Cosmic Squadron Stellarman Phase 36: Purpose
Disclaimer: I do not own or make any claim of ownership upon the Super Sentai series, which belongs to Toei. Stellarman and its various characters are mine, and if you're interested in using any elements from it, just ask me.
"Break!" StellarRed yelled, and he and Blue took off at a run in opposite directions as the icy Truthbringer held up his hands and erupted a cone of frost from between them.
"Blizzard, get the red one," Dione said with a sigh. Then with a mental effort her shadow solidified into her darkling copy and rocketed toward StellarBlue as the young warrior came circling around to attack Prox Blizzard from the side.
Dishadow grinned, her fangs looking even longer and sharper than the last time any of Stellarman had seen her. Just like the claws that flashed out from her fingertips and raked into Blue's side. She gasped, but spun with the momentum and brought up her foot to slam it into the side of Dishadow's head. The clone spat and recoiled, regarding her opponent a little more warily now.
A ragged bush froze and shattered just behind Red. Prox Blizzard kept up his icy barrage as Red jumped and rolled over abandoned cars and hunks of concrete. He would've seen covered in a sheet of hoarfrost if he'd bothered to look back.
He didn't. He didn't need to; he could feel the biting cold an inch behind him. The Truthbringer was tracking him, and with a relentless attack like that it seemed only a matter of time until it caught him.
Lucky for him, it seemed totally oblivious to how as StellarRed was dodging over the landscape trying to stay a step ahead of its onslaught he'd actually been running in a shrinking circular motion. Gradually closing the distance between them. Until he was close enough to suddenly crouch, pivot and jump straight at Prox Blizzard, sword aimed right between the creature's luminous eyes. A spray of ice dust issued from the wound and it stumbled back.
StellarRed knew better than to let up. Again his blade whistled through the air, and bit into the Truthbringer's shoulder. Another spray of ice dust went up, this one smaller. Prox Blizzard was unfazed, and raised its other hand to unleash another ice blast right into StellarRed's face.
Red's visor was immediately covered with frost, and it was all he could do to keep his target in sight. Especially as a jagged ice chip stabbed into his side, even through his protective uniform. Then another lodged in his arm. It was all Red could do not to cry out.
His fingers and arms were already going numb from the biting cold, making even more of an effort to keep his grip on his weapon. The blood trickling from his wounds, with the warmth of his body seeming to drain even more quickly, seized at his attention, but Red refused to let it distract him from thoughts of defeating his enemy.
The tip of his sword hit Prox Blizzard's side and skittered off uselessly. There was a high-pitched sound like two panes of glass rubbing together, and in Red's embattled mind he realized it was probably the Truthbringer's laugh.
"Laugh this off…," he gasped. "VERMILLION CUT!" His sword erupted with red Starlight, while the circuitry beneath his skin started to glow so brightly with the power he was channeling it literally burned against his flesh. His next swing cut through the very onslaught of jagged ice chips before it made contact with Prox Blizzard's thigh and melted through it.
Then the light engulfing his weapon went out. Red's circuitry dimmed until it was nearly out. And StellarRed collapsed.
Dishadow dug the claws on both hands into StellarBlue's chest, sending sparks flying up and Blue tumbling backwards. She planted her hands behind her as she fell and rolled back into a crouch. Dishadow rushed forward again, thrusting and slashing with her claws in a frenzy. Blue got to her feet and started to dodge and weave with all the speed her enhanced powers allowed, but Dishadow had no trouble keeping up with her, sending her spinning with a few vicious strikes.
Blue cries out as one especially nasty slash dug into her arm. She recoiled, but as she did whipped the grip off her belt and it immediately extended into its trident form.
"You're in my way," Blue snarled.
"Then move me," Dishadow chuckled.
