Ascendancy Chapter 25, a power rangers fanfic

Name: Ascendancy
Chapter 25: Back to action
Disclaimer: I own nothing, I am nothing. I am one with the gestalt. Sue him
Archives: Sure, just let me know where
Summary: Avalon strikes alongside Lightspeed rescue and Merrick and the Wildzords, while other Rangers across the world begin to mobilize.
Shoutout: To Jeannine, for writing a fic that stirred in me the desire to write again myself. To Tennyson for helping me with the details on the X-31's

Comments: Okay, here's the situation. I've been going through some really messy times recently and to be honest, writing fiction really wasn't that important when compared to things such as bankruptcy. However I'm back, and I should be writing more regularly now. Once again, I'm sorry.

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Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something.
- Author Unknown

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Mesogog appeared once again in his giant size on the Reefside skyline, but this time he was not alone. He was through playing with the Rangers, with this town, and with humans in general. He had three of his monsters with him, all of them larger than the average high-rise building, and he wasn't looking to play this time.

"Destroy everything," he hissed at his minions. "Kill everyone. Level this city, raze it to the ground and show Trent Mercer that the price of defiance of Mesogog is the death of everything he holds dear."

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Jason Scott was a man of action. Ever since he was a child and his mom had taken him to his very first Karate lesson he had a hard time sitting still, and an even harder time doing nothing when something needed doing. It was one of the things that had probably made him a good ranger, and a good martial artists. The constant drive to work, to train and to perfect his skills had left him with a huge well of patience, and of a bottomless serenity that his wife had been known to spend days trying to tease him into breaking.

Right now, he hung on to that hard-won patience as he brought his car to a screeching halt outside of his house. He'd been at work, doing an early shift when the radio-report had come in about fighting in downtown Reefside. None of the others had realized how impossible it was that there were no Rangers fighting whatever monster was destroying the town, unless the Rangers had been taken out of the equation.

Jason knew that better than most, because he was one of the few people that Tommy had kept in regular touch with. More than that, he knew Tommy as well as any other Ranger could and he knew that his old friend could no more have abandoned Reefside to Mesagog than he could have flown without a Falcon-zord. He grinned to himself despite the situation, and wondered if that was one of the reasons they'd always gotten along so well. They were both people who couldn't do nothing.

He dashed through the front door, and opened his mouth to call for his wife, when he skidded to a sudden stop. Emily was sitting on the staircase waiting for him. He pulled himself up short and was for a moment at a loss for words and she just gave him a wry smile.

"I wondered how long it'd be," she said softly, and unless he was very mistaken, slightly sadly. He'd never told Emily about being a Ranger, as he'd left that life a long time ago, and it just didn't seem fair to make a big deal out of a part of his life that they hadn't shared. He wasn't exactly keeping it a secret, though he'd hidden the morpher Lightspeed had given him carefully, but he made a point of not talking about it

"Emily, hon," he began, but she cut him off by simply stepping of her perch on the stairs, pulling him close and kissing him for a long moment. As she did, he felt a weight being pushed into his hand, and even with his attention focused on his wife's lips, he recognized the morpher he thought he'd hidden fairly well.

She stepped back and looked at him. "When I heard on the news that some monster was rampaging through Reefside, that the Rangers in Reefside had been destroyed, I knew you'd be back here as soon as you heard," she pursed her lips slightly. "I understand why you didn't tell me, but that doesn't mean I didn't figure it out."

"What did I do to deserve you?"

"You didn't deserve me," she responded with mock seriousness, "You earned me," the grin at the end of her sentence took the bite out of the sentence and she reached back and grabbed a small brown bag off the stairs next to where she'd been sitting and passed it to him. "Lunch, and a plane ticket to Reefside," she explained.

He took the bag and gave her a genuine smile of affection. "I love you, you know that right?"

"Don't worry," she responded. "When you get back, you can tell me all about it. Now go, save your friends."

He gave her a ribcrushing hug, and dashed back out the door, Morpher and bag in hand, and Emily watched him go with a sad smile on her face. She waved as the car tore out of the driveway and sighed once. "Just make sure you come back to me."

