At the highest point of the tallest tower on the planet, a darkened room was lit up by the occasional bolt of lightening outside the window. The white marble decor, when illuminated, almost seemed to glow against the dark-painted violet of the walls.
A grim, twisted specter of a man was seated in front of his marble desk. His long, thin hands gripped the purple armrests tightly, as if he were afraid that he may fall out if he let go. His blackened nails, long and speckled with silver flecks, pierced right through the plush cushioning. The man's eyes, sunken deep into his skull, were the only thing within the room giving off light. The anger beneath the ice-blue surface seemed to nearly match the fury of the storm outside.
On the other side of the desk, a man trembled on the floor in the dark. Every few seconds, an unintelligible whimper would escape his lips. His body moved as if it were being shot with electricity at random.
As the other man's muscles twisted, shifting his body into various odd and uncomfortable states, the man at the desk began to look grow bored. His grip on the arm rests of his seat loosened, and he brought his right hand up to rest on top of the desk. As the other man writhed and whimpered, he began to tap his fingers against the cool marble.
"Have you learned your lesson yet?" The man's voice was quiet and surprisingly pleasant, difficult to hear over the raucous thunder outside.
"Yes ... Graves.. Please!" The last words caught in the man's throat as he seemed to be hit by another wave of invisible electricity.
Graves watched the man writhe for another moment, wordlessly tapping at his desk with one hand as his other still gripped his arm rest. The light behind his eyes grew more intense.
"You have failed me for the last time, Reese."
The man on the floor was rocked with another wave, this one more powerful than the last. His eyes rolled back into his head as he seemed to give up, allowing the energy to overtake him. In a moment, his body lay still - smoking - on the floor.
Graves raised his hand from the desk and gestured toward the door at the end of the chamber. It burst open, spilling light into the room and across the floor. A man stepped forward, into the darkness.
"Sir?" The man's voice faltered - he clearly had heard what had happened from outside the door. The man was very average - in build and in clothing. He wore a dirty gray uniform with a black overcoat. The green Turbo Morpher gently pulsed with untapped power on his wrist. His right hand clenched the matching Turbo key tightly.
"My plan is falling apart, Morgan. I will have to do what I always should have done - handle it myself." Graves turned his palm towards the man and tightened his fingers slightly. The Morpher was violently ripped from his arm and shot across the room into Grave's waiting hand - the key trailing just behind it.
The man stood up from his desk and looked at Morpher in his hand for a moment. With a sickening sound, the device simply slid into the flesh of his palm. It reemerged a second later - properly positioned on his wrist, but without the straps - held there like it had somehow become a part of his skin.
Morgan reacted dramatically - collapsing to his knees as the devices were pulled from his hands. He stared up at his Master pathetically, sure that he was the next to be executed. He began to sob to himself softly.
"Silence. You're coming with me. We need to help clean up the mess your team mates have made." Graves slowly came around his desk, walking with a heavy limp as one leg seemed to drag uselessly. He paused for a moment, looming over his sobbing servant, before passing into the bright hallway. His robes slid across the floor, heavy with their darkness.
The explosives roared once again. This time, acting as they were intended to.
A gaping hole was ripped into the corridor wall, and the entire area went cold as the heat and air were torn out of it. The shrill emergency sirens came to life once again as the dim overhead lights began to blink out.
Without the super strength that the Ranger suits provided, the four of them would have been sent to their deaths - their bodies frozen as they shot out into the vastness of space.
Nico ground her teeth together as she fought against the pull - kneeling down and using the extended claws on her gloves to lock into the floor. Next to her, she felt the Silver Ranger similarly tense up - fighting his own battle against the vacuum of space.
She considered for a moment that with one quick, cat-like strike she could likely throw him off - get him sucked out into space. Even if he managed to recover and return to them, she would be given plenty of time to deal with the other one. Rex seemed to be struggling himself - even with the strength of his newly-equipped black Ranger suit - holding on to his captain and supporting himself was not easy. The girl knew that she could defeat him, reclaiming Roland's Morpher and the one used by the unconscious woman in the process.
Captain Arkadian - Dia, as her assistant had introduced her as to the others - was still knocked out. She had had a seemingly feeble grip on life before she had been morphed. Even now, while she healed beneath the original Red Ranger armor, her life force was very weak to the sensors in Nico's helmet. She would be a burden, unable to provide assistance.