"Blue Prong!" StellarBlue called out, and as with Red the tip of her weapon erupted with a plume of her Starlight. She gripped the haft near the bottom and swung it back and forth as she advanced on Dishadow. Dione's darkling counterpart sneered and kept a safe distance as the blue energy sizzled past her, keeping her gleaming claws poised to strike back.
All of a sudden Blue gripped the trident tightly and thrust it straight at Dishadow. She laughed as she dodged it with ease and lunged at Blue's side, but was in for an unpleasant surprise. Blue dropped her weapon and lashed with a kick, her leg traveling upward in a ferocious arc that caught Dishadow on the chin and lofted her off the ground. Time seemed to slow down as Blue pressed her attack, jumping into the air and aiming herself downward at Dishadow's midsection.
"Capricorn Kick!" StellarBlue's entire body erupted with a sheath of her Starlight she went into a diagonal kick. Her foot slammed into Dishadow, and the inhuman combatant screamed and her body hit the ground crackling with jagged bolts of blue power.
StellarBlue retrieved her trident and ran over to where Prox Blizzard and Red lay. Prox Blizzard had grabbed its severed leg and was holding it in place, and new ice was already forming to reattach it. Blue aimed her trident at its head but Prox Blizzard simply raised a hand and a shield of packed ice formed in front of it.
She was about to swing again when Red groaned, low and pitiful. Blue spared a glance over her shoulder, and couldn't miss the large chunks of still glistening ice lodged in his body and the failing light of the circuitry within him.
"Such a powerful display, it was," Dione said as she floated over to Blue, but just out of reach of her trident. She wasn't even sure it was Dione at first, since the silhouette of a feminine shape was surrounded by a rippling bubble of Fire. Not something that Blue wanted to try breaking through with a downed comrade and no backup. Quickly, deftly she dropped a hand to her belt and hit the emergency signal on her Stellphone.
"Such a powerful display, but maybe he's finally starting to see the futility of resisting Proxordo," Dione said distantly, almost as if talking to herself. The outline of her face turned toward Blue. "Perhaps seeing him in such a state's fostering thoughts within you too, StellarBlue."
"It's fostering thoughts about how I'll kick your ass if either of you makes a move."
Prox Blizzard got to its feet by then and stepped out from behind its shield, but made no move to attack. Dione simply floated out of reach herself, but then when had she ever involved herself in a fight?
Dione sighed resignedly. "That's too bad."
"Are you going to hide behind these freaks of yours forever?" Blue demanded, stalling for time.
"I am the beacon that guides lost souls to the truth. I sense that's what you're getting at," Dione replied evenly. "I suppose you think resorting to force makes me a hypocrite, but change is painful sometimes. More often than it is not, sadly. Perhaps Vayon should have made the Fire of Truth more readily available, more people could have seen what's happening to this world without even trying…"
Then Dione sighed. "Enough of this. Blizzard, Dishadow, finish them off. Make it quick."
"Black Break!"
"Pink Thunder!"
A crescent wave of pure ebon energy flew out and slammed into Prox Blizzard's faceted chest. It was perhaps even more unsettling that it made no sound of pain as it stumbled back a few steps from the attack.
A second later a crackling pink arrow shot right through Dishadow's chest, leaving a hole the size of a person's fist. She merely grunted in annoyance, though, and within seconds the wound was closing up. In those seconds StellarBlack, Pink and Yellow jumped into view, forming a ragged defensive line between Proxordo and their allies.
Prox Blizzard raised a frigid hand and a cone of frost blasted from it at Stellarman. Black jumped to the side and Pink and Yellow quickly closed together to shield their weakened teammates from the attack. Prox Blizzard tracked StellarBlack with its attack, though, and after making sure he was clear of his teammates he suddenly launched himself at Prox Blizzard and swung his three-section staff at its neck. There was a resounding clang and an intricate crack formed at the base of Prox Blizzard's neck.
Already the ice was starting to mend again, but it didn't matter. A dark, x-shaped form had appeared over the battlefield. Black jumped back to where the rest of his team was waiting and in an instant a beam lanced from the bottom, engulfed the five and carried them away. Then the x-shaped object was flying away at high speed.