"All Knight-Wings check in," Taylor ordered as the four flights of two fighters climbed to the right height for a nape of the earth attack run. They only had four of the big m-buster missiles, and one was strapped to the belly-mounts of four seperate fighters. Each of the fighters was the second fighter on their wing, with the lead fighter being there to act as distraction and bait to allow the M-busters to get into range of their targets.

She had her growlphone in the front-pocket of her flightsuit, and despite knowing that it wouldn't make any difference given that she couldn't morph inside an aircraft, it was comforting to have it with her. It made her feel safe, made her feel that no matter what, she could handle anything.

The fighters were airforce modified X-31A fighters, designed specifically for project Avalon and modified under codename Phoenix to be the latest generation of anti-alien fighters. Their top speed wasn't all that much greater than other fighters, but it's maneuvrability was tremendous compared to regular planes. Of course, to stop pilots and gunners from passing out due to excessive G-forces, it was also fitted with Lightspeed designed intertial sumps to help.

What it meant was that the Phoenix's could make turns that would have made physicists who didn't know about the intertial sump technology weep if they'd seen them, and that was why their practice area had been classified and kept well away from the civilian world.

It also meant that you couldn't fly them without both tremendous computer support, and incredibly fast reflexes. The airforce had recruited almost exclusively from the Blue Angels stunt-flying team. Taylor had no doubt that had she might be able to get a slot on the team eventually, now that she had been given access to the project, but she didn't blame anyone for wanting her only along in the gunner's seat.

She was more than capable of targeting and firing the m-buster missile, and given that they had only four of them, they needed to make sure that they hit what they aimed for.

"Vampire to Eagle," the voice came over her helmet, and she recognised it as her pilot, and she grinned.

"What's on your mind Vampire," she responded, playing the old game of callsigns. She'd been Eagle for a long time now, and apparently someone had told the others.

"You're the only one of us to've ever fought these things. Can we do this?" Under other circumstances she might have been upset at the question, as generally soldiers who questioned whether they could succeed were a problem, but these weren't normal circumstances. Not normal at all.

"Don't worry about it Vampire," she said after a few moments. "With the Power Rangers, there's always possibilities."

The first beep went unnoticed by the occupants of the main crew cabin onboard the Mega-Ship mark 2. The ship, the first of a new breed of incredibly fast heavy cruisers built by the KO-35 orbital shipyards to Andros' specifications was a long way from it's home planet, and the computer needed a moment to consider what to do.

Deuce, the name of the AI, had received the priority communication almost 15 seconds ago, and it was listed with an emergency code that left no doubt in it's cybernetic mind that she needed to wake up her passengers. However they had only just fallen asleep, it being somewhat past midnight on the ship's clock, and obviously the first beep of an incoming signal hadn't aroused them.

So she tried again, this time with a louder double-beep. Unfortunately while it seemed to penetrate a little deeper into his organic crew's minds, it only caused them to move about a bit before they stilled into whatever dreams they were having. The conceptual child of DECA, the AI that ran the original Megaship spent two whole seconds considering what to do, an eternity for a computer as powerful as she was, before she came to a conclusion.

The message had a priority code that couldn't be ignored, and it's originator was one of her designers, and so she had no choice but to wake them up. She gave the situation an additional seconds thought to come up with the best way to do it, before deciding on a method that would even get through to these two.

Zhane sat bolt-upright in his bed when an atonal alarm sounded throughout the ship, and came through his room's speakers at triple the normal volume. He was halfway out of bed, his reactions honed by being only one of two people on board, before DECA mark 2, whom he called Deuce after an earth game that Cassie had introduced him to let him know what the problem was.

"Zhane, we have a priority Red-Alpha communication from Andros," the pleasant voice informed him. He immediately turned to the communications screen in his cabin, even as his life-partner got up.

"Andros, is he okay?" Karone asked, concern evident in her voice as she joined Zhane at the panel. Kerovians didn't marry in the same sense that humans from Earth did, rather they chose a life-partner in a somewhat elaborate ceremony involving various trials of compatibility. On the balance, Zhane thought with a grin, he and Karone had enjoyed the human ceremony their friends had organized more than his Kerovian one.

