Burning Crimson
Summary: The Champion of the Phoenix if fated to die to defeat a powerful enemy. But first the Universe will know . . . Once a Ranger, Always a Ranger. The conclusion of the Crimson Ranger trilogy. AU for MMPR Season 2 and beyond.
Disclaimer: I do not own, nor do I intend/desire to make any money off the Power Rangers/Super Sentai concepts and characters presented in this story. They are fully the property of their respective owners and are used with loving respect. Furthermore, this story utilizes concepts borrowed/adapted from Chris Claremont's run on X-Men.
Chapter 21: Battle Cry
Alert sirens blared, warning lights flashed and the crew of the Warrior Prince made ready for battle. Trey issued orders, "Bring the ship around. Priority signal to the rest of the fleet, converge on these coordinates as planned."
There was a chorus of "Aye sirs," from across the command deck . . . drowned out as the Tactical Officer yelled, "Multiple teleport signals detected!"
Trey spun in his chair, "Billy!"
Billy didn't even look back as he entered the remote command and said, "Firing." Across the near side of the planet a series of Tri-Lupus, Biolab, and NASADA owned transmission arrays powered up and fired an invisible burst comprised of anti-protons. The rare quantum particle, the very one that almost killed Billy in his youth, flooded into space. Checking his readouts one last time, Billy turned to the others, "Further teleportation should be disrupted for the next thirty minutes. Thrax will also have to wait until the anti-proton field clears before he can trigger his wave or it will collapse."
Trey nodded and turned to the Tactical Officer, "What got through before the anti-proton burst?"
"Twenty-eight percent of the teleport mass was destabilized when the burst was fired," she reported.
Tommy said, "Trini and the others can handle it."
"Right," Jason agreed. "They've got their job now, we've got ours."
On Earth, in the Command Center, Zack was fairly certain that his wife was channeling Jason and Tommy as she quickly assessed the situation and began issuing combat assignments.
"Wes and Eric to San Francisco. Do we have a lock on the Silver Guardian teams they're wanting as back-up?" Haley nodded and so Trini continued, "Teleport them too. What do we have in Chicago?"
Alpha reported, "Six Tallicks, no monster class, and two dozen each of Quantrons and Batlings."
"Get the Turbos on that. Be ready to pull them out to back up other teams when they finish. Ninjas to Toronto . . . Zord teleport on standby. Lightspeed to London, Wildforce to Cairo, and Dinos to Moscow."
Behind her Conner groaned and said, "Aw, we wanted Tokyo."
Trini looked at him and grinned, "Sorry Conner, veteran Ranger privilege . . . we get to fight the giant monster in Tokyo." She turned back to Alpha, "On that note, are the Super Zeo Zords ready?"
If he could have, the automaton would have smiled, "Back online and better than ever."
"Then launch the Zords. Okay Rangers . . . It's Morphin' Time!"
Aboard the Warrior Prince, Brandon, Jason, Tommy, Kim, Billy, Adam, Aisha, and Rocky sprinted into the launch bay. The last of the first wave of fighters was clearing the magnetic atmosphere barrier as they arrived.
"Okay, once we're clear we head for the Darkthrone, cutting a . . ." Brandon's review of the plan was cut off as Kim said, "Not me."
The other Rangers turned to her. Kim's expression was hard, determined, and just a little bit scary, "I'm going after Dimitria."
"Beautiful . . ."
"No Tommy. That bitch is going down for what she did to you and the others."
Tommy looked ready to argue, but Jason put his hand on Tommy's shoulder and said, "Pink."
Tommy put up his hands in a sign of surrender. "Just be careful," he told her.
Kim smiled, "Always," and then kissed her husband.
That settled all the Rangers stood around for a moment, as if they were waiting for something. After a few seconds, Brandon realized that they were all staring at him. "What? Oh, you want me to do this?"
Jason chuckled, "It's your show love."
Brandon blushed and then took his stance. "Okay then, It's Morphin' Time!"
"Red Stallion Ranger Power!"
"White Falcon Ranger Power!"
"Pink Crane Ranger Power!"
"Blue Wolf Ranger Power!"
"Green Frog Ranger Power!"
"Yellow Bear Ranger Power!"
"Black Ape Ranger Power!"
"Phoenix Ranger Power!"
The Rangers morphed and then ran at the atmosphere barrier, summoning their Zords just before passing through. Each Zord coalesced around its respective Ranger and then as a group they headed for Thrax's forces.