An instant later Stellarman reappeared, safe within Crux's transporter relay. Red reappeared on his knees and collapsed completely. Blue and Yellow crouched by his side, Blue gasping as she saw the blood seeping from around the chips lodged in his sides.
"Oh god…Valentine, get in here! Daniel's hurt!"
Black grunted as he faded back to Bohdi. He stepped back from the group and quickly brushed off the small bits of frost still clinging to him. "Yeah. Get Daniel stabilized. As soon as he wakes up, get everyone back here. It's time we settled something."
Kamandetes watched anxiously as Risen scurried about the network of platforms and scaffoldings surrounding the towering dark shape in the middle. Here and there they carried plates of armor as tall as themselves and fastened them in place, covering the tubes carrying the molten liquid that powered his ultimate weapon.
It was nearing completion, but not nearly fast enough for him. It had power dwarfing anything the world had ever seen, but that kind of power required flawless preparation and construction. And every day, it seemed as if more and more of his crew were being requisitioned for gathering more Veritium to replace the pillars Stellarman had been demolishing.
Stellarman. Those miserable children who happened to have been born with a freak power that they used to hold onto the crumbling remnants of a destructive society. Their power seemed to grow every time they appeared, no matter what Proxordo could send against them.
Well, not anymore.
It was all well and good that Master Vayon had put together a group of Truthbringers especially to get rid of Stellarman, but Kamandetes knew the best they could do was hope to soften Stellarman up. Then he would finish the job.
Idly, Kamandetes thought about tracking down StellarBurn, and finishing pulling that pathetic dragon robot limb from limb. To finally erase the stain of being forced to empower that pathetic child and nurture his overinflated sense of self. He knew that strategically, StellarBurn was the least of his concerns. Still, it seemed a fitting debut.
"How soon until your ultimate weapon is ready, Kamandetes?" a voice he'd been expecting asked. He turned to face the broadcasted image of Rogyre Vayon.
"A matter of days at most, sir," Kamandetes answered. "I was just contemplating where to strike first upon completion."
"Mop up anything that's left of Stellarman after those Truthbringers get through with them. Then strike as you will. Make a show of it whenever possible. The construction of the new pillars is proceeding without interruption for the time being, but the more discouragement we can provide, the better."
"I'll be happy to discourage them all right, Master Vayon."
Vayon nodded and started to fade away, but Kamandetes held up his dark armored fist and called out. "Wait, master! Has there been any word of StellarBurn?"
"Not since he killed Prox Grasp. Probably laying low, looking for a new chance to attack," Vayon said calmly.
"I'd like to know if any reports come in. To wipe away that stain on Proxordo!"
"Your devotion has always been commendable, but now the important thing is to destroy ALL resistance," Vayon explained. "You fight for OUR cause, not yours."
"Master, I've NEVER forgotten the purpose you gave me. I know I displeased you when I continued to act in your absence, but I was only doing what I thought was in the best interests of Proxordo."
"Then destroy our most bothersome enemies, not the ones who you bear a grudge. StellarBurn was a handy distraction, now he's merely a nuisance," Vayon said, then vanished without waiting for a reply.
Kamandetes clenched his fist, and then smashed it through the railing in front of him. "I fight for Proxordo," he whispered.
R'kana froze as slow, measured steps descended the staircase. Erica conjured a soft glow from her hands, even though she knew exactly was coming without being able to see.
It was her loving father.
"Just what in the name of the heavens is going on down here?" Mehgris demanded as he stepped into their little hideaway. His ancient eyes, still as sharp as ever, focused in on his daughter and her conspirator.
R'kana tried to step in front of Erica. "Sir, this was my-" Erica held out a glowing hand and stopped her.
"She was helping me get in touch with Stellarman. Pretty much my entire planet's gone to hell while we were here saving you from those space pirates. I should be there, helping them. Not here, doing YOUR job for you."