"Show me the message please?" he asked and obediently the image appeared of Andros.

"Zhane, Karone, I hope this message gets to you before you take Deuce out of this galaxy on your scouting mission, but we have an emergency on Earth and we need everyone with an active Ranger power. Tommy's team has been destroyed, and as of," he paused as he looked at a clock somewhere outside the camera's view. "Nine in the morning local time in California I think the entire team has been lost, along with one of their civilian allies."

Karone put a hand over her mouth in surprise, and Zhane's eyes narrowed as he considered the implications. He'd only met Tommy once, and even then only for a few minutes as part of the large group of Ranger wellwishers at his human wedding ceremony, and he hadn't been able to form an opinion of the man, but he did know that he was an experienced field-commander, which meant that if he'd been killed in action, then the threat was very grave.

That thought flicked through his mind in a moment, and he glanced at the video-pickup. "Deuce, set a course for Earth, full speed and send a message to Admiral Senow that we're scrubbing the scouting mission due to an emergency."

Deuce acknowledged even as the message continued. "As of now Ashley is busy contacting the others as per the Red emergency protocols we established after the Serpenterra mission. I hope you can make it back in time." Andros signed off and Zhane glanced at Karone who was already busy pulling on clothes.

For once, Trent didn't care about the law. Being Anton Mercer's son he had always known that he could probably bend more of them than most kids could. Money, power and privilege came with being the son of a wealthy industrialist, and Trent would have been superhuman to have been able to ignore it. However even though he had never ignored it, he had only rarely abused the privilege either.

As he put miles between himself and Hayley and the city of Reefside, he would have been willing to trade ruthlessly on his status as the son of Anton Mercer had it been necesarry. His entire world had narrowed down to two simple imperatives. Keep Hayley safe and keep running. It was the only way he could keep is own emotions under control, especially after Ethan had sacrificed himself to get the two of them away.

So focused was he on those two goal that he heard the slight moan from Hayley that suggested she was waking up even over the sound of the engine as he sped down the highway. He pulled over to the side of the highway with undue haste only vaguely remembering to put on his blinkers to indicate an emergency.

As soon as the car had come to a full stop, he had turned round and slipped a hand under Hayley's head, as her eyes fluttered open.

"Ich, Ni, San, Si," Rocky sounded off to his class as he led them through a Karate drill. He had found his calling in the teaching of young people not long after he had left the Power Rangers. His back injuries had forced him to stop competing, but he had enough experience to train others, and so he'd opened up a dojo.

It had taken him the better part of four years to get the dojo up and running the way he liked it, and he had some rough times over the years as attendance had periodically dropped. Then an opportunity had fallen in his lap. He had met TJ Johnson, the Red Turbo Ranger when the man had approached him about the mission to the moon.

He had to decline at the time, but he had recognised TJ as the defacto public voice of the Power Rangers on earth following Astronema's attack on earth, and had managed to convince TJ to publicly sponsor his dojo, and it had made all the difference. A school run by a nobody like Rocky hadn't attracted much attention, but a school run by someone that a Power Ranger vouched for was a different story.

TJ had periodically come by to see how the Dojo was doing and to lend his support to the endeavour, because he did truly believe in teaching young people the discipline and skills involved in a martial art, and over the years, he and Rocky had become good friends.

Rocky, for his part was just wrapping up a junior class, that he ran every saturday at midday. It didn't have quite the level of skill teaching that his adult classes did, but he did provide a place for parents to send their kids to learn about hard work, discipline and commitment. He completed the kata he was teaching the children, and bowed to them, dismissing them for the week. As the last of the kids filed out, he locked the doors and walked onto the main mat.

"So, you come here to check the books or to see if you've still got it?" he asked TJ with a grin, and the other man didn't waste much time in taking off his shoes and coming out onto the mat.

"You know Rocky," he said as he threw a punch which was easily blocked. "You're very confident for a guy whose butt I've kicked the last three times we've sparred."

