clawing away at it. The robot bounded to the right, avoiding crashing into a thicket of trees, and it did the only thing it could do, leaping and rolling headfirst over a tall, grassy hill. The DInozord tumbled, disorienting the Keese, and when they reached the bottom, the vampire spun off of its prey and wheeled through the grass, stopping several yards away. The Keese writhed in pain, but it didn't have a chance to rise, vaporized by another laser beam from the Saber-Toothed Tiger's cannon.
Standing alone, Saber-Toothed Tiger looked to the east, and its sensors located Misty's energy signature three miles away. The prehistoric powerhouse stood still for a moment, desperately wanting to rescue its friend, but screams from the west prompted it to accomplish the prime directive the Yellow Ranger had given it.
In town, the seven Keese that hadn't been cut down were ready to land, but this time, citizens of the rural area were waiting for them with stakes at the ready and shotguns primed. The monsters fanned out and mainly skirted the gunfire, their agility ensuring the most damaged they received were minute tears in their skin. One woman launched a wooden spear at one of the Keese, but the enemy gripped it and snapped the weapon in two as it divebombed into her and another person. That's when the others descended.
Five of the Keese touched down to start their attack, but an unlucky one was shot down by one of the townsfolk, thrown onto its back thanks to a round of shotgun shells. The hairy beast strained to sit up, but was subsequently impaled by Willy, the enraged man from the Riko church. His stake now stuck in the earth, Willy pried it from the ground only to find himself thrown into the dirt by one of the vampires. His wife tried to rip the Keese off of him, but the Keese squealed, reared back, and chomped on her fingers. She shrieked and fell down herself, prompting the monster to abandon Willy and try to feed on her.
"You dirty…" the burly fellow began, seizing the bloodthirsty being by the shoulders. The Keese retaliated by sliding its head up to his neck, chewing through the flesh, and gifting the man with its venom
The others defending Riko weren't faring much better. The closed-quarters situation rendered gunfire useless unless the people wanted to hurt their own; a man and a woman who drew their pistols were quickly kicked and clawed down by Dredwing's minions, and the others either bit or knocked away people who tried to help them.
Once more, the owner of the small shop in the square hid behind his counter, but this time, after much shivering and sweating, he bolted out of his business and straight toward a wiry farm girl tussling with one of the Keese. Just as the hideous creature was about to tear the teenager's neck open, it recoiled when the shop owner swung a string of garlic cloves near its nose and mouth, allowing the girl to pummel its nose with her boot.
"Go on! Get in and lock the door!" he yelled, moving the girl behind him. The young lady, with only a tear in her overalls and a bruise on her cheek, nodded and took off. The shop owner rose to gather himself, but was thrown to the dirt by one of the flying freaks. The fangs pierced the back of his neck in three seconds flat.
Suddenly, a menacing roar overwhelmed the sounds of the melee. The six Keese abandoned their prey, sensing the Saber-Toothed Tiger Dinozord racing into the town square, towering many stories over the area. The mechanized protector lowered itself onto its belly, snapping at the evildoers and forcing them to retreat under the wooden overhangs of the buildings. Saber-Toothed Tiger primed its cannon, aiming it at two of the Keese that were paired off. The vampires swiped in midair, and one of the six on the other side of the plaza punched into the store window, eliciting fearful cries from those inside. The remaining three just bobbed their heads forward, displaying the meals that dripped from their teeth.
All of them were taunting Misty's Dinozord, and even though it had its weapon at the ready, there was nothing it could do without adding innocent casualties to the bloodbath.
As three Keese on the east side started breaking into choice establishments, an incoming black light caused them to halt their progress. In two seconds, one found itself gored by a sharp, oblong blade, and within six, the other two joined their brethren in a heap of violet embers after being cleaved through their chests.
The batlike organisms on the west side stopped their rampage as well, startled by the screeches of their partners. They and the humans that weren't incapacitated looked to see that Black Ranger had joined the Saber-Toothed Tiger, silently swinging his Mammoth Axe with an offensive flourish. The Keese responded by joining together to accept his challenge, advancing to the middle of the road.