"This is as close to YOUR planet as you'll ever get," Mehgris snarled. "The Shakai don't have a homeworld, and Earth's a backward planet infested with self-destructive vermin. That idiot the six of you were fighting is only the most dramatic example of a history full of them. You ought to be on your knees thanking me for giving you a place where you can make an honest difference. Isn't that what you were fighting for all along?"
"Do you even know what's going on outside your safe little palace? About how much some of the people born here hate it, and want to leave, and make a place for themselves somewhere else?" Erica fired back. She'd been working in secrecy, but now all the frustration she'd been feeling at policing an entire planet, and being forcibly conscripted to do so, and finding out she'd been birthed specifically to do so, was boiling over. The glow of her Starlight spread from her hands to her entire body, engulfing the room in violet light.
Mehgris didn't budge an inch. "Don't you try to tell me my business, youngling."
"Oh? And what are you going to do? You'd probably kill yourself if you tried to channel any Starlight now. I'll annihilate you if you make one funny move."
"I cut off the power down here," Mehgris reminded her. "Do you think I'd have any trouble turning off the SUN outside if I felt like it? The only thing keeping the last remnants of four dozen different societies alive? Take your time considering your next action, youngling."
"Erica, please, don't let him goad you…," R'kana tried to warn her, but Erica took a long, forceful step forward to loom over the withered creature that was her father.
"I've been here for months, daddy dearest. You think I haven't learned anything about how things work here?" Erica said slowly. "The sun keeps this entire little terrarrium alive. I recharged it before, and you know what? I experimented a little while you were in the palace doing god only knows what, and I can drain it again too if I want to. I only took a little, but I got a good feeling I do the whole thing if somebody made me mad enough to want to try."
"You wouldn't-" Mehgris began to protest, but the light emanating from Erica's body brightened even more until she was like a miniature star standing in the middle of the room. R'kana and Mehgris both had to turn away.
"Whatever you're doing in there takes power too. That's how you noticed what we were up to, wasn't it?" Erica went on. "It wouldn't work anymore if I killed the sun, I bet. It wouldn't matter, though, because you'd be dead along with the rest of Ikardaa if I did. Your experiment wouldn't work so good after that, I'm thinking."
"You want to go back to your miserable little dirtball to fight for a cause that's already lost just because the human race exists. Is that the hint you're trying to give me?" Mehgris said wearily.
A sigh escaped Erica's featureless face. "And maybe an answer. What are you doing in there, that's so important you made a deal to make me and drag me across the universe here to keep on eye on this planet for you?"
Mehgris sighed a resigned sigh as well. "Come," he said and waved with his walking stick as he climbed back up to the surface. Erica hovered as she followed, with R'kana bringing up the rear.
They entered a capsular vehicle on a track that had apparently been awaiting Mehgris's return. As soon as they were inside it sped back toward his palace, passing right through the outer wall and stopping next to a balcony. Mehgris stepped into the room beyond, which looked like his private study, and slumped into a chair with a sigh that sounded like he was finally giving vent to years, probably centuries, of pent-up exasperation.
"I've been wanting to bring the other Shakai back. There's so much more we could still be doing, than leaving this interplanetary catch basin as our legacy to the universe," he said. "I can fix us, so we can use our powers again. I just need to have them here for a little more time studying…"
"What do you mean 'a little more'?" Erica demanded.
"You really thought I went to all the trouble of siring another of my own kind, just to have you policing Ikardaa?" Mehgris laughed a tired laugh. "I've been taking readings of every single flash of power I caught you making. I don't know how you protected your little hideout, but congratulations on whatever you did.