Nico's muscles tightened up - preparing for a quick, leaping strike on both of the men at once - before she relaxed them. She sighed beneath her helmet. Despite them being compete strangers, she somehow felt a sort of kinship with the others - even the unconscious one. She was still numb from the loss of Roland, and very confused as to what her next course of action should be.
A burst of light shot out from each of their helmets - just above their visors - and illuminated a small space in front of each of them.
"We need to get out of here, now. Call your glider!" The Black Ranger's voice was only audible because of the communications link between their helmets. Dia was rested carefully over his right shoulder, both of his arms locked around her legs tightly.
Kit staggered for a second, suddenly realizing that it was his turn to do something. He brought up his left hand as the DigiMorpher materialized within it in a brief flash of white-blue light. Relying on the strange intuition that had seemed to have guided him since his time morphing, he quickly pressed the buttons that felt correct.
2 - 5 - 9
"Silver Galaxy Glider!" The words left his mouth before he even had a chance to consider them - bursting from the face of his helmet loudly enough to compete with the sirens. The DigiMorpher vanished into another burst of light.
Nothing happened. The trio exchanged nervous glances across the darkened hallway. Air continued to rush by, and sirens continues to screech. They could even hear the crowd of escaped prisoners, a low distant rumble, as they burst into their corridor!
"Uhm... what now?" Nico spoke first, feeling the slam of monster feet vibrate through the floor and into her claws. She looked passed her new allies, down to a brighter-lit area of the hallway. Disturbed, misshapen shadows crew larger.
"Well. I don't really know. Last time I sorta just .. jumped out the window?" Kit's head tilted to the side with uncertainty. Last time he hadn't had a choice - he had been on his way out before his vehicle had even been summoned. There was no way he was jumping just as blindly into space.
"You're an idiot." The White Ranger continued staring out of the hole, hoping for a sign of their escape vehicle.
"They're here!" Rex moved closer to the other two, tightening his grip on the Red Ranger in his arms.
The Glider's light shined through the opening above them just as the first wave of prisoners arrived.
Nico rushed forward, pulling her Tiger Baton from the air just a second before smashing it across a Cog's chest. The beast twirled and and fell beneath a burst of sparks. The White Ranger did not pause, bringing her weapon up to strike another enemy as she planted a powerful kick into a third.
The Silver Ranger, meanwhile, was holding on to the metal edge of the corridor, gripping a tow cable strung from his Galaxy Glider. He jumped down and handed it off to Rex's waiting hand before rushing forward to join Nico.
The Black Ranger threw the metal hook directly into the floor. It settled there, providing a rough but usable connection with the Glider outside. Slowly, carefully, the man began to work his way up the rope with the Red Ranger still over his shoulder.
Two Putties dropped with burning holes to the chest as Kit reached his new ally. He swept the legs out from beneath the two Tengu behind them while firing over their shoulders at the group of Cog's surrounding Nico.
"Who's the idiot now?" The Ranger dropped his weapon back into it's holster and summoned his Silverizer. He quickly extended it's saber and struck down another Tengu with a shower of sparks. As the corridor began to fill with foot soldiers, the two Rangers went back to back to continue fighting them - trying to keep them drawn away from the Glider's attached cable.
"You, still, if you think we are all gonna fit on that stupid surfboard! I'm surprised that buffoon and his friend haven't brought it down themselves!" Nico had began swinging her baton wildly, like a bat, with both hands. Those foot soldiers that were not smart enough to avoid it were quickly brought to the ground.
The hallway shook from the weight of heavy steps - the crackled green and black rock surface of Ecliptor's face smiled at them from under the last functioning light bulb. He stood for a moment, adjusting the grip he held on his saber. He seemed to be focusing entirely on the Silver Ranger, watching him as he fought.
"Who is that ugly fella?" The Wild Force Ranger continued her wild, two-handed assault on the approaching wave of creatures. She watched the smiling creature step out of the light, vanishing in the pitch black. She knew that when he emerged from the darkness he would be upon them.
"I don't know, but he looks too happy to see us. Get up to that Glider!" The swarm of foot soldiers tightened around them. Kit slashed at one while holding another at bay with his other hand. With every strike, sparks exploded forth and an enemy fell. It just seemed as if there were then two more to replace them.
The Silver Ranger began to feel hands pulling at his limbs - downed soldiers grasping at his legs while others pulled and pushed against his shoulders. The darkness of the enemies around him seemed to meld with the pitch black of the corridor. It seemed that every inch illuminated in front of his visor was a Puttie, a Cog, or a Tengu - or all three. He flailed the Silverizer wildly, seeming to do harm to some of them even as the rest of them blocked out his view of Nico.