"Look!" one of the men shouted, his raised voice ringing out despite the pain he felt in his neck. The screech of the Pterodactyl Dinozord confirmed his greatest hope and the vampires' worst nightmare. The Keese stood as if they'd been frozen by Brock's Glacier Flash, but they could smell the Pink Ranger as she stood atop the head of her soaring Zord. She tilted her Ptera Bow horizontally, three sharp arrows straining the string to its breaking point; the projectiles shone with Dino Crystal energy, each one flaming at the tip. Lia squinted her eyes, ignoring the targets on her HUD and going on instinct. The bowstring snapped forward, the arrows raced downward, and the skittish parasites were immolated and struck through the heart, leaving no trace of their vile existence.
Most of the nearby people of Riko, wounded, frightened, or otherwise, all cheered at the sight of the vanquished Keese. Pink Ranger, on the other hand, reentered her Dinozord and veered to the east.
"I'm off to check out the hospital!" she told the Black Ranger. "The ambulances will be on the way!"
"Roger that!" Brock replied, running out to tend to the victims. "I'm going to call Blue Ranger to help." The Black Ranger first helped up those who were able to stand, and they in turn started to assist him. Meanwhile, the Saber-Toothed Tiger turned to face the way out of town; nothing would get past it.
"Shootin' was gonna do no good once they got close," a farm boy said, coughing into his blue jean jacket. "These suckers were just too fast…"
"Willy? David?" Willy's wife uttered, holding her bleeding hand close to her chest while looking at her husband and the nearby shop owner. Her husband and the owner spasmed and grunted in pain while they held their necks. Another man could be seen crying and cradling his niece, who was also in tears thanks to the bite she suffered in her shoulder.
Brock helped the woman up and began to clean the black goop from her injury, but no amount of disinfectant would clear all of the blood and muck and pain he saw and heard from his memory. Brock fought his rising stomach.
"I won't let this get to me. Not like last time…" he told himself, remembering when injuries to the innocent caused him to bow in trepidation to Rita's forces. But his thought was cut off when his Communicator beeped.
"This is Black Ranger. What's up?"
"Black! It's Yellow!"
Brock gasped at hearing Misty's voice; he hadn't spoken to her since earlier in the morning.
"Yellow?! Where are you?!" he shouted. "Are you okay?!"
"I've got Dredwing where I want him!" she said. Yellow Ranger's voice was raspy, and a cough came from the other end of the communication. "We're in Life's End!"
"I…I don't know what to do…" he answered, looking at the scene around him. "I have people that need me."
"I've got Red and Green coming over!" Misty assured. "This is finished!"
Two columns of light landed at the mouth of Life's End, and the Red and Green Rangers materialized and sprinted right into the cave, taking in their surroundings.
"Her helmet and Tiger Daggers…" Hayashi whispered, a knot forming in his gut. "I hope she's not…"
"I know Misty, Hayashi," Ash said in between pants. "She'll fight no matter what. Till…till the end…"
The two Power Rangers didn't have to pound ground for long. A bright yellow shape filled their sight a few yards into the dank cavern, their HUDs and senses confirming it was Misty.
"Misty!" Red Ranger called out, stopping in his tracks. He then squared off in a front stance, arms in a defensive position. Green Ranger did the same, and he spoke next.
"Come on out, Dredwing. We know you're there."
A chuckle cut through the darkness, and sure enough, the Vire stepped out beside the Yellow Ranger, his hand on her shoulder.
"Get your hand off of her, now." Red Ranger growled.
"That's no way to talk in front of your executioner, boy," Dredwing calmly said, not removing his hand from the heroine; her back was turned to her team.
"You've got three seconds," the Green Ranger demanded, drawing his Dragon Dagger. "That's all. I'm not promising you a last meal."
Dredwing laughed again, stepping aside and taking his hand off of Misty.
"I've had mine, Hayashi," he explained, licking his large bottom fang. "But my lovely lady would like her first."
The two male Rangers' eyes opened wide like their mouths, and their tense muscles loosened in shock as Misty turned around. Beneath her shaggy hair and sunken eyes was a giddy smile, overlapped by two razor-sharp, nearly shiny fangs.