"I needed to study a true Shakai exercising their abilities, so I would have enough understanding to be able to restore myself and the other Shakai to the height of our abilities. I can do it, I know I can! But I had to have a basis for the work! The things we could achieve, if I could just reach out to them, and show them how I could bring them back to the height of their strength…"
"The Shakai left because it was their choice," R'kana said, quietly but firmly. "Even if they're still in a state where they could be contacted, are you so sure they'd go back on their decision that it was time to let others look after the universe?"
"I wasn't the only one who thought our duty wasn't done," Mehgris growled at her.
"The other one died involving herself in the kinds of problems you're speculating about trying to deal with," Erica whispered. "I heard about that. From some people trying to do something about problems like that themselves."
Mehgris held his head in his hands. "Why must every other species insist on thinking in the short term?"
"What good is thinking in the long term if it means the world's gone by the time your plans have a chance to pan out?" Erica retorted.
"World!" Mehgris roared. "Is that all you sight encompasses? One, single, solitary WORLD?"
Erica leaned back, silent for a minute. "I get it," she eventually said.
"And just what," Mehgris asked in a sibilant whisper, "do you 'get'?"
"You never had a home. You never had anything to belong to besides the Shakai. That's why you're not even attached to Ikardaa."
Mehgris looked up at her with another growl forming in his ancient throat. Somehow his weathered, featureless face seemed to twist up in anger. Then he gave vent to a long, hollow, resigned sigh and collapsed into his chair. "Is it so wrong…?" he wheezed.
"Is it so wrong I want to be able to fight for my planet, fight with my friends?" Erica asked. Mehgris looked too tired to give a reply, so she didn't wait for one. "C'mon, R'kana."
She took R'kana in her arms and flew out of the palace then touched down on the street. "That thing we've been using to call Earth, that's like how you brought us here in the first place, right? Can I maybe go back to Earth with it too?"
"I think so," R'kana said thoughtfully. "And if I'm right, it won't take nearly as long…"
She couldn't miss the hopeful look in Erica's shining eyes.
Sword rang against staff. StellarRed fought hard to parry each of his opponent's strikes, but Vayon had the advantage both in reach and raw power. It was only a matter of time until Red started to tire and made some mistake, and as each parry of Vayon's flaming staff came more slowly than the last, he could tell that time was approaching quickly.
Then Vayon's staff flashed out, aimed straight at Red's side. He tried to block the weapon on the blade of his own, but the staff smashed through it with ease and the blade bit into Red's side. He cried out-
-and then he was looking up at a gray metal ceiling. His side felt a bit tender, but not as if he'd just been struck down by Rogyre Vayon himself. Also standing over him were Bohdi and Valentine. While her metal face was as expressionless as ever, Bohdi's was an expression of cold disapproval.
"I take it this isn't a tender bedside vigil I'm waking up to," Daniel hazarded.
"Hardly," Bohdi replied, his voice hard as well.
Daniel sighed. "Let's get this over with."
"No, by the seven lights!" Bohdi exclaimed. "Daniel, ever since we got back, you've been pushing yourself harder than you ever have. You've been splitting the team up, and while I agree that made sense while we were gathering allies, it's still like that now when we're trying to take the fight to Proxordo."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"When was the last time where we actually fought like a team? You ended up in here because you insisted on going off to deal with the Truthbringer by yourself. Something about not being able to live with yourself if anybody else took the risk. You'd be in here for even longer if Aki wasn't always looking over her shoulder to see if you're okay these days."
"That's what I signed up for when I took on being the leader. Something YOU were happy to get rid of, I'll remind you."
"But that doesn't mean you're the only one who's supposed to face danger," Bohdi said. "All of us are here, knowing we're expected to fight monsters. All of us are here, knowing we're expected to save the world. But you've been acting like uniting everyone we can get to help us against Proxordo, hell, just fighting Proxordo, is your job alone. Everyone else is just here to back you up."
"That's not-" Daniel began, but Bohdi gripped the edge of his bed, and the metal framed started to buckle in the big alien's hands.
"Yes it is, Daniel. And if it doesn't change and change soon, Stellarman's not going to win this."