The White Ranger had made her way to the rope, hoping that the path she fought to make herself was enough for the both of them to get through. As her left hand grabbed it and she brought up her first booted foot and began to climb, she chanced a quick glance behind her.
She could barely see the illumination from the Silver Ranger's helmet through the thick crowd of enemies. They had even started pushing and clawing at each other, just fighting for the opportunity to get within striking distance of the Ranger.
Nico felt a tug at her own boot and looked down to see that she, too, had company. A growing crowd of Putties and Tengu fought for the chance to climb up the rope after her.
An energy blast erupted from above her, starting the girl and the foot soldiers around her. The tow cable below her - the gliders only connection to the space station - was blasted apart. She looked up and saw a small puff of smoke drifting from the tip of Rex's Blade Blaster.
"What are you doing!?" The young woman yelled up at the Black Ranger even as a pair of Cogs grabbed the charred bottom of the rope and began pulling the Glider downwards. The closest group of Putties grabbed their Cog friends and began to put their own weight behind the pull. The rope - with Nico on it - was involved in a tug of war between the foot soldiers and the Glider itself.
"If we don't leave him, none of us will survive." Rex spoke calmly, despite the mess of activity swarming around him. He had the upper part of his body extended off the side the Glider, with his legs and feet at rest on the board with Dia. He took aim and fired another shot, taking out another creature fighting to pull them back down.
Even before the Black Ranger had finished speaking, Nico knew that he was right. She turned and saw that the cracked, red-eye creature had emerged from the dark.
"Zhane! Oh Zhaney boy, where are you!?" Ecliptor swung his blade carelessly, slicing ally after ally with each move. He did not care. He had only revenge on his mind. The foot soldiers slowly started separating, clearing a bath for the warrior to reach his intended target.
"How did I get so lucky!? I thought I would have to hunt for my old friend Andros! All I'll have to do is make him come running for you!" Ecliptor batted the last of the Cogs and Putties away with his arm and knelt down next to the Ranger. Kit swung his left arm - still clutching his Silverizer - and slashed at the monster's shoulder. The green and black creature vanished just before the blade touched him. The Ranger's attack swung powerfully through nothing but air.
"Come on, you'll have to be quicker than that!"
Kit looked up and Ecliptor had reappeared standing above him, towering over his head. He pointed his sword at the Silver Ranger's neck and pressed it's point forward, slightly.
"Let me see your face, Zhane. It's been far too long." Ecliptor smiled his twisted, cracked grin once again. Behind him, Gasket and Archerina had arrived with Thrax just behind them. The three of them watched the scene quietly, afraid to interrupt what was obviously an important moment for the creature.
"Why don't you quit rambling that nonsense, crack-face!?"
Nico's Tiger Baton sailed through the air, following the words she had directed at Ecliptor. For a moment, a spark of hope appeared within Kit's chest as the baton sailed towards the creature above him. It moved impossibly fast, so fast that it seemed unlikely Ecliptor could deflect it.
They were all blinded, briefly, by a flash of lightning that filled the whole corridor with white light. The baton was struck and the lightning momentarily gripped it - swinging it around before smashing it into the wall uselessly. As it clattered to the floor, it vanished in it's own white light.
The White Ranger looked up and saw a giant, damaged-looking creature holding a large silver staff towards her fallen weapon. Thrax smiled and began walking towards her, tired of staying on the sidelines. The Silver Ranger seemed to be Ecliptor's only focus, and he did not intend to let the other monster take all the credit for defeating the Rangers.
"Come down and play!" Thrax held up his father's staff a second time and more power crackle around it, charging it with power. Before he had a chance to unleash the attack on Nico, the Black Ranger above her had had enough.
Dragging his line of fire all across the crowd of beasts holding on to the rope, Rex squeezed the trigger on his blaster and did not let up. A series of red lasers blasts shot forward - burning through the limbs and hands of the monsters below.
The rope was released and the whole thing - Glider, rope, and Rangers - was pulled straight out into space immediately. A single confused Tengu warrior cried out as the rope wrapped around it's feathered arm ripped it off of the ground and after them.
The last thing Nico saw before she was sent into space was Ecliptor removing Kit's helmet and crying out, throwing it aside. Then, her vision was consumed with only the spiraling blackness of space and the peppering of stars.