Rocky grinned as the two of them began to spar in earnest. "Maybe," he admitted. "But unlike some people, I haven't spent my time doing press-junkets, I've been practicing." he punctuated the statement by delivering a spin-kick that knocked TJ off his feet.

TJ quickly performed a kip-up, coming back to his feet and stretching his neck. "Oh yeah, what's this I hear about one of your students taking you down a few weeks ago?" TJ was surprised to see the smile that blossomed on Rocky's face.

"Yeah, Jenny is great. She's an amazing student, and she picks up the martial arts very easy. I've been thinking of accelerating her training, because I think she's a prodigy."

TJ was about to respond when a very familiar beeping interrupted their sparring session. Two faces, lined with sweat turned towards TJ's wrist, and to Rocky's gym-bag, then back to each other.

"It couldn't be," TJ whispered as he tapped his wrist. "TJ here, go!"

"TJ, it's Ashley," came the concerned voice, and the Blue Space Ranger. "I need you to grab a plane to Reefside. We've got a disaster on our hands."

They were sixty seconds from Reefside's city limits, and they could already see their targets when Taylor first felt it. A warmth that started in her pocket where she had her Animal crystal, and that spread throughout her entire being. She tapped her mic and keyed it for the entire squadron.

"All Knight-Wings, this is Taylor. If you'll all glance upward, you'll see that we have reinforcements." He announcement was punctuated by an ear-splitting screeching that came from over a dozen different flying Zords of all shapes and sizes, headed by the magnificent Eagle Zord. Over her mic several cheers could be heared, and she smiled.

On the far side of Reefside, she could see the Predazord forming, confirming that Merrick had arrived and was bringing his Wildzords to bear as well. Taylor grinned fiercely as she keyed in the fire-control for the M-buster missiles.

Even as she did she felt more than heard the Eagle-Zord 's consciousness nest into her own. They had always had a very symbiotic relationship, and when she had been a Ranger she had been able to speak with the Eagle zord as plainly as she had been able to talk to a person across a room.

So it was no surprise to her, when the Eagle-zord screeched once, and the dozen or more flying zords split into four groups, each group of Zords taking point above one of the wings of the Phoenix-fighters. Taylor grinned as she saw what they were doing.

"We are here Taylor." the Eagle-zord told her. "And we will once again defend the world together."

Taylor nodded, and keyed her mic again. "All Knight-Wings, this is Captain Airheart, break and attack!"

Cassidy dove for cover as an explosion took out part of the building she and Devin were sheltering beneath, and luckily both she and Devin escaped harm. Helping her friend and camera-man back to his feet she took up her microphone again. They had remained in Reefside even as others had fled, and had been dodging bad guys and debris for hours now. Both of them were bone-tired and had no idea if their signal was still getting out, but neither was willing to leave just yet.

Cassidy wasn't a real reporter in the sense that she was attached to a proper news-station and getting paid for it. But in her heart, she was a real reporter, and this was undoubtably the story of a lifetime. The fact that her friends were the Power Rangers and that someone needed to carry their banner as they obviously weren't around at the moment was only part of the reason they'd stayed. She wiped some dust off her face and turned to the camera.

"This is Cassidy Cornell, still reporting from Reefside," she breathed out. "Despite the continuing devastation in the city, there is no sign of aid. The police have been routed, and there doesn't appear to be any-" She ducked again when half a dozen planes and what looked like Power Ranger Zords came overhead.

Cassidy couldn't stop herself from grinning into the camera. Even disheveled and bloody though she was, her smile was like a radiant beam of light. "Ladies and gentlemen, I told you that this city hadn't been abanonded." Devin took the hint and aimed the camera at the the arial battle taking place between the planes, the Zords and Mesogog and his gigantic goons.

"As you can see, those are Zords. Power Ranger's Zords fighting the bad guys along with what looks like the military. It shows that even in our darkest times, we can still trust on the Rangers."

It was unfortunate that while Cassidy had been speaking, Mesogog had batted one of the Phoenix's out of the sky, and sent it crashing to the ground right where she and Devin had been standing. Cassidy's Cornell, the last reported still in Reefside never got to finish her triumphant proclamation.