As they reached the first line of the Darkthrone's defenses they broke formation, the others engaging any fighters or smaller craft between them and the Darkthrone, while Kim peeled off and made a run at the Vengence.
The Crane dove and weaved through the Velocifighters, vaporizing the craft with cannons mounted just under her wing joints. She was quickly in range of the dreadnaught's weapons batteries, which opened up with everything they had. However, all they kept finding was the void of space, their target being too fast and maneuverable for the cannons to lock onto. In the cockpit Kim laughed and yelled, "I love my Zord!" as she launched a salvo of missiles into the Venegence's main weapon battery.
The first two impacted on the ship's shields. The third made the shields buckle. The fourth and the shields in that section collapsed. Missiles five and six tore a gaping hole in the ship. Kim hit her thrusters, accelerating at the opening. She closed the distance in seconds, and just before reaching the periphery of the where the shields used to be Kim released the Crane. The Zord dissolved back into the Grid and Kim road the momentum through the hole she had created and into the ship.
There was still power running to the gravity generators in the deck plates, so Kim gently landed on her feet. All the air had vented into space, but Kim's Ranger armor was a self-contained environment, so she wasn't worked about suffocating. As she looked around, Kim noted that neither did the few surviving Quantrons, as they didn't breathe and only needed air so they could be heard when speaking. She quickly took them out with a series of blade blaster bursts.
The machine henchmen out of the way, Kim turned her attention to gaining access to the rest of the ship. Blowing out the hull had caused the emergency bulkheads to seal, however Kim had been prepared for that. Upon arriving on the Warrior Prince Kim had taken advantage of the Triforian military officers' deference to Rangers and had one of them access everything the ship's computers had on UAE dreadnaughts. What she had planned to gain access to the rest of the ship would take split second timing . . . Kim smirked to herself as she thought that anyone who wasn't her would have been screwed.
Even though the sound of her voice wouldn't be heard beyond her own helmet, Kim still called, "Crane Bow!" In a flash of pink light, the Ninjetti version of her old power weapon manifested. The new bow was much more ornate, far less blocky, and a hell of a lot more powerful that the original. Kim touched the string and a glowing arrow comprised of a pink-tinged, crystalline metal appeared. Kim drew and concentrated, the glow around the arrow intensifying. When the glow became so bright that it completely obscured the arrow, she loosed . . . and immediately chased after the arrow. The charged arrow impacted into the blast doors, punching a hole through them. Kim dived through the explosion, hit the deck in the corridor and rolled. She regained her feet just as a containment barrier coalesced less than a centimeter behind her.
"Where is she!?" Dimitria screeched at the Quantrons manning the bridge stations.
"Unknown Mistress," the Quantron at the Ops station reported in its electronic monotone. "Last known position was Deck 8. Intruder destroyed the internal sensor array."
"You're more incompetent than Centurions! She is a lone Ranger, and a Pink one at that! How . . ." before Dimitria could continue her rant, the emergency hatch built into the bridge's deck was blown inward.
The Pink Ninjetti Ranger leapt up through the hole she just created, flipped, and landed in a battle ready pose on the deck. She glared at the former cleric and now murderess through her visor, "You're forgetting . . . Pink's a shade of Red."
Dimitira took a step back and yelled, "Quantrons!"
The robots began to move, but were barely away from their stations when Kim called, "Firebird Thunder Whip!" and lashed out, severing each Quantrons head from its shoulders in rapid succession. As the whip retracted and Dimitria looked on aghast, Kim commented, "You like it? Billy rebuilt it for me."
Dimitria made a move for her sword. Kim shifted and lashed out again, the tip of the whip grazing Dimitria's cheek . . . leaving a trail of blood. Her hand went to her cheek as Kim calmly informed her, "Go for that sword, and I'll take the hand."
Dimitria glared at the Ranger, and taunted, "So, what will it be now Kimberly? Take me back into custody? It will do you little good . . . Lord Thrax will not fail."
Under her helmet, Kim rolled her eyes. "Believe what you want about Thrax's chances, the fact is, you hurt my friends. You hurt my husband. It took him years to get over being "retired" by you." Dimitria began to smile cruelly until Kim continued, "You're not walking away this time bitch. In fact, when I'm done, you won't be walking again, ever."
Dimitria thought about taunting the Ranger. Accuse her of being incapable of backing up the threat. But something in her voice, something in her posture told Dimitria she wasn't bluffing. Dimitria went for her sword.