Taylor grunted in pain as Vampire through the plane into a turn that even the intertial sumps couldn't quite cope with and half a dozen G-forces slammed into her even as her wingmate was knocked from the sky. She couldn't believe how quickly the situation had gone downhill.

Even with surprise on her side, Mesogog had been able to pull one of his minions infront of the first of the M-busters, saving his own hide, but proving the concept as the missile had made short work of the monster. However no sooner had they destroyed one than two more had appeared, and what was worse, they had begun targeting the planes as well.

For all their speed and maneuverability they were still just made of metal and couldn't even begin to stand up to the punishment that was dished out by being swatted out of the skies by a gigantic monster. She'd already lost two of the planes, including one of the remaining M-busters, which meant she had lost half of her offensive abilities, and had nothing to show for it.

The Zords weren't fairing much better. Mesogog had engaged the Predazord while two of his monsters had double-teamed the Lightspeed Omegazord and were giving it a hard time. She hated to even consider breaking off, but her ultimate responsibility was to destroy Mesogog, and they obviously needed to reconsider their battleplan as they one they had wasn't working.

Feeling like she was betraying her allies, she keyed her mic. "All Knight-Wings. Break off and return to El-Toro."

Even as Vampire acknowledged and the plane began to bank away from Reefside, Taylor couldn't help but curse herself as a coward.

Even as the Wild and Lightspeed Rangers fought Mesogog and his minions, a call went out all over the planet. Everyone who had once been a Ranger was contacted, and asked to bring themselves, their reconsituted powers, and whatever help they could bring to Reefside.

From England, Kat abandoned the last show in her season to catch the first flight to America. From Malasia, Danny and Max abandoned their tour across the world to make their way to the nearest airport. In Australia Tanya gave up her holiday to make her way to the Sydney airport.

All across the world, Rangers stopped what they were doing and answered the call.

"Hayley?" Trent asked nervously as he grabbed a bottle of water and clambered into the back of the jeep and helped her into a sitting position. "Can you hear me, how many fingers am I holding up?" he asked as he held up three fingers.

Hayley blinked a few times, and said softly. "I'm not concussed Trent."

Trent gave her a wan smile. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that," he said as he passed her the water bottle. "And I'd love to give you more time to rest, but given the fact that the skies over Reefside are covered in explosions and a bunch of Zords I've never seen before, I need you to help me figure out what to do next."

Hayley's eyes widened and she reached out a hand to Trent. "What happened, where are the others."

The question caught in Trent's throat and he could feel his eyes begin to burn even as he tried to answer. "I'm sorry Hayley."

With an audible grunt Hayley levered herself into a sitting position and pulled the young man into a hug. He didn't need to explain anything else right now, and it was quite obvious that whatever had happened it had affected him deeply. She had lost people over the course of her life, and knew that whatever trauma Trent was carrying needed taking care off before they could do anything else.

The moment Hayley's arms closed around him, Trent lost control over his emotions and began to cry. "I'm sorry Hayley, I couldn't save any of them. Ethan and I were the only ones that survived the explosion, and he stayed behind so that we could escape. We didn't have the time to come up with a plan, and now they're all gone."

Hayley said nothing for a moment, unsure of what to say. In the space of morning she'd lost one of her oldest friends, and several kids who were like family to her. Not to mention what appeared to be happening to Reefside as they sat there.

There had to be something they could do, if not to make things right than to make sure that the deaths of the Dino-Thunder team weren't in vain.

"No time," Hayley murmered, suddenly becoming very, very still as something Trent said triggered an idea in her mind. Trent immediately pulled away slightly and looked at her face through tear stained eyes.

"Hayley, you know something don't you. You've figured something out haven't you."

She managed a smile. "You might say that Trent. Get back in the front. We're going to Silver Hills."

Trent did as he was told while he thought about what she'd said. "Silver Hills, why does that sound familiar?" he asked.

"Because that's where we can find help. In fact, I think it's time for Time-Force."

